by Allan Joyal
“It’s new,” Reizar said. “Which is why they took me in. But they warned me that I’m too old to remain in their care.”
“You know brewing?” Narhert asked.
“Only the basics,” Reizar said. “The dwarves were careful to ensure that I don’t know exactly what fungus and grain they use to get the exact flavor and thickness of the ales they brew.”
“This winter we probably won’t have what you need, but we’ll see if we can set up a brewery for you in the future,” Dared said. “Throw any items you are bringing in the wagon.”
“Should we wait for Roquel?” Jerisa asked as she looked at the wagon. The bed of the wagon was half full.
“We need to start moving if we want to reach Eastview before the sun goes down,” Narhert said with a huge yawn.
“I’m here,” Roquel said as she walked up leading her horse. “I hope no one minds if I bring a few friends with me.”
“Friends?” Jerisa asked.
Roquel sighed. “Actually, the better term might be descendants. Yngar and Leutal are my descendants. Ullualia is a descendant of my long-deceased brother. Only Alysia is not related to me.”
“But I want to stay near Leutal,” a blond-haired woman in the first bloom of her adulthood said with a smile. The woman had her arms around a short spear that she was holding over her back.
“Adventurers?” Dared asked.
Roquel nodded slowly. “Many of my descendants try to emulate me. I’m a bit of a legend in my family.”
“I can understand why,” Jerisa said. “Why don’t your friends toss their packs into the wagon and we can get going. If we have mules to pull the wagon.”
“We do,” Narhert said with a massive yawn. “The caravansary here and the one in Eastview offer mules for trips between the two stations. I left my mules with them last night and ran through the night with ones I picked up in Eastview. Once I arrived, I switched those out for a fresh team that will take us back to Eastview where I can pick up my original mules for the return journey to Montgar.”
“That must be expensive,” Yngar said.
“Not really,” Narhert said. “It would be cheaper to spend the night in Eastview and then another here in Fairview, but not too much more. Both caravansaries trade in mules and oxen for pulling wagons, so they would have to care for them either way. This way they get some funding for the food and care they have to give the mules until they sell.”
“Are you going to be able to stay awake?” Dared asked.
Varia giggled. “Oh, I forget you don’t have experience with caravans. All of us used to make the Sand Wastes runs. There are runs where you have to stay away for eighteen hours, sleep just two and then resume your journey and walk another twenty. It’s the only way to survive the heat and lack of water.”
“I would think you’d need more water if you were awake that much,” Dared replied.
“There is some water, and if you can maintain the right speed it will be shaded and cool when you arrive, but you have to keep moving or get caught in the open as the sun cooks the air around you,” Narhert said. “I’ll be fine. And if we start now, we won’t have to pay another day’s fee to the city.”
Dared nodded and the group started moving. Varia and Pauly stuck close to the wagon, accepting help from Jerisa, Coulette and Fyona when caring for their children. Roquel tied her horse to the back of the wagon and walked.
**
Four days later not much had changed. Dared and Jerisa had worked hard to get to know all of the new members. Varia and Pauly were cheerful and energetic. Varia frequently handed her son to Narhert as they walked just to the left of the mules pulling the wagon. Their clear love brought a smile to Jerisa’s face.
Roquel’s four friends spent time every morning exercising and practicing with their weapons. Yngar had three axes. Two were weighted for throwing and the young man was very accurate with them. The last had a large crescent shaped blade and a massive spike on the other side of the shaft. It was too heavy to swing with just one hand, but Yngar shook his head when Dared offered to look into getting a sword for him.
Alysia used a short spear with a buckler. She also had a brace of throwing knives. Dared was impressed with her patience. The young lady never seemed to overextend when she made an attack.
Ullualia and Leutal did not have weapons. They used the hands and feet as weapons. Dared had been impressed by their skill, but as they left Oersteglen he took a moment to walk by Roquel as they left the village. “Your young friends fight without weapons. It looks nice, but with the creatures we’ve heard about in the dungeon.”
“I know,” Roquel said sadly. “I’ve already warned them, but Leutal and Yngar insist that they will be able to succeed and Ullualia worships those two. I fear that Alysia is the only one who’ll do well in the dungeon once they try delving.”
“I can talk to Gee’if and Kalacho and see if they’ll try to talk sense into the young men. Those two definitely understand the dungeon far better than you or I.”
“I’ve been in it a few times,” Roquel said. “But I agree, Gee’if or Kalacho would know more. And I know better than to talk to Faestari.”
“Who’s Faestari,” Alysia asked. She had walked up behind Dared and Roquel and was keeping pace with the duo.
Roquel looked over her shoulder at the wagon. Alysia shrugged.
“Yngar is showing off his axe throwing. He thinks he’ll impress Coulette,” Alysia said.
“Fine,” Roquel said. “I know you found out about the dungeon from the messages I had been sending the family. This one is a bit different. The spirit of the dungeon has actually appeared to adventurers. She called herself Faestari.”
“She?” Alysia asked. “You’ve always been very clear that dungeons do not have a gender. They are just powerful spirits.”
“The avatar of the dungeon appears as a teenage elven girl. The first time I spoke with her she told a story about having lived as the daughter of a human man and an elven woman. The woman supposedly was actually the spirit of a dungeon who had fallen in love with an adventurer and somehow given herself a permanent body. Even now, Faestari thinks of herself as the daughter of real parents,” Roquel said.
“And this is true?” Alysia asked.
“There was one group of adventurers led by a man who seemed to know part of the story. He claimed to be related through the human father, but later encounters and events made it far more likely that he was related to some wizards who had attempted to capture the dungeon,” Dared said.
“You should have some wizards look into that,” Alysia said.
“There aren’t many in the town,” Dared said. “Actually, I think Betrixy is the only one. The Impaled Cats don’t have any wizards in their guild.”
“Koristal,” Roquel said. “Well, she’s a priestess of Cuan Bi.”
“And from what I hear she won’t enter the dungeon in the future,” Dared said. “She was only doing it for her ex-husband. I need to talk to her about her planned temple. I’d like to make sure its protected.”
“Dared!” Jerisa screamed. Her voice was filled with fear and surprise.
Dared and Roquel spun to look at Jerisa. She was standing just to the left of the wagons. Her right arm was raised and pointed to the southeast, across the open plains.
Dared turned again to follow Jerisa’s gesture. He noticed a cloud of dust rapidly moving towards them. Strange shadowy figures were leading the dust cloud as it approached them.
“What is that?” Dared asked.
Roquel whispered a word that Dared couldn’t really hear. She started jogging forward. The ground sank under her feet as she moved directly towards the cloud.
Dared drew his sword and moved to cover Roquel’s left side. He could hear thundering feet as Alysia, Leutal, Ullualia and Yngar joined him in forming a wall between the wagon and the approaching cloud.
“What is it?” Yngar asked as Roquel slowed down. The group started moving in parallel with the wagon while
watching the approaching cloud.
“It’s still far enough way I can’t tell, but I’m guessing it’s our bandits,” Roquel said.
Leutal tripped over a small rock. “Bandits? You said nothing about bandits in your letters.”
“It’s a very recent phenomenon,” Roquel said. “And I never said that the bandits were human.”
“What?” Ullualia asked as the figures in the dust storm continued to approach. As they closed it was easier to recognize them. They were running on all fours, but the faces and upper body made it clear they were used to walking upright. The faces were dog-like.
“Kobolds?” Dared asked.
“Kobolds,” Roquel said firmly as the approaching monsters slowed down. The first two to stand reached around their backs and pulled out weapons. The weapons were short-hafted weapons. The primary head of the weapon was a simple square shaped hammerhead, but the other end had a slightly curved pick-head about a foot long.
Dared hissed. “Those are mining hammers. Where did kobolds get mining hammers?”
“And those kobolds are larger than they should be. They appear to be from a dungeon,” Roquel said.
“Faestari’s?” Dared asked.
“No,” Roquel said. “I’ve seen those kobolds. Faestari hasn’t made any upgrades. These kobolds are larger than they should be.”
The kobolds paused for a moment and then charged at Dared and his companions.
Dared charged forward angling to take on one of the two hammer wielding kobolds. He did not have a shield so he held his sword with both hands. He had the point at chest level with his hands by his right hip as he lunged his body towards the kobold.
The kobold realized the danger a moment late. It tried to twist its body while bringing the hammer back, but it ended up impaled on the sword. Dared crashed into its body as he tried to pivot and pull the sword free.
Loud angry barks rang out as the kobolds moved to counterattack. There were more than a dozen in the group. Each one stood at least shoulder high to Dared and Roquel. Six were weaponless and four had primitive stone topped clubs. They spread out as Dared turned.
Roquel leapt forward. She punched at one of the weaponless kobolds. It stood unyielding until her fist slammed into the monster’s shoulder. The impact echoed out loudly as the kobold crashed into the ground.
This second death led to the kobolds charging en masse. Dared backpedaled quickly trying to remain between the kobolds and the wagon as a melee broke out.
Alysia had to duck the claws of one kobold as she thrust her spear into the crotch of another kobold. The one she attacked crumpled to the ground, dragging the spear from her hands.
“Step back,” Dared said as he lunged at the weaponless kobold. His sword cut deep into the creature’s arm. It withdrew from the fight with a loud howl of pain.
The other kobold wielding a well-made hammer had run into Yngar. The charge had bowled the young man over, but the kobold lay lifeless with the spike from the battle axe embedded in its right eye.
Leutal roared in pain as Yngar dragged himself out from under the kobold. Dared risked a quick glance and found the young man fighting three of the unarmed kobolds. One of the kobolds had an arm that hung lifeless, but the other two had managed to seize Leutal’s arms.
Dared tried to move to rescue the young man, but one of the remaining armed kobolds forced him back with a sideways swing of its club. Dared jumped back, stumbling over the body of one of the kobolds he had killed. He had to roll to his right to avoid the kobold’s overhead smash of the club as it pursued him.
A Valkyrie’s war cry rang out. Dared had no time to look for the source as he spun up to his knees and slashed a cut at the kobold he was fighting. It was still bringing the club back after its last strike had impacted the ground, so there was no defense and the sword gutted the kobold.
“They are breaking,” Alysia shouted as she came over to put a hand on Dared’s shoulder. She helped him to his feet as they watched two kobolds turn and run away.
Dared was breathing deeply as he got to his feet. He could feel bruises starting to form on his back and shoulders. “Is everyone alive?” he asked.
“The Great One protected the others,” Alysia said in a reverent voice. “And you saved me.”
“You need to have a backup,” Dared said. “You never know when you’ll lose your weapon. And why didn’t you throw your knives?”
“I didn’t think of it,” Alysia said softly. Roquel was walking over. She and Yngar were helping Leutal walk. The young man was keeping his right foot off the ground.
“Is he cut?” Dared asked worriedly. “Do we need to return to Oersteglen?”
“Unless he lied to me, he has a couple of healing potions in his pack,” Roquel said. “And its not a cut. He broke his foot kicking one of the kobolds. I warned him that armor makes his style of fighting much less effective.”
“They had stone pauldrons,” Yngar said. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Ullualia ran up. She was holding the two mining hammers. “These look strange. The shafts seem too short.”
Dared looked at them and had to admit that the hammers were shorter than any tools he had seen used at the quarry. They were finely made and had a strange purplish sheen to the metal.
“They don’t look like they are made from iron,” he said. “Roquel, you probably know more about weapons than I do. At least ones used by creatures that live in dungeons. But what dungeon?”
“I’m trying to figure out what dungeon,” Roquel said. “And I’d almost suggest taking those back to Fairview and visiting the dwarven enclave. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that those are dwarven pick-hammers. But they’d never rest if kobolds stole them.”
“Could those kobolds be the raiders everyone was talking about?” Dared asked as the group arrived back at the wagons. Narhert looked over the group as Leutal was almost carried to the back of the wagon.
“You can set him in the bed, but the path is rough,” Narhert warned. “He’ll be far more comfortable walking.”
“We have healing potions,” Yngar said. “Ullualia, get one so we can give it to him. We’ll help him walk while it heals his foot.”
“I can walk,” Leutal complained.
Ullualia rushed over. She reached into a pouch on her waist and pulled out a glass vial. “I carry a couple of potions all the time,” she said as she held the potion out for Leutal to take.
“So I’m careless,” Leutal said. “We’ve all heard it before. I’ll be fine.”
Dared shook his head and stopped paying attention to the teenage adventurers as he moved to walk next to his wife. “Sorry,” he said quietly.
“For what? Protecting me?” Jerisa said. “You have done nothing wrong. We all know that monsters prowl the lands. There were regular attacks by lizardmen or other swamp creatures back in Ridnek. They rarely got into the walled capital, but the tales all spoke of regular problems in the towns.”
Roquel rushed to catch up to the duo. “Dared, we need to hurry to Montgar,” she said.
“Why?” Dared asked.
“Those hammers, they are definitely dwarven. More importantly, they are enchanted with dark magics. Kobolds wouldn’t know the magic, and dwarves wouldn’t use them. At least no dwarves I know,” she said urgently.
“You think?” Dared asked.
“It can’t be Faestari. She hasn’t shown any interest in enhancing kobolds, and also why would she have any of her monsters in this valley,” Roquel said. “But she might know.”
Dared nodded. “I wanted to travel with Narhert and his people. They need the protection. Especially if that isn’t the only group in the area.”
“It will be the only one,” Roquel said. “If there were others, we would have seen it earlier. Remember what the farmers of Oersteglen did.”
“Fine, I’ll warn Narhert that you and I are going to ride ahead. Jerisa, can you?”
“I’ll be fine,” Jerisa said with a laugh. “Varia
and Pauly are wonderful companions and if Roquel leaves her four students we should be able to ward off any attack. Those kobolds fell quickly.”
Roquel grabbed Dared and pushed him towards his horse. “Let’s ride. I need to speak with Faestari!”
Dared rushed to his horse as Roquel said something to Alysia. Just moments later, the two kicked their horses into an amble and headed eastward, rushing to get to Montgar.
Chapter 16: Learning New Circumstances
The well-bred horses Dared and Roquel were riding were able to sustain a rapid pace for the first two days of their race back to Montgar. Still it took them four days before they cantered up to the walls. Sergeant Koltiss was there talking to Joward about something. His face turned pale as he looked at them.
“Where are the wagons? Is Jerisa fine?” Koltiss asked as he came over to grab the reins of Dared’s horse.
“We passed Berhert two days ago. The first three wagons should be here tomorrow. The others will be five days behind Berhert,” Dared said. “Everyone was healthy when we left Narhert and the wagon.”
“Why?” Koltiss asked. “We did not send anyone.”
Roquel reached behind her and pulled out one of the dwarven pickhammers they had obtained in the fight. “We were attacked by kobolds that had clearly been changed by a dungeon. This was one of the weapons they were using.”
Koltiss looked at it. “I’ve never seen such workmanship.”
“That’s what has Roquel worried. She thinks Faestari might be able to help us figure out what is happening,” Dared said.
Koltiss’ face paled again. “You don’t think she…”
“What?” Dared asked. “Of course not. But I thought you didn’t trust her.”
Koltiss smiled. “She’s been coming out and talking to the guards in the gatehouse. Some of the guards are asking if I’ll allow her to rebuild it just inside her domain.”