Adv Log Session 44: Taid Takes a Fall
General Summary
Adv Log 44 Notes
The night-black manticore had charged out of the cave, and tried to knock Ruby, Almë, and Taid off the 200m high cliff. Ruby and Almë had dove out of the way, but Taid had been caught in the manticore’s deadly embrace, and they both sailed over the edge, plummeting towards the ground. Spreading its wings, the manticore dropped Taid, planning on turning him into a red splotch on the ground far below.
But Taid had other plans than being a lumpy pancake. He had swung Maggie, embedding her hook into the manticore’s side, giving him something to hold on to. It wasn’t as good as a saddle with safety straps, but it was the best he could do with such short notice.
The manticore, rather discomfited by the presence of a large steel hook between its ribs, had trouble flying, and it tried to dislodge its annoying and unwelcome passenger. They fell downward, the manticore trying to regain control of its flight, and Taid doing what he could to hurt the beast, such as driving his shortsword hilt deep into its side, to give him a second hand hold.
The manticore tried to batter Taid off, but the tenacious Dwarf held on. An arrow from Elitheris had thudded into its body at the base of the wing, making flight control even harder. The manticore’s plan to get rid of the intruders by knocking them off its front doorstep had gone horribly awry.
Elitheris nocked another arrow. Eykit continued down the rope, sliding down the thin rope and using his legs to check his downward motion to prevent him from falling too fast. Every now and again, he’d miss his footing, clenching his hands on the rope and bouncing against the rocky cliffside, before doing it all again. He had to get down to Taid as quickly as he could. Hopefully, when he got there, Taid would still be alive. Hopefully.
The dogs were growling.
The flames in Ruby’s hand grew bigger and brighter. She was building up her fireball. She looked down towards the manticore, 100m below her and about 50m out from the cliff side. It was too far away…the fireball would use up its energy and go out before it could reach it. She could hold onto it, until it came back, but she had a better idea. She tossed the fireball outward. It whooshed downward, shrinking as it did so, snuffing out long before it would have hit any of the trees below. She started concentrating on shape shifting into a falcon, dropping her pack and staff.
Meanwhile, holding on for dear life, Taid started concentrating on the Apportation spell. If he fell, maybe it could cushion his fall, if not arrest it completely.
But that was when the manticore finally got a decent hit on his passenger. The paw batted him in the neck, and although Taid was able to keep a hold of Maggie’s shaft, he lost his concentration on the spell he was casting.
Almë registered that the dogs were growling, and turned to face the cave opening, following the dogs’ attentions.
Ruby’s form morphed into that of a bird, and she leapt into the air.
The black manticore finally regained control of its flight, its wings outstretched, just above the treetops. It had come close to crashing into the trees. Taid hung from its side, a heavy weight causing it to list to one side. It was struggling to fly.
Almë starting walking slowly into the cave, his staff ready. Eykit continued down the rope. Elitheris loosed another arrow into the root of the left wing, hitting a mere twenty centimeters from her previous arrow. The wing folded, flapping like a jointed flag in the wind. The manticore lost all lift on the left side, and it, plus Taid’s weight on that side, made it fall in that direction, crashing through the branches of the trees before slamming into the ground. Taid, silently praying to Aheru Mazda, and beaten by branches just like the beast, lost his grip on Maggie, and hit the ground, rolling for a while until finally ending up at the base of a tree. His armor had protected him from most of the abuse his body took, but he was very, very sore.
Several things likely saved him: the manticore managing to slow its headlong rush to the ground by pulling out of the dive just above the trees; the trees themselves, as they crashed through the branches; Taid’s armor, now dented and needing repair; and his patron deity. But he was breathing, and nothing seemed broken.
Ruby, on her way down in a falcon power dive, saw the black creature roll and crash through the forest canopy.
Almë, walking into the darkness of the cave mouth, waved for the dogs to come to him. They ignored him. Elitheris looked around, hearing the dogs growling, and saw Almë advancing into the cave.
Eykit, looking down at his legs, feet, and the cliff footholds he was aiming for, saw a falcon rocket past, heading down. The bird looked familiar. He swore, looking up towards the ledge, forty meters above him. It was going to be a long climb up. Ruby would get to Taid much faster than he could, and was likely capable enough to keep Taid alive, and likely had a healing potion anyway. He started hauling himself up the cliff face.
Elitheris pulled an arrow out of her quiver, and nocked it on the string of her bow. Taid sat up, looking around. The manticore was some twenty meters or so away, a trough five meters long gouged into the soft loam and forest duff. It wasn’t moving, and its limbs were splayed out in unnatural angles. Blood dripped from long rents and gashes in the membranous wings.
Ruby slowed her downward progress, her wings snapping out and cupping the air. She dove through the forest cover. Almë continued into the cave, moving slowly. Eykit went hand over hand up the rope, his workout routine of the last few eightdays coming in handy. Elitheris called out to Almë, asking what he saw. Taid stood up, and started towards the manticore. He could see Maggie, still attached to the creature via the hook. Ruby flew through the tree trunks, heading in the direction she thought the creature had fallen. A moment later, she saw Taid running towards a crumpled, dark shape on the forest floor.
Elitheris moved into the cave mouth, ready to support Almë. Something in the cave had set off the dogs, and whatever it was was still in there, somewhere.
Taid slowed to a walk, and began casting the spell of Healing. Ruby fluttered to a stop on the ground nearby, and shifted back to Hobbit form.
The mystic energies swirled around the Dwarf for a moment, knitting damaged muscles. Then he again ran towards the Maggie. “Hey!” Ruby called, as she ran too, “Where are you going?”
Taid reached the dead manticore. He hadn’t noticed it moving, or even breathing. Blood flowed from its mouth, and from numerous cuts all over its body.
Almë moved to see around the corner. There was a short section of tunnel before it rose steeply at a 60 degree angle for about four meters before leveling out again. Elitheris, waited at the corner, using it as cover, her bow ready. Almë, not willing to put his staff down, ran at the steep slope, managed two steps, and fell back down again. He could have grasped the top of the ledge and pulled himself up, had his hands been free.
Eykit continued climbing up the rope. Taid pulled Maggie out of the dead creature’s body. Ruby finally caught up to Taid.
Almë looked at the wall of stone. It wasn’t too steep to climb, but he didn’t want to put his staff down. No problem, he thought, he would just reform it into a less steep ramp. He started casting the spell of Shape Earth.
Elitheris called to Mr. Wiggles, “Come!” He did, followed a moment later by Norolind.
Taid pulled his short sword out from between the dead manticore’s ribs. Blood poured out of the wound in a gush. The 60cm blade had caused a deep wound channel, and no longer blocked the blood. A part of Taid’s mind registered that the blood oozed out; it didn’t jet or pulse. The fall had killed the already wounded manticore.
Ruby, realizing that Taid wasn’t terribly injured, and grateful for that, cast shapeshift again. Taid started wiping the blood off the blade on the manticore’s black furred mane.
The female manticore, crouched down a short distance from the edge of the slope, saw the top crumbling away. She was about to lose her cover. She bounded forward, striking the tall Elf in a frenzy of claws. He dodged backward, keeping out of the way of her flailing claws.
Elitheris sighted down her arrow shaft. “Wiggles! Attack!” Without hesitation, Mister Wiggles leapt into combat. Norolind, seeing his companion dog rush forward, followed.
Ruby finished her transformation, then leapt into the air in a flurry of beating wings.
The second manticore, as black as the first, struck at Almë again. He interposed his staff, parrying both swiping paws.
Eykit could hear a commotion up above him, and he redoubled his efforts to climb up the rope, using his legs to hop up where he could get good footing, and pulling up with his arms.
Elitheris loosed the arrow, aimed at its eye, and it would have struck true, had the beast not moved its head out of the way. The arrow shattered against the rocky slope behind it.
Meanwhile, Taid started hacking at the first manticore’s head. He wanted it as proof that they had killed it. There had to be some kind of bounty on it, right?
The female manticore struck at Almë again, still frenziedly attacking, defending her home and young. Almë again parried both of the attacks, and the manticore, surprised at the flurry of defensive moves, was starting to get worried. Almë attacked low, and it dodged the attack on its limb.
Elitheris pulled a pair of arrows out of her quiver, but must have been momentarily distracted by either the monster’s attacks on Almë, or the small white form that ran between its legs and bit the monster’s ankle. In any case, the arrows she had been pulling out had gotten entangled with a mass of others, and they came out in a large, tangled bunch that caused her to not only lose the grip on the two she had pulled out, but spilled two dozen others all over the cave’s rocky floor. She swore.
Taid was chopping at the head, trying to sever it. Ruby, in falcon form, was flying upwards as fast as she could.
The manticore had a target for its tail stinger. Almë had been too far away, but the dog clamped onto its ankle was in range. It struck, the long stinger needle plunged through the rings in the chainmail and forced its way through the layers of gambeson and into the body of Mister Wiggles, injecting a necrotic toxin that, in addition to being very painful, also caused liquifaction of body tissues.
But Mister Wiggles wasn’t going down without a fight. He hung on tenaciously, despite the pain flooding through his little doggie brain.
Almë’s previous attack had been a feint, in an attempt to open up the defenses of the creature, and struck high, at the neck. It connected. It left a mark.
Elitheris pulled another arrow, nocking it and aiming, still swearing about the mass of arrows at her feet. She’d have to be careful not to step on them, breaking them.
Nori ran in to attack. The manticore, not having any success at hitting the Elf, smacked the large mastiff. Norolind was slammed into the cavern wall, crumpling against the stone, unmoving.
Almë, angry now that he saw his two canine buddies attacked by the monster, struck at it with his staff with two, quick blows, both to the neck again.
The manticore reeled. Those strikes hurt. The arrow loosed from Elitheris’ bow struck deep into its chest. Mister Wiggles, clamped onto the beast’s leg, worried at the limb, sinking his teeth more deeply.
Taid, in the forest at the bottom of the cliff, managed to sever the head. It rolled a bit down the slope until coming to rest against a tree trunk. Ruby was over halfway up the cliff face, headed towards the cavern mouth.
The manticore swiped at Almë’s leg, hitting it, leaving some deep cuts in it and shredding the gambeson legging. Almë screamed in pain, but stayed on his feet, and managed not to go berserk. He did, however, swing his staff, connecting with the head, shattering the skull, and sending brain matter and shards of bone in a spray of gore. The manticore’s body slumped to the floor of the cave. He stood there, breathing heavy, for several long seconds.
Mr. Wiggles limped over towards Elitheris, whining in pain. The toxin was doing its thing, softening the poor dog’s flesh, making it ready to be slurped up by the manticore’s sucking mouth. But Elitheris saw Mr. Wiggles walking, and he seemed fine, and Norolind laying still beyond the body of the beast. She moved over to the fallen dog. With Taid somewhere below, possibly dead, she was the only one with any healing skills. She cast the spell of Stop Bleeding, failed the cast, then tried again, which made the three deep furrows in the mastiff’s side to stop oozing so much blood.
Almë watched the ledge, to make sure no other manticore family members decided to show up.
Ruby arrived, shifted back to a Hobbit, and grabbed her stuff. Eykit climbed up onto the ledge.
Elitheris cast the spell of Major Healing. The wounds closed up, but only about halfway. But Norolind opened his eyes.
Almë remembered that his spell of Shape Earth was still active, and so continued remaking the slope into something that they could walk up. He noticed how messy his staff was, giving it was covered in blood, bone chunks, scalp pieces, and brains. He thought he could smell the rank stench of it, even above that of the musky dead creature beside him. He wrinkled his nose, but wanted to complete the work on the slope first before cleaning it. The mess oozed down over his leather-gloved hand.
Ruby went into the cave. She saw Mister Wiggles, whining, and licking at a bloody spot on his flank. But her eyes didn’t linger on the small, white and brown borderbull. She sought Nori, and it took her a couple of seconds to find him, behind the bulk of the black manticore, with Elitheris kneeling at his side. Mr. Wiggles was wounded, but Elitheris was with Nori…things must be bad! She ran to Norolind.
“What’s wrong with him?” Ruby cried out, running towards her dog.
“He’s stable!” Elitheris called back. “How’s Taid?”
“Fine.”
Ruby came up to them, and she could see that Elitheris had cast some healing spell on him. She could see that the wounds were scabbing over. He was still hurt, but he looked more-or-less okay. He started to rise to greet her. “Stay,” she told him, and he laid back down. He wasn’t really interested in getting up anyway. “Elitheris, I’ve got a healing potion for Mr. Wiggles. He’s hurt pretty bad.”
Elitheris simply nodded, and Ruby went to go try to feed the other wounded dog an unpleasant tasting liquid. She had an affinity for animals, so she managed to get most of it down Mr. Wiggles’ throat. Once that was done, she looked at his side, where the wound and the spot was. The edges of the wound showed signs of necrotizing tissue damage, not partially mitigated by the healing potion.
Norolind came over, sniffing at Mr. Wiggles’ side. He didn’t appear to like the smell of the gangrenous tissue much, and huffed. He was still favoring his wounded side.
Ruby made him drink a healing potion as well, and most of his wounds disappeared.
Elitheris wanted to give Mr. Wiggles another potion, so Ruby kept him calm while Elitheris poured the liquid into his mouth. That helped, and he felt a bit better. She was exhausted. Ruby could see her moving slowly and carefully, and her face was pinched with exhaustion.
Ruby cast the spell of Lend Energy, sending her energy into Elitheris. She didn’t even feel any tiredness from doing that. Normally, she’d be tired after giving her own energy to someone else, but she had cast the spell so well she was able to just pull mana in from the environment, instead of using her own power.
Mr. Wiggles was still wounded. Then Elitheris cast the spell of Major Healing on him, and the wound was gone, and no longer necrotic.
She looked around. Taid was still at the base of the cliff somewhere. She reached into the pouch with her communication Shard cluster in it, sending Taid the message that they were safe, they had fought a second manticore, the dogs had been wounded but were mending.
Almë still stood by the newly made ramp. His leg was wet with his blood. He looked to Elitheris, caught her eye, then looked down at his leg, red with the blood soaking into what remained of his gambeon legging. The stain was still spreading.
Elitheris cast the spell of Stop Bleeding on his leg. The stain stopped spreading, the blood flow staunched. Then she cast a spell of Minor Healing in Almë to mend the gashes that went down his leg. Elitheris was exhausted again.
Taid stashed the head between a pair of rocks, for safe keeping. It was large, about two feet in diameter, and weighed around 30 kg. But he was still wounded a bit. He cast the spell of Minor Healing, but he must not have been concentrating hard enough, because all he ended up doing was giving himself a red, blotchy, itching rash all over his body. He tried the spell again, and this time his wounds disappeared. Except for the rash. That was still there, still itching. He scratched his arms and legs, then tried to get to his itching belly, but his armor prevented him from managing that. The itching was driving him crazy, but it was only a distraction.
Eykit and Almë knotted some ropes together, and threw one end down to Taid. Elitheris and Ruby added their strength and weight to help pull Taid up the 200m cliff. Meanwhile, he was using his impressive strength to pull himself up, walking up the cliff side. It only took a few minutes for him to reach the top.
Once Taid was up in the cave with them, Elitheris picked up the arrows that had spilled, replacing them in her quiver.
They took a break to eat some lunch. The mages rested. Eykit did a bit of butchering, slicing cutlets off of the manticore. He’d never had manticore meat before, and he was curious. Almë started cleaning the nasty gunk off of his staff. He also remembered that certain parts of critters are often useful for alchemical purposes, so he filled the three empty healing potion vials with the blood of the manticore. He also cut out its heart, and severed its stinger. The heart was about 20 cm across. The stinger was an oblong mass about 35 cm long by 20 cm in diameter, with an 25 cm sharp, pointed stinger. Dog blood, and a bit of toxin residue, was smeared on the stinger.
“Hey Ruby, got a way to cook this for me?” Eykit asked, holding out the strips of meat. They had no firewood, and no other fuel. It would take magic.
After a bit of thought, Ruby shrugged, got out some vegetables to roast, said a few words, and a meter long flame jetted out of her fist. She played it over a flat part of the stone floor, sterilizing it and preheating it. After several seconds, she pulled her hand back, letting the flames jet harmlessly into the air. “Lay out your meat. It’s gross, but I’ll cook it for you.”
Eykit laid out the strips and the vegetables on the hot stone; they sizzled a bit. When he was out of the way, Ruby started playing the flames over the meat, letting Eykit use his dagger to flip the meat over about half way through the process.
When the meat was cooked to what he thought was medium rare, he grabbed a piece on the end of his dagger, and took a bit. It was bitter, meaty, and savory, but it just didn’t taste good. It was gamy, stringy, and tough, likely because the fat content was minimal. This had been a creature that had to work for its meals, every time. It wasn’t some coddled domesticated beast. It also likely had trace amounts of its necrotoxin floating about its body, which also probably contributed to the meat’s lousy flavor.
Eykit made a face, disappointed. But at least he could say he’d had manticore meat. The dogs gobbled the stuff down readily enough, and eating it didn’t seem to have any negative effects, save for the aftertaste. Eykit grabbed one of Ruby’s grilled carrots, shoving it in his mouth and chewing quickly. He didn’t really like carrots, but it was marginally better than the manticore meat.
Taid cast continual light on the blade of Maggie, providing a light as bright as a torch. It was time to make sure nothing else lived in the cave.
They went up the ramp that Almë had made out of the steep slope. There was a short tunnel, which must have been where the second manticore had been hiding, waiting for someone to climb up the slope, then it opened up into a larger cavern. A pile of sticks, branches, and leaves, mixed with a bit of hair and what looked like torn clothing, lay against the far wall. To their right was a second cavern, which was mostly dominated by a midden pile. Several small tunnels, too small for either of the manticores to fit through, were found all around the main and secondary caverns. Ruby and Eykit might have been able to crawl into them, but neither wanted anything to do with that.
The midden pile was mostly dead, desiccated bodies, with torn clothing, shoes, and a myriad other things, including excrement.
There were no manticore eggs that they could see. Then Almë mentioned that manticores gave birth to live young, and weren’t oviparous.
Ruby and Taid looked into the small passages, Taid using the light from Maggie, and Ruby using a small flame jet. They couldn’t see far; they could only see about two meters before it either turned a corner or just stopped altogether.
While examining one of the small tunnels, Ruby noticed a glint near the midden pile. She grasped it; it was a bracelet, made primarily of gold an silver, and decorated in a geometric style that Dwarves seemed to favor. She put it in her pocket. She also noticed that it wasn’t the only thing there. Now that she was looking, she could see a pile of other stuff, similarly shiny, under the midden pile. It looked as if the manticores had separated them out, collecting them in their own pile.
She grabbed another handful, shoved it in her pocket, then announced to the rest of the group that she had found something.
The rest of the crew dug around in the pile, putting the collection of bracelets, rings, necklaces, and miscellaneous coins into their backpacks. Almë mentioned something about pooling it all and splitting it up later, but didn’t get much of a response, either yea or nay. There were also a collection of various beard beads, made of glass, metal, wood, and bone. Ruby also found a pouch. In it were four Shards.
Almë used the spell of Shape Earth to close off the holes, trapping whatever might have crawled into them behind half a meter of solid stone.
It was time togo. It was time to climb down the rope; Ruby stayed at the top to untie the ropes and then fly down on her own. They lowered the dogs, first Mr. Wiggles, then Norolind. Then Eykit went first. Taid had some concerns about the stinger that was in Eykit’s backpack. He didn’t want to get stabbed by it when it inevitably poked through the cloth and into him. He knew how the gods worked; he grew up in a monastery.
And Eykit made it down about halfway before the rope broke. He slid and tumbled down the almost vertical cliff face. But he managed to grab onto an outcropping of rock on the way down. He got banged around a bit, but, at least for now, he was safe enough, although his legs dangled in the air. He thanked whatever gods had encouraged him to strengthen himself.
He could hear the dogs, far below, barking up at him. He preferred to think that they were worried about him, but he had the sinking suspicion that they were barking because 100m of rope just fell onto their heads.
Elitheris came down with another length of rope. She spliced the ends together, made sure the knot was secure, then managed to swing the rope far enough over to Eykit for the Goblin to grab hold of it.
There were no further difficulties. The rest of them made it to the bottom, and Ruby untied the rope at the top and let it fall. Then she shapeshifted into a falcon and flew down. By now it was fairly late in the day, and they made camp. They would head back to Dwarfchat the next day.
Taid threw his darkness strip around the manticore head he had stashed. He didn’t want the crows to eat it. However, when it came right down to it, he moved the head close enough to the campsite to engulf it in an extra large mystic mist. It was 23 meters across.
That night, Almë asked Taid to teach him Apportation. Ruby an Elitheris joined in. Eykit collected the heart and stinger from the downed manticore. They didn’t bother setting any watches that night. They were in a huge, confusing fog bank that they could see just fine through, they’d just killed the apex predators in the area, and Elitheris had noticed earlier that there weren’t any signs of any animals larger than a rabbit in the area. They were pretty safe, and nothing happened during the night, except for Almë’s nightmares.
He wouldn’t tell anyone about it. But he really, really didn’t like articulated tables with straps.
The next morning, they headed back to town. During the day long hike, they discussed some plans about how to get info on the Shard thieves. They would start rumors about Shard games. Then set someone up with some Shards in order to get mugged. Then they could follow the thieves, hopefully to Kallia.
They made spectacular time, shaving two hours off of the trip, due to some very good trailblazing by Elitheris. They got to Dwarfchat by the 10th bell. Taid buried the manticore head in the woods outside of town. He figured that was a good enough place to stash it for a while, until they could figure out how, or if, to tell the town about the fate of the manticores that had been plaguing the people.
Once they approached town, they split up again. Eykit went to go check on Wilbur; and the caravanserai that he had been staying at was close by. Almë went to the Mountainstream Inn. Elitheris went to the Cellar Keg. Taid also went to the Mountainstream Inn to talk to Malram, then he went back to the Cellar Keg. Ruby snagged the last room available; Almë stayed with her.
Taid asked Malram about the local rumors. No disappearances in the last few days, but there had been one 4 days ago. No word on the muggings. Civil Patrol still on everyone’s ass. Taid, Ruby, and Almë eat and drink at the Mountainstream Inn. Almë made sure he stayed up late to make it less obvious he was having a tryst with the cute Hobbit.
Other rumors: People were still worried about the disappearances and about the dragon. And that did seem to be the main culprit…a dragon made a much better story than a “lowly” manticore. No word about muggings, or any news about contraband.
Colding 8
They woke, and had their breakfasts. They had to figure out some kind of shard game. The Civil Patrol had cautioned against having official Shardmeets, but that wasn’t going to stop the occasional back alley game of Shards.
Ruby and Almë tried to see if any of the new shards would connect. They didn’t. But maybe Taid’s, or Eykit’s, or Elitheris’ cluster might.
Taid had come from the Cellar Keg, which had good food and drink, to the Mountainstream Inn for breakfast. He liked Malram, and chose to break his fast there instead. He also asked Malram if he knew of any private Shard games happening. And, as it turned out, Malram did know of someone who he’d heard mention that he wanted to join a Shard game or two. It was a Dwarf named Dain, who had been missing the Shardmeets. So he talked about having one at his place. Unfortunately, Malram didn’t know where Dain lived. He did know that Daiin was a tailor, however, with a shop in the Walled City. Dain was a high end tailor.
Taid headed to Lower Dwarfchat, in an attempt to meet up with Eykit, who he figured was still at the Silver Blossom Caravanserai.
Eykit woke up at the Silver Blossom Caravanserai. He had ham and eggs for breakfast. Taid wandered in, caught Eykit’s eye, and went out into the courtyard with the wagons and animals. Eykit finished his food, then went out. Taid put his arms up on the top rail of an animal pen, just watching the pack horses. Eykit came up near him, climbing up on the fence to sit on the top rail.
Taid told him about Tailor Dain and how he was interested in a Shard game, and where his shop was located.
Almë got breakfast at the Mountainstream Inn, then just sat at a table, nursing his drink. Ruby and Nori came down, and had a big breakfast. It was a great breakfast (GM rolled a 4), with lots of mushrooms. Malram mentions the Mushroom Gardens, and the fact that you can get a tour of them. After breakfast, Ruby went back to bed for a nap at midday.
Taid showed up, and Almë saw him come in, then he walked back out. They met at a secluded spot outside, shielded by bushes from prying eyes. There Taid told him of Dain, the Shard game, and that Eykit was aware of it all, and that he was going to check out Dain.
Then Taid went back inside to chat up Malram and get a beer.
Eykit went into the Walled City. He noticed that the Civil Patrol was eyeing him. They didn’t stop him or anything, but it was disturbing that the Civil Patrol was noting his presence. Mostly the Civil Patrollers from the Undercities.
He asked for directions because he needed a tailor. He found out about the three tailors in Upper Dwarfchat. He got directions to Dain’s shop.
Dain was talking to a customer when Eykit arrived. He waited outside. A half hour later, the customer leaves, and Eykit enters. He asked about Shards and shard games. Eykit was the first person who responded to the message that Dain was interested in Shards. Dain tells him that he will send a messenger to the Silver Blossom Caravanserai with information about where and when the games will happen, once some others join in.
Then Eykit went to the Mountainstream Inn, to see who was there, and relay the info he had. He saw Taid and Almë, but not the ladies.
Eykit sat at a table adjacent to Almë. He ordered a drink. Almë tried to convince him to start rumors about the game of shards that Dain wanted to run. Eykit pushed back a bit. Almë wanted a lot of people to go to the Shard game. What he was doing was trying to make a Shardmeet. Which, of course, would attract the Civil Patrol, because they had specifically said NOT to do that. He even wanted to involve the Awakeners.
Taid went out looking for the Awakeners. Almë also went out to spread rumors about a shard party. Almë walked out, then realized that Ruby hadn’t been informed about the plans. He went back in to talk to Ruby before headed back out again.
Taid actually wanted to hit up Dane first. He asked him if they could set the game date for four days in advance. Dain agrees. Then he asked around for the Awakeners. He met up with Sunim Mychelle. He told her about the proposed shard game meet up on Starsday, Colding 12.
The night-black manticore had charged out of the cave, and tried to knock Ruby, Almë, and Taid off the 200m high cliff. Ruby and Almë had dove out of the way, but Taid had been caught in the manticore’s deadly embrace, and they both sailed over the edge, plummeting towards the ground. Spreading its wings, the manticore dropped Taid, planning on turning him into a red splotch on the ground far below.
But Taid had other plans than being a lumpy pancake. He had swung Maggie, embedding her hook into the manticore’s side, giving him something to hold on to. It wasn’t as good as a saddle with safety straps, but it was the best he could do with such short notice.
The manticore, rather discomfited by the presence of a large steel hook between its ribs, had trouble flying, and it tried to dislodge its annoying and unwelcome passenger. They fell downward, the manticore trying to regain control of its flight, and Taid doing what he could to hurt the beast, such as driving his shortsword hilt deep into its side, to give him a second hand hold.
The manticore tried to batter Taid off, but the tenacious Dwarf held on. An arrow from Elitheris had thudded into its body at the base of the wing, making flight control even harder. The manticore’s plan to get rid of the intruders by knocking them off its front doorstep had gone horribly awry.
Elitheris nocked another arrow. Eykit continued down the rope, sliding down the thin rope and using his legs to check his downward motion to prevent him from falling too fast. Every now and again, he’d miss his footing, clenching his hands on the rope and bouncing against the rocky cliffside, before doing it all again. He had to get down to Taid as quickly as he could. Hopefully, when he got there, Taid would still be alive. Hopefully.
The dogs were growling.
The flames in Ruby’s hand grew bigger and brighter. She was building up her fireball. She looked down towards the manticore, 100m below her and about 50m out from the cliff side. It was too far away…the fireball would use up its energy and go out before it could reach it. She could hold onto it, until it came back, but she had a better idea. She tossed the fireball outward. It whooshed downward, shrinking as it did so, snuffing out long before it would have hit any of the trees below. She started concentrating on shape shifting into a falcon, dropping her pack and staff.
Meanwhile, holding on for dear life, Taid started concentrating on the Apportation spell. If he fell, maybe it could cushion his fall, if not arrest it completely.
But that was when the manticore finally got a decent hit on his passenger. The paw batted him in the neck, and although Taid was able to keep a hold of Maggie’s shaft, he lost his concentration on the spell he was casting.
Almë registered that the dogs were growling, and turned to face the cave opening, following the dogs’ attentions.
Ruby’s form morphed into that of a bird, and she leapt into the air.
The black manticore finally regained control of its flight, its wings outstretched, just above the treetops. It had come close to crashing into the trees. Taid hung from its side, a heavy weight causing it to list to one side. It was struggling to fly.
Almë starting walking slowly into the cave, his staff ready. Eykit continued down the rope. Elitheris loosed another arrow into the root of the left wing, hitting a mere twenty centimeters from her previous arrow. The wing folded, flapping like a jointed flag in the wind. The manticore lost all lift on the left side, and it, plus Taid’s weight on that side, made it fall in that direction, crashing through the branches of the trees before slamming into the ground. Taid, silently praying to Aheru Mazda, and beaten by branches just like the beast, lost his grip on Maggie, and hit the ground, rolling for a while until finally ending up at the base of a tree. His armor had protected him from most of the abuse his body took, but he was very, very sore.
Several things likely saved him: the manticore managing to slow its headlong rush to the ground by pulling out of the dive just above the trees; the trees themselves, as they crashed through the branches; Taid’s armor, now dented and needing repair; and his patron deity. But he was breathing, and nothing seemed broken.
Ruby, on her way down in a falcon power dive, saw the black creature roll and crash through the forest canopy.
Almë, walking into the darkness of the cave mouth, waved for the dogs to come to him. They ignored him. Elitheris looked around, hearing the dogs growling, and saw Almë advancing into the cave.
Eykit, looking down at his legs, feet, and the cliff footholds he was aiming for, saw a falcon rocket past, heading down. The bird looked familiar. He swore, looking up towards the ledge, forty meters above him. It was going to be a long climb up. Ruby would get to Taid much faster than he could, and was likely capable enough to keep Taid alive, and likely had a healing potion anyway. He started hauling himself up the cliff face.
Elitheris pulled an arrow out of her quiver, and nocked it on the string of her bow. Taid sat up, looking around. The manticore was some twenty meters or so away, a trough five meters long gouged into the soft loam and forest duff. It wasn’t moving, and its limbs were splayed out in unnatural angles. Blood dripped from long rents and gashes in the membranous wings.
Ruby slowed her downward progress, her wings snapping out and cupping the air. She dove through the forest cover. Almë continued into the cave, moving slowly. Eykit went hand over hand up the rope, his workout routine of the last few eightdays coming in handy. Elitheris called out to Almë, asking what he saw. Taid stood up, and started towards the manticore. He could see Maggie, still attached to the creature via the hook. Ruby flew through the tree trunks, heading in the direction she thought the creature had fallen. A moment later, she saw Taid running towards a crumpled, dark shape on the forest floor.
Elitheris moved into the cave mouth, ready to support Almë. Something in the cave had set off the dogs, and whatever it was was still in there, somewhere.
Taid slowed to a walk, and began casting the spell of Healing. Ruby fluttered to a stop on the ground nearby, and shifted back to Hobbit form.
The mystic energies swirled around the Dwarf for a moment, knitting damaged muscles. Then he again ran towards the Maggie. “Hey!” Ruby called, as she ran too, “Where are you going?”
Taid reached the dead manticore. He hadn’t noticed it moving, or even breathing. Blood flowed from its mouth, and from numerous cuts all over its body.
Almë moved to see around the corner. There was a short section of tunnel before it rose steeply at a 60 degree angle for about four meters before leveling out again. Elitheris, waited at the corner, using it as cover, her bow ready. Almë, not willing to put his staff down, ran at the steep slope, managed two steps, and fell back down again. He could have grasped the top of the ledge and pulled himself up, had his hands been free.
Eykit continued climbing up the rope. Taid pulled Maggie out of the dead creature’s body. Ruby finally caught up to Taid.
Almë looked at the wall of stone. It wasn’t too steep to climb, but he didn’t want to put his staff down. No problem, he thought, he would just reform it into a less steep ramp. He started casting the spell of Shape Earth.
Elitheris called to Mr. Wiggles, “Come!” He did, followed a moment later by Norolind.
Taid pulled his short sword out from between the dead manticore’s ribs. Blood poured out of the wound in a gush. The 60cm blade had caused a deep wound channel, and no longer blocked the blood. A part of Taid’s mind registered that the blood oozed out; it didn’t jet or pulse. The fall had killed the already wounded manticore.
Ruby, realizing that Taid wasn’t terribly injured, and grateful for that, cast shapeshift again. Taid started wiping the blood off the blade on the manticore’s black furred mane.
The female manticore, crouched down a short distance from the edge of the slope, saw the top crumbling away. She was about to lose her cover. She bounded forward, striking the tall Elf in a frenzy of claws. He dodged backward, keeping out of the way of her flailing claws.
Elitheris sighted down her arrow shaft. “Wiggles! Attack!” Without hesitation, Mister Wiggles leapt into combat. Norolind, seeing his companion dog rush forward, followed.
Ruby finished her transformation, then leapt into the air in a flurry of beating wings.
The second manticore, as black as the first, struck at Almë again. He interposed his staff, parrying both swiping paws.
Eykit could hear a commotion up above him, and he redoubled his efforts to climb up the rope, using his legs to hop up where he could get good footing, and pulling up with his arms.
Elitheris loosed the arrow, aimed at its eye, and it would have struck true, had the beast not moved its head out of the way. The arrow shattered against the rocky slope behind it.
Meanwhile, Taid started hacking at the first manticore’s head. He wanted it as proof that they had killed it. There had to be some kind of bounty on it, right?
The female manticore struck at Almë again, still frenziedly attacking, defending her home and young. Almë again parried both of the attacks, and the manticore, surprised at the flurry of defensive moves, was starting to get worried. Almë attacked low, and it dodged the attack on its limb.
Elitheris pulled a pair of arrows out of her quiver, but must have been momentarily distracted by either the monster’s attacks on Almë, or the small white form that ran between its legs and bit the monster’s ankle. In any case, the arrows she had been pulling out had gotten entangled with a mass of others, and they came out in a large, tangled bunch that caused her to not only lose the grip on the two she had pulled out, but spilled two dozen others all over the cave’s rocky floor. She swore.
Taid was chopping at the head, trying to sever it. Ruby, in falcon form, was flying upwards as fast as she could.
The manticore had a target for its tail stinger. Almë had been too far away, but the dog clamped onto its ankle was in range. It struck, the long stinger needle plunged through the rings in the chainmail and forced its way through the layers of gambeson and into the body of Mister Wiggles, injecting a necrotic toxin that, in addition to being very painful, also caused liquifaction of body tissues.
But Mister Wiggles wasn’t going down without a fight. He hung on tenaciously, despite the pain flooding through his little doggie brain.
Almë’s previous attack had been a feint, in an attempt to open up the defenses of the creature, and struck high, at the neck. It connected. It left a mark.
Elitheris pulled another arrow, nocking it and aiming, still swearing about the mass of arrows at her feet. She’d have to be careful not to step on them, breaking them.
Nori ran in to attack. The manticore, not having any success at hitting the Elf, smacked the large mastiff. Norolind was slammed into the cavern wall, crumpling against the stone, unmoving.
Almë, angry now that he saw his two canine buddies attacked by the monster, struck at it with his staff with two, quick blows, both to the neck again.
The manticore reeled. Those strikes hurt. The arrow loosed from Elitheris’ bow struck deep into its chest. Mister Wiggles, clamped onto the beast’s leg, worried at the limb, sinking his teeth more deeply.
Taid, in the forest at the bottom of the cliff, managed to sever the head. It rolled a bit down the slope until coming to rest against a tree trunk. Ruby was over halfway up the cliff face, headed towards the cavern mouth.
The manticore swiped at Almë’s leg, hitting it, leaving some deep cuts in it and shredding the gambeson legging. Almë screamed in pain, but stayed on his feet, and managed not to go berserk. He did, however, swing his staff, connecting with the head, shattering the skull, and sending brain matter and shards of bone in a spray of gore. The manticore’s body slumped to the floor of the cave. He stood there, breathing heavy, for several long seconds.
Mr. Wiggles limped over towards Elitheris, whining in pain. The toxin was doing its thing, softening the poor dog’s flesh, making it ready to be slurped up by the manticore’s sucking mouth. But Elitheris saw Mr. Wiggles walking, and he seemed fine, and Norolind laying still beyond the body of the beast. She moved over to the fallen dog. With Taid somewhere below, possibly dead, she was the only one with any healing skills. She cast the spell of Stop Bleeding, failed the cast, then tried again, which made the three deep furrows in the mastiff’s side to stop oozing so much blood.
Almë watched the ledge, to make sure no other manticore family members decided to show up.
Ruby arrived, shifted back to a Hobbit, and grabbed her stuff. Eykit climbed up onto the ledge.
Elitheris cast the spell of Major Healing. The wounds closed up, but only about halfway. But Norolind opened his eyes.
Almë remembered that his spell of Shape Earth was still active, and so continued remaking the slope into something that they could walk up. He noticed how messy his staff was, giving it was covered in blood, bone chunks, scalp pieces, and brains. He thought he could smell the rank stench of it, even above that of the musky dead creature beside him. He wrinkled his nose, but wanted to complete the work on the slope first before cleaning it. The mess oozed down over his leather-gloved hand.
Ruby went into the cave. She saw Mister Wiggles, whining, and licking at a bloody spot on his flank. But her eyes didn’t linger on the small, white and brown borderbull. She sought Nori, and it took her a couple of seconds to find him, behind the bulk of the black manticore, with Elitheris kneeling at his side. Mr. Wiggles was wounded, but Elitheris was with Nori…things must be bad! She ran to Norolind.
“What’s wrong with him?” Ruby cried out, running towards her dog.
“He’s stable!” Elitheris called back. “How’s Taid?”
“Fine.”
Ruby came up to them, and she could see that Elitheris had cast some healing spell on him. She could see that the wounds were scabbing over. He was still hurt, but he looked more-or-less okay. He started to rise to greet her. “Stay,” she told him, and he laid back down. He wasn’t really interested in getting up anyway. “Elitheris, I’ve got a healing potion for Mr. Wiggles. He’s hurt pretty bad.”
Elitheris simply nodded, and Ruby went to go try to feed the other wounded dog an unpleasant tasting liquid. She had an affinity for animals, so she managed to get most of it down Mr. Wiggles’ throat. Once that was done, she looked at his side, where the wound and the spot was. The edges of the wound showed signs of necrotizing tissue damage, not partially mitigated by the healing potion.
Norolind came over, sniffing at Mr. Wiggles’ side. He didn’t appear to like the smell of the gangrenous tissue much, and huffed. He was still favoring his wounded side.
Ruby made him drink a healing potion as well, and most of his wounds disappeared.
Elitheris wanted to give Mr. Wiggles another potion, so Ruby kept him calm while Elitheris poured the liquid into his mouth. That helped, and he felt a bit better. She was exhausted. Ruby could see her moving slowly and carefully, and her face was pinched with exhaustion.
Ruby cast the spell of Lend Energy, sending her energy into Elitheris. She didn’t even feel any tiredness from doing that. Normally, she’d be tired after giving her own energy to someone else, but she had cast the spell so well she was able to just pull mana in from the environment, instead of using her own power.
Mr. Wiggles was still wounded. Then Elitheris cast the spell of Major Healing on him, and the wound was gone, and no longer necrotic.
She looked around. Taid was still at the base of the cliff somewhere. She reached into the pouch with her communication Shard cluster in it, sending Taid the message that they were safe, they had fought a second manticore, the dogs had been wounded but were mending.
Almë still stood by the newly made ramp. His leg was wet with his blood. He looked to Elitheris, caught her eye, then looked down at his leg, red with the blood soaking into what remained of his gambeon legging. The stain was still spreading.
Elitheris cast the spell of Stop Bleeding on his leg. The stain stopped spreading, the blood flow staunched. Then she cast a spell of Minor Healing in Almë to mend the gashes that went down his leg. Elitheris was exhausted again.
Taid stashed the head between a pair of rocks, for safe keeping. It was large, about two feet in diameter, and weighed around 30 kg. But he was still wounded a bit. He cast the spell of Minor Healing, but he must not have been concentrating hard enough, because all he ended up doing was giving himself a red, blotchy, itching rash all over his body. He tried the spell again, and this time his wounds disappeared. Except for the rash. That was still there, still itching. He scratched his arms and legs, then tried to get to his itching belly, but his armor prevented him from managing that. The itching was driving him crazy, but it was only a distraction.
Eykit and Almë knotted some ropes together, and threw one end down to Taid. Elitheris and Ruby added their strength and weight to help pull Taid up the 200m cliff. Meanwhile, he was using his impressive strength to pull himself up, walking up the cliff side. It only took a few minutes for him to reach the top.
Once Taid was up in the cave with them, Elitheris picked up the arrows that had spilled, replacing them in her quiver.
They took a break to eat some lunch. The mages rested. Eykit did a bit of butchering, slicing cutlets off of the manticore. He’d never had manticore meat before, and he was curious. Almë started cleaning the nasty gunk off of his staff. He also remembered that certain parts of critters are often useful for alchemical purposes, so he filled the three empty healing potion vials with the blood of the manticore. He also cut out its heart, and severed its stinger. The heart was about 20 cm across. The stinger was an oblong mass about 35 cm long by 20 cm in diameter, with an 25 cm sharp, pointed stinger. Dog blood, and a bit of toxin residue, was smeared on the stinger.
“Hey Ruby, got a way to cook this for me?” Eykit asked, holding out the strips of meat. They had no firewood, and no other fuel. It would take magic.
After a bit of thought, Ruby shrugged, got out some vegetables to roast, said a few words, and a meter long flame jetted out of her fist. She played it over a flat part of the stone floor, sterilizing it and preheating it. After several seconds, she pulled her hand back, letting the flames jet harmlessly into the air. “Lay out your meat. It’s gross, but I’ll cook it for you.”
Eykit laid out the strips and the vegetables on the hot stone; they sizzled a bit. When he was out of the way, Ruby started playing the flames over the meat, letting Eykit use his dagger to flip the meat over about half way through the process.
When the meat was cooked to what he thought was medium rare, he grabbed a piece on the end of his dagger, and took a bit. It was bitter, meaty, and savory, but it just didn’t taste good. It was gamy, stringy, and tough, likely because the fat content was minimal. This had been a creature that had to work for its meals, every time. It wasn’t some coddled domesticated beast. It also likely had trace amounts of its necrotoxin floating about its body, which also probably contributed to the meat’s lousy flavor.
Eykit made a face, disappointed. But at least he could say he’d had manticore meat. The dogs gobbled the stuff down readily enough, and eating it didn’t seem to have any negative effects, save for the aftertaste. Eykit grabbed one of Ruby’s grilled carrots, shoving it in his mouth and chewing quickly. He didn’t really like carrots, but it was marginally better than the manticore meat.
Taid cast continual light on the blade of Maggie, providing a light as bright as a torch. It was time to make sure nothing else lived in the cave.
They went up the ramp that Almë had made out of the steep slope. There was a short tunnel, which must have been where the second manticore had been hiding, waiting for someone to climb up the slope, then it opened up into a larger cavern. A pile of sticks, branches, and leaves, mixed with a bit of hair and what looked like torn clothing, lay against the far wall. To their right was a second cavern, which was mostly dominated by a midden pile. Several small tunnels, too small for either of the manticores to fit through, were found all around the main and secondary caverns. Ruby and Eykit might have been able to crawl into them, but neither wanted anything to do with that.
The midden pile was mostly dead, desiccated bodies, with torn clothing, shoes, and a myriad other things, including excrement.
There were no manticore eggs that they could see. Then Almë mentioned that manticores gave birth to live young, and weren’t oviparous.
Ruby and Taid looked into the small passages, Taid using the light from Maggie, and Ruby using a small flame jet. They couldn’t see far; they could only see about two meters before it either turned a corner or just stopped altogether.
While examining one of the small tunnels, Ruby noticed a glint near the midden pile. She grasped it; it was a bracelet, made primarily of gold an silver, and decorated in a geometric style that Dwarves seemed to favor. She put it in her pocket. She also noticed that it wasn’t the only thing there. Now that she was looking, she could see a pile of other stuff, similarly shiny, under the midden pile. It looked as if the manticores had separated them out, collecting them in their own pile.
She grabbed another handful, shoved it in her pocket, then announced to the rest of the group that she had found something.
The rest of the crew dug around in the pile, putting the collection of bracelets, rings, necklaces, and miscellaneous coins into their backpacks. Almë mentioned something about pooling it all and splitting it up later, but didn’t get much of a response, either yea or nay. There were also a collection of various beard beads, made of glass, metal, wood, and bone. Ruby also found a pouch. In it were four Shards.
Almë used the spell of Shape Earth to close off the holes, trapping whatever might have crawled into them behind half a meter of solid stone.
It was time togo. It was time to climb down the rope; Ruby stayed at the top to untie the ropes and then fly down on her own. They lowered the dogs, first Mr. Wiggles, then Norolind. Then Eykit went first. Taid had some concerns about the stinger that was in Eykit’s backpack. He didn’t want to get stabbed by it when it inevitably poked through the cloth and into him. He knew how the gods worked; he grew up in a monastery.
And Eykit made it down about halfway before the rope broke. He slid and tumbled down the almost vertical cliff face. But he managed to grab onto an outcropping of rock on the way down. He got banged around a bit, but, at least for now, he was safe enough, although his legs dangled in the air. He thanked whatever gods had encouraged him to strengthen himself.
He could hear the dogs, far below, barking up at him. He preferred to think that they were worried about him, but he had the sinking suspicion that they were barking because 100m of rope just fell onto their heads.
Elitheris came down with another length of rope. She spliced the ends together, made sure the knot was secure, then managed to swing the rope far enough over to Eykit for the Goblin to grab hold of it.
There were no further difficulties. The rest of them made it to the bottom, and Ruby untied the rope at the top and let it fall. Then she shapeshifted into a falcon and flew down. By now it was fairly late in the day, and they made camp. They would head back to Dwarfchat the next day.
Taid threw his darkness strip around the manticore head he had stashed. He didn’t want the crows to eat it. However, when it came right down to it, he moved the head close enough to the campsite to engulf it in an extra large mystic mist. It was 23 meters across.
That night, Almë asked Taid to teach him Apportation. Ruby an Elitheris joined in. Eykit collected the heart and stinger from the downed manticore. They didn’t bother setting any watches that night. They were in a huge, confusing fog bank that they could see just fine through, they’d just killed the apex predators in the area, and Elitheris had noticed earlier that there weren’t any signs of any animals larger than a rabbit in the area. They were pretty safe, and nothing happened during the night, except for Almë’s nightmares.
He wouldn’t tell anyone about it. But he really, really didn’t like articulated tables with straps.
The next morning, they headed back to town. During the day long hike, they discussed some plans about how to get info on the Shard thieves. They would start rumors about Shard games. Then set someone up with some Shards in order to get mugged. Then they could follow the thieves, hopefully to Kallia.
They made spectacular time, shaving two hours off of the trip, due to some very good trailblazing by Elitheris. They got to Dwarfchat by the 10th bell. Taid buried the manticore head in the woods outside of town. He figured that was a good enough place to stash it for a while, until they could figure out how, or if, to tell the town about the fate of the manticores that had been plaguing the people.
Once they approached town, they split up again. Eykit went to go check on Wilbur; and the caravanserai that he had been staying at was close by. Almë went to the Mountainstream Inn. Elitheris went to the Cellar Keg. Taid also went to the Mountainstream Inn to talk to Malram, then he went back to the Cellar Keg. Ruby snagged the last room available; Almë stayed with her.
Taid asked Malram about the local rumors. No disappearances in the last few days, but there had been one 4 days ago. No word on the muggings. Civil Patrol still on everyone’s ass. Taid, Ruby, and Almë eat and drink at the Mountainstream Inn. Almë made sure he stayed up late to make it less obvious he was having a tryst with the cute Hobbit.
Other rumors: People were still worried about the disappearances and about the dragon. And that did seem to be the main culprit…a dragon made a much better story than a “lowly” manticore. No word about muggings, or any news about contraband.
Colding 8
They woke, and had their breakfasts. They had to figure out some kind of shard game. The Civil Patrol had cautioned against having official Shardmeets, but that wasn’t going to stop the occasional back alley game of Shards.
Ruby and Almë tried to see if any of the new shards would connect. They didn’t. But maybe Taid’s, or Eykit’s, or Elitheris’ cluster might.
Taid had come from the Cellar Keg, which had good food and drink, to the Mountainstream Inn for breakfast. He liked Malram, and chose to break his fast there instead. He also asked Malram if he knew of any private Shard games happening. And, as it turned out, Malram did know of someone who he’d heard mention that he wanted to join a Shard game or two. It was a Dwarf named Dain, who had been missing the Shardmeets. So he talked about having one at his place. Unfortunately, Malram didn’t know where Dain lived. He did know that Daiin was a tailor, however, with a shop in the Walled City. Dain was a high end tailor.
Taid headed to Lower Dwarfchat, in an attempt to meet up with Eykit, who he figured was still at the Silver Blossom Caravanserai.
Eykit woke up at the Silver Blossom Caravanserai. He had ham and eggs for breakfast. Taid wandered in, caught Eykit’s eye, and went out into the courtyard with the wagons and animals. Eykit finished his food, then went out. Taid put his arms up on the top rail of an animal pen, just watching the pack horses. Eykit came up near him, climbing up on the fence to sit on the top rail.
Taid told him about Tailor Dain and how he was interested in a Shard game, and where his shop was located.
Almë got breakfast at the Mountainstream Inn, then just sat at a table, nursing his drink. Ruby and Nori came down, and had a big breakfast. It was a great breakfast (GM rolled a 4), with lots of mushrooms. Malram mentions the Mushroom Gardens, and the fact that you can get a tour of them. After breakfast, Ruby went back to bed for a nap at midday.
Taid showed up, and Almë saw him come in, then he walked back out. They met at a secluded spot outside, shielded by bushes from prying eyes. There Taid told him of Dain, the Shard game, and that Eykit was aware of it all, and that he was going to check out Dain.
Then Taid went back inside to chat up Malram and get a beer.
Eykit went into the Walled City. He noticed that the Civil Patrol was eyeing him. They didn’t stop him or anything, but it was disturbing that the Civil Patrol was noting his presence. Mostly the Civil Patrollers from the Undercities.
He asked for directions because he needed a tailor. He found out about the three tailors in Upper Dwarfchat. He got directions to Dain’s shop.
Dain was talking to a customer when Eykit arrived. He waited outside. A half hour later, the customer leaves, and Eykit enters. He asked about Shards and shard games. Eykit was the first person who responded to the message that Dain was interested in Shards. Dain tells him that he will send a messenger to the Silver Blossom Caravanserai with information about where and when the games will happen, once some others join in.
Then Eykit went to the Mountainstream Inn, to see who was there, and relay the info he had. He saw Taid and Almë, but not the ladies.
Eykit sat at a table adjacent to Almë. He ordered a drink. Almë tried to convince him to start rumors about the game of shards that Dain wanted to run. Eykit pushed back a bit. Almë wanted a lot of people to go to the Shard game. What he was doing was trying to make a Shardmeet. Which, of course, would attract the Civil Patrol, because they had specifically said NOT to do that. He even wanted to involve the Awakeners.
Taid went out looking for the Awakeners. Almë also went out to spread rumors about a shard party. Almë walked out, then realized that Ruby hadn’t been informed about the plans. He went back in to talk to Ruby before headed back out again.
Taid actually wanted to hit up Dane first. He asked him if they could set the game date for four days in advance. Dain agrees. Then he asked around for the Awakeners. He met up with Sunim Mychelle. He told her about the proposed shard game meet up on Starsday, Colding 12.
Rewards Granted
3 CP (1 CP for each dog)
Some jewelry and coins (collected from the manticores' victims)
Some jewelry and coins (collected from the manticores' victims)
Missions/Quests Completed
The Manticore threat has been dealt with. Both noble beasts are dead, and their young children brutally murdered by slowly suffocating them to death.
Character(s) interacted with
A pair of manticores, a mated pair, brutally murdered defending their home against a home invasion
Malram, the bartender/tavern keeper at the Mountainstream Inn
Dain the tailor, who is interested in having a game of Shards
Sunim Mychelle, of the Awakeners
Malram, the bartender/tavern keeper at the Mountainstream Inn
Dain the tailor, who is interested in having a game of Shards
Sunim Mychelle, of the Awakeners
Report Date
12 May 2024
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Characters
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