this page made with the assistance of perchance character-generator

Mirian is out on patrol in the deepest part of the wayland forest, far off the regular paths and trails. in fact, she has never been here before. 'one of my favorite parts of patrol' she thinks to herself, 'finding new places to explore.' she and bigor continue on their way, enjoying the nice weather and solitude. they see the occasional wild animal cross the path they are on. they hear the birds chirping and other animals making their presence known.

when they come to a fork in the trail Mirian stops bigor and dismounts. she leaves the reigns tied losely about Bigors kneck. he knows this means he is free to crop at the sparse grass in the area. Mirian walks a short ways down the left path. not noting anything interesting, she walks back up the path to bigor. giving him a pat she says to him, "nothing of interest that way, lets check out the other path, then we will decide which way to go"

as she walks the right hand path she notices that this path is a lot more over grown than the other path, meaning it is used less. as she continues down the path she wonders why this is. not seeing any obvious reason for it she continues down the trail. the further she travels the trail, the more overgrown it becomes. just as she starts to turn to go back a voice speaks inside her head, "continue forward my child, there is great evil ahead. I am with you." Mirian stops in place, looking up, she replies, "yes Nomar, I hear you and obey." Mirian has had her diety, Nomar, spoke to her twice before, it was never good.

She turns back up the trail and signals Bigor to come to her. as Bigor approaches her, she gives the 'quite' command. she turns and continues down the trail. she looks towards the sky asking Nomar, "i dont suppose you would like to gve me a little hint about this great evil?" keeping her senses tuned to her surroundings, she looks up again saying, "i didnt think so..." they continue down the trail until it becomes almost impassable. she thinks to herself, 'this would be a good time for the spell Traceless Passge', Mirian stops, stands straight asking Nomar to grant her a boon, "Nomar, Bigor and i head into danger on your behalf. please grant us the ability to move unnoticed by our enemies." She feels Namor's blessing course thru her. she turns to bigor, "come on boy, we only have an hour before the spell fades."

she pulls her broad sword and starts wacking her way thru the trail. this goes on for about 15-20 minutes when Bigor head butts her back. she turns towads him wiping sweat from her forehead, "what is it boy?" Bigor is not looking at her but over her shoulder. she turns to see what he is looking at. what she sees absolutely amazes her. further down the trail turns into a well laid out rock road leading up to a open gate. the trees lining this road appear to be ancient. one of the trees almost encircles the gate. there is moss covering the trees and grass lining the road, but not on the road or the gate thenselves. in fact, the road and gate are so clean it is obvious that they are well maintained.

Mirian, again, gives Bigor the quite signal. she turns back towards the gate, studying the area. she notices that no birds fly over head and that no animals can be heard or seen moving in this area. Looking at the road again she wonders why the road suddenly appears in the middle of the forest and why it is so well maintained, 'is it still somehow used? if so, for what?' She really looks at and studies the gate now. she can see that there is some writing or runes on some of the bars where the gate would come together. Looking past the gate she notes that the road continues but soon goes around a bend in the road. deciding shee cant learn anymore without approaching the gate. she turns to Bigor, backs him up so that he is almost around the bend in the trail, but can still see the road and gate. she grabs her bow and quiver, checks her other weapons, says a prayer to nomar.

she goes back to the point where bigor stopped her clearing the trail and stops. anyone walking out the gate onto the road is likely to notice that the trail has been cleard to this point. she decides that she doesnt want to clear anymore of the trail hoping anyone who walks out the gate will believe that someone came to this point, saw the road and turned around. Using her Ranger training, she pushes into the overgrowth on the trail. just as she reaches the edge of the road she can feel her spell, traceless passage, wear off.

she lifts her foot to place it, tentatively, on the road. as her foot touches the road the whole area lites up like there are several torches lining the road. She quickly pulls her foot back, the road goes back to normal lighting. 'Well...thats interesting. Lets see what happens if I walk beside the road?' being careful not to touch the road, she slowly walks towards the gate. She carefully watching where she places her feet before placing them.

Once she reaches the tree nearly encircles the gate, she stops, leans as far over the road as she can trying to get a better look at the gate. The only thing that she sees is what she thought might be a mix of words and runes on the gate bars are actually all magical glyphs. She is not close enough to try and read them, or cast a reading spell. She tries looking further down the road with no success. She looks at the tree nearly encircling the gate. Gives it a good looking over, pushes hard on it a couple of times, decides it is safe to climb. Slinging her bow over her shoulder she climbs the tree, to the top point over the road. She stands up, looking around. she looks back to bigor and sees him standing there watching her, 'good old bigor, where would I be without him?' Bigor flicks his ears back and forth a couple times letting her know he sees her. ahe gives him the quite and wait signs again. She climbs down the tree to the other side of the road.

She walks up and down this side of the road looking thru the growth on the side of the road. Despite her careful search of the side of the road she finds nothing. She goes back to the encircling tree and looks at the gate from this side. The only thing she notes from this side is that there are more Glyphs that can be seen from this side. She climbs back to the top of the tree, stands, looks around at everything again. She makes the decision that she is going to have to go over the fence part of the gate.

Mirian moves about a quarter of the way down the tree, looking to the place she plans to jump over the fence. She looks back to Bigor, sees him looking back at her. She says a prayer to Nomar seeking her guidance on this quest against this great evil, takes one last look around...jumps. She lands in the very narrow space that she chose. Takes a moment to look around again, not seeing anything, she looks up the road where she needs to go. Straining all her senses and her Ranger training, she moves up the road, making sure not to touch it.

With great care she moves up the road. She moves her foot over the place she wants to place it before setting it down. She considers asking Nomar for another spell but decides to wait. She has moved forward and around the corner enough she can no longer see Bigor. no Ranger likes to be seperated from their horse but Bigor is not real good at stealth. She continues forward until she can start to hear something in the distance. She drops to her knees into a croach making herself as small as possible.

Once she determines that the sound is not getting closer to her she tries to figure out what it is. From here it sounds like a group of people chanting. 'That sounds like people chanting, how did they get here? is there another trail or road on the otherside? Well...Only one way to find out.' Being more cautious than ever, she continues forward. The further along she goes, the louder the chanting gets. She is able to pick out the occasional word here and there, not liking what he is hearing. The name of Orlandin, one of the evilest dieties known in the kingdoms. "Nomar, I am not sure i can face the followers of Orlandin by myself. Are sure about this?" Not even waiting for an answer she keeps moving forward on her belly now.

She keeps inching forward, keeping all her senses attuned to her surroundings. As she gets closer to the source of the chanting, she can pick out a few more words. 'It sounds like they are asking Orlandin to help free something...? I cant tell what though.' She creeps up to the edge of bend in the road, staying as concealed in the shrubbery as she can. Just bareley peaking her nose around the corner she can see a group of Humans, Elves and Taurs. For the first time she is seeing a Orctaur, a Half Orc, Half Horse creature. She also sees what appears to be a small Manor house in the background, that the road goes right up to. Their is light coming from the open front door. from her position she cannot see in the door. it appears to be two stories tall with several windows facing towards her. All of them dark. She focuses her attention on the people now trying to decipher what they are saying. She didnt notice it right away because her view was being blocked, but they appear to be standing around an alter. She cannot tell what, if anything is on it. She assumes there is, otherwise why stand around it?

Suddenly, one of the humans starts looking around, like he is looking for something. Mirian scootches back a couple inches and moves more under the brush for better concealment. She holds her breath as he starts to turn in her direction. As a group they stop chanting, "What!?! Are hearing or sensing something again?" the Orctaur snaps at the Human. "The last few times it turned at to be a rabbit, then a deer. Whats it going to be this time? A giant lizard?" it is obvious that the Orctaur is unhappy with the Human. "It feels different this time,"replies the human. "It feels more, i dont know, threatening, more dangerous. Like something is hunting us" The human continues to look around but her attenion is split between looking for danger and the orctaur" The orctaur still looking angry snaps at the Human, "get back to your place.we still have two days worth of chanting to do if we want Orlandins help releasing his soul," he says, gesturing toward the alter. The Human takes one more look around, then returns to his place by the alter.

"That cant be good...they are trying to free the soul of someone or something.' As she lays there watching them, she continues to try and gather clues as to who or what soul they are trying to free. If Orlandin is invovled it must be the soul of something mighty powerful. She tries without success to try and get an idea of whats on the alter, 'If i could just see the whats there, it might give me an idea of who or what they are trying to free.'

After a few more hours of the chanting, they finally stop. The angry Orctaur says once everyone has stopped. "Has your servant prepared the special feast in honor of orlandin as instructed?" A different human this time answers, "if he hasn't he will be sacrficed in place of the puppy." The humans and elves enter the manor while the centaurs gather by the door.

As she watches them she sees that the human that was looking for a intruder earlier is still looking around. Its like he knows she's here but cant see her. He looks a little more, then heads in with the rest of the humans and elves, he has a worried look about him. The Centaurs, Elftaurs and Orctaurs are now standing in a semi-circle by the manor door. The Elftaur and Orctaur are adamantly discussing something with the Centurs that Mirian cannot hear. Its as if they dont want the Humans and Elves inside the the manor to hear them. They point towards the alter, then at the Taurs. Mirian is getting the idea that they want to exclude the humans and elves from something to do with the alter. Mirian wishes she could cast one of her spells, but she is afraid they would hear her since she has to speak her spells.

Eventually a man and a woman, naked except for a skimpy loincloth, struggle thru the door carrying a table between them. Mirian cannot see what is on the table. The Taurs all back away and give the two servants a wide berth, almost like they were scared of something on the table. The servants carry the table half way to the alter and put it down. The servants back away from the table with their heads bowed, returning to insde the manor. The servants make many trips back and forth from the manor to the table, bringing chairs (one at the head of the table, the rest down the right side of the table), bowls of food, pitchers of drinks, candles in ornate holders and many other items, some of which Mirian does not recoginize.

The female servant quitely, obviously scared, approaches one of the humans. All the males leer at her near nakedness as she tells her misstress, "all is prepaed as you ordered. i have left three candles at the end of the table as you instructed. one for a Human, one for a Elf and one for a Taur." gesturing towards the male servant she asks, "would you like us to bring out the food? it was prepared exactly how you said." the Cleric of Orlandin looks at the servant, reaches up to her throat, taking hold of her unholy symbol, "yes, i believe everything is prepared how i told you to. If its not, I will give you to the taurs as a new toy." she pauses for a moment for that thought to sink in, then continues,"i will also sacrifice your man to Orlandin in place of the puppy. ... do you understand me?" The female servant swallows a couple of time to moisten her mouth so she can speak, "yes mistress, we both understand very well what will happen to us if everything isnt perfect." "Very well" replies the cleric, "bring us the food, then retire to yor room for the night. Do not speak to anyone uless they speak to you first." As the servants move towards the manor, the cleric moves towards the head off the table.

"As the hostess for this gathering of Clerics and Magic Users, all followers of Orlandin the destroyer. one Elf and one Taur come forth and take a candle. a female Dark Elf and the Orctaur move forward. They each recieve a candle from the Cleric. the Cleric lights her candle, then uses her candle to light the Orctaurs and the Dark Elf candle. As all three lift their candles high into the air, the cleric starts a beseeching prayer to Orlandin, "great and mighty Orlandin, we the trinity of races, Human, Elf, and Taur beseech you to aid us in our effort to reclaim the soul of Dagnar the mighty, the greatest of your Warrior Clerics. He who fell at the hands of the Paladins of Ragnok. The time is right for his return, we are almost prepared for the taking of King Langdor and castle Ravenstone. With Dagnar leading us, we will be unstopable." As the evil priestess concludes her prayer, all present drop to their knees.

Mirian almosts gasps as she hears of the plans to reclaim the soul of Dagnar, capturing castle Ravenstone and the king. Silently she seeks guidance from Nomar on what to do. 'Nomar, I seek your wisdom on what to do here. Should I ride to everport and report this to the Ranger guild hall? Try to gather more intelligence?It sounds like the way the Human and Orctaur were talking, if i disrupt the dinner, make a mess of it, it will stop the attempt? i could kill the priestess and disrupt the proceedings. she seems to be in charge. will stopping her stop the proceedings?' as Mirian finishes that last thought, she feels a slight tingle going thru her body. 'thank you Nomar for your guidance.'

Mirian continues laying there watching them while thinking thru a plan. 'Well...i could just stand up here and shoot her with an arrow, but i would never get away. There are Clerics and users of magic over there. ... I have two days to figure this out. I need to kill the priestess, but how?!? For now, i wait here and continue to watch.

As it starts to get dark the group finish their prayers. The Humans and Elves all sit down on one side of the table, while the taurs take the other side of the table. The three groups eat in silence. Mirian notices that there is no discussion amongst the groups while they eat. 'These are not friends, not even associates. they don't like or trust each other. They seem to have a common goal and thats it. I wonder if there is a way to play on that? Hmmm, probaly not. I would have to reveal myself to try and play them against each other. Hmmm, i wonder if the servants could be of help? Don't know if the are willing or unwilling servants, best leave them alone for now.'

Once they are done eating they all raise and join hands. The priestess tilts her head back and recites, "Great and mighty Orlandin, we ask your aid in the rising of Dagnar the Mighty, the greatest of your warrior priests. In your name we will overcome Castle Ravenstone and the rest of the kingdom Dunberry. in your name we will conquer all of the continent Inlend, with Dagnor leading us." She pauses for a moment, then everyone lowers their hands.

"Alright everyone, time to retire to our private prayers and rituals." Looking at the three groups she reminds them, "Humans, you have been assigned rooms on the first floor, Elves on the second floor and Taurs, there is a shelter behind the Manor for you." She then turns and walks into the manor. The humans and Elves follow her while the Taurs go behind the manor.

Mirian lays quitely for about an hour making sure they are in for the night. once she decides they are she goes backs down trail for a short distance looking for a place for her to sleep under cover for the night. she wants to be out of sight but close enough to hear anything that happens during the night.

At last she finds a group of bushes that look like they should work for her purposes. She forces her way between two of the bushes as quitely as she can, making sure not to damage the bushes. Once she is thru the bushes she finds a patch of overgrown ground that looks to be about the right size for her. she moves a short distance away to relieve herself. she goes back to the spot she chose behind the bushes. she lays down her cloak lays down on top of it and rolls from side to side a few times, trying to flatten the overgrowth a little. once she is as comfortable as she can be, she reaches up to her holy symbol. "Nomar, you have have set before me a great task. With your guidance I will stop this unholy coven of Clerics and spell users. I have two days to do so. you have already told me the best way to do this is to kill the cleric. if need be, Nomar, I will sacrifice myself in the process. we cannot allow the followers of Orlandin to rule over Dunberry or Inlend. Nomar, i try not to use to any spells as you teach we Rangers to be independent. I may need more help than usual the next two days. my last ditch plan is to just stand ip and shoot her, then run for it. a protection spell at that time would be nice. maybe grant Bigor extra speed or sure footedness. thank you Namor for sending me this test. I was doubtful at first, but now I am sure with your help, I can stop her." cushioning her head on her arms she drifts off to a light sleep.

Her internal senses tell her it is about two hours before sunrise and it is time to get up. She sits up on her cloak, pulls out a ration bar. jokingly, she looks up to the sky and mumbles to Nomar, "you could make these taste better." Of course Namor doesnt reply, she doesnt mind her followers having a sense of humor with her but she rarely dignifes it. she takes exactly two swallows of water so she won't have to Pee later, while watching the coven. she moves herself back to the hiding spot she used yesterdy and waits to see what happens. it is about an hour from sunrise and still plenty dark.

Just as the sun can be seen rising over the treetops, the two hman servants come out the front door. They are laden down with trays. It looks like one has food, while other one has items like candle holders and more on it. they set plates for the whole coven group. They then place a bowl at the head of the table, one where the Elves sat and one for the Taurs stood. 'thats curious' wonders Mirian, 'i wonder why only one bowl for each group'? she continues to wonder about that as she watches the servants. they put out eating utensils and mugs at each place. They go back in with their trays. They never said a word to each other the whole time.

this time when the servants come out, the priestess is with them. she is also carrying a tray. she moves to her chair at the head of the table. the female servant rushes over to pull out the chair for her. The priestess puts her tray on the chair, stands, looks at it for a moment. Speaking to the male servant she orders, "go around the back and tell the orctaur I am ready for him." Turning to the female servant she orders, "go upstairs and notify the Dark Elfling i am ready for her." both servants immediately trot off to do as they are told. while she waits the priestess removes from the tray three daggers. she places one by each bowl. She places a small pouch by each bowl, the pouches obviously are filled with something by their bulge. She then places three candle holders with thick, intricately carved and shaped candles close to the bowls. lastly, she places an ordinary candle at the head of the table.

Just as she finishes placing the items the Orctaur trots up with the servant behind him, as befits a servant he takes his place at the table. The Priestess looks up, nods acknowledement, then goes back to just standing at the head of the table, doing nothing, but ignoring the Orctaur. A few moments later the female Dark Elf strides up to the table, taking her place. the female servant behind her. The priestess turns to the servants ordering, "once we ignite the bowls go get the rest." she moves to the proper place at the head of the table, looks up asking, "are you ready to bind your souls to Dagnor the mighty? To bring about the downfall of king Langdor, castle Ravenstone and all of Inland?" The Orctaur and the Dark Elf look to each other, nod, look back to the Priestess saying together, "We ae ready to bind our souls to Dagnor, the mighty. may he guid us to victory!"

The Priestess looks at the other two for a moment, seeing no doubt or hesitation there. the rest of the coven has arrived. forming a semi circle around the three at the table they clasp hands. the priestess looks over at the two servants who stand behind the semi circle, "you may retire to your rooms until summoned." the two servants bow, turn away and walk into the Manor.

the priestess looks around at the semi circle of coven members, making sure all are present and ready. she looks to the Dark Elf and the Orctaur, sees them looking back at her ready.

As one they reach down to the table picking up the pouches, open them, pour the contents into the bowls in front of them. Dropping the pouches they pick up the daggers. As one, they slice a cut across the palm of their hands. They let exactly five drops of blood fall into the bowls on top of the powder. They each reach into pocket, pull out a clothe and wrap it around their cut hand. The Priestess turns to the servants, "You, woman, come light our candles." The female servants comes to the Priestesses side with a flint and steele, lights the candle, hands it to the priestess. As she takes the lit candle she orders the servants to their room. she and the male servant return to the Manor.

As Mirian watches this, she also keeps an eye on the servants. She has observed when the servants have been told to go to their room, the light in the lower left side of the Manor comes on. 'That is good to know. Usually the servants rooms are not to far from the Masters room. Mirian is starting to formulate a plan of sneaking into the Manor house tonight and killing the cleric. As Mirian continues to run this plan thru her head she puts her full attention back on the ceremony.

The Priestess, using her candle first lights the Dark Elf's candle then the Orctaurs. They continue to move as one as they lower the flames of the candles into the bowl. The content of all three bowls ignite at once. Even during the daylight like this the flames are very bright. The three at the table blink their eyes but do not turn from the flame. When the flames die down the three lean over the bowls and breath in the smoke. Their heads immediately snap up and their spines stiffen to the point of looking like they were going to snap. Their eyes are no longer their own, they looked to be made of liquid fire. All three tilts their heads back, spread their arms, scream to the sky, "FREE ME SO I MAY FINISH MY MISSION!" The three drop to their knees as if exhausted.

Mirian was so startled by this she almost flinched. 'was that the voice Orlandin? Dagmor? either way that can't be good. They must be getting close.

The rest of the Coven began to chant, tilting their heas back. After about ten minutes the three at the table raised their heads, opened their eyes. They were back to normal now. they got to their feet, joining the rest of the Coven in chanting. the chanting continued non stop until an hour before sundown.

As soon as the chanting stopped the servants came out of the Manor. They were carrying trays laden down with food and drink. They served the three at the table first. once they were served the rest came to the table and were served. The servants went back inside, 'yes, theres the light,' Mirian says to herself. The Priestess, Dark Elf and Orctaur eat, looking at each other from time to time with a special knowing look, that Mirian didn't like. Their was no after meal chanting this time. The priestess rose, "we are tired after our experiance," She gestured towards the Dark Elf and Orctaur. "you all know what you need to do. Please go to it." She turns, walks into the Manor. The rest of the coven followed. Mirian watches them go.

Mirian settles in for now. It will be several hours until she will be able to try and sneak into the Manor and kill the Priestess. She puts her head down dozing off and on to get some rest before her attempt.

Once the moon is placed where she wants she gets up. Taking a few steps back around the corner, being careful to not be seen from the Manor she stretches out her muscles so they dont kink up on her while she is sneaking about the Manor house. She lays her bow, quiver and Sword. next to the shrubbery by the side of the road. 'This is a stealth mission I won't need these.' She moves back up the road, watches the Manor House for a few minutes. She decides the House must be asleep. She looks up to the sky asking for a boon from Nomar, "Nomar, I, your servant, am going into great danger, to stop A great evil. I ask you for night vision to help me with my quest." She feels a tingle go thru her body as her vision now can see into the darkness. "Thank you Nomar." She takes a deep breath, crouches down, trots up to the door.

She is pleasantly surprised to find the door unlocked. 'Why not? They couldn't possibly be expecting a random Ranger to just show up..." she slowly, quitely, opens the door just enough for her to stick her head thru and look around. seeing nothing with her night time vision, she opens the door enough to barely step thru. Closing the door, she ducks down behind a chair close to the door. she stays in place for a moment listening hard. Hearing nothing she slowly raises her head over the chair, looks around, sees nothing.

Mirian looks up silently asking Nomar, "I don't suppose you would like to show me her room?" Not waiting for an answer she knew wasn't coming she works her way towards where she believes the servants rooms are located. She comes comes to a door that she believes is the servants room. Looking around, she spots a another door almost across from the servants room. She moves closer to this door. She listens at the door for a moment, hearing soft snoring.

Silently Mirian prays to Nomar, 'great and benevolent Nomar, guide me and my hand as I enter this room to stop Orlandins followers from taking the Kingdom." she checks that both of her daggers are loose and ready to be pulled. She gives her holy symbol a squeeze, then tries the door. This door is also unlocked, 'don't these people believe in locks?" She opens the door enough for her to slide through. she leaves the door cracked hoping the servants don't get up for some reason. She moves silently across the room towards the bed, pulling her right hand dagger. Just as she approaches the bed, the person suddenly sat up. Mirian sat behind her, wrapping her arm around her kneck stopping her from screaming. Mirian jerks her head up with her left arm and cuts her throat with the right hand. It was indeed the Priestess and she was dead.

Mirian wipes her dagger off on the blankets, re-sheathing it. She listens hard for any sounds. she turns back to the priestess, takes her holy symbol from around her kneck, putting it on her pocket. Deciding that the house is still asleep she moves back to the bedroom door. She opens it slowly, looks around, crouches and makes her way to the door to go outside. Ducking behind the same chair, she waits a moment, cracks the door and exits. Still crouching she works her way to where she left her weapons. sheathing her sword, shouldering her bow and quiver she trots back towards the gate.

When she reaches the gate, she stops. she doesn't have a way to get back over the gate fence. knowing her vision spell is going to expire soon she quickly looks for a way over. She finaly decides she is going to have to take a step onto the road. Using a stick found on the ground, she pushes the gate open more. She takes a three step approach to the road, jumps, barely landing on the road she leaps again. She is now on the wrong side of the road. Quickly she climbs over the circling tree, moves as quick as she can to Bigor.

she mounts up, Turning Bigor back up the trail from where they came. They travel at a fast walk, so that Bigor does not hurt himself. Her vision spell wears off, leaving her in the dark, relying on Bigor. It begins to ligten a couple hours later. The lighter it got, the faster Mirian encouraged Bigor to go. Eventually they reached the the forest road. Miran turns Bigor towards Jaffa and kicks him into full gallop.

A day and a half later Mirian and Bigor enter the Port City of Jaffa. They ride straight to the Ranger Guild Hall, skidding to a halt right in front of the door. Mirian rushes into the guild hall, shouting, "Master Rudy! I need Master Rudy!" With all the commotion she was making Rangers and Apprentices were coming from every direction including Rudy, Jasper and her old friend Jonny. Rudy demands silence and there is silence. "Mirian, what is this all about? you know not to come busting in like this." As Rudy speaks she pulls the Priestess of Orladins holy symbol from her pocket. The whole room goes silent except Rudy who demands, Where did you get that?!? that is the symbol of Orlandin!" Mirian is still trying to catch her breath, replies, "Yes Master Rudy, I know. I killed the Priestess that owned this symbol. she and a Coven of Humans, Elves and Taurs were attempting to raise Dagmor the Mighty." she pauses to catch her breath. The room burst into shouted questions, Rudy again demanded silence and again there was silence. "Did you take out anyone else?" asks Rudy. "No," Mirian replies. "Nomar told me killing the priestess would stop the effort." The room breaks out into murmurs of awe. While most of the Rangers followed Nomar, she had never spoken to most of them. Most of the Rangers also new that Mirian can cast spells while they cannot. "Alright everyone enough. Lets move to the canteen to feed Mirian while she gives us a full report. We will be looking into this coven tomorrow. Lets get all the information we can.

Rudy leads Mirian to the head table in the canteen, bids her to sit. "Please Master Rudy, before we start, would you please ask one of the Apprentices to go out front and take care of Bigor?" Rudy poinys towards a young man gestures for him to go. Rudy turns back to her, please start from the begining and tell us everything." As Mirian starts to tell her story, A one legged man with a peg leg sets a plate of food and mug of ale in front of her. She nods her thanks, then tells her tale.....

The next morning a full Ranger party of ten were mounted and ready to move out. Their are seven men and three women. one of the Women being a Apprentice. Rudy comes out the front of the Guild Hall announcing, "you are waiting for Two Clerics and a paladin of Nomar to join you. According to Mirians report the entire Coven were spell caster, either holy or magic. lets give you some back up." The Rangers look around amongst themselves agreeing that it was a good idea. Once the Clerics and Paladin show up, introduction are given. It is agreed that Mirian is in charge of the party. The party moves out.

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Two days later the party arrives at the begining of the rock road. They arrange themselves so that Mirian and Jonny are at the front of the line. followed by the Paladin, the two Clerics, then the rest of the rangers with the Apprentice pulling up the rear. Mirian, the Paladin and the clerics dismount stepping to the edge of the road. Looking to the other three, she lifts her foot, places it on the road. It lights up. AS she starts to lift it Tiner, the Paladin tells her to wait. He looks to the Clerics, Shula and Tipper, points down the road. "The light stops at the gate i won..." Mirian interupts saying, "The gate was open when I was here. It is now closed, I dont know if that Matters or not...?" Tiner looks down the road towards the gate, "hmm, that is good to know. Well, shall we go down there and find out?" Mirian looks back to Jonny to get his opinion. Jonny nods yes asking, "who would like to go first?" The Clerics laugh and Tiner rolls his eyes. "I go first," Tiner declares. "I have the heavy Armor. I would suggest Shula and Tipper behind me for their spells. Shula does offensive spells and tipper does defensive spells. I have a few tricks of my own up my sleeve." Mirian agrees that to that order thru the gate, however, she adds to it. Jonny and I will be standing close to the gate, off the road with bows drawn." Tiner, Shula and tipper agree to this modification.

The five approach the gate in the agreed formation. Mirian stops about fifteen feet from the gate, while Jonny stops ten feet away. Tiner and the Clerics walk all the way to the gate. All three of them look up in prayer to Nomar. when the prayer is completed Tiner reaches out, taking hold of the gate. Nothing happens. He tries pushing the gate. It is locked. He looks to Tipper, smiles and says, "Want to give it a try?" Tipper reaches inside his cloak to a pocket pulling out a leather case. Tiner moves to the side allowing Tipper acces to the gate. Tipper kneels down looking at the lock without touching the gate, "looking for traps," he mumbles to no one. He takes a dagger from his boot, gestures for Tiner and Shula to move clear. Standing clear of the lock himself, he pokes the dagger into the lock hole. A small object flies out of the hole, down the road, "yeah, I thought so," he mumbles squating down in front of the lock. He lays the dagger down next to his knee, opens the case he pulled from his cloak. He removes a couple items, looks at them, then clicks them into the lock hole. He moves them around a bit and there is an audible click, the gate opens. he replaces the items in their case, replaced his dagger. He steps back making a 'after you' gesture to Tiner.

Tiner smiles and bows, in amusement. Taking one last look around he steps thru the gate. As soon as his foot touches the road on the otherside of the fence the road lights up. Mirian informs the group that the road goes all the way up to the door of the Manor. "If anyone is outside in front of the Manor they are likely seeing this." Tiner and the clerics acknowledge this as they start forward. Mirian instructs the Rangers that she wants them spread out coming up the road. "Leave the Apprentice and one Ranger with the Horses, lets move out. it looks like we are support group for the Holy Trio today." The Rangers laugh as they follow the rest down the road.

As the Holy trio approach the opening in front of the Manor Mirian notices both the long table and the alter are no longer present. the Holy Trio and the Rangers spread out in front of the Manor. most watching the Manor, some watching other directions so that there are no surprises. Mirian tells Jonny to check around back where the Taurs were located.

As Jonny returns he shakes his head at Mirian, telling her nothing is back there. Tiner looks to Tipper asking, "would you please check the Manor door?" Tipper smiles, nods, "I believe this is why you ask for me on these missions. to have someone open doors for you." The Holy Trio laughs as Tipper walks towards the door.

When Tipper is about half way to the door, it slowly starts to open, two pars of ands show thru opening. The Rangers all draw their bows, Tiner draws his sword and the clerics prepare spells. the door opens the rest of the way and the two servants step thru the door with their arms raised. They both look absolutely terrfied. "Are you from the Trinity of Races? it wasn't our fault! Someone snuck in and killed her, slit her throat in the middle of the night, then ran away. The rest left that day. Angry as could be, surprised they didn't kill us ot of spite! Honest we don't know anything, we found this house empty about a week before the trinity of races showed up!" Mirian steps forward announcing that these are the servants she told everyone about. "I am the one who killed the Priestess. Did they mention any plans for the future? anything about attacking the Kingdom?" The servants assured them that they heard no plans about anything. "They just left. walked up to the gate and disappeared.

Mirian tells the Rangers they can lower their bows but stay alert. She gets the attention of the Holy Trio, signals them to the back of the group where they can have a private discussion. "I believe them. I also heard the coven refer to themselves as the Trinity of Races. I believe oir business here is finished." The Holy Trio look at each other. "We would like to go into the house to make sure that the Trinity of Races left nothing behind. Tipper and I have innate abilities when it comes to finding items of evil. We would like Shula to come with us, We are used to working as a team. It would be best if the Rangers and the former servants stayed outside so that our senses don't get overwhelmed." Mirian agrees to everything except that she will be standing just inside the door. "I am responsible for your safety." Tiner takes a breath to say something, Mirian cuts him off. "that wasn't a suggestion, I am coming to the door." The Holy Trio look at each, shrug, "you are in charge.

Mirian explains to the former servants what the Holy Trio and herself are planning to do. The former servants wish them and encouragement. "We plan to live here for a while and want no more evil in our lives." The four walk up to and thru the door. As promised Mirian stayed at the door. Tiner and Tipper walk around the first floor opening all doors, entering all rooms. They don't find anything of interest on the first floor.

As they climb the stairs to check the second floor Tiner slows down, looks to Tipper who nods that he feels it also. "Ranger Mirian, we don't know what, but we got something on the second floor. we are going up to find it." Tiner draws his Sword while the Ckerics prepare spells. upon reaching the landing for the second floor Tiner and Tipper allow their innate ability to sense evil guide them. After a moment they look at each other then they both point to the door at the end of the hall. As they approach the door they stop, giving their abilities a chance to try and detect the the type and strength of the evil.

Sensing that it is a powerful item of a clerical sense. Tiner slowly pushes the door open without crossing the threshold. They look around the room before entering. Tipper points to a barely seen item under the night stand. "I bet that is what we are looking for," replies Tiner, sheathing his Sword, he unslings his Shield from his back. Crouching down so that he is protected by the Shield as much as possible, he crouch walks into the room. Upon reaching reaching the nightstand he looks and speaks a spell, "Nomar, I pray you protect me from the evil I am about to engage. I engage so that others will not be harmed by this evil." He feels the tingle of spell being granted. "Thank you Nomar, in your name I do this." Tiner reaches down, picking up what appears to prayer Beads. Tipper comes up beside beside Tiner looking at the Beads. "I have heard of prayer beads being imbued with special abilities like healing. With the amount of evil coming off these I dont believe those are Healer Beads. Best you put them into your special bag and leave them there until we get back to the Temple and can give them to the high priest. Tiner agrees and does as suggested. The Holy Trio investigate the rest of the seond floor, finding nothing noteworthy, go downstair to Mirian.

We found a string of prayer beads. With the amount of evil coming off of them they must be imbued with some powerful magic of the clerical sort. We have secured them in a special bag made for these kinds of occasions. We will turn it over to our High Priest upon returning to the Temple. I believe we have done all we can here Ranger Mirian I would suggest a return to Jaffa to await the next adventure" Mirian agrees, turns, goes out the door.

Mirian explains what happened in the house to the Rangers and former servants. The Holy Trio lead the way back to the horses and to Jaffa. When the group hits the forest road Mirian informs everyone she is going to her cabin and not back to the city. She has been away for a while and wants to see her boyfriend culpeper