You lift your gaze up towards the imposing dragon skull that looms above the center of the room. The skull is massive, easily taking up half the ceiling. Its sharp teeth glint in the dim light, and its empty eye sockets seem to follow your every movement. No doubt, this is the skull of Nymmut the Dreadful. The bones are aged and yellowed, and small cracks run through them, evidence of the battles the dragon once fought. Something tucked behind one of the teeth catches your eye. The half-elf wizard, Ianstaer, is standing directly beneath the skull, clutching his staff with both hands and eyeing you with suspicion.
You jump up and attempt to get a better look at the object tucked behind the tooth of the dragon skull, but fall short. Had you prepared some sort of levitation spell, you’d be able to reach it. Perhaps there’s another way…
As you approach the young wizard, he takes a rapid step back, thrusting forward the staff in his left hand, pointing it towards you as it begins to glow red with magic.
“Whoa there, “friend”, you know what this means, right? Yeah, it’s a fireball with your name on it! I’m gonna need you to keep your distance. I mean, you seem to have good intentions and all, but I don’t exactly feel like anyone here can be trusted at the moment.”
As you assure Ianstaer that you mean no harm, he relaxes a little, lowering his staff and stepping in closer.
“Sorry about that, I overreacted. Us wizards need to stick together, after all. I’m sure you can understand that I’m a bit on edge here. If someone could take out Auberon like that… well, they would probably make easy work out of any one of us, even I can admit that. We need to figure this out quickly before whoever it is strikes again!
We can all agree that I’m the smartest one here, which is why I think I’ve got it narrowed down. Federic the Fool? No, he’s neither clever nor skilled enough to pull something like this off. I’m thinking it’s either that Infernal sorceress, Chastity or whatever her name is, or that too-polite halfling thief, Finnian. The sorceress came from pretty far away to be here, suspiciously far, Esmer I think is where she’s from. Would she really come all this way just to celebrate the birthday of an old flame? As for Finnian, I’ll let you in on a little secret – the halfling knows magic. A high-level wizard like me can tell, can’t you? I’d wager the killer is definitely someone who can wield a spell or two, how else might they have cast that darkness? Of course, I’m a magic user myself, but if I did it then why would I be telling you all this?
Let me be clear though, and this goes for you and anyone else who might be listening in, if someone comes after me they better come with everything they’ve got, or the last thing they’ll see will be the deadly green of my glowing staff as I blast them to the nether-realms with one of my famous fireballs!”
