he arting f he ays

Pergrom, Grabthroat and Ako set off at first light towards Ardelphia, saying goodbye to Darkhawk and Trimus before they left. Pergrom set a tough pace. Lush farmlands gave way to low dry hills but his pace never slowed. Grabthroat urged his stead to pull alongside the young mage and shouted across.
"If we keep this up the horses will ne'er make it Pergrom."
"I must save my sister" replied Pergrom not taking his eyes from the ruined towers on the horizon.
"Whoa!" shouted Grabthroat pulling up sharply. Pergrom looked around angry at first then puzzled as he saw what the dwarf was pointing at. A few furlongs ahead of them was a man, young, wearing a white cloak that hung loosely from his shoulders. His arms appeared to be covered with masses of tattoos. When he saw that they had stopped he stood in a fluid motion, gathered up a staff and a shoulder bag and walked towards them. The man stopped and bowed to Darkhawk, Grabthroat and finally Pergrom. They bowed in return.
"I am Cain, Kwai Chang Cain. I will help you." said the young man in a soft unaccented voice.
Puzzled, Grabthroat looked at Ako then back at Cain. "Thank you, but how do you know we need help?"
"I had a vision, I was to wait for you on this track, today. I was expecting more of you though."
Ako looked carefully at Cain's robes. "Are you a cleric?" he asked.
"No I am a mystic, a follower of the ancient ways."
"This vision, what else did it show you?" asked Ako
"Nothing." Replied Cain, "I'm as puzzled by it as you are."
"I don't like to be rude." Interrupted Pergrom "But my friends could be being tortured or even killed as we dawdle. Either Cain comes with us or we leave him. I vote we leave him, he has no horse and he would slow us down."
Cain narrowed his eyes and looked at Pergrom. "Your rudeness does not become you. I have no need for a horse in any case. Over this terrain I can keep up with you. But you are right we should be moving on, there will be more time for our stories later."
With that Cain started to run, a long loping stride that seemed to eat up the leagues. The others rode on and found that Cain could keep up with them over the gently rolling hills without obvious effort.
They camped in the hills that night, a few small glows in the distance the only indication of Ardelphia.

The following morning Pergrom sat and studied his green leather spellbook while Ako sat quietly and sought inspiration from the Immortals for his spells. Grabthroat checked the horses were fed and looked for any sign of lameness after their gallop across the hills. Cain left the camp site for a few handfuls of minutes after he had eaten a spartan breakfast of nuts and fruit to sit amongst a small stand of trees. He returned just as Ako and Pergrom finished their preparations and the quartet continued their journey towards Ardelphia.
"Where did your friends get ambushed?" asked Grabthroat as they approached the outskirts of the ruined city.
Pergrom reigned in his horse and looked around. "Not far from here." He replied looking for a landmark. "Over there, where those three boulders have rolled down from that outcrop." He added pointing to a rough slope. "The bugbears where hiding amongst those and jumped us as we went past."
Grabthroat, Ako and Cain began searching as Pergrom stayed mounted keeping an wary eye on the surroundings as his horse paced nervously. It took a while for Cain to find a set of tracks leading away westwards from the ambush site along with a fragment of cloth caught on a briar and a bloodstain on a rock. They followed the faint trail over the hills with Cain leading the way on foot with the others walking the horses.
After a few hours of slow progress and more than one panic when the trail seemed to die out they saw a large ruined building. Tying the horses to a sturdy tree that had thrust it's way up through the buildings floor and wall they entered the building, Grabthroat leading, Kagyar in hand. Most of the walls and roof had collapsed leaving no indication of what the building had been used for though Grabthroat guessed it might have been a small farmer's residence. At the rear of the house they entered a largish open space with a collapsed fireplace and an open trapdoor. Putting his finger to his lips the dwarf crept towards the opening. Crouching down he listened but indicated with a shake of his head that he could not hear anything. Leading down into the darkness was a rough ladder. Grabthroat put his axe back in his pack and led the way down, silently cursing at the rickety ladder. At the foot he found himself in a small cellar with a door in the north wall. Waiting for Pergrom, Ako and Cain to join him he listened. Beyond the ill fitting wooden door he could here rough laughter and the occasional scrape of chair legs on a stone floor. He guessed that there were at least three bugbears from the voices he could here and indicated this to his companions. Grabthroat gave a silent countdown then booted the door open. The surprised bugbears hesitated for a moment allowing the dwarf to get off a shot with his crossbow hitting one of the creatures in the chest. The others scrambled to their feet in a welter of skittering chairs and tumbling tables. One made for a rack of weapons but was knocked to the ground by a magic missile from Pergrom. Grabthroat had time to load and fire once more hitting the same bugbear before the creatures had regrouped and started to attack back. Dropping his crossbow to the floor Grabthroat drew his axe and took a blow to the ribs for his pains. Pergrom flung an arrow hitting a bugbear while Cain attacked the one before him in a flurry of hands and feet. His target slumped to the floor its neck at a sickening angle. Kagyar drinks deeply of a bugbear's blood but its victim returns the complement, a sword sinking deep in the dwarf's side. Ako, creeping from behind crushed the bugbears skull with his mace. Pergrom meanwhile had finished off the other one with his dagger.
Seeing his friends pallid face and clenched teeth the cleric muttered a brief prayer and healed the deep gash to a puckered scar and received a warm thank you from the dwarf.
A quick search of the room revealed doors leading east and west while Pergrom recovered a belt pouch containing a few tens of coins.

Asking for silence Grabthroat listened at the north door but could hear nothing. The dwarf opened the door as quietly as possible but still woke the five bugbears asleep on a set of straw pallets. Pergrom muttered an incantation and four of them slumped back onto their beds. The forth looked aghast and searched for a means of escape. Before he could move Cain had crossed the intervening distance and had delivered a stunning kick to the side of the shaggy beast's head. The beast put up his sword to counter the blow which glanced off of Cain's ribs but the flying kick snapped the bugbears neck. Cain knelt on the floor for moment muttering a sibilant mantra which to Ako's astonishment caused Cain's wound to heal. Another brief search of the rancid straw mattresses after Pergrom had slit the sleeping bugbears' throats left the party richer as each of the guards had a pouch of coins at their waist.
"Must have been pay day." Grimaced Grabthroat still sore from the wound he had taken earlier.

The cautiously returned to the first room, aware that any moment the alarm could be raised and a whole host of bugbears descend on them. The next room contained a series of pallets much like the last but thankfully this time they were empty. Grabthroat listened at the east door and heard whispering voices. "Human voices." He whispered to Ako. "This could be Pergrom's friends." Carefully they opened the door and ventured in. In the thirty foot square room beyond were a series of cages each containing a human hunched up in a poor state. It appeared that they had been badly treated by the bugbears. The marks of whips clubs were etched on their ashen skins.
Ako plucked a large ring of keys from a peg beside the door before administering healing with his staff on the pale and weak victims of the bugbears. They pulled on clothes recovered from their backpacks then the prisoners followed Cain, Ako and Grabthroat up the stairs and into the daylight. Returning to where they left the horses they started to mount up.
A scream from Pergrom turned every one around in time to see a huge green worm like creature with a gaping maw pull itself from the soil. Cain leapt in and delivered a serious of blows with hands and feet but only succeeded in knocking the creature back. A sudden strike and Cain was lifted in the creatures mouth and flung aside like a rag doll. Grabthroat jumped from his horse and attacked the worm with his axe chopping large chunks from the scaly creatures hide. His horse scared by the blood and the screams reared up and brought its hooves down on the worm's skull killing it.
Cain looked weakened as he returned to the others, his aerial journey having ended in a patch of thornbrush. For once he accepted the offer of a ride and sat behind Grabthroat as they rode away into the hills where they camped for the night.

Ako did what he could for the injured while Cain meditated to heal himself the following morning. Pergrom and his friends filled the journey back towards civilisation with stories of their adventures. Once back at the blue Falcon Pergrom and his friends thanked Ako, Cain and Grabthroat and shared a large meal and plenty of ale. Already Pergrom's friends looked fitter and less haggard, especially after a hot bath and a nights rest in the inn's soft beds. After a few more days rest Pergrom and his friends left Rennydale to continue their adventures, once again thanking Ako and the others for the aid they had given.

Back to my home page.
Back to the story's contents page

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page