built it three generations ago. He set a lot of magic in place, and most remained stable despite the Spellplague. Mostly, Varadras is just a place to get away. My father has no way of finding me here. The manor house is invisible to those outside of it unless you approach within a certain range.'
'So where are we?' Meloon asked. He stood at the nearest window, scraping away some ice and rubbing a window clear. 'I only see a lot of trees around us. We're not in Waterdeep?'
'We're about a hundred miles due west of Beliard, the town near the Stone Bridge,' Renaer said. While he spoke, he led his friends down the hallway, and more torches lit up as they approached, those in the distant entry chamber snuffing themselves accordingly.
Renaer led them past three doors before he stopped, opened a broad pair of double doors, and said, 'Dornethar.'
Inside that chamber, fires flared to life on three hearths and on six torches set high on the walls. The group entered a carpeted study with shelved books lining the walls. Unlike the other chambers festooned with cobwebs, this room was pristine and cold, though warming quickly. A massive desk of dark wood loomed to the right of the main fireplace, its surface disturbed only by a gleaming ball of dark red crystal and a massive tome lying open.
The five of them rushed toward the hearths opposite or flanking the doors to warm themselves. Vajra, who had followed the group with Laraelra guiding her like a child, rushed over to the right, approached the shelves behind the desk, and pushed in a single tome. Without a sound, the shelves swung inward, revealing a secret passage, and Vajra disappeared into the darkness, chuckling.
'Where does that go, Renaer?' Laraelra asked.
They all moved toward the secret door. Laraelra slammed the set of books she carried on the desk as she passed it, heading into the dark room. She muttered a short series of magical syllables, and her fingernails took on a blue glow as she walked.
'I don't know!' Renaer said. 'I didn't even know that was there. It's not mentioned in any of the notes or plans.' He repeated the words 'palnethar' and 'dornethar,' but no torches sputtered to life inside the passage.
Laraelra finished casting a spell, and a blue glow filled the room. The small windowless chamber lay revealed as a wine cellar, racks of bottles lining the back and side walls and the left-hand long wall left empty to allow passage without disturbing the bottles. Many racks were empty along the right, but the back wall still held nearly its full complement of bottles.
Vajra stood at the center of the wine cellar holding a bottle of wine and blowing off its mantle of dusty webs. She laughed and said, 'Varad kept his best never been here how'd she do never mind we must oh bother let's just drink it no share it not for dining keep clear head.' She kept muttering and arguing with herself so that she didn't resist when Vharem eased the bottle out of her grasp.
When he looked at the bottle Vharem's eyebrows rose and he whistled a low unbelieving tone. 'Renaer, this single bottle's probably worth a tenday's worth of tavern jaunts! The Surrilan vineyards died out in the drought seventeen summers back-and this bottle's more than eighty years old!'
'So that's good wine, then?' Meloon asked, reaching for another bottle.
'Some of the best,' Renaer replied. 'Vajra, how did you know this was here?'
The dusky woman smiled, her eyes flitting from purple to gray to blue to sea green. 'Varad Brandarth was… a good student… faithful friend. Stingy with his wine…' She reached up for another bottle and wiped the dust and webs off on Laraelra's robes before the sorceress could stop her. She smiled and said, 'Pikar Salibuck introduced us. Many secrets shared… best was this.' She waved an arm around to indicate the room. 'Gods, we tried…'
As Vajra whirled with her arms outstretched, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she collapsed. Laraelra grabbed enough of her sleeve to slow her before her head slammed into the stone floor, and Vharem made a mad dive to catch the falling bottle of wine. Laraelra shot him a look as she tried to settle the unconscious wizard onto the ground.
Vharem shrugged and said, 'What? You had her, and we can't have her rolling around on shards of glass or soaking in priceless wine.'
Meloon lifted Vajra and headed with the others back to the study. Renaer kept looking around at the contours of the room, nodding to himself, and examining the bookshelf-door and its triggering book.
'Care to explain all that?' Meloon asked as he placed Vajra on a long divan in front of the small hearth on the eastern wall.
'Varad Brandarth and Pikar Salibuck were both wizards of some note decades past,' Renaer said. 'They had a friend and mentor in common across the years-the Blackstaff, or at least one of them anyway. I think Vajra is possessed or has some memories of the previous Blackstaffs.'
'Just realized that?' Laraelra said.
Renaer opened his mouth to respond, and then exhaled loudly and forced his hands to relax at his sides. 'We're all on edge with everything that's happened, and we've had no sleep or food. Fellows, let's leave the ladies here while we find some food to go with this wine.' Renaer set a bottle down on a side table, and wrestled the other two from Vharem's grip.
Laraelra sighed and said, 'You're right. We all need some rest. Then with a brighter day, we can approach this with clear heads. Maybe remember things we're forgetting now. Renaer, I-'
'Offer apologies by watching her?' Renaer said, nodding at Vajra. 'Thank you. Stay warm while we go forage some more food.'
Meloon grabbed a few furs off the pile he'd dumped in a corner, and gave two to Laraelra and draped another over Vajra.
'Pikar was Madrak's father, by the way.' Renaer said, over his shoulder. 'When I was a child, I heard loads of stories that are in few histories about the hin sorcerer of Blackstaff Tower. I'll have Madrak share some of them later.'
Renaer led Meloon and Vharem out of the room and closed the double-doors. The three men all shivered as they left the warm chamber for the chilly corridor. Renaer led them to the end of the hallway, down a flight of stairs, and into a large kitchen area. Renaer stayed silent, so the hearth fires did not flare up, icy downdrafts alone disturbing the cobwebs at the chimney. Meloon looked out the kitchen windows, only to see the swirl of heavily falling snow. They walked through a large pantry and down another short flight of stairs into a root cellar filled with dried herbs and bushels of potatoes and such.
'Awfully big place, Renaer.' Meloon whistled. 'Who did you say lived here?'
'Varad Brandarth, my grandfather's uncle. He was a wizard and one of Khelben the Blackstaffs last students. This place he kept secret from most of his family. My mother discovered the hidden portals leading to it almost thirty years ago. Varadras was empty for more than forty years after Varad died until Mother found it.'
'And old Dagult doesn't know about this?' Vharem said. 'Seems a piece of property he'd love to get his hands on.'
'Mother always thought of this as her secret place,' Renaer said, 'and she shared it with me alone. Apparently, she found Varad's hidden journals by accident her nineteenth winter, and she hid here whenever she needed. Even though she held few secrets from Dagult, she never told him everything about her family or its holdings. He has never heard of this place. Nor will he.'
The young lord led them through the root cellar, tossing an empty bushel at Vharem and then launching a dozen potatoes and half as many onions at him to collect in it.
'So your mother was a wizard?' Meloon asked.
'No,' Renaer said as he examined a ring of dried apples before setting it back on its hook. 'Neither one of us could read his spell-books, but his journals are mundane and readable. They recorded most of the words that activate magic around the manor. Even you could activate them if you knew the words.'
The trio now entered one room with three archways off of it, all stone walls and ground whereas the root cellar had a bare dirt floor. Their breath clouded the air around them, as it was only slightly warmer in here than outside in the blizzard. Renaer opened one jar the size of his head and sniffed. 'Hmph. If we take this up with us, the honey should thaw out by the fire. Good stuff too. Varad kept bees here, and his honey was among the few trade goods that supplemented his stipend from the family coffers.'
'If all this was here, why did I need to bring food along?' Vharem complained as he examined a few large crocks of pickles.
'The only stuff Madrak and I keep here are things that won't spoil easily,' Renaer said. 'Unless you wanted to eat only dried meat, honey, and pickled vegetables, what we brought with us should help keep us fed for a day or so
