Sixteenth Adventure: "Felled Like a Tree"
Some days later, a few of the guys decided that they needed to get out of town. They decided that investigating the bugbear map we'd picked off the dead body of its previous owner, on our trip back from Jalpa, would provide a much needed excursion. Hoping that facing more danger and death would help ease the pain of the lost, the fools that had been my travelling companions prepared for a trip up north. The mission, kill bugbears and goblins. I told them no thank you, but I wasn't ready to run off and wreak more death upon a world which needed life. They got their gear together and headed out of town. As a last request, I had them deliver a message to Refanij, since they were heading past the Flinty Hills, on their way to hunt bugbear.
What I didn't tell them was the real reason I was staying back. I had bigger, more rewarding, fish to catch than some pompous bugbear. I planned on freeing the items stored within those gnomish tombs. We had been well rewarded by what we had found in just one of those tombs. There were six more to go!
My message to Refanij was an invitation to claim some of his ancestor's treasures before some other tomb robbers reaped the spoils. I also invited T'Rojan, as we could always use the help. My plans were not purely of greed, as I am always in fear of angering the gods, so I suggested that we set aside some of the spoils to be turned back over to the gnomish communities so that these items and treasures may once again help their people. Of course I'd get to pick the most select items out before turning over the remainder.
I set about planning how to accomplish the tasks at hand, and preparing a list of items I would need. Gear to lift the lids of the coffins without damaging them, scrolls to protect us from traps, potions of healing, and many other assorted goodies. Some items I had to order, and others I had to find money for. It was pretty apparent that I wouldn't be able to get everything I wanted, and that I'd clean out all my resources preparing for this mission. Hopefully the return would exceed the outlay.
Meanwhile, as I waited for Refanij to arrive, T'Rojan stopped by one day and began telling me that a young girl, related to one of his father's maids, had disappeared. I denied any involvement. As it turns out, I wasn't a suspect, rather he wanted to know if I would help him. Relieved, I agreed that I would help as best I could.
The girl lived in one of the worst parts of Rel Mord, so her home was very close by the Retching Slattern. We interviewed the mother and local kids and eventually found out that the missing child had been seen talking to a rather impressive looking woman. Fearing that this girl had been selected for the slave trade, we began worrying that she may already be far out of town. I called in some of my street urchins to see what they could find out about this woman and if they could dig up any information on the slave trade. Meanwhile Troj-enz visited the rich punks to see where he could buy women.
The next morning, word got back to me that the woman in question was a new priest in town who had been quietly gathering worshipers. Maybe this was one of those cults that attracted impressionable young people into their fold, where they were made to worship any number of undeserving gods. I hoped to find out more about this woman and her following, so I had the street urchins focus their attention on anyone known to spend time with her.
T'Rojan came by later and told me he'd found nothing about the slave trade. I gave him my news, and he was content to drop the slave issue and take up the religious cult possibilities. He also worried that human sacrifice could also be a possible reason for the child's abduction. What a hideous thought that was. Wasting a fine piece of female flesh as a sacrifice, what could these Evil bastards possibly be thinking?
Later that day, word got back that a certain saddler was known to be a follower of the priest woman's religion. Quickly we sought him out. He was currently visiting an Inn where he was repairing a couple of saddles for a caravan that had just arrived in town. I donned a Change Self disguise and went in to talk to the guy. He seemed to be a brusque but efficient saddler, went by the difficult name of Larendared. I was able to get the address of his shop, and made plans to bring my saddle in for repair the next day. After that, I left the Inn, dropped my disguise and waited for him to come out.
Once Larendared left the Inn, I tailed him back to his shop. I watched outside for a while until I saw him lock up his shop for the day and go upstairs to his apartment. I snuck over picked the lock on his door and slipped inside. I quietly poked around his shop, while listening to his movements on the squeaking floor overhead, but found nothing that described his religious preference or anything else of note. I did, however, take the opportunity to relieve him of some of the spare change he had tucked away. Not enough to draw notice, but I would need to pay for dinner tonight, I mean a person's gotta survive. Having finished my search, I slipped out the way I'd come in and locked the door behind me.
I picked a spot outside and watched Larendared's shadow move about his apartment for a couple of hours, occasionally catching glimpses of him before he seemed to finally settle down for the night. Real exciting guy he was. Tired, bored and hungry, I made my way back to the Retching Slattern to update T'Rojan and get something to eat.
After relaxing for a while and scratching one of my dogs, I think it was Crackle, she's the friendliest of the three, I got my lazy butt back up and headed back over to Larendared's. It was about a half hour past midnight when I got there. No signs of life upstairs, but I could hear his neighbors snoring as they slept with window open on this warm spring night. Almost an hour passed before I saw anything worth noting. Unfortunately the thing worth noting was Larendared walking down the street in the darkness right for his home. He glanced around nervously, and I could see that his hair was wet, in the moonlight, as he unlocked his door and went inside. Whatever he had been up to, I'd missed the whole thing. Damn! I watched another hour longer, but it was obvious that he just went up to bed, so I decided to do likewise.
The next day, waking up a bit earlier than usual, due to me getting in earlier than usual, I made my way over to Larendared's ass holding shop. I watched, hidden in a pile of refuse across the street, until he left his shop, carrying a box of tools as he went up the street. Taking the opportunity, I made my way across the street and let myself in. I quickly went upstairs and searched through his stuff. Finally pay dirt! I found a holy symbol. What it was I had no idea. I committed its image to memory, put everything back the way I found it and went in search of T'Rojan.
Finding the lisping conjuror wasn't difficult, and I told him what I'd found. I drew an image of the symbol out, and he went off to a nearby temple to get some more information. I stayed behind, at his fathers brand new house, it had had just been built after the fire destroyed their previous domicile. After regaling the serving wenches with my stories of heroics, and failing to score more than a quick feel from them, I resigned my self to drinking some wine while waiting for Master T'Rojan to return. At last the nice lad got back from his errand.
He had some good news and bad news. The good news was that the priests were in fact able to tell him what god belonged to the holy symbol. The bad news was that the god was the Demon Prince Orcus.
"Shit" I responded, face fallen and wine bottle sliding precariously from my suddenly limp hand.
"No kidding" said T'roj.
It was apparent that we were messing with some real mean bastards.
I went back to Larendared's shop and waited for him to return home for the evening. Soon after which, he went out to a nearby tavern. I followed him inside and watched as he began to drink his face off. He interacted little with other patrons, as this was apparently one of those places where everyone took their drinking very seriously. I left and waited safely outside for an hour or two, until the drunk Larendared finally stumbled from the gin mill. I watched him stumble all the way home, he barely made it without falling. He went inside, up the stairs, and amidst a great clatter, finally achieved his bed, or just passed out on the floor. Obviously there would be nothing more for me to see here tonight, so I went to do a little of my own drinking.
I watched over Larendared for the next two days and nights, and didn't see anything of note. He never slipped out late at night again so it was time for more drastic plans.
T'Rojan and I devised a plan. I would get a symbol of Orcus painted on my arm, so as to look like a tattoo, and I'd go over to Larendared's place with a damaged saddle and "accidentally" let him notice it. We got the painting done, it was a real beauty, good thing I don't worship any god or mine would probably have struck me dead.
The next day that the saddle shop was open I showed up with saddle in tow. Everything went as smooth as silk. He saw my "accidentally" exposed tattoo, told me he knew a place I could worship, and we made plans to meet at his shop in two days. I told him I traveled with another follower of the mighty one, and he told me to bring him along.
The days passed quickly, during which time T'Rojan was equipped with the same drawing as I had, and mine was freshened up, but finally it arrived, and we went to meet Larendared for our night of "worship". We got to his place in the evening, and he told us to come back about a half hour before midnight. We left then returned at the scheduled time.
It was a quick walk across town, back into the poor section, where he lead us up to a nondescript small building, looking like a stone warehouse. He approached one of its two doors, said a quiet prayer, then opened the door and entered. We followed quickly in behind him and he shut the door. We were at one end of a large room, along the near walls were many coat hooks, some with clothes hanging from them. In the floor right at our feet was a large circular pool full of some liquid, its contents we couldn't tell in the dim torch light. The room extended to our right, a large stone altar filled the end of the room, and kneeling before it were about eight people with their backs to us, and all nude. That really took both T'Rojan and myself by surprise. There was a mixed group of men and women, old and young, kneeling in complete nudity before the altar. If Larendared had been watching us he would surely have seen the look of shock on our faces. Luckily he was in the process of undressing and did not notice.
Having regained our composure, somewhat, we looked at the now naked Larendared, just as he looked at us and asked, "are you going to get undressed or what?"
I quickly began to start undressing, as Larendared turned to the pool and stepped into it, it apparently was just water. At that moment, T'Rojan decided to act. He cast a Stinking Cloud over most of the room, it ended up covering everyone near the altar as well as Larendared as he was climbing from the other side of the pool. Immediately everyone began choking and coughing. As the worshippers made their way for the exit near us, T'Rojan yelled for them to grab their clothes and leave, while I drew my shortswords and tried to look menacing. Those who could move freely, grabbed their stuff and ran out, but one woman decided to put up a fight.
A nude middle aged woman pulled a sword from her belongings and decided to swing at me. I made short work of her and her body collapsed into the pool of water. At just about that second, the cloud of stinking vapor disappeared, much earlier than expected. In the now clear air, we could see that there was a door along the near wall by the altar.
A female head popped out the door and cast a spell at us, it seemed to have no effect and I cast Color Spray in an attempt to subdue her. She ducked back through the door, unfazed. T'Rojan decided that it was high time to put a wand of conjuring to good use, and in the blink of an eye, there were giant toads, hobgoblins and big beetles scampering about and running through that door to attack. I followed close behind.
By the time I got to the door, the priestess had already fled her church. The room was apparently her apartment and a door was left open as creatures, crawled, hopped and ran through it in pursuit. I made my way through the crowd and ran outside. I saw her running up the street and took off in hot pursuit. T'Rojan and some of the conjured monsters were close at my heels. We chased, dodged and weaved about for a bit, I was gaining on her. Suddenly she stopped, and as I charged forward with my swords raised, she turned and I truly saw her for the first time.
She was a magnificently beautiful creature. Time seemed to stand still as we made eye contact and I think I fell in love for the first time at that very moment. My feet came to a halt, my swords dropped to my sides, and my body came to a halt a mere arms length from her. There was just no way I could strike such a lovely woman. Our reverie was broken as the hobgoblins and T'Rojan came rushing up behind us.
The foul beasts fell upon her, and a Grease spell from T'Rojan sent her sprawling to the ground. I did my best to fight the creatures off of her. I'm not sure what happened but she was able to escape, as hobgoblins slipped in the grease and she ran off in the darkness. I dispatched the hobgoblin that faced me and then all the creatures disappeared, apparently the conjuration had expired.
I turned to T'Rojan, "What the hell are you trying to kill her for, she's beautiful!"
"My god, you weak willed son of a bitch, she charmed you!" he said.
"Of course she charmed me, she's magnificent!" I replied. "Don't you think she's beautiful?"
"Well yes she is, but she's still a damn demon priestess, probably sacrifices children to her god. I thought you Elves were immune to that shit." T'Roj said with a sneer.
"Who are you calling an Elf? I'm mostly human." I responded.
"Well lets go back to the temple and see what we can find." suggested T'rojan.
The thought of getting my hands on my beloved's underthings flashed in my mind and I quickly agreed to go. Plus if I was lucky she'd show up and we could be together.
We got back to the temple, the followers had apparently scattered, but they had at least shut the doors. T'Rojan walked over to the door to the priestess' apartment and whipped open the door. Its a damn shame he didn't check for wardings first. He took a nasty jolt, threw him back on his ass. I laughed at him and went through the open door. He picked himself up brushed himself off, muttering curses under his breath.
Inside was a rather small and spartan room. I knew I could provide a much nicer home for the woman of my dreams than this meager room. I started picking through her things while T'Rojan pulled back a rug and revealed a trap door in the floor. Intrigued, I pulled it open to reveal a young girl crouched in a small hole. T'Rojan asked if she were the missing girl, Sue I believed her name had been, but no, this girl did not fit the description, and after a few questions, we found out that she had only been missing for a day or two, not the week that Sue had been missing for.
The poor girl was frightened out of her wits so we decided to take her back to her home. Just as we left the temple, the grass around our feet sprang up and wrapped around us, totally entangling myself and the girl. The priestess came after T'Rojan with a dagger in her hands, and he retaliated by conjuring more monsters. This time two big spiders appeared and five troglodytes. A skirmish ensued in which there was some give and take with the monsters and the priestess. I strained to be free of the bonds that were holding me, but yelled to T'Rojan and the priestess to stop fighting.
Suddenly the grasses withdrew their grasp and faded back into the ground, I was free to move, and quickly ran to fight the troglodytes off of my love. I chopped away at the troglodytes, I could see blood streaming from the priestess, my heart sank. T'Rojan just stood off to the side watching, I yelled for him to make them stop.
Moving with the grace of a panther, she ducked beneath the blows of the troglodytes and ran for her temple door. T'Rojan ran to intercept and struck at her with his staff. I watched her sheer beauty as she eluded him and darted into the temple, troglodytes and spiders on her tail. T'Rojan ran for the other door as I saw a troglodyte get blasted to death by another glyph of warding. I ran in behind and saw her throw herself onto the stone alter. To my horror, she melted right into the stone and disappeared.
T'Rojan came running in the other door and started yelling for me to find something to smash the altar. It was the only way to get her out. Worried that she would die unless I did something, I began to beat away at the altar. The troglodytes and spiders vanished as we continued to uselessly chip away at the large chunk of blood stained stone. Minutes seemed to pass like hours, I broke one of my short swords hammering at the stone, when finally she reappeared. I was so relieved, she was injured but apparently alive.
Quickly T'Rojan moved to correct that situation by slamming her with his staff. Her dagger went swinging at him and drew blood. I quickly stepped to intervene before my friends killed each other.
"Would you to stop fighting!" I shouted, as I attempted to hold each others weapon arms and put my body between their blows. T'Rojan took the opportunity to strike her with his staff. I turned my attention to him and grabbed the staff, just she swung her dagger at T'Rojan with intent to maim, he narrowly avoided the slash. Turning my attention back to the beautiful creature whom I'd so recently fallen in love with, T'Rojan conjured up four goblins.
The fight was on again. I quickly drew my remaining short sword and killed the nasty little bastards as they tried to hurt my love with their dirty little weapons. Between the two of us we were able to dispatch the rodents, but she was in very poor health. T'Rojan had hit her again, and I was really getting angry. I grabbed him and told him to stop. At that time, the girl went staggering out the door. In her present condition, she'd be easy prey to the slime that walked the streets at this time of night.
I dropped T'Rojan and ran after her. She hadn't gotten far, but she had a beautiful look of determination on her face as she limped up the street.
"Please let me help you?" I said. I grabbed her arm and prepared to help her along, when T'Rojan shouted out behind us. As I turned to see what he wanted, the rotten bastard hit me square in the face with a color spray. I couldn't see a damn thing, he'd blinded me. I stumbled about and fell to my knees. I heard them start fighting again, and at last heard a soft moan and the sound of a body falling. I regained my vision in time to see the most horrible thing I've ever seen. T'Rojan was kneeling before the limp form of my beloved with her dagger raised in two hands above his head, quickly he plunged it into her chest, killing her.
I dropped to the ground, stunned. T'Rojan went through his own contortions. Finally I regained my composure and looked over at the lifeless form of the priestess and the drawn and pale face of T'rojan. He looked like he was near dead as well. He had killed a woman who sacrificed children to her god, yet still I felt remorse. I walked over to him and helped him up.
"Its done" he said, "its done."
Yes it was, for now. T'Roj sat against the nearest building, still clutching the dagger, as I gently picked up the priestess and brought her back in the temple. I laid her on the altar and checked over her for items of value. She had a couple of rings,a necklace and some fancy bracers. I pulled those off of her and gently kissed her goodbye. If only I had been able to keep her from such a fate.
T'Rojan had made his way into her apartment, and grabbed up a few gems and coins she had stashed away. Together we left the temple, locked the doors behind us and headed home for some much needed rest. Both of us would never forget this night, but for different reasons.