Before Dar can get a hold of the book, Shalech turns to the page with the procedure, points to it and says, "THIS was done to me.  What is it?  And am I a danger to you, the town or to myself?  Swallow your pride for a second and help your brother instead of berating him.  He looks up to you, it serves no one to put him down."

Persuasion: 18

"Nice to meet you Normand, I am Croak and despite my appearance, I have more in common with man than any else. I feel the same about Urselles here, her intentions more genuine than most. What is this trouble you speak of? Sounds like the type of trouble I am accustomed to putting an end too."

Dar looks at the book, then at you.  He backs up a moment to state; "Tower Disarm."  In a moment a shimmer ripples over the entire tower.  As soon as you pull Han inside, Dar states; "Tower Arm."  He then looks at you and says; "Don't go upstairs, it's not safe."

You look towards the stairs and see that they are made of the same stone and spiral upwards to the next floor.  As your eyes drift downward you see a door at the back of the staircase; potentially going down to some underground area.  Dar motions for you to sit upon one of the several couches for guest; the whole room illuminated by the glowing of the ceiling, which appears to be magically enchanted to create light.

Dar sits across from you and Han finds himself to a seat somehow.  "Okay, you have a right to know what happened and who's book that is.  But you should also know I can't help more than that."

A dark and serious look begins to come to his face.  "You see, I've already tried to crack that code; before I gave the book to Han in hopes that it would be lost forever in his mess.  I never wanted to see that book again."  Dar rubs his eyes.  "The book isn't only in code, its enchanted.  The code is constantly moving and changing, making it impossible to break.  Only the owner of the book can read it."

He shakes his head.  "I took that ritual book off of Kyristan right before I exiled him from the guild and disbanded it so that his influence and his apprentices could hold no weight in this town."

When you hear the name Kyristan you flash back to a dark and horrifying memory.  You couldn't see anything, but you knew you were laying on something and that you were in pain.  You hear the name again, but this time coming from the mouth of a madman.  The man is enjoying your pain, but is also eager for another batch of demons.  Kyristan replies, encouraging the madness.  You twist and turn, trying to escape; and suddenly you are on Dar's couch again.

"An honor to meet you Croak.  The trouble I refer to is that of the goblins of the hills north of Old Northbank.  They tend to raid town from time to time; stealing, killing, and kidnapping each time.  It has been a while so the area has been on edge lately."  Normand said with a somber voice.

“of course, so the North is going to take even less kindly to a goblin, *sigh* I didn’t want to have to take serious measures but, do you know of any mask shops”

Normand laughs jollily.  "Oh, ha, no.  I will accompany you for any need you may have in the north.  That should be enough to appease their worries."  Normand smiles widely and you get the impression that he hasn't done that in a while.

"What needs do you have and how may I help?"

”do you know why this town hasn’t been about to bring itself out of this slumb since the wizard’s guild disbanded”

Normand looks at you with compassion in his eyes.  "There was nothing we could do.  When the guild disbanded the wizards left, then the expert craftsmen, then the trade, then the people."  He looks almost like he's about to cry.  He wipes his face and puts on a smile.  

“Don’t worry, there will be a way to fix this, we just must have faith in are deities” Urselles says in a calm but confident voice 

Normand pats you on the shoulder and then sighs.  "What else do you need?"

“I don’t think I need anything at the moment, I think for now we will travel around town, we’ll avoid the north for now and I’ll come back to get you when we do”

Hearing news of the goblin attacks, Croak's disposition softens, "I had no idea of the conflict, I must have misjudged that wizard's actions. Probably explains his anger towards me, I must be sure to rectify this. Have you heard of this Wizard? Jhar or somesuch? Char? Kinda lost it in the madness. Caused'a'stir."

He sends Urselles a sympathetic look, standing upright, tilting his jagged jaw and pointing his brow, accentuating his orcish figures toward Urselles in solidarity. 

Sometime during the conversation, the temple door opens slightly, and the tall, frail figure of a young human squeezes through. He seems to be in his early twenties, brown eyes and messy brown hair, and he is dressed in a dusty and dirty robe traditionally worn by wizard's apprentices and young wizards. He looks around and tries to survey the situation, shyly waits for everyone to finish talking, then politely cleans his throat, and starts talking: "I am terribly sorry to interrupt, Sirs and ... Madame?"  He is trying not to show it, but he is visibly surprised and probably curious about seeing a goblin in priestly robes. "My name is Nathan Fryer, I am the apprentice of the wizard Thasiramus from Oakenhill, and I am looking for a wizard named ..." He is looking for something in his pockets, until he finds a greasy, wrinkled piece of paper "Dar. His name is Dar. Do you, by any chance, happen to know anything about him? It is of utmost improtance that I find him." He looks at statue of Chauntea at the altar, then adds "Gods so help me."

Urselles sends a look back to the orc saying to not worry with a smile on her face, then the wizard, as a shocked look takes the goblin’s face 

Quote from Mbalogh83 >>

Sometime during the conversation, the temple door opens slightly, and the tall, frail figure of a young human squeezes through. He seems to be in his early twenties, brown eyes and messy brown hair, and he is dressed in a dusty and dirty robe traditionally worn by wizard's apprentices and young wizards. He looks around and tries to survey the situation, shyly waits for everyone to finish talking, then politely cleans his throat, and starts talking: "I am terribly sorry to interrupt, Sirs and ... Madame?"  He is trying not to show it, but he is visibly surprised and probably curious about seeing a goblin in priestly robes. "My name is Nathan Fryer, I am the apprentice of the wizard Thasiramus from Oakenhill, and I am looking for a wizard named ..." He is looking for something in his pockets, until he finds a greasy, wrinkled piece of paper "Dar. His name is Dar. Do you, by any chance, happen to know anything about him? It is of utmost improtance that I find him." He looks at statue of Chauntea at the altar, then adds "Gods so help me."

 "That's it! Dar! And now, who are you?"

Having time to look now you notice a cemetery along the north wall of the church.  Its well kept with stones going back over a hundred years.  An old metal fence surrounds the grounds of the cemetery.

Looking farther north, your heart breaks.  You can see Old Northbank.  Easily twice the size of the remaining town.  The buildings are in disrepair; all of them.  Each worn, each with only scratches of paint left, all covered in dust.  The people of Old Northbank look much the same.  Many simply sit, having no work to do.  There are no roads, simply dust trails.   

Edit: Um, we'll do this part after the introductions.

Normand is surprised to see Nathan in the doorway, much less at all, and stumbles back a few steps.  "Oh, sorry.  I wasn't expecting you.  Um, yes.  Dar.  He's in the big black tower on the end of the road left after the intersection."

Looking toward Nathan "You seem familiar to these folk. Let's seek an audience. I have an apology to deliver..."

(Insert Post 196)

Quote from RobertHReaper >>

Dar looks at the book, then at you.  He backs up a moment to state; "Tower Disarm."  In a moment a shimmer ripples over the entire tower.  As soon as you pull Han inside, Dar states; "Tower Arm."  He then looks at you and says; "Don't go upstairs, it's not safe."

You look towards the stairs and see that they are made of the same stone and spiral upwards to the next floor.  As your eyes drift downward you see a door at the back of the staircase; potentially going down to some underground area.  Dar motions for you to sit upon one of the several couches for guest; the whole room illuminated by the glowing of the ceiling, which appears to be magically enchanted to create light.

Dar sits across from you and Han finds himself to a seat somehow.  "Okay, you have a right to know what happened and who's book that is.  But you should also know I can't help more than that."

A dark and serious look begins to come to his face.  "You see, I've already tried to crack that code; before I gave the book to Han in hopes that it would be lost forever in his mess.  I never wanted to see that book again."  Dar rubs his eyes.  "The book isn't only in code, its enchanted.  The code is constantly moving and changing, making it impossible to break.  Only the owner of the book can read it."

He shakes his head.  "I took that ritual book off of Kyristan right before I exiled him from the guild and disbanded it so that his influence and his apprentices could hold no weight in this town."

When you hear the name Kyristan you flash back to a dark and horrifying memory.  You couldn't see anything, but you knew you were laying on something and that you were in pain.  You hear the name again, but this time coming from the mouth of a madman.  The man is enjoying your pain, but is also eager for another batch of demons.  Kyristan replies, encouraging the madness.  You twist and turn, trying to escape; and suddenly you are on Dar's couch again.

With Kyristan's nane heard once more, a haunted look comes over Shalech's visage and especially in his eyes. "Kyristan… is dead.  Once his ritual completed, I was no longer kept in a cage or guarded by his summoned demons.  I was given tasks to do.  Copy this scroll, cast this spell, prepare components, clean this and that.  It's like he believed I no longer had any free will.  One day, he simply went to sleep while I was in the room scribing a scroll.

I walked over and took a knife from his dinner plate to see what he would say.  He simply started to snore.  So I walked over to stand beside him.  Still he said nothing.  He didn't say anything until I had stabbed him in his kidney.  Then he tried to cast some spell, but I kept stabbing him.  I stabbed him many times, until the blood stopped flowing, he stopped breathing, and then I stabbed him some more.  It took me a few days to figure out how to leave his tower.  In my frustration at being trapped within it, I may have stabbed his corpse a few more times.  Just to be sure, or course.

When I did leave, I felt free.  I made my own choices.  I sought out some help to understand what had been done to me, and people told me of Northbank and the wizards.  I made the choice to come here.  I can't tell you how horrified I am to hear that Kyristan came from here.  Was my choice to come here my own free will?  I don't know anymore.  It is just too much of a coincidence.

So tell me, am I a danger to you all?  Is what Kyristan put in me a danger to me?  Help me be sure, and I will do what I can to repay you.  And if you want to be left alone, then I will leave you to your tower and your town.  But until I know, I'm afraid I can't leave."

"I'm sorry, but if this person in this book is you then you couldn't have killed Kyristan.  I don't know who you killed but I ripped this book from his hands myself before he was expelled." Dar looks you in the eyes.  "To my knowledge, Kyristan is still alive."