So arrives the specialist

See Also: Bardic Knowledge

It has been two months since Sofiya received an official charter from Baron Ulrichstein to establish a trading post in town. She gets a note from the Inner Circle of the vulfgrau_trading_house telling her that they are sending her a someone that can “deal” with any problems she has getting the information she needs. She informs the others that a “friend” of hers is coming to help at the store.

Xarth has been training Brizanthimus with a staff, but it is no good – he simply is putting in enough effort. The good news is that they have been using the cover of these sparring sessions to investigate the feeling of a dark presence in the woods. One day Xarth finally decides to tell Briz that he is not human, but a shoag that has been transformed by his gods. Briz is fascinated by the transformation, but Xarth refuses to let him examine it more closely.

Four days later Ian Fist finally reaches Ulrichstein. Directed by the forces that swirl around him he agreed to work for the Inner Circle. The Circle sent him to this town to help one of their members. As long as he can sow chaos and death it is all the same to him. The town is not impressive, but it is surrounded by a solid way that shows scarring from battles this year. After a quick stop for some ale he finds the store and makes contact with Sofiya.

That night everyone in the store is awakened to the banging of the alarm bell. A voice bellows from the east calling the guards to arms. Curious, and maybe itching for something to do Ian, Xarth, and Briz grab up their stuff and head for the east gate. The gate buzzes with activity as guards grab up repelling spears and head to the top of the wall. Briz gets a spear and it is clear he does not know how to use it properly.

While Xarth takes a position on the north of the wall, Ian and Briz are on the south side. They can see that a woman has dismounted by the gate and is shielding herself with her horse and pointing her crossbow into the darkness to the east.

“Help! Open the gates! They will be here any minute!” she shouts.

The guards do not open the gate, but two men heft a rope ladder and begin heading to the top of the wall. Before they can reach the top of the wall several men shout out that they can see several men running towards the gate. As if on command a large ball of fire steaks for the wall and slams into it with a thunderous explosion. Nobody is struck by the fire, but a tendril from the resulting fire lashes out as if a living thing and kills the guard standing next to Xarth.

“Steady!” shouts the guard captain, “raise your shields and prepare to defend home and family!”

The men steady upon hearing the captain's voice and raise their shields as commanded. The men carrying up the ladder instead go back down and help the guards by the door get an extra bar in place. Frustrated, Ian leaves to wall to retrieve the ladder. Just as he heads back up, several men on the wall yell out as the moon breaks free from the clouds allowing the men to clearly see the attackers – naked elves brandishing weapons.

Ian sets the hooks for the ladder and throws it over the wall as the archers fire a volley into the elves. Several of the elves are hit, but none seem to suffer for it. The men begin to waver, but once again the captain steadies his men. As the woman grabs up her saddlebag and scrambles up the ladder, Xarth summons his power and turns the earth in front of the gate to mud. Briz reaches out with his senses to find the magic of the enemy, but he can’t quite see anything.

As Ian pulls the young woman over the wall, the elves begin slowing down as they trudge through the mud. Archers continue to send flights at the elves, but to no avail. Instead this is a battle of spear, shield, and sword. As the battle is joined, the woman grabs her bags and jumps off the wall and dashes into the city. With no time to think about the woman, Ian draws his daggers and slashes away at any hands that reach the wall.

Both Xarth and Ian kill one of the elves as they nearly reach the top of the wall. Once again Briz sends his senses towards the darkness and this time his efforts are rewarded. He sees a large floating mass of un-life pulsing with malevolence.

While everyone else is fighting to keep the top of the walls clear, Briz reaches out and simply sends the mass of unlife into the earth. When this happens one of the group of elves runs back toward their Master to save him. Ian and Xarth finish off the remaining elf.

Briz, Xarth and several guards go to the bottom of the wall to gather the bodies in a pile and burn them. Briz marks down several of their ritualistic scarring and cuttings before the bodies are burned. During this time the elven elder comes down the ladder and threatens Briz to simply forget what he has seen for his own good.

The woman runs through the streets finally running into a small alley to hide. Sofiya sees the panic in her eyes and comes out of the store holding a light. The woman is frightened at first, but eventually follows Sofiya into her shop for safety.

Once inside the woman introduces herself as Karina. She tells Sofiya about how these elves are chasing her because she has a zombie-slaying knife and she killed a zombie and so the men want her except that she also took the horse of the zombie that she stabbed because he was not doing the zombie against. During this entire speech she never once stopped to catch her breath.

Sofiya gives her room on the floor of her private room. Eventually the others return from the battle at the east gate. Sofiya tells them that they have a guest, who she convinces to come out of her room.

Carina comes out and repeats her story, which Sofiya recognizes is not the same. Now there is a temple or mausoleum and a secret tunnel beneath it. At the end of the tunnel is a library, which has Briz excited – but unfortunately she is attacked while there and some wizards wields fire to burn her out of the room. She finds a small crevice and escapes to safety, but not before finding a zombie bandit whom she dispatches with her zombie-killing dagger.

Carina has a scroll in elven that she is having difficulty translating. Ian can read elven and Sofiya convinces her to let him read it. He finds out it was written by a man that considers himself a scholar and grand wizard. He has been researching elven history and came across a type of elf that he knows nothing about – so he researches it. Clearly the elves want to keep this knowledge a secret because he writes than a elven war-band has been pursuing him for several years.