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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Altalazar" data-source="post: 3083475" data-attributes="member: 939">Book XII    Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Twenty-Nine – Dragonslayers, Ugh.      Two months passed, and much was done constructing Kyrnyn’s temple, as well as my own quarters attached to the same.  I bought and sold items of magical power, the better to enhance my intellect and protect my body from the claws of ravenous beasts.  I spent many nights plying the lower ranks of the nobility with coin and drink, learning their secrets more from what they did not say, as I pried their thoughts.  Unsurprisingly, most of the petty nobles wore their titles more as “petty” than “noble,” more concerned with preening and palace intrigue than they were with real power, political or economic.  The sheep are ripe for fleecing.      One evening, much like the rest, my companions and I were enjoying some fine food and drink when a lad of tender years ran up to us.  Or rather, he ran right past us, saw us as he ran by, then almost ran right into the kitchen, knocking down several serving wenches before he stopped his forward momentum, turned around, and came back to us.  He read a prepared note from Tuvstarr, one of the noble five, the loremaster.  Amidst its flowery prose and irrelevant asides, it summoned us to her library to parlay about a service.  It also exhorted us to pick a name for our band.  I heard Ee, both say it and think it at the same time, “Dragonslayers!”  Before I could correct him, the lad was off, though I did impart the high-speak version of the name, “Dracos Mortis.”  Somehow I did not think that would stick.      On the whole, it is better to be named than not, but I rather thought it would have been good for this naming ceremony be cut short by an arrow in Ee’s throat as he tried to say it.  Ee would have appreciated that.      At least the name was accurate, if somewhat narrowly focused.  We had killed two dragons.  One Black, one White.  From my limited knowledge of dragonlore, we need only kill a Green, Blue, and Red to complete the five chromatic dragons of evil.  I am quite content to let that take a long time.      We arrived at Tuvstarr’s home within minutes, meeting many more of her young charges.  Surprisingly, they let not only Kyrnyn’s owl (druid) inside, but his newly minted dire lion companion as well.  She must like cats.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Thirty – A King’s Errand    Tuvstarr was much as I remembered her: very studious, and very hard to keep on track as she found a thousand things to say about every small tangent of conversation.  I noted that her mind was sealed off from scrutiny, obviously a mindblanking effect, I suspected by magic, though very similar to the protections I afforded my own mind.  I was almost grateful for that, as I suspected her mind was probably going off in even more tangents than her unbridled mouth.      Looking closely at her mouth, and at her fingers, I noted something else.  She was definitely a tiefling, as my stolen knowledge of things planar informed me.  Well, at least we know upfront we’re being hired by a demon.      Once the tangents dissolved, Tuvstarr informed us that there were villagers 800 miles to the west who were disappearing.  Not just villagers.  Whole villages of villagers.  She was clearly upset by this and wanted to take care of it herself, but the King had summoned the Noble Five on a task of his own, and had, in fact, recommended us to her to take care of her villager issues in her place.      Thus satisfied, she was kind enough to teleport us all to the location before departing.  Because I knew I could not contact her directly due to her mind protection, I instead touched the hands of her young charges, figuring a message to any one of them would quickly find its way to her, one way or another.  Assuming she survived the King’s other task.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Thirty-One – Village Depopulated, Animals Rule    The first village we arrived in was empty of all people, clear signs of violent struggle everywhere.  The stains of blood were far less than one would expect from a massacre.  The tracks in the ground suggested they were dragged away in chains and ropes, for what purpose, we knew not.  Only the farm animals remained, standing mute, eating the grasses growing in the untended streets, eating the food untended in the open and empty houses.  I idly wondered if this was the fate that waited for us all, if humans and humanoids wiped each other off the face of the world in a magical apocalypse, leaving the animals to rule.  I wondered what sort of legal system they would create.  I wondered which animals would make the best lawyers.  Of that, I was not sure, but upon seeing the satisfaction of one rather large, fat cow sitting in the remains of a fancy chair, I had an inkling of who would make the best judges.      We left the village and followed the tracks, finally finding an abbey on a hill, surrounded by a large wall with a demolished gate.  We stopped there to cautiously evaluate our approach.          Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Thirty-Two – Stones talk, Demons stalk     Kyrnyn’s owl stood on the paving stones just outside of the smashed gate doors in the twelve foot high wall.  He began a conversation with one of those stones, trying to ascertain who walked past, and when.  To put it frankly, the paving stone was dumb as a rock and was not much help.  In the meanwhile, as our eyes focused on the stones, ten pairs of eyes stalked us, suddenly leaping through the shattered gate from beyond the wall.      Howlers.  Demon hounds with projectile spines, ten in all, nearly surrounded us at once.  I again thanked our prior demon employer for all the knowledge of such things I had taken from his mind.  It pays to know thine enemy.      It also pays to know one’s friends.  Ee did something I’d never seen him do before: he sailed sixty feet through the air, as effortlessly as walking, and flew over the heads of the demons to the one by the gate, hacking it with Bertha, his axe and best friend.  What was even more strange to watch was the way time almost seemed to slow down as he did it, though I think it was more my shock than his flight that slowed down the clock in my mind.      Just as it seemed dire, as they surrounded us, their large demon hides almost blocking out the sun from our view, I heard Kyrnyn behind me say a word so loudly and so powerfully, it made the ground shake.  I could not understand what the word was, and soon I heard nothing at all as it deafened me.  At the same time, almost all of the demons shimmered and vanished, banished back to their home planes, if I read Kyrnyn’s mind correctly.  The remaining demons stood unmoving, clearly stunned into submission by Kyrnyn’s holy word.  I dropped my own plans to protect myself with my mind and instead drew out my silver dagger, long left unused since I used it to solve the puzzle in the sewers so many moons ago.  I then proceeded to dig into the demonflesh with my hands, trying to cut toward its demon heart.  It took some time, even with Ee’s help, but I finally slayed a demon using my own two hands and a knife.  It was strangely satisfying.  I had never before killed anything using my own hands.  It had always been by my mind alone.  The demon blood smelled sweet and pungent at the same time as it dripped from my silver dagger.  I quickly washed it with a damp rag and placed it back into its jeweled sheath.  I expect it will be some time before I kill with it again.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Thirty-Three – Two deaths, one orc    We entered the grounds before the abbey, finding a small structure to our right and another to our left.  We went right first, and entered the two story building that reeked of demons and brimstone.  Kyrnyn said it appeared to have been blasted by a fireball from some arcane user of magic.      Inside, there was much debris and there was a spiral staircase in the corner leading to the second story.  Morwen cautiously went up the stairs.  I heard some shuffling of feet, then I saw Morwen’s body drop down the stairs onto the floor below, lifeless.  Kyrnyn came to her first, but realized he was unable to revive her, that divine gift not having been prepared for the day, and he quickly ran up the stairs to face whatever foul demon awaited us there.      I ran toward her body, and quickly placed my hand on her forehead.  Before I knew what I was doing, I felt my own life-essence drain out of me, experiences long remembered slipped from my mind, and I felt her stir beneath my fingertips.  A vision of other places, other planes, swam before my eyes before slamming into my mind and everything went black.  When I opened my eyes, Morwen was standing alive before me, looking rather surprised.  Unfortunately, Kyrnyn was now laying at the base of the stairs, as dead as Morwen had been the moment before.      Before I could react, the owl, now a bat, had flown to his side and touched his still-warm corpse.  The air above the body seemed to shimmer, then another body formed.  A hairy, muscular body floated there in the air before settling to the ground beside Kyrnyn.  It was an orc.  Soon, an orcish voice asked “what happened.”  But looking at that orc’s mind, it was Kyrnyn’s.  He was alive, though now in a body not his own.  Unfortunately, he was also naked, his body still wearing all of his prior belongings, including his clothes and armor.  He was also angry, but I could not discern if it was from dying or from being an orc.  A small part of his mind concluded it was far better than being an Ettin, which was his curse for the many years that preceeded his joining our band.  (I can still not quite call us “Dragonslayers” – I will see if that name truly sticks).      Kyrnyn quickly rushed upstairs, leaving behind his body and his belongings, raging almost as surely as the barbarian as Ee ran up as well.  I felt it was unwise to run up those stairs, and instead appeared in a corner of the room above, my thought made real.  The first thing I saw was the bat turned polar bear charge some strange bald beast hiding behind an old crate.  I also saw Morwen, now blindfolded, walking toward the beast, her rapier out like a cane for the blind.  Unsure of what sort of beast it was, and knowing it was deadly, I pointed my finger at the beast and sent out a ray just as the polar bear grappled it.  For a split second, I worried I had struck the polar bear and not the beast, but my aim was true and the beast vanished in a puff of dust.      It was at that point that Morwen took her blindfold off and discovered the naked orc among us.  We all silently agreed we would never speak of this again.  In the fireplace there, we found a box with several potions, a magical dagger, and a magical javelin.  There was also a wand that Kyrnyn said would aid in our healing.      Kyrnyn gathered his belongings from his former body and, we left to examine the other structure.  There, we found nothing but smashed crates and barrels, with one exception.  A cask of fine wine worth between 50 and 500 pieces of gold remained intact.      The grounds thus scoured, we turned toward the path and looked at the abbey above.  I silently hoped we would not find as much death there as we had on its unhallowed grounds.</blockquote>

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