After the second bell rings in the evening shift, a gathering of Hoods coalesces near the city center near the mine entrances.
They are about a hundred strong and are bearing banners protesting the presence of witches, even “healed” witches, in town. Chanting slogans of outrage they march down the Nobles Row and hook north directly past the Salt House, pausing to let stragglers gather and for the Slenderman and a raven-haired youth to deliver another oration about the unnatural nature of witches and their causing the Upheaval.
The Troupe regards all of this from the walls of the Salt House impassively.
October 7, 7761
Mar’Khabazza goes to the meat smoker to talk with the Dark Cleric. He asks her for more details about the exorcism and she replies, “This was no exorcism. A powerful demon sprit or a spirit of the undeath exhibiting the type of power and control that this creature manifests must exhibit some form of will. It’s high level tactical ability demonstrates he ability to resist short-term temptation in order to accomplish long term goals and this is due to will. However, his creature had no detectable will.”
“So this creature must be controlled by something else in order to function, then?”
“Exactly.”
“So we have not yet faced the creature controlling this thing.”
“No. Most likely no.”
While Mar’Khabazza is speaking with the Ghost Whisperer, Ravenna spends the day in the library, researching Duergar history and learning about metallurgy. On her way back to the Salt House she spots a shadowing figure dressed in black on her trail, stalking her path. She dashes into a dark alley and durns invisible and flies into the night sky to observe this figure more closely. With Ravenna’s trail lost, the figure makes its way to the Salt House and begins surveying the grounds and peering into windows. From her invisible perch dozens of feet up, Ravenna first tries a sleep spell to render the creature helpless but it resists her enchantment. She then sends a shock bolt into it with a crack of thunder, striking it in the back. Instantly, the creature spirints to the northern border of Opal and disappears into the craggy hills there.
Upon her return home, Ravenna relates her tail and Naisha recognizes the tracks under the windows as those of a large Sudaar, maybe a large Red or perhaps a White. Magnus and Naisha track the monster into the monastery hills but decide to abandon the search as light fades and the winder night approaches.
October 8, 7761
Mar’Khabazza and Ravenna spend the day provisioning her new forge and Ravenna buys smelted steel ingots to work into crafted weapons.
That night, Sentinel Jarad emits a bloodcurdling scream from his post near the front door and there is a massive crash. There is a stomping a crashing as a beat moves through the downstairs, flinging furniture about. Magnus is instantly awake and he grabs weapons at random and hurries downstairs. As the house stirs to wakefulness, he quickly ferries Masha the Steward, Lotwil Veriatus the Doorman and Sentinel Fengus into the south wing of the Salt House among the provisions and supplies before aiding in the defense.
Mar’Khabazza wakes in his room and stealthily makes his way to the commotion and sees a White Sudaar, an arokaar rampaging through the formal dining room. Mar’Khabazza attacks from the shadows, wounding the sudaar. But is attack triggers some kind of tattoo on the skin of the sudaar and a blast of something explodes from the creature and catches Mar’Khabazza in a blast of swirling energy similar to the phenomenon found in the Star Chamber within the renegade Duergar enclave in the mines. As the duo battle, Ravenna and Magnus arrive on the scene and engage – Magnus with a pair of daggers and Ravenna with salvos of firebolts and shockbolts. The sudaar puts up stiff resistance but is eventually overwhelmed.
As it falls, there is a scream of noise and a swirling blackness like a tear in reality explodes out of the fallen creature and shrieks into the night.
They summon the watch and a squad of men arrive led by Senior Sergeant Joktuk. As the watch gets to work in their investigation, Joktuk looks at the corpse of the sudaar and is surprised and concerned about it’s presence. He lights a pipe and comments in accented common that, “there haven’t been Sudaar in the mulpara mountains since the Jewell cities were founded almost fifty years ago.”
Upon reflection, Mar’Khabazza recognizes the noise and confusion of the departing creature as the same phenomenon as that described by Abigail the “Ghost Whisperer”. But he keeps that knowledge to himself.
October 9, 7761
As dawn turns into day with the shrill steam whistle, Masha makes the final arrangements for the slain guard and a funeral is held in town for him. Mar’Khabazza also gives Masha funds for hiring a new guard, but no one is interested in working for the Salt House.
Today also marks the day that Ravenna’s forge is finished and the stonesmason depart. She uses her new alchemical spells to forge a new claymore for Magnus. Mar’Khabazza is immediately lured to the promise of profit from Ravenna’s ability to magically forge high quality weapons from steel ingots. Over the next few days they discuss ways of laundering any potential flow of weapons such that the weapons aren’t traced back to Ravenna’s use of Essence to smith them. Ravenna also crafts a steel broadsword for Sentinel Fengus, the day watchman, who is certain that Ravenna still maintains her power over Essence but remains silent due to the gift of the sword.
Reflecting on their allies, they decide to approach the secretive House Tesper with a “sampling of antique blades” and ask Tesper to be the face of the enterprise, offering a steady flow of merchandise and a percentage of the profits as long as Salt House involvement is left out of it. The meeting is tense as neither party budges on the issue of percentages, but ultimately an arrangement is made with Tesper agreeing to move the merchandise with no questions asked.
October 15, 7761
The Salt House has a visitor in the middle of a stormy night.
Quite without warning the snow leopard appears on the third floor balcony next to the armory where Magnus sleeps. It is bloody and covered with wounds and settles into Mar’Khabazza’s study, resisting any attempts at communication but accepting healing spells from Magnus and Ravenna with a cat’s studied indifference.