Near the end of the groups two weeks of lounging around, Ezrin takes a moment when all four of the group are together,
“So, the Kommandant told us to take care of the Orc Shaman and the Demon Crystal issue, do we think we can really hang out here much longer before we get… told more firmly?”
Near the end of the time the group spends resting, studying, and practicing, Ezrin catches the groups attention,
“Now that we know where the Well-Trained Pony is How are we going to get past those Green Shirts, with enough time to deal with The Ruins…
“And are we really going to do it while Pool-issumus Light Foot is watching us?”
After a few minutes of confused looks, Ezrin sighs and clarifies:
“The sword we want, it’s been broken twice, like a well trained Westlander… ‘s pony.”
He looks expectantly at the others, clearly wondering if they are on to his cant or need more explanation.
During the time spent studying, practicing and preparing in the tent, Ezrin gets Alexis’s attention and asks,
“Alexis, do you think that Earycka intercepted the Kommandants packet of reports that we helped prepare or had a copy made for herself? Do you know much about their relationship? It seemed like more than that of simply an ally. Or favored vassal…”
While studying, resting, training etc…
“Raidensblud aren’t just Aegirian soldiers… there was clearly a separation: ‘Your Commandant’ and all that…
“What is the difference? They all wear red cloaks…”
The Sword then, the one we seek, breaking it, again? will remove the Scarred Orcs, ‘The Made,’ from the board and weaken the Dark Hand.”
Ezrin looks to Alexis for confirmation.
“So, it’s not the Sword Chaotic, and the weilder of the Chaos Sword doesn’t want it found? Or the Chaos Sword itself? And it is connected to a dead god what weeps and whose wound is being used by the… Dark Hand to do something with Orcs referred to as The Made?
An I missing something? Do we know anything about the Peacemakers? The Sword Chaotic itself? Who calls these three stripe orcs the The Made? Any clue how the sword was broken before? Mended?
Around the fire, the subject of the Dark and Hand and Bandesing rises in discussion. Telosh, Clyte, the Axe Man, Shai-yeeni, Varisimuss, Mavon, Skelor, Leer, what and whom – have you.
“Beware the Light Foot, for death follows where the Singing Bandit steps…” Ezrin seems to reciting a proverb from the streets of Sutheron.
“Most I know would avoid them, but I suppose it is too late…
“And it seems you’ve already received a lesson, or your late companion did at least.”
The Sutheroni mage looks at his new companions with a mixture of fear, concern, and compassion, and perhaps a bit of awe and excitement.
“Supposedly the Foot, sorry, the Dark Hand – even young nuns wear old habits – is engaged in the traditional business of the Black Hills, but no one know who they sell their…”
It is obvious that Ezrin is used to using a particular type of slang when discussing these types of topics.
“Slaves to. And they do not do business with the traditional Hill-guilds. There have been a few conflicts, not with good results for the Hill folk…”
“Everyone knows they took the Kings’ betrothed, but beyond that..” the mage shrugs.
“Their goals and motivations are the subject of much speculation. Their power and danger are clear though, and you have placed yourself squarely in the sights of their crossbows, chasing treasures they desire…”
Ezrin is quiet and thoughtful for a moment, then he shakes his head a little, and smiles ruefully.
“So be it, Crimson Calling, if you’ll have me, I’ll cleave to you now and join in your work to undermine the… Dark Hand.
“What have you learned about them so far?”
Ezrin is clearly nervous about this choice, but also very serious about it.
Shortly after Alexis gives Ezrin the two priceless potions from sometime around the second age, Alexis sits down with Ezrin.
“You’re new here, and I worry you have an orientation towards treasure hunting that is not shared with the Crimson Calling. The speed with which you wanted to bundle up all the artifacts in your supplies. The clear frustration around being robbed of treasure. These things worry me, and I will share where my fears come from. You have come to us recently, but the Crimson Calling has been around for years and dealt with many treasure-obstacles, and I consider myself very, very, fortunate to have made it this far.”
“While I have always led the Crimson Calling, I have claimed virtually none of the artifacts from our adventures, even though it is my right as the leader. In our first major find, only Gus and Red walked away with priceless items of power.” Alexis gives a shrug clearly showing that this doesn’t bother him.
“Significantly later, on a quest from a powerful patron, two of us were perverted by a powerful magic item and had to be subdued to finish our quest. It is for the best we did not keep that item.”
“One of our previous companions suffered from artifact-avarice such that he stole from us in the night and wandered off with a significant fortune. He has since spent, drank, or gambled all of it and is in a very lonely place.” Alexis looks clearly sad about this last part.
“Another time, one of us succumbed to an item of power beyond comprehension and enslaved most of the rest of us. Thankfully our close bonds allowed us to overcome this item.”
“One of us stumbled upon madness, possibly in the presence of several powerful forces/items/powers, and unleashed a threat to this whole area. The two wyverns that were spotted were part of that madness, and we were fortunate that we were able to prevent many, many, more dark creatures from flocking to this area.”
“Related to the madness I just mentioned, one of us carelessly touched the creation (mentioned earlier) without thinking about the consequences and unleashed a minion of a dark power. A being of corruption and lies. There are still times I wake up in a sweat seeing that corrupted being.” Alexis shivers at the thought.
“More recently, we had someone with us who had learned secrets to use our magics against us. Gus was most affected by this using-our-magics against us, possibly given how magical he is” Alexis looks towards the holy grove for a moment.
“These are the cautionary tales we three live with every day. This is why we don’t see all treasure as equal. Why all power isn’t to be sought with the same ferver.”
“But you know we don’t eschew treasure. You know of the Mithril Lord, who was created because the Crimson Calling pooled our treasure to make sure he would be rewarded for his time with us.”
“And even those that try hard, but fail, we still attempt to reward if we can. Before you, we have traveled with many others. At one point we had the son of a rich man join us for the ‘glory’ of it. And even though he nearly got us killed by the giant, we still rewarded him with a trophy head for his future tales of glory with us.”
“We have refused to work with powerful forces that do not align in treating magics with the sort of care we know is important. They are not our enemies, but we have to go our separate ways. And you have the same question in front of you now Ezrin. Will you embrace the Crimson Calling, even if it means you may never see any magical treasure of your own, or will you strike out on your own for treasure that you may study from, learn from, and grow rich off of?” Alexis looks relaxed but expectant for an answer.
A somewhat short period after Ezrin has talked to Alexis about their respective sponsors, and the giant is dead. Alexis and Ezrin are alone one some task. Alexis asks Ezrin.
“You’ve made some comments about what my sponsor knows, and how he knows it. Tell me, what does my sponsor know, and how do you think he knows it?”
“It was eight or nine years ago, probably a year or so before I received The Invitation. I was apprenticed to a locksmith. My parents were both Known. I’d done some good work of my own though, stepped up from the kiddie stuff. Some second-story work and some tunnel work. I was Known, and young.”
“So a Friend came to talk to me, he and some other Friends had been talking with Someone about some ruins on Mount Sutheron, out past The Horsetrader’s estates…
“It was mid-autumn, we set out early during the Festival of Oo-rin, after making a small offering and promising a larger one if our ‘harvest’ was successful… festivals are an auspicious time for A Job after all.
We were a small team, as usual: myself, the Doors and Traps man… Bragnasar, a great climber, classic Second Story man, and good in tunnels too. We’d worked together before several times. Then, uh… Sibrah, some muscle mostly, but a good climber and good swimmer, did a lot of work on the docks… Dunbar, a thug and aspiring pit fighter I hadn’t worked with much before, but I knew he had a level head… and Stackin, a sage I’d never met before that claimed to be working for a Lord Allbah, from what I remember, Sibrah knew him from a previous job? I’m not so sure Stackin was working for Lord Allbah, frankly a lot of Jobs at the time were supposedly for Lord Allbah… it was kind of an inside joke back then… and I think some jobs really were for or at least connected to Lord Allbah…”
Anyhow, Stackin and SIbrah led us to an old pile of ruins in the hills around the base of The Mountain, and a somewhat hidden, somewhat collapsed entrance to a… cave? dungeon? ruins?
“The entrance itself was collapsed, but once we were about ten feet in the cave turned into a well crafted hallway. We proceeded cautiously, tapping here and there, lanterns high.
“About 100 feet in or so we encounter the first of several ancient well built traps. Sibrah claimed we were in ancient dwarven ruins around that point. It was a simple crossbow trap but with an ingenious floor-based trigger system and some sort of self-reloading crossbow built into the wall. I wish I could have studied it more, but I disabled it with a couple small wedges in the floor tile to keep it from moving down when stepped on.
“We continued deeper into the mountainside, and eventually came to some stairs. Another trap! These well built stone stairs were designed to… roll over onto a smooth surface. I was able to locate a hidden off-switch though and we descended the stairs.
“About halfway down though, a landing and another trap! This one was a huge Dwarven face, with a vent in the mouth that seemed like it spewed and lit oil. Again, the same floor based trigger mechanism, but the whole landing was difficult to secure. It took a bit, and was a little tricky since by this point the stairs were along the side of a large natural cavern, I was able to climb over the side with some rope held by… Bragnasar and… Sibrah, and wedge the trigger-stones into place and we were able to move safely past.
“At the bottom of the stars was a room worked out of the natural cavern and three heavy wooden doors. And three strange corpses.”
“The corpses were dead dwarves. Stackin was very excited, and very impressed with how well their corpses were preserved, for as old as they must have been. They were dry, they still had a leather skin over the bones… We searched them, and Stackin lay claim to all the items with writing on them, there were runes on most of the weapons, at least the axes and hammers, and some the daggers too.”
Ezrin reaches over to his pack and pulls out his dagger,
“Not this one though.”
He hands the dagger to Alexis. It looks like it could be dwarven made, no runes, not even small smithmarks though.
“Anyhow, we packed up all we could, their plate mail and everything. Set most of it into a ready to pile, and carried the most valuable items with us. Stackin took a few scrolls with him, we all took gold, silver, and a few smaller weapons. There were a few rings too.”
“One of the doors was clearly damaged and Stackin led us through it.
“50 feet or so down that hall, Dunbar triggered but dodged a truly amazing scythe-like blade trap. It would have split him open had he not jumped back so fast! I disabled it as well, the pressure plates were very well hidden though, it was a tough one…”
“We passed some old barrack type spaces, everything made of stone and just a little off in size. There were some runes that Stackin copied down in a few spots. An empty armory type space, kitchens and a dining hall… all stone and a little off..
“It was just past the dining hall that Stackin noticed something odd along the wall, he and I investigated it together, he used a spell at this point, ‘Lanua Invenire Dìomthair” I think now…
“It was a well-hidden door, we found the trigger stone, and followed the low passage it opened into.
“It was only a few yards away that the skeletal dwarves attacked. It was a tough fight, their plate armor, and most of us have short swords or daggers. Dunbar had a small flail though, and he liked to disarm his opponents, and we all knew how to help a Friend out in a fight, so once we figured out what we needed to do… Stackin cast at least one spell, but I was fighting with an improvised club at the time I didn’t really understand what he had done. Now, I think I have a pretty good idea.
Sibrah got hurt a bit, I got a little roughed up, but not bad, and Bragnasar was pretty hurt, but able to press on.
“Again, we quickly searched the bodies, took a few small weapons immediately and set aside the armor and larger weapons for quick retrieval and followed what we could make out of the trail of dwarves. Stackin seemed to be able to track them?
“It wasn’t long after that that we felt IT. The rage was palpable, alien, righteous, and terrifying. Stackin urged us on an we tried, entered in a small room with a door, the door had a few runes on it, some more scratched in than laid in you know? They looked like some sort of warning to me, and I said so.
“Stackin hurriedly copied them down… The room was eerily silent, and filled with rage, whatever was behind that door was going to destroy us. Feed on our very souls. Take revenge on us for how it was wronged. Dunbar and I broke at the same time, we ran. Stackin… Bragnasar… Sibrah… followed shortly. We all knew we needed to get out of there as fast as we could…
“We did stop to get our loot, and it did slow us down. Stackin seemed satisfied with the job and paid us well. He said he would inform the Hoodites about the walking skeletons and the Evil. The rest of us split up everything that didn’t have runes on it, which wasn’t much.”
Ezrin accepts his dagger back from Alexis.
“But it was plenty… Dunbar wasn’t ever really the same, lost the stomach for pit fighting at least… I have no idea what happened to the rest of the guys. I hadn’t seen them when I got the Invitation. I never saw Stackin again…”
Sent from Sutheron, over a year ago.
A seal, hard to make out exactly and stylized U and J perhaps? A Crocodile and and Vulture?
Addressed:
“To: Okken, Shopkeeper, Amara
West Southwest of Yamar”
Inside:
From: Unto Jarvi, Admiral of Rannon River, Bordertown
Okken:
I am sorry to write to you under the specter of death, and I regret to inform you that your ever-loving son Telosh Winterborne has perished.
Hopefully Dirk made it home to Yamar and you know his and Telosh’s daring adventures on the way to and in Aegir.
Since Dirk chose to return to Amara, Telosh had adventures in Aegier, faced ghosts in the hills near the small Aegierian village of Paavo and fought valiantly and with great cunning in the bare-knuckle barge fights in Bordertown. You should be proud of your son.
It was in one of these such fights that Telosh died. Many times he had survived worse beatings and dives into the Rannon, but not this time.
Telosh was was a good fighter and a brave man. I’m sorry for your loss.
deepest regards,
Unto Jarvi