Things that Go Thump(Now That’s Kicking Your Ass) In the Night
…Now let’s get the hell out of here. We begin hastily gathering horses and put Ars up on one. We are in a shouting discussion about our options as we scurry around. A reserve group twice as large as the front line? I think to myself. Certainly not unheard of, but what would be the tactical gain here? I wonder. “Those don’t have to be more bad guys, you know,” I call to my sisters in arms. They look so funny as they both pull up short, frozen for a moment, in contrast to their previous haste. “They could be the city watch if this place has such a thing,” I say. In light of our other sad options, this one finally wins out.
We gather up a couple of horses each and start toward the large group of riders. It takes just a few minutes to close the gap between us with both parties riding. I know I have led myself and my companions to their death when I see the rat bastard whom I chased off riding with them. This thought is whisked away as I see that he is not leading them and that he is not riding correctly. He is tied! They caught him and he is tied! I was right! Relief washes thru me like a flood.
I scream out, “There he is! He is the guy who tried to kill us!” just moments before he exclaims the same thing about us. “You lying bastard!” I scream as I try to close on him. The guards quickly move in between us. “There will be no more of that,” the captain of the guard says. “We’ll get to the bottom of this,” he says. He tells me to tell my side of what happened. I relate the whole battle to them as best I can. I tell them that we are just weary travelers heading for Loona and were ambushed by these brigands and bandits. The rat bastard keeps trying to interrupt. He tries to tell them that we four ambushed them! I ask him if he is crazy! 4 ambushing 20? He tries to tell the captain that we are very powerful and that was the case. He even goes so far as to try to claim that he created the darkness to aid his men. I know I have him then! “If you created it then let’s see you dispel it!”I cry. He then mumbles something about he didn’t create it but it was one of his men or some such rubbish. One of his lieutenants leans over and tells the captain, “The dark girl speaks the truth, Captain.” He simply nods and tells a couple of guards to take the rat bastard aside til this mess is cleared away. He asks who did create the dome of darkness. Am steps forward and says that she did. He asks her how long it will last. “Mother is powerful. 5 full days,” she says. He and his Lt. look at Am with a little more respect than before. He asks if she can dispel it. “Mother has complete control of her powers,” Am says as she waves her hand at the darkness. It vanishes as quickly as it appeared, revealing even more bodies and scope of the battle.
I can see some of the guardsmen talking among themselves. They appear to be counting the bodies and regarding Am. I think that they believe at least one thing rat bastard said. The part about us being powerful. The way that they look at us bespeaks of the respect and astonishment of 4 coming out of this situation alive much less victorious. Funny. I had never thought about us as being powerful before now. I had never really had the time to think about us much except as doing what we had to do to survive. But if I heard someone tell this story about some other group I would say that they were powerful. Thinking of story tellers makes me wonder about our little bard that started out with us. What was her name? Something that starts with an L. Laura! Yes, that is it. Laura. I wonder what she is doing now? I wonder how she would have captured some of our adventures in song or poem if she had stayed with us? Judging from the looks on the city guards faces this one should have been a good one. The captain tells us if we will help load up the bodies we will be free to go. Finally, a meeting with the law that I don’t have to run from! I have never been so happy to do manual labor; well, unless you count stuff for pranks and practical jokes.
We tag along behind the guards and head into Geanavue instead of Loona. As we go, a giant approaches from the west! Flamesinger leaps into my hand on an instant. None of the guard seems to be moving into a battle formation. Surely they can’t all be so frightened into immobility. The captain actually seems to be waving to the colossus. The humanoid mountain waves back and approaches us. I can barely believe my eyes! I had heard tales of giants when I was a girl and from Magnus too. But nothing told had prepared me for seeing one in the flesh. OK, Risk and Watcher. Point delivered home. Never confuse some good tactics and bravery and some luck for being powerful. I bow to your wisdom and welcome your teachings.
We ask the captain if he can recommend a reputable inn. He says that all inns in Geanavue are reputable. If we will follow Poole, the giant, he will show us to some very nice accommodations. Poole leads the way. I can guess why all inns are reputable with a giant on the city guard. The door is a massive round affair. Poole knocks and there are 2 more giants just like him on the other side when it opens. “The inn likes to know who is coming in,” Poole explains in a voice low and rumbling like rolling thunder. “Enjoy your stay,” he says before turning to go back down the street. I notice he has a silver acorn adorning his shirt similar to the one the Saki, the lizardman shaman, of the swamp had. I wonder if Poole is druidic or if he merely follows the nature god.
The place is grand. Easily the nicest place I have ever stayed the night in. We waste no time asking for 2 rooms and oddly enough (considering we are blood drenched and torn to pieces and carrying a man in a coma) have no trouble getting them. It must have been because we were accompanied by Poole, I assume. We take Ars upstairs and put him to bed. I suggest that this would be a good time to split up the loot we have been just carrying around with us while running for our lives. I suggest taking the magical items to a mage to get them identified so we will not be choosing blindly. Am and Pan agree, saying that we can use the gems we found to pay for the spells before splitting the money. Pan says she can tells us what the potions that we got from the dragon’s hoard are so we don’t have to waste the gold on getting them identified. That sounds great to me. Am says that she will stay with Ars while the 2 of us go.
Pan and I gather the rapier, the 2 rings, the leather armor, and the gems and go in search of a mage. It takes us a while to find one. There must not be many in this city. We go in and negotiate a fee of 250 gold pieces per item to be identified. The mage tells us that the rapier is of the lowest level of enchantment. He tells us that one ring is enchanted with protective magics of a level higher than that of the rapier. He tells us that the second ring is enchanted to protect against cold. Last but not least, he tells us that the armor is enchanted with about the same power of the rapier. He thanks us for the business and we thank him for the information. He asks us if we would like to purchase any potions before we go. We thank him for the offer but tell him no thanks. We head back to the inn. After a little way, I tell Pan that I just thought of a potion that I would like to see if the mage had. I tell her that I will go back and meet her at the inn later.
I go back to the old man to see what potions he has. He has quite a few. I get him to tell me about them and their properties and advantages. I learn a lot about what he calls low power spells that afternoon, I can tell you. Just learning about the different kinds of spells that there are is worth the time and nearly the money. Several catch my interest as the old man describes their various enchantments and workings. Of the ones he has, Jump, Spider Climb, Magic Missle, Endurance, Mirror Image, See Invisibility, my old friend Alter Self, Knock, Protection from Arrows, Vampiric Touch, Keen Edge, Fireball, and Gaseous Form all have immediate values that I can see. Just hearing about them makes me wonder what spells Risk and Watcher will grant me as I grow in their power. I finally decide to get 2. One is called Mirror Images which creates duplicate images of you to distract enemies. The other is called Keen Edge. It is an oil to coat a weapon to enhance its edge to better find an enemies vital spots. I plan on having a few surprises for that bitch, Daresh. I thank him for his time and instruction and start walking back to the inn.
This city is so clean and so… I don’t want to say friendly because I don’t want to conjure up the image of the goody goody idea of fawning upon one in an effort to be friendly. I guess simply courteous and calm is the best description. More like everyone is content to mind their own business and live together rather than trying to convince everyone else how good they are. It is refreshing. I get back to the inn and knock. It is opened by one of the massive giants inside. Ars is resting as is Pan. I go to my room that I am sharing with Am. She is sleeping quite soundly too. I soon see why. The bed is so soft and comfortable. Even tho I am by far the least scarred by today’s battle, I am quite fatigued. Even so, my mind works on the details for the ringers that I will try to hire to ship out of Loona in our stead. I don’t work long at it tho. The bed drags me down into sleep’s embrace quickly.
We awaken in the morning and freshen up and hurry to Ars and Pan’s room after Am has prayed to Mother for many healing spells. Using nearly all her spells on Ars rouses him from his coma and aids Pan and Am a little. The night’s rest has done wonders for me and I ask Am for only the lowest of her healing magics. I tell the others that I have missed the city life while traipsing thru the woods and want to wander the streets while they rest if they don’t mind. I ask Am how long she thinks it will be before everyone is ready to ride again. She says she thinks that she can have everyone healed up in a few days if they stay in bed and recuperate. I tell her I will have some breakfast sent up for them all on my way out. I stop at the front desk and do just that and then go out thru the kitchens grabbing some fruit and a hot slice of meat on a hard roll for me. Ahhh, just like growing up. Sneaking out of the house thru the kitchen and grabbing some food for the trip of sneaking off to town. It is almost enuf to let me forget about that bitch Daresh for a few minutes. It is enuf to at least push her to the back burners of my mind’s wood stove.
I wander around Geanavue for a little while but it is almost too nice. I decide to go on to Loona to see about our ringers. It is a nice ride between the cities. The road is busy with traffic to and from the port but not so much as to be crowded.
Ahhhhhh! Loona! A lot dirtier, smellier, and definitely a place you want to watch your back. Sailors and docks and shadows, what more could a girl ask for? I go to the docks and find a ship heading for Ardarr-Norr in Skaarna. I book four cabins, making sure to use our names. I head to a pub that seems to be doing a lively business despite the relatively early hour. I take a seat and start to look for our ringers. I find an elf resembling Ars after a few watered down drinks. I approach him and play out my spiel. I buy him a drink and tell him about my employer seeking adventurous sorts to do a job for him. I tell him I have booked his passage and there will be 10 gold in his cabin when the ship sails and that there will be 40 more gold in Ardarr-Norr just for listening to my employer’s offer. He not only looks similar to Ars but acts much like him in his snotty, elvish way too. He says it is not for him. I say probably not since it is for the brave sort who are good with a blade and leave his table. I find a Dejy girl who looks a lot like Am. I give her the same spiel. She accepts readily. She asks if she can go ahead and stay on the ship since she has no where else to stay and no money. I tell her she can’t do that but I will pay her room and board at a local inn til the ship sails if she will come with me. I get her a place here in Loona and she thanks me profusely. She hugs me and jostles me so hard I am just barely able to actually slip the 2 gold into her pocket without dropping them or her noticing me.
On my way back to the pub to look for my double, I notice a game running in an alley. I walk up the alley to watch. Risk and Watcher are truly shining on me today. There is my double! She is taking the money from all the men playing there with her. I hear a few complaining of her cheating and the game breaks up. I approach her and ask her if she would like to listen to a business proposition over some drinks. She says sure and drops the many coins of her winnings from one hand to the other and winks and says that she will even buy. We go in and have a few drinks and talk of Svimohzia and turn down a many an offer to retire to the whoring rooms upstairs. After getting to know her a little, I do my song and dance. I tell her the ship leaves the day after tomorrow and her gold will be there in her cabin when it sails. The deal is struck. We part ways when she finally accepts an offer from one of the better looking patrons. I make my way back to Geanavue determined to come back tomorrow in search of Ars 2.
The others seem to be recovering quite well when I get back but Am is probably right about anyone being totally well and road ready for a few more days. I don’t tell the others about my day’s activities for a couple of reasons. I am not sure how Daresh seems to know what we are doing ahead of us. I don’t know if she has a spy watching and listening to us somehow and I am not entirely certain it might not be Pan. I will just pretend that my talk on the trail was just that and I did not take any action on it. Things have quieted between us since the squabble over the vault books but there is just something unsettling about her. The bed works its wonders and quickly drags me into sleep again. I will hate sleeping on the ground again after getting spoiled here.
This morning is pretty much a repeat of yesterday with the exception of the healing being spread more evenly with Ars no longer in so desperate need and that we divide up our hoard. I choose the protective ring, Ars takes the rapier, Pan takes the ring of warmth and Am decides that she doesn’t want the armor so we sell it and then divide up the coin. Pan also takes a scroll of fireball and I take a potion of flight. Since some of our items are more valuable than our share would be we owe the rest of the group for the balance. Ars takes this time to say something about me having the coin. I start to say something about him not being able to use it anyway but decide against it. I just say that no one had said anything about it. He says that he is saying something about it now. I agree to pay the others 5000 gold per person to keep the coin. I send up more food and make my way back to Loona.
I use the rest of my morning, that is not spent on the ride, just walking her streets waiting for the pubs to open back up. I am in luck. I spot a gypsy traveling show. I make sure to drop some coins in for every performer. It takes me back to my own little gypsy troupe like it was yesterday. I enjoy myself immensely. I clap and laugh right along with many of the children who have gotten their mothers or fathers to stop to watch the shows. I have such a good time I nearly forget to head to the pubs until they should all be serving the mid-day meal. I notice the hawker is being relieved (presumably for his break for that meal). I offered to treat him if he would eat with me. I knew no gypsy would pass up a free meal and so off we went.
We talked and talked. We compared stories and even found out that we knew of a few of the same people thru acquaintances with some of the people that each of us traveled with. We gypsies do range far and wide evidently. He said he had noticed that I had made a point of patronizing each performer and had wondered if I had been in the life or was just a soft sell. He said that after he got a good look into my eyes once I got close to his stand he knew it was not the latter. We got around to how long we were each going to be there and where we had been recently. My paranoia about Daresh made me invent most of my recent past and I felt bad for it but not bad enuf not to do it. He told me that he and his troupe were working their way south. I asked him how his travels had been. He said that they had been very smooth except for some trouble in Giilia. I asked him what sort of trouble. He said that it is now sometimes called the city of bats. He said too, that the city was once a growing thriving city but that now it was losing citizens instead. He said they are very suspicious of outsiders there now. He told me that many of those who could afford it were moving out. He also spoke of mysterious disappearances besides those people moving. He advised that if my route led north that I might want to steer clear of Giilia. I thanked him for the warning and he thanked me for the patronage and the meal and the company.
I had bad luck the rest of the day with the search for Ars 2. I finally gave up and went back to the docks. I told the captain that I wanted to check the cabins to make sure all was in order for my group tomorrow. I went to the cabins and put the 10 gold in each of the 3 of them that would be occupied. I thanked the captain and told him that all seemed in order and left to head back to Geanavue.
The following morning everyone seems well but Ars advises against traveling with all of Am’s spells depleted. Everyone seems to think this a good idea so we stay another night before continuing our march northward. I tell the others what I have learned about Giilia once we are back on the road and we agree to give it a wide berth. We travel until near dusk looking for a good camping site. Just when we are about to give up and settle for the open ground we have been riding over, we spot a cabin thru some widely spaced trees. There is no smoke coming from the chimney. As we get closer, the place looks deserted. Not only deserted, it looks dilapidated too. We approach it cautiously nonetheless. I sneak to the side to listen at one of the open windows. I hear nothing at first. Then, very distinctively, I hear boots on a wooden floor. I listen more closely, holding my breath so that I won’t miss anything. The boots stop and then I hear KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK- “Hello, is anybody home?” in Ars’ voice! I could choke him! “Helloooo, anybody home?” he calls again. I go around to the front to back him up.
After I get there, he opens the door to look in. I don’t see anything in the sorry little room that was behind the door. I hurry back around the building in case anyone is trying to sneak out the back and away or around to the front to surprise us after we are inside. Nothing. I go back to the front and start tying up my horse for the night.
Ars calls for Am from inside the cabin. I can hear them talking inside but can’t make out what they are saying. This goes on for a little while and I decide to go in and see what is going on. When I walk in the door, the cabin now smells like a field hand’s old work boots. There is an old blanket pulled aside to reveal a second room to the cabin. The smell is stronger the closer I get to that second room. Pan is in there with Am and Ars and some old geezer sweating out the shakes. Ye gods but he stinks! Ars and Am seem to be discussing the flowering plant beside the man’s bed. I think Am calls it belladonna and they both seem to agree it is poisonous. They wonder aloud if he has eaten it and if that might be the source of his obvious discomfort. Big deal. I guess they have never seen a drunkard have to go without the juice for long where they come from. I turn to go back out to my horse. Too bad. I guess I will be sleeping on the ground after all. There is no way I can sleep in that stench. And just wait til he starts seeing things! I doubt any of us will get any sleep then. As I make it back to the horses, I hear the first lonesome howl that can only be a wolf baying at the moon. I look up. It is a full moon too. I wonder how close it –no, there go a couple of more of them; and they sound closer than the first. Maybe I can stand the smell if I try. Then I hear something behind me. I turn to see Ars helping/dragging the old man from the cabin with Am and Pan behind him. I ask if they heard the wolves. They all nod. I ask Ars if he has been calling for one since he lost Courage, his wolf companion. He starts to reply but we are rushed by 6 wolves before he can.
3 of them rush for Ars and the old man. Ars drops him to draw his weapons and tries to get between them and the old man. 2 go for Pan and the last goes for Am. I close to striking distance to help Ars. Am calls one of her lynxes to fight her wolf. Pan sends a gout of flame from her hands to ignite the wolves fur to deter them. Ars can’t keep both wolves off the old man and he is soon finished off with his throat torn out. I finish the one I started on in 2 rapid strokes. Am and her lynx have hers almost finished. Pan’s have finished rolling on the ground putting out their fiery pelts and are closing on her again. Ars is having some trouble since he has 2 as well. Then, as if from nowhere, two humanoids that look like a cross between a man and a wolf that walk upright, charge in on Pan and Ars’ flank! I close on the man-wolf to help Ars again since he is now covered on 3 sides. Pan starts to take a serious beating. I have engaged the man beast thinking that Ars and I can make short work of it together after he finished the wolves on him. I suppose I guessed wrong. He maneuvers out of the ring of foes and as soon as he has the 2 wolves down he runs off to help Pan. He always finds a way to piss me off every day it seems! I vent my fury on the big furry. It hits the ground in short order but I am amazed at the amount of damage it was able to absorb in order to put it down. Ars and Pan are still fighting theirs. I downed mine alone before the 2 of them have stopped theirs. Praise be unto Risk and Watcher! It is good to be one of the Chosen! What black magic is this?! The beast I just felled is no longer a beast! It has changed into a normal looking man! The one on those 2 has decided to run and fight another day. I debate chasing it and decide not to. Ars pulls his bow and drops the wounded beast with a single arrow. We heal a little and move on to a quieter camp site despite the late hour.
The next nine days and eight nights are unexpectedly calm and uneventful. We travel and camp as if we haven’t a care in the world.
Late in the ninth day, we enter Haanex. We make our way to the crazy tilted tower that is home to Veodin. Blue smoke pours from the upper floors of the tower that seems even more canted despite its obviously new supports’ efforts. I knock on the door lightly in hopes of not sending it tumbling over. There is no answer. Ars calls out to Veodin as he bangs on the door. The entire tower seems to shake as he does so. Veodin sticks his head out of one of the smoking windows and in a very surly tone asks, “WHAT? Can’t you see that I am busy?” He recognizes us at this point and bids us to come in. We yell back that the door is locked. He nods and says something about yes of course it is and turns to tell somebody in the room with him to go down to let us in. Shortly, his son opens the door for us.
We follow him up the rickety stairs to Veodin’s lab. We tell him a little about our adventures since going of to find Geolain and explain that we are looking for Daresh. We tell him that we think she is the “woman of power in the north”. He says that he may be able to help us. He begins concocting something from several beakers and vials. He rushes downstairs only to rush back up with the final ingredient. “Now watch the mirror,” he says. He adds the final liquid and an oily vapor rises from the blended liquids to coat the mirror he indicated. The mirror seems to warp and bend slightly. Then it is as if we are flying over the land going north along the side of the forest and can view our path thru the mirror. The trip gains more speed the farther we go, nearly blurring at the end until it comes to an abrupt halt with the image of a large stone walled stronghold on its silvery surface. It continues inside the stronghold into a bedchamber where a familiar figure lies sleeping. As our view improves, it is apparent that Daresh is changing under the influence of the coin. She has the coloration of some of the undead creatures we killed in the vaults of NeMoran. Suddenly, her eyes snap open and she lets out a hiss like a snake or a terrified cat. She flings her hand out toward us and the mirror cracks into a thousand shards.
We know at least that we should follow the edge of the forest for a ways before we need to head out more into the plains of Skaarna. Veodin says that most of the trip was too fast but he thinks that he recognized at least one village and that the information that he has heard about this “woman of power” would put her in the general direction of that village. She would be further north of course, he says. It is told that she has already taken over 3 of the 10 fiefdoms that Skaarna is divided into. “The name of the village…” I prompt. Of course, he says. The village is Raddick. We take our rest for the night and head for Raddick the next morning.
We make our way to Raddick, some 2 days journey. It catches our eye a short while before dark. We enter thru the southern gate after being briefly questioned by the gate guards. We make our way to the inn the guards recommended (the only one in town), the Shattered Candle. It is not really an inn. It is more like several manor houses that have been joined together. I just thought the inn in Geanavue was grand. This puts it to shame. It has kept all of its stately elegance of the former home that it was and more. We take rooms on some of the upper floors but not the “suites” which are at the very top. The dining room is doing a lively trade in spite of the small town population. It must be the center gathering point for nightlife and such for the whole town. The food is great and the atmosphere is too. There is much laughter and plenty of singing and story telling and lots of games like cards and darts and some drinking game where the contestants stack copper pieces on various parts of their bodies and then have to move and catch them. It is heavy on fun with your neighbors without the pressure of the big city bustle to make every copper they can off the customer and without the yoke of any mean drunks that I can see. All in all it is a very homey, small farm town kind of feeling.
That is until the shadows start to stretch long.
Things break up rapidly as the night begins to fall. After all the other diners have left, the door is locked and barred with a heavy piece of oak. The barkeep tells us we are welcome to stay up as long as we like and eat or drink as we like. We can settle up in the morning for that he tells us. He makes us swear not to open the doors or windows however. We ask him why not but he will not give any details. He just tells us that our lives will be forfeit if we open them and more than likely the lives of everyone in the inn. We press him for information but he simply retires after getting our oath. Sitting here in an empty dining hall is no fun so we go on to our rooms. We watch out our windows for a while to try to see what has the town so fearful but see nothing and so decide to retire ourselves.
Shortly after I lie down, I hear the sound of heavy boots marching echoing thru the streets. Am must have heard it too because she is already sitting up when I start to get out of bed. It is a little unsettling to tell the truth. There is something that is positively eerie about it. We go to the window together to try to find out what is going on. In a little while, for better or for worse we get our answer. A shadowy gaunt figure clad in fine, if battle-tested, plate armor and shield stalks the night. It is or rather was definitely military at some time if its current carriage means anything. Its movement can only be described as a brisk tactical march. Its movement is crisp and sure despite its obvious undead state. This is not the brittle skeleton or staggering zombie that we have faced before. I only see the one but I can hear the bootfalls of its companions in other parts of the town. By now, I can hear Ars and Pan talking as they too look on from their window. Our militant wraith is systematically making its way down the street. It stops at each door and shuttered window; trying each one so as to gain entry. When it gets to the Shattered Candle’s doorway, I decide to see what our fiends are made of. As it turns the knob and shakes the door, I cast Disrupt Undead. The golden glowing ray hits the creature squarely and it does not seem pleased. I draw back alongside the wall next to the window to make the best use of my cover. I did not count on the infernal creature firing thru the panes of the glass itself! A heavy bolt crashes thru the glass and leaves a burning furrow across my dark belly. I step to the window and hit it again with the golden ray. Am tries to turn the filthy thing using Mother’s power. I can’t believe it! It is unfazed! By now it has reloaded its heavy crossbow. It sends a bolt into Am. Am and I have become so close in these last weeks that the only thing that could have sealed its fate more surely would have been for it to use some sort of magic on me. This is surely enuf to get it the grave it has eluded so far. I ask Am to heal me. She looks a little surprised since my wound is not too serious and I don’t usually ask for her spells needlessly. “A 3 story drop can be a little tricky,” I say as I climb into the open window. I feel her hands on me and the warm sensation I always get when she works her healing magics on me; and then I am dropping quickly to meet our foe face to rotted face.
The ground rushes up at me. I use everything I have learned about tumbling and jumping but I still feel my ankle give a little twinge as I come down on one of the larger cobblestones. I roll with it to keep the damage to a minimum and call Flamesinger into the cool night air. I see some of Ars’ arrows bounce off of it as it closes to me and know that the charge off the wand and Risk’s Shield were both well spent upstairs. I also had cast Sorcerous Touch before I leapt and I use it to channel some Personal Lightning right into all that fine metal made for stopping blades. It doesn’t help in any way that I can see against my sparking arc. If anything it seems to attract it. Before I have time to celebrate my success, it has closed the ground and misses me by barely the width of the flat side of a blade despite my enchantments.. Focus, woman! If you mean to see the light of day again, that is. I spin and take my blazing blade high to bring it crashing into a weak point Magnus told me about in plate- the joints. I hit home true enuf but the blow seemed to have much less affect than it should have. I had expected the slash to at least disable the foul animated corpse somewhat. It did not. It practically absorbed most of the impact and then sent its longsword’s glittering point thru my side almost as if I had not even hit it. Nothing vital is hit but quite a bit of blood running. That won’t be good if this drags out a while. Strange, I can feel the fatigue setting in already. The others are helping some. I think that was one of Pan’s magic missles I just saw flash into it. I dance away from it and try a different combat style hoping to confuse it. I flash ’Singer high and bring it down quickly and viciously between its helm and the edge of its shoulder protections. Let him try to shrug that off! The blazing blade even bit into the upper part of the breastplate. Oh no! It is wedged there! I yank it free with all of my might and spin away to narrowly avoid another nasty jab. After a few several more slashes and defenses, I finally put the nasty grave escapee down for good.
I can hear the others telling me to climb the rope. Rope? “What rope?” I ask while turning to them. They have dropped one end of a rope out of the window. “I just got down here and have only killed one. I am not climbing back up there. If you want to help me, come down here and let’s take them out or drop me one of those potions,” I call back up to them while holding my hand to my bloody side. I listen intently in the quiet of the street. I hear a soft whump to my left. Am has dropped a pillow out of the window. “I put the potion inside the pillow cover to keep it on the pillow during the drop,” Am calls down. Good thinking, girl. Better that than trying to catch it in my slippery, bloody hands. “Let me know if you see one coming,” I yell to them as I reach for the pillow. “His armor is magical. So is his sword. So is his shield. His cloak is magical too!” Am calls down from the window. Wow! Talk about hitting the jackpot! Where would a dead guy come up with that much magic? Maybe the rest of his buddies will be loaded too. I certainly hope so. I would like to get back to the mage’s potion shop in Geanavue at the very least, if not bigger and better things. I feel around inside the cover until I find the potion. I pull it out and swallow the potion down in one gulp. Its warmth spreads rapidly from my throat to my side where it quickly stays the bleeding from the shallow wound.
I can hear the sound of heavy boots but can’t determine the direction it is coming from when Pan yells that another one is coming from the street straight ahead of the inn. There is my next victim. I can barely make him out in the low light of the small street lanterns from this distance. I reach out to him with my Lightning thru my Touch. No need to let him get here fresh; well as fresh as a rotted corpse can be. I’ll try to have him worn down as much as I can if I can’t drop him outright before he gets here. All of a sudden, he is entangled in a massive web stretching from one side of the street to the other. Not to pass up a freebie, I Lightning him again. Ars is peppering him with arrows while he is stuck but my spells are not as easy to replenish as his arrows so I hold my hand for now.
“There are 2 more coming from the south,” Pan shouts. Ignorant witch! Like I have a clue as to which direction is south! Oh, wait. We were coming from the south and the gate we came thru is that way. I can hear them but cannot see them. Her perch must give her a better vantage point. Where is Ars? Why isn’t he down here killing off these abominations? He was so ready to kill those men at the keep on the cliff because they had imprisoned a thief. Aren’t these abominations so much more obviously “wrong” than those tower inhabitants? Does his conscience only work when females are involved and screaming for help? Well, if he is waiting for one of the Chosen to start mewling like that bitch in the tower, he had better not be holding his breath. Oh, how I miss Rakis. And missing him reminds me of how much more I miss Magnus. Neither of them would be in a third story room while a woman stood her ground, alone, in the streets with these things. A couple of bolts zinging by my head serve to bring me back to matters at hand. The 2 undead things have made their way to where we can all 3 see each other. I will use the same Lightning strategy since I have sometime before they close to melee distance. It is probably even wiser now since I don’t think being between 2 of those bastards could be too healthy for a girl Even if she is one of the Chosen..
I repeatedly shock the hell out of the one in the lead. I can see either smoke or steam rising from inside its armor into the cool night air but it continues, undaunted, for me. The others are trying to aid me with plenty of missle fire, magical and mundane, from above. Just as I am steeling myself to be head to skull with these 2, I feel the fire and impact of a heavy bolt racing from the big muscle in the back of my leg to my mind! Damn it! One is behind me. 2 was bad but 3 is worse. I move across the street to use the corner of that building to cover me from the 3rd’s aim. I hear the wild scream of Am’s battle cat and hope it will keep the newest guest busy and off my back til I can drop at least one of these. I pull the bolt from the back of my thigh and feel the wave of nausea wash over my stomach as it makes a wet, sucking sound as it pulls free. I also feel the warm rush of blood that bathes the lower half of my leg. After all the Lightning I slammed into the lead corpse, he goes down quickly under my fiery blade. Am must have come down to the rope to help me after seeing the arrow hit me from behind. That must have finally shamed Ars from his cubby hole. He is climbing down a rope from his and Pan’s room.
The 2nd from the south decided to try to take on Am instead of doubling up on me. I don’t know if it was because he saw how I carved up his buddies or what but I am glad for the respite. My breath is coming in ragged gasps. The wounds are bad but I have had worse and still held up better than this. Flamesinger seems so heavy and so do my feet and legs when I try to execute even some of the simple footwork involved in the martial styles I have adopted. Why am I so weak?
Break is over. The undead merc went thru Am’s cat just about as quickly as I have ever seen anything do it. That is scary, when I consider some off the foes those cats have faced right along beside of us. I send some Lightning into him to try to soften him up a little before he gets here. Now it is just down and dirty. Slash and dodge. Feint and strike. Defend and counterattack. Over and over again, we repeat this deadly marathon dance competition. Only in this contest, you must outlast your partner rather than the other couples. My legs scream from the hot ache that usually comes only after a long period of hard running. I have lost count of the times that my blade has cut into this bastard. I know I have hit him at least 10 times. I have never had anyone withstand that many blows from me and Flamesinger. I don’t know of course, but I think 10 blows from me and ’Singer would have even given Poole some pause if I was be able to stay away from the terrible crushing blows that he and his club must be able to deliver. Another one of its thrusts gets thru my defenses. I can feel my muscles becoming even more tired before the blade is withdrawn for another strike. What are these things and where did they come from? After several more do si do ’s, I finally watch him drop to the ground in a motionless heap. I am too tired to celebrate. Sweat pours out of me and drips to the ground in great large drops. It is as if the strength has just been sapped from my body.
From the growling and feline screams coming from my right, another one of them must have joined our little party only to be met by another battle lynx. Am and Ars are having a terrible time with the one under the inn’s windows. I look to my right. The fiend has dispatched the lesser lynx already. If I step out from my cover, he could rush me. If I don’t Am’s flank is uncovered and she and Ars have trouble enuf already. Hopefully it is too stupid to charge. I cast Fleet Feet upon myself. I pull a vial of holy water from it’s steel skin. I step out and dash it against the foul bladesman. The joy I feel from the smoking hole it makes on him and the resulting scream of pain is short lived. His squad-mate is not so stupid as I had hoped. He has charged my unprotected flank. I feel as if molten lead has just been poured into my guts. I can hear screaming as he pulls his longsword from within me only to realize it is me doing the screaming. Blood pours from 3 holes: the entry point, the exit wound on my other side, and from my mouth. Am rushes to me and pours healing energy into me. Although it is one of her mightiest spells, it can only slow the red rivers, not stop them. I use Watcher’s gift of speed to put as much distance between me and my would-be-killer. I drink the potion of Mirror Image I had intended to surprise Daresh with( I have to live out today to get to her) and pull out my web scroll. . Ars and Am retreat to me faster than the corpse-blades can. I read the scroll only to miss them as I did Li-mead’s hellcat. Damnation! Wasted gold and another public show of my incompetence! I am not sure which I hate worse.
The foul bladesmen advance upon us with the steady morale that can only come from already being dead. Am escapes further behind me. Ars flees to my left. I try to remember everything Magnus told me about fighting while outnumbered. I want to use my feet to position myself so that one of them acts as a shield for me against the other one so I move to try to keep one of them between me and the other one. It is better to prevent an attack from coming rather than having to try to make them all miss. It is also paramount to prevent them charging and flanking tactical advantages. One of the damned strikes and dissipates one of my images. The other is out of position due to my previous movement. I know not where the strength comes from to do it but I execute a leap and a few somersaults to tumble away from the undead murderers and reposition myself to keep them out of advantageous positions. I use my quickness to stop the opportunities of their attacks from coming, rather than my blade or my spells(what few remain) to defend against them in order to give the others a chance to regroup. I continue to keep them in line with each other or otherwise confound their attempts to charge and/or flank me while putting more distance between us. “Always try to play to your strengths or to your foe’s weakness or best case: your strength against his weakness,” Magnus told me on several occasions. Well right now my speed against their lack of it seems about as good of a match as I am going to get. I just don’t want to get too far ahead of them so that they remember that they could both attack with their heavy crossbows pretty much no matter how I move. I don’t think I could take even one more hit at this point. I need to stay close enuf to bait them into keeping their swords out no matter how ineffectual they are.
Then the world goes up in flames!
Or at least, the street and the remaining undead and part of the surrounding buildings go up in flames. A massive explosion unlike anything I have ever seen before simply consumes nearly everything in a circle twice as wide as the street around the monsters. I am barely able to keep my feet from the shock wave that rolls out from the blast. For maybe the second time, I am glad Pan is with us. I am on my last legs. The inn is on fire. Pan is throwing her stuff and Ars’ gear from the window. I tell her to throw Am’s and mine too. I go to the previously undead but now really dead bladesmen and start to strip them of the things Am detected as magical right after I killed the first one. The inn is going up fast. I tell Pan again to start throwing out our stuff too. There is no way I can undo all the buckles and straps of the armor before the whole town should be out here. I just get the quick stuff.
Ars comes riding around the blazing building. He tells me to forget stripping them but to just throw the goons over the backs of the horses. I help him do it. Pan is coming down the rope! She hasn’t gotten anything out of mine and Am’s! My happiness with her company is officially over. I go over and start to pick up some of her stuff to throw back into the fire. Ars yells at me to just climb up the other rope and get it myself. I scream at him to look at me! Just how far does he think I could climb? I can scarcely stand from the weakness and fatigue of both the strenuousness of the battle and from the fantastic amount of blood I have lost so how does he expect me to climb anywhere? He tells me to lead the horses back to the stables with the bodies and he will get our stuff and be right behind me.
I slowly lead the animals back to the stables. It is a good thing they don’t act up too much. I don’t know if I could hold them if they did. It finally hits me how badly I am hurt as I move away from the fire of the inn. The fire must have been keeping me warm while I was so close to it. Now that I am away from it I can feel the cold sinking in. The cold is just like when I lay bleeding out at the feet of that demon cat in the jungle. I hope Am has some healing left. Thru the fog of my self-pity, I notice that the fire has driven the people from the inn but that there are no other people but the inn dwellers in the streets. I also notice that no one is trying to put out the blaze. Everyone seems much more intent on beating on a door trying to get in off the street. No luck there to be had by anyone that I can see. There are no doors opening despite the terrible cries of their neighbors out here in the firelit streets. What have these things done to this town? What could they have done so that not one person has the heart to try to help his neighbor? Fie! A pox on all the gutless cowards! I finally make it to the stables.
Am and Pan are saddling the horses. I start stripping the bodies and loading that gear on the horses already dressed out. I can see the inn thru the stable doorway. There will be nothing left. I take one of the shields and walk out into the streets. I look for the innkeeper. I want to give him the shield to help him rebuild the Shattered Candle. It was a grand inn and it was no fault of his that Pan doesn’t know how to use her spells or scrolls. I look until I see Ars finally coming back. Where has he been so long? While I am looking for the innkeeper, I see that the fire has spread. After it has run its course, there may not be anything left of the town. Back to the stables I go.
We load up and ride for the north gate. When we get there, it is locked. Ars calls for the guards and I look for a mechanism to open the thing from here inside the walls. I don’t find one; it must be inside the guard shack. Ars is getting no answer from in there despite his pleas for help to save the burning town. Cowards! Ars goes of to try to find another way out or some more receptive guards. I think I will try to contend with these; I am too tired to run all over this burgh. I try to pick the lock on the door. It confounds my attempts. Damn you cowards in there! I wish Rakis were here again so that he could just smash the door down but I here my father saying, “If wishes were horses, then beggers would ride…” Horses! Horses are strong. I will use my horse to pull the door down. I tie my rope thru the pull ring. I tie the other end around the horn of my saddle. I smack the animal on the haunch and leap back ready for it to drag the door of the hinges. It does not work quite like I thought. The pull ring is no longer on the door but the door still stands in the way. Damn it! I hurry to the door and push my fingers in the hole to try to lift the bar or whatever is keeping us from getting in. I can’t feel anything. I squat down to look thru the hole to see if I can at least see what our obstacle is. The lantern light is blacked out quickly and I have the terrible feeling that this was a bad idea. I duck my head to protect my eye and try to roll out of the way. Too late. There is a bright colorful flash of light just above my right eye from the impact and as the colors fade out so does the rest of my vision as I fall over backwards. At least I saved my eye, runs thru my mind as I fall in what seems like slow motion. I never even feel the ground as everything is black before I get there…
…Now let’s get the hell out of here. We begin hastily gathering horses and put Ars up on one. We are in a shouting discussion about our options as we scurry around. A reserve group twice as large as the front line? I think to myself. Certainly not unheard of, but what would be the tactical gain here? I wonder. “Those don’t have to be more bad guys, you know,” I call to my sisters in arms. They look so funny as they both pull up short, frozen for a moment, in contrast to their previous haste. “They could be the city watch if this place has such a thing,” I say. In light of our other sad options, this one finally wins out.
We gather up a couple of horses each and start toward the large group of riders. It takes just a few minutes to close the gap between us with both parties riding. I know I have led myself and my companions to their death when I see the rat bastard whom I chased off riding with them. This thought is whisked away as I see that he is not leading them and that he is not riding correctly. He is tied! They caught him and he is tied! I was right! Relief washes thru me like a flood.
I scream out, “There he is! He is the guy who tried to kill us!” just moments before he exclaims the same thing about us. “You lying bastard!” I scream as I try to close on him. The guards quickly move in between us. “There will be no more of that,” the captain of the guard says. “We’ll get to the bottom of this,” he says. He tells me to tell my side of what happened. I relate the whole battle to them as best I can. I tell them that we are just weary travelers heading for Loona and were ambushed by these brigands and bandits. The rat bastard keeps trying to interrupt. He tries to tell them that we four ambushed them! I ask him if he is crazy! 4 ambushing 20? He tries to tell the captain that we are very powerful and that was the case. He even goes so far as to try to claim that he created the darkness to aid his men. I know I have him then! “If you created it then let’s see you dispel it!”I cry. He then mumbles something about he didn’t create it but it was one of his men or some such rubbish. One of his lieutenants leans over and tells the captain, “The dark girl speaks the truth, Captain.” He simply nods and tells a couple of guards to take the rat bastard aside til this mess is cleared away. He asks who did create the dome of darkness. Am steps forward and says that she did. He asks her how long it will last. “Mother is powerful. 5 full days,” she says. He and his Lt. look at Am with a little more respect than before. He asks if she can dispel it. “Mother has complete control of her powers,” Am says as she waves her hand at the darkness. It vanishes as quickly as it appeared, revealing even more bodies and scope of the battle.
I can see some of the guardsmen talking among themselves. They appear to be counting the bodies and regarding Am. I think that they believe at least one thing rat bastard said. The part about us being powerful. The way that they look at us bespeaks of the respect and astonishment of 4 coming out of this situation alive much less victorious. Funny. I had never thought about us as being powerful before now. I had never really had the time to think about us much except as doing what we had to do to survive. But if I heard someone tell this story about some other group I would say that they were powerful. Thinking of story tellers makes me wonder about our little bard that started out with us. What was her name? Something that starts with an L. Laura! Yes, that is it. Laura. I wonder what she is doing now? I wonder how she would have captured some of our adventures in song or poem if she had stayed with us? Judging from the looks on the city guards faces this one should have been a good one. The captain tells us if we will help load up the bodies we will be free to go. Finally, a meeting with the law that I don’t have to run from! I have never been so happy to do manual labor; well, unless you count stuff for pranks and practical jokes.
We tag along behind the guards and head into Geanavue instead of Loona. As we go, a giant approaches from the west! Flamesinger leaps into my hand on an instant. None of the guard seems to be moving into a battle formation. Surely they can’t all be so frightened into immobility. The captain actually seems to be waving to the colossus. The humanoid mountain waves back and approaches us. I can barely believe my eyes! I had heard tales of giants when I was a girl and from Magnus too. But nothing told had prepared me for seeing one in the flesh. OK, Risk and Watcher. Point delivered home. Never confuse some good tactics and bravery and some luck for being powerful. I bow to your wisdom and welcome your teachings.
We ask the captain if he can recommend a reputable inn. He says that all inns in Geanavue are reputable. If we will follow Poole, the giant, he will show us to some very nice accommodations. Poole leads the way. I can guess why all inns are reputable with a giant on the city guard. The door is a massive round affair. Poole knocks and there are 2 more giants just like him on the other side when it opens. “The inn likes to know who is coming in,” Poole explains in a voice low and rumbling like rolling thunder. “Enjoy your stay,” he says before turning to go back down the street. I notice he has a silver acorn adorning his shirt similar to the one the Saki, the lizardman shaman, of the swamp had. I wonder if Poole is druidic or if he merely follows the nature god.
The place is grand. Easily the nicest place I have ever stayed the night in. We waste no time asking for 2 rooms and oddly enough (considering we are blood drenched and torn to pieces and carrying a man in a coma) have no trouble getting them. It must have been because we were accompanied by Poole, I assume. We take Ars upstairs and put him to bed. I suggest that this would be a good time to split up the loot we have been just carrying around with us while running for our lives. I suggest taking the magical items to a mage to get them identified so we will not be choosing blindly. Am and Pan agree, saying that we can use the gems we found to pay for the spells before splitting the money. Pan says she can tells us what the potions that we got from the dragon’s hoard are so we don’t have to waste the gold on getting them identified. That sounds great to me. Am says that she will stay with Ars while the 2 of us go.
Pan and I gather the rapier, the 2 rings, the leather armor, and the gems and go in search of a mage. It takes us a while to find one. There must not be many in this city. We go in and negotiate a fee of 250 gold pieces per item to be identified. The mage tells us that the rapier is of the lowest level of enchantment. He tells us that one ring is enchanted with protective magics of a level higher than that of the rapier. He tells us that the second ring is enchanted to protect against cold. Last but not least, he tells us that the armor is enchanted with about the same power of the rapier. He thanks us for the business and we thank him for the information. He asks us if we would like to purchase any potions before we go. We thank him for the offer but tell him no thanks. We head back to the inn. After a little way, I tell Pan that I just thought of a potion that I would like to see if the mage had. I tell her that I will go back and meet her at the inn later.
I go back to the old man to see what potions he has. He has quite a few. I get him to tell me about them and their properties and advantages. I learn a lot about what he calls low power spells that afternoon, I can tell you. Just learning about the different kinds of spells that there are is worth the time and nearly the money. Several catch my interest as the old man describes their various enchantments and workings. Of the ones he has, Jump, Spider Climb, Magic Missle, Endurance, Mirror Image, See Invisibility, my old friend Alter Self, Knock, Protection from Arrows, Vampiric Touch, Keen Edge, Fireball, and Gaseous Form all have immediate values that I can see. Just hearing about them makes me wonder what spells Risk and Watcher will grant me as I grow in their power. I finally decide to get 2. One is called Mirror Images which creates duplicate images of you to distract enemies. The other is called Keen Edge. It is an oil to coat a weapon to enhance its edge to better find an enemies vital spots. I plan on having a few surprises for that bitch, Daresh. I thank him for his time and instruction and start walking back to the inn.
This city is so clean and so… I don’t want to say friendly because I don’t want to conjure up the image of the goody goody idea of fawning upon one in an effort to be friendly. I guess simply courteous and calm is the best description. More like everyone is content to mind their own business and live together rather than trying to convince everyone else how good they are. It is refreshing. I get back to the inn and knock. It is opened by one of the massive giants inside. Ars is resting as is Pan. I go to my room that I am sharing with Am. She is sleeping quite soundly too. I soon see why. The bed is so soft and comfortable. Even tho I am by far the least scarred by today’s battle, I am quite fatigued. Even so, my mind works on the details for the ringers that I will try to hire to ship out of Loona in our stead. I don’t work long at it tho. The bed drags me down into sleep’s embrace quickly.
We awaken in the morning and freshen up and hurry to Ars and Pan’s room after Am has prayed to Mother for many healing spells. Using nearly all her spells on Ars rouses him from his coma and aids Pan and Am a little. The night’s rest has done wonders for me and I ask Am for only the lowest of her healing magics. I tell the others that I have missed the city life while traipsing thru the woods and want to wander the streets while they rest if they don’t mind. I ask Am how long she thinks it will be before everyone is ready to ride again. She says she thinks that she can have everyone healed up in a few days if they stay in bed and recuperate. I tell her I will have some breakfast sent up for them all on my way out. I stop at the front desk and do just that and then go out thru the kitchens grabbing some fruit and a hot slice of meat on a hard roll for me. Ahhh, just like growing up. Sneaking out of the house thru the kitchen and grabbing some food for the trip of sneaking off to town. It is almost enuf to let me forget about that bitch Daresh for a few minutes. It is enuf to at least push her to the back burners of my mind’s wood stove.
I wander around Geanavue for a little while but it is almost too nice. I decide to go on to Loona to see about our ringers. It is a nice ride between the cities. The road is busy with traffic to and from the port but not so much as to be crowded.
Ahhhhhh! Loona! A lot dirtier, smellier, and definitely a place you want to watch your back. Sailors and docks and shadows, what more could a girl ask for? I go to the docks and find a ship heading for Ardarr-Norr in Skaarna. I book four cabins, making sure to use our names. I head to a pub that seems to be doing a lively business despite the relatively early hour. I take a seat and start to look for our ringers. I find an elf resembling Ars after a few watered down drinks. I approach him and play out my spiel. I buy him a drink and tell him about my employer seeking adventurous sorts to do a job for him. I tell him I have booked his passage and there will be 10 gold in his cabin when the ship sails and that there will be 40 more gold in Ardarr-Norr just for listening to my employer’s offer. He not only looks similar to Ars but acts much like him in his snotty, elvish way too. He says it is not for him. I say probably not since it is for the brave sort who are good with a blade and leave his table. I find a Dejy girl who looks a lot like Am. I give her the same spiel. She accepts readily. She asks if she can go ahead and stay on the ship since she has no where else to stay and no money. I tell her she can’t do that but I will pay her room and board at a local inn til the ship sails if she will come with me. I get her a place here in Loona and she thanks me profusely. She hugs me and jostles me so hard I am just barely able to actually slip the 2 gold into her pocket without dropping them or her noticing me.
On my way back to the pub to look for my double, I notice a game running in an alley. I walk up the alley to watch. Risk and Watcher are truly shining on me today. There is my double! She is taking the money from all the men playing there with her. I hear a few complaining of her cheating and the game breaks up. I approach her and ask her if she would like to listen to a business proposition over some drinks. She says sure and drops the many coins of her winnings from one hand to the other and winks and says that she will even buy. We go in and have a few drinks and talk of Svimohzia and turn down a many an offer to retire to the whoring rooms upstairs. After getting to know her a little, I do my song and dance. I tell her the ship leaves the day after tomorrow and her gold will be there in her cabin when it sails. The deal is struck. We part ways when she finally accepts an offer from one of the better looking patrons. I make my way back to Geanavue determined to come back tomorrow in search of Ars 2.
The others seem to be recovering quite well when I get back but Am is probably right about anyone being totally well and road ready for a few more days. I don’t tell the others about my day’s activities for a couple of reasons. I am not sure how Daresh seems to know what we are doing ahead of us. I don’t know if she has a spy watching and listening to us somehow and I am not entirely certain it might not be Pan. I will just pretend that my talk on the trail was just that and I did not take any action on it. Things have quieted between us since the squabble over the vault books but there is just something unsettling about her. The bed works its wonders and quickly drags me into sleep again. I will hate sleeping on the ground again after getting spoiled here.
This morning is pretty much a repeat of yesterday with the exception of the healing being spread more evenly with Ars no longer in so desperate need and that we divide up our hoard. I choose the protective ring, Ars takes the rapier, Pan takes the ring of warmth and Am decides that she doesn’t want the armor so we sell it and then divide up the coin. Pan also takes a scroll of fireball and I take a potion of flight. Since some of our items are more valuable than our share would be we owe the rest of the group for the balance. Ars takes this time to say something about me having the coin. I start to say something about him not being able to use it anyway but decide against it. I just say that no one had said anything about it. He says that he is saying something about it now. I agree to pay the others 5000 gold per person to keep the coin. I send up more food and make my way back to Loona.
I use the rest of my morning, that is not spent on the ride, just walking her streets waiting for the pubs to open back up. I am in luck. I spot a gypsy traveling show. I make sure to drop some coins in for every performer. It takes me back to my own little gypsy troupe like it was yesterday. I enjoy myself immensely. I clap and laugh right along with many of the children who have gotten their mothers or fathers to stop to watch the shows. I have such a good time I nearly forget to head to the pubs until they should all be serving the mid-day meal. I notice the hawker is being relieved (presumably for his break for that meal). I offered to treat him if he would eat with me. I knew no gypsy would pass up a free meal and so off we went.
We talked and talked. We compared stories and even found out that we knew of a few of the same people thru acquaintances with some of the people that each of us traveled with. We gypsies do range far and wide evidently. He said he had noticed that I had made a point of patronizing each performer and had wondered if I had been in the life or was just a soft sell. He said that after he got a good look into my eyes once I got close to his stand he knew it was not the latter. We got around to how long we were each going to be there and where we had been recently. My paranoia about Daresh made me invent most of my recent past and I felt bad for it but not bad enuf not to do it. He told me that he and his troupe were working their way south. I asked him how his travels had been. He said that they had been very smooth except for some trouble in Giilia. I asked him what sort of trouble. He said that it is now sometimes called the city of bats. He said too, that the city was once a growing thriving city but that now it was losing citizens instead. He said they are very suspicious of outsiders there now. He told me that many of those who could afford it were moving out. He also spoke of mysterious disappearances besides those people moving. He advised that if my route led north that I might want to steer clear of Giilia. I thanked him for the warning and he thanked me for the patronage and the meal and the company.
I had bad luck the rest of the day with the search for Ars 2. I finally gave up and went back to the docks. I told the captain that I wanted to check the cabins to make sure all was in order for my group tomorrow. I went to the cabins and put the 10 gold in each of the 3 of them that would be occupied. I thanked the captain and told him that all seemed in order and left to head back to Geanavue.
The following morning everyone seems well but Ars advises against traveling with all of Am’s spells depleted. Everyone seems to think this a good idea so we stay another night before continuing our march northward. I tell the others what I have learned about Giilia once we are back on the road and we agree to give it a wide berth. We travel until near dusk looking for a good camping site. Just when we are about to give up and settle for the open ground we have been riding over, we spot a cabin thru some widely spaced trees. There is no smoke coming from the chimney. As we get closer, the place looks deserted. Not only deserted, it looks dilapidated too. We approach it cautiously nonetheless. I sneak to the side to listen at one of the open windows. I hear nothing at first. Then, very distinctively, I hear boots on a wooden floor. I listen more closely, holding my breath so that I won’t miss anything. The boots stop and then I hear KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK- “Hello, is anybody home?” in Ars’ voice! I could choke him! “Helloooo, anybody home?” he calls again. I go around to the front to back him up.
After I get there, he opens the door to look in. I don’t see anything in the sorry little room that was behind the door. I hurry back around the building in case anyone is trying to sneak out the back and away or around to the front to surprise us after we are inside. Nothing. I go back to the front and start tying up my horse for the night.
Ars calls for Am from inside the cabin. I can hear them talking inside but can’t make out what they are saying. This goes on for a little while and I decide to go in and see what is going on. When I walk in the door, the cabin now smells like a field hand’s old work boots. There is an old blanket pulled aside to reveal a second room to the cabin. The smell is stronger the closer I get to that second room. Pan is in there with Am and Ars and some old geezer sweating out the shakes. Ye gods but he stinks! Ars and Am seem to be discussing the flowering plant beside the man’s bed. I think Am calls it belladonna and they both seem to agree it is poisonous. They wonder aloud if he has eaten it and if that might be the source of his obvious discomfort. Big deal. I guess they have never seen a drunkard have to go without the juice for long where they come from. I turn to go back out to my horse. Too bad. I guess I will be sleeping on the ground after all. There is no way I can sleep in that stench. And just wait til he starts seeing things! I doubt any of us will get any sleep then. As I make it back to the horses, I hear the first lonesome howl that can only be a wolf baying at the moon. I look up. It is a full moon too. I wonder how close it –no, there go a couple of more of them; and they sound closer than the first. Maybe I can stand the smell if I try. Then I hear something behind me. I turn to see Ars helping/dragging the old man from the cabin with Am and Pan behind him. I ask if they heard the wolves. They all nod. I ask Ars if he has been calling for one since he lost Courage, his wolf companion. He starts to reply but we are rushed by 6 wolves before he can.
3 of them rush for Ars and the old man. Ars drops him to draw his weapons and tries to get between them and the old man. 2 go for Pan and the last goes for Am. I close to striking distance to help Ars. Am calls one of her lynxes to fight her wolf. Pan sends a gout of flame from her hands to ignite the wolves fur to deter them. Ars can’t keep both wolves off the old man and he is soon finished off with his throat torn out. I finish the one I started on in 2 rapid strokes. Am and her lynx have hers almost finished. Pan’s have finished rolling on the ground putting out their fiery pelts and are closing on her again. Ars is having some trouble since he has 2 as well. Then, as if from nowhere, two humanoids that look like a cross between a man and a wolf that walk upright, charge in on Pan and Ars’ flank! I close on the man-wolf to help Ars again since he is now covered on 3 sides. Pan starts to take a serious beating. I have engaged the man beast thinking that Ars and I can make short work of it together after he finished the wolves on him. I suppose I guessed wrong. He maneuvers out of the ring of foes and as soon as he has the 2 wolves down he runs off to help Pan. He always finds a way to piss me off every day it seems! I vent my fury on the big furry. It hits the ground in short order but I am amazed at the amount of damage it was able to absorb in order to put it down. Ars and Pan are still fighting theirs. I downed mine alone before the 2 of them have stopped theirs. Praise be unto Risk and Watcher! It is good to be one of the Chosen! What black magic is this?! The beast I just felled is no longer a beast! It has changed into a normal looking man! The one on those 2 has decided to run and fight another day. I debate chasing it and decide not to. Ars pulls his bow and drops the wounded beast with a single arrow. We heal a little and move on to a quieter camp site despite the late hour.
The next nine days and eight nights are unexpectedly calm and uneventful. We travel and camp as if we haven’t a care in the world.
Late in the ninth day, we enter Haanex. We make our way to the crazy tilted tower that is home to Veodin. Blue smoke pours from the upper floors of the tower that seems even more canted despite its obviously new supports’ efforts. I knock on the door lightly in hopes of not sending it tumbling over. There is no answer. Ars calls out to Veodin as he bangs on the door. The entire tower seems to shake as he does so. Veodin sticks his head out of one of the smoking windows and in a very surly tone asks, “WHAT? Can’t you see that I am busy?” He recognizes us at this point and bids us to come in. We yell back that the door is locked. He nods and says something about yes of course it is and turns to tell somebody in the room with him to go down to let us in. Shortly, his son opens the door for us.
We follow him up the rickety stairs to Veodin’s lab. We tell him a little about our adventures since going of to find Geolain and explain that we are looking for Daresh. We tell him that we think she is the “woman of power in the north”. He says that he may be able to help us. He begins concocting something from several beakers and vials. He rushes downstairs only to rush back up with the final ingredient. “Now watch the mirror,” he says. He adds the final liquid and an oily vapor rises from the blended liquids to coat the mirror he indicated. The mirror seems to warp and bend slightly. Then it is as if we are flying over the land going north along the side of the forest and can view our path thru the mirror. The trip gains more speed the farther we go, nearly blurring at the end until it comes to an abrupt halt with the image of a large stone walled stronghold on its silvery surface. It continues inside the stronghold into a bedchamber where a familiar figure lies sleeping. As our view improves, it is apparent that Daresh is changing under the influence of the coin. She has the coloration of some of the undead creatures we killed in the vaults of NeMoran. Suddenly, her eyes snap open and she lets out a hiss like a snake or a terrified cat. She flings her hand out toward us and the mirror cracks into a thousand shards.
We know at least that we should follow the edge of the forest for a ways before we need to head out more into the plains of Skaarna. Veodin says that most of the trip was too fast but he thinks that he recognized at least one village and that the information that he has heard about this “woman of power” would put her in the general direction of that village. She would be further north of course, he says. It is told that she has already taken over 3 of the 10 fiefdoms that Skaarna is divided into. “The name of the village…” I prompt. Of course, he says. The village is Raddick. We take our rest for the night and head for Raddick the next morning.
We make our way to Raddick, some 2 days journey. It catches our eye a short while before dark. We enter thru the southern gate after being briefly questioned by the gate guards. We make our way to the inn the guards recommended (the only one in town), the Shattered Candle. It is not really an inn. It is more like several manor houses that have been joined together. I just thought the inn in Geanavue was grand. This puts it to shame. It has kept all of its stately elegance of the former home that it was and more. We take rooms on some of the upper floors but not the “suites” which are at the very top. The dining room is doing a lively trade in spite of the small town population. It must be the center gathering point for nightlife and such for the whole town. The food is great and the atmosphere is too. There is much laughter and plenty of singing and story telling and lots of games like cards and darts and some drinking game where the contestants stack copper pieces on various parts of their bodies and then have to move and catch them. It is heavy on fun with your neighbors without the pressure of the big city bustle to make every copper they can off the customer and without the yoke of any mean drunks that I can see. All in all it is a very homey, small farm town kind of feeling.
That is until the shadows start to stretch long.
Things break up rapidly as the night begins to fall. After all the other diners have left, the door is locked and barred with a heavy piece of oak. The barkeep tells us we are welcome to stay up as long as we like and eat or drink as we like. We can settle up in the morning for that he tells us. He makes us swear not to open the doors or windows however. We ask him why not but he will not give any details. He just tells us that our lives will be forfeit if we open them and more than likely the lives of everyone in the inn. We press him for information but he simply retires after getting our oath. Sitting here in an empty dining hall is no fun so we go on to our rooms. We watch out our windows for a while to try to see what has the town so fearful but see nothing and so decide to retire ourselves.
Shortly after I lie down, I hear the sound of heavy boots marching echoing thru the streets. Am must have heard it too because she is already sitting up when I start to get out of bed. It is a little unsettling to tell the truth. There is something that is positively eerie about it. We go to the window together to try to find out what is going on. In a little while, for better or for worse we get our answer. A shadowy gaunt figure clad in fine, if battle-tested, plate armor and shield stalks the night. It is or rather was definitely military at some time if its current carriage means anything. Its movement can only be described as a brisk tactical march. Its movement is crisp and sure despite its obvious undead state. This is not the brittle skeleton or staggering zombie that we have faced before. I only see the one but I can hear the bootfalls of its companions in other parts of the town. By now, I can hear Ars and Pan talking as they too look on from their window. Our militant wraith is systematically making its way down the street. It stops at each door and shuttered window; trying each one so as to gain entry. When it gets to the Shattered Candle’s doorway, I decide to see what our fiends are made of. As it turns the knob and shakes the door, I cast Disrupt Undead. The golden glowing ray hits the creature squarely and it does not seem pleased. I draw back alongside the wall next to the window to make the best use of my cover. I did not count on the infernal creature firing thru the panes of the glass itself! A heavy bolt crashes thru the glass and leaves a burning furrow across my dark belly. I step to the window and hit it again with the golden ray. Am tries to turn the filthy thing using Mother’s power. I can’t believe it! It is unfazed! By now it has reloaded its heavy crossbow. It sends a bolt into Am. Am and I have become so close in these last weeks that the only thing that could have sealed its fate more surely would have been for it to use some sort of magic on me. This is surely enuf to get it the grave it has eluded so far. I ask Am to heal me. She looks a little surprised since my wound is not too serious and I don’t usually ask for her spells needlessly. “A 3 story drop can be a little tricky,” I say as I climb into the open window. I feel her hands on me and the warm sensation I always get when she works her healing magics on me; and then I am dropping quickly to meet our foe face to rotted face.
The ground rushes up at me. I use everything I have learned about tumbling and jumping but I still feel my ankle give a little twinge as I come down on one of the larger cobblestones. I roll with it to keep the damage to a minimum and call Flamesinger into the cool night air. I see some of Ars’ arrows bounce off of it as it closes to me and know that the charge off the wand and Risk’s Shield were both well spent upstairs. I also had cast Sorcerous Touch before I leapt and I use it to channel some Personal Lightning right into all that fine metal made for stopping blades. It doesn’t help in any way that I can see against my sparking arc. If anything it seems to attract it. Before I have time to celebrate my success, it has closed the ground and misses me by barely the width of the flat side of a blade despite my enchantments.. Focus, woman! If you mean to see the light of day again, that is. I spin and take my blazing blade high to bring it crashing into a weak point Magnus told me about in plate- the joints. I hit home true enuf but the blow seemed to have much less affect than it should have. I had expected the slash to at least disable the foul animated corpse somewhat. It did not. It practically absorbed most of the impact and then sent its longsword’s glittering point thru my side almost as if I had not even hit it. Nothing vital is hit but quite a bit of blood running. That won’t be good if this drags out a while. Strange, I can feel the fatigue setting in already. The others are helping some. I think that was one of Pan’s magic missles I just saw flash into it. I dance away from it and try a different combat style hoping to confuse it. I flash ’Singer high and bring it down quickly and viciously between its helm and the edge of its shoulder protections. Let him try to shrug that off! The blazing blade even bit into the upper part of the breastplate. Oh no! It is wedged there! I yank it free with all of my might and spin away to narrowly avoid another nasty jab. After a few several more slashes and defenses, I finally put the nasty grave escapee down for good.
I can hear the others telling me to climb the rope. Rope? “What rope?” I ask while turning to them. They have dropped one end of a rope out of the window. “I just got down here and have only killed one. I am not climbing back up there. If you want to help me, come down here and let’s take them out or drop me one of those potions,” I call back up to them while holding my hand to my bloody side. I listen intently in the quiet of the street. I hear a soft whump to my left. Am has dropped a pillow out of the window. “I put the potion inside the pillow cover to keep it on the pillow during the drop,” Am calls down. Good thinking, girl. Better that than trying to catch it in my slippery, bloody hands. “Let me know if you see one coming,” I yell to them as I reach for the pillow. “His armor is magical. So is his sword. So is his shield. His cloak is magical too!” Am calls down from the window. Wow! Talk about hitting the jackpot! Where would a dead guy come up with that much magic? Maybe the rest of his buddies will be loaded too. I certainly hope so. I would like to get back to the mage’s potion shop in Geanavue at the very least, if not bigger and better things. I feel around inside the cover until I find the potion. I pull it out and swallow the potion down in one gulp. Its warmth spreads rapidly from my throat to my side where it quickly stays the bleeding from the shallow wound.
I can hear the sound of heavy boots but can’t determine the direction it is coming from when Pan yells that another one is coming from the street straight ahead of the inn. There is my next victim. I can barely make him out in the low light of the small street lanterns from this distance. I reach out to him with my Lightning thru my Touch. No need to let him get here fresh; well as fresh as a rotted corpse can be. I’ll try to have him worn down as much as I can if I can’t drop him outright before he gets here. All of a sudden, he is entangled in a massive web stretching from one side of the street to the other. Not to pass up a freebie, I Lightning him again. Ars is peppering him with arrows while he is stuck but my spells are not as easy to replenish as his arrows so I hold my hand for now.
“There are 2 more coming from the south,” Pan shouts. Ignorant witch! Like I have a clue as to which direction is south! Oh, wait. We were coming from the south and the gate we came thru is that way. I can hear them but cannot see them. Her perch must give her a better vantage point. Where is Ars? Why isn’t he down here killing off these abominations? He was so ready to kill those men at the keep on the cliff because they had imprisoned a thief. Aren’t these abominations so much more obviously “wrong” than those tower inhabitants? Does his conscience only work when females are involved and screaming for help? Well, if he is waiting for one of the Chosen to start mewling like that bitch in the tower, he had better not be holding his breath. Oh, how I miss Rakis. And missing him reminds me of how much more I miss Magnus. Neither of them would be in a third story room while a woman stood her ground, alone, in the streets with these things. A couple of bolts zinging by my head serve to bring me back to matters at hand. The 2 undead things have made their way to where we can all 3 see each other. I will use the same Lightning strategy since I have sometime before they close to melee distance. It is probably even wiser now since I don’t think being between 2 of those bastards could be too healthy for a girl Even if she is one of the Chosen..
I repeatedly shock the hell out of the one in the lead. I can see either smoke or steam rising from inside its armor into the cool night air but it continues, undaunted, for me. The others are trying to aid me with plenty of missle fire, magical and mundane, from above. Just as I am steeling myself to be head to skull with these 2, I feel the fire and impact of a heavy bolt racing from the big muscle in the back of my leg to my mind! Damn it! One is behind me. 2 was bad but 3 is worse. I move across the street to use the corner of that building to cover me from the 3rd’s aim. I hear the wild scream of Am’s battle cat and hope it will keep the newest guest busy and off my back til I can drop at least one of these. I pull the bolt from the back of my thigh and feel the wave of nausea wash over my stomach as it makes a wet, sucking sound as it pulls free. I also feel the warm rush of blood that bathes the lower half of my leg. After all the Lightning I slammed into the lead corpse, he goes down quickly under my fiery blade. Am must have come down to the rope to help me after seeing the arrow hit me from behind. That must have finally shamed Ars from his cubby hole. He is climbing down a rope from his and Pan’s room.
The 2nd from the south decided to try to take on Am instead of doubling up on me. I don’t know if it was because he saw how I carved up his buddies or what but I am glad for the respite. My breath is coming in ragged gasps. The wounds are bad but I have had worse and still held up better than this. Flamesinger seems so heavy and so do my feet and legs when I try to execute even some of the simple footwork involved in the martial styles I have adopted. Why am I so weak?
Break is over. The undead merc went thru Am’s cat just about as quickly as I have ever seen anything do it. That is scary, when I consider some off the foes those cats have faced right along beside of us. I send some Lightning into him to try to soften him up a little before he gets here. Now it is just down and dirty. Slash and dodge. Feint and strike. Defend and counterattack. Over and over again, we repeat this deadly marathon dance competition. Only in this contest, you must outlast your partner rather than the other couples. My legs scream from the hot ache that usually comes only after a long period of hard running. I have lost count of the times that my blade has cut into this bastard. I know I have hit him at least 10 times. I have never had anyone withstand that many blows from me and Flamesinger. I don’t know of course, but I think 10 blows from me and ’Singer would have even given Poole some pause if I was be able to stay away from the terrible crushing blows that he and his club must be able to deliver. Another one of its thrusts gets thru my defenses. I can feel my muscles becoming even more tired before the blade is withdrawn for another strike. What are these things and where did they come from? After several more do si do ’s, I finally watch him drop to the ground in a motionless heap. I am too tired to celebrate. Sweat pours out of me and drips to the ground in great large drops. It is as if the strength has just been sapped from my body.
From the growling and feline screams coming from my right, another one of them must have joined our little party only to be met by another battle lynx. Am and Ars are having a terrible time with the one under the inn’s windows. I look to my right. The fiend has dispatched the lesser lynx already. If I step out from my cover, he could rush me. If I don’t Am’s flank is uncovered and she and Ars have trouble enuf already. Hopefully it is too stupid to charge. I cast Fleet Feet upon myself. I pull a vial of holy water from it’s steel skin. I step out and dash it against the foul bladesman. The joy I feel from the smoking hole it makes on him and the resulting scream of pain is short lived. His squad-mate is not so stupid as I had hoped. He has charged my unprotected flank. I feel as if molten lead has just been poured into my guts. I can hear screaming as he pulls his longsword from within me only to realize it is me doing the screaming. Blood pours from 3 holes: the entry point, the exit wound on my other side, and from my mouth. Am rushes to me and pours healing energy into me. Although it is one of her mightiest spells, it can only slow the red rivers, not stop them. I use Watcher’s gift of speed to put as much distance between me and my would-be-killer. I drink the potion of Mirror Image I had intended to surprise Daresh with( I have to live out today to get to her) and pull out my web scroll. . Ars and Am retreat to me faster than the corpse-blades can. I read the scroll only to miss them as I did Li-mead’s hellcat. Damnation! Wasted gold and another public show of my incompetence! I am not sure which I hate worse.
The foul bladesmen advance upon us with the steady morale that can only come from already being dead. Am escapes further behind me. Ars flees to my left. I try to remember everything Magnus told me about fighting while outnumbered. I want to use my feet to position myself so that one of them acts as a shield for me against the other one so I move to try to keep one of them between me and the other one. It is better to prevent an attack from coming rather than having to try to make them all miss. It is also paramount to prevent them charging and flanking tactical advantages. One of the damned strikes and dissipates one of my images. The other is out of position due to my previous movement. I know not where the strength comes from to do it but I execute a leap and a few somersaults to tumble away from the undead murderers and reposition myself to keep them out of advantageous positions. I use my quickness to stop the opportunities of their attacks from coming, rather than my blade or my spells(what few remain) to defend against them in order to give the others a chance to regroup. I continue to keep them in line with each other or otherwise confound their attempts to charge and/or flank me while putting more distance between us. “Always try to play to your strengths or to your foe’s weakness or best case: your strength against his weakness,” Magnus told me on several occasions. Well right now my speed against their lack of it seems about as good of a match as I am going to get. I just don’t want to get too far ahead of them so that they remember that they could both attack with their heavy crossbows pretty much no matter how I move. I don’t think I could take even one more hit at this point. I need to stay close enuf to bait them into keeping their swords out no matter how ineffectual they are.
Then the world goes up in flames!
Or at least, the street and the remaining undead and part of the surrounding buildings go up in flames. A massive explosion unlike anything I have ever seen before simply consumes nearly everything in a circle twice as wide as the street around the monsters. I am barely able to keep my feet from the shock wave that rolls out from the blast. For maybe the second time, I am glad Pan is with us. I am on my last legs. The inn is on fire. Pan is throwing her stuff and Ars’ gear from the window. I tell her to throw Am’s and mine too. I go to the previously undead but now really dead bladesmen and start to strip them of the things Am detected as magical right after I killed the first one. The inn is going up fast. I tell Pan again to start throwing out our stuff too. There is no way I can undo all the buckles and straps of the armor before the whole town should be out here. I just get the quick stuff.
Ars comes riding around the blazing building. He tells me to forget stripping them but to just throw the goons over the backs of the horses. I help him do it. Pan is coming down the rope! She hasn’t gotten anything out of mine and Am’s! My happiness with her company is officially over. I go over and start to pick up some of her stuff to throw back into the fire. Ars yells at me to just climb up the other rope and get it myself. I scream at him to look at me! Just how far does he think I could climb? I can scarcely stand from the weakness and fatigue of both the strenuousness of the battle and from the fantastic amount of blood I have lost so how does he expect me to climb anywhere? He tells me to lead the horses back to the stables with the bodies and he will get our stuff and be right behind me.
I slowly lead the animals back to the stables. It is a good thing they don’t act up too much. I don’t know if I could hold them if they did. It finally hits me how badly I am hurt as I move away from the fire of the inn. The fire must have been keeping me warm while I was so close to it. Now that I am away from it I can feel the cold sinking in. The cold is just like when I lay bleeding out at the feet of that demon cat in the jungle. I hope Am has some healing left. Thru the fog of my self-pity, I notice that the fire has driven the people from the inn but that there are no other people but the inn dwellers in the streets. I also notice that no one is trying to put out the blaze. Everyone seems much more intent on beating on a door trying to get in off the street. No luck there to be had by anyone that I can see. There are no doors opening despite the terrible cries of their neighbors out here in the firelit streets. What have these things done to this town? What could they have done so that not one person has the heart to try to help his neighbor? Fie! A pox on all the gutless cowards! I finally make it to the stables.
Am and Pan are saddling the horses. I start stripping the bodies and loading that gear on the horses already dressed out. I can see the inn thru the stable doorway. There will be nothing left. I take one of the shields and walk out into the streets. I look for the innkeeper. I want to give him the shield to help him rebuild the Shattered Candle. It was a grand inn and it was no fault of his that Pan doesn’t know how to use her spells or scrolls. I look until I see Ars finally coming back. Where has he been so long? While I am looking for the innkeeper, I see that the fire has spread. After it has run its course, there may not be anything left of the town. Back to the stables I go.
We load up and ride for the north gate. When we get there, it is locked. Ars calls for the guards and I look for a mechanism to open the thing from here inside the walls. I don’t find one; it must be inside the guard shack. Ars is getting no answer from in there despite his pleas for help to save the burning town. Cowards! Ars goes of to try to find another way out or some more receptive guards. I think I will try to contend with these; I am too tired to run all over this burgh. I try to pick the lock on the door. It confounds my attempts. Damn you cowards in there! I wish Rakis were here again so that he could just smash the door down but I here my father saying, “If wishes were horses, then beggers would ride…” Horses! Horses are strong. I will use my horse to pull the door down. I tie my rope thru the pull ring. I tie the other end around the horn of my saddle. I smack the animal on the haunch and leap back ready for it to drag the door of the hinges. It does not work quite like I thought. The pull ring is no longer on the door but the door still stands in the way. Damn it! I hurry to the door and push my fingers in the hole to try to lift the bar or whatever is keeping us from getting in. I can’t feel anything. I squat down to look thru the hole to see if I can at least see what our obstacle is. The lantern light is blacked out quickly and I have the terrible feeling that this was a bad idea. I duck my head to protect my eye and try to roll out of the way. Too late. There is a bright colorful flash of light just above my right eye from the impact and as the colors fade out so does the rest of my vision as I fall over backwards. At least I saved my eye, runs thru my mind as I fall in what seems like slow motion. I never even feel the ground as everything is black before I get there…
