The Hunt For
Darius
As
they get to cover out of sight of the city walls, grins can be seen
on just about everyone's faces. Well, those that are not invisible,
anyway.
They stroll in the direction
of the abandoned farm, reaching it after just 20 minutes walk. There,
they see Martin and Yiri waiting for them along with their horses and
provisions. They shake them by the hand and congratulate them on
their success before taking their leave of the party in order to
wander back to Hradetz.
Jihan and Winnacer spend a
short time discussing what the next step should be in terms of the
approach to the fur farm. For all of them, the conversation is a
bizarre one, as both of them are invisible and it is a disconcerting
experience to try and follow a conversation between two disembodied
voices. The two of them decide that they should first of all meet up
with Darius and then Elthanor and take it from there.
Magickal items start to
appear from thin air as Jihan gives everyone their items back and
they refill their scabbards and packs. All miscellaneous equipment is
placed in the pack of Bennett, the ass, and the party starts back on
the journey to the fur farm, retracing their steps that they took
some five days earlier.
Some of them see a sense of
irony as the three able-bodied warriors have an easy time riding
their horses along the route, while the stumpy forms of the invisible
Tharnald, Darry and Yaz the kid struggle to keep up with the pace as
a result of their small strides. As a result, the journey is slow.
Slower that is was to get to Hradetz.
It was around 1.30 p.m. when
they started off their journey. After just under an hour, it is time
to cross the main road to Dvur. Scouting out the road is simplicity
itself for Jihan in his current invisible form. There are no
travelers in sight, and so he urges the rest of them to cross the
road before carrying on the journey between the rolling hills that
separate the road from the River Labe.
They spend the whole of the
afternoon walking northwards, with Jihan, Faewen'il and Yaz all
getting a little annoyed at the slow progress that they are making in
their present forms. At around 7.00, the sun is starting to descend,
casting low shadows across the hills. Yaz, whose little feet are
particularly ill suited to the journey, starts to suggest that they
think about making plans for camp.
'Just a little further,
brother' says Jihan's voice from nowhere. 'I also think that we
should change out course to take us a little closer to the
road.'
'Why?' asks Winnacer's
voice, coming from atop his mighty steed, Juggernaut.
Jihan shakes his head, and
then realizes that no one can see him doing so.
'I don't know' he says. 'I
just feel that we should.'
Winnacer shrugs, and then
realizes that no one can see him doing it either.
'OK, then' he says
instead.
They carry on in a
northwesterly direction for another 20 minutes and come to a brow of
a hill. Looking over the hill, they see that there is someone in
front of them.
The person before them
appears as a fair-haired male, thinly built and of medium height. He
wears his hair long and sports the hat of a dandy, feather and all.
His slightly pointed ears are hard to catch a glimpse of. Those and
something about the structure of his face tips them off to the fact
that he has elven blood in him. He also has a light beard and waxed
mustache, very neatly trimmed. His dress is of fine sturdy make and
rich colors of dark green, blues and black. He wears high leather
boots that fold down at the knee. He also wears a long cloak, under
which are partially hidden long sword and daggers. Over his back are
a short bow and a small travelers' harp. Also at his belt is a lasso
and fine strong silk rope.
In front of him is a small,
darkly speckled dog . It is standing staring at the party members,
seemingly frozen in place, making no sound.
They notice that the
stranger is stooping and has a short sword in his hand. As they
approach him, they see that he is investigating it closely.
He looks up towards them,
his mouth opening slightly in surprise as he sees the strange looking
band in front of him. He sees someone on a horse, next to him ,a
heavy horse that seems to have no rider, rather that its reins are
magickally guiding it and then an orc on a horse following it. Close
by the horsemen is the form of a bizarre looking dwarf, dressed in
effeminate, flouncy, lacey clothing, who appears to be talking to
himself. Next to the dwarf is a child of no more than three years,
his appearance being all the more strange seeing as how he is
currently toking on a large spliff.
As soon as he becomes aware
of their presence, he drops the sword to the ground and holds his
hands up to them, palms open in greeting.
In front of him, they see
that there is a pool of dried blood, from its deep dark red color,
they can see that it is obviously several days old. Close to the pool
of blood, there is a shortbow, its string broken.
Lying in front of the small
dog, they can see the severed leg of a giant insect - it could be a
giant wasp, bee or hornet by the look of it.
They look at the sword that
the stranger dropped to the ground upon seeing them. They can see
that the blade of the weapon is coated in dried ichor, that looks as
if it came from some kind of giant insect. Obviously the possessor of
the sword didn't go down without a fight.
They look at the hilt of the
sword and see some distinctive markings.
It is Darius' sword.
The half elf stands in an
unthreatening manner, watching for the odd looking groups' reaction.
Sharp eyes can be seen taking in details of the scene before him,
noting arms and armament, position of hands, and facial expressions.
The Nyemetz markings on the Orc Sergeant especially catch his
attention.
"Praise the lord!" Bennett
says as he dismounts, grabs the insect leg and, however disgusting
this might be, kisses it.
"Well, the little troll is
certainly food for little bees by now. Shall we head right on back to
Hradetz and retrieve the gnomes, or do you all want a funeral or
something?"
Bennett, quite rudely (as is
his fashion) totally ignores the stranger.
Xavier growls at Bennett in
orcish.
"Annoying little bastard may
he be, Herr Bennett, but even he does not deserve a death like this.
It is only through duty to one who has protected my back in the past,
that I travel on this fools errand. I owe the little bastard much!
But as I swore before, I vill take no part in that in this banditry
against the fur traders"
Bennett simply looks back at
Xavier confused, understanding no orcish.
A disembodied wail can be
heard from the position where Jihan was last talking with Faewen'il
on the trek. Footsteps can be heard running to the position of the
stranger, then a large thump as if something had fallen to the
ground. Though no one can see him, the elf/dwarf, upon recognizing
Darius' sword, immediately ran over to the site of the past combat,
looking for any signs of possible movement too or away from it, in an
attempt to find out just what happened. He checks the signs and any
remaining tracks, though he knows what little evidence remains after
so long will be of little help. Hardening his unseen face,
Jihan/Tharnald stands and ranges around a little bit, looking in a
short radius for any additional evidence of the scuffle. He then
remembers the presence of the stranger and his dog, and pulls up
short.
"So sorry, brother. This is
quite a mess here indeed... Oh, you can't see me can you? Could you
hold onto your friend down there?" the voice says, and a little arrow
appears in the dirt pointing in the direction of the dog:
"hmmmm..."
There is a whisper of sound,
as if something is being quickly drawn, then a gleaming shortsword is
plunged into the middle of the pool of dried blood, and the form of
the elf/dwarf becomes visible. Trying a smile of introduction,
Jihan's mind is still consumed with the recent happenings at the
site, so he looks at the man distractedly as his eyes roam around,
checking for any additional markings in the close area.
Giving up, he goes to the
shortsword, which is still quivering in the ground, and kneels in the
dried blood, a string of elven beseechments flowing from his lips.
Again, remembering the stranger, he pauses in his prayer, and looks
up at the man:
"I'm sorry, I guess I forgot
to introduce myself. I'm Jihan Prirodnasson of the Shumavan forest,
and you have found the sword of my brother. Do you know what happened
here?"
He is in such a state of
distraction as to forget that he currently inhabits the form of
Tharnold.
Winnacer from his mounted
position takes in the current situation. He quickly dismounts and
closely regards the stranger before saying:
"Faewen'il, how do you undo
this blasted spell?"
Winnacer quickly remedies
his recent bout of invisibility by swinging 'Old Bohavia' in a wild
arc overhead. As he comes back into sight, a leather wrist strap is
now seen tied to the hilt. Quickly Winnacer sheaths his sword and
walks over to the stranger and holds out his weapon hand as per
custom:
"I am Winnacer Duene
Stradheim. Whom might you be?"
"I am William Thumarivan of
Podyebrad," the stranger speaks, making introduction in likeness to
those offered, however quietly, looking past the dwarf to the orc
seated in the saddle for his reaction to the name.
Xavier returns the stare,
thinking to himself:
'Gotten himmel! Not another
elf!'
He adjusts his sword belt at
his side, unsmiling and untrusting of the stranger on the road. He
mutters a few choice orcish swear words under his breath. He
dismounts and joins Winnacer.
"I was travelling from town
to town, such is my trade of showman," continues William. "I came
upon this site of struggle and was investigating the happenings when
my lord came upon the site as well."
After Winn has the
stranger's name, he continues:
"Unfortunately there is
little time to mince words. It seems you stumbled upon the sword of
one of our missing comrades. By the looks of it, things look
particularly grim for poor Darius."
Winnacer shakes his head
solemnly, then looks towards Yaz and Jihan.
"Are there any signs of our
precocious friend, some tracks or a trail of blood perhaps?"
Winnacer then swallows
hard:
"He didn't meet the same end
as Colin, did he?"
Realizing that he may have
cut off the stranger's introduction, Jihan blinks, then recollects
himself:
"Quite sorry, brother, for
the rudeness, but there is a matter here very pressing on my mind,
and the minds of my friends. It appears as if a dear companion has
been quite bloodily abducted..."
Realization comes to Will.
Jihan Prirodnasson..... Darius.... Faewen'il.... andWinnacer
Stradheim! Realization hits him suddenly. Those were the very names
that Viktor had given him for the group he sought, along with a
couple others.
The man rises to his feet, a
look of curiosity and puzzlement on his face. He addresses Winnacer:
"Lord Winnacer Stradheim? I
am in search of a man by the very name you pronounce sir. But I was
told to expect him among different companions."
Looking around at the group,
they do not exactly fit the description that Viktor had given.
Turning to the dwarf who has
introduced himself as Jihan, he speaks gently:
"Do not grieve, my elvish
speaking dwarf of the woods. Your friend, Darius is it? He was not
alone when the attack came. There were somewhere between five and ten
individuals and a mule drawn cart with him."
Will points out tracks on
the ground.
"They were all small
individuals, gnomes, halflings, or maybe goblin sized,"
Will watches the expression
on the dwarf's face for a clue as to the truth of identities.
Bennett explodes in
laughter:
"You see? He leaves the
group for a couple of days and goes back to his own kind
immediately."
Seeing the disapproving
looks of the group, he quiets down, but mumbles:
"I knew that little bastard
couldn't be trusted."
Will then continues:
"The cart came from the road
down there," he points down to the road, " and Dvur, and then headed
on to Hradetz after the attack. You may be correct in assuming he was
taken away by the attacker. It is unlikely he would have left his
weapon otherwise. If such is the case, I have seen no trace of such a
nest from the direction I have come, and I too would guess it to be
near the river."
"Ah well, who'll miss him
anyway?" Bennett interjects again. Once again, he quiets down when
glanced at, then mumbles almost imperceptibly:
"Killed by a bee, ain't that
something?" as he smiles to himself.
Before spending more time
searching for clues as to exactly what fate has befallen Darius,
William and the party spend a while trying to find out more about
each other. Initially, both William and the party are rather cautious
about giving too much information away, not knowing whether they can
trust the others totally.
The party soon discovers
that William met Viktor in Dvur Kralovye while performing at the Blue
Dragons' favorite tavern, The Cow & Gate, as William's occupation
is as a wandering bard. It appears that the party's destruction of
the Witchfinder Building was the main topic of conversation and
William managed to find out more information from Viktor that the
party was responsible for the act. Being of a like mind regarding the
desire to see a free Bohavia, William decided to follow the party's
journey on to Hradetz Kralovye in the hope of meeting up with them,
so that he may be able to join with them on their quest.
Hardly believing his luck in
meeting up with the party so easily, he volunteers to add his skills
to those of the party. The party members are a little hesitant at
first to let a stranger into their ranks, but eventually agree, after
checking William over very carefully. After all, they may need all
the help they can get in order to locate Darius.
After the introductions and
questions have been finished with, talk goes back to the pressing
subject of trying to determine what has happened to Darius.
Jihan takes Darius' sword
and wipes the ichor from it. He then places it on the pack on the
back of Bennett the ass' back.
He then goes over and
investigates the insectoid leg more closely:
'My guess is that it came
from a giant wasp. The leg of a giant bee would be covered in hair.
This one is more smooth.'
"How long ago do you think
this happened, Will?" Yaz asks, in an adult-like tone that probably
does not fit his body.
"D'you think we can overtake
the wagon if we hurry? They'll be able to tell us exactly what
direction Darius was taken."
'From the dryness of the
blood, and the way that it has seeped into the ground,' replies
William, 'I'd say the combat took place several days ago. There is
little point in trying to overtake a wagon, as it would have been
long gone by now.'
Jihan decides that it would
be worth scouting the surrounding area in order to see if any more
clues can be found. He comes back to report some five minutes
later:
'I've picked up another set
of tracks. It was difficult, as they are several days old and the dry
condition of the ground makes all tracking very difficult. They are
from one small-footed individual and were running parallel to the
route that we were taking to get to the fur farm. I'll wager that
they were Darius' tracks that he made on his journey from Hradetz to
the fur farm.'
Winnacer looks again at the
sight of the combat and tries to piece all of the evidence together
in order to try and establish what actually transpired:
'So Darius would have been
making his way to the fur farm when he got to this point and was
attacked by a giant wasp. It looks as if Darius had some success in
fighting off the insect, but that he eventually fell to the
insect.'
'That's very probable'
interjects Yaz, with sadness on his childlike face. 'I've seen some
of those creatures before and they make terrifying adversaries. If it
came to a fight between any one of us and such a creature, then I'd
definitely put money on the wasp.'
'I would imagine that such a
combat would make quite a commotion' continues Winnacer. 'And the
road is only a hundred or so paces from this spot, and so it could
have easily have been heard by passers by. From the tracks that have
come from the road, it would appear that the commotion alerted the
attention of a group of passers by who intervened. From William's
description, they are a larger group of small-footed individuals who
had a cart with them. From the fact that there are no drops of blood
leading from the sight of the combat, it is quite likely that they
placed him upon the wagon. The footsteps show that they were coming
from Dvur, and the direction of the footsteps show that they headed
off in the direction of Hradetz. We know that there are no branches
off the road, so the only logical place for the group to have gone
would be Hradetz. We obviously don't know whether the group stopped
off in Hradetz, or carried on through the city, but it seems almost
certain that this would have been their next destination.'
A number of them roll their
eyes to the heavens at Winnacer's words, having just gone to an
incredible amount of trouble in order to exit the city just a few
hours earlier.
After all of the talking,
dusk has already begun to fall.
'Well, there's no point in
trying to get to Hradetz tonight, if this is our intention, as we are
all tired and the gates would certainly be closed by the time we got
to the city. I suggest that we camp here tonight and work out our
intentions in the morning.'
Camp is made using the honey
leather tents supplied by the wood elves. After the comfort of Boris'
hospitality, going back to the cramped accommodation of the tents
take a bit of getting used to. The warriors spend the evening
practicing with their weapons, with Jihan trying out a two handed
fighting style, while Winnacer gets more practice with blind
fighting. Eventually, the long day catches up with them and they fall
asleep.
The party awakes
at around 7.00 a.m. and starts to consider their next course of
action based upon the information that they have at their
disposal.
Winnacer shakes his head and
speaks in a low tone:
"We all know what we have to
do. Darius is one of our own, no matter how he ...uh... chooses his
path to walk. We owe it to the little tyke to find him without delay.
That means back to Hradetz, again."
"It seems that our
expedition to the fur farm is really going to have to wait. It is
unfair of us to allow the dwarves and gnomes whose lives we have
inadvertently thrown to the wolves to linger in limbo any longer. If
we need to again enter the walls of Hradetz, we are taking them with
us. They deserve a chance to settle down and reclaim the rest of
their lives."
"And if we are to relocate
our friends, there are many other tasks we must undertake as we have
promised. All in all, I believe we will not be able to deal with the
fur farm adequately until three weeks time, what we had initially
planned. If there are some who feel that the cause of the animals
cannot wait another three weeks, please speak now. Because once we
commit to returning to Hradetz, we also must tend to our obligations
that await us there."
To Winnacer's concerns,
Jihan responds:
"My concern right now above
and beyond any thoughts of sacking the fur farm is finding our little
brother. If we must go back to the city from which we so recently
took such pains to leave, then so be it. We must move with all
haste..."
"Uh," Yaz begins, "I don't
want to go back to the city. Especially knowing what we might find
there, looking for Darius. Let's think about this for a sec. He's a
goblin. The only group of people who would have picked him up in
mercy is other goblins, Nyemetz. Non-Nyemetz gnomes or halflings
would have left him for dead. Therefore it's more than likely he's in
the Nyemetz hospital or something. Don't you think? And doesn't that
scare you?"
Yaz looks despondent:
"Man, we just got back to
the forest, and we gotta leave her already. Prirodna, this ain't the
life of a druid!"
Yaz hugs a nearby tree for
all he's worth.
"The fur farm can wait, I
got no problem with that. No death wish either. And Flint might come
in handy when we do it. Elthanor himself said no animals would be
killed for a few months at least. Prirodna will forgive us a couple
of weeks I think."
He casts a sidelong glance
at Jihan for his reaction, guessing what it will be, and feeling the
same way.
Bennett immediately gives
his backing to Yaz's suggestion that going back to Hradetz would be a
bad decision, having no desire whatsoever to be reunited with Darius
at any tine in the immediate future. His comment, not surprisingly,
leads Faewen'il to put her foot down and insist that she is going
back to Hradetz in order to find Darius with or without the
others.
Seeing that he holds the
casting vote, Xavier votes in favor of returning to Hradetz. Although
he has no pressing loyalty towards Darius as Faewen'il, Winnacer and
Jihan have, he sees that returning to the city and taking the gnomes
and dwarves to Holitze would avoid the need to assault the fur farm
in the immediate future. As a result, he votes in favor of returning
to the city in order to try and locate Darius.
With four votes to two, Yaz
and Bennett realize that they need to abide by the group decision,
and so agree to accompany the rest of the party back to
Hradetz.
They pack up the tents and
put them on the back of Bennett the ass and then start to retrace
their steps that they made the previous day in order to move away
from Hradetz. The journey goes without incident for four hours until
they get to the road. As has been the case on all of the previous
road crossings, Jihan goes ahead in order to check that the coast is
clear. Jihan is gone for around five minutes. Upon his return, the
others can see a look of surprise and amazement on the dwarf's
face:
'There's a patrol of Nyemetz
coming up the road, coming from Hradetz headed for Dvur. I counted
ten goblins in total, tough little bastards all of them by the look
of it, all armed with spears, shortbows and shortswords. At their
head was a large orc, covered in scars - quite a veteran from the
look of him. He was wearing a long wolfskin cloak and an ornate
helmet. A captain from the look of him. He was mounted on a huge
white wolf, the same kind as the Captain of the Dvur Worgriders was
mounted on when they took us back to Dvur in chains.'
'But that wasn't the
strangest thing about the group. Amongst the goblins was none other
than…. Darius! He wasn't being led in chains or anything. He was
dressed and equipped in the same style as them and seemed to be going
with them willingly. It looks as if Darius has decided to join up
with the Nyemetz!'