The priestess performed the ceremony to raise Ranger Paris from the dead. A valkyrie flew in with the rangers soul, and placed it in his body. The ranger came to, and was taken off to rest by the priestesses.
The next day, she attempted to raise Dennis the Menace. When she took the gold out of the lizard-men's bag, a slip of paper fell out. Hal picked it up, but he couldn't read it; it was in lizard-man script. I looked at it to see if I could puzzle it out. It's not a very complicated language, just obscure. Fortunately, I was able to figure it out. It said, essentially,
Your commission is to find and kill two individuals. The first is the Drow traitor who goes by the name "Morpheus." Second, and more urgent, is the fool-human Dennis the Menace. The second half of your payment is with Dennis. Upon completion of the job, report to Igon that he may begin the invasion of the northern barony. Meet him at (directions), near Grosslangheim. After that, you may head back south, and gather some slaves on the way.This was clearly urgent, so I motioned Hal and Erose outside. I told them what the note said. Hal ran to tell Sven about it, and ask him to send messengers to tell the Lords and Barons about the new threat. Erose stayed to watch the resurrection. Hal met Sven and said he had dire tidings of evil. He told Sven about the invsion, and Igon. (Note: Igon was the general from the Union of the Snake who had been involved in the plot to kill Draco at his investiture a few years ago-- the plot foiled by Hal and Keef. He supposedly was mouldering in the dungeons under Lubeck castle.) Sven said, "But I thought Igon was in prison!" Hal told him that he must have escaped through the sewers.
Meanwhile, I went to the inn, where Elspeth was keeping an eye on the Drow. I told him that the lizard men had been trying to kill him, too, and that he'd better make haste and get out of the country. All of a sudden, I realized I was hearing drums. I listened more closely and noticed that the drums were coming from the west. I ran outside to see if I could see what was going on. I couldn't see down the road, so I ran up the steeple of the temple. There was a soldier from the garrison up there already, trying to see what was going on. I used my spyglass to look west. I saw a column of about 200 people marching towards Softcraft. A carriage was traveling in front of the army, so I survised that the soldiers weren't coming to attack the town. This was confirmed by the banners the army carried: two were Union of the Snake banners, in particular, the banners of Johann and Rupert, the old Baron of Lubeck's friends, as well as Draco's banner. As the column came closer, it became obvious that the carriage was Draco's infamous coach-- the horses' hooves didn't touch the ground.
An outrider from the army rode into the village. He wore Draco's sigil on his armor. He announced that Draco was coming. The rider went into the inn; I noted Elspeth dragging the Drow out through the back. Erose muttered something about how he thought the carriage was being pulled by cows, and had some sort of gruesome monster for a footman. She must have gotten into Keef's stash. Draco emerged from the coach with a black parasol, to keep the sun off, and strode into the inn. Erose ran in after. Two guards took up positions outside the inn, and wouldn't let anybody else in.
According to Erose, Draco was happy to see her, and said that he'd been preparing to send a messanger to RE to meet with her, and asked what she was doing there. Erose told an abbreviated version of her story, including the bit about Igon. Draco said that it looked like the Drow were coordinating their minions to attack him, because he was impinging on some ofwhat they considered to be their territory, in the north. The mountainfolk were fightining Draco in the north; he claimed their leader was allied with the Drow. Some of Draco's forces were distracted with the business in Stony Brook. Recently, a group of crack-commando lizardmen snuck into Bergstadt and kidnapped both Lucy and Lazlo, the priest of Vidar. Draco wanted to rescue Lucy, but he was busy with the war. He then brought up a letter Erose had written to him a couple of years ago, shortly after the business with Renwyn and the Union of the Snake. She had offered to join Draco's court, and had offered her services to Draco-- "to prove her worthiness." Needless to say, this embarassed Erose quite a bit. Draco wanted her to go rescue Lucy. Erose said she'd consider it, but she had to consult with us first. She did. I mentioned that there might be some connection with the vampire that had bit her-- this could be a chance for it to attack her a third and final time. Erose told Draco that she'd talk to his rangers (who had been tracking the lizardmen) in River's End, and we'd try to rescue Lucy and Lazlo if we could.
We traveled to RE, and took Keef, Vrba, and the Drow to Throntax. The Drow immediately started hitting on Throntax, quite insistantly. Sanjay said, "Throntax is a MAN, baby!" Throntax took the Drow upstairs, and said, "I can give you what you need. Come upstairs." About a minute later, she came back and said, "He's taken care of." I'm pretty sure she pulled the same flim-flam on him that she did on me at that party. Throntax told us she knew who the Drow is-- he's the highest-ranking male Drow spying analyst. Throntax said she was going to pick his brain for information. I warned her not to trust him. She replied, "Oh, I don't trust him. I wouldn't trust him any farther than I could throw him. I wouldn't trust him any farther than Vrba could throw him. Right now."
Throntax then turned to Sanjay and told him that she'd been working on his school. In particular, Luke had been doing some research and had come up with a theory on the nature of magic, and in particular, how magic works for the Wood Elves. Luke's theory was that all magic comes from natural forces. Some people have a particular affinity for it, and can control it, by using "the book." These are mages. Wood Elves, being so close to nature and all, don't even need to use the book (although it helps). There are two forms of magical energy: natural forces (used by mages) and supernatural forces (used by gods and priests). Recently, there seemed to be an increase in magical forces, and a decrease in supernatural forces. Since mages channel magical forces, they need to be very careful. If a mage cast a spell, and was standing on a ley-line, there was a chance that the spell could be "supercharged," which could have a disastrous effect. (e.g. difference between normal fireball, and a holocaust which could consume the whole town. I mused that maybe un-stoning Vrba maybe wasn't such a good idea, since he wasn't exactly the most self-controlled person. Erose let slip that he'd eaten Goebels' heart. Throntax said that was a bit worrying, and we should keep an eye on him, although he'd probably be fine. Anyway, Throntax thought that the Forces of Darkness were preparing to use a magical attack to keep the gods away from the world.
Throntax said she'd need BRB Sr. to help out with the de-stoning, so we moved Keef and Vrba over to the temple. They did some incantations, and the vision of a Valkyrie appeared, bringing Keef and Vrba's souls back to their destoned bodies. I don't understand why Vrba was in Valhalla, shouldn't he have gone to the God of His Forefathers? Keef came to and said, "I had the weirdest dream; I was fighting a lizard, and it turned me into stone. Then I was in a white room. Vidar was there. His lips didn't move, but I understood what he meant to say. He's been imprisoned. No that's not exactly right. He's been blocked from entering the mortal world; he's trapped in Valhalla. I'm supposed to free him. I don't know exactly how I'm supposed to do that, but Lazlo knows."
At this point, somebody ran into the temple, and said, "Help! Mayor Randolph's daughter has been kidnapped!"