Café de Nuit

THE SECOND RENDEZVOUS


The party--or most of it-- regroups at Odall's later in the evening.

The café remains open for business, even as sundown draws near, but no costumers sit inside other than the investigators.

Odall putters about the kitchen, occasionally entering the front area to check in on his guests.

Benn and the others have only just sat down to join Sara, Kat, and Raen.


Raen has regained consciousness with the aid of apothecary's vapors and a touch of mystic healing, but the wizard looks like something tried eating him and just didn't finish-- bloody bandages and pink, raw skin. Soot stains his shirt where the blood does not.

ELSEWHERE IN THE CITY


''Please, no...''

The Beast growls as it draws nearer the huddled, weeping figure on the cold stones...

Kat looks up and Benn and the others as they arrive.

"Well that was a disaster. But we found out a few things..."

She relates the events of the day in some detail, including a detailed description of the ash wolf thing.

"It seems that is the source of the trouble, or a source anyway. I suppose there may be more than one. Good news: its very tough and very dangerous but it can be beaten. Bad news, it can run through walls when worried, which will make it a real bastard to catch. Further bad news: your old enemy is watching us very closely, and knows almost everything we do. Can anyone do anything about that?"

Sara nods and adds:

"More bad news, someone paid thugs to come after us. Meaning we have gotten close to something or to someone, we just need to find out who or what. I doubt that is just Maytr behind all this."

Bennedict shakes his head and sighs. "With Matyr, it's never simple."

He stands and sees to Raen's wounds, channeling magical healing to restore his injuries.

Raen, quite gloomy and silent allows the magical energy to get through him "Oh, thank you." As a moment passes and his wounds somewhat knead, Raen looks around.
"So... what do we do now?"
He seems unaware of the fire.

"We have a rendezvous with Matyr to attend," Bennedict says, "I suggest we get to that. If we can take him down, maybe he can explain some of what we have witnessed."

"Where is the rendezvou? We need to be ready for everything."

"I agree with Sara on that " with that he passes her a bag* "these may come in handy as they are cold iron rounds for your gun, I could not make that many in a day so make them count ." Turning to the others"So this wolf could pass through walls at will, then for purposes of spell use the best bet would be to prepare force type spells for use against it if you have access to them . I mainly have have offesive spells at my diposal, but they are mostly of the single target type, though can be extremely potent against all manner of creature . I have smattering of divination spells as well, but only of the minor use variety ."






* 11 Cold Iron Rounds

ODALL enters from the kitchen.
The pot-bellied man ambles over to the party's table with a plate that holds their food and drink.

He looks about, taking in the empty stools and bare tables of the rest of the dining room.
"I don't s'pose anybody else will be joining y'all?"
The big man sets down the party's drink and meat.

He smiles at Sara and Kat. Mumbles, ''Ladies."

"The copy of Dorgio's book at the Grim Bastion makes me think that's where we're supposed to meet him," Bennedict says.

Raen nods. "Give me a good night's sleep to patch up somewhat and recover and I'll be joining you."

Dorgio inclines his head in agreement. "The Grim Bastion seems like the place." He frowns. "This ash wolf...I had assumed that the rain of ashes was a harbinger of Matyr's coming at first, but it seems like something else altogether? Friend? Foe? Perhaps Maytr is being stalked by this thing, perhaps it is hunting him just as Matyr hunts his victims?"

A pause, then he looks at Benn. "Have we spoken to Dennys Sancerre? Surely he would be interested to know what's going on." To the rest of them, he says, "Sancerre was an old employer of ours. Matyr slew his daughter."

Odall, still standing at the table says,
''Grim Bastion? It's that big ol' fortress in ruins, yeah? "
He turns a little to the left, looks up past the table and the party.
"Well! That's peculiar!"

Out the window, ash rains from the sky.
Black clouds kill the ruddy sunlight of late evening, bringing early nightfall over the street.
The clouds appear to be fed by numerous murky plumes and funnels that spout up from street level--easy to miss in the gloom, or would be, if there weren't so many of these.



BOOM!

The dull, deep thud sounds from somewhere outside , not far.
A quick look through the windows on the side of the noise shows the boarding house across the way in flames.

At the sound of the explosion, Raen, wounded and bandaged jumped to his legs. With determination, he fell into spellcasting. A blue energy surrounded him momentarily, clinging on his torso, upper arms and legs and then dissipating.
"I am not caught without any kind of protection again... " Raen explains. "Shall we ladies and gentlemen?" Then he headed toward the door.