The Sceptre of Samnos

Vantarestin Part 1

The six young travellers arrived back in the town of Clarrin's Claim in the evening of the next day and booked into the same rooms they'd had before, but this time paying with their own money. Their arrival caused a commotion, and they were soon surrounded by a crowd of curious people demanding to know how the expedition had gone. The only way to get rid of them was to tell them, and so that evening almost half the town packed itself into the inn's common room to hear the tale, told a bit at a time by each of them in turn. The innkeeper was delighted, and made a small fortune in drinks and snacks for the avid listeners. He was so delighted, in fact, that he waived all charges for their rooms and gave them all their meals on the house.

The townspeople were disturbed by the news that the expedition had been a failure and that Dermakarak was still ruled by evil creatures. The trog village was, after all, only two days away, putting Clarrin's Claim well within reach of raiding parties from there, but the news of a follow up expedition cheered them somewhat. The townspeople had mixed feelings about trogs, but would much rather have them as neighbours than shologs and buglins.

Telling the tale made Thomas start thinking about the clay man again. "I wonder how many of those creatures there are in the world," he wondered aloud to the others later. "Who knows how many princes, emperors, noblemen and bankers are really clay men masquerading as real people. It makes you think, doesn't it?"

"There has to be some way of telling a clay man from a real person," said Lirenna.

"Maybe there is," said Jerry. "That one we killed had pink blood. Perhaps all we have to do is scratch a suspect and see what colour his blood is."

"Unless it can change the colour if its blood as easily as the colour of its skin," said Shaun.

Even so, they each agreed to give a pinprick of blood, just in case. Each one was crimson red, but Shaun's suggestion still worried them. Jerry pointed out that a clay man might be able to imitate their physical appearances and use its ESP abilities to duplicate their memories and mannerisms with ninety percent accuracy, but that it could not duplicate their spellcasting abilities, or obtain the true access to a God enjoyed by a real cleric and that therefore this eliminated the three wizards and Diana as suspects. Matthew then pointed out that he hadn't seen any of them cast any spells since leaving Dermakarak, and that anyway, how did they know that clay men couldn't cast spells? In the end, they decided that they simply had to trust each other, but the spellcasters and the fighters still kept a close eye on each other and it wasn't for several days that they finally relaxed and accepted that they were all who they appeared to be.

The next morning, Lirenna joined Thomas and Jerry in their room while they examined the treasures they'd taken from Mikos's body. They laid his spellbook, his ring, his other jewellery and his staff on Thomas's bed while he cast a reveal spell on them. To their disappointment the only things that glowed with a magical aura made visible were the spellbook and the ring. All the rest were nothing more than perfectly ordinary jewelry and a prettily carved wooden staff. "Damnation!" swore Jerry. "I was sure the staff would be magical! I mean, why else do wizards carry staves, for heaven's sakes? Damn him!"