Well, where I am now, is not where I expected to be, but then that often
seems to be the case these days.  Where I am now, is in the Halls of
Justice, awaiting a hearing, it is most probably that charges will be
brought against me.  How severe these charges will be, I have no idea.
	And where I expected to be?..well, safely in the Inn inscribing
runesticks.  But you are no doubt wondering how I come to be where I am.

	The past few days had not been uneventful.  Bob was attacked on his way
home from his Collage, as we expected.  So did his Collage it would seem,
for they sent an Adept of Earth with him as a driver.  With luck, the two
of them managed to escape the trap laid for them, but only just.  I do not
know the whole of it, but I gather from Bob's description that it involved
several Greater Undead.
	And Shali was almost taken from us again as well.  She stepped out of the
Inn the other morning, and was meet by two bolts from a heavy crossbow.
She was knocked unconscious instantly, but fortunately was not killed.
Since we were all at the Inn at the time, Merlaine was beside her almost
immediately, while the others of us rushed into the street looking for some
sign of the assassin.  Of course, none was to be found.
	Shali's dogs created quite a stir.  As Shali had been shot in the doorway,
and fallen there, the dogs were letting no one near her but us.  So,
everyone inside the inn was trapped, for the second they approached the
door, the dogs would growl and set to barking.  This was soon stopped as
Merlaine dragged Shali up to our room to heal her.  I of course, had to tip
the barkeep extra, and mop the floor as none of the serving folk wanted to
clean up the large amounts of Shali's blood that had been spilled.
	Brianna and I examined the bolts, being as they were deeply embedded in
the doorframe.  They were standard bolts, but  for the fact that they
seemed to crawl with shadows, the darkness twisting this way and that upon
them, as if darkness could be made liquid.  Brianna was unable to detect
their aura, and so I risked touching one to transport it to our room.  Once
there I could pull out my rune wand and speak the name of the runes I
needed.  All I could discern was that the spell on the bolts was
necromantic in origin... big surprise there.
	For the most part however, the past few days have consisted of tedious
interviews with all manner of people, from caterers to foot soldiers in
House Axaltan's guard.  And through all this skulking and interviewing, we
had not been able to discern any information about Xarna's whereabouts.
Our level of frustration was quite high.
	It was then that Bob hit on the idea of hiring outside help.  He did not
tell the party of this idea of his, just hired a person named Grinoch who
claimed to be able to "find out things."  Bob paid this fellow ten gold
shillings for one evening's services.
	
	This Grinoch fellow, who wears more lace than a noble lady, and smells
like a perfume shop exploded around him, has a most irritating manner.
	Grinoch suggested that we should interview the witnesses. He then promptly
sat himself down, ordered a glass of wine, and started to scribbling on a
piece of parchment.  When Bob asked what he was writing, Grinoch replied "
Why poetry my dearest warrior, poetry!"  Grinoch then told us to make ready
for the evenings grand adventure, and continued writing.
	Well, Brianna claimed she was feeling ill, and did not want to accompany
us, while Vasquez seemed recovered enough from her long illness that she
was anxious to be out and about.
	And so it was that we found ourselves headed to the Cold Barley Soup
kitchen.  Now, I did not like this Grinoch fellow much, and I liked him
even less when, as we rounded a corner in the street, he screamed out "
Kill him, get him away from me, get him away!" and turned on his heel,
running as fast as he could back the way we had just come.
	When we looked in the direction he had pointed, all we saw was a
disheveled old man, who appeared to be drunk, for he was weaving back and
forth as he walked and mumbling to himself.
	My first thought was that Grinoch had led us into some bizarre kind of
ambush, and was now escaping before the trap could be sprung.  I was
determined that whatever fate he had prepared for us, he was going to
suffer as well.  I threw myself at his retreating boot heels and grabbed a
hold of his velvet leggings.  He fell, and his face met the cobblestones
with a most satisfying crunch.  The rest of the party had advanced to
intercept the old man.  When the old man saw them approaching, he staggered
toward them, yelling something about how there were spiders in the middle,
there were spiders in their hearts, the spiders were eating their souls. He
tried to grab Shali by he tunic, but she would not let him approach that
close.  The man kept yelling about the spiders, and would not be dissuaded.
We surmised that he was very drunk or insane, and since he did not smell
of alcohol, we assume the latter was the case.
	Grinoch now seemed to recover himself, and started muttering under his
breath, preparing a spell.  I had no idea if this spell was aimed at me or
no, but since I could not perceive any immediate threat, just a raving old
man, I decided not punch Grinoch in the face, even though interrupting his
casting in this manner would have given me much satisfaction.  Grinoch
completed and cast his spell, and the old man tumbled to the ground,
unconscious.
	After we made sure the man was unharmed, we propped him up against the
side of a building, and continued our journey to the Soup Kitchen.  It
dawned on me then that perhaps Grinoch was a Sorcerer of the Mind, and that
his method of finding out things, was reading peoples minds.  He confirmed
this thought of mine by winking at me as I thought it.  This new
information made me most nervous, for there are many things locked in our
heads that I for one, do not wish known by anyone else, and in the presence
of this man, trying not to think of the secrets you know, results in
thinking about them, which is akin to shouting them out in a crowded
square.  I was nervous and distrustful of Grinoch before, now I was tenfold
more so.
	However, it is now no wonder he was terrified of the old man.  What must
it be like to know the thoughts of an insane person, whose thoughts have no
order or meaning?  It must be like brushing chaos itself.  I am much
happier being just a simple warrior.
	When we arrived at the Kitchen, Grinoch indicated that he would go in
first, and that we were to follow a few minutes later.  Our job would be to
get the regulars at the bar talking about the night that Xarna had
disappeared.
	We waited for a bit, and then Bob, Vasquez and I entered.  Shali and
Merlaine remained outside.  We saw that Grinoch had ensconced himself in
the corner, and was scribbling at his "poetry" again. Vasquez and I sat
down near the regulars, while Bob just walked up and ordered a round of
drinks for the entire table.   Bob then sat down with them, and proceed to
reminisce about the last time he was here, when a very pretty bar maid had
served him, he thought he had heard her say her name was Xarna.  He asked
at the table if the men there knew where she was this night, as he had been
looking forward to seeing her again.   Well, there was much talk at the
table then.  The general thought was that she had gone up north to visit a
sick mother, but there were a few who thought she might have eloped with a
tall quiet man who would come in to see her now and again.
	After a half hour or so, Grinoch leapt up from the table with a cry of
"I've got it!  I've got it!  Orange rhymes with blamanche!" and strode
briskly out the door, leaving a gold coin on the table.
	We took our cue, finished our drinks and exited the Kitchen in a more
leisurely fashion.  Merlaine and Shali told us that we were supposed to
meet Grinoch at a place called the Brass Orchid in half an hour.  They knew
where the Brass Orchid was, and we could just make it if we hurried, so we
did.
	
	When we arrived, Grinoch had acquired a private booth in the back.  We
joined him, and he ordered drinks all around.
	He then told us what he had found out.  And that was that most of the men
there had for some reason or another, been told to stay away from the Cold
Barley Soup Kitchen on the night of Xarna's disappearance. Even Divash had
been duped into leaving the Soup Kitchen for a few hours by a message from
an old friend.
	The men all suspected that something was wrong somewhere, but had no idea
what.  Grinoch told us however, that a man named Talath, who was a cooper,
had more than just suspicions, and they had something to do with something
his daughter had seen that night.  More than that, he could not say.
Grinoch then pulled out the parchment that he had been scribbling on this
evening, and told us that he had finished an epic poem, and that it
contained information of great importance to us, and that for a mere ten
gold shillings, the parchment would be ours.
	Bob argued that if the parchment contained information, it should be ours
for free, part of the services Grinoch had been contracted to provide.
Grinoch said that the information had nothing to do with finding Xarna,
which is what he had been contracted to aid with, and therefore this vital
information was an extra charge.  When Shali asked what the information
pertained too, Grinoch said that it was about someone at our Inn, the
Arrow's Flight, who was watching us and reporting our movements back to
somebody else.  Shali immediately paid the ten gold.
	Grinoch then said that it was getting very late, and that by his accounts,
no decent person was abroad after ten o'clock, and since he was a decent
person, his duties for the evening were fulfilled.  So he bade us a good
night and left, leaving us with the bill for all the drinks, as well as the
private booth.
	We read the parchment, and it contained a very good description of someone
at the Arrow's Flight.  So, after much discussion, we decided that getting
Xarna back was still our first priority, for all the odds makers had put
tomorrow as the day the ice would break.  So, back to the Soup Kitchen we
went, in hopes of talking more to Talath the cooper.
	When we got there, he had left for the evening, but we persuaded a friend
of his, who was none to sober, to show us where he lived, as we said we had
urgent business, and gold in payment, for him.
	When we reached the apartment of Talath, we were politely shown in once we
said we had come to contract the making of some special barrels.  We were
introduced to Talath's family, his two sons, and five daughters, and his
wife, who made us all tea.
	I think the children were a little overawed by Merlaine, as they had never
seen a real elf before.  They asked her if elves really came from heaven.
Merlaine blushed mightily at this, and told them about her northern forest
home.   The children, as well as their parents, seemed a bit nervous about
Shali's huge wolf hounds, which she had brought with her.  Shali reassured
them by putting a biscuit on one of the dog's nose, and telling him to
wait.  I must admit, it is most amusing to see a huge beast like that all
quivering in excitement because it has a tiny biscuit balanced on its nose.
On Shali's command, and not a moment before, the dog wolfed the biscuit
down and wagged it's tail happily.  Shali did indeed contract with Talath
to have a harness and small barrels made that could be carried by her dogs.
The price Talath charged us was most reasonable.
	Eventually the conversation wound around to the night of Xarna's
disappearance.  Talath looked pretty glum, but did tell us he suspected
foul play.  When we asked him why, he had his daughter come and tell us
what she had seen.
	
	What the little girl had seen, when she went down to the Soup Kitchen to
deliver a message, not knowing everyone was away, was several men tossing a
rolled up carpet into a wagon drawn by two horses.  The reason she
remembered this was that one of the horses was her favorite, named Scarfie,
because of the large white blotch on its neck that resembled a scarf.  She
knew Scarfie, because sometimes her father used wagons to deliver barrels
to customers.  And when he did, he always rented them from a transport
company called Korbo's transport.  That's where Scarfie lived she said,
with a bunch of other horses at Korbo's.
	We thanked Talath and his family, and then retired back to The Arrow's
Flight.  When we entered the Inn, we did indeed observe an individual that
fit Grinoch's description perfectly.  We decided to do nothing about this
individual, although Merlaine did get a good look at him.
	
	The next morning as we descended for breakfast, we noticed the informant
was gone.  After telling Merlaine of this, she took out her crystal ball,
of which she has several, and tried to find an image of him in its depths.
She succeeded most admirably.  She found him walking down a litter strewn
roadway in the oldest and most disreputable section of Nvym-Dar, an area
known as the Labyrinth.  She followed him to a grimy tavern called The Blue
Moon and watched him go inside.  At that point, she needed to use a
different crystal ball, for the crystalline orbs are only usable for a very
limited amount of time in any day.
	With her other orb, Merlaine picked up our shadow again.  He was in a
room, giving a lengthy verbal report to another man.  This fellow who
received the report then proceeded to start rubbing ashes and oils into our
shadow's hair, and rubbing oil into his skin to darken it, and he added
height to his boot heels to make the fellow appear taller.  Within the
space of half an hour, the short, dirty blonding man who had been watching
us was transformed into a tall elegant man from the island of Thyatis, with
oily black curls.  Had Merlaine not seen and described this to us, we would
never have recognized the individual as the same person, and he could have
continued to observe us without our knowledge.
	Merlaine also saw much more in her crystal ball.  She saw that the other
individual in the room had a red scorpion tattooed near his arm, the exact
same tattoo Brianna had described on her killer.  She also saw several of
the triangular punch daggers known as katars laying about the room, as well
as a severed human hand that had been rendered into a candle, using human
hair as the wicks.
	So, now we know what our assassin looks like, and where he is.  Happy with
our new knowledge, and our ability to look in on our stalkers at any time
we chose, we embarked on our journey to Korbo's transport.  For while the
assassin can wait ( they are supposed to be very good at waiting),  the
melting ice on the river will not.
	When we arrived at Korbo's, the proprietor knew which horse we were
talking about when we described Scarfie to him.  We then rented Scarfie for
several hours.  Korbo told us that under no circumstances was Scarfie to
leave the city, and we agreed.
	Then Shali used her talent to talk to and coax Scarfie.  Scarfie is not a
brilliant horse, and it took some coaxing by Shali before he remembered the
night that he had helped haul a wagon with a struggling carpet in it.
Eventually he did however, and once we led him to the Cold Barley Soup
Kitchen, he could retrace his route of that night.
	As Scarfie led us through the winding streets of this city, apprehension
began to grow on us, for Scarfie was leading us through Old Town, straight
into The Labyrinth.

	The Labyrinth is truly a forlorn area of this city.  The Town Guard will
not go into the Labyrinth, for in their own words " We have better things
to do than get shot by  crossbow bolts covered with offal."  As we walked
along the rubble strewn roads, I saw dead dogs lying in the roadway, and
none of the buildings looked habitable.  It is my firm belief that the
entire area is held together by the many ropes with laundry set out to dry
that stretch between burnt out buildings.  One particularly loathsome pile
of refuse looked somewhat like a human corpse, but we did not investigate.
	Eventually Scarfie stopped in front of an old building that was so unsound
looking I was nervous standing near it, lest it collapse into the street at
the next gust of wind.  The wind however, would have been welcome, for the
stench that permeates the Labyrinth is abominable.  Scarfie assured us that
here is where he stopped that night, but did not know what had happened to
the carpet in the wagon, cause he was looking forward, not back at the
wagon, and besides, he does not see too well at night.
	So, our time with Scarfie was nearing an end, we decided to return him,
and then go to the Arrow's Flight and prepare for whatever our
investigations of the unsound looking building revealed.
	Bob announced he would stay behind and watch the building.  Despite our
protests that this was not a good area to wander around alone in, he was
adamant.  So, we left him there.  We were dismayed, when not 30 seconds
after our departure, a hoard of filthy urchins ran by us screaming "
Wizard!  Black Mage! there's a Wizard summoning demons back there!"  When
we looked back, we could see nothing, so assumed that Bob had cast a
walking unseen spell on himself, and been observed in the doing.  Trusting
that Bob could take care of himself, we returned Scarfie.
	Then it was back to the Inn, where we donned what armor we had, or thought
we could get away with, and gathered up the few weapons we don't usually
carry about the city.  Merlaine donned her leather armor, as it could
somewhat be disguised beneath her heavy winter cloak, but the rest of the
party had stored their armor in the adventurers guild, and did not think it
worth retrieving.  I of course, wanted desperately to wear my new silvered
Partial plate which gleamed so invitingly from its armor stand in the
corner, but alas, there is no way to disguise such armor under even the
heaviest of cloaks, so I left it behind.
	I would not go into a fight without my battle axe however, and that, with
some difficulty, I managed to conceal, at least to a casual observer, under
my cape.  The only large weapon that Vasquez had not stored in the
Adventurer's Guild was her morning star, which she does not know how to
use.  So, she donned her cestus, and tried to hide the morningstar beneath
her cloak as well.  As we walked back toward where Bob waited for us
however, there were several times when one us pointed out to her that the
haft was showing, or the chain would clank.  No one but us seemed to notice
this, which is good, as battle axes and morning stars are illegal to carry
within the city confines.  Before we left, I placed three Portal runesticks
about the room, and took their counterparts, as well as all my other meager
supply of runesticks with me.
	We rejoined with Bob, and began to make our plans.  Bob saw someone peer
out from a balcony on the third floor, and he saw the glint of metal armor
beneath their cloak, so were are assuming the third floor is our target.
	We found a narrow ally, where we were unobserved ( to the best of our
knowledge), and Bob and Merlaine cast walking unseen spells on myself,
Vasquez and Bob. It was then that we discovered that so decrepit and
forlorn is this area, that even magic seems to have fled it.  There is
little mana in this area, and so the casting of spells is especially
difficult and exhausting. Shali and Merlaine then opened the ancient double
doors, which appeared to be the only way in or out of the decrepit
building.  As they kept the door open, the three of us unseen folks
entered.
	There we were confronted with stairs and corridors with locked iron grates
blocking them, and a huge and odious human who appeared to be the building
manager, the smell of cheap wine hung about the place.   Shali and Merlaine
convinced this drunken human that they wanted to rent a flat in his
building,  and after paying a monthly fee which is less than my usual
evenings drinking tab, were given a key to the grates and told to pick any
apartment they wanted, that wasn't already inhabited.  They were warned
away from the third floor.
	The two of them chose an apartment on the fourth floor, just above and to
the right of the apartment where Bob had seen the mail clad man and we all
piled into there.  After a brief planning session, Shali summoned and bound
three crows.  After feeding and talking to them for a bit, one of the crows
carried one of my Portal runesticks down to the suspect balcony on the
third floor and dropped it there.
	I then cast the Rune Portal spell on a Portal runestick in my possession.
Afterward, I felt as drained as if I had cast three spells!  But the spell
was successful, and we now had a way onto the balcony.  Then, I cast
another Portal spell on one of the sticks whose mate was back at the Arrows
Flight.  My first attempt failed, but the second one succeeded.  Now, I was
near exhausted, but we had a way back to the safety of our inn.
	Bob ported to the balcony and reconnoitered the area.  He told us that
Xarna was indeed within the apartment, guarded by three men in chainmail
with broadswords.
	The three of us who were unseen ported to the balcony, while Merlaine
waited in the upper apartment to help Xarna make the portings to the inn,
and Shali went to create a distraction at the door.
	Shali's distraction was a long time in coming, and I barely noticed it
when it did.  At the time, we did not know that the door was guarded on the
outside.  I heard Shali's dogs barking, and one of Xarna's guards moved
toward the door, and we moved in.  The door to the balcony was weak, and
gave way with hardly a shove.
	
	Still unseen, Bob made a dash for Xarna, dagger in hand to cut her bonds,
while I threw a hand axe at one of her guards, it was a good hit.  Vasquez
took a position near the door.
	One of the guards made a dash for the fallen in door, and ran straight
into Bob as he did.  The guard went sprawling.  However, since Bob was the
only one of us they could see, the other two guards made for him and drew
their broadswords.  Vasquez and I moved in to dispatch them, for although
Bob is a doughty warrior, he could not cut Xarna free and defend himself at
the same time.
	After but a few seconds fighting with my opponent, I realized that this
was no alley basher hired off the street, these guys were damn good with
their swords.
	After he got past my shield twice, I was sorely wounded and he hardly
scratched.  So, I switched to using my weapon solely to block and evade his
blows, waiting for him to misstep or leave an opening, which did not happen
all that often.
	Vasquez was similarly pressed, and in even worse shape, for she could not
evade with the morningstar, and was getting badly hit often, while every
blow she landed bounced off the fellows chainmail.  The fellow who had run
into Bob had picked himself up and was advancing on Bob, who was forced to
draw his daggers and defend himself.
	I got a break when my opponent over swung his sword a bit and gave me an
opening.  My axe bit deep, opening up a huge gash along his arm which would
have doubtless crippled the fellow, had not the blow killed him then and
there.  This freed me, wounded as I was to go and aid Vasquez, who was near
death.
	Vasquez picked up the dead guard's broadsword, a weapon she knows the use
of, and began giving a good account of herself.  After a bit, she left my
side to go and continue cutting Xarna free.  This guard also was very good
with his sword, and wounded my badly.  After what seemed like forever,
Vasquez got Xarna free and told her to run to the door.  Of course, Xarna
ran to the front door and not the porch door where the runestick was.
Vasquez came to my side again, and Merlaine appeared on the porch, having
heard Bob screaming for help and the clash of weapons.
	Merlaine took charge of Xarna, just as my opponent scored a deep hit on
Vasquez.  Vasquez's sword clattered to the floor and she went down.  After
felling Vasquez, my opponent began chasing Xarna, trying to kill her now
that she was free of her ropes. I showed this guard the error of turning
his back on a Mountain warrior with an axe, and he turned back to me.
	I think I might have been able to finish this opponent, for he made a
small misstep, and I saw my opening and swung.  But he blocked just in
time, and my poor axe, much abused by all this defensive sparring,
shattered its haft into a thousand splinters.
	So, I did the only thing to do, charged him and bore him to the ground,
where I could punch his face into the floor, and he could not use his
broadsword.  This fellow however, was an experienced warrior, and quickly
abandoned his sword in favor of the daggers he kept in his boots.
	Now, throughout out all this time Bob was struggling with his man, they
both had daggers in hand, and although Bob scored a hit almost every time
he struck, rare were the times when his weapon actually penetrated his
opponents mail.  Bob of course, had no mail to protect him and was badly
cut up.
	I struggled with my adversary for some seconds, before I felt his blade
bit deep into my side and blackness washed over me like the breath of
Hades.  I hate it when that happens.

	To tell the truth, I never expected to wake again.  But wake I did, and
when I came too, I was on a table in what appeared to be a bar.  Merlaine
was tending to Vasquez, and there were several men in chainmail, Ishtaran
guards by their looks, standing over me.  Merlane's ministrations helped
Vasquez recover her consciousness as the guards had recovered mine.  I saw
Bob, much the worse for wear and Xarna out of the corner of my eye.  When
the guards deemed us fit, they began asking how we had come to be hacked
near to death in a small pub.  A good question, as I was wondering the same
myself.
	Merlaine began telling the guards, in only the vaguest terms, of our
escapade.  Bob then began elaborating on our attack, and the reasons for
it.  His elaboration must have crossed the fine line between omission of
the truth, and an outright lie.  For after Bob was through speaking, the
guards shook their heads, and brusquely cuffed all our hands behind our
backs and marched us through the streets and to the halls of Justice.
Merlaine keeps looking daggers at Bob, and I doubt not that she will have a
few choice words for him about lying to Ishtaran guards, most of whom are
priests, in the future.
	With what Bob and Merlaine whispered to me as we were led here, and
listining to the conversation between them and the guards, I have managed
to piece together what happened.
	Bob it would seem, managed to score enough deep wounds with his dagger to
finish his man, and the third opponent... the one who felled me, ran for
the door in order to open it and let in his two companions who were
outside, banging to get in and help their friends.  While he was doing
this, Bob and Merlaine hefted up me and Vasquez, and ported to the upstairs
apartment, and then to the Arrow's Flight.  After that, Bob, Merlaine and
Xarna picked up Brianna, who was laying sick in her bed, and fled the Inn,
lest armed men start porting in using the same runestick we had used to
escape, as there was no way to deactivate the Portal rune with me
unconcious.
	When they deemed themselves far enough away, they yelled for the guards
and claimed that they had been attacked... which was the truth.
	So, here we sit in the interrogation room in the Halls of Justice, a
rather forbidding place.   But at least Xarna is free, and we are all
alive, and the ice on the river is not yet broken.
	However, I think I shall go mad with not knowing what has become of Shali,
for she is not here with us, and if the guards did follow us using the
Portal runesticks, and have taken my armor, which is standing most
obviousley on its stand in the corner.. I shall have to personally hunt
them down and kill them.
	But I shall not find that out for a while I'm afraid.  And now I shall
stop writing, for I hear footsteps approaching down the hall... our
questioners most likely.   I'll bet that they thought that when I asked for
quill and paper, it was to write my confession, ah well.

              				By My Somewhat Restrained Hand, This Third Day Of Abril,
                                                  The Year of Our Lady 540
					                                             Drashak Khea Malari