Adv Log, Session 31: The Breathstealer, Part 2
General Summary
Kynetsday, Harvest 41, 879 AFE
They were still at Baronet Felson Undrite’s manor, and had gotten a release for Felgrat Grom’s steading inhabitants, and they were getting ready to move over to Sairina Tarwar Manor.
Ruby thought that maybe the Baronet had left his manor. Almë had heard that Baronet Undrite was married, had no kids, but his wife was pregnant. He shared this with Ruby. She was incensed. “He just left. That asshole! This fucking asshole’s letting everyone die and he just left! That’s why he’s not available! We need to find out where the Baronet is.”
She told the seneschal, “We know that the Baronet is gone because everything is poisoned. That’s why he’s not available. And you don’t want more problems with the people in your town, right? When they find out that the Baronet left because everything is poisoned and the babies will die, who knows what will happen next? So, maybe you will give us what we want, and we will solve the problem, and we are gone then. And no one will know that the Baronet left everyone behind.”
The seneschal was getting annoyed. “I’ve already agreed to give you what you want,” the seneschal replied. “You are getting a shipment of this ‘poisoned’ fertilizer. And I’m still trying to figure out why you want poisoned fertilizer. Planning on using it on a rival’s fields?” He smirked.
“Well, it’s not poisoned,” Ruby said. “Only if you use too much.”
The seneschal looked a bit confused. “Okay,” he said, ceding the point. Not that there was enough being mined to ‘use too much’. He was starting to think that these…what were they? Adventurers? Frauds? Snake oil salesmen? “So, it’s not poisoned fertilizer, then,” he stated.
“Slightly poisoned,” Almë said.
“So maybe it is poisoned,” Ruby said, “but we can take it away from you and you can live a happy life, and the Baronet can come back. We’d be happy with that.”
“The Baronet comes back all the time,” the seneschal said, frowning in confusion. Either he was missing something, or these people were several eggs short of a dozen. He suspected the latter.
“Not with his wife,” Taid said.
“Where’s his wife?” Ruby asked.
“In the house,” answered the seneschal, getting worried that they might try something and attack his mistress. One had a polearm, and two had staves that looked like wizard’s tools. They could do some severe damage.
“Yeah,” Taid said sarcastically, “I’m sure.”
“She’s not! You are lying!” Ruby said.
Eykit frowned; the seneschal seemed to be telling the truth. And Eykit was pretty good at reading people. Granted, the seneschal was several steps higher on the social ladder than he was, and Ruby was used to dealing with such people, but….
“The wife is in the house?” Ruby asked, still not believing it, but she was starting to doubt.
The seneschal nodded. He’d just said that, hadn’t he?
“Okay, we will make your people leave, the Baronet is gone with the wife because the babies are dying. You are lying to the people, you don’t want to solve the problem with us, so you have two options. Maybe we can make it work for both of us. We can go to the Count, and talk to him. Maybe we can get more out of him than just the fertilizer. Or we can solve the problem here, and have the babies not die any longer.”
“So, you are renegotiating our agreement, then?” the seneschal asked.
“Yes. We will take the fertilizer from you. We will save the area so no one can get sick because it’s so poisonous and we will take care of the whole problem and your babies will not die any longer. You will have to clear up your water. We will take the problem away from you and help you.”
“We’ve already discussed that we were going to ship you some of this ‘poisoned fertilizer’ of yours. And now you are saying that you want all of the fertilizer?” It was getting ridiculous.
“No, we are just taking care of your problem you cannot solve by yourself. We are just protecting you.”
“How? How are you protecting us from this non-poisoned fertilizer which is apparently poisoning us somehow?”
“Yeah, we will take it away from this place, so—“
“So, you want to take all of it?” This was unacceptable.
“Sure, sure. We will burn it so it won’t harm anyone.”
“No, no.”
“Why not? The people will die if you don’t get rid of it!”
“There haven’t been that many deaths.”
“Then maybe we can talk to the Baronet. That’s fine.”
“The Baronet is busy.”
“Where’s his wife? She’s pregnant. She ran away, because they know people will die and the babies will die. One family already left. Do you want everybody to leave because their babies will die?”
The seneschal had had enough. This was going nowhere. “Guards, escort these people off of the property. If they want to talk to the Count, that’s up to them.”
“Okay, thank you,” Ruby said, “We will go to Count Rhades.”
Elitheris, embarrassed, tried to fade into the background. This had not gone well. And even she, with her limited ability in social interactions, could tell that her companions had made things worse.
Almë took stock of the situation. He knew that the parrots weren’t to blame; he’d seen a pile of parrot feathers outside of Otha’s house, so if the problem had been the parrots, the baby wouldn’t be sick. The parrots had been killed, so they couldn’t be the source of the problem.
And their idea that the guano was poisoned was pure speculation; they had no proof.
But then his green thumb made its presence known. The fable of the parrots had mentioned some very specific plants that the parrots had used to steal souls. Tendril fungus had been used to steal the songs, which was their voice. And the babies had trouble breathing, so he saw a connection there. Seeds from the bloodtree drained the songs out of them. Same sort of theme; with a vampiric slant. And leaves from the trapping plant to hold the songs. He had a mantrap plant, still small, in a pot. No one knew if it was his mascot, or a pet, but they’d put money on ‘pet’.
Could there be an issue with pollen? Or some kind of fungus or plant draining the life force? There were Elf-developed plants that did similar things; several of the defensive plants Elves used around their villages had similar effects. He couldn’t think of any that only affected babies, however. Usually plants were indiscriminate. The blood trees, for instance, attacked just about anything that moved. But maybe there was a new kind of plant, one that he wasn’t aware of, that had only a low-level antagonistic effect. One that adults could just shrug off and not notice? He’d have to think about it.
They went back to town, heading towards Kura Ashgalar’s house. They had some follow-up questions for her. As they passed a side street, Eykit noticed a sign in front of a house about halfway down the street. It was a hand encircled by a pentagram.
“Guys,” he said, “I think we might want to check out that place.” He pointed at the sign. “It’s got a pentagram on it, like the one we saw at Nathan’s.”
“It’s probably nothing,” Almë said.
“I’ll check it with you,” Elitheris said, and the two of them peeled off from the group and walked down the street.
The others dithered a while, trying to decide whether to follow or not. It was probably another red herring. The investigation into the Breathstealer had been a long list of red herrings, one after the other. It was getting tiresome.
As the two of them got closer, they could see the sign. It was a hand, palm out, with a pentagram behind it. “Palms read and fortunes told!” read text painted on the sign in neat letters. The house was like many of the others in town, wattle and daub, whitewashed, with a thatch roof.
They stood on the porch and Eykit rapped on the wood planks of the door.
It was only a moment before the door was answered by a middle aged woman wearing colorful clothes and chunky, ostentatious gold jewelry. She was attractive, with some extra padding that seemed to suit her. She had a smile that was infectious.
“Welcome!” she said, spreading her arms wide to encompass the world. “Who wants their palm read? It’s only twelve marks!”
“I’d like one,” Elitheris said. Eykit wasn’t sure if he had any desire for a reading.
“Well, then, come in! You can call me Eliana. And you are?” She stood back, holding the door, allowing the two strangers to enter.
Elitheris and Eykit introduced themselves.
Her house was very much like other peasant houses they’d been in, with a large room taking up most of the interior space, with a pair of small bedrooms and what must have been a privy. Not far from the door was a circular table with four chairs around it, covered with a dark blue tablecloth with lilac-colored embroidery around the edges. A pewter platter with an arrangement of candles sat at the center of the table. The candles were lit, and she shifted the platter to one side before seating herself in one of the chairs.
“Please,” she said to Elitheris, “sit,” indicating the seat across from her. Elitheris sat, and Eykit took a seat next to her.
“I think I want a reading, too,” Eykit said.
“I can give you a discount if you both want to have a reading,” she said. “It’ll cost you only 10 each.” They each extracted the coins, giving them to Eliana.
“So, Elitheris, tell me about yourself. What kind of person are you?” Her demeanor was calm, personable, and charming.
Elitheris looked at her, a slightly confused expression on her face. She didn’t really know how to respond. It wasn’t a question that she had ever really thought about. She frowned, thinking. “Well,” she began, just to keep the silence from stretching on to uncomfortable lengths, “I’ve spent most of my life moving from place to place, and not staying in one area too long.”
“That is interesting,” she continued. “Where have you traveled?”
“Around,” Elitheris said. “I keep to the jungle, mostly. I don’t usually stay in one place for very long.”
She took Elitheris’ hand, gazing at her palm. “Oh! You’ve been busy! Forces are conspiring against you.” She looked into Elitheris’ eyes. “ You’ve made some people very angry.” She traced the lines of Elitheris’ palm lightly with her fingertip. “You are looking for something? Are you the ones looking to stop the Breathstealer?”
“Um, yes,” Elitheris said. “Yes.”
“Yes, it’s been very tragic. It’s never good to lose newborns. How’s it going?”
“Ah, we’re running around in circles, really.”
“Running around in circles?” Eliana’s eyes gave the Elf a “tell me more” signal. “You’re not having any luck finding the Breathstealer?”
“No.”
Eliana let go of Elitheris’ hand, and leaned back in her chair. She took a deep breath. “I…might be able to help. It will cost you ninety marks.”
“What do you mean?” Eykit asked. Money was involved, and his interest was piqued.
“I might be able to get in contact with someone who might be able to help. I just don’t like to do it.”
“That’s a lot of ‘mights’,” Elitheris said.
“Yes,” Eliana agreed, “there are a lot of ‘mights’ involved.” The expression on her face was full of both doubt and trepidation.
“So, you can get in touch with someone who can help?”
“I don’t know.”
“This going to be some kind of summoning?”
Eliana looked a bit distressed. “Somewhat. Yeah. Like I said, I don’t like to do it.”
Eykit spoke up. “What does that mean, ‘don’t like to do it’? Is it a harmful process?”
Eliana looked down at the tablecloth, pinching a bit of fabric between her fingers, letting it go, and pinching it again, nervously. “It’s uncomfortable for me.”
“Is it something where you have someone speak through you?”
Eliana was a bit surprised that the Goblin had any idea of how it all worked. He either knew something about seers or had made a lucky guess. In any case, she replied, “Yes. It’s not a great feeling being a puppet.” She paused. “But if it will help save the babies, I’m willing to take the risk.”
Elitheris frowned. “You’ve never attempted to do this before?”
“Summoning spirits? I’ve done it many times. But I don’t like it.”
“No, I mean to stop the Breathstealer.”
“No.”
“Why not?” Elitheris said, exasperated.
“No one has asked me. No one has come and tried to help and solve the problem with any real effort. And I have heard that you guys have been in town for several days. Anyway, I might be able to find someone who knows about this, if they exist and I can get them to talk to you.”
“Well,” said Elitheris, “if you are successful in doing it, we will pay you.”
“If you’re not successful, how about half,” added Eykit. “For your trouble.” Despite being a greedy little thief, Eykit really did have a soft spot for people.
“That works. I was just going to say pay me now, and if I can’t find anybody I’d refund the money.” She chuckled. “This is better.”
Eliana moved the tray of candles back to the center of the table. She reached into a pocket of her dress, pulling out a vial of iridescent elixir. She took a deep breath, then popped the cork off of the potion vial. She opened a small tin that sat nestled next to the collection of candles. In it was some kind of variegated dust, which she took a pinch of and flicked it over the candle flames. The smell of some herbal mixture suffused the room.
Just then the door opened, and Almë walked into her house as if he owned the place.
Eliana jumped up, interrupting her ritual. “What?! Why are you invading my home?”
“We belong with these guys,” Almë said, indicating Elitheris and Eykit.
“And you don’t know how to knock? You’re an Elf! You should have more manners than that!” She said it as if it was common knowledge that Elves had a sense of propriety. Which they did. But Almë wasn’t a typical, polite Elf who had manners. “What is wrong with you?”
Eliana was very upset that someone had just invaded her home. Almë sat in the third chair at the table, as if nothing untoward had happened.
Taid stood outside, leaning against a tree in the front yard. He had watched Almë go into the house, and heard the resident’s shouts. He shook his head. Ruby had Norolind sit in the shade, then walked into the house, following Almë’s rude lead.
Almë, for his part, just sat with a big smile on his face. He turned to Elitheris and Eykit. “Fill me in. Find anything out?”
“Not yet,” Eykit said. “She had been about to help us, but you came barging in here. Hopefully, she’s still willing, and you didn’t disrupt whatever ritual she had started.”
Eliana sat back down, glaring at the rude Elf.
Eykit did his best to smooth over the situation. “I am so sorry for anything this guy,” he said, pointing a thumb at Almë, “says, does, or thinks. In advance, in the past, and in perpetuity.” He was thinking he should probably lead with that from now on. If Almë’s disruption of Eliana’s ritual caused her to fail, he’d have some choice words with the tall, thoughtless Elf.
Almë propped his chin on his hands, his elbows on the table, looking curiously at Eliana and what she was doing. Which, at the moment, was listening to Eykit’s heartfelt apology and giving Almë the stink eye. It was times like this when she wished she had the Evil Eye, and could hex people with things like acne, boils, and bad luck.
Eliana closed her eyes, concentrating on what she needed to do, steadying her breathing, and mentally preparing herself for the transition to the spirit realm, and all that that entailed. It took a few moments for her to get her mental equilibrium back, then she drank the potion.
Outwardly, nothing happened for a few long seconds. Then she shuddered, put her arms on the table, and then her head on her arms, as if she were trying to sleep.
The potion felt like a tingling warmth that flowed down her throat and into her stomach, where the feeling spread throughout her belly, then torso. Soon it flowed outward through her extremities until she felt the warm fuzziness in her fingers and toes, and even in her hair.
She opened her eyes, seeing an expanse of magentas, purples, and blacks, with the occasional flash of blue, pink, or red. The space around her boiled like fast moving clouds, lit by occasional lightning flashes. Concentrating on her admittedly vague criteria, a softly glowing pathway, lighter in shade than the surrounding environment, formed at her feet. It stretched off, fading into the cloudy, foggy distance. The whole space sparkled, much like sand under a shifting light source.
She willed herself to follow the path, and she felt the it passing below her feet. It curved around what appeared to be a small chunk of land, with a pair of trees growing on it, ringed by tall grasses. The whole thing was no more than five meters in diameter and maybe two thick, tilted at an angle. The trees appeared to be growing at a forty five degree angle, but relative to their local ground, they grew straight up. A part of her mind noticed that they were a maple and an oak, and that there were colorful wildflowers mixed in with the grass. Although, with the uniform sparkling purplish lighting, she couldn’t be sure what colors they actually were.
Ruby stood between Almë and Elitheris, watching the seeress. Eliana started mumbling gibberish, speaking in tongues.
“Are you okay?” Elitheris asked. Eliana didn’t answer, just mumbled.
“Shhhh!” Eykit said. He wanted everyone quiet, and not interrupting whatever she was doing. No need for another interruption of whatever ritual was happening.
Ruby looked at Eykit. “Maybe you can take a look around while she’s…indisposed?”
Eykit shook his head.
Eliana’s mumbling continued, shifting into something almost chant-like, like a mantra.
The path flowed past her viewpoint. She passed by the two trees, the pathway twisting in all three dimensions, very much unlike a walking path. It went over an area that could have been a great river, the cloudy nebulous texture seeming to flow in a high speed stream. She could sense an area that felt like a territory, the shifting purplish clouds giving the impression of a wide valley surrounded by mountains. Although she couldn’t tell how high the mountains were or how far away they were. The spirit realm didn’t work like that.
Scattered over the area of the “valley” were motes of light, in various shades of color from red to magenta to purple to blue. They moved slowly, or seemed to, some solitary, some in small groups, and some in large clumps. She had done this enough to know that the motes of light were spirits, most of them dead. Some were native, or at least as close to native as this realm had, and some were visitors, like herself. Most were not a threat, but some were predators, and she looked for the signs that would indicate that she was in danger.
She started to focus on them, seeking one in particular, although she didn’t quite know exactly what she was looking for. She seemed to get closer, the path taking her to the valley, where it faded into the ever-shifting and changeable landscape. She held the situation with the dying babies in the forefront of her mind, hoping to find someone who might recognize it.
She knew it was risky. Just being here was dangerous, and there were things here that moved faster than she could, and would remain hidden until it was too late. She tried to push those thought from her mind; she had a mission, and lives depended upon it. She had to hope that none of the spiritual predators were around.
She moved past several groups of motes. Some seemed to notice her, and moved away, some seemed curious and moved towards her. None displayed the telltale signs of a mind-eater or parasite. Subjectively, it seemed to take hours to sift through the motes.
Eliana sat up in her chair after about a minute. Her face had a stern, alien expression on it that made her seem like a completely different person. She stood up, looking from one person to the next, then leaned over the table, supporting herself by her arms, her hands in fists. In that moment, she didn’t appear fat. She gave the impression of power.
Eykit noticed that she stood in a very masculine stance. And he wasn’t wrong.
Eliana spoke in voice that wasn’t her own. It was gravelly, and a low baritone, very different from her soft alto. This one was harsher, and grating.
“Can you scoop that crap out?” Ruby asked Almë.
“Yup,” he said, and with a flourish of his hand, the guano in the box slid wetly over the sides and joined the rest of the poop being held back by Almë’s spell. Inside the box was a collection of tiny bones, along with a tiny skull.
“Great!” Taid said. “Now we can take the box out and use it as a trap!”
“Can I burn down the box?” Ruby asked, thinking it would destroy the Breathstealer.
“No!” cried Taid and Elitheris. “No!”
“We need it!” Elitheris said.
“We want to capture this thing and put the lid down on it!” Taid said.
“I want to burn down the bones!” Ruby said.
“No! We need those bones!” Elitheris said, waving her hands in emphasis.
“If you do that the spirit will be out, free,” Taid cautioned Ruby.
“You don’t know the rules of this!” Almë said. “Does anybody know what happens to spirits if their bodies get burned?”
Taid could see that the box was magical, as could Ruby, Almë, and Elitheris.
“We could just burn the bones,” Almë said, “and leave the town.”
“Ruby,” Taid said carefully, “One, we want to keep the box.”
“I want to burn them!” Ruby said again.
“Two, we capture the spirit—“
“In the bones,” Elitheris said.
“—we go to the Baronet and say, one hundred and twenty acres motherfucker or we open this shit back up right next to your wife.”
Eykit looked from Taid, to Ruby, to Almë, and back again. “Remember when we were going to solve this little problem?”
“A few seconds ago I was ready to burn the bones right up, but I like your idea,” Almë told Taid. A little extortion never hurt anybody….
“I like it too,” Ruby said, “but can we trap it? The shaman said he said some spells and stuff. A soul is usually attached to something.”
“Yes, it’s anchor,” Almë said.
“Yes.”
“But that also could mean that it can fly free without an anchor, so right now it’s maybe in the area.”
“Exactly!” Elitheris said. “And anyway, if that was the way it worked, wouldn’t he have done that?”
“But the shit was covering the bones at that point, so now the bones were kind of occluded from everything. So we clear….” He tried again, “The thing got out, shit covered the bones, now it can’t find its bones, because they were covered in shit. So if we clean everything out, we take the box out—“
“Oh yeah,” Eykit said. “That makes sense. If the bones got covered up, it was basically like it got sealed again, but it’s sealed under a pile of poop. Maybe that’s it! The soul can’t get back!”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Elitheris muttered. “The shaman said he had to fight to get that thing back in the box. It didn’t just go there on its own. He had to get it close enough to the box to close it around it.”
“But we have Almë,” Taid said, grinning. “We can intimidate it into the box!” He paused. “Maybe if someone told me that destroying the box would kill this demon I could see destroying the box….but I don’t want to go that route and end up permanently releasing this thing.”
They needed the box, and they needed the bones. Burning either up was no longer on the table.
“We should take the box back to the palm reader,” Taid said. “She might have a protection spell with that pentagram….”
“Yes, and she can also maybe divine where the Breathstealer is,” Almë said.
“And maybe she can ask the shaman what we can do to trap it again,” Ruby stated.
“We can wing it if we have to, it’s fine,” Almë said with confidence. He was always confident.
“Alme winging it? Oh gods,” Eykit said, horror in his voice.
“Hey, we have a manor, and servants…things have improved a lot since I came along!”
“Almë, you stress me the fuck out,” Eykit told him.
Almë laughed. “I’m sorry.” He changed the subject. “Can we leave the cave now before my mana reserves drain completely away?” He was still shaping the guano, keeping it away from all of them.
“Yeah,” Taid said. “Anything we want to do to the box we can do topside.”
With that, they made their way back to the ladder. Almë even moved the slimy residue off of the ladder rungs before they climbed out.
They doffed the stained waders, leaving them for any workers who might want to use them. The five of them certainly had little use for them. Almë gathered them into a bundle, and walked over to Bedros, who stopped cranking the winch. “Happy poop clothes day!” he said, as he pushed them into Bedros’ hands. Then he turned and walked away, leaving Bedros staring at him, a mixture of surprise and annoyance on his face. He dropped the bundle at his feet, muttering, “Asshole.” Then he went to the water barrel to wash up as best he could. It wouldn’t do to get the winch equipment covered in guano.
They walked back to town, heading for Eliana’s house. The sun was setting, the scattered clouds showing rays of golden light traversing the sky. When they got to the palm reader’s house, Almë wanted to barge in on her again, but Taid held him back. “No, we will be polite and knock.” Almë shrugged, but followed along.
Taid and Ruby walked up the path to the door. Taid knocked; he held the box under his other arm. The rest of them stood at the end of the walk by the street. Taid wasn’t taking any chances on anyone bum rushing someone who was currently an ally. Allies were good to have, and he wanted to keep them.
Eliana, standing in the doorway, recognized Ruby. “Ah, you’re the one with that really obnoxious guy, huh?”
“That’s why I’m here now,” Taid said. “But your efforts have completely paid off and we want to know if you can help us. We believe this,” he held out the box, “is the source of the Breathstealer.”
Eliana took this in with an uneasy look on her face. “I vaguely remember hearing something of a box,” she said uncertainly.
“The shaman led us to this box,” Taid said. “It meets the criteria of everything we were expecting, and it has some baby bones inside it, just as the shaman said. And the shaman said that he had to fight the Breathstealer to get it to go into the box. And I noticed that you have a pentagram on your sign, which is a sign of protection.”
She looked a little embarrassed. “To be honest, I just like the design. I’m not a mage.”
Taid was disappointed. “Dammit.”
The sun set, and the room went dark. Eliana started to light some candles, but stopped when she noticed the box glowing in soft magenta light. The runes carved on it were glowing. Taid held the box in front of him.
“Do you have any expertise in any of this?” Taid asked Eliana, who stood enrapt by the glow of the box.
She shook her head. She hadn’t seen anything like this before in her life. “I don’t know anything about the box, except for what the shaman said.”
“Can you read the runes?” Ruby asked the palm reader.
Eliana peered at the glowing runes. “They are Orcish, but I don’t know what they say.”
“Well, thanks,” Taid said. And they took their leave.
It was night, and there were Orcs going to and fro on their own business in the street. Taid asked one of the passersby. “Good evening, sir. We have a box with carven Orc runes on it, and we were wondering if you could tell us what they say?”
The Orc, a man of about 28 summers, looked at the box with the glowing runes. “Why is it glowing?” he asked.
“There is a lantern in it,” Ruby said disarmingly. “But it’s a gift, but we cannot figure out what the words are. Can you take a look at it?”
The Orc bent down, peering at the box in Taid’s hands. “Well, it looks like these were not used to write words, but to just be symbols of power or something. What it’s saying doesn’t make any sense. It’s gibberish.”
“Do you know anyone who can speak old Orc languages or read old runes?” Ruby asked.
The Orc shook his head.
“Let’s go to the old Orc guy,” Almë said. “He’s so old he knows it.”
“You could try the city,” the Orc said, answering Ruby’s question. “Hearavgizan or Port Karn. They might have someone who’s a scholar of tongues.”
“I’m really hesitant to travel that much with this box,” Taid said.
Twilight was rapidly turning to night. Taid looked at the box. The box that held so much promise, and so many frustrating secrets. He frowned, looking more closely at it, tilting it this way and that. One side seemed to be glowing more brightly than the other side. “Uh, guys? Check this out.”
The others did, seeing the same thing he saw. “Maybe we should follow the light,” Ruby said, “it might bring us to the Breathstealer.”
Taid raised an eyebrow. He turned the box this way and that. The brighter glow stayed oriented in the same direction.
“It’s a baby-finding device!” Elitheris said.
“It’s like a baby compass!” Eykit exclaimed.
The glow pointed southward, towards the edge of town. They wasted no time following the light. They almost got to the outskirts of the town and the light veered off to one side. Or, more precisely, as they moved towards the outskirts, the direction of brightest glow shifted. They adjusted their course, turning down a street.
Ruby saw it first; a faint bluish glow emanating from beneath a bush in front of a cottage three houses down the street. She pointed, and said softly, “I think we’ve found it. See the blue light?”
They stopped moving, everyone looking at the blue light. Everyone could see it, now that it had been pointed out to them.
Taid carefully opened the box. Eykit’s look said that he didn’t think it was a good idea, but managed to keep his mouth shut about it. But nothing seemed to happen. Granted, they were still three houses away, some 150 meters or so. At least it meant that the Breathstealer, if that is what the glow was, wasn’t able to detect the box from that distance.
They didn’t know if it would do any good, but they unlimbered their weapons and got them ready for use. They scanned the street, looking for a path that would provide cover for them as they crept closer. Most of the cottages had at least some landscaping around their perimeters, whether that was bushes, trees, or just flowers. With care, they should be able to get closer without attracting the attention of whatever the blue glow was.
The blue glow wasn’t very big and didn’t shed much light. It was maybe the size of a cat or possum. Being hidden under a bush didn’t make it easy to judge its size, but the bush wasn’t very big.
They made their way forward, toward the blue glow, keeping to shadows and whatever cover they could. They got to within two houses away from it, and Taid again opened the box to see if anything happened. Again, nothing happened, but Taid was able to notice that the box glowed more brightly. The closer the box got to the blue glow, the brighter the runes on it glowed.
Which also meant that Taid was becoming more and more visible the closer he got to the Breathstealer. There was nothing for it. They moved closer. A branch from a bush loudly scraped against Taid’s armor, and he could see the blue glow flit off and go around the side of the house.
“I’ll flank it,” Eykit said.
“It’s heard me,” Taid said with a grimace. “I’ll follow its path. Here.” He handed the box to Eykit, whom he knew was sneaky enough to likely get closer to the Breathstealer than he could. Eykit moved off, going around the cottage in the opposite direction.
As Eykit came into what would be the back yard, he could see a small blue glow hovering just above ground level, heading southward, out across the fields. He opened the box, hoping that it would do something. He didn’t expect it to do anything, and he was right. It didn’t. He did notice, however, that as he moved with the box open, the bones bounced and jittered inside the shallow confines of the box. He’d have to be careful not to jostle them out of the container. Who knows how difficult it would be to find them in the weeds in the dark if they fell out in some field somewhere. Eykit closed the box. No need to risk losing the bones.
The others ran past, following the blue glow. Eykit shrugged, then ran after them. They ran across a recently harvested wheat field, Ruby stumbling a bit in the dark. The uneven ground and the stubble left from reaping was a bit treacherous in the night, and Ruby was practically blind.
They could see the blue glow cross the end of the field, slip into an orchard, and disappear amongst the trees. They followed as best they could. Taid and Elitheris both noticed that the Breathstealer seemed to be able to move faster than any of them could run. The dogs might be able to keep up with it, assuming their paths were clear of obstacles, which the glow could likely just flow through.
Chasing it was impossible; they wouldn’t be able to catch it. They would have to come up with a different strategy. However, the box was still glowing, and still giving a direction. They would at least be able to find it, even if they couldn’t catch it.
It was late. It had been a long, long day, and they were tired.
Jyprasday, Leafturn 1, 879 AFE
They were eating breakfast at the Cracked Keg when Taid said, “Let’s go back to the house it was stalking.”
Eykit said, “To see if there a baby there?”
“Right. Let’s check if there is a baby there. Let’s go see if they have a newborn.”
They went back to the cottage. “Almë,” he cautioned, “I’ll knock on the door. Don’t go bursting in.” To his credit, Almë simply nodded. Taid knocked on the door.
A Human lady holding a newborn answered the door. She was maybe 23, with long dark hair, wearing a simple dress.
“Hi,” Taid said, introducing himself and his companions.
The woman wasn’t sure whether she should trust these people, but she said, “Hello, I’m Mira, and this is my son, Berne.”
“How is your baby doing? Is your baby healthy?”
“Uh, why do you ask?” Mira said warily. She didn’t know who this crowd of strangers were. And they were armed for dragons.
“You know about all of the problems that the newborns have been having lately?”
Mira nodded.
“We believe we are onto the problem and its cause. We saw the thing that we think is causing the problem outside of your house.”
“You’ve seen the Breathstealer, then?” Mira looked horrified, her eyes darting everywhere as she craned her neck to see out of her doorway past the people crowding it.
“My baby has been fine. I mean, he choked a little bit this evening while I was breastfeeding him. But he seems fine now.” She brushed his sparse, fine hair as she spoke.
“Have you seen any weird lights outside your house lately?” Eykit asked.
“We think that was the Breathstealer,” Taid said to Mira.
“Really?” she replied.
“Yeah, we saw a blue glow outside your house.”
She stared at the Dwarf with wide eyes. Fear stole over her, and she started trembling.
“It’s a big problem. We’d like to use your baby—“ Taid started.
Almë interrupted, “We’d like to hide in your house in order to protect Berne when it comes back.”
Eykit jammed an elbow into Taid’s hip, just under the breastplate. He gave the Dwarf the hairy eyeball, whispering, “You were going to say ‘bait’, weren’t you!” It wasn’t really a question.
“Because we can kill it,” Almë continued.
Eykit was surprised. Almë the diplomat? What world was this? He shook his head in wonder.
“We would like to be here if it shows up again,” Eykit told Mira. “Is Berne the only newborn in town?”
The lady shook her head, “No. There are a few other newborns in Rhades.”
Elitheris said, “Do we need to split up? We’d need a way to communicate with each other.”
“We’ve only got the one box,” Taid mentioned.
“No no,” Almë said, “he started leaching on this baby already, and it finished off the babies most of the time.”
“He’ll want to finish that baby off,” Elitheris said.
“So let’s just stay here, and it’ll likely come back.”
Eykit turned back to Mira. “Unfortunately, Berne is now a target.”
The woman, if she hadn’t been scared before, was terrified now. Berne was in danger? The Breathstealer was here, and after my child?
“We would like to position ourselves strategically around your home. Apparently this thing doesn’t need to come in to hurt your baby.” Seeing into the room, Eykit noticed that there was a rocking chair on the other side of the wall where they had seen the blue glow.
“It was going through the wall,” Taid said. “So the question becomes, can we use the box inside on it? Or what? How do we use this box?”
“We could hide in the bushes or something,” Almë said.
“It saw us and it ran….” Taid trailed off, lost in thought.
There was a tree in the front yard that was climbable, and might provide a hiding spot. There were some bushes growing along the wall of the house, one of which had provided a hiding spot for the Breathstealer. The corner of the house could also provide some cover.
Almë looked around. The bushes were small, and might hide Eykit or Ruby, but the rest of them would be exposed. He could grow some bushes, though….
None of them had any real experience with spirits, and had little idea what a spirit could do, or what its strengths and weaknesses were. But when they thought back on where it had been hiding, they were pretty sure that the form must have been able to pass through at least the branches of the bush. So it was highly likely that it was desolid, much like the skull spirit that they had fought in Herbert Vesten’s basement laboratory.
“It didn’t go through houses, though,” Eykit said. “Maybe because it can’t, or didn’t want to? Or….?”
“Maybe like a vampire, if it’s not invited, it can’t come in?” Ruby asked.
Almë, meanwhile, had been busy using his plant magics to make and shape some bushes to use as hiding spots. He even was considerate enough to make them look nice; the end result made the property look better.
“So, are we going to get in the bushes now,” Taid asked, “and wonder if it comes back?”
“Mmhmm,” Ruby said.
“Yes, it’s hungry,” Almë said. “It just started on this baby, it hadn’t fed that much yet, it’s just started to drink.”
“We don’t know how insatiable this thing is,” Taid said. “And who will have the box? The person closest? Eykit currently has the box.”
“Someone fast should do it, right?”
“Maybe Elitheris, right? She’s the fastest.”
“If we spot the baby before it spots us,” Almë suggested, “I can cast a spell of Haste on her, to make her faster.”
“But to your point,” Taid said, “we don’t know if we just have to open the box, and fight this thing to get it into the box, or what.”
“No,” Ruby agreed. “We have no idea.”
“Probably need to close the box around it so it can’t escape and then fight it or whatever,” Almë said. “But I don’t know how to fight it.” He continued. “The question is, should I do it, because I’m melee anyways? So if I’m close to the Breathstealer and something happens it’s better if I’m attacked by it than someone else?”
Ruby turned to Elitheris. “Maybe you can sit in a tree, or something?”
“Yeah! You can spot it early when it comes!”
“Well,” Eykit said, “Elitheris is good at tree-spotting.”
Eykit gave the box to Almë. “Elitheris, give us a bird call when you see it coming.”
Elitheris nodded, then climbed into the tree, finding a spot where she could see in most directions fairly easily.
Ruby took Norolind inside the cottage, facilitating a meeting between her huge canine and the young woman with the baby. Eykit did the same with Mr. Wiggles. Then they all found the spots Almë had made for them in the bushes. Almë’s hiding spot was in the first bush on the other side of the door from where the Breathstealer had been seen. Behind him, in little pockets in the brush of their own, were Taid, Eykit, and Ruby.
While Almë waited, he calmed his mind, then focused it on the task at hand. He put his staff on the ground beside him, just outside of the bush, the closed box in his other hand.
It was a mere hour after sundown. They waited. Time stretched on. Still they waited.
The town bells rang four quick bongs, followed by three slow ones. It was an hour after midnight, near the middle of the Hour of Deepest Quiet. It had been about six long, interminable hours.
Elitheris saw something. Up the street, she saw a familiar, bluish glow, moving from bush to shrub, to corner of house, trying to stay in cover as much as possible. It didn’t seem to want to be seen.
Elitheris sounded a bird call. It was coming.
The rest of them, hiding in the bushes, tried to find it. Their angle was bad, and leaves obscured their views, but Almë managed to get a glimpse of bluish light flickering between two shrubs two houses down. He wasn’t truly sure if he saw it, or if he only thought he did.
A moment later, he got another glimpse. It was definitely coming closer, and quickly. Almost twice as fast as he could run. It would be there in a few seconds. He started casting his spell of Haste. He could see the box glowing in his arms, lighting up the bush he was in with a magenta light.
When it was a single house away, the rest of them were able to see it. The dark night helped as well. The orb of light had a shape within it, a shredded, vague shape barely humanoid. Two black pits of eyes were its only facial features, the curled, fetal body composed merely of roiling wisps of light. It was small, about 20 cm tall, surrounded by a blue hazy glow about half a meter in diameter.
Taid, hiding a bit behind Almë, handed him his darkness strip. They could all see the Breathstealer coming closer. But they could also all see the box, glowing in Almë’s hand. Even Elitheris, up in the tree some ten meters away, could see it.
Almë wrapped the box in the strip, hiding its glow. It was more difficult than he had expected; the darkness field emerged from the strip of cloth perpendicular to the plane of the cloth itself. It was designed to be laid on the ground, with the darkness field emerging as a wall above it. Wrapping it around the box just sent a field of darkness going outward from the box every which way. It took Almë several tries to get the field lined up in the correct orientation. Once it was in place, a column of darkness about 60cm in diameter rose up past the eaves, to a height of about four meters.
The Breathstealer came closer, flitting from the neighboring yard to the corner of Mira’s cottage. It stopped there, hovering just above the ground in a tuft of tall grass, shifting a little back and forth as if being tossed by a breeze.
Almë got ready. It was still about 9 meters away. He waited. He needed the Breathstealer to come closer. He wasn’t even sure how he was going to fight it, but he figured he’d just wing it, like usual. He was sure he’d manage.
He waited, trying to be patient. He was rewarded about thirty seconds later, as the Breathstealer started to move closer, slowly. He put his hand on the lid.
It was getting closer, stopping near where it had fed before. Almë opened the box, keeping the lid within the confines of the darkness strip that was wrapped around the box.
Berne started crying, waking up his mother who had fallen asleep in the rocking chair. She started awake, seeing two dogs looking at her. She pulled out a breast, and the baby latched on. But he wouldn’t stay latched on; he stopped after a few moments, gulped some air, and tried again. Each time he could only get a few mouthfuls before needing to gasp. Mira realized the Breathstealer was feeding on her child, and she sat, frozen in terror. It was near. And stealing the breath from her child.
The dogs started growling. They weren’t sure what the threat was, but there was some threat nearby. Both were on their feet, Mr. Wiggles near the door, Norolind near Mira in the rocking chair, his head swiveling back and forth, trying to find the threat.
Almë dashed out of his pocket in the bushes, the box open. He made it two Hasted steps and the Breathstealer bolted. The darkness strip fell away, and the box glowed brightly, the tiny bones within it bouncing with every step.
Ruby whistled for Norrie, and ran to the door to open it.
Almë chased after it, the box open. He was about as fast as it was, and at first he was gaining, but soon the Breathstealer opened up the distance a bit between them. Almë could hear Norolind and Ruby bounding down the street behind him. But the two of them couldn’t keep up.
The Haste spell ran out, and Almë came to a stop. He closed the box. He had gotten lucky; all the bones seemed to still be there.
But the Breathstealer was gone. For now.
“Damn it,” Taid said. “Maybe we can use the box to find its resting place.”
“Or maybe just put the box in the bushes where it hides,” Ruby suggested.
But they knew, from how close Almë had gotten to the Breathstealer, that the box did not act like a magical vacuum. They had no way of drawing the Breathstealer into the box. And it seemed to recognize it, and it had no intention of going into it on its own.
“I was the shaman for the Orc tribe called Bukragh Sapat (Claw and Axe), Shaman Lothar Krull, now lost to time and Empire. I was alive when the red storm came, with lightning like bloody serpents’ tongues. Most of the tribe got to the safety of the caves, but Grozidra did not. She had been pregnant, near her time, and Kura Grimpride stated that a great bolt of crimson lightning hit her, throwing her to the ground. Her clothes smoked like a pond on a cold morning, and her eyes were bloody holes. She panted, and choked on her own blood, and she died. It was the night of the next full moons when the babies started to die. We didn’t know it at first, but their skin darkened, and they had trouble breathing. Days later, they died. No wounds could be seen. Several babies died, one after the other, before I, Shaman of Bukragh Sapat, divined the answer. Grozidra’s baby had not died with its mother. But it was no longer a baby. It was a horrific thing that fed on the life force of others. I built a box, with a lid. Upon it I carved the sigils of power, the glyphs of warding, and the runes of containment. And then I carried it to Grozidra’s grave, and with my bare hands I dug her up. Worms as thick as my fingers squirmed in her empty eye sockets and I could see them moving under her skin. I sliced open her belly, releasing a stench for which the word “foul” does no justice to. I carved out her unborn babe, its flesh rotting off its bones, and I felt those bones quiver. The bones I put into the box. I then began the Ritual of Restraining, chanting out the Words of Power until my throat was raw. The carved sigils glowed with power, and shone a cold light that pierced the darkness and pulled the twisted spirit toward the box and the skeleton within. It fought like the biggest fish on the hook, twisting and pulling, but I prevailed. Like that fish on a line, I reeled it into its bones and closed the box. The glyphs glowed for a moment, then went dark. It was trapped. I carried it back to the caves, and laid the box on a low table at one end of the feasting hall. There it remained, undisturbed, as first we died or left, then as the jungle swallowed up the opening and buried the caves. And then the Empire came, with its army of axes and plows. And now it’s loose again. That is what I know.”Eliana flopped back onto the table, falling into her chair and almost sliding off of the table before catching herself, still mostly out of it. “Well, someone has released something,” Eykit said. “Well, shit.” “That’s the most helpful thing we’ve had this whole time,” Elitheris stated to Eliana, who was starting to regain herself. “So, thank you.” “I think I found somebody,” the seeress said. “Yup,” Elitheris agreed, “I think you did.” She addressed her companions, “Time to chip in the ninety marks.” They paid up. That gave them some things to think about. Where was the box now? Who opened it? When did they open it? Were they even aware that they had opened a box? It was time to go back to the mine and ask some more questions. They thanked Eliana, and took their leave. They walked the mile or so back to the guano mine. There were workers there, mining the shit and loading it into a wagon. Almë made the introductions to the Humans that were working the winch and wheelbarrow. Two were men, Bedros and Jowan, the woman, Melita, was in charge of dumping the full bucket into the wheelbarrow. “Yeah, you were here two days ago, weren’t ya?” Jowan said. “We’ve heard about you guys.” He was short, about 1.3 meters tall, with deep bronze skin and piercing blue eyes. He wore stained coveralls over an equally stained tunic. A blue, green, and yellow bandanna covered the lower part of his face. “We are still investigating the whole baby dying thing,” Almë said. “Did you find it?” Melita asked hopefully. She was in her twenties, with shoulder length brown hair tied into a short ponytail to keep it out of her way. She also wore coveralls similar to Jowan’s, and they were similarly stained. The guano miners did dirty work. “No, not yet. We are still trying to figure stuff out. In fact, we’ve got some questions for you.” The three locals glanced at each other, shrugged, and Bedros said, “Okay. Ask.” Like his two companions, he was dressed in coveralls and tunic. A tall man, with black hair that fell to his shoulders. Brown eyes stared out over a red and black bandanna, his voice slightly muffled by it. “Is this the only mine in the area?” “Only one I’ve heard of,” Bedros said. The other two nodded in agreement. They hadn’t heard of any other guano mine. This was the only one, and likely the only one in the Port Karn area. “Are there any caves or caverns in the area? Or in the jungle nearby?” “Not that we know of.” “Yeah,” Jowan said, “I would have found it when I was a boy, exploring the area.” “You’re lucky you didn’t get eaten by a stun lizard!” Melita chided. “Romping around in the jungle can be dangerous!” Although Melita, with her stocky build and muscled arms, looked like she could take care of herself. “Were any of you part of the crew that discovered and explored the mine? Or was it somebody else?” Almë asked. “I was one of the guys who went down there,” Jowan said. “It’s a fucking maze.” “Did you find anything besides poop down there, when you originally explored the mine?” “Besides poop?” Jowan thought. “Um, there’s a lot of poop down there.” “We know!” Almë laughed. “I mean, you have to be careful with the footing. There’s loose rocks and whatever down there.” “No,” Eykit added, “we’re thinking more along the lines of something that doesn’t occur naturally in caves.” “Not that I’m aware of, but then, I wasn’t reaching down into it to find out what it was that I was stumbling against. It felt like a rock, with my foot.” Jowan looked at Almë and his companions. “I didn’t find any weapons or furniture or anything down there.” The group conferred amongst themselves. The workers, sensing that the question and answer session was over, went back to work. “I’m wondering if these people have loosed something and they don’t even know they’ve done it,” Eykit said. “Yeah,” Almë said, “maybe somebody kicked the baby box which was in the poop.” “Maybe it’s some kind of demon baby remains that they are now tracking out into the village.” “How mad would they get if we just burned their entire poop cave to the ground?” Almë asked. The looks he got were sharp. “It would also burn the baby down!” he argued. “That wouldn’t go over very well,” Eykit said. “It’s a local economic driver. It would be like collapsing a gold mine, back in the days before magic made gold cheap.” Ruby asked, “Can we cause an earthquake and collapse the whole cave?” She knew Almë had some spells that could manipulate Earth, but she hadn’t known him long enough to know his limitations. “They don’t have to know that we did it.” “The demon baby will still kill all the babies,” Almë said. “It wouldn’t really help. It wouldn’t destroy it.” “Yeah, you’d have to bring it back to the caves.” “We need the magic box, or burn it, or whatever.” “We don’t need to bury the caves. You’re right. It wouldn’t help at all,” Ruby admitted. “We do need to find that box, though.” She turned and walked over to where the workers were using the winch. “Did anyone find a box down there?” The three people working at the winch looked at each other, shaking their heads. They hadn’t heard of anyone finding anything except bats and guano down there. Ruby asked, “Who was the first one to go into the cave?” Jowan frowned. “You know, I think it was Garzu who first went down.” Bedros nodded. “Yeah, no one else wanted to enter the cave because it smelled so bad.” “He usually works the night shift, being Orcish and all.” Almë considered…he might be able to use spell Shape Earth to move the guano. He started climbing down the ladder. He needed to get close enough to it to ensure a decent chance of success. Spellcasting wasn’t an automatic thing, there were lots of variables that had to be considered, estimated, and solved for. And range was one of them. The stench of ammonia was strong, and felt like a pair of daggers in his nostrils. It was hard to breathe. He cast the spell, and found that he was indeed able to move the poop. But he neglected to warn the two men working down there. They saw the poop move, and it scared the crap out of them. Both screamed, the rumor of the poop monster coming unbidden into their minds. One of them fell backwards, his feet slipping out from under him. He sank into the slick, thick, chunky matter. He came back up, sputtering. “Bastard! What a fuckhead!” “Sorry!” Almë said, doing his best not to laugh, and failing. “Mistakes happen!” He climbed out of the pit before either of them could pull him into the guano as revenge. The tall Orc who had fallen was covered in guano. He scraped it off his face as best he could, fighting the urge to rip the stupid Elf in half. “I’ve gotta get this stuff offa me.” He puked, his gorge unable to hold out any longer. When he got some control, he made his way to the ladder and made his laborious way up to the surface. He was not happy, but he managed to keep his temper. The other workers, in a sign of solidarity, glared at the tall Elf. They also glared at his accomplices. “Move it into the wagon!” Ruby said. “Fill all their wagons!” “Help them out!” Taid said. They needed the town on their side, not mad at them. And they certainly didn’t need the Orcs losing control of their anger. “Yeah, just help them, because they are really pissed!” Almë’s spell was still active, so he magically grabbed a large glob of guano and made it slide up the ladder, out of the hole, and over to the wagon, where he slid the glob up the ramp and into the bed of the wagon. He did it again, and again, until the wagon was filled. It didn’t take too long; he was moving a cubic meter at a time. Meanwhile the guano covered Orc had doffed his clothes, and was using his hands to scrape the guano off of his body was best he could. His face mask was a wreck. Almë and the others noticed that the cloth was folded in such a way as to create a pocket that was filled with herbs. Although this particular one was also filled with guano. Almë and Taid discussed using the spell to force the guano away from them if they went down, much like a snowplow or the prow of a ship. “We’ll also want to get some clothes for protection,” Ruby added. “Just in case. And breathing cloths.” Almë went over to the nearly naked Orc. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to cause you trouble.” The sun was causing the Orc some difficulty, and Bedros took off his shirt and draped it over his coworker. “Thanks, man,” the Orc said. Ruby asked Bedros, “Do you have enough waders for us to use?” Bedros shook his head. “Not here. There are more in town, though, in the general store. Mostly for fishing, but they work well enough here, too.” None of them wanted to go anywhere inside that cave without at least minimal protective clothing. And they had to go back to town to get them. Ruby hopped up onto Norolind’s back, settling herself in the saddle. She called to Eykit; she wanted him along to handle the purchases that would need to be made. Eykit climbed warily onto Wilbur. He wasn’t used to riding; it wasn’t a skill he’d ever needed to use. They headed down the dirt tracks that separated the fields and provided transport corridors that didn’t trample the crops. Being an inexperienced rider, Eykit didn’t stay in the saddle very well, despite Wilbur’s training as a riding horse. As horses went, he was pretty docile and easy to ride. That, unfortunately didn’t help Eykit, who was a complete novice on horseback. The horse moved forward, but Eykit didn’t, falling off of the back of the horse and into the dirt. He landed on his feet, but didn’t have the chance to get them fully under him, and he toppled back onto his backside. He dusted himself off, swearing under his breath. Wilbur stood nearby, glancing at him once before nuzzling the weedy grass that grew at the borders of the track. Eykit climbed back aboard the animal, taking care not to just fall off the other side. He could see Ruby up ahead; she hadn’t noticed that he’d been delayed by his fall. It didn’t take too long to get back to town, and a quick question to a passersby directed them to the general store. The general store was just that: a store that sold a wide range of useful items that would normally be sold in specialist shops were this a big city. But Rhades was a small town, so it had a glorified trading post instead of a whole collection of shops. It wasn’t terribly large, and it didn’t have the greatest of selections of goods. But it had the things that a farming town would need: clothing, housewares, tools, hunting and fishing gear, and the like. Including oilcloth waders, in a collection of sizes that matched the general population of the area. They bought enough waders for everyone; three large sized ones, and two small enough for Ruby and Eykit to wear. Eykit haggled a lower price, and they got the five waders and five bandannas filled with the herbal mixture. The waders had booties on the end of the legs. With the constant need for the herbal mixture for the miners, it was something that the proprietor of the store made in large batches every few days. They went back to the guano mine, and their friends, who had waited there patiently for the clothing. While they had waited, the workers had gotten back to work, to a certain extent. The worker who had fallen into it had gone home to get clean, since the on-site barrel of water for cleaning didn’t really do a thorough job. It did the job just well enough to get home and take a real bath. His companion had gone back down into the cavern. He was a bit slower, having to work down there by himself, but they still managed to keep up at least some production and continued to fill the wagon. Almë considered the best way to use his “guano shaping” abilities, considering that it would be a drain on him. He wanted to be able to keep as much guano as possible away from them, and for the longest length of time. They didn’t know how long it would take to find this mysterious box, or if it was even down there. Was keeping an open pocket in the guano for them to move through the best way to explore the caves, or did it make more sense to try to push all the guano to one side of the cave? How fast did guano flow? Taid, his Dwarvish earthmoving heritage coming to the fore, said, “Shape the guano into a plow, and use that plow to push the rest of the guano out of the way. Turn the guano into a tool.” Almë thought about it. It would work, and be easier to keep going than actively moving volumes of guano over and over again. He nodded. “That makes sense. It’s a good plan.” They put on the waders, but none of them looked forward to going into the bat poop-filled cave. The tall, slender Elf sat down, meditating, in order to better cast his spell. Taid cast the spell of Sense Danger. That magic ritual was capable of detecting danger within a five minute time frame. If something dangerous was capable of getting to them within that time, and wanted to do so, that spell would detect it. Fortunately, no danger was that close. So it was highly likely, at least, that there was no actual poop monster. “Guys,” Taid said, “I’m going to head to the other opening that Ruby found, and use Sense Danger there, as well. That should cover most of the cavern complex, and let us know if there is something dangerous down there.” They all followed him; if the Breathstealer was out there, they didn’t want Taid ambushed by it. Not alone, at least. They knew better than to split up. When they arrived at the slope with the “back door”, he cast his spell again. Again, there didn’t seem to be anything dangerous within five minutes of their position. “I don’t think the Breathstealer is down here,” Taid said. If it had, he was sure it would have registered as a danger. Elitheris asked, “What are we looking for down here?” She knew the answer, but was worried that the others had somehow forgotten. The others looked at her quizzically, frowns on their faces as they thought about it. Elitheris paused a moment, then said, “The box.” “Good point,” Taid said. “The box wouldn’t likely show up as dangerous. Unless the Breathstealer was using it as a home.” “Which is unlikely, considering that the box is what trapped it,” Almë mentioned. “The box is probably open, and the Breathstealer escaped out of it. The only other clue we have is that the Baronet is weird. Maybe we should let Eykit sneak inside to try to find something. Maybe the wife is also blue, and possessed, or whatever. I don’t know.” “That’s why I had mentioned the midwife,” Taid said. “Maybe the Baroness was trying to do something to protect her baby. And so, was she using the Breathstealer to steal the breaths from these other babies to give it to her own?” “I think it’s a great idea, but it’s not what the shaman said. Right? We know the story about what happened.” “But could she have acquired this box?” “Yeah, maybe.” “And is somehow using the Breathstealer to help her baby?” “So we could try the brute force method. We can search the house of the midwife, and the manor of the Baronet.” “Or I could go to the midwife’s house and cast Sense Danger to see if the thing’s there.” “We don’t know if that works.” “No, we don’t.” Almë sighed. “So, back to the midwife, do it. If it fails, do we still search her house?” “No,” Taid said, “I think what we do is go to the manor and try it there. But I don’t know if the Sense Danger would have the guards show up. If they knew we were there, and trespassing, I’m sure they would. So we’d need to make sure they didn’t know we were there in order to get a good read on the place.” They stripped off their waders, not planning on going into the caves, at least for a while. After rolling them up and packing them onto Wilbur, they went back to town, to Kura Ashgalar’s house. Taid, after two tries, cast Sense Danger. Yet again, there was no sign of danger. They headed to the Baronet Undrite’s house again, a trip of about four and a half kilometers. They stood outside the gate, the two gate guards eyeing them warily. Taid surreptitiously cast Sense Danger again. There was no danger evident here, either. Taid shook his head in confusion. He contemplated going back to Sairina Tarwar. He was at a loss. Almë said, “Should Eykit sneak in there and check on it?” “Sure,” Taid said. He was getting frustrated. Every clue seemed to be a red herring, and he was tired of crimson fish. “I’m up for anything.” Almë turned to Ruby. “Maybe use can use the bird and scout around?” The box could be anywhere, if it even existed at all. They had no idea if the shaman spirit was even being truthful. He had seemed to be telling the truth, and he had little reason to lie to them. But then, Eliana was likely a charlatan anyway, and had just put on a good show. He had said he put it in the cave. But the fact that the Breathstealer was out and about meant that the box had been tampered with. Which implied that it had been found, and probably taken from the cave. But no one they had talked to in town had heard anything about a carved wooden box with baby bones in it. None of the workers knew a thing about any magical baby box. No one else, to their knowledge, had gone into the cavern of bat poop, let alone come out with a box. And from the evidence of their own eyes, there was someone mining the poop all day and night, in shifts. Surely, if someone had taken the box, it was likely it would have been noticed. “We need to go into the Baronet’s house,” Ruby said. “They stole it; they have it. It’s kind of a treasure. The midwife, or the Baronet, I think.” “Okay,” Almë said. “I’m willing to kick in every door. Pick a door, and I will kick it in!” “Eykit will sneak inside, I will fly around looking in windows.” Taid spoke up. “We will wait until night, right? Have Eykit go in under cover of darkness?” “I’m not. I can fly around. I’m just a bird.” Then they realized they hadn’t talked to all of the mining crews. They had met two; a night crew, and a morning crew. But they had only known of the box when they met the morning crew. And they had asked the morning crew if any of them had seen, or known about, the wooden box. None had heard of it. But there were two other crews. They went back to the guano mine. There were frustrated grumblings as they trudged the several kilometers. Most of it was on a stone-paved road, but there was a lot of dusty dirt tracks as well. Bedros, Jowan, and Melita were still working the winch, bucket, and wheelbarrow. A large wagon, the horses nibbling at the grass and weeds around them, was being loaded with guano. Melita waved as she saw them come closer. “Hi,” Almë said, fatigue in his voice. It was hot, and they had just spent the last hour and a half walking in the sun. It was late afternoon already, and all they felt like they did was walk from here to there and back again. “Who are the people on the other mining crews?” Bedros answered. “Well, there’s Brennus, Yoshiik, and Dirk running the upside ops during the evening shift. Zolzug and Kargath are in the pit. Dugbûrz, Merten, and Burzum work the upside during the night. Drakthar and Zorrana work the downside during that shift. Grala and Orgrim are down in the pit now, on our shift.” “Are these Orcs, or Humans?” Taid asked. “Both,” Jowan replied. “Orcs and Humans and a Goblin.” They had a list of names. Now they had to do some more walking, this time back to town, to find and talk to the members of the mining crews. A few questions to people going about their business on the street, and they found out that several of the people in the mining crews were at the tavern. The Cracked Keg was busy. It was at the end of the day shift, and the evening shift had yet to start. Normally, evening shifts only happened at sowing and harvest, as those were really the only times when time was critical in the farming community. As usual, it was dim, and candlelight from the various tables and the chandelier glittered on the polished wood of the furnishings. It smelled of roasted meat and sweat, with a tang of spilt beer. The patrons were loud and boisterous, in that “elated but tired from working all day” kind of way that meant that had it not been the end of a shift, it would have been louder. They stood in the doorway, looking around for familiar faces, and just to get a sense of where everyone was in the room. Taid asked the patrons at the nearest table, “We’re looking for some workers who are mining the guano.” He rattled off the names he’d been given. “We were told some of them might be here.” At the wary look he got from the addressed patron, he quickly added, “No, they aren’t in any trouble. We just have some questions for them.” The man sat back then, a bit more relaxed. He nodded at a table across the room, against the far wall. “That’s Zolzug, Kargath, and Brennus over there.” “Thank you.” Taid went over to the tavern keeper, who was filling a tankard with ale. He ordered three of them, then walked over to the indicated table. “Hi guys,” he said as he got to the table with the two Orcs and the Human. “I’ve got these for you.” He set the three tankards onto the table. “I’m Taid.” “Why, thank you,” Zolzug said. “Join us! Have a seat.” Kargath downed the last of his glass, then grabbed the tankard closest to him, sipping at it. “Free beer always tastes better,” he said with a smile. “We have something on our minds,” Taid began, “that might be in your minds. We are looking for a wooden box, that we think might have been in the mine at some point. It’s about so big, I’d imagine.” He sketched out a box about forty centimeters by twenty five by fifteen. “Carved. Heard any stories of anything like that being found while you guys were down there?” The three mine workers glanced at each other, quizzical looks on their faces. “No,” Zolzug said. He looked at Kargath. “Did you take a box?” Kargath shook his head. “No, I haven’t seen anything like that. I didn’t take any box!” Brennus shook his head as well. “If we’d found it, I doubt it could be a secret. There are people working the mine all day and night. If a box had been found, it would have been the talk of the town!” Zolzug said, “All that we’ve found down there is bat shit. No boxes, no treasure. Well, except for the fertilizer.” He looked a bit sheepish. “That’s actually worth quite a bit to the town.” “Yeah, man,” Kargath said, addressing Zolzug. “Don’t belittle our jobs!” They all laughed. Ruby wasn’t sure they were telling the truth. They seemed to be, to her practiced ear, but this was a social level she wasn’t used to working with, so her perceptions were biased. She was used to two-faced people who lied as part of their jobs, courtiers trying to wheedle political deals. She glanced at Eykit. He met her eyes, and gave a quick nod. She relaxed, a tension she didn’t know she had dissipating. Eykit was used to people on this social strata., so maybe they were actually telling the truth. Damn, she thought, it would have been easier if they had been lying. “Did you find any interesting sticks?” Elitheris asked. “What?” Kargath asked. “No, we haven’t found a single stick down there.” “What have you found, besides guano?” “Just rocks.” “What kind of rocks,” Ruby asked. “Rocks that rolled from under our feet. We didn’t reach down to find out what kind of rocks they were.” “Did you run into something and stub your toe?” Zolzug spoke up. “Stub our toes? Oh yes, we’ve done that many times. The ground is uneven under all that shit, and there are those rocks. Some are probably as big as your head.” “Are there any mine workers who have left?” Ruby asked. Taid perked up; he had just been about to ask the exact same thing. “No, no. We’ve all been workin’. This is good work. Smelly and gross, but good work.” Taid looked at his companions. “The Baronet didn’t go down there. He wouldn’t go down there himself, no way. I think we need to go down and look ourselves.” “Even if the Baronet has it, someone would have had to give it to him,” Eykit commented. “They would have heard about it, right?” Almë said, agreeing that it was likely that the box was still down there somewhere. “I think we are just wasting time by not going down there. And if it’s not there, we just go home, and the babies can fend for themselves.” His companions, reluctantly agreed. And they went back to the mine. They unpacked the waders, put them on, followed by the herbed bandannas. The herbs helped. They smelled slightly minty, but there were other savory notes, along with more earthy aromas. But it made the ammonia-laden air more breathable. Whatever the mixture of herbs was, it dulled the ammonia bite quite a bit. Almë took the lead, climbing down the ladder partway. The two workers stopped filling the bucket, watching the newcomers. Almë cast his spell of Shape Earth, and the guano heaved away from a point on the floor. A spot of floor became visible, growing in area until they could all stand comfortably within it. Then he formed some of it into a plow, with walls that trailed back from it a few meters on either side. It was about a meter and a half tall, slightly taller than the average depth of the guano. “Which way?” he asked, grinning. “Which way did you fly, Ruby?” Taid asked. Ruby looked around. It looked a bit different from the perspective of a short person in a deep pit surrounded by bat shit. “South, I think.” “Then we go north,” said Taid. “I have a good feeling about north.” Almë pushed the plow forward, forcing it through the chunky pseudo liquid. Its movement forced the bat shit out of the way and out along the sides, heaping up like the bow wave of a ship. Only the two Elves could see over it; Taid, Eykit, and Ruby were too short. Elitheris held the light, which shone brightly and illuminated the entire room. The ground beneath their feet was uneven, and there were occasional rocks here and there. Most were loose stones, ranging in size from small pebbles to small boulders. Some rocks seemed to be embedded in the ground. Most they could step over, but some were large enough that they needed to go around them. The ground sloped down on their right side, implying that moving towards the center of the room would cause them to sink beneath even deeper guano deposits. Taid tapped Eykit on the shoulder. “Climb on up,” he said, indicating his shoulders. Eykit climbed on, perched on his shoulders. Now he was high enough to see over the wall of bat shit. Behind them, the two Orcs shielded their eyes as they looked with incredulity as the poop plow made its way toward the northern tunnel. “Well,” Grala said, blinking her eyes in the bright light reflecting off of the walls, “that’s not something you see every day.” Orgrim barked out a laugh. “Nope. Be an interesting story to tell the youngin’s, though!” He grinned behind his bandanna. They watched as the group moved into leftmost of the two tunnels at the northern side of the cavern, the light fading to a reflected glow, then to nothing as they moved deeper in and around a few more corners. The tunnel wasn’t very long, but it turned this way and that before opening up again into another larger cavern. Two small tunnels and a larger one led out of this cavern. Bats, disturbed by the sudden light swooped and flew around in circles, chittering and squeaking. The air from their flapping wings could be felt as they flew past. Their quickly moving grayish brown bodies made seeing the details of the cavern problematic. Almë had some chalk, and made a mark in the shape of an “A” by the entrance they came through. It would be enough to let them find the exit, if that ended up being necessary. They took the left tunnel, deciding to stay consistent. The floor was sloped, and slick, and footing was difficult. Running through there would be dangerous. As they approached the lefthand tunnel, the plow cleared away the guano in front of them. It also exposed a carved box, lying on the floor to the right of the opening they were headed for. The lid was open, connected to the box by chains which acted as hinges. The box was full of bat poop.
Rewards Granted
3 CP
Character(s) interacted with
Christopher the Reeve, seneschal of Baronet Felson Undrite
Eliana Aelbright, palm reader and spiritualist
The Spirit of an Orc Shaman
Several guano mine workers
Eliana Aelbright, palm reader and spiritualist
The Spirit of an Orc Shaman
Several guano mine workers
Report Date
24 Jun 2023
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Characters
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