complete session
Session #72
“I knew we had a bottle of wine back there,” Dorn said, as he came out of the bedroom pulling at a wine bottle’s cork. “Oh! Hi, Ratchis!”
A thin gray smoke filled the room, and Ratchis noticed a couple of pipes on the table where the warlock sat.
“I have no quarrel with you,” Rindalith said, slowly getting to his feet and putting up both long-fingered hands. Long white hairs curled away wildly from the middle-aged man’s thick black locks.
“He is delaying us in order to use foul magic!” Kazrack said, pushing past Ratchis into the room as soon as he noted what was going on. Martin the Green threw his back to the corridor wall just outside the door, remembering the forking lightning bolt of their last encounter (1)
“But I have come to you in friendship, Kazrack,” Rindalith said, soothingly. He waved the fingers of his left hand once. The dwarf pulled short of the tackle he originally intended.
“Uh, very well, you came unexpectedly; my apologies,” Kazrack said, looking back to Ratchis with confusion on his face.
“Hey, what’s going on? Your friend has been entertaining me,” Dorn said, a dumb-founded look lodged on his face. He still held the bottle of wine.
“He has mind-controlled Kazrack and perhaps Dorn,” Ratchis warned Martin. The half-orc yanked the dagger he kept on his black bracers with the momentum of his charge at the pale warlock. “Let’s see if your charm spells work on me!”
“Is that how this is going to be? Fine,” Rindalith said, sounding bored. He stepped back as Ratchis’ blade cut at his forearm, but the Friar of Nephthys never got to follow up the blow, as out from behind Dorn leapt a dog of utter darkness. It was a mastiff made of shadow itself and it leapt at Ratchis, ripping at his arm and hip.
“Stand down, friends!’ Kazrack said, raising his hands. “If Rindalith meant us harm he would have done so by now. Now, let me cast a spell to protect us from the dog-shade.” And with that he cast Protection from Evil on himself. Serendipitously, the spell also blocked magics that controlled from without, so the dwarf was clear-headed once again.
“Langsam!” chanted Rindalith, and Kazrack and Ratchis felt their limbs cramp up slowing down their movement incredibly.
The shadow mastiff ripped at Ratchis’ arm, keeping him from stopping Rindalith.
“Dorn! Don’t choose between me and Rindalith! Get this damn dog off me!” Ratchis barked, and Dorn drew his sword, as if awakening from a dream, and cut at the shadow beast.
The dog, bewildered, let go of Ratchis, and the half-orc did not hesitate. Hearing the words of a spell on the warlock’s lips again, Ratchis grabbed Rindalith, pinning the lanky man’s arms to his side and squeezed with all his might. The words of the spell died on the man’s lips and he grunted in pain, as Kazrack came around and slammed his hairy knuckles into the warlock’s face several times as Ratchis held him.
Rindalith managed to gain purchase against the chair he had been sitting on and kicked back, sending Ratchis into a spin. Kazrack had to hold his punch to keep from hitting his companion, but the half-orc did not let go. He squeezed more and smiled as he heard Rindalith’s frantic chanting interrupted by agony again and again.
“Turn him around!” Kazrack cried, as Ratchis and Rindalith continued to struggle. The dwarf pulled off the weighted sack about his halberd blade and turned to help Dorn, who seemed to be barely keeping the shadow mastiff at bay. Martin stepped into the room with authority, mentally moving his arcane shield to move before him, and cried, “Lentus!”
The dog’s silent barking slowed, but Rindalith seemed to wriggle with no less vigor in Ratchis’ arms.
“Bilden sich v’einem affen! Rindalith cried with his last breath, and the sputtering choke turned into a cry of victory, as his chest began to expand and fill with air. Ratchis buckled down trying to keep his arms tightly secure, but both of Rindalith’s arms began to lengthen and thicken, and his cloak and clothes shriveled and then bloomed with black and brown hair. Rindalith’s shoulders exploded outward and the half-orc roared in pain as he was forced to let go; a nearly seven-foot ape where Rindalith had just been.
Crying out in surprise, Kazrack spun around and slammed the head of his halberd in the ape’s chest, drawing blood. The ape knocked the pole arm back and slapped Ratchis with the back of a hairy hand with disdain that was evident through the warlock’s now simian features.
Martin the Green reached into his bag of tricks and tossed a furry ball at the shadowy dog. The thing expanded into a raging wolverine that began to savage it. Dorn felt the satisfaction of his blade seeming to actually pierce the thing while it was distracted. The dog was able to reach past its new foe and grab Dorn’s thigh in its jaws and pull. The sandy-haired warrior was pulled off his feet.
Not waiting to draw his weapon, Ratchis slammed Rindalith with a fist, but the new form was resilient. Two slamming blows with his great hairy arms, and Ratchis was on the floor stunned and struggling to get back up. Rindalith grunted with satisfaction, and then howled, feeling the bite of Kazrack’s halberd in his side. He leapt away, but more blood was pouring down his leg.
Ratchis stood, but Rindalith was already bounding out the door into the hall beyond his reach.
Kazrack thrust his halberd into the mastiff, and for the first time it mimed a yelp. It retreated into Martin’s path and nipped at the wizard as he took off after Rindalith.
It turned back around and looked at Kazrack, Dorn and now Ratchis beginning to encircle it, as the wolverine leapt back into the fray, and let out a long howl.
Kazrack dropped his halberd and turning fled into the bedrooms slamming the door shut in abject panic, passed only by Dorn who threw himself beneath his bed to shiver in the corner.
The wolverine, unnerved by the howl as well, took off to follow its master out into the hall.
Ratchis managed to get the peace-knot off his great sword and unsling it. Unaffected by the fear, he chopped the dog three times and it dissipated into nothingness.
He went into the bedroom with slowed strides to see to Kazrack and Dorn.
Thomas leapt from Martin’s shoulder up onto a rafter above the stairs, as his master hustled to keep up with the amazingly fast, yet still loping gait of Rindalith in ape form.
There were screams from the common room as the ape smashed through past the barmaids and the regulars and out the door.
“Out of the way! Out of the way! Wild ape!” Martin cried, as he chased after.
He could hear an echo of the cries as the wolverine came running along behind and finally caught up.
The narrow streets of Nikar were abandoned, leaving only the light of the rising moon to lick up and down alleys. The ape loped through the shadows weaving in and out as it headed for the tier edge. His heart pounding in his chest and his breath hot in his throat, Martin continued to give chase, commanding the wolverine to go ahead and try to catch the warlock-ape, if it could.
The ape’s silhouette moved out into the open area free of buildings that marked the edge of the plateau, now making a beeline for the low wall.
“Natan-Ahb’s Beard!” Martin heard a dwarven town guard cry out as the ape rushed past him. Martin and his wolverine rushed by right after. “Halt!”
“It’s a warlock! I mean, a witch! Wild ape! Wild ape!” Martin cried, not sure which would make the guard more likely to help him.
“I said, halt!” the dwarf cried again. He pulled his crossbow from his back and began to load a quarrel into it.
“You can’t let him get away!” Martin cried, still running. The wolverine leapt at the ape, but Rindalith turned around and slammed it away. The vicious little thing disappeared as it fell to the earth again.
The ape’s form began to melt back into the tall gaunt man. Martin stopped about sixty feet from him and readied a spell.
“You will regret you chose to fight and not talk,” Rindalith hissed.
“Get down on your knees and put your hands on your heads!” the dwarf commanded.
“We could be discussing this in a civilized fashion, but instead I am certain you will spend the evening extricating yourself from a mess,” Rindalith added, his skin began to turn brown, as his arms began to extend and fill in the space below, connecting to the trunk of his body. As he spoke, his mouth began to twist and protrude with fangs. “I leave you to your fate.”
And with that he turned and flung himself over the low wall, a moment later a huge brown bat glided back up into view and then away into the darkness.
“I need to speak to Councilor Lydia immediately!” Martin said, spinning around to face the dwarven guard.
The guard’s jaw was resting on his chest, but he gathered his wits and spoke through gritted teeth. “Get down on your knees and put your hands on your head. Right now!”
Martin sighed and complied.
“I need to speak to Councilor Lydia right away,” Martin said again.
“Shut your yap, and if I see your nose so much as twitch I am going put this here bolt right in your eye,” the dwarven guard said, as he kept it pointed with one hand and reached for a horn resting on his mailed chest. He gave it three low short hoots.
“Martin!” Ratchis came out into the open around the corner of a building. He had sheathed his great sword, and returned his dagger to the sheath on his left bracer.
The dwarven guard spun around startled, and then spun back to cover Martin again, and then back.
“This is a misunderstanding,” Ratchis said, stepping forward slowly.
“Take another step pig-f*cker. I dare you!” There was another barking dwarven voice as two more guards came charging into the open, crossbows in hand.
Ratchis raised his hands and snarled.
Three more guards arrived momentarily, though these were human and deferred to the first ones.
“I’m telling you, Lydia needs to be informed of this,” Martin pleaded.
“I am sure Captain Lodestone will let her and the other council members know if they need to,” the dwarven lieutenant replied.
They were relieved of their weapons and components and led towards the stairs down to the guardhouse on the central tier.
“What took you so long?” Martin asked.
“Kazrack is still charmed,” Ratchis replied. (2) “I was able to break the spell on Dorn, but Kazrack…”
“Quiet!” One of the dwarves barked.
“And I was slowed,” Ratchis whispered.
Martin and Ratchis were made to sit in an open holding cell for the Captain to arrive. It was ten minutes later that Kazrack and Dorn were led in as well.
Dorn wore a long face. “I’m sorry, Ratchis,” he said meekly.
“There is nothing you could have done,” Ratchis replied.
“But he charmed me so easily. Doesn’t that mean my will is weak?” Dorn asked.
“No. It only shows how insidious such magic can be.”
“What are you talking about?” Kazrack frowned.
“You are charmed by Rindalith,” Ratchis replied.
“No, I am not.”
“Yes, you are,” Ratchis said. “Don’t you remember when it temporarily was not working?”
“Uh, all I know is that Rindalith came to us peacefully and suddenly you attacked Rindalith and shadow dog-thing attacked us, and sure I helped, but only to break up the fight. You are a dear friend D’nar. I would choose you over him, but the point is, it needn’t have been that way if you had accepted his overture of friendship.” Kazrack explained.
“You are charmed,” Ratchis repeated and Martin nodded.
“It happened to me,” said Dorn, not looking up.
“Nonsense! Dwarves cannot be charmed,” Kazrack insisted.
“Shut up in there!” came a cry from the guards.
Captain Marno Lodestone arrived with a grimace etched onto his face, his eyes burning with a dull fire as if he had felt the pain of it.
“Your kind never learn,” he said, looking at Ratchis and then to others and then letting his eyes rest on the half-orc again, and then pointed to Kazrack. “Master Delver, we will start with you.”
“I can certainly clear this whole mess up,” Kazrack said, standing. “You see it was really a misunderstanding with an old friend.”
“He is charmed,” Ratchis said, standing. “All he says is tainted by that foul magic.”
“Don’t be silly, Ratchis,” Kazrack said. “Captain, I assure you I am not charmed. Dwarves are too stout for magic to affect us easily, as you well know.”
The Captain nodded. “Sit back down!”
“No!” Ratchis leapt forward to pull Kazrack back, and felt the fists of two dwarven guards on him immediately.
“Ratchis, stop!” Martin and Kazrack were both crying out.
The half-orc quelled his temper, but it was too late. Heavy dwarven fists, landed on him again and soon he was being manacled and dragged off to spend the night “in the hole”, a small solitary cell deep in the earth.
“Captain, Ratchis was telling the truth, Kazrack is under the influence of a spell,” Martin said.
“He has to be to waste his time with the lot of you,” the Captain replied.
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In the Captain’s office, Kazrack took a seat.
“The people you choose to spend time with says a lot about you,” the Captain said.
“My companions are steadfast, and circumstances have conspired against us to bring us into conflict with the law, but not by our own doing,” Kazrack said. “This has been a misunderstanding.”
“So, you are saying you and your companions were not running through the streets of my town with weapons and fighting some shape-changer of some kind?”
“Well, we were surprised in our room by the mentor of a former companion,” Kazrack said. “We have not always seen eye to eye, and unfortunately Ratchis misconstrued something and the there were strong words, and perhaps some blows exchanged, but nothing serious.”
“The testimony of one of the guards does not seem to match up with that version of the story, at least not exactly,” the Captain said. “Are you sure this is not about some past grudge that you and your companions decided to try to resolve with the confines of Nikar despite my warning against such things?”
“No, sir,” replied Kazrack. “Like I said, this was all a misunderstanding, and Rindalith was not there to hurt us, nor did we want to hurt him, but…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know. I’m a little bit confused about what happened, exactly,” Kazrack stuttered.
Captain Lodestone harrumphed and sent Kazrack back to the cell and called for Martin the Green.
“Have you called for Councilor Lydia?” Martin asked as he came in.
“I will ask the questions here,” the captain said. “And the enforcement of the law is my domain, if it is a matter for the rest of the Council is something for me to decide.”
“There is an evil warlock loose in your town, and as a member of the Ruling Council and a priestess of Isis, she should be informed as soon as possible,” Martin added.
“Rest assured, she and the rest of the Council will know about this soon enough,” Lodestone said. “So, you freely contradict the testimony of your companion Kazrack?”
“He is still under the charm of the warlock, as Ratchis tried to tell you,” Martin explained. “Anything he said will be skewed to make it look as if Rindalith is a friend of his.”
“Why did this… what was his name? Rindalith? Why did he attack you?” the captain asked.
“He is still looking for a former companion of ours, a young woman looking to leave her life of witchcraft behind. She fell in our journeys,” Martin explained, realizing her had to shade the truth to make himself and the others look as good as possible. “He would not accept that she was not around.”
Captain Lodestone looked at Martin for a long time. “Why didn’t you call for the guard immediately?”
“We didn’t have time,” Martin replied. “And by the time I was outside chasing after him, I was afraid that if I made too much noise innocent townsfolk would be awakened to investigate and they might be endangered.”
“Do you have any idea where this warlock is now?”
“No, but what he said just before he turned into bat-form led me to believe that he is not coming back,” Martin said.
“Didn’t you just describe him as ‘on the loose’?” Captain Lodestone asked. “And how you needed to see Councilor Lydia because of that?”
“Well, just in case…”
“For your sake, I hope that he really is gone, because I will not to be lenient next time I find you in violation of the law, no matter what the excuse.”
“So, we can go?”
“You and your companions will be fined for disturbing the peace and the half-breed will have to spend the night in the hole so he can learn respect,” the Captain said.
Martin the Green nodded.
“Make sure you pay your fines on time, the citations will be sent to the inn,” Captain Lodestone added.
“Shouldn’t there be a hearing to see if we are guilty and what the fine, if any, should be?” Martin asked.
“Consider yourselves having pled guilty,” the Captain made a notation in his ledger. “Unless of course, you and your companions all want to remain in cells until the time of the hearing and throughout its duration, if should last more than one day…”
“We will pay.” (3)
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As Martin, Dorn and Kazrack walked back to the inn, Kazrack continued to insist that dwarves could not be charmed.
“If that were not the case, would you admit that you were wrong?” Martin asked.
“Of course,” Kazrack replied, sounding offended.
“Then ask the High Priest when you get an opportunity and report his response,” Martin said.
“If I get the opportunity, but really, it is waste of time,” Kazrack said.
“Whatever you say, Kazrack,” Martin rolled his eyes. “Dorn, what were you and Rindalith talking about when we arrived?”
Dorn has not spoken a word since they had left the guardhouse.
“Everything,” Dorn was silent for a long time, and then continued, his voice hushed and full of shame. “I told him almost everything I knew, or could piece together from what I have overheard. It seemed to make sense at the time. He said he was your friend and he seemed very friendly.”
“That is where the skill of evil lies,” Kazrack said. “It seems pleasing, but it is not.”
“Well, you know what that means?” Martin sighed. “It means, we’ll probably have to deal with Rindalith at Hurgun’s Maze as well. I mean, if he has found out about it, he is going to want to get its power, as well; everyone else seems to.”
“Then we’ll kill him, too,” Kazrack shrugged. “Or die trying.”
The dwarf returned to the temple, while Martin and Dorn returned to the inn and the suite room, where the watch-mage had to pay off and calm down Huggert in order to keep their room.
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Ratchis was not released until very late the next day, with a stern warning from Captain Lodestone.
“Next time we have to bring you in, you’ll be lucky to get off with just being exiled from Nikar,” the dwarf said. “Understand?”
Ratchis grunted and went to sleep in Mercy’s house.
But things were quiet for a long time, and the Keepers of the Gate fell into a daily rhythm. Ratchis continued his training with Mercy, taking a break in the evening to go over his reading with Martin, while taking some time to teach the watch-mage orcish. Dorn, who often complained of being bored, spent his days sleeping late and playing King’s Men with some of the inn’s regulars. Every couple of days he’d visit Ratchis and do some sparring to keep their skills sharp, and had prayer and religious study with the two friars.
In addition to his lessons with Ratchis, Martin trained daily with Visalyia. With the gnome’s help, he identified the magical items the party had collected on their journey from Gothanius. (4)
Kazrack continued his daily work on his full plate mail, and his training to access more powerful spells from his gods. He embarrassedly admitted to Martin and Ratchis that dwarves could get charmed, albeit very rarely, after he asked another of the rune-throwers about it.
Gunthar came and went as he pleased, showing up at the Inn of Friendly Flame every few nights, Nasilla in tow, to get very drunk and berate his companions.
It was Roland that was seen the least. He seemed to become withdrawn and moody, and it would not be until two days before the Keepers of the Gate were leave to Nikar that they would realize that he had left town without a word two days before.
End of Session #72
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Notes:
(1) Way back in Session #29.
(2) DM’s Note: While protection from evil protected him from control during its duration, when the spell ran out Rindalith’s spell was still in effect.
(3) The Keepers of the Gate had to pay thirty-five pieces of silver each, plus promise to pay for any damages to the inn and its property.
(4) DM’s Note: The small clay jugs held half a dozen draughts of Blood of Ashronk (potions of Aid enchanted by a priest of the orc god), while the rug was a Prayer Rug of the Wayfarer. Rolling objects up in the rug creates a pocket dimensional space that can allow it to hold objects of much greater weight and volume that would be normal. Regardless of how much more than 25 pounds is rolled into the run it still always weighs 25 pounds, up to a weight of 500 lbs. Also, the objects placed inside cannot individually be of larger size than the rug. Whenever the rug is opened all the objects come spilling out. You cannot take out one item at a time.
