8. Silvershield Estate

In the mansion’s foyer they find Skie Silvershield flushed and beaming, making use of a handmirror as she makes adjustments to her hair. From the cloak about her shoulders, it’s apparent she arrived just before the party.

"Oh, hello again!" Skie can’t seem to stop smiling brightly. She puts a last strand of hair into place, then tucks away the mirror. "I’m so glad you’ll be staying with us for at least a little while. It’ll give us time to get to know one another!"

She glances down one of the hallways, then leans in conspiratorially. "I tried to make it back before dark but didn’t quite manage it, and Father abhors the thought of me traveling the city alone at night. You wouldn’t mind saying I arrived with you, would you? If anyone asks, that is…"

"Depends, lying isn’t good so you’ll have to walk with us for a bit that way it’s just not the whole truth." Dieter says back with a small laugh and a smile.

There’s a pretty good chance she got jumped on her way home. Unfortunately I don’t know her so I can’t tell if something is different

Dieter looks to Aiwë and Stella as if to share his laugh with them but quickly gives them the typical alarm bells look he has developed since travelling with them.

"Normally I wouldn't mind, but your father might not like where we've been. Speaking of, we need to see him and Aldous right now." She pauses without taking her eyes off Skie's for emphasis. "Right now. Koveras too."

While Aiwë speaks she taps her fingers against the armour on her thigh. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. The rhythm sticks in Skie's head and echoes her surface thoughts back to Aiwë. She braces herself for mental feedback like with the other 'gangers.

Aiwë casts Detect Thoughts.

Aiwe's spell slides gently over Skie's mind, and the young woman's thoughts echo back to the bard.

...dark alleyway... handsome, rugged smile... the feel of his lips on hers, the rough of his stubble...

Skie's obviously distracted, and is barely paying attention to the conversation.

'Hmm...? Oh, well they're probably in Father's study. Just down the hall there, and on the right."

The young woman practically skips off in the other direction, humming a bouncy tune.

(Performance: Aiwe recognizes the tune almost immediately, a rather bawdy tavern song that no musician in the Upper City would be caught dead performing.)

Aiwë laughs as she turns to her friends. "She's clean." If she is a doppelgänger she's slacking on the job. "Now the Duke." She walks to the door. "You keep him talking, and I'll give him an ear worm?"

She knocks on the door.

Dieter quickly scans Aiwë’s face looking for any hint of trouble. The cold pommel of Dieter’s dagger fills his palm as he gentle holds it in its sheath at the small of his back. He takes his hand away and closes it in a fist at the all clear.

"I don’t think she knows how close she is" Dieter says watching her bounce away "to the coming storm, to death. If we do our job right she won’t know."

Aldous answers the door. The young nobleman seems a bit drawn and haggard, but still manages to give the party a grin and Stella a wink.

"Father, these are the friends I’ve been telling you about. Dieter: a master swordsman from Beregost. Aiwe Blacksheaf: bard of Icewind Dale. And this," he says, taking Stella’s hand, "is Stella Melerelil: druid of Kuldahar, scholar of the firmament, and bearing a heart as kind and generous as she is beautiful."

He clears his throat and gestures to the man standing across the room. "Friends, this is my father: Grand Duke Entar Silvershield."

Entar cuts a regal figure. He has a short-trimmed red beard struck through with dignified lines of light gray, a pattern which continues up through his styled hair. While obviously middle-aged, his leanly-muscled frame tells of adventurous younger days. He stands with his hands behind his back, half-turned to face a large window.

At the party’s entrance, the grand duke strides over to the group and extends a firm handshake to each of them, along with a respectful incline of his head. The resemblance to Aldous is striking.

"Pleased to meet each of you. My son has informed me of your activities and discoveries of the past month. Baldur’s Gate is fortunate to have you in these tumultuous times."

(Insight: To Stella’s eyes, for a moment a single star hovers above the duke’s head - one exactly like the four from her last vision. Accompanying the sight is a feeling of correctness, of a puzzle piece sliding into a place. The star twinkles brightly, then fades from view.)

"Dieter, I think you need a vacation."

...

Aiwë gives an Elvish bow, then shakes his hand. "We didn't know what we'd be doing when we came, but I'm glad we could help." Again her fingers drum on her armour. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap.

Aiwë casts Detect Thoughts, and scans the Duke's surface thoughts.

"I thought we are on one right now…?" Dieter says obviously confused

"Oh, are we? Because last time I said anything about it you said 'I'm hired to protect you.'" Aiwë's imitation is uncanny. "Sounds like you're working, Diets.

"Well your parents hired me through Tulfgar. I’m kind of like a subcontractor but that’s not the point. The point is that vacations seem very stressful… maybe we can go to a hotspring or a cruise"

Dieter pauses "sounds like you’re working Diets"

Aiwë rolls her eyes. "I'm only going to tell you one more time. Tulfgar told you that our parents hired you for a job because otherwise you wouldn't come. Our parents are paying you to go on vacation because they liked Tulfgyr and they're cool." She winces. "The fact that it ended up being so opposite from a vacation was not anticipated. I don't think. Speaking of..." She gestures to the door.

"Im even getting paid" Dieter mutters as they head into the door

Tulfgar got the friends and family discount

Despite her sullen, anxious mood, Stella can't help but smile at Skie. She was so...infectiously spunky and carefree. Stella's smile fades a bit as she wonders whether she should try to be more like that. Whether she could be more like that.At the exaggerated introduction, Stella can't help but grin sheepishly, forgetting her earlier thoughts. She blushes furiously and averts her eyes for a moment as the stars in them burn pink, but she forces herself to look into Aldous' eyes and then up to Lord Entar Silvershield's. She curtsies. "A p-pleasure to meet you, milord! Al...dous," she says, nearly uses his nickname in her slightly flustered state, "has been a wonderful support in more ways than one." The others might argue he had also been a liability, but...well, that was their opinion.Stella's eyes flick to above the duke's head and her eyes narrow slightly in confusion. When recognition hits, her face grows cold, and her eye-stars quickly fade from pink to a dark indigo. With some focus, she tries to force them back to violet.

The stars were people, not entities. Four stars...consumed and corrupted. Or...replaced, perhaps? And Aiwë was right. Lord Silvershield was a target. But if that star was any indication, he hadn't been compromised. Not yet, at least. How could they keep it that way? And who were the other three?

Stella sets her jaw as her mind begins to race despite herself.

Duke Entar's demeanor is polite, but also perhaps a bit standoffish. From his mind, Aiwe gleans a sense of disappointment: …so timid… Why must he always fall for the fragile ones? She must not be the one driving this group forward...

"Aldous says the Iron Throne is behind all of it - the Iron Crisis, the brooding war with Amn... As one of the four Grand Dukes, I can assure you a fitting reward for putting an end to their machinations. The sooner, the better. What do you need to make it happen?"

Aiwë's face sours. Timid? Perhaps a reasonable adjective, but she doesn't like how he thought it. But fragile? And Stella drives them onward as much as anyone! She speaks up before her glower can be misinterpreted by Dieter.

"The Duke's himself." She hovers on his thoughts just a moment after she says this to gauge his reaction just in case, then turns her focus to Aldous for good measure. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap tap tap.

Stella blinks, eye-stars finally settling on violet. Well. That answered that question.

She looks to Aiwë for confirmation that he can be trusted, or at least that he's not compromised. She tilts her head, confused at her glower, then then turns back and speaks up.

"We...have reason to believe the Four Grand Dukes and their stations may be primary targets of the Iron Throne." If what Aldous told her was true, he wouldn't be trusting of her magics and divinations...Perhaps he'd trust the warriors in the group instead. "We just returned from the Seven Suns, another of their targets, and...well," she glances to the others, to give them a chance to explain the doppelganger situation, "we discovered some disturbing things."

...of course I'm myself. What is she...

bard-spellcaster-divination-outrage

Entar's eyes flash. "Are you aware that using mind-reading magic on a Grand Duke is a crime punishable by death?"

Careful... I need them...