drnuncheon's Freeport Story Hour - Book II: Inheritance
Jon Potter
First Post
Lela said:
I was hinting at them when I jokingly posted the following:
Jon Potter said:And the only thing better than enjoying a nice, hot calzone is enjoying a nice, hot calzone while watching a talented jongleur.
Dru's code word is calzone. D'Fier's is jongleur.
DiFier
First Post
You're close Jon.
Actually neither code word is assigned to either charachter. Just that when one uses one of the two code words in a sentence the other must use the other in their next sentance.
It gets really weird when they are telling the jongleur story or the calzone gollum story.
actually I think that during the retelling of those stories they just don't respond.
It usually goes like this. Di'Fier walks around the block and runs into Dru who told him she would be out of town for a few days. He's not sure that this is actually dru and so he says "Hi, Dru. Have I introduced you to my new girlfriend the jongleur?" Dru Responds "I think that you must have eaten a bad calzone Di'Fier, your hallucinating again." He responds "I thought you were going to be out of town" And they continue on their way. Sometimes they don't make sence or seem a little weird to the other people around them. "Did you bring me a Calzone?" "what do I look like some kind of jongleur?" or "I hear the the jongleurs convention is in town" "Yeah but the vendors aren't serving calzones." Weird but they could be real conversations.
Actually neither code word is assigned to either charachter. Just that when one uses one of the two code words in a sentence the other must use the other in their next sentance.
It gets really weird when they are telling the jongleur story or the calzone gollum story.
actually I think that during the retelling of those stories they just don't respond.
It usually goes like this. Di'Fier walks around the block and runs into Dru who told him she would be out of town for a few days. He's not sure that this is actually dru and so he says "Hi, Dru. Have I introduced you to my new girlfriend the jongleur?" Dru Responds "I think that you must have eaten a bad calzone Di'Fier, your hallucinating again." He responds "I thought you were going to be out of town" And they continue on their way. Sometimes they don't make sence or seem a little weird to the other people around them. "Did you bring me a Calzone?" "what do I look like some kind of jongleur?" or "I hear the the jongleurs convention is in town" "Yeah but the vendors aren't serving calzones." Weird but they could be real conversations.
Jon Potter
First Post
Thanks for setting me straight!
Greg Dickens
First Post
OK I thought the last update's cliff hanger was bad this one is just Nasty.
ShawnLStroud
First Post
No way is this thread dropping off the front page!
drnuncheon
Explorer
Dru could hear the faint tones of an incantation. The children - a distraction! She burst forward, ignoring their grasping hands, only to hear feet running away. No time, she thought. I've got to keep him in earshot.
The footsteps led her to the kitchen, but a clatter of pots thrown to the floor drowned them out - until she heard them behind her. Dru spun - only to come face to face with Shesara. "He's invisible," Dru growled.
"Then I think we should even the playing field," the bard replied, and her voice soared upwards, wrapping them in tendrils of unseen magic until the two elves also faded from sight.
From down the hall, Liadon watched them vanish, and then turned and crept silently up the main staircase.
"This way," Dru hissed, feeling her fingertips leave Shesara's for a moment. Handy as it is, this spell can be a real pain
sometimes... The door to the master bedroom stood ajar, and the elves slowly stepped towards it. Dru peered through the crack. "Nobody in the room, but the trapdoor's open. I bet he's gone into the attic."
Pushing the door quietly open, they moved into the room. "Turn the
painting around, Shesara."
"You're right. We don't want it noticing us going up, even if we are
invisible." Jardek's face lifted itself away from the wall, spun half a
turn on the vertical axis, and settled back down facing the wall. There
was a creak as weight was put on the ladder, but no voice adminished them from the painting. Quickly, they ascended.
A tiny room perched above the master bedroom, lit only by what filtered up from the bedroom below. Even so, Dru could see the small tracks in the dust - from the closed door to the trapdoor they had just ascended through. "Through here must be where he kept the children."
"Through here" proved to be a long room, running most of the length of the house. Dark, cloth-covered shapes lurked in the shadows of their vision, squat, uneven, and menacing. Dru twitched one of the covers away to find a rotting couch with a broken leg, and dust spiraled up into the air.
"It looks like there's a path through all of this junk," Shesara said. "But are we sure he's-"
The creak and slam of the trapdoor cut her sentence off in the middle, and the pair were plunged into darkness.
The sound of elven cursing was almost drowned out by the tones of the hymn to the sun that Shesara began to sing, and slowly, light blossomed in her cupped palms, casting stark shadows on the walls.
"I don't believe we fell for that," Dru snarled, stalking the edges
of the room. "Clearly, they intend for us to perish here in the attic. Let me see that mace," she said, peering at the chimney. "I might be able to break a hole in it that we can climb through..."
Several minutes later, Dru sighed aloud in exasperation, and thrust the mace back at Shesara. "It's useless. The place is built stronger than it looks." She paced back and forth, trying to fight down the rising edge of panic. I will not die up here in the attic, and be another one of that monster's victims! I will not die! With a fierce snarl, she whirled around. "If I die, everyone else in this gods-forsaken house is going to die with me. I'll burn the d*mned thing to the ground!"
Shesara stared at her, aghast. "Dru, are you crazy? You're going to get us all killed!"
Dru snarled. "No, I think that the Baron and his flunkies are going to get us all killed."
Shesara's eyes widened. "Maybe we can break through the trapdoor..." she started, giving it a push. It promptly fell open.
Dru stared, feeling disgust both at herself for not trying the trapdoor, and at the villains, for being stupid enough to not lock them up there. "Well then," she said, in a normal voice, "Let's go kill them some other way, then."
Shesara looked at her warily, but followed her down the ladder.
"I was thinking," Dru whispered, as they got the the bottom of the ladder. "We know from Ampiel that Di'Fier is in a dark place, and that he couldn't move. I thought that meant that he was tied up somewhere like the attic... but I'm not so sure now. If the Baron is in Di'Fier's body... then Di'Fier is probably trapped in the Baron's body."
Shesara looked like she felt like she wsa going to be sick, but she nodded. "I think that sounds... likely," she said with a sigh. "Poor Di'Fier."
Dru nodded. "Well, if Di'Fier doesn't make it out of this alive, rest assured that none of the others will either." When Ampiel landed on her shoulder, she reached up and absently patted him. "Let's go get Di'Fier."
There was the sound of shattering glass as someone repeated slammed into a window. It came from the study. Liadon turned to look at his employer, now clothed in the body of the much younger man. "They're breaking into the study," he said, looking worried. "What should we do?"
The baron looked from one of his employees to the other, and then said, "Kill them."
Dru leapt through the window, into the room. The baron still lay in his casket. She threw open the casket, looking down at the old man's body in distaste. "If you're in there, Di'Fier, we're here to help."
The door flew open, and a dagger hurtled through the air towards Dru. She turned and smirked at Liadon, as she stepped out of the dagger's path, letting it thunk into the casket lid behind her. "I grew up with this stuff instead of mother's milk."
Di'Fier stepped into the room behind Liadon, an invocation on his lips, and Dru felt her muscles begin to seize. Oh no...no, you don't she thought, fighting to thrust the invading presence from her mind. Gaberk took advantage of her distraction and crossed the room, hitting Dru with a shortsword. The blade bit into her neck, leaving a bloody gash behind as she jerked away.
Dru snarled again, ducking away from Gaberk's awkward followup. A glint of light on the old man's finger caught her eye. A ring? Could that be what's keeping him from moving? She twisted aside and reached for the corpse's hand...
Di'Fier lay in darkness, only able to hear the voices that shouted around him. He felt an impact as something hit...whatever, wherever he was. It sounded like wood. The coffin? Then a warm hand grabbed his, and he felt something slipping off of his finger...
The world spiraled out of control, and he felt a presence rushing towards him
With a scream, Di'Fier - no, the Baron - dropped to the floor.
Ampiel's feathers flew as he battered the air with his wings. "Not that ring! Not that ring!"
Dru swore, jamming the signet back onto the bony finger and pulling the hands apart. On the other hand - a silver band. Is that it? She could hear Shesara trying desperately to fend off the others.
Dru grabbed the ring and pulled.
Di'Fier hung on to the edges of the mind he had been banished to, fighting against the rightful owner. He could feel Anton's thoughts pouring through him, forcing him out. Images spun and danced before his eyes: Elena...the children...and a dark, hunched, inhuman figure. Desperately he clung to his place, knowing that if he let go, he would be flung into the endless void.
Then the pressure vanished, and he tumbled back into a suddenly empty mind. Jardek was gone, and he was still frozen, unmoving.
No...
...he wasn't frozen anymore.
The wrinkled man in the coffin sat up, copper coins sliding off of his eyes. One palsied finger pointed at Di'Fier's body, and a voice hoarse from disuse ordered "Grab him!" That done, the fingers clutched at the side of the casket, struggling to lift the frail body out.
No one seemed to respond the the old man's orders. Di'Fier's body stepped back, words of power crackling in the air. Shesara slammed the rod into Gaberk's skull, causing the dwarf to roar with pain. Still perceiving Dru as the greater threat, Gaberk lunged towards her with his sword, but missed. Liadon, trying to flank with Gaberk, also tried to hit Dru with his rapier, but she managed to twist to the side at the last moment. "You're going to have to be better than that..." She twisted around, and thrust her rapier at Gaberk twice, puncturing him both times.
Movement behind Liadon caught Dru's eye: S'Karat stood in the doorway, his face unreadable. "Druuuu," he crooned, and raised a hand, Valossan syllables hissing from his lips and bursting like fire from his palm, fanning out to engulf Liadon.
Di'Fier felt the pain stabbing through the Barons' body as he tumbled to the floor. He could hear his own voice ringing out, and his whirling mind pieced together the spell. A summoning...I can't let him finish. Painfully, he crawled across the floor, past the melee wher eDru and Shesata struggled to hold off the Baron's servants. He coughed, and his vision dimmed. When it returned, red blood stained his hand. No wonder he wants a new body, Di'Fier thought wildly as he pushed himself slowly upright, his vision fading again.
When it snapped back into focus, he saw his body holding a candle that burst into flame. The summoning is almost complete...I've got to stop it... He reached into the depths of his memory, pulling a collection of sigils to the floor, feeling the power aching to be released. Just one clear shot, gods, give me a clear shot....
Shesara stepped to the side, and Di'Fier raised a withered hand. The bolt of force slammed into Gaberk, sending the dwarf spinning to the floor, and then into his own body, hammering it into the wall, candle and bag dropping unheeded to the floor. Blood trickled from his nose and ears as he staggered forward - then turned, and ran down the hall.
Dru looked around, wildly. She saw that Di'Fier was still shambling in his old man's body, unable to catch his runaway uncle. Shesara was taking advantage of Gaberk's prone body, and hitting him with the rod. S'karat lay crumpled, a victim of Liadon's steel. I suppose that it's up to me, she thought to herself, already racing towards the door. Her eyes narrowed as Liadon tried to block her path, and she ran him through, twisting the blade and sending him to the floor, not waiting for the corpse to fall before she continued.
Di'Fier staggered after Dru, leaning on Shesara. I hope that she doesn't punch too many holes in my body, he thought. I want that back. He looked down the hall at his vanishing body, Dru in hot pursuit. I'll never catch up to them, he thought, and sagged against the doorframe.
Something slammed into the kitchen door, and wood splintered.
Half-remembered fear flooded Di'Fier's mind - memories of Jardek's intermixed with his own. The bezekira - sent by Squarefoot - who is Squarefoot? It comes for me. Guardian and protector and agent of the contract. The door shuddered again, and flickering ghost-flames reached in from the darkness.
There's nothing I can do...it will kill Dru, and everyone else here. Di'Fier looked down at the ring on his finger - the signet identical to the one his body wore. No...there is something...
Dru raced along the hallway after the baron, knowing that she couldn't damage him the way that she wanted to... not if her friend was to get his body back. We can always heal him up a little when I'm through, she thought to herself, raising the rapier to run the baron through. She never had the chance. With a scream of pain that sounded so hauntingly like Di'Fier that it sent shivers up and down her spine, the Baron dropped to the ground. With a crunching and splintering of wood, the hellcat leaped through the shattered remnants ot the kitchen door, bounding past Dru.
She turned, and saw the old Baron's body crumpled, the signet ring fallen from his hand. For an instant she froze - and then she understood. "This better work!" she cried, her rapier falling to the floor as she snatched the signet from Di'Fier's finger.
The Baron's body opened its eyes to see the hellcat above him. He screamed as the jaws bit down, picking up his body like a rag doll. One claw tore the air into a portal that reeked of brimstone, and then the pair were gone and all was silent.
Below her, Di'Fier's body opened its eyes. "Di'Fier? Is that you?"
There was a moment of tense silence, and he said, "Yes."
"Do you feel like having a calzone after all of that?" Dru stared down at her former partner, her voice hard.
He looked up at her. "Only if we can watch a good jongleur show afterward."
The footsteps led her to the kitchen, but a clatter of pots thrown to the floor drowned them out - until she heard them behind her. Dru spun - only to come face to face with Shesara. "He's invisible," Dru growled.
"Then I think we should even the playing field," the bard replied, and her voice soared upwards, wrapping them in tendrils of unseen magic until the two elves also faded from sight.
From down the hall, Liadon watched them vanish, and then turned and crept silently up the main staircase.
"This way," Dru hissed, feeling her fingertips leave Shesara's for a moment. Handy as it is, this spell can be a real pain
sometimes... The door to the master bedroom stood ajar, and the elves slowly stepped towards it. Dru peered through the crack. "Nobody in the room, but the trapdoor's open. I bet he's gone into the attic."
Pushing the door quietly open, they moved into the room. "Turn the
painting around, Shesara."
"You're right. We don't want it noticing us going up, even if we are
invisible." Jardek's face lifted itself away from the wall, spun half a
turn on the vertical axis, and settled back down facing the wall. There
was a creak as weight was put on the ladder, but no voice adminished them from the painting. Quickly, they ascended.
A tiny room perched above the master bedroom, lit only by what filtered up from the bedroom below. Even so, Dru could see the small tracks in the dust - from the closed door to the trapdoor they had just ascended through. "Through here must be where he kept the children."
"Through here" proved to be a long room, running most of the length of the house. Dark, cloth-covered shapes lurked in the shadows of their vision, squat, uneven, and menacing. Dru twitched one of the covers away to find a rotting couch with a broken leg, and dust spiraled up into the air.
"It looks like there's a path through all of this junk," Shesara said. "But are we sure he's-"
The creak and slam of the trapdoor cut her sentence off in the middle, and the pair were plunged into darkness.
The sound of elven cursing was almost drowned out by the tones of the hymn to the sun that Shesara began to sing, and slowly, light blossomed in her cupped palms, casting stark shadows on the walls.
"I don't believe we fell for that," Dru snarled, stalking the edges
of the room. "Clearly, they intend for us to perish here in the attic. Let me see that mace," she said, peering at the chimney. "I might be able to break a hole in it that we can climb through..."
Several minutes later, Dru sighed aloud in exasperation, and thrust the mace back at Shesara. "It's useless. The place is built stronger than it looks." She paced back and forth, trying to fight down the rising edge of panic. I will not die up here in the attic, and be another one of that monster's victims! I will not die! With a fierce snarl, she whirled around. "If I die, everyone else in this gods-forsaken house is going to die with me. I'll burn the d*mned thing to the ground!"
Shesara stared at her, aghast. "Dru, are you crazy? You're going to get us all killed!"
Dru snarled. "No, I think that the Baron and his flunkies are going to get us all killed."
Shesara's eyes widened. "Maybe we can break through the trapdoor..." she started, giving it a push. It promptly fell open.
Dru stared, feeling disgust both at herself for not trying the trapdoor, and at the villains, for being stupid enough to not lock them up there. "Well then," she said, in a normal voice, "Let's go kill them some other way, then."
Shesara looked at her warily, but followed her down the ladder.
"I was thinking," Dru whispered, as they got the the bottom of the ladder. "We know from Ampiel that Di'Fier is in a dark place, and that he couldn't move. I thought that meant that he was tied up somewhere like the attic... but I'm not so sure now. If the Baron is in Di'Fier's body... then Di'Fier is probably trapped in the Baron's body."
Shesara looked like she felt like she wsa going to be sick, but she nodded. "I think that sounds... likely," she said with a sigh. "Poor Di'Fier."
Dru nodded. "Well, if Di'Fier doesn't make it out of this alive, rest assured that none of the others will either." When Ampiel landed on her shoulder, she reached up and absently patted him. "Let's go get Di'Fier."
There was the sound of shattering glass as someone repeated slammed into a window. It came from the study. Liadon turned to look at his employer, now clothed in the body of the much younger man. "They're breaking into the study," he said, looking worried. "What should we do?"
The baron looked from one of his employees to the other, and then said, "Kill them."
Dru leapt through the window, into the room. The baron still lay in his casket. She threw open the casket, looking down at the old man's body in distaste. "If you're in there, Di'Fier, we're here to help."
The door flew open, and a dagger hurtled through the air towards Dru. She turned and smirked at Liadon, as she stepped out of the dagger's path, letting it thunk into the casket lid behind her. "I grew up with this stuff instead of mother's milk."
Di'Fier stepped into the room behind Liadon, an invocation on his lips, and Dru felt her muscles begin to seize. Oh no...no, you don't she thought, fighting to thrust the invading presence from her mind. Gaberk took advantage of her distraction and crossed the room, hitting Dru with a shortsword. The blade bit into her neck, leaving a bloody gash behind as she jerked away.
Dru snarled again, ducking away from Gaberk's awkward followup. A glint of light on the old man's finger caught her eye. A ring? Could that be what's keeping him from moving? She twisted aside and reached for the corpse's hand...
Di'Fier lay in darkness, only able to hear the voices that shouted around him. He felt an impact as something hit...whatever, wherever he was. It sounded like wood. The coffin? Then a warm hand grabbed his, and he felt something slipping off of his finger...
The world spiraled out of control, and he felt a presence rushing towards him
With a scream, Di'Fier - no, the Baron - dropped to the floor.
Ampiel's feathers flew as he battered the air with his wings. "Not that ring! Not that ring!"
Dru swore, jamming the signet back onto the bony finger and pulling the hands apart. On the other hand - a silver band. Is that it? She could hear Shesara trying desperately to fend off the others.
Dru grabbed the ring and pulled.
Di'Fier hung on to the edges of the mind he had been banished to, fighting against the rightful owner. He could feel Anton's thoughts pouring through him, forcing him out. Images spun and danced before his eyes: Elena...the children...and a dark, hunched, inhuman figure. Desperately he clung to his place, knowing that if he let go, he would be flung into the endless void.
Then the pressure vanished, and he tumbled back into a suddenly empty mind. Jardek was gone, and he was still frozen, unmoving.
No...
...he wasn't frozen anymore.
The wrinkled man in the coffin sat up, copper coins sliding off of his eyes. One palsied finger pointed at Di'Fier's body, and a voice hoarse from disuse ordered "Grab him!" That done, the fingers clutched at the side of the casket, struggling to lift the frail body out.
No one seemed to respond the the old man's orders. Di'Fier's body stepped back, words of power crackling in the air. Shesara slammed the rod into Gaberk's skull, causing the dwarf to roar with pain. Still perceiving Dru as the greater threat, Gaberk lunged towards her with his sword, but missed. Liadon, trying to flank with Gaberk, also tried to hit Dru with his rapier, but she managed to twist to the side at the last moment. "You're going to have to be better than that..." She twisted around, and thrust her rapier at Gaberk twice, puncturing him both times.
Movement behind Liadon caught Dru's eye: S'Karat stood in the doorway, his face unreadable. "Druuuu," he crooned, and raised a hand, Valossan syllables hissing from his lips and bursting like fire from his palm, fanning out to engulf Liadon.
Di'Fier felt the pain stabbing through the Barons' body as he tumbled to the floor. He could hear his own voice ringing out, and his whirling mind pieced together the spell. A summoning...I can't let him finish. Painfully, he crawled across the floor, past the melee wher eDru and Shesata struggled to hold off the Baron's servants. He coughed, and his vision dimmed. When it returned, red blood stained his hand. No wonder he wants a new body, Di'Fier thought wildly as he pushed himself slowly upright, his vision fading again.
When it snapped back into focus, he saw his body holding a candle that burst into flame. The summoning is almost complete...I've got to stop it... He reached into the depths of his memory, pulling a collection of sigils to the floor, feeling the power aching to be released. Just one clear shot, gods, give me a clear shot....
Shesara stepped to the side, and Di'Fier raised a withered hand. The bolt of force slammed into Gaberk, sending the dwarf spinning to the floor, and then into his own body, hammering it into the wall, candle and bag dropping unheeded to the floor. Blood trickled from his nose and ears as he staggered forward - then turned, and ran down the hall.
Dru looked around, wildly. She saw that Di'Fier was still shambling in his old man's body, unable to catch his runaway uncle. Shesara was taking advantage of Gaberk's prone body, and hitting him with the rod. S'karat lay crumpled, a victim of Liadon's steel. I suppose that it's up to me, she thought to herself, already racing towards the door. Her eyes narrowed as Liadon tried to block her path, and she ran him through, twisting the blade and sending him to the floor, not waiting for the corpse to fall before she continued.
Di'Fier staggered after Dru, leaning on Shesara. I hope that she doesn't punch too many holes in my body, he thought. I want that back. He looked down the hall at his vanishing body, Dru in hot pursuit. I'll never catch up to them, he thought, and sagged against the doorframe.
Something slammed into the kitchen door, and wood splintered.
Half-remembered fear flooded Di'Fier's mind - memories of Jardek's intermixed with his own. The bezekira - sent by Squarefoot - who is Squarefoot? It comes for me. Guardian and protector and agent of the contract. The door shuddered again, and flickering ghost-flames reached in from the darkness.
There's nothing I can do...it will kill Dru, and everyone else here. Di'Fier looked down at the ring on his finger - the signet identical to the one his body wore. No...there is something...
Dru raced along the hallway after the baron, knowing that she couldn't damage him the way that she wanted to... not if her friend was to get his body back. We can always heal him up a little when I'm through, she thought to herself, raising the rapier to run the baron through. She never had the chance. With a scream of pain that sounded so hauntingly like Di'Fier that it sent shivers up and down her spine, the Baron dropped to the ground. With a crunching and splintering of wood, the hellcat leaped through the shattered remnants ot the kitchen door, bounding past Dru.
She turned, and saw the old Baron's body crumpled, the signet ring fallen from his hand. For an instant she froze - and then she understood. "This better work!" she cried, her rapier falling to the floor as she snatched the signet from Di'Fier's finger.
The Baron's body opened its eyes to see the hellcat above him. He screamed as the jaws bit down, picking up his body like a rag doll. One claw tore the air into a portal that reeked of brimstone, and then the pair were gone and all was silent.
Below her, Di'Fier's body opened its eyes. "Di'Fier? Is that you?"
There was a moment of tense silence, and he said, "Yes."
"Do you feel like having a calzone after all of that?" Dru stared down at her former partner, her voice hard.
He looked up at her. "Only if we can watch a good jongleur show afterward."
Jon Potter
First Post
Woo Hoo!
Good to see an update, DrN!
And what an update! Action-packed from sart to finish!
Rather ironic, really, attacking Dru with a dagger! Sheesh! If Liadon only knew...
I'm a little unclear what happened with the attic trapdoor. Did the invisible Baron just forget to lock the door, or was something else at work luring them up there?
In the original adventure, I remember that there was more nastiness than just the Baron in that house. Although with all the modifications that you made, DrN, I'm unsure what to think.
Oh yeah, and poor S'karat! I hope that someone can pour a spare cure down his throat.
Good to see an update, DrN!
And what an update! Action-packed from sart to finish!
Rather ironic, really, attacking Dru with a dagger! Sheesh! If Liadon only knew...
I'm a little unclear what happened with the attic trapdoor. Did the invisible Baron just forget to lock the door, or was something else at work luring them up there?
In the original adventure, I remember that there was more nastiness than just the Baron in that house. Although with all the modifications that you made, DrN, I'm unsure what to think.
Oh yeah, and poor S'karat! I hope that someone can pour a spare cure down his throat.
