New Developments from the Past

NOTE: THIS STORY IS BASED OFF OF THE PATHFINDER RPG. SOME COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN USED UNDER THE OPEN GAMING LICENSE RULES.

Storyline by Justin Groby 

Compiled by Amber Manuel 

Last time on Dice vs. DMs...

The party managed to get back to Yenmass in one piece. With their mine hiring, they had time to relax a little, and work on honing skills or learning new ones. Talia took up residence in the Temple of Saranrae and remained behind while the rest of the group headed to Mahito to find better value for certain items they intended to sell.

They stopped for their stay just inside Mahito, and discovered one of their companions was not whom she seemed to be.

“Who are these people staring at us?” the bard holding Firro/Filayne asked in Elven.

“These are my new companions,” Firro told him. “My business partners. I’ll introduce you.”

“Great! I’d introduce you to my companions, but I’m afraid they’re not here at the moment. That’s why I didn’t show up in Yenmass – I’ve been waiting for them. I haven’t seen my gnome friend in a couple weeks, actually.”

Firro stiffened. “Gnome? What was his name?”

“Uh, his name? It slips my mind right now… He usually travels with a big guy.”

Firro caught sight of Osamu’s hand twitching towards his starknife and stepped in front of Kyaer as she introduced her partners to her husband.

“Husband. Really? Huh.” Celestine began scribbling in a tome.

“You said you traveled with a gnome?” Lilianna asked Kyaer sharply. She scowled at Firro, whose eyes were blue. She could have sworn they were red just a moment ago.

“Yes,” Kyaer replied. “Though I haven’t seen him or the half-orc for some time. They also worked with a druid in the area.”

“What kind of druid?” Firro asked with a sinking feeling in her gut.

“The sand kind?” he quipped.

She didn’t smile at his joke. “I believe we knew them.”

“I think we did more than know them,” Lilianna corrected.

“Perhaps we should speak in private,” Firro suggested.

“But this big guy—” Lilianna started.

“In private,” Firro insisted.

Lilianna stared at her for a moment before nodding. “Do you have a room?” Lili asked Kyaer.

“Y-Yeah, come on up.”

The party tromped up the steps behind Kyaer. Firro hadn’t seen him in so long all she wanted to do was catch up, but she was worried that their news might put a damper on that. Speaking softly to him in undercommon, a language she was fairly certain none of her partners knew, she told him, “I’m afraid it’s not good news.”

The language rolled off his tongue easily. “I think I can handle it,” he replied with a small smile as he stopped in front of a door. “I handled losing you for a long time, after all.” His gaze met hers and they shared a moment.

He reached for the door knob. The moment his fingers touched it, a loud blast nearly knocked them over. Firro put her hands up in front of her face as the door burst into splinters. When she lowered them, Kyaer was impaled on a short sword. He slumped over backwards, hitting the floor bonelessly, his gaze vacantly staring.

Shocked, Firro looked up to find a man wearing an outfit similar to Osamu’s standing just inside the room. She didn’t even have a chance to draw a weapon before he disappeared into thin air.

Osamu, having recognized his house colors, threw a bag of glittering dust into the room. Lilianna reached down and touched Kyaer’s chest. He drew in a deep, ragged breath and began coughing as the cleric pulled him back away from the door. “Saranrae’s given you a second chance,” she told him. She looked at Firro, catching her gaze. “Don’t make me regret doing that.”

Gerard cast a spell that caused glittering dust to coat every surface in the room. Just in the open window they could make out a man crouching on the sill, studying them.

Relieved and enraged, Firro cast a quick spell to make herself invisible, ran forward as she drew her weapons and reappeared as she stabbed the form crouching in the window. Bleeding, he fell backward. Dropping her scimitar, she grabbed for him and barely managed to catch his foot. He kicked upwards with his other foot, catching her in the chin with enough force to make her see stars. She held on by force of will, determined to not allow the killer to get away.

Osamu appeared beside her at the window and tried to grab their attacker past her. The man she was holding kicked at Osamu as well, keeping him from getting a firm hold.

Lilianna’s voice filled the space behind them as she chanted. “Do not move!” she finished in common. The man Firro was holding was suddenly still.

Someone touched Firro’s shoulder. She glanced back as Gerard chanted, and suddenly felt as if she could pick up an entire house. She hefted their attacker easily back into the room.

Alondra appeared in the doorway and cast a spell, the effect of which was not immediately noticeable.

Suddenly there was five of him on the ground. Firro’s eyes widened as she realized that where she was holding his leg was the one central point between all of the five. A dart hit her in the chest and she let out a curse. That could only mean one thing: poison.

Osamu attacked one of the images with his fists, and all five were suddenly bloodied. He punched again and one of the images disappeared.  

Lilianna hit the man and all but one of the images wisped away on the breeze coming through the window. Blood began to bubble up in the mouth of the only one remaining.

Firro let go of his foot and pulled the dart out of her chest. She tried to get up to go to Kyaer, but everything was suddenly cloudy. Her brain felt sluggish, as if she were trying to think through a fog. She put the dart back into her chest. It belonged there, after all. 

Osamu put a knife to the attacker’s neck and cut his face mask off. Then he picked the prone form up, slamming him against the wall. “Who are you?” he yelled. He shook the other man, his eyes filled with fury. Everyone looked at him, knowing danger when they saw it manifest in another’s eyes.

“Calm down, Osamu,” Lilianna said in a soothing tone. She walked up to Firro, took the dart out of her and dodged a punch when the smaller elf lashed out. She looked at the dart for a moment, cast a spell and knew that the poison on the dart was incredibly dangerous. Made from the tears of the dying, the poison would kill Filayne…Firro…if she didn’t get help quick.

Moving quickly, she picked Firro up as the elf began to claw at her face. For some reason, there was no effect despite that blood began to drip to the floor. Gerard chanted quickly and Firro slumped, unconscious.

Lilianna tossed Firro over her shoulder and bolted out the door. “Out of my way!” she yelled at Kyaer as struggled to his feet. He staggered after her as she ran out of the bar and into the nearest temple. The god, Abadla, was one of justice, law, and cities.

Inside, Lilianna called out. “She’s been poisoned!” she told two clerics who approached. “The poison’s called Tears of Death. I did a spell that told me what it was but I don’t have any way to stop the spread of the poison! She’ll die!” 

The two clerics took Firro’s unconscious form, put her on a stretcher and quickly brought her to the back, where they began praying over her.

Back at the tavern, Osamu was barely in control. “Who are you?” he demanded again. The man was wearing the colors of his clan but he wasn’t from his clan. He couldn’t be!

The stranger spit blood into Osamu’s face. “A message from an old friend,” he rasped. He reached into one of his sword wounds, grimacing as he pulled his own organs out. As he died, Osamu lost his careful grip on control. He threw the body at a wall to the the sound of bones snapping. He punched the wall, putting a hole in it.
Gerard and Alondra watched in stunned silence. Alondra hadn’t known Osamu for long, but Gerard had never suspected his “insurance policy” was capable of going into such a fury.

Osamu bent and began ripping the clothes off the body. “How dare he wear these colors!” he snarled and stopped as a tattoo on the other’s back became visible. It was a dragon’s head on a serpent’s body with a red hand gripping the serpent. Osamu took out a dagger and carefully cut the tattoo off the form before he finished shredding anything to do with his clan. Then he punched the dead man in the face. “You don’t deserve to wear these colors!” he shouted.

Gerard began searching the items Osamu tossed aside. Alondra swallowed hard, knowing that this wasn’t a random attack. This was something very, very personal… She backed away. “I’m going to go find the others,” she said. Gerard nodded distractedly. Osamu ignored her completely. She left quickly.

“What the hell are you doing?” Gerard asked as Osamu continued ripping the colors to shreds.

“How dare he wear those colors?” Osamu snapped cryptically. He kicked the body again, and faced Gerard, holding the colors aloft. The lower half of his face was covered, but his eyes were wild with rage. “He is not worthy of these!” he snarled.  

“O-okay,” Gerard said, holding his hands up to placate the man. He stooped to finish searching the remains while Osamu paced. He found two more darts identical to the one that hit Firro. They appeared to be coated with the same poison, and didn’t require any sort of blow gun or cross bow to shoot. He carefully pocketed them.

Osamu took the blanket off the bed and began to wrap up the body.

“There’s no gold on him, but look at this,” Gerard said, holding up a medallion.

Osamu took the medallion and stared at the same markings that were the tattoo he had just cut out of the man’s back. On flip side was strange glyph, but one that he recognized. “I know symbol,” Osamu said with more of his regular tones. “That’s family Ty-ota. I no know what happened to them but they should be dead, burned down with the rest of our clan.”

He stood, scowling at the body. “We need to regroup, plan our next step. You found everything you could off the body?”

“Yes,” Gerard said simply.

Osamu took the assassin’s wakizashi and looked at it. On the blade was engraved the symbol of the red hand gripping the serpent with the dragon’s head.

“What was that racket?” someone down the hallway said. “Did you see the people run out of here earlier? Carrying that other one? Mark my words, something’s going on!”

Gerard and Osamu looked at each other. Their time had just run out. Osamu bent and picked up the body.

“Do you see the door?” one voice said. “I’m not going in there! Go get Jim!”

Osamu stepped into the hallway with the body as footsteps retreated.

“What are you doing with that body?” a man demanded.

Osamu calmly pulled out twenty gold and handed it over. “I sorry for the damage. He was…assassin and tried to kill me.”

The man blinked at the shining gold in his hand. “Oh. Oh, well done! We’ll get you a new door. Oh, and go this way, it’s a back door. Service entry by the stables.”

“Still have horse and carriage?” Osamu asked Gerard as they headed down the back stairs.

“Yes.”

“We are going to need that.”

While they were hitching the horses back up to the carriage, Celestine approached them. “Lilianna sent me to tell you that we’re at the church of Abadla. What are y’all doing?”

“We’re tying up loose ends,” Gerard said. “We’ll be back.”

She peeked beneath the tarp that was covering the body. “Hm. Okay.” She hopped up into the carriage, whipped out a book and began writing down what they were doing.

Osamu straightened the tarp over the body. Then they rode out about an hour outside the town. The once again quiet man tumbled the body out of the blanket, letting it fall haphazardly. Taking the man’s wakizashi, he shoved it into the dead body as far down as he could, impaling him to the ground. That done, they began to head back.

Lilianna stared at Kyaer. The elf was staring down at his wife, holding her hand in both of his. “Is there a reason that when she was clawing her face nothing happened?” Lilianna asked him.

He glanced up at her, irritation in his gaze. “I don’t know,” he replied.

“Why wouldn’t you know?” Lilianna asked suspiciously.

“It’s been years,” he replied. “Almost a decade now. For all I know, she could have trained to be a wizard in that time.”

Firro stirred, blinking rapidly. Her gaze fixed on Kyaer’s and she reached up, cupping his cheek. He let out a breath as if he had been holding it for hours.

“How are you feeling?” Lilianna as Firro opened her mouth to speak.

Firro looked over at her. “I’m all right.” She sat up with Kyaer’s help. “What happened? That dart?”

Lilianna explained about the poison and what it did, tacking on how much it cost to heal Firro as well.

Firro could tell by the half-elf’s body language that she wasn’t happy with her. She swallowed hard. “I owe you an explanation,” she said.

“That would be nice,” Lilianna quipped shortly. 

Firro reached over and took Kyaer’s hand. “Do you know what this is?” She pointed to a clip in her hair.

“Not exactly, but it does have some illusionary effects.”

Firro slipped it out of her hair. As she did, it became a hat. She handed it to Lilianna. “A hat of disguise,” Lilianna said, staring at it. She looked up at the other and frowned. Where the whites of her eyes should have been was pink and the pupils were completely red.

But Firro’s skin was extremely pale. The two didn’t match up. With the eyes, Firro had to be Drow. But why was her skin so pale? Some sort of spell?  

“I am...Drow,” Firro admitted reluctantly. “Albino Drow. I grew up Elven.”

“Hence Kyaer,” Lilianna said, looking at him.

Firro nodded.

“I’ll go get you something to drink,” Kyaer said. He caught Firro’s gaze and she smiled at him as she nodded. After a quick embrace, he moved out of the room.

“I grew up in Absalom,” Firro continued. “I was told that I was kidnapped at a very young age by the Drow. I managed to escape after many years. To make a long story short, I later found out that story was a lie.”

“That was shocking, I can imagine.”

“Indeed. Imagine being trained to hate Drow, to fight and kill them ruthlessly, only to find out you are the very thing you’ve hunted all your life. You are the very thing you hate.” She held out her hand for the hat.

Lilianna’s gaze softened as she turned it over. “That could make you lose your faith,” she said.

“Yes,” she said as she put the hat back on. Her skin took on its normal tone and her eyes were once again blue. “That is why I am no longer a paladin. Immodae would not accept my doubts and I could not continue as I had been.”

After a moment of silence, Lilianna sighed. “You have been a faithful companion despite lying—”
“Not revealing one’s past isn’t the same as lying,” Firro countered.
She ignored that. “Is there anything else you need to tell me?” Lilianna asked.

Firro nodded and pulled out a journal, handing it over. “I found this on the druid we fought. It details his plans for the desert, which aren’t of any import since he’s dead. But—”

“It’s gone!” Kyaer yelled as he ran back into the room.

“What’s gone?” Firro asked.

“My lyre! My lyre is gone!”

“Calm down!” she told him. “Where was it last you had it?”

“I never took it off!” he said frantically.

“What’s the specialty of this lyre?” Lilianna interjected.

“It—it’s complicated. Hold on.” He pulled his pack off and took out a large, thick tome. It slammed on the table beside Firro, its weight alone making the table shake.

“When I was traveling with the half orc and the gnome,” he said, “we came across a vault. It led us up to a lyre that was sitting on the book – this book. I read the book and kept it and the lyre. They laughed at me, but they were too stupid to be able to read what it was talking about. I knew it was important. It talks about a locked up power and seals you need to get to release the power. There’s a lot of other stuff but I couldn’t understand because the dialect is very old.”
Firro kept her expression carefully neutral, but she knew Kyaer was holding something back. 

“It’s in celestial,” Lilianna said, her gaze on the tome. “May I?” She opened the tome without waiting for a response and began to flip through it.

Firro looked up at Kyaer and knew she had to tell him the truth of his friends. “Kyaer…I’m afraid your half-orc friend Rock is dead.”

“What?” he snapped. “What happened?”

“We met up with him. He and Zarzuket attacked us. Rock fell in the battle. Zarzuket was taken by a bounty hunter, a gnome named Majet.”

He stared at her, his expression bewildered. “Majet?”

“He had apparently made some rather wealthy people very angry,” Lilianna said even as she continued flipping through the tome. “I had his life spared.”

Kyaer shook his head. “But—” He cut off, shaking his head again.

“Did you know the druid?” Lilianna asked him, her gaze focused on him.

“No,” he denied. “I never met him. I had business elsewhere while they went to do that.”

“The druid was a Drow,” she told him. “We met up with him as well.”

“I wonder if they had anything to do with Theris?”

“Theris?” Firro repeated. “Did you know him? Do you know what he looks like?”

“No. Again, I had business elsewhere while they were doing that.”

Firro caught his gaze and knew he wanted to talk to her about something later. He glanced at the cleric and back away. She could understand somewhat how he felt. Everything he knew was turned upside-down.

“I’m trusting you with the information we’ve shared with you because you’re Firro’s husband,” Lilianna told him sternly. “Don’t share the info.” Her gaze shifted to Firro. “And is there anything else you need to tell me? It would be best if you come forward with any other revelations now.”

Firro shook her head and looked at Kyaer. “Do you know where Theris is?”

He shook his head. “Only that he’s in town somewhere. I don’t know what he looks like and I wasn’t privy to what they discussed with him.”

“You should use your skills to go look for Theris,” Lilianna told Firro. “But later. We should go look for the lyre now.” She looked over Firro’s shoulder. “Alondra? Where’s Gerard and Osamu?”

The human spoke for a moment in Lilianna’s ear, too quietly for the other two to hear. Lilianna nodded. “We need to find a lyre.” She described the instrument for the human’s benefit. They retraced their steps back to the inn with no sign of the lyre.

Inside, they met up with the others. “Did you find anything out?” Lilianna asked.

“Not exactly. We did find something, though.” Gerard pulled out the medallion he had found earlier and showed both sides to them.

“Do you remember the lyre he had?”

They shook their heads. While Lilianna questioned them about the lyre, Firro and Kyaer checked upstairs. His room had a new door, but other than that they didn’t find anything.

“Perhaps the guy who attacked us dropped it out the window?” she said. She looked out but couldn’t see anything. “Let’s go down.” When they were out in the alleyway, she looked up at him. “What is it?”

He raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“What did you want to talk to me about?”

He sighed. “I wasn’t completely honest with your friend,” he admitted.

“I know,” she told him.  

He searched her gaze for a moment. “I do know where we can go where we can go to get the seals. There’s one in a mountain past Yenmass and then there’s another close to Dwarven mines where the desert turns into more lush landscape.”

“One has been found,” she told him.  

“Which one?”

“The one past Yenmass in the mountain.”

“We should go for the other one, then.”

“I agree,” she replied, and cast a spell that would allow her to find hidden magical auras. She moved into the stables with him not far behind.

Back in the tavern, Lilianna was getting no where speaking to the barkeep. She ordered a drink and shot it back quick. Osamu stepped outside the front door and looked over the dusk-lit city. There was a sound of something passing quickly through the air and then a kukri was sticking out of the wall beside his head. He looked around quickly and spotted a figure across the street on the third floor balcony, its robes streaming out beside it in the breeze. He narrowed his gaze at it and took a step towards it. It seemed to acknowledge him and then disappeared into the building.

When he was certain the figure wasn’t going to make another appearance, he pulled the weapon out of the wall and took the parchment off its hilt, reading it quickly. Then he crumpled it in his fist and jammed the blade as hard as he could back into the wall.

Firro wouldn’t have noticed Osamu when he stalked into the stables since he made absolutely no noise, except that she was looking straight at the entrance when he walked through. She moved towards him as he began to saddle a horse.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

He handed her a crumpled note. She opened it and read.

I know what you’re looking for and I have it. Meet me in the desert east of town. Ride hard until you see three rocks stacked next to each other.

“What’s this symbol?” she asked, pointing to the symbol at the bottom of the parchment.

“The Ty-ota family mark,” he replied. “I’m going now.”

“I’m going with you, then. Kyaer, get the others, will you?” While he ran for the tavern, she began saddling her horse. “What’s all this about?” she asked Osamu.

“How dare they wear the colors!” he snapped. “You all should stay. This is dangerous.”

“I’m not letting you go out into the desert all by yourself,” she returned.

He whirled on her, getting in her face. “They are out for blood and so am I!” he shouted. His eyes were flashing with vengeance. “They were obviously trying to kill you! You stay!”

“That’s unlikely,” Lilianna said from the entrance to the stables. “Celestine’s staying behind, but the rest of us are going with you.”

He shook his head and finished saddling his horse with sharp, jerky movements. They mounted and rode in silence. Gerard spoke to his raven and it flew up overhead.

Nearly two hours later they finally saw the rocks. As they slowed down, the raven swooped down and cawed at Gerard. “Someone’s behind the rocks,” Gerard translated. Not a moment later a figure emerged. He was wearing the same clothes as the previous man. Firro put her hand on her sword.

“I think I have something that you want,” the figure said, looking at all of them. He pulled out something wrapped in sackcloth and tossed it. Lilianna dismounted at the same time Kyaer did and they both ran toward the bundle.

The cleric reached it first. “It’s the lyre,” Lilianna said when she unwrapped it. “What do you want in return from this?” she demanded.  

“Continue on your quest,” the figure said.  

“What quest?”

“Earlier someone said something when they handed you that book,” he replied.

There was complete silence as the group digested that. Firro nudged the horse closer to the pair standing on the sand.

“He had to be in the room with us when we were talking,” Firro murmured to them.

“Who do you work for?” Lilianna demanded.

“For myself,” he replied.

“Who are you?” Osamu shouted.

“Ty-ota.”

“Liar!” Osamu growled.

“I am the last of them as you are of yours, Osamu Mitsubi.”

Osamu hesitated. “If you want us to continue then why attack us? You know the rules!”

The figure scoffed. “You’re losing your edge, Osamu,” he said. He backed up and threw something at the ground. It exploded and when the smoke cleared, he was gone.

With a wordless growl, Osamu threw the star knife into the smoke. It returned without resistance to his hand.

“Calm yourself!” Lilianna told him when he slid off his horse and began to pace.

“How can I be calm when I’m within a hand’s grasp of catching the monster who single-handedly killed my people?” he shouted at her.

She frowned at him. Handing the lyre to Kyaer, she kept one hand on it as she pulled out a parchment and some charcoal. “What are you talking about?” she asked Osamu. She set the parchment over the lyre and used the charcoal to make an impression of the symbol there.

“To further understand the clan you must understand me,” Osamu said. “My village – not assassins. But taught early to fight. I never liked fighting. I liked peace and left for a time. When I came back, I found the burned bodies of my family and friends…desecrated! Horribly! The surrounding villages had tales. One man – no beast! – was responsible. My quest is to find the vermin responsible!

“For him to know me – not many do! And he wears our colors! How dare he disgrace my clan! That bastard!!”

“Who’s Ty-ota?” Firro asked as Kyaer mounted behind her.

Osamu shook his head. “I am not sure who exactly of the Ty-otas he is, but it has to be someone from my clan. There’s a problem with that. They all should have died!”

“We should all watch our words,” Lilianna said into the immediate silence. “We’re being watched and people are listening in on private conversations.”

“Tell her,” Firro said to Kyaer.

He frowned down at his wife, but told Lilianna that he knew where to find the last disk. “I didn’t mention it earlier because I wasn’t certain I could trust you,” he added.

“Does anyone else have anything they need to tell me?” Lilianna snapped, not looking at anyone in particular. “This would be much easier if everyone would just be honest with each other!”

“We all have things in our pasts we do not wish to reveal,” Osamu said. “I’m not one for killing but blood is blood. I stand on my clan’s principles.”

The cleric took a deep breath and mounted again. “I’m heading for the Temple of Saranrae. I’m taking the book and the lyre to study.”

“Not the lyre,” Kyaer contradicted.

“Then you’re coming with me,” she said with finality.

He glared at her, but didn’t protest. As one, the group turned and headed back towards the town.

TO BE CONTINUED…