Session #20
“That’s right, sir,” the grizzled old shepherd said. “It swooped down and snatched up some uh me sheep. One in each claw and one in the mouth – swallowed it with one gulp.”
Jeremy studied the man. He was haggard, and leaned heavily on his shepherd’s crook. The man’s dogs had laid down at his feet, and a few sheep stood shivering moving in the tiny pockets of visible grass beneath the more than a foot of snow.
“Did it have four legs?” Jeremy asked the man. “I mean the dragon, not the sheep.”
Old Man Carson squinted his eyes. “Yessir, it had four legs, and a long tail. It was black and it seemed to cast a big shadow. It was all blurry like.”
“Really? Is there anything else you can tell me about it?”
“It swooped over the woods to the west and disappeared,” the man said. “It was fast, and I reckon it has been taking my sheep fer a while now.”
“How many sheep are missing?”
“`Bout Thirty-summin’,” the man said.
“How are you gonna eat?” Jeremy asked more curious than concerned.
“Prolly starve,” the man said and hung his head.
“Why not go somewhere else? Seems like the dragon is bad for your livelihood,” Jeremy suggested.
“Whut? And let that darn thing run us off?” the man spit and stood up straighter. “No damn orcs and no dang ogres droves us off, no dragon is gonna. Ain’t that what all youse young men trampin’ across me fields day and night are here to do? Take care of that drago nso we can have our livelihood?”
“Do you gave any family in town that can help you?” Jeremy asked.
“My son moved up aways to Summat. He’s too far away, prolly one of those fancy-schmancy goat-herders now! Sheeps ain’t good enough for a sherpherd from Summat,” the man sounded disgusted. “Well, I ain’t too good to fight to keep me sheep. Fought off ogres I did when I was your age. You ever seen an ogre?”
“Uh, no,” said Jeremy.
“Well, be alert!” The man leaned in close and whispered. “They about nine feet tall, black, kind of blurry. . .”
Now that the man was closer, Jeremy could see that one of his eyes was basically sealed shut with swollen puss-filled flesh, and that the infection seemed to be creeping along the bridge of his other already squinty eye.
Jeremy sighed.
“Well, Mister Carson, if you remember anything else, I’ll be staying at the Golden Plough,” Jeremy said to the man. “Or I may stop by again on my way west.”
-----------
Meanwhile, Jana had made her way to the general store and was buying things on a long list of gear the party might need that Kazrack had put together. It was difficult picking things out with the shop-keeper’s dog, Noah jumping all over her and licking her face whenever it could. Martin stopped by the store, and offered to help Jana carry the large bundles of things she had purchased, but it would take more than one trip.
Ratchis found a friend in a form a stray scraggily black and gray little mutt that just began to follow him around. It came when he called, but seemed unwilling to do anything else the half-orc ranger wanted it to do, Ratchis bought two long sausages from the innkeeper and fed one to the dog, and at the other.
“That old stray is always hanging around here,” the Innkeeper said. “I feed him sometimes in the winter, but he can’t come in the inn.”
Ratchis thanked the man and ran off into the woods, with his new companion chasing after him, barking happily.
The Friar of Nephthys came to a stream that emptied into an old quarry, and as the dog watched him and occasionally yapped, the half-orc tried to catch fish in his hands. The cold water was refreshing to him, protected by a spell granted to him by Nephthys.
------
Martin was looking around the general store, before carrying the last bundle back to the inn, when he came across bins of nuts.
“Oh, nuts!” Martin cried, happily.
“They’re a pound for 2 copper,” said Margen, the shop-keeper.
“What are all the kinds of nuts you have?” Martin asked.
“Oh, walnuts, hazelnuts…”
“Thomas, are you getting that?” Martin thought to his bonded companion, who until a moment before had lain snuggled on a pillow in Martin’s inn room.
“I’m comin’! I’m comin’!” the little squirrel said breathily, dashing towards the general store.
A few moments later, there was a scratching at the door, and Martin walked over and opened it. Thomas the Squirrel scurried in and then froze. Noah’s head jerked up and the big golden dog’s eyes locked with the bushy-tailed rodent’s. In a second the dog was charging after the squirrel who was running as fast as his little legs could take him back out the still open door.
“Thomas! Climb something!” Martin cried and thought.
“I’m climbing! I’m climbing!”
The dog was barking crazily and leaping against the inn’s outer wall, trying to reach Thomas who was looking down disdainfully from the drain pipe, out of harm’s way.
Margen ran out of his shop and pulled off his dog.
Thomas leapt down onto Martin’s shoulder, who had come out as well, and licked his little paws.
“That squirrel is yours?” Margen asked.
“He’s a pet,” Martin explained.
“And when he dies, you can eat him,” Margen said with a smile.
Martin felt Thomas’ claws dig deeply into the flesh of his shoulder.
“Let’s not talk about that,” he said. The Watch-Mage went back into the store and bought his familiar lots of nuts and dried apple as well.
-----
Later that afternoon, Ratchis, Jeremy, Martin and Jana were gathered in the common room of the Golden Plough to eat some dinner. The innkeeper had relented and allowed Ratchis to bring his new dog into the inn as long as he was responsible for it and cleaned up after it if it did its business. The dog lay down beneath the table, happily waiting for scraps from his new master.
Ratchis motioned down to the dog, “This is my new friend, Chance!”
The table was silent.
“That’s a bad name, Ratchis,” Jeremy said. “Trust me.”
Martin just glared at Ratchis, while Jana stood and left the table, just as the food was being served.
“See what you did?” Jeremy said, pausing to shove food into his mouth. “Now she’s gonna put a spell on you.”
It was silent for a moment.
“Could someone go tell Jana to come down before her food gets cold,” Ratchis said.
“Oh, I get it,” Jeremy said, his eyes widening. “This way you can get have Jana’s meal. That was devilishly clever of you.”
Ratchis glared at he Neergaardian.
“Go ahead! Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!” Jeremy egged him on.
Ratchis just went back to his own meal. Eventually, Jana and Martin returned, just as Kazrack came into the inn and took a seat with his companions, and motioned to the inn-keeper to bring him some food.
Ratchis’ dog leapt up and started shoving his snout in the dwarf’s crotch. Kazrack pushed him away playfully. The dog barked.
“Hey!” the inn-keeper yelled.
“Stop,” Ratchis grunted. “The innkeeper is nice enough to let me bring him in. Let’s not repay his kindness by being difficult.”
“Nice dog,” Kazrack asked, patting it on the head. “What’s its name?”
Jana, Martin and Jeremy looked up from their plates.
Ratchis paused, “Kwa!” It was obviously an orcish word. (40)
“Ugh,” Kazrack frowned. “I’ll call it ‘dog’. Nice dog!”
Jeremy told the others what he had learned from Old Man Carson, but added that the man’s testimony might be suspect because of his vision. He also added that the amount of snow that had fallen since the sighting would make looking for tracks impossible.
“If it hadn‘t left tracks we would have had evidence that it was an illusion,” said Martin.
“Well, we’ll never know now,” Kazrack said.
“Has anyone seen Beorth today?” Martin asked.
“Only when I first left on my errands this morning,” said Jeremy,. “But when I returned this afternoon he wasn’t around.”
As Ratchis had finished his first course, he went up to the room he and the Ghost-hunter had been sharing, and looked around. He found Beorth’s sword was still in its scabbard on the bed, but his quarterstaff was gone. The paladin’s pack was still there, but his fur cloak and jacket were gone, as was his armor. Looking through the bag, Jeremy also noted that Beorth had taken his soap, razor and prayer shawl.
The half-orc came downstairs to find Martin ending a chat with Wilson the Innkeeper. The two of them returned to the table.
Ratchis reported what he had found, and Martin added, “Wilson said that Beorth left sometime early this morning soon after we did.”
“Where did he go?” Jeremy asked.
“The innkeeper said he left with two figures, he guesses men, dressed as monks, and not for the weather, in thread-bare cloaks, and wearing sandals,” Martin explained.
“Why did he leave without saying anything?” Kazrack queried.
“Wilson said, Beorth seemed to leave with them of his own accord,” Martin replied.
Jeremy looked to Ratchis, “Was there a note in his room? You know, a piece of paper with writing on it?” The Neergaardian pantomimed writing.
“I know what a note is!” Ratchis shouted.
“Hey! How do I know what you know?”
They said he left of his own free will?” Kazrack mused. “What if he was ensorcelled?”
“Well, what are we going to do?” Martin asked. “Should we go looking for him?”
“The first thing we are going to do is keep this to ourselves,” Ratchis said. “With people like the Glaive running around (41) we don’t want the locals thinking one of our companions has wandered off.”
Everyone nodded.
Ratchis continued, “I am going to finish eating and then I’m going to look to see if I can find his tracks, we’ll make a choice based on that.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Kazrack. “I’d like to see how you do that.”
“Do you think you can cast your spell and ask where he is?” Jeremy asked Kazrack. “You mentioned something like that once.”
“Well, in the morning I’ll throw the stones, if Beorth does not return,” Kazrack said. “We cannot our friend.”
“But we cannot abandon the gnomes either,” Ratchis said.
“But Beorth might be in more immediate danger,” Kazrack said.
“We don’t know how immediate the danger is for the gnomes,” Ratchis said. “And I think Beorth would not want to know that more gnomes were hurt or killed because of him.”
“Point taken,” said Kazrack. “But tomorrow the stones will tell me what I need to know to make my decision.”
----------
Ratchis and Kazrack went out back through the door the innkeeper had said Beorth and the two strangers had left the Golden Plough. The half-orc ranger found the track easily, and he and the dwarf (and the dog, Kwa) followed them along the southern edge of town and to the eastern side, that overlooked the bluff that was littered with cave entrances. Here the snow had melted all morning, making frozen trails down the bluff to the plain beyond.
“They went down this way,” said Ratchis. “I think. But is it no good. I am not going to find good tracks here.”
----
Meanwhile, Martin had dragged Jeremy outside to help him practice with his illusions.
“I am going to make some opponents appear, and I want you to fight them and critique my control of them, so I can get better at convincing people,” Martin explained.
Martin made a replica of Ratchis appear, and Jeremy half-hearted tried to engage it.
“It is hard to do when I know it isn’t real,” said Jeremy. “But I think Ratchis is not a good choice, because someone so big is going to have a broad and powerful swing. But the little thrusts you do so as to not actually make contact are not convincing.”
Martin dismissed the illusion. “I will try something else, perhaps Beorth.”
“Can you make something else?” Jeremy asked. “Can you make…women?”
Martin raised an eyebrow.
“Aside from the other issues, they are not tangible,” the Watch-Mage answered.
“I guess not or else wizards would never leave their towers,” Jeremy replied. “But what I meant, was could you make Maria? She could fight.” (42)
Suddenly Jeremy’s mouth dropped open. “Wait a minute! How do I know Maria was ever real to begin with?”
“Huh?”
“How do I know the inn is real? Or you are real? Or anything? The world could be an illusion!” Jeremy reeled.
Martin sighed, “ Don’t think about it too much.”
“Okay,” Jeremy replied and readied his sword. Martin waved a hand, tossed a bit of fleece into the air and spoke three arcane words and a translucent humanoid thing appeared before Jeremy.
“Hey! I said Maria!”
Jeremy and Martin did this for a while longer until they were chased off the street by a town guard.
The party met back at the inn and bedded down for the night.
In the morning, Beorth had still not returned.
Teflem, 27th of Nueit – 564 H.E.
Again, Kazrack marched out to a lonely place (out near the quarry) and found a large stone to sit upon and invoking the power of the dwarven gods he contemplated the fate of Beorth and what the party’s best course of action might be, and then shook out the runestones from the bag.
He looked at them for a moment, and then took a deep breath, and began to move them into more regular patterns with his fingers as Belear had taught him, seeking the underlying patterns, reading the runes on more than one level - for dwarven runes represent letters, important religious words that begin with those letters and also represent numbers. He allowed his instinct and wisdom to take over, and came up with this reading:
. . .To follow Beorth would be to accompany him on a leg of his journey towards Death, which would only hasten your own. . .
---------
Kazrack made his way back into town, but decided to see the smith about getting his armor repaired, and perhaps purchasing a set of smithing tools.. He entered the claustrophobic shack that was adjacent to the actual smithy, and the smith immediate roared, “Get out!”
“Have I come here at a bad time? When should I return?” Kazrack asked.
“Never!”
“I’ve never met you before, what have I done to offend you?” the dwarf asked, genuinely curious.
“Just get out! We don’t serve your kind here!”
“My kind?”
“Grubbers! Get out!”
Kazrack let out a sigh and walked out, curing the smith under his breath.
--------
The dwarf met up with the others back at the inn.
“Did anyone notice anything unusual about the smith?” he asked.
“He seems a rather unpleasant fellow,” Martin said. “One might even say a narrow-minded bastard.”
Ratchis nodded.
“What did your rocks say?” Jeremy asked.
“Runestones!” Kazrack insisted, and then relayed what he had learned.
“I am not sure what to make of this message,” the dwarf said. “I am unafraid of death. If I have to die to save Beorth, or if retrieving him means I have to hasten my own death, then so be it.”
“Divination’s such an inexact science,” commented Martin.
“I question if we should go to our deaths at all,” said Ratchis.
“We have other responsibilities,” added Martin.
“As I said last night, would Beorth want us to risk the village of gnomes to save him?” Ratchis asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Jana.
“Sometimes it doesn’t matter what the person would want, but what is right,” Kazrack said.
“Is it not right to save these innocent gnomes?” Ratchis asked the dwarf.
The dwarf was silent for a moment, “You are right.”
So it was agreed that the party would go
Aze Nuquerna, after Martin went to the smith to try to purchase the smithing tools for Kazrack, as he was human. However, even after making sure that Martin’s “pig-thing” was nowhere around, he would not part with the tools for less than 22 pieces of silver, which was too rich for the party’s blood. Martin also arranged with Wilson the Innkeeper for Beorth’s things to be put in storage with a note for the paladin telling him where the party had gone should he return.
-------
Ratchis, Jana, Martin, Kazrack and Jeremy (followed by Kwa the dog) began the two hour march southwest of the Alderman’s manor towards the elven enclave. Ratchis took the lead, trudging throw the deep snow banks that occasionally blocked the game trail they followed, while trying to keep his new dog in line, as it kept leaping about him in circles, barking and running into the brush whenever he heard or smelled something.
“That dog is dumb,” Thomas said to Martin mentally.
“He’s just not as smart as you, Thomas,” Martin replied.
Thomas began to sing in Martin’s head like a child, “Dumb dog! Dumb dog! It’s a really dumb dog!”
Eventually, Ratchis got Kwa to walk beside him, but had to give a little angry shout when it looked like he might try to take off again.
“My father used to say you need to hit a dog to train him,” Martin called. “Or he’ll never learn.”
“That’s true of children as well,” commented Kazrack.
“My father said that as well,’ Martin said.
“The next I am teaching you two how to survive in the wilderness I will keep your suggested training methods in mind,” Ratchis said testily. “Now be quiet, we don’t know what we are getting into.”
They continued to march, and had just crossed a narrow stream, that seemed colder than anything they had ever encountered, when Kwa’s head jerked up and tilted to one side. He stopped moving, and when Ratchis noticed he stopped as well. The others continued to walk, but suddenly halted as they caught up.
“What is it, Kwa?” Ratchis asked gently.
The dog began to whimper and back up slowly.
“Be alert everyone,” Ratchis hissed, pulling the gnomish warhammer looking around. Kwa let out a yelp and took off past the party.
Martin tried to grab the dog as he passed, but stumbled into a bush instead and there he was face to face with a large white wolf that sniffed and growled at him.
“Oh my!” the Wtach-Mage stumbled backwards. “A wolf!”
“Don’t make any sudden moves, ‘Ratchis suggested, and Martin froze.
The wolf stepped towards the Watch-mage, and came out of the bush. Its white fur was darkened with mud, and suddenly it popped out of view and re-appeared beside Ratchis, sniffing and growling.
“Janx!” Jeremy cried.
“You know this animal?’ Martin asked bewildered.
“Yeah, his master or whatever as an elf girl we helped when he was sick,” Jeremy explained. “If he is the same…blink dog, that’s what they’re called.”
“Janx?” Ratchis put his hand out slowly towards the big dog. “Are you okay? Do you remember us?”
The white wolf-dog sniffed again and let out a yelp and howl, and then did that half-leap/half-prance dogs do when excited.
Ratchis went to pat the dog on the head, and it reared back and growled again.
“Sorry,” Ratchis said to Janx. The half-orce turned to the party. “I think it is Janx.”
At that moment the white dog popped out of view again and reappeared next to Jeremy.
“How does it move like that?” Martin asked.
“Magic, I guess,” said Kazrack. "I bet we are near the elven place and Tirhas is there."
Ratchis stepped over to the dog, “Is Tirhas around?”
Janx tilted his head and let out a low mournful howl.
“I think Tirhas is in trouble,” Jana said, sarcastically.
“Take us to Tirhas, Janx,” Jeremy urged, and the blink dog took off through the brush to their right, and the party took off after him.
The blink dog led the party to a huge sunken clearing, in which there stood a small lake of crystal blue water, perfectly bordered by nearly three feet of snow. Narrow trails in the deep snow seemed to have been shoveled out, and led about the lake to and from a huge structure to the south end of the clearing.
It was a fortress of some kind, made of tall logs and set upon a tall stone foundation. The roof was taller than the embankment the party stood upon taking in the sight, but there were definitely to lookout posts on each of the front corners, and a set two sets of steps perpendicular to a broader set that led to an alcove where the front doors stood closed. The rest of the structure was hidden in an area thick with trees and brambles, covered in deep snow, giving the place the place the impression as if it were half-buried, but the steps and the area immediately around them was completely cleared of snow.
Janx comically slid down the embankment, and the party followed, trying hard to keep their balance.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Jeremy said, softly.
The party slowly approached, and as they got closer, Janx fell further behind in the rank, seeming to have trepidations about approaching the place.
They could now see an elf standing on the eastern lookout above them looking out over the field. The figure’s armor shone in the bright sunlight of mid-day, but he did not seem to move or note them.
“Hello!” Jeremy called, waving.
“We come in peace,” said Kazrack.
“We seek you council and aid,” called Martin.
The elf did not reply, but continued to stare straight ahead, as if they were not there.
“There’s definitely something wrong here,” Martin said.
“Yesssss, I think so,” commented Jeremy.
The party looked around. All was completely silent. Ratchis moved to the other side of the central steps and saw another elf up on that side’s look out – that guard did not seem to notice them either.
Ratchis returned to the others. “We should send an emissary to knock on the doors and speak for us,” Kazrack said.
“But we should not all go, as to not seem like we’re threatening,” Martin said. “I’ll go.”
“We’ll go with you, but a few steps behind, just in case,” Kazrack said, gesturing to Ratchis. “And then the others will come a few feet behind us.”
It was agreed.
Martin climbed the steps, with Ratchis and Kazrack behind him, and they noticed a large stone statue of a rough humanoid form, with a monstrous protruding face, a swollen lump on its forehead, and muscular arms and legs, crouched above the door. Above the statue in a silvery plaque were the elven letters:
(43)
“I never thought of elves as decorating with statues like that,” said Jeremy.
“Why not?” Kazrack replied looking back at the Neergaardian. “Artwork is artwork.”
Martin paused about a quarter of the way up the main stairs, “I wish I’d studied elven. But no… I studied the goblinoid curriculum instead.”
“You can speak goblin?” Kazrack asked.
“No,” Martin replied and continued up the steps, or at least he tried.
Before he knew what was happening the statue above the door was no longer there and a sudden shadow about him was getting bigger and bigger. He looked up just in time to see the statue, now an animate creature land atop him with clawed feet.
All went black for the Watch-Mage as he tumbled backward down a few the steps, blood pouring from his head. He was unconscious and bleeding to death.
The creature roared, and Ratchis and Kazrack drew their weapons.
Notes:
(40)
Kwa translates roughly into common as “luck” or “chance”.
(41) The party discovered the Glaive was a bounty-hunter in Session #18.
(42) The party met Maria at the Royal Banquet in Gothanius castle in Session #12.
(43) This read Aze Nuquerna, which roughly translates to
“Over the Dark Pit”.
