We arrived in the village of Whiteheart today. I know of at least two of us that literally leaked enthusiasm at the prospect of marriage.
in name, has wits about as sharp as a warhammer. His son, the new Jarl (technically not the Jarl) is named Atli. Originally we had intended to wait but a few days before the marriages, but the Jarl (in all but name) has convinced us to wait three weeks so that he can make some arrangements.
Considering I'm only going to get married once, I don't mind waiting a bit for the marriage to be a more memorable occasion.
I wonder what the Jarl (a.k.a. acting Jarl) will organise...
Tomorrow I am to get married. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to be excited or nervous. I wonder what Turia will look like. Three weeks. It seems to have passed so slowly!
Hmm. Marriage. It feels good already. I'm going to get used to this.
Everyone invited turned up, as well as many people that the Jarl (whatever) invited. Rosaline and Aden, some people that I had not met before, turned up, as did Ariah, who I had spoken to via sendings a few times.
My old master turned up with a priest to conduct my marriage to Turia. My master is looking well. I'll have to let him copy whatever spells he wants from my spell books.
Talib managed to turn up as well. He changed bodies for the occasion (or cast an illusion). I expect that it may have looked unusual if he had of turned up in Thorfin's body.
Other guests included Xeris, Tess, Aegon, and Or-len and Lyril. Other Jarls also turned up.
Ah, my wedding to Turia passed without a hitch. She looked truly marvelous as well. Dressed in her gold-threaded Sari, and bedecked with jewels, as is appropriate for a proper Pantheon style wedding, I almost didn't recognise her. Truly, it is ten-thousand gold well spent.
Thora and Remus' marriage followed ours. They had a very strange ceremony, and quite a short one. I wonder if all marriages outide Sind are like this?
After Thora and Remus' marriage, the gifts were handed out. All the gifts were a joy to receive. Well, most of them. Maybe not the pots and kettles. Hmm.
However, I think the most well used present will be the spell from Lyril and Or-len. I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Talib had clearly had a few when he handed over his present (satin bed sheets). He was swaying a bit. I never expected to see Talib drunk. I mean, it's Talib! Well, it's certainly good to know he had a good time.
Just as I'm sure I'm going to have a good time tonight...
Virtually all of the guests have left now.
Brand (the head of the Jarl's personal guard) met with us today. On the day of our marriage, in fact during the celebration, they caught an assassin. Using their own techniques, which presumably means torture, the assassin revealed that the employer is a Larson of Backwater. This Larson, who now lives in the capital, is a merchant. The assassin had with him a poisoned blade (it causes death after a little bit).
Unfortunately, the assassin had killed himself, so we could not question him further, except via a speak with dead. After a party vote, it was agreed that we should do this. Interestingly, Thora did not wish to be present. She felt uncomfortable about the idea of speaking with his spirit. I personally do not see a problem here. The person wanted to assassinate us, so surely he would expect his targets to do all they could to find out why. He did not respect our lives, so I am surely not going to respect him, either alive or dead.
Unfortunately, little was discovered from him. Only that it was indeed (to the best of his knowledge anyway) Larson who made the contract, that he knew of no-one else who wished us harm, and that the target was the wedding party. We also got a very detailed description of Larson's clothing style.
Well, the parties over. Life returns to normal. We fly for the capital to look for this Larson early tomorrow.
Today was fairly uneventful. Originally I think we just intended to charge in, grab Larson, and then begin questioning him. However, after a suggestion, Thora asked the priests at her local temple whether it would be better to go through the authorities. As expected, it was better to do so. Otherwise the authorities would have to (try to) arrest us, which I'm sure would have been inconvenient.
However, the guards require the stated from Brand in order to arrest Larson, so we have to wait before he can be flown here.
Gurzurk went in to spy on Larson. Literally spy. He looked just like a local dwarf before heading in. I suppose diplomats have to have a variety of skills. Lani scouted from the air.
Well, tonight Turia and I get to try out the present from Aegon, that being a comfortably sized tent that automatically (magically) opens up. We figure we shouldn't go into Soderfjord, as we are a pretty indiscreet bunch, and don't want Larson to leave before we've had a word with him.
After Thora and Zim had retrieved Brand from Whiteheart, we spoke with the guards, and Larson was arrested. There were no problems, but unfortuantely he knew nothing of the assassination attempt, as verified by a priest (called the ravens - they have the ability to detect lies). It appears that he was being framed, or used as a smokescreen. It would also appear that the assassin did not really know who wanted us harmed.
So we did the usual thing, and asked Leo if he could find out who wanted us killed. Almost as expected, he was blocked from doing so.
Thora had also done a sort of divination, to which the response was "The powerful may not be wise. The learned may be mislead".
However, it occured to someone (I cannot quite remember now) that it may have been one of the Jarl's (old one, not the acting one) sons (Oskuld), as a means of discrediting the (new) Jarl. Apparently the party also has a history with this fellow, who is a priest of Hel. In the past, they ruined his plans, but he escaped. And after all, the assassin wasn't really that good. He did get caught, after all.
Thora scried on Oskuld today. He was looking around a tree. She then, after having a fly and invisibility cast on her, stepped through a tree of a similar sort to arrive at the same location as where he was.
We were wondering why she took so long to return, but as it turns out, there were six worshippers of Hel about to ambush three trappers. Essentially, Thora captured them all.
Thora has returned to her prisoners so that (with the trappers) they can escort them to the city of Norvick, in Vestland. We are flying to meet her there now.
Considering Oskuld is miles away, and appears to be a common bandit, it seems like he could not have had the knowledge or resources to organise an assassination attempt. So now we have no leads as to who might do so, though personally I suspect the priest of the Lady of the Noose.
We arrived at Norvick today. Apparently it was, until recently, a plague city, before the priests cast some spells to rid themselves of it. I wonder why other cities don't just do this? Well, maybe they don't have the appropriate priests.
There were no problems getting the captives. They're a pretty sorry looking bunch, with an attachment to black clothing. The black robes virtually advertise themselves as being "bad guys". Though I guess a lot of adventurers are rather attached to black clothing.
We are already on our way to Whiteheart to drop off the prisoners.