Oaths and Promises

See Also: Bardic Knowledge

Amer Terrante, Rakul Shaleem, Xarth, and Brizanthimus arrive for dinner at the Lord Marshall's residence. They are escorted everywhere by two guards – one of the Queen’s Men and a Templar from the temple_of_light. After sitting in a front parlor for nearly half and hour, they are escorted to the dining hall by the same two guards. There are four Templars praying in the dining hall establishing a ward against magic and outside influence. Briz and Xarth feel the ward lock around them but Amer suffers the worst. His arm begins to harden as the infernal power within retreats from the power of the Temple of Light. The two guards who followed them take up positions at the foot of the table, while two Queen's Men stand behind Baron Lange, the Lord Marshall of Bornheim.

It is a very tense dinner with every attempt to discuss why they are here deflected by the Baron. He insists there will be time after the meal to discuss such matters. Briz is worried because the Incar slid off his finger rather than enter the ward. Now he can see them in humanoid form running back and forth down the hall. Each time they are carrying small things – as if they are gathering a bunch of stuff from around the manor. Nobody else at the dinner seems to notice anything awry, so he just hopes for the best.

Once dinner has been completed the “interrogation” begins. The Baron demands to know how a few newcomers to his city seem to become involved in a series of events that eventually lead them to the assassination at his birthday celebration. How they were the only ones that were “miraculously” able to not succumb to the smoke? How do they manage to secure one of the most difficult invitations – to a auction of a dangerous artifact by Ephesus, Master of Tminir Tower? Why has Amer purchased property around his family's trading house, which is now housing mercenaries?

The Lord Marshall seems to have very detailed information about what each of them have been doing for the past weeks – this is disturbing. He warns them not to lie as he currently has tycho_terrante in custody and has already dispatched men to deal with the mercenaries. It is a very through interrogation and although they were able to keep under wraps the most damning evidence, they did confirm much of the Baron’s information.

The Baron arranges a room for them to stay in during the night. In the morning he plans to take them to the Temple of Light and pledge the truth of their statements before the gods. During the night the Incar finally return – through a secret passage they refer to as “hallways and rooms”. They tell Briz that their gods (i.e. dwarves) made the rooms so of course they know all about such things. When Briz shows the passage to Xarth, he goes inside and begins to explore. nearly half an hour later the bell rings for a Call to Arms. A knight arrives, half in his armor, to tell them that they better be ready to move in short order.

Xarth never returns from the passages before the knight escorts them out of the manor. He is very unhappy about one of their number missing, considering he had personally posted the guard on the outside of their door – but there is little he can do about it. As they make their way over towards the castle – they can see nearly a score of flaming black-skinned men standing in the courtyard demanding to speak to the champion. Briz recognizes them as ifrit – and swears colorfully at the missing Xarth. In the great hall of the castle they are gathered with the women. children, and elderly as the knights battle with the ifrit.

As Rakul, Briz, and Amer stand around Amer hears the code word from the birthday celebration. He follows, along with Briz and Rakul, a young servant girl. She wants the dagger as she could not make contact during the party. Amer looks to Rakul, who tells him that he gave the dagger to the karashites. It is an object of utter evil and given the vision of the Father Jana it had to be removed from the city. He tells Amer there are more important things than his own petty ambitions at stake.

Their argument gets rather heated, causing some people nearby to look over until Briz puts a bubble around the group stopping sound from going out. Amer tells Rakul he will honor his agreement concerning a ship, but he better watch his back. Rakul tells him to forgot about it as Amer has no honor worth accepting. His power is nothing more than ashes and destruction. He is a twisted thing corrupt with an unquenchable desire with power; however, should he need shelter from his own actions Rakul will offer him help – but only once. Rakul then leaves the conversation and disappears into the crowd.

The serving girl is practically in tears from his conversation and flees through the servant's door.

Deep in the caverns running through the ridge, Xarth is suddenly visited by his herald who whisks him off to stand with his hunters who are being attacked. Xarth appears in the middle of a battle between the ifrit, knights, and Templars. Seeing their champion join him the ifrit charge into the knights – burning several of them to death. Xarth cannot seem to get control of the ifrit, so instead he demands that they take him to the Esideor. The ifrit finally relent and travel immediately to a large shoreline cavern south of the harbor.

Once there the ifrit tell him that as champion he must face down the power of the esideor and only then can he call the ifrit to battle. Alone, in the dark, Xarth stumbles forward towards the sound of the waves. Eventually he sees a light and enters a larger cavern. Inside he finds Atheis, the magician with the shark-demon they encountered in Gostyn, sitting on a throne suspended from a spiderweb covering the ceiling.

After trading verbal barbs, Atheis calls forth two shark-demons; although they have spider eyes and mouths. Xarth battles with the spider-sharks and eventually overcomes them, but not without some severe injuries. When he tries to climb up the ceiling and deal with Atheis the magician proves too much for him. Atheis strikes him hard, sending Xarth into the water and flushed out to sea.

With the courtyard full of the dead and injured – the three of them are released as long as they give their word they will go to the Temple of Light to give their oath of truth. Amer and Briz stay at Amer's house, but Rakul prefers the honorable people of the docks.

Rakul finds Xarth floating in the bay – body bloated almost beyond recognition. He takes Xarth to the Temple of Luminous Kaskade. The priests manage to save Xarth, but he will not be conscious until the morning. Rather than wait, Rakul sees the clear path. He asks the priests to give him the dagger and a fast ship. He will take the dagger to the temple in the Talarakian city and secure it.

Before embarking he gives his confession to the priests concerning the influence a demon calling himself Charles has over Amer. That Amer has become Master of Tminir Tower and is under the influence of that demon. He has threatened to kill Rakul and take back the dagger. This confession should only be made public if anything happens to Rakul. The priests swear to make it so.

Amer, furious at Rakul and with little remaining options, tries to get Briz back into his sphere of influence. He tells him about future plans he has to Tminir Tower and the nearby village. He wants it to be a haven for magicians and open up the library for study. He is working to reduce the blood-thirsty nature of the Erasmus family over the Terrante family. He even agrees to give Rakul one more chance and tells Briz to try and talk to him. Briz thinks that Amer is the blood-thirty one and that Rakul was correct to turn in the dagger, but he agrees to talk to Rakul.

In the morning Amer and Briz arrive at the Temple of Light. They are followed by a hashan that claims to have information that Amer must hear – but he dismisses the creature. They can see a procession of ten Karashian priests escorting a wounded Xarth between them. The priests ask Xarth over and over if he really wants to partake of this oath. Once Xarth steps unto temple grounds the Karashians cannot interfere. Xarth thanks them and says he is willing to speak the full truth.

Inside they meet with Inquisitor Valten Scholz, who has traveled here following the Bloodstaff. He takes them into a private study to speak. The staff appeared briefly over Ulrichstein and in that time twenty-three (23) people were killed. It was briefly inside the city, but has since moved on north. He is the one that will be listening to their confession and overseeing their oath bindings. He has renewed his friendship with Siguard of the Storm, who told them the wind was whispering their names. So, will do what is necessary to help them.

After hearing their editorialized tale he agrees that they cannot swear an oath to such things – it would get them killed. They also cannot lie on their oaths – it would be discovered eventually. Instead he offers the following plan. He will release his hold over his witchhunter, who will immediately try to kill him in a fit of madness. He will call for the Templar Knights outside – who will kill the witchhunter. It is rare for a High Inquisitor to lose control of their hunter, but it has happened before. The papers would be destroyed and until he gets another hunter, he is temporarily unable to preform his duties has High Inquisitor. This will afford them time to save this city.

Briz dislikes the idea of killing the woman, but Valten points out that although he always picks the most evil witches captured – it is not a good life to be chained and enslaved as a dog. Xarth agrees, but Amer wants to try his hand at signing the oath. He believes this will give him the moral authority to prove his innocence. Valten remains him that the oath will not stand forever, eventually the falsehood will be revealed. Amer still insists on trying.