Edgin the bard had once sworn an oath to resist tyranny, fight for the weak, and seek no reward.
He was active around the Sword Coast. Normally, he listened in on conversations between adventurers and mercenaries in taverns, and whenever he found signs of evil forces stirring, he would step forward. So far, he had done well. He was a qualified Harper.
This work paid nothing. The Harpers did not have a strict structure. Everyone had gathered of their own will in pursuit of a just cause.
Back when Edgin was still a happy bachelor, he had not thought money was important. He could never save even half a copper coin in his pocket. But now he had found the love of his life, and his wife was pregnant. The pressure of life had begun quietly reminding Edgin that it was time to save money.
His wife always supported him unconditionally and never forced him to change his mind. Once, the couple went to the market to buy vegetables, and his wife haggled with a vendor over a tomato. She argued with such enthusiasm that it was as if she were fighting a great battle, and in the end, she saved one copper coin. On the way home, she apologized to him, because haggling like that was a little embarrassing.
"But we earned that copper coin," they said, and both burst out laughing. His wife was full of joy, but Edgin's mouth was full of bitterness.
The unexpected heavy rain had blocked Edgin's road home. He stood by the window, looking out at the dark, muddy world. A thunderbolt exploded in the clouds, startling his thoughts out of longing, so he turned and asked Stan, who shared the room with him, about what had happened that evening.
"Stan, how did you meet that friend of yours? He doesn't look like an easy person to deal with."
Stan was soaking his feet while flipping through Playboy. His carefree appearance made Edgin secretly jealous, and he cursed him to enter the halls of marriage as soon as possible.
"You mean Skyl."
"His name is Skyl?"
"Skyl. Well, Skyl is what I call him. He's a very easy person to get along with. If you take the initiative and greet him, you'll find that aside from being a little blunt, he has a good heart. He's especially good at cooking. Back when he stayed at my house, Gali and I ate well every day."
Edgin still found it hard to connect a mysterious man with a cold bearing and a severed head hanging at his waist to the kindhearted food lover Stan was describing.
"Then what is that silver staff in his hand? That female elf and those people in black all seem very interested in it."
Stan's answer was swallowed by a sudden peal of thunder. Edgin did not hear clearly and asked again, but Stan did not answer. He wiped his feet, picked up the basin, and went out to dump the water.
Edgin followed him with a candle, providing light at night while also changing the subject, probing indirectly for Skyl's background and past.
The two chatted as they crossed the darkened hall with all the lamps put out for the night. Everything around them was pitch-black. The wind howled, and there was a faint rotten smell in the air, perhaps the stench of the damp floorboards growing moldy, or perhaps the smell of spoiled food.
The elk was still lying in the corner, far from the window she had smashed through during the day. At this hour, she seemed to have fallen asleep. Only one starling stood on her back, while the others were nowhere to be seen.
Stan opened the door and poured out the water. In a flash of lightning, a corpse lying in front of the inn was illuminated. The earlier rotten smell had been coming from it.
"Someone's dead!" he shouted, without much panic in his voice.
Edgin looked over at the sound. When the corpse entered his sight, he was immediately startled.
The dead man was clearly dressed like one of the people in black from earlier that day. Edgin had originally suspected these people might be connected to the Red Wizards of Thay and had treated them as a major threat. He had not expected one of them to fall silently in the rainy night.
"What do we do?" Stan asked.
"Let's inform Mr. Jamal, then call everyone over." Edgin stepped forward and lifted the corpse's hood. He drew in a trembling breath.
A quarter of an hour later, the hall was brightly lit with lamps and candles, and everyone in the inn had gathered. The female elf had also returned to human form, and several starlings flew back to her shoulders, chirping noisily.
If not for the wet corpse on the floor, perhaps this would have been a fine time to dance.
The people of Thay arrived quickly. They refused to allow anyone else to examine the corpse.
Edgin knew the corpse was undead, bald, and covered in tattoo-like arcane brands. These were all features of a Red Wizard.
He said nothing, but his heart pounded with fear.
Mr. Jamal, the innkeeper, rubbed his hands uneasily, his eyes flickering. The guests who did not understand the truth began talking all at once. Everyone wanted to know the cause of death, then find the killer hidden among them. No one knew whether they might be the next victim.
"Hey! Don't you want to know who killed your companion?" the dwarf guard Barenda Horn shouted in a rough voice. His uncle, Join Horn, stood to the side, secretly sizing everyone up with a suspicious gaze, his expression as if he were looking at a room full of thieves.
"He is fine. There is no need for you to worry," the leader of the Red Wizards replied stiffly.
"He's dead, and you say he's fine?" a human traveler mocked sharply, and the others let out short, muffled laughs.
"Did anyone see the deceased go outside?" Edgin asked, looking at the female elf. "You were in the hall the entire time."
The druid said, "I didn't see him go out, but..."
"But what?"
"Something bad seems to have happened to the inn. One of my companions tried to leave, but it flew back here." The starling on her shoulder chirped, as if testifying to the female elf's words.
Tawna the halfling hid behind Skyl, poking out half her head to look at the corpse.
"Mr. Skyl, how did he die?"
Skyl shook his head. "There are far too many possible ways he could have died. But he was murdered by a devil."
"A devil? There's a devil in the inn?" The people around him were frightened by the warlock's words.
"Impossible. Devils are in Hell. They don't come out," a pale-faced old man said hoarsely. "Unless they were summoned."
Skyl looked around. Most people did not dare meet his gaze. The warlock's eyes seemed to pass over the crowd and inspect the very air of the hall. In a low voice, he said, "The sacrifice began long ago. Every person who dies brings the devil closer."
The timid people began trembling. When they heard thunder outside, some nearly screamed and hurriedly prayed to the gods. For a time, the inn was filled with the buzzing sound of prayers.
Edgin swallowed and forced out a smile, then asked Skyl, "What do you mean, it began long ago? And the devil you mentioned, uh, why is it coming?"
Skyl glanced at the Harper and felt that the man looked a little familiar, rather like a certain actor.
"On the road, I encountered thirteen devil worshippers. They performed thirteen kinds of suicide in front of me and placed a curse on me. As long as sinful people die near me, their souls will become sacrifices for the devil's descent. It is now only a little short of arriving."
The travelers all moved away from Skyl.
Mr. Jamal, the innkeeper, said with a miserable expression, "Guest, I'll refund your money. This establishment will no longer do business with you."
"The devil actively killing people means this inn has already been chosen as the place of descent," Skyl explained. "This rain will not stop, and before it does, no one can leave."
"In other words, we're trapped here?"
"That's right."
Seeing the crowd grow agitated, Edgin hurriedly asked in a loud voice, "Then do you have a way to solve it?"
"Yes. I wait for the devil to descend, then I kill it." The warlock's tone made it sound as easy as waiting to pop a blister, so casual that it seemed absurd.
"Madman!" the old man screamed. "He's a madman! Throw him out!"
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