“Hey Dave, come back” shouted Nar Ator
“We’re finished Nar, I’m taking my hard earned break now” came the reply
“Come back Dave, we have a two week special”
“More like reprieve you mean” Said Dave, his form evolving from a tiny dot and growing exponentially as he got closer.
“What are you wearing?” asked Nar Ator
“Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda Shorts, flip flops and sunglasses, why?” said Dave putting down his glass of fruit punch.
“You go on holiday somewhere warm and put clothes on?”
“I don’t know what you mean, Nar”
“Ator! You are a crow every week you hop stroke fly around and are basically covered by just your feathers, but you go somewhere warm and put clothes on?”
“Ah this, blending in, Nar ATOR” said Dave putting real emphasis on the end of his name.
“See many Crows with clothes on in Hawaii do you?”
“All the time, you should try having form Nar Ator. So why do we have this extra time to spend together?” asked Dave. “Not that I’m moaning.”
“DM’s game was cancelled”
“So what you are saying is we are second choice to whatever Star Wars™ is, second choice Nar Ator!”
“No. Well, yes I suppose I am Dave. Shall we crack on?”
“We were last with our heroes at the hunting lodge, and if you cast your mind back you will remember”
“What are you doing Dave?”
“Giving the reader, some background as to where the story ended” replied Dave.
“But why? Narration is my job and besides you were doing it wrong.”
“How can you do it wrong?” asked Dave
“You were doing it inside speech marks the key too good narration is no speech marks. On top of that Dave, it is my job.”
“Now you know how Elias feels” retorted Dave, unbuttoning his shirt.
We were last with our intrepid heroes at the hunting lodge (See Dave no speech marks in sight). They had freed the prisoners, got one killed and lost another, so they only had one charge left to protect. They had looted the house of things they thought valuable, useful, pretty, and pointy. They moved like shadows across the upstairs landing and entered the room atop the west wing of the lodge. There sat six figures.
“It’s four now” said Dave
There, sat four figures, two obvious fighters wearing scale mail that Flint had his eye on. Another presumably male figure with a sword and wearing a grey mask in the shape of a starburst that covered his whole face. A female Elf the obvious leader and spell caster had pride of place in the middle of them.
“I have been expecting you, please sit I have a proposition for you” she said.
“Are we not going to kill them?” asked Maria.
“No we will parley with them and then decide” replied Elias.
“You and your brother want to discuss everything. Is this why nothing gets done in the dwarven halls, because you sit and discuss every idea till it has no purpose anymore.” Hissed Maria.
“What harm can it do?” said Elias trying to calm the situation.
“She could cast a spell killing some of us or worse me” said Maria looking Elias straight in the eye.
“Look we need to find out what is going on. It is a classic villain tactic. Capture the good guys reveal the plan, devise a convoluted and unnecessary complex way of killing the heroes thus allowing them to escape.” Whispered Elias in all seriousness.
“I think we should just……..”Maria paused and Elias saw her eyes glaze over then they came back, he would later swear that her pupils were larger and blacker. “Sit down and have some of that delicious smelling food” and Maria took a seat on the bench, quickly followed by Flint, Elias and Issy, Oz paced the room.
“Where am I?” Maria’s voice echoed round the vastness of the space is black and no amount of dark vision was going to pierce it.
“WE ARE IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND WHERE REGRET AND AFTER THOUGHT LIVE, BUT I MUST SAY THIS PLACE IS REMARKABLY EMPTY. I HAD TO TAKE YOU OUT OF THERE” said Dave trying to sound imposing and learning from DM. But it hurt his throat which was strange as he didn’t actually enunciate the words they were projected into his targets mind.
“Why?”
“Because you were about to do something stupid” said Dave going back to his normal vocal projections.
“What because I don’t want to sit down and discuss my feelings. Because I want to kill every member of the Cult of the Dragon. Because I think this is futile and they will attack us. Because I know what must be done.”
“That is a lot of “I’s” Maria. Do they discuss their feeling or do they try to do the right thing, even if it harder than slitting a throat.
Do you think you alone can kill every member of the cult, you do realise at some point the Cult of the Dragon will lead to an actual Dragon, and you think alone, you can kill one of those.
You think talking is pointless, you say kill them, suppose you do manage to kill them where do you go next? Do you even know where you are? I do. It is over a thousand miles away from where you were. It is three weeks by wing pushing hard Maria. Talking will reveal clues about where to go next. I know you think you can torture them to tell you, but trust me torture is not a reliable source.
Finally even though you are all on this mission together, you alone know what must be done. You really think the others are clueless?
Wake up Maria, we have discussed this you are not alone, you are not an island. These are your friends, as a collective, as a team you can work it out. If you don’t agree try to see the merit of an idea the others think sensible.” Dave stopped ranting.
“I’m sorry Dave. It’s hard for me, because I’ve been alone all my life.”
“I know Maria, I’m going to let you go now, you are sat down, follow their lead see where this goes.”
Oz Paced round the room
“Are you going to sit down?” Enquired the Elf
“It depends? Are you going to kill us?” retorted Oz.
“Why would I kill you, have you not walked round my home unimpeded? Have you not taken things that don’t belong to you? Have you not set my prisoners free? If I wanted to kill you I would have acted long ago. No I think we can have an agreement our goals are aligned for the moment. Please sit and discuss it. Then afterwards we can feast on the banquet I have had prepared for you.” Said the Elf the other three of her cohort were impassive in their expression, sat there looking at each of our heroes in turn as if weighing them up. Oz took a seat. “Thank you. Your mission as far as I can gather is to stop the shipments, to stop the treasure collected being assembled into a large horde. In this our goals align.”
“Can yez ‘xplain, why yez a self-confessed cultist wou’d wanna stop tha shipment” asked Flint
“Eloquently put Master Dwarf, quite simply I have been passed over for promotion. I have served the cult for longer, done more deeds in their name than any other member. I even attended the annual mid-winter ball every year. They have promoted an insignificant dwarf.”
“Right on brother” said Elias raising a fist and slowly putting it back down.
“A dwarf who is underserving and lacks the correct skill set for this postion.”
“And yez wants us ta kill the dwarf” said Flint coldly.
“No, I will deal with the dwarf after you have completed your mission. What I want you to do is what you were going to do anyway, stop the treasure reaching its final destination. That is all, no more, no less.” The Elf explained.
“But won’t that go against the Cults goals?” enquired Issy.
“It will, but that is another obstacle to overcome later on.”
“So where do you come in all this? So far we are doing nothing different to what were anyway” said Elias.
“That is why I am going to tell you where the treasure is going, how to get in and the layout of the place.” The elf spoke for about two hours detailing the ins and outs, passwords and everything they would need for a successful mission. Then when the talking concluded she called for the feast.
“After we’ve eaten you can attack them if you like” Elias said to Maria as he reached over for another chicken leg.
Maria though was thinking it through, they had more information than she could ever have achieved through torture in an incredibly short time. The enemy of my enemy is my friend analogy seemed to be holding up. This was positive, maybe she was wrong about this, and maybe this was the right thing to do at the moment. Maria also knew that the Elf and her cronies would cross their paths again in the future and that time it would be a very different ending.
Jebado discovered that on the roof was the last glowing of magic, so before they set off for Parnast they decide to investigate.
“This is gonna tek someone ta climb onta tha roof” said Flint. Before anyone else could move Maria popped her head at the window and looked straight into Dave’s beak.
“Really Maria, you think this is a job for you?” said Dave. Maria ducked back in.
“It looks tough but I think it can be done Elias.” They gathered round and wished him luck and for once Elias felt special, even though he was doing what he was born to do, only he could do it.
“See that wasn’t so bad was it. Did you see how the group dynamic changed” said Dave.
“I did” said Maria grumpily.
“Did you say something Maria?” asked Issy.
“Just wishing Elias luck” she replied.
Elias swung onto the roof, the cause of the magic was a shield which was part of some baby perytons nest. Elias communicated this back down to the others. Flint ran down to the kitchens to get some meat to feed them and was quickly back in the room, they passed the meat to Elias.
Elias threw the meat and the creatures greedily started to eat the food, casting mage hand Elias picked up the shield and climbed back down.
“Ah think we maybe wanna git oot a here” said Flint and they did not need prompting twice. They gathered there stuff and set off for Parnast.
They walked till it was nearly dark and made camp about half mile from the thick dense forest.
“Shall we have a fire tonight?” asked Oz.
“Yes but we need a pit to put it in so we don’t attract big wandering creatures.” Said Issy who cast her unseen servant which started to dig the pit.
“Issy can I have a word” asked Elias.
“Sure”
“Na body, come a burtharin’ ma, I need sum aloon tame wi’ ma sword!” said Flint and he went off to practise away from the others.
“What’s up Elias” asked Issy.
“I picked up this Spear Dragon Claw, its mithryl and magical, I’m not one hundred per cent sure what it does. Well the point is I’m never going to use it, and I don’t think anyone else wants to use it would you like it?” said Elias.
“Let me have a look at it” Issy took the spear from Elias and it was weighted perfectly, it was well balanced. Issy knew that this would be a good weapon for her as she could wield it single handed, double handed and be thrown. This weapon was versatile just like Issy. “Thank you Elias, but what is you want in return?”
“Nothing to be honest, it’s yours, I’d rather someone have it who will use it rather than me as I never will. Although I do think we need to distribute our magical weapon pool amongst all of us.”
“I think that also, here take the dagger, it is probably better off with you anyway” said Issy. Maria was listening in.
“It’s called nature’s gift and it’s my bow” she said so they could hear her. Dave shook his head.
“Hold on their Dave, she has had enough change and prodding for one day. Let her keep this” said Nar Ator
“Tiamat’s eyes shine, but you want to be careful we don’t know what it does” replied Elias. Issy threw the spear at a tree and uttered the command words and a light burst forth illuminating a sixty foot sphere as if it were daylight.
“Why did we build a pit for the fire again?” asked Oz.
One hour later it went dark suddenly as the effect wore off. The ground started to vibrate and the sound of something large approaching enveloped their senses. Into the camp burst two trolls and one very large troll with four arms. Elias leapt forward striking the one closest to him before darting back into the mix with the others. The large four armed troll attacked Maria, a normal troll attacked Flint and the troll Elias hit moved in to return the favour. The damage the trolls inflected was colossal, Flint was winded, Maria transformed into a giant snake to grapple with the troll attacking her, Elias dodged the worst of the blows but still he was not looking too happy about this, unable to move lest the creature attack Jebado or Issy. Oz cast his healing magic, making Tempest happy as there would be some praying going on later. Flint swung at the troll missing.
The battle was hard fought and only won after Issy had suggested to two of the trolls that they should leave and protect what little they have from each other. Flint had come under some friendly banter from his friends, because after he claimed he was one with his sword he seemed to be unable to hit anything, and unbeknown to anyone other than Flint his sword was sentient, it had spoken to him several times now but this time.
“The pointy end goes in the troll”
“Can’t you give me to somebody else, anybody else, they would be better at this than you. What about Jebado?”
“If you don’t hit it next turn the next thing I draw blood from will be you committing seppuku”
“A farmer in his underpants could do better than this!”
And other phrases of encouragement so at the end of this fight Flint was not his usual positive talkative self.
“Yez can all go an’ boil your heads in a turd bath”
To be continued………..
