Session 4 (127) - The Adulthood Challenge
As they gathered themselves together, healed wounds and recovered their wits and their breath, Glaucia demanded to know what was going on. “What I see is foreign powers bringing their conflict to Beran soil, careless of the suffering of our citizens. I do not arrest you and put you in chains because, so far, you have not proved to be the aggressors in all this, but I will not stand by and let my people be harmed.” Korrigan reassured her of the unit’s benign intentions, and reminded her of the international nature of the threat they were seeking to oppose. Glaucia accepted his explanation for the time being, but told the group to go on without her. She wanted to find the goatherd who had lost their flock and reimburse them for any losses. She promised to catch up with the group as soon as possible. (Korrigan wondered if this was entirely true, but something told him to trust the Executores.)
Melissa Amerie and Krithilrak were both writing furiously while the others mounted, and were the last to be ready to depart. Exhausted, Rumdoom fell asleep on Hildegaard’s lap inside the carriage, leaving her to guide the figurine along their path.
On the final leg of their journey, Brakken rode alongside Gupta and voiced his thoughts, vowing to do all he could to fight this conspiracy, should the opportunity arise – even at the risk of his own life. “But I am no warrior,” he said. “My nature will not permit it. It is hard to inflict pain that you can feel yourself.” Gupta wondered if Brakken was genuinely concerned about the Ob, or just nursing a grievance because of his exposure in the trial.
As the light faded, they arrived in the village of Nimba, whose tiny population was currently swelled to bursting by encamped petitioners. The fort where Bruse Shantus kept his Summer Court could be seen on a rise near a seaside cliff, a silhouette now. Heiliana, an orcish executores greeted Brakken. She told him that some Danorans were already at court. “A tiefling woman spread some gold about and jumped the queue only this morning. Things have shut down for the day now, so you’d need to pull some serious strings. Are you sure you don’t want me to find you a tent?”
Brakken seemed determined to test the repercussions of his trial and conviction. They pressed on to the fort and the unit waited outside while the minotaur was admitted. Close by they saw a hedge maze. “I bet you we end up running around in that before the end of the day,” said Conquo.
“What will you do if he can’t grant access?” Melissa Amerie asked. That set Gupta to thinking about an alternative. Rather than wait for Brakken to return she had a hushed conversation with Bian Insac, who set off with Roderigo to find a mutual friend of theirs. Leon went back to the village to find out anything he could about the Danorans (which wasn’t much), and Uru tried to present himself to the orcish guards as a visiting fey lord. They were unimpressed. Uru became irate at this response, but his complaints fell on deaf ears: Ber did not have the same relationship with the fey as Risur did, and fey titles meant nothing to them at all.
Brakken returned, despondant. The Ob had ruined his reputation with the Bruse who did not want a mind-reader at court and refused to see him. Brakken took his shire horse and stomped back down to Nimba, crestfallen.
By this time, Bian returned. He told Gupta that ‘Don Zaputo’ would meet her and one other unit member, but that they should wait at the bottom of the steps near the tavern in Nimba, and not acknowledge him when he arrived. He did not want to be unmasked by showing them favour. They went to the meeting place (with Uru hidden, and Leon keeping watch through his spirit familiar) and soon after, a flamboyant man with fair hair and an eye-patch arrived and began canoodling with a local wench. As he did so, he began talking to them, in Elvish, over his shoulder. Korrigan recognised his voice, as did Gupta: this was not other than Saladoor, the RHC officer who had posed as a member of Jered Lawman’s band of musicians in an attempt to get close to Gale. He had worked with the unit during their investigation into the murder of Nilasa Hume, but departed under a cloud when they parleyed with Gale instead of arresting her. He was now the RHC’s eyes and ears at the Bruse’s court, having previously focused on their naval developments. (He had only arrived at court recently, at the behest of Lauren Cyneburg and Gupta got the impression he was sore at having missed the presence of Tinker under his nose for so long.)
He told them Lya had got the Bruse and his advisors wrapped around her little finger, and advised the unit to seek to try the Adulthood Challenge. Don Zaputo would go to court and goad the Bruse into accepting, as Lya would no doubt counsel him not to. Gupta pressed him for tips about the challenge and he whispered that the sheer walls were shortcuts and to watch out for the pit traps. Then he departed. For added caution, Gupta had a quiet word with his lady friend and erased their identities from her mind.
(While they were talking, Gupta was momentarily distracted by the arrival of a reply from Stover Delft suggesting they use the ‘Coldfire Code’ which Cambion would know. No one in the unit was familiar with the code, having been out of the RHC for three years.)
The unit made their challenge straight away. About half an hour later, an elderly orcish messenger arrived to say their challenge had been accepted, and bugles began to blow from the walls of the fort. A magically enhanced announcement told the encamped petitioners that an Adulthood Challenge would proceed on the third blast of the horns. There were cheers as laughs and chatter, as hundreds of people began to make their way towards the hedge maze and into the bleachers, where huge sconces had now bit set alight. While all this was happening, the messenger said that the Bruse was unhappy to let a gigantic golem take the challenge. Conquo was unhappy that he wouldn’t get to play. Korrigan and Leon argued that there was a human psyche residing within Conquo and the old orc said he would take this news back to the Bruse.
Glaucia finally arrived. She apologised: If she had arrived earlier they might have been able to skip this nonsense. But she said that if they were victorious it would stand them in good stead: the Bruse liked to be entertained.
At length, the old orc returned and spoke to a guard, who came to inform the unit that they would need to wait for the Minister of Advancement to assess if a real person truly resided within the golem (in which case the Bruse could not refuse his right to participate, according to the letter of the law). The rest of the unit advised Xambria to take over so she could convince this minister of her identity, but she and Conquo were both concerned that a switch might mean they were handicapped for the challenge: Xambria could not control Conquo’s form as readily, and it was too exhausting to switch back and forth. Conquo would have to deal with the minister himself.
By now the bleachers were quite full and noisy. The rest of the unit were permitted to watch from the top of the back wall while the bleachers filled up with all manner of monstrous humanoids, gleeful at the prospect of some unexpected entertainment. Glaucia talked while they waited, complaining about this new minister who had gained a lot of sway over the Bruse. A dwarf, he must have something to do with Tinker Oddcog and it was anybody’s guess how he might respond.
Rumdoom had roused himself and joined Conquo just as the Minister for Advancement arrived. It was none other than Khaled Valcheck of Black Star Mining! He didn’t recognise Rumdoom at first and began his evidently biased questioning of the golem. Rumdoom then revealed his identity and Valchek was completely thrown. He appeared slightly dazed by the circumstances but finally ‘remembered’ the animosity between himself and Rumdoom. He subjected Conquo/Xambria to questioning, but seemed to be off-put by Rumdoom’s presence. He stepped back between his two guards for safety when Rumdoom leaned in close and said "I think you'll agree that there's a person in there. A person!" Khaled Valchek garbled nervously in agreement and departed.
"Two people," said Conquo, sadly, to no one in particular.
The Bruse and his immediate court had taken their places in the royal box, with guests including Lya Jierre, Rush Munchausen and Merton Goncala. Rush waved. ‘Don Zaputo’ was also there, engaged in friendly banter with the Bruse: The Bruse himself was a fleshy white minotaur who now lounged happily, flanked by two concubines. Alongside him were a robed lizardfolk female and a female dragonborn. Glaucia introduced them as Zarkava Ssa’Litt – the Grand Vizier – and Kenna Vigilante – Minister for Dragon Affairs.
The challenge was about to begin and the unit were ushered to the entrance of the maze, where a pompous hobgoblin sat astride a huge sheep. He introduced himself as the Hedgemaster General (and his sheep as the Hedgetrimmer General), then barked out the rules and issued the unit with glowing, coloured crowns – a huge annoyance to Uru as they prevented him from concealing himself. They entered the labyrinth from the south, to an enormous roar from the crowd, whose anticipation had been whetted by the delay.
Fortunately for the unit they turned out to be ideally suited to taking the short cuts recommended by Don Zaputo: Uru could easily climb the hedge unharmed; Conquo was big enough and strong enough to make it over the sheer walls, giving Gupta a lift; Leon could teleport and Korrigan could transform himself into a Bolt of Avilona. Rumdoom proved to be equally adept at setting off the pit traps Don Zaputo had warned them about, and while he teleported randomly around the maze, the others negotiated it fairly handily, with Gupta’s knack for solving puzzles helping to inform their choices. Bodies of water were readily crossed; bears were shooed away with a shot or two. They were even lucky enough to randomly run into Rumdoom (who had also been seeing off his share of bears) before facing off against the mechanical B.E.A.R. True to form, Conquo got this thing in a headlock, while the others bashed it to pieces. It was barely worth getting out the miniature.
