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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paka" data-source="post: 926560" data-attributes="member: 100">Story Post #6Leaving the Square Before they reached the Square, Prince Vorden put his servant boy, Kaza, up a nearby tree with instructions to only come down when Vorden returned. Then they fought the Fell in the Square, with the Legate taking six for his own and the rest of them dying on Orcish Vardatch or Elvish Magicks or Karhound’s blade. When the Manticore exploded from his resting place under the rubble the party sprang into action. Prince Vorden got behind the Legate and his two Orcish bodyguards, frantically looking for mention of this beast in his Lorebook. Karhoun was closest to the beast, lucky to not have been within his immediate view, he took out his bastard sword and prepared for battle. Unaros sent his newly aquired Fell minions to surround Karhoun, “Protect him at all costs,” he had yelled. Thannil, the Gnomish Merchant, ran as fast as his little feet could take him. Thannil quickly made his way out of the square and turned the corner still sprinting. He hadn’t forgotten the Gnomish barge he had seen in Whitecliff’s bay when he first entered the city. If he was lucky they were still waiting for the morning tide to take them away. He nearly ran into the Goblins’ spears. They had been sent out by Karhoun after the entourage defeated the Fell to scout the perimeter. When they heard the Manticore’s roar they pretended they heard nothing, not wanting to see what had created such a din. “Where’re you going, Gnome?” Thannil tried to explain but they wouldn’t hear it. Finally, he turned on the charm (Charm Person) “There is a terrible monster over that way. If you want to die, that is fine, go ahead and die. But I’m going to the docks where it is nice and safe. You can go with me if you want to.” To one of the Goblins, this seemed like a perfectly good plan. The other Goblin, while not convinced, wasn’t going to contradict two, when he was only one. They followed the Gnome down to the docks. The crossbow bolts came as a surprise to everyone, Thannil included. They weren’t meant for him, though. His Goblin companions fell over quickly, dead from the ambush. They came out of the brush with short swords in hand, still not sure of this Gnome who walked through Whitecliff with Goblins for friends. The eldest asked who he was at swordspoint while the other two Gnomes collected their crossbow bolts from the Goblin corpses. When they had heard his story they decided to take him to the ship, let their father figure out what to do. Thannil had mentioned his friend, Prince Vorden, son of a Night King. He didn’t seem like the sort of fellow their father would want to meet. “I am Easthoven and these are my brothers, West and Southhoven. We are named after the parts of the world where we were born.” Prince Vorden, having excused himself from the supper with the Manticore, came upon all of them, introduced himself and told them his plan. “We will go find Bolus and Kaza before they reach the Legate. We will take them to the Gnome’s boat so they can be free and then go the rest of the way to Baden’s Bluff on foot. If the Manticore leaves and the opportunity presents itself, we will be on the boat before it leaves on the morning tide.” The Manticore Feeds and Departs  Karhoun was careful to stay out of paw’s reach of the Manticore while he spitted the dead Orcs on the Goblin spears. He threw the dead Orcs on the fire pit the Manticore had built while the Legate spoke with him of his plans to reach Baden’s Bluff. Unaros was clearly in shock, never having met a creature like this before and stammered his way through the conversation. During the conversation Thannil and Vorden and Kaza returned. Thannil had a cut along his face that was still bleeding. Vorden explained that they had been ambushed by human bandits and barely got away with their lives. “I am sorry, Unaros, but they killed Bolus, here is his belt, the only thing of value he had on him. We came upon them while they were taking crossbow bolts out of the Goblins Karhoun sent to scout the perimeter.” The Manticore asked if they knew where the humans were laired but they did not. Karhoun and Unaros’s fear of the Manticore clearly amused and pleased him. After eating the two Orcs he had killed along with the one unconscious from the Gnome’s stone he left, wishing the young Legate and his friends good luck on their journey. He flew away, hoping to come upon the bandits so that he could break fast tomorrow morning on human meat. Bolus the Slave  After the Fell had been defeated they sent Bolus, the Legate’s Halfling slave back to the tree where the Elf had stowed his boy. Bolus went as ordered and got to the tree. He ordered the boy down but Kaza, remember the Crimson Prince’s orders, refused. Bolus wasn’t used to failing his master and refused to go back empty-handed. “Boy, if you do not come down this instant I will hand you over to the Orc for a good buggering. They will do things to you that your pathetic mind couldn’t hope to imagine. I even heard their leader, Suk, remarking on how he favored young boys.” Kaza figured that Bolus was lying for at least part of that but came down from the tree anyway, careful that his pack filled with Prince Vorden’s alchemical lab wasn’t damaged in his descent. They were a few feet away from the tree, making their way back to the square when Vorden and Thannil found them. Vorden spoke quickly and succinctly, “We have made contact with some Gnomish smugglers and they will take you to freedom.” Both Kaza and Bolus looked puzzled. Bolus spoke first, “Is this some kind of trick? A test from Master Unaros?” Vorden and Thannil shook their heads. Maybe it wasn’t a trick. In the end, Kaza elected to stay with Prince Vorden, in hopes that he would be able to send for his mother soon. Bolus was taken back to the docks and left with the Gnomish brothers, Easthoven, Westhoven and Southoven. Together they took him back to their hidden ship, Garl’s Pride. Bolus watched Vorden, Thannil and Kaza depart and then asked the Gnomes, “Could I have a dagger? Master would never allow me to carry one and it would mean I was truly free.” Southoven, the youngest of them, was happy to give the Halfling his first dagger. “We will have you back on the Halfling plains in no time, friend. Welcome to freedom out from under the shadow.” "There is no life without Shadow," and the Halfling deftly hit the young Gnome in the throat, a nasty shot with the dagger’s tip. Instantly, West and Easthoven were covered in Southoven’s blood. The brothers saw to their youngest sibling’s wound while Bolus ran away, hoping to reach his Master before the sun went down on this damned city.</blockquote>

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