drnuncheon's Online Story Hour (now playing: Of Sound Mind)

Harvester utters a curse and the sounds of his running suddenly stops within the darkness. Words are spoken, deific prayer given and answered. The scythe blazes once more and running resumes.

"Guys? Weren't there torches... back that way?" Sen-Jyu points behind them, and starts to move back toward the treasure room.

Harvester blinks, then nods. "And they have burned for quite a long time, I believe..."

Ahoke stops, when the others seem to change goals. "Alright," she says. "I suppose they know we're here anyway."

Sen-Jyu returns to the treasure room, seeking out a torch that he can remove from its resting place.

Ahoke more or less follows along.

The torches are set in cressets on the wall - copper, of course. As are the torches, come to think of it. The corrosion has welded them together, but perhaps a strong tug could free them.

Ahoke grimaces. "I wonder if those things are mystical bear traps as well."

Sen-Jyu exerts a strong tug.

With a squeal of metal, Sen-jyu discovers that the cresset is in fact an integral part of the torch. However, the bolts that fastened it to the wall are not, and he staggers back from the wall as they suddenly tear free, dropping to the pile of copper coins on the floor. The torch is his.

Harvester watches as he yanks the bolt from his belly. "Does the flame burn, Sen?"

Sen-Jyu places his hand near the flame, feeling for heat.

Ahoke frowns at the copper, but doesn't say anything.

"No," Sen-Jyu says curiously, then offers the Harvester a torch while he looks to secure one of his own.

Harvester takes the torch from Sen-Jyu, "Thanks.... i seen these sorts of things before.... very nice." He slips it into his belt, for now. "Let's get backups, just in case?"

Harvester moves up behind Sen-Jyu as the spirit-blood wrenches at the torch. "What say I heal y'all a bnit..?"

Ahoke looks at Harvester, smiling in the light of the heatless torches. "I'm barely scratched, but I guess I wouldn't turn it down, unless you want to save it for when the dragon tries to eat us."

Harvester beseeches his deity for divine aid, to cleanse the worst of Sen-Jyu's wounds.

The spirit-blood's open wounds seal under the Harvester's meditative blessing, one which Sen-Jyu is grateful for. "My thanks for your prayers, the Harvester," he says softly, head bowed.

Harvester reaches up to a torch on the wall and gives a mighty pull.... something snaps. Inside his shoulder. He almost sinks to his knees.

Harvester mutters to himself, "Leave the grunt work to the grunts.... ow."

Ahoke glances at Harvester. "You okay? That looked like it hurt."

Harvester looks up, around, "I'll not serve you, unworthy one.... Seek out my Lord, as is proper for one soon to be departed... save me the aggravation of giving you the invitation..."

Sen-Jyu tugs at the torch, but is unable to remove it.

Harvester shakes his head, rising, "Only thing hurt's m'pride. Ow."

Ahoke grimaces up at it, and stretches so that she can wrap her fingers around the base. "I can try," she says, "Though I'm a bit off balance."

Ahoke tugs, but can't get good enough leverage.

Harvester nods, "It's a verry varrrry strong torch-holder." He examines the torches, seeking one loosened by the ravages of age.

Ahoke grumbles, and tugs again. "If I was two inches higher..."

Ahoke yanks the stupid torch holder out of the wall, and then goes flying, torch, stocky dwarven body and all, back into a pile of copper coins. "I got you one, Harvester," the dwarf mumbles.

Sen-Jyu moves back to his backpack and continues to fill it the rest of the way with coins. While his swords are sheathed, he keeps the backpack shouldered, but clearly does not appreciate the additional burden, whatever its worth.

Harvester gives a long, low whistle, "Well, I will be damned...." He begins rummaging carefully through something.

Ahoke tosses the torch so that it lands beside Harvster. "What?" She too starts shoveling coins into her bag, taking a lead from Sen

Harvester says, "Um. Guys? Found somethin here. Lotsa books...""

Ahoke shrugs, shovels some more money into the bag. "Can't read em' anyway," she mumbles. "You two can have fun, though."

Harvester murmurs, "Oh, my... all first edition prints, too...." He takes one or two of the choicest tomes and crams them - carefully - into his pack.

Ahoke looks at Harvester blankly, and then shrugs. She puts her pack back on, and gets her weapons ready. "We should probably stop lootin and start killing soon," she says.

Harvester realizes the four by two foot books _won't_quite_fit into his pack, and replaces them on the shelf.

"I agree... wonder if we'll be coming back this way?" Sen-Jyu looks to his other party members for confirmation.

Harvester shrugs. "I plan to."

Sen-Jyu leaves the backpack behind, by the chest.

Harvester slips one heatless torch into his pack, where it is easily accessible, and places the other in his belt in front.

Ahoke shrugs. "I don't know. I hope not, to tell the truth. That slope by the falls is going to be rough going..."

Harvester says, "Not really. We'll have ropes to work our way down."

"Is it better than the mountain route down?" asks Sen-Jyu of Ahoke.

Ahoke sighs. "Probably," she mutters. "But I won't know until we see it. Remember that we'll be bringing a bunch of kids with us if our plans go well. Speaking of..."

Harvester nods soberly, "Yeah?"

Ahoke clears her throat. "Speaking of, we should get going again." And then she puts action to her words, starting to march out of the room.

Harvester shrugs a shoulder and follows after Ahoke. "Just waitin for you guys..." He laughs softly, with a last look at the bookcase. "You don't think there was a passage back there, do you?"

Sen-Jyu follows dutifully behind the dwarf, contented that the Harvester is in possession of a light source.

Ahoke hmmphs. "I don't know." She follows the path that the fleeing thanork took, stopping once in awhile to listen carefully.

Harvester shuffles along, gladly pausing for the rest when Ahoke stops to listen. The armor weighs heavy on his frame and the priest mutters to himself. And then his clomping resounds in the tunnels once more.

Now that you're not charging recklessly down it, you can take stock of the hallway. The statues that line it are made of the red stone that is so common in this place. Those on the left depict solders, and the right miners and blacksmiths. Many of them are chipped or broken.

Sen-Jyu looks back at the Harvester, asking, "Are you weighed down too much? Should you remove some of your armor?"

You pass the corpse of the thanork Ahoke dropped.

Harvester shakes his head. "Nah... just ain't used... to... it..." He looks at the caved in skull as they pass, "Nice hit, Kay..."

Ahoke pauses as they pass the corpse tht she dropped, and scowls. "Wait a second." She kneels beside it. "Its head is too big for a thanork. In fact... they all were. You think we might find a shard or something in its skull?"

Harvester stops as Ahoke does. "It's possible, yeah.... wanna crack it open and see?"

Sen-Jyu kneels by the body, searching the ruined cranium for evidence of a blue shard.

Sen-Jyu looks up at the Harvester. "No shard that I can find here." He wipes his soiled hands on the wall.

Harvester nods, then looks at Ahoke, "Sure the heads are bigger?"

Ahoke nods. "Yeah, quite a bit, actually. I wonder what happened to them." She kicks the corpse gently with the toe of her boot. "Hmmph. Well, maybe we'll find out," she says, straightening. "Shall we?"

Harvester shrugs. "Maybe it was absorbed. We'll find out..."

Ahoke nods, and continues walking with a sigh, glancing at the statues as she passes them.

"We shall," Sen-Jyu agrees, straightening once more and returning his swords to his hands.

Harvester, too, studies the statues. "Gotta watch out for ambush..." He looks up warily.

Ahoke nods. "I was thinking just that," she says, quickening her pace again.

The corridor, still lined with the defaced statues, turns to the right. A channel of water crosses the passage, about four feet wide, probably diverted from the waterfall you saw earlier. Past the channel the corridor opens into an enormous chamber, its ceiling lost in the darkness.

"Looks like we're getting close to the aerie," Sen-Jyu says in a mix of awe and timidity. "If this isn't it..."

Ahoke marches resolutely onward, pausing in front of the stream. "I wonder how deep it is," she says.

Harvester speaks softly. "This is gonna hurt...." He lowers himself into the icy water carefully, and crouches, wading across. "Gotta go, guys.. time's a-wastin..."

Ahoke nods, and then wades into the stream, bracing her stocky body against the current.

Sen-Jyu waits for one of them to reach the other side before taking a few steps back, in preparation of hopping the stream.

The frigid mountain water, made even colder by the first touch of winter, soaks you to your skin, making you long for the magical window you passed through earlier. You clamber out on the other side with some difficulty - Harvester due to his numbness and burdensome armor, Ahoke due only to her height.

Both swords secured, Sen-Jyu goes for the leap.

Harvester gasps quietly, seeking the breath robbed from him, and tries to shake the chill out while pressing himself against the wall and looking into the cavern.

Ahoke grunts. "Arrgh. Alright. Everyone alive? Let's keep going..." And she does so.

Harvester gives a soft moan, "Damn, that was cold... Ain't a polar bear..." He nods and follows a short distance behind, and to one side of Ahoke.

Sen-Jyu follows after Ahoke, smiling like a cat who just avoided getting wet.

The walls of the room are coveredin in scintillating mosaics - gold, copper, and glass reflecting and refracting the light of the torch. They depict in painstaking detail a dragon, its scales of purest cobalt hue, lying upon a bed of copper nad golden coins. In front of it, not part of the mosaic, are a handful of corroded copper statues.

There appears to be a building built into the wall of this cavern - ten feet high, and with a curious overhanging roof. Oddly, the roof appears to have something on top of it...a handle?

Ahoke looks around in weary curiousity, mingled with frustration. "How long is this going to take us?"

Harvester points. "A device for the dragon to close his nest to the outside, perhaps?"

Harvester gestures to the building. "Inside there, y'think?"

Ahoke shrugs, walking over towards the building.

Skeptical of the room's darkness and unknown contents, Sen-Jyu walks heel-toe into the room, both Ichido-sama and its little brother pointing forward in his tense grip.

The building is stone - ten feet high, forty long and thirty wide. There are no entrances or exits. Looking at the southern edge, you see another structure, taller than the building. It takes a moment for you to recognize it, but it is a table - a workbench, sized for a dragon.

Ahoke gestures at the dragon-sized workbench. "What /is/ all of this?"

Harvester says, "Dragon home... The building a ...cage, for its captives, pets?""

Ahoke shivers. "How distressing," she comments. She starts prowling around the room, looking for obvious exits.

Harvester walks around the 'little' building, looking for an 'entrance'.

Sen-Jyu stays more or less toward the center of the room, navigating in an ever-growing spiral outward.

Harvester walks slowly towards the south, following the giant table from beneath.

Ahoke grumbles. "I looks like there's a dead end over here."

Sen-Jyu nears the table in good time as well, investigating it from his diminutive stature.

The table towers above you - fifteen feet high. You cannot see the top of it.

Harvester backs up, holding the torch as high as he can, and tries to see over the tables edge.

Ahoke looks around in dismay, backtracking to be near her friends.

Meanwhile, in another cavern...

Akratt glares at the form of the dwarf walking back and forth behind the illusory wall. "Shoot her, idiot," he orders Prukk, who fumbles with his crossbow. "Hurry, before she gets away!"

Prukk gives a final heave, cocking the weapon, and then begins searching for a bolt.

"Idiot! Fool! Moron! She's gotten away!" Akratt shoves the crown back on top of his head. "You stay here and wait for them to come back. I'm going to go get the rest of those cowards."

Behind him, Prukk caresses the crossbow and glares at Akratt's retreating back. It won't be the dwarf I'll be shooting, pretender...

Harvester sighs. "arright. Let's walk the edges of this place. If we don't find anything, we'll try to go up.

Ahoke nods, starting to circle the other direction.

Sen-Jyu examines the side, looking for a way of climbing. "This doesn't look promising," he mutters.

The chamber is enormous - perhaps seventy feet wide (not counting the building) and a hundred and twenty long. The water flows in a channel along the western edge, then the northern edge. The northernmost portion of the cavern extends even farther, where a ramp leads down to a blank stone wall. Beside the ramp, the stream turns to follow the eastern wall for a ways, then vanishes into the same blank stone wall.

Ahoke passes by the statues arrayed in front of the mosaic, and notes that they depict people writhing in terrible pain, in lifelike detail. She snaps into the air, "Oh shut the f-ck up. I don't want to hear your prattle, you ridiculous piece of sh-t. If you want for me to come to you, then tell me how the hell I can do it."

Harvester walks slowly down the ramp and touches the wall, searching it.

Below, Prukk snarls. If Akratt comes back and sees I haven't fired...damn it, stupid humans! He raises his crossbow.

Sen-Jyu glances over at Ahoke. "I think he likes you the best."

Ahoke scowls. "I'd prefer that he liked someone else better. He just wants to taunt, though, not give out useful information. Probably because he's stupid as well as insufferable.

There is a clang of metal on metal.

Harvester pauses, then withdraws. He walks up the ramp and then runs, "INCOOOOOMING!!"

Sen-Jyu looks for the sound, then moves in the direction of the Harvester, defending his retreat.

In the goblins' cavern...

"What was that?" Akratt demands, returning trailed by warriors.

"One of them was there. A human. I shot him," replies Prukk. "He ran."

"Pathetic! You call yourself a sniper? Fumblehands!" Akratt turns to the rest of the warriors. "Spread yourselves out. When they reappear, they will taste our javelins!"

Harvester jerks his thumb back, "Wall... at ramp... is illusion...." He draws in breath. "Got shot at."

Ahoke looks at the ramp. "Oh. Well then, let's go for it," she says, starting to run at the wall like the dwarven juggernaut that she is.

"Ooooh, illusion," says Sen-Jyu with childlike curiosity. He nears the wall.

Harvester is careful to place himself behind Sen-Jyu and Ahoke as they move towards the wall.

Ahoke vanishes into the wall.

Sen-Jyu follows behind, though waits for the Harvester to be nearby for the darkness beyond the illusion.

Harvester follows through on Sen-Jyu's heels.

Too late, the pair following Ahoke realize that her footsteps have stopped - but their momentum carries them out into the same thin air that their dwarven companion found awaiting her. Sen-Jyu's foot grasps desperately at the edge of the cliff, but to no avail. Harvester merely plummets like a large metal meteor.

Twenty feet below, you land in heaps.

Some few seconds later, Sen-Jyu murmurs, "... ow."

Out in the darkness, you can see thanork...a bunch of them. They are holding weapons ready to throw, but are standing in goggle-eyed surprise at your mad and ill-fated charge, mouths open in astonishment.
 

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Erm, if the group doesn't have a name for itself yet, might I suggest "Kay's Lemmings"? :D

Vurt starts running for cover...

Hey, did I mention I'm really looking forward to what happens next?
 

Some few seconds later, Sen-Jyu murmurs, "... ow."

Harvester mumbles through what's left of his teeth. "Watch that first step... it's a doozy..."

Ahoke grunts, "Thanork." She rolls to her feet, pulling her great club. "Glad I'm not fragile."

For a moment, there is stunned silence from the darkness. Then, a single wondering voice speaks the harsh tones of the thanork language: "Cho do /nath/ mok toth?!"

Ahoke leaps to her feet, grunting with the effort, and grabs on to the dangerous looking great club that she always uses. She snarls into the darkness, grinning at the shocked thanork. Suddenly, something catches her attention in the corner of her vision, and she swivels her head to look at Harvester. "Sh*t," she says, "You've got slime growing on you!"

Harvester sees the slime that Ahoke spoke of, and utters an oath as he hurriedly strips his robe away. He drops the ball nearby, and alternately watches it and the direction the voices have come from.

Standing, Sen-Jyu plants himself squarely between where Ahoke's eyes are directed and the Harvester's sitting form -- he clearly means to provide himself as a target rather than the cleric.

"Huzzuk gorosh!" shouts a voice, and javelins arc out of the darkness towards the two standing members of the party. One glances from the chain links that sheath Ahoke's torso, and the others go wide, clattering against the red stone floor.

There is a low growling coming from the barbarian, one that you, as her companions, know well by now. Her sharp little teeth bare into a grimace, her great club gets raised into the air, and she starts to foam at the mouth. The look in her eyes becomes more savage than sentient and she lunges forward, racing towards the darkness at top speed.

After she disappears from view, you can hear her bellow triumphantly, the shriek of fear mingled with anger from the thanork, which is sharply cut off with the sound of splintering bone, and the howl of vicious laughter from the dwarf.

Harvester's hands turn and spin, his timbrous voice calling to the heavens, or below. "I beseech He Who is to Come, grant this faithful servant the fruit of life to heal his companion in this battle against an evil foe!" His hand reaches out to touch Sen-Jyu's ankle.

Shrieks and squawks from the darkness confirm that Ahoke hasn't slain /all/ the thanork.

Yet.

The sound of metal on metal rings from the darkness.

Ahoke bellows with rage, her great shout echoing throughout the cavern. Apparently something's happened to displease her, even lost to her rage as she is. There is the sound of more splintering bone, and more maniacal laughter.

Harvester again calls upon the divine favor of his deity, "Lord, your servant asks that your illumination show my companion his path through the darkness!" He stretches his hand forth to touch the blade of Ichido-Sama. "Go, Sen, and send the Goblins to my Lord on swift wings..." Then he ducks back down, attempting to make himself as small a target as possible. He pulls out a small vial.

Seeing his blade taking on heavenly light, Sen-Jyu nods once to the Harvester in thanks, his hum building as he throws himself toward the fray, ears grasping for the center of the source of metal upon metal. Crouching as he runs, both blades held outward as silvered wings, waiting to enfold a thanork in their deadly aegis.

* * * * *

As Ahoke pulps her target, she realizes that there's a group of goblins that has apparently fallen back after throwing their javelins. One is holding a crown on top of his head as he flees.

A javelin thuds into her shoulder...from above? Grrrr. Sneaky thanork, clinging to the ceiling...

The two remaining thanork who haven't yet fled drop their javelins, pulling spiked morningstars from their belts. One misses, the other doesn't.

Another thanork, weilding a longsword nearly as big as he is, charges from the darkness towards Ahoke. Foam flecks the corners of his mouth. Is he rabid? The blade bites deep into Ahoke's side.

Ahoke's club rips down the goblins face, leaving it a mask of blood. He staggers back, then raises the sword defiantly and resumes fighting.

* * * * *

The battle is now illuminated by Ichido-sama's newfound light; Sen-Jyu falls upon one of the ones already introduced to Ahoke's wrath and mercifully ends its torment.

The other shrieks at the glowing apparition. It's morningstar changes targets in mid-swing - a clumsy strike, but one that still manages to slam into the spirit-blood's chest.

Ribs creak under strain
Spikes puncture soft tender flesh
Blood flows from the wound

The bloody-faced thanork screams with the rage that boils through his veins, swinging his battle-blade through the air, biting into Ahoke's shoulder. A stand-down between two titanic (if rather short) warriors, trading blow for blow. Blood soaks the cavern floor.

Ahoke's eyes blaze with inhuman (indwarven?) rage, as she launches herself at the thanork beserker. With much snarling, she slams her great club into him crushing through skin, bones, and armor. Leaving some of the creature's broken, jagged bones exposed and jutting out from the skin, Ahoke howls, beginning to look around for another target. The thanork beserker stares at her in incomprehension as he starts to sag to the floor.

A javelin falls...falls?...downward towards the Harvester. Straight down? There's a thanork on the ceiling! Fortunately for the beleaguered cleric, it misses its mark.

Harvester gives a shout as the javelin just misses him, and drinks the curative potive. He feels minorly invigorated, and pulls out his crossbow, and aims upwards.

This poor thanork's fate
To be gutted and filleted
Like so much sushi

A cursive stroke through the air, and Ichido-sama is his pen, writing death for the last standing thanork. Sen-Jyu turns to Ahoke to see if she is relatively intact, then gestures her back toward the Harvester for maintenance and repairs.

A volley of poorly-aimed javelins comes wavering out of the darkness, clattering from stone and copper floor. One finds its mark, more from luck than from any skill on the part of its weilder, and sinks into Sen-Jyu's leg.

Sen-Jyu's hum begins again, an irritated buzz as he spins -- or attempts to -- in the direction from whence the wasps were thrown.

Ahoke visibly fights the influence of Wolverine over her consciousness, and then, through extreme force of will, but without leaving the rage, she grabs a vial, and drinks it, already moving towards the darkness that was spitting out javelins.

Seeing the crossbow being prepared for use, the thanork on the ceiling scuttles back, out of the circle of the Harvester's light.

Harvester sees the goblin on the ceiling scuttle away and he grabs for the magic torch in his belt. Slung underhanded some ten feet away, it rolls wildly, and the priest fires the deadly crossbow bolt into the ceiling.

Seeing the Harvester fire his crossbow into the air, Sen-Jyu's eyes dart toward the ceiling. Carefully, both his swords are replaced, and the longbow now rests in his hands. One arrow pulled from his quiver rests on the string, nocked but not yet fired, while Sen-Jyu waits for a better opportunity.
 

Ahoke suddenly slows, shaking her head rapidly, as if to clear it. She stares into the darkness wistfully, and then turns back. "Got to rest," she grunts, with some effort. "I'll be tired out before I even catch up with the thanork..." She sits down on the ground.

The creature on the ceiling scuttles back towards the darkness that has swallowed the other thanork.

Harvester watches the spider-goblin scuttle away now, warily, and begins to weave his hands in the intricate patterns of the divine, "I call upon He Who Is To Come for soothe the wounds of His faithful servant, that I might continue His tasks!" The lanky priest's wounds close, the flow of blood now nearly halted.

The point of the arrow nocked in Sen-Jyu's bow points sharply upward, toward the escaping thanork. His fingers tug it back, straining against the feel of the unfamiliar string... and let it loose prematurely, falling widely short of the mark.

Ahoke keeps sitting on the ground, trying to catch her breath. "I'm a dwarf, I'm a dwarf," she keeps repeating to herself.

Sen-Jyu nears the priest, wondering aloud, "How badly are you wounded, The Harvester?" A look of questioning is aimed squarely at the sitting dwarf, but idiosyncrasies aren't his concern at the moment.

Harvester, having been watching the fleeing Thanork, finds himself distracted in his casting, and only just hears the whizzing of the arrow as it zings by his ear, "Heeee-EY!"

Ahoke puts her head into her hands for a moment, and then straightens up, pulling out another vial. "I'm too old for this sh*t," she grumbles, uncorking it and tossing the liquid back like one would a shot of whiskey.

Some of the barbarian's wounds knit themselves closed, but there are a number of lacerations and wounds left. She looks up, to assess the damage done to her companions.

The barking tongue of the thanork echos from the darkness - the words indistinguishable, but the meaning clear: advance and destroy.

Harvester shakes his head at Sen-Jyu, "I already apologized for almost killing you. Didn't gotta try and shoot me. I am relatively unharmed now, Sen. You? Kay?" He moves to scoop up his torch and looks about while he awaits their replies.

Harvester says, "They're coming back. And I'm nearly spent."

Ahoke turns to look at the sound, and sighs heavily, lumbering to her feet. "Looks like the thanork aren't going to give us a chance to rest. Makes you wonder why they fled to begin with, the little cowardly sheep turds." She glances around the room, looking for ways out.

Sen-Jyu shoulders his bow again, drawing both swords as he hears the thanork organizing. The space between himself and Ahoke is brought to none by a sprint, as he nudges her with his knee. "What are you talking about? Are you okay?"

The stream runs along one side of the great chamber, and on the other - a door. If your sense of direction is correct, it should lead into - or under - the strange windowless building you saw earlier.

Ahoke grunts, and nods. "Yeah. Just real tired from my rage. And I've got some flesh wounds." Her eyes narrow at the door. "Maybe we can barricade ourselves in there, until we're a little more capable of facing on a horde of thanork..?"

"You need to rest?" the spirit-blood asks, surprised at this notion from the usually tireless dwarf. "If you think that's best... certainly. There's no guarantee that that's less dangerous than where we already are, however."

Ahoke nods, and resolutely moves to the door. "Maybe luck will be with me," she says, not sounding entirely convinced of that. "Just a little while," she says. "When a rage takes me, it eats all of my strength. When I'm done, there's nothing left."

Looking over his shoulder at The Harvester, Sen-Jyu keeps a middle distance between the two -- waiting for the priest to catch up, but not so much that Ahoke is left alone. "All right, then. Do you want me to enter first?"

There is little time for discussion - out of the darkness, a wave of javelins flies!

Harvester says, "Go go go go go go go!"

Three of the javelins find their marks - one in each of the companions - and the thanork howl in savage glee.

Ahoke's lips curl back into a snarl, and for a moment, it appears that she is going to reverse her direction to go rip apart those that are laughing at her pain. With effort, she reaches down, to open the door, leaping inside if it isn't locked.

Accepting the tip of a javelin in his forearm, Sen-Jyu makes haste to follow Ahoke into the building, being wary in case the door is locked or is merely an illusion leading to a precipice.

Harvester keeps looking over his shoulder and the javelins come, "Go go go g- ow! Damn you!" he whirls, and fires his crossbow into the darkness, "You shall all meet The Harvester's scythe, and be reaped like the grain for the Master's threshing!" Harvester shouts that in the thanork's own tongue as he urges his companions to greater speed.

The door opens, admitting the trio into a single large room. It may have been fine once, judging from the furnishings, but the goblins have apparently turned it into their barracks - their filth is everywhere. Fortunately, they seem not to be in occupation at the moment.

Harvester, being the last through the door, slams it shut and presses his shoulders against it, "Find something to bar it with, then make sure there're no other entrances!"

Ahoke starts dragging furniture over to the door.

Sen-Jyu assists Ahoke in the dragging of furniture bit.

Most of the furniture has been ruined - not just ruined to the point of looking bad, but ruined to the point of destruction. A quick glance around reveals some reasonably hefty splinters that might be usde to wedge the door.

Harvester places his back to the door and spreads his feet to hold the line as the others jam the door closed.

Blows thud into the door from the other side as the thanork finally arrive. The Harvester can feel their impact through the thin wood that he presses against.

Ahoke uses those reasonably hefty splinters to try to wedge the door.

"Stand away," says Sen-Jyu. "Never know when they'll try and put a spear through the wood." Sheathing his wakizashi, Sen-Jyu extracts the vial he'd been given from the bounty previously discovered. A wince as he unstoppers it, places it to his lips, and swallows the contents.

Harvester says, "I... don't know... how long... the door... will hold.. them out..." He speaks between thumpings.

Harvester nods to Sen-Jyu, more than willing to move away once Ahoke has secured the door. He moves about the room now, torch held high as he searches for other exits or forgotten valuables to aid in their fight.
Some of his lesser wounds closing at the potion's curative effects, Sen-Jyu once more prepares for combat. "Ahoke -- rest while you can. I can hold the door for a ... time."

The pile of rags springs up and leaps away from Harvester. "No kill! No kill!"

Ahoke sighs. "Maybe I should have just charged at them out there." She drops to the floor back in a corner, closing her eyes. "Alright," she says. "Thanks..." she trails off, staring at the suddenly animate pile of rags.

Pile of rags - or thanork, really. It's clutching an unloaded crossbow to its chest, and its ears have flattened back against its head. "No kill," it repeats.

Harvester's scythe whips down and around, the wickedly blade curving towards the thing. His heart beats loudly, "Hold still, you, and you'll live... for now." He speaks this in common, or thanorki, whichever it speaks.

Turning on the pile of rags, Sen-Jyu's eyes narrow, specifically at the crossbow it holds. "... don't," Sen-Jyu says. "I think it tried to help... earlier."

The creature gabbles rapidly in thanork. "Yes! Yes! Prukk help! Prukk leave message, tell where children go! Prukk no work for Akratt!"

Ahoke watches from her corner, through narrowed eyes. She doesn't say anything or do anything aggressive, for the moment, testament to how tired she really is.

Harvester drops the point, slightly, and continues speaking with the goblin. "Prukk." he repeats.

"Prukk! Prukk!" The creature indicates itself. "Prukk kill Akratt, you kill Akratt?"

Sen-Jyu faces the door once more, listening for the thanork outside, in an attempt to count the numbers that they may soon face, if the thanork are successful in battering down the doors.

Ahoke scowls at the thanork. "Who the hell is Akratt?"

Harvester says, "We will, yes. Akratt will soon meet the gardener. We need to get out, Prukk, and hide, and rest. Akratt is apparently the Thanork leader, kay."

The door shudders.

Prukk shakes his head, speaking in thanork. "No way out, only one door."

Harvester sighs as he translates, "?There's no way out, folks. Any way to bolster the door?"

Ahoke gets to her feet, a grim expression on her face. "It looks like we're going to have to face them down, if we like it or not." She moves so that she'll be standing to one side of the door when they come in. "I don't feel so tired anymore anyway."

Harvester looks back to Prukk and speaks. "How many Thanorks..goblins follow Akratt?"

Sen-Jyu stands to the unhinged side of the door, Sen-Jyu's jaw rigid as he calms his breath, gathering his shreds of honor to himself in the rather likely case that he, too, will join his ancestors in death.

Harvester translates again, "We've killed many. Including Guzzum, Akratt's protector."

Ahoke hmms. "Who was the other berserker?" Her eyes narrow even more. "And why are you turning on your own kind, thanork?"

The door opens an inch, and the thanork howl with victory. It's not going to hold for more than a few seconds.

Ahoke falls silent, waiting to smack some goblins with her great club.

Prukk looks wildly at the door and yanks on his crossbow to :):):):) it.

Harvester calls upon his deity's favor once more, "Master, salve my companion's wounds in this battle that we undertake, that we might continue Your work..." He touches Sen-Jyu on the shoulder.

The splinters finally give way and the door flies open.

Sen-Jyu's attempt at leaping through the thanork becomes, instead, a blustering through their ranks. Really not at all graceful or elegant, but at least he's made it through their ranks to flank them.

Sen-Jyu coughs out as he makes it past the thanork, wheezing from the swing from the one unsurprised one, "... excuse me..."

Ahoke gives a full-throated battle cry in dwarven, clearly designed to unnerve the enemy. Her great club moves through the air with surprising grace for a big hunk of wood, and smashes one of the surprised thanork into bloody gobbets.

Outside the room, the thanork have gathered - four that Sen-Jyu tumbled past, now reduced to three thanks to Ahoke's club. Behind them, a trio of others - including one with a battered and dented crown upon his bulbous head.

One of the trio - a strange goblin whose skin is tainted blue - raises his hand to indicate Ahoke. A blue-white arc of electricity sizzles out through the air, striking the dwarf - and then leaping from her to the Harvester, crackling between them with the scent of ozone. It continues to play over their bodies, linking them in blue-white lightning.

The goblins rejoin the melee, plying their spiked morningstars with vigor if not skill - Sen-jyu, still off-balance from his disastrous method of breaking through the thanork line, is clipped on the back of the knee. This particular thanork seems to have a particular taste for causing Sen-Jyu pain, and takes the morningstar to Sen-Jyu's terribly displeased flesh.

The crowned goblin yanks the third of the trio - another blue-skinned goblin - in front of him, shouting orders in his foul tongue.

Harvester finds his body briefly siezed by the surge of electrical energies, and snaps free, shouting out to Sen-Jyu while pointing, "Sen! Kill Akratt! The one with the crown!" His wicked scythe slides around in a graceful arc, low and up, as The Harvester begins to reap the grain before him, "For the glory of He Who Is To Come!" is the Goblinoid cry.

Ah, sweetest vengeance is Sen-Jyu's, as he draws Ichido-sama across the neck of his tormentor, and while the thanork is not decapitated, the spray of brackish blood is savored by the spirit-blood, even as his thrust toward the other standing thanork by the door is unsuccessful.

The electrified dwarf delivers a blow that bounces off of the thanork's armor. She scowls, and and prepares to strike again.

The electricity continues to arc and rebound between Harvester and Ahoke, bringing the scent of cooking flesh to the cavern.

The blue goblin continues to concentrate, eyes blazing oddly as he stares at his pair of victims.

The one remaining goblin at the door - surrounded, outnumbered, blessed perhaps with a luck that is about to run out - that goblin decides that he knows the better part of valor. He turns and flees from the combat.

A haphazard slash at the retreating thanork, a sigh from a disappointed Sen-Jyu. That is all.

With a foul thanork curse, the crowned goblin follows, abandoning the blue-skinned ones, one hand holding the crown on its precarious perch. Behind you, Prukk curses. "Akratt getting away!"

Harvester shouts, "Akratt flees! We must stop him for the children!"

The smaller of the blue-skinned goblins steps in front of the other, raising his weapon in a brave attempt to defend the other creature.

A growing shout spills from The Harvester's throat as he suddenly surges forward, in the tongue of the Thanork, "Death comes for you!!" The scythe leads the charge and the shaman's erstwhile protector is handily bounced away, without harm to the priest, and the blade comes across, a whisker's distance from the spellcaster's nose.

Taking the opposite side of the spellcasting thanork, Sen-Jyu sneaks in a surreptitious blow, but fails to overcome the mysterious magic armor that the thing wears.

Normally, Ahoke might have seen the wisdom of pursuing the thanork "king," but this blue-skinned creature is hurting her /now./ She runs across the room towards him, yelling, "Diiiiiieeeeeee!" She smashes its right shoulder, making it squeal in pain, and then drop to the floor in a bleeding, dying heap. The electricity that was plaguing Ahoke and Harvester winks out.

The other blue-skinned goblin does its best to crawl away without attracting the notice of the biggers.

Harvester shouts out, "PRUKK!! Get out here!" And in the language of 'commoners', to his friends, "Don't let that one go!"

Sen-Jyu steps on the weapon-wielding hand of the escaping thanork. "Mmmm, no," he murmurs gently to it.

Prukk does not respond - perhaps he slipped away during the battle?

Harvester starts moving in the direction Akratt fled, and haolds out a potion to Sen-Jyu as he begins to drink one of his own. "Bring him Sen... he'll show us the way."

Sen-Jyu accepts the potion from Harvester with no small amount of gratitude. "I think... you should speak to him, first. Let him know what he's to do, and not to do." He quaffs the fluid and tucks the empty vial into a pocket.

Ahoke glances at the would-be escapee, and shrugs, seeing that her companions are dealing with him. She begins to pursue the would-be king down the hall, death in her eyes. "No one burns me and gets away with it," she says, casting one last contemptuous glance at her most recently fallen foe.

Harvester pauses after drinking enough of the potion to work effectively, and grabs the thanork by the neck, lifting it. "Where did Akratt go? Take us. Try nothing and I'll let you live."

The pitiful creature points down the hall where Akratt vanished.

Sen-Jyu leaves his wakizashi sheathed, the better to disarm the thanork and discard its weapon far out of reach. His katana's point encourages the thanork's cooperation by its presence, though it does not bite the captive yet.

Harvester whips out a rope and ties it around the goblin's neck and shoves it forward hurriedly. "Go!" He moves quickly after Ahoke.

Ahoke disappears into the darkness. She shouts out, obviously startled by something that she sees.

Harvester growls and says to Sen-Jyu, "Run!" he follows his own urging and moves more quickly.

Sen-Jyu urges the thanork forward at hearing Ahoke's shout, looking uneasily at the Harvester. At the Harvester's command, he leaves the two and moves forward toward where Ahoke was last seen.
 

I always thought that last combat was a killer. All of those thankork ... err ... goblins and some with spell potential to boot!

Sounds like your players handled it pretty well though. :)
 

The enormous hall continues, the soft magical light of Sen-Jyu's katana barely able to illuminate it even for the spirit-blood. But ahead, some light - the mouth of the lair? - and what it illuminates is an awe-inspiring sight:

The dragon, Copperdeath - or, at the least, its mortal shell. Enormous even in death, it is sprawled across the room as if still trying to get away from those that slew it. Scorched walls give testament to the battle that was fought here, as does the copper that has remained untarnished ever since the dragon's blood was spilled upon it. An iron slab lies tilted against one wall.

The dragon's mouth is open, and Ahoke peers down its throat.

The dwarf whispers, "At what price, dead one?"

Sen-Jyu advances upon Ahoke, footsteps as silent as he can make them, the better to listen to her talking to the voices again.

Harvester speaks to the goblin again, with a tug on the rope. "Akratt? Where? Human children? Where?"

The creature tugs at the rope itself, shaking its head. It points past the corpse.

Harvester speaks to the air as he follows the goblin, "**** you, worm. He Who Is To Come will soon enough reap your soul as well."

Sen-Jyu sniffs a bit from two paces behind Ahoke, "The voices don't like me, it seems."

Ahoke's face, suddenly showing how careworn the past several days has made her, sags. "There is always a price," she says, slowly, reluctantly turning away from whatever promises the voice has made to her. "Do we know where the human brats are? Let's get this done."

Harvester appears to be going somewhere, past the corpse.

Ahoke follows Harvester and his goblin on a rope, since he seems to know where he's going.

Sen-Jyu blinks. "I stand corrected," he says curiously.

"They here." The voice is harsh, unused to the Common tongue. One of the children is shoved forward by the goblin king, who holds a knife to the back of the child's neck. "Let me go, I let child go."

Ahoke studies the goblin king and the child. "Why did you take them in the first place, you miserable little wretch?"

Harvester folds his arms across his chest and replies in Goblinoid. "Where are the others?"

Sen-Jyu stands behind the two, silent.

"Hah! I not take them. Thimdrul take them! Others in cage." He begins to pull the boy backwards. "You stay here now. I go down mountain."

Harvester says, "Release the boy and I will not harm you. Release him now!"

Ahoke glares at the goblin. "If you harm so much as a hair on the other childrens' heads, there will be no hope for you in this world. Because I will track you down, and I will kill you, and I will have your heart for my lunch." She does not step forward, yet, more willing to have him leave peacefully than for there to be another battle.

The goblin - no, not the prince, the other one - sees his chance. He slips his head free of Harvester's crude knot and sprints towards the dragon.

Harvester allows the little blue-skin to go, and focuses on the one-time 'king'. "Releases the boy now, and I will not kill you. Otherwise, his soul will be greeted as joyfully by my Master as yours."

Harvester takes one step forward, his skull-pendant glittering in the light.

At seeing the goblin escaping, Sen-Jyu moves to intercept, and Ichido-sama's long reach cuts the thanork down well before it reaches its goal, whatever that may have been.

Akratt sees the motion. Sees Sen-jyu spin with blades ready.

There is no other word: he panics.

Blood arcs from the surprised child's throat as the goblin's convulsive movement draws the knife across it.

The boy crumples to the floor, followed by the clatter of Akratt's knife as he drops it in utter surprise at what he's done.

A crossbow bolt launches out of the darkness behind the corpse, and Akratt looks down at it stupidly where it projects from his chest.

Harvester moves to the boy without concern for Akratt's nearness, and looks for life. if it still exists, he will conduct what little healing he might.

Ahoke charges Akratt, needlessly, since he's already become a goblinoid pincushion, and smashes him, repeatedly, into the ground. "You... stupid... little... :):):):)."

It's too late. The cut - shallow as it might be - still was deep enough to sever the jugular vein, spilling the child's blood across the corroded copper floor. Maybe a healthy child would have lasted those one or two seconds longer, but the days of imprisonment had taken their toll on this one. The only thing for the Harvester to do is commend the child's soul to his Lord.

Sen-Jyu stares at the sudden swell of chaos, moving to join the melee against the goblin king. He looks... angry, if complete dispassion coupled with an agitated hum says anything about the spirit-blood.

Ahoke turns and starts pulverizing the dented crown when she sees that her work with its wearer is complete, attacking the symbol of the creature's greed.

Harvester does so, with a mix of faint regret and joy, "I commend thy spirit to speedy travels, that the Gardener may plant you within the Garden..."

Ahoke straightens up, slightly winded, after smashing the crown. She glances over at the dead child, scowls, and then stalks over to the dragon. "This is all /your/ doing," she informs it, smashing with her club at one of the spears that is propping its mouth open.

The spear splinters under Ahoke's assault, causing that side of the mouth to sag dangerously.

Ahoke jumps back so that she is not speared by one of the still very sharp teeth as the mouth sags, instead of breaking the other spear, and then says, "Where are the other children? Outside, or in the dragon?"

Sen-Jyu sheathes both of his swords and sits akimbo by the dead child, a mournful look in his expression. His hum lowers and drifts to a quiet, almost lullaby-ish melody, as if he were singing the boy to sleep.

Harvester shouts out, "PRUKK! Come out now!"

There is no answer.

Sen-Jyu stays by the boy a while longer, Ichido-sama poking out of the sheath just enough to give a candle's glow about the two.

Ahoke pants, her eyes still blazing her rage, which is only refueled every time she glances at the dead child and thanork. She strides across the room to where Harvester is, looking ready to kill anything that steps out of the shadows.

In the far corner of the cave, Harvester finds a cage, scarcely large enough for the children inside it. The girl is curled in a tiny ball, seemingly catatonic. The boy merely stares at him, watching without speaking.

Both children are filthy, their hair matted, their clothing torn.

Ahoke stops when she sees the children, and backs off, leaving comforting to those that have more honeyed tongues than she.

Harvester breaks apart the bonds holding the cage closed, "Come children!" he speaks softly, mustering all the charm and soothing tones he is able. "Let us take you home now..."

"Where's Dorik?" demands the boy.

Harvester says, "What did he look like, child?"

The boy says, "The king man came and took him just now."

Sen-Jyu scoops up the dead boy in his arms, cradling him close while he continues to hum. His eyes are moist as he stands, swaying slightly in place.

Harvester reaches into the cage for the girl, and scoops her up. He sings a little lullaby to her as he speaks with the boy. He speaks loudly enough for Sen-Jyu to hear, "The other boy is dead... I'm sorry. Those responsible journey now to my Lord's hands, and Dorik has been welcomed with joy..."

"Oh." The boy's voice is strangely calm.

Harvester says, "What did they want with you, boy?" Then to Ahoke. "Is there an easier way out, the way Akratt was fleeing?"

The boy seems to consider that for a moment. "I don't know," he says. "They put us in a cage. And we heard voices. I think they were going to eat us."

"The nightmares aren't over," says Sen-Jyu, mirroring the boy's own calm. "Whoever or whatever was causing them still exists." He looks to his companions, eyes like polished glass. "We are not finished here."

Harvester nods to Sen-Jyu. "I know." He glances to the corpse. "Perhaps if we burn it?"

Sen-Jyu shrugs. "Or enter it," he says flatly.

Harvester lays the girl down, away from the blood and gore. "Remain here, children. I shall return for you." He nods to Sen-Jyu and walks to the dragon's mouth and steps in to peer down its throat, after propping it up with another spear.

Ahoke moves over to stand next to the children. "Do what you have to do," she tells Harvester. "I'll make sure that no further harm comes to these."

Harvester begins to remove his armor. "I cannot fit with this. Give me a moment."

Sen-Jyu lays the third beside Ahoke as one might place a flower into a still pool of water. Then, both swords drawn, he moves to the mouth of the dragon. "Let me go in," he says.

Harvester pauses, and continues removing armor. "Lead, Sen. I'll follow."

Ahoke eyes the little boy (the living one.) "Has anyone else tried to rescue you?"

The boy looks at his dead friend for a long while as Sen-jyu walks away.
"No."

Ahoke nods to the boy. "What's your name? What's the girl's name?"

"Caleb. And Tana. Why did Dorik die?"

Ahoke sighs, suddenly wishing that she was the one climbing down the dragon's throat, not answering difficult questions of children. "Because the thanork king killed him," she said, gesturing towards the blood paste several feet away, as if it should comfort the boy. "He paid for his crime, though."

Sen-Jyu slowly vanishes down the dragon's gullet, in the manner of a meal being swallowed by a snake.

"Why did you let him kill Dorik?" asks the boy.

More armor clatters to the ground as the Harvester strips off the heavy half-plate.

Ahoke scowls. "We couldn't move fast enough," she says, not sounding pleased about it. "I wish we had been able to, though. How long has Tana been like this?"

"She's been real sick for a while."

Ahoke looks down at the little girl. "How so?"

The child looks up at her with the disdain reserved for particularly slow adults. "She doesn't move. She just lays there."

"Almost done, Sen! This buckle got bent in the fight," Harvester calls.

Ahoke frowns. "I'm sure that's not a good sign," she murmurs to herself, and crouches in front of the little girl. "You've had a real rough time of it, I know," she says, "And a lot of bad things have happened to you. I want you to try to think of what exactly happened right before she started acting like this."

The boy shrugs. "She just started."

Harvester dives into the mouth of the great dead beast as the last greave clatters to the ground. He leaves the unwieldy scythe behind and uses dagger and sickle to help pull himself through its gullet.

* * * * *

You force your way into the dragon's throat, feeling its greasy flesh, cold beneath your skin. You crawl on your belly, pushing yourself ever deeper. The air stinks of dust, of reptile, of death. You can feel your head pounding, as if a very angry Ahoke were hammering on it with a very large blunt instrument.

Your blade scarcely illuminates the passage ahead, and it becomes more and more difficult to breathe as you block the only source of fresh air. You pray that somewhere up ahead this gullet widens.

Sen-Jyu leads with Ichido-sama, not certain what he's to find down this once-living tunnel, but certain that he desires to end it. He keeps his breathing measured, and his progress steady.

...your prayers are answered. The blessed feeling of space around you as the gullet widens into the stomach - and you realize that the space is not lit only by your blade.

A jagged, glowing crystal, sapphire blue, the size of a melon, sits atop a lump of congealed flesh.

"You," states Sen-Jyu to the crystal. "You are the thing that has been speaking to the people of the town in nightmare and hate. You. All this death, yours to answer for." Sen-Jyu stalks toward the crystal, swords and teeth bared. "Yours, the visions of oni and failure."

The crystal flares blue as if in response. *And if I am? What will you do? What /can/ you do?* Its laughter echos in your mind. *Wouldn't it be better to keep me safe from your friends? I'm sure they wouldn't understand.*

Its words make sense. Lots of sense. For a moment, you feel yourself agreeing, ready to turn and crawl out, to tell the others that there was nothing here but dead dragon.

But you do not.

Steeling himself, Sen-Jyu whispers, "I have felt your touch before. Your words are poison. Save you? You fear us. Perhaps you fear... this." The wakizashi is put away, and Ichido-sama put to the task. Gathering his will, Sen-Jyu prepares an iaijutsu strike against this thing of evil, his focus concentrated in the edge of his ancestors' blade.

* * * * *

Ahoke hehs, glancing up at the boy. "You don't lie very well, Caleb. Does it have anything to do with a crystal shard?"

Caleb's eyes dart right and left. "I don't know anything about the shards!" he protests.

Ahoke nods, seeming to accept his answer as confirmation to whatever suspicions that she has. "Who put the shard in? Do you know why?"

"I dunno! I dunno why they put it in her skull!"

"Calm down, I don't want to hurt either one of you, I want to help you. Ahoke rises to her feet, looking towards the dragon's mouth worriedly. "I wish they'd hurry up in there," she says. "What have the voices been saying to you?

"They want me to serve the dragon."

* * * * *

Ichido-sama rings in your hands, numbing them as it connects with the crystal. The laughter of the stone rings in your mind as it stands unharmed. A quick inspection reveals that the blade is unharmed as well, but you suspect such treatment may not be good for it.

Sen-Jyu sheathes Ichido-sama. "Even so. You fear us. You fear your own destruction at our hands. It is within our power."

Harvester says, "Sen-Jyu... I have come..."

Sen-Jyu turns to face the Harvester as the cleric enters the chamber of the dragon's belly. "The Harvester -- do not listen to its voice. We must destroy it. It was unharmed by my strike, but I am certain that it can be ended." He watches the Harvester carefully, even a little suspiciously.

Harvester speaks softly, an almost feral grin on his face. "Wyrmcall's melodious tones may likely prove more than sufficient to destroy this... Recall, Sen, the vibrations within the shard i witnessed, when last it rang..."

*Destroy me?* The voice speaks to both of you now. *You cannot slay me, for what is death to one who has conquered it?*

Sen-Jyu grins at the priest, ignoring the voice. "Ah... yes. Your wisdom shows itself once again... I wonder how we can best transport it to the Wyrmcall?"

*You will never succeed.*

Harvester laughs aloud, delighted to answer. 'What know you of _Death_? My Lord awaits you... and you shall soon feel His welcoming touch..." He produces several small sacks and attempts to place one over the crystal globe. "Let us try these..."

The crystal seems fused to the flesh beneath it.

Sen-Jyu frowns. "Need some assistance, The Harvester?"

Harvester murmurs, "If this works, Sen, you and Ahoke may need to keep the children away..." He frowns. "Can Ichido-sama slice the flesh below, to free it?"

Sen-Jyu draws Ichido-sama to this new task, preparing yet another of his concentrated strikes against the portion of flesh to which the crystal is rooted.

The crystal pulls slowly free, trailing meat like a shattered tooth. The stench of decay fills the belly even more strongly.

"Lead the way, The Harvester," says Sen-Jyu, indicating the throat of the beast.

Harvester smiles toothily, and begins closing the sack about the orb, then placing it within two more, that it might not slice free. "I do not hear your taunts any longer...." He nods to Sen-Jyu, and leads the way out when able.

* * * * *

Ahoke nods. "Me too."

"Do you?"

From afar, Ahoke looks at the boy for a long moment, and then answers, "No. I serve Wolverine, who is jealous of me. Do you?" She tenses.

"No. He's a dumb ol' dragon and he got himself killed," the boy says confidently.

Ahoke smiles. "That's right. Keep that in mind. You're going to have to be strong. Can you do that?"

"Okay. Why are we waiting here? I want to go home."

Ahoke nods. "Home might not be...safe. Not just yet. We're trying to find out what we have to do to silence the dragon's voice once and for all. Everyone back where you live is being affected by it right now."

"Oh."

"We'll beat it, Caleb. Your people beat it once, and we'll do it again. Just wait a little while longer."

Wriggling on their bellies through the throat of the corpse like maggots, Harvester and Sen-Jyu emerge from the dragon's mouth. The Harvester carries a sack.

*You may take me anywhere you wish, but you will not destroy me.*

Ahoke looks relieved when she sees the terrible two once more. "The little girl has a crystal shard in her skull," she says, by way of greeting. "Did you find anything in the stomach?"

"Just the origin of the voices," says Sen-Jyu to Ahoke. "Shall we be going, or do we wish to search the cavern further?"

Harvester sets the sack down for but a moment, and gathers his armor. "We have found the source of the shards..and the voice. Guard the children, Ahoke, and keep them safe. Wyrmcall may cause them harm when we take this to Bellhold."
 


Ahoke raises her thick eyebrows. "I think it best that we all at least get out of this mountain. I am not staying a moment longer than is necessary, and I would imagine that Caleb doesn't want to stay either.

"Back the way we came?" inquires Sen-Jyu, rather hopefully. "We know that that way is clear... at least now. Except for that korhorrag."

Ahoke frowns. "Clear, I suppose. Except for whatever made those gigantic spiderwebs, getting down that slick ramp with two children, one of them catatonic, and then the korhorrag and his undead friends."

Sen-Jyu shrugs. "Familiar, then. As compared to an unpleasant drop down a mountainside from a large height."

Ahoke shrugs. "If that's what you want to do. I'm not going to stand here and argue." She starts moving towards the doorway out.

"Who's arguing?" Sen-Jyu asks as he lifts up Doric from the floor, heading back the way the three had come.

The first obstable to be overcome, then, is the twenty-foot drop - or, rather, rise, from this side.

"That's just a wall," Caleb objects when he sees where you're heading.

Ahoke looks up at the wall. "Oh yes, and I forgot to mention this obstacle," she says tiredly, rubbing her eyes with bloody fists. "It's a fake wall, Caleb, if we can figure out how to get up there."

Eyeing the base of it, Sen-Jyu walks under the precipice slowly, from one end to the other. "The thanork did it -- there's a method here, somewhere."

Harvester clears his throat quietly, "Just a sec, guys. I'd like to check something out first..." He kneels and produces a couple of small pouches which contain a pair of blue shards and a box of 5 clear shards. He studies them for a time and frowns slightly.

Ahoke pauses, looking over at Harvester, and then quickly eyes Caleb to see how he reacts to the shards.

Caleb's eyes fix on the shards. "What are you going to do with those?"

"... but I can't find their method. Maybe the boy would know." He nods to the living one, to clarify for anyone's confusion.

Caleb blinks, shrugs. "The goblins just took us up the mountain."

Ahoke considers. "How did they go about it?" She turns back to watch Harvester, with some confusion.

Harvester lifts the box, "These appear thoroughly unrelated to this lump in the sack, by appearance..." He glances up at Caleb. "Destroy them," he remarks quietly. "You have seen these before?" He packs it all away. "Allow me to examine them, friends..."

"Well," the boy begins. "They climbed the ropes." Turning back to Harvester, he says, "That's what they put in Tana's head."

Harvester moves towards the girl, first, and examines her thoroughly, finally focusing on her head. "How many were you, boy, before we arrived?" He nods as the boy speaks. "We must keep her far from town, then, when we attempt to ring Wyrmcall..." He considers again.

Sen-Jyu ahs, "The ropes. Of -course-. So... where are 'the ropes'?" To help answer his own question, he looks about for anything vaguely ropy and perhaps attached to something sturdy over the lip of the precipice above.

Caleb's brow furrows. "How many /what/ was I?"

Harvester says, "Children. There were more than you three, I thought..." The priest gestures to the iron slab, "Perhaps out there, Sen?""

Caleb rolls his eyes. "The ropes aren't /there/," he tells Sen-Jyu. "It'd be pretty silly for the ropes to be there when the goblins used 'em to get up the outside of the mountain."

Ahoke says, thoughtfully, "What if Wyrmcall is the only way to save her from the shard's influence? I can't imagine that leaving it in her head is going to do any good.

"What are you going to do with the Wyrmcall?" Caleb asks.

Harvester speaks softly, after pulling his partners to one side. "I would not care to have the bell's resonance shatter the crystal within her skull... it can always be rung once more, after..." He answers Caleb. "Ring it."

"What's /that/ s'psed to do?"

Sen-Jyu sets the corpse in his arms down, the better to search the wall with his hands. "Probably an illusion, somewhere here."

Harvester speaks more quietly again, that his companions alone might hear, "We must be wary that those within Bellhold are not under this thing's influence, as well..." Once more, loudly, "Hopefully shatter the crystal entity we possess."

Caleb looks at Ahoke. "Is he simple?" he whispers, pointing towards Sen-Jyu.

Ahoke sighs, looking from one man to the other to Caleb. "No..," she says doubtfully. She moves over to stand nearer to Caleb, and watches.

"Do we still have rope?" asks the spirit-blood, looking at his companions.

Ahoke nods, gesturing with her coil. "Yeah," she says. "Do you want it?"

Sen-Jyu nods, extending one hand. "Please. And if we have anything to secure it with, all the better."

Harvester moves to examine Doric's corpse now, to see if there is a corresponding scab. finally, he checks Caleb. "Remember... we'll also need to climb several other places... once down, some fifty feet, then up to the surface...

Doric, too, bears the scab. Caleb swats at your hands as you reach for him. "Hey! Get off! Let go!"

Harvester grabs hold of Caleb's head and growls, "Hold yourself still, boy. This'll be over quick enough."

Caleb looks up, his eyes strangely burning...

...you are alone, surrounded by ice, but you do not feel cold as the snow covers you for the last time...

...you are surrounded by your flock, all of whom smile as they pass to the other side...

...you are dyying forgotten in an alley, stabbed by an angry drunk...

...you sit on an iron throne amid a thousand thousand books...

...you set down the scythe and return to your former life...

...you take up the sword and die on the point of a spear...

...you...

...you...

...you...

...you stumble back, letting go of the child.

Harvester gasps! his hands releasing Caleb as he stumbles back, "Hold him! He is possessed!"

Caleb dashes for the entryway, pausing only to grab the sack containing the stone.

Ahoke grunts, seeing the child and the sack running away, and starts running after them. "Stop, kid! You don't know what you're doing, you idiot!" She punctuates her words by slamming into his back, and bearing him down to the floor under her solid dwarven weight. The sack, containing the globe, goes flying out of his hands, landing several feet away from him.

Caleb struggles in Ahoke's grasp, screaming and punching, but he is unable to free himself.

Ahoke sighs. "Maybe the two of you should go ahead and go. I'll stay here and watch kid. Maybe if he's not with you, Copperdeath will stop being an *SSH*LE and picking on a child."

Sen-Jyu stands, jaw a bit slackened, as everyone bursts into motion except him. "... rope?" he asks in a dry whisper.

Harvester turns his head briefly to make certain the unconcious girl isn't just playing possum, then moves to scoop up the sack containing the melon-sized crystal. Little concern is given the boy following the flying dwarf's tackle. "sen, tie up the girl, just in case!"

Ahoke says into the child's ear, "Are you going to be good, or am I going to have to unleash Wolverine on you?" If he knows what Wolverine is or not, the threat is still clear.

Sen-Jyu moves over to the girl, though hasn't yet done anything to immobilize her. Just waiting.

Harvester calls out, "Gotta tie him up, Kay... he ain't himself right now, just like those horses that tried to eat you when we came to this 'burg..."

Caleb continues to fail in his attempts to free himself.

Harvester mutters to himself as he stalks over to Ahoke and Caleb, "Put him _down_ Ahoke... And out..." He swings his fist down, piston-like, for a glancing blow across the boy's chin.

Sen-Jyu steps over the girl and approaches the group. "I don't know if that's really necessary," says Sen-Jyu, doing what he can to help restrain the kid without violent motions.

Ahoke grunts, shifting her weight so that the kid will be doing all that he can to dislodge her, and says, "The rope would probably hold him good, and wouldn't leave any damage." She gestures at Sen-Jyu with her head. "You want to do the honors, while I hold him down?"

Sen-Jyu considers. "I'm not very good with rope, per se. Maybe you could, and I'll hold him down?"

Sensing his impending utter helplessness, Caleb tries to lock eyes with Ahoke and focus his mind...but the grapple makes such a feat impossible.

Ahoke struggles to keep the boy held down, and mutters to herself. "Hand me the rope", she says.
Sen-Jyu, seeing that Ahoke's in no position to just trade places, takes the rope and starts on the boy. "Listen, child. I understand that you're possessed by an entity of malevolence. But struggling will only get you a paddling."

Sen-Jyu ties a rather poor knot around the boy's hands and arms. "There. Now don't we feel better?"

Ahoke looks dubiously at the knot, but doesn't say anything. "I wonder if he's going to try that mind control thing that the horses did? Stupid-ass dragon," she mutters, looking over at the sack. "Deserved the fate that he got. I think that we should blindfold him too," she adds, after some thought.

Caleb glares at Sen-Jyu. "There are a million branchings of fate and I see your death at the end of all of them."

Ahoke snorts. "Shut up. We're mortal, you nit. Of course he'll die."

Sen-Jyu smiles at the boy, ruffling his hair affectionately. "You're very sweet to say so," says the spirit-blood, "but I'm a little older than I look."

Ahoke rips a strip of cloth off of her clothing, and starts to tie it around the boy's eyes. "This is to keep you from trying anything truly foolish," she tells him. "I don't want to kill you, but if you tried to control my mind, I would have to."

Harvester says, "Don't look into his eyes, or you will suffer the despair of the dreams... And restrain yourselves from becoming overly friendly - that is _not_ the boy he was...""

"He's just got a shard of crystal in his brain -- that would make anyone grumpy," Sen-Jyu says to the Harvester. "So... where were we? Ah yes. Climbing."

"Fool." The boy's voice is hollow. "This is all there is now."
Harvester moves now, to stand over the girl, and watches her closely. He holds tight to the sack.

The girl lies, curled in a ball, unmoving, unresponding.

Harvester says, "Restrain her as well, Ahoke..." He secures the sack to his belt as he walks towards the iron slab and peers behind it. "Might be easier going this way...""

Sen-Jyu looks between the two, shrugging. "So... please, which way?"

Behind the slab there is only shattered rock, and some trash from the goblins. Dust is visible in the haze of the late afternoon sun that slants in from the passage to the cave mouth.

Harvester gestures, "This leads outside..."

"Does... anyone know if there was a way to get the dragon to cooperate and open the way out again?" That, from Sen-Jyu, with a minor synaptic epiphany.

Ahoke laughs.

Harvester laughs softly, "The mountain it is, then...

Sen-Jyu murmurs, "No, really... does anyone know?"

Ahoke hmms. "Well, let's see. We took the item containing its soul, informed it that we were going to destroy it, and have been generally uncooperative with it. I would say that we aren't going to get it to be helpful. So... I guess it's outside and down."

Harvester shakes his head, "Not from the rear, unless we ask very nicely... The korhorrag did not even know how to cause it to move in the first place, or so it claimed..."

Harvester says, "Kay, I think Sen speaks of the dragon _statue_...""

Ahoke mmms. "Well, there's that, too." She moves to the opening leading outside, dragging Caleb behind her. "If you make a single misstep, you'll fall off the mountain," she tells him. "You'll have to trust me, and stay on my good side."

Harvester moves aside as Ahoke pushes past, then turns to pick up the girl, if Sen-Jyu doesn't.

The passage leads to an enormous stone ledge - a sort of balcony, large enough for a dragon to spread his wings and launch himself into the air. Piled haphazardly by the cave mouth is a tangle of ropes and other items - crudely made pitons, mallets, and the like that the goblins evidently used to make their climb easier.

Harvester murmurs to Ahoke, "There is no point in trying to reason with him, Kay... Copperdeath controls him, not the boy known as Caleb..."

Ahoke replies, "Well, if Copperdeath enjoys controlling the boy, he won't have him do anything stupid." She eyes the child then. "Maybe we /should/ knock him out," she said. "He'd definitely be compliant then." She turns, looking at the pitons. "Well, these will be helpful," she says. "Better than the sheer rock."

Sen-Jyu looks at the body of the boy, sighing a little. "Likely no way to bring you, friend, without having us join you." Picking up the body again, he walks to the iron doorway, sighing a bit.

Harvester says, "Copperdeath has shown his disregard already... he will likely use the boy to cause the death of us all..." He nods to Sen-Jyu, "Doric has sped his way to my Lord, Sen.... The husk can be retrieved later...""

Ahoke nods. "Right, then." She brings down a dwarven fist on top of the boy's skull, and then catches him as he sags into an unconscious heap. "Let's go."

Sen-Jyu leaves the body just inside the doorway and moves to join his companions in their climb downward.

Harvester peers over the edge at the mountainside, and examines the climbing gear. "Either of you know much about climbing? How best to do this?" He shrugs, "I can go first, being less burdened..."

Sen-Jyu goes back to get the girl, then rejoins his companions.

*They are fools. Do not join yourself with them. You cheat yourself and your clan. You have power in you, Ahoke Wolverines-daughter. Let me unlock it for you.*

Ahoke considers. "Well, we're going to be carrying two dead weight children with us. Should probably either lower them down, or lash them to our-" she stops, and then puts both hands on her head, one on either side. "Stop it stop it stop it! I don't want to hear it."

Sen-Jyu asks, "Do we have enough rope to secure her to me? There's no way that I'll be able to hold her all the way down, and if she wakes and gets it into her head... well, a bit late for that but you can see what I'm getting at."

Harvester swings the sack containing the large shard against the stone, "Quiet, you."

Ahoke says, "If we cut pieces of rope, that should be enough, I think..."

Harvester nods, "Perhaps we can fashion some sort of slings."

"That should be fine." Sen-Jyu takes what's left of Ahoke's rope and begins to fashion some sort of sling or the like.

*Why do you defend them so? What have they done for you? They could not stand in your way if you so chose.*

Ahoke grits her teeth, and carefully, gently lays the child down on the ground.

Harvester takes some rope and attempts to help Sen-Jyu create some makeshift slings. "Damn! Rope burn!"

Sen-Jyu fashions, all by his lonesome, a fair to middling securing net.

*The human is blinded by his false visions. The spirit-blood is blinded by his naievete. Open your eyes, child of stone. Only I can help you reclaim your heritage. Only I know the secrets that will let you survive...and conquer.*

Ahoke growls, throwing down her end of the rope in frustration, and leaps to her feet, brandishing her club. "And what promises are you making them? Do not flatter me, you pathetic spikey crystal thing."

Sen-Jyu grins at Ahoke. "Oh, it mumbled something to me about becoming Emperor. Silly crystal."

*Do not misdirect your anger. I know your frustrations come from their foolishness. Look inside yourself. You see that I speak truth.*

Harvester laughs softly, "It has not attempted to talk to me again, Ahoke... Perhaps it believes me unyielding.. or merely has not yet found my weakness..."

*I think him useless.*

Sen-Jyu says, "... so. Who's first?" asks Sen-Jyu, tugging on the ropes that secures the girl to his chest."

Harvester shrugs, "I'll go." He attempts to tie a rope about his waist and carefully climb down, after making certain the other end is secured. "How high are we, anyhoo?"

Ahoke snorts, a sound that may well be laughter, quickly covered up. "Alright. Let's get out of here." She moves over with the boy. "We need to get this one tied to me as well," she says. "I guess I can try."

Ahoke messes around with the rope a little.

Sen-Jyu helps tie Caleb to Ahoke. Or vice versa, depending on size difference.

Harvester, as an afterthought, grabs pitons and other bits of climbing equipment.

Ahoke watches Sen-Jyu mess around with the rope too. "No, it should be like you did it the first time," she says.

Sen-Jyu takes up the ravellings of Harvester's work, eyeing them, eyeing Ahoke. "Um."

Ahoke grunts in satisfaction as Harvester helps out. "Okay," she says. "Feels secure."

Harvester calls out, "Here's the so-called path I found way back when, folks... Gonna check it out..." He goes.

Harvester goes crashing following a misstep, "Ah, shi-!" Rocks clatter as he suddenly is brought up short. "Gods-be-damned goblins and their mountains!" he shouts from out of sight. He slowly climbs his way back to the 'path'.

Ahoke frowns. "What happened?"

Harvester mutters an oath, "I fell!"

Ahoke says, "Are there pitons?"

Harvester says, "Only damn thing that saved my happy *ss!"

Ahoke hmms. "Too bad it's the only way down. We're going to have to keep trying." She sighs.

Sen-Jyu calls over the edge, "Look, if you really wanted to see your Master, you could've saved yourself a lot of trouble and let the slime eat you."

Harvester grunts as he gets back to where he should be. "Watch that first step... it's a doozy..." He slowly tries to make his way down again, seeking new pitons and continuing.

Ahoke waits, somewhat anxiously, eager to be off this mountain, but not wanting to fall to her death.

*Finding the climbing difficult? Perhaps I will sit, nestled among your bleaching bones until somebody comes to see what has become of you...*

Harvester mutters to nothing in particular, "I'd give you heartburn, twit."

Sen-Jyu follows after the Harvester in short order.

Ahoke sees Sen almost go toppling, and reaches out, grabbing the rope at the last second.
Harvester finally makes it to a new, fairly level area some two hundred feet down the side of the mountain, "Ahoke and Sen, C'MON DOWN! You're the next contestants on 'Let's Risk Your Life!'" He cannot find any pitons, and so begins to hammer one in at a likely place.

"... goodness," says Sen-Jyu, getting quite a view of the first half-second of free fall. He didn't want to experience the remainder of the free-fall, so grins thankfully at Ahoke. "Um... let me try that again."

Ahoke nods, grimacing.

Sen-Jyu tries again.

Harvester hears the shout and turns to watch Sen-Jyu's interrupted tumble. "God is waitin for you, Sen, whenever you're ready!" he calls up.

Ahoke starts climbing down slowly, shakily. She's used to climbing, but not with a knocked out child tied to her.

After a long and arduous climb, full of slips, mis-steps, and near-death experiences, our heros arrive at the bottom of the mountain, more or less intact. They are battered, their fingers bloodied from the rock, burned from the rope - but at last they are on level ground.

Ahoke breathes a heavy sigh of relief, and then checks on the condition of her charge. "Awake yet?"

Harvester bends down and kisses the ground, then spits.

Caleb scowls in sullen silence.

Sen-Jyu drops to his knees in prayerful bliss once ground is met. "Remind me to plant something here, later," he murmurs.

Ahoke nods. "I'll take that for a yes. So what's the battle plan now? We all going to town, or does one of us stay with the children?"

Harvester says, "Alright, we probably should keep the kids some ways out of town when we ring the bell... if Dead-boy dragon's influence is destroyed, Caleb may come back."

Sen-Jyu blinks. "What if it lives on through Caleb, though?"

Harvester speaks succinctly, "Then we ring the bell again. If it kills the body..." He shrugs.

Sen-Jyu hmms. "Yes, but it knows how to -pretend-."

Harvester shrugs, "Then bring 'em both. I suspect, however, that the ringing of Wyrmcall will shatter the shard within their brains. It may be the only way. or, the controlling mass within this sack may be destroyed, and free them. I don't know."

*Destroy them now, dwarf. They cannot stand before you. I controlled the others because they were weak, but you...you are strong. We could be partners...masters together over the lesser beings. You saw the worship I was given...that could be yours as well...*

Ahoke grimaces. "Do you honestly expect for me to believe that?" She does not seem to be addressing the party. "Yeah, but better they be dead than under that thing's thrall. Come on, I want to get well away from the mountain."

Sen-Jyu shrugs. "I'll stay, if you think it will kill them to hear the Wyrmcall." One hand brushes over the catatonic girl's face. "I would rather we had something to show for our promises and heroics."

Harvester shrugs, and unslings the scythe from his back. "I'm gonna get dressed first... Mind helping?" He begins to don his armor. "I half expect resistance from some of the townsfolk..."

Ahoke helps out. "I don't know if it will kill them or not, Sen. But I do know that it's going to take all of us to do this."

Sen-Jyu nods a little. "Very well. Wyrmcall's loud enough to cover this distance anyway, I suppose."

Ahoke nods. "True. So they'd be exposed to it one way or the other." After seeing Harvester's armor is on correctly, she starts marching towards the village. "I want ale," she moans. "And a hot-blooded dwarven lover."

Harvester remarks, "Witness how it has attempted to sway us three so far.. y'think the townsfolk'll resist easy?" He nods. "We should gag 'em both, at least. Cover their heads."
He nods and follows after Ahoke and Sen-Jyu, torch raised high in one hand if the darkness grows.

Ahoke gags the already blind-folded Caleb. "Sorry kid," she says gruffly. "But we can't trust you until we destroy Coppertop."

"Let's just be done with it. We could sneak in to town, ring the Wyrmcall, and if that's successful, well, great. I doubt anyone's sleeping, anyway." Sen-Jyu starts on the trail back to town.

Harvester adds as an afterthought, "The townsfolk and parents ain't gonna be thrilled having their kids trussed up like this... so watch it... We should try to sneak in." He nods with a laugh as Sen-Jyu speaks his own words.

Ahoke nods. "Well, it'll be full nightfall before we get to the town, probably. We /might/ be able to pull it off." She looks over the fivesome doubtfully.

Harvester makes certain of the bonds and gags on both girl and boy as they walk along.

The trek begins. The forms of the children seem to get heavier with every step - they are no babes to be carried easily in arms, and their presence slows you. The night gathers around you as you hike onward.
Ahoke stubbornly keeps ahold of her burden, slow as it might make her.

Sen-Jyu hums to the little girl as he goes, less a lullaby and more a cheery tune, which gets quieter the closer they get to town.

*Reconsider your course of action, priest. You seek to preserve this world's lore for the next one - I have seen it in your dreams. Think of the lore a dragon could teach. I know secrets that would be lost. Secrets of the earth, secrets of the mind...no, do not speak! Consider my words, instead.*

Harvester instead begins to recite a little prayer to He Who Is To Come, then, speaking softly to himself, "You have passed beyond the veil, wyrmling, but maintain your fearsome grasp upon this world.... Let go your fear... embrace my Master's welcoming arms... prepare for your rebirth in the world to come... imagine your potential, if you were so great a being in this time and place?"

Ahead, you see the river, and across it, the town of Bellhold. Lights still burn in the windows - candles and cookfires.

Ahoke sighs heavily, looking at Bellhold. "Well, they're still up."

Sen-Jyu, unsurprised, says "They're probably out of the habit of sleeping."

Ahoke nods. "Either that or they're sharpening their cooking knives, getting ready to cut out our livers."

*Fools. Did you think I had stopped merely because you had entered my home? I-*

Ahoke looks confused. "Did you guys hear it that time?

Sen-Jyu sniffs. "Do you really have a compulsion to call us 'fools' all the time? It just seems a bit uncalled for."

Ahoke hmms. "I wonder why it stopped."

Harvester speaks softly, "Shall I go ahead, and attempt entry into the tower?" He nods to Ahoke, "I did. And he appears to have interrupted himself. Let us make haste..."

Ahoke nods, heading towards the bridge, with some caution. She pauses, checking to see if it is lined by peasants with pitchforks.

Harvester says, "Because it's issuing new commands, I should think. Let us go more swiftly..." He begins to walk faster."

Sen-Jyu checks to see if he still has the earplugs.

It is not, as yet, lined with peasants bearing torches, pitchforks, and Frankenstein-rake-things.

Ahoke runs across the bridge.

"The Harvester, do you still have those earp... er, noseplugs?" Sen-Jyu asks softly.

Ahoke runs across the bridge, and continues trotting towards the town, with all of the subtlety in her dwarven body.

Harvester frowns for a moment, then reaches into a pocket, "Here y'go." He pauses, "Do we know how to get into the tower?"

Ahoke does slow down a little when she sees that her companions are still chatting.

Harvester continues his forward movement, not slowing the speedy little dwarf.

Ahoke says, jogging, "We bash down the door?"

Sen-Jyu chases after, calling ahead, "It's open."

Ahoke ohs. "Well, that certainly makes things easier."

Sen-Jyu tucks the wax plugs into a pocket.

Ahoke grunts, shifting Caleb's weight a little. "Don't make eye contact with anybody."

Harvester moves ahead of his slower companions, towards the belltower.

You cross the bridge and into town. Heading down the street, you suddenly realize that doors are beginning to open in the buildings around you. From the doorways, voices speak in eerie, pefect unison:

"It is already too late."

The figures that emerge stare at you with sapphire eyes.
 
Last edited:


Caliber said:
I always thought this part of the adventure (the villagers) was an extremely hard one. Maybe its different in play though ...
Click to expand...

Nah. All you need is a spider-climbing, potion of jump-drinking Kobold Monk on the team. and you'll be fine*.

Uh ... these guys do have one of those, right? Stored in their packs somewhere, maybe?


* arwink's 'Seldarn Empire - Copperheads' story hour
 

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