Some of my friends spent some time training. I spent some time working on my Malthus epic, and playing with the band. After a couple of weeks, I, and everybody else, noticed that there was a scent of smoke in the air, and a haze in the east. Vrba mentioned that he'd been having odd dreams for a week and a half. They'd started as just black clouds. After a few nights, the clouds cleared, and Vrba saw a hill. The previous night, he saw a tall, silent man, dressed in black, standing on the hill. The man pointed to the east. Vrba looked, and saw a dark shape and black clouds billowing towards him. Then, he woke up. Keef spoke up, and said that he'd had a very similar dream last night. In Keef's dream, there were no clouds. He saw the dark-clad, silent man on the hill. The man pointed east, and Keef saw a tall, black tower, decorated with twisty thorns and human skulls.
This was obviously a Sign. Hal went to talk to Throntax to get some advice. Throntax was rebuilding and redecorating her tower. She told Hal that she'd heard rumors from Greece that the MIBs had become even more restrictive. Furthermore, anybody who'd gone east to investigate hadn't returned. When Hal mentioned Vrba and Keef's dreams, she said that they should go talk to BRB Sr. Meanwhile, Erose spoke with Lord Lara to see if she knew anything about happennings in Greece. Lara said that all trade from the east had stopped a couple months ago.
Keef and Vrba went to see the priest, and described their dreams. BRB Sr. suggested that it might be Vidar, summoning Keef for his quest. Keef said that the guy in the dream didn't look like Vidar did when he saw him in Valhalla. BRB Sr. replied that the gods sometimes appear differently in dreams. Keef said that he thought it might be a good idea to go up to Bergstadt to see Lazlo, the priest of Vidar, to get his advice. BRB Sr. said that was probably a good idea. So, we set out for Bergstadt.
When we got to Bergstadt, they were having a "start of spring" festival. We played at the festival. At midnight, everybody had to go inside because of the bats. After about 20 minutes, the bats went away and the festival resumed.
Next day, potatoes.
I have no idea why I wrote that. I must have been drunk. Hal and Erose got up at some ungodly hour to wander around the town. Hal noticed that there was a small contingent of Steinhall troops in the town. He talked to the commander and learned that Draco had requested the troops to increase the visible presence of the kingdom out here. Erose, of course, went up to the castle to visit Draco. When she got to the castle gate, the gate guard was Lisbon, the (former) captain of Draco's guard who Erose decked for abandoning us all in Evilheim. They chatted while the other guard fetched the new captain. He told her that he was busted down to gate guard "for offending a lady," namely herself. She asked him if he'd ever seen Draco go out in the daytime. Lisbon said yeah, one time there was an ogre rampaging across the countryside, and he and Draco hunted it down in the daytime. He also said that of course Draco had been out in the day, during his investiture as Baron, since those ceremonies always take place during the day. (Keef told me about that ceremony. It was at night.)
The other guard returned with a big guy, the new Captain. His name was Dresden. He didn't say much, just took Erose in to see Draco. He was in his pajamas and robe (red with black dragons on). He was having a late breakfast with some of the members of his court-- two wizard-types, a soldier-type, and a woman. Erose asked to speak to Draco in private. (uh-huh.) He took her to his "study," which contained a big oaken bed. She told him all of our business, as usual. He said that our little bunch had been involved in bringing three gods back to earth (Set, Seker, and Tezcatlipocl). This was the time when the Drow were due to try bringing their vile goddess back. This would be very bad, and so we should be careful to NOT bring any gods into this plain. Thanks, Draco.
Keef and I rolled out of bed around noon. After eating some breakfast, we went with Vrba to the temple of Vidar. The priest Lazlo was there. Keef asked after the girl Lucy, who he'd seen two years earlier when Keef made his promise to Vidar. She came out, and was aparently much healthier than she had been two years ago. She must have looked absolutely awful before, because she looked like a female version of Keef when he's been up for three days straight: pallid skin, thin, long, straight dark hair. She was wearing shades. Lazlo said that she still couldn't go outside. She was obviously smitten with Keef. We learned that her problem was that she'd been bitten by a vampire, twice, and if she was bitten a third time, she'd turn into a vampire. She was bitten quite a few years ago, when she was a kid. There haven't been any vampire attacks in recent years, but they didn't want to take chances with Lucy.
Keef and Vrba told Lazlo about their dreams, and the priest prepared to meditate and ask Vidar for guidance. While he was meditating, a breeze arose in the temple. The wind swirled around Lazlo. Then, a dark column appeared over the priest. A head appeared in the column, with glowing red eyes. Vrba cast a spell, peered around, and said, "there is evil in here." No shit. As if the glowing red eyes didn't give that away. The head said, "I am Vidar."
"You don't look like bloody Vidar," said Keef.
"Um, I'm in disguise. I am here to say that you must stay close to your families. Do not go to the east. Stay and protect your loved ones."
This was clearly a bad scene, so I threw some holy water at the head. It dissipated, but I'm not sure the holy water had anything to do with that. Lazlo came out of his trance, and said, "I don't think that was Vidar. You guys should come back tomorrow."
We kicked around the town for the rest of the day. While playing the guitar that night, something odd happenned, (chord 6) made a little bit of blue fire run along the strings. Nothing really spectacular.
We went back to the temple the next morning, and Lazlo cast an augury. The resulting advice was that we shouldn't follow the instructions given by the red-eyed being. Our plan was to go back to RE, consult again with BRB Sr, and then head east.