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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 287345" data-attributes="member: 5868">CHAPTER 4 – FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROADThe party camped in the house that night, prepared to do battle the next morning.  In the night, the sound of a scuffling in one corner of the room woke Olgar and Belarn.  Olgart slowly turned over, and noticed the kobold going through Nelum’s pack.“Wha’ in th’ nine ‘ells ‘re you doin’, lizard?” Olgar shouted, waking the entire group.  Yuusdrail froze, caught red handed.“Nothing,” she whimpered.Wodyn bounded over and grabbed the kobold.  She had been going through a book in Nelum’s pack, and in her hands were bits of the things she had taken off of the dragon corpse: a few scales, a vial of blood, and a couple of teeth.“She ain’t t’ be trusted,” Olgar growled, “no doubt she was plannin’ t’ cast a spell ‘re summat worse.  I says we off ‘er right now.”Wodyn shook his head, then took a look at the book.  “What were you doing, little one?” he asked the kobold.“Gain dragon power,” Yuusdrail said.“Likely story,” Olgar growled, still unconvinced.  “She prob’ly wants t’ resurrect th’ damn thing.”  “Let it go, dwarf,” Wodyn said.“Fine,” Olgar replied, rolling back over, “but iff’n I catch ‘er goin’ through me stuff, she’s dead, an’ you ain’t stoppin’ me.”The rest of the night passed quietly, and after preparing their weapons and spells the groups headed downstairs and out behind the mansion to the cemetery.  It was a small plot, about fifty feet on a side, with twenty or so aged headstones, all bearing one Gentry name or another.  In the center of the plot was a stone mausoleum about ten feet square.  A door faced them, with a carved gargoyle leering down over the doorway.Olgar fired a crossbow bolt that shattered off of the gargoyle.  “Just checking,” he muttered, “alright, runt, check the door.”  They entered the cemetery, Nelum remaining just outside the gate, and Belarn carefully examined the door for traps.“It’s clean,” he announced, and then attempted to open the door.  The eyes of the gargoyle above the door glowed briefly red, and Belarn’s eyes glazed over.“Clean my arse,” Olgar muttered, “tha’ looked like a trap.  Still, prob’ly discharged a’ th’ first shot.  Fine, let th’ priest try.” He shouldered aside Belarn, who had lost his usual cunning look and was staring blankly at his thieve’s tools.  “Quit standin’ there like an’ idjit an’ get outta th’ way.”The door opened smoothly for Olgar, allowing him through, then closed behind him.  He shouted through the closed door: “Not much in here, some remains, an’ a big stone coffin.  Get in heres so’s I ken open th’ thing!”Guess I’ll have t’ do it meself, Olgar thought grimly.  He stowed his crossbow and rolled up his sleeves, calling on Kraig to protect and shield him, and increase his strength so that he could open the coffin.  His prayers and spells finished, Olgar kicked at the lid of the coofin, spilling it onto the floor.  A black opening yawned in the bottom of the coffin, revealing a set of stairs that descended into blackness.“Stairway down,” he yelled back.  Now wha’ could be keepin’ them?There was a banging of steel on stone coming from the far side of the stone door.  Wodyn, not willing to risk the trap that had drained Belarn’s mind, was banging away at the stone gargoyle with his axe.  After a number of swings, the stone finally cracked and gave way, opening the door, but also releasing a rush of pinkish magical energy that washed over Wodyn, Belarn, and Olgar.Olgar felt his strength and health fade from him.  He gave a brief cough, not feeling his hale dwarven self.  He turned to the doorway.  “Now wha’d ye go an’ do tha’ for?” he asked Wodyn accusingly.  Belarn’s blank expression had advanced: he was into full-on idiocy now.Wodyn’s shoulder’s slumped.  All his will to fight had been drained from him.  “I was trying to disable the trap,” he said.“It worked,” Olgar replied, “but now we’re in no shape t’ face whate’ers down there.  Back t’ the temple o’ Kraig.  Either this hex’ll pass by morning, or I’ll fix us up a couple o’ restorations an’ see iff’n tha’ might do the trick.  Come on.”  Olgar paused long enough to restore the lid of the stone coffin, tapping in a few steel spikes for good measure.Don’ know about this.  Even wi’ th’ power o’ Kraig, I’m not sure we ken close a demon gate.  An’ we ain’ goin’ t’ try unless we’re 100%!They headed back to town and spent the night at the temple of Kraig.  They felt no better the next morning, so Olgar prepared a few spells to restore their health and vigor.  All of the spells failed.  Olgar’s health was still poor, Belarn was still an idiot, and Wodyn still lacked the will or common sense to go on.  Only Nelum – who had been standing outside the blast of the trap – was completely untouched.They sat outside on the steps of the temple, discussing their next move.  None of them wanted to go back to the crypt in their current condition, and it was obvious that they lacked either the knowledge, skill, or power to lift the curse brought on by opening the crypt.  Olgar was of the mind that the world could go hang – there were plenty of other heroes that could stop up a gate.  This little problem was out of their league.“We got one as needs a brain,” he argued, “I needs me heart, ‘n Wodyn’s lost ‘is nerve.  Hang this town; le’s be off t’ find a wizard who’ll serve t’ fix ‘re little problem.”“Yussdrail fix,” the kobold offered, and scampered off.  She returned a short while later with their old friend, the high priest of Moloch in tow.Olgar looked at the heavens and rolled his eyes.  Deus ex machina, here we go again.“Your kobold companion explained your little problem,” Father Mayi began smoothly, “I’ll happily lift your curse if you’ll do me a favor in return.”All except Nelum looked dubious.  “What sort of favor?” Wodyn asked.“There is an item down in the crypt I would like you to retrieve for me.  Just bring it back to me when you’re done, and you can keep anything else you find,” the priest replied.“Why’nt ye get it yerself?” Olgar asked suspiciously.“Well, I suppose I could, but I have so much else to do, and I always like to help a friend in need.”“Excuse us a minute,” Olgar said to the priest, then turned to the others.  “Huddle.”They stepped around the corner of the building.  “Well, what ye think?” Olgar asked the others.  “I’ve no problem workin’ fer th’ man, but I ain’t likin’ how ahppy ‘e is t’ be helpin’ us.  We’re plannin’ t’ be off t’ th’ city t’ sell off some items, so’s we might as well be off’n take care o’ this curse there as well.  Hang these buggers, they ken solve their own problems.”“We probably shouldn’t let whatever that is fall into that priest’s hands,” Nelum offered.  “Let’s take him up on the offer, then skip town once we’ve got the item in hand.  We win all around!”“Are ye daft man?” Olgar retorted, “Based on all ‘e’s done already, tha’ priest a’ likely blast this town down iff’n he had th’ mind t’.  I ain’t gonna cross ‘im.  We don’ need those kinds o’ enemies.  Wodyn?”“I’m thinking that we’re out of our league,” Wodyn replied, “but I leave it to you.”  Belarn was obviously going to be no help.  Olgar took a deep breath, and walked back around the corner.“Well, yer worship,” he began, “tis a generous offer, an’ havin, considered it, we’ve decided ye can go hang.  Thanks anyway, nice knowing ye.”  At that, he spun on his heels, and with the others in tow, they walked away down the street toward the livery stables, leaving the speechless priest in the dust behind them.Nelum was discussing the merits of riding to the nearest city, Oerid, and had finally convinced Olgar that it was not heresy to ride, when they noticed a white figure watching them from a rooftop.“It’s that Sarah girl, the diviner,” Nelum said.Sarah descended and approached them, and began spouting verse: “Ice and spirits, gone but alive; what was seven is now five.  The gate doth open, and soon shall see, to close the gate, the dragon is key.”“Whatever,” Olgar replied, “go find yerself some new heroes.  We’re off t’ find a job tha’ pays better fer th’ hazards.  Let summat else save the world.”  He gave the girl a rude gesture, and left her behind.  Wodyn, Nelum, and Belarn followed him, leaving only Yuusdrail with the now dispirited Sarah.“Yuusdrail fix,” the kobold said, tugging at her gown.  Kobold and human turned away from the four and walked toward the outskirts of town.  Finally rid o’ that one!  All’s well tha’ ends better, then! Olgar thought.An hour later the four were mounted on new horses and ponies, Wodyn’s wild elk in the lead, headed northward on the yellow brick road toward the city of Oerid and new adventures.</blockquote>

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