Lord Lar

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY’RE ALL DEAD?” I screamed as I stood from my dining table, sending my dinner chair flying back.

“Forgive me, my Lord, for the message; but again, we sent a Jerican patrol and found only one surviving alchemist at Dr. Leveret’s facilities. Everyone else seems to have been… well… they’re all dead. That much is for sure.” An old, ugly West Port Guard captain reported. He glanced at the red wine on my table and gave a shutter. “There is more sir.”

I held up my hand to stop him from his next report. I scooped up a cloth form the table and quickly wiped my lips and patted down my beard. I processed the news for a space of time and then threw the cloth to the table. I collected my anger and continued. “Lets start with this first matter, shall we. Did the survivor see anything?”

“Yes, my Lord, She saw everything. We have written her… detailed account on this report. That is if you wish to view it.” The ugly captain held out a leathery script, which I accepted. “We also collected a great deal of alchemy pages from various rooms and studies. Would you like those as well? They appear to be research notes.”

I looked over the survivor’s report and gave a little chuckle. Oh Leveret, you really where a piece of work. When I had finished perusing I answered the captain. “No, take that research and deliver it to the Jerican headquarters. I would like Ole’ Bartholomew to know that I never keep secrets from a friend.”

“Yes Sir.” The captain turned to the young guard next to him and issued the delivery orders. The young lad then ran off.

“Alright Captain, what is the second thing you wished to report?” I sat back in my chair and faced it toward him.

“The description of the monster in the Dark Districts, given by the survivors of the Red Market Street incident, seems to match the description of the creature that wiped out Dr. Leveret’s facilities.” He paused.

“Is that it, Captain?”

“No sir, this morning, three hours after dawn, a small pub collapsed into the sewer networks under the Dark Districts. Everyone, including a small rescue group, has disappeared. There is sufficient evidence that they were all either captured or killed by the monster.” The captain shuttered again when I picked up drank my red wine.

I placed my goblet back on the table. “And how does this correlate with the events at the Alchemy, besides physical descriptions?”

The captain lowered his voice to a whisper, as if he had something important to tell me. “You see my lord, I went diggin’ into the whereabouts of Dr. Leveret’s son. It just so happens that he was apprenticing as an architect.” The captain paused for some sort of effect that came across as very annoying. “So you see, if the monster is Dr. Leveret’s son, as the surviving alchemist lass reported, then perhaps we could be in a bit more danger then we expected.”

I contemplated what he said and arrived at a very painful conclusion. I hate it when these blabbers seem right. I stood from my chair and walked to the guard, placing my hand on his shoulder. “Captain, I would like you to personally lead five patrols of your best men down in the sewer networks. Sweep the entire area, and if that beast comes along then I am sure that you are perfectly capable of killing it.” I patted the captain on the shoulder and walked out of the dining hall. Now that was satisfying.