Kaila clenched her fist. She was able to use her arm completely now, even though the wounds were still healing. The gnoll had almost severed her arm from her body, and she survived only by the blessing of Aborelin.
She looked over at Tallywack. The gnome tossed fitfully in his sleep, but at least he was quiet. He, too, had almost died, his gut ripped apart from the gnoll’s short sword. They were both fortunate that Talor had healed them.
...Tallywack took a long drink from his mug. The other gnomes crowded around him as he started his story. Kaila sat apart from them, aloof. She had heard the story several times already over the past few nights. The number of times the little gnome could tell the story was no more amazing than the amount of ale he could quaff.
“We started out in Brandywine. Three dead bodies, there were, all cut up real nasty. The local priest, fella by the name of Talor, begged us to find out what was going on. The townspeople were scared witless, but me and Kaila, we were ready to hunt out this evil.
We rowed across the lake, up to a huge cliff across from the town. The trail for the killers was cold, but we managed to find it, we did. We tracked the bastards up the cliff.
Along the way, we decided to investigate a bit off the trail. A hellish creature, a ghoul, tried to ambush us. _But we’re too clever for that, we are! I smelled that nasty beast, and shot it with me trusty crossbow, I did. That ghoul was just about floored! It still managed to struggle up to Kaila, though, and it hit her. I got so darned mad, I shot that beast again, and almost killed it. It was so weakened, Kaila was able to lop off it’s nasty head!”
Kaila shook her head as the gnomes all cheered and raised their mugs. It was not exactly the way she remembered it, but the gnome’s telling was quite colorful.
“We kept going up that trail, investigating, when we came across a old, creepy graveyard. The sun was out, but the graveyard was dark and eerie.” Tallywack lowered his voice. “We crept forward to a mausoleum, sure that was where the ghoul had lived. The graveyard was silent, but then-”
“SKELETONS!” The gnomes all jumped back, ale spilling everywhere. Kaila chuckled. She had seen Tallywack do that several times, and he got the crowd every time.
“Skeletons, there were, two of them, with swords! My pick was useless against them, but I knew I could defend Kaila as she chopped them apart. I parried with the nasties, fighting off their blows, until Kaila was able to chop them apart!”
Again the gnomes cheered, and more ale was spilled. “We crept into the crypt and found gems and jewelry. Kaila there found a beautiful necklace made of steel and mithral. Holy symbol of Aborelin it was.”
“We started back up the hill, back to find the kilers. Up at the top of the hill, there was a huuuuge temple, used to be sacred to Aborelin. We knew the killers were in there, so we decided to sneak on in.”
“There were guards everywhere. We had to be extra sneaky to get past them all, but the tall people always overlook us, don’t they?” The gnomes all nodded their heads in agreement.
“I managed to capture one of the guards, and he was so scared of us, he told us everything. We knew where the leader was now, so we strode down there, ready to get him good! We had to fight past more guards, but they all fell before my crossbow and Kaila’s swords, they did.”
“As we climbed down the stairs to the underground temple, the biggest, ugliest, meanest gnoll you ever did see got in our way! He was 7 feet tall, and had huge swords in each hand. He had murder in his eyes, and we knew we were in for a fight. As we readied for battle, I noticed that there was another man hiding behind the altar in the room.”
“The gnoll rushed up, ready to kill us. He was swinging both swords, and I had to jump and leap out of the way. I saw the human behind the altar ready to cast a spell at us, so I unleashed my own! I threw a fan of colored light at him, and he was knocked on his rear, he was.
“Kaila and I moved in on the gnoll, when the darned thing nearly lopped off Kaila’s arm. I was so mad, I got him good with my pick. Kaila was still hacking at him, too, when that human got off a spell at me. I felt my whole body freeze in place, and that gnoll shoved his sword into my gut.”
Tallywack paused, and took a swill of his ale. “I shook off that damned spell, and jumped right back in to help Kaila. I was hurting like the blazes, and Kaila was hurtin’ just as bad. We were gonna make that gnoll pay for killin’ all them villagers, and weren’t about to run, no sir. We pounded and chopped at that gnoll until he was good and dead. That human was going crazy at the front, and he was callin’ something evil. The stone altar was burning, huge flames shootin’ everywhere. I wasn’t lettin’ some crazy spell-casting killer get away with more non-sense, so I lined up with my crossbow and put a bolt in his throat, dropped him like a rock.”
“Found a magic sword on that altar, we did. Too big for the likes of us gnomes, but perfect for Kaila. We gathered up the goods, and went back to Brandywine. The village cheered us like heroes, they did! We liberated a temple of Aborelin and lifted the curse from the town, and they was able to get back to enjoying their Harvestfest.”
The gnomes all cheered and ordered more ale all around. Kaila shook her head. It was going to be a long night again....
