CISLUNAR DHASANT: THE CITY OF GARGOYLES

Griegor, Timothy and Anthony have spent many days poring over the books and personal documents in Teskil Sleet's and "Spider's" libraries and chambers, seeking information that will help the Free Gargoyles of Cislunar ๗ and now, the Black Rose Company ๗ unravel the mysteries of the Unders. Some of the references tax even these formidable scholars' knowledge, and Balefire has set up a diplomatic arrangement with the Chancery to allow the Free Gargoyles to send mageposted letters to others in the Dominated Realms. Together they have begun to piece together a rather complicated tale.

ON THE UNDERS:

The "Unders" are a massive underground complex started by Persifal a year or two after Cislunar was established, and she continued working on the project until her disappearance, some twenty-five years after Cislunar's founding, in DR 501. The Free Gargoyles characterize the Unders as being divided into several levels and territories: The "Sewers," consisting of Cislunar's complex vaulted stone sewer system; the "Undersewers," much of which has collapsed over the past few centuries, and the "Beneath," all of which was, until recently, sealed off by Persifal's sunrose seals.
The Undersewers consist of at least three "territories" that the gargoyles are aware of, and probably include others that they have not stumbled upon. Those three territories are "Darkport," the Free Gargoyles' "Catacombs," and the "Warrens." Darkport (now claimed as part of the Free Gargoyles' Catacombs) had been ruled by Teskil Sleet for centuries, and was known to various smugglers, members of the Canter's Guild, hierodules, and other riffraff in need of a secret entrance or exit to Cislunar. Balefire now realizes that King Lament or his regent has known of Darkport's existence for some time, although she does not believe that they knew "Queen Sleet" was a vampire ๗ which, since the source of their information appears to have been Sieur Cristofawr DeRange du Noir (a vampire himself, as the Company has recently discovered), indicates that for some reason or another Cristofawr chose to keep that information to himself. Both Timothy and Anthony had known that Cristofawr was a vampire prior to his recent diplomatic appearance in Darkport (and he, in turn, was aware of their deminate status ๗ the three apparently share a common Ankhamian heritage), but had kept his secret. They both feel that Cristofawr is honorable and fiercely loyal to the Lament family, and that any reason he may have had for not telling the king of Sleet's nature must have been well-meant.
The Catacombs were the traditional territory of the Free Gargoyles, granted them by Persifal, and like Darkport is accessed via physical and magical portals. The Warrens are left alone by the gargoyles out of respect for their occupants, and Balefire will say nothing more on the subject, save that the occupants are not vampires or any other immediate danger to Cislunar.
Of the Beneath, the Free Gargoyles know little. In DR 501, Persifal contacted Emperor Adalane and Balefire and asked them to aid her in a last-ditch attempt to preserve Cislunar from the incursions of the Sacrament Sanguis. She had discovered that the SS had infiltrated the lower levels of the Beneath with their minions, and had decided that the presence of the Beneath was too great a danger for Cislunar to remain intact. Unable to destroy it completely without undermining the city's foundations, Persifal chose instead to seal it off from the Above entirely. Adalane agreed to aid her, and all of the gargoyles took the Guardian's Oath, a binding promise to monitor the seals of the Beneath and keep the Sacrament Sanguis from entering Cislunar. All gargoyles who have joined the Free Gargoyles of Cislunar since have also taken this oath. They physically sealed away the unders with massive Sunrose seals enchanted with strong abjuration magicks, and then Persifal teleported away and was never seen again.
Over the past three hundred-some years, the seals have only occasionally been damaged by construction, warfare, or erosion, and in all cases the Free Gargoyles either sealed the breach themselves, or called upon the Watchful Order to help them mend the damage. In addition to this work, the gargoyles also appointed themselves guardians of the city Above, and thus several hundred are always present in the city at any time, to watch for the presence of vampires.

ON VAMPIRES:

Why, then, have the gargoyles not informed the king of the vampires that dwell in their city? Balefire explains that they always reported the doings of the SS to the government, but since the Domination War, the SS has ๗ to all appearances ๗ been destroyed, and the remaining vampires have joined in an alliance that the watching gargoyles have found relatively harmless. To call a pogrom on the remaining vampires might cause the vampires to lash out in murderous retaliation, and cause the Tarin Tor (who, to the best of Balefire's knowledge, is not aware of the remaining vampires) to step in. While the Tarin Tor would undoubtedly destroy the vampires, Balefire fears they might also tighten their control over the rest of Cislunar, and possibly the Free Gargoyles, and certainly against the hierodules of the Undersewers, whom they call "Abominations" and either destroy or enslave. As long as the vampires kept to themselves and avoided killing honest folk (it seems the vampires now mostly prey in a nonlethal fashion, or kill only murderers and other criminals whom society will not miss), the gargoyles have been content to let them be.
How many vampires live in Cislunar? Balefire estimates, not counting Timothy and Anthony, or the Black Rose Company, that there are about ten to twenty, who form a group called "The Congery." She doesn't know very much about the internal workings of the Congery, but from her past experience with the Sacrament Sanguis she knows that the "House" name indicates the breed of vampire, and that the "Covenant" indicates the attitude of the vampires toward beings of the Out ๗ that is, the dark forces that tend to petition the vampires for aid in their own diabolical plots against the living. Why this is particularly important to vampires, she isn't certain. She also knows that vampires rank themselves in a strict hierarchy, governed by precise rules of decorum and servitude. Teskil Sleet was, to Balefire's knowledge, ranked third in the Congery, or the third-strongest member of that group. She isn't certain who is number one, but Timothy and Anthony both suggest that a certain retired military aseku who lives on the docks, Leander Ypsilanti, is surely in the top five. Their sister Mathilda has apparently met him once or twice, and seemed to be favorably impressed by him.

ON TESKIL SLEET:

Since Sleet kept her works magically protected and wrote them all in drow, the scholars realized that they wouldn't have time to translate and read the books carefully. Instead, they decided to let Griegor eat them, with the understanding that eventually they'd get around to having him transcribe everything again.
Griegor reports that Teskil Sleet was the matriarch of the drow clan Sleet-Sila, a high priestess of the spider-goddess Lloth (mistranscribed by a printing mistake in a prominent human scholar's work as "Lolth," Griegor adds pedantically, an unfortunate typo the effects of which have lingered through the ages). She had been a vampire for some time before joining the SS, but at some point decided to ally her clan with the vampires against Persifal in return for the city and its underground labyrinths. Unfortunately, the leaders of the SS decided to send her with a group of vampires known as the Nine Punishments, whom neither the SS nor Teskil trusted at all. (Sarasax agrees, and says the Punishments "weren't like other vampires ๗ they were crazier. Always playing some sort of game against each other, like practical jokes or something, but more serious.") Upon arriving in the lowest parts of the Beneath, the Punishments began a systematic exploration of the passages. They were immediately attacked by Redeemers and others of Persifal's trained vampire hunting squads. Teskil quickly came to suspect that the invading force had been betrayed ๗ otherwise, she didn't think they could have been detected so quickly. She ordered her clan to pull back and defend itself regardless of any orders from the Punishments, and left them to seek a way to the surface. It was while she was exploring the Undersewers that Persifal sealed off the Beneath, and thus isolated her from her clan.
According to Teskil's journals, she set herself up in Darkport to study the seals and wait for a chance to go Beneath and rescue her clan again. Over the past 350 years or so, she has ruled Darkport and worked her way up in the hierarchy of vampires, using her contacts and abilities to establish a place for the drow to settle themselves once freed from the passages below. Her plans were disrupted by the Domination War and subsequent purges, in which many of her vampiric and living agents were destroyed. She concentrated on keeping the Tarin Tor from discovering Darkport's presence, killing anybody who might betray its existence and using her "charm" skills to control all newcomers to the port. It was during this time that she was joined by Spider, an already-vampirized refugee from the war, who helped her keep Darkport safe from the agents of the Iron Autocracy. Since the War, she has been busy maintaining Darkport's secrecy and trying to re-establish her grip over Cislunar. She ๗ like many other powerful beings ๗ felt the recent akasic manipulations of the Tarin Tor, and quickly discovered that the shifts were wreaking havoc on the spells sealing off the Beneath. When the Black Rose Company so conveniently stepped into her web, she immediately decided to put them to work investigating the unsealed levels in order to find out how many of the Punishments still survived, and where her clan might be. She ordered Spider to vampirize Damion, Valere and Pip, and kill the rest as being "too weak." Her journals indicate that Spider protested and convinced her that they were clearly a team and would work best together. Reluctantly persuaded, she allowed him to vampirize them all, but told him that he'd be personally responsible to her for their actions, and that if they failed her, she'd force him to kill them himself.

ON SPIDER:

Spider, Anthony Rose says thoughtfully, with a lifted eyebrow toward his brother, is not all he appears. Neither Timothy nor Anthony have ever seen him, but both recognized his real name from Griegor's narration of Teskil's diaries. "Spider" was the nom de sangue given him by Teskil when he came to work for her ๗ his original name was Cruiscan Lan, of the well-established Lan family of Saldon.
Timothy and Anthony had been raised knowing the name of Cruiscan Lan. For one thing, the dissipated grey elf had been a constant factor in the eternal gang warfare that plagued Ankham during the pre-War years; an apathetic drug addict who was valuable to the gangs solely because of his eidetic memory, and the uses to which such a skill could be put. While never participating in any of the gang warfare himself, Cruiscan drifted from gang to gang providing information about gangs' members, spies and defenses in return for a constant supply of drugs. Attempts to kill him tended to fail ๗ either he was protected by bodyguards of the gang he was currently working for, or attempts on his life were enough to rouse him from his apathetic state, at least long enough to defend himself.
Another reason the name was familiar to them was because Timothy and Anthony's father, Lord Gervain Sparrow, was a paladin of Vair, and used to call their attention to Cruiscan Lan as an example of a good man gone wrong. They never learned what exactly had made him "go wrong," but Gervain told them that Cruiscan had once been a highly respected paladin of Vair before his fall from grace, and that they should make sure they never let themselves sink so low.
To the brothers' knowledge, Cruiscan had not been a vampire before they'd been forced to flee Ankham, although he'd interacted with the vampiric gang of Predator's Children as he did all other Ankhamian gangs, and it is quite likely he eventually became their victim. Until they can receive more information from the letters Balefire sent for them, however, they can only assume that at some point during or after the Domination War, Cruiscan fell into Sleet's service and became her right-hand man, "Spider." He vanished during the gargoyles' invasion, possibly when Teskil and Warghost vanished, and has not been seen since.

ON WARGHOST AND THE OTHER PUNISHMENTS:

• Strutter (the drow), one of the weakest of the Nine, cocky and over-confident.

• Blackfury (the lioness), usually working in uneasy alliance with Strutter. She radiated a killing field, and loved to rend her enemies apart.

• Warghost, a tactician who tends to ally herself with one of the other Nine instead of working alone. Sarasax thinks she teleports, since she often disappeared and returned on "recon" missions.

• Dragonfly, a young lady with a streak of hedonism that tends to distract her from the task at hand. Sarasax says she was the only one of the Nine who ever showed any kindness toward anyone. He thinks she's a mage of some sort.

• Grinder, a violent hadjjin who took cruel joy in torture. He and Blackfury were the craziest of the Nine, Sarasax remembers.

• Nightcrawler, a fox-headed woman whom Sarasax remembers as being rather quiet and withdrawn.

• Frost, a grey elf. Sarasax distinctly remembers seeing him turn the leader of one of the Redeemers' companies into an opal, and later wearing him as an earring. He and Nightmare often talked quietly between themselves, and may have been as close to "friends" as any of the Nine ever come.

• Hellheart, a bade'in who used to torment the rest of the Nine with her practical jokes. She had a black sense of humor, and thought somebody dying as a result of one of her jokes was great fun.

• Nightmare, a girl-child and the most powerful of the Nine. Sarasax saw her kill many people at once with just one word. She seemed to like talking with the drow, and often held long conversations with her prey before killing them.

Sarasax can't contribute too much more, except that from Warghost up, they carried some sort of matching magical swords, and that he doesn't understand why they worked together, since they seemed about as ready to kill each other as anyone else. He's surprised that even Persifal could have kept them captured for some 350 years ๗he believes Balefire's theory about the sealing spell incorporating some sort of temporal stasis, because otherwise he's certain they'd have been able to break out. Besides, it didn't seem all that long to him, although he admits that gargoyles aren't very good judges of time.

OTHER EVENTS:

After long thought and some conversation with Valere, Vair decides that he'll accompany the Black Rose Company after all, retrieving his sword "Critic" from the duellist, who soberly informs the group that he's decided to join the temple of Bel and begin training as a holy warrior, to replace the slain hierodule paladin, Corcoran Blaize. High Priest Nicodemos Sway is pleased with Valere's decision, and when asked whether he thinks the formerly flippant fop will make a good paladin, the hierodule simply says, "To see a candle's light, you must bring it into the darkness." As far as he's concerned, that seems to be the last word on the subject. Unfortunately, Valere's indoctrination into the temple and training in the ways of Light will take time, and he bids the Company farewell for the time being.
Waif becomes interested in the Palace libraries, and volunteers to help Timothy and Anthony read and assimilate the centuries of books that Queen Sleet has collected there. Timothy and Anthony themselves have chosen to stay with the Free Gargoyles for the time being, as they are "dead" to Cislunar. However, Timothy says gravely, with a glance toward his brother, they will have to return to the City soon, because as deminates, they cannot survive without feeding from a living being's spiritual energies ๗ preferably love and affection, which is why both Anthony and Timothy had taken positions that had allowed them to act as tutors or mentors to others. Balefire says quietly but firmly that they will address that question later. For now, nobody comes or goes from Darkport without the Free Gargoyles' permission.
Claret joins Timothy, Anthony and Waif in the libraries, since she is a scholar by training and, at any rate, cannot leave Darkport until the gargoyles give her leave. Out of the vampires' grasp, she regains some of her confidence, and one day shyly confides to Timothy that "Cruiscan Lan" is, in fact, the name of her great-aunt Lorelei Lan's brother. Timothy urges her to tell him more, and later reports to the rest of the BRC that Claret claims that her Aunt Lorelei actually has a very old portrait of herself and her brother in her drawing room. The description of the handsome young paladin in that portrait would seem to match the description Timothy has had of "Spider." It seems that Lorelei and her brother were close, but Claret says that her aunt would be heartbroken to hear that Cruiscan had been turned into one of the undead.
Eyvan and Thax make arrangements with Balefire, and take over part of one of the larger chambers as a makeshift examination hall. For the next three days, Eyvan works for eight hours straight on what would be, if he were still in Cislunar, his Order entrance exam. Thax oversees most of this, although ๗ to Eyvan's disconcertion ๗ Balefire sometimes sits in to watch the demonstrations, her sigil-carved, crystalline, inhuman face betraying no emotion. Thax himself spends a great deal of time with Balefire, sometimes walking through the Palace or Darkport in deep conversation with her, oblivious to all else. Whatever they're discussing, it isn't always pleasant ๗ often the illusionist's face is drawn and apprehensive during these conversations. Vladimir has resumed his usual place beside Thax, and when Balefire isn't near him, Thax often sits with a hand on Vlade's raptorial head, as though to reassure himself that the malevolant gargoyle is near. Whenever possible, Thax "eats" in private, and often his hollow cheeks indicate that he has not eaten at all.
Talisman informs Pip that he's been contacted by another gargoyle, Always, who has been telling him things. They don't communicate well (the small, lizardlike gargoyle doesn't seem to have Griegor's facility with language), but in general Always understands the gist of Talisman's comments, and Talisman has no trouble understanding the gargoyle's regular reports. Always says that Lord Finster has been formally reprimanded for the Black Rose Company's disappearance, and that the families of BRC members are suffering from the shadow that has fallen over the members' reputations. However, Lord Nandos Raventree is claiming that the BRC was killed by the same villains who stole his grandsons, and the theory is being given some credence ๗ although the members' reputations won't be cleared until those villains are hunted down, and it is proven that the (presumably dead) BRC was framed for the arson and murders. Nicolai Paochi, Janise Majarra, the cavalier Nicholas Thongolir, and the mages Phillipe Hunabar and Minimin Trask all seem to have joined Lord Raventree as an impromptu investigative/adventuring company looking into the BRC's (presumed) murder. Benedict, turned out of his office at the Hall of Records, now works with Raventree's team. Lord Finster has disappeared. Always says that the new "company" has already had one confrontation with some gang or another in Dockside, and that there were injuries, but he isn't certain who was hurt.