Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 21:41:19 -0500
From: Kenneth Newquist
To: GREYTALK@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Everyone:
Here's the latest Blackrazor adventure.
It takes place immediately after the end of the last saga THE DEATH OF MALPHAS. The saga, and its predecessors, is available via our Web site at
THE BIRTH OF MALACYPSE
GM: Ken Newquist
WHAT HAS COME BEFORE
Malphas, the insane elf responsible for the killing of two pairs of guards in two years, has been executed before an assembly of Greyhawk citizens and guildmembers. 'Nuff said. Read "The Death of Malphas"
THE STORY
In order to save Malphas, the Blackrazors had to let the city kill him. The false evidence against Malphas -- he hadn't killed the second pair of guards -- was overwhelming. Since their magically-determined evidence that he hadn't killed the guards was in admissible in the City of Greyhawk court, they had no way of fighting back.
So they didn't. Instead, after trying to convince certain powerful city officials to intervene, the Blackrazors waited for the inevitable. On the day -- Planting 20, C.Y. 588 -- that Malphas was to be executed, they gathered with the rest of the city in the River District. The guild's highest ranking and most powerful member looked on as the executioner led the elf to the killing stump. And then they watched in horror as the axe fell, and Malphas' head fell onto the floor. They absorbed the cheers of the city around them and then waited for the body to be taken away.
And then they acted.
* * *
The guild's chaotic half was not about to sit back and let Malphas be punished for the one crime he actually hadn't committed in his life. The gnome illustionist-warrior Gnarth Binderstone, the elf ranger Mist Silvershroud, the bard Yogesh, the human thief Gaiseric (aka Scrappy) and the ever vengeful human cleric of Trithereon, Kalib Ironfist ran into the sewers.
A little research earlier in the day had revealed that the city's burial chambers -- and its incinerator -- were located off of the sewers. The Blackrazors, with the magical help of the terramancer Sven Kildare, had molded a piece of the marble they'd recovered from one of the Star Cairns into the shape of Malphas. Sven had then cast stone to flesh, and the Blackrazors had burned parts of the false corpse to reflect Malphas' own burns (which he had sustained during his last brush with an incinerator during the Fall of Obsidian Bay).
They then sliced off the corpse head, dumped it in a sack, and waited for the execution.
When the guards began loading Malphas' remains onto a wagon, they moved. The small band ran to the sewers and again waited. When the guards -- escorted by a priest of Ralishaz -- began moving through the sewers, the Blackrazors fell back and began scouting out possible intersections to pull their switch at.
After 10 minutes of searching, they found one.
The guards numbered eight in all -- two carried the front of the stretcher, two carried the rear, and the rest took up positions in front and in back of them. As they neared the intersection, Gnarth summoned the illusion of a giant rat at the end of the long corridor. The unattached guards immediately reacted by running up to engage the rat.
The stretcher-bearers stayed behind to guard the body, just as the Blackrazors had hoped. As they had entered the sewers, Kalib had cast fly on himself, Mist and Gnarth from his gloves of spell snaring. Now, as the remaining guards watched their companions chasing a non-existent rat, Mist swung in and snared Malphas's bagged body. Kalib followed a moment behind, dropping a second body in its place. And then both he and Gnarth launched a barrage of forget spells that made the guards lose track of the last minute or so of time.
For once, the entire plan went off without a hitch.
* * *
With Malphas' body and head in their possession, the Blackrazors beat a speedy retreat to the temple of Trithereon. Once there, Kalib explained the situation. The priests were outraged by the city's unjust taking of a life, but still hesitated. A resurrection spell was a powerful thing -- a thing that they could only cast from scrolls. And this was Malphas -- his reputation wasn't exactly sterling.
Kalib did his best to allay their fears and they finally agreed -- on the condition that the elf was Kalib's responsibility and that he tithe the cost of the resurrection spell back to the church. They also requested that he turn over a powerful magical item he finds in the next year to Kalib and the church.
They called up the elf's departed spirit via a speak with dead spell, got him to agreed to the terms, and brought him back.
Then, in a dark corner of the temple's basement, they planned their next move. As far as the city -- and the lawful members of the Blackrazors -- were concerned, Malphas was dead. To avoid making more enemies and attracting the attention of current ones, he would have to stay that way.
* * *
Malphas concentrated carefully as he wove himself into a new form. This new body would have to be as perfect -- and as capable -- as his own. As the polymorph self ended, he looked into a mirror that one of the clerics of Trithereon had provided. The face before him belonged to a to a bastard high elf/aquatic elf. He smiled -- and the hybrid soon to be known as Malaclypse smiled back.
The fan-created information featured here is not meant as a challenge or threat to TSR's copyright.
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