Beale Knight
First Post
Session 13 pt2: Throwing our Lot, Redbreasts End
With Tharand was a group of nine guards, a wizard we later found out was named Karun – and who wore a fully concealing helmet. Rounding out the group was a farunk, but one unlike we’d ever seen. He was very well dressed in finery that would make most merchants envious. His necklace bore the emblems of all the farunk tribes. He was, Tharand said, king of all farunk, and we couldn’t deny he looked the part.
Introductions made, Tharand gave us his tale. It was much the same as what Legand had told us the night before, but the council leader expanded with goals. Idiein and his threat were the immediate priority. Once that threat was removed, the goal would be to remove the threat of the ruling council. Slavery would be abolished. Freedom of movement would be allowed so long as a new threat didn’t surface. And there would be a more open flow of information. The common folk wouldn’t be kept thinking dwarves and gnomes as myth, or that Maissen was the only civilization on the continent.
He reminded us that anything, anything, we brought back to Maissen would be considered property of the council. That would certainly include Dumb Bear, who would probably be killed outright for being an obvious barbaric monster, and Aneirin, who would probably find knife in his back with hours of crossing the border.
Bessie and Ren’s lifetime of experience, and what we had all experienced with council members beyond Maissen’s borders, only buoyed his arguments. The problem was choosing independence. Tharand had told us he expected to have a new and better council, with scores or hundred of members, in place before the solstice. None of us, save perhaps Dumb Bear, wanted to live as Maissen expatriates even for that long.
It was our error. Choosing independence did not require leaving Maissen. It only meant that if we DID leave we could not return. But we would be allowed to live within the borders as retired heroes if we chose.
That was an entirely different set of conditions! Dumb Bear and Aneirin would still have to slip away to safety, but Bessie and Ren could go back to their lives until the moment was right. And we could all join the cause to make Maissen a much better and just place.
We were in. Without hesitation we made our pledge and were then standing against our government. We would see our goals made true or die.
Tharand sweetened our commitment by offering to help us get our contraband inside the borders. He would take anything we would offer today, and have it for us when we returned. Bad for us was that most of what we would want snuck into the nation we either needed for the trip back, and our upcoming side trek, or was stashed with the gnomes. After considering possibilities, we devised a plan to store our contraband with the farunk of the swamp, and Tharand would retrieve it some time after we returned, maybe a day, maybe as much as a week. Aneirin gave Tharand his instant armor fluid, just in case things went suddenly ugly right away Tharand could toss it to him. We also each gave up our six gold bars.
That settled, we brought up our meeting with Portagrumble. Tharand was shocked to learn that the “lost tribe” was not necessarily lost any longer. He told us of Lyncos, the guardian, who was probably the reason we would have to enter the palace. If we could aid the halflings, they could make good allies for the Grip’s cause.
It was growing late, and Tharand offered to put us all up for the night in his magical portable tower. We spent a night of full luxury there, and learned a little more of the events unfolding in the war. The chakta had a virtual line along the border of Maissen. Getting in would be challenging. There were three big camps of Barcu, with hundreds of escaped slaves and descendants thereof. Things were complicated, but we were for the first time in our lives getting a real picture of how they were connected.
The morning of Day Forty Seven saw Tharand helping us to the supposed halfing village. He conjured a misty horse from nothing, and whispered into the ears of all our mounts. “This will speed you on your way,” he said. Then with a final word of warning, “Keep your heads at the gate,” he, the wizard, the guards, Legand, and the king of the farunk (with a name unpronounceable by us) turned and departed.
We then began southeast, and found we were almost flying. The mounts were speeding along at double, perhaps triple, their normal speed, and it seemed to tire them out not at all! This great speed faded a little after noon, but the misty horse remained. By evening we had reached the river and traveled well east along it. There we made our camp, having traveled at least a day and a half of distance in those hours.
On Day Forty Eight we continued east, and around noon the land opened up for us. To the north we could see the rock Portagrumble had told us to seek. We changed course for it and after another two or three hours came upon an unexpected barrier.
Ivy. Portagrumble had mentioned it but never painted a clear picture. Ivy was everywhere. Well ahead we could see massive pile of it, buildings covered by the stuff we thought. We circled around the edge of the ivy to discover it covered a wide area, an almost perfect hemisphere to the stone rise.
There was nothing for it, so we pulled out weapons and began hacking away a trail. After another two or three hours work we managed to go perhaps a mile and a half, up to the entry of a smaller mound. Close to it, we saw that it was built as a ziggurat, the bottom section about 25’ across.
This we discovered was a house. We had to burst down the door, and found ourselves inside a large, but at the same time small, room. The room was a pleasantly decorated place, with a fireplace and nice wooden chairs and doilies and yarn for knitting and a thick floor rug. It was a very grandparent looking place, complete with two sleeping grandparents. Each the size of a three year old.
This was indeed the halfling village, and they were indeed asleep. We went through the room and found that the next one had a door. That one readily opened and we were looking back outside. We could make out a central building larger than the rest, and thought that must be the palace.
As we plotted out next move, the ground crumbled before us and Portagrumble stuck his head out. We asked him to point out where it was he woke up, and he indicated a tree off toward the edge of the ivy. It was too far to travel overland, so we had him tunnel that way so we could get a close hand look.
The ground around the tree had been disturbed by more than the giant badger’s diggings. It seemed Bessie’s idea about the earthquake was right. When the ground shifted, it shifted Portagrumble just beyond the edge of the ivy.
This made some things very clear while still leaving much more unexplained. The ivy was apparently what caused the village to fall asleep, nothing beyond its line had been effected so far as we could tell. This meant that the ivy was extremely powerful magic that must have been purposely set upon this village, and that it had encompassed the entire area virtually at once. It obviously caught Portagrumble and the two halflings we saw by complete surprise.
Or perhaps the ivy was a side effect. Or perhaps we were just completely wrong. But there was nothing more we could find out here. We asked Portagrumble to tunnel us to the palace. Our guess that the large central building was the palace was proved incorrect when Portagrumble led us to the face of the giant rock slab. “This,” he said, “is the entry to the palace. That central building is the community hall.”
The entry to the palace was a fancy gate in the shape of an inverted triangle, and it was a place the giant badger could not cross. Whatever awaited within the palace, we would face it on our own.
Dumb Bear stretched his muscles and forced the door open for us. Inside was a hall of dressed stone, stretching in each direction. To our left and right the hall was more like a pair of extended alcoves – dead ends with armored skeletons equipped with spears and shields. With the paranoia of experience, we disarmed the skeletal statues, but opted to not outright destroy them (dissapointing Dumb Bear, who greatly wanted to smash them into dust).
The hall stretching ahead went beyond our light, but Dumb Bear said he could see an end to it, with a door. A quick check of the hall revealed a series of murder holes along the walls, a trap for the unwary! Ren took the shield from one of the skeleton statues and pressed that down on the first set of hall tiles.
Darts shot out from the murder holes and clattered against the opposite walls. With a smile, Ren stepped forward and repeated the process to the same results. He did it a third time, and then fresh trouble began.
As the darts shot out, we heard movement from behind us. The skeletons were moving! “Dumb Bear said we ought smash them,” our elf barbarian said. They turned out to be no real threat though. Aneirin and Dumb Bear destroyed each one with a single blow in turn, while the skeletons could not even land a blow. The combat was so inconsequential that Ren continued to press forward methodically down the hall and Bessie held the light for the warriors*.
After a few minutes we reached the end of the hall and the door there that Dumb Bear had reported. It was unlocked but not without protection. As soon as we handled it, gas spewed out from all sides. Thankfully, we were all so tense with anticipation that we were all holding our breath even before the trap was sprung. The gas dissipated to nothingness after a moment and we opened the door.
Beyond was a huge room. Even Dumb Bear couldn’t see across to the far wall, and he could only barely notice walls to the left and right. Ren threw the skeleton’s shield across the room, sending it skidding over the floor in hopes of revealing any traps. None were sprung, but any element of surprise was eliminated. And we soon discovered how much of a bad thing that could actually be.
On the right wall, Dumb Bear had noticed something off. We went to take a look and saw a difference in the levels of dust. Deeper into the room the dust was thick on the floor. Here along the wall it was almost gone. So someone HAD been here recently, but not so recently that the traps hadn’t had time to be reset – unless they had been bypassed some way.
Odder still were the hand and footprints we found. They were on the wall. Aneirin found a glass vial on the floor, and it was easy enough to deduce what had occurred here, but there was still mystery. How many people had spider walked along the wall? How long ago? What was there connection to the halflings and their guardian Likos? We would soon find out.
As we scooted along side the right wall the far end of the room at last came into our sight. We had just noticed that there were two doors on that back wall when the closer one opened. A dwarf looked out, noticed us, and then gasped. He ducked back into the room, closing the door behind him. It reopened almost at once and a human looked out.
A human garbed in red. A human we’d seen before. It was one of the redbreasts, the one who seemed to do all the talking.
The voice of the redbreasts sneered at us and said we were too late. The door slammed shut as we ran for it, and was well secured before we reached it.
We didn’t care. We were getting through that door and we were getting our hands around the throat of any redbreast we saw, and any that stood with them.
Getting through the door was far easier said than done. We had no magic or tools to blast it down, but we did have Dumb Bear and Aneirin. We also had Bessie, who used her druid’s magic to augment the elf’s already amazing strength.
It was still a very strong door. Our minds were razors, our spirits fire, and our bodies steel – but it took several poundings by our best steel to break open the door and the bar on its other side. When the two warriors at last burst it open, our foes were ready (and perhaps even getting bored, so it might have been a good thing it took so long to get inside).
The very first thing we saw through the splinter littered doorframe was a huge dragon asleep or dead atop a small mountain of gold and silver. There was no time to pay that much mind, awesome as it was. On the far end of the room we saw our foes.
There was the dwarf we saw earlier, now behind a tower shield and with an axe in hand. The voice of the redbreasts was standing by an overturned dias an huge crystal, ready with a bow. Near the dragon’s head was a second redbreast, in leather armor and half hidden, no doubt preparing something sneaky.
The battle was on! Aneirin and Dumb Bear charged the dwarf, Bessie began a summoning just outside the doorway, and Ren ran into the room and jumped atop the dragon’s tail to sprint up his back.
Shots from the redbreasts went long and short, and their ace in the hole fizzled. A wizard, hiding on the other side of the dragon, climbed up its side and cast a Magic Missile at Bessie. Its destructive energy was completely absorbed by the amulet she had been wearing since Hilltopple House. Our druid was unfazed and completed her summoning without bother. We now had a wolf fighting on our side.
The dwarf took a heavy swing at Dumb Bear, but the elf side stepped it as he whirled his flail for a powerful attack. Aneirin flanked the dwarf and thrust his sword between the bits of his banded mail, ripping flesh and blood out as he swung it free through the armor.
Fearful of the elf, the Voice redbreast threw a tanglefoot bag at him, securing him to the floor. That only meant the barbarian had to stand there and finish what had been started. Dumb Bear smashed the dwarf’s new wound with his flail, sending the spiked ball all the way through. With the chain tearing through the body as well, the dwarf’s side was cut wide open. Flesh and bone mixed with armor and padding as they flew out, littering the floor behind in a bloody splay.
Bessie’s wolf was now well on its way across the room to attack the voice, and the druid also direct her owl companion to swipe at the wizard on the dragon’s back. That wizard was now focused on Ren, who was running full speed up the dragon’s tail up to him. He launched a magic missile at the hunter, hitting him square but not slowing him a bit. Ren had pulled out the thunderstone as soon as the wizard came into view, and now he threw it. The stone landed right at the wizard’s feet, banging against the dragon scales and seemingly deafening the wizard.
As Dumb Bear freed himself from the tanglefoot bag, Aneirin ran to the half-hidden redbreast. An arrow nicked him en route, but the fighter barely noticed. He swung twice, bloodying the redbreast both times. The foe got in a feeble attack, but fell on Aneirin’s next swing.
The voice of the redbreasts had by then begun using his talent. He started to sing. Focused on Aneirin, the redbreast sounded as if he were trying to charm the fighter against us!
Instead of gaining an ally, the apparent bard only gained the attention of a powerful enemy. Dumb Bear was now free, he burst out from the sticky mess of the tanglefoot bag and was upon the bard.
So was Bessie’s wolf. It bit into the bard and brought him to the floor, making him an easy target for Dumb Bear, and then for Aneirin.
Ren charged at the wizard, but lost his footing when the dragon confirmed he was alive by taking a deep, slumbering breath. Ren landed well, as did the redbreast wizard, but they were on opposite sides of the dragon. However, that put the wizard within easy range of Bessie’s bone crossbow, and he suffered a bolt for it.
That was enough for the wizard, and made a run for the doorway. Aneirin, Dumb Bear, and Bessie’s summoned wolf had finished with the redbreast bard. The voice of the redbreasts, the most annoying of them all, the one that offered to sell a farunk for a magic item, the one that led the taunting when his fellows dropped dung on us, was now nothing more than meat.
The two warriors and the druid gave chase to the redbreast wizard as Ren ran up to see about the mysterious one near the dragon’s head. Some were needed alive. There were too many questions. Questions that we needed answered. While the other three surrounded and beat down the wizard, Ren bound the other redbreast’s wounds and kept him alive. Bessie did the same for the wizard.
We had won the day! More – we had taken out vicious rivals that had thrown in with Idien. The irony that these traitors to Maissen had been taken out by us just after we agreed to become the same was not lost. We however, had not joined the forces of a lich.
Next: Loot, Likos Kanterros
*: The writer is not intentionally thumbing his nose at the DM’s dungeon, but in this case the monsters were fantastically out matched.
With Tharand was a group of nine guards, a wizard we later found out was named Karun – and who wore a fully concealing helmet. Rounding out the group was a farunk, but one unlike we’d ever seen. He was very well dressed in finery that would make most merchants envious. His necklace bore the emblems of all the farunk tribes. He was, Tharand said, king of all farunk, and we couldn’t deny he looked the part.
Introductions made, Tharand gave us his tale. It was much the same as what Legand had told us the night before, but the council leader expanded with goals. Idiein and his threat were the immediate priority. Once that threat was removed, the goal would be to remove the threat of the ruling council. Slavery would be abolished. Freedom of movement would be allowed so long as a new threat didn’t surface. And there would be a more open flow of information. The common folk wouldn’t be kept thinking dwarves and gnomes as myth, or that Maissen was the only civilization on the continent.
He reminded us that anything, anything, we brought back to Maissen would be considered property of the council. That would certainly include Dumb Bear, who would probably be killed outright for being an obvious barbaric monster, and Aneirin, who would probably find knife in his back with hours of crossing the border.
Bessie and Ren’s lifetime of experience, and what we had all experienced with council members beyond Maissen’s borders, only buoyed his arguments. The problem was choosing independence. Tharand had told us he expected to have a new and better council, with scores or hundred of members, in place before the solstice. None of us, save perhaps Dumb Bear, wanted to live as Maissen expatriates even for that long.
It was our error. Choosing independence did not require leaving Maissen. It only meant that if we DID leave we could not return. But we would be allowed to live within the borders as retired heroes if we chose.
That was an entirely different set of conditions! Dumb Bear and Aneirin would still have to slip away to safety, but Bessie and Ren could go back to their lives until the moment was right. And we could all join the cause to make Maissen a much better and just place.
We were in. Without hesitation we made our pledge and were then standing against our government. We would see our goals made true or die.
Tharand sweetened our commitment by offering to help us get our contraband inside the borders. He would take anything we would offer today, and have it for us when we returned. Bad for us was that most of what we would want snuck into the nation we either needed for the trip back, and our upcoming side trek, or was stashed with the gnomes. After considering possibilities, we devised a plan to store our contraband with the farunk of the swamp, and Tharand would retrieve it some time after we returned, maybe a day, maybe as much as a week. Aneirin gave Tharand his instant armor fluid, just in case things went suddenly ugly right away Tharand could toss it to him. We also each gave up our six gold bars.
That settled, we brought up our meeting with Portagrumble. Tharand was shocked to learn that the “lost tribe” was not necessarily lost any longer. He told us of Lyncos, the guardian, who was probably the reason we would have to enter the palace. If we could aid the halflings, they could make good allies for the Grip’s cause.
It was growing late, and Tharand offered to put us all up for the night in his magical portable tower. We spent a night of full luxury there, and learned a little more of the events unfolding in the war. The chakta had a virtual line along the border of Maissen. Getting in would be challenging. There were three big camps of Barcu, with hundreds of escaped slaves and descendants thereof. Things were complicated, but we were for the first time in our lives getting a real picture of how they were connected.
The morning of Day Forty Seven saw Tharand helping us to the supposed halfing village. He conjured a misty horse from nothing, and whispered into the ears of all our mounts. “This will speed you on your way,” he said. Then with a final word of warning, “Keep your heads at the gate,” he, the wizard, the guards, Legand, and the king of the farunk (with a name unpronounceable by us) turned and departed.
We then began southeast, and found we were almost flying. The mounts were speeding along at double, perhaps triple, their normal speed, and it seemed to tire them out not at all! This great speed faded a little after noon, but the misty horse remained. By evening we had reached the river and traveled well east along it. There we made our camp, having traveled at least a day and a half of distance in those hours.
On Day Forty Eight we continued east, and around noon the land opened up for us. To the north we could see the rock Portagrumble had told us to seek. We changed course for it and after another two or three hours came upon an unexpected barrier.
Ivy. Portagrumble had mentioned it but never painted a clear picture. Ivy was everywhere. Well ahead we could see massive pile of it, buildings covered by the stuff we thought. We circled around the edge of the ivy to discover it covered a wide area, an almost perfect hemisphere to the stone rise.
There was nothing for it, so we pulled out weapons and began hacking away a trail. After another two or three hours work we managed to go perhaps a mile and a half, up to the entry of a smaller mound. Close to it, we saw that it was built as a ziggurat, the bottom section about 25’ across.
This we discovered was a house. We had to burst down the door, and found ourselves inside a large, but at the same time small, room. The room was a pleasantly decorated place, with a fireplace and nice wooden chairs and doilies and yarn for knitting and a thick floor rug. It was a very grandparent looking place, complete with two sleeping grandparents. Each the size of a three year old.
This was indeed the halfling village, and they were indeed asleep. We went through the room and found that the next one had a door. That one readily opened and we were looking back outside. We could make out a central building larger than the rest, and thought that must be the palace.
As we plotted out next move, the ground crumbled before us and Portagrumble stuck his head out. We asked him to point out where it was he woke up, and he indicated a tree off toward the edge of the ivy. It was too far to travel overland, so we had him tunnel that way so we could get a close hand look.
The ground around the tree had been disturbed by more than the giant badger’s diggings. It seemed Bessie’s idea about the earthquake was right. When the ground shifted, it shifted Portagrumble just beyond the edge of the ivy.
This made some things very clear while still leaving much more unexplained. The ivy was apparently what caused the village to fall asleep, nothing beyond its line had been effected so far as we could tell. This meant that the ivy was extremely powerful magic that must have been purposely set upon this village, and that it had encompassed the entire area virtually at once. It obviously caught Portagrumble and the two halflings we saw by complete surprise.
Or perhaps the ivy was a side effect. Or perhaps we were just completely wrong. But there was nothing more we could find out here. We asked Portagrumble to tunnel us to the palace. Our guess that the large central building was the palace was proved incorrect when Portagrumble led us to the face of the giant rock slab. “This,” he said, “is the entry to the palace. That central building is the community hall.”
The entry to the palace was a fancy gate in the shape of an inverted triangle, and it was a place the giant badger could not cross. Whatever awaited within the palace, we would face it on our own.
Dumb Bear stretched his muscles and forced the door open for us. Inside was a hall of dressed stone, stretching in each direction. To our left and right the hall was more like a pair of extended alcoves – dead ends with armored skeletons equipped with spears and shields. With the paranoia of experience, we disarmed the skeletal statues, but opted to not outright destroy them (dissapointing Dumb Bear, who greatly wanted to smash them into dust).
The hall stretching ahead went beyond our light, but Dumb Bear said he could see an end to it, with a door. A quick check of the hall revealed a series of murder holes along the walls, a trap for the unwary! Ren took the shield from one of the skeleton statues and pressed that down on the first set of hall tiles.
Darts shot out from the murder holes and clattered against the opposite walls. With a smile, Ren stepped forward and repeated the process to the same results. He did it a third time, and then fresh trouble began.
As the darts shot out, we heard movement from behind us. The skeletons were moving! “Dumb Bear said we ought smash them,” our elf barbarian said. They turned out to be no real threat though. Aneirin and Dumb Bear destroyed each one with a single blow in turn, while the skeletons could not even land a blow. The combat was so inconsequential that Ren continued to press forward methodically down the hall and Bessie held the light for the warriors*.
After a few minutes we reached the end of the hall and the door there that Dumb Bear had reported. It was unlocked but not without protection. As soon as we handled it, gas spewed out from all sides. Thankfully, we were all so tense with anticipation that we were all holding our breath even before the trap was sprung. The gas dissipated to nothingness after a moment and we opened the door.
Beyond was a huge room. Even Dumb Bear couldn’t see across to the far wall, and he could only barely notice walls to the left and right. Ren threw the skeleton’s shield across the room, sending it skidding over the floor in hopes of revealing any traps. None were sprung, but any element of surprise was eliminated. And we soon discovered how much of a bad thing that could actually be.
On the right wall, Dumb Bear had noticed something off. We went to take a look and saw a difference in the levels of dust. Deeper into the room the dust was thick on the floor. Here along the wall it was almost gone. So someone HAD been here recently, but not so recently that the traps hadn’t had time to be reset – unless they had been bypassed some way.
Odder still were the hand and footprints we found. They were on the wall. Aneirin found a glass vial on the floor, and it was easy enough to deduce what had occurred here, but there was still mystery. How many people had spider walked along the wall? How long ago? What was there connection to the halflings and their guardian Likos? We would soon find out.
As we scooted along side the right wall the far end of the room at last came into our sight. We had just noticed that there were two doors on that back wall when the closer one opened. A dwarf looked out, noticed us, and then gasped. He ducked back into the room, closing the door behind him. It reopened almost at once and a human looked out.
A human garbed in red. A human we’d seen before. It was one of the redbreasts, the one who seemed to do all the talking.
The voice of the redbreasts sneered at us and said we were too late. The door slammed shut as we ran for it, and was well secured before we reached it.
We didn’t care. We were getting through that door and we were getting our hands around the throat of any redbreast we saw, and any that stood with them.
Getting through the door was far easier said than done. We had no magic or tools to blast it down, but we did have Dumb Bear and Aneirin. We also had Bessie, who used her druid’s magic to augment the elf’s already amazing strength.
It was still a very strong door. Our minds were razors, our spirits fire, and our bodies steel – but it took several poundings by our best steel to break open the door and the bar on its other side. When the two warriors at last burst it open, our foes were ready (and perhaps even getting bored, so it might have been a good thing it took so long to get inside).
The very first thing we saw through the splinter littered doorframe was a huge dragon asleep or dead atop a small mountain of gold and silver. There was no time to pay that much mind, awesome as it was. On the far end of the room we saw our foes.
There was the dwarf we saw earlier, now behind a tower shield and with an axe in hand. The voice of the redbreasts was standing by an overturned dias an huge crystal, ready with a bow. Near the dragon’s head was a second redbreast, in leather armor and half hidden, no doubt preparing something sneaky.
The battle was on! Aneirin and Dumb Bear charged the dwarf, Bessie began a summoning just outside the doorway, and Ren ran into the room and jumped atop the dragon’s tail to sprint up his back.
Shots from the redbreasts went long and short, and their ace in the hole fizzled. A wizard, hiding on the other side of the dragon, climbed up its side and cast a Magic Missile at Bessie. Its destructive energy was completely absorbed by the amulet she had been wearing since Hilltopple House. Our druid was unfazed and completed her summoning without bother. We now had a wolf fighting on our side.
The dwarf took a heavy swing at Dumb Bear, but the elf side stepped it as he whirled his flail for a powerful attack. Aneirin flanked the dwarf and thrust his sword between the bits of his banded mail, ripping flesh and blood out as he swung it free through the armor.
Fearful of the elf, the Voice redbreast threw a tanglefoot bag at him, securing him to the floor. That only meant the barbarian had to stand there and finish what had been started. Dumb Bear smashed the dwarf’s new wound with his flail, sending the spiked ball all the way through. With the chain tearing through the body as well, the dwarf’s side was cut wide open. Flesh and bone mixed with armor and padding as they flew out, littering the floor behind in a bloody splay.
Bessie’s wolf was now well on its way across the room to attack the voice, and the druid also direct her owl companion to swipe at the wizard on the dragon’s back. That wizard was now focused on Ren, who was running full speed up the dragon’s tail up to him. He launched a magic missile at the hunter, hitting him square but not slowing him a bit. Ren had pulled out the thunderstone as soon as the wizard came into view, and now he threw it. The stone landed right at the wizard’s feet, banging against the dragon scales and seemingly deafening the wizard.
As Dumb Bear freed himself from the tanglefoot bag, Aneirin ran to the half-hidden redbreast. An arrow nicked him en route, but the fighter barely noticed. He swung twice, bloodying the redbreast both times. The foe got in a feeble attack, but fell on Aneirin’s next swing.
The voice of the redbreasts had by then begun using his talent. He started to sing. Focused on Aneirin, the redbreast sounded as if he were trying to charm the fighter against us!
Instead of gaining an ally, the apparent bard only gained the attention of a powerful enemy. Dumb Bear was now free, he burst out from the sticky mess of the tanglefoot bag and was upon the bard.
So was Bessie’s wolf. It bit into the bard and brought him to the floor, making him an easy target for Dumb Bear, and then for Aneirin.
Ren charged at the wizard, but lost his footing when the dragon confirmed he was alive by taking a deep, slumbering breath. Ren landed well, as did the redbreast wizard, but they were on opposite sides of the dragon. However, that put the wizard within easy range of Bessie’s bone crossbow, and he suffered a bolt for it.
That was enough for the wizard, and made a run for the doorway. Aneirin, Dumb Bear, and Bessie’s summoned wolf had finished with the redbreast bard. The voice of the redbreasts, the most annoying of them all, the one that offered to sell a farunk for a magic item, the one that led the taunting when his fellows dropped dung on us, was now nothing more than meat.
The two warriors and the druid gave chase to the redbreast wizard as Ren ran up to see about the mysterious one near the dragon’s head. Some were needed alive. There were too many questions. Questions that we needed answered. While the other three surrounded and beat down the wizard, Ren bound the other redbreast’s wounds and kept him alive. Bessie did the same for the wizard.
We had won the day! More – we had taken out vicious rivals that had thrown in with Idien. The irony that these traitors to Maissen had been taken out by us just after we agreed to become the same was not lost. We however, had not joined the forces of a lich.
Next: Loot, Likos Kanterros
*: The writer is not intentionally thumbing his nose at the DM’s dungeon, but in this case the monsters were fantastically out matched.
