Session #10.3 – Kisty’s story
Kisty led the group across the town square and to the small church adorned with the symbol of Pelor. The inside consisted of a small chapel, a backroom where the priest lived, and a loft. At the sound of the front door opening, a middle-aged man wearing a simple tunic and pants entered the chapel from the back door to greet them.
Kisty stepped forward as the others entered the church. “Father, allow me to introduce Nigel, Zalman, Amblin and Rurik. These are the guys I told you about earlier.” The priest nodded his head in acknowledgement, giving them a studious examination. Each of the group, after all, was soaked, muddy, burned, and/or bloody…not to mention heavily armed and armored. “This,” Kisty continued, “is Father Jonas, the guy in charge of this church. He’s also been the man kind enough to put me up for a while.”
“Indeed Kisty has told me a bit of your journeys together,” Jonas said. “If half of her fantastic tales are true, then you are worthy individuals and are welcome to seek haven here as needed.”
“You honor your god and your faith,” Rurik said. “Thank you for your kind offer.”
“Honor to you and your god as well, Rurik, son of Moradin,” the priest said. “I trust the disturbance outside had something to do with you all?”
“You could say that,” Kisty said. “I think that’ll be the last of the trouble for tonight, though. And I suspect we’ll be long gone before there is further problem.” The priest looked relieved to hear that.
“I’m sure Kisty can show you what little accommodations I can provide,” Jonas said. “I will return to my sleep. Good night.” With the others bidding him a good night, he returned to the back room. Kisty took the others up a ladder to the loft and fetched dry blankets from several old chests that were piled about the small space. The others shed their wet gear and lit a couple extra candles.
“So,” Zalman began when they’d settled in. “It seems that you’re acquainted with our friend the Shadow?”
“Yeah,” she replied, “in a manner of speaking. I must admit, though, that I’m surprised to see you back here so soon…and in conjunction with this band of goons. Why don’t you start with the story of why you’re here, then I’ll try to fill in the gaps and questions with what I know.”
The group recounted the details of their trip in to Water Break, each adding details to flesh out the full story. They told her of their run in with the Shadow and his thugs on the roadside. Then of how Zalman was kidnapped and duped into giving information about Kisty and her whereabouts.
Kisty listened intently and then helped put the pieces of the picture in place. The girl who had grabbed Zalman was Kisty’s identical twin sister, Misty. Misty was the current head of the Water Break thieves’ guild. Kisty had once been a member, but never had the violent or complete lack of ethics that her sister notoriously displayed. Something happened several months back that had led Kisty to leave both the Guild and Water Break in a hurry.
Kisty told them how one cold night toward the end of winter she had been accosted in a dark alleyway near the Guild’s headquarters. Though she had difficulty making out who the man was in the dark, she immediately determined from his voice and attitude that it was the Shadow. The Shadow, a rogue dark elf, had been known to do work for the Guild on occasion, though he was not a member. He was generally paid to handle jobs outside of the city. Few had ever seen him and fewer still liked the idea of having a dark elf hanging around.
The Shadow approached her and began telling Kisty that “the job, as requested, had been completed.” He told her that he had little difficulty in penetrating Mt. Goldforge and acquiring the information her client had requested. He even mentioned how much he had enjoyed killing an old dwarven librarian in the process. Kisty explained that during this conversation, she realized that the Shadow had mistaken her for Misty. Rather than clear up the matter, though, Kisty played along. She was horrified by what she was hearing from the Shadow and equally disturbed that her sister was getting involved in bigger schemes with a reach well outside the city of Water Break.
The Shadow then withdrew a large book from his sack and handed it to her. She took it, but could not read the cover in the darkness. The Shadow mentioned that he would expect payment per the terms agreed upon ahead of time and that he hoped “the client” would be satisfied with the book. Kisty played along and finally the Shadow left her alone with the book. Rather than return to the Guild as she’d intended, she snuck off to a private bolt hole where she could peruse the book. She found that the book was ancient and unreadable. Some of the script looked dwarven, but that did little good to her.
Kisty looked up at the others, particularly Rurik. “At that point,” she said, “I made up my mind about a few things. Misty and I had become very distrusting of one another. Petty theft from those with more than they need was something I could live with. Misty had begun to take the Guild into deeper and less scrupulous work. I also suspected that she was getting involved in larger schemes outside the usual Guild operations. This encounter sealed it for me. My own sister had commissioned a dark elf to penetrate what I could only assume was a dwarven stronghold to steal information of some sort for a mysterious client. And an innocent dwarf was dead as a result.
“I decided then and there to leave the Guild. The first thing I would do, to make amends for some of the things I’d done in life and to hopefully undo some of my sister’s acts would be to personally return the book to this Mt. Goldforge. I checked around with some mapmakers and eventually found Mt. Goldforge – several hundred miles to the west. Within a day, I had snuck out of the city and began the journey alone and on foot. Almost two months later, you guys found and rescued me from a band of goblins that I’d accidentally let get the better of me. I figured I was halfway to my destination by then and, though it pained me to pause in my journey, I agreed to lead you guys back to Water Break. You'd done me a good turn and I felt obliged to return a favor. Call it the new Kisty.”
Rurik, who was entranced by this tale, spoke up first. “Why didn’t you ever tell us about this book? About your trip?”
“Believe me, Rurik,” Kisty said, “there were several times that I thought very seriously about telling you everything. Every time, though, I reminded myself that it was my journey alone to get it back there. Besides, you guys all had your own responsibilities and job to do.” The dwarf nodded in silent understanding. He knew what honor meant.
“Do you still have the book?” Rurik asked.
“Yeah.” Kisty emptied her backpack and then withdrew an unremarkable and rather small bag from the bottom. From the bag she withdrew a large, leather-bound volume that was clearly too large to have fit in the bag. (Most everyone in the party was drooling with envy…a Bag of Holding!) “I haven’t trusted anyone quite enough to try to get it deciphered yet. There’s a page marked with ribbon. I suspect that’s where the information that the Shadow had sought is located.”
Rurik and the others gazed at the book in awe. It was clearly dwarven and ancient beyond description. An enchantment had been laid upon it to keep it from rotting with age. Rurik reverently opened the cover and gazed at the title page…and found he could not read it. It was clearly dwarven lettering, and some of the words were dwarven, but others he simply could not make out. His best guess was that it was an ancient form of dwarven from which the present form was derived.
Zalman withdrew the magic candle from his sack and lit it. In it’s light, the words instantly became readable to everyone. From the cover, they learned that the book was part history and part genealogy of someone by the name of Khalaz Steelmaker. Rurik vaguely knew the name Steelmaker as one of the oldest and most revered clan names. It was also one that had died out ages ago. As the candle had limited time left, they flipped ahead to the marked page and Rurik read aloud:
“…and Khalaz Steelmaker, son of Metamok, servant of House Hubrus, led the dwarves from the ruins of Kladish. West he led his people, looking back only once upon the magnificent city, the extension of the Empire…and wept tears of sorrow as the first rays of dawn over the Bay of Storms struggled to shine through the smoke.
“Against his every desire, Khalaz Steelmaker had been ordered to quit the city and take as many of the dwarves as he could. And with that, Lord Mylos Hubrus had given them freedom…an uncertain one.
“In the subsequent years, Khalaz Steelmaker would never learn whether the invaders had seized the Adonix or not…for when he and his sons returned two and ten years later the city was nowhere to be found. Confident in the magic of the Tauren Empire, he left, never to return.”
Rurik scanned a bit further, reading how Khalaz Steelmaker went on to become the first king of Mt. Druvars (a place he’d never even heard of before). Finally, to spare the candle, he closed the book. “We must return this book to the dwarves,” Rurik finally said.
“I will see that it gets back to Mt. Goldforge, Rurik,” Kisty spoke up. “If you wish to journey there with me, I’ll gladly accept your company. For now, though, this is my burden to bear.”
Rurik was torn, but found that he trusted Kisty and her commitment to seeing this through. “Very well,” he said. “I would like to make the trip with you, but I agree the book should stay in your hands. You’re slippery enough that I think it should be fairly safe there. I will make the trip with you, whether the others are willing to go or not.”
Kisty was about to return the book to her sack but Rurik begged her to leave it out so that he might further study it for a while. Meanwhile, the group continued to piece together their stories and decide what to do next.
Kisty first wanted to know how Misty had even learned about their ties to her. By recounting exactly who had said what, when, and to whom, they finally concluded that the only time they’d mentioned Kisty’s name was when they were telling the Duke the tale of their journey in his audience chamber. Kisty sighed and explained that Misty no doubt had the ear of at least a couple minor members of the court as well as a few servants. When Misty learned of Kisty’s duplicity, no doubt a massive hunt for Kisty’s whereabouts had been launched. It was for this reason that Kisty was reluctant to go near the city of Water Break again and had refused to take them any further than High Hill.
Once Misty learned that some of Kisty’s companions were in town, she moved quickly to find and apprehend them. Using her famous guile, Misty had tricked Zalman into giving up Kisty’s location. Shadow and about half a dozen thugs were then dispatched to find her in High Hill. They had arrived in the late afternoon today. Kisty, however, had kept a very low profile since the others left, knowing just how much danger she might be in even this far from the city proper. Hiding in the loft of a church had done the trick in keeping her out of view, but she had spied the thugs poking around and asking questions.
That night, Kisty had been brave enough to use the cover of darkness and rain to do some reconnoitering and gather the supplies she’d need to flee town. While out, she spotted the Guild thugs sneaking around the inn. She slipped up onto the roof to observe. It wasn’t until the fighting broke out that she learned it was her former companions who were the target of the attack. This sent an immediate warning signal to Kisty, but she chose to watch further before intervening. Aside from the fireballs, they seemed to be handling the thugs fairly well anyway. It was just after Nigel had hunted down the one who had fled that Shadow made his appearance. This, Kisty figured, was what her sixth sense had been warning her about. When she saw the Shadow run Nigel through, she pounced from the roof and engaged him recklessly, calling for help.
Now that everyone had a better idea of what was going on, they had to establish priorities and a plan of action. Water Break, everyone agreed, was now a very dangerous place for all of them to be – Kisty in particular. The others could probably go there if they were careful and only stayed briefly. Misty already had the information she wanted from them and probably didn’t have the resources to bother attacking the group when fully armed and prepared.
The group all agreed that taking the book back to the dwarves was a good idea. However, it was a very long trip there and they still had several items to resolve in the Water Break area first. Kisty was willing to wait on them for a little while, but not forever and not if she was placed in jeopardy. Items on the group’s agenda included: a visit to the mage guild (they learned while in Water Break that all the wizards had left the city after the cult established all the new magic restrictions and had formed a new guild somewhere to the west of the city), a visit with the master of the Green Snake School, a visit with Lohna, and most importantly they still had to make some sort of trade contacts for New Selmar.
Kisty had a vague idea where the mage’s new guild was – about a day and a half journey to the northeast as long as they didn’t mind going cross country and skirting around the troll-infested marshlands. They decided to go there first. Zalman needed some new spell components and downtime to study and the group had a pile of magic items desperately in need of identification. Once there, they’d make plans for how to handle their other objectives before leaving for Mt. Goldforge.
They slept the rest of the night, setting watches, as they were still worried about the Shadow’s presence in the area. In the morning, they gathered up provisions and travel gear needed to replace that lost in the fire (most notably yet another new set of clothes for Zalman). Zalman also spent some time looking for a new dog for Amblin, feeling it would be a nice gesture for his friend’s loss and partly to make up for the bitterness that there had been off and on between the two of them. He found a man willing to part with a couple-month old pup that promised to grow into a rather large dog one day. Amblin was ecstatic over the gift.
They set out by mid-morning, taking the road the Water Break for several miles before striking north for the trip cross country. Nigel was careful to obscure their tracks and Hooty was responsible for spotting any giants, trolls, or other undesirables before they got too close. For the first time in days it was sunny, warm, and pleasant.
Next session - The trolls of the marsh and the wizards of the Thunder Guild.
-Rybaer
