Mathilda Hawthorne arrives home at her studio flat in the Citadel district to find an envelope made from fancy, hand-made paper sitting on her computer desk. She has never seen the envelope before, and is certain it wasn’t there when she left for work that morning. Inside the envelope is a largish coin-like medallion made of a reddish gold. Imprinted on one side is the image of an older man’s face with wild hair entangled with leaves and berries and a beard made of what appear to be kelp leaves. The other side of the coin depicts a younger man’s face, beardless, but with the same wild hair entangled with leaves and berries. Whereas the older face appears to be benevolent and sad, the younger face appears to be mirthful yet cruel. A tiny inscription is imprinted on both sides of the medallion. Viewing the inscription under magnification reveals that it is some crudely-rendered, undecipherable script.
Meanwhile, in the same building, Viktor Tegmark hears a furtive scraping outside his door. Investigating, he discovers a similar envelope containing an identical medallion. He leaves his apartment and runs into his acquaintance, Mathilda, on her way to the library. They share information, and decide to cooperate in their library investigation. At the library they fail to find images or mention of it in rare and antique coin reference guides. After a couple of fruitless hours in the library, they decide to get a bite to eat at a local café.
In another part of town, in his warehouse laboratory, free-lance Gnomish inventor Velko hears a loud thump on his freight door. Checking his security monitors, he sees nothing until he pans down to the loading deck and notices an envelope lying there. Its contents are identical to those of Viktor and Mathilda. Velko examines the medallion under magnification, and runs a search on the ‘Net for similar images. He discovers that the two images are nearly identical to the logo used by a high-end antiques dealer in Silegby named Rold Lehan with an address on Citadel Hill. Examination of the security surveillance outside his lab, Velko discovers that the envelope was apparently delivered by what appears to be a very large, black bird which appears only vaguely and briefly in a couple of frames of video. Disturbed by what he has seen, Velko calls Mr. Lehan’s office, and makes an appointment to meet with the antiques dealer. He then decides to check out the premises beforehand, and takes a ride into the Citadel in his disguised, armored vehicle.
Meanwhile, a circus has set up its tents and pavilions in a field outside of Silegby. Animal handler Boris Bergman and his friend Adriana “Wolf Girl” Aloo decide to go out for a night on the town before having to perform the next evening on opening night. Adriana was born with hypertrichosis, a condition characterized by excessive growth of body and facial hair. Her entire body and face is covered by long, silky sandy-brown hair, and Boris encourages her to wear a concealing shawl and scarf as well as the long frock that she normally wears to go out. The two take a train into the Citadel, the oldest and most historic part of town, and decide to have a few drinks at a dark and smoky lounge called Café Maloof. Exotic, Istarian music emerges from the blue-neon lit interior, and they take a seat in a dark booth to watch the belly-dancing show. A heavy-set man in his sixties, looking flustered and scared, brushes past them, and drops a heavily-laden envelope on the floor. Rather than trying to return it, Boris opens it and decides for the moment to keep the heavy, gold medallion he finds within. Boris then decides to take the now drunk Wolf Girl someplace where he can sober her up. They slip out of a bathroom window, and make their way to a nearby coffee house for some espresso and food.
Arriving at Lehan’s address, Velko discovers that it is a medieval town castle, fully restored to its former glory on one of the more revitalized and gentrified streets of the Citadel. The doors are locked and the place appears to be shut down for the night. A well-lit coffee house across the street attracts his attention, and he decides to go for a snack and perhaps to gather some information. The young waitress explains that she has seen Mr. Lehan only once or twice being driven in a long, flashy black sedan, but otherwise rarely sees him. As he waits for his coffee and sandwich, Mathilda and Viktor arrive and take the other sidewalk table. Viktor runs an image search for the medallion on his laptop, and turns up the Lehan antiques business logo. Seeing the image on Viktor’s screen, Velko decides to introduce himself, and the three begin to share information.
Boris also notices the image on Viktor’s screen, and then sees the same heavy-set man who dropped the envelope making his way to Café Maloof up the street. A while later, the man returns and stands in the light of the coffee house. Velko, Mathilda and Viktor offer assistance, and the man tells them he has lost an important envelope. The man introduces himself as Dr. Reese Bauman, director of the Royal Archives at Silegby. Once he learns that they also received the mysterious medallion, he tells them what he knows: the images on the medallion are associated with the ancient pagan deities Nehal or Oken, although the red gold from which it is cast is normally associated with early cults of Roski. The script is a rendition of Old Caerdolan, but the language is unknown to him. He also made the connection to the antiques dealer, who had agreed to meet him that evening at Café Maloof. Dr. Bauman was stood up, and on his way out of the lounge he lost the envelope with the medallion. While searching for it on the street, however, he discovered a flyer posted on a street lamp advertising a circus in Silegby. A banner over a stylized image of the circus pavilion, its animals and performers, shows two gold medallions remarkably similar to both sides of the medallion that all of them have received. Dr. Bauman believes they have all received a message, and intends to visit the circus.
Hearing some of this conversation, Boris takes Adriana back to the circus, and notices for the first time the large banner over the entrance to the Big Top with the depictions of the medallion. Believing in magic and divination, he decides to pay a visit to the circus’ Rhua fortune teller, Madame Zahara. She is crass and uninterested in anything but satisfying her sexual cravings, but agrees to examine the medallion. She seems genuinely interested in it, but possibly because it is a heavy piece of gold and doubtlessly worth some money. She pronounces it “cursed” but Boris decides not to trust her, and takes it back. In his own sleeping quarters he discovers that someone has left him another identical medallion in an envelope on his bed.
The next morning Velko keeps his appointment with Mr. Lehan. The lovely and stylish receptionist shows him to a luxuriously appointed sitting room and offers him a mimosa. He doesn’t wait long before a coolly handsome man with disturbingly pale gray eyes and in an impeccably tailored, trim suit introduces himself as Mr. Rold Lehan. Velko tells Lehan that he is interested in Gnomish history, and in artifacts having to do with Gnomes of historical note, particularly Gnamek Gearbuckle, who was advisor to Murad I, the human king credited with uniting the Warlander kingdoms. Lehan assures him that he has several items believed to have belonged to Gnamek Gearbuckle and proceeds to show him an assortment of mostly uninteresting laboratory glassware and contraptions associated with medieval alchemy. The only item of real interest, however, is concealed in a cloth-covered cabinet. Lehan opens the cabinet, revealing a gold-plated humanoid construct of Gnomish stature and proportions. He describes it as “an early Gnomish Tick Tock device,” and says it is scheduled to be sold at auction and expected to fetch an exorbitant price that Velko knows he cannot afford. Velko nevertheless asks to be put on the bidding list, and takes his leave.
Meanwhile, Mathilda and Viktor pay a visit to Dr. Bauman in the Royal Archives. Mathilda brings the family heirloom that she has recently inherited for Dr. Bauman to examine. It is an antique sword, in flawless condition, inscribed with medieval emblems and a hallmark. With it is a shirt of golden chain-link armor woven tightly like fine wool. Dr. Bauman is immediately impressed by the sword, saying that he believes it to be a Holy Avenger, the prized weapon of the best and most devout of the ancient holy knights of Roski. Judging from the inscriptions he believes the sword to have belonged to a high-ranking knight of the Order of St. Gwendolen, and possibly even the saint’s sword itself. The hallmark identifies it as having been made during the reign of Pope Naxo XXI, who sat on the papal throne during St. Gwendolen’s lifetime. Dr. Bauman urges Mathilda to guard the sword well, avoid showing it off, and encourages her to learn as much as she can about it. He shows an interest, but is distracted by the immediate concern with the mysterious medallion. He tells them that he plans on visiting the circus that evening.
Mathilda and Viktor agree to reunite with Velko that evening at the circus. They drive out together in Velko’s armored car to the field where many of Silegby’s citizens have arrived to be entertained by the strange and exotic circus. Along with the Big Top there are other sideshow exhibits, including The Wolf Girl and something billed as “The Phoenix of Happiness”. The three run into Dr. Bauman, who suddenly finds that someone has slipped his lost medallion back into his coat pocket. Dr. Bauman receives a telephone call from a colleague who has identified the language of the medallion’s inscription as an obscure and ancient dialect related to old Rhua, and translated it to read, on the side with the older face, “I am Absolution” and on the younger face, “I am Heaven’s Vengeance.” Despite several guesses, they are unable to decipher the significance of the inscriptions before they are distracted by a commotion at the gate to the circus grounds.
They recognize Boris from the coffee house, riding on a horse out the front gate of the circus grounds. Following him, Boris reveals that his friend the Wolf Girl has gone missing and he believes she is lost in the nearby woods. They agree to help, and track the girl to a clearing where they find her writhing in ecstasy upon a stone slab as a pack of six werewolf man-beasts prowl around her, snapping at each other in a kind of wild dance of dominance.
Using his powers to mimic the physical abilities of animals, Boris takes runs into the clearing and catches the werewolves’ attention, leading them away from the clearing as the others try to coax rescue Adriana. At first she is feral and unreasonable, but eventually they are able to coax her away toward the waiting car. Boris takes to the trees, but is forced to put himself in danger again when the werewolf pack stealthy head back in response to Adriana’s feral howls. Securing Adriana in the back of the armored vehicle, the others with Dr. Bauman escape back to the circus, the werewolves in hot pursuit. Velko even manages to run one of them down with his armored car.
Back in the circus, Boris sees a man he has never seen before enter the Phoenix’s tent with what looks like a large bird of prey on his arm. He remembers his horses telling him that they smelled a “bird man” entering their stables, and possibly his sleeping quarters too. Velko is also reminded of the large bird-like image that appeared on his security surveillance video, and they decide to investigate. Inside the tent is dimly-lit, and there is a roped off center stage with a large perch. On the perch is a large bird of prey, as big as a condor but with deep, bluish coloration to its plumage. From behind it appears to be wearing a falconer’s hood, but when it turns around, the hood is revealed to be an ornate head-dress and the bird’s head that of a beautiful and glamorous woman. The “bird” then speaks in low, hypnotic tones, urging them all to sleep. They are suddenly overcome by drowsiness and fall into a natural sleep. Only Boris manages to escape this trap, but when he returns and attempts to stop the bird, she commands him to stop and to feed his sleeping companions to the wolves. Under the bird’s spell, Boris obeys, picks up the sleeping gnome and drags Mathilda away. They manage to snap Boris out of the bird’s spell just in time, and return to save Viktor who lies sleeping as the bird continues to plant suggestions in his mind.
Mathilda slices the tent’s supporting cables, bringing it down on the bird as Velko uses his levitation device to carry the sleeping Viktor out. Now trapped under the canvass, the bird lets out a raucous alarm, and to stop it Boris mimics the weight and strength of an elephant, jumping down upon the trapped bird and ending its cries.
The show under the Big Top is underway, with clown and acrobat performers entertaining the full house. The ringmaster, Zoltan, announces a very special performance with the appropriate air of suspense, and orders that the lights be shut down. The companions notice that a large pack of werewolves has been allowed to sneak in under the bleachers, taking their places under the unsuspecting audience. A pair of roustabouts armed with shotguns searches for those who have killed the Phoenix. They decide to cause a disruption by casting light upon the ringmaster, whose performance begins to falter. Using her sword, Mathilda slashes an opening in the tent, allowing moonlight and a way out. The crowd begins to panic as the werewolves howl and begin to attack, and Boris and Velko take on Zoltan, who reveals himself to be the master werewolf.
During the ensuing battle, Mathilda begins to discover some of her sword’s amazing powers. Viktor displays seemingly magical transdimensional abilities, using his powers of teleportation to conjure a crowbar that he uses to collapse the bleachers and trap most of the werewolf minions. Velko uses the catapult from the Human Cannonball act to fire the Strong Man’s barbells at Zoltan, but the master werewolf is only momentarily stunned by the blow that would have been fatal to a normal man. Velko and Boris manage to occupy Zoltan’s attention long enough for Mathilda to smite him with her sword, stripping him of his unholy power and ending his life.
Meanwhile, as the crowd of spectators disperses, the majority of the evil carnies rush in too late to save their master. Just as the companions escape from the Big Top, a lightning bolt strikes its center post setting the canvass ablaze in supernatural fire. The burning tent collapses, trapping the werewolf minions and other carnies, whose screams and death throes echo in the fire-lit night.
Reuniting with Dr. Bauman at Velko’s armored car, the companions see the shadow of a large, bird-like thing fly overhead and disappear into the shadows of a nearby copse of trees, from which emerges the neat and trim form of the antiques dealer, Lehan. He tells them that he sent them each the message of the medallions to bring them together for a common purpose and to test their commitment to a shared legacy that must accept and realize. Lehan assured them that they would have some time to think about things, and that more would be revealed to them soon enough. He promised to contact them soon, and then left. The companions then agreed to return to their respective homes to recover from the horrors they’ve experienced, and to contact each other in a few days to discuss Lehan’s cryptic words and apparent offer.
MML002 – “Book of Shadow”
Having fallen asleep at his computer again, Viktor Tegmark wakes up to find a devil sitting on the arm of his sofa. The black creature has horns and a spade tail, and leaps at him, thrusting him against a wall as it clutches at his throat. It leans in close, its breath a miasma of rot and feces, and wags a finger at him warningly before vanishing out the open window. Viktor gasps and chokes as much from the stench as from the iron grip of the fiend, which he still feels even though he has been released. He runs out of his apartment and down the hall, banging on the door to Mathilda Hawthorne’s apartment.
Waking to the sounds of banging on her door, Mathilda checks quickly gets out of bed. Viktor is at her door at 5:00 A.M., out of breath, and barely making sense as he tells of a demonic visitation. Mathilda grabs her sword and accompanies Viktor to his room, but all that is left is the slowly dissipating stench, and a plate of rancid leftovers sitting on the arm rest of the sofa, and swarming with flies. After discussing the possible significance, Viktor tells her that he wishes to speak with a priest. After all, who better to deal with the diabolical than a holy man?
Meanwhile, in Velko’s laboratory, Boris and Adriana are waking up. Adriana is sniffing every corner of the space they’ve been allowed to sleep in, and she tells Boris that she sees and hears things differently somehow. Boris tells her that she’s become a lycanthrope, and that her senses have become heightened. He asks her what she remembers of the night in the wood, and she tells him she remembers the wolves and a sense of euphoria she felt. Boris is concerned that Adriana might not be able to control her lycanthropy and become dangerous. For the moment, he will watch her. Adriana does not wish to be locked up in Velko’s lab, and asks if Boris will accompany her out for a bite to eat somewhere. She craves meat.
Outside, Boris senses a presence, and catches the faintest scent of an exotic perfume that he recognizes as belonging to the Rhua fortune teller, “Madame Zahara”. He attempts to track her, but only determines that Madame Zahara was in the vicinity of Velko’s front door step sometime in the evening. He agrees to go with Adriana to find a nearby café where they can have breakfast. Along the way, Adriana seems fascinated by seemingly mundane things: a pigeon eating old breadcrumbs on the street, a damp spot next to a wall in an alley, and the texture of an old stone wall. Boris gently prods her into ignoring these things, and guides her into the café. Here, Adriana orders sausages and barely cooked rashers of bacon. Boris watches her as he drinks his coffee. He is also on the look-out for signs of their former employers, at least one of who has escaped the destruction of the circus.
Suddenly, Adriana catches sight of something across the street from the café. She bolts out the door, and begins crossing the street as a low-slung, red convertible sports car speeds toward her. Boris rushes out the door, and leaps into the street, knocking Adriana out of the way of the speeding car just in time. The car screeches to a halt and its startled driver quickly steps out to see if everyone is okay. He is a handsome young man in his late 20s with neatly-trimmed, dark hair and impeccably dressed in a tailored suit. The young man apologizes for nearly killing them, and introduces himself as Sherrod Altair. Adriana gazes at him with undisguised attraction as he offers to buy them lunch, but Boris brusquely declines the offer, and insists that Adriana stay away from him. Disappointed, the young man returns to his idling car, and with a final glance of interest, drives off.
Boris admonishes Adriana for her behavior, and she angrily storms off, showing signs of rebellion. Boris follows her back to Velko’s lab, where she settles down to sleep again.
Meanwhile, Father Cornelius Descartes, or “Father Neale” as he is better known to his congregants, prepares for the day’s services. In his office he receives a call from Dr. Reese Bauman, head of the Royal Archives, and some-time member of Father Neale’s congregation. Dr. Bauman requests a meeting with Dr. Neale for that evening at 7:00 P.M., after Father Neale hears his last confession. Soon after, Viktor Tegmark also calls and schedules a meeting with Father Neale for that evening.
Viktor and Mathilda then call Velko and report the demonic visitation of that morning. They agree to meet and pay a visit to Mr. Rold Lehan to respond to his cryptic offer of revealing information to them.
Along the way, they are contacted by Dr. Bauman, who explains to Mathilda that he has thought of a means by which she might more conclusively identify the sword and armor that were left to her as an heirloom. He tells her of a painting believed to be the only portrait of St. Gwendolen painted from life. It is a portrait of the saint painted by Lord Marmion of O, or one of his children, who were contemporaries of the saint. It shows St. Gwendolen in her middle age, dressed in her golden armor, and cradling her famous blade. The hilts and pommel of the sword are painted in exquisite detail, and if they match the designs and markings on Mathilda’s sword, then it would provide the provenance she needs to identify it as St. Gwendolen’s sword. The portrait was kept by Marmion’s descendants for many generations, was nearly destroyed in a fire, and eventually auctioned off to pay some debts. It now belongs to an eccentric collector of medieval art and literature, who had it painstakingly, and expensively cleaned and restored to the way it, looked prior to the fire. Countess Lydia Wolfram does not allow it to be photographed or examined closely. It hangs in her impressive, private library. The only photographs available show the portrait with its obscuring soot and smoke damage. Many details are blurred or completely obscured.
Once in Lehan’s plush sitting room, he once again appears to them in his neatly trim, tailored gray suit, and disturbingly pale gray eyes and white teeth. He tells them that they have somehow been marked as dangerous by an evil faction that operates in Silegby, and that he will help them discover the reasons if they help him with something. Lehan gives them the following history:
When Dothos, the first Dolami priest, first climbed to the cave at the summit of Mount Hierat, he found the original manuscript of the Book of Light, written in a strange, hieroglyphic language etched on plates of pure gold. Eventually, the plates remain in the ancient shrine, although many rubbings and copies were made (from which the earliest versions of the Book of Light were derived). What the legends never mention is that Dothos also found a second set of plates, made of blackened silver, and etched with similar symbols. The contents of this book are not known to most people, and even its existence was kept mostly secret. The book was known as the Book of Shadow, and was the said to be the antithesis of its golden counterpart. Dothos ordered that the Book of Shadow be translated, but forbade that copies be made. One Dolami named Eyrados disobeyed, and secreted a copy of the translated manuscript out of Korma. Eyrados was murdered on the road, and the book fell into the hands of a Caerdolan aristocrat named Scathos. Scathos used the power of the book to summon up dark forces, and many people suffered as a result, but his attempt to rise to power came too late, and he was killed during the uprisings that ended Caerdolan rule in the west. The manuscript was believed lost then, but in fact it was secreted away and ended up in the hands of a Faranxian nobleman named Ferran. He happened to have a secret printing press, and managed to manufacture several copies of the book, including copies of the illustrations. The book was eventually discovered by the Church, and a ban was placed upon it. Anyone caught with a copy of the book faced harsh punishment, and all copies were believed to have been burned. Legend has it that four books escaped the pyres. Throughout history scholars and wizards have searched for the surviving copies, and all but one were eventually discovered. One copy was obtained by me. Another is said to be kept in the vaults of the Papal Archives in Korma. The third copy is in a private collection in Silegby belonging to the Countess Lydia Wolfram, an eccentric aristocrat from O. She guards her collection jealously, and detests me, but her interest in the Book of Shadow is that of a scholar, and she will give access to one or two scholars who might show her some tidbit of information to pique her interest.
Lehan then offers this information in the form of an envelope containing facsimiles of two of the Book’s illustrations. He tells them that he wishes them to gain access to Lydia Wolfram’s book and surreptitiously photograph the illustrations therein. Showing her the facsimiles will convince her that they possess a previously unknown surviving copy with slightly different details in the illustrations. This will pique her interest and make her more amenable to them. They take the envelope with the two facsimile illustrations, and leave Lehan’s house, although they are unhappy with Lehan’s cryptic allusions to secret plots that may pose a danger to them.
After the evening worship service, Father Neale hears the confessions of several of his parishioners. Most are regulars, but after a long wait, a final person enters the booth. Through the grate he is vaguely aware of a beautiful, dark-haired young woman with a faint, but exotic perfume.
“Father, I’ve come to confess my sins,” she says in a low, vaguely-accented voice. “I’ve killed five men this week with my bare hands… and you shall be the sixth!”
Shocked, Father Neale nevertheless draw away fast enough to evade the superhuman blow of the young woman’s hand, as she smashes through the metal grate of the confessional and goes for his throat. Father Neale rushes out of the confessional as the beast in human guise wrenches her hand from the broken grate, and chases after him. He manages to escape to his office, where he locks and bars the door. As he breathlessly searches through his desk drawers, the creature bangs and claws at the door to his office. He finds a blessed Roskian solar disk and flask of holy water just as the terrible noise at the door stops. Suddenly, the creature appears at the barred window to his office, teeth bared and face contorted into an abomination of humanity, and smashes the glass in an attempt to enter and murder him. The bars on the window hold, and with a quick prayer, Father Neale douses the creature with holy water, making her shriek in agony as she leaps away and vanishes into the night.
Shaking with horror and disbelief, Father Neale is startled by a knock at his office door. It is Viktor Tegmark coming to keep his appointment, along with Mathilda, Boris and Adriana the Wolf Girl. They find a badly-shaken Father Neale, who describes to them the horrible encounter with the creature that appeared in the form of a young woman. Father Neale informs them that he has a scheduled meeting for that evening with Dr. Bauman, and Velko wonders if someone is killing people associated with Dr. Bauman in an attempt to keep him from getting help. He calls Dr. Bauman, and they learn that Bauman is in traffic on his way to the church.
Using his levitation device, Velko climbs to the top of the church and then levitates high above the highest steeple. He locates Bauman’s car approaching, and then notices what at first appears to be a shadowy human form hiding behind one of the church steeples and watching Bauman. When Bauman enters the church, the figure spreads a pair of long, narrow wings and takes flight into the night sky. Using his telescopic goggles, Velko gets a closer look at the giant winged figure, and sees only that it is so dark that it appears like a moving hole in the sky from which no light can escape. Shaken, he descends back to the church and rejoins the others in Father Neale’s office.
Meanwhile, Father Neale has calmed down enough to search through his books for images of the kind of fiend that visited Viktor early that morning. He determines that the fiend is an Incubus; a kind of devil that specializes in nightly visitations on humans, where it often attacks them sexually and sometimes murders them. He shows Viktor a medieval woodcut reproduced in a book, depicting a black devil sitting on the chest of a suffocating human lying in bed.
Once rejoined by Velko and Dr. Bauman, they review recent events and information gleaned. They learn that Dr. Bauman has had several appointments that day. Only one of them was foiled when the Minister of Culture failed to keep his appointment. They later learn that the minister committed suicide that afternoon by leaping out of his office window. The discussion leads back to the murder of Bauman’s student, Harvey Kerr, at the hands of the she-monster Sarita, who fits the description of the thing that attacked Father Neale. This leads them to discuss the cover stone discovered two years ago by underground metro workers, and on which Dr. Bauman and his archaeological team have been working on since.
The cover stone, Bauman explains, is of late Caerdolan make; quite possibly as late as the Kanderu emperors, and seems to be used to lock in a chamber of some sort. Using his special powers, Viktor penetrates the cover stone with Velko’s multi-tool, and describes a classic Caerdolan nobleman’s burial chamber beyond: a large, circular room with a high corbelled arch. Flags on the floor spiral in toward a dais upon which stands a huge stone sarcophagus with a high-relief sculpture of the deceased warrior in repose carved on its lid. Niches on the walls of the chamber contain mummified guards and burial items lie strewn about on the floor or in clay vessels. A hole in the chest of the carven figure suggests that some sort of small, narrow object is meant to be inserted there.
Using Velko’s device to scan the interior, they determine that an object shaped roughly like a spike with 13 irregular facets is meant to fit in the hole. Velko’s computer creates a holographic projection of what the spike might look like based on the shape of the opening. Viktor then begins to penetrate the sarcophagus itself, discovering not only that it is empty, but that a series of strange, metallic gears form some sort of mechanism beneath it. This leads them to believe that the sarcophagus and dais perhaps form an ancient elevator leading down to a deeper burial chamber. Before they can make another move, however, two things suddenly happen.
First, Viktor hears a low sound like a very deep gong somewhere beneath the chamber in which he stands. Secondly, the rest of the party hears what sounds like many leathery wings approaching from further down the tunnel. Moments later they are viciously attacked by the advance scouts of a hoard of small, black leathery demons. Bolstered by Father Neale’s faith and Mathilda’s Holy Avenger, they manage to fight off the demons long enough to climb back up to the surface and before the rest of the hoard arrives. They hear the demons’ shrieks and gibbering echo up the access shaft.
After this encounter they press Dr. Bauman about the “key” that Harvey Kerr and Sarita had spoken about, and the key that apparently opens the burial chamber. Bauman tells them that such keys, while rare and even beautiful, have never been given much historical value. The Archives owned one that was de-accessioned, and sold at auction. The winning bidder was none other than Countess Lydia Wolfram. They agree to meet the following day and part ways for the evening.
The next day they spend researching and organizing what they know. They decide to pay Lydia Wolfram a visit to learn what they can, and possibly obtain the key but without doing what Lehan wants them to do.
Lydia Wolfram’s estate is a medieval town castle full restored into an elegant, modern residence. The heavy, wooden door is carved with images of people tormented by demonic figures and over the door, a key stone is carved with a shield and family crest depicting the head of a wolf with the curling horns of a ram. A GnomeTech camera eye watches them from above.
The door is answered by a severe-looking female gnome who tries to dismiss them for not having an appointment. Flashing a glimpse of one of Lehan’s photocopied illustrations earns them a second chance, and the gnome leads them into the house, up a grand staircase, and into an opulently-appointed library that apparently takes up most of the castle’s second floor.
Countess Lydia Wolfram is an elegantly-dressed human aberration. Steel gray hair elegantly, if conservatively set, and dressed in a formal suit and pearls, the countess is bent by age and illness, and her made-up face marked by grotesque moles and a pock-marked overgrown chin and nose. Her pale gray eyes seem to bore into anyone she looks at, and her voice is deep and gravely. She stands upon a small, wheeled device that has the look of archaic GnomeTech, and which she steers and operates with her cane, inserted into a socket and acting like a steering column. They notice that the handle of her cane is a silver sculpture in the form of a masculine humanoid head with a wolf-like snout and ears and a ram’s horns growing out of his shaggy head. On her finger she wears a silver ring with a cabochon divided down the middle, being glossy black on one half and clear and colorless on the other. The ring is identical to the pinky ring worn by Rold Lehan.
She insists on knowing where they obtained the photocopies of the illustrations, and Mathilda tells her that they come from a copy of an old book that she inherited from a deceased uncle. The countess claims to have known her uncle, and insincerely offers her condolences on his departure. She asks if she may see the book, offering to buy it for a fair price if it is to her satisfaction. Mathilda explains that the book is fragile and in pieces, but as far as she knows, complete. The countess assures that that her knowledge of this particular book is profound, and that she is best suited to assess the book’s value upon its examination. Meanwhile, they plant a tiny camera in the vaulted ceiling of the library through which Velko and Father Neale keep surveillance from Velko’s armored vehicle parked down the street.
The countess agrees to let them examine her copy of the book, and while she fetches it, they have a brief moment to examine the library. A giantess nearly 8 feet tall and wearing a tailored man’s suit keeps watch over them as they do. They immediately see the portrait of St. Gwendolen, encased in glass and hanging between the two nearest windows overlooking the street below. In the back of the library is a large bank vault, and next to it a life-size marble sculpture in the classical style depicting a severe, youthful man wrapped in a concealing traveler’s cloak and with a walking staff. At his feet stands a tiny sculpture of a second youth naked except for a small strip of flowing cloth across his body and with a diadem over his curling locks. They identify the sculpture as an obscure Caerdolan deity known as Eymdol (“white stone” in the Caerdolan language), an ancient solar deity that was supplanted by Roski with the conquest of Kuonrhua. The tiny figure is Roski, and the arrangement of the sculpted group is a heretical reversal of the classical arrangement of having Roski as the dominant figure and Eymdol as his subordinate.
A quick examination of Lydia Wolfram’s copy of the Book of Shadow reveals that it is an ancient volume bound in black leather with no title page or embossing. Thirteen wood-cut illustrations are interspersed between pages full of text printed in an oddly archaic type-set and a language that appears completely alien to them. Along with the illustrations and texts are diagrams and formulae for spells and rituals. The illustrations themselves seem to depict arcane representations of Caerdolan deities.
Eventually, Lydia Wolfram insists that they leave; again making them the offer to pay handsomely for the copy of the book that Mathilda supposedly inherited if she is allowed to examine it and determine that it is worth owning. After leaving, she orders an agent named Marta to follow them, and those in the vehicle watch as a lean, mannish woman wearing a suit and carrying a walking stick, exits the building and follows them down the street.
They lead her to the café near Lehan’s house, and sit within plain view. Paying close attention they hear her softly acknowledge an order given through a wireless ear-piece, and interpreting her murderous intentions, decide to leave fast. In the middle of the street, however, Marta draws a sword from her cane and attacks them. They manage to disarm her, but before she can be questioned, she is suddenly flung up into the sky out of sight. Using his high-tech goggles, Velko spots her at an altitude of approximately 25,000 feet, and then falling down into an urban neighborhood several miles away. They notice the silhouetted figure of a man at the window of Lehan’s house before they knock on the door. Velko is determined to return the Tick Tock as he believes it is a spy for Lehan and not to be trusted.
Inside, Lehan and a third assistant appear to have just arrived from a formal engagement. Lehan offers them a glass of red wine, and asks if they accomplished the task he asked them to perform for him. At this point they decide to confront him about the Book of Shadow. Lehan does not appear to be too concerned that they refused his request. Just then Velko is struck by Lehan’s affectations: the red wine, his pinky ring, his company logo, and the mysterious medals that he used to draw their attention.
“Trans-dimensional beings,” Velko says, under his breath, catching Viktor’s attention. He repeats the statement, and then addresses Lehan and asks him outright if he is indeed the god Nehal.
Lehan is evasive, but never denies the accusation. He explains to them how the gods gain their power and their nature by those who worship them, and by the nature in which they are worshipped. He tells them that long ago, at the height of the Caerdolan empire, the gods gave a gift to the emperors in the form of a magic torque – an object of great power – with the ability to control the minds of others, even of masses of people, and to bend them to the emperor’s will.
This is how the empire was formed, but Roski charged a small group of would-be heroes to take the Torque and to keep it safe, and the empire fell, and no others were able to gain the power of the Torque, and the Archon of Roski granted the heroes long life and prosperity in return for their constant vigilance. Their descendents would forever carry on that legacy of vigilance, but while the Torque lay hidden, the heroes and their gifts also slumbered. Evil also slumbered, but now it once again stirs and seeks the thing that would restore the power and dread of Caerdolan into the world once more.
Lehan also presses Dr. Bauman about the Key of the Archivist, revealing to the others that Bauman’s special talent lies in deciphering scripts and languages. They surmise that his power perhaps protected him from deciphering the glyphs on the cover stone since their utterance as words probably possesses some hidden and dangerous power.
Again, Velko presses Lehan, but Lehan refuses to admit to anything directly except to say that he wishes to help them stop the evil that awakens, although he cannot intervene directly. He fears that even lifting his hand against the countess’ agent may have alerted the powers that be. Velko now decides to keep the Tick Tock after all, and tells the others that he feels more inclined to trust Lehan now. Lehan once more tells them that they must return to Lydia Wolfram’s house, so that they may better understand their own roles in the history that is unfolding before them.
The next day they return to Lydia Wolfram’s house, determined to get the key that they believe is in her possession. Using his powers of transdimensionality, Viktor enters the mansion and the bank vault in the library, where they believe the key must be secured. Viktor finds two velvet-lined drawers full of similar objects, and takes them all.
Back in the vehicle, they examine the objects. They are all multi-faceted, crystalline spikes – some brilliantly colored while others completely clear. None of them fit the exact shape that Velko’s computer generated, and they presume that perhaps the countess keeps the most important key on her person.
The next day they keep watch on Lydia Wolfram’s house, noting that the giantess leaves on foot to run some errands. While she is out, Viktor once again enters the house transdimensionally, while Velko uses his technology to bend the light around him, thereby becoming invisible, and then bypassing the countess’ electronic defenses. Meanwhile, wearing her armor under her clothes, Mathilda waits to come to their assistance if required.
Inside, Velko hears a terrible gasping sound from behind the countess’ desk. Investigating, he finds her gasping her last breath as dark blood wells up and out of her mouth. Just then he hears a crash from the back of the library and finds that someone has doused the curtains and tapestries with flammable liquid and set fire to the room. He sees Sarita, the dark-haired young woman, prowling away toward the window and smashing the glass that protects the portrait of the saint before throwing the priceless painting into the flames.
Believing that she might have found the key, Velko confronts Sarita, who fights him with inhuman strength and agility. Velko burns her by throwing a vial of Father Neale’s holy water on her thigh. She flees downstairs, but is stopped by the giantess, Tallulah, who is at least a match for her in strength. Eventually, Sarita gets the upper hand, throwing Tallulah against a wall and stunning her before running into the kitchen. There Mathilda enters through the back door, facing her with her drawn sword, and Velko corners her from behind. Obviously afraid of the Holy Avenger, Sarita leaps through a barred window and escapes down the alleyway, Mathilda in hot pursuit.
Viktor and Velko escape with only minor injuries as the countess’ house burns down around them. As the sirens converge on the conflagration, they escape into Velko’s armored vehicle and escape. Meanwhile, Mathilda finds herself confronted by Sarita, who turns to fight like a cornered, feral animal. With a single, heroic stroke Mathilda beheads Sarita, ending her tormented and murderous life. Searching the body, Mathilda finds the prismatic crystal key that they had searched for in a pocket of her black cargo pants.
Later, in Velko’s lab, they hear a news report about the lethal fire that caused the death of the Countess Lydia Wolfram, and the disturbing news that authorities are searching for two unnamed individuals who appear in the countess’ surveillance videos. The images displayed are of Viktor Tegmark in the vault and a sword-wielding Mathilda Hawthorne in the kitchen.
In the end, they agree to stick together and learn all that they can about the enemy that seems to be working against them, and to discover the full nature of the secret that has brought them all together.
MML003 - "Pure"
Ilyana Ferickje has come looking for Viktor Tegmark because of his particular research interests. She tells him that her brother is suffering from a very strange ailment that has baffled all doctors and psychologists that she’s taken him to. Her brother specifically asked that she contact Tegmark. The brother, Ilya Ferickje is suffering from a bizarre form of insanity wherein he cannot speak because all he is capable of uttering is a series of sounds that have very odd and frightening effects. The language is actually “The First Language”. This is supposedly the language of the gods and the language of Creation. So far he is able to communicate by writing, but it seems that he is losing even that ability. He is becoming increasingly frustrated. Through their investigations, Viktor and the others learn that he is being hunted, and that there is a Bosporan aristocrat in Silegby who says she can cure him. The real reason for Ilya Ferickje’s transformation is that he is becoming a transcendant being. The Powers of Darkness want him because, by using the language of the Making they can also begin the Unmaking, which is what they want to do to throw the world into Chaos and start a new order.
Having eliminated the terrifying Sarita, and having been implicated in the arson death and destruction of Countess Lydia Wolfram and her collection, the companions temporarily seek shelter in Velko’s lab. Meanwhile, Viktor confirms his appointment with Ilyana Ferickje, who explains that he is their last hope for help for her brother, Ilya, who is suffering from an affliction that they believe is somehow related to his research on interdimensional travel.
They arrange a meeting in a semi-private sitting area of the hotel lobby where the Ferickjes are staying. Viktor agrees to wear a wire to the meeting while Velko and the others listen to the conversation.
Ilyana Ferickje is a beautiful and stylish young woman in her mid-twenties with dark hair and eyes. Her brother is tall and lean with bright blue eyes. He is handsome despite looking somewhat unkempt and disheveled, and he carries a bitter expression on his angular features.
Ilyana explains to Viktor that her brother was working on complex mathematical equations to prove the existence and manipulation of hyperspace. Funding for the research was provided by an organization known as the Silver Twilight. Just when Ilya seemed to have made a breakthrough, he was struck with a puzzling affliction: he cannot speak in any language, and every attempt to utter a sound results in a bizarre and frightening effect. Ilyana quietly asks her brother to whisper Viktor’s name, and when he does, the sky darkens and Viktor senses an electricity run throughout his entire body, leaving him shaken and feeling momentarily disoriented. The others also experience the darkening of the sky, but do not hear anything.
Ilya communicates by writing what he wants to say on a writing tablet. He insists that he wishes to “find the source” of his affliction and then to “go there.” He doesn’t elaborate on what he means by that, exactly, but he is very emphatic about it.
Meanwhile, Ilyana explains that they attempted to get the help of Viktor’s mentor at the university, but the professor was murdered right before their eyes by an assailant with a strange primitive axe. [The axe is later identified as a ceremonial battle axe carried by the Varanáa tribe]. The Ferickjes took the murder weapon, washed it of blood, and kept it. Father Neil and the others surmise that Ilya Ferickje’s utterances are the “First Language” which the scriptures refer to also as the “Language of Making and of Unmaking”. They hypothesize that perhaps something is causing Ilya to change in some way, but cannot imagine why or how.
Viktor agrees to help them – at least to look into it. He rejoins the others, and they begin discussing the situation when suddenly Dr. Bauman calls them sounding terrified and distraught. He tells them that his secretary of twenty years has been murdered. The police have been called, but he is afraid and wants to join them.
Arriving at the scene, they pick up the distraught Professor Bauman and drive him back to their base of operations. Bauman is feeling responsible for his assistant’s death since it seems that people in his company are being murdered. He tells them that the police determined that she was chopped up with a kind of axe. The axe may be similar to the one that Ilyana showed them as the murder weapon she removed from the corpse of the scientist they had first approached for help.
The companions surmise that Bauman’s secretary was murdered because she stood in the way of the murderer locating something of interest in Bauman’s office. They decide to return to Bauman’s office that evening and search for any clues that might have been missed by the murderer or the police. Returning to the scene of the crime they find that the police have roped off the desk, and there is still a great deal of dried and congealed blood and gore all over the place. There are letters and papers, all blood-soaked, that have been thrown out or are lying on the desk. After searching the mess the only item of interest they find is a letter of invitation to a banquet hosted by the Silver Twilight Organization addressed to Dr. Reese Bauman. The date of the banquet is five days from now.
While beginning to search the office they hear a noise in Bauman’s office beyond and then suddenly see a light up through the blurred glass window of the door. Breaking through they catch a glimpse of a shadowy form jumping out of the open window (which is five stories up from the street). A pile of papers on Bauman’s desk has been set on fire, and in moments the fire alarm and sprinklers go off.
Looking out the window they catch a glimpse of a medium-sized, flying animal like a large bat flying off into the night. Using his animal powers, Boris stealthily follows the creature, which flies directly north, until it begins to leave the city limits. Boris then returns to rejoin the others, reporting what he saw.
They return with Bauman to Velko’s lab where they take a rest while allowing the computer to identify the axe and to continue research on the First Language.
While discussing their options they decide that they need a captive to question; someone from the opposing side. They arrange for a meeting with the Ferickjes and plan to have Mathilda and Boris break into the Ferickjes’ hotel suites while Viktor and Father Neil interview the Ferickjes.
The next evening they go to the Ferickjes’ hotel and meet once again in the lobby. Viktor introduces Father Neil to Ilyana and her brother, and they discuss the problem at hand.
Meanwhile, Boris and Mathilda scale the hotel wall up to the 14th floor, where the Ferickjes have two adjacent rooms. On the balconies they find strange little charms made of beads and amulets. Inside Ilyana’s room they find more charms, including a kind of rosary wrapped around the door knob at the room’s entrance. Ilya’s room is more bizarre.
In his room they find that the walls are covered in what appear to be rows upon rows of either mathematical equations or cryptic glyphs or both. The writing is done in pen, grease pencil, and pencil, and some of the rows of writing seem to be squeezed in between others. The writing seems to visually emanate from the door to the closet, which has an odd drawing done in red and black grease pencil. The drawing appears to be a series of strange glyphs or symbols arranged in a complex spiral terminating in a symbol that they have seen before representing the goddess Bau-Tiamat encased in a binding circle. Opening the door to the closet they find themselves looking at something impossible: a sheet of glass like a tall window looking out onto daylight. After gazing out at what cannot possibly be, they close the door.
Meanwhile, Boris listens outside the door and hears a furtive sound just out in the hallway. He sees a tall, dark man with tattoos on his face turning to leave, and after waiting a few seconds he opens the door and sees the man entering a room across and further down the hall. Boris and Mathilda make a quick plan to capture the man. They wait a few minutes, and then break into the room just in time to find the man beginning to undress. He grabs a machine pistol from the nightstand and opens fire on them, but misses, and Boris mimics the strength of an elephant to pick up the bed and slam the man with it. The blow is strong enough to knock him unconscious, and so they bind him and drag him out of the room, and out the window to the waiting armored vehicle.
Once they have their captive, they drive him out to a suburban motel where they rent a room for a few hours to interrogate him. The man turns out to be a Varanáa assassin covered in mystical tattoos. Velko shows his aggressive side when he threatens to burn off the warrior’s sacred tattoos if he does not agree to truthfully answer their questions, and begins to do so. During the interrogation the man reveals that he is working for a group known as the Silver Twilight, and that they are dangerous enough that even his people fear retribution. His task was first to kill off certain people who would help the Ferickjes end Ilya’s affliction since their goal is to let Ilya’s transformation run its course. The Silver Twilight wants to control Ilya Ferickje once he has become what he is becoming. Meanwhile, the man kills ritualistically because he is a priest of his people, and believes the ritual murders increases his strength and that of his clan.
After burning some of his tattoos, Velko releases the warrior who runs off into the night, but before their very eyes a pair of winged monsters – barely visible in the light of the parking lights – descend on him like birds of prey and tear him to pieces.
Contacting his friend, Sadira Kandivinova, Bauman introduces her as an expert on ancient languages, particularly ancient liturgical languages and ancient Caerdolan. They arrange for another interview with the Ferickjes, and this time confront them about their connection to the Silver Twilight and their knowledge of the First Language. Ilya is confronted about the portal he has created in the closet of his hotel suite, but he shrugs off the comments and questions, explaining (in scrawled notes) that the urge to create such a portal came to him one night, and that he was overcome by an overwhelming anxiety until he completed it. He doesn’t know why he created it or if there is some secret purpose for it.
With Dr. Kandivinova’s help, they hypothesize that Ilya Ferickje is somehow undergoing a transformation into a being of the same “species” or level of existence as the founders of the Roskian pantheon. In essence, Ilya Ferickje is becoming a “god”, and the language that he is speaking is the language of making and unmaking, the power to create or destroy realities. They then realize that possession of this power would pose a terrible danger to existence itself, and that the Silver Twilight is likely trying to gain control of it.
Once in Ilya’s room, they allow Dr. Kandivinova to examine the portal. She confirms that the script is a “pure” form of the script that later became the liturgical or sacred writing of Caerdolan as well as other cultures (including, possibly, that of lost Erum). As they examine the scripts a horrid creature of shadow begins to manifest in a corner of the ceiling. Mathilda fights the creature using her holy blade, while Velco and the others, in an act of desperation, leap into the portal in the closet. They materialize in a hallway of what recognize as Castle Ferickje, although in some earlier period of time. In the castle yard below, undead corpses walk about mindlessly. An overpowering sense of unwholesomeness pervades the hallway, and they decide to try finding the magical mirror that was supposedly contained in the castle, and which allows travel across space and time.
Meanwhile, Mathilda manages to destroy the shadow creature, but then finds herself without her companions. Making a difficult decision, she jumps through the portal and rejoins her friends. In the castle, Sadira, Bauman, and the Ferickjes figure out how to cast a powerful spell to transport them back to their own time, using the castle’s own powerful magic as a nexus. The spell works just in time to avoid being torn to pieces by the undead creatures prowling the castle, and they end up suddenly joining a tour group in their own time, where the castle has become a museum and tourist attraction.
Over the next few days they return to Silegby and pursue their investigation on the Silver Twilight and its motivations and plans for the Ferickjes. Then, while arranging to meet with the Ferickjes again at their hotel, an unmarked van pulls up to the front of the hotel and the Ferickjes along with Bauman are abducted. The companions follow the van to yet another town castle in the old city which belongs to a Bosporan noble and Silver Twilight member named V.I. Kanderu (who eventually is revealed to be “Princess Vidra Kanderu, a descendant of the last emperor of Caerdolan).
Sneaking into the town castle they find Bauman in a dungeon cell, and witness a strange phenomenon. Terrified and distraught, Bauman commands the guards to leave him be in a strange voice that they have never heard before, and the guards seem compelled to obey him. Eliminating the guards, they question Bauman about this phenomenon, but he seems disoriented and unaware of anything odd. They put aside that line of inquiry and decide to continue searching the town castle for the abducted Ferickjes.
They locate meet a young woman who identifies herself as Lady Maya Ivras, and force her to show them the way to the princess’ chambers. These chambers are guarded by more of her henchmen, who they force to stay away by threatening Lady Maya. Once inside the chambers they are confronted by a strange sight: the room is large and mostly empty except for two large, alien-looking plants that move with malicious and predatory intent. A large, black chain mesh curtain partially obscures a kind of stage or platform, dimly illuminated, and on which sits a woman dressed in rich robes. Her face is obscured by a veil, but her long black hair trails onto the platform. She speaks addresses them in with haughty words in a deep, rich voice, and threatens to destroy them if they do not keep from meddling in what she claims to be her coming into her birthright. She undergoes a strange transformation, becoming huge in size and draconic in shape.
Deciding to attack her, they first fight the vicious guardian plants, and attack her, but she escapes through a trap door before they are able to engage her. Mathilda is nearly killed by the acid of the plants, but is saved by the actions of her companions. Following the dragon princess through the trap door they descend into a deep catacomb beyond which they pass into an ancient cavern. In the main chamber of the cavern, a ritual is underway in which several robed and masked cultists chant before a carven image of the terrible goddess Bau-Tiamat in her aspect as Black Earth Mother. Chained and gagged, Ilya and Ilyana Ferickje are to be sacrificed in a ceremony meant endow the princess with Ilya’s power.
After a terrible fight, the companions manage to free Ilya and Ilyana and destroy the princess before she is able to transform herself into full draconic form. The cultists are routed or destroyed, and the temple desecrated. The Ferickjes and Dr. Bauman are then returned to Velco’s lair to rest and recover from their ordeal.
Later that night, Ilya Ferickje wakes up and quietly motions to Sadira that he must leave her. Before their very eyes his physical body vanishes, replaced by a barely perceptible form that appears almost like a human shape with no features, but filled by a black void with a star field. He gestures a farewell to them, and especially to his sister, and then vanishes completely from their plane of existence.
Satisfied that the threat of Ilya’s mastery over the language of making and unmaking is now beyond the reach of those who would take it for themselves, the companions bid farewell to Ilyana Ferickje, who thanks them for their all their help, promises to help them in any way that she can with their own quest, and then departs for her home in the land of her ancestors.
