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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 996497" data-attributes="member: 99">Distrust, Betrayal and OathbreakingThe party spent the following days resting their minds, bodies and souls from the previous weeks of rigorous combat.  Frakir turned out to be a model prisoner.  She and Rhys even engaged in several meaningful conversations about the art of Sorcery.Speaks and Raven spent a good deal of their time in meditation and communion with their respective faiths (this time of communion is required in order for them to add new spells from the class books to their spell lists).  During the daytime, most of the guard duty fell to Rhys and Scar.  But at night, Rhys and Scar, neither of whom needed as much sleep as the others, spent a good deal of time digging through the rubble of the collapsed mine entrance in search of the body of Tavis, Rhys’ deceased familiar.Unfortunately, their efforts seemed in vain.  The body of Rhys’ closest companion remained unrecovered.  Rhys erected a small cairn of stones near the tower in her memory and did the best he could to fill the empty place left by her absence.As Rhys and Scar explored the mines, they made an ironic discovery.  The “war wagons” so carefully crafted by Speaks and Raven and so easily stolen by the Kobolds were safely stowed down one of the side shafts on the lowest mine level.  Scar looked askance at the odd contraptions but Rhys could scarcely stop laughing long enough to explain them to him.  They were simply a bizarre reminder of an earlier existence that he would not regain.  Just a few days ago, but altogether a different lifetime.Rhys and Scar were not the only ones to make interesting discoveries.  During one of his walks among the forest north of Aquae Sulis, Speaks discovered a number of crude warnings gouged into large trees.  These had apparently been left by the Gnolls before they fled.  They warned of the “Wizards” who now protected the once-abandoned village and urged any Gnolls who followed to give it a wide berth to the west.  It seemed that it would be some time before they need worry about the Gnolls, so long as they heeded the warnings left by their predecessors.At last, the two weeks of Frakir’s required captivity had passed and she was brought out of the tower basement to be set free.  If the party had not grown exactly fond of the reptilian Sorceress, they could at least respect the fact that she had kept her word and made no attempt to escape.  When the time came for her to depart, Speaks gave her the mask he sometimes wore when forced to be around the crowds of people who made him uncomfortable.  “Take this that you may recall the peaceful days we have enjoyed here together.  So long as you cause no harm to me and the lands I protect, you may consider me a friend.”Frakir sheepishly accepted the gift and spoke a few arcane phrases.  From her shoulders sprouted large bat-like wings.  Then she addressed the gathered party.  “You have kept your end of the bargain and now I shall keep mine.  You will find the silver bars buried under the foundation of the smelting works.  Dig along the side facing the road and you will find them.  The miners had thrown the bars down the sump well and they remained there until we found them after moving into the mines.  We recovered them but they were heavy and we did not wish to move them further than we had to.  So we buried them just a few feet away from where we hauled them out of the well.”“As for what goes on in the Darkwood, I cannot say precisely.  I only know what was told to me by the Gnolls.  They claim that the northern reaches of the forest are the home of the walking dead.  It has always been such, but lately, these dead have roamed further south in the forest and in some cases, entire Gnoll villages have been found without a soul in sight.  In the last year, they have begun to encounter living dead of their own kind and this terrifies them.  I have no love for the Gnolls after the harsh treatment my kind has seen at their hands but this new power in the Darkwood is the enemy of all who live and breathe.  I shall not return there and I urge you to stay clear and be on guard against the Gnolls who will undoubtedly be coming this way in larger and larger numbers as they find they cannot resist the unlife.”With that, Frakir clasped the mask to her chest and flapped her green-black wings.  Slowly, almost awkwardly, she climbed into the air and took flight to the south.  In just a few moments, she disappeared beyond the ridge.The party wasted no time in gathering a few digging tools and heading to the burned out ruin of the smelting works.  As they went, they spoke uneasily about the tidings delivered by Frakir and what it meant to them and the people of Glynden.  None had a firm answer and they soon lost themselves in the steady and mindless toil of digging.It didn’t take long to locate the somewhat softer patch of earth along the side of the foundation facing the path leading to the mine.  After removing just a couple of feet of earth, a slightly tarnished brick fell to the ground in front of them.  Scar roughly polished it against the leg of his breeches and beneath the dirt and tarnish, the gleam of pure silver shone through.  They all grinned and fell into the work of removing the silver bullion with gusto.  All told, they pulled more than 450 silver bars from under the foundation, each weighing roughly 5 pounds.They now cast about for a way to transport this wealth back to Glynden.  They quickly latched onto the idea of using the mine carts/war wagons for this purpose.  They were able to haul the wagons out of the hole they had dug above the mine entrance with main strength.  But they soon found that the small and narrow wheels of the mine carts were far better suited to rolling on hard stone and packed earth than the soft ground outside the mines, especially with half a ton of silver bars piled inside.Speaks got to work on this problem right away.  Using his magic, he was able to mold larger and wider wooden wheels to the existing wheels.  The carts weren’t pretty, but they would last them to Glynden.They gathered the remainder of their posessions and bade farewell to the tower.  After a short time of painstakingly pushing the wagons over the rough and overgrown road between Glynden and Aquae Sulis, Speaks swallowed his pride and transformed himself into a pony.  They fashioned a makeshift yoke and hitched the Druid to the carts.  After that they made better time and the jokes about Speaks “making an ass out of himself” died down.  Eventually.NEXT:  Distrust, Betrayal and Oathbreaking Part 2: Homecoming</blockquote>

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