Adrian: Baldur's Gate

As the sun set, Adrian's party moved into position. While they would indeed be taking the components by force, Adrian was not eager to repeat the mistake he'd made at Ramazith's tower. So Edwin made all save Tiax invisible, and Tiax slipped into the shadows.

They waited until a lull in the street traffic. The door had not been locked; either they expected Shandalar's return--a possiblity that worried Adrian--or they just were open to "society" type visitors until they turned in. In either event, there was still the problem of the two guards at the entrance. None of them could act without violating their invisiblity. But this contingency had been prepared for.

Slipping behind the guards, Tiax summoned his ghoul. The guards charged it imediately, which allowed Tiax to let the rest of the party sneak in without fuss.

Finding no one but staff on the lowest level of the well-appointed mansion, they dashed up the stairs to the second floor. Here waited the "business partner."

That worthy was sitting at a desk, reading a magical tome, until he looked up, startled at the sound of a voice.

"Die."

"What?" the mage said, staring around the room.

"Die," repeated Adrian's cold voice.

The mage made to get up, but at that point Tiax leapt out of the shadows at him, catching him at the knees and bringing him down...on top of Tiax, unfortunately.

"Ooof!" the Mage and Tiax chorused as the oaf fell on him. Adrian cursed; Tiax was supposed to take this one out so the rest of them could continue up the stairs invisible.

Adrian was about to order Xzar to break invisibility and help him, but Tiax sorted it out himself. Pushing the winded mage off him. he raised his own small mace and started clubbing him about the head.

Tiax's blows themselves didn't hurt the mage overmuch, but they did a fine job of preventing him from casting. Adrian let Tiax finish the kill himself, though it took several minutes.

"I slew him! I, Tiax!" the fool gnome retained sense enough to only whisper the words harshly, rather than shouting and raising the alarm.

"Yes, congratulations. Don't let it go to your head. Come on, up the stairs."

There was a risk of bumping eachother on the stairs and thus negating invisiblity, but Adrian had foreseen this and set up a marching order. Himself, Tiax, Viconia, Kagain, Xzar, Edwin.

As they reached the top floor, Adrian cursed inwardly at additional bad news. All the enforcers were already up here. Another advantage lost. Four more guards, plus the three mage sisters. The door guards clash with the ghoul must've alerted them to trouble. There would be no taking one mage hostage to ensure the good behavior of the others and the guards, as he had originally planned. But still, they were invisible, which enabled him to place his forces.

They clustered on the landing outside the third floor room where the enemy was, and Adrian held a whispered conversation with his troupe. Edwin, Xzar and Tiax would each take on a mage directly, leaving Adrian, Kagain and Viconia to face the troops.

Silently, they filtered into the room and took their positions, as the mage sisters grumbled to eachother about their tasks.

"Now!" Adrian snarled, and suddenly they were visible as they struck. Adrian got lucky, and killed one of the guards with a single strike, beheading him. This made the odds even. Viconia and Kagain clashed with the other two, and the mages snapped into visiblity as they began casting magic missiles. Tiax's mace connected with the last sister's knee.

The fight was quick and bloody, but not overly difficult, Xzar and Edwin taking out their sisters fairly easily, and Tiax holding his off from casting until Xzar came to his aid. Those two were beginning to bond in their insanity, forming a more effective partnership than Xzar had ever had with Montaron.

Now came the part Adrian was really worried about; finding the components and getting out of here before reinforcments arrived.

"MOVE!" he roared, even as he himself began to ransack the desks. Tiax found one of the components, a small crystal shard, on the body of "his" sister. Xzar found the second, a statuette, in a desk drawer. The third, a spell scroll, was found by Edwin in the bookshelves.

As they dashed downstairs, Viconia dived into the room where the business partner had been. Adrian curbed his temper; Viconia was level headed and clever, and would not have done this without a reason. Sure enough, she rolled back out holding another scroll in her hand.

"The actual plans on how to do it," she said smugly. Both mages cursed at not having thought of that.

"Excellent, now run!" Adrian shouted. Viconia smiled and nodded, and they continued their dash down the stairs. Tiax leapt upon the banister and slid down.

They dashed out the front door before any of the startled servants could see them properly. The Flaming Fist contingent, lead by Officer Jessa Vai, arrived several minutes later. As no one who remained alive could give an accurate description of the killers, there was no real evidence. Jessa could have pursued the matter further, but suspecting who was involved, did no more than make the standard, cursory investigation. She rather suspected that whoever the patrons of the criminal enterprise were, would give a sufficient bribe to the Fist in the next few days to ensure no further questions were asked. Blatant corruption within the ranks of the supposed "Defenders of Law" was another reason Jessa had a realistic view of things. The Fist were in truth mercenaries, after all, they just had a long-term commission to keep peace in the city. But keeping peace did not mean honoring the letter of the law, or even of protecting the innocent. That was the trouble with "law", not just in Baldur's Gate but in any city, in any realm, at any time.

In any event, Adrian and his followers took a circuitous route back to the Elfsong, and after secreting the components and plans back in their rooms, resting up for the night to take the goods back to the Shadow Thieves the next day.