Getting back into the swing of things [open]

[kaisermayhem]

Gwhaldin looked around his study at the detritus that collected over the two years of his absence. Taking the books that now were stacked as tall as he was off his desk, he began the lengthy process of cleaning his study room.
He couldn't trust the servants to tidy his study how he liked it and so it was much more simple if he did it himself. His wife had collected a fair few books during his absence but they were mostly penny books filled with hearsay and old wife's tales, nothing useful to work. He wasn't angry with Mara, his wife, Gwhaldin was a very particular man when it came to decisions. It was his way or no way at all.
He found some useful manuscripts among the garbage, a text entitled The Arcanium Daemonomicon which held some interesting accounts of ancient demon worshipers and their rituals. The text was mostly destroyed or in terrible condition but Gwhaldin had spent many years studying Earth's and the many other realms demons. It was not an unusual sight for Gwhaldin to be laden with demonic texts, he was Reajh's foremost demonic scholar.
There was a knock at the door, after a brief pause before a serving girl entered. Most of the staff had been replaced which Gwhaldin was most displeased with but he persevered none the less with such a dreadful setback. He had not learnt the new staff's names but boy, girl or sometimes cretin would do.
"Sire, there be a visitor here to see you Sire," Gwhaldin could tell by the way the girl stared at her feet and the way she used her words that he frightened her which is how he liked to keep it between master and servant. That being said, there were always exceptions to rules when a servant was an exceptional attendant.
Gwhaldin sighed at the girl's attempt at a simple sentence and replied "Bring them in then girl." The serving girl bowed and left, her eyes glued to woodwork on the floor. Gwhaldin stopped sorting through his books and settled into his high back chair at his desk, he wondered who had heard heard of his return so swiftly.   

[Corria Firegrass]

Corria passed through the door and lowered her hood. This was her first time on a job since the incident a month ago, the only thing that had changed was the fact that she was alone now. It was just the same situation with less backup. This was just another  scumbag. She kept having to tell herself that and each time she did she realised how much it sounded like she was failing to convince herself.

The young halfling woman looked up at the man. Her beautiful features, the black hair, the dark eyes and the exotic, tanned skin so uncharacteristic of the denizens of Connaloth were offset only by her tiny stature and the venom in her eyes. She had seen the demeanour of the servant and from that had gauged pretty well what kind of man she was dealing with. A sort of dominator, who liked to keep the people under him in fear, and through that, keep them in line. It was utterly disgusting. He was a bottom feeder, so why was he so halting to the woman who had brought untold amounts of corruption to light? Perhaps it was the fact that he was the only person she'd ever dealt with that she had to meet face to face? Perhaps it was because he was someone who wasn't just known for the mistreating of slaves, but for his work as a scholar on demons, but then again that kind of hocus pocus had never intimidated Corria before. No, it probably just came back to the fact that Corria was alone this time. Again, she kept trying to convince herself of that.

Regardless, the woman bowed to the man in a rather forced manner, she'd done this a million times but she'd never really grown quite comfortable bowing to bottom-feeders. It was just part of the job though. "Good evening Mister Ghwaldin, welcome home. To what do we owe the pleasure of your return?" the welcome was spoken without any intent to sincerity; it was dry, deadpan and sarcastic.

[kaisermayhem]

Gwhaldin looked over the desk to see the halfling that had entered his study. He had no opinion of halflings, he did not like them but he did not hate them, they simply existed in this world and he acknowledged this fact. From her clothes he could tell she was no-one of importance in Reajh, he'd speak to the staff about letting all and sundry entering his house. He pulled out a ledger and flipped it open to the the current month, being considered dead for two years meant that his schedule was rather barren at the moment. He was sure however that he had not arranged any meeting with a halfling of seemingly no noteworthy comment. He did not take his eyes of the pages of the ledger as he spoke.
"It seems you are not aware my dear that the pleasure of my return is that I returned at all. Now if this is a matter of a family member being possessed by a demon and the sort, please leave and make a formal appointment at my office at the college of Reajh where your request will be processed by my assistant."
Gwhaldin looked up from the ledger before continuing, it did not seem like the halfwit was leaving. He closed the ledger and leant forward to stare at the young girl.
"I'm afraid that while you know my name you remain a total mystery to me. Now if you have a valid and interesting reason to be in my house, I'm all ears." He stood up, he was twice as tall as the halfling and he had to almost look directly down to see her.
"If however you don't not have a reason to wander off the streets into my house then please leave." He pointed to the door and waited for a response from annoyance that had entered his study.

[Corria Firegrass]

Corria sighed, the man was so... so utterly arrogant that she couldn't help but feel her blood boil in his prescence. She probably couldn't get away with calling him a jumped up litte toad given her stature but such words seemed to fit the man rather well. And what was this nonsense of "my dear"? Corria could not remember the last time she had been anyone's dear, and she didn't really want to start now, especially when this man was so utterly smug and insincere.

She failed, or, more accurately, refused to look up at the man when he stood up to look over her, instead she looked around at the room at the books, tome upon tome upon manuscript about everything from how to deal with a succubus to information on evoking and invoking. Gwhaldin was either genuinely convinced about this demonology stuff or was using it as some sort of scam, either was problematic and Corria couldn't help feeling that she was potentially dealing with powers bigger than she could imagine. Though perhaps that was brainwashing at work.

"You're naive, I'm not sure you can really expect to come back from the dead and not have someone poke their head through the portieres." Corria now chose to snap her head up, staring dead at the man opposite her "Especially when your wife seems to have been tending the place for you, funny way of dealing with grief"

[kaisermayhem]

Gwhaldin dropped his hand and lent forward glowering at the gnome or whatever it was. She was indeed an irritating creature and refused to leave his study.
"My dear, I am well aware of the many eyes that are watching me with interest. It is no secret that people believe me to be some necromancers puppet but I assure this is completely without basis in fact."
He sat down again anticipating a long and drawn confrontation, how dull. "What I am confused about is that you do not seem to represent any reputable organisation and you do not seem like you are gathering information on me, as you have shown little skill in indiscretion and tact. So, I'll ask again what are doing in my house?"
He did not wait for an answer before he continued his berating. "If you have come to ask why my wife gathered material on daemons during my absence, well my wife is easily flustered and did not cope with my absence very well and so continued as if I were still in my study. I would suggest that you do not speak to my wife, she is still in a fragile state and your presence would upset her."
He called for the serving girl who rushed into the room waiting for his command. "Girl, show this halfling out of the house and remember not to let her again." The girl began to usher the halfling to the door.

[Corria Firegrass]

Corria flashed a glare at the man and turned to the girl with the slightest hint of compassion in her eyes "Leave this house and never look back, this man will not hound you".

Not paying mind to the reaction of either the slave girl or the man she was opposite of, Corria continued to speak "My questions are threefold: Why are you alive, why do you have such an extensive collection of tomes based on invoking Daemons if you yourself think yourself more of an exorcist, and finally, most importantly. What do you know about Ringwald Kreuz, the local land baron"

This last question was particularly important. Ringwald had connections all across the city and in some places there was talk about him visiting here. What did he, of all people, want to do with demons? Surely your average bottom feeding scumbag thug like him would have little to do with the occult. But all things were possible.

[kaisermayhem]

Gwhaldin sighed and turned to pull a tome from off of his bookcase. He set it in front of carefully and then pulled a second larger book from one of the draws in his desk, taking a quill from a pot on his desk he began to transcribe the nearly illegible text to was scrawled across the tome by some schizophrenic priest from across the oceans.
"My dear," he again did not look up from his work while he spoke to the aggravation that had wormed its way into his study, "I will tell you what I told the inquisition, the Mordecai and the Grand Duke's top interrogator." He scrutinised the tome more closely as the text seemed curve up the page and disappear onto a separate page.
"There were always power struggles within the group of bandits that had captured me, a few months ago was the worst coup I'd seen while I was there. During the ensuing battle and chaos that was occurring around me I was able to make my escape from the tunnels that they called home without much problem." He paused to decipher an unknown symbol that was emblazoned across one of the pages, he grabbed another book from his bookcase to aid in the translation.
"As for why I have so many texts on invoking demons when I claim to be an exorcist. The answer is very simple my dear, there are very few first hand sources of information that detail the excision of a demon. Those that claim to be first hand accounts are often completely unreliable and filled with old wife's tales about sprinkling herbs and spices on a possessed person's head. Therefore I must study invoking texts in order to understand where a demon came from and how it was summoned in order to understand how to defeat it."
He finished transcribing a section of the tome and he stood pleased with his works. He clasped his hands onto the shoulders of the halfling and maneuvered her out of his study talking as he went.
"As for this Baron Ringwald Kreuz, he came round a few times before my absence grubbing for money for some poor thought out business venture, I finally had the servants bar him from entering my house without evidence that he did not want to pilfer my coffers." They had reached the front door now, he turned the halfling around.
"Now listen my dear, do not call hear again. I have been very patient with so far but now it is running thin." He pushed the halfling out the door and shut it quickly pulling the heavy deadbolt with it.
He turned and walked back into his study, he did not like that girl snooping around in his business. He may not have totally truthful with her questioning, well what had been completely truthful about his escape and the demonic books but his connection to Ringwald not so much.
There was nothing nefarious about his dealings with the man, he simply supplied him with materials that other vendors could not get there hands on. All of it of course was for is studies on the Eldritch and demonic nothing more than that, well at the moment that was true.
He would have to be more careful about his dealings with Baron Kreuz, he'd send Klipspringer to collect his supplies and perhaps he'd also send a tail to follow that bothersome gnome for a while.
Leaving his study he descended the three flights of stairs until he reached the wine cellar, it was not unusual to see Gwhaldin enter the wine cellar but he did make sure that the windows were shut before he entered. Entering the wine cellar he walked along until he was at the very back as far away from the stairs as he could be. He traced his fingers along the brickwork of the house until he found an irregularity in the bricks. Marked upon the bricks was a scorch mark, a hand print which had seemingly melted the brickwork and warped its design. Place his hands upon the hand print he felt something searching across his palm from inside the wall. Slowly his hand began to warp like the brick work and Gwhaldin's body began to collapse in on himself his form surging towards the hand print on the wall.

[kaisermayhem]

OOC note: The door used by Gwhaldin can only used by demoncraft users.