Session #3 (part IV)
Anulem, 7th of Ese – 563 H.E.
A low grey cloud cover obscured Ra’s Glory the next morning and the air had a refreshing edge of coolness to it.
Malcolm woke up as naked as the day he was born and stretching walked over to the smoking remains oft the camp fire and relieved himself. . . and then walking over to where the buckets of water were kept, dunked his head in one and flicked his hair back in with a snap of his head.
He returned to his tent to get his kilt, awaking Kamir who immediately awoke to light the campfires. Jeremy stirred.
“Oh, are we there yet?”
“We’re in Deh-rome-Deh-lem,” Malcolm answered.
“Good, let me know when we get to the dragon. The way I feel I want to be the first one eaten,” Jeremy said weakly.
“That’ll be a relief to the dwarf,” Malcolm said with a smile.
The camp began to awaken. Kazrack, Jana and Beorth decided to explore the town a bit and see what they could find out about the goblins and perhaps getting provisions. Malcolm decided to seek out Andre and David’s cabin and get directions to a place where goblins could be found.
The original trio of companions that first walked together to see the witch in Verdun, not found themselves in a town hundreds of miles away from their place of origin. The streets were of raked dirt, with cobbled market square that was just filling with vendors. They walked past a boarded up inn that looked as if it had been partially burned.
“Probably goblins,” said Kazrack.
Walking further up the street they came to another tavern called “The Gleaming Star”
A hand-written sign declared “
No dogs or Black Islanders Allowed” – But since only Beorth could read, he swallowed his pride and went in with the other two to ask some questions.
The sound of scurrying rats greeted them as they entered the filthy establishment. The barkeep greeted them. He shooed a rat off the bar, and picking up a mug he spit into it and wiped out the contents with a rag, placing is upside down on a tray of “clean” cups.
The barkeep knew little of the goblins, but did direct them to the Safehouse of the Nauglimir Dwarven Merchant’s Consortium (29) only a few blocks north.
The trio walked to the Safehouse, which was built as a small fort of grey stone with a gatehouse and towers. Just within the gate stood a black bearded dwarf in plate mail with a battle axe. Sweat streamed down his face.
“Well met!” called Kazrack.
“Aye, well met,” the dwarf replied in dwarven.
“I am Kazrack Delver.”
“I am Captain Nerelor Threnegar,” the dwarf said. “Where do you hail from?”
“Originally my family is from Derome-Delem, but most recently I have lived in Verdun.”
“Verdun? Heh,” the Dwarf spit. “It is good that you have been able to come back here to our homeland.”
“Yes, it pleases me to be back. I have not seen these lands since when my beard first started to come in. I hope to see a lot of our people’s strongholds while I am here”
“Are you looking for work?” Threnegar asked.
“Um, no. I am working with a group of humans who are going to Gothanius to clear the land of a dragon.”
The dwarven captain was taken aback. “A dragon? Well, be careful, there are many that would want to take advantage of our kin.”
“I am always cautious. But I was wondering. Do you know anything about the goblins in this area?” Kazrack asked.
“Goblins? I know there are some, I guess. But I don’t think they are too much trouble. I spend most of my time here helping to guard the safehouse, so I don’t know much about the town. I sometimes travel from here to various strongholds, but we have everything we need in here.”
“Okay, thank you. How about provisions? Tools, and such – where can we find those?”
“Try the market. Or there is a shop just off the square called ‘Metalgoods’, it is run by a fine dwarven couple,” Threnegar answered.
“Okay, thank you very much.”
“The reason I asked you if you were looking for a job is because the Nauglimir Dwarven Merchant Consortium is always looking for dwarven caravan guards, and it is a good way to see various dwarven strongholds and how our people live,” Threnegar said.
‘Thank you for the offer, but I have this other commitment, but perhaps one day I will be able to accept it,” Kazrack replied.
“Well, you are welcome to come back for dinner and religious services at the temple we have in here. You can learn more about the N.D.M.C.”
“Could my companions come as well?” Kazrack gestured to Jana and Beorth who was just standing there wondering what the two dwarves were jabbering about in their native tongue.
“Dwarves only,” said Threnegar simply.
“Okay,” said Kazrack with a shrug. “Natan-ahb guard you.”
The three friends walked back towards the market, running into Malcolm who had made his way back after gaining the location of the goblins from Andre and David.
“Ach, the hoonters said that it is only a few miles sooth along the shirr. They are oft near eh ole mine whose entrance is eena ravine,” the skald said. “But that we should be karful `cause they ambush people a loot.”
As the party stood there discussing go down there, Malcolm heard:
“Ah, what quaint little village market! Perhaps there is some local craftsman whose day I can brighten by purchasing some of his trinkets. . .”
It was Garcon.
“Who ya talkin’ too?” Malcolm asked.
“Ah, well when one speaks as sweetly as I, and has an adventurous life as I - there is required a bit of narration,” Garcon explained.
“You are daft, mahn!?!”
‘So, you say. . . But I do note that one of these common peddlers is selling phials of fine smelling cologne. Excuse me, I must investigate and perhaps gain a new shirt made from that fine bolt of silk over there.”
He wandered off – And the group walked back to the camp to collect their weapons and equipment to hunt the goblins. Realizing that they did not remember seeing Garcon once during the sea journey.
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The four companions stopped at the camp where Kazrack went over his equipment carefully to make sure he had everything he could possibly from his impossibly full pack. Chance joined them “To bring `em a little luck and watch over the lass,” and off they marched into the dismally grey afternoon.
The group moved along ,with Malcolm taking point to watch for ambush. Kazrack and Beorth followed at a distance of 60’ and directly behind them were Chance and Jana.
“Now duncha worry, lassie. If there’s trouble, I‘ll handle it. Ya just stay by me, okay?” Chance said to Jana
“Uh-huh,” was Jana’s only reply.
The party climbed a ridge to a grassy plateau that over-looked the greyness of the sea below and to their left. The place was wide open and the cautiously crossed remaining alert to the possibility of ambush. Coming down the other side of the hill Malcolm spotted the ravine that the hunters must have been talking about. The group walked close to brush that obscured the edge and it was decided that Malcolm would go ahead to see what he could.
The skald moved forward, keeping an arrow ready to be nocked in his short bow, creeping through the dry foliage to edge of the ravine.
The ravine floor was pebbly, and could be access by means of what appeared to be a natural ramp of stone that ran parallel to the side of the ravine that Malcolm crouched on. Otherwise it was a straight drop down of about 25 feet. The opposite side which was covered what appeared to be green thorny shrubs had a less steep grade, but still seemed like a difficult climb.
On the ravine floor Malcolm could see a strange ritual or ceremony in progress. Under the cloud cover that veiled the hated slight of Ra’s Glory, there were a dozen or more short ugly brown-orange skinned creatures. All wore studded leather armor, except one who wore the furs of wolves and a necklace of small skulls around his neck. Two larger of these obvious goblins with spears flanked a black slab of stone about two feet high. A small group of young goblins stood behind the stone and one at a time would step up on to the stone and kneel. Leaning forward, the one in the wolf’s fur would take his head in his hands and speak words in the foul goblin tongue. And then with a jerking motion, the young goblin’s head would be thrown back. Clutching the left side of his head, he would step over to one of the flanking goblins take a spear and join a line of goblins that all looked dazed and stood holding the left side of their head, and holding halfspears at their right sides.
Malcolm slipped back to the group to tell them what he had seen. The party hesitated, not being sure on how to approach the situation. Should they go down the ramp and risk getting picked off?
“Did they missiles weapons you could see?” Kazrack asked.
“They had spears, but not else I could see,” Malcolm replied.
“Maybe we can get tem to come charging up at us and mow them down when they get here. They’re goblins they aren’t too smart,” Kazrack suggested.
“But they haven’t done anything yet,” Beorth interjected.
Kazrack turned about to explain the deep-seated evil that goblins represented when Jana spoke up.
“I think we have been spotted.”
The party turned to their left to see something moving through the branches of the foliage towards the ravine.
“What should we do?” asked Beorth.
“Maybe we should run away,” suggested Chance.
Malcolm headed back into the brush, and Kazrack and Beorth followed fanning out to the skald’s left. They got to the ravine edge to find two goblin warriors charging up ramp at them. The five with spears, remained in a line looking dazed and clutching the sides of their heads. The goblin in furs moved to the ravine wall to keep out of sight of missile fire, while Malcolm fired at the two goblins that passed him by where he stood above them and charged to meet Kazrack and Beorth in melee.
The remaining young goblins who had been waiting their turn at the black stone turned and fled, beginning to climb up the other side of the ravine. With a cry in goblin from the obvious leader, the dazed goblins dropped their hands from the sides of their heads and clutching their spears moved with incredible speed in an attempt to surround the would-be heroes.
The goblin leader spoke a word and pointed at Malcolm, whose mind was momentarily clouded, allowing the young goblins to easily get around him.
Jana moved in behind Malcolm, who dropped his bow to pull his club and meet the goblins in hand to hand combat.
“Wait, where are ya goin’. It isn’t safe,” Chance said, hesitantly following the young girl closer to the battle.
Kazrack and Beorth continued fighting the two more experienced goblin warriors who were being supported by the fresher recruits when they noticed an odd thing. The older goblins had a dry and ugly scar where their left ear was, but the younger goblins had a fresh and still bleeding wound where their left ear was.
“They cut off their own ears!” Kazrack cried.
The goblin in wolf skins stepped up to fill in behind the ranks of goblins that were surrounding Malcolm, stabbing furiously with their spears. He spoke three guttural word and pulling a skin from his belt took a deep swig from something and then leaning forward spit a stream of acid onto Malcolm’s face and shoulders. The barbarian cried out in pain, as his skin burned and hissed. Droplets flicked off on contact and struck the nearby goblins as well and they cried out, but did not stop trying to bring down the stocky moorsman. (30)
As Chance tried to convince Jana that they should step back into the thicker brush between hasty prayers to his god, the young Westronian, spoke her arcane words and flicked her hand in the direction of the obvious goblin spell-caster. However, he shrugged off the spell.
Malcolm dropped a goblin, and Kazrack and Beorth were making quick work of those near them and moved to help their companions.
The tide of the battle was turning. The goblins who had fled made their way up the other side of the ravine and disappeared into the brush. Jana cast her spell again, and this time the goblin-sorcerer turned and fled. Malcolm and Beorth chopped down the last two goblins and took off after him. They caught up to him at the base of the other side of the ravine, but he turned and fled again. Malcolm took a swing at him, clipping him in the back, and Beorth tried for a blow to the head and missed. Barely slowed the little spellcasting creep took off for the cave entrance at the far end of the ravine. Again Beorth and Malcolm took off after him, and Kazrack cam barreling down the ramp and around to take to the chase as well, but his diminutive legs and heavy equipment slowed him.
Jana also started to make her way over there by running, but Chance only hustled, crouching behind the black stone altar-thing to watch the action.
Malcolm and Beorth wanted to stop the remaining goblin before he made it into the darkness of the cave, but failed. They slowed down and entered more cautiously.
The dim light of the cloudy day only did so much to illuminate the inner portion of the cave, revealing only that about twenty feet in the cave widened to the left and right.
“And when the thegn steeped into the darkness of the shadow oov the dragon, his shield did cast the shadow aside!” cried Malcolm and suddenly his club shone with a light that revealed even more of the cave.
Malcolm and Beorth crept into the gloom of the cave and suddenly the goblin leapt out surprising them striking Malcolm with his club. Beorth moved in to take a swing with his quarterstaff, but the goblin took another swig from his wineskin and spit a stream of acid at the paladin. Beorth was able to turn away so that his armor took most of the spittle, but a drop landed on Malcolm as well.
There was a flurry of blow but the goblin in wolf skins was too quick to be hit. Still moving with unexpected deftness he suddenly disappeared. (31) Beorth, having been trained to battle the undead with the darkness of crypts stopped to listen, but Malcolm swung wildly in the spot where the goblin had been screaming like a madman with the increasing rage of his people. The light that now shone from his club made crazy shadows fly everywhere - unfortunately, he did not feel his club connect with anything.
At that moment Kazrack ran into the cave, being able to move without fear because of his darkvision. He moved to his right and down the craggy corridor coming to a steep stairway going down. He paused there, not sure of where to go.
“Where did he go?” the dwarf asked.
“He disappeared,” Beorth replied.
Kazrack turned. Everyone paused, not sure of what to do next. Jana stepped into the cave and Chance followed saying, ‘Don’t go in there, Jana. It could be dangerous.”
He stood just within the mouth of the cave.
Fortunately for the companions, years on the rough streets of Westron’s Thieves’ Quarter made Jana’s ears sharp and hearing a footfall pass her on the right she moved in that direction hands forward. She felt herself bump up against someone she could not see and then felt the painful blow of a club, as the goblin-sorcerer came into view.
The goblin tried to run back out of the cave, but Chance stepped in his way and took a wild stab with his dagger, which missed, but delayed the creature enough for Malcolm and Beorth to step up and finish it with a sickening crack from the skald’s club.
As Kazrack began to search the body, taking a gold ring from the goblin’s finger, Malcolm drew his bastard sword and placing its edge in the goblin’s neck stepped on the blade to remove its head. Blood poured wildly from the neck stump.
“What are you doing?” Beorth cried when he noticed what Malcolm had done.
Kazrack saw that the skull necklace had been cut loose by the barbarian’s blade and lifted it up.
“Anyone want this?”
Jana took it without a word.
“Ahm taking the head as a trophy,” Malcolm explained to Beorth.
“No, you are not. You cannot desecrate the dead that way,”
Beorth said.
“Wait, but they are just goblins,” Kazrack said joining the debate.
“It matters not. They were alive and now they are dead. Anubis would have it no other way,” Beorth said. “Since we cannot easily bury them all, we must gather their corpses and create a pyre.”
“What about taking their stuff? I mean this studded leather they wear is small but might have some value to us,” Kazrack said, clutching the bag of fresh ears he found on the shaman as if they had already transmogrified into the silver coins they were worth.
“Wait, I dun car if he’s the bluddy High Priest of Ra, if he’s dead he dun need his stuff an ahm takin’ it,” Malcolm complained.
“You don’t wanna make Anubis angry do you?” Chance asked.
“Whut about me ancestors? They’ll laugh at me if I don’t take a trophy,” Malcolm said.
“I will not tolerate the dead being desecrated, but these goblins have not been interred yet, so their possession are spoils of war, not part of their funerary accoutrements – so to take them is not to violate their graves,” the follower of Anubis explained. (32) “This also applies to the ears, since they were taken before the goblins died and by their own hands. However, I do believe that we should take a portion of whatever spoils we gain and donate it either to a local temple or to the town’s effort to defend itself from the goblin menace.”
Malcolm began to gather the goblin bodies in a pile on the ravine floor to burn, but searched each quickly and as inconspicuously as possible for whatever treasure they might have. He found none.
“I will agree, but if I were someone else I would say that you should make the donation out of your own share,” Kazrack said to Beorth.
“I already plan to make a donation over and above whatever we agree on.”
Malcolm and Kazrack each took a sample of the goblin studded leather, which amazed Kazrack in its quality.
“Goblins cannot make such things, they must have bought it or traded for it. Do you think they could have chopped their own ears off to pay for their armor?” Kazrack mused.
No one seemed willing to follow up on this speculation. Jana picked up the goblin leader’s club for herself and the after setting fire to the goblin bodies (sending a column of smoke way up into the dark clouds) the five companions headed back to camp, Malcolm wondering aloud what could be found in the cave when they came back to explore it.
End of Session #3
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Notes
(29) The Nauglimir Dwarven Merchant Consortium is a league of dwarven merchants who facilitate trade among dwarves in Derome-Delem and, to a much lesser extent, other parts of Aquerra.
(30) This spell,
Acid Spittle, can be found in Sword & Sorcery’s Relics & Rituals.
(31) This spell Disappear, can be found in Sword & Sorcery’s Relics & Rituals.
(32) Believers in Ra’s Panthoen hold those interred with personal effects have spiritual equivalents of those things with them in the afterlife, and to disturb the things in this world is to disturb their rest.