FormID: 011A0AB3 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Entering the keep was easy for a thief of his caliber. However, a cunning lock with no less than 13 pins protected the private quarters of the Baron.
FormID: 011A0AB4 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Using only a fork, a bit of string, and a wineskin, he disabled the seven traps guarding the Baron's coin collection. Truly Ravius was a master.
FormID: 011A0AB5 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 With the coins safely in his grasp, Ravius began his escape only to find the way blocked.
FormID: 011A0AB6 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 The Baron had found the opened door and was raising the guard to scour the castle.
FormID: 011A0AB7 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Ravius fled deeper into the castle, one step ahead of the questing guards.
FormID: 011A0AB8 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 His only way out led through the boudoir of Baroness Veronique. He entered to find the lady preparing for bed.
FormID: 011A0AB9 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Now it should be said at this point that Ravius was noted for his handsome looks, while the Baroness was noted for her plainness.
FormID: 011A0ABA 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Both of these facts were immediately recognized by each of the pair.
FormID: 011A0ABB 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 [QUOTE]Doest thou come to plunder my virtue?[QUOTE] asked the lady, all a tremble.
FormID: 011A0ABC 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 [QUOTE]Nay, fair lady,[QUOTE] Ravius said, thinking quickly. [QUOTE]Plunder be a harsh term to ply upon such a delicate flower as your virtue.[QUOTE]
FormID: 011A0ABD 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 [QUOTE]I see thou hast made off with mine husbands precious coins.[QUOTE]
FormID: 011A0ABE 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Ravius looked deeply into her eyes and saw the only path by which he would escape this night with his life. It would require a double sacrifice.
FormID: 011A0ABF 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 [QUOTE]Though these coins are of rarest value, I have now found a treasure that is beyond all value,[QUOTE] Ravius said smoothly.
FormID: 011A0AC0 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 [QUOTE]Tell me, why doest thy husband set seven deadly traps around these tawdry coins, but only a simple lock upon the door of his virtuous wife?[QUOTE]
FormID: 011A0AC1 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 [QUOTE]Ignace protects those things that are dearest to him,[QUOTE] Veronique replied with ire.
FormID: 011A0AC2 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 [QUOTE]I would give all the gold in my possession to spend but a moment basking in your radiance.[QUOTE]
FormID: 011A0AC3 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 With that Ravius set down the coins he had worked so hard to steal. The Baroness swooned into his arms.
FormID: 011A0AC4 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 When the captain of the guard asked to search her quarters, she hid Ravius most skillfully.
FormID: 011A0AC5 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 She turned over the coins, claiming the thief dropped them when he fled out the window.
FormID: 011A0AC6 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 With that sacrifice made, Ravius steeled himself for the second. He robbed the lady Veronique of her virtue that night.
FormID: 011A0AC7 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 He robbed her of it several times, lasting well into the wee hours of the morning. Exhausted, yet sated, he stole away in the pre-dawn hours.
FormID: 011D808F 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 GALERION THE MYSTIC
FormID: 011D8090 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 During the early bloody years of the Second Era, Vanus Galerion was born under the name Trechtus...
FormID: 011D8091 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 ...a serf on the estate of a minor nobleman, Lord Gyrnasse of Sollicich-on-Ker.
FormID: 011D8092 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Trechtus father and mother were common laborers,but his father had secretly,against the law of Lord Gyrnasse,taught himself and Trechtus to read.
FormID: 011D8093 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Lord Gyrnasse had been advised that literate serfs were an abomination of nature and dangerous to themselves and their lords...
FormID: 011D8094 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 ...and had closed all bookstalls within Sollicich-on-Ker.
FormID: 011D8095 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 All booksellers, poets, and teachers were forbidden, except within Gyrnasse's keep.
FormID: 011D8096 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Nevertheless, a small scale smuggling operation kept a number of books and scrolls in circulation right under Gyrnasse's shadow.
FormID: 011D8097 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 When Trechtus was eight, the smugglers were found and imprisoned.
FormID: 011D8098 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Some said that Trechtus's mother, an ignorant and religious woman fearful of her husband, was the betrayer of the smugglers.
FormID: 011D8099 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 The trial of the smugglers was nonexistant, and the punishment swift.
FormID: 011D809A 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 The body of Trechtus' father was kept hanging for weeks during the hottest summer Sollicich-on-Ker had seen in centuries.
FormID: 011D809B 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Three months later, Trechtus ran away from Lord Gyrnasse's estate. He made it as far as Alinor, half-way across Summerset Isle.
FormID: 011D809C 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 A band of troubadours found him nearly dead, curled up in a ditch by the side of the road.
FormID: 011D809D 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 They nursed him to health and employed him as an errand boy in return for food and shelter.
FormID: 011D809E 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 One of the troubadours, a soothsayer named Heliand, began testing Trechtus' mind and found the boy, though shy, to be...
FormID: 011D809F 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 ... preternaturally intelligent and sophisticated given his circumstances.
FormID: 011D80A0 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Heliand recognized in the boy a commonality, for Heliand had been trained on the Isle of Artaeum as a mystic.
FormID: 011D80A1 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 When the troupe was performing in the village of Potansa on the far eastern end of Summurset, Heliand took Trechtus, then a boy of eleven...
FormID: 011D80A2 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 to the Isle of Artaeum.
FormID: 011D80A3 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 The Magister of the Isle, Iachesis, recognized potential in Trechtus and took him on as pupil, giving him the name of Vanus Galarion.
FormID: 011D80A4 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Vanus trained his mind on the Isle of Artaeum, as well as his body.
FormID: 011D80A5 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 Thus was the first Archmagister of the Mages Guild trained. From the Psijics of the Isle of Artaeum, he received his training.
FormID: 011D80A6 1emmQuest1 88readbook 0 From his childhood of want and injustice, he received his philosophy of sharing knowledge.
FormID: 0118C7E0 1emmQuest1 3emm11Readbook 0 Why on earth would I want to do that?
FormID: 0118B35A 1emmQuest1 3emm11Readbook 0 Sure... but it has to be something simple and not too lengthy. What would you like to hear?
FormID: 0118B35C 1emmQuest1 3emm11ReadBah1a 0 Sure.
FormID: 0118B35E 1emmQuest1 3emm11ReadBah1b 0 Sure.
FormID: 0118B360 1emmQuest1 3emm11ReadThiefofVirtue 0 Sure.