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Carefully making no hostile moves, Surya addressed the man with the
best-looking armour, presumably the senior paladin present, and requested
to be taken to his leader. Hand on hilt, the knight demanded to know
who he was and what his business was. Surya, gritting his teeth for
an attack, named himself with his true name.
The reaction was not what he expected. The paladin blinked, and said
with much greater respect, "The Surya? Companion in arms of the
Lord Hildraft?" Surya nodded, and the paladins became more accomodating.
While keeping their weapons handy, they escorted him honourably enough
through the corridors to a chamber he recognized - the audience hall
where Skufruss had once received the party.
Now greatly changed, it was decorated with the blazon of Kord almost
everywhere the eye alighted, and a tall, thin man in gleaming plate
armour and a white cloak was seated behind the desk. The junior of the
paladins escorting the Tellaran announced him, and this worthy stood
and came around to greet his visitor - even shaking his hand, though
not without a slight wince. Introducing himself as Manton Vanechka,
Holy Commander of the Kordasa, and in charge of the martial half of
the Church of Kord Triumpant. He assured Surya that he, equally with
Hight Priest Rasmussen, spoke with the authority of Kord in the
land of Trialt.
It became clear that Manton was a-tremble with eagerness that the
arrival of Surya of Tellare might mean that Hildraft was in the city.
His disappointment at Surya's lack of knowledge as to the dwarf's current
whereabouts was slight, but noticeable, as he asked the human his business.
Surya explained in brief sentences that he was now the Lord of Tellare,
and had come to discuss the possibility of trade, and an alliance. "Lord?"
said Manton, "what of Vane the Mace?"
"Dead." responded Surya. Manton clasped his hands. "Is there any limit
to the wonder of the Holy Hildraft's power?" he exclaimed. There was
a pause, while each struggled to speak for quite different reasons.
Then they fell to discussing the details of the links to be forged between
the two countries. Manton, more familiar with these things than Surya,
suggested the exchange of ambassadors, and sent clerks scurrying to
start setting this up.
Hildraft, meanwhile, was exploring the city anew, observing the differences
while trying to keep his head down. Perversely, this latter was actually
rather easier, as there were a significant number of dwarves in the
streets now - a marked difference to the Kin ruled days. Somehow, it
seemed that people were looking for someone, and he had a nasty feeling
it was for him.
Things came to a head the next afternoon, when a stroll down a quiet
street was rudely interrupted by a flight of arrows that snapped and
glanced from his armour, and a headlong charge by half-a-dozen scruffy
roughs waving assorted handweapons.
Resisting the urge to teach them respect in a sharp fashion, the dwarf
stepped quickly into an alley, weaving a Zone of Silence as he
did so. As the toughs pelted around the corner into the ginnel, he followed
up with a Meld into Stone, and walked through the building on
his left and out into the streets again, losing himself in the crowd.
Something was going on. He set out for his agreed rendezvous with Sack.
The half-orc had made his way to the rundown house where Mazahir had
once rented a room. Unsurprisingly, he found that the landlady had never
been able to rent the room out since; something kept putting people
off. This appealed to Sack, and he paid for five years' worth
of rent up front, before turning in for the night.
Next day, he made his way back to the Renders' Guild, ready to meet
Hildraft as arranged. On his way, on impulse, he paid a street lad a
couple of silvers to run and announce to the patrons of the pub nearest
the Renders' safehouse that Hildraft was in the immediate vicinity.
In consequence, when the dwarf reached the area, he had to detour
around a large crowd of worryingly-religious looking people, and Sack
spent a happy five minutes silently haranguing his friend about how
late he was.
In the midst of this, the half-orc's eye was caught by a shadowy movement
atop the building next to the safe house. An instant later, there was
a whisper of airborne steel and a shoonk! as something grazed
Hildraft's neck and embedded itself into the door behind him.
Without hesitation, Sack sprang at the wall and Spider Climbed
up to the roof. There, he was just in time to see the disappearing form
of a black-clad man vanish around a chimney.
The half-orc gave chase, and the pair bounded recklessly from roof
to roof as Sack gradually caught up to his prey. As he ran, he dipped
and scooped up a broken brick. A few seconds later, he had a chance
to throw one, and by lucky chance scored a hit, striking his target
in the back of the head, and the man stumbled and fell. Sack grinned;
one of Karennal's best assassins brought down with half a brick. He
pitched the other half to keep the assassin off balance as he closed,
then drew his blades and laid them across the man's throat before he
could draw his rapier.
The assassin froze, aware that if he moved Sack could behead him in
a blink. The half-orc promptly kicked him in the groin and, as he folded
up, clubbed him into unconsciousness.
Rummaging through his equipment, Sack found a variety of interesting
items, including four poison-tipped shuriken; and a well-hidden document,
written in Thieves' Cant, describing Hildraft to a "T" and offering
a bounty of thirty thousand gold pieces for his head, plus beard.
Meanwhile, below, the dwarf was eying the crowd at the in across the
way. Their attention had been attracted by Sack's sudden vertical departure,
and some of them were nudging each other and pointing across at him.
It wasn't going to be long before he was either mobbed or killed; he
didn't fancy either. He took refuge inside the Renders' house, where
Sack subsequently caught up with him.
Leaving him there, Sack hotfooted it over to the Thieves' Guild, which
he found far more busy than usual, to find out about this warrant. Sure
enough, one of his fellow thieves, one Legger, told him that the Slacker
had issued the warrant at the same time as the ones on Rasmussen and
Skufruss, who were worth 20,000 and 30,000 respectively.
Clearly, it was time to leave, and the pair Wind Walked back
to Reital. Where they found Surya to have gone the other way...
Surya meanwhile was making progress. He had explained to Manton that
he was, in fact, negotiating for Skufruss' library on that worthy's
behalf. This was a difficult one for the paladin, as Skufruss was rather
demonized in the new Trialt, but he finally agreed to comply if the
request were confirmed by Hildraft himself.
The ambassador - one Narband - and his two bodyguards were ready at
this point, and Surya offered to take them to Reital via Skufruss' teleportation
teleportation circle - so long as they were blindfolded to keep the
operation of the portal secret. After some haggling this was arranged,
and the diplomatic group flashed across the miles to Reital.
Once there, negotiations continued, and it soon became plain that
as far as the Church of Kord Triumphant went, anything Hildraft said
went (unless Kord himself should show up to countermand it!). The transfer
of the library was arranged, trade and eonomic links were settled, and
agreement secured for the establishment of a Temple of Kord in Reital
- on condition that there was equal tolerance for any other faiths that
wanted to set up a church there.
Skufruss also confided (out of the hearing of Manton, who still had
serious problems with the Kin), that he had been in communication with
his brother Thelvian Tyrkor, ruler of neighboring Enning, and
had establised similar trade links with him.
Surya buttonholed Manton one day. "What's the deal with this Kordasa
business anyway? Why's it so special?" The paladin beamed at him, happy
to explain. "The humble temple that was before was sanctified by the
Holy Hildraft, bringing Kord's enlightenment and love back to this people,
so starved of wisdom and guidance. In addition, of course," his voice
seemed to assume Surya knew what he was talking about, " it houses the
Relic."
The Tellaran blinked. "Relic? what Relic?" he asked. Manton looked
a bit nonplussed. "Why, the Relic," he said, "the prayer-symbol of the
sainted Vollun himself, Acolyte of the Lord Hildraft, the Faithful Servant.
Gifted to Jasselan by Lord Hildraft himself."
This reminded Hildraft of something; he'd appointed Jasselan to be
the first deacon of the newly-opened temple; where had this Rasmussen
come from? A little worried, he wrote a letter to Jasselan, enquiring
of his health and enjoining him not to let the 'others push him around'.
"You ought to be in charge," he ended. As Manton was heading to the
teleport to be taken home, the dwarf handed him this missive and asked
him to deliver it.
A few days after this, Hansen the Bard emerged from his seclusion
and announced that he had composed a song to commemerate the liberation
of Tellare. First hearing, of course, was reserved to the principals,
and he sang it for them with some pride - it was really rather good,
and depicted all three as shining heroes victorious over the darkness
of the vampires. Sack promptly threatened Hansen with exile or death
if he circulated it any further, much to the bard's puzzlement, and
then demanded to be taken out altogether. Hansen was appalled; "But...
then it wouldn't be true!" he protested.
After a day or so of Hansen looking miserable and Surya aggravatingly
humming the tune (it was rather catchy, after all), the half-orc relented,
and suggested that if Hansen were to change his name and race in the
song, he'd be satisfied for it to go out. His name was replaced with
Crask Ronin, an anagram of Sack and Orrin, and
- after some tweaking of the rhymes - the Ballad of the Fall of Vane
the Mace was being sung in inns and at lords' tables in an ever-increasing
area of the Northlands. It caught on quickly, and very soon the names
of the three were household words, and their hero status was assured.
An ambassador to Trialt was needed and, perhaps surprisingly, Delgarde
suggested his old adversary Captain Gruthal of the Oterto garrison -
the man who had defeated Surya and Hildraft in a market-square debate.
After interviewing the man, the Council concurred; Gruthal and Delgarde
settled their differences over a keg of ale, and the new ambassador
departed to take up his post.
(Reital, Tellare 22nd June, 1601)
Finally, Skufruss announced that his work was done. The new councils
were ready to take the reins (though there was as yet no Councillor
for the Religions). Major - now General - Harker was drawing plans together
for a massive demobilization of Tellare's oversized armies, and a return
to more productive tasks for the spare personnel. The alliance with
Trialt was firmed up (although word had come back that High Priest Rasmussen
had died, suddenly and mysteriously, and that Jasselan had been made
High Priest on Hildraft's direct order). All seemed under control.
Skufruss bade farewell to the companions, shaking their hands and
even smiling (not something he often did). He accepted the offer of
accomodation for his library in the castle at Reital, and granted permission
for the Council to use them for research - all bar a dozen or so which
he packed up to take with him. Then he stepped into the middle of the
castle courtyard, held up the Sceptre, and spoke a word of command.
Gradually, four massive shapes materialized around him, filling the
enormous courtyard - dragons, four of them, not as big as Varkar had
been, but bigger by half than any other any there had seen or heard
tell of.
Fear began to spread among the onlookers as the huge armoured heads
swung and the vast glittering eyes raked the crowd. Then all four faced
Skufruss, standing calmly in their midst, and gracefully bowed their
mighty necks in obeisance. Skufruss stepped up the nearest's neck and
settled himself between the massive neck spines. The four dragons spread
their massive wings and hurled themselves into the air, the downdraught
of air sending dust and small debris whirling through the courtyard.
Gaining height, they circled, turned northwest, and were gone.
(Khundrukar, Erean Mountains 23rd June, 1601)
The three companions returned to the abandoned dwarven fortress where
they'd discovered Mergil, nearly a year ago. Although their personal
piles taken from Varkar's treasure were still there safe and sound,
they were uncomfortable with the security offered by the place. With
Hildraft's Stone Shape spell a major tool, they embarked on an
ambitious program of modifications that saw the majority of the complex
caved in, sealing an area comprising roughly half the Foundry - the
heart of the orginal dwarf structure - from all conventional access.
Placing several Words of Recall on the buried treasury, Hildraft
then extracted the party with Etherealness and Wind Walked
them back to Reital.
Over the next few days, Surya organized the transfer of his share
of the treasure to the castle at Reital, where he intended to maintain
a permanent base. While he did this, the others spent some time researching
in Skufruss' library. Hildraft turned up some interesting items; some
books on demonology that made him shudder and put them back, and an
ancient tome, written in Elvish, the notes and journal of one of the
long-vanished crysmagi, the wizards specializing in the enchantment
and arcana of crystals and gems. This he kept. Sack found a whole section
on vampires, and was soon absorbed, adding greatly to his knowledge
of the enemy he was trained to fight.
Two days after Skufruss' departure, a messenger arrived on horseback
from Karennal, sent by the Renders of the Dark, the only rider of five
to make it through. Kelson had sent Sack's account of Rhendal's powers
through to the motherhouse in Narthal and had receieved a speedy response
by magical means. Rhendal, it transpired, was an ancient vampire with
a known history, a member of clan Ravnos, tentatively classified
as a low clan by the Renders. Past accounts of Ravnos' doings
indicated their interest in power, domination and empires. The question
that the mother-house had returned to Sack and Kelson was: Why
were the Clans so keen to gain control over Tellare, Vane and the second-largest
standing army in Alair?
Spies had been sent to Erelhei-Cinlu, to see if that uttermost sink
of deparivity could yield up any clues; only fragments had emerged,
but the words "Cain", "Erlyid" and "Ancorir" were significant.
Several hours in Skufruss' library later, things were becoming clearer.
Cain was the legendary ancestral vampire, a god to many of the undead,
regarded by some as the first vampire. Accounts varied; some held that
he was dead, others that he lurked in the deep Underdark, still more
that he was somewhere imprisoned.
Ancorir was a name from before history. Before the elves, before the
Gods even, speculation held that there had existed entities of great
power, embodying the philosophies of Law and Chaos. These had warred
eternally, battling across the planes, and their strife had gradually
formed the multiverse material. With the arising of sentient mortal
races and their Gods, the Lords of Law and Chaos had no place, and were
subsumed into their philosophies, becoming part of the cosmology of
the Planes of Existence, eternally balances, positive against negative.
In their warring, though, each side had focussed their philosophies
into one weapon, embodying the quintessence of the Primal power that
formed it. These were the Sword of Absolute Law, called Zero-One, and
Ancorir, the Mace of Absolute Chaos. Persistent rumour had it that these
two weapons, possessed of incalculable Primal power, remained after
their masters were gone, and were hidden or lost somewhere on the Planes
of existence.
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