Wraith King 4

 There was a loud knocking on the Budgie Smugglers' secret door to the alley.

"Our base is far from secret now!" muttered Madagascar.

Two of the Elwins were there: Elrick and Elfonse.

"You 'ave contact in the REAL temple named Priestess Rita. To please arrange a meeting? Zere is some  important news of Wraith King for REALs."

REAL Priestess Rita de Klerk

So, Rita was summoned to meet with the Elwins at the Luscious Pixie.

She arrived with one paladin guard, and they had a long chat with the Elwins. The Elwins wanted to meet with Igor. They had acquired a powerful anti-undead relic of REAL, and they thought they could make a bit of money by selling it to REAL. And REAL could use it to destroy the undead, and maybe the Wraith King. Win win. 

Rita said she would try to get him.

When Rita had left, Madagascar smelled a rat, and he scurried after her to try to dissuade her. He succeeded enough to make her think twice. But being a goody-two-shoes, she had to return to the Luscious Pixie to give the Elwins fair warning that she had changed her mind. But the rest of the group was still at the inn, and they and the Elwins argued her back into her task [and also Andrew didn't want to have an animated NPC conversation between the NPC Elwins, who spoke with an outrageous French accent (Elvish), and NPC Rita who spoke with a soft South African accent (Specularum)].

So, Rita returned to the temple and easily convinced Igor of this. He and his bodyguards would meet with the Elwins at two bells at Matey's tavern next to the Stone Bridge.

_____________________________________

Straight away, Tylin scurried ahead and secreted himself inside Matey's.

At three bells (one hour before two bells) Igor sent four paladins first to scout out the way. They checked out Matey's and environs.

The three Elwins from the Luscious Pixie and an extra one went were there with some of the party following.  On the way, Grey Wacke and Ronnie checked out various targeting sites; like, places where a crossbow sniper could secrete himself for an aimed shot. He did find a good rooftop site, and even sighted-in a practice bead on some paladins himself with a scoped finger. "Pew pew."

The party was spread.  Grey Wacke was on the adjacent roof, and the other party members were lurking in the vicinity of the Matey's, but not too close.  Most-High Priest Igor himself, escorted by another four paladins and four generic guards headed to Matey's too, and he arrived with no incident. All was quiet; a false alarm then?

Most-High Priest Igor

The meeting took place. It was Igor and his entourage with five Elwins. Tylin overheard snippets of the conversation, but he did not want to risk breaking cover to get closer. But he overheard things like "Great sword equal of heaven", and "can destroy the powerful undead", and "we talk, back at the temple".

Eventually the whole group, Elwins, Paladins, and Igor, left to travel up to the REAL Temple.

But a few seconds down the road, there was a loud explosion a way ahead on the road - like a fireball (but it was no where near enough to harm anyone). Nevertheless, everyone scattered or dropped. The paladins kicked to life and rushed close to Igor to shield him and shepherd him back to Matey's.

But the roiling spot around Igor, with paladin shields and guards, was suddenly shot at by black streaks. Four Dark Bolts were fired, from a spot near to where Grey Wacke was reconnoitering. Maybe the firers were invisible, because four new furtive figures had appeared and they slipped down to the ground and scurried away. Grey Wacke and Ronnie were too high up to engage them, and no-one else was close enough. The party was scurrying themselves to catch up from their assorted positions of loitering.

The bolts landed noisily, like a heavy weight dropped from on high. Four times. They landed with enough power to physically throw the paladins and guards into the air from the impact. There were screams and cries. One definitely hit Igor. He was quickly carried into Matey's. Another paladin was writhing on the ground with this black lance protruding from his chest. A black miasma around him.

There was no sign of any Elwins.

Tylin, still in Matey's, sneaked close enough to be in earshot of the REAL group. There were panicked whispers, and plenty of "after you", "no, after you", "I insist", "tis only a flesh wound".

Eventually, another contingent of REAL arrived from the temple, and escorted the wounded back via cart and wagon.

_________________

Night fell. 

Magda Romanov

The group stayed in their house. There were no fireworks visible above the graveyard. They were about to send out a scouting team when there was a soft knock on the door.

 

Two female vampires were there: Carmilla and a second one. They were reluctantly invited inside.

"This is Magna," purred Carmilla.

The two vampires reported that there was no sign of any REAL forces and so the Wraith King was quite happy not to send any undead out to prowl. 

"...Except us two of course," said Carmilla. "Vee haf come to dine. Dine with our friends."

The group reluctantly agreed. So, Magda drank the delicious elven blood of Tylin and Huilam. Then she rounded it off with a rough-and-ready human vintage from Grey Wacke veins.

Camilla supped upon Madagascar, and then she took Ronnie into the bunk room for a drink and some carnal time.

The rest of the night passed quietly.

___________________________

In the morning, Tylin went to watch Elwins move lairs. But he let them know that he saw them shift and that he knew the location of their new base.

The whole group (sans Moonlight) went to see Chung.

As there was no undead or REAL fighting during the night, Chung was impressed.  But he would need another quiet night before he would organize any reward.

Ronnie and Tylin went to the hired room in the Adventuress and Bugbear to stay the night. According to the schedule, this room needed to be manned, by at least two, at all times from now on. Technically, Michael Stringfellow could arrive (via teleport) from the prison at any time.