<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/99/de/80/99de80dd4fb18a5a2b5229f5fe73ae72.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;"><strong><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;">Twin Oxenbridge</span></strong></span><br/>Human Wizard 1<br/><hr/><br/>Today, the stupidest thing happened.  A procession of beauties entered the Pillars of Pedagogy and marched directly to Matreous' private study room.  If he had not been sitting just outside the room with his friend, colleague, and fellow wizard, Aramis, meticulously pouring over some forgotten tomes on the subject of pocket dimensions, Twin would not have believed it.<br/><br/>It had been hard to believe that an elegant beauty like Ellindra could be in a relationship with an old stalwart like Matreous.  Perhaps the relationship had made sense, and Twin had been too envious to realize it.  Though his mind seldom wandered adrift into the dunes of emotion, Twin liked to think of Ellindra as someone who was... highly compatible.  They shared many interests.  He enjoyed her company.  He found her attractive.  Exceedingly attractive.  Yet... he had never given her cause to believe that he had thought of her in that way.  He was, after all, devoted to his studies.<br/><br/>Rain followed Ellindra.  She... also mystified Twin, or rather, Twin's feelings for Rain mystified him.  She was friendly, persuasive, and charming.  He had never seen Ellindra in the company of Rain, so the sight of them together confused him in many ways.  But why shouldn't they know one another?  They were both human women living in a compound of ascetics, mostly men.<br/><br/>But they were followed by a woman who he could not accurately describe except to say that he found her exceedingly attractive, and two imposing and intimating red-headed war women who resembled one another.  They were all strangers to him.  Never had Twin actually laid eyes on any of them.<br/><br/>"Matreous has got to be the luckiest son of a bitch alive," Twin said in wonder as he practically gawked.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Allow me to recant briefly how the women all came to join forces.  Teni and Lorien had departed from their village on a quest given to them by local druids to cleanse a curse that had crippled their village's economy.  Farming, ranching, even fishing, had all come to a standstill.  They had been instructed to consult with an expert on curses in Candlekeep, a fellow named Matreous.<br/><br/>The pair soon met another woman on the road to the great library, the shifter warlock known as Faybin Stronghollow.  She, too, was on the road to Candlekeep to consult Matreous on the subject of curses, though the origins of her reasoning were distinct and foreign to Teni and Lorien.  Something about a crow god or something.<br/><br/>The three marched for two weeks, arriving to Candlekeep in the morning of the present day.  It was there that their quest was almost cut short because they were unable to provide the library with the means to enter: a book not contained within the Great Library.  Things looked dire, but a stranger had come through for them.<br/><br/>The human bard, Rain, helped the group enter the library by providing the Avowed at the gates with copies of some new verses.  Once inside, the travelers explained that they were looking for someone named Matreous.  Though Rain did not know Matreous very well, she knew someone that did: Ellindra.  Ellindra had been in a romantic relationship with the sage, and if anyone knew his habits, it was she.  So the group went to Ellindra, and Ellindra reluctantly led the group to the Pillars of Pedagogy, to Matreous' private study room.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>And now... when the group enters the private study room assigned to Matreous, they find it... unoccupied.  Only the sage's personal effects and a handful of books remain.