New Veras Vengeance 3: What, No Goatee?

For reasons that should be apparent to anyone who looks at the opposite page, I'm writing this entry myself instead of letting Ahriman do it. The worst part is he seems to have taken a liking to be my scribe, and is now sulking that I won't let him do it. Perhaps if he improves his attitude I'll reconsider, but as it stands I like knowing what I'm writing won't suddenly be filled with expletives and suggestive comments about my mother.

To return to the subject at hand, however, I must record the last mission the Veil has so kindly given us. It seems we had finally decided to launch a full offensive on a terrorists group to the North, and we were about to be sent along (accompanied by Kaidar, who had returned from... something? He never quite told us) when we were waylaid and told we were being sent on a "special" assignment, namely a noble who had recently received a death threat. We were all a bit perplexed by this, since noble's usually have their own (often highly skilled) bodyguards, but as we were briefed it turned out this particular noble was the local Governor and he had kindly lent his forces to the current Veil operation. Also it seemed he was an old friend of Kaidar, so he in particular felt obliged to help him.

What made it more serious was that the death notice was from the Midnight Sun, a notorious assassin who had never failed to kill a target she had earmarked as deserving justice--in the form of death.

Filled with these happy thoughts, we set off to the manor. Outside the mansion we found a rather large and intimidating hedge maze, which I quietly thanked we wouldn't have to defend. We made out way to the portal he used in lieu of a door, and concentrated on the words of access to go inside. Once there we met the Governor and made sure he wasn't actually the assassin herself, who was known to be a shapeshifter.

We examined the mansion in its entirety, searching for weaknesses and generally planning on how to defend the place in case of an attack. The only odd thing was a room where the Governor apparently built golems in his spare time. Other than that, it seemed fairly solid defenses-wise: besides two large windows, where we set watch with Frug's mage hand in one and a golem in the other, there was only one entrance. We wished to turn off all the portals, but the Governor refused in case his soldiers returned, so we settled at turning all but one off. Then we sat about doing what guardians do: waiting, and more waiting.

However, contrary to my expectations, we didn't wait all that long. The magical sentry-skull Asunder had placed notified us that a group had teleported into the entry-hall, and they were asking for entrance claiming that they were the returning soldiers of the Governor. They acted and spoke quite suspiciously, however, and we eventually managed to ascertain that they were fakes when we had the Governor question their identity. Realizing their cover was blown, the 5 knocked in the door and attacked, and we naturally retaliated. We had incapacitated 2 of them without taking significant injury, and more importantly keeping them away from the room in which we had instructed the Governor to hide.

That was the point, though, when both the windows we had set watch on were suddenly broken, the golem destroyed, and the mage hand pinned to a table by a flurry of knives. We began a careful retreat to the room, trying to discover what was outflanking while still fighting the original mercenaries (including a particularly annoying one who attacked with illusions of bees). Suddenly a enveloping black mist filled practically the entire mansion, and I was rendered blind. Reports from the others informed me others were similarly handicapped in various ways, but we fought on nonetheless. Matters seemed to be even worsening when a gigantic pounding began emanating from the front wall. We did out duty, though, and fought on.

Then, two things happened. The first was Kaidar rushing back to the Governor. We thought he was going back to guard his old comrade, but instead he viciously stabbed the general-turned-politician with a poison-covered dagger. A moment later the entire front wall was bashed down, and the real Kaidar came barreling in full tilt, one of the scarier things I've seen in my life. In the space of around 5 seconds he literally sprinted around 200 feet, including leaping up an entire flight of stairs, in order to return to the man he'd sworn to protect. It seems the Midnight Sun had used the mist as a cover to teleport Kaidar outside and shift to takes his appearance and get close to the Governor. In that sense she got incredibly lucky, since we expected Kaidar to get close to the Governor to protect him. Regardless, she had dealt what looked like a mortal blow to our charge, and we fell back to save him. Asunder attempted to deal the man, while the rest of us attempted to fight on two fronts, first to kill the assassin and the other to prevent the mercenaries from linking up with her.

We seemed to be doing a decent amount of damage to her when the mist exploded again, and before we could check people, "Kaidar" once again stabbed the Governor when we had just finished healing him through Asunder's medical knowledge. Once again Kaidar came roaring through the wall, no need to bash it down this time, improbably now more enraged then before. Our ward was now looking on the brink of death, and both Tyr and Asunder took turns standing over his body to prevent the Midnight Sun from striking the killing blow, while Frug and I fired endlessly in an attempt to kill the fiend.

Then the mist dropped for the third time. Before I could realize what was happening, I felt a light tap on my shoulder and saw the somehow smoldering black eyes of the assassin, and as I felt the lurch of an unwilled teleportation saw her features begin to shift to match my own. I found myself outside of the manor, and began running as fast as possible back to the mansion. As I ran to the back room containing my compatriots I fired at the mercenaries. By this point only 2 of them were left standing, and one barely at that, and they chose this moment to depart and teleported away, taking their unconscious companions with them. As I approached the back room I saw the black mist explode out for a fourth time, although it didn't reach me.

I hurried anyway towards the room, which contained my 4 companions and the barely stable Governor, who had almost tasted death at least 4 times in the past few minutes. Knowing it couldn't possibly be me, I attempted to ascertain who was not who he appeared to be.

The problem was all my companions felt the same way, and didn't know for certain that I indeed had been outside of the mist on the last occasion. Desperate, I attempted to let Frug into my mind to see I was indeed Drachon, although I might have let him in too far since I saw far into his mind, and I suspect he saw similar things. On the bright side, I feel that I understand him far better as a person now. With Frug vouching for me, I showed Kaidar that my staff could change, something the assassin surely couldn't mimic. Now vouched by two of them, it was proven I wasn't the Midnight Sun, and began to check the of all of them for the telltale black eyes. None of them had them, and after a brief session of extreme paranoia where we all ended up on our hands and knees, we ascertained that she must have escaped, which made sense given how much damage we had heaped upon her.

We quickly moved the Governor to his bedroom after healing him and stood guard until his official guards arrived, at which point we were relieved.

I am quite impressed with my team, though. Despite my misgivings in the past, we worked together extremely well, and despite the mistrust stemming from the apparent betrayals of the masqueraded Midnight Sun, I think we truly made a synergistic team. We also managed the feat of stopping an assassin who was thought unstoppable, and managed this without bloodshed (although I must admit for some of the party this was not by choice, although it was secretly relieving to me). We acquitted ourselves quite now, and I now feel much more comfortable and confident knowing these men stand behind me. We've also earned the gratitude of the regional governor, which could prove useful.

It turns out, coincidentally, that I do have a room at the Veil, so I sit there. My wallet's happy, if nothing else. We're to be briefed again soon for our next mission, although I know not what it is since the Northern Offensive has apparently been successfully concluded.

On a final note, I'm quite happy. This was the one battle where Ahriman didn't complain constantly, which is an improvement. Perhaps him venting in this notebook actually improved his overall mood; a point to consider, I suppose. But for now, a quiet bit of rest, and a book I've been meaning to read. I close.

(-HTMC)