By Beth Griese

Date:   August 3, 1996

Quote of the Day:
"When in Rome..." -- Jim Gaynor "Do the Romans." -- Kent Jenkins

To Garen Thundersson, cleric of Mielikki. From your faithful servant, Jade.

Sadly, Master, the promise of the capital city didn't live up to all I had hoped. When our group emerged from our inn with the morning sun, I realized I couldn't even see the sun through all the building heaped up on top of each other. I could barely breath for all the smoke and smells that crowded the close streets, and people, even at that early hour, were packed together like oxen. Arabel didn't affect me nearly this badly; at least there, I could still feel breezes and watch the sky's progress. Here, I was beginning to get a bad feeling about our visit.

Borreau and I sought out (with the help of an overeager young local) the city's harbor master, deciding he might be a good source of information to find a trustworthy magician who could explain our mysterious mist. The harbor master recommended either Baskor or Maxer, two names that meant nothing to us, but with the number of those young locals around, we had no lack for guides. We found Maxer first, an overimportant blowhard who wanted our party to find a magical artifact for him in exchange for his information. I told him I couldn't ask the Wayfarers to undertake such a journey for the sole benefit of my information. He wouldn't offer any other deal, though, so we left to seek out Baskor.

Meanwhile, the others in our group went to Highpoint Keep to find the kingdom's archives. Nory, of course, took the difficult way in, almost getting thrown out before finally calming down. The archivists did their job, though. They found that Weston's castle was about 400 years old. It was founded by an adventurer, who also built a town nearby (we haven't seen that - or its remains - yet). The township didn't fare well until Weston took ownership, dedicated the castle into a shrine to Mielikki, and brought new life to the town. It was shortly after that when the castle disappeared. The others got directions to the town, and found out that our land extends for a day's ride in every direction from the castle.

Borreau and I found Baskor, who had a much more forbidding home and demeanor, but for some reason I felt more comfortable with him than with the self-important Maxer. He agreed to research my problem in exchange for the bear collar that we had found from the magician who worked with animals, plus three glyphs on his doors by Borreau. Many spells and a few deep cuts that will be hard to forget later, we weren't much closer to a solution. But by that time, it was the next morning, and Nory appeared at Baskor's doorstep. He said he had visited a gnome sage, who reported a similar appearance before. It had been a planar creature, and in the light of the new moon, could be defeated with normal weapons.

And so, on the night the full moon was to appear, the whole party plus Maxer filed outside the city limits (welcome relief!) to await the appearance of this mist. Sure enough, it did appear this time, now orange and white colored. Maxer began furiously casting spells, and Nory wanted to defeat it right away, but if it really was a being from another plane, I was more interested in finding out its intent first. It disappeared before long, at which point Maxer told what he had found. He had seen no planar magic about the mist. Instead, it was low level illusionary magic. The words "low level illusion" drew everyone's eyes to Nory, who immediately protested such suspicion.

As we catch up on our rest for tomorrow, though, I'm starting to get an uncomfortable feeling about Maxer's findings. Why was the gnome right about when the mist would appear, but not about its nature, unless he had involvement with it? It makes my stomach cold to think that, just as I was beginning to feel we were a group with trust in each other after all, we may not have the slightest trust at all. Maxer said it would take a spell of the power of True Seeing to tell who the illusion had come from, so the uncertainty remains still. With concern, I am as always,

Your faithful servant,

--Jade

The Jade Letters are the property and copyright of Beth Griese, not to be published or redistributed without permission.

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