Alea pauses and looks at the man. Now she is in a quandry. She will admit a high magic user or cleric could trick her, and overpower what few spells she has.

She puts hers hand to her holy symbol and silently calls on Corellon's guidance. (I have no spells that can reveal any duplicity by Alacran.)

Location: Northpoint Road – Leeside Way Inn
Date/Time: Day Three - Early Morning
"Sir," Alea, give Alacran a long look confirming her previous assessment of him, then she speaks so that only those at their table can hear. "it seems our respective Deities have brought us here, to this world, to deal with the problem of the Dark One."

Alea quickly, yet succinctly begins at the very beginning of them being whisped here by their deities and then quickly and carefully related everything that had happened to them from waking in the ridge overlooking the ocean to this moment.

"Unfortunately Siliwen has been targeted from the beginning with twisted nightmares and the like. Last night the Wolves that attacked us were after her and when the failed, this elaborate scheme was contrived to get rid of her."
While Alea and Siliwen relates their tale, Karl comes out and brings a hearty breakfast to the table, eggs, bacon, bread, milk and honey. He will also get any other drinks anyone asks of him. He does not interrupt the tale, only bringing in quickly what is needed and withdrawing back to the kitchen. Soon he is fetching more food for other patrons that have come down to eat, all sitting at tables out of earshot of the groups table giving them their privacy.

Alacran sat quietly, sipping his wine but not partaking of the food; he says he had already dined before arriving. He listened intently to everything Alea and Siliwen said, nodding slightly now and then as if understanding all she related to him. When she was finished he drained the last draught from his glass and refilled it from his decanter, again he offered it to anyone who wished any. He sat in silent contemplation for a few long moments as people finished up their meals.

With this said Riddle gets up and leaves the table to go sit back down with the others, right next to Alacran to be specific hands casually resting on the hilts of his scimitars. Stating with out missing a beat,

"Forgive me for my rude interruption I had some personal business to attend to with my rather large friend here a, little wager that I have lost."

After this has been said Riddle just sits in silence watching, listening and waiting.

"Yes he lost and we were simply discussing the payment. I believe it was 1 gold piece was it not? I guess you will be paying me that now." Billy smiled, winked at Riddle and thought himself very smart for his little trick.
Alacran nodded slightly as he appeared lost in thought, other than the nod he doesn’t appear to notice anything unusual like Riddle’s hands on the hilts of his weapons.

Alea pauses and looks at the man. Now she is in a quandry. She will admit a high magic user or cleric could trick her, and overpower what few spells she has.

She puts hers hand to her holy symbol and silently calls on Corellon's guidance.
Alea feels nothing in response to her silent prayer, not even the normally warm feeling she gets when she just seeks the comforting presence of her god.

Finally Alacran takes another sip of wine, looks up at Siliwen and leaning forward he sits his glass on the table.

“I believe the guilt you feel at your mentor’s death has drawn the agents of the Dark One to you,” he says softly to her, “I have no doubt that you have been marked in some way and it keeps them aware of your location.”

Alacran slowly rises to his feet, leaving his staff leaning against the wall where he sat. He walks around the table to stand before Siliwen, looking down into her face as he smiles softly at her.

“If I may,” he asks, “I will cast a minor enchantment to see if you are indeed marked.” Alacran slowly raises his hands in front of him he closes his eyes for a few seconds, the party feel nothing evil or wrong in his intent. A soft warm glow spreads over his hands, emanating from them, the glow grows in the air until it touches Siliwen’s forehead.

She feels nothing other than a slightly warmth where the glow touches her skin. Slowly the rest of the group can see something begin to appear on Siliwen’s forehead inside the glow. Alacran opens his eyes and the glow fades, but the mark on Siliwen’s forehead remains.

The symbol looks very much like a stylish letter S laying on it’s side glowing slightly in a blood red color. It remains for several seconds after Alacran stopped his spell, then it slowly fades away.

“As I thought,“ Alacran says with a sigh, “the mark of the Shelnak..that is how they have been finding you and as long as you wear it they will continue to find you.” He returns to his seat looking at Siliwen then the rest of the group.

“Evil Magic,“ Thor grumbles as he picks up the mug of ale he ordered for his breakfast. He looks at the others before taking a long pull on his drink, slamming the mug down on the table he wipes the froth from his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Well?” Thor asks, “What we going to do? We wont get far with these beasties on our tail every step of the way.”

As the party sits in silence pondering this question, Alacran clears his throat slightly.

“I may be able to help you,” he says looking at Siliwen again, “If you will let me.” His gaze turns to Riddle sitting next to him, his hands on the hilt of his swords. “I get the impression everyone here isn’t to trusting or grateful for the help I have given thus far.”

He sits back looking around at all of them again, a slight hurt look upon his face.

“I have a spell that I may be able to remove or at least block the tracking glyph on her and allow you to go on your way without them being aware of your every move,” he states as his gaze settles on Siliwen again, “of course you will have to trust me to attempt it.”

He picks up his glass again, sipping his wine waiting on them to make a decision. Do they trust his mage who they just met, one who saved them from a mob intent on lynching Siliwen for murder, one who thus far has shown no reason to harm any of them?

Alea looks about the menbers of the group and sees the demeanor of Riddle.

"Riddle, do you have some issue with what what Alacran has done or revealed? If so, speak out So that we might all hear your.....misgivings."

Riddle may or may not but I have some doubts. Why should we trust this stranger? So far we have found precious few allies and many enemies. Please do not take this the wrong way but there is no way to know if you were marked before or if you were just marked now. Is the mark a good thing placed by the old woman or an evil thing as claimed now? I make no secret that I am distrustful of mages. It is your head that is marked and if you wish to do as he asks that is your choice. As for me, I will be waiting outside whenever we are ready to go." With that Billy took a piece of bread and chunk of cheese and walked out of the inn.

" I side with billy in this matter though i will not leave siliwens side no matter her decision. Although would like to point out a couple of factors. First being the most disturbing to me there are no animals out side not a sound made by insect or animal kind, I find this odd do you not? Why would there be no sound riddle me that what would he have to gain? Plus i also know that there was a man out in the woods contoling the wolves, we have all come to exept that have we not? So who is to say this man is not that man?" riddle pauses and looks Siliwen directly in the eyes, his showing nothing but care and concern " ultimatly it is you decision, know that i will stand by you no matter what one you make, but these are things i want you and the whole group to think about."

with this riddle eases back into his chair and relaxes still watching and waiting his hands no longer on his weapons

"Siliwen looks to her friends the onws so far that have trusted her and have protected her. "YOur are correct Riddle we were told to trust ourselves and honestly I cannot say if this man is good or evil." HEr shoulders drop a bit as she says it becauswe the hope that had flared in her was not quite dampened by her friends questions.

She turns to the man. "I know not the turth behind you actions. Your offer sounds generous but I have no way of knowing if what you are planning is for good or ill"

"Alea can you divine his alignment is there a way to tell if his intentions are good or evil? If he is evil he might want to remove a mark that is good for me. If he is good then the mark is evil as he says it is.

"I have some questions on another subject and hope you can tell me. who or what are these Shelak? Are they minions of the Dark One? How did they get into this pace, remove me from my room and kill this man without anyone being the wiser. Are they magic users?

Siliwen steps closer to Riddle, more comfortable closer to him while she thinks over the quandry she is faced with."

"I don;t want to seem reade but I have no insight into this matter. and trust is something I have for my friends right now and not for a stranger. Her eyes regard the man closely to see how he resonds to her words. Perhaps she can get some insight into his motives. (Sense Motive) She unconsiously bites her lips the lack of knowledge about this world and this man is frustrating to her.

"I am sorry, I an not so high in Corellon's service that I can do such a spell. But I will pray for Enlightenment or Guidance on a chance that he might grant it."

It might be good to question Karl about Alacran, how long he has know him etc, For it seemed the people knew him and he did know Karl's name."

Alea looks to the man who called himself Alacran, "My friends are right in this, you could be of the Dark and disguised."

Alea takes up her holy symbol, and simply circled of read oak that she had lovingly carved herself. She prays for an answere to their conundrum concerning Alacran

Location: Northpoint Road – Leeside Way Inn
Date/Time: Day Three - Early Morning

Alea looks about the menbers of the group and sees the demeanor of Riddle.

"Riddle, do you have some issue with what what Alacran has done or revealed? If so, speak out So that we might all hear your.....misgivings."

Riddle may or may not but I have some doubts. Why should we trust this stranger? So far we have found precious few allies and many enemies. Please do not take this the wrong way but there is no way to know if you were marked before or if you were just marked now. Is the mark a good thing placed by the old woman or an evil thing as claimed now? I make no secret that I am distrustful of mages. It is your head that is marked and if you wish to do as he asks that is your choice. As for me, I will be waiting outside whenever we are ready to go." With that Billy took a piece of bread and chunk of cheese and walked out of the inn.

" I side with billy in this matter though i will not leave siliwens side no matter her decision. Although would like to point out a couple of factors. First being the most disturbing to me there are no animals out side not a sound made by insect or animal kind, I find this odd do you not? Why would there be no sound riddle me that what would he have to gain? Plus i also know that there was a man out in the woods contoling the wolves, we have all come to exept that have we not? So who is to say this man is not that man?" riddle pauses and looks Siliwen directly in the eyes, his showing nothing but care and concern " ultimatly it is you decision, know that i will stand by you no matter what one you make, but these are things i want you and the whole group to think about."
with this riddle eases back into his chair and relaxes still watching and waiting his hands no longer on his weapons

Thor grunts and nods his head at Billy and Riddles words and looks right at Alacran as he wipes the froth of a fresh ale from his lips.

“I agree.. We don’t know him.. We shouldn’t trust him,” he said gruffly eyeing Alacran looking for any sign of anger.
Alacran remained silent and sipped his wine as the others voiced their distrust of him. His face showed a slight disappointment that they were so distrusting that even someone who had helped them could not apparently be trusted.

Siliwen looks to her friends the onws so far that have trusted her and have protected her. "You are correct Riddle we were told to trust ourselves and honestly I cannot say if this man is good or evil." Her shoulders drop a bit as she says it because the hope that had flared in her was not quite dampened by her friends questions.

She turns to the man. "I know not the turth behind you actions. Your offer sounds generous but I have no way of knowing if what you are planning is for good or ill"
Alacran nodded to Siliwen and the disappointment she could see in his face changed to sadness and he sighed.

“I understand your caution,” he says softly, “the decision is of course yours to accept my help or distrust it. I will abide by your decision of course.”

Alea can you divine his alignment is there a way to tell if his intentions are good or evil? If he is evil he might want to remove a mark that is good for me. If he is good then the mark is evil as he says it is.

"I am sorry, I an not so high in Corellon's service that I can do such a spell. But I will pray for Enlightenment or Guidance on a chance that he might grant it."

“It might be good to question Karl about Alacran, how long he has know him etc, For it seemed the people knew him and he did know Karl's name."

Alea looks to the man who called himself Alacran, "My friends are right in this, you could be of the Dark and disguised."

Alea takes up her holy symbol, and simply circled of read oak that she had lovingly carved herself. She prays for an answere to their conundrum concerning Alacran


"I have some questions on another subject and hope you can tell me. who or what are these Shelak?” Siliwen asks, “Are they minions of the Dark One? How did they get into this pace, remove me from my room and kill this man without anyone being the wiser. Are they magic users?”
Alacran sighs heavily and draining the last drop of his wine he sets the glass on the table and taking up his staff he rises and looks at them all.

“I do not blame you,” he said, “I wish I could help you.. If only you would allow it.”

He walks slowly around the table, his eyes look upon Siliwen as he reaches the other side of the table near the front door.

“I could answer your questions very well,” he says sadly, “but since I am not to be trusted then I fear my words would not be heeded in any case.”

Stepping to the door, he stops in the open doorway and looks back at them.

“Ask about it you must, ask Karl what he knows of me,” he says and locks eyes with Siliwen again, “if you change your mind just call for me and I will return… but only if you are ready to trust and accept my help. I have little time to waste upon those whom do not want assistance.”

With that he turned and left the Inn, he walked slowly across the front yard and spotting Billy eyeing him suspiciously he nodded to the huge warrior and then left the stabling yard and walked up the road and out of sight.

A minute later, Karl comes out of the kitchen bringing food to another table, he sees them sitting there and comes over and asks if they require anything else to eat or drink.

(Assuming they ask Karl)

Karl nods when asked about if he knows Alacran, “I know him and have seen him upon a couple of occasions though I would hardly say we are acquaintances.”

“He is a wizard of great power it is said and he lives somewhere on an island near Lake’s End,” he says then remembering that they are strangers here, “That is the Capitol.. Alacran is said to be the Magical Advisor to King Timon.” That appears to be all he knows of him and if they order any more food or drink he rushes off to fetch it.

Thor kicks his feet up on the table, having finished eating and now only indulging in ale and grunts again, “I still don’t trust him”

Watches the man leave, and when the question is asked of Karl, and hears it and Thor's assessment, she is still in a quantry.

Something about the man drew her trust from the moment that he entered the room.

She goes outside to see if she can see hime but by that time he is gone. She knew the others were very skeptical of him, she had heard their words and felt their emotions on the subject of the inigmatice personage. Maybe, becuase she was so used to taking thing on faith, that she felt this way about the man, maybe she was being still being fooled.

Alea spot a big old chestnut tree and goes to it and sits leaning against its ancient bark base. Taking up her holy symbol again she beseeches Corellon to aid her to divine the true nature of Alacran.

OOC: Once again I find I must apoligize for my absence. My entire system crashed and i have been without for almost two weeks the withdrawel has been intense. however with the help of some friends I have gotten a new system and my internet back so hopefully this won't happen again anytime soon.I Thank you all for being patient and I must say that our DM did handle Thor for me pretty well as you will see in my following post. Which will be up around 8am tuesday.Once again thanks for keeping me in the game.
Dragonmist

Siliwen watches Alacran leave without answering her question and without trying to convince her that he was the person to help her. She sits down at the table and picks at is still torn between trusting the man and not trusting him.

When Karl beings in the food she turns to ask him about what he knew about Alacran. His reply swayed her thoughts more to rusting the man, but what if it were all an elaborate ruse to make her trust him and her was not really the person that he said he was. It was a conundrum wrapped in an enigma.

"I want to trust the man but I just done know and I have no way of knowing for sure. Siliwen shares with the others. If I am so mark that they can find me wherever I go we will be in constant danger. If he is not the one to help us then he is trying to do something to stop us from completing our quest. This really involves all of you and not just me. I could be a liability regardless of whet decision I make in this matter. Do any of you have second thoughts about this man?" Siliwen questions her companions.

"I would like to trust him but it is perhaps only my desire to be freed of the nightmares and visions and these attacks made on me and thus on us all." Her eyes search their faces; her brow is furrowed with the difficulty of the problems they faced. They all have to try to make sound decisions but they are so lacking in information or skills to ferret out the truth."

Siliwen lets out a deep sign, partially of regret for the lost opportunity. Despondently she picks at her food that Karl placed on the table. Her appetite having deserted her after all the distress of the morning.

Starting with a short back post, Riddles post “Trustworthy I Think Not”

When Riddle comes in from outside Thor is interested to hear from him what he has found if anything and as the others sit at the table with this Alacran, he will move over to where Riddle and Billy are conferring, when he hears that there are no extra footprints and that the area seems to be silenced he also starts to have his doubts about this newcomer and what his real motives are.

Moving back to the main table where they are all sitting he watches as Riddle takes a seat right next to the mage, Thor will seat himself more across the table where he can keep a watch on Alacran's face as he listens to the tale and as speaks back to them trying to watch for any signs that he is lying to them.

Post for actions after Alacran does his little enchantment and brings forth the s symbol on Siliwan.

After Alacran does his little show on Siliwan Thor can no longer sit in silence he must speak his mind.
Finishing off his glass of ale he slams the mug down on the table and looking right at Alacran speaks, I know that we are all grateful for your help in diffusing the situation we found ourselfs' in when you entered, however how are we to know if it was you who put us in the very situation just so you could show up and be our savior, what better way to try and gain our trust. Now I am not saying that is what happened but you ask a lot from a group who have met few who want to help them. Also I must agree with the others as far as this mark goes how do we know it was there and you did not just put it there, we have not run into any of these Shelak so when did they mark her?
Turning to Siliwan Thor speaks again Since it is you that must truly make this decision and put your trust in this man I can tell you that I will stand with you no matter what your decision is we have been joined together and together we shall stay.
After speaking he watches as the others make known their feelings and Siliwan makes her decision however at one point when she asks Alacran questions about the Shelak Thor can't help but interject for he remembers what the old woman had told them about the Shelak Siliwan if you recall back to our conversation with the old woman Anya.” she warned us about the Shelak before we set off, if I remember he words where “The worse are the Shelnak… they are tall thin creatures who are very powerful in natural magic. They fight in small groups and channel their magic into one of their group and make him very powerful.. beware this group and if you encounter them remember to try and disrupt the group.. scatter it and you can break their power.” So we know they are magic users of some type but it would seem they usually travel in groups using one of their kind to channel there powers.”
Once Alacran leaves Thor finishes his meal and another ale leaning back in his chair he wishes there was some way he could help in this matter bur as usual when it comes to magic and mages there is little insight he can offer ,if there was only someway they could speak with the old woman Anya.” again she would know about this Alacran and if he could be trusted.But he knows of no way they could contact her or in any way get back to her. She would have the answer he is sure of that.
Before he decedies to prepare for their departure he speaks with Siliwan once more.
i am truly sorry that we could not be more helpful in this matter but the words of the old woman keep ringing in my ears that we must trust in ourselves and in each other, and that is what I will continue to do. with that Thor will go back to his room to gather all his stuff and then go down to the stables to check in on his horse Lighting he rubs the stallion on hid neck while he talks to his horse as he always does when he is in a quandary and not sure what to do, talking to Lighting always helps him.

Location: Northpoint Road – Leeside Way Inn
Date/Time: Day Three - Morning
As Billy stands outside he sees Alea come out and look down the road after Alacran and then she turns and sits under a big old chestnut tree and appears to be prayer. He feels nothing good or bad concerning the mage, it is just his general distrust of magic and their users that he can never stomach. In his opinion, no good ever comes of it.

As Alea prays she gets a warm feeling again, the one she usually gets when she feels the presence of her god. She doesn’t get an answer from her god, afterall she is a minor worshipper of Corellon, but when she addresses the question about Alacran the warm feeling grows just a little. She thinks, or it could be her imagination, who knows.


(See RoD Q&A for important note)

Billy watched the man leave, he couldn't say he was not glad he was gone. In truth the man had not done anything outwardly hostile or even suspicious; in fact he had calmed the mob. However he was still a mage and mages brought trouble according to his father. Instinctively Billy's hand moved to his sword as he thought about magic. Trust in steel his father often told him and so far it had been steel that kept the party safe from harm; magic based harm at that. Then again his current magical companion had so far been helpful. Well maybe helpful was a strong word as she did seem to attract attention but she tied her best to help the group. Such thoughts ran thru Billy's mind until he noticed Alea.

He watched her holding her holy symbol and it appeared she prayed for a moment. When it looked like she was finished, Billy spoke to her. "What do you think of the stranger? Maybe he really wants to help but it is just that he is a mage and all. Never could find a way to tell the good mages from the bad ones; assuming there are good mages." Billy smiled and laughed as he said the last. "I know they can't all be bad but it certainly would help if they wore white or black hats like in grandma's stories. Then maybe I could tell them apart."

"That is what is what I am hoping to discern, Billy. I for one felt him to be no threat, but I was sway by the misgivings of the rest of you. From what Karl says he is a known personage of this realm."

"I am worried that the attacks will keep happening on or about Siliwen. I was praying in hopes of gaining divine guidance in this matter, even though I am not high enough in my clerichood to have such as a spell. I was hoping that since the gods have brought us here for a purpose, that they might offer us some insights."

"I still do not understand why the gods did not choose more seasoned people. I do not understand, with the enormity of the problem, that they chose us, veritable beginners, to handle it."