Drulissa's Domain

 She sat in her office listening to the rain outside, her eyes closed and focusing on the sounds of each drop striking the glass behind her. Her eyes were closed, and she was deep in thought. The knock on her door brought her back to the present. "Enter," she said with a sigh. Opalynna, her daughter, entered with a stack of papers in her hands. "I have the reports you asked for," Opal said as she walked across the room and laid them on the desk. "The laboratory results and the reports from the magicians who studied the coffin and the body." Alustrae looked up at her, her eyes feeling heavy. "Put it all over there, in the box by the fire." Opal walked to the fireplace and dropped the papers in the box. She was a bit confused as to why she did not read them, but she did as she was told. "Mother?" "Yes?" "What is wrong?" Alu took a deep breath, about to speak, when Captain Varlikh walked in the door....

The tall ships sat in Qeynos harbor, and the endless procession of traders loading wagons and hauling them off through the streets of the capital made it a hectic day—and a miserable one due to the rain. Draft horses snorted and heaved wagon loads stacked two or three layers high, and anything that could be damaged if wet was covered with tarps, tied down, with sheets of water dripping onto the cobbled streets below. In her hand was a glass. She stared at the nice piece of crystalware. The glass had a small spider etched into the bottom as a maker's mark. This piece had just come back from the lab. The gnomes had their ways of pulling information off of objects. With careful study and alchemical analysis, they could discern a great deal about who held the glass and what was in it, and even recover fragments of things too small for the eye to see. Much of that information was valuable to investigators like her, provided the correct glass was taken into evidence. She sighed. ...

Alustrae's hand shook in anger, and she pushed the third ruined draft off the table. Her office still lay in shambles after the ransacking by Captain Varlikh and his band of assassins, when they looked for the parcel with the flute sent to her by those associated with a case she had been taken off. She had returned the flute to the Ratonga family, since it was the right thing to do. Had Varlikh and his men taken it, the instrument would have most certainly been destroyed or disappeared into the hands of a private collector. She looked across her desk at her daughter, Opalynna. "Mother," Opal said, "I worry about you like this." Alu pulled a fresh sheet of parchment and began writing again. "Any romantic feelings for that man? Ereon?" Opal shook her head, a tear running down her cheek. "No. He is funny. He makes me laugh. People like him bring joy to the world." Alu finished transcribing the last page of witness statements for the ...

 The laborer sat in his seat, eating his dinner of boiled pork, potatoes, onions, and carrots, stabbing his food with a fork. He had finished his day's work, washed, and sat at the table to eat his supper, which was still hot and steaming. His wife and children had been forced to stay in the tent city across the street while they worked on the new house, and he missed them. He knew they were safe, but the separation was too long. He had been working on constructing the new homes for the past six days, and he was happy and proud that the work was nearly complete. He had been given the day off today and slept in the completed home, which would be his once the final inspection was complete. "Charlie?" his friend and coworker Doug, whom he called Dougie, asked, stumbling into the tavern in what seemed like a haze. "Sit your ass down, Dougie," Charlie huffed. "Yer ass is drunk again." "Charlie? Doug said, "Someone outside wants to hear tha...

 Scores of paladins knelt around her. "Blessed be the Truthbringer, Mithaniel Marr," the Holy Crusader said as she knelt on the dais in the center of the Cathedral of the Truthbringer, the largest chapel dedicated to the god of Justice. "Blessed be the Truthbringer, Mithaniel Marr," scores of paladins kneeling in the chapel responded, their voices echoing off the high ceilings of the Cathedral, a massive church with a central dome and four minarets facing North, East, South, and West, and an enormous plaza outside. Angelaya knelt in the middle of the circle, surrounded by them all. "Let the holy records of Mithaniel Marr record a miracle that happened upon last eve," the Crusader said, turning to her. "By offering her life for the others affected by the unholy curse of death, by offering to save their souls before death, the Truthbringer smiled upon her valor and sacrifice. A miracle was then performed, and our sister Angeleya was purified and...

The ogre assassin, a female, ran on top of the walls of Qeynos, her strong legs allowing her to keep a pace only the fastest of horses could hope to match. Though she was wearing black, form-fitting leather armor, her footsteps barely made a whisper against the cobblestone walkway of the battlements. The sun was setting in the west, casting the sky in a deep red and orange hue. It also cast long shadows, and the ogre used those shadows to hide in as best she could. She ran from an elven ranger along the base of the wall, Kaliaya. The elf's arrows were deadly accurate, so the ogre ducked and ran low. Another of the elf's arrows flashed by her head, and Kali cursed the angle and the distance. She knew she would run out of wall and be forced to scale a tower to continue the chase. By then, the ogre would be on the wall by the moat, dive in, and be gone. The ogre might have been a better fighter than her, but Kail was a better archer. She reached back and took another arrow...