Arcade’s Journal -- Legerdemain, Part 1

...finally on the road to Kindric. Crellar’s Inn has been rebuilt since the incident with the fire and the doppelgangers. It was purchased from Crellar’s widow Gertrude by Beldrass Keycutter, and he has renamed it "The Tooth and Nail".

Strange portents have continued to plague this sad place, but none of the locals are able to say exactly what is so disturbing about them. Gertrude died shortly after giving birth. The newborn baby, Kemic, and his brother Kelsey, are staying with their aunt Ella. Kelsey has apparently become a real troublemaker. I must consider whether it might not be wiser to take him on as an apprentice. Perhaps the adventuring life might straighten him out.

Kemic shows no signs yet of his probable doppelganger heritage. Cambion did not register him as a shapechanger. We will keep an occasional eye on the lad, just in case....

...arrived in Kindric to a magnificent welcome from the Loial household. We met Pembroke, the butler, and were introduced to Eloise, Alix’s sister. Alix was most displeased to hear that the family intends to hire a mage named Skiltor Rune to Clone Alix’s dead brother back to life, using the finger remnant retained from the battle with the Citadel.

Lord Tarim-Loial has summoned us to help with a very curious matter. The problem involves a theater, the Legerdemain Theater. It’s owner, Kurin Eantur, explained the siutation over dinner at his inn, the Horn and Trumpet.

A new play, "Knight of Gold", is scheduled to open soon at the theater, but disaster has overtaken the production. The director and writer, Prim Glamour, has been changing the script nearly daily. The leading lady, Tivity Eantur (the theater owner’s daughter), has fallen in love with the leading man, Thesper Mermestin. He, unfortunately, appears to have gone completely insane, and has been spurning her with horrendous consequences. Further, horrible accidents have been happening all over the theater.

It also turns out that opening night was chosen, accidentally, to take place on a night of very ill-omen, the "Night of the Twixt", which occurs every 80 years. The director has been heard to say that he plans personally to kill Skiltor Rune. (The mage is a fervent supporter of the theater, and sits in his own luxury box.) To top things off, the King is coming to the first performance.

Kurin begged us to investigate, and to save the show....

...disguised ourselves as stage hands, and scouted out the theater. We found the place to be working its way steadily towards a catastrophe. Thesper mumbles to himself, and is completely incomprehensible. Tivity may be beautiful, but she is nasty and unpleasant as only a truly spoiled daughter can be. The director works constantly on plot changes for the last scene, and several stage workers in another room were wounded by falling scenery....

...we stayed late after the actors and crew had departed. Prim, the director discovered us in the costume room, but Nolin forestalled his outrage by Charming him. Pointed questions brought a few clear answers.

Apparently, Skiltor Rune intends to murder someone on opening night. The director is prone to nightmare visions of demons, and other planes of existence. For years he has been protected from these dreams by a certain talisman. Rune stole the talisman, and has insisted that the plot be changed to make it simpler to kill someone during the final scene. The mage has refused to name his target, and also has refused to specify how he wants the finale changed. This, plus the return of the visions, has had the director tearing his hair out. Prim is to meet tonight with the mage’s underlings to finalize the terms of their deal. We decided to look around a bit, and to try to intercept the mage’s minions....

...horrible battle unleashed on the theater’s upper floor. A large mixed group attacked us, made up of two halflings, a tall man in armor, a female half-elf assassin, a hobgoblin shamaness, a mongrelman cleric, a dwarf with psionic powers, an imp, and a trained hawk with poisoned claws. Our losses were heavy, for Nyquil lost an eye to the hawk before he recovered and tore the foul thing to ribbons.

Cadrienne saw the half-elf come in the window, and the two of them fumbled at each other with their weapons for several minutes. The assassin actually managed to trip herself back out the window, but she managed to survive the fall and escape.

With a great deal of effort we killed the shaman, the mongrelman and the dwarf. I and several other Defenders were wounded, and the rest of our foes fled into the city before we could finish them....

...the gods be praised! When placed over Nyquil’s missing eye, the magic eyepatch (taken from Kronk the giant) seems to restore his vision. We have also recovered the director’s "talisman": a small cat in a cage....

...still do not know who Rune’s target is, and now he will be warned that a group of adventurers will be trying to stop him. To head off a national incident I posted an urgent message to the King, warning him of Rune’s intentions. Alix sent a similar letter to his father....