nicked (Nick Dablin)
Missions
Author
Following a clue from the necromancer Knoss's grimoire, Garrett finds himself in the gloomy district of Greytwist Murking for an appointment with a shady antiques dealer...
Breaking into the Catacombs of Knoss and escaping alive proved to be a challenging ordeal. Rarely have I been more glad to see the sky than after emerging from those shadowy tunnels, clutching the ancient necromancer's tome of power. As soon as the rising sun fell upon the book, an unholy scream emerged from the passage behind me, and the aura of fear surrounding the tome dissipated like early morning mist. The lingering spirit of the necromancer was banished, and an air of peace fell over the graveyard.
I knew the Keepers would be eager to secrete the grimoire away in one of their hidden libraries, but I wasn't about to hand it over before finding out what I had braved the haunted depths to recover.
Most of the tome was filled with eldritch runes and hideous spell craft, but here and there, Knoss had filled the margins and loose leaves of the book with his notes and musings. Most of these were esoteric references to mages long dead or battles long forgotten, but then I turned a page and my eyes fell upon a scribbled drawing of a symbol that seemed strangely familiar, and a cryptic note referring to a "sanctum 'neath Fellmont Crown".
I knew they would be watching, and it wasn't long before the Keepers arrived to claim the book. They made good on their promise of gold, and I've no doubt my erstwhile companions have now hidden the grimoire deep in some lightless, dusty vault.
But gold is a fleeting thing, and I can always use more of it. So before I handed over the book, I made a careful copy of the page with the symbol. In the centuries since Knoss's time, his legend has attracted various renegade hedge wizards and frustrated spellcrafters into a loose cult, and such people would likely pay big money for any artefacts connected to the necromancer.
It took no small amount of digging through dusty old libraries and crumbling city records, but eventually, I learned that Fellmont Crown was the old name for a hill that, in times long past, rose from the boggy fields at the outskirts of the City - until the City grew, and it was built over and gradually lost beneath the district that later became known as Greytwist Murking.
Some nights later, I was in that very district, visiting Tybald's antiques shop in order to fence the rest of the loot from the Catacombs. As soon as I walked in, I realized where I knew the strange symbol from - it was carved into an old stone ward that the old man had had on his shelves for years. Tybald knew little about it, only that it had been sold with a lot of other junk from a nearby theatre. I left it with him to look into.
It's now three nights later, and Tybald's errand boy just came knocking on my door. He tells me Tybald has news, and I'm to meet him at his shop...
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