Secret Things [Forte and Chikatsu_Star]

Chikatsu_Star wrote:I have had to tell what happened to the truce militia so many time I just about have it committed to memory. I also have extra copies of the letters I wrote to Mr. Kent when all of this was fresh in my head so I can use those to make sure I don’t miss anything…
I met Mr. Magnus at the park in Shrike. He seemed friendly and very chatty but… I don’t know. Something about talking to him made me feel uncomfortable. Like a gut thing. I don’t remember the last time I felt so relieved leaving a conversation. But that is not what is important.
He is about 6 feet tall with black hair, fine plate male armor carrying a rapier and a longsword.
He said he was acting as caretaker to someone he called a princess. She was giving him trouble and protecting what he deemed to be monsters. He said there was no such thing as a friendly beast. That there were people, animals, and things that didn’t qualify as animals that you break and dispose of. I particularly remember that. I think that is when I started to feel uncomfortable. He doesn’t like mages or magic.
But I was confused. I thought he meant things like rabites or skitties when he mentioned monsters. But he was referring to what he called ‘Abominations’ which were beings that were born of dark magic and shouldn’t be alive. He seemed to really hate them and felt like they were something that needed to be removed from the world but by his definition Sir Gustav would be considered an abomination because he was brought back to life through necromancy. And Sir Gustav is a really kind brave knight who fought alongside Mr. Kent and I am sure there was others just like him out there. So I certainly did not see eye to eye with him.
A woman showed up. Her name was Flo. I don’t remember much of her other than the fact she had a ponytale and I think an accent. I couldn’t place what kind though. She seemed to be reporting back to him on some sort of stealth mission. Said the “target didn’t deviate from the norms” I think. After that, they left.

Later on, when things were looking a little better around the smithy I went to Truce hoping to bump into someone from Mr. Kent’s guild. I really wasn’t in a state to comfortably wish any of them goodbye before we left and I felt bad about that. After a while being there I started to hear some growling. I don’t know if you remember or not, but I am really terrified of dogs, Mr. Jinsaka. So I ran in the direction that seemed to be safest which was to the south.
There were dogs that direction too though. They had collars. They had killed 2 of the three guards that were there. I ran down an alley, climbed a tree and entered someone’s apartment room from the balcony. No one was there, but I heard people in the hall.
It was a woman named Sarah and an undead Knight. They were fighting in the hallway, but not against any dogs. Undeads in uniform. I heard the knight say that the main forces were probably elsewhere. I stepped out into the hall and asked if I could go with them because I figured there would be safety in numbers and it sounded like they had a place to go and wait out the attack.
We actually ended up at their apartment. They went in and got trapped in there by a barrier which I learned later was created by a girl named Kadaryata. A girl by the name of V was also inside the barrier and she ended up fighting them.
V is a really tall teenager, has purple eyes and bleached hair. I have never seen her fight with a weapon nor have I spoken with her. She is really vicious and fast in a fight. Its kind of scary.
Kadaryata came into the hall with Mr. Magnus a little after the barrier was formed. She is around my age. She has long blond hair and glowing red eyes. She creates barriers. She is actually nice. Both of them wear collars like the dogs I mentioned earlier but hers is on really tight. It looks painful and must make it really hard for her to breathe.
At first I started to ask Mr. Magnus to help Ms. Sarah and her companion but I realized around then that he was involved in the attack. He told me a little bit about Ms. Sarah. That she was a part of c cult. That she was supposed to be used to resurrect their leader but instead resurrected a knight who was supposed to be her executioner.
She was a very nice person, Mr. Jinsaka! She was joking with me I as she invited me into their home. And the knight she was with seemed to be in full possession of his mind and free will. It did not seem like whatever necromancy was involved she was in any control of him or his actions.

Mr. Magnus told me she was going to be a part of his collection. That he was ‘shopping’ to add to his zoo. That he kidnaps a sample of what he hunts to train his men and to “monsters against monsters”.
Then he said he wanted me to go with him to his castle as a guest rather than his prize… I think I remember him saying it was on an island once. And then he said he had to go and that he was leaving me in the hands of his ‘pets’ which was referring to Kadaryata and a skeletal soldier that appeared in the hallway. He also had a collar.
I asked Kadaryata to let me go. She indicated to her collar and said she was not able to. She asked me not to hold it against her. I think those collars have some degree of control over the person wearing them.
I used my magic to get passed the skeletal soldier and fled to Crysta where I ended up asking the Heros for Hire for help. We returned to the apartment to find the room trashed and only a pair of skeletal soldiers remained there. Ms. Sarah and the knight’s clothes were gone from the drawers.
You might have heard of the incident if you follow the news in Shrike, actually. A lot of people were killed and injured. I told the authorities everything I could at the time and the witness that was mentioned in the report was actually me. They even have some sketches of Mr. Magnus, what I remembered of Ms. Flo, and of Kadaryata and V. But while the Truce Militia had a better time listening to what I had to say, I don’t think the reporters in Shrike did. They said none of the witnesses they talked to said the attack was being lead by anyone in particular. And it wasn’t long until the search for Mr. Magnus was called off.

The Heros for Hire have been kind enough to let me stay here under their protection since then. The man that was leading the guild before had disappeared and it turned out he was among those that Mr. Magnus had captured. We rescued him in McNeil after he made an escape, not long after I found myself there. He has been in something of a coma ever since. Mrs. Gemma said they might have done something involving putting runes on his bones to prevent him from escaping.
We were able to get some information from him about some artifacts that Magnus’ men were trying to collect and we’ve been trying to beat them to it. The group collecting them are working as a team as they seem to have just about the same people every time we encounter them.
First there is Ms. Ruby. She is a tall woman with black hair that I have only ever seen pulled back into a ponytale. She uses a glaive in combat.
Mr. Frank is big and I have only ever seen him in full armor. I have no idea what he looks like. He carries a big zweihander and a crossbow though. The thing that makes him stand out is that he has a pink utility belt with a star buckle. I think I saw some pictures of girls on the pouches. It looks a little out of place on him.
Ms. Tisdale has long blond hair and uses a whip. She usually has V and Kadaryata with her when we encounter her.
They were all on the maiden voyage of the SS. Dreamer. So there might be some records on them so long as they didn’t stow away. I don’t know if that would provide much information on them though.
Outside of collecting artifacts, most recently Ms. Tisdale, V, Kadaryata and some new people I had not seen before were all involved in the attempted assassination of Minister Varley in the city of Progress right before the city fell. I don’t know their names. Since we were protecting the minister at the time I really didn’t get a very good look at all of them while we were fighting.
I know that there was a boy and girl both younger than me involved. The boy has short black hair and was attacking with chains, and the girl was riding a stuffed rabbit she had light brown hair. Maybe a little red? The rabbit is gone though. I remember seeing a collar on her.
There was a man with shoulder length red hair and horns there. He used lightning and fire magic. He also had a collar on him. He seemed to really be enjoying himself.
And I also noticed a man maybe in his late teens or early twenties show up in the middle of all that. He had dark blond hair and glasses.

And that is all I can really think of at the moment, Mr. Jinsaka. I can try to answer any questions you have. And if you want I could probably ask Ms. Iona and the rest of the HFH if they would be willing to give their account of things too. They might have gotten a better look at the people they were fighting for example or picked up on some details I missed.