A long way up and more legal entanglements…

The trip to Egypt continued. Off to the north could be seen the large volcano shaped mound where they had seen the odd ant like creatures. To the south a tall vertical spire came in to view. Avoiding the creatures they veered south to investigate the spire. As they got closer they could see it was a solid rock formation reaching up vertically. It was not something hewn from the rock but something that had occurred naturally. A set of switchback stairs along the outside revealed itself as they came close.

The wagon was parked a little distance away from the base of the stairs. A search party was designated to find out what they could about this odd formation. Jade, Rispin, Rennala and Halrfond began their ascent. The stairs appeared to be carved from the natural sandstone. They were about 5 feet wide and easily traversed. They rose in a zig zag, switchback arrangement with a wear pattern on them that revealed past travelers up and down the flight. The wear pattern shrank from a wide dispersal across the steps to a very narrow track in the middle. Up the four went, stepping carefully, staying as comfortably away from the edge as they could. On their climb they checked for possible secret doors, unsuccessfully.

On the fifth flight in the switchback Halrfond tried to take a step and caught himself as his foot went through the stair he could have sworn was there. An attempt to disbelieve revealed the missing gap of steps leaving about 20 feet of the course missing. Jade used a Knock spell, thinking there might be a secret passage here but it revealed nothing. An inspection of the area revealed a wear pattern in the stone reaching straight up to the stairs they could see above. As they debated their next move a sheet of parchment came floating down where Halrfond caught it. The note was written in a language they could not read. Rispin tried a Comprehend Languages but was unsuccessful. Jade’s worked revealing a simple sentence. “Are you trying to come up?” The answer “Yes” was shouted up. The response was a rope ladder dropping down exactly along the path of the wear mark along the stone. Halrfond was the first up. He climbed the ladder, reaching the top he was helped up by an older man bearing odd facial features. Features now very familiar to the party that had headed west. Surprisingly, the man recognized Jade, welcoming her by addressing her as ‘your highness’.

The man introduced himself as Shin Liu and welcomed them to his home. Jade had obvious questions, none of which he could truly answer. Only that he had recognized her from his time spent in Simbala years in the past. Sadly, he had no knowledge of the current situation in her home kingdom. Rispin asked for permission to use Capture Image spells to gather the sights from the top of the spire to provide them information on the surrounding area. Rennala took a moment to write a note saying they were fine, attached it to an arrow and shot it down to the group below. The top of the spire was about 100 feet in diameter. Shin Liu’s residence was a humble flat roofed stone building with a training area along the side. The training materials were decidedly of Oriental lineage. During their discussion he revealed he did train people in the Martial Arts. Halrfond expressed his interest and Shin Liu agreed to evaluate if he would take him on as a student. The others left the spire, rejoining their party below while Halrfond stayed up. They slept the night and began the test in the morning. It was exhaustive and exhausting probing his agility, strength and mind. To his delight, Shin Liu agreed to accept him as a student. Halrfond came down, spent from the test, and they group moved on, heading east towards Egypt.

It took one more day to reach the city. It was encircled by a finely crafted high stone wall that reached from the marshes to the ocean. There was a line at the checkpoint where they waited patiently. As strangers they were greeted with far more suspicion than any of the others they saw pass through. The questions were more pointed. And when they announced to the guards they were bearing a message and a crate for High Priest Leopuld the attention of the guards became very focused. One of the guards was assigned to escort them to the Temple of the Sun to deliver the package and letters for the temples and then to the police station to see the man. In custody on a murder charge.

They arrived at the temple. Gwyn was appropriately awe struck at the resplendence of the structure. He asked to look around and eventually inquired about receiving training. They gathered what information they could about the current problem. Leopuld was charged with murder. One of the church faithful had been found dead in his chambers. The only evidence they were aware of was a strip of cloth that appeared to come from his robed streaked with blood from the victim. Finishing their business at the temple they moved on to the police station. Jade and Gwyn went in to see the High Priest. They spoke about the situation, got as much info as they could and were cleared by the police to travel about the city unaccompanied. The man murdered was a highly respected member of the congregation. His name was Assan. A family man who worked at a local furniture shop and performed handy man assistance to the families living near him. Leopuld advised them to stay away from the area where Kozmo’s family lived and extremely influential as there were unresolved issues between them. With this information in hand they moved on.

Wandering the city they found a very nice hotel near the temple to stay at, planning for some time to be spent here they were welcomed graciously. Rispin took the time to bring the glowing rock gathered from the caves to an alchemist to inspect. The rock had no special properties he could detect and nor was it a mineral he could identify. Gwyn returned to the temple to deliver the letters they carried, gathered by Kozmo from the churches in Midway to be delivered to the various temples here in Egypt. While there he continued his prayers offering to conduct the service for the deceased. At the service there was one man obviously not as emotional as the others. A quick conversation revealed this man did not think Assan was as nice a mand as the others did. He told them to go visit his job to find out. Halrfond joined Gwyn at the church. He offered his services as a bard, playing their music outside the temple, using his psionic ability to scan people as they passed for any suspicious items.

Jade and Lilliane visited the Habib’s furniture shop only to find the owner who spoke glowingly about Assan. He also mentioned the evidence seemed inappropriate to him. The strip of cloth found should not have ripped as it did and Habib questioned its authenticity. The others had Gwyn approach the temple priests asking about the work around the homes Assan did. Would it be ok for them to pick up some of the slack caused by his loss with the blessing of the church. It was given with all good thoughts and thanks. The party was directed to his home in the center of the city… the neighborhood of Kozmo’s family and the exact area they were trying to avoid.

And now.... another Halrfond original bardic tale.....

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