[KAUAI]The Rod of Seven Parts: Of Hexes and Gems

[Voadam]

Voadam comes back into the main chamber shutting his spellbook and returning it to his backpack. "No." He says. "It was not a piece of her soul haunting the cave, but a servant of the Queen sent here against us. It boasted of such during its attack. A demon shadow with wings and summoning magics. Translated into the tongue of man it said

"Garn and gone, garn too long;
to drink, to taste, to gnaw on bone.
Miska one, kakku'u two,
all the yarns lead to you"

And then when I engaged it in its own tongue it said

Canst thee make the daylight flee?
Canst thee bend time for me?
No?
For shame, for shame.
I come for lust and hunger home,
Not like you, for love of tome.
The Queen he cried, the Queen!
Fetch for me the Green.

When we brought light against it, and Chev struck true after enchanting his axe it switched to the common tongue and said

Where creatures of light
fear no night,
let us see, oh yes.
Confess!
Wither will you go in Her darkness?"

And turned itself into a maelstrom of darkness that swallowed our natural and magical light. With that it then attempted more involved magics, but Chev's blade cut that short and caused it to flee. Normal weapons did not affect it, even when given an enchantment of light.

The woman was separate, she managed to drag herself up from below, but the demon arrived before she could reach us. She died on the ground of her wounds before we even knew she was not the beast we expected from the side cavern below. She is the daughter of the regent of the Kingdom of Jorunne. We will have to bring her body out when we are done."

 

[SlagMortar]

Brakkus wakens in time to hear Voadam's summary of what the demon had to say after a long night of fitful sleep. He sees Maelicent has returned and looks a bit of a mess. Well, he is a goblin afterall. Looking at Voadam, he asks, "Any of what the demon said make any sense to you? My brother Ander would probably see all kinds of symbolism and metaphor and note the sinambic pentometer or some such, but even translated it doesn't make much more sense to me."

 

[Voadam]

"The Queen sent it out here to hunt down the fragments of the Rod, knowing we were connected to at least one of them. This shadow demon had been hunting the rod for a long time and hungers for the return.

The Queen was asked specifically to also task the demon with fetching "The Green" which sounds like my old friend asking for me to be abducted. And She went along with it. It is possible that "the green" refers to something else though and it is a mere coincidence of phrasing that matches the title the demon lord Aspect knows me by.

Now then the kakku'u is the new reference I wish I had been able to wrest out of the demon's doggerel but unfortunately I was not able to entice it to further explanations on that score. I do not know if that is the name of the shadow demon or another servant of the Queen on the level of Miska. From the way it hissed though it did not sound like a proper name, more like a thing which was a lead pointing to us. Or to me. In any case I intend to find out more about kakku'u later.

So the Queen's servants include spider wolves and shadow demons."

 

[Mista Collins]

"And I'm sure her servants and soldiers won't stop at those two types." Chev says as he gathers his axe and shield. "You seem to know a lot about this Queen. Your knowledge might prove useful in our battles with her servants."

Walking to the cave entrance, Chev starts hauling up the food and firewood Mael bundled at the bottom of it.

 

[Ambrus]

Maelicent attempts to follow the Green Wizard's rambling, but as usual Voadam's eloquence and verbosity prove to be more formidable than a forest of malicious trees to the poor goblin. The Gudwulf warrior does manage to latch on to the giant-kin's last words as they seem a neat summation and the crux of the issue. Maelicent nods knowingly in response. "So, shadow-demons and spider-wolves then? Aright..." Waiting for Chev to finish hauling up the load, the goblin then goes about untying and coiling his new rope. Taking out his knives, the goblin prepares to clean and dress the rabbit carcass. "So ah... there's a princess' corpse about then? Must be tha stench I smell. Where's about'cha put her?"

 

[Voadam]

"We made a cairn in the niche up above to keep scavengers off as we head down to recover the second Rod." Voadam shakes his head. "We still have the frogmen and possibly the side chamber beast to deal with, plus possibly the return of the shadow demon."

 

[Ambrus]

"Eh. I aint too worried bout em, not after facin off against a murderous forest." The goblin looks over towards the blocked up side chamber. "If ya want ta keep tha smell and vermin outta her hide it'd be best ta set up that hole like a smoke-house. After I clean an hang sum of tha rabbit meat in there, I'll wrap up some smolderin coals in some greenwood an leaves real tight; no flames, just lots of smoke. It'll mask tha rottin smell, cure her hide an tha meat an keep tha rats an grubs off em. Then they'll keep for weeks." Rummaging through the wood pile Chev had just hauled up, Maelicent picks up some twigs and chips he'd collected in the wood and licks his lips hungrily. "Never tried no mallorn-smoked horned rabbit. Mmm. You get a small fire going on the ledge while I clean an dress tha carcass. Aright?"

 

[Voadam]

"What's a mallorn?"

 

[Ambrus]

The Gudwulf warrior holds up a charred piece of wood and grins maliciously.
"Kindling."

 

[Ambrus]

The goblin steps out onto the ledge to survey the cowed forest below. Propping the giant-rabbit carcass up against the crag wall, Maelicent pulls back its limbs and head to reveal its soft underbelly and begins to cut away the creature's sodden pelt. Cutting into the abdominal cavity the industrious goblin then disembowels the creature, tossing the viscera over the edge to land on the forest floor below. Stepping aside to allow the creature's fluids to drain down the cliff-face, Maelicent re-enters the cave. "That'll take a bit ta drain. Ya giants care for some roast haunch?"

With some time to spare, the Gudwulf warrior clears the rubble from in front of the side-room's door to gain entry. Climbing into the darkened area beyond, Maelicent takes a few minutes to examine the cubby and its newer contents.[sblock=OOC]Search +0, taking 20 on the room and body. Aside from looking for concealed objects and hidden passageways, Mael is also seeking for vermin nests to clear out along with a way to hang long strips of meat inside the room; perhaps from hooks or stony protrusions if there are any, or by erecting a clothesline of sorts otherwise.

I'm assuming that Mael's +8 Survival skill is sufficient to clean, dress, smoke and cook the giant-rabbit carcass.[/sblock]Once satisfied that the cubby will serve as a makeshift smoke-house, Maelicent exits the cave to resume his butchering task outside. The goblin first cuts away a haunch and, using one of the sticks he'd collected earlier, spits the meat for roasting over the fire he'd asked Voadam to build. The rest of the carcass Maelicent butchers into appropriately sized cuts of meat for smoking; moving each piece into the cubby as it is made ready.

While the first haunch of giant-rabbit cooks over the open fire, Maelicent readies a few tight bundles of mallorn wood-chips and green leaves. Setting them on the cubby floor, the goblin carefully lights each so that they'll burn slow and without flame, while in turn producing thick smoke. Clearing out of the cubby, Maelicent closes the door behind him and carefully seals its edges tightly with strips from what was left of the cloth sack he'd started cutting up the previous evening.

Maelicent then returns to check on the roasting haunch outside. When ready the Gudwulf warrior will begin dividing the cooked meat and passing some out to his giant-kin allies.