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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ScyldSceafing" data-source="post: 792954" data-attributes="member: 5928">"Come on in here, Tankar," the gruff voice of the Forge Tender barked. Tankar twitched, startled by the impatience in his mentor's voice. "Tankar! Get in here!"Tankar rose and, composing himself, strode as confidently as possible into the Tender's office. "Sir?" he offered, quietly. "How can I be of service?""Close the door, there's a good lad. We need to talk."So it came out, from mentor to acolyte, and so began Tankar's journey away from the everyday: There was a human by the name of Eladkot. He had turned up word of a dwarven holy place, one that was not referenced in the standard texts. Obviously, the church of Moradin couldn't let him investigate alone. Equally obviously, they couldn't let anyone go with him whose absence would be noticed.Tankar, then, was chosen for his invisibility. "Now, just follow him around. Listen to what he says. Get the names of people he talks about. And in the name of the All-Father, if there's anything to this, don't let a bunch of humans get there before we do. Got it, Tankar?""Yes. I have it."They can send me on this task, but they can't raise me above acolyte, he thought to himself. Well, I must go. It is duty. But I don't have to like it.Maybe I won't even tell them my name.*-*-*Eladkot showed up for the first day of his first expedition full of nervous energy and bonhomie. The fact that he had barely slept the night before slowed him for a few minutes after awaking, but his excitement soon burned the fatigue away like a summer dawn scouring the mist from a hilltop glade.Anything is possible today, he thought. Keep your eyes open, keep looking for answers, and anything's possible today.The raspy, sardonic voice of the head of the stables broke his reverie. "Look, junior proctor, I don't have a requisition for any horses," he said. Jerzes, that's his name, Eladkot thought. Whew. Has he been drinking already?"Listen - Jarzes, right?" Eladkot began. "You've been here a while. You understand that papers get lost, cross-marked, sent to the wrong department ... that's clearly what hap --""What I know is that without papers you ain't getting horses. Nor no mules either, so just save yer breath. And don't think you can cozy up to me an' get what you want, or threaten me and get it neither. I know these horses like my kin. And you ain't gettin' 'em for any fool errand that you got from the stars or somethin'. Nuh-uh.""I just think that--""You should think about gettin' some good shoes afore you go - 'cause yer gonna be walkin'."Just a few heartbeats ago, Eladkot would have laughed at the idea of being afraid of Jarzes. But now, the horseman's bloodshot eyes were mere inches away, and Eladkot, junior proctor of libram and pen (untenured), felt he could taste the alcoholic haze that leaked from the man's whistling nostrils. Taking a step back, he made a desultory farewell and left.*-*-*"Junior Proctor, I wish you to meet -- what was your name again, Master Dwarf?"Every fiber of Tankar's being cried out that he was being piteously misused. He, who had been raised to the Mysteries of the Forge almost since birth, being sent - still as an acolyte! - out into the mountains as guide and footman to this ... this human. His posture betrayed some of this feeling - a certain tightness around the mouth, perhaps, and a special fastidiousness in his sacramental braidings spoke of faithful but bitter submission. And now, to sit here, meeting this human. Supposed to act happy about it. Supposed to act friendly.He'd go. He didn't have to provide cheer."My name, honored Fellow of the Institute, is not truly important," he answered, gravely. He felt a bit guilty at putting on more of a dwarvish accent than was typical, but the idea struck him and it was too late now. "I'm the dwarf. You may call me ... dwarf is fine."See what they do with that, he thought with some delight. His face, of course, betrayed nothing."Oh. Ah. Mr. ... Dwarf, then," stammered the slim, nondescript human with the Fellow. "I am Eladkot, junior proctor at the Institute. I've got some information that concerns an ancient --""I've been briefed," Tankar interrupted, affecting some gruffness. It really was hard to be angry with this human. He was so ..."Wonderful!" Eladkot exclaimed, his face breaking into a smile of honest relief. Not the word I was looking for, Tankar thought. By the Forge, he was afraid I was going to turn him down. Doesn't he know I'm under orders?*-*-*The first three days of the trip were uneventful, even pleasant. Westward and slightly south they travelled, toward Eladkot's conjectured site for the Hidden Valley Ranch - a most unlikely name, Tankar thought. And this mess about it being a holy site - how could that be? He was trained in the Hidden mysteries, even as an acolyte. How could there be a holy site, lost barely five generations ago, the name of which was not even mentioned in the standard texts?Chasing shadow rats, he thought. We're chasing shadow rats.</blockquote>

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