Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 491739" data-attributes="member: 143">Welcome aboard, Black Bard, and thanks to all for the kudos.  I can honestly say that it's the reader feedback that has kept this story going as long as it has.  Well, that and a very boring job.More stage-setting and bad-things-a-happenin'...  * * * * * Book VII, Part 2The city of Elturel, perched on a bluff overlooking the slow-moving River Chionthar below, slept a quiet and peaceful sleep.  A spring storm had come and gone that day, and the streets were slick with puddles gathered in dips in the roads and in the lee of the buildings.  A thick bank of clouds still hung over the sky, so the city was all shadows and indistinct lumps in the darkness of the night.  In the working-class district of the city, night hung heavily over the dark streets and narrow alleys.  Under the wise rule of the High Rider, Lord Dhelt, the city could not be said to have a true slum, but here the streets tended to be narrower, the buildings in a poorer state of repair.  Light and the sound of booted footsteps broke the night, their source resolving into a sextet of armed men clad in the livery of the High Rider.  The patrol moved swiftly through the streets, their hard eyes darting into every crack and corner, for all that their vision could press little further than the radius of their torches.  The streets were still, and no footpad or burglar scattered at their coming this night.  Continuing their watch, the six men moved efficiently through the streets, their light finally fading as they rounded a corner onto another narrow avenue. As the last lingering ray of light faded, several shadows emerged from the shelter of a nearby alley.  At first, the three looked like malevolent undead, shades that sought the warm touch of the living, but as they moved further into the street, it became clear that they were just men, clad in dark, hooded cloaks that muted any details of their form.  They were carrying large, box-shaped objects, wrapped in thick cloths that dangled out below them.  As they moved into the street, jostling those objects, faint sounds could be heard from within.  “This is a bad business,” one of the men said under his breath.  The words weren’t intended to travel, but the man in the lead apparently heard, for he spun abruptly. “Silence!” he hissed.  The original speaker lowered his gaze and did not reply.  The leader gestured, and the two others turned in opposite directions, heading down the street.  Within a few moments, both had been swallowed up by the night, vanishing back into the shadows.  The first cloaked figure paused, then crossed the street to where another alley ran into utter blackness.  He did not need to see to know where this alley led; it backed onto a narrow courtyard that backed onto a busy inn, and two adjacent three-story tenements that each housed perhaps a hundred laborers, crowded into apartments that were built to contain perhaps half that number.  Elturel was a prosperous city, especially with the coming of the spring trade, and like many cities its demand for cheap labor outpaced its ability to provide housing for them.    The figure did not enter the alley, but bent down and laid his burden down in its mouth.  With a sudden movement he drew back the covering, revealing a large wire cage.  The light was too poor to make out more than a writhing, moving mass within, but the squeaking sound that was now audible was a sufficient identifier for its contents.  Moving quickly, the man undid the front of the cage, darting back carefully as the score or so of rats exploded into the alley.  A few started back toward him, but a few stamps of his feet drove them back in the direction of their fellows.  He carefully checked the cage for stragglers, then snapped the gate back in place and took up the cage again.  He moved quickly back to the far side of the street, disappearing back into the alleyway from which he had come.  There was no need to wait for his companions; he knew that others were watching, and if they failed at their tasks, there would be no traces left behind for the authorities to find.  Smiling grimly to himself, the agent found the doorway in the darkness and vanished back into the building from which he’d come, still moving quickly.  By the time dawn came, he hoped to be well away from Elturel, a fat purse speeding him along his way.* * * * * Dawn broke on the Western Heartlands, the sun rising swiftly over the eastern horizon, shining through the clouds for the first time in several days, promising a brighter day than the last few dreary ones as a spring storm had passed through on its long march south.  The settlement didn’t even have a name, just one of the scattered clusters of farmhouses that dotted the plains along the eastern edge of The Reaching Woods.  The settlement had the look of a military outpost, the buildings squat blockhouses fashioned from thick logs with narrow windows that resembled arrowslits.  The buildings were connected by similarly heavy fences, forming a courtyard in the center that contained a well and a small outdoor workshop covered by a sloping slate roof.  Even the outbuildings, the animal pens and barns, seemed to huddle close to the outer walls of the central structures, as if seeking shelter from the dangers of the world outside.  As the first rays of the morning sun hit the settlement, they should have illuminated its members already well into their morning chores.  Instead, the area in and around the buildings was relatively quiet, with no sounds of activity.  Even before the light brightened enough to clearly discern the signs, it was clear that something was wrong; the smell of smoke and burned flesh hung in the air, and the main gate to the settlement hung open, dangling drunkenly with one of its hinges torn free from its threshold in the thick wooden fence.  The morning light also revealed a dark figure, clad in a heavy fur cloak that draped down over the hind quarters of his horse, a thick sword at his belt and a crossbow slung across his saddlehorn.  He watched the settlement impassively, waiting.  Finally a single figure emerged from the settlement, and started toward the waiting rider.  The dawn revealed the stranger as a monstrous humanoid creature, standing easily seven feet in height, with reptilian features dominated by a pair of sweeping wings that erupted from his back, and gaping draconic jaws.  The reptile-man was clad in armor that was built to accommodate the unique features of his frame, and bore a variety of weapons, including a wicked morningstar and a pair of curving swords at his belt.  As it exited the settlement it scanned the exterior, as if looking for something, then it turned and hurried to join the rider.  “Did you check everything, Varex?” the rider asked.  His voice was deep, authoritarian; the voice of a man used to having his orders obeyed.  The reptile-man looked as though he could have crushed the man’s head with a single squeeze of its massive, clawed hand, but he nodded in deference to the human.  “Nothing living remains in that place,” it reported.  “Did you leave the sigil, where it would be found?”“Yes.”“Good.  Lord Jeilu, as well as the Undying One, will be pleased.”“Then we will get the magic, that which was promised.”“Indeed you shall, Varex, all that was promised, and perhaps more.  Come.  The others have already departed, with the captives.  Once we have established a trail far enough to the north, they will break off and make their way back into the wood.  I know that you do not want to miss what happens when they reach the rendezvous...”The dragonkin warrior did not respond, but its eyes flared eagerly, and it licked its lips with a rough, forked tongue.  It followed the rider as he spurred his horse and rode off to the north, leaving the empty settlement behind.</blockquote>

Verification