It took a little time and I was just explaining the technicalities of the delicate magic of the simulacra to the priest when Drudge returned.
“Found some blood; quite a bit of it actually. I knew I got him! If we hurry, we’ll catch him before he can set up.”
So we all descended carefully; the bridges still swayed and I was still as disturbed by huge trees and looking down from them as previously. Thankfully, this time, we all managed to reach the ground without mishap.
We saw Drudge waiting for us beside a particular patch of ground and he pointed at it:
“There are the tracks! Can you see them?”
“No, not really but can you follow them?” asked Longhelim.
“Easy; just watch me,” was the reply and off we went.
It must be said I had no idea what he was following but Drudge moved with a surety and a speed that was uncanny; there were a few times when he stopped us as he looked around but then he would be off again, moving along a secret pathway only known to himself.
Finally, we stopped as we saw a clearing and a structure. The clearing was dominated by yet another enormous tree. Almost as impressive was the massive network of roots that spread around the clearing; it was among this network that we were able to discern a roof; or the remains of one rather; it was in fairly bad shape, with broken shingles and several gaps. The house obviously went quite deep underground as the roof was fairly much on the level of the surface while a pit surrounded the structure. The pit seemed to go only a short distance below ground, roughly the same level as the floor of the house.
As we approached, Victor said quietly:
“This was a forge; I can smell it.”
Now that he mentioned it, the whole area still smelt of burnt metal, albeit very faintly.
There was also a dilapidated walkway leading across the pit and down to the entrance of the building.
Drudge whispered to the rest of us:
“I lost the tracks but I’m pretty certain that either he’s in there or has been here very recently. I’m going to have a look around and when I finish, you should move in.”
With that, he moved off and disappeared into the undergrowth; within moments, we saw him jump within the root system until he positioned himself on one corner of the clearing and waited. Obviously, he hadn’t found anything of interest or danger.
John moved forward and carefully checked the walkway; again, he didn’t find anything amiss as he moved forward. He reached the walkway and after looking through one of the shattered windows, he climbed onto the roof. We saw him move carefully and peer down through one of the cracks and then he began to sign agitatedly, pointing into the house below; it looked as if he had sighted our quarry. We moved forward onto the walkway only for three ghostly figures to move through the wall and attack us and John; they were the same type as those that had attacked us previously; I was almost certain now that they were somehow connected to Rhuarc’s sword.
Several of them touched Victor, causing him to flinch and stagger but then Felix managed to drive them away by the power of his god. Moments later, Longhelim had rushed forward and kicked open the door. Inside were the tools and equipment consistent with a forge; a bellows, various tongs and hammers scattered over the floor, an anvil and a water tank. There was no sign of Rhuarc. Victor, Longhelim and Felix moved into the building; I was just outside and John was still on the roof.
Then the next thing I felt was a crash and a massive mixture of logs, earth and stone fell from above, mowing through the roof, the house and more importantly, all of us. The bridge collapsed below me and I fell down the pit. Dust rose and to add to the confusion, there was a small explosion and a large fire quickly conflagrated inside this mess. I could hear spluttering and coughing from inside. As soon as I was able to stand up, I suddenly realised that I was much deeper than I originally thought; then I saw that the “bottom” of the pit had been carefully disguised to be quite shallow. It was deeper and as a result I had fallen to a much greater depth, explaining the bumps and bruises that I sported; they were quite substantial for such a shallow pit; it also meant that getting out would be that much harder. I realised this in an instant; there were other things to worry about though; I made my way inside the forge as quickly as possible. It was difficult; there was mess, rubble and rubbish everywhere but I could see Longhelim, Felix and John.
Felix was casting spells; I was too distracted to notice what they were. I saw that Longhelim was beginning to pull at a pile of rubble.
“Victor’s underneath this lot! He’s trapped!”
I didn’t have any spells which could help this situation so I began to move stuff as quickly as I could. I wasn’t very strong but I did my best. Longhelim was doing the same thing and it quickly became obvious that Victor was at least conscious under this enormous mound of rubbish. I felt a tap on my shoulder; blinking, I realised that I had been smouldering but I hadn’t even noticed.
Felix said:
“Faden, you should put your robes out now! I know you can’t feel it anymore but a lot of your clothes have been burnt away.”
“Later! Have to get Victor out!”
Suddenly, there was a shout from outside:
“Got you, you son of a…..”
That had been Drudge’s voice and I could only assume that he had seen or shot Rhuarc again, for all the good it would do. Suddenly, there was a massive heave from below the pile of rubble; a lot of it shifted and I re-doubled my efforts to move more rubbish. Finally, after yet more logs and dirt being shifted, Victor burst through with a mighty effort. He was dirty, dusty and exhausted but at least he was moving and breathing.
Getting him out fully became much easier and we finally abandoned the burning forge. Outside in the pit, John had already readied his magical rope and with that, we managed to pull ourselves up. Surprisingly, I found it quite easy; as I moved up, I suddenly realised that all of this activity that I had suffered through after leaving Gate Pass had changed my physique; whereas previously I had been soft and weak I was now much harder; and while I would never compete with Longhelim and Victor when it came to strength, I was certainly stronger than I had been; and far more resilient. I filed that away to think about later.
As I was musing about these physical changes, Victor was still spitting out splinters of burnt wood.
“Well, we certainly walked into that one! That son of a…….I think we can safely say that he will have rigged every important location in Phorros Irrendra in the same manner. He’s had years to do it!”
Drudge returned at this point:
“Lost him! I found his tracks though. If we can get organized, we should get going. We won’t catch him but hopefully, he won’t have time to set anything up this time.”
John snorted:
“I think you’re being optimistic; whatever, he’s set up, he did it years ago; but yes, let’s go!”
So there was a lot of healing done and then we began to follow Drudge. Whatever the ranger was doing, it quickly became apparent that we were moving much slower than previously. Every so often, Drudge would come back towards us and begin to examine the ground. I could also hear him muttering to himself:
“Tricky! You’re a tricky one! You won’t get away from me though; I’ll get you yet!”
I must confess that no matter how tricky, two things struck me as odd. One was that Rhuarc had the ability to travel magically; if he used that, then we would stand absolutely no chance of catching him; he knew that and we knew that no matter how cunning he was being, he was still luring us somewhere. The other thing that was odd was why did he keep attacking us? He had made no attempt to talk or reason, his first contact with us was to attack. He obviously knew why we were here; yet, with the powers he had shown, he could have hidden himself from us and we would be none the wiser, possibly for months; or he could have just left through the caves and again, we would none the wiser, again possibly for months; yet, he was aggressively stalking us and attacking at every opportunity.
He must have known that we were not Shahalesti; they wouldn’t condescend to use non-elves for such an important mission; nor did we look like the usual Ragesian group; yet he had made it clear he wasn’t interested in knowing whom we represented or where we came from. That led to a disturbing proposition: either he already knew who we were and decided that we were to be eliminated; or he was possessed by a trillith who seemed to have no trouble in knowing who we were.
As all these thoughts were going through my head, I did not really notice where we were going; I did notice that we were moving quite slowly and unconsciously, I noticed that Drudge was still doing lot of doubling up, climbing trees every so often and often moving back on his own path, checking the ground.
Finally, we stopped next to a huge tree. Extraordinarily, it seemed to have large shards of black stone through its trunk. I remembered seeing it when we had flown over the valley but up closer, this looked even more peculiar. We looked up into its heights. There were stairs along the tree trunk this time, as opposed to swaying, dangerous rope bridges. Still, John took one look at the warriors and me, and said:
“All right, all right, I’ll go up there to take a look; just so you know, if I get into trouble, I’ll scream.”
With those words, the rogue turned into mist and flew up into the foliage.
We waited some time; finally, he flew back down and solidified and quickly explained the following:
“I’m pretty sure he’s up there! There is a flat platform up there, almost like some sort of meeting place; at one end, there’s a building; it’s not in great shape but it is recognizable. There are flat black stones up there as well, posted around that platform; I had a quick look at them; they just spout on about how great the Taranesti are and how nasty and evil the Shahalesti are. In other words, the history of the elves according to the Taranesti; the bits I read are really boring.
Anyway, that’s by the by; I also a found a big trap. Another of these log falls, this one high, high up; if we had decided to go up onto the platform in force without checking, then it could have been very nasty; but, I cut the trigger cord. It won’t work!”
He grinned at us triumphantly, obviously very pleased with himself; I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t know a great deal about it but from what I saw, I suspect it that it would have been very difficult to both find and incapacitate that trap.
Drudge said:
“But he’s got to be somewhere around to trigger it, right?”
John nodded and continued:
“I couldn’t see him though; he must be doing his hiding trick. If we go up there though, we may be able find out where he is.”
I wasn’t so sure about this idea:
“So you want us to use ourselves as bait?”
Longhelim nodded:
“Let’s go!”
Carefully and rather gingerly, especially in my case, we ascended the staircase. I wasn’t very comfortable doing so but at least it was better than those rope bridges. Thankfully, we were able to get to the platform without incident; it seemed that Rhuarc really did want us to move there. So, we obliged him and cautiously stepped onto the platform. We advanced slowly and nothing happened until, with screams and moans, four more of Rhuarc’s undead servants fell on us from high above, only to be immediately driven back by the holy power of both Felix and Longhelim. All of them fled. John immediately began to scan the surrounding area for any sign of our enemy but Rhuarc was far too canny for that.
Then Drudge found the trip wire designed to drop the logs on top of us and decided to follow it. John still kept a diligent lookout while the rest of us checked the platform and the building. I looked at the slates of black stones with a history of the city of Phorros Irrendra; as discussed it was the last refuge of the Taranesti against the Shahalesti and as such a very unhappy place. No one else found anything of interest. John was right; it was all quite dull; the Taranesti really didn’t know how to tell a story.
Drudge returned fairly quickly:
“Well, I found the place from where he was watching us; I also found tracks showing where he was going; he’s running on the tree tops; I’d probably be able to follow him but it’s unlikely you will, so I suggest I try to track his route while you follow me on the ground.”
I was rather dubious about this, especially as that would leave Drudge alone up there:
“On the tree tops? How is he doing that? More importantly, do you think you’ll be safe and that you’ll manage?”
He shrugged:
“As to the first, there are lots of ways he can do it; I can do it as well although he’s probably better at it than I am at the moment; and as for being safe, no, it’s not but we have to try.”
So we descended again and then proceeded to try to follow Drudge again. He was moving slowly and doubled back several times, then circled the area again and finally joined us on the forest floor.
“I lost him! I can’t track him on the tree tops! I’m afraid I don’t where he has gone now!”
Longhelim just nodded and looked into the forest:
“Never mind; you’ve done miracles with your tracking already; we’ll do our own sweep now. The next location we’ll check is the Fane of Fallen Hallows.”
Looking at the paladin, I said:
“In other words, the graveyard.”
He nodded and we set out again. The journey to the graveyard took a little time; we were being very cautious about any other nice surprises that Rhuarc may have left for us. We did not slow down completely but at the same time, we were all remembering log falls, pits, swinging branches, sharpened spears and whatever other nice surprises that he may have devised over the years.
“Found some blood; quite a bit of it actually. I knew I got him! If we hurry, we’ll catch him before he can set up.”
So we all descended carefully; the bridges still swayed and I was still as disturbed by huge trees and looking down from them as previously. Thankfully, this time, we all managed to reach the ground without mishap.
We saw Drudge waiting for us beside a particular patch of ground and he pointed at it:
“There are the tracks! Can you see them?”
“No, not really but can you follow them?” asked Longhelim.
“Easy; just watch me,” was the reply and off we went.
It must be said I had no idea what he was following but Drudge moved with a surety and a speed that was uncanny; there were a few times when he stopped us as he looked around but then he would be off again, moving along a secret pathway only known to himself.
Finally, we stopped as we saw a clearing and a structure. The clearing was dominated by yet another enormous tree. Almost as impressive was the massive network of roots that spread around the clearing; it was among this network that we were able to discern a roof; or the remains of one rather; it was in fairly bad shape, with broken shingles and several gaps. The house obviously went quite deep underground as the roof was fairly much on the level of the surface while a pit surrounded the structure. The pit seemed to go only a short distance below ground, roughly the same level as the floor of the house.
As we approached, Victor said quietly:
“This was a forge; I can smell it.”
Now that he mentioned it, the whole area still smelt of burnt metal, albeit very faintly.
There was also a dilapidated walkway leading across the pit and down to the entrance of the building.
Drudge whispered to the rest of us:
“I lost the tracks but I’m pretty certain that either he’s in there or has been here very recently. I’m going to have a look around and when I finish, you should move in.”
With that, he moved off and disappeared into the undergrowth; within moments, we saw him jump within the root system until he positioned himself on one corner of the clearing and waited. Obviously, he hadn’t found anything of interest or danger.
John moved forward and carefully checked the walkway; again, he didn’t find anything amiss as he moved forward. He reached the walkway and after looking through one of the shattered windows, he climbed onto the roof. We saw him move carefully and peer down through one of the cracks and then he began to sign agitatedly, pointing into the house below; it looked as if he had sighted our quarry. We moved forward onto the walkway only for three ghostly figures to move through the wall and attack us and John; they were the same type as those that had attacked us previously; I was almost certain now that they were somehow connected to Rhuarc’s sword.
Several of them touched Victor, causing him to flinch and stagger but then Felix managed to drive them away by the power of his god. Moments later, Longhelim had rushed forward and kicked open the door. Inside were the tools and equipment consistent with a forge; a bellows, various tongs and hammers scattered over the floor, an anvil and a water tank. There was no sign of Rhuarc. Victor, Longhelim and Felix moved into the building; I was just outside and John was still on the roof.
Then the next thing I felt was a crash and a massive mixture of logs, earth and stone fell from above, mowing through the roof, the house and more importantly, all of us. The bridge collapsed below me and I fell down the pit. Dust rose and to add to the confusion, there was a small explosion and a large fire quickly conflagrated inside this mess. I could hear spluttering and coughing from inside. As soon as I was able to stand up, I suddenly realised that I was much deeper than I originally thought; then I saw that the “bottom” of the pit had been carefully disguised to be quite shallow. It was deeper and as a result I had fallen to a much greater depth, explaining the bumps and bruises that I sported; they were quite substantial for such a shallow pit; it also meant that getting out would be that much harder. I realised this in an instant; there were other things to worry about though; I made my way inside the forge as quickly as possible. It was difficult; there was mess, rubble and rubbish everywhere but I could see Longhelim, Felix and John.
Felix was casting spells; I was too distracted to notice what they were. I saw that Longhelim was beginning to pull at a pile of rubble.
“Victor’s underneath this lot! He’s trapped!”
I didn’t have any spells which could help this situation so I began to move stuff as quickly as I could. I wasn’t very strong but I did my best. Longhelim was doing the same thing and it quickly became obvious that Victor was at least conscious under this enormous mound of rubbish. I felt a tap on my shoulder; blinking, I realised that I had been smouldering but I hadn’t even noticed.
Felix said:
“Faden, you should put your robes out now! I know you can’t feel it anymore but a lot of your clothes have been burnt away.”
“Later! Have to get Victor out!”
Suddenly, there was a shout from outside:
“Got you, you son of a…..”
That had been Drudge’s voice and I could only assume that he had seen or shot Rhuarc again, for all the good it would do. Suddenly, there was a massive heave from below the pile of rubble; a lot of it shifted and I re-doubled my efforts to move more rubbish. Finally, after yet more logs and dirt being shifted, Victor burst through with a mighty effort. He was dirty, dusty and exhausted but at least he was moving and breathing.
Getting him out fully became much easier and we finally abandoned the burning forge. Outside in the pit, John had already readied his magical rope and with that, we managed to pull ourselves up. Surprisingly, I found it quite easy; as I moved up, I suddenly realised that all of this activity that I had suffered through after leaving Gate Pass had changed my physique; whereas previously I had been soft and weak I was now much harder; and while I would never compete with Longhelim and Victor when it came to strength, I was certainly stronger than I had been; and far more resilient. I filed that away to think about later.
As I was musing about these physical changes, Victor was still spitting out splinters of burnt wood.
“Well, we certainly walked into that one! That son of a…….I think we can safely say that he will have rigged every important location in Phorros Irrendra in the same manner. He’s had years to do it!”
Drudge returned at this point:
“Lost him! I found his tracks though. If we can get organized, we should get going. We won’t catch him but hopefully, he won’t have time to set anything up this time.”
John snorted:
“I think you’re being optimistic; whatever, he’s set up, he did it years ago; but yes, let’s go!”
So there was a lot of healing done and then we began to follow Drudge. Whatever the ranger was doing, it quickly became apparent that we were moving much slower than previously. Every so often, Drudge would come back towards us and begin to examine the ground. I could also hear him muttering to himself:
“Tricky! You’re a tricky one! You won’t get away from me though; I’ll get you yet!”
I must confess that no matter how tricky, two things struck me as odd. One was that Rhuarc had the ability to travel magically; if he used that, then we would stand absolutely no chance of catching him; he knew that and we knew that no matter how cunning he was being, he was still luring us somewhere. The other thing that was odd was why did he keep attacking us? He had made no attempt to talk or reason, his first contact with us was to attack. He obviously knew why we were here; yet, with the powers he had shown, he could have hidden himself from us and we would be none the wiser, possibly for months; or he could have just left through the caves and again, we would none the wiser, again possibly for months; yet, he was aggressively stalking us and attacking at every opportunity.
He must have known that we were not Shahalesti; they wouldn’t condescend to use non-elves for such an important mission; nor did we look like the usual Ragesian group; yet he had made it clear he wasn’t interested in knowing whom we represented or where we came from. That led to a disturbing proposition: either he already knew who we were and decided that we were to be eliminated; or he was possessed by a trillith who seemed to have no trouble in knowing who we were.
As all these thoughts were going through my head, I did not really notice where we were going; I did notice that we were moving quite slowly and unconsciously, I noticed that Drudge was still doing lot of doubling up, climbing trees every so often and often moving back on his own path, checking the ground.
Finally, we stopped next to a huge tree. Extraordinarily, it seemed to have large shards of black stone through its trunk. I remembered seeing it when we had flown over the valley but up closer, this looked even more peculiar. We looked up into its heights. There were stairs along the tree trunk this time, as opposed to swaying, dangerous rope bridges. Still, John took one look at the warriors and me, and said:
“All right, all right, I’ll go up there to take a look; just so you know, if I get into trouble, I’ll scream.”
With those words, the rogue turned into mist and flew up into the foliage.
We waited some time; finally, he flew back down and solidified and quickly explained the following:
“I’m pretty sure he’s up there! There is a flat platform up there, almost like some sort of meeting place; at one end, there’s a building; it’s not in great shape but it is recognizable. There are flat black stones up there as well, posted around that platform; I had a quick look at them; they just spout on about how great the Taranesti are and how nasty and evil the Shahalesti are. In other words, the history of the elves according to the Taranesti; the bits I read are really boring.
Anyway, that’s by the by; I also a found a big trap. Another of these log falls, this one high, high up; if we had decided to go up onto the platform in force without checking, then it could have been very nasty; but, I cut the trigger cord. It won’t work!”
He grinned at us triumphantly, obviously very pleased with himself; I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t know a great deal about it but from what I saw, I suspect it that it would have been very difficult to both find and incapacitate that trap.
Drudge said:
“But he’s got to be somewhere around to trigger it, right?”
John nodded and continued:
“I couldn’t see him though; he must be doing his hiding trick. If we go up there though, we may be able find out where he is.”
I wasn’t so sure about this idea:
“So you want us to use ourselves as bait?”
Longhelim nodded:
“Let’s go!”
Carefully and rather gingerly, especially in my case, we ascended the staircase. I wasn’t very comfortable doing so but at least it was better than those rope bridges. Thankfully, we were able to get to the platform without incident; it seemed that Rhuarc really did want us to move there. So, we obliged him and cautiously stepped onto the platform. We advanced slowly and nothing happened until, with screams and moans, four more of Rhuarc’s undead servants fell on us from high above, only to be immediately driven back by the holy power of both Felix and Longhelim. All of them fled. John immediately began to scan the surrounding area for any sign of our enemy but Rhuarc was far too canny for that.
Then Drudge found the trip wire designed to drop the logs on top of us and decided to follow it. John still kept a diligent lookout while the rest of us checked the platform and the building. I looked at the slates of black stones with a history of the city of Phorros Irrendra; as discussed it was the last refuge of the Taranesti against the Shahalesti and as such a very unhappy place. No one else found anything of interest. John was right; it was all quite dull; the Taranesti really didn’t know how to tell a story.
Drudge returned fairly quickly:
“Well, I found the place from where he was watching us; I also found tracks showing where he was going; he’s running on the tree tops; I’d probably be able to follow him but it’s unlikely you will, so I suggest I try to track his route while you follow me on the ground.”
I was rather dubious about this, especially as that would leave Drudge alone up there:
“On the tree tops? How is he doing that? More importantly, do you think you’ll be safe and that you’ll manage?”
He shrugged:
“As to the first, there are lots of ways he can do it; I can do it as well although he’s probably better at it than I am at the moment; and as for being safe, no, it’s not but we have to try.”
So we descended again and then proceeded to try to follow Drudge again. He was moving slowly and doubled back several times, then circled the area again and finally joined us on the forest floor.
“I lost him! I can’t track him on the tree tops! I’m afraid I don’t where he has gone now!”
Longhelim just nodded and looked into the forest:
“Never mind; you’ve done miracles with your tracking already; we’ll do our own sweep now. The next location we’ll check is the Fane of Fallen Hallows.”
Looking at the paladin, I said:
“In other words, the graveyard.”
He nodded and we set out again. The journey to the graveyard took a little time; we were being very cautious about any other nice surprises that Rhuarc may have left for us. We did not slow down completely but at the same time, we were all remembering log falls, pits, swinging branches, sharpened spears and whatever other nice surprises that he may have devised over the years.