Hastily scribbled sidebar note from Seren:
The ferry operator is Lullaby Vankaskerkin. She leases it from the owner, Hallen, who's grown too old to operate it in person. Lullaby had a helper who drowned under suspicious circumstances and was only recently replaced by the suspicious person who appeared to send a messenger bird when we crossed the river.
Enough trying to write you letters, Master Taeral. I'll take notes in my journal and tell you about it when I see you again.
We questioned Dolland further and he told us that the 'C' who signed the note to him is named Cassias! But we're not sure if she's the same Cassias who Mayor Thort blames for Sir Roderic's death. It seems unlikely, as this Cassias is too young, and Dolland says that's a common name in this region. Fox kept asking if she had an unusual sword, which Dolland said she did but it didn't sound anything like the Sword of Pride.
Dolland admitted he's joined the Roadkeepers years ago, and had only lately become involved with this Cassias, who's a member of a group called the Peacocks in Roderic's Cove. He'd reached out to her for funding to buy some special equipment, as the Roadkeepers were trying break into an ancient vault underground that had a very complex combination lock. Cassias had sent him a set of very high quality lockpicks made of platinum. He'd been imprisoned by the other Roadkeepers because they'd found the note from Cassias, and they considered it stealing from them if he used her equipment to open the vault.
At first Fox thought we ought to take all of his things, but Hunter pointed out he wouldn't have much incentive to help us any further if we took his belongings. In the end we agreed to give everything back to Dolland if he'd help us open the vault. I would have liked to leave it unopened since it's likely it has something to do with Alaznist and that's nothing to toy with, but since so many people are aware of it that doesn't seem like a possibility. If we don't open it someone else will.
Dolland also cleared up some confusion for us about the Roadkeepers. Their leader is the goblin Cheektooth as we'd heard, but Cheektooth and the goblin who's inscribed dagger we'd found, Snucktooth, are actually the same goblin.
We asked him what he knew about the Peacocks and that turned out to be a disturbing tale. They're a group of nobles who've been secretly meeting in Sir Roderic's manor! They've bribed the guards to look the other way. Dolland doesn't think the mayor knows anything about this. He claims she actually has little power in the town.
Next we questioned Dolland about the odd room with the glowing blue light that we'd seen in the passage that had partly collapsed. He explained that inside the room is a teleportation circle that can transport a person to one of two locations. One of these locations is another room, not connected to the teleportation room in any other way, in which a permanent zone of truth spell has been cast, as well as a wall of force. It is a meeting room where the occupants cannot lie, and they cannot attack one another because the half of the room on the other side of the barrier can only be accessed from a second teleportation circle! What an ingenious construction! I may fear the Runelords, but I can't deny how amazing some of their creations are. Thus a person can only enter each side of the Room of Truth from a separate teleportation circle, and each circle can only carry a person who activates it to one and only one side of the Room of Truth or to another part of the subterranean structure on the other side of the mountain.
We asked Dolland to go with us to the teleportation room we could access and show us how it worked. On the way he told us there was a goblin who spent all his time in the Room of Truth because he found it amusing to be forced to constantly tell the truth.
As soon as I looked inside the teleportation room and saw the Thassilonian runes covering the walls I understood how the circle worked. A touch of one rune would send the person to one location, a second rune to send them to the second location. After we looked over the room we moved into a second workshop next to the one where we'd found Dolland's belongings, but this room was entirely empty and long disused. We made a bargain with Dolland that if we let him go he would leave and not go to tell the Peacocks anything. I don't know if we can trust him, but our other option would have been to kill him.
We returned to the teleportation room and used it to transfer ourselves to the second teleportation room. Only four could go at one time, so I waited with Lonn while the others went through first. A passage led out from the room into a larger area of rough-hewn stone. This was where the goblins could usually be found according to Dolland. Zinovia went in first as she's able to see in darkness. Dolland pointed out the structure where Cheektooth could usually be found, but there were goblins inside singing and we were able to creep past unnoticed. The vault lay beyond that in a corner behind a purple curtain. A staircase led down between Cheektooth's lair and the vault.
After Hunter and Lonn looked at the lock on the vault, they realized the symbols were the same as those on the fragment of paper Lonn had from Sir Roderic's things. Together they were able to determine what the combination was to open the lock.
Inside there was evidence that the room was actually a mage's magnificent mansion, and it had contained a fiery trap for robbers that had already been set off at some time in the past. Dolland had mentioned signs that someone had tried to open the vault ten years earlier, which I suspect was Sir Roderic. There was a chest in the vault that had held some books, which had sadly been burned beyond usefulness. There was also another sword case like the one we'd found in the Wreck, with the name Baraket on it. The chest also held a pair of gauntlets that I examined and found very interesting and a bit frightening. I believe they are meant to protect the wearer from an intelligent weapon that is capable of controlling its wielder's mind. Perhaps the Sword of Pride is such a weapon.
Zinovia was keeping watch on Cheektooth's lair while the rest of us examined the contents of the vault. Suddenly she was approached by a goblin. She hit him and he fell down but survived. After she looked him over she realized that he seemed to be lacking his wits, although he was unusually hardy.
Then another goblin attacked her and promptly fell to her blade, never to rise again. Afterward Zinovia discovered that the witless goblin had a collar on with the word "Grumble" engraved on it in the common tongue.
At that point everything changed when Cheektooth came out of his lair. We'd forgotten to take care how much noise we made. I ran up and threw a flurry of snowballs at him, and afterward a pair of missiles. Zinovia and Hunter both went at him toe to toe with their weapons, Hunter even pushing him back inside his lair. Cheektooth hurled out a ball of fire and after that I was unaware of what happened until several potions and wands had been used to revive me. Everyone else was injured too, but Cheektooth was dead and several other goblins as well. We took Cheektooth's flaming dog-slicer that he was so proud of (or so we were told), as well as his other ill-gotten gains.
When everyone was healthy enough we went north into an area we realized must have been an armory at one time. Fox went first and saw that there were more goblins ahead around a fire. He blasted them with his own fire, and that was all it took to be rid of them. Burnt goblin smells awful.
Then a creature suddenly appeared, though I couldn't see it from the narrow passage I stood in at that moment. It fascinated Lonn with its gaze, and Hunter had a long struggle with it. I crept out of the passage and let it feel my frosty ray a few times to help him. The creature was a goblin snake, and it proved much hardier than the goblins Fox had set fire to. Hunter finally rid us of it. It could speak, disturbingly, and it had an ioun stone whizzing about its head, one that granted it enhanced strength.
Moving farther north we found the exit from the lair, and a pair of goblin dogs tied up in a side chamber. There were two goblins standing guard outside that Zinovia and Hunter easily dealt with. We didn't feel safe letting the goblin dogs free and didn't want to leave them to starve so Fox got rid of them.
When we'd cleared that area and explored everything, we went back to where we'd found Dolland. Zinovia, Lonn and Fox took turns going into the Room of Truth to talk to the goblin there. He didn't have much useful information, but he did have possession of four thunderstones and another ioun stone, and a wand containing a fireball spell. Zinovia spent quite a long time talking to him. She's surprisingly soft-hearted for such a fierce warrior. She insisted on taking Grumble, the witless goblin, along with us when we left. But in the end she didn't prevent Hunter from slaying the goblin in the Room of Truth. I suppose the teleportation rooms were meant to be under guard to prevent that sort of thing from happening.
With all the goblins eliminated and Dolland seen off, we decided to spend the night in the Roadkeepers' hideout as all of us who can use magic had expended most of what was available to us by then. I had nothing left but my ray of frost and a light spell, and my mage armor had worn off.
The next day we decided to deal with the two rooms where we'd found the fungi. We felt much less fearful of them after dealing with all the goblins, and we discovered that the fungi weren't particularly dangerous after all. There was little of use in either of those rooms. Then we left, taking our one Roadkeeper prisoner with us.
After Lullaby brought the ferry across for us we told her we'd eliminated the Roadkeepers and showed her Cheektooth's blade as proof. She gave us our trip free of charge. We also learned that the suspicious man who'd been working for her on our first voyage had suddenly run off. He'll be disappointed if he goes to the bandits' lair now.
Zinovia is still very interested in finding out where Grumble came from. The goblin in the Room of Truth had told her that Grumble was found in a box in the river and the goblins who found him had thrown the box back into the water. She and Hunter went for a swim and eventually found the remains of what they thought was the box, which had come from a merchant transporting wild animals. So we still don't know much about Grumble. He keeps trying to lick her. I'm not sure why she wants to keep him.
Next: part 5, An Unexpected Party
No comments:
Post a Comment