I could not wait to get back to my room and write this down. On arriving at the Battle Temple, Brother Eldrest said we had other options than to bury our friends. He informed us that in a town not far from here were priests that could raise the dead. The bad news was the cost. It would be between 5000 and 6000 gold for each spell. And we had two fallen friends.
After pooling our resources and selling Mordin's magic chainmail we were able to come up with a little more than half of what we needed. Close to 8000 gold. This would leave most of us broke, but we would have Mordin back, whom we decided we needed more than Aramel.
Brother Eldrest also gave us a second option we may choose. In the woods near Thornkeep lived an old Druidess by the name of Sister Oreena. The old Priest thought highly of her and said he would send for her. She would arrive tomorrow.
We have postponed burying our friends for the time being with the hopes they may join us again. It is with some hope I go to bed tonight.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Day Twenty Eight, Morning
From troubled dreams I awoke with feelings of remorse and loss. I did my routines, but my heart was not in them.
For today I would bury two of my friends.
I only knew them for a little less than a month, but in that month we had saved each others lives many times and shared in each others triumphs and adventures.
They would be missed.
After my exercises, I dressed quickly and was about to leave for the Battle Temple, when I noticed something peculiar on my desk.
There was a small jar, with what looked like a small piece of meat in it. I replayed in my head the events of the previous day following the fall of Mordin and Aramel.
We had defeated the creature and Skylar made sure it was good and dead. We were unsure what we could touch in this room lest we be purged by the ghost demon Abraxus. We looted its corpse and the corpse of the assassin. The creature had a trio of wands, a couple of blank scrolls and a set of strange surgical instruments. The female assassin had a pair of punch daggers. A hand crossbow and three poisoned crossbow bolts. She also had a map and several notes on her person. We figured anything the assassin had and the creature had was good to loot without being 'purged'. There was a couple of bags of valuables in the room and several books on the table. The creature was obviously studying humans as it had various grisly parts scattered about his work area. On seeing this I remembered he had cut something out of Skylar. I went and found this and offered it to my friend.
He said, "I don't want that."
I said it wasn't wise to be leaving pieces of yourself lying around dungeons.
Skylar replied, "So you keep it then."
So I did.
I used some preserving oil on it and now it sits on my desk.
We collected Aramel's and Mordin Fodder's bodies and headed out to the museum area. Here we took notice of a large assortment of trophies that the wizard, Mer Anthomon, must have collected over his life. There were plaques identifying each display. This is what was there.
Four Barreled Mithral Rifle: this was some sort of weapon
Alien Fungoid Equipment: There was nothing here and we deduced these were the strange tools the creature was using.
Talon Of Borva Dagain: This was some sort of three fingered combat glove
Bloodstone's of Galtrax: 13 glowing red stones. These looked valuable.
Dragonkin Saddle: This was a saddle for riding a dragon.
Hungry Eyes of Melos: This was a tank of piranha like creatures that looked like eyes swimming When we touched the tank they all opened to reveal mouths and teeth. SCARY
Minion Of The Black Pod: A large egg type thing. Something was moving in there.
Banes Of Barad Shoal: 3 items, a spear, a stomach and a tan bag.
Thystain Cat: An eight legged skeleton of some large predator
Deactivated Alien Construct: This was a large mechanical thing in the center of the Museum
We decided to leave the strange surgical instruments behind as to not invoke Abraxus's wrath and left the dungeon. We left the bodies of our friends at the Battle Temple with Brother Eldrest. It was with sad news that he informed us he was not of high enough standing to cast the spell Raise Dead.
After writing this I shall go to bury my friends. I will let you, dear readers, know how the funeral went tonight.
For today I would bury two of my friends.
I only knew them for a little less than a month, but in that month we had saved each others lives many times and shared in each others triumphs and adventures.
They would be missed.
After my exercises, I dressed quickly and was about to leave for the Battle Temple, when I noticed something peculiar on my desk.
There was a small jar, with what looked like a small piece of meat in it. I replayed in my head the events of the previous day following the fall of Mordin and Aramel.
We had defeated the creature and Skylar made sure it was good and dead. We were unsure what we could touch in this room lest we be purged by the ghost demon Abraxus. We looted its corpse and the corpse of the assassin. The creature had a trio of wands, a couple of blank scrolls and a set of strange surgical instruments. The female assassin had a pair of punch daggers. A hand crossbow and three poisoned crossbow bolts. She also had a map and several notes on her person. We figured anything the assassin had and the creature had was good to loot without being 'purged'. There was a couple of bags of valuables in the room and several books on the table. The creature was obviously studying humans as it had various grisly parts scattered about his work area. On seeing this I remembered he had cut something out of Skylar. I went and found this and offered it to my friend.
He said, "I don't want that."
I said it wasn't wise to be leaving pieces of yourself lying around dungeons.
Skylar replied, "So you keep it then."
So I did.
I used some preserving oil on it and now it sits on my desk.
We collected Aramel's and Mordin Fodder's bodies and headed out to the museum area. Here we took notice of a large assortment of trophies that the wizard, Mer Anthomon, must have collected over his life. There were plaques identifying each display. This is what was there.
Four Barreled Mithral Rifle: this was some sort of weapon
Alien Fungoid Equipment: There was nothing here and we deduced these were the strange tools the creature was using.
Talon Of Borva Dagain: This was some sort of three fingered combat glove
Bloodstone's of Galtrax: 13 glowing red stones. These looked valuable.
Dragonkin Saddle: This was a saddle for riding a dragon.
Hungry Eyes of Melos: This was a tank of piranha like creatures that looked like eyes swimming When we touched the tank they all opened to reveal mouths and teeth. SCARY
Minion Of The Black Pod: A large egg type thing. Something was moving in there.
Banes Of Barad Shoal: 3 items, a spear, a stomach and a tan bag.
Thystain Cat: An eight legged skeleton of some large predator
Deactivated Alien Construct: This was a large mechanical thing in the center of the Museum
We decided to leave the strange surgical instruments behind as to not invoke Abraxus's wrath and left the dungeon. We left the bodies of our friends at the Battle Temple with Brother Eldrest. It was with sad news that he informed us he was not of high enough standing to cast the spell Raise Dead.
After writing this I shall go to bury my friends. I will let you, dear readers, know how the funeral went tonight.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Day Twenty Seven, Evening
It is close to midnight. I rarely stay up this late but could not find the courage to write these words. I will start at the beginning.
I skipped half my exercises this morning. I knew this was a bad thing to do but I needed to stop by Thornkeep Mercantile to pick up some equipment before our next romp into the dungeon. I purchased 10 silver crossbow bolts and 10 silver arrows. Fortune favors the prepared mind after all. I passed these out to my 6 friends and we began our premorning discussion.
The rest of the group grew very excited as Skylar and I informed them about the werewolf. Normal people would have gone all quite with dread at this sort of news. Lets face it. Villagers, farmers and other folk are the first ones to be eaten by these things. But adventurers, we actually live to hunt the Dragon, Giant and occasional wereywolf.
These things makes us happy.
I also informed them that with some help from an apprentice at the Golden Tower I was able to repair the hairline fracture in the power Crystal we had recovered from the goblin digging machine. We hope to use it to activate one of the constructs in the Accursed Halls.
So it was with a spring in our steps and happy talk of who the werewolf may be that we made our way down to the levels below the Accursed Halls. We stopped at the door in in the room whose floor was covered with stars and planets. I had deciphered the writing above this door and informed the party that it said in ancient Azlantian, "Here There be Enigma's."
We opened the door and started across the bridge. Once again the Ghost of Abraxus appeared and asked in his three languages, "In whose name do you seek the Enigma Vaults?" We gave the proper reply of "Mer Anthomon." and proceeded across to his threat of, "You may pass. But touch nothing less you be purged."
The room with the swinging bridge was just as we had left it. It gave us no trouble and we proceeded past it and descended a steep flight of steps.
At the bottom we found a door and a lever.
Now levers and buttons are things you don't mess with in dungeons unless you have to. Everyone knows this. You also don't pick up ducks or chickens, but that's another story. There is no better, quicker or messier way to die than to play with these things. So we ignored the lever and opened the door instead.
It revealed a circular room with no floor. Above us a familiar bridge spanned the room linking two doors. Across from us was another door. "Hey!" said our cleric Abrandon, who was guarding the rear of the group, and pulled the lever.
I prepared myself to dive for cover as a loud grinding noise began. The bridge above us slowly winded down to span the length of the chasm before us. It was indeed the same bridge we crossed above with Abraxus on it, but there was no sign of the Ghost Demon as we proceeded. I lit a torch and peeked over the edge. The floor was perhaps 30 feet below us. The door on the other side was huge and ornate. Above it was the words in ancient Azlantian. "The Hall of Great Enigmas."
Shakes knelt and listened, and after a moment stood and stepped back saying. " I heard a woman's voice say, 'Get ready'."
We started to prepare our weapons and spells , when Aramel looked over to Mordin and said, "I think that's a wizard in there."
"Uh oh." I said to Abrandon next to me. "That kid will never learn."
And neither would Mordin apparently, as he kicked open the huge doors and screamed at the top of his lungs, "DIE WIZARD SCUM!"
Draco, Abrandon and I stayed in the doorway as the rest of the group charged in after our barbarian. The room was huge and museum like. Large pillars held up the vaulted ceiling above us. There were displays up and down the length of the room and at the end. We had no time to take more than a passing notice of these things as we were faced by a half dozen opponents near the doors we entered.
Five of these were man sized and demonlike, armed with spears. The last was a slender, short haired woman in black leathers. She pointed at us and screamed, "Kill Them!" Four of the demon thingies charged as one held back, I recognized what he was doing, as I do it all the time. He was gathering in his will for a spell. The demon raised his hand and pointed in our general direction. I raised my shield to block whatever blast of energy he was sending our way and yelled, "Look Out!"
The area of melee right in front of us went black with a magical darkness. I had expected a blast of fire or lightning, but from the sounds of melee and grunts of pain coming from the area of darkness this was probably way worse. Shakes yelled, "Need help! Can't see!"
"Hang on!" Abrandon yelled back. "I can fix that!" My torchlight couldn't penetrate the magical darkness and the sounds of battle were intensifying. I didn't think our guys in there had time for our slow ass cleric to cast his slow ass light spell. So lickety split I cast one of my own on my torch and flung it into the blackness before me.
My magical light canceled the magical darkness and vice versa. The torch remained lit and shed its radiance on a chaotic combat scene. "That's just great!" Our Cleric yelled at me. "One of the only things I can do besides heal people. And you take that away from me? Thanks a lot."
I shrugged apologetically. I really didn't have time to worry about our medics hurt feelings right then as I raised my heavy crossbow and looked for a shot of opportunity. Now that our guys could see, the fight was turning in our favor. Shakes hands and feet were a blur as pummeled his opponent. The demon he faced was completely off balance and I could tell it wasn't going to recover before my friend broke every bone in its body. Skylar's sword, The Demon Slayer, was living up to it's name as he was cutting his opponent to ribbons. Aramel had used the magical darkness to his advantage and somehow had gotten behind his opponent and plunged his sword through its back. The one who had cast the magical darkness was a little apart from the others. I shot him in the gut with my crossbow and then Draco blasted him with a spell, finishing him off.
Mordin almost casually split the skull of the demon he faced, then looking around he yelled, "Where did that witch bitch go?"
I didn't think she was a witch, but I looked around also and wondered where she had went. We didn't have to wait long. She came out of the shadows right behind Shakes and punched him in the back. My friend spun and karate kicked her right in the face. She did a back flip, landed in a crouch and smiled as she wiped blood from her mouth where Shakes had kicked her.
Shakes staggered and slumped to one knee. He grabbed his back where the woman had punched him and his hand came away red with blood. "Assassin." He said, pointing to where the woman held a punch dagger in her hand.
Mordin and Skylar cut down the last two remaining demon creatures at nearly the same time. The assassin was surrounded. It looked like this fight was about over and I nearly got out the words 'surrender or die', when she did a somersault over Skylar, ducked Mordin's axe and fled down the hall. Draco clipped her with a firebolt but it didn't even slow her down.
Mordin gave chase.
I was having flashbacks to our second trip into this dungeon. A time where Mordin chased a pair of skeletons through the Accursed Halls above us. He ended up in a coma with his soul missing. Still I wasn't letting my berserk friend chase this assassin, who knew where, by himself.
I gave chase also.
Looking over my shoulder I noticed Abrandon, Aramel and Skylar bent over Shakes, examining his back. Draco was following Mordin and I at a cautious pace. The barbarian and the dark clad woman quickly out distanced me even though I was giving it all I had. We ran through the museum and up a short flight of stairs. Rounding a couple of corners, I began to worry our friends would not find us, when our flight came to a sudden end.
Mordin ran through a door to our left and yelled, "Got ya! What the hell?"
I skidded to a stop next to the doorway and did a quick peek around the corner. Then peeked again to see if I really saw what I thought I saw. The barbarian and the assassin were in the middle of a strange room locked in battle. The room was about 30 feet wide by about 30 feet long. There were open cages in all four corners. A long table along the back wall had a grisly display of body parts and internal organs upon it with books and parchments.
Mordin and the woman were not alone.
I will do my best to describe it. The thing was about the size of a large man. It hovered in midair on a set of wings like those of a dragonfly. Its body resembled that of a giant wasp except that its stinger was hooked and sharp like a blade. It had eight arms but only six ended with what looked like hands. The first set ended with a pair of pincher's like those of a crab. Its head was large, green and bulbous. It had no eyes, ears, mouth or nose that I could see. It wore a belt that held wands, scrolls and various tools.
It turned its head in my direction, then cocked it as if sizing me up, then, quick as a striking snake, it had a wand in one of its many hands and vanished.
"Uh oh." I thought out loud. "That's some sort of wizard." and then I yelled to the barbarian. "Mordin that was some sort of wizard!"
"I know!" he growled. "I'll get to it right after I finish with her." The berserker swung his battle axe at the assassin, who ducked low, almost flattening herself on the ground, and rising just as quickly she punched the halforc in his calf with one of her daggers.
Mordin laughed and spit at her as he yelled, "Your poison toothpicks aren't going to work on me girly."
"Poison?" I thought. And my friend Shakes took one of those nasty punch daggers in the back. I left him. And he could be dead now. I have skills at making poultices and drawing out poisons. I could have stayed and helped, but instead I followed Mordin willy nilly through the dungeon again.
A red haze filled my vision as I looked upon this lady assassin. I called forth my power and it was full of vengeance.
I blasted two holes clean through her chest.
She slumped to the ground obviously dead.
Mordin, still full of the berserk rage that drove him, narrowed his eyes at me and said, "You stole my kill."
Uh oh.
Mordin had murder in his eyes. I knew right then, at this moment, either the halforc or I was about to die.
Luckily for one, or perhaps both of us, there was an evil, invisible, flying, insectoid, wizard that intervened.
Out of nowhere two giant spiders appeared between Mordin and I.
Never thought I would be glad to see giant spiders, but I was.
"Mordin!" I yelled. "That evil wizard is summoning giant spiders!"
"I see that! I'm not blind!" the barbarian pointed his battle axe at me and continued, "That wizard is mine! You can have the giant spiders!"
"Gulp!" I gulped.
There was two of those monsters! And they were bigger than me! And no doubt quicker! And I had the sneaky suspicion they were intelligent also, as they both turned sixteen eyes towards me and sixteen legs tensed as if to jump.
Its funny how spiders each have eight legs and eight eyes, and humans have two legs and two eyes, but dogs and other canines only have two eyes to go with their four legs. And cats also. Seems like a pattern has been disrupted there somehow. Anyways....where was I?
Oh yes... I readied my morningstar and braced my shield for the attack of the giant spiders when Aramel somersaulted over one of my shoulders into the room, and Shakes did the same over the other.
"Shakes your alive!" I cried.
"Of course." said Abrandon, huffing and puffing as he ran up behind me. " I can cure anything."
Skylar was the next one to run past me into the room and Draco skidded to a stop behind the cleric.
I looked back at the giant spiders as they turned this way and that, and when one looked at me, I shrugged and said to it, "Doesn't feel good to be outnumbered, does it?" I swung my morningstar at it and broke one of its massive forelegs. The spider retreated a step or seven, not so anxious to engage me anymore. Skylar, Shakes and Aramel took one down quickly. Everything seemed like it was going well when another combatant materialized out of nowhere.
It looked like a cross between a wolf and a giant porcupine.
"Where the hell did that thing come from?" Yelled Aramel.
"There is an invisible wizard in there somewhere." I replied pointing into the room where Mordin was swinging his battle axe at shadows.
"I didn't here anybody casting spells." said Draco from behind me.
""He doesn't have a mouth." I said. "and he flies around too."
Shakes started hunting the invisible wizard around the room also, listening intently as he traversed the room. Aramel and Skylar engaged the wolf porcupine in hand to hand, leaving me the remaining spider.
"Ouch!" yelled Aramel as he slashed the spiny wolf thing, taking several painful quills in his arm. At the same time the spider I was facing turned and slung a web at the kid, snaring him with it. Aramel had my torch in his left hand though. He must have picked it up in the museum where I had thrown it, and he used it to burn the webs away.
I took this opportunity to skip forward and brought my morningstar down with all my might right between the eight eyes of the giant arachnid. I am not weak. I don't work out every morning to impress the girls. I don't have the brute strength that Mordin has, no where near in fact. But that giant spider did go 'squish'.
"I AM A GREAT WARRIOR!" I screamed. Raising my morningstar above my head.
"Feels good doesn't it!" Mordin yelled from across the room.
Indeed it did feel good. The adrenalin rush was profound. I looked around for another opponent to smash. The wolf, hedgehog thing, was caught between Aramel and Skylar and was taking hits and bleeding out fast. I watched the air around the room, hoping the insect wizard would appear so I could charge forth and smash him.
And then, it did.
The thing appeared right behind Skylar and picked him up. The scout tried to fight but the multiple legs of the thing held him fast and spun him around to face it. In the time it took me to catch my breath, the thing suddenly had its hands full of strange knives, needles, and other strange instruments. It cut Skylar's chest open, extracted something from his chest, and sewed him back up.
And then it dropped him whimpering to the floor.
I swear, we all stood there for a few seconds. Stunned.
Even the wolf thing stood there and stared. Aramel, always the opportunist, lunged forth and skewered the thing.
Mordin yelled a battle cry and swung his axe at the hovering wizard, but it evaded it easily. Draco blasted it with fire but it had minimal effect. I shot it with a magic missile, my normally devastating spell only put two small holes in it that oozed green blood. Abrandon ran forward and cast heal spell on Aramel, causing the quills to fall to the ground and the wounds they caused to magically close. Shakes became a blur as he jumped and kicked and punched at the thing in the air. As quick and skilled as Shakes was, the thing was quicker. It blocked and countered everything Shakes threw at it. Almost like he knew the moves before Shakes performed them. Skylar rose weakly from the floor, determination on his face, his hand pressed to his chest where the thing had performed its lightning fast surgery. The Sword of Zog was in his other hand.
I gripped my morningstar and prepared to charge. We had the thing outnumbered seven to one and I was determined to get a few blows in before it died.
The wizard struck first.
With the speed of a humming bird it swooped in and picked up Aramel as it had Skylar. Only this time it didn't do any of its lightning fast surgery. Its pincher's went to work with deadly precision and swiftness.
One of Aramel's arms flew off to land on the table across the room. Another was tossed into a cage to my left. Both his legs hit the floor.
And then the kids head rolled over to the clerics feet to stare up at him.
As the thing casually dropped Aramel's limbless, headless torso to the floor amidst a shower of blood, I heard Abrandon whisper, "But I can't cure that."
"NO SHIT!" I cried.
I looked at the carnage the thing had wrought. I looked at the morning star in my hand. "No way Jose!" I said as I retreated to take cover behind Draco. I shot it with another magic missile as I did so.
I heard Draco cast his Power Word Pain at the creature. It fluttered its wings a little. Shakes once again attacked, and once again the creature blocked all his punches and kicks with ease. Skylar feebly swung the Demon Slayer at it. It ducked easily. Abrandon stood there looking down at Aramel's head, saying over and over again, "I can't cure that."
"Medic!" I yelled. "Get your head in the game!" Abrandon came to himself then, and shaking his head he reached for and cast a spell on Skylar's sword. It glowed red with power.
"Cut it with that and it will die." he said.
"Easier said than done." I thought.
The creature was pinned between Mordin, Shakes and Skylar, with his red glowing sword. And not a one of them could lay a blow upon the thing as it blocked, parried and ducked everything they had. Draco hit it with another word of Pain. I shot it with another magic missile. Draco looked over and said, "I'm out of magic."
"I have two magic missiles left." I replied.
Even as we said these words the thing swooped down and picked up Mordin as it did Aramel. Its pincher's went to work again, only the halforc was not as small and skinny as the kid was. Still the claws were deadly efficient, a cut opened up Mordin's throat, another penetrated his armor and went in about where the barbarian's heart would be.
The berserker was dead, but no one told him.
With a scream of rage he brought his battle axe down on the things back and green ichor splashed across the room. The wizard dropped Mordin to the floor, and for the first time looked hurt. The barbarian twitched a little and lay still. The cleric tried to get to him but had to fall back as pincher's snapped menacingly before him. I blasted it with another magic missile. Skylar tried to hit the thing with that enspelled sword but he was just too weak from whatever it had done to him. Shakes was not giving up. He threw everything he had at the thing. His fists looked literally on fire as they blurred towards the creature. For all his martial arts training though, this thing was better. It's eight arms were more than a match for my friends two.
And then it pulled a wand from its belt.
A blast of sonic energy radiated out from the thing. It knocked Abrandon and Skylar on their asses. Made Draco and I cover our ears in pain. Shakes was blasted against the wall, but he landed on his feet and hands against it like a spider, and then leaped through the air to once again engage the monster.
I swear. They were Kung Fu fighting in midair. For what seemed hours, to the ringing in my head, but had to only be a few seconds. Abrandon and Skylar were struggling to rise. Shakes and the thing continued their dance across the room. Their arms and legs a blur of counters and punches that the human eye or mind could not possibly follow.
And yet mine did.
I could see a pattern here. The wizard was setting Shakes up for a dramatic finish. It was working him into a position for its pincher's to go to work.
I seen it.
Shakes seen it.
My friends eyes met mine across the room and they said to me....run....
The things pincher's went wide and prepared to go to work.
NO!
I stepped forward and fired my last magic missile.
I aimed my shot perfectly. My bolts struck the thing when it was most distracted, going in for the kill on Shakes. Both bolts hit it in the neck and penetrated up into its brain.
It dropped to the floor.
The wings twitched a little, causing Skylar to stab it with his still glowing sword, releasing some sort of energy inside its body.
The thing was dead.
But so were Aramel and Mordin.
I don't remember leaving the dungeon.
I don't remember how I got here to my room in the Goldcloak tower.
But I do remember the look on Aramel's face as his head rolled to the the clerics feet.
Goodnight.
I skipped half my exercises this morning. I knew this was a bad thing to do but I needed to stop by Thornkeep Mercantile to pick up some equipment before our next romp into the dungeon. I purchased 10 silver crossbow bolts and 10 silver arrows. Fortune favors the prepared mind after all. I passed these out to my 6 friends and we began our premorning discussion.
The rest of the group grew very excited as Skylar and I informed them about the werewolf. Normal people would have gone all quite with dread at this sort of news. Lets face it. Villagers, farmers and other folk are the first ones to be eaten by these things. But adventurers, we actually live to hunt the Dragon, Giant and occasional wereywolf.
These things makes us happy.
I also informed them that with some help from an apprentice at the Golden Tower I was able to repair the hairline fracture in the power Crystal we had recovered from the goblin digging machine. We hope to use it to activate one of the constructs in the Accursed Halls.
So it was with a spring in our steps and happy talk of who the werewolf may be that we made our way down to the levels below the Accursed Halls. We stopped at the door in in the room whose floor was covered with stars and planets. I had deciphered the writing above this door and informed the party that it said in ancient Azlantian, "Here There be Enigma's."
We opened the door and started across the bridge. Once again the Ghost of Abraxus appeared and asked in his three languages, "In whose name do you seek the Enigma Vaults?" We gave the proper reply of "Mer Anthomon." and proceeded across to his threat of, "You may pass. But touch nothing less you be purged."
The room with the swinging bridge was just as we had left it. It gave us no trouble and we proceeded past it and descended a steep flight of steps.
At the bottom we found a door and a lever.
Now levers and buttons are things you don't mess with in dungeons unless you have to. Everyone knows this. You also don't pick up ducks or chickens, but that's another story. There is no better, quicker or messier way to die than to play with these things. So we ignored the lever and opened the door instead.
It revealed a circular room with no floor. Above us a familiar bridge spanned the room linking two doors. Across from us was another door. "Hey!" said our cleric Abrandon, who was guarding the rear of the group, and pulled the lever.
I prepared myself to dive for cover as a loud grinding noise began. The bridge above us slowly winded down to span the length of the chasm before us. It was indeed the same bridge we crossed above with Abraxus on it, but there was no sign of the Ghost Demon as we proceeded. I lit a torch and peeked over the edge. The floor was perhaps 30 feet below us. The door on the other side was huge and ornate. Above it was the words in ancient Azlantian. "The Hall of Great Enigmas."
Shakes knelt and listened, and after a moment stood and stepped back saying. " I heard a woman's voice say, 'Get ready'."
We started to prepare our weapons and spells , when Aramel looked over to Mordin and said, "I think that's a wizard in there."
"Uh oh." I said to Abrandon next to me. "That kid will never learn."
And neither would Mordin apparently, as he kicked open the huge doors and screamed at the top of his lungs, "DIE WIZARD SCUM!"
Draco, Abrandon and I stayed in the doorway as the rest of the group charged in after our barbarian. The room was huge and museum like. Large pillars held up the vaulted ceiling above us. There were displays up and down the length of the room and at the end. We had no time to take more than a passing notice of these things as we were faced by a half dozen opponents near the doors we entered.
Five of these were man sized and demonlike, armed with spears. The last was a slender, short haired woman in black leathers. She pointed at us and screamed, "Kill Them!" Four of the demon thingies charged as one held back, I recognized what he was doing, as I do it all the time. He was gathering in his will for a spell. The demon raised his hand and pointed in our general direction. I raised my shield to block whatever blast of energy he was sending our way and yelled, "Look Out!"
The area of melee right in front of us went black with a magical darkness. I had expected a blast of fire or lightning, but from the sounds of melee and grunts of pain coming from the area of darkness this was probably way worse. Shakes yelled, "Need help! Can't see!"
"Hang on!" Abrandon yelled back. "I can fix that!" My torchlight couldn't penetrate the magical darkness and the sounds of battle were intensifying. I didn't think our guys in there had time for our slow ass cleric to cast his slow ass light spell. So lickety split I cast one of my own on my torch and flung it into the blackness before me.
My magical light canceled the magical darkness and vice versa. The torch remained lit and shed its radiance on a chaotic combat scene. "That's just great!" Our Cleric yelled at me. "One of the only things I can do besides heal people. And you take that away from me? Thanks a lot."
I shrugged apologetically. I really didn't have time to worry about our medics hurt feelings right then as I raised my heavy crossbow and looked for a shot of opportunity. Now that our guys could see, the fight was turning in our favor. Shakes hands and feet were a blur as pummeled his opponent. The demon he faced was completely off balance and I could tell it wasn't going to recover before my friend broke every bone in its body. Skylar's sword, The Demon Slayer, was living up to it's name as he was cutting his opponent to ribbons. Aramel had used the magical darkness to his advantage and somehow had gotten behind his opponent and plunged his sword through its back. The one who had cast the magical darkness was a little apart from the others. I shot him in the gut with my crossbow and then Draco blasted him with a spell, finishing him off.
Mordin almost casually split the skull of the demon he faced, then looking around he yelled, "Where did that witch bitch go?"
I didn't think she was a witch, but I looked around also and wondered where she had went. We didn't have to wait long. She came out of the shadows right behind Shakes and punched him in the back. My friend spun and karate kicked her right in the face. She did a back flip, landed in a crouch and smiled as she wiped blood from her mouth where Shakes had kicked her.
Shakes staggered and slumped to one knee. He grabbed his back where the woman had punched him and his hand came away red with blood. "Assassin." He said, pointing to where the woman held a punch dagger in her hand.
Mordin and Skylar cut down the last two remaining demon creatures at nearly the same time. The assassin was surrounded. It looked like this fight was about over and I nearly got out the words 'surrender or die', when she did a somersault over Skylar, ducked Mordin's axe and fled down the hall. Draco clipped her with a firebolt but it didn't even slow her down.
Mordin gave chase.
I was having flashbacks to our second trip into this dungeon. A time where Mordin chased a pair of skeletons through the Accursed Halls above us. He ended up in a coma with his soul missing. Still I wasn't letting my berserk friend chase this assassin, who knew where, by himself.
I gave chase also.
Looking over my shoulder I noticed Abrandon, Aramel and Skylar bent over Shakes, examining his back. Draco was following Mordin and I at a cautious pace. The barbarian and the dark clad woman quickly out distanced me even though I was giving it all I had. We ran through the museum and up a short flight of stairs. Rounding a couple of corners, I began to worry our friends would not find us, when our flight came to a sudden end.
Mordin ran through a door to our left and yelled, "Got ya! What the hell?"
I skidded to a stop next to the doorway and did a quick peek around the corner. Then peeked again to see if I really saw what I thought I saw. The barbarian and the assassin were in the middle of a strange room locked in battle. The room was about 30 feet wide by about 30 feet long. There were open cages in all four corners. A long table along the back wall had a grisly display of body parts and internal organs upon it with books and parchments.
Mordin and the woman were not alone.
I will do my best to describe it. The thing was about the size of a large man. It hovered in midair on a set of wings like those of a dragonfly. Its body resembled that of a giant wasp except that its stinger was hooked and sharp like a blade. It had eight arms but only six ended with what looked like hands. The first set ended with a pair of pincher's like those of a crab. Its head was large, green and bulbous. It had no eyes, ears, mouth or nose that I could see. It wore a belt that held wands, scrolls and various tools.
It turned its head in my direction, then cocked it as if sizing me up, then, quick as a striking snake, it had a wand in one of its many hands and vanished.
"Uh oh." I thought out loud. "That's some sort of wizard." and then I yelled to the barbarian. "Mordin that was some sort of wizard!"
"I know!" he growled. "I'll get to it right after I finish with her." The berserker swung his battle axe at the assassin, who ducked low, almost flattening herself on the ground, and rising just as quickly she punched the halforc in his calf with one of her daggers.
Mordin laughed and spit at her as he yelled, "Your poison toothpicks aren't going to work on me girly."
"Poison?" I thought. And my friend Shakes took one of those nasty punch daggers in the back. I left him. And he could be dead now. I have skills at making poultices and drawing out poisons. I could have stayed and helped, but instead I followed Mordin willy nilly through the dungeon again.
A red haze filled my vision as I looked upon this lady assassin. I called forth my power and it was full of vengeance.
I blasted two holes clean through her chest.
She slumped to the ground obviously dead.
Mordin, still full of the berserk rage that drove him, narrowed his eyes at me and said, "You stole my kill."
Uh oh.
Mordin had murder in his eyes. I knew right then, at this moment, either the halforc or I was about to die.
Luckily for one, or perhaps both of us, there was an evil, invisible, flying, insectoid, wizard that intervened.
Out of nowhere two giant spiders appeared between Mordin and I.
Never thought I would be glad to see giant spiders, but I was.
"Mordin!" I yelled. "That evil wizard is summoning giant spiders!"
"I see that! I'm not blind!" the barbarian pointed his battle axe at me and continued, "That wizard is mine! You can have the giant spiders!"
"Gulp!" I gulped.
There was two of those monsters! And they were bigger than me! And no doubt quicker! And I had the sneaky suspicion they were intelligent also, as they both turned sixteen eyes towards me and sixteen legs tensed as if to jump.
Its funny how spiders each have eight legs and eight eyes, and humans have two legs and two eyes, but dogs and other canines only have two eyes to go with their four legs. And cats also. Seems like a pattern has been disrupted there somehow. Anyways....where was I?
Oh yes... I readied my morningstar and braced my shield for the attack of the giant spiders when Aramel somersaulted over one of my shoulders into the room, and Shakes did the same over the other.
"Shakes your alive!" I cried.
"Of course." said Abrandon, huffing and puffing as he ran up behind me. " I can cure anything."
Skylar was the next one to run past me into the room and Draco skidded to a stop behind the cleric.
I looked back at the giant spiders as they turned this way and that, and when one looked at me, I shrugged and said to it, "Doesn't feel good to be outnumbered, does it?" I swung my morningstar at it and broke one of its massive forelegs. The spider retreated a step or seven, not so anxious to engage me anymore. Skylar, Shakes and Aramel took one down quickly. Everything seemed like it was going well when another combatant materialized out of nowhere.
It looked like a cross between a wolf and a giant porcupine.
"Where the hell did that thing come from?" Yelled Aramel.
"There is an invisible wizard in there somewhere." I replied pointing into the room where Mordin was swinging his battle axe at shadows.
"I didn't here anybody casting spells." said Draco from behind me.
""He doesn't have a mouth." I said. "and he flies around too."
Shakes started hunting the invisible wizard around the room also, listening intently as he traversed the room. Aramel and Skylar engaged the wolf porcupine in hand to hand, leaving me the remaining spider.
"Ouch!" yelled Aramel as he slashed the spiny wolf thing, taking several painful quills in his arm. At the same time the spider I was facing turned and slung a web at the kid, snaring him with it. Aramel had my torch in his left hand though. He must have picked it up in the museum where I had thrown it, and he used it to burn the webs away.
I took this opportunity to skip forward and brought my morningstar down with all my might right between the eight eyes of the giant arachnid. I am not weak. I don't work out every morning to impress the girls. I don't have the brute strength that Mordin has, no where near in fact. But that giant spider did go 'squish'.
"I AM A GREAT WARRIOR!" I screamed. Raising my morningstar above my head.
"Feels good doesn't it!" Mordin yelled from across the room.
Indeed it did feel good. The adrenalin rush was profound. I looked around for another opponent to smash. The wolf, hedgehog thing, was caught between Aramel and Skylar and was taking hits and bleeding out fast. I watched the air around the room, hoping the insect wizard would appear so I could charge forth and smash him.
And then, it did.
The thing appeared right behind Skylar and picked him up. The scout tried to fight but the multiple legs of the thing held him fast and spun him around to face it. In the time it took me to catch my breath, the thing suddenly had its hands full of strange knives, needles, and other strange instruments. It cut Skylar's chest open, extracted something from his chest, and sewed him back up.
And then it dropped him whimpering to the floor.
I swear, we all stood there for a few seconds. Stunned.
Even the wolf thing stood there and stared. Aramel, always the opportunist, lunged forth and skewered the thing.
Mordin yelled a battle cry and swung his axe at the hovering wizard, but it evaded it easily. Draco blasted it with fire but it had minimal effect. I shot it with a magic missile, my normally devastating spell only put two small holes in it that oozed green blood. Abrandon ran forward and cast heal spell on Aramel, causing the quills to fall to the ground and the wounds they caused to magically close. Shakes became a blur as he jumped and kicked and punched at the thing in the air. As quick and skilled as Shakes was, the thing was quicker. It blocked and countered everything Shakes threw at it. Almost like he knew the moves before Shakes performed them. Skylar rose weakly from the floor, determination on his face, his hand pressed to his chest where the thing had performed its lightning fast surgery. The Sword of Zog was in his other hand.
I gripped my morningstar and prepared to charge. We had the thing outnumbered seven to one and I was determined to get a few blows in before it died.
The wizard struck first.
With the speed of a humming bird it swooped in and picked up Aramel as it had Skylar. Only this time it didn't do any of its lightning fast surgery. Its pincher's went to work with deadly precision and swiftness.
One of Aramel's arms flew off to land on the table across the room. Another was tossed into a cage to my left. Both his legs hit the floor.
And then the kids head rolled over to the clerics feet to stare up at him.
As the thing casually dropped Aramel's limbless, headless torso to the floor amidst a shower of blood, I heard Abrandon whisper, "But I can't cure that."
"NO SHIT!" I cried.
I looked at the carnage the thing had wrought. I looked at the morning star in my hand. "No way Jose!" I said as I retreated to take cover behind Draco. I shot it with another magic missile as I did so.
I heard Draco cast his Power Word Pain at the creature. It fluttered its wings a little. Shakes once again attacked, and once again the creature blocked all his punches and kicks with ease. Skylar feebly swung the Demon Slayer at it. It ducked easily. Abrandon stood there looking down at Aramel's head, saying over and over again, "I can't cure that."
"Medic!" I yelled. "Get your head in the game!" Abrandon came to himself then, and shaking his head he reached for and cast a spell on Skylar's sword. It glowed red with power.
"Cut it with that and it will die." he said.
"Easier said than done." I thought.
The creature was pinned between Mordin, Shakes and Skylar, with his red glowing sword. And not a one of them could lay a blow upon the thing as it blocked, parried and ducked everything they had. Draco hit it with another word of Pain. I shot it with another magic missile. Draco looked over and said, "I'm out of magic."
"I have two magic missiles left." I replied.
Even as we said these words the thing swooped down and picked up Mordin as it did Aramel. Its pincher's went to work again, only the halforc was not as small and skinny as the kid was. Still the claws were deadly efficient, a cut opened up Mordin's throat, another penetrated his armor and went in about where the barbarian's heart would be.
The berserker was dead, but no one told him.
With a scream of rage he brought his battle axe down on the things back and green ichor splashed across the room. The wizard dropped Mordin to the floor, and for the first time looked hurt. The barbarian twitched a little and lay still. The cleric tried to get to him but had to fall back as pincher's snapped menacingly before him. I blasted it with another magic missile. Skylar tried to hit the thing with that enspelled sword but he was just too weak from whatever it had done to him. Shakes was not giving up. He threw everything he had at the thing. His fists looked literally on fire as they blurred towards the creature. For all his martial arts training though, this thing was better. It's eight arms were more than a match for my friends two.
And then it pulled a wand from its belt.
A blast of sonic energy radiated out from the thing. It knocked Abrandon and Skylar on their asses. Made Draco and I cover our ears in pain. Shakes was blasted against the wall, but he landed on his feet and hands against it like a spider, and then leaped through the air to once again engage the monster.
I swear. They were Kung Fu fighting in midair. For what seemed hours, to the ringing in my head, but had to only be a few seconds. Abrandon and Skylar were struggling to rise. Shakes and the thing continued their dance across the room. Their arms and legs a blur of counters and punches that the human eye or mind could not possibly follow.
And yet mine did.
I could see a pattern here. The wizard was setting Shakes up for a dramatic finish. It was working him into a position for its pincher's to go to work.
I seen it.
Shakes seen it.
My friends eyes met mine across the room and they said to me....run....
The things pincher's went wide and prepared to go to work.
NO!
I stepped forward and fired my last magic missile.
I aimed my shot perfectly. My bolts struck the thing when it was most distracted, going in for the kill on Shakes. Both bolts hit it in the neck and penetrated up into its brain.
It dropped to the floor.
The wings twitched a little, causing Skylar to stab it with his still glowing sword, releasing some sort of energy inside its body.
The thing was dead.
But so were Aramel and Mordin.
I don't remember leaving the dungeon.
I don't remember how I got here to my room in the Goldcloak tower.
But I do remember the look on Aramel's face as his head rolled to the the clerics feet.
Goodnight.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Day Twenty Six, Evening
Interesting things happened today. I'll try to jot them all down as best as I can remember them. After my morning routines I met Draco at the gnomish apothecary where he stayed. His matron was a feisty female gnome who specialized in potion making and herbalism. We decided to look for Skylar. Our group was a lot less effective without our diehard scout.
Traveling south to the large hunting lodge where me and Shakes first recruited him, I knocked on the door. A big, bearded woodsman with long blond locks answered the door with a gruff "Yes?"
"We are here to see Skylar." I said. "If he is in."
He motioned with his thumb over his shoulder and said. "He's round back."
Draco and I headed around the side, to the back of the hunting lodge, where there was sort of a training ground. A firing range with different types of targets was set at various ranges. It had several huntsmen practicing their archery. A fighting ring had a pair of Rangers sparing with wooden swords.
We found Skylar at the archery range shooting at a target resembling a buck.
That's a good idea, I thought, stepping up beside him and asking. "May I take a shot?"
Skylar held up his hand, with a be my guest gesture, and said, "You need it."
"Hey!" I proclaimed. "I actually shot a giant ant right between its eyes yesterday!" Protecting my accuracy's honor.
"He did." Draco agreed. Causing a smile to spread across my face. A smile that quickly vanished as he added, "But it was only 8 feet away. A blind kobold could have hit it."
I gave them both my best, I'll show you look, and readied my heavy crossbow. I took careful aim on the deer shaped target 20 yards away and squeezed the trigger.
And I missed high to the left.
Skylar and Draco laughed as I cursed. They walked off a bit to talk as I reloaded and fired again.
And missed, again.
"Damn!" I exclaimed, turning to see my friends deep in conversation. Good they might have missed that shot, I thought. I sat down cross legged and did something I had not done since basic training. I tore apart my weapon as quickly as possible and then reassembled it.
After checking its sights I loaded it, took aim at the target, and fired.
Bullseye!
Well, deerseye actually.
I quickly reloaded and fired again. Direct hit.
I reloaded and fired three more times and hit the target every time.
On my last shot the deer target broke apart.
Smiling I turned around, to find one of the woodsie Ranger guys standing right behind me.
"You broke our deer target," he said, frowning.
"Uh.." was my reply.
Looking over his shoulder there was no sign of Skylar and Draco. "Uh..." I continued the conversation.
"Next time you want to come practice with that weapon let us know first and we will break out the more sturdy targets."
"Uh...ok." I said. Wondering where my friends had gone. Just my luck I actually hit something several times in a row and they weren't around to witness it. I pointed back over my should at the target. " I can pay for that."
He laughed and said, "No need."
"Well then. I'm here with Skylar. Did you see where he went?"
"He went off into the woods with that there pretty boy." He said pointing into the woods to the south.
"Uhm..." I really didn't know what to say to that so I looked at the Ranger and shrugged.
I went to the broken deer target and retrieved my quarrels and spent a few minutes looking for my bolts that missed but soon gave up because finding crossbow bolts in the grass is like finding a needle in a haystack. Going to the edge of the forest, I examined the ground and found a pair of tracks heading south. I figured they had maybe a 15 minute headstart on me.
The smart thing to do would be to stay here. The woods could be a dangerous place. But part of my basic training involved being dropped into a dense forest alone and with no supplies for survival training. If I could survive a week in the woods, near naked, with only a dagger and my wits, a little romp on the edge of a town couldn't be that bad.
Besides, I was curious what those two could be up to going out there together.
Stealthily, I followed their tracks for about an hour and was perhaps a mile from the hunting lodge, when I heard hushed voices ahead. "That's pretty gross man, but I'm glad your showing it to me."
"I'm not ready for you to touch it yet." I heard Skylar say.
Uh oh. I thought. How well did I really know these guys. I didn't want to interrupt them if they were doing something private and personal. I turned to leave, watching the ground so I didn't step on any twigs, when I heard Draco say, "Parts of it are missing."
Oh no. Maybe that Grey Oozes acid had more of an adverse effect on Skylar than I thought.
"Most the gooey parts are gone." I heard Skylar mumble.
"Definitely eaten away." Draco added.
I was becoming more and more distressed by this conversation and peeked over some bushes. It was with a sigh of relief that I noticed Skylar and Draco bent over examining something on the ground.I walked up beside them to what they were looking at.
It was a body.
A dead body. Tore apart as if a wild animal was the killer.
"You guys kill him?" I asked.
"No." Skylar answered. "How did you find us?"
"I tracked you."
"Wow. I'm impressed."
I smiled. "And I also hit that deer target five times in a row after you left."
"Sure you did." Skylar did not sound convinced.
"No really I did."
He cocked an eyebrow in that I don't believe you way, and then pointed at the body and asked, "What do you make of this?"
"When did you find him?" I knelt to examine the corpse. "Do you know who he is?"
"Yesterday. And I think he is a hunter that went missing a few days ago." His wife hired me to find him.
"Well you found him."
Now here is something you, dear readers, may not know about me. I, like the devil, am into details. The first thing I noticed was this hunters weapons were not drawn. Meaning whatever or whoever killed him did so quickly and with surprise. Either it snuck up on him or he knew the killer. His entrails and lower parts were mostly gone, eaten away apparently. I stood up and circled the body, examining the area. "Are these wolf tracks?" I asked Skylar pointing out some canine tracks around the body.
"Yes." he answered. "A big brute and traveling alone."
"Hmm." I backtracked to see which direction the lonewolf came from, Skylar and Draco started searching the body as I did so. After about thirty yards towards the town I noticed something peculiar about the tracks. It looked like some of them were missing. Like someone erased half the tracks or....
The beast was running on just it's hind legs.
My hair on the back of my neck stood on end as the tracks became those of a man. "Oh Crap!" I exclaimed aloud. Running back to Skylar and Draco I yelled. "IT"S A FRICKEN WEREWOLF!"
Skylar looked up and said calmly, "Yeah I think so too."
"Holy Crap. Was it a full moon yesterday?" I asked excitedly.
"Two Nights ago." Skylar confirmed.
"It could be anyone." I said.
"Yep." Was all I got from Skylar.
"You have a shovel? Right?" Draco asked.
"Yeah why?" I answered, digging my trencher out of my backpack.
"Because you need to dig a grave for this guy."
Well I am an expert at digging holes. If I ever decide I don't like adventuring or soldiering I could always get a job as a grave digger. We buried the poor hunter and looted his corpse. I made a couple of casts of the tracks out of mud which I heated with my magic. Never know when such thing's would come in handy. We had a bonifide mystery here. And I like mysteries. We traveled back to town and gave the new widow the bad news. We didn't tell her that her husband was slain by a werewolf but was killed by wolves. No need to start a panic in town yet. I thought Draco was going to make a play for her because she was kind of attractive. Yes he is that shallow. Somehow he managed to refrain himself. Barely. I checked the widows shoe size discreetly and checked her off my list.
Better safe than sorry.
I go to bed thinking I have a little over three weeks before the moon is full.
And then the killer would strike again.
Traveling south to the large hunting lodge where me and Shakes first recruited him, I knocked on the door. A big, bearded woodsman with long blond locks answered the door with a gruff "Yes?"
"We are here to see Skylar." I said. "If he is in."
He motioned with his thumb over his shoulder and said. "He's round back."
Draco and I headed around the side, to the back of the hunting lodge, where there was sort of a training ground. A firing range with different types of targets was set at various ranges. It had several huntsmen practicing their archery. A fighting ring had a pair of Rangers sparing with wooden swords.
We found Skylar at the archery range shooting at a target resembling a buck.
That's a good idea, I thought, stepping up beside him and asking. "May I take a shot?"
Skylar held up his hand, with a be my guest gesture, and said, "You need it."
"Hey!" I proclaimed. "I actually shot a giant ant right between its eyes yesterday!" Protecting my accuracy's honor.
"He did." Draco agreed. Causing a smile to spread across my face. A smile that quickly vanished as he added, "But it was only 8 feet away. A blind kobold could have hit it."
I gave them both my best, I'll show you look, and readied my heavy crossbow. I took careful aim on the deer shaped target 20 yards away and squeezed the trigger.
And I missed high to the left.
Skylar and Draco laughed as I cursed. They walked off a bit to talk as I reloaded and fired again.
And missed, again.
"Damn!" I exclaimed, turning to see my friends deep in conversation. Good they might have missed that shot, I thought. I sat down cross legged and did something I had not done since basic training. I tore apart my weapon as quickly as possible and then reassembled it.
After checking its sights I loaded it, took aim at the target, and fired.
Bullseye!
Well, deerseye actually.
I quickly reloaded and fired again. Direct hit.
I reloaded and fired three more times and hit the target every time.
On my last shot the deer target broke apart.
Smiling I turned around, to find one of the woodsie Ranger guys standing right behind me.
"You broke our deer target," he said, frowning.
"Uh.." was my reply.
Looking over his shoulder there was no sign of Skylar and Draco. "Uh..." I continued the conversation.
"Next time you want to come practice with that weapon let us know first and we will break out the more sturdy targets."
"Uh...ok." I said. Wondering where my friends had gone. Just my luck I actually hit something several times in a row and they weren't around to witness it. I pointed back over my should at the target. " I can pay for that."
He laughed and said, "No need."
"Well then. I'm here with Skylar. Did you see where he went?"
"He went off into the woods with that there pretty boy." He said pointing into the woods to the south.
"Uhm..." I really didn't know what to say to that so I looked at the Ranger and shrugged.
I went to the broken deer target and retrieved my quarrels and spent a few minutes looking for my bolts that missed but soon gave up because finding crossbow bolts in the grass is like finding a needle in a haystack. Going to the edge of the forest, I examined the ground and found a pair of tracks heading south. I figured they had maybe a 15 minute headstart on me.
The smart thing to do would be to stay here. The woods could be a dangerous place. But part of my basic training involved being dropped into a dense forest alone and with no supplies for survival training. If I could survive a week in the woods, near naked, with only a dagger and my wits, a little romp on the edge of a town couldn't be that bad.
Besides, I was curious what those two could be up to going out there together.
Stealthily, I followed their tracks for about an hour and was perhaps a mile from the hunting lodge, when I heard hushed voices ahead. "That's pretty gross man, but I'm glad your showing it to me."
"I'm not ready for you to touch it yet." I heard Skylar say.
Uh oh. I thought. How well did I really know these guys. I didn't want to interrupt them if they were doing something private and personal. I turned to leave, watching the ground so I didn't step on any twigs, when I heard Draco say, "Parts of it are missing."
Oh no. Maybe that Grey Oozes acid had more of an adverse effect on Skylar than I thought.
"Most the gooey parts are gone." I heard Skylar mumble.
"Definitely eaten away." Draco added.
I was becoming more and more distressed by this conversation and peeked over some bushes. It was with a sigh of relief that I noticed Skylar and Draco bent over examining something on the ground.I walked up beside them to what they were looking at.
It was a body.
A dead body. Tore apart as if a wild animal was the killer.
"You guys kill him?" I asked.
"No." Skylar answered. "How did you find us?"
"I tracked you."
"Wow. I'm impressed."
I smiled. "And I also hit that deer target five times in a row after you left."
"Sure you did." Skylar did not sound convinced.
"No really I did."
He cocked an eyebrow in that I don't believe you way, and then pointed at the body and asked, "What do you make of this?"
"When did you find him?" I knelt to examine the corpse. "Do you know who he is?"
"Yesterday. And I think he is a hunter that went missing a few days ago." His wife hired me to find him.
"Well you found him."
Now here is something you, dear readers, may not know about me. I, like the devil, am into details. The first thing I noticed was this hunters weapons were not drawn. Meaning whatever or whoever killed him did so quickly and with surprise. Either it snuck up on him or he knew the killer. His entrails and lower parts were mostly gone, eaten away apparently. I stood up and circled the body, examining the area. "Are these wolf tracks?" I asked Skylar pointing out some canine tracks around the body.
"Yes." he answered. "A big brute and traveling alone."
"Hmm." I backtracked to see which direction the lonewolf came from, Skylar and Draco started searching the body as I did so. After about thirty yards towards the town I noticed something peculiar about the tracks. It looked like some of them were missing. Like someone erased half the tracks or....
The beast was running on just it's hind legs.
My hair on the back of my neck stood on end as the tracks became those of a man. "Oh Crap!" I exclaimed aloud. Running back to Skylar and Draco I yelled. "IT"S A FRICKEN WEREWOLF!"
Skylar looked up and said calmly, "Yeah I think so too."
"Holy Crap. Was it a full moon yesterday?" I asked excitedly.
"Two Nights ago." Skylar confirmed.
"It could be anyone." I said.
"Yep." Was all I got from Skylar.
"You have a shovel? Right?" Draco asked.
"Yeah why?" I answered, digging my trencher out of my backpack.
"Because you need to dig a grave for this guy."
Well I am an expert at digging holes. If I ever decide I don't like adventuring or soldiering I could always get a job as a grave digger. We buried the poor hunter and looted his corpse. I made a couple of casts of the tracks out of mud which I heated with my magic. Never know when such thing's would come in handy. We had a bonifide mystery here. And I like mysteries. We traveled back to town and gave the new widow the bad news. We didn't tell her that her husband was slain by a werewolf but was killed by wolves. No need to start a panic in town yet. I thought Draco was going to make a play for her because she was kind of attractive. Yes he is that shallow. Somehow he managed to refrain himself. Barely. I checked the widows shoe size discreetly and checked her off my list.
Better safe than sorry.
I go to bed thinking I have a little over three weeks before the moon is full.
And then the killer would strike again.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Day Twenty Five, Evening
The Group met for breakfast at the Inn as normal and discussed what to do for the day. It was soon decided to go check out the problem at the outlying farm with the giant ant. 50 gold was not a lot of money to us. At least not these days. But we came to the conclusion that a giant ant running rampant and killing cows might hurt the beef industry here in town. Mordin had to have his steaks, and if he didn't get them their was going to be hell to pay.
So off we set to the south of town to the Parker Farm. As we approached the farmhouse proper we noticed it was very quiet. Usually a farm is a noisy place with dogs and chickens and such. But nothing made a sound. We are used to a certain amount of quite when delving underground. In fact the only sound we have grown accustomed to hearing on a regular basis down there is the sound of Draco brushing his hair. But up here in the world of light and the living there is almost constant noise. We readied our weapons and approached the farmhouse door.
I knocked.
I heard something or someone scrambling around in there. A dog growled, and then I female voice said loudly from behind the door, " Who's there?"
"Uh, we're from Thornkeep." I said. "We are here about the Job to kill the giant ant. "
A heard a locking bar being raised from it's catch and the door swung open to reveal a portly woman in her 30's. She had a huge and intimidating meat cleaver in her hand. " Well get in here!" she yelled. "Its dangerous out there!" We filed into her main room of her farmhouse as she gave a quick look around outside and then slammed the door shut and locked it.
The inside of the house was chaos incarnate. Dogs, cats, chickens, a cow, several children, an old man Mrs. Parker introduced as her husband, armed with a pitchfork, were all cramped into this house. I even noticed a pig under the table.
"There is only six of you?" Mrs. Parker asked incredulously. " I don't think that's going to be enough."
"Ma'am." I replied. " We are professionals. I am sure we can handle one ant."
"Are you sure? This thing is huge." She said, spreading her arms wide.
"Just point us in the right direction." Shakes said. "We will take care of the rest."
"What are you going to do?" She asked Shakes. Apparently giving him the once over and noticing his apparent lack of weapons. "Scream at it?"
"Something like that." Shakes replied in a dry voice.
"Maybe you better take this." offering him her meat cleaver.
Shakes held out his hands in a placating manner and said. "I'll be fine. Is the gold good?"
Mistress Parker got wary then, and said. "The gold is hid and you will get it when the ant is dead."
"Fine. Where is this ant so we can get this over with." Shakes is almost aways about the business.
She opened the door and pointed to a large wheat field about ten acre's in diameter. "It came from that direction and carried my cow back that way after it cut it in half."
"Did it carry both pieces at the same time?" I asked.
"I don't know. I guess so." She said, waving her meat cleaver around animatedly. "Just go kill the darn thing, if you can, so things can get back to normal round here."
"Do not worry ma'am." Draco piped in. "The job is as good as done."
She looked at Draco. Then did a double take, and then decided she needed to straighten out her skirt and touch up her hair. Acts that made me a bit nervous for her with that cleaver in her hand. "Oh I am sure with someone like you on the job I have nothing to worry about." she smiled.
Oh give me a break....
Draco smiled back, and that seemed to make the Matron of Parker Farm's morning. This could have went on for a while so to get things moving I said, "Let's get moving."
We started into the field when Mrs. Parker hollered out, "And if you see Ned tell him to get his arse back here!"
Everyone of us stopped and turned around and Aramel asked. "Who's Ned?"
She hollered. "A good for nothin farm hand who took my best pitchfork and said he was going to solve the problem when no one showed up to help."
"When did he leave?" I asked.
"Early this morning."
We looked at each other. "He might still be alive." Abrandon, our cleric, whispered.
"No he is not." Mordin said simply.
Spreading out, with Shakes and Mordin in the lead, we proceeded through the wheat field. We found a path with a blood trail where something about cow sized was dragged through it, so finding the giant ants lair was easy enough.
It was an ant hill.
Only this ant hill was ten feet in diameter and about five feet high. a large hole about 3 feet in diameter led down into darkness. "That's not going to be easy to crawl down." I said.
The ant, and it was a big one, only not as large as I thought it would be with the farmers wife's tale, came barreling out of it's hole and straight at Mordin. It was about the size of a large dog. I fired my heavy crossbow and hit it square between it's eyes. The barbarian skipped nimble to the side and cut it's head off easily. It all happened so fast no one else got a chance to react.
Then Abrandon said incredulously. "I can't believe it! You actually hit something!"
Everyone else chimed in then with, "Did You see that?" and. "Nitro hit something with his crossbow!" and "Lucky Shot!" and "I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it!"
All this hoopla was probably the reason no one noticed that two more giant ants came scrambling out of the hole to bear down on us.
With a yell Mordin had his feet knocked out from under him and Shakes barely jumped into the air above a pair of mandibles that tried to grab him. Aramel recovered first and stabbed the one the barbarian was rolling frantically to avoid. I finished it off with a Magic Missile.
Draco ran backwards and cut lose with a firebolt that cooked the last one.
"Whew!" I said. "That was a close one." Silently thanking the pair of giant ants that saved me from the tirade of embarrassing comments about my marksmanship.
"Do you think there is any more?" asked Aramel, looking at me.
"I don't know." I replied. "There could be a queen, and maybe thousands of them in there."
"Only one way to find out!" exclaimed Mordin as he crouched and shimmied down the hole.
We shrugged and followed him.
The ant hole contained only one chamber. In it we found the remains of the cow and the farm hand Ned. He had been dead for only a couple of hours. "Good thing he was good for Nothin." said Mordin. But I could tell he was not happy about this. "This is why they should leave this to the professionals." he growled.
We looted and didn't find much but did recover Parker Farm's best pitchfork.
Mrs. Parker was so grateful she invited us to stay for lunch and made sure she sat right next to Draco.
She was a good cook.
So off we set to the south of town to the Parker Farm. As we approached the farmhouse proper we noticed it was very quiet. Usually a farm is a noisy place with dogs and chickens and such. But nothing made a sound. We are used to a certain amount of quite when delving underground. In fact the only sound we have grown accustomed to hearing on a regular basis down there is the sound of Draco brushing his hair. But up here in the world of light and the living there is almost constant noise. We readied our weapons and approached the farmhouse door.
I knocked.
I heard something or someone scrambling around in there. A dog growled, and then I female voice said loudly from behind the door, " Who's there?"
"Uh, we're from Thornkeep." I said. "We are here about the Job to kill the giant ant. "
A heard a locking bar being raised from it's catch and the door swung open to reveal a portly woman in her 30's. She had a huge and intimidating meat cleaver in her hand. " Well get in here!" she yelled. "Its dangerous out there!" We filed into her main room of her farmhouse as she gave a quick look around outside and then slammed the door shut and locked it.
The inside of the house was chaos incarnate. Dogs, cats, chickens, a cow, several children, an old man Mrs. Parker introduced as her husband, armed with a pitchfork, were all cramped into this house. I even noticed a pig under the table.
"There is only six of you?" Mrs. Parker asked incredulously. " I don't think that's going to be enough."
"Ma'am." I replied. " We are professionals. I am sure we can handle one ant."
"Are you sure? This thing is huge." She said, spreading her arms wide.
"Just point us in the right direction." Shakes said. "We will take care of the rest."
"What are you going to do?" She asked Shakes. Apparently giving him the once over and noticing his apparent lack of weapons. "Scream at it?"
"Something like that." Shakes replied in a dry voice.
"Maybe you better take this." offering him her meat cleaver.
Shakes held out his hands in a placating manner and said. "I'll be fine. Is the gold good?"
Mistress Parker got wary then, and said. "The gold is hid and you will get it when the ant is dead."
"Fine. Where is this ant so we can get this over with." Shakes is almost aways about the business.
She opened the door and pointed to a large wheat field about ten acre's in diameter. "It came from that direction and carried my cow back that way after it cut it in half."
"Did it carry both pieces at the same time?" I asked.
"I don't know. I guess so." She said, waving her meat cleaver around animatedly. "Just go kill the darn thing, if you can, so things can get back to normal round here."
"Do not worry ma'am." Draco piped in. "The job is as good as done."
She looked at Draco. Then did a double take, and then decided she needed to straighten out her skirt and touch up her hair. Acts that made me a bit nervous for her with that cleaver in her hand. "Oh I am sure with someone like you on the job I have nothing to worry about." she smiled.
Oh give me a break....
Draco smiled back, and that seemed to make the Matron of Parker Farm's morning. This could have went on for a while so to get things moving I said, "Let's get moving."
We started into the field when Mrs. Parker hollered out, "And if you see Ned tell him to get his arse back here!"
Everyone of us stopped and turned around and Aramel asked. "Who's Ned?"
She hollered. "A good for nothin farm hand who took my best pitchfork and said he was going to solve the problem when no one showed up to help."
"When did he leave?" I asked.
"Early this morning."
We looked at each other. "He might still be alive." Abrandon, our cleric, whispered.
"No he is not." Mordin said simply.
Spreading out, with Shakes and Mordin in the lead, we proceeded through the wheat field. We found a path with a blood trail where something about cow sized was dragged through it, so finding the giant ants lair was easy enough.
It was an ant hill.
Only this ant hill was ten feet in diameter and about five feet high. a large hole about 3 feet in diameter led down into darkness. "That's not going to be easy to crawl down." I said.
The ant, and it was a big one, only not as large as I thought it would be with the farmers wife's tale, came barreling out of it's hole and straight at Mordin. It was about the size of a large dog. I fired my heavy crossbow and hit it square between it's eyes. The barbarian skipped nimble to the side and cut it's head off easily. It all happened so fast no one else got a chance to react.
Then Abrandon said incredulously. "I can't believe it! You actually hit something!"
Everyone else chimed in then with, "Did You see that?" and. "Nitro hit something with his crossbow!" and "Lucky Shot!" and "I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it!"
All this hoopla was probably the reason no one noticed that two more giant ants came scrambling out of the hole to bear down on us.
With a yell Mordin had his feet knocked out from under him and Shakes barely jumped into the air above a pair of mandibles that tried to grab him. Aramel recovered first and stabbed the one the barbarian was rolling frantically to avoid. I finished it off with a Magic Missile.
Draco ran backwards and cut lose with a firebolt that cooked the last one.
"Whew!" I said. "That was a close one." Silently thanking the pair of giant ants that saved me from the tirade of embarrassing comments about my marksmanship.
"Do you think there is any more?" asked Aramel, looking at me.
"I don't know." I replied. "There could be a queen, and maybe thousands of them in there."
"Only one way to find out!" exclaimed Mordin as he crouched and shimmied down the hole.
We shrugged and followed him.
The ant hole contained only one chamber. In it we found the remains of the cow and the farm hand Ned. He had been dead for only a couple of hours. "Good thing he was good for Nothin." said Mordin. But I could tell he was not happy about this. "This is why they should leave this to the professionals." he growled.
We looted and didn't find much but did recover Parker Farm's best pitchfork.
Mrs. Parker was so grateful she invited us to stay for lunch and made sure she sat right next to Draco.
She was a good cook.
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