DAY 272 (7th Nightal)(December) cont ...
They were taken to a the Western Watchtower at the weset town gates. It was a not a big building but the guards managed to find each of them a cell.
Mia started by talking to Billi as he seemed the most interesting, having admitted while he was being arrested to being under the influence of a devil.
When Billi mentioned the Vanguard of Sertrous she blanched, this was a name she'd hoped never to hear again in Kingsholm and having heard it now she sent for 'the expert'.
Billi didn't know it of course, but the young cleric of Gond that arrived was Freddorick, one of the adventurers that had initially breached the Forgotten King's Barrow.
When the story began to come to light she stormed down to Fenrir's cell to demand the truth, but he was so silver tongued she came to think that Billi was lying or the gnome was simply mad.
Just then though, the interrogations stopped when a messenger arrived and she was called away.
'Just keep them quiet Sergeant!' she growled. 'And don't let them talk between the cells.'
About half an hour later Cavu, with a big supply of Gaseous Form potions went from cell to cell giving each of them a potion and saying,
'Take this and escape! Meet me inside the Cemetery gates, by the compost heaps! If you get lost follow the smell of the rotten flowers.'
Durz pretended to be a ghost and scared off a guard long enough to gather his gear and simply walk out the watchtower. He noticed that there was a big commotion going on in the poor quarter, something not far away from a riot and figured this was a diversion that Cavu had somehow set. He got to the cemetery gates without incident.
Fenrir arrived by wing and Arahel by a hundred little legs in centipede form.
They were short one gnome though.
'Where is Billi?' hissed Cavu to the others.
'Er.. he may be meeting that devil slut of his,' grumbled Durz.
DAY 273 (8th Nightal)(December)
Fenrir was the first to arrive at the gate, he flew invisibly to the top of a tower and waited to see what would happen. The others walked up to the gate from outside and Arahel, still a centipede and scuttled in unseen by the guards.
Billi was waiting in the shadows and at the appointed time he was approached by an old man. The man talked for a while, then revealed himself, or rather herself to be Erin and made to take the gnome away.
Arahel the centipede turned into Arahel the Beholder and once more she did her best to catch or kill the erinyes. Despite the efforts of Arahel, Billi and Fenrir though she flew beyond the range of the anti-magic field and teleported away.
When they returned to the Cemetery, Cavu gathered them close and said,
'Good, we are all ready to go then. Listen, Gertrude, well she speaks in riddles most of the time, but now she is clearly telling me that if it cannot be done quietly then at least do it quickly! It has to be done tonight. If we don't get out of here tonight all hell will break loose and I mean that literally! The big players in this tend to drop dragons on each other when they get excited. We could easily end up with Kingsholm in ruins! If the Vanguard work out we are after the Forgotten King's Barrow then they will drop and army of devils on the place.'
So, duly warned they go on with the task of grave robbing.
First, they arrived at the graves of Bokk, Wulfgar and Banjax. You may or may not remember who these people were, but just as a reminder then.
Two years ago a band of adventurers came to Kingsholm, through a yuan-ti portal from Waterdeep.
They were met by the locals who had trouble in the graveyard and more or less defeated the evil yuan-ti that were breaking into the Barrow of the Forgotten king there.
Some of them died in the adventure though and they were buried here by the others. The Barrow was sealed magically by the ghost of the Forgotten King and the Sword and Ephod that would be required to open it again was buried in the graveyard. Now, no one knew exactly where they were buried, but each of the adventurers took a single clue to its location, for instance
'East Section' and 'Upper Yard'. For reasons that are not completely clear the three dead adventurers were each buried with a clue also.
Now Fenrir, Arahel, Durz and Billi found themselves, hired by Cavu the Cursed to gather the last of the clues and open the Barrow once more.
'Start with Bokk,' said Cavu, glancing around in the dark to check they were not being watched,
'Then Wulfgar. Leave Banjax to last. Make haste.'
They started by Arahel turning into a badger and digging down into Bokk's grave. She scratched through the wood and rooted around in the coffin. She soon sniffed out a piece of velum scroll that the corpse had laid on its chest and brought it up to the others.
'Row Twenty Six', said Cavu as he read it. He then folded it up and put it in his pocket.
Next was the grave of Wulfgar and Fenrir and Durz began digging with shovels that Fenrir had gone back to the tannery to get. Durz was a powerful digger and it did not take long. They opened the coffin and saw that the corpse of the dwarf also had a piece of scroll laid on it.
Durz handed it up to Cavu who read,
'Column Thirty-five.'
This too he folded up and put in his pocket.
Finally, all together, they dug up the grave of Banjax. It did not take long, but when the coffin was opened it was found to be empty. Cavu looked down at the exhumation and rubbed his chin, 'That's ok. We are done now.'
Durz shrugged and hoisted himself out of the grave then helped out Fenrir.
Cavu took six pieces of velum from his pocket and read them in the darkness.
'OK, North Range. East Section. Upper Yard. Row Twenty Six. Column Thirty-five. Five Stones.
And finally ... ah ... Eight Stones East. Let's go.'
The final grave, where the clues lead to, was marked simply with 'Unknown' and once more they dug up the coffin. To Cavu's utter amazement and horror though it was empty.
'The Sword? The Ephod?' What is going on? How can this be?'
'Found this,' said Durz and handed up a ring.
Cavu and Fenrir leaned in to take a look. It was a tiny ring, as if for a child. It had a symbol of a scroll on it that Fenrir felt was familiar.
It was Billi that worked out most of it though. The ring had a symbol of Ogma on it and was just the right size for a gnome. Cavu knew that their was a small temple to Ogma back in
Kingsholm and that the cleric there was a gnome and also known to be light fingered.
In all likelihood he had somehow got hold of the sword and the ephod.
Arahel, Billi and Durz stood and talked for a long while, on how best to get the items from the cleric. They took so long that Fenrir sidled off, flew back to town, located and broke into the temple (which was just a converted town house) before they had made a move.
As Fenrir was skulking around inside Arahel turned up as a bird, landed, then turned into a gnome and banged on the door.
The little fellow in his night gown and cap who answered the door was not interested in taking in random strangers, even if they were gnomes,
'It's the middle of the night! Go away!' he said as he slammed the door.
Arahel knocked again and showed the ring to the cleric. He may have known what it was but Arahel did not pick up on his reaction as he slammed the door once more.
She knocked a third time and turned into a tree. The gnome opened the door again and grew even more puzzled and concerned. Five minutes later he had his coat and boots on and was taking off into the night.
After he had gone, Fenrir skulked downstairs and checked out the main altar room. He detected magic coming from under the altar but before he could get at it he had to shoo off the little old lady gnome who was dotting about, an old servant of the cleric who was at a loss as to what was going on.
'Your honour?' she called, wondering where her master was, 'Where did he go? I'm all a flutter!'
Fenrir chanced his arm and from the altar, and still invisible he boomed,
'This is the voice of Ogma! Good and loyal old gnome, there is godly business transpiring this
night! Go to your room!'
She squeaked in awe and fear and fled to her room.
It was all too easy then for Fenrir (terror of old ladies everywhere) to move aside the altar, retrieve the sword and ephod and fly back out the window he had broken in through.
Arahel, none the wiser, felt a waft of wind as the warlock swooped past, still invisible.
Spying the broken upstairs window she put everything together and realised her boreal services were no longer required. Only an alley cat noticed the tree eventually turn into a bird and flap off.
With the Sword Merthuvial and the Ephod of Authority finally in his possession Cavu, with great reverence, took them to the entrance of the barrow and stood before the large iron bound stone doors.
He donned the ephod and held the sword aloft. There was a grinding of stone then a gasp of air as the doors opened and the Barrow was unsealed. The sword gave off a red glow, enough to light up the entrance and the upper barrow chamber.
'Finally,' whispered Cavu. 'You've no idea how much effort it took to get even this far.
And for you my friends, the adventure is just beginning...'
No comments:
Post a Comment