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Company of Chaos - All Around Golarion
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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5808735" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p><strong><u>Master of the Fallen Fortress</u></strong> (changed locations, not otherwise adapted - except by the party)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"C-can it be fixed?" Staring at the damaged boat, Mook was the first to ask the question which was in everyone's mind. Their not so seaworthy boat had made it to the shore, but not undamaged. They had had to hide behind some rocks to wait for the passing of the paladin's vessel, and a wave from the tricky waters had smashed them against the stone. They had barely managed to make to to shore, and it took a while to drag the heavy thing onto ground and survey the damage. Only now the water had all drained out of the two fist sized holed at backboard. </p><p></p><p>Zaza was the only one not paying attention; the few minutes it had taken to reach safety had felt like ages to her, and she was more sea sick than ever, even after at least half an hour on solid ground. She was not even looking at the sea, instead sitting on a stranded log a few steps away, staring inland. </p><p></p><p>"I'm not sure," Cajun replied. "We had boats with more damage at Kassen every now and then but they were a bit smaller and easier to handle, and there were experienced people to do the main work. I had only to make the iron bands holding it all together, and luckily, those are not damaged here. If they were, I would not be able to replace them."</p><p></p><p>"If we had all the tools, it could be fixed," Kronk said after careful inspection. "But aside of a view multi-use tools from Cajun, we have no carpenter's tools. And I already searched the boat, nothing there either."</p><p></p><p>"Isn't there something alchemical you can do to close the holes, at least until we reach the next port?" Brenn-Krell asked. The man was fully healed now, and the end of his strange double existence would come about in a few hours, by Kronk's calculation. </p><p></p><p>"No glue I can create could close this, and I would not have any materials at hand to make it anyway," Cajun sighed. </p><p></p><p>"Just g-great, and there is m-more storm c-coming. We can't b-be in the b-boat for sh-shelter, it m-may wash out t-to the s-sea again," Mook stuttered, getting angrier by the minute. She had changed somewhat after her encounter with the dragon skeleton, but even she could not pout a finger on what exactly was different. Just one thing was clear, she was not shy about her stutter anymore. </p><p></p><p>"If it does, we are not worse off than now," Cajun said. "Unless we find a way to fix this, we are really in trouble. We have neither the provisions nor the time nor the stamina to walk all the way to the next city. And no one knows if there are any other towns or villages nearby. We have no map of the area, even." He had checked that early on them leaving the island. The only map was of the shoreline and major city placements.</p><p></p><p>For all his former attempts at taking the lead, Brenn-Krell was, at least in his current state, not much of a leader. They were all missing Bjön, however insecure the paladin might have been at times, and they were missing Teltz even more. It was as if everyone was expecting someone else to take the initiative. </p><p></p><p>"Where are w-we, anyway?" Mook wondered. "N-not too f-far into the r-river, I think."</p><p></p><p>"Just behind the eastern point of the peninsular," Kronk confirmed. "And while I came down the Profit's Flow – that is their weird name for this river - hidden on a barge, I only got to Detmer before taking off and going by land. So I know of no settlements, or even roads, around here."</p><p></p><p>"How is Detmer like?" Hest wanted to know.</p><p></p><p>The monk snorted. "Large shipyards for their fleets, lots of suspicion towards strangers.The people of this region are weird, they value trade above all else and wouldn't have let me in all by myself. So I had to be a stowaway. Their security is good, and a few times I was almost discovered. Somewhat human centric, too, as as far as I could glean, their strange prophecies are only meant to favor humans."</p><p></p><p>Before anyone could ask any more questions, Zaza spoke up for the first time in hours. "That's nice to know and all, but maybe we should care for the immediate problems first. Like, finding shelter from the storm. Getting wet in this time of year is not good." </p><p></p><p>"She has a p-point," Mook agreed. "Do we have all our stuff?"</p><p></p><p>Cajun went over the bundles and backpacks again and nodded. "Maybe we can salvage parts of the boat to build a shelter."</p><p></p><p>"There is a large building over the crest of the hill there," Zaza said, pointing towards where she had been looking inland. "Looks like a ruin from here, but there will be enough left to shelter us from wind and probably from rain – or snow," she added, looking wearily at the clouds. She knew enough about weather to see the signs of winter approaching very fast.</p><p></p><p>"Right, then, let's go," Cajun said, looking at the others for agreement. Everyone else nodded, so they began to make their way up the hill. Mook was on her wolf again, and Samin's hawk was scouting the area from above. </p><p></p><p>They made down the other side of the hill and now saw that the ruins once had been an old border keep, or maybe a siege fort of sorts. It must have been in ruins for quite some time. No doors or windows marred the otherwise smooth expanse of the tower’s walls. The tower was clover shaped in plan; its eastern wing had largely collapsed, exposing the interior floors to the open air. Only the topmost level seemed whole, though its eastern portion hung precariously over the mountain of rubble left by the collapse. At ground level, the rubble framed a gaping hole in the side of the building that provided access to the tower’s darkened interior. The tower was about 80 feet tall, by Cajun's estimation, and the walls were surprisingly smooth. </p><p></p><p>As the group entered, it became obvious that the collapse of the eastern wing had caved in much of the tower's first level, too. The south wing was totally filled with rubble, which left only the northern wing, and a small part of the west one, accessible. The west win's staircase was blocked by rubble, but without the need for it, no one wanted to climb up into a potentially dangerous situation anyway. The northern wing of the tower seemed to have escaped the worst effects of the collapse, but rubble still littered the floor and everything was covered in a thick layer of stone dust. Thick cobwebs cloaked the ceiling and hung down the walls like gossamer tapestries. A single archway stood open in the southwest wall. </p><p></p><p>"Well, it is not much," Edawon concluded. "But it is out of rain and wind, and we can make a fire."</p><p></p><p>"I d-don't think so," Mook quietly said and pointed upwards to the north wing roof, stopping the halfling from entering. A thick web, partly covered by dust, could be seen in a corner to their left. A giant spider was peeking its head out of a nest in the middle of it. </p><p></p><p>"Just great," Samin groaned. "I hate spiders." </p><p></p><p>"J-just b-back out," Mook advised. "If we d-don't come to c-close, it will n-not attack."</p><p></p><p>"So back out into the brewing storm?" Samin asked, almost as disgusted about that idea. </p><p></p><p>"Up a level," Cajun said drily. "You can fly up, and you will have a flying spell left for anyone who might not be able to climb up on the rope you'll take with you. Spider won't be up there, and they neither." He pointed in a by-the-way manner to the outside, where Dadawin was growling at a bunch of wild dogs who might have thought they could grab one of the party as prey. Wilbur was circling over them, swiping down on them every now and then. The dogs looked hungry, but Dadawin was at full strength so they did not dare to take it up against a large wolf and a hawk. </p><p></p><p>"The p-poor things, I wish we could f-feed them," Mook mumbled.</p><p></p><p>"That bears the question – how do we get Dadawin up there?" Zaza wondered. "Remember the last time we tried to lift him up a tree?"</p><p></p><p>"Erk," Cajun made and rubbed his arm, where the scar caused by a panicked wolf was still evident. </p><p></p><p>"I dare say he and Wilbur will do fine on their own as long as they avoid the spider," Samin thought. "If we hear they are in trouble we can come to their aid." </p><p></p><p>No one argued with that, so Samin took a rope and, as Cajun called it, "spelled himself up there." The crumbling remains of the upper room had plenty of opportunity to fasten a rope, as Samin's strength would not have been enough to lift anyone but maybe Zaza up. He threw a worried look at the two doors, one to the northwest and one to the southwest, but both were closed and no dark monster came out of them. Samin called himself an idiot for his worries. After all they had seen recently, he should really not be such a coward. But after seeing the spider, he could not help it. </p><p></p><p>Zaza and Mook came up one after the other, then Edawon and the sorcerer. Then they waited for Cajun to fasten their extra sacks of stuff from the island to the rope and brought it up. Cajun climbed up last, he could have probably done so without the rope seeing how he had been rock climbing since he was a small half-orcling. </p><p></p><p>The ledge that had formed up here was not out of the wind enough even if you moved a little back, so after a moment of discussion, they decided to see if there was a better place for the night behind one of those doors. They decided on the northwest one, which opened with difficulty – the wooden doors had become stuck due to the weather conditions and age. This room was mostly empty. Judging from the shelves lining the walls, this darkened room might once have been a storeroom, though its contents had long since succumbed to the passage of time. A crack in the northern wall had apparently let in some rainwater, which had collected in large puddles on the floor.</p><p></p><p>"What's that?" Cajun asked all of a sudden, pointing at a lizard making their way towards them. It was a dark blue, lighter at the stomach and glowed with electricity. Strangely enough, it didn't behave like a wild animal, but stopped close to them, banging its tail on the floor. An electric shock involuntarily went off and hit all of them but Brenn-Krell and Mook, who were still standing at the opening looking at the wolf taking up a guard position outside. </p><p></p><p>Some screams of pain and annoyance later, Zaza threw a bit of dried meat out to the creature, who eagerly devoured it. "Hey, don't feed it," Cajun complained. "It will just follow you around and shock us all over again!" </p><p></p><p>"It looks tame," Zaza mused, ignoring her brother, feeding the animal another bite. </p><p></p><p>"Yeah, and that's strange. Either someone has gotten rid of it, or its master is nearby," Edawon said, his face darkening. </p><p></p><p>"Who keeps shocker lizards as pets?" Zaza wondered. "Some sort of mage working with lightning?"</p><p></p><p>"Maybe we should ask if someone is home and ask for permission to stay," Cajun suggested. </p><p></p><p>"Not like this place looks maintained – at all," Brenn-Krell snorted. </p><p></p><p>The lizard, noticing there was no more food to be had, wandered off harmlessly while his energy recharged. "Maybe check out the other room instead?" Edawon suggested. </p><p></p><p>"Or we follow the pet to its master. It looks way too confident not to have one," Kronk said. When everyone looked at him he shrugged. "What? It is not like we would run into a large group of evil folks. I mean, if there would be a lot of people here, they would have taken notice of us by now."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah well, not so sure about that," Cajun said, scratching the meager beard he had grown over the last few days. "But as Bjön would say, if something evil is brewing, we ought to check it out anyway."</p><p></p><p>"Who are, we, the moral police?" Zaza questioned. "We are to meet the others in that place upriver, whatever it was called. Not to play at being heroes when I don't think we really are. We were just lucky! If we bother with too much crap on the road we'll just be late!" Folding her arms, she tried to stare her older brother down. </p><p></p><p>While this had been successful in the future, it was not now. "From what I gather, Bjön can't even be back in Tamran yet. Before he gets Samin's da and makes for that city down south, we will probably be half way there. We have a time advantage. And would you really want us to walk on and not know what is in our backs?"</p><p></p><p>"L-let's check it out," Mook said calmly. "I c-can f-feel something is here t-that n-needs our attention. It may b-be evil, but I c-can also feel lost s-souls in n-need of g-guidance."</p><p></p><p>"What?" Zaza stared at Mook. "You have changed, haven't you? What's going on with you?"</p><p></p><p>"I have n-no idea," Mook replied calmly. "B-but we can think of it a-after we d-dealt with this." </p><p></p><p>"Cajun is right." Brenn-Krell was slightly shivering, according to Kronk's earlier tales of transformations like this one, it was a sign of the impending end of the change. The group noticed Kronk looking thoughtfully at the fetchling. Mook remembered the monk had tried, several times, to mention some side effects with the transformation, especially that it was not well tested on non-kobolds. But anytime he had tried he had been interrupted by someone or something, the last time by the leak in their boat. </p><p></p><p>"Anyone else agreeing with my fool headed oaf of a brother?" Zaza growled. The silence that followed, and everyone looking at her with serious eyes told her she was the only one who would prefer to just not know, try to spend the night and then carry on. With a sigh, she turned towards the other door out of this puddle filled and not very comfortable room. "Well, then, let's try and get ourselves killed." </p><p></p><p>There seemed to be nothing wrong with the door to the next room, so Cajun pulled at it with all his power. To his surprise, it opened easily and he almost landed on his behind before he regained his balance. A terrible stench, like a mix of carrion, rotten eggs and spoiled fish all thrown in the sewer drifted from what must have been an armory once. Racks for weapons lined the walls of this chamber; above the racks hung various shields, pieces of armor, weapons, and standards on display. Most of the racks were empty, but a few weapons remained in place. They were rusty and largely unusable, of course. Zaza started vomiting at the stench, the others barely kept their food in. </p><p></p><p>Two immature looking reptile-like humanoids jumped to their feet, waking up from sleeping on their watch by the looks of it. Picking up two javelins, they made to attack. "Are those... troglodytes?" Samin gasped. He had read about them and their unbearable stench, but never thought to encounter any, especially not so far off the open sea. Without thinking about it, he moved his right hand into his belt pouch and withdrew a small clay model of a building the others could not recognize and mumbled a spell barely audible. Then he addressed the attacking younglings while Brenn-Krell and Cajun easily moved out of the way of their clumsy attack. The half-orc was carrying too much baggage to draw his weapon in time, but the fetchling had out his new short sword in no time. "Why are you attacking us? We mean you no harm." </p><p></p><p>Both attackers stopped and stared wide eyed at the three-quarter-elf, who had to fight with his stomach all the time, trying not to let any disgust show on his face. Likely, none of the troglodytes had ever heard their language coming from a member of another race. Additionally, Samin thought he might still sound funny to them. </p><p></p><p>The others but Zaza, who was still retching, stared at Samin and then at their foes. Cajun and Mook knew, of course, that Samin was able to speak any language as long as he had access to arcane energy, but this was the first time they had heard him speak anything really weird. He had used the spell for orcish before, and for gnome, and the occasional strange traders coming through, but this was something different. </p><p></p><p>"You understand us!" one of the younglings gaped. </p><p></p><p>"Great, so now that we both agree on the obvious, would you maybe tell me why you were attacking us?" Samin, once more, felt kind of besides himself, listening to himself talk in some self assured manner, seemingly ignoring an obvious threat. And, at the same time, he felt a strange power in him and he just knew he could deal with this. </p><p></p><p>"N-need to d-do something about that a-awful smell!" Mook exclaimed. Before she could think of anything specific, the air suddenly filled with the scent of roses and violets, with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla. Her mind dissected the scents – some of her favorites- and only then was she wondering where it came from. She looked at Samin, who had not noticed anything or so it seemed. But everyone else including Zaza and the two troglodytes now stared at her. From the faces of the reptiles, it seemed they hated that scent as much as the party hated theirs. </p><p></p><p>"What did you do?" Zaza asked, baffled. </p><p></p><p>"Me? W-why me?" Mook replied, utterly confused. </p><p></p><p>"Because," Cajun said, "it emanates from you." </p><p></p><p>"Why w-would it?" Mook started again, but Samin made a wave with his left arm and then pointed at the younglings. "What do you protect here?" he asked, clearly demanding an answer but trying to display a non-aggressive stance. </p><p></p><p>"They have magics," one of them whispered to the other. "Dangerous."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, we can be dangerous when attacked. Now, what were you supposed to be standing guard for?"</p><p></p><p>"I don't like what he is doing." Cajun stared at the back of his best friend as if he didn't know him at all. "Anytime we encounter someone hostile, he just talks to them and it is fine. Remember the crypt? And the lizards on the island?" </p><p></p><p>Zaza could hear true worry in her brother's voice. "It is not like he has never surprised us with the changing power of his arcane uniqueness before," she said. </p><p></p><p>Cajun grunted at that. "I don't like what Mook is doing either," he added with a nod of his head towards the oracle. "Both of them are changing and they do not know what is up, which means they cannot control it, which in turn makes it dangerous in my eyes." </p><p></p><p>Zaza tried to stare her brother down again. "You are talking about our best friends here!"</p><p></p><p>"Exactly. To help them, we need to know what's going on, and maybe we are better at finding out what it is than them." The alchemist looked determined not to let this go.</p><p></p><p>"Once we are back with Teltz, he'll sort it out," Zaza shrugged and tried to ignore Cajun's worries. Teltz had always sorted anything out Kassen's local spell casters could not deal with. Sure all this was just the stress of the last weeks adding up. But a bit of doubt remained. </p><p></p><p>Samin seemed to have come to an agreement with the younglings. He was just introducing the kobold, who was held in relatively high regard by the troglodytes, as it seemed. It made some sense; even with the kobold being a lot smaller, they were both reptile like. </p><p></p><p>One by one, the others were introduced to Hark and Pilder, so the names of the younglings. "They'll take us to their leader," Samin explained. "They seem not to know very much, except that they want a new age for their race."</p><p></p><p>Cajun rolled his eyes when no one but Zaza and Edawon could see it. "Yeah," he whispered as everyone made for the staircase in the middle of the tower, which was not blocked up here. "And I have a feeling making a name for themselves has to do with dark rituals and other evil deeds to conquer the world. Isn't it always like that?" </p><p></p><p>Edawon shrugged. "I can't really say, and I have seen a bit more of the world than you have." Zaza chuckled. </p><p></p><p>Cajun decided it was time to keep his mouth shut before he would put another foot in.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5808735, member: 53286"] [B][U]Master of the Fallen Fortress[/U][/B] (changed locations, not otherwise adapted - except by the party) "C-can it be fixed?" Staring at the damaged boat, Mook was the first to ask the question which was in everyone's mind. Their not so seaworthy boat had made it to the shore, but not undamaged. They had had to hide behind some rocks to wait for the passing of the paladin's vessel, and a wave from the tricky waters had smashed them against the stone. They had barely managed to make to to shore, and it took a while to drag the heavy thing onto ground and survey the damage. Only now the water had all drained out of the two fist sized holed at backboard. Zaza was the only one not paying attention; the few minutes it had taken to reach safety had felt like ages to her, and she was more sea sick than ever, even after at least half an hour on solid ground. She was not even looking at the sea, instead sitting on a stranded log a few steps away, staring inland. "I'm not sure," Cajun replied. "We had boats with more damage at Kassen every now and then but they were a bit smaller and easier to handle, and there were experienced people to do the main work. I had only to make the iron bands holding it all together, and luckily, those are not damaged here. If they were, I would not be able to replace them." "If we had all the tools, it could be fixed," Kronk said after careful inspection. "But aside of a view multi-use tools from Cajun, we have no carpenter's tools. And I already searched the boat, nothing there either." "Isn't there something alchemical you can do to close the holes, at least until we reach the next port?" Brenn-Krell asked. The man was fully healed now, and the end of his strange double existence would come about in a few hours, by Kronk's calculation. "No glue I can create could close this, and I would not have any materials at hand to make it anyway," Cajun sighed. "Just g-great, and there is m-more storm c-coming. We can't b-be in the b-boat for sh-shelter, it m-may wash out t-to the s-sea again," Mook stuttered, getting angrier by the minute. She had changed somewhat after her encounter with the dragon skeleton, but even she could not pout a finger on what exactly was different. Just one thing was clear, she was not shy about her stutter anymore. "If it does, we are not worse off than now," Cajun said. "Unless we find a way to fix this, we are really in trouble. We have neither the provisions nor the time nor the stamina to walk all the way to the next city. And no one knows if there are any other towns or villages nearby. We have no map of the area, even." He had checked that early on them leaving the island. The only map was of the shoreline and major city placements. For all his former attempts at taking the lead, Brenn-Krell was, at least in his current state, not much of a leader. They were all missing Bjön, however insecure the paladin might have been at times, and they were missing Teltz even more. It was as if everyone was expecting someone else to take the initiative. "Where are w-we, anyway?" Mook wondered. "N-not too f-far into the r-river, I think." "Just behind the eastern point of the peninsular," Kronk confirmed. "And while I came down the Profit's Flow – that is their weird name for this river - hidden on a barge, I only got to Detmer before taking off and going by land. So I know of no settlements, or even roads, around here." "How is Detmer like?" Hest wanted to know. The monk snorted. "Large shipyards for their fleets, lots of suspicion towards strangers.The people of this region are weird, they value trade above all else and wouldn't have let me in all by myself. So I had to be a stowaway. Their security is good, and a few times I was almost discovered. Somewhat human centric, too, as as far as I could glean, their strange prophecies are only meant to favor humans." Before anyone could ask any more questions, Zaza spoke up for the first time in hours. "That's nice to know and all, but maybe we should care for the immediate problems first. Like, finding shelter from the storm. Getting wet in this time of year is not good." "She has a p-point," Mook agreed. "Do we have all our stuff?" Cajun went over the bundles and backpacks again and nodded. "Maybe we can salvage parts of the boat to build a shelter." "There is a large building over the crest of the hill there," Zaza said, pointing towards where she had been looking inland. "Looks like a ruin from here, but there will be enough left to shelter us from wind and probably from rain – or snow," she added, looking wearily at the clouds. She knew enough about weather to see the signs of winter approaching very fast. "Right, then, let's go," Cajun said, looking at the others for agreement. Everyone else nodded, so they began to make their way up the hill. Mook was on her wolf again, and Samin's hawk was scouting the area from above. They made down the other side of the hill and now saw that the ruins once had been an old border keep, or maybe a siege fort of sorts. It must have been in ruins for quite some time. No doors or windows marred the otherwise smooth expanse of the tower’s walls. The tower was clover shaped in plan; its eastern wing had largely collapsed, exposing the interior floors to the open air. Only the topmost level seemed whole, though its eastern portion hung precariously over the mountain of rubble left by the collapse. At ground level, the rubble framed a gaping hole in the side of the building that provided access to the tower’s darkened interior. The tower was about 80 feet tall, by Cajun's estimation, and the walls were surprisingly smooth. As the group entered, it became obvious that the collapse of the eastern wing had caved in much of the tower's first level, too. The south wing was totally filled with rubble, which left only the northern wing, and a small part of the west one, accessible. The west win's staircase was blocked by rubble, but without the need for it, no one wanted to climb up into a potentially dangerous situation anyway. The northern wing of the tower seemed to have escaped the worst effects of the collapse, but rubble still littered the floor and everything was covered in a thick layer of stone dust. Thick cobwebs cloaked the ceiling and hung down the walls like gossamer tapestries. A single archway stood open in the southwest wall. "Well, it is not much," Edawon concluded. "But it is out of rain and wind, and we can make a fire." "I d-don't think so," Mook quietly said and pointed upwards to the north wing roof, stopping the halfling from entering. A thick web, partly covered by dust, could be seen in a corner to their left. A giant spider was peeking its head out of a nest in the middle of it. "Just great," Samin groaned. "I hate spiders." "J-just b-back out," Mook advised. "If we d-don't come to c-close, it will n-not attack." "So back out into the brewing storm?" Samin asked, almost as disgusted about that idea. "Up a level," Cajun said drily. "You can fly up, and you will have a flying spell left for anyone who might not be able to climb up on the rope you'll take with you. Spider won't be up there, and they neither." He pointed in a by-the-way manner to the outside, where Dadawin was growling at a bunch of wild dogs who might have thought they could grab one of the party as prey. Wilbur was circling over them, swiping down on them every now and then. The dogs looked hungry, but Dadawin was at full strength so they did not dare to take it up against a large wolf and a hawk. "The p-poor things, I wish we could f-feed them," Mook mumbled. "That bears the question – how do we get Dadawin up there?" Zaza wondered. "Remember the last time we tried to lift him up a tree?" "Erk," Cajun made and rubbed his arm, where the scar caused by a panicked wolf was still evident. "I dare say he and Wilbur will do fine on their own as long as they avoid the spider," Samin thought. "If we hear they are in trouble we can come to their aid." No one argued with that, so Samin took a rope and, as Cajun called it, "spelled himself up there." The crumbling remains of the upper room had plenty of opportunity to fasten a rope, as Samin's strength would not have been enough to lift anyone but maybe Zaza up. He threw a worried look at the two doors, one to the northwest and one to the southwest, but both were closed and no dark monster came out of them. Samin called himself an idiot for his worries. After all they had seen recently, he should really not be such a coward. But after seeing the spider, he could not help it. Zaza and Mook came up one after the other, then Edawon and the sorcerer. Then they waited for Cajun to fasten their extra sacks of stuff from the island to the rope and brought it up. Cajun climbed up last, he could have probably done so without the rope seeing how he had been rock climbing since he was a small half-orcling. The ledge that had formed up here was not out of the wind enough even if you moved a little back, so after a moment of discussion, they decided to see if there was a better place for the night behind one of those doors. They decided on the northwest one, which opened with difficulty – the wooden doors had become stuck due to the weather conditions and age. This room was mostly empty. Judging from the shelves lining the walls, this darkened room might once have been a storeroom, though its contents had long since succumbed to the passage of time. A crack in the northern wall had apparently let in some rainwater, which had collected in large puddles on the floor. "What's that?" Cajun asked all of a sudden, pointing at a lizard making their way towards them. It was a dark blue, lighter at the stomach and glowed with electricity. Strangely enough, it didn't behave like a wild animal, but stopped close to them, banging its tail on the floor. An electric shock involuntarily went off and hit all of them but Brenn-Krell and Mook, who were still standing at the opening looking at the wolf taking up a guard position outside. Some screams of pain and annoyance later, Zaza threw a bit of dried meat out to the creature, who eagerly devoured it. "Hey, don't feed it," Cajun complained. "It will just follow you around and shock us all over again!" "It looks tame," Zaza mused, ignoring her brother, feeding the animal another bite. "Yeah, and that's strange. Either someone has gotten rid of it, or its master is nearby," Edawon said, his face darkening. "Who keeps shocker lizards as pets?" Zaza wondered. "Some sort of mage working with lightning?" "Maybe we should ask if someone is home and ask for permission to stay," Cajun suggested. "Not like this place looks maintained – at all," Brenn-Krell snorted. The lizard, noticing there was no more food to be had, wandered off harmlessly while his energy recharged. "Maybe check out the other room instead?" Edawon suggested. "Or we follow the pet to its master. It looks way too confident not to have one," Kronk said. When everyone looked at him he shrugged. "What? It is not like we would run into a large group of evil folks. I mean, if there would be a lot of people here, they would have taken notice of us by now." "Yeah well, not so sure about that," Cajun said, scratching the meager beard he had grown over the last few days. "But as Bjön would say, if something evil is brewing, we ought to check it out anyway." "Who are, we, the moral police?" Zaza questioned. "We are to meet the others in that place upriver, whatever it was called. Not to play at being heroes when I don't think we really are. We were just lucky! If we bother with too much crap on the road we'll just be late!" Folding her arms, she tried to stare her older brother down. While this had been successful in the future, it was not now. "From what I gather, Bjön can't even be back in Tamran yet. Before he gets Samin's da and makes for that city down south, we will probably be half way there. We have a time advantage. And would you really want us to walk on and not know what is in our backs?" "L-let's check it out," Mook said calmly. "I c-can f-feel something is here t-that n-needs our attention. It may b-be evil, but I c-can also feel lost s-souls in n-need of g-guidance." "What?" Zaza stared at Mook. "You have changed, haven't you? What's going on with you?" "I have n-no idea," Mook replied calmly. "B-but we can think of it a-after we d-dealt with this." "Cajun is right." Brenn-Krell was slightly shivering, according to Kronk's earlier tales of transformations like this one, it was a sign of the impending end of the change. The group noticed Kronk looking thoughtfully at the fetchling. Mook remembered the monk had tried, several times, to mention some side effects with the transformation, especially that it was not well tested on non-kobolds. But anytime he had tried he had been interrupted by someone or something, the last time by the leak in their boat. "Anyone else agreeing with my fool headed oaf of a brother?" Zaza growled. The silence that followed, and everyone looking at her with serious eyes told her she was the only one who would prefer to just not know, try to spend the night and then carry on. With a sigh, she turned towards the other door out of this puddle filled and not very comfortable room. "Well, then, let's try and get ourselves killed." There seemed to be nothing wrong with the door to the next room, so Cajun pulled at it with all his power. To his surprise, it opened easily and he almost landed on his behind before he regained his balance. A terrible stench, like a mix of carrion, rotten eggs and spoiled fish all thrown in the sewer drifted from what must have been an armory once. Racks for weapons lined the walls of this chamber; above the racks hung various shields, pieces of armor, weapons, and standards on display. Most of the racks were empty, but a few weapons remained in place. They were rusty and largely unusable, of course. Zaza started vomiting at the stench, the others barely kept their food in. Two immature looking reptile-like humanoids jumped to their feet, waking up from sleeping on their watch by the looks of it. Picking up two javelins, they made to attack. "Are those... troglodytes?" Samin gasped. He had read about them and their unbearable stench, but never thought to encounter any, especially not so far off the open sea. Without thinking about it, he moved his right hand into his belt pouch and withdrew a small clay model of a building the others could not recognize and mumbled a spell barely audible. Then he addressed the attacking younglings while Brenn-Krell and Cajun easily moved out of the way of their clumsy attack. The half-orc was carrying too much baggage to draw his weapon in time, but the fetchling had out his new short sword in no time. "Why are you attacking us? We mean you no harm." Both attackers stopped and stared wide eyed at the three-quarter-elf, who had to fight with his stomach all the time, trying not to let any disgust show on his face. Likely, none of the troglodytes had ever heard their language coming from a member of another race. Additionally, Samin thought he might still sound funny to them. The others but Zaza, who was still retching, stared at Samin and then at their foes. Cajun and Mook knew, of course, that Samin was able to speak any language as long as he had access to arcane energy, but this was the first time they had heard him speak anything really weird. He had used the spell for orcish before, and for gnome, and the occasional strange traders coming through, but this was something different. "You understand us!" one of the younglings gaped. "Great, so now that we both agree on the obvious, would you maybe tell me why you were attacking us?" Samin, once more, felt kind of besides himself, listening to himself talk in some self assured manner, seemingly ignoring an obvious threat. And, at the same time, he felt a strange power in him and he just knew he could deal with this. "N-need to d-do something about that a-awful smell!" Mook exclaimed. Before she could think of anything specific, the air suddenly filled with the scent of roses and violets, with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla. Her mind dissected the scents – some of her favorites- and only then was she wondering where it came from. She looked at Samin, who had not noticed anything or so it seemed. But everyone else including Zaza and the two troglodytes now stared at her. From the faces of the reptiles, it seemed they hated that scent as much as the party hated theirs. "What did you do?" Zaza asked, baffled. "Me? W-why me?" Mook replied, utterly confused. "Because," Cajun said, "it emanates from you." "Why w-would it?" Mook started again, but Samin made a wave with his left arm and then pointed at the younglings. "What do you protect here?" he asked, clearly demanding an answer but trying to display a non-aggressive stance. "They have magics," one of them whispered to the other. "Dangerous." "Yes, we can be dangerous when attacked. Now, what were you supposed to be standing guard for?" "I don't like what he is doing." Cajun stared at the back of his best friend as if he didn't know him at all. "Anytime we encounter someone hostile, he just talks to them and it is fine. Remember the crypt? And the lizards on the island?" Zaza could hear true worry in her brother's voice. "It is not like he has never surprised us with the changing power of his arcane uniqueness before," she said. Cajun grunted at that. "I don't like what Mook is doing either," he added with a nod of his head towards the oracle. "Both of them are changing and they do not know what is up, which means they cannot control it, which in turn makes it dangerous in my eyes." Zaza tried to stare her brother down again. "You are talking about our best friends here!" "Exactly. To help them, we need to know what's going on, and maybe we are better at finding out what it is than them." The alchemist looked determined not to let this go. "Once we are back with Teltz, he'll sort it out," Zaza shrugged and tried to ignore Cajun's worries. Teltz had always sorted anything out Kassen's local spell casters could not deal with. Sure all this was just the stress of the last weeks adding up. But a bit of doubt remained. Samin seemed to have come to an agreement with the younglings. He was just introducing the kobold, who was held in relatively high regard by the troglodytes, as it seemed. It made some sense; even with the kobold being a lot smaller, they were both reptile like. One by one, the others were introduced to Hark and Pilder, so the names of the younglings. "They'll take us to their leader," Samin explained. "They seem not to know very much, except that they want a new age for their race." Cajun rolled his eyes when no one but Zaza and Edawon could see it. "Yeah," he whispered as everyone made for the staircase in the middle of the tower, which was not blocked up here. "And I have a feeling making a name for themselves has to do with dark rituals and other evil deeds to conquer the world. Isn't it always like that?" Edawon shrugged. "I can't really say, and I have seen a bit more of the world than you have." Zaza chuckled. Cajun decided it was time to keep his mouth shut before he would put another foot in. [/QUOTE]
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