***** Dionna - The Crystal Club. Gets off before Dusk. Bring wine.
Well, here I am writing another journal entry from a jail cell. Only this
time I'm not on trial, and I didn't do anything wrong. Let me explain.
After getting Thibor healed, we proceeded to tour the town. Harmonia has a
bard college, which I think is pretty strange. I mean, bards and beaurocratic
organizations usually stay pretty far away from each other. Gods forbid that a
bunch of bards would actually form one! I wanted to check the place out, but
they wouldn't let us in. They just told us to come to some sort of singfest
they're having in a couple of days. Whatever.
We also came across this really hot nightclub called The Crystal Club. It was
expensive, though, so we didn't go in. But I made a date with Dionna - one of
the babes tending the front desk. Of course, I won't be able to keep it now.
Damn it anyway.
Guess I should explain what happened. We'd explored all the nicer sections of
Harmonia and found ourselves wandering around here in the slums. There were few
people about here, and the ones we did pass either stared at us silently or went
back inside their homes and pointedly shut the doors. Like I said before,
Harmonia's a real friendly town.
Anyway, we'd been walking along and we were just beginning to wonder why we'd
come here in the first place when a man came running out of the building we were
passing. Dressed in some sort of uniform, he was waving keys about and screaming
something we couldn't understand.
"Help!" he screamed, seeing us standing there and running over. He started
babbling at us, and Lisha explained that one of the prisoners had gone mad,
apparently killing his cell mate. The jailer wanted our help and, according to
the law of this land, he was entitled to it.
I doubt any of us really cared too much about Harmonian laws. But Thibor
volunteered our services. It had been a whole day since we'd had the chance to
kill anything, and he was starting to get a little testy. Besides, this seemed
like the perfect opportunity to ingratiate ourselves with the townsfolk. So we
followed the jailer inside.
While the wounded jailer stayed behind to raise the portcullis, allowing us
access to the cells in the west wing , two other guards named Devon and Bakki
appeared to lead the way. They were understandably nervous, but told us nothing
about the escaped prisoner except that he was "a mean one" and that he'd murdered
his cell-mate.
The jail was an unpleasant place, and as we followed the silent guards through
the halls we looked around us with distaste. The hardwood walls were covered
with years of soot, and the smell of rot and decay surrounded us. Both sides of
the hall held thick, wooden doors with small windows set in them, and from behind
some of them we heard the occasional moaning of unseen prisoners.
Our progress was slow, delayed by the necessity of stopping for the jailer to
raise the many iron portcullises that blocked the way. Finally, though, the last
portcullis opened before us with a creak of turning gears. We suddenly felt that
something was watching us from the darkness beyond, and we noted with
astonishment that the door to the last cell was torn open by some great force,
its bars bent and twisted. Deep, parallel gouges were carved into the wooden
furniture, as if someone had slashed it repeatedly with a knife. What kind of
crazed lunatic could have done this?
Nervously, we drew our weapons and peered into the pitch black cell. Two
gleaming yellow eyes stared back at us, eyes set too far apart to belong to any
human! A guttural growl issued forth, and from the blackness sprang forth a
horrible creature, half-man, half-wolf. Faster than our eyes could follow he was
upon us, and poor Bakki was sliced to ribbons by the monster's wicked claws.
Soon Devon was down also and, blood dripping from its horrible maw, the
creature turned on us. Demetrius, Lisha, and Thibor were quick to attack it with
their weapons, but the snarling, biting wolf-man eluded them. Unable to join the
fight due to the closeness of the corridor, Alanna and I watched tensely from the
background, both of us ready to lend a hand if one of our companions should fall.
It seemed a frightening possibility, as the beast sunk its fangs into first
Lisha, then Demetrius.
Finally Lisha landed a solid hit with her quarterstaff, and the creature howled
in pain as the silver tips of her staff sparked brightly in the darkened
corridor. As if inspired by her success, Thibor and Demetrius connected with
their magical blades, Demetrius thrusting Scray into the monster's throat and
putting an end to its miserable life.
Realizing that the two guards were beyond his help, Thibor tended to our
wounded fighters. Then, as one we all moved up to peer curiously at the dead
monster.
"What the Hell was that?" I asked.
Even as I asked the question, the creature began to change suddenly. It's
blood-soaked fur dissolving, fangs disappearing, before our horrified eyes the
beast transformed into an ordinary-looking human.
"Just as I thought," said Thibor. "A werewolf."
The Hurvans among us exchanged confused looks. "What's a werewolf?" asked
Alanna.
Lisha pointed to the dead body. "That was."
Thibor, who's always been willing to lecture us about the nature of the evil
creatures he's encountered, ignored her. "A werewolf," he explained, "is a human
who's been cursed so that, with every full moon, he transforms into a monster
like this one. They're horribly strong and completely evil, and only magic and
silver weapons can harm them."
"And the curse," Lisha added, "is gotten by their bite."
We all looked pointedly at Lisha and Demetrius, who'd both been bitten by the
monster.
"Wonderful." I said.
Thibor waved away our concerns. "Worry not. I can deal with that problem if
it arises. Let us leave this wretched place."
But we couldn't. All five us walked over to the nearest portcullis, pounding
on its iron bars with our weapons and calling for the jailer, whose name none of
us had bothered to ask. For a long time there was no reply. Then, finally we
heard a familiar voice calling from above.
"Is the beast dead?" The jailer asked.
"Of course it's dead," Thibor yelled. "Now let us out of here."
"Can't do that."
"What do you mean you can't do that?" Thibor demanded angrily.
The jailer didn't answer, and Thibor repeated his question heatedly. Again he
was met with silence, and we renewed our efforts at screaming and pounding on the
bars, Thibor
adding a steady stream of threats and curses. Of all of us, only Lisha seemed
unsurprised by the events, and she merely watched the rest of us calmly until we
gave up our clamoring.
We all felt betrayed by the jailer we'd just helped, and Thibor promptly made
plans for the man's painful and untimely demise. In response, I unrolled a
parchment I'd been keeping for such occasions and added the man to Thibor's
revenge list, right behind Shifty Nicco and "the damned guard who charged us a
fortune to get into this stinking town in the first place." Having little
appreciation for sarcasm, Thibor seemed quite pleased by my efforts.
Having no other options we set about searching the place. We realized it was
unlikely, but we could only to hope to find some way out of this horrible prison.
What we did find was a lot of empty cells and rats. As the door to one cell
swung open, we all found ourselves overcome by the stench of corruption and all
five of us, even Thibor, threw up on the grimy floor. After that we didn't feel
like exploring much. A quick scan of the room revealed it to be covered with
rotting food, blood, and broken furniture (not to mention vomit). Disgusted, we
closed the door behind us and searched the rest of the cells.
But there was nothing of interest to be found, certainly not a way out. We've
been stuck here for hours, listing to Thibor describe all the different ways he
could put the traitorous jailer to death. It's the middle of the night now, and
I've missed my date with Dionna. It's not easy being a hero.