An Epic Burglary - Mission Briefing

Italics: commentary by Cornelius

Plain Text: a document written in elvish script

''I employed a mercenary spy familiar with the ways of old Aomer to obtain the following report. The spy is a powerful psionic, loyal to no one, and by reputation the best Meregaer has to offer in the spy business.''

Braunir's Lab has been in the possession of the Old Guard of Aomer since it was rediscovered thirty-some odd years ago. You know more than I do about the capabilities of that artifact; I know that it is first and foremost an ethereal transport device. At first, it was in the possession of the Queen's underlings; later it passed into the hands of Sairud's people, and finally to S. himself. Its prior owner met a bad end, and I can tell you more about it if you're willing to pay. Unlike its previous owners, S. uses the thing only infrequently and very privately.

''The "Queen" is Invilidna'a, the fallen Priestess-Queen of Aomer. She lost political power when the last vestige of Aomer collapsed about 20 years ago. She was also the head of a cult of the goddess Kutaro once popular in Aomer, but its prime time is past. She is pretty old now but still a powerful spellcaster. I have never encountered her, nor do I wish to. It's possible that she is involved in guarding the object we are out to take, but not likely. I suspect that she has been busily prepping for lich-hood the past few years. On the other hand, there's Sairud, the former head of the Mystic Services of Aomer, a secret organization involved in intelligence gathering and special operations. He's sometimes called "The Black Man". He is the one we are more likely to run into, and he is an extremely scary individual. Members of his order actually replace parts of their body with magical implants. Sairud has taken this to the extreme. He has replaced his entire skin with a black... sort of exoskeleton that protects him from harm. What's under the exoskeleton, I don't wish to guess. These two divided the rule of what was left of Aomer for the few years between Albenor's abdication and the eventual collapse. Unlike the twisted Queen, Sairud still pulls the strings behind the scenes over there at Worlds' Edge. I consider them the most dangerous people in Meregaer. Heh, they probably think the same of me.''

Let's cut to the chase:  I am almost certain that he keeps the item hidden away in a secret chamber of the church of the Abbey of Edvag's Repose, which the locals call the Dread Church, because of the very real presence of evil within. S's primary headquarters is somewhere in that complex, presumably in the Abbot's House, which even I cannot penetrate. The house is divinely fortified in every way imaginable. The church is also fortified, but less so, though there are of course the legends of the dead monks to worry about. I have strong reasons for believing the item is there. On two separate occasions, I have witnessed S. enter the church on his way to a destination only accessible by the Ethereal Plane, and not emerge until the journey was done. Furthermore, while the journey would have taken hours by conventional ethereal travel, S. accomplished each round trip in just over an hour. This would suggest an ethereal transport device on the premises. On the second occasion, I waited 5 minutes, then followed him unseen into the Dread Church. I did this knowing that had he detected me, he would have killed me on the spot without a moment's hesitation.

''The Abbey is a short hop from Worlds' Edge, formerly called Castle Malefic, the heart of old Aomer. I have verified Greymoth's claims about the Abbey being a base of operations for the Black Man. I will insert you absolutely as close to the place as I dare. About the dead monks, well, what is a deserted evil church without some undead?''

I avoided passing through the narthex. Entering the church through one of the many broken windows on the eastern wall is not difficult; however, the interior is guarded by an infernal aura of forbiddance. Not being of the infernal persuasion, I suffered a great deal of pain passing through the window, but continued on, the harm being well within the parameters prescribed by our contract. Where centuries ago the deluded received hope, the floor is covered in debris, which would have made it laughably easy to track S's passage through the chamber, except for the permanent deeper darkness that fills the place. I of course have non-visual means of tracking. His path took him from the narthex halfway to the main altar, then left toward one of three shrines - the middle one. As teleportation is not possible within the confines of a forbiddance, I wafted through the air to the far side of the room, and rematerialized atop the shrine. I detected multiple evil presences in the room, but they did not detect me.

A complete examination of the shrine revealed a false front containing four fairly recent memorials to lesser divine personages, which i suspect are fictitious. Touching any of these will deliver a non-lethal shock and probably also a divine curse. This group of statues conceals the wall at the rear of the shrine where there is an ancient limestone plate, engraved with script and pictograms. This is the entrance to a hidden chamber, through which S. passed on his way to distant places. Through all of the means of detection available to me, I have determined that the plate is protected by three sets of stacked glyphs. To open the plate without triggering the glyphs requires the subject to touch one of the three pictograms on the plate, utter the six words in order, and repeat for each of the remaining two pictograms. Then by putting simultaneous pressure on the three Eth runes on the plate and speaking a sentence in Infernal, one can command the plate to open itself. All of this must be accomplished within half or minute or the defenses reset themselves. It's possible that the defenses could be bypassed by someone of great skill, but such an undertaking is outside of my speciality.

An observation: if forbiddance prevents all forms of non-physical travel within its confines, then how does Sairud bypass it when he departs through the Ethereal Plane? He could willingly dismiss it, but It seems impractical to leave the church unprotected while he is away. In any case, I believe that I have over-delivered on this contract already. I await further assignments.

Here is the layout of the Abbey of Edvag's Repose. The church is the building labelled A.

(insert diagram)