9 Tarsahk 1361 D.R., as if you expected differently
Early the next morning, we were roused by Blasse, carrying a letter for us. It seems that a knight here in town, Sir Paige, had a job he wanted us to do, and was willing to pay a bit more for it than Ferny would. Since the innkeeper was hiring us out as indentured labor anyway, we agreed, and soon found ourselves following a somewhat snobby servant named Jones up to Norbury Manor, where Paige lived. Prihelm at the last minute decided to invite the bard along with us, so eventually, the six of us came to the house and were ready to hear the proposition. On the way in, I noticed some white roses being tended to by some gardeners, but they were very odd flowers; one of the gardeners got too close, and the rose attacked him! The other gardeners threw a bucket of something or other at the wayward plant (which had turned red) and rescued the gardener, but I was somewhat stunned; these are not the kind of plants I would want around my home! I was starting to wonder a bit about our prospective employer's sanity...
Paige turned out to be an elderly type, living all by himself in a very dark and decrepit mansion. His niece, Merissa Norbury, had gone missing a few nights back, and he wanted us to find her. After first demanding to hear a bit about us (he wanted to make sure we were trustworthy, which I suppose is reasonable), he decided to hire us and left us to our own devices.
Sam and I immediately went out to find out about the plants; Paige had mentioned a section having withered a few nights back, and we thought that this was likely how Merissa had gotten past them. The gardeners verified that there was no way for anyone to walk through the entire garden and get all the way to the wall without being eaten by the stupid bloodroses, so it seemed that Merissa must indeed have gone through the withered patch. Unfortunately, it was already being filled with transplants, so we couldn't check for tracks there, and on the other side of the fence, Sam found nothing but his own tracks and the suggestion that a few people had gathered for a square dance or something. I think he may still be recovering from his death in the dream...
With this line of inquiry proving to be a dead end, we headed up to Merissa's room to join the rest of the group. I must say, she was doing quite well for herself; the room was very comfortable looking, had a great view, and so on. Also, there was a large oak tree just outside the window which looked like a suspiciously easy point of entry and exit from her room. I, of course, had no problems making it through the window and into the tree, and I pulled Sam along with me, just so he could look around and see what he could find. Obviously, Merissa had gone through the window, down the tree, past the bloodroses, and over the fence, and all I had to do was prove it. Hopefully, the others won't be tedious and try to find alternative explanations; mine is right, I'm quite sure.
While Sam and I were doing this, the others were searching the room and making a royal hash of it. In strict point of fact, after ten minutes of looking around, all they'd found was a diary full of high society gossip and a few nice outfits. I decided they might need a little help from my keen elven senses, and in a matter of a few minutes, I'd found a strange knothole under the bed, a secret compartment behind the desk, and another one in the closet. How blind these humans are!
Pushing the knothole proved to open the compartment behind the desk, in which was another book. Haley reached in and grabbed it, before I'd had a chance to ask her to let me check to make sure it was safe, and of course, it wasn't. I was all set to feel sorry for her (she'd been pricked by a needle), but then she blamed me for not doing my job! As if it's my fault that the silly girl is too impulsive to wait for my expert advice! I love Haley like a sister, but sometimes, I think a hearty slosh on the earhole might do her some good!
Well, this journal was much more interesting. Apparently, Merissa was hiding a few things from her uncle, like the fact that she's an amateur (extremely amateur) adventurer. She mentioned a few friends (Salli, Tom, and Tee) who are involved in her little group, and one of them (Tee) has mysteriously vanished! There's a lot more to it, but the main point is that we're going to have to try to find these people and see if we can't get a good deal more information out of them.
In the mean time, Tolec had opened up the closet's secret compartment, revealing a chest. After disarming a needle trap and picking the lock, I opened the chest up to reveal some items of considerable interest. Most of it wasn't really worth all that much, but there was a long sword that looked pretty neat, which I decided to hold on to for the moment, as well as some lockpicks and a pouch which I tossed to Haley. The idea, of course, was for her to take a look at it while I scrounged around, but she claims that all that was in it were spell components. I'll have to ask her more carefully about this later, since I could swear I heard something clinking inside, but oh well...
My keen senses being what they are, I also noticed a sliding door behind the chest, and I led the way through, down a ladder, past a locked door (all that training that Leandra and the twins tried to give me when I was younger sure is coming in handy), and into a lab of some kind. Adadar immediately grabbed what turned out to be a spellbook in the far corner, much to Haley's dismay, but a long search revealed nothing else except for a door that was chained shut and which we couldn't seem to get past. We'll have to try again later, I think; after all, it may be important!
Well, Jones chose this moment to announce that lunch was served, and fortunately, Sam (who we'd left up in Merissa's room) was able to distract the servant long enough for us to get up the ladder and so on. It seemed imprudent to reveal all we'd learned so far, after all...
After a quick lunch (and an abortive attempt on Prihelm's part to get a master key out of Sir Paige), we decided to head out over to Merissa's town house. Before we left, though, I decided to check up with the gardeners on a hunch of mine; I was willing to bet, in light of Merissa's activities, that there was an easy way past the bloodroses, and either she had a spell in that spellbook to cause them to wither, or it was something the gardeners would know about. Discrete inquiry on my part quickly proved me right; they have real problems with salt, and a bucket of salt water is enough to make them wither away! Since we're right on the coast, this stuff is no doubt easy to get. And even if I were just to coat myself thoroughly with the stuff, I could probably get past the vicious things. Very convenient...
And now, I see that we're at Merissa's townhouse, so I'll have to go. Hopefully, we'll have finished solving this little puzzle by the next time I write!