The Inns of Emrys

Pausing only to meet back up with Sack, Hansen, Moonflame and Billy, the pair made their exit from the city of Narthal swiftly, unable to believe that the King had not tried to have them stopped.

Gradually, as the danger of pursuit receded, their headlong pace slackened, and they settled to a more normal rate of travel. Stryre was a well-ordered land, at peace here in the interior (away from the Desolation in the north and nomad incursions in the south), and pleasant rolling farmlands were dotted with prosperous-looking farming villages. Good roads linked the larger towns together, and these allowed rapid progress.

In two days, they reached the next major town; Emrys. The name rang a bell, and a moment's thought recalled the memory - Xerxes the Gatecrasher was reputed to live in Emrys.

Riding through the streets, they discovered Emrys to be a pleasant, comfortable-looking town. Brewing was the major local industry, and as expected, most streets boasted a tavern or inn, but the majority looked clean and inviting, rather than the dangerous dives the group had been frequenting of late.

After wandering for a while, they stopped at one of the shops lining the main street, and enquired after good inns for thirsty travellers. The shopkeeper reeled off four recommendations, one of which also rented rooms, and the group headed off to locate that one - the Knife's Edge. He had also warned them sto stay clear of The Blue Boar, and they resolved to dip into that if things got too staid.

The Knife's Edge was clean and airy, and having settled their gear into their rooms, the travellers bellied up to the bar to sample the first of what were likely to be many of the local beverages (except Sack, who drank no alcohol). There was a long, appreciative silence as the amber fluid settled into their bloodstreams, and then they began to plan.

Conversing with the locals met a remarkable ignorance of anyone known as Xerxes, or for that matter any dwarves living in Emrys at all. They were close to giving up when Hansen found someone who did know him, a shopkeeper who'd sold him some nails a few months ago. This wothy told them that Xerxes had a home about twenty miles outside Emrys, and furnished directions.

Several ales later, Surya and Hildraft fancied moving on to sample some of the other brews. Inveros and Hansen were too "comfortable" to want to move, and Sack and Billy weren't really interested in a pubcrawl, so the pair went on alone.

As they left, Surya and Hildraft could hear Inveros trying unusually to persuade the bard not to sing, on the grounds that he could barely speak coherently as it was.

The pair wandered from hostelry to hostelry, sampling the local fare, and were more and more impressed by the simple orderliness of the little town. It began to feel positively safe, and that sort of thing was bound to pall eventaually for a pair of determined adventurers.

They turned their steps towards the district where they'd been told the Blue Boar was to be found, but before even reaching it their attention was siezed by the all-too-familiar song of steel blades. Turning to see, they saw two combatants, setting about each other in the stree t outside one of the inns they'd not yet patronized.

One of the duellists was a tall, handsome, dark-haired man in gleaming plate-and-mail armour, blazoned with religious symbols of one sort and another. The other was a battered-looking sort, dressed in worn brown leathers with scraped and dented metal plates attached here and there - clearly a mercenary.

The battle raged back and forth, each fighting all-out, until eventually the mercenary stumbled, clearly weary, and his guard went down for a fatal instant. Hildraft, who'd ben quietly rooting for him, groaned inwardly, but as the knight made a flashy lunge to capitalize on the error, the mercenary suddenly straightened, swayed sideways, and drove his blade completely through his foe at around waist height. Coughing blood, the knight collapsed.

Hildraft and Surya approached the victor, and congratulated him on his win. It seemed that the knight (the mercenary referred to him as "Sir Baeyard, one of those high-and-mighty knights who 'protect us from he Powers of Darkness'. The nearest we have to the Dark Powers is the brown ale! ") had attempted to relieve him of his current lady. While the mercenary - he introduced himself at this point as Dankeld - wasn't planning anything long-lasting, he took offence at this and so the fight had started.

All through this conversation, the knight had lain on the ground, gurgling his way towards oblivion, but now Hildraft turned to him and Healed him, saving his life. Hardly stricken with gratitude at this, Sir Baeyard lurched to his feet, retrieved his sword, slammed it into his scabbard, and stormed off. Dankeld laughed heartily at this; unbothered by the revival of his erstwhile victim, he was amused by the thought that Baeyard would have to live with the knowledge that a "mere sellsword" had bested him.

They fell to talking, and Dankeld confirmed that the Blue Boar was a good place for a rough and tumble if you fancied one. He explained that the Duke of Cavail (like most Stryran nobles) was paying good money to hire mercenaries these days, and he (Dankeld) was enlisted in the town guard. - though he was off-duty tonight. They asked, without much hope, if he'd heard of "The army of the Dead" and rather to their surprise he had; his rather sceptical response was "Do you believe those rumours?" They assured him that they were likely true, and regaled him with tales of the Undead they'd slain - as Surya put it - "in my Kingdom".

"Oh, you have a Kingdom, do you?" Dankeld chaffed good-naturedly. "Yes," said Surya, "come visit me sometime."

"Are you hiring?" was the swift response. "Yes, actually," said Surya sheepishly, remembering the wars brewing around his borders.

They agreed to meet Dankeld later at the Blue Boar, and headed back to the Knife's Edge to recuperate a bit before the evening.

A Neutralize Poison spell, cheerily misused, was enough to clear out the aftereffects of what they'd already drunk, and an hour's sleep set them up nicely for the evening ahead. Sack was out and about, and Hansen and Inveros had alreadydrunk themselves into their beds.

Around ten, the pair walked into the Blue Boar, passing under the cracked and barely readable sign. The entrance was very dark, darker than the rest of the room, and the pair could feel the eyes on them long before they could see the clientele. The considerable noise inside dipped sharply as they entered before rising again.

Emrys was a nice town, with largely law-abiding inhabitants. The other inhabitants were here. Most of them would not have looked greatly out of place in Gengar's Blade; the pair could feel covetous eyes weighing up the value of their equipment and tracking them as they walked from the door to the bar.

Reaching the semicircular bar, where a bored-looking barman was idly wiping dirt onto some glasses, Surya assumed his grandest accents and demanded "two of your best, my man". The barman glared at them, and drew two tarred leather jacks of dark ale which he banged down on the bar in front of them, but did not release. Hildraft flipped a golden coin onto the bar with a casual gesture.

The noise level dropped to nothing again, and the ringing noise of the bouncing coin was clearly audible. The whole room's attention was nailed to the pair now, as Surya lifted his jack and drank.

"This town specializes in ale,", he commented, "How come you're serving swill?"

Absolute silence fell. The barman sneered. "There are wine bars uptown for poofs like you," he snarled. Surya appeared unconvinced. "Two pints of your best this time," he said clearly. "Or?" scoffed the barman. For reply, Surya extracted Tormentor and the Sword of the Dead Legions from his Quiver and dropped them into their hitches on his swordbelt. Hildraft loosened his axe on his back.

The barman appeared unconcerned, and whistled sharply. Two enormous forms emerged from the shadows and lumbered towards the aggrieved drinkers. Over six inches taller than Surya, they were heavily built even for their height, and clearly only partly human - part ogre, by the looks of it, thought Hildraft. They loomed ominously over the pair, as the barman flicked the golden coin back towards Surya. "Here's your money back; now get out." he sneered.

A muttered argument broke out between Surya and Hildraft, about whether to leave, kill the barman, or wreck the entire tavern. Neither paid any attention to the subhuman man-mountains standing next to them, much to the bouncers' puzzlement.

Finally, one put out a ham-hand, and rumbled, "Go on; out!" Surya snapped, "Touch me and you'll lose that hand," but the half-ogre wasn't concerned and delivered a hefty shove. Surya had already tapped his brooch for its' Bull's Strength magic, and to the utter amazement of the bouncer, didn't move an inch.Instead, he doubled his armoured fists and whipped four lightning swift punches into the massive bouncer, rocking him backwards.

Hildraft had already prepared a Poison spell, and discharged it into the bouncer on his side of the bar. There was no visible effect, so he swung the Axe of Glass off his back. Seeing that Surya was going for a bloodless approach, though, he turned it to use the flat instead of the deadly, glittering blade. Behind the bar, the barman ducked smartly out of sight.

Surya weaved past an incoming punch that would have felled an ox, and delivered another flurry of blows, rendering his thug unconcious. The stunned half-ogre began to topple forwards,. but disdaining to scramble backwards, the Tellaran delivered an entirely unnecessary uppercut to the chin, diverting his foe so that he toppled backwards instead to crash to the planks.

Hildraft likewise battered his thug with the helve and flat of his weapon, but before he could bring him down he saw the Poison spell finally kick in; the bouncer fell heavily and lay gasping and twitching. Surya had leaped onto the bar itself, and discovered the barman preparing to rise back up armed with a crossbow. Dropping down, the Tellaran grabbed the bolt from the crossbow, leaving the startled barman with nothing but an odd-shaped club. He swung it wildly, missing Surya entirely and smashing most of the bottles behind the bar (probably the best drinks in the tavern). Surya dropped him with a couple of neat punches, and silence fell.

Picking up his ale-jack, Surya dumped the contents and surveyed the barrels behind the bar. He knew which one the first slops had come out of, but was at a loss to choose a better. Hildraft peered over the bar; "That one, I think," he said. Surya tapped it and drank deeply - much better. With a mighty heave, he lifted the entire keg off its' stand and moved it to the bar, tap outwards, then draped the two unconcious thugs over the bar to wedge it into place. Hildraft used the stir this caused to cover his Neutralize Poison to remove his spell's venom from his opponent.

Surya picked up his jack again, and waved it at the bar. "Drinks are on the house," he proclaimed cheerfully, and stepped aside as the rush began. Hildraft noted with amusement that some of the patrons were picking the pockets of others who were concentrating too much on the free drinks.

One of the patrons was Dankeld. "Well done," he congratulated as he came up for his turn. "Where were you?" responded Surya with a grin.

"You didn't look like you needed help," said Dankeld. He hefted his drink. "This is better than the regular stuff in here." he commented.

Leaving the Blue Boar's patrons to their Eldrorado, the pair returned to the Knife's Edge, collecting some food on the way, and turned in, quite satisfied with their evening.

The next morning, Hansen was dreadfully hung over, and Hildraft decided wickedly to do some armour repairs. He hammered the dents out of his own, and then offered to do Surya's. This was a little different; the armour was clearly an Elverandil set, so the design was similar (though it wasn't the same colour as it had been forged), but with each hammerfall, the dwarf found himself straining his ears; was that ... a ... whispering voice ... mingled with the clangour of steel? It was an uncomfortable experience and he was glad to return the black armour to his friend.

Later that morning, the party set off for the location described to them as the home of Xerxes the Gatecrasher.

An hour's ride took them there, and they discovered a small estate of well-tended farmland, with a small valley in its' centre. This valley was heavily wooded, concealing the contents from casual view. A track led down into the green depths.

They followed this, and finally came on a small stone-and-timber house among the trees. Although most undwarf-like, this building was clearly sized for a dwarf, and they knocked on the door.

A dwarf answered. For a moment, they stared at him in surprise. His clothing and equipment was a bizzare mix of styles and types, many utterly unknown to the viewers, many clearly extraplanar. At his waist hung a large bunch of keys, though some were so peculiar as to be diificult to identify as such, and at least one had sections which looked out of phase with reality. He was of quite advanced years, with a grey-shot beard, though still robust-looking.

"Put the kettle on," said Surya.

"For whom?" asked the dwarf. For some reason, this question seemed extremely important to him, and Surya and Hildraft responded with their real names. The dwarf relaxed visibly. "In my trade, it's important to know who you're really dealing with," he said with a grin. "I, as you may have guessed, am Xerxes. Come in." He looked at Hildraft closely. "You are from the North by your accent," he said. Hildraft realized that Xerxes, unlike any other dwarf he had ever met, did not have the distinctive accent of a dwarf from the Erean Mountains. Xerxes explained as he guided them to a comfortable parlour that his people lived in the Ndrall mountains, south of Stryre. Hildraft goggled; his people had no records or tales of other dwarves living in different parts of Alair.

When the kettle boiled, Xerxes served up cups of a strange, sweet brown liquid, utterly unlike anything the pair had ever tasted. It was delicious."Choclatal," commented Xerxes with a grin, seeing their expressions.

Then he settled back. "Why have you come to see me, gentlemen?" he asked quietly. "I am, as you probably heard, retired, after all."

Over the next hour, they told the Gatecrasher the whole story, with him making interested comments here and there. When they asked him about Bramandin, his eyebrows shot up. "Yes, I know him," he said, "very expensive. I'm not cheap, but he's very expensive." He paused. "I knew three of his victims," he added quietly.

"He's hunting us," said Surya unconcernedly. Xerxes shook his head sadly. "Oh dear, oh dear," he said, "I'd rather started to like you, too."

As the first source of decent information on Bramandin, they queried him on possible ways to get a message to him or find out more about him. Xerxes said the best place to find out might be the Great Library in Sigil. There they could try looking him up.

"And that's how to get a message to him," he finished, "look yourselves up and leave a note."

"Where is Sigil?" enquired Hildraft. Xerxes smiled and settled back. "The City of Doors," he answered, "unique in the Multiverse, and my home - once. Some say it's the centre of the Planes. Certainly it's in the neutral Outlands, within the great Wheel of the Outer Planes. Portals from it lead everywhere - if you have the right key!"

"The Lady of Pain rules Sigil, and Her power keeps the Powers out - so you'd be on your own, sir Priest," he added to Hildraft. "It also prevents Gates and Planeshifting; the only way into or out of Sigil is through portals."