The
Quest
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The
Quest
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Chapter 5: Cannibals
“But...” Nova continues, “you can’t really mean that?”
Smallwood nods his head, “That you never go anywhere with humans? You’d better believe it!”
"Well that got us absolutely nowhere!” Crovic says, “I am not happy about losing so much time. We should keep moving even if it kills us... better to die on the move, than cowardly waiting for a pack of vile ogre to stumble upon us standing here like two-bit slugs, although I would not mind ogre blood smeared on my long sword." Crovic admires his sword with a grin and a twinkle in his eye.
The little man pales considerably and starts edging further away. He looks like a man trapped in a den of wild wolves.
Lars holds up his hands with a frown.
"Easy now, fellows! If Mister Smallwood doesn't want to help us, that is his decision. There is nothing more futile than trying to force someone to guide you. But by the same token, if this fog is your doing, I ask you to lift it. We have done nothing to warrant this treatment. And we did find some of your kinsmen, whether you believe it or not. They had been dead for some time. We have a sword we found... who has that? Show it to our new acquaintance here so he knows we are in earnest."
Simoneous steps forward, "I am afraid we are not joking about the cage. We found this by the bodies." Simoneous holds the small sword out to the Halfling, “Do you have any idea who it belongs to?"
Jonathan looks warily at the sword and at the man holding it, “What’s that? Some sort of fancy bread cutter? Looks a bit long awkward though”
Nova smiles, “Oh now who is telling a joke?” He laughs, “I’d hate to see the loaf at needs something that big to cut it.”
“So why do you have it and what’s it got to do with my people? I’d have heard of someone carrying around a carving knife that big!”
Simoneous answers, "I thought that the friends and family should know what happened to their loved ones. This was the only identifying item the bodies had. I was planning to use it to find them when I finished here so they could be told."
“Return it to their families eh? Well does it have a family sigil on it anywhere?”
Simoneous looks at the weapon as Nova asks, “Where would it be on it?”
Smallwood gives him a curious look, “How would I know? Normal people aren’t in the habit of marking kitchen utensils.”
When Simoneous can find nothing, Smallwood edges forward to take a look, wary of a trap and especially wary of Crovic.
He nears the young mage and looks at the sword, “It looks even weirder up close, who would make such an ungainly thing. You can’t use it for much of anything.”
He touches the handle and freezes as various images flit through his mind. The tip of the blade falls to the ground, nearly skewering his foot. He drops the handle and leaps back, “It’s cursed! You tried to curse me!” Smallwood turns and runs full tilt into the fog, “You’ll never catch me like that again!” He vanishes within moments.
***************
"Strange little fellow if I do say so myself! Now are we going to find a way out of this mess or not? My vampire of a sword is in need of drink so if you all wouldn’t mind, lets get adventuring eh?" says Crovic with a frown looking in the direction Smallwood retreated.
Lars, his jaw hanging, watches the halfling run off. He picks up the sword and examines it.
Simoneous shouts out into the fog. "I am sorry, I did not know." He turns to his companions, "I hope the little guy doesn't suffer any ill effects."
Chatham watches the halfling disappear and the casts a sidelong glance at the sword in Lars hand, “You know we *could* just leave it here.”
After carefully examining the sword Lars can find nothing obviously distinctive of magical about it.
Simoneous puts the sword away, much to Chathams regret and asks, "Well what now?"
"What a peculiar little fellow! Still, this fog can't be everywhere, especially if it is magical.” Lars wonders, “Do you think we should follow him? Dashing off like that, he should be easy to track."
Nova leaps on the idea immediately, “Crovic you can track him right? Let’s go he’s bound to lead us to something interesting.”
Crovic shrugs and checks out the ground where Small wood vanished and frowns. The little man’s tracks seem to vanish only a few feet away from where they saw him disappear. They end in a small patch of grass surrounded by trees. A quick search turns up nothing in the immediate area and there don’t seem to be any signs of hidden boltholes or other things.
Reluctantly Nova calls off the search. Realizing that his grand scheme to become rich off the traveling rarity has gone up in smoke he returns to the original matter, “Okay! Lets go go go!”
He heads off in the direction he thinks is right and follows it until the fog lifts around sunset. They find that they were heading due west much further west than expected.
Early the next morning they head southeast and quickly come upon a strange scene. There is a clearing with what look like spears scattered all over and strange yellowish spots straining the ground occasionally mixed in with blood. It looks as if a fierce battle took place here recently not more than a day or two.
***************
“Looks like we missed all the fun.” Chatham comments
Lars looks around in wonder, "These are certainly dangerous parts! Battles and slaughters everywhere..."
Simoneous looks on, "Well it look like there was a battle, can any one tell which way the survivors went?"
"What manor of monster spews blood from its body? Seems to me that the red blood creatures were victorious over the yellow unless there were few red blood that were very powerful! I say we all be all the more careful of our surroundings. I don’t feel like being ambushed while tip-toeing through tulips!" says Crovic with a sneer at the bloody mess.
Nova’s only response is to quickly search the area, “See if anyone dropped anything?”
Simoneous also joins in the search, but for different reasons. He is surprised that despite the amount of “blood” there don’t seem to be any bodies. In a few case he can trace the trail of blood a few feet before they vanish. But it seems as if the bodies were moved it was after they had bled to death. He curiously looks at the yellow stains noting that on the grass around them are small bits of yellow pollen, but otherwise the battlefield reveals nothing.
A quick search only turns up several spears with red-blood on them, staves and a couple of yellow stained arrows.
Ranging far a field, it is Chatham that makes the discovery, “Look here. It seems that several people left this way.” He notes looking at the dried muddy footprints. He pulls a bit of fine red lace off the trunk of a tree, where it obviously got torn off.
There seems to be no way to tell if the group that left his way was part of the yellow blooded group or the red blooded group.
Fortunately or Unfortunately, Nova realizes that they must head in the same direction as the survivors from the fight. “Since they left nothing they may well be cannibals,” he mutters half to himself.
***************
Lars chuckles, "Cannibals, do you really think so? That would be lovely! It would truly complete my set of rural wonders. If it is always so interesting out here in the wilderness, I may never return to the city again!"
Nova examines the faint trail left by the one group his face uncharacteristically serious. For a brief moment he looks like a much older man. Then suddenly he smiles and the age seems to vanish from his features as he says, “If we are very, very quiet and sneaky maybe we can find their camp before they find us and go *around* it. I know how Lars would just *love* to meet these people. But I for one would rather get the treasure!”
Turning more serious, Lars examines the yellow pollen by the "blood" stains. "One set of enemies may be more plant people like the ones we fought before. Only one way to find out, though. Shall we go?"
Chatham, scanning the woods intensely says, “I’m in agreement the ranger. We’d best be careful, because someone ambushed someone else and I don’t plan on meeting either party. Are you sure we have to go this way?”
Nova nods and says, “Well I don’t know much about tactics, being a city boy and all, but how about this. Crovic you take point and scout ahead, Chatham you take rear and watch our backs. With Simoneous, me and Lars taking the middle. Hopefully we don’t have too much longer to go.”
The others nod, Chatham and Crovic seem eager to leave this sight. Morale drops a little as they realize they the survivors of the ambush are dragging a body and heading in the same direction they need to go in. Due South.
It isn’t long before they find signs that the other party has stopped dragging the body. There is a wet spot on the ground where water was poured.
When the party reaches the wet spot in the trail, Lars points it out to the others.
"Whoever we are following has a Priest of Solutious in the party!" He shrugs and says, "Not bad fellows, I suppose. Useful in their way. Of course, you, my friends, have the better of them by far! You are very wise to travel with a Priest of Arilus. Why settle for anything less than the best!"
Lars chuckles good naturedly at his own bragging and continues on.
From there after the trail as an additional set of footprint in the soft earth.
Crovic searches ahead and is the first to spot it, a clearing with a strange mountain of black rock in the center. From the safety of the forest edge he scans the clearing and everything seems still. He can detect no one hiding in the nearby forest edge and there doesn’t seem to be any real signs of life around. The grass here seems springy however and if there were any recent tracks the grass is hiding their signs.
He returns and reports what he finds to the others.
***************
Simoneous suggests, "It looks like a good place for an ambush maybe we should send in a scout, feel like having a look around nova?"
Nova stares back at Simoneous flatly. “I’ll trust that Covic didn’t find anyone waiting for us, so lets go!” He strides ahead not waiting for the other to follow.
Crovic adds, “I am thinking that there is something a bit strange about the mound of rock in the center of the clearing... I say we examine it. Keep your eyes open for any traps set, I have a strange feeling these creatures know we are behind them."
When they reach the clearing, Simoneous grabs a stray stick and pokes at the edge of the grass. If he was expecting a response, he is disappointed.
Lars examines the mound of black rock carefully. He says to Nova, "How close are we? Could that be it? In any case, I'm all for taking a closer look."
Nova shrugs, “It’s not on the map. Maybe it’s an ancient civilization that left treasure behind!”
Crovis slowly enters the clearing, followed by Lars with Nova a good distance behind and Simoneous trailing.
The grass is tall and springy, leaving almost no trace of their passage and obscuring various chunks of rubble upon which the group stumbles on time and again.
They make the journey to the pile of rubble with no incident. The forest around them is quiet with only the wind blowing through the trees to make any noise.
At the base of the pile are huge chunks of shiny black rock that are so smooth they might as well have been polished. There seems to be no real pattern in the chunks of rock. Some look like they have been hack off others look like they were broken and still others look like they were recently polished.
Here and there are spots where something orange peeks out beneath mound of black. There is a huge column of rock tilted and lying along the side of the pile of rock. It looks as if there is part of a hand holding the column near the top of the mound, but most of the rock is obscured and buried beneath the random chunks.
If there were creatures here anytime recently, there is no sign of them now.
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