he obolds nd he ance f eath

After a pleasant if warm walk through open woodland and low hills on a good well used track the party glimpsed a thin wisp of smoke rising from behind a clump of small trees a few tens of paces to the south of the road. "That looks like the spot" whispered Aril "Are we ready?" The rest nodded grimly and Aril waved Grabthroat and Darkhawk forward. The dwarf and the fighter where closely followed by Trimus with Ako and Aril bringing up the rear. As they edged forward hardly daring to breath Grabthroat drew his crossbow and wound back the string. Moments seemed to stretch into hours as they crept towards the smoke. Darkhawk held up an armoured hand signalling the party to stop. Following his gaze the others could see a small entrance into the hillside covered by a dirty hide flap. A small bipedal, dog like humanoid stood sniffing the air beside the door, a short sword in its hand. Grabthroat took aim with his crossbow and fired.

The kobold looked around as the bolt thudded into the soil beside it's head and barked out a warning. Darkhawk prevented it doing anything else as he had run down the short slope to the animal and killed it with a single stroke of his sword.
"OK. Let's go in - no point in being stealthy - they know we're here." Aril looked pointedly at Grabthroat as he said this but the Dwarf didn't notice he was too busy stowing his crossbow and retrieving his axe from his pack.
Quickly moving through the hide flap the party emerged into the smoky gloom of a square room some seven paces across. Emerging from a corridor on their left were three more of the small dog like creatures baying and snuffling as they approached smelling blood on the air. The battle, if such a slaughter could be called such, was over quickly. Darkhawk's blade, the dwarf's axe and Ako's shining mace soon finished the encounter.
"We had better be careful there may be others hiding in the shadows" said Aril as the others started to search the rooms and the bodies. His fears were unfounded but all they found in the room the kobolds had emerged from were a few bone dice and wooden cups on a small table.
"Are these any good?" asked Trimus examining a rack of swords in the entrance chamber next to a wooden door set into the west wall.
"No, too rusty and hardly sharp enough to cut cheese let alone kobold hide" replied Darkhawk fingering the notched and rusty blades disdainfully.
"Let's get this over with shall we - more kobolds could turn up any moment." said Ako a little anxiously.
"You're right. Let's go through that door we saw in the first room. Grabthroat, you and I will go first." said Aril heading back to the entrance.
The wooden door was stiff where it had sagged on its hinges but with the combined strength of Aril and the dwarf it opened up to reveal a low torch-lit corridor some fifteen paces long. Three wooden doors similar to the one they had just opened led off of the corridor. Trimus coughed at the acrid smell of the poorly made torches to which Aril responded with a disparaging glance.
"Which way first?" whispered Trimus breaking the uneasy silence.
Ako moved to the North door and listened, slowly shaking his head as he stood.
"OK. We take the North room first." said Aril and with that he shoved hard on the wooden door with his shoulder.
"Pah! Nothing here but stinking kobold bunks." cursed Grabthroat, poking around the palettes with his axe.
"Let's try the South door - before who ever sleeps here turns up. There are eight bunks here - we only killed four kobolds!." said Trimus who had been keeping watch on the corridor from the doorway.
Again Ako knelt by the door, gently pressing his ear to the wood panelling. "Nothing - I fear the wood is too thick to hear through" said the cleric smoothing his robe as he stood. Grabthroat pushed open the door while Ako and Darkhawk rushed past into the room with Aril close behind surprising five kobolds eating from rough wooden bowls at a long table.
The dog-like creatures barely had time to gain their feet before they were hacked down by axe, hammer and swords. Darkhawk opened a small wooden door in the far wall of the dingy chamber and looked through.
"Nothing through here - just a smoke pit and some hams." he coughed as he returned rubbing the tears from his eyes.
"Trimus, it looks like just the one door left - see if you can hear anything beyond it." ordered Aril cleaning his sword and marching out of the room into the corridor. The corridor darkened towards the end, one of the torches having gone out and so Trimus didn't see the thin cord stretched across the passage just in front of the doorway.
"Oh futtucks!" cursed the Dwarf as Trimus caught the cord with his foot setting off a harsh clanging sound in the room beyond the door. "It looks like they will be expecting us now - we had better not disappoint them. Kagyar!!".
Yelling his patron's name in a blood - curdling fashion he crashed through the door splintering its hinges and almost falling over in the process. Aril looked sadly skywards, shook his head and followed the speeding dwarf and cleric into the room with Darkhawk and Trimus not far behind.
The sight that greeted them was enough to halt them in their tracks. Grabthroat had taken a nasty blow to the ribs, blood already staining the grey of his tunic black.
Aril stepped forward and engaged what appeared to be the kobold chief - more richly armoured than any of the other dog-men they had seen before. WhatÌs more this kobold appeared to know how to use the well-crafted sword he was holding. Without warning a bright flash illuminated the scene, freezing motion like a flash of lightning in a storm. Trimus had launched a magic missile against the chief striking him full in the chest. Stunned and half blinded he had know defence to Aril's slanting stroke that severed the beasts head from its body. Grabthroat had his revenge on the kobold that had attacked him while Darkhawk and Ako had dispatched the other two kobolds.
"Are you all right Grabthroat", asked Trimus kneeling next to his friend who had slumped next to his victim.
"Yes, just a little winded that all"
"It's more than that" said Ako concern in his voice "We need to get him to a temple when we get back to the city"
"I said I'm all right - now help me up" growled the dwarf, a little embarrassed by all the fuss and attention. He helped himself to his feet using a broken stool to help, barely hiding a grimace of pain from his concerned friends.
"Hey! Look at this I think I've found something." called Ako.
"What is it?" asked Aril, "Is it something to do with my brother?"
"No. At least I don't think so" replied Aril. "It looks like a map and a list of some sort but I can't read the writing - is it kobold?"
"I'll take them back to the city." Aril said rolling up the scraps of parchment and stuffing them into the inside pocket of his backpack. "Ako how about you and Darkhawk bundling up a few heads?"
"Just give me a minute to check this chest" said Darkhawk bending over a tatty wooden box with rusty metal hinges. "Wow! There's thousands of coins in here." Darkhawk's voice could hardly be heard over the clatter of coins as he ran his hands through the glittering pile. "There mostly copper but some are silver - I hope we brought enough sacks".
"When you have quite finished" interrupted Grabthroat "Hadn't we make sure that none of our 'friends' return to their lair. Drag a few of the beds into the entrance chamber and burn them. That should bring the walls in and block it up completely."

A few minutes of effort half filled the small entrance chamber with the rotting straw palettes and broken chairs. After the others had climbed back into the open air Trimus tossed in his torch, waited for it to catch then followed his friends.

"That should do it." mumbled Grabthroat around his pipe as he sat looking back at the smoke rising from the kobolds lair his back against a gnarled oak. "Ako and the others have found a trail of some sort leading into the bushes. I said I'd wait here for you. It's only a badger or something. Do you want a puff?"

"I think I see an opening up ahead - bit large for a badger set isn't it?" whispered Ako.
"There might be some more treasure lets go in" replied Darkhawk pushing past the cleric.
"Or kobolds" muttered Aril shaking his head.

The roughly dug hole angled downwards into the hillside. The first length of the tunnel was a tight squeeze, especially for Darkhawk, but then the tunnel opened out into a small dank and smelly cavern.
"All that effort for a few rags and bones" moaned Ako surveying the contents of the lair. "I'll go back and tell Trimus and Grabthroat".
As he waited for Ako to squeeze his way past and out the hole Darkhawk idly poked at the rags with his sword.
"I've found something!" he cried spying a glinting crystal in amongst the debris. He reached down to pick it up then drew back his hand, yelping as he did so.
"Aril quick Darkhawk's being attacked!" shouted Ako up the tunnel having turned around at Darkhawk's first cry. He swung his hammer carefully in the confined space shattering the rat's skull. Three other rats, each the size of a small dog, had emerged from the rags and were attacking Darkhawk, the large fighter having a hard time bringing his sword to bear on the small, fast targets in such a confined space. Ako on the other hand was making short work of them his hammer rising and falling with great power and accuracy.
"What do we have here then" said Aril laconically. "What a bunch of heroes! A pleasant enough reward though. A nice piece of amber and two quartz crystals if I'm not mistaken."
"Let's get back to the others. It's starting to get dark and we have a way to go before we get back to the city." said Darkhawk a little embarrassed by his efforts against the rats.

Sunset over Ierendi City is one of the most pleasant sights in the Known World. The pale shades of the Coral Palace are enhanced by the ruddy glow of the setting sun. Trimus and the others missed this however as they were still some way from the city when the afternoon sun faded into twilight. The journey back was slow. The sacks of coins so bravely won weighed heavy on weary shoulders and Grabthroat's wound made it difficult to draw breath whenever his sack shifted on his broad shoulders. He cursed into his beard whenever his jerkin pulled the scab from the cut causing it to bleed afresh. Ako and Trimus could see the dwarf was in pain but their offers of assistance fell on deaf ears. About half a mile from the city boundary the group stopped for a rest and a drink of water when they heard the sound of pipes drifting from the woods north of the road.
"What lovely music" sighed Aril "Who could be playing out here at this time of night."
"Some fool of an elf no doubt" grumbled Grabthroat. "We should be able to reach the Inn before nightfall if we push on now".
"No. Let's see who it is" said Trimus in a dreamy, wistful sort of voice. The music made him think of home. Of open fires on a winter's evening. Of fresh whirtleberry pie. Of peace. The others agreed and followed him into the woods.
"Pah! Humans! No more sense then yesterday's lunch. What would they do without me." Gingerly picking up his sack he followed the others into the darkening wood.

A few tens of paces into the wood Grabthroat caught up with the others, crouching in the bushes at the edge of a clearing. In the centre was a crackling fire its glow illuminating the opposite edge but making the gaps between the trees appear dark and eerie. Around the fire, their bodies glowing and shining with sweat, was a strange group of dancers. Humans, dryads and fauns the latter cavorting and gambling on their furry legs, the former dancing at a furious pace on bloodstained feet. All bar the fauns bore a transfixed grimace upon their flushed faces. The music that so entranced Trimus came from the largest of the fauns who was playing a set of pipes.
"They must have been dancing for hours" whispered Darkhawk.
"Yes. We must do something about it." Replied the cleric in a loud whisper." It's wrong, evil in some way. Grabthroat can you hit the faun with the pipes with your crossbow from here?"
The dwarf raised a bushy eyebrow and gave Ako a withering look as he drew and set his crossbow in a single fluid motion. He sighted along the quarrel then stopped as his eyes met those of the faun. The tune changed in a subtle way growing larger without getting louder.
"Grabthroat! Darkhawk! Ako! What in blazes are you doing!" Shouted Aril as they stood dropping their weapons and walked into the ring to join the dance. Faster and faster went the tune and Trimus could clearly see the effect that this was having on his friend. His jerkin was now being stained with fresh blood as the dancing reopened his wound. Trimus was surprised as Aril burst through the shrubbery beside him and cannoned into the Faun from behind causing the him to drop his pipes. Seizing his chance Aril brought his booted heel down onto them crushing the fine, pale wood into splinters. The faun looked Aril up and down for a moment, spat once on the floor then with the other fauns walked off into the forest, not once looking back. The other dancers lay collapsed on the grass breathing heavily.
"Aril, quickly." Shouted Trimus who with Darkhawk was kneeling beside a sickly looking dryad. Grabthroat breathing heavily and painfully, slumped against a tree and was attended to by Ako who wrapped a length of cloth around the dwarf's chest.
"Now don't go doing anything stupid now." chided the cleric in an attempt to make Grabthroat laugh.
"Huh. Just what I need, a big sister." groaned the dwarf in reply.
"We have got to get her to her tree" whispered Aril who with little effort had lifted the dryad into his arms and was cradling the pale creature.
Walking smoothly but with as much pace as they could they moved through the woods following the faintly murmured words of the dryad. Within minutes their only light in the deep darkness of the forest was the sapphire glow of the dryad but even this was getting fainter.
"We must hurry - she's beginning to fade" urged Aril.
"That must be the one." replied Trimus pointing to a slender larch with a faint blue aura surrounding it.
As Aril and the others approached the tree the Dryad pushed Aril away and run to the tree, sighing as she embraced it. To Aril and Trimus's eyes it seemed that her body merged with the trunk for an instant before she returned and curtsied before Aril and presented him with a small silver object before she skipped back to the tree and vanished.
"Wow!" mouthed Aril to Ako who was similarly stunned by his experience. Aril opened his hand and revealed a delicately wrought silver boar with tiny blood red drops of ruby for eyes.
"It's beautiful." said Trimus.

"It's elven, probably very old. A very fine piece of work." said Grabthroat handing the boar back to Aril.
"I've sent Ruik and Mara, the youngsters, back to their parents. They were tired but otherwise unhurt, which is more than I can say for you." He finished sternly looking at the dwarf.
"Humph" grumbled Grabthroat

The remainder of the journey back to the city was uneventful though Grabthroat's injuries and the sacks of loot made it slow. By the time they had reached the People's Temple the last traces of the sun had disappeared and the sky was sprinkled with stars.
"Are you sure they can help?" asked Grabthroat.
"Yes. Now come on." Ako pulled on a red silken cord beside the oaken temple door and somewhere in the distance a bell rang. Moments later a hatch in the door slid open and a tanned face framed by short white hair peered through the metal grill.
"Yes brother, how may we be of assistance?"
"I have a friend, he is badly hurt. Can you heal him?" pleaded Ako.
"Of course brother. Come in. Come in."
The door opened quietly revealing a small chamber dimly illuminated by a brazier in the centre. The elderly cleric led the dwarf to a bench beside the brazier and removed the dwarfs blood-soaked clothing. He drew in his breath at the deep gash which revealed white bone in places so deep was it. He laid his hands either side of the wound and muttered an incantation under his breath. Ako almost gasped as he saw the skin melt together until their was hardly any sign of injury.
"Drink this" ordered the cleric giving Grabthroat a honey coloured liquid in a small glass vial.
"Thank you sir" stammered Grabthroat returning the now empty vial, " How can I repay you for this?"
"A donation to the People's Temple is always appreciated. Our potions and good works need to be funded somehow." He said with a wry smile.
"Of course" blustered Grabthroat, pulling a handful of coins from his pouch and gave them to the cleric.
"I'm hungry" grumbled Darkhawk "I hope Otig has something for us. Fighting's tough work!"

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