(part 1 of 2)
Session # 53
The fleeing gnome reached what would have been a short plateau for anyone else, but the diminutive figure struggled to grab the edge of the slightly more than five foot stone lip.
A second gnome appeared to the human’s left, atop another small plateau from which a tiny cave egressed. He held up a crossbow and fired on the him, but the bolt seemed to bounce off the man’s chainshirt with little or no pain, and not distracting him at the least from his prey.
Ratchis stood tall and putting an arrow to his great bow, fired at the pursuing figure with such abandon that the bow snapped out of his hand, forcing him clutch it to his chest to keep it from flying over the cliff edge. (1) The arrow went wide.
“There’s a human attacking a gnome,” Ratchis cried to companions.
Derek came around pulling his bow out and stringing it, as Jeremy squeezed past them both and examined the slope leading down to scene below them.
“We have to save the gnome!” Beorth commanded.
“I’m on my way,” Jeremy replied, and looked at Ratchis and Derek. “But please don’t shoot me.”
Martin climbed the last step and hurried out onto the plateau to see what was happening, leaving Kazrack complaining behind him. The short and stocky dwarf was having as much trouble getting up the last lip as the gnome was having below.
Ratchis rained more arrows down, that fell short of the mark as they could hear the gnome crying out in pain from the savage blows the human was now bringing down on him with his bastard sword. The gnome pathetically tried to parry and return the blows with his axe, but failed. The man’s steel was a blur of silver.
Jeremy leapt down on to the sloping natural ramp and swayed and slipped, making it down to one of the outcropping of jagged stone, he grabbed on to steady himself before continuing. He warned the others that the near frozen water on the slope made it even more treacherous than such an incline would normally be.
One of Derek’s arrows lodged in the human’s lower back, between chinks in his armor, but he did not seem to care or notice. He cut down the gnome, even as it begged for mercy and then dropped the point of his sword into it again making sure it was dead.
The man turned his head slowly and calmly as another crossbow bolt flew past him from the second gnome.
Beorth awkwardly tried to make his way down the slope, while Kazrack still cried out, forgotten, kicking his legs wildly trying to get purchase.
“This is so demeaning,” he muttered.
Ratchis’ rain of missing arrows continued, “I hope those aren’t demon-gnomes and we’re making a big mistake.”
Derek flipped off the cliff edge, twenty feet down the slope and fired, but the arrow went wide as he lost his footing and was about to begin a potentially deadly descent when he reached out and grabbed the edge of one of the sharp rocks, grimacing.
“You’ll have to show me how to do that one of these days,” Jeremy quipped, as he made his way carefully down to the same outcropping of stone; to move any faster would have likely meant tumbling the rest of the way down out of control. (2)
A third gnome came charging out of the small cave with a battle axe held above his head, heading towards the human, while the gnome with the crossbow, put it away and drew a warhammer. The bastard sword and the battle axe met with a clang.
Martin hurried back to Kazrack, realizing the dwarf was still not with them and reached down to grab the dwarf’s hand and pull him up. Even with help the dwarf scrambled in place.
“Igneous spheres!” a high-pitched voice cried, as a little dumpling of a female stepped out of the shadows near the bottom edge of the ramp, and a ball of fire a few feet in diameter began to roll towards the human, bouncing as it went. With amazing dexterity, the man leapt and twisted, as the ball of fire bounced beneath him.
He did not speak a word.
Ratchis dropped his bow and grabbing his rope secured to a nearby outcropping of rock and tossed it over the side of the incline.
The clang of weapons echoed from below. The man turned as if dancing, blocking and returning blows with easy. The gnome with the warhammer moved to flank, but the tall warrior blocked his blow readily. The man’s skill with his weapon was apparent.
“Wish me luck, D,” Jeremy said to his friend as he moved to continue down the slope. ‘This guy looks serious.”
Derek fired another arrow at the man, carefully keeping his balance, hoping to flush him away from the remaining gnome. But not even a rolling ball of fire could do that; even as it turned and rolled back to him he leapt again, but this time the edge of his gray cloak caught fire.
Derek grabbed for Ratchis’ rope after putting his bow away, seeing the man drop the gnome with the axe and turn his attention to the other, who fled.
Ratchis shoved Martin out of his way and reached down to pull up Kazrack. The watch-mage hurried back to the scene and calling upon one of his illusions, a bristling wolverine of large size appeared between the man and the gnome.
“It’s Tanweil!” Martin cried, seeing the man in profile for the first time. (3)
Jeremy made to the bottom, and the female gnome turned her short bow on the Neergaardian.
“We’re here to help you,” Derek said, getting to the bottom of the rope.
The female gnome was had a cute chubby face, gray face and silvery ringlets that fell out from beneath a colorful knit cap. She wore no armor, and looked dirty as if she had been on the road for a long time. Her large hazel eyes were swollen as if she had been crying long and often, and there was fear and sadness in them.
“Do you speak common?” Jeremy asked.
“Who the hell are you?” she asked harshly.
Her attention turned away from her ball of flame, it fizzled out as Tanweil leapt over it one last time, as he eyed the wolverine cautiously.
Beorth grabbed the rope and pulled himself over the edge, but before he climbed down he looked down to where the female gnome was and covered his eyes, “Anubis, please grant me your divine vision so that I may know we are entering this fight on the right side.”
He detected no ill will or darkness in her heart.
Ratchis pulled out his bow again and made ready to shoot as the man moved away from the wolverine towards the small plateau the first gnome had tried to climb upon.
Derek let an arrow fly at the man as he leapt up easily the little less than six feet up on to the lip. Without looking back the man’s sword swung in an arc behind his back, sending the arrow flying off before it could strike him. In one smooth motion he sheathed his blade on his back, turned and drew his own bow.
“Whoa!” Jeremy said, his jaw dropping.
“He is a very dangerous man!” Martin called out to his companions. “He killed 20 or more orcs on his own, on the road to Gothanius.”
The other gnome began to hurry over, putting away his warhammer and drawing his own crossbow and keeping it aimed at Jeremy.
He was an older gnome, and though he wore a metal cap, they could tell he was bald. He had craggy wrinkles around his long and broad gnome, and bags beneath his umber eyes.
“You’d better stay the hell away from her,” he threatened. The female gnome moved away, putting a thick rock outcropping between her and the Neergaardian.
Martin had his illusory wolverine move to guard the fallen gnome, as everyone heard Beorth cry out. He lost his grip on the rope and came tumbling down with a hard fall 45 feet below. He lay there stunned and holding his head, his armor dented and scuffed.
Hollering with frustration, Ratchis dropped his bow, as his arrows fell short of their target again and again.
“You little guys should stay behind cover,”: Derek told the gnomes. He let another arrow go, and this one found it mark. Tanweil winced from the blow, but did not hesitate. An arrow came flying back, grazing the ranger’s thigh.
Jeremy loaded his crossbow, not anxious to test his own swordsman ship against someone who’s prowess seemed to come from legend. He fired a bolt and it grazed the man’s ear, and he took a five-foot step back.
“Whose side are you on?” the older gnome asked. “You can’t stop us like he’s trying to.”
“I hate not know what’s going on,” Jeremy muttered.
Ratchis decided the bow was his best option to stop the man, and lifted his bow again and kept up the rain of ineffective arrows.
Worried that he might be in the line of arrow fire Martin stepped to his left to get behind a rock, but at that same moment Kazrack had pulled the rope up and was leaping down onto the incline used it to swing about halfway down onto the incline. Unfortunately, doing this brought the taut rope with the dwarf’s weight on it across Martin’s ankles, whipping the watch-mage off the edge and onto the ramp, and he began to slide painfully down. Thomas leapt from his master’s shoulder and onto the safety of the plateau.
Kazrack was able to reach out and grab the mage, but the latter was stunned and the illusory wolverine popped out of existence.
“My apologies,” Kazrack said, as Martin drooled and moaned.
Derek hurried forward to get a better shot, but missing he felt the bite of two more of the steel-headed arrows, and now blood was flowing readily from his wounds. This realization made Derek note something about Tanweil.
“You’ve got to drive him away! Drive him away!” the older gnome cried out from behind the rock.
“Derek! For the love of the gods, get back here,” Jeremy called to his friend, loading and shooting another bolt that grazed the man.
Beorth crawled over to the gnomes and stood. “We are here to help you. Who is that man?”
“You’d better stay back!” the female gnome warned Beorth, point her bow and arrow at the paladin with suspicion.
“That guy does not seem to bleed,” Derek said to Jeremy. “He seems to have some kind of protection. I just noticed.” He backed away, ducking to avoid more of the man’s arrows.
“I am Beorth, a servant of Anubis. I mean you no harm,” Beorth said to the gnomes.
Jeremy dropped to the ground to make a smaller target and called out, “Beorth, you need to back us up. I think it’ll take the three of us to drop that guy!”
Tanweil winced again, but did not bleed as another of Derek’s arrows caught him in the shoulder. He leapt down and grabbed the fallen gnome.
“He’s got Kasha!” the older gnome cried.
“Drop the gnome!” Jeremy commanded, standing and loading his crossbow again. “And drop the bow!”
The man held the bow in his right hand and held the gnome beneath the arms with his left, taking in the scene silently.
“What does he want with the body?’ Beorth asked, pausing.
“I don’t think he’s dead,” the female gnome said, tears sliding down either side of her potato-like nose. “I hope he’s not dead.”
Martin shook his head to clear it and glared at Kazrack angrily. He reached into the folds of his watch-mage robes and found his magic ring, slipping it on. (4)
“Are you well? Can I leave you?” the dwarf asked the mage.
Martin nodded, and Kazrack foolishly decided to try a controlled slide the rest of the way down. Instead, he managed to slam into the wall below spinning as he came down.
Ratchis cast light upon one of his arrows.
Derek moved forward again, firing as Tanweil leapt up on the ledge again, still holding the gnome. His arrow went wide, as did Jeremy’s bolt, as they were afraid to strike the gnome-shield.
“He’s stealing Kasha!” the older gnome cried.
“I will stop this desecration!” Beorth said firmly, and drawing his sword, began to run toward Tanweil.
Bolstered by Beorth’s bravery, the female gnome came around the stone and speaking two arcane words, two arrows of light burst from her pointed finger, and struck Tanweil unerringly.
Martin made the rest of his way down using the rope, and called to his familiar telepathically.
“I’m coming down with Ratchis,” the squirrel replied.
“Okay.”
Ratchis fired one last arrow, and then moved to use the rope for his own descent.
Tanweil flung the gnome, Kasha, onto a taller ledge atop the first one and then leapt up beside him.
Jeremy dropped his own crossbow and drawing his sword, made a running leap up on the first lip.
“Come back here!” he cried.
Beorth was having a much more difficult time getting up on the ledge.
The female gnome moved over to her companion as Martin finally got to the bottom, and heard her say, “we have to get out of here.”
“Are you from Garvan? Why are you here?” the watch-mage asked them, as they looked back at him with wide-eyed surprise.
“I will tend to your friend,” Kazrack told them, as he stood and hurried to where the battle had moved.
Martin did not wait for an answer and hurried after him.
Meanwhile, Tanweil had scooped the the gnome back up and Jeremy was up on the upper plateau approaching him with caution. Derek began making his way up there as well, but Beorth still struggled.
Kazrack paused on his way to the first fallen gnome, and coruched down to give Beorth a boost.
Anxious to get down the slope, Ratchis moved too quickly and fell prone, holding the rope to keep from going down the rest of the way.
Derek made it to the upper ledge as well, and fired nearly point blank on Tanweil, but the warrior ducked into a crouch, letting the arrow go over his head
“Now I know who the dragon’s allies are,” Tanweil said, his voice an emotionless hiss. They could see his face clearly now, his white hair belying his long youthful face. Suddenly he sprung off the ledge to his left, where the floor of the open area gave way to a great drop of over fifty feet.
It was as if time slowed, as jaws dropped, certain that the warrior they were struggling against had just decided to kill himself rather than face the party.
But they were wrong.
Instead of plummeting down, Tanweil glided down, his feet hanging akimbo, one arm up and still holding his bow, and the other let the gnome fall.
“Gods!” Jeremy cried, leaping down to a different lower ledge in that same direction. “Did ya see that?”
Beorth got up ton toe first ledge just in time to see the warrior glide past.
Martin turned back to the gnomes, seeing that the man had fled, by whatever bizarre means. They were hurrying along back to the small passageway the older gnome had first emerged from.
“What’s going on?” Martin asked them. “Why are you fighting? Talk to us, please!”
Tanweil landed far below with a jerking step, almost stumbling, and then hustled down beneath a huge broken horizontal slab that rested on two others.
Jeremy called for Kazrack to follow him as he jumped and climbed down towards the dropped gnome.
“Well, I don’t think we need to rush down to help that gnome,” Kazrack commented in his common brusque tone.
“Jeremy!” Beorth called. “You are the only one fast enough catch him!”
Jeremy looked back at the paladin like he was crazy. He had no intention of chasing down Tanweil, and was only concerned with the gnome.
“We can’t protect you if you hurry away,” Ratchis said to the gnomes, coming up beside Martin.
The two gnomes clambered up on to the small lip and retreated into the passageway.
“If you let him get the sword our chieftain will die,” the older gnome pleaded, and then disappeared into the darkness.
“We’re cousins of Garvan. We just came from there. We know your chieftain is missing. We’re here to help!” Martin called after him, climbing up himself.
Chaos reigned for a few moments as the party was trying to accomplish two different things at once. Martin and Ratchis wanted to chase after the gnomes, Jeremy and Kazrack were heading down to see to the gnome and regroup for pursuit of Tanweil.
Beorth and Derek stood with indecision, not sure which was the proper course.
So in the end they decided to await it out and camp there, as the day was growing long and on the morrow use Martin’s spell of levitation to get a vantage point from which to spot the actual Pit of Bones.
Beorth and Ratchis went about recovering the corpses of the two gnomes and burying them beneath cairns of stones, while Derek and Jeremy made their way back up the treacherous slop to get the party’s packs and other dropped gear.
On their way back Jeremy and Ratchis discovered a patch of brown mold on the large stone the gnomes had hidden behind earlier. It’s very presence made them both feel cold and feverish.
Jeremy wanted to burn it, but Ratchis figured it the warmth might feed it and make it bigger, and they decided to leave it alone altogether.
They unrolled their bed rolls, but decided against even a small fire since it would be too easy to spot from all the nearby perches. They just suffered through the cold and damp.
“I don’t know what that creature was, but it moved so fast and the way it glided with its little wings,” Kazrack said, as they brought their gear to the upper plateau from whence Tanweil fled.
“What creature?” asked Ratchis.
“The man who attacked the man was no man,” Kazrack replied.
“Yes, it was an illusion or something; a disguise,” added Derek. “When he was flying or whatever I could see it for moment, like it didn’t make sense that he could do that and suddenly I could see him for what he truly was…”
”And when he landed he looked that a human again,” Jeremy said, agreeing.
“What are you saying?” Martin asked. “I know that man from my journey to Gothanius. His name is Tanweil, and he is fierce warrior, but as far as I could tell human, though he never spoke to me, or anyone else that I ever heard the entire time we traveled.”
“He looked familiar to me, too,” said Ratchis.
“Probably from the castle,” Martin speculated. “But, what did he look like to you?”
“Like some kind of man-lizard,” Kazrack said.
“Or a dragon-man,” Derek said. “He had little wings on his back, and he really wore a chain shirt, but he also had a tail, with a ridge up his back.”
“He was certainly scaly, and the muscles of his wings and shoulders were broad,” Jeremy added. “He looked strong.”
“I think it is connected to the dragon,” Derek said. “Glamorganna.” (5)
“You know the dragon’s name?” Beorth was astounded.
“Yeah…”
“How come you never told me?” Martin asked.
“You never asked,” Derek replied, laughingly.
“Hmmm, well… the dragon could be the ‘she’ Moishe mentioned,” Martin mused. “When he said, ‘she would be watching’”
“The gnomes may be working for her,” Derek suggested.
“This is growing increasingly odd,” Martin said.
“We cannot allow this to distract us,” Ratchis said. “The only thing that matters is finding the map that shows us where Hurgun’s Maze is.”
The others agreed, though some more grudgingly than others.
“I still think we should go after the gnomes,” Kazrack said.
“The gnomes don’t know where the map is,” Ratchis said. “They said they are here for some sword, and anyway, they can travel through passages too small for us. It is best we make our own way. I’ll take first watch with Martin. They rest of you get some sleep.”
“Good idea,” said Kazrack, bedding down.
“And what if that dragon-creature comes back?” Jeremy asked, trying to fluff his pack into some kind of pillow.
“Then I’ll wake you when we reach Anubis’ Realm,” Ratchis replied.
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Notes:
(1) DM’s Notes: Ratchis’ Player rolled a fumble requiring him to take a move-equivalent action to fix his grip or drop his weapon.
(2) DM’s Notes: Moving any moving any faster than half speed required a balance check (DC 20) to keep your feet and a subsequent reflex checked (if failed; DC 12 to 20; depending on how far the PC was from an outcropping) to keep from tumbling down.
(3) Tanweil traveled to Gothanius with the same group of dragon-hunters as Martin the Green did.
(4) DM’s Notes: Remember, in addition to the “sustenance” abilities that kick in after a week’s time, the ring also provides the wearer with a +4 enhancement bonus to Constitution.
(5) Derek was sent to warn Martin the Green about the dragon, and to help him in any way possible to stop it.