The Emissary Bard (World Of Chains Book 3)

by Lars M.

  With much complaining, everybody got to work, and we dove back into the darkness and stench. I had to hand it to Exogenics. They managed to include all the nastiness needed to impress upon you how battles were a filthy, horrible business. The stink was unbelievable and the details lifelike - sometimes even too much so. I flinched as I bent down to inspect yet another maggot corpse. This one had suffered a mace stroke right in the teeth, and the mouth was a horror show of shattered teeth, blood, and dark goop. Even with the carnage, however, Exogenics had avoided the worst of the hassle, forgoing realism in favor of practicality. In practice, that meant I didn't have to carry an arsenal of saws, pliers, and hammers to loot all crafting ingredients. I merely had to touch the body, and they were presented to me. This one was about average. Two nasty-looking [Maggot Mouthparts], one piece of [Maggot Meat] - ew - and a piece of [Dark-infested Maggot skin.] Heh - and three of Arack's tiny throwing knives. This one had been a stubborn one.

  We went through every single corpse, one after the other. I didn't envy Arack or Darya, who had to spend time looking over every nook and cranny to ensure they hadn't missed an arrow or dagger. Still, it went fast, and my stockpiles were growing impressively. We did the full tour, circling around the large chamber and picking up everything. Behind the large table, now broken, where Othell and the blood brothers had kept their items, lay a pulsating magic circle. The arcane symbols surrounding the circle were outlined in chalk, and it gave off an ominous aura. I stared at it for a while before Darya passed me by with a wink and scuffed the chalk marks with her foot. Instantly, the magical aura disappeared and a pop-up confirmed the completion of the quest.

  Congratulations. You have completed the quest:

  Pest Exterminators

  You have removed the three threats to Grant's Crossing.

  Reward:

  You have received 450 experience points. Experience towards next level: 1895/5000

  Additional rewards for destroying the magic circle, keeping magic from spilling into the building:

  Your reputation with Grant's Crossing has increased by +500(+20%)=600. New reputation: 5150 (Honored)

  Reward waiting in Grant’s Crossing

  When everybody was finished, we all gathered around the corpse of the giant fly.

  "You guys killed that?" The awe in Arack's voice was unmistakable.

  There was ample reason for awe. Even in death, battered and broken, lying on its side in a pool of blood and spilled magic, the beast was fear-inducing. The scant few horror movies I'd watched kept poking my mind, telling me to look out for one last jump scare. Feigning nonchalance, I walked up to the big insect and kicked it. "This tiny thing? Nothing to it." Darya coughed and I grinned, abashed. "C'mon. Leave Lyle and me a bit of bravado." Rolling my eyes, I relented. "All right, you spoilsport. We almost died twice, and it was only due to a supernatural move by Darya that we made it. Please don't try stuff like this at home."

  Arack was practically tripping over herself with impatience. "Sure. No problem, Uncle. Can we get to it already? You guys took forever killing it, and I want to see if it had anything useful."

  "Young people today, eh, Darya? Maybe we should take a while to discuss the value of patience?"

  Darya slapped the back of my head. "Get to it, oldtimer. I'm curious too, you know."

  "Oldtimer. Ow - my heart." Holding my chest, I stumbled theatrically toward the foul corpse and reached out. I watched the incoming notifications, reading in silence… and my smile slowly grew.

  "Come. Ooooon!"

  "All right, dear audience. At long last, I bring to you, with no further ado - ow, no throwing stuff!" I laughed and rubbed my shoulder. "First, the boring stuff. We have a double handful of [Tuft of Giant Fly Hair.] Those could probably go as ingredients for your ammo, Arack. We also have a rare [Core of Darkness] that's only for Tinkerers, so I'm nabbing that one. Then we have a single [Giant Fly Eye] - you can blame Darya's crazy marksmanship for the demise of the other one - and then we only have the good stuff left. There are two [Dark-infested Fly Mouthparts] and two [Dark-infested Fly Legs] here. This is a bit out of my area of expertise, but to me, they just look like they're begging to be turned into weapons. Lyle?"

  He eagerly received the items and looked them over. The mouthparts, though clearly organic, were basically already formed as knives - at least, if you preferred your knives as long as your forearm, sharp, curved, and tapered to a point. As for the legs... Lyle leaned back. "Are those claws still oozing magic? Beren, that's freakish. All right, the mouthparts are easy. Just file 'em down a bit, add a handle and you have a couple of nice stickers. From the looks of it, they're sturdy and good for close combat."

  Arack interrupted, yelling, "MINE."

  Lyle continued, ignoring her, "The legs would need a bit more work. You'd have to remove those hairs, remove a handful of unnecessary parts near the foot... claw, whatever this is. Then add a hilt, and make sure you have an antidote for whatever those claws ooze. Still..." He wrapped a piece of cloth around the leg and gave it a test swing. "the balance is good and considering the heft of it, it might turn out as a good replacement for my battered, old mace."

  I nodded. "That leaves only Darya. I'm sorry, but it looks like you'll wind up getting cheated this time around."

  "Thank you for thinking about me; my equipment's decent, though. Make me a fancy trap or two, and I won't complain."

  "Shall do. Sorry, folks. No more gifts for today."

  "Ah-ah. You forgot something." Arack walked past me to crouch before the insect and stood up with a handful of vials. "Blood. Trade secret. It's an Alchemist trick - but I'm betting it's going to turn into something downright nasty when I find the right recipe." She blew the rest of us a kiss.

  Lyle just stared. "I don't know whether I should be intrigued or frightened."

  "Why not both?" Darya and I spoke in unison and then broke out in laughter. I continued, "Now, I really want to get the Pits out of here and maybe take a shower for an hour. Or three. Who's with me?"

  Darya and Arack cheered the thought. Lyle, to my surprise, didn't.

  "I... it's not like I enjoy this place. Still - we never actually got to explore the building completely the last time we were here. I would prefer it if we ensured that we haven't missed something crucial. Would that be all right?"

  To my surprise, nobody complained. Arack was clearly interested at the thought that her kin had built the place, and the others acted like it was a grim duty that needed to be done properly. As for me? I was just curious. I'd simply forgotten about Othell coming from some other place, and if Lyle told me that we should go search the place? That was basically the game itself giving me the equivalent of a large floating exclamation mark.

  The area we had to search wasn't exactly overwhelming. Apart from the exit leading to the surface, only two tunnels led away – and one of those had collapsed ages ago. We did go over the entire chamber to ensure that we hadn't missed something, but it was quickly over with. The only thing that took a while was convincing Arack that I'd tell her everything I knew about the story behind the mural. I did soon find myself back in a familiar situation – creeping along the ground, checking for traps.

  This time around, however, I wasn't alone. Darya was right next to me, peering into the half-darkness. Her eyesight was better than mine, and the time spent in the forest under Benneth's tutelage had lent her a high Spot skill. We worked in companionable silence, only speaking to point out suspicious areas. Lyle and Arack were less silent, chatting amiably behind us as we walked.

  The tunnel we were investigating was less damaged than the rest of the place. Fewer traces of the dark magic were present, and even the walls themselves looked sturdier, less touched by the passing of time. There was no decoration, though; nothing to denote what we were walking into. Things started to appear along the corridor – boring utilitarian objects. A coat rack. An empty set of shelves. A low table. It was the first hint I'd seen that somebody had actually lived here at so
me point. I tapped my cheek. "Methinks we found the place they lived – not the façade they were maintaining up above, but the real deal."

  My hypothesis was proved right a moment later as we touched upon the first room alongside the corridor. The ever-present splotches of dark magic illuminating the path had become increasingly scarce along the tunnel, and inside the room, it was pitch dark. Lyle and Arack produced torches and we continued in the flickering light.

  Once we'd checked the place for traps, Darya said, "Mess hall."

  I agreed. We investigated the place thoroughly and moved on. Whatever the place might have held of interest, it had been long since cleared, leaving only a massive wooden table holding towering stacks of plates and utensils. Next lay the kitchen, easily recognizable by the huge fireplace and the vent to the surface.

  I mused aloud, "So there's no doubt that this place has been deserted for decades, right?"

  Darya nodded, scanning the entrance to the next room. The tunnel had started sporting entrances on both sides, and the place seemed large. "Agreed. The piles of dust are a dead giveaway. It's weird how everything seems ghostly, though."

  "Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Everything's been cleaned out completely. Whoever left this place did so in an orderly fashion and activated the traps behind them."

  "Mmhmm. Your point?"

  "That we might as well skip searching the common rooms. If we can find something that tells us what happened, it's not going to be in the kitchen."

  From behind, Lyle laughed, "Yeah, can we speed this up? I'm running out of embarrassing stories about you guys."

  Rolling her eyes, Darya led the way. We skipped past a couple of rooms unlikely to hold anything of interest. There were a couple of additional dormitories... how many had there been to begin with? Then a workshop of sorts, containing benches and what Lyle insisted had once held anvils. A few large rooms filled with shelving followed after a room filled with hangers and racks that were likely designed to hold armors and weapons. These rooms we investigated thoroughly, to no avail.

  Lyle complained, "No respect for traditions, these kobolds. By now, we were supposed to find an ancient legacy of some sort...or at least a stockpile of gold. This is a huge disappointment."

  Arack huffed. "Hey. Don’t disrespect my kin – even if you’re right. "

  At last, we reached the end of the tunnel and stared by the flickering torch light into a final room, and I smiled. "Now we're getting somewhere." The small room held a large dust-covered table, a collection of chairs, and four open doorways that led to smaller rooms, containing beds and a single chest each. After looking for traps, we walked in to gather before the single noteworthy item in the room - yet another large mural. This one was recognizable: good old Thracken himself. He carried his favorite scepter and ornate spear and looked inordinately smug. "So, my money is on this being the rooms for the higher-ups. Priests, leaders, and suchlike. What does the writing on the mural say, Arack? 'Go forth..."

  "Go forth, ye faithful, and release these innocent peoples of their chains."

  "Wow… that sounds friendly. I suppose that alludes to kobolds going out to war against the dwarves and liberating all the rest of the races - under the benevolent oversight of Thracken himself, obviously."

  Arack preened. "To be fair, I would've made a wonderful, benevolent queen to all you substandard species."

  Lyle snorted. "That's a tall order, short stuff - ow!" He jumped around on one leg, holding the other. Teetering, he reached for the table to support himself... only for it to crash to the ground in a billowing cloud of decades of accumulated dust.

  We fled out the door, coughing and wheezing, and Lyle came crawling after. Once the dust and the inevitable teasing had settled, we moved back into the room. I stared at the mural, willing any hidden clues to reveal themselves or prompt a new Chronicler quest. Nothing. It was just your regular disturbing depiction of a homicidal deity.

  Lyle cleared his throat only to launch into another coughing fit. Once he was done, his wheezing voice whispered, "Look at the table."

  We all stared down at the debris. It was an impressive wreck, really. All four legs had snapped clean off, leaving the uneven wooden surface to lie flat on the ground. The surface was covered by dirt, disturbed only by Lyle's handprints, revealing...

  Arack's disbelieving voice queried, "Are those, like, supposed to be trees?"

  Our scrambling to clear the surface resulted in another pile of dust and inevitable coughing fits. Eventually, however, we managed to expose a map of the Dawnlight Forest, easily recognizable. "Arack. Please tell me that is what I think it is."

  Her tail swished back and forth over the floor in excitement. "History. Kobold history. I thought you said this place was twenty years old or so?"

  I shrugged. "I’m no archeologist. Twenty, thirty... however long it took for the buildings up above to become as dilapidated as they are. Well, as they were... these maggots really didn't leave much standing."

  "Wrong," she admonished. "I don’t know about the buildings up there, but this? This is pre-Separation." Her tail’s cadence quickened as she explained. "See this? 'Dispersion, Year 4.' This whole master plan we had, where we were going to rule the world? It had several stages. Preparation. Dispersion. Retribution. Deliverance. I know, they were, like, so theatrical with their naming."

  Lyle raised a hand. "Is this a history lesson? Can we skip it?"

  I smacked the back of his head. "Play nice, Lyle. It wouldn't hurt you to hear something other than weapon history or stories about knights."

  Arack tittered. It was a weird sound coming from a kobold. "Don't worry, it's not too dull. Well, the preparation stage probably was. That's when they increased our numbers, gathered resources, prepared weapons... work, work, work. Dispersion was trickier. That's when we spread throughout the southern half of the continent, establishing ourselves, scouting out the opposition, getting ready."

  "Ready for what?" Lyle asked.

  "Retribution. Duh. Getting back at the dwarves and making sure we were the ones in charge."

  I waved a hand. "Wait a minute. Didn't Darek insist that the dwarves were the aggressors? That you guys only retaliated in revenge to... some attack or other."

  "Well, obviously. Except... Videk says maybe the truth isn't as black and white as Darek would like to think. Maybe it was more like a good excuse to set the plans in motion that we'd already prepared. Darek doesn't like it when he starts talking like that."

  "Fair enough. So this place was set up during the dispersion phase. And when the retribution phase started, you struck?"

  "Yup. I'd love to tell you all about that…" She let the comment hang and Lyle groaned, right on cue, "except I don't really know that much. What's really important is that this map lists all the planned placements inside the forest during the dispersion phase."

  I carefully folded my hands in front of me – otherwise I would've been rubbing them together in greed. "So that would mean all installations, troops, and cities inside the forest? If this is us, right here, it means there were an additional six sites like this?"

  "I guess. I don't know what the other four icons here mean. They could be anything. Sites for building, attacking, defending..."

  "Stashes of weapons, potions, magical items..." I added.

  "Right. Whatever hasn't been cleared out is bound to mean good times for us," Arack nodded at me.

  Darya interrupted with a dry tone of voice, "O-kay. I'm sorry to interrupt whatever greed-fest the two of you are enjoying right now, but we're not going on a forest-wide treasure hunt just to find gold and items."

  I put on an innocent look. "Of course not. We're simply ensuring that there aren't any dangers lurking from the old kobold empire. Looking out for the interests of Grant's Crossing. Right?"

  She looked at me sternly for a second... and then burst out in laughter. "Scoundrel. I guess, if we can do some good, I don't mind you two filling your pockets at the same time. Lyle?"

&n
bsp; "Works for me. See, I've discovered one thing about Arcangelo, and me sharing it with you is going to make him really uncomfortable. Care to hear?"

  "Seriously? Lyle?" My complaints fell on deaf ears and Darya nodded with a grin.

  "Thing is, he goes on about stuff like rewards, loot, and haggling... and then he goes and does the right thing anyway." The blond giant grinned at me.

  "Uncomfortable? More like nauseous. That's not even remotely true." The trio just laughed at me, and I spoke up louder, "An-y-way. How do we transfer this accurately onto paper?"

  "You can learn cartography. My skill isn't that high, though. I bought the last map from Mrs. Bertinga." The half-orc let her fingers glide over the wooden landscape, frowning. "With the age of this landscape, some parts aren't accurate any longer. I'll do what I can, but a few things might get lost in translation."

  "Oh - wonderful. I mean... me no talk good now. Let me start over: If Mrs. Bertinga has a higher skill, I'll just remember what goes where and have her draw it onto a fresh map."

  Deadpan, Darya said, "You will ‘just remember what goes where.’"

  "Yeah." I bent over the map, got a good look, and activated Photographic Memory. "There. That should do it." I looked at their faces, ranging from doubt to disbelief. "Oh ye of little faith. Becoming a Chronicler comes with its own set of perks. What are you all standing around for? Let's go home."

  I didn't even bother to hide my smug grin as I walked past the others. The pop-up that appeared made me laugh out loud. The Force was definitely with me today.

  Quest updated:

  We Want It All Back

  In a bid to re-establish the connection to the rest of the kobold race and establish himself as the leading power of Nerit, the Chief has asked you to locate the Liberator's Scepter and return it to him.

  Updated: You have found a map showing the major kobold positions and troop placements prior to the Separation. You should be able to find a hint to the whereabouts of one of the scepters from one of the places on this map