Accessory - Dragon Magazine #111.pdf - Index of

For several months after the incident
Romdril used all the means he could muster,
legal and otherwise, to obtain information
about Liana’s death. For the better
part of a year, his quest was fruitless. He
channeled much of his resources into the
search while his personal life deteriorated.
Sandar Fleatis, who had been staying at
Romdril Mansion, left in April after a bitter
argument with the arch-mage. Fleatis was
distressed that Romdril had become obsessed
with finding Liana’s killer, even
though he had found no evidence that a
killer existed. Fleatis pressed Romdril for an
explanation of how this single-minded
search was benefitting the people of
Kelburn, who were suffering under the
Flaloch administration. Romdril, who could
not accept anything less than complete
devotion to his investigation, refused to
respond, and Fleatis left harboring much
resentment. Romdril continued to pursue
his goal.
Finally, on October 13, the arch-mage’s
efforts were rewarded. A bribe and a threat
to one of Flaloch’s lackeys gained Romdril
the mayor’s campaign ledger for
November-December 1352. The entry for
December 14 confirmed what some of his
other information had hinted at: Orian
Flaloch had paid the renowned Kelburn
assassin Andre LeMeurtrier the princely
sum of 35,000 gold pieces to murder someone
— on the very day that Liana died.
Romdril sent a communique to Flaloch,
revealing to the mayor that he possessed
definite proof of Flaloch’s corruption but
not telling him exactly what he knew. The
mayor panicked and sent back a request for
what Romdril would demand in return for
not exposing Flaloch. The arch-mage invited
Flaloch to attend an overnight gathering
at his mansion beginning on October
19, and suggested that the mayor bring
what he considered an appropriate gift.
Flaloch agreed enthusiastically, adding that
he hoped to improve relations between the
two men.
Flaloch did not guess that the only gift
Romdril wanted was his enemy’s dying
breath. Accordingly, the mayor siphoned off
as much of the taxpayers’ money as possble
and quickly purchased as many precious
stones as the money could buy, adding
whatever he could spare from his personal
treasury. He packaged these gems — more
than 100,000 gold pieces worth — in an
iron box and enclosed a note reading:
“Romdril, these priceless gems are yours as
payment. I don’t know what black arts you
used, but I’ve seen you do worse wth your
demonwork. I hope you rot in the Abyss for
this. You’ve now got your redress for what
happened, so leave me be!” Flaloch foolishly
hoped the gems would appease Romdril;
if not, he reasoned, then he would
simply have to once more purchase the
services of LeMeurtrier to rid himself of
Romdril forever.
To disguise his true intentions, Romdril
invited two other dignitaries to his mansion
along with Flaloch. After the mayor was
disposed of — any one of a number of spells
would do the trick, and it would be simple
to make it look like self-defense — Romdril
hoped to gain the renewed allegiance of
both Alkus Alambar and Sandar Fleatis and
join with them in an effort to again bring
about good relations between Kelburn and
Jonholm.
Alambar accepted the invitation gladly,
seeing it as an opportunity to further his
own ends. He had spent many years trying
to discover the secret to the much-coveted
potion of longevity. Alambar could not
succeed through his own efforts, and he
became convinced that his former friend
Romdril knew the secret but was withholding
it from him. Alambar’s time was growing
short; at his age and in his present
condition, he was unlikely to live much
longer. In desperation, Alambar reasoned
that if Romdril would not allow him to live
a longer life, the former mayor would die
before he did. After hiring two cutthroats
from the Jonholm assassins’ guild, Alambar
armed them with a three-stage poison —
the first two stages to be ingested with the
food and drink of the evening meal and the
last to be inhaled from the fumes of the
candle in the arch-mage’s bedchamber.
Alambar recommended these two assassins
as the perfect servants for the gathering that
Romdril was hosting on the 19th, and
Romdril agreed out of deference to the old
man, hiring them as the cook and maid for
the occasion.
Fleatis also accepted the invitation gladly,
seeing it as an opportunity to make amends
with Romdril and to pursue a couple of his
personal goals. He intended to petition
Romdril for knowledge about the geas spell,
and also wanted to elicit his former master’s
support for the campaign Fleatis was planning
in an effort to unseat Flaloch in the
next election.
Alambar’s hiring of the two assassins
became known to LeMeurtrier, the head of
the Kelburn assassins’ guild, through spies
that he had planted in the Jonholm guild.
LeMeurtrier strongly suspected that the
object of the assassination attempt would be
Romdril himself, and he decided that a job
of this magnitude would net the rival guild
more money than he could countenance.
The best solution, he reasoned, was to let
the assassins do their work, then dispose of
the killers and make off with the money
they were to be paid — all of which would
serve to further incite the conflict between
the Kelburn and Jonholm assassins’ guilds.
LeMeurtrier showed up at Romdril Mansion
on the night of the gathering. After
hiding his crossbow and poisoned bolts in
the underbrush outside the mansion, he
made himself part of the gathering. Romdril,
anxious not to give away his true purpose,
greeted the assassin hospitably, and
LeMeurtrier responded in kind, even
though each man knew the other would kill
him at the slightest opportunity.
Romdril was not terribly put off by Le-
Meurtrier’s appearance, since he had taken
the precaution of having a small group of
police officers present. He expected that a
death (Flaloch’s) would occur at or before
noon on the 20th, and he wanted the police
on the premises as impartial witnesses to
document what would happen. In the
meantime, Romdril supposed, the presence
of the officers would prevent the occurrence
of any untoward events.
The dinner on the evening of the 19th
was intended as a hospitable prelude to the
following day, when the principals would all
engage in conversation and negotiation.
The meal was served, complete with poison.
No one present detected the poison (nor
attempted to), but Alambar already knew of
its existence and LeMeurtrier suspected that
such was the case. The assassin’s expertise
with poisons enabled him to deduce that it
must be a multi-stage mixture, and that the
final component would be administered in
such a way that no one but the intended
victim would be affected.
As it happened, the third stage was never
activated. The maid was able to slip away
during dinner and sprinkle the black powder
on the candle in Romdril’s bedroom,
but the arch-mage did not use the candle.
He entered his bedroom, picked up the box
Flaloch had brought, and used the mirror to
get to his magical library.
LeMeurtrier was correct in his suspicion
that Romdril was meant to be the victim of
the poison. He was incorrect, however, in
his assumption that the deed would be done
shortly after Romdril retired to his room at
about 11:00. Before LeMeurtrier went to
his own bedroom, he slipped into the servants’
foyer and lifted the bar on the outside
door. Then he proceeded upstairs, picked
the lock on the door to Mok’s bedroom, and
“borrowed” two bolts that he knew would
not be missed. At midnight he sliced a panel
out of his bedroom window and exited the
house. He stopped briefly outside to pull the
blue fletchings out of the poisoned bolts he
had brought along and replace them with
the red fletchings from Mok’s bolts. He
then re-entered the house through the servants’
entrance. Using invisibility and
stealth, he killed the maid and the cook
where he found them, being careful in each
case to leave clear evidence that they carried
poison. He then disposed of his own crossbow
and the two extra bolts in the fire pit
before going back to his room, but forgot
about re-lowering the bar on the door to the
servants’ entrance. He repaired the window
(although not perfectly) and got a few hours
of sleep, secure in the knowledge that he
had disposed of the Jonholm assassins and
at the same time established Mok as the
prime suspect.
Alkus Alambar’s anxiety got the best of
him at about 4:00 a.m. He left his room,
went down the hall toward the master bedroom,
and employed a clairvoyance spell to
ascertain — much to his surprise and outrage
— that Romdril was not lying dead
inside his bedroom. He went to the servants’
quarters and found the maid dead
and the cook
Romdril was
missing. He assumed
somehow responsible
that
for their
D RAGON 59