Part 2

	“He was exiled from the capital of the Alliance,” Linus said.  “At first, I thought it was because he spent all his time in other cities.  Maybe it still is, officially, but… anyway, he was Open Lord of the city of Waterdeep, which is a huge metropolis near my home village.  He was exiled by the ruling council, the Council of the Masked Lords.  It was a huge scandal.”  He paused to sip his water.  “He moved to another city, Neverwinter.  He had a claim on the throne there, albeit a tenuous one.  He wanted to shore up his claim there and regain his public approval, so he sponsored the Conyberry Redevelopment Project.”

	June scratched a few notes as Linus continued.  “Conyberry… the gods had it in for that town, or something.  It had every problem.  Plagues, a banshee, ghosts, an earthquake, bandits, werewolves, werewolf barbarians, earthmotes, an invasion by a flying city… it seemed like everything that could go wrong did.”  Linus shook his head.  “Back then, Neverember wanted to rebuild the colony and prove he had the chops to run Neverwinter’s own reconstruction after it got hit by an earthquake and a volcano.  It actually seemed to be working.  He hired me to protect it by guarding the roads between the colony site and the nearby city.”

	“It would seem that that kind of mission would impose on the freedom you enjoyed so much,” June observed.

	“I mean, I liked being free to take or ignore work like that, but I still liked being able to take special missions once in a while,” Linus said.

	“And did this Neverember hire you personally?”

	“He sure did,” Linus said.  “And for the first two months, everything was golden.  Then, one night, as I was sitting in my tent, getting out of the rain, I had a visitor.”  Linus closed his eyes and half-smiled as he remembered Viridian.  “She was a faun.  Cutest little thing you ever saw.  I helped her out, fed her, healed an illness she suffered.  We got along famously.  She led me back to her flock, and I healed them too.  They weren’t locals.  They had been displaced from the Feywild.”

	June nodded.  “Ah.  This, I have heard of.  They were ripped from their home plane by a demon plot, no?”

	“Correct.”  Linus thought back to meeting his friend.  “The flock had a few satyrs in it.  Their leader, Gillint, was being corrupted by the lingering Abyssal taint in the region, as were some local crooks.  Eventually, Gillint was so corrupted that he turned into a demon himself.  To make an incredibly long story short, I killed him.”

	June laughed.  “Linus, are you here to make long stories short?”

	Despite everything, Linus laughed too.  “No, of course not.”  He waited a long minute.  “All right.  So… the satyrs split off from the rest of the flock.  I helped the fauns go home, with some help from the people of the Feywild who had discovered the planar portal that the demon who caused the planar rift, Crocutter, had opened.  Eventually, the satyrs, who stayed behind, were corrupted by the Abyssal energies, and became demon-fey.  When they attacked Conyberry, they did so subtly.”  Linus shuddered.  “One of them slipped into town and used her magic to start an orgy.  A local monk and I followed her back to their camp after the orgy ended, found Gillint, and killed him.  It was… difficult.  One of them managed to scalp me,” he said.  He ran a hand over his tight haircut.  “I had to use magic to regrow my skin.”

	“Goodness.”

	“I’ve had worse.  Before and after.”  Linus recalled the end of that bleak fight.  “We rescued prisoners the satyrs had taken from nearby farms and mines.  They had been so beaten and violated that they were barely human… barely people after that,” he said, belatedly remembering that his doctor was not human herself.  She looked it, but she wasn’t.  “Poor bastards.  We got them back to the village to be cared for, but that was just the beginning.  We could tell that there were other forces in play.  The demon causing the Abyssal energy ruptures had to be around somewhere.  I set out to gather allies to help me canvass the area to hunt it down.”

	“I see.  You didn’t pause to recuperate?”

	Linus shook his head.  “One night was all I needed.”  June tilted her head at that, but Linus pressed on.  “Gotta say, this is easier than I thought it would be,” Linus admitted.  “Talking it all out like this, I mean.”

	June beamed.  “I’m glad to hear it.  That said, take your time.  You’re in no rush here.”

	“Good to know.”  Linus looked out the large windows that lined his door to the balcony beyond.  “Did you know I met Axiopistos a few times before he became a god?”

	“Axiopistos?  Truly?”

	“Yes.  He was a man before he was God of Fatherhood.  He came from my world, Toril.”  Linus shook his head.  “He plays into this story as a mortal.  Is that okay?  I don’t know if people are discouraged from discussing the gods from before they… were.”

	“Of course, Linus.  Feel free to discuss anything germane to the discussion,” June encouraged him.  “There’s nothing that would offend Axiopistos in his own history, and I wouldn’t share anything here with him anyway.”

	“Hmm.”  Linus shrugged.  “All right.  So… I had travelled back to the city of Waterdeep.  It’s the largest, most prosperous city on the coast near where I lived, and the headquarters of the Lords’ Alliance is there.  The new Open Lord, Laeral Silverhand, was willing to meet me in person…”

Chapter Two
1494 DR (WATERDEEP)
	Lady Laeral Silverhand, Open Lord of Waterdeep, the once-Queen of Stornanter, and presently the highest-ranked member of the Lords’ Alliance, regarded Linus neutrally where he stood across her table from him.  Linus kept his back razor-straight, and his hands clasped together at his back.  “A Warhost of Yeenoghu, then,” she said calmly.  Her voice was oddly comforting for Linus.  She had a tone of effortless but generous authority he had never quite heard in anybody else.

	“So it is, your Ladyship,” Linus said deferentially.  “All of the work the Farview Company did on the site of the tempt suggests there is far more on the way.”

	Laeral smiled slightly.  “Stand at ease, Paladin.  Are you not among friends?” she asked.

	The two of them were alone in the room.  Linus managed a return smile.  “Yes, of course, your Ladyship,” he said.  He relaxed his shoulders and clasped his hands at his belt instead.  “Forgive my formality.  I find myself somewhat tense in the presence of she who returned me to life.”

	“No, it was High Priest Elandre who returned you to life,” Laeral reminded him.  “I just paid for it.”  She pointed to the scroll tube with crumbled wax at the end.  “This incursion of fey has ended, I take it?”

	“Indeed, ma’am, and thank the gods for it,” Linus sighed.  “I felt terrible for them, and they incurred nothing but disaster.”

	“Poor things.”  Laeral lifted one paper and examined it again.  “So.  Conyberry’s walls are not yet complete?”

	“Indeed not, my Lady, nor shall they be for many months, perhaps three seasons,” Linus said regretfully.  “A druid of sufficient power could bring it about, however, by regrowing the timbers there.  If sawdust and fertilizer were sprinkled around the edges of the tree line…”

	“Druidcrafting could make the difference,” Laeral finished.  “Yes.  I shall arrange it, if it can be arranged.”  She was among the very few Chosen of the world’s gods who elected to declare her status openly.  She was a timeless woman, looking to be in her late thirties despite being over seven hundred years of age.  The bright silver hair she grew to ankle-length was up in a complex weave knot today.

	She gestured to the rest of the papers.  “And your own efforts?”

	“Conyberry is expanding, but their prosperity is due more to the work of the Farview Company than my own labors,” Linus admitted.  “I’m damn busy.”

	Laeral laughed.  “I know the feeling.”  She rose.  “Walk with me, Knight.  There is something you must see.”


	Linus slowly removed his helm.  Cold shock filled his bones at the sight of the endless train of money beneath him that stretched out to fill the entire courtyard.  “That… that is insane!  Where did all that come from?” he demanded.  Laeral chuckled softly.

	Beneath the courtyard where they stood, the two of them could see a vast chain of baggage wagons, each packed with of coins.  Copper Nibs, brass Taols, gold Dragons, there was every kind of money, each ringed by great forces of the City Guard in their shimmering alloy armor.

	“It’s… one hell of a haul,” Linus said.

	“Confiscated from the private vault of my predecessor,” Laeral said.  “Lord Dagult Neverember embezzled it from the people and hid it in an ancient dwarven temple, far under the surface today.”

	Linus turned to her with a pained expression.  “My employer robbed the city?” he demanded.

	“He did.  We didn’t find out until after he was gone, ironically,” Laeral said.  “It was found by the adventuring company The Magnificent Bastards.”

	“Wow.”  Linus turned his eyes from the trove being hauled into the city to Lady Silverhand, who he realized was staring at him in obvious judgment.  “Er, my Lady… I am unsure as to what you desire for me to do here,” he admitted.  “Lord Neverember is protected by the city of Neverwinter now.  I can hardly arrest him for this.”

	Laeral nodded slowly.  “Indeed, he is almost certainly beyond justice for this, and he is doing some good in Neverwinter.”  She smiled coyly.  “However, I do see a certain irony in protecting his precious investment in Conyberry using funds he stole from the city, do you not?”

	Linus blinked as her intention became clear.  “Oh.”  He chuckled.  “I suppose I do, yes,” he admitted, “but surely the good people of the city would prefer their money be returned to them.”

	“Which is why the mercenary force I shall employ to aid Conyberry shall be funded with this money, instead of a Lance Tax on the populace,” Laeral said.  Linus laughed.

	“Wow.  Well, my Lady, that would be something to see,” Linus admitted.  “And a Rassalantar Paladin to lead them?”

	Laeral clapped a hand on his shoulder.  “Now you’re catching on.”