Outsiders: Insidious Takeover
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     Magnus looked up from his studies, as a random though passes through his mind. He realizes he hasn’t heard from Torana, his master, since he started his last adventure at the Magical Minds Conference. Though he was given strict instructions that if anything should happen that he was to make his way back to the tower. That was over a month ago.

     Thus when someone comes calling at the tower, it comes as quite a shock to the young apprentice as his master couldn’t have invited anyone over. Never the less he puts his study materials away neatly and makes his way downstairs to the door.

     Upon opening the door Magnus is greeted by a young ranger elf dressed is forest green shirt and breeches. "Magnus Kane?" he says. When Magnus nods, he continues, "I have a message for you." He pulls out a parchment from his belt and hands it to the puzzled apprentice. The ranger nods and heads back into the forest without a single word.

     The puzzled apprentice closes the door and heads back upstairs to his room. Making sure he has plenty of light he breathlessly opens the scroll, instantly he recognizes his masters familiar scrawl.

     Magnus reads the letter several times over trying to discern if there is some kind of hidden message within the words. He spends a good part of the day looking for hidden runes, and other clues as to the real reason behind the message. But as dusk nears he can find none and he puts the message away and prepares for the journey to Meadows End.

***************

     It is a few days journey from Torana’s tower to Meadows End, and normally Torana would just spirit them away with that incredible magic of his and they’d be there in an instant. But for some reason he has chosen to make his apprentice do it the hard way. Magnus doesn’t really mind much, he is getting used to traveling. After his last few adventures he is starting to think of himself as a seasoned traveler. Thus the journey to Meadows End passes quickly and without problem.

     He quickly locates the Ogres Eye Inn in one of the better parts of town and enters around noon. It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust from the bright summer sunlight to the dim interior of the Inn. He looks around and sees the bar is quite full, and the room is also nearly full but he finds a table in the back recesses of the room. He sits down and orders himself a drink. When it comes, the young mage looks around the room taking in the surroundings.

     Many of the tables are filled with people hiding from the noon day sun or servants hiding from work. Only two tables are actually of any note. One features a group of about five men wearing uniforms of a strange design. They are nearly all black with a white diamond shape in the center of the chest and in the center of that is a large glowing red gem. Each of the men seem to be glowering at everyone around them. The look of hate and mistrust is much to Magnus’ surprise is returned by anyone near the men. Even the serving women seem less willing to go near these men. The other table has four men on it. One really big man, one with a green scarf on his arm, the third is fairly muscular and the last seems to be the leader of the bunch. His clothes are much better, there seems to be an air of refinement and shrewdness about him. Even in the dim lights it’s obvious he has spent sometime in the sun. It has given him a fairly even tan that when combined with the handlebar mustache gives him a fairly exotic look.

     As Magnus looks around he becomes aware than the last man is watching him. Finally the man gets up and walks over to Magnus table. The sudden movement catches the eyes of the five uniformed men. After a moment they turn and ignore him. "Greetings Good Sir. May I join you?"

***************

     Magnus looks up at the man and smiles as he gestures to an open seat, "Please do what can I do for you this fine day?"

     "Thank you good sir." He sits down, "My name is Jassal and I have a proposition for you if your interested. You see I am a merchant and I travel quite a bit trading between Telor and Meadows End here all the way out to RockHome. It is a dangerous journey, which is why I hire bodyguards whenever I can. What I propose is to hire you, obviously a powerful mage I could see that when you entered, to help protect me and my precious cargo on the next leg of my journey to far away RockHome. You would of course be paid handsomely."

     One of the uniformed men runs out of the door. The others are suddenly paying a bit too much attention to the Magnus and Jassal. The uniformed man returns a few moments later with two others armed men who block the doorway.

     Magnus looks up and says, "I think perhaps we have other concerns at the moment."

     The remaining for uniformed soldiers stand up and walk towards the pair and says, "You mage! You’re coming with us. Now!" He places his hand on his sword for emphasis. As he nears Magnus gets a strange queasy feeling and his instincts kick in telling him he is in danger. Somewhere in the back of his mind a through forms, "Strange, I’ve never had this kind of feeling toward other humans before."

     Magnus and Jassal stand up as Magnus forces a smile and says, "I’m sorry gentle sirs but I am awaiting a companion and I must decline your invitation. But perhaps we can all wait a while, I’ll buy the next round and we can all sit and talk a while." As he does this Magnus is edging away from the man.

     The man draws his sword as do the other soldier and says, "You’re coming with us now!" He gets about two steps before a chair sails across the bar and slams into his head. Jassals’ bodyguards quickly join him.

     The other uniformed man attack and people all over the bar begin hiding behind their tables. When the men pass by them they slip out the door and run for it. Not all of them get lucky a few merchants move too soon and catch the attention of the soldier and are quickly cut down. A few others draw their swords but they are quickly attack and outnumbered and again they are cut down.

     Magnus speaks a rune and looks surprised when nothing happens. One of the soldiers laughs and says, "It is him! Your magic is useless here mage! Since you won’t come in peace you will come with us in pieces! " He laughs at his own bad joke.

     Magnus grabs his staff off of his chair and launches himself at the laughing soldier who can only look in surprise as the mage smashes the butt of his staff into the man’s face.

     This is the signal for the other five soldiers to attack. Jassal pulls out his slim sword and joins his bodyguards who are trying to protect him. The large one swings his keeps two men at bay, his sheer arm reach is more than they can counter as they desperately try to get under his guard.

     The first man recovers and knocks Magnus staff away and aims a quick thrust to his midsection. But Magnus is way ahead of the man as he turns and sweeps his legs out from under him. A moment later his sword goes clattering away across the floor. One quick swing and the staff hits the skull with a resounding crack.

     The others however aren’t having nearly as much luck as Jassal and two of his bodyguards seem to be getting the worse of the match as they give up ground swiftly. But just in the blink of an eye the fortune is reversed as the uniformed men realized they’ve been lead into a trap. Now surrounded they move back to back to try and fight their way out of the trap.

     One of the men thrusts violently at Jassal over balancing himself. Jassal pirouettes out of the way of the thrust and give the man a nasty slash along his backside. But this broke the ranks just long enough for the other two men to charge Jassal knocking him down and earning them a bit more freedom. Jassal looks up as one of the men raises his sword to strike the fatal blow, but he is interrupted as Magnus staff connects violently with the back of his head and he falls over limp, blood flowing freely from a dent in the back of his scalp.

     With them now on equal terms, the bodyguards begin to show them the stuff they are made of. The large bodyguard uses his superior strength beat his opponent down, even though the man blocks each blow its costs him as the sheer force of it rattles his bones. He is soon brought to his knees. When his sword is knocked away he charges the bodyguard and gets a sword hilt to the side of the head. The force of the blow sends him flying off to one side where he lies crumpled in a heap.

     The bodyguard with the green scarf just plain out fights his opponent, his superior speed makes up for a slight disadvantage in skill, his opponent is soon bleeding from several cuts and scrapes. When the huge bodyguard joins the fight the poor soldier is cut to ribbons.

     The third bodyguard is chasing the soldier with the cut on his back into a corner. Dodging thrown chairs and tables he relentlessly pursues his target, but the mans slips by him and bolts for the door his shirt and sword covered in blood.

     In the calm after the battle Magnus helps up Jassal and they survey the damage done. "Check all the men and see if they have anything on them to tell us who they are."

     The bodyguards look to Jassal who nods and turns to Magnus, "I’m impressed. Not many magi know how to handle themselves in a fight without magic. You’d definitely be welcome on my trade run and it seems that you are no longer welcome here. Those soldiers have been infesting the town as of late. I don't know where they come from. Rumor has it that they come from a small village in a far corner of the valley. I don’t know where they come from but I’d wish they’d return."

     The bodyguards soon have a pile of several small moneybags and a pile of those gems on their uniforms.

     The door opens and sunlight spills in as a man stands framed in the doorway after a moment he enters. The door closes behind him and he waits a moment for his eyes to adjust.

     Magnus says, "I think it is best if we vacate the premises before any reinforcements arrive. Jassal maybe we can continue our conversation at another establishment?"

***************

     After everyone splits up Gwydeon asks around for a bit and finds an armor smith before too long. Entering the rather large shop, stacks of metal and leather and fur are seen nearly everywhere. He spots a short stocky man in a frock moving about polishing the armor. Upon seeing he has a customer, he stops and smiles. "Ah, welcome sir to the Armored Fist! How may I help you?"

     As Gwydeon explains he is looking for leather armor he says, "Hmmm, I think we might have something to fit you." He eyes the elf's frame appraisingly, then turns slowly around the room looking at the armor. Finally he stops and makes a dash for a pile of furs. Frantically pushing the furs aside he comes up with several leather strips. Which he drops to one side, then he rushes to another side grabbing still more leather strips, soon he as a rather large pile.

     "Now lets see...", he grabs a length of rope and examines the leather strips. Finally he turns to Gwydeon and says, "I can make you a brand new set of leather armor, but it will take me two days and it’ll cost you 8 g.p., so if you’ll just drop your things to one side, well get you all measured up and I can begin.

     The elf opens his purse strings and carefully counts out the precious gold. The short stocky man smiles as he accepts the money and immediately begins to measure him with the length of rope. Every few seconds he moves Gwydeon into a new stance checking your leg length, arm length, etc. Making him bend over, flex his arms, lean to the side, etc. Finally he is done and sets about moving the pile of leather strips to a little table near one side with strange tools. "Come back in two days." he mutters and begins working on the leather.

     Leaving the shop, the elf looks around to see what he can find. It's Not too long before he find a building with a sign depicting a single pointed blade. Entering the shop he finds a neat orderly setup along two of the walls; upon each table are rows and rows of daggers and short swords. A middle aged human appears before him and asks, "May I help you sir?" Upon his inquiry about throwing knives, the storeowner breaks into a wide smile. "Ah yes, we have several sets of those." He moves over to one table and shows off several sets of well made daggers. Some sets have a different picture (swan, eagle, rose, wolf) engraved upon them. Each set comes in an group of six.

     "All excellent throwing knives. Each set of the unengraved knives is 4 silver for a set of six. Each set of engraved knives are 7 silver a piece." After examining the knives and some haggling he manages to get the price down to 2 silver for unengraved and 5 for engraved set of knives.

     Gwydeon counts out his money and place his fine purchases in his pack. On a hunch he asks if there is a mage that can help him. The owner shakes his head and says, try the chandler, she has quite a lot of business with that type.

***************

     After thanking the man, he searches out the chandler who directs him to a building near the center of the city. He realizes that this is one of the better, wealthier parts of town. Walking along a tall tan man in long flowing robe stops him and inquires about the properties of the armbands. When Gwydeon tells him that is what he wished to know he invites Gwydeon to his shop, which is just ahead. He introduces himself as Torana.

     Entering his shop Gwydeon finds that he sells hunting supplies, but as he leads him into the back where he sees the implements so familiar to a wizard. He takes the elf's arm and examines the bracelets in great detail, making sure to take voluminous notes.

     "Now lets see what kind of magic it is. We’ll start with Detect Magic."

     Torana speaks a rune and immediately half the room lights up with an eerie blue light. He turns around and his eyes open wide, "Ah, there it is. Hand me one of those arm bands." He places the now glowing armband on a glowing piece of parchment. A moment later runes appear on the parchment. Torana returns the armband and reads the runes. "Ah, so that is what the armbands do! May I ask how you got these armbands?"

     After Gwydeon gives a quick recital of his battle with the orcs he replies, "It appears that you were lucky. The orc did not know the use of these armbands. Otherwise, the ending would have been quite different to your little encounter. This little item is capable of casting bands of light also known as color spray. It looks very much like a rainbow."

     Studying the scroll he continues, "It can be used thrice daily, a fourth application causing it to explode. You’d better keep a careful count then. Says here to activate the spell you must place both armbands together and will it to work."

     On a hunch Gwydeon brings out the wand and lets Torana look at it, after a moment he shrugs and says, "That’s only a wand of minute meteors. Should shoot five at a time, fairly standard according to the rune. To use it just point and concentrate. I don’t suppose you have any other interesting and unusual items lying about in that sack of yours? Hmm.."

     When Gwydeon tells him that he has no other magic items, Torana seems disappointed.

     But when Gwydeon ask him about the detect magic spell and his eyebrows raise in surprise "Ah a young mage! Such a spell is necessary for a young adventurer such as yourself. Let’s see now..."

     He turns looking around at the glowing mass of softly glowing blue light. He moves toward a stack of scrolls and starts pulling out scrolls and after a moment he pulls out a scroll with only one rune on it. "Ah, here is one. You go ahead and take it I’m sure I have hundreds around here somewhere."

     He hands Gwydeon the scroll with the strange rune on it.

     Torana begins to ask him about his adventurers, which Gwydeon gladly obliges. However, at when Gwydeon mentions the time when they were on the highway and the wand failed to activate, he takes another look at it. "Did these men perhaps have red gems sewn into their chests?" After giving confirmation, he frowns. "That might explain a few things... The wand will work fine. If you run into those men again. Put some distance between you and them before trying the wand or the bracers." As he speaks, he seems distant. He suddenly realizes where he is and says, "Uh oh must go! I left a lot of people behind who are waiting for me!" He hustles Gwydeon out and he notice that as he walks back outside Torana's clothing begins to undergo the most peculiar of changes. By the time they reach the outer door, he has changed from robes to breeches and shirt to leather armor to plate mail to then to blue robes that look more like water flowing off of him, than clothing.

***************

     Gwydeon places the scroll and wand back into his pack. After a few inquiries he finds there is a harmony temple nearby. As he approaches the white domed building he feels a familiar sensation come over him. His cares and worries seem to disappear and he feels at peace with the world. He enters the pristine halls and approaches a figure dressed in all white with a single rose on his shirt chest.

     "Yes, my son how may I help you." the man says in a contented voice.

     When he asks about Tasha, the man tells Gwydeon to wait a moment and disappears further into the structure. After a few minutes, a silver haired woman approaches. Despite her advanced age, her face is smooth and firm and her voice strong and reassuring. "Are you the one looking for Tasha? I am afraid she will not be able to have visitors for quite sometime. She needs to spend sometime communing with the Goddess and reattaining her harmonious spirit. It seems the outside world was so full of chaos that she couldn’t handle it. I am sorry, perhaps in a year or two. Now if you’ll excuse me I must pray." She smiles serenely and walks back down the way she came. Dejected the elf leaves the temple.

     After leaving the temple he returns to the main market place. Two silver and a long while later he is stocked up on food and heading back into the wealthy section to the Ogre’s Eye Inn for the rendezvous.

     Just as he nears the inn, a man bursts out of the door running full tilt away from it. His shirt and sword are covered in blood.

     After watching the man run away, Gwydeon enters the Ogre’s Eye Inn. With the sudden change from bright light to low lighting his eyes take a moment to adjust. But his nose picks up the smell of death immediately.

     In the quiet he hears someone saying, "......vacate the premises before any reinforcements arrive. Jassal maybe we can continue our conversation at another establishment?" The voice seems familiar. His eyes focus and he see five men standing near the center of the huge room. Bodies littering the ground. Some of those bodies are the ones of merchants and fighters. Many of the bodies are those of men wearing the same uniforms as those who ambushed them on the road. Only these have their gems missing.

     Of the men still standing one says, "I think that would be a good idea." He turns to Gwydeon and says, "Stranger, I think this would not be a good place to stay. Some very bad people came to a very messy end here."

     Near him stands a man carrying another whose wrists are bound at his waist and several sacks are at his feet along with a small pile of the gems once seen before decorating the shirts of the uniformed men. He moves to get a better look at Gwydeon and that’s when the elf recognizes him as an old comrade-in-arms, Magnus Kane.