Arcade’s Journal -- Legerdemain, Part 2 ...while on guard at the theater we had a visit from Cinda, Nolin’s former lover and mother of his baby daughter. She had been looking for him for some time, and discovered that he was visiting Kindric. To say that she was insane with rage is perhaps putting it mildly. She tried, somewhat ineffectually, to kill Nolin with a frying pan. Cadrienne, who seemed to sympathize with Cinda’s plight, loaned the crazed woman her magical mace. This was a bit of a mistake, as Cinda nearly did manage to kill Nolin with that weapon.

We were forced to restrain Cinda, and brought her to a temple where she was kept on a suicide watch. As we were trying to get control of the situation, Rune’s pet imp showed up and tried to carry off Nolin’s daughter. Nolin and I impaled the imp with Magic Missiles, causing it to drop the child from near the ceiling. Nyquil used his dust of Feather Fall to float the girl gently into my arms, while the rest of the group finished the horrid thing. It’s body turned out to contain a Luckstone....

...opening night at last. A workman had heard strange groans from the basement, so we decided to do a final sweep below. With some searching we located the groans and tore open the wall to find . . . Thesper Mermestin! He was plainly the genuine article, tired and weak from lack of food and completely unaware of what was going on. We realized that the apparently insane actor rebuffing Tivity was an imposter, and decided that he was probably going to be used as a tool to commit the murder.

We confronted Prim with this story, but he insisted on hard evidence. I summoned the power of my Faerie Sight, and the golden beams revealed the false Thesper to be a pile of shaped snow, in fact a Simulacrum.

Prim wanted the false Thesper to go on stage anyway, as he was the only one who knew the leading man’s part! We decided to switch the two actors for the final scene, and rapidly rehearsed the real Thesper in the dressing room....

...the show began, on schedule. We were stationed backstage and beneath the stage in case of trouble. Trouble came, in the form of Rune’s minions. It was plainly the same party of the night before, but the members that we had dispatched had been Reincarnated and faced us once more!

The psionic dwarf was now a psionic raven, and he battled Tom-Tom to a standstill. The shamaness had returned as a troll, and she gave Glimmer a great deal of trouble. The female assassin had come back as a kobold, and she was easily dispatched. The halflings and cleric were also quite difficult to handle, but finally all of Rune’s party were slain.

As the last scene approached, TMOSAT and I transported Thesper, myself, Nolin and Cadrienne onto the stage in a gout of green flame. We found the false Thesper and Tivity facing a mechanical troglodyte. The trog appeared to be threatening both of them, and spouting real flames. I dispatched it with a Darkening Bolt, but as I did so the false Thesper turned on Tivity. Finally Rune’s true target was revealed. Nolin stepped in and slew the Simulacrum, which melted in moments into a pile of snow.

Down from his private box flew the enraged Skiltor Rune, spouting curses upon us and upon Tivity. It seems that Rune had become completely infatuated with Tivity, but she had spurned the wizard’s advances in favor of Thesper, who in turn had known nothing of her interest.

"What better revenge," shouted the mage, "than to have the man you love kill you on stage!"

Rune spoke, and a Power Word, Stun rolled from his lips, paralyzing us all. He swooped to strike! But Rune had not reckoned on us giving advance warning to the authorities. From their boxes came the High Mage of Gaunt (a mage at the personal service of the king), the mage of House Loial, and other spell casters brought by the royal retinues. As we sought to protect the crowd from any stray spells, a mage battle ensued. Finally, Rune was subdued and carried off to the royal dungeon....

...an unpleasant surprise befell me after the dust had settled. Tivity had been tremendously impressed with me during her moment of peril, and had now fallen for me! I was forced to deny her, and a sad and angry scene ensued. She has pledged to carry a torch for me, but I do not believe she realizes what that would actually entail in my line of work....

...we received great rewards for our assistance in the Legerdemain incident. The King gifted me with Triokk’s Falicardium, a mighty magical tome full of spells designed to enhance and protect one’s familiar. After training for the next level of mastery, I Enhanced Nyquil. He now has the speed of an arrow in flight, and can hover! We received a large sum of money from Zemitch Alock of Pelag’s Spellpit to copy the Falicardium.

I then put the book on semi-permanent loan to Kinxanthrias, our favorite Kindric sage. In exchange, the sage gave us some very useful information on many topics.

We learned that doppelgangers are thought to be immoral and opportunistic by nature, and that in every known case their horrid heritage has won out over even the best human upbringing. Kemic must be watched with great care.

We also learned that Snadek Bearsfroth was court mage for the Helmsford’s for over a decade. He is blind, but can see with the aid of a magical silver mask. Snadek is a bitter and sarcastic fellow, known for his expertise with conjuration magic (as we discovered first-hand). He had been seen in the company of one Nostradis Ghend. Further, he seems to use stored psychic energy to power his Summonings. It is thought that he obtains this energy using special suits of immobile armor to drain power from those with psionic abilities, like Tom-Tom and his uncle. His current whereabouts are unknown.

The Horrus Arkandanian, also known as the Horrus Incabulin, was created in a joint project using clerical and Alteration magics. I have studied the history of one of its creators, Arkadine Ancantris Surillion, Arcade "Hightome" to his friends and the Arcane One to his rivals. It was from this famous Transmuter that I derived my adventuring name. Arkadine founded the Mage’s Academy in Oursk, and three Guilds of the Arcane, one in Caegill, one in Eversink, and one here in Gaunt! It has been nearly 300 years since he brought down the Gauntean priesthood of Yorrine, demigod of Disease and Famine.

The Incabulin has been described as a "runetome", and is thought to grant spell abilities. The last known location of the Incabulin was the Academy of Flamecraft.

The Academy was first established many hundreds of years ago, and was a first-rate center of learning for generations of mages. After a time it declined and was disbanded, but was then re-founded. It soon became a corrupt and evil institution, but was then supposed to have been destroyed by the ancient red dragon Tagachark, also called "Fireforge". The dragon’s mate was also involved in the destruction. Many priceless treasures disappeared with the fall of the Academy, including the Horrus Incabulin, the Spellgems of Tamth, Elestil’s Hammer Mace, the Song of Volcanoes, and the Ruby of Cascara the Founder.

It is rumored, however, that much of the Academy had already been moved to a different location when the dragons came. After some thought, I remembered a map that we recovered during one of our quests. It was drawn by one Felzik Wyrmscar, an adventurer who had sought the Academy and Fireforge’s treasure over two hundred years ago. Perhaps it is time that we put the rumors to rest, and seek out the remains of the Academy of Flamecraft.