Vara'Dome Safehouse HQ

[Renegade Paladin]

From the outside, this tumbledown row of shanties and rickety houses looks like any other in the Slums, with boarded-up fronts, spaces between the wall slats, and the occasional broken window covered up with rough cloth.

From the inside, the buildings look much the same, except that there are doorways knocked between them all, so that buildings boarded up on the outside to appear abandoned can be used. While the interior is equally dilapidated, the contents of the buildings show that not all is what it seems. Rows of clean bunks line two of the shanties, and there are numerous tools and weapons of all varieties neatly stored here and there throughout the entire complex. Buckets of water hang at regular intervals and near the external doors, and old, beat-up furniture is scattered around.

This is the unlikely-seeming chapterhouse of the Vara'Dome, the order of Guardians of the Night. Here, Lord Gaheris Trollbane and his agents plan and launch their numerous operations against the Town's criminal elements.

[Renegade Paladin]

Over the span of several hours, a total of ten weary and poor-looking souls make their way from the alleyways of the slums to the various non-boarded shacks of the row. None of them seem particularly remarkable, except that one is a dwarf who seems to be paying no particular mind to any goblins that may or may not be about.

[Renegade Paladin]

Kaer walked in one of the doors to see Kern slinging his bow over his shoulder, evidently preparing to leave. Garnoth, Zian, and Aleena were sitting around a card table towards the back of the room playing poker, with Aleena just scooping in the pot with a large grin on her face. They all looked up as he came in.

"Kern, where're you off to?"

"I'm headed out to the woods, gonna get a feel for the wilderness roundabouts. Why, something wrong?" The ranger reached down to scratch his gigantic dog behind the ears as he looked at the younger man in concern.

"I think there's somethin' fishy goin' on in one of the warehouses by the docks," he answered. "I've only heard gunfire a few times before, but that was definitely it."

Garnoth put down the deck of cards that he was shuffling and stood. "You sure?" The half-orc grabbed his club from where it leaned on the table next to his chair. "Anything else?"

"No screams or nothin'. I didn't want to go poking my head in there if it might get blown right off, not until I know more about this place."

"Well. Idle exploring can wait," Kaer said.

"We should investigate at once," Zian said as he rummaged around in the pouch hanging at his side. He pulled forth a glass eye and a small listening horn, gave a satisfied look, and carefully put them back.

Aleena emerged from the next room, where she'd gone when Kaer first started to tell his story, adjusting the chain shirt she'd gone to change into. "Well, what are we waiting for," she asked as she pulled a baggy tunic over the armor.

"Nothing. Let's go," Garnoth responded as he finished tucking a dagger into the folds of his own loose clothing.

The five operatives spread out and slipped out of various doors in the seemingly separate houses over a period of fifteen minutes and headed down towards the docks by separate parallel alleyways before meeting up several blocks away.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris walked into the safehouse to find no one there but Borin.

He looked around. "Where'd everybody go," he asked the dwarf as he poked his head into the adjoining rooms, which were similarly empty.

"Yer guess is as good as mine," Borin replied. "I just got back meself. Though readin' the note Aleena left for ye migh' be more productive than guessin'," he continued, jerking his thumb towards a folded piece of parchment on the table with Gaheris' name written on it.

Gaheris went over and picked up the note, quickly taking in the brief message. "Hmmm. Kaer wanted to check out one of the harbor warehouses, it seems. Just a surveillance run, she says." He read further. "Okay, Garnoth and Kern are with 'em. They should be fine." The paladin lord stretched. "I'm going to get some quick shut-eye, Borin. Any luck on setting up a new shop for you?"

"Aye, I'll be able to get meself established afore long, I'm thinkin'. Rest well."

"I will. Good night," he bade the dwarf and went into his room.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris stepped back from the window, shaking his head at the outrageous contraption that had just gone thundering up into the Town. Looked sort of like the product of a fantastic machine spell he'd once seen a gnome cast. He shrugged, assuming that someone up there would take care of it, and started to get dressed.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris looked up from his card game with Borin as the floor shook from a distant titanic explosion. The paladin lord leapt to his feet, glad that he had already put on full gear.

Borin was not so equipped, still clad in a simple tunic and trousers. The dwarf cursed in his native tongue.

"I don't know what that was," Gaheris said, "but I'm going. It sounded like it was coming from the docks; most of the others are down there."

Borin cursed again. "Go, lad," he said, already moving down the row towards his room. "I'll get me gear and follow as soon as I can."

Gaheris nodded and sprinted out the door.
__________________________________________________ _______

A few minutes later, Borin stepped outside only to immediate come back in, Kaer Andorsal hot on his heels.

"Wha' is it, lad?" The dwarf gave his compatriot a look of grave concern. "The others. Are they 'urt?"

"No, Borin, we're all fine. Same can't be said for the poor bastards at the rally all those goblins were having further down the docks, whatever it was for. Someone blew it up; biggest fireball I've ever seen."

Borin's bushy eyebrows nearly shot to the ceiling. "Then we should go..."

"You should stay right here, Borin," Kaer interrupted as he moved to block the door. "Some thieves' guild I've never heard of claimed that they did it, but everyone down there is blaming the dwarves. If they see you, there's a good chance you'll end up dead."

The dwarf's eyes narrowed. "Why are they..."

"I don't know, but it was the most racist reaction I've ever seen," Kaer observed with just a hint of irony in his voice. "From what we heard, they think a halfling did the bombing, but the most forgiving opinion I heard down there is that the dwarves must have hired whatever thieves' guild did this. No idea what their problem is. Maybe the old man knows; he's been here longer than any of us."

"Ach. Mebbe he does, but I cannae stay cooped in 'ere forever," Borin responded, his annoyance manifesting in a reversion to a heavier dwarven accent in his Common.

"I know, but we should at least wait for nightfall before you try to move anywhere. Cards?" The young man grabbed the deck off of the table where Gaheris had put it down and started to shuffle.

Borin sighed and took a seat as Kaer began to deal.

[J_Muller]

Chase walks by, looking around attentively, his eyes moving across the buildings behind his mirrored sunglasses. Suddenly, as he passes what appears to be another example of the run-down nature of the slums. However, he feels a slight discomfort, a feeling he knows well, a manifestation of his extra-perception abilities. This place is not as it seems...

He looks around to check if he is being watched.

[Renegade Paladin]

Nothing readily obvious came to his attention.

[J_Muller]

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary from across the street, Chase calmly but cautiously approaches the buildings and inspects them. He attempts to see inside by looking in through a few windows.

[Renegade Paladin]

[Bah. Why don't you go bother the Perduccis or something? :smalltongue:]

The windows were mostly boarded up, but there were cracks. The first one Chase looked into showed an unoccupied room; a sagging cot sat along one wall and a chair with a few articles of clothing draped over it occupied the far corner.

[J_Muller]

[Because the Vara'Dome are apparently Good, while Chase is CN with evil tendencies. He also doesn't stand to gain much by bothering the Perduccis. He's gathering information about local groups at the moment.]

It still appeared that this cluster of wooden structures was harmless, but Chase had learned to trust the kind of gut feeling he was getting now. He moves on to a few other windows.

[Renegade Paladin]

[So his ESP just happens to be misfiring right here? Because, y'know, nothing's really wrong in there.]

After a couple buildings, he looked into a room where two humans (one male, one female), a dwarf, and a half-elf were sitting around a table playing cards. None of them seemed to be paying attention to the outside.

[J_Muller]

((OOC: Wait, is this a disguised secret base or not? It says it's an HQ, that looks like a deserted cluster of houses from the outside, so I assumed it was a hidden safehouse and had his ESP go off.))

[Renegade Paladin]

[ It is a safehouse, but it's not some high-tech base or anything. It's just a random place they use to base out of when they're not doing anything; they're holing up in perfectly normal buildings.]

[J_Muller]

((OOC: From the description in the original post, it appears that it's disguised to look normal. That's what's setting off his ESP.))

[Renegade Paladin]

[ It is normal; the only unusual thing about it is the extra doorways cut between the separate buildings so that they can move around between them. If that'd do it, then keep looking; he'll just get beaten up by a mad half-orc for his trouble.]

[J_Muller]

((If it's been modified in preparation for use, it's kind of a slight trigger for his ESP. Also, the weapons there contribute. [Actually, if I hadn't thought it was a secret base, I wouldn't have had him start examining it, but oh well. Bring on the half-orc.]))

Keeping very quiet, Chase moves to the next window, trying to find the source of his feeling that this cluster of buildings was ever so slightly unusual. Perhaps stocks of weapons?

((wink wink, nudge nudge.))

[Renegade Paladin]

The card-players had had weapons with them at the table, but in this violent part of town that was nothing unusual. Each room he'd looked into so far had cabinets or a closet that he could not see the interior of from the windows.

The next room contained four bunks, all obviously recently used.

[J_Muller]

((Eh, whatever.))

Shrugging mentally, Chase slips away, making a mental note to keep an eye on that group of shacks in the future.

[Renegade Paladin]

[Okay, first, they've been established in Town for all of two days. I'd like to get a little more play out of the secrecy than that, thanks. Secondly, they've been doing the whole underground vigilante thing in Faerun for years. They're not so stupid as to leave obvious clues where you can see them from the frickin' windows. If they slip up, and I'm sure they will sometime, feel free to jump all over it, but just showing up and randomly declaring their cover blown for no particularly good reason is irritating.]

Garnoth arrived back at the safehouse just in time to see a man leaving the area around the opposite corner just as the half-orc came onto the block. He looked after the stranger for a second and then shrugged and went into one of the shanties, a different one from the one Chase had seen the people in.

[J_Muller]

((OOC, Chase has been hired to gather information about local Town groups, and this is part of it. He was taking advantage of his ESP and walking around essentially at random to see what he picks up, since there are actually very few groups in the Town whose existence is common knowledge.))

[Renrik]

((been that way since the First Guild War, really. Now all the open groups basically are the ones approved of by the Gufipolice. All law-abiding, allies of the current heirarchy. Bah. There's notenough power struggle in town.))

[Renegade Paladin]

[ Gaheris has been arrested by the Gufis for the terrible crime of apprehending a murderer. He's not too thrilled with them either. :smalltongue:]

[Renegade Paladin]

Mern and Earin returned to the safehouse late at night after a long day of street performing/observation. The two bards exchanged recognition phrases with Garnoth, who was on watch, before trudging off to the barracks room to hit their bunks.

[Renegade Paladin]

Garnoth started at the sound of the signal whistle.

"Everyone up! Signal, get moving!" The half-orc went into both barracks rooms before going to wake up Gaheris and Aleena, only to find the pair already awake and throwing on combat gear.

"Let's MOVE," Gaheris called out as he pulled the straps on his sword belt and bandoleer taut.

[Renegade Paladin]

Aleena, Garnoth, and Kern arrived back at the safehouse and went inside. Once in, Garnoth promptly went into the barracks room and fell to sleep.

[AmberVael]

[ Gaheris has been arrested by the Gufis for the terrible crime of apprehending a murderer. He's not too thrilled with them either. :smalltongue:]
((Wait- are you talking about Kyrian?
Because that was the court that had you imprisoned, not the police. We would have let you go.
And please, I got rid of the name GUFI Police for a reason. So if people would be so kind as to refer to them as the Town Police...))

[Renegade Paladin]

[ And they obeyed that patently ridiculous order. I have no idea what GUFI means; it's just what they've been called since I started playing here, so I'll gladly switch.]

[AmberVael]

((I should hope that he is slightly more pleased with them now that he has the capability to use force at his discretion and even arrest criminals.
All because of Verdandi))

[Renegade Paladin]

[ When did this come about? Forgive me, I hadn't noticed. Regardless, he's still upset about the more immediate concern of not covering a potential riot situation and still not doing so after the rally had already been bombed once. :smalltongue:]

[AmberVael]

((About a month ago.
Check the OP of the Police Station. It now is the citizens job to catch criminals))

[J_Muller]

((And please, I got rid of the name GUFI Police for a reason. So if people would be so kind as to refer to them as the Town Police...))

((Wait:smallconfused:... what:smalleek:... bwugh? *headsplode*


Just when you think you know what's going on...

...We really need a '*headsplode*' smiley.))

[Renegade Paladin]

Joros returned to the safehouse and went inside. Once in, he went down the row to see the others.

"Gaheris and I ran into a balor in the tavern about an hour ago..."

He proceeded to relate the story of the fight against the balor. [See Trog's.]

[Flabbicus]

(( I liked calling them the GUFIPolice, it reminds me that it started out as a game of Mafia versus Gufis, and the acronym was pretty funny. :smallbiggrin: ))

Olbrecht passes by the house but doesn't pay any mind to it, as he patrols the slums for trouble.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris arrived back at the safehouse to find everyone there except Garnoth. He apprised the group of the situation as it stood.

"Borin, we're going to get you settled in your new blacksmith shop tomorrow. The... special arrangements for the back room should be easy to arrange."

"Good ta hear, lad," the dwarf responded, looking up from sharpening his short sword.

"The situation is more precarious than I imagined; the underworld is beginning to crack at the seams. I fear we're in the beginning stages of a major guild war. I'm going to go talk to one of the local wizards to see about arranging the construction of a portal to Baldur's Gate or somewhere else where we have a chapterhouse; we're going to need the reinforcement and resuppy." There was a general nodding of agreement around the room.

"Well, best get some sleep. Garnoth should be back soon, and we have a busy day ahead of us." With that, everyone except Borin, who would be taking the first watch, headed off to their respective bunks to sleep.

[Renegade Paladin]

Garnoth arrived and walked in the door. He and Borin exchanged friendly nods as the half-orc passed the dwarf and went back to the barracks to change and go to sleep.

[And that's it for me tonight. See you guys tomorrow.]

[Renegade Paladin]

Most of the inhabitants stirred and awoke at sunrise, save Garnoth who had taken second watch, and Aleena who was already awake, having taken third. After everyone was dressed and either geared up or settled in to spend the morning in the safehouse, Gaheris went to Borin.

"The workers should be done by now. Are you ready?"

"Aye," the dwarf responded with a smile as he finished strapping on his sword belt. He wore his leather armor, but had foregone his infiltration gear this morning.

"Okay, let's go," Gaheris answered with a smile. "Aleena, care to go for a walk?"

"Sure," she answered brightly. Gaheris suppressed a chuckle as he noticed her tucking her augury chips into her belt pouch, but said nothing.

The three left the safehouse and headed up into Town, steering clear of the goblin-held areas to avoid trouble with Borin.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris and Aleena returned.

"All right everyone, full gear. We just learned that the mayor plans on visiting the goblin rally today. We can't let anything happen to her." A chorus of acknowledgments rang out from across the building as agents reached for weapons and tools. Before long, they moved out in pairs, taking slightly separate routes to avoid attention.

[Renegade Paladin]

Kern finished packing up his gear and headed for the door.

"Where are you off to, Kern?" Aleena looked up from the holy text she was reading to look at the ranger.

"Goin' to go poke around the forest hereabouts, like I was about to do before this whole business with the goblin rally came up. I'll be back sometime tomorrow," he answered. The ranger had slept most of the afternoon; exploring the forest all night wouldn't be a problem for him.

"Well, be careful. We don't know what's out there."

The ranger chuckled. "You sound like my mother did when I was a child. I will, but Gaheris has told me that it's usually fairly tame; he's had business lead him out there before."

"Yes, well his business is still out there, even if natural predators aren't," she pointed out darkly. "Watch your back."

"Always," the ranger told her before silently slipping out the doorway.

[Renegade Paladin]

Kern and Gaheris were sitting around one of the tables, packing away what appeared to be several large sides of raw meat.

"Ach, wha' happened?" He looked at the bear steaks with relish.

Kern sighed. "Had a run-in with a hungry bear in the woods," he answered. "Had to kill him, and I didn't wish to waste the meat."

"Well, I can certainly agree with ye not wasting meat," the dwarf chuckled. "Anyhoo, a messenger from th' Silverthorn left this at me shop for ye, boss," he said, extending the envelope to Gaheris.

Gaheris took it, ripped it open with a dagger produced from his cloak, and started to read. "Well. It seems we'll be needing your shop to have a meeting, Borin," he said. "Looks like we'll be getting that portal built."

[Renegade Paladin]

After they were done dressing the various cuts of bear, Borin was laden with as much as he thought he could eat before it would spoil and left the safehouse to return to his new home.

After the dwarf was gone, Gaheris turned to Kaer. "Kaer, I need you to take a message to the Silverthorn for me. It's just inside the woods, hovering over the lake." He frowned. "Kern, you'd better go with him; the forest is unpredictable around here," he said with a touch of irony, looking at the icebox where the bear meat was now stored away.

"You don't say," the younger rogue said wryly as he strapped on his belt and bandolier. Kern hadn't bothered to change.

Gaheris finished writing his response to Amiria and stamped the sealing wax on the envelope with the seal of Tyr. This he handed to Kaer.

"Actually, you'd probably better take the folding boat," Gaheris added, handing a small box to Kern. "I don't know if I trust her ferryman."

Kern nodded. "Very well. We'll be back soon."

"See you then," Gaheris responded before settling in to review his plans for the next week's operations.

[Renegade Paladin]

"Go on and get to bed, Garnoth," Kaer said to the half-orc as the young man emerged from the barracks. "I can't sleep for the life of me; I'll finish your watch."

Garnoth nodded his thanks and got up to go hit his bunk. Kaer sat down in another chair and began idly tossing various implements from his thieves' tools to himself. That warehouse that he'd heard gunfire from just wouldn't get out of his mind. Gunfire, and then less than an hour later and six blocks away, a bomb... He had to wonder if the two were related. He'd have to prompt Gaheris to let him go check it out again when he, Kern, and Joros got back from meeting... whoever it was they were meeting.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris came stumbling back into the safehouse in the small hours of the morning, alone, exhausted, and bearing several cuts and gashes. He waved off Garnoth as the half-orc jumped up from his place at the table to offer assistance and stumbled towards the room he shared with Aleena. He didn't take long to collapse on the bed and fall into a dreamless sleep.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris nodded to Earin as the bard finished his report. "All right, a month it is. But we can't wait that long to get started," he said. "There's more than one lowlife out there that needs to feel the wrath of justice." Joros nodded grimly from his place in the corner of the room.

"I'm sure you've had a trying few days," the paladin lord continued to the young bard. "Get some rest. We've had enough observation time; we need to step up actual operations soon."

[Renegade Paladin]

Zian and Garnoth came sprinting into one of the safehouse doors together, the sorcerer slightly out of breath. Aleena jumped up from her place at the table, where she'd been playing solitaire while on watch. "What is it? What's wrong," she asked in alarm, standing up so quickly that she knocked her chair over.

"Trouble. Gaheris is fighting an abomination; it was killing people at random down near the dock district. I don't know if he can make it; the thing was beyond any of us."

Aleena's face went white as she grabbed for the pair of augury chips that she always kept in a pouch on her belt. Over the next minute, she lit some incense and muttered prayers to Tymora before speaking "Will Gaheris come to weal or woe against the creature he is opposing," and throwing the bones.

Weal and woe. She frowned, troubled, as she rapidly seized her chips and ran out the door at top speed. Zian and Garnoth looked at each other before following. "Wait! It's too dangerous," Zian called after her as he passed through the doorway.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris came stumbling tiredly in, supported by Garnoth on one side and Aleena on the other. Zian came in behind them as they helped him to his room. The paladin lord promptly collapsed onto the bed, stiff and sore from the exertions of the past... how long had he fought the blasted thing? His mind rapidly ceased to care as he drifted off to sleep.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris returned to the safehouse, slapping himself on the forehead as he remembered that his player had forgotten to post his leaving. He was soon followed in by Erek, Bearach, Quinlan, and Ciaran. He showed them all to their sparse quarters before Erek went back out again in search of Trog's. The others all rapidly fell to sleep.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gror, Borin, and Zian walked into the safehouse to see Gaheris, Bearach, Ciaran, and Erek playing cards around the table in the front room. Quinlan was sitting alone in a corner, and opened one eye as they came in, breaking his meditation.

"We've got trouble," Zian said grimly and without prelude. As the two dwarves who'd accompanied him stood silently, the sorcerer explained the situation with the Fourth Empire and their apparent hostile takeover of the police station.

"Well," Gaheris said as he leaned back and placed his hand facedown on the table. "We can't let that stand. Ciaran, I want you and Quinlan to go to their control zone and try to figure out just what in the Hells is going on in there; take Kaer with you. Try to keep out of trouble; do not engage the troops unless you have to. Erek, Bearach, go to the government center and find out what the mayor and council plan to do. I'll go try to track down Chief Aerin, and hope she's still alive after the attack," he ordered grimly. "Borin, Gror, your talents will come in once we've gotten a better handle on the situation. You should return to the shop; the portal must remain secure, and it's important that no one suspect that you're planning anything other than business as usual."

Everyone nodded, and Ciaran went to another room to collect Kaer. Zian followed him, hoping to track down the rest of the lower-ranking agents to fill them in on the situation. Gaheris, Erek, Bearach, and the dwarves left the safehouse through various entrances and proceeded to their assigned destinations. Quinlan waited in the front room for Ciaran to return with Kaer, and the three left a few minutes later.

[Renegade Paladin]

Much later than any of the preceding, Kaer stalked in to find Gaheris sitting at one of the tables, writing a letter.

"Someone or something's killin' my lookouts," he said without preamble in a dark voice.

Gaheris looked up. "Killing? How?"

Kaer sat down and started relating what Regg had told him about the attack on Yaggie, and how several of his other informants had gone missing one by one over the previous weeks.

[Vhaidara]

Shadowbow lands outside and walks up, taking the form of Jaric.

[Renegade Paladin]

He gets mugged by a random gang member in the street outside the row of completely normal looking shacks lining this alley. :smallannoyed:

[Vhaidara]

His change into dragon finishes, and he proceeds to melt said gang members.

[Renegade Paladin]

Inside, Gaheris and Kaer froze as they heard the unmistakable sounds of a dragon beginning a rampage right outside one of their front doors. Other agents began to roll out of the bunks where they'd been catching precious sleep while they could as Kaer immediately dove for one of the emergency exits to the abandoned sewer tunnels. Gaheris stood up and tucked the letter he'd been writing into his cloak before reaching for his sword and shield.

[Vhaidara]

Shadowbow regains control, and uses the dragon's power to shift into Jaric's form.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris burst out the front door, soon followed by Bearach.

The two men looked around, saw no dragon, and went back in.

[If you've paid the slightest bit of attention, you'll know why. I somehow doubt you have, and I'm not going to help you out.]

[Vhaidara]

(At the moment, I'm not gonna try. I'm going to bed. These things are best left for a clear head.)

[Renegade Paladin]

Over the span of about half an hour, half a dozen agents, including Kaer and Gaheris, left the safehouse at intervals and spread out into the slums on their normal patrols. All were disguised in some manner.

[Vhaidara]

Shadowbow flies off.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris stood up before the assembled agents of his organization. Nearly all were present, even Gror and Borin, who had gone through a lot of trouble to get here unmolested by the goblins.

"All right, we all know why we're here. Someone's been killing off our contacts, and apparently very effectively disguising himself as them. There have been two attempts on the lives of senior Knights in the past two days, in very different sections of Town. Both were made by someone who appeared to be a simple beggar, one of them one of my trusted contacts in the Skulls gang territory. This individual is very powerful, and could likely kill most of us without too much trouble." He looked over to where Kaer was leaning in a corner of the room, visibly fuming with anger.

"I'm suspending all normal operations, effective immediately. No one goes out alone, and no junior agents go anywhere without a Knight. Everyone conceals their identities. We're starting a hunt for this murderer, and from what we've seen so far, our normal contacts can't be much help and more to the point might be the killer in disguise."

"How do we know who the killer is, if he looks just like the normal unfortunates?" Joros shook his head sadly as he asked the question, thinking of all the charity work he'd have to give up on until this was over.

"The way we normally do, is my guess," Bearach spoke up from his seat at the card table.

Ciaran snorted, as though to tell the ranger that he should really know better than to think detection spells would be reliable. "And just what do we do if and when we do find what we're looking for?"

"What you do best," Gaheris said coldly to his fellow rogue. "We've seen more than enough to know what the just punishment for his actions is."

The meeting ran long into the night before everyone broke up to get some sleep, but it was decided: The Vara'Dome was embarking on a manhunt.

[Renegade Paladin]

Quinlan's patrol group returned to the safehouse after a long patrol, to find Gaheris and Erek already there waiting for them.

"Find anything?" Gaheris looked to the Knight of the Spirit as he stood up from his seat at the card table.

"Maybe," Quinlan said calmly, though his eyes were hard. Gaheris' eyes narrowed; that wasn't an expression the monk usually wore. "I think we'd best speak alone."

Gaheris nodded and the two walked into the next room and then the room beyond that. "What is it," Gaheris asked after shutting the door.

"Aleena. I'm not sure when it happened, but she's fallen under some sort of spell. She's dominated and thinks she's hiding it. I think I know who did it, but by the time I realized, he could have gotten nearly anywhere."

Gaheris stared in shock for a moment before shaking his head. "How?"

"A beggar, pushed his way into us looking for coin. Something seemed off, but he didn't try to kill any of us. Aleena gave him some money and he left us alone. It wasn't until later that I began to notice how unusual she's being. She's barely even said anything, and that more terse than she's ever given to be. Her movements seem almost mechanical, and she's attempted to wander off more than once."

Gaheris considered. "So we break this spell, whatever it is, and try to hunt down the caster. Where's Amargein?"

"Right here," the sorcerer responded as he came in the opposite door, heading towards the entrance that the patrol had come in through. "And if she's really dominated and trying to wander off, it's because she was ordered to wander off. Whoever did it probably wants her back; she could lead us straight to him."

"Use one of our own people as bait, you mean," Gaheris said with obvious distaste.

"What? You've done it yourself, if you'll remember. The tsochari? You took yourself, and more importantly Astinius, away from the Abbey to draw them out. You passed through Silverymoon while doing so, though you didn't look me up," he said with a half-grin.

Gaheris didn't share the smile at the memory. "We were in a rush. And this is entirely different."

"How? She knew what she was getting into when she signed onto this order; she knew better than most of us did. After all, Fortuneboon Hall was hardly immune to the Night Masks."

The argument went back and forth for a couple of minutes, but in the end Gaheris saw the logic. They went to lay their plan.

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris quickly conferred with Kaer in a back room before everyone went to bed down for the night. He emerged into the front room, suppressing his look of concern at Aleena's bland lack of reaction to everything around her.

"All right, Amargein and I are going to take a walk for a bit before bed; I have some things I'd like to check out," he said casually to the others in the room. "Kaer has first watch. The rest of you, get some sleep. We'll be back shortly."

"Actually, I think I'll head up to Trog's and put in some playing," Erek spoke up from the corner he was sitting in, tuning his lute. "Ciaran, you want to come with?"

The younger man nodded and stood. The bard and rogue walked out the door together as Gaheris and Amargein grabbed their weapons. "We'll see you later," Gaheris said as the two followed Erek out into the alley.

[Renegade Paladin]

Kaer sat lounging at the card table in the front room, sword close at hand and his lazy demeanor belying the closeness with which he was observing his surroundings.

Aleena emerged from the room she shared with Gaheris.

"I can't sleep," she said woodenly. "Go to bed, I'll take your watch."

Kaer looked up in well-feigned surprise. "You sure?"

"Yes," she responded, the tone of her voice not modulating.

Kaer shrugged. "Okay, then." He picked up his weapon and walked back towards the barracks room.

Aleena waited for him to be well and truly gone, and then went straight out the door.

After a couple of minutes, Kaer came back out and sat down. He looked at the door, a worried expression on his face. He could only hope Amargein knew what he was doing...

[Renegade Paladin]

Gaheris, Amargein, Bearach, and Ciaran sat around the card table as the sun set. Gror Hammerbammer leaned in the corner nearby.

"All right gentlemen, you know the plan," Gaheris said, looking around the table. "We go into the KNAVES compound, analyze the gate, and leave. Gror, you take Gorewing and Percival and provide air cover. We try to go undetected for as long as possible; this means that targets of opportunity are off limits until we're discovered otherwise. If opportunity permits, we'll leave a present behind when we leave, but if not we just leave. Everyone else in there, even Conviction, is small fry. We need to find State."

The assembled Knights nodded their understanding. "Good. Now let's move." They rose and walked out into the Slums.