[Now to return once more to my visit to Yacg'harr Island.]
DAY 520 (5th Eleasis) (August) cont ...
And so I went to visit Egnol Galeborn at his home. When I introduced myself as a 'fellow historian' he was delighted to invite me in and offered me tea and cake.
We talked for half an hour, about interesting but unrelated topics until we came to the subject of portals.
'Well, funny you should mention it,' confided the elf. 'There are many fascinating legends associated with Yacg,harr. There is a barrows of at least two kings here.
One is ancient and evil, while the other I only know as the King with the Emberblade. It is said the evil king's shade is restless and can only be defeated by the holder of the Emberblade. I have also heard that there is a broken or abandoned portal in the evil king's tomb, but well... you know how legends are. They grow, or combine with other tales until the truth is very hard to focus on.'
I nodded in agreement.
'Oh, there is a man you should talk to,' he went on. 'He is in the tavern, a scholar called Silas. He has spent his life searching for the Emberblade apparently.'
We talked some more, then I went to the inn to seek out this scholar. I noticed some ruffians lingering about, and the innkeeper told me discreetly that they were here in search of Silas also, men that he owed money to.
I was directed down a corridor (this inn was built into caves) and found the old chap in his room, in the company of his retainer Tabaldak, a half-orc barbarian from the Hordelands.
Remember that I was still in my guise (thanks to my Hat of Disguise) of 'Pierre the Historian', a middle-aged Adept. Silas was happy to talk to me, but said that he could not leave his room as he was 2000 gold in debt with the men outside looking for him. I could not understand at all how he could have run up such a large amount, but there it was.
There were bars on the windows, but after nipping back and paying the innkeeper 10 gold for repairs, myself and Tabaldak bent them enough to get out. We skulked out of the tavern to a secluded spot.
I was beginning to wonder how reliable old Silas was, but he then revealed to me that he had located the 'Emberknight's Tomb' as he called it, that it was here on the island after all, and that he wanted me and Dak to go get it.
Small as the island is, it is honeycombed with caves and tunnels so Silas gave us precise directions to the barrow and off we went.
While we walked, Dak commented on my 'pet' rat and seagull, and mentioned that he had always wanted to own a snake.
An hour later we had found the cave we wanted and in we went.
After some tunnels we came to a junction that was inhabited by giant spiders. They were somewhat alarming at first, but I summoned some crocodiles and soon had the situation in hand. Dak shot one of the crocodiles with an arrow by mistake, revealing to me how inexperienced he was and also making me remember when I used to regularly shoot Raz on the backside in my earlier days.
From here the tunnel turned and led to a carved out chamber. My vanguard of crocs set off a crude sound alarm. We waited, but nothing happened.
There was a door at the other end of the room so I went and opened it. I saw a hobgoblin and a bunch of goblins. The hobgoblin attacked, blocking the door.
Rolanda, quick witted rat as she is, cast a Charm spell on the hobgoblin and told him to go wait for her in the corner. He gave her a lascivious wink and left the door way.
Next, I targeted one of the goblins and cast Baleful Polymorph. I turned it into a small viper and nodded to Dak. 'That's for you!'
He smiled and charged into the room to attack the other goblins. We made short work of them. While I killed their leader with a hypothermia spell, another was persuaded to surrender and another was slain.
This new chamber we were in was a burial chamber, with many small alcoves. It had been wrecked by the goblins. The goblin and hobgoblin that were still alive, were stripped of all their possessions, had their 'braces cut' and were sent on their way. Dak made no comment on my showing of mercy, one way or the other.
From here we found another tunnel that led off to a section that had collapsed. As the side wall was solid rock though, I was able to carve out a small side passage with Stone Shape.
In the next cave we were attacked by Gricks. They are large and nasty looking, but as I soon discovered, they are easy to kill.
Moving on, we discovered a large sort of shrine, carved out of the rock. A statue was at the altar and as we entered it came to life and walked over to block our progress. I turned into a hawk and flew up to the ceiling. The statue followed me but could not reach me. It went to stand beside one of the doors that were across from the altar.
I remembered I had one more Stone Shape spell left and tried it on the statue.
It worked! The statue turned into a giant egg, that rolled around rather forlornly but did not impede us in any way.
And so we reached the last chamber, beyond the doors the statue guarded and found the tomb of the Emberknight (or King? or both perhaps).
There was a stone sarcophagus and the grave goods were laid along side it. And there was the Emberblade, the magical sword of (local) legend, radiating light.
We nabbed it and returned to Silas.
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