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GIANT WASP, THE HIVE TERROR.
Happy #monstermonday folks!! This one is a familiar build I'm sure to some of you, as I gave a lil sneak peek of it a couple weeks ago. This was the encounter from the fourth Montown Mob quest post in which Marybeth the Kenku Barbarian went into cave at the behest of an herbalist, and fought a remarkably large insect!
Getting the shaping of the abdomen to curve was pretty fun, though the wings were a bit tricky. Originally, I thought about using the translucent wing pieces from a Hero Factory set, but they ended up wayyy put of scale, so I settled on these for the long, sharp-looking wings that yellowjackets have! What do you think? Did this build make you shudder at the thought of a wasp this big in real life?
The party aboard the ship called The Golden Dragon set sail in search for the illusive group known as The Order. While they sailed the seas Alton, the ships Captain, assigned rolls to the crew and everyone got to know each other a little better. Koruel and Alton even got a bit of sword fighting practice in. After a time they spotted a ship bearing The Orders symbol docked on a nearby island. Doing their best to stay out of its sights they too docked their ship and stealthily approached the ship in the hopes they’d get the jump on whoever was inside. The team drew closer and searched the ship, only to realised that the crew was nowhere to be found, the ship seemed abandoned. But the area around the ship showed signs that a fight had occurred. The team split up and searched deeper into the ship for more clues of what may have happened, or for Order members hiding inside.
Alton, Thia and Koruel entered the Captains quarters, where they found something they did not expect to see. It was Savarious, wounded, beaten, bloody, cut up and close to death. The party wanted revenge for what he had done to Sekarr, their fallen comrade, but they also wanted answers. He was in no state to speak as he struggled to breathe and struggled to stay alive. Savarious showed a lot of resentment and anger towards Thia and on top of that, he was too stubborn to respond to their questions as he refused to help the enemy. The group was not sure how best to end him, so Alton drew his sword and pierced the skin of Savarious, to put him out of his misery. The team left the room and headed back onto the beach heavy with emotion. Despite his help the team was still not sure how much they could trust their new teammate Alton. Additionally, Koruel was suspicious of Thia, Why was Savarious angry at her? Had she done this to them? Last they saw him he was fighting Thia. Thia refused to share what she knew. Koruel began to question Alton and Thia’s behaviour and the group began to bicker.
Meanwhile Lia was still inside the ship as she searched for more signs of The Order. While she did not find anything, she did find a small Kenku child beaten and bruised inside a cage. He took a little while to warm up to Lia, but he gratefully accepted the love she was so happy to offer him. She wrapped up the child in a blanket and brought him outside to join the party and be safe. The group was still bickering when Lia returned, and they continued to do so until Koruel’s eyes rolled over and turned black and he passed out. The party did what they could to assist him but were interrupted by a small group of Kou Toa appeared before them. They spoke in a language that the group did not understand. They considered fighting these creatures, or simply returning to their ship, but when hundreds, if not thousands of Kou Toa emerged from the forests and began to chant, they knew escape was not an option. The team reluctantly followed the Kou Toa as they lead them deeper into the forest.
To Be Continued...
The Raven’s returned to their ship and continued their quest to find The Order. The crew was weary from their past battles, but they soldiered on. Alton and Miranda had some time alone to discuss the black marks on their hands, they were worried, but they’d pull through whatever it meant together. While the rest of the crew were busy with their duties and tending to the ship Koruel snuck away to contact The Order. Since the battle of Lemnos he and Oriana had been in contact with one another via sending stone. Koruel fed her information on his whereabouts in exchange for the safety of the team. Little did Koruel know that young baby Kal was busy playing in the decks below where Koruel was too. Kal being a Kenku had the unique ability of mimicking the voices and words of those he was around and Kal happily blurted some of Koruel’s conversation back to Genlen. Alarmed Genlen, Thia and Lia met with Koruel to discuss what was happening. Koruel claimed that he did not want to betray the party, and he felt that by talking to her he could learn more ways to stop the Order, and additionally he feared what would happen to him and his friends if he didn’t meet with the demands of The Orders . He’d made a choice he wasn’t proud of but he felt was necessary. The Ravens didn’t know what was best to do and felt it wise to wait things out and see how everything played out.
Later everyone gathered to eat and talk with one another. Members of the Gladiators took an interest in the past exploits of The Ravens and their dealings with the Order. The team discussed how they had slain Tiskala in the city of Alexandria because he was secretly working for the Order. Telisha Census the leader of the Gladiators had known Tiskala for a long time and could not believe that he would do such a thing. She grew angry with what the Ravens had done and began to question if she was travelling with the right crew. Tensions rose between the crew members and a divide between the Ravens and The Gladiators grew. Discussions about The Gladiators leaving the crew arose. The ship continued sailing, but the crew was not as it once was.
On this stay in Kyoto I was near Kinkakuju (the Golden Pavilion) but from my apartment window the most prominent feature was a large hill known as Funaoka-yama.
Though it didn't appear in any of my Kyoto guide books (dead tree or ebook) I was pretty sure you couldn't have a hill like that in Kyoto and NOT have a shrine or temple at the top of it.
And.. obviously I was right, but this is strangely quite modern for Kyoto, only established in the mid 19th century by Emperor Meiji to mark the deification of Oda Nobunaga (though Nobunaga's actual grave is in Okunoin, Koya San)
Takeisao-jinja (Kenkun-jinja) in Kyoto-Japan.
You can see the Daimonji (大文字), the character meaning "large" or "great", on Daimonji-Yama/Higashi-Yama, Nyoigatake at 8 pm and that is tomorrow!
From left:
Dragon Wizard
Kenku Druid
Death Mage
Desert Wizard
Chaos Sorcerer
Elemental Wizard
This is my entry for the Magical Minifigures category of the Brickscalibur 2023.
Takeisao-jinja (Kenkun-jinja) in Kyoto-Japan.
You can see the Daimonji (大文字), the character meaning "large" or "great", on Daimonji-Yama/Higashi-Yama, Nyoigatake at 8 pm and that is tomorrow!
Takeisao-jinja (Kenkun-jinja) in Kyoto-Japan.
You can see the Daimonji (大文字), the character meaning "large" or "great", on Daimonji-Yama/Higashi-Yama, Nyoigatake at 8 pm and that is tomorrow!
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin,as told by Leo to his Nephew Leto Collins (# 7 of 33)- Into the Jurka.
That bird and I saw a lot of weird shit in our days, some of it still keeps me up at night, most of all our very last job together, but some things we ran into weren't weird in a scary way, just in way that defies any sense. I dunno...but the world and it's truth is far more complicated then what we're taught,and you have to separate the things that really are true from the bullshit the Church and the Military feeds the public to hold our culture together. Don't get me wrong, I still love Regentum, even after all these years. I believe in a God, but not the church or the Emperor. What's important to me about Regentum is that it's perhaps the only place in the world where a common, regular person can receive the benefits of their own hard work. Everywhere I've ever been I've only seen masters and servants. The Dwarves are good to one another, perhaps even better then we in Regentum are. But in Rolheim the Dwarves have a very set and rigid way of life. You're stuck in the position you're born into, but no Dwarf suffers or is destitute. Here in Regentum if you're born poor you can do something about it. Other Human nations that aren't our Colonies, forget it. That's why so many foreigners become Pirates. It's better to be a Pirate then the serf of some Sultan in Lu' Hadej, toil the years by on a Brenendale fishing ship, live under constant war in the mess of Alson, or slave away under some Monk in Nijiro.
After I got out of the Army like a lot of guys I was pretty jaded with all the shit talking about conquering the world for light and law and all that sort of talk. Our leaders fight for money and power and cull troops from the ranks of our working poor after getting them hyped up on religion. I mean look, they take these kids, they start at age fifteen, and all these boys are either from farming villages, or some industrial slum. You take a kid like that who hasn't got much of a future and you tell him that he'll be trained to fight for holy order, and that he will be special, that he will individually play a vital role in shaping the future of the empire and he buys it. Like me and yours Pops. We knew it was either the army, the docks, the factories or jail. It's ugly that it takes a large degree of smoke and mirrors to hold Regentum together, but its better then everywhere else out there.
Anyhow after Damu and I took out that Goblin leader Ertu we were in good standing with the Military as skilled mercenaries who were good at eliminating specific targets that were loose ends they needed cleaned up. It took those motherfuckers less then a month before I got a knock at the door from a Army courier with a new bounty contract in one hand, and a sack of gold in the other. I hadn't even yet spent all my money from before.
I was told that the Military needed a new way to send food supplies to all the troops the world over because the cost of doing so was getting too high due to the sheer number of troops we now how have the world over. Traditionally the food either came from local sources, or was shipped in by merchants with government contracts. The Military hired Wizard-Engineers to design a new system of providing troops with enough food in a cheaper way. So they applied the idea of the factory to the slaughter house. Along the road way between Salsburg and Fieldsview a big warehouse was built in which cattle was slaughtered in mass by huge killing machines and the meat cured, salted and prepped for shipping.
Some Druid freaked out about this place and attacked it. Around this time the Army was routing out a large strike force of the Derago Tribe of Hobgoblins. The Deragos' got their asses handed to them and broke up into a bunch of small rag-tag units. The Druid trashed the place pretty good, and the report in my contract didn't mention as to what happened to the Druid or who he was. Troops, Engineers, Craftsman and supply laden Merchants were quickly sent in to get the Meat Factory up and running. All of these sitting ducks alone along the highway caught the eye of a squad of Derago Hobgoblins who in turn decided to take their own stab at the meat factory. We were asked to find the leader of the Squad, a Hobgoblin named Jahghu Khazul and kill him. The Army in the area was still busy chasing down the bulk of the Derago forces, and had them pinned way up north almost to Rolhiem.
This time around we bought our own wagon and horse rather then catching a ride with a caravan. A nice light brown horse I never got the chance to name or get attached to. After the mission I ended up loosing our horse in a dice game on the way back to Scardale to this skinny toothless drunk in a bar in Salsburg. Damu was pissed off about it, and he laughed at me the whole way home.
Most of the trip there was easy, if even a little boring. We had to go this round about way to get there as there was no highway that went directly there and I didn't want to chance getting shook down with Damu in tow. But even playing by the book we got caught up in some shit. Between Nolos and Salsburg we got stopped by a Polly squad. One of them saw us in Nolos when we stopped for supplies and bitched to the others about a Kenku moving around the interior. Even though the eastern end of Regentum is thought of as being more religiously tolerant then out west, its just that out west they think of themselves as superior given that they eastern region was conquered and absorbed into the Empire. Really everyone in the Empire outside of the big coastal cities clings very firmly to our Religion and its accompanying prejudices. I caught a lot of shit over the years for having a Kenku for a friend.
5 of these pricks rode up on us, battle standards held all high, pole arms drawn, you know the whole fucking works. Big fucking fags in their shinny armor demanding to know what me and the Bird were up to. I held out the contract with the army guys in Scardale and was like, "Were here to do your dirty work". Some big prissy bitch, Sir Halton kept scrutinizing me, being like, "How can I keep the company of a Heathen animal?", and how legal or otherwise "To bring such a foul creature into the interior was an affront to the holy sanctity of our beloved empire". Typical Paladin fag shit. Fuck them. The mercenary rabble were here to wipe their ass because they were too important to do it themselves. Damu maybe a local legend here in Scardale, but out in the country or in the eyes of the Church he was scum.
When we got to the Meat factory there was a bunch of workers busting their asses to fix it, a few merchants and rich Gnomes, some solders, and some hired swords keeping an eye on the place. The ruined factory buildings had maze of scaffolding towering up their crumbling walls, and about the area around them was a decent sized encampment. Various tents dotted the place, though one could clearly tell the difference between tents belonging to the workers, the merchants, the troops and the mercenaries. Worker tents were drab though orderly. The tents of the business men were lined with velvet and furs. The Army tents had various standards embroidered to them, and the mercenary tents were both drab and disorderly. Also they were off to the side of everyone else. I saw a big, ugly mother fucker around the Merc tents, both too big and too ugly to be completely human, but not a Half-Orc. I saw he wore the spiked gauntlets common to Gladiators and figured he must of been a half-breed slave who fought his away from to freedom from the fighting pits. Still fighting on behalf of the gold of the rich, but at least the deal was more in his favor. I hope anyway. One of the other mercs there was this guy Ramalti, a big guy with a shaved head and thick curled mustache. I knew him from the army. Once we fought Pirates together off the coast of Fazas. After checking in with the Captain of the place, we set up camp with Ramalti.
Ramalti had a huge pile of furs arranged under a high posted canopy and laid around a fire with a few extra skinned rabbits cooking. We caught up on things for a hour or so, though I could tell he didn't like that I had Damu with me, though he didn't say anything.Ramalti told me his last gig was doing a hit for people who were part of Snake-Worshiping cult and that he was glad to be away from them. Said that they used pit fighting for a front and had a lot of weird orgies. Didn't seem too bad to me but he warned me to stay away if they ever approached us.
Damu was fidgety, which was unnerving given how calm how usually was, something was up. The small talk between Ramalti and I was broken when Damu asked flatly, "Tell us about the Hobgoblins around here, we are here kill to Jahghu Kazul". It was an awkward moment. Ramalti gave Damu a stern look and me a half stern half worried look and was like, "Yea Kazul, yea he's around these ways, or should be. Last we knew anyway. Look let me tell you guys a few things about this job. The moneyed people here have their head up their ass and all they want to know is when this place will up and running again. Don't listen to them. The military guys are here to watch them. They're only gonna tell you half of what you need to know. Something weird is going on out in the fields. Animals have been acting strange. On patrols at night I've seen bolts of color and light off in the distance, and one night while following what was the tracks of two small feet, they abruptly shifted into the paw prints of a 4 legged creature."
I looked over at Ramalti and he handed me a wine skin, "Also have you two heard of an area called the Jurka?", he asked. "No", Damu replied. Damu didn't know much beyond city life, or even beyond life in Scardale. He was always a tad out of his element on missions like this. Though to be honest I never heard of it either. It is a creepy place we found. "The Jurka", Ramalti said, "is an ugly, sunken scar of land sunken and wide, but also consisting of many hills, little rivers, creeks and the occasional murky swamp lake. It is a lonely and windy stretch of land of irregular width, but hundreds of miles in length. Jurka is Goblin for 'the crack'. Most Goblins and Hobgoblins avoid the place, though I've been told that some powerful Hobgoblin Warlords are buried there.The Gobos say the place is cursed as its not naturally occurring. Something deep below the ground they claim cracked the land open centuries ago. It's not on any known maps, nor mentioned in any journals. For a distinct land mass so big that's very strange. Someone must not want it to be known."
Damu laughed, "I don't care about any cracks or secrets any Hairies keep from each other. We're here for Jahghu Kazul, that's all that matters."
Right before dawn we were woken up to screams and commotions. The first thing I saw upon waking were 4 foxes a few feet away from me. I laughed at first, but when I stood up I realized the place was over run with foxes. Foxes and geese. They were every where, howling and running amok. It would have been funny if it weren't so out of place and deliberate seeming. No one knew what to do and it I think because of that it was really freaking a lot of them out.
Quickly then I saw a fox stare it me. It had a bloody muzzle and in its mouth was a blood-stained pointed Gnome hat. I pointed over to Damu and he quickly drew an arrow and shot the fox. As I ran towards the fox its shape contorted and elongated. By the time my sword was swinging directly at it the fox it had become a tall skinny guy with long matted hair down past his ass, a long matted beard, and just a loin cloth on. His eyes seemed distant yet driven by some equally remote purpose. The Wild Man rolled out of the way. I saw that his hands were glowing and all of a sudden vines grew quickly up from the ground, like water being poured from a bottle, that were wrapping up around my legs. He smiled without humor at this and pulled the arrow Damu Shot him with out of his shoulder. Blood squirted out and a chunk of meat flopped over from the wound.
What looked like a large, stocky Goblin but still not a Hobgoblin walked up to the Wild Man just as he was picking up the bloody Gnome hat. The Wild Man looked over at the strange Goblin and spoke, "This will do. The Dwarves and the Gnomes are just as bad as these Regentum people. The Gnomes maybe even more so. They hide behind their money and get Humans to do their dirty work." The Goblin-thing didn't seemed to care too much, but they never had the chance to debate the matter. Ramalti and Damu charged the two. Ramalti carried a large spiked mace that he swung down towards the head of the Goblin. Catching the creatures cap, but not its head, the Goblin leaped up in the air far higher then a Goblin should be able to leap, and landed on top of Ramalti biting him in the neck. The vines wrapped tighter around my legs and I was worried that my legs would shatter under the strain. Damu threw his dagger straight into the gut of the Wild Man with one hand, and slashed across his face with his sword with the other. The Wild Man fell back, holding his guts into his stomach. The slash across his face caused his nose to dangle and his cheek to flop open. I think some teeth were missing or dangling by tiny threads of mouth meat in his beard. The ground around us burst into flame. Damu leaped out of the way, and Ramalti was still struggling with the creature wrapped around his neck and head. Me, I stuck my legs in the fire and burned away the vines. It was painful, but not as painful as my legs being crushed.
Quickly I tried to stand, but I stumbled as I got up. The Wild Man rushed with his hands transformed into large green glowing claws. A claw jabbed towards my head, but I ducked under it, and swooped my sword upwards and into and out of his chest. The fire abruptly stopped. The Goblin creature jumped off of Ramalti and by the time it hit the ground it transformed into some strange mix of Goblin and Wolf. Later on Damu said such creatures were called Barghests. Whatever it was it took off running. Soon all the Foxes and Geese went away.
The Captain and his men surrounded the Wild Man. I was confused at first because they bound his body in shackles, as why exactly they would bound up a corpse, but my confusion quickly turned to anger as the poured a healing potion down the mother fuckers throat. I screamed out at them, "What the fuck are you doing? He's a Witch, leave him dead! I'm not killing him again unless I get paid extra." Which funny enough we did get paid twice for killing that guy. Turns out he was the crazed Druid who attacked the Meat-Factory in the first place. Gharuun the Druid, wanted across eastern Regentum for various acts of terrorism, spreading blasphemy, and other crimes against the Empire. Around the camp I heard that Gharuun was once the Son of a rich industrialist family out of Tardon. He was supposedly once Francis Applemoore, a scion of a blue-blood family who went insane around the time his family fell to controversy. If I recall right, I think actually the Applemoore's owned a factory outside of Tardon that accidentally poisoned a near-by river with mercury, killing hundreds of peasant-folk, and making many more sick.Butt-Boy Sir Halton and his squad of Knights showed up to interrogate Gharuun and bring him to Elaine for execution, but not until after they kissed Gnome ass. The Gnomes and the Human Merchants were grieving over the loss of the Gnome Harov Goldstein and his money (which the Barghest apparently got away with).
It was found out after a day of torture that Gharuun was working with Jahghu Kazul and his forces out of the Jurka because of mutual animosity towards Regentum. The whole "the enemy of my enemy" bit. Gharuun was bothered by industrialization and by it being this far into the interior of the country-side. Admittedly on that part Gharuun was perhaps right, I myself hate to admit that I agreed with a Druid, but while I grew up in the city surrounded by factories and industry, I've always valued the clean greenery of the country side when I've traveled through it.I could see how he ended up a Druid after coming from a family who's factory poisoned the land. I'd hate to our beautiful country side ruined just to make people like Harov Goldstein rich. Jahghu Kazul however could give two shits either way. Gharuun didn't want loot and worked for free. Gharuun was a zealot, violence for his religion was its own reward. Kazul was a raider and aspiring Warlord. He only valued money and brute force.
That night Damu and I rode into the Jurka.
The very southern most portion of the Jurka came to a tapered tip and sloped down at an easy descent. It really did look like a sunken crack in the earth, as if here the world split open and then was over grown over the ensuing years. A creek ran along the bottom of the valley. We decided for the time being not to go directly into the Jurka but to follow along its western edge, at least until dawn. By dawn we saw that the creek had grown considerably in size further up stream, and off the near distance was a waterfall with what looked like an old, abandoned ruined mill next to it.
Damu scouted out the ruin and it was clear. We camped out there for a few hours. Not even bothering to unravel my bed roll, I just laid on top of a concrete slab and rested my head on my bag. In my nap I had a strange dream about a grand mother living in the mill with her grand children and a giant frog that moved into the water fall that ate her kids. I woke up and didn't want to find out if that was true or not, so I shook Damu awake and we got going.
As dawn rose, the whole of the Jurka was blanketed in an early morning foggy-mist and lit in a pale glow. The place has a strange beauty, yet something is noticeably unsettling about it. Everything is a bit off, and nature with in it goes in unusual courses. During that morning ride along the Jurka Damu and I saw aquatic rabbits. I shit you not, we saw water-rabbits, long and skinny, with wide flat feet and light green fur. Maybe they couldn't breathe the water, but we saw rabbits hopping from land and into water, swimming frantically down stream, and back out again.
By late afternoon we caught sight of fresh tracks that looked like the hoof-prints of the giant boars that the Hobgoblins ride heading from the west and northbound into the Jurka directly. We left our horse and wagon there and headed in. As we did we stopped to consider tactics. We both had fought Hobgoblins but they had numbers on us. Plus we we're only after one of them. The Hobgoblin raiders of the northern plains I have a respect for. On their Boar-Mounts they are deadly. They have a unique style of Calvary tactics that is very different from how we, or the Elves, etc. would use typically fight on horse back. They fight almost like a pack of wild animals, and use hit and run tactics with ruthless efficiency. When I was in the army I fought with units charged with taking out Hobgoblins on a few occasions. While we always won, it was only because of superior numbers. For every raider we took they easily took 6 to 8 of our men. You have to use traps and guerrilla tactics on them, as a blow to blow fight always came with heavy losses.
So we decided that we would try to locate them, then set up what ever traps we could near by, and hopefully lure them in. I knew Damu carried all sorts of nastiness is in his bag. He always came equipped for a millions forms of murder. Though I learned a lot from him in those years. When I first met him I still fought like a soldier as I still thought like a soldier after years in the army. On our first two missions he taught me the difference between fighting and killing. He was a killer born and bred, I was a warrior who learned also to be a killer. I still had to do most of the blow to blow work when it was necessary. But he was right. We didn't fight for honor, or duty we did this work just for money, so it doesn't make sense to take a lot of risks when you're a mercenary.
Right before night fall we came upon a hilly area with-in the Jurka that rang out with a low, droning, moaning sound that seemed to wrap around the area with the wind. It all seemed very somber and morbid. The hills about the place each had various oblong obelisks on top. I stopped to check one out. It had markings on it that neither of us could read and was made of a strange purple-black stone. The pillar had holes carved into it which when wind blew through it created the moaning sounds the carried through this mournful place. At the base of this pillar was a regular limestone slab carved out in Gobbely which read, "Kufaza Derago". This place was a series of Hobgoblin burial mounds! Where they got the strange obelisks, I don't know, but they didn't look like they were carved from the hands of any Goblinoid. Whatever their origin I was glad for them for the sounds they made would provide us some cover.
Damu quickly grabbed my side and motioned me to duck down. In the haze of the setting sun I saw the silhouette of a Goose. "That's not a real Bird, that Druid escaped", he whispered to me as he drew his bow. Sure enough two hills over the goose landed by a mound and quickly shifted its form into that Gharuun. He looked in bad shape. Good, it'd be easier to kill him again. Damu snuck in closer, hugging the shadows between hills, but keeping Gharuun with in constant bow shot. I drank two potions, one to move far more swiftly then I could and another that made shadows wrap around me. He motioned to me to get in position to attack after he attacked first. I saw him dip his arrow head into a little jar of something nasty, plus his arrows heads were not only enchanted, but carved in a way that did even more damage when you pulled them out. Gharuun was kneeling before an Obelesk and had started to perform some sort of ritual when Damu fired a shot through his back and out his chest.
Leaping up the hill I was almost knocked over as the air rippled waves of force in all directions from out of Gharuun. I saw his glowing hands touch the wound and seal it. But with the arrow still stuck through him. Hopefully the healing spell he cast on himself didn't take out the poison on the arrow as well. Mother Fucker. It started to rain like mad out of no where, and Damu got knocked over by huge gusts of wind. Gharuun laughed at me as I swung my sword at his head. He ducked, and swung up with a wooden staff that caught me on the chin. I spit blood in his face and swung again. And missed again. For a crazy naked guy he moved like a fucking tiger, I'll give him that. Then I saw that next to the mound a hole was dug. I quickly figured that if this was a burial mound it was a freshly dug grave. Good. I deliberately made a shitty swing towards him again, and made an equally deliberate shitty attempt to dodge the counter blow from his staff. It hit me in the chest, and I acted like it
really knocked me on my ass as I fell towards the hole. Never, ever gloat over somebody in a fight. As I lay there in the pouring rain, Gharuun stood over me grinning with some violent yet distant look in his eyes. I have no idea where his mind really was, nor will I ever find out for in that moment I grabbed him and pulled us both down into the hole, impaling him with my sword as well hit the bottom. I stood up and saw Damu on top of the hole making a cut off his head gesture. Breathing heavy I nodded in agreement, As I tossed the head up to Damu the rain abruptly stopped.
Something picked Damu's eyes in the distance. He paused and pulled out a periscope, "Hobgoblins, about 5 of them on Boars are coming this way, yet two are pulling a cart carrying something covered in blankets. The lead rider looks important. I bet it's Jahghu Kazul. We have maybe 30 minutes before they see us." It wasn't enough time to get too elaborate with traps. The mud from the magic storm was at least helpful. Out of his side bag, Damu pulled out 4 claw traps and buried them in the mud along the hill. I was hoping for enough time to dig pit traps, they work wonders on mounted attackers. Flint, oil flasks, and trip wires would have to do. Damu made a few fire bombs and handed me one. We hunkered down on the edge other side of the hill as we listened to them ride up. I stuck my flint to light my fire bomb as the sounds of boar-snorts grew louder. I heared the distinct metal snap of a claw trap over top the awful wailing of the obelisks and the roar of a boar bred to gigantic proportions. I through the fire bomb, and heard screams in Gobbley. It was on.
Damu ran around the edge of the hill top to the left and I to right. I saw him shoot a quick burst of arrows that caught a boar in the gut and it's rider in the eye. A boar big enough for a Hobgoblin to ride is a boar big enough to bite someone as small as Damu clean in half. Those things are damn near the size of horses- not as tall, but way wider and sturdier.
Another Boar-mounted Hobgoblin charged at me swinging a morning star as his mount aimed its tusks at me. I quickly saw this was really a feint, as a bigger and badder looking Hobgoblin behind him was drawing his bow down on me. I let the first rider charge me, then I quickly dropped down on my back. It lept over me and I stabbed upwards into its belly, disemboweling the beast, but caught an arrow in my leg in return. Two Hobgoblins on foot were pulling the cart the last of the way on foot. The traps took out their mounts. The rider who's mount I killed swung his morning star down at me, and caught me in the gut, though the spikes only poked me a little bit, my armor took most of the blow. The bigger and badder looking Hobgoblin, whom I quickly figured was Jahghu Kazul was still on his mount and was calmly drawing another bow shot. Fuck the nobody with the morning star, I ran straight for Jahghu.
He leaped off his mount and ran out at me with this really nice, sleek battle axe. He caught me in the left shoulder with it and across my abdomen. I kicked him the shin, and as he stumbled Damu caught him in the neck with an arrow. As he Jahghu hesitated from the arrow shot I swiped across the chest, and down again taking of his left leg right below the knee. Morning star guy swung over from behind me and caught me in the right shoulder. Damu threw his dagger right through morning star guy's throat and I finished off Jahghu Kazul as he lay there bleeding. I took the axe and Jahghu Kazul's helmet. The thing was silver with all these fancy ivory horns. He had large key around his kneck tied with thick leather cord. I took that figuring it had to do with the whatever was under the blankets in the carts. Maybe they were leaving an offering to a recently dead Chieftain I thought. Nothing really could have prepared me for what was under there.
The two Hobgoblins pulling the cart up the hill managed to get what was in the cart off of it just before Damu killed them with a rain of arrows. It sat before the hole. We looted the Hobgoblin bodies and dumped them all in the hole with Gharuun, minus the head of Jahghu Kazul. As we started to peel layers of blankets back from what was under the them, we could start to see a glowing green light come from underneath them. I paused, and Damu's feathers stood on end. I started to feel something or someone around us, and I was immediately knocked back ten feet. I felt like I was just hit in the chest with a boulder. I think ribs broke. I could hardly breathe. As I stood up Damu screeched and pulled back the rest of the blankets.
I told you this mission was a weird one. Beneath the blankets was a big round glass jar mounded on a shinny black base, and capped with an ornate black metal lid complete with a key hole, filled with a glowing green, bubbling liquid that inside floated a large misshapen brain.Worst of all it spoke. "Where is Jahghu Kazul?", we heard a low voice speak from all directions. The Kenku practice black arts and Damu was privy to a lot of creepy shit because of what his clan did, but I could tell he was completely dumbfounded by this talking Brain in a Jar. Damu lifted up Jahghu's head and pressed it to the glass of the jar, "He's dead. We killed him." Balls of steel that bird had, even when confronted with something like this. "Where is the key that he wore around his neck?", demanded the Brain in the Jar. The thing had power, whatever the fuck it was. But it had no legs and so broken ribs or not I decided to play my hand heavy figuring that sense I had legs and the Jar did not I could run. I strode over to it with the key in hand, taunting it, "I have it but if you try that shit again I'll break it!". It made a hissing sound and the liquid inside bubbled. "Very well, what do you want?", it responded.
Damu spoke up, "What are you, why do these Hobgoblins have you and why are you here with them to meet the Druid Gharuun?"
"Very well then, I will you tell my story and then in exchange you will help bring my story to an end. I am or at least I was Draaza Kazul, Hobgoblin Shaman of Derago Tribe. I was Jahghu's Uncle. The Derago are in the employment of another race you Humans and you Kenku know nothing of. They are a foul and terrible race that dwell in deep caverns under the mountains west of Rolheim. There they plot the destruction and enslavement of all the world above and practice rites and foul sorcery so black and alien even I am aghast at the cosmic scope of their horror. Needless to say its better that you don't know this race. Many of us regret the pact our ancestors made with them in order to gain an edge over our rival tribe the Kulshychi Hobgoblins who serve the Hidden Lords of the City of Bayport. Secret wars have been waged for generations now between the shadows of Regentum and Rolheim, wars on both your edges, indifferent to the whims of Human and Dwarf. This place we call the Jurka is a casualty of that war."
This certainly I wasn't going to tell the army when we collected our bounty. On a few missions I've stumbled on to schemes and plots on a scale I tend to avoid. I'll save that shit for the military and the good guys. If this wasn't bad enough already, the Jar went on.
"Some where between these uncontested lands, close to Manas as well, there is reputed to be the stronghold of an Elven-Wizard recluse of significant prowless. I led the mission to find this Stronghold so the Derago could raid it secure the Wizards secrets for those we serve. I failed the first time and as punishment those whom the Derago serve did this did me. With in this jar they said my occult powers would be strong enough to find the Elf-Mages location, which in fact was true, but it was obvious they intended it also to be a punishment for my failure. They locked me in this state of chemical undeath. Nothing pleases a proud Hobgoblin more, other then perhaps the din of battle and the cries of fleeing enemies, then then feel of wind across his face as he rides across these vast, rolling ancestral plains on his beloved Boar mount. I did find the location of the stronghold and a great legion of Derago were called together from across the plains, and from under the earth out of the dark subterranean cities of our employers where we our are numbers are bred like cattle by our employers who have tricked us and are becoming our masters. I dread the day when these creatures have enslaved our race entirely for those bred by them will out number our proud and freeborn numbers with in a few generations. Foolishly we gave them our weak and disgraced thinking they would merely eat them, for they live on the brains of other races, but instead from these few they are raising a region of war-fodder. But as our collective force rode out to the tower we were spotted the forces of Regentum and Guidane. They broke our advance and scattered our numbers. While I have no love for Humans or your culture I am grateful that they foiled this raid. I dread to think of what power lurked in the fortress of that Elven-Wizard that those below, who already are the masters of countless volatile magics, would go to great lengths to capture it, and what they would do with it. I was to be brought here to be buried, what is left of me anyway, to be laid to rest, free of this nightmare undeath, in a proper repose fitting of noble born Hobgoblin reunited with his ancestors. The Druid, a traitor to his kind I'm told, I have mixed feelings about that, was to clean any taint of necromancy that may pollute my remains. It's too late for that now, as I assume you killed him as well. My last request is that you take the key you took from my Nephew's body, unseal my Jar-Prison and bury me with-in the mound."
I looked down at Damu, he shrugged in agreement. I didn't want to fight again if I didn't have to. I had only one healing potion on me and I needed it already. As I unsealed the Jar the sound the moaning obelisks grew to a great roar. A great burst of green-light erupted from the inside and I heard a great loud sigh of relief coming from its voice. In my minds I quickly saw a vision of tall thin beings in ornate robes with pasty pale sickly skin and faces of tentacles. I hoped I never saw such creatures again and it wasn't until our very last mission together that we ever saw any. Years later we saw the very dark truth that the Brain in the Jar that was once Draaza Kazul told us that night on the burial mound deep in the Jurka. As I pulled the brain out and carried it to the hole I saw what looked like a wispy and translucent image of a Hobgoblin adorned with all manner of ritual fetishes and symbols emerge out of the Jar. The image nodded to me and as I tossed it in we heard the ghost of Draaza Kazul say ,"Thank you".
Tired and wounded we hoped that we could make it back to the abandoned mill. I drank my healing potions as we walked into the night back the way we came. Once we were away from the sounds of the obelesks we could could hear yelling and galloping hooves in the distance. We weren't out of the mess yet. A few hours into things, perhaps a hour or two before dawn, Damu paused for a second then I heard a thudding sound as he dropped. An arrow was in his hip, and it was too dark out to tell where it was coming from.Worst off all we back on the edge of the Jurka, out on open plains with no cover. I saw two big lumbering bodies rushing towards me. I ran head long towards them and swung wildly. Two huge Bugbear berzerkers, shock troops for the Hobgoblin raiders. The Barghest had returned and it was on top of Damu! The Bugbears were all fur and muscle and armed with huge spiked clubs. Their eyes glowed a feint yellow in the dark, and they seemed consumed with a frenzied blood lust. Even still I thought I could take them, though with berzerkers of any sort you have to be careful because they'll hut themselves just to hurt you more.
I hate that Humans are damn near the only race that can't see in the dark. Thinking of that I kicked dirt in the face of one Bugbear right as the other swung down his club with both hands. It missed and I stepped on the club, leaped up and swung my sword deep into its neck and collar bone. It fell, and rolled over. The other grabbed in both its hands, making me drop my sword and it lifted me up in an effort to bite my head. I head butted it with my spiked helmet and dazed it for a second. I gutted it with a dagger and it swiped my face with its claws, leaving me with a cut from under my left eye and across my cheek to my jaw line. The other Bugbear got up and I grabbed my sword. It ran full force at me with a bone shiv and I held my ground, but ducked out the way as it went pass me and down into the Jurka. Sadly it was only ten feet to the bottom. The other Bugbear went towards the Barghest. Damu was pretty beat up. I saw him limping and holding his stomach in one hand and swinging his sword in the other. The Barghest was in wolf-thing form and its mouth drooled with a mess of feathers and blood.
Damu could do a bit of magic but he hated to do so. Not that he had a problem with magic, but he prided himself on his talents as an assassin so much that he only used such things as a last resort. Like there in that tight spot cornered between the Barghest and the approaching Bugbear. He chanted something to himself and leaped twenty feet away and over the head of the Bugbear, which he slashed wide open as he went by. As the Bugbear's skull split open I charged the Barghest and ran it through. It shriveled and shifted back into its stocky Goblin shape at the end of my blade. Damu came back and looked over the edge into the Jurka and laughed, "Hey Leo look at that!". Down in the Jurka I saw an albino frog the size of a barrel eating the insides of other Bugbear. Shit the dream was real after all! Lord that place was creepy! We made it to our horse and Damu limped into the Wagon. He was in bad shape, but he'd make it, however shitty the ride would be.
When we got back the encampment in sorry shape the Paladins were gloating at the mess we were in but shut the fuck up when we presented the heads of both Jahghu Kazul and Gharuun. I demanded that we get paid twice for in fact killing Gharuun twice, something the Pollies didn't manage to do once. Which we did, and I managed to negotiate a healing for Damu, though they really didn't want to do that. We had Sir Halton sign and dip a wax seal in our work papers saying we had completed the task at hand so we didn't have to travel all that way carrying severed heads. All in all it was a good mission with no complaints.
In regards of burying what remained of Draaza Kazul I think in this case I did the right thing. It felt right, and despite of the circumstances of why I was there in the first place, I did feel like the burial mounds were in their own way a holy and sacred spot. Don't let the Clerics know I said that, but like I said, in spite of how many Hobgoblins I sent to their ancestors over the years, I do respect them. Maybe the plains of the uncontested regions are better off left in the hands of Goblinoids and crazed Druids. Better then in the hands of Gnomes and equally greedy Humans that will poison the untouched land with factories. Though like Draaza Kazul I dread the day when those below have grown their Hobgoblin slave armies to numbers vast enough to lay waste to our nation. The masters of the Derago have a name for themselves, but as I learned from the Dwarves of Rolheim they are called Mind-Flayers by others. I learned from the one time I went to Rolheim that much of our own history that we are taught is heavily watered down by the Church.
We are taught that the earth is base and profane and that's why Bestial races who come from out of the earth rather then on top of it- Orcs, Ogres, Goblinoids, etc.- inherently have a greater predisposition towards evil. That's not completely true I've learned. These races come from wild, untamed places and are more like animals. Certainly an Orc is dumb and vicious and that viciousness easily favors things we would call evil, but it's nature is more like a hungry Wolf then it is Demonic. Also while they all dig burrows, tunnels, or live in ruins or caves, they live off of the land. They don't live underground. However there are things that live underground, deep underground and these things certainly are evil. But they are evil in a way to that is a mirror to us and that is why the Church hides their existence. There are races down below that are intelligent, build cities and have cultures, though horrific nightmare cultures left buried below. While I was in Rolheim I learned that the 1298 war of Stockdon wasn't really led by a Dragon and its forces. The Dragon served the Mind-Flayers. A small number of them in fact. Rolheim has a long history of waring with these Mind-Flayers.
Anyway, I know that a lot of the work Damu and I did was part of a bigger plan for Regentum to clear out dangers from the wild areas so that industry could be moved deeper into the interior. We were the first generation of a legion of hired swords set out to do dirty work with big business and industry moving quickly behind us. They hire young mercenaries now more then ever. I just hope that its all towards a good end. I don't want Regentum to turn into an Empire of billowing smoke stacks and loud grinding factories. If it were up to the rich the whole country would look like the factory slums of Scardale. I see the guys coming in here boasting of their exploits wanting to blow their gold on my beer and the girls I keep around here. I earned and lost fortunes a few times over to taverns and prostitutes that I know now in my fifties that it's better to be standing behind the bar then sitting in front of it. I hear the kids are getting a lot of work clearing out areas out west for the new railroad and that by the time I'm dead it'll connect Elaine with Scardale. But the government really doesn't know whats lurking out there. Some of them do, the Rangers do, but their the dirtiest bunch of crooks you'll ever run into and they'll never tell the Army, the Church and certainly not the Palladins. We have more to worry about then mere Pirates, Bandits and Goblinoid Raiders.
But if the monsters and other horrors out there don't ruin us the Gnomes and big business will.
MARYBETH, THE KENKU BARBARIAN.
This is my second character for the Greymane's Haven Adventuring Guild ongoing challenge hosted over on @greymane_guild om Instagram! As these characters come together, you may start to notice a theme...
Marybeth is a frightening, small, yet imposing raven-like humanoid known as a Kenku, and is a Barbarian of the Path of the Berserker. She wields a number of bone daggers and shortswords handcrafted and sharpened by her best friend, Sythil, and employs them to devastating effect. Though she has an impeccable memory when her interest is piqued, her selective enthusiasm often ends up coming back to bite her when a mission isn't completed quite how the client requested it to be. Her intense gaze and movements often unnerve those not familiar with her behavior, but her allies know that her loyalty runs somehow deeper than even her ferocity.
This is my party for the Greymane's Haven Adventuring Guild ongoing challenge hosted over on @greymane_guild on Instagram! As these characters have come together, you may have noticed the theme: they're all monstrous! Or monstrous-adjacent. You get the gist. For their story, read on!
Though a great many people live in the main cities of the realm, and a great and diverse cast of characters bustle about their busy streets, there are a few individuals the common people would... rather not do business with, to say the least. An indisputably large portion of these folk come from the village of Montown, nestled in the heart of the Oarbrook Forest. Montown is a place that can be described a number of different ways, depending on who you ask. To some, it is a place of ill repute, where only the desperate go to work. To others, it's a trifle that doesn't deal enough in actual currency of the civilized world to justify trade with. To more yet still, Montown is a home, when much of the world bristles in the presence of their kind. Inhabited by all manners of mortals, the village holds a rather prodigious population of people hailing fron heritages commonly classified as "monstrous" or "exotic," including orcs, minotaurs, kobolds, tabaxi, bugbears, and much, much more. What much of the realm sees as a cesspool full of brigands, charlatans, and ne'er-do-wells, many of these folks see as a haven where they don't need to sanitize their looks, behavior, or even cuisine to fit in.
Coming from this boisterous settlement, we find the heroes of the moment: the Montown Mob. A group of four adventurers well-known in their birthplace for being effective, if a little chaotic, this party is one whose got its sights set on the Greymane's Haven Adventuring Guild. When the call went out for a force of heroes to rise up and oppose the coming threat of the returning Lich King, four brave and lightly demented individuals rose to the occasion to put Montown on the map, and bring respect to their kin. There's Sythil, the Lizardfolk Ranger with a knack for carving bones, Marybeth, the Kenku Barbarian with an unsettling intense demeanor, Borgoop, the Plasmoid Monk who can't ever seem to disappear without leaving a trace, and Pushnik, the Goblin Cleric whose patience when it comes to steering his allies down the right path seems without end. When a situation gets grave, Marybeth is always ready to plunge headfirst into danger. When the way forward is obscured, none know strategy and a path to victory quite like Sythil. When the party is pushed to its breaking point, no one is quite as flexible or full of new ideas as Borgoop. And when the antics of those three nearly land them plummeting off the edge of a cliff, well, it's Pushnik's sage wisdom and sound heart that keep them alive to continue the good work. Though the party has a long ways to go before taking on any truly great evils, it's safe to say: the Lich King will never know what exploits to expect from the Montown Mob. And frankly, neither will Pushnik.
Scene from a story wrote-
www.facebook.com/notes/viva-lux/the-adventures-of-leo-way...
The adventures of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku assassin: # 22 of 33- Grundy’s tower
It was the second time we were ever approached by the Rangers for a job. The Rangers rarely ever hired Mercs, you know all their business is dirty business, and so they rarely ever called for outside help. But they approached Damu and I for a job a second time, the last one when we first encountered the Lich Desmond.
I was buying a wagon for my sister when I two guys in black studded leather and black cloaks rode up to me on horseback in the middle of the afternoon. Damu and I had just recently gotten back from Nijiro and at first when I saw them approach me I assumed it was to ask questions about our job there. They rode up all calm, but had a weird look on their faces and were really nervous. A taller one, a guy with a lean pock-marked face and a nasty scar across his face spoke up, “Mr. Wayfarer, how quickly can you get you Kenku partner?”. I looked at him a little cocked eyed as it was clear they wanted more than just to talk, but I was also worried. I had a bad feeling about this one.
I shrugged a bit trying to play it cool and was like, “Meet me at my place after diner, I’ll get him.” The other Ranger, a smaller guy with his face wrapped in red cloth said, “Come with us to go get him, this can’t wait”.
So we got Damu and met in St. Gregory’s church. The church wasn’t open for service but they let us in on the Rangers authority. Damu eyed the altar apprehensively and it bothered the priest who let us in, but he quickly let the four of alone to talk in private.
The Ranger with the scar spoke,”I am Lieutenant Alderman, this is Sergeant Kooper. From what we gather a few years ago you two secured an artifact on behalf of a local Sorceress Alzaya. This artifact was a magical device of no apparent clear origin and was in the shape of a black orb made from an unknown material, is this correct?”. Damu spoke up, “Yes we found that in a cave in the jungles of Fazas. She had acquired it previously and someone working for her stole it. Has it been stolen again?”. The Ranger with his faces wrapped up, Sergent Kooper responded, “No the item in question was not stolen. Now what I am about to say remains between the four of us. You two have a solid reputation on getting your jobs done efficiently, and dealing with not only as well like to say ‘sensitive’ cases but also unusual ones. This case is both”.
Kooper and Alderman told us that a certain party, a Wizard named Grundy had ties with both the Rangers an Alzaya’s interests. Immediately I could tell what they hadn’t said, that Alzaya’s shady business was tied up somehow with their shady business through this guy Grundy. Not our concern really. Alzaya, who apparently was missing at the time (God knows how I wish that actually was the case) had gotten this guy Grundy to experiment with the black orb. He had a tower in the little village Fensport a few hours to the south. I knew Fensport was reputed to be a hot bed of smuggling and opium trafficking and assumed that this is what they were looking to cover for. They wanted us to go to Fensport and secure Grundy’s tower. There was some kind of unknown supernatural entity loose on the inside of the place that had asked for Damu and I by name. Apparently it had to do with the orb. Grundy and the orb itself were also missing. We had to go to the tower, secure the location, and not make a scene.
We left the early the next day and took the new wagon I got for my sister. We didn’t ride armored and the roads between Scardale and Fensport were pretty secured and well traveled, so I wasn’t worried about Bandits or other attacks. Fensport is an odd little place, odd in that there is clearly way too much money in what is supposed to be a little fishing village. The towns folk were nice enough people, and the center of the village was filled with little high end furniture stores and all sorts of fancy, charming Cafes. Not surprising it had neither a P.O.L.L. or an Army building but the Rangers had an obvious presence. They had a small fort there supposedly as a staging ground to patrol Fazas which was only a few hours to the south. Much to my dismay there wasn’t any place that catered towards vice except a few legitimate taverns, though in one place there I had one of the best pumpkin ales I ever had. We got a room a local Tavern and hung out for a day trying to dig up dirt on Grundy before we raided his tower.
Grundy apparently was a Dwarf, which is rare for a Dwarf to practice magic. To make it even stranger he also was an extremely pale and completely bald Dwarf who couldn’t be out in sunlight without wearing tinted goggles to protect his eyes. Grundy was neither liked nor hated by the people there. He kept to himself and had dropped a lot of coin on the town, including paying for a dock to be built for the community some 50 years ago prior. Because of that any eccentricities he may have shown were ignored, and most people figured what Wizards weren’t a little weird? I suspect too that the people of Fensport most likely enjoy their high standard of living and know to turn a blind eye to quite a lot in order to preserve that standard of living. I can’t blame them, it was a pretty little community and even the lowliest of fisherman had a decent little house and a decent little wife.
Grundy’s tower was a walled off 6 story tower built on the end of a ¾ mile long peninsula. If the town didn’t already have a light tower you might assume this was one passing by. All geared up we hopped over the wall and headed towards the tower.
I was a bit caught off guard by the interior of Grundy’s property. I was expecting fields or maybe a garden or something, but the entire outdoor property was carved rock, like one long stretching plaza of alcoves, statues, stairwells and fountains. It looked like perhaps the peninsula itself was solid rock and that Grundy had carved the rock to suit his tastes. Walking towards the tower we came upon a circular edifice on the ground that was lined with 12 standing stones that were carved in a way that when light shined on them they cast the figures of various monstrous creatures on the ground made from shadow. They were arranged in a way to seem like they were locked in battle. Also on the ground of the stone circle were carved various magic symbols and some script unknown to me but that bore resemblance to written Dwarven.
Upon closer inspection we found that the center of the circle was caked in blood and we found the served head of a fish-frog looking humanoid creature with two severed web hands, all badly rotten. I would assume it was the head and hands of a Kua-Toa, but the head was too rotten to tell for certain.
We kept going for a bit and then abruptly I caught the smell of something foul and fishy on the wind. Damu recoiled and ducked behind a life sized statue of a Unicorn. A section of the ground ahead opened up and a massive black snake as thick as a tree trunk with the head of a beautiful woman with long dark hair kept up in a diamond tiara rose sinuously out of the opening. Damu didn’t waste any time, he was already on top of the stone Unicorn letting loose arrows at the creature.
The thing had a face and if it had a face it most likely could talk, but whatever it had to say, if anything, we never found out. Damu hated anything with scales, weather snake or reptile and instantly the creature had a arrow logged where its left eye once was. The thing spoke some incantation and a column of flame barreled down at me. Dodging the burst of flame that this snake creature had willed forth I rolled forward and drawing my sword while lunging at it I managed to score a hit across its belly, but not as deep as I would have liked. Up close the head of the creature was still beautiful but almost twice as large as a human woman’s head. No matter as the creature lunged down to bite me in return for the belly slit and missing eye. I pulled out the way as the snake’s head went close to the ground and as it did an arrow went right into the top of its head killing it.
Damu jumped down from the statue and grabbed the gore splattered Tiara from the she-creatures head. He had to lift it with both his hands and could have worn it around his waist. I laughed a bit, and asked. “Do you know what this thing is?”. Damu responded, “Yea it’s called a Naga. We’re lucky we killed it quick, these things know magic. But they are born, they aren’t summoned or created beings.” I looked down into the hole it came out of. Below was a lit and rather posh furnished room of thick blankets and huge silk pillows each the size of a bed. We decided to enter the tower from the Naga’s trap door.
From the Naga’s room we found a hallway clearly built for it that headed towards the tower. As we got closer to the tower the air got cold and thick. I could faintly hear a sound that sounded like a mix of humming, the sound this one textile mill by my house would make and what at time sounded almost like mumbling in an unknown language. I again caught that foul fish smell and it dawned on me that up close the Naga had not produced that smell.
The tunnel up a head turned left and right and we could hear what sounded like metal being drug across the ground. Weapons drawn we kept going, then from around both corners each we saw what was producing that fetid stench. Two badly decomposed figures each about 5ft tall with long arms that held rusty metal hooks shambled towards us. Grundy or whoever, had bothered to animate the corpses of two Kua-Toa warriors to guard his property. He obviously had no love for the fish-men, but then again, who does? Zombies smell bad as it is, but fish zombies are a whole other order of disgusting. One clumsily swung its hook at my head which I swerved away from and stabbed my sword right through where its eye once was and popped it back out through the side of crumbling skull. Damu didn’t waste an arrow on the other, he mere leapt at it and severed its head before he even landed back on the ground. Undead are always an annoying fight, they almost never have any goods or gear to gear to loot.
Looking down either hall we saw that to the left was a stair case going down and to the right a stair case going up. The one to left was big enough for the Naga, the one to the right was not. We went down to the left first. The stairs opened up to a cave that was a secret dock. But what we saw at the docks was hard to explain. Instead of a ship with sails we saw a vessel docked that was shaped not unlike a shark and made entirely from black metal. It had no sails and it seemed one got in and out of it from a metal latch on top that had a wooden ladder that reached towards it. I had never seen anything like it nor have I heard even rumors of such a ship. Damu was equally dumbfounded, but looking at it he said, “Look closely at this thing. It has mechanical gears, this is some Dwarven machine for sailing underwater.” I had no other explanation for it and agreed. The thing looked foul, like a black sea monster that would stalk the depths. If it did indeed prowl the waters like Damu supposed it would make sense as to why Grundy had run in conflict with the Kua-Toa. The fish-men do not take kindly to trespass on their waters as any sailor or pirate could tell you. I could see why the Ranger’s had to seek outside help for this mission, this ship, if it was truly a ship, I could tell was an important secret best kept off of official report.
We headed upwards and came upon what was the front room of the tower. It was filled with ornate and clearly expensive furniture built for a Dwarfs proportions, but what it lacked in height it made up for in girth. Damu rested on a stout chair of suede and dark mahogany wood with feet carved like a dragon’s claws. The walls were lined with many paintings in gold frames and one in question stood out. It was a painting showing a scene of a vast cavern with its own lake or perhaps underground ocean, with massive stalagmites and stalactites rising out of the water or dipping into it that had oppressive looking citadels carved out of them. Looking closely at the painting I saw that the paintings signature was Grundy himself and that in fact he had painted all of the works of art hanging in his home. Clearly he was an artist of some skill.
Damu was looking at another painting on his own, then darted backwards a few steps drawing his sword. “Leo that fucking painting moved”, he said. I drew forth my blade and walked over towards the painting. I quick surmised that it was a self-portrait of Grundy himself. While clearly a Dwarf he did not look like any Dwarf I have ever known. The portrait showed a Dwarf without any hair on his head and a skin town an ugly pale gray, not unlike the color of ash. He had a beard of slightly darker color then his skin but it was look and presence about his depiction that was decidedly un-Dwarf like. Although Dwarves often come off as gruff or stern at time they have a deep seated sense of mirth and comradely about them. Even the Dwarves I have befriended over the years that were mercenaries who spent years away from their own people still had a sense of friendship and loyalty about them. Looking at the likeness of Grundy here I was looking at a Dwarf that was clearly not the product of the culture of hard work and hard play. Here was a grim and solitarily man who seemed like he spent his years alone plowing through ancient tomes of dark arcane lore and that was all he ever knew. What Dwarf lived like this? How did Alzaya come to know this unique creature?
Right as I pondered this I saw what Damu spoke of. The background texture of the painting was painted an odd purple-pink and in a portion of that I started to see a black dot shimmer and come forth. For a second I saw that Grundy’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and his likeness dissolved away. The black dot rose forth out of the painting but it was not solid, I could see through it. Then abruptly out of the painting issued forth a frothing mass of yellow-green haze that turned into an amorphous mass of the half-formed likenesses of beasts of prey, sea creatures and humanoid figures.
We backed away from the painting and what came out of it, swords drawn and ready to lunge at this apparition. The hazed coalesced into a single form, vaguely humanoid though larger than human proportions. I have seen a pregnant cow’s belly torn open and saw what her calf unready to born looked like. I imagine while we are still inside out Mothers stomach waiting to be born that we look not unlike this calf. This figure floating in the air before us looked not unlike what I imagine a humanoid creature would like if it was torn from its mother unready to be born. Except that also its right eye was massive out of proportion and it had all manner of tentacles writhing in the air about it. Grotesque as it was I had a pang of sympathy for it.
The air grew very cold around us and I could see frost growing on things around us. I could hear a faint grinding, buzzing sound and I could see that Damu’s feathers were sticking on end. He held firm though and was about to attack the creature before I held him back. Then words appeared in the painting where Grundy once was.
“The orb took me over, but I broke free. It took all of what is left of me, all of what is left of my soul to escape and hide in this painting. Alzaya took the orb and the orb took Alzaya. She is the Orb now, she is not Alzaya. She must be killed.”
Right as the last word appeared the painting dissolved in a mess of a pink-purple light and there was a loud sound like water rushing down a drain, and in that sound we could hear what sounded like a million incoherent gibbering voices.
We ransacked the place and found no other creatures or spirits. We took all of what we thought we Grundy’s magic tomes and research notes, none of which Damu or I could read. Though amongst a pile of open books we found a text written in Torin that I could read that spoke of a section of the mountains between Hados and Lu’Hedej where high on mountain tops a type of Demon is said to reside and that these Demons are really a means of releasing what the book called “Obsidian Eggs”. These Obsidian Eggs are said to be sections or pieces of a lower universe yet a far larger and more complex universe then the one we live in. The text also said despite seeming dense and heavy that these Obsidian Eggs are actually hollow and that this hollow emptiness is both alive and a means of two way entry between this world and the world it is a piece of.
We didn’t even bother to take anything of value, except the tiara from the Naga. We got out of there and reported to the Rangers right away. It was really strange and upsetting to me that this unknown Dwarf spent his last dying effort so he could talk to Damu and I and baring the message that I had to kill an old fuck buddy of mine, a rich and beautiful fuck buddy at that. It was more upsetting when we did kill her, but that’s another story.
A few days later after we got back to Scardale I ran into a Dwarf I knew at the Pawn shop we sold the tiara to. Franz Shieldsmith, an old Dwarf mercenary I knew who was spending his later years guarding the pawn shop for the Gnomes who owned it. I told him a bit about Grundy, what he looked like, and the strange black metal underwater ship we found. He freaked the fuck out and pulled an axe on me saying that if I ever told anyone about what I saw that he’d lead an army of Dwarves and kill me. Well old Franz died a few years ago. I really don’t know what freaked him out so bad, but I heard that a few months later that Franz and about 50 Dwarven mercenaries went down to Fensport destroyed Grundy’s tower. They bombarded the place with cannon fire until it collapsed. Sense then a Dwarven owned ship building yard was built over the place.
I guess even the culture of work hard and play hard has its secrets its likes to keep buried.
GIANT WASP, THE HIVE TERROR.
Happy #monstermonday folks!! This one is a familiar build I'm sure to some of you, as I gave a lil sneak peek of it a couple weeks ago. This was the encounter from the fourth Montown Mob quest post in which Marybeth the Kenku Barbarian went into cave at the behest of an herbalist, and fought a remarkably large insect!
Getting the shaping of the abdomen to curve was pretty fun, though the wings were a bit tricky. Originally, I thought about using the translucent wing pieces from a Hero Factory set, but they ended up wayyy put of scale, so I settled on these for the long, sharp-looking wings that yellowjackets have! What do you think? Did this build make you shudder at the thought of a wasp this big in real life?
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin,as told by Leo to his Nephew Leto Collins (# 7 of 33)- Into the Jurka.
That bird and I saw a lot of weird shit in our days, some of it still keeps me up at night, most of all our very last job together, but some things we ran into weren't weird in a scary way, just in way that defies any sense. I dunno...but the world and it's truth is far more complicated then what we're taught,and you have to separate the things that really are true from the bullshit the Church and the Military feeds the public to hold our culture together. Don't get me wrong, I still love Regentum, even after all these years. I believe in a God, but not the church or the Emperor. What's important to me about Regentum is that it's perhaps the only place in the world where a common, regular person can receive the benefits of their own hard work. Everywhere I've ever been I've only seen masters and servants. The Dwarves are good to one another, perhaps even better then we in Regentum are. But in Rolheim the Dwarves have a very set and rigid way of life. You're stuck in the position you're born into, but no Dwarf suffers or is destitute. Here in Regentum if you're born poor you can do something about it. Other Human nations that aren't our Colonies, forget it. That's why so many foreigners become Pirates. It's better to be a Pirate then the serf of some Sultan in Lu' Hadej, toil the years by on a Brenendale fishing ship, live under constant war in the mess of Alson, or slave away under some Monk in Nijiro.
After I got out of the Army like a lot of guys I was pretty jaded with all the shit talking about conquering the world for light and law and all that sort of talk. Our leaders fight for money and power and cull troops from the ranks of our working poor after getting them hyped up on religion. I mean look, they take these kids, they start at age fifteen, and all these boys are either from farming villages, or some industrial slum. You take a kid like that who hasn't got much of a future and you tell him that he'll be trained to fight for holy order, and that he will be special, that he will individually play a vital role in shaping the future of the empire and he buys it. Like me and yours Pops. We knew it was either the army, the docks, the factories or jail. It's ugly that it takes a large degree of smoke and mirrors to hold Regentum together, but its better then everywhere else out there.
Anyhow after Damu and I took out that Goblin leader Ertu we were in good standing with the Military as skilled mercenaries who were good at eliminating specific targets that were loose ends they needed cleaned up. It took those motherfuckers less then a month before I got a knock at the door from a Army courier with a new bounty contract in one hand, and a sack of gold in the other. I hadn't even yet spent all my money from before.
I was told that the Military needed a new way to send food supplies to all the troops the world over because the cost of doing so was getting too high due to the sheer number of troops we now how have the world over. Traditionally the food either came from local sources, or was shipped in by merchants with government contracts. The Military hired Wizard-Engineers to design a new system of providing troops with enough food in a cheaper way. So they applied the idea of the factory to the slaughter house. Along the road way between Salsburg and Fieldsview a big warehouse was built in which cattle was slaughtered in mass by huge killing machines and the meat cured, salted and prepped for shipping.
Some Druid freaked out about this place and attacked it. Around this time the Army was routing out a large strike force of the Derago Tribe of Hobgoblins. The Deragos' got their asses handed to them and broke up into a bunch of small rag-tag units. The Druid trashed the place pretty good, and the report in my contract didn't mention as to what happened to the Druid or who he was. Troops, Engineers, Craftsman and supply laden Merchants were quickly sent in to get the Meat Factory up and running. All of these sitting ducks alone along the highway caught the eye of a squad of Derago Hobgoblins who in turn decided to take their own stab at the meat factory. We were asked to find the leader of the Squad, a Hobgoblin named Jahghu Khazul and kill him. The Army in the area was still busy chasing down the bulk of the Derago forces, and had them pinned way up north almost to Rolhiem.
This time around we bought our own wagon and horse rather then catching a ride with a caravan. A nice light brown horse I never got the chance to name or get attached to. After the mission I ended up loosing our horse in a dice game on the way back to Scardale to this skinny toothless drunk in a bar in Salsburg. Damu was pissed off about it, and he laughed at me the whole way home.
Most of the trip there was easy, if even a little boring. We had to go this round about way to get there as there was no highway that went directly there and I didn't want to chance getting shook down with Damu in tow. But even playing by the book we got caught up in some shit. Between Nolos and Salsburg we got stopped by a Polly squad. One of them saw us in Nolos when we stopped for supplies and bitched to the others about a Kenku moving around the interior. Even though the eastern end of Regentum is thought of as being more religiously tolerant then out west, its just that out west they think of themselves as superior given that they eastern region was conquered and absorbed into the Empire. Really everyone in the Empire outside of the big coastal cities clings very firmly to our Religion and its accompanying prejudices. I caught a lot of shit over the years for having a Kenku for a friend.
5 of these pricks rode up on us, battle standards held all high, pole arms drawn, you know the whole fucking works. Big fucking fags in their shinny armor demanding to know what me and the Bird were up to. I held out the contract with the army guys in Scardale and was like, "Were here to do your dirty work". Some big prissy bitch, Sir Halton kept scrutinizing me, being like, "How can I keep the company of a Heathen animal?", and how legal or otherwise "To bring such a foul creature into the interior was an affront to the holy sanctity of our beloved empire". Typical Paladin fag shit. Fuck them. The mercenary rabble were here to wipe their ass because they were too important to do it themselves. Damu maybe a local legend here in Scardale, but out in the country or in the eyes of the Church he was scum.
When we got to the Meat factory there was a bunch of workers busting their asses to fix it, a few merchants and rich Gnomes, some solders, and some hired swords keeping an eye on the place. The ruined factory buildings had maze of scaffolding towering up their crumbling walls, and about the area around them was a decent sized encampment. Various tents dotted the place, though one could clearly tell the difference between tents belonging to the workers, the merchants, the troops and the mercenaries. Worker tents were drab though orderly. The tents of the business men were lined with velvet and furs. The Army tents had various standards embroidered to them, and the mercenary tents were both drab and disorderly. Also they were off to the side of everyone else. I saw a big, ugly mother fucker around the Merc tents, both too big and too ugly to be completely human, but not a Half-Orc. I saw he wore the spiked gauntlets common to Gladiators and figured he must of been a half-breed slave who fought his away from to freedom from the fighting pits. Still fighting on behalf of the gold of the rich, but at least the deal was more in his favor. I hope anyway. One of the other mercs there was this guy Ramalti, a big guy with a shaved head and thick curled mustache. I knew him from the army. Once we fought Pirates together off the coast of Fazas. After checking in with the Captain of the place, we set up camp with Ramalti.
Ramalti had a huge pile of furs arranged under a high posted canopy and laid around a fire with a few extra skinned rabbits cooking. We caught up on things for a hour or so, though I could tell he didn't like that I had Damu with me, though he didn't say anything.Ramalti told me his last gig was doing a hit for people who were part of Snake-Worshiping cult and that he was glad to be away from them. Said that they used pit fighting for a front and had a lot of weird orgies. Didn't seem too bad to me but he warned me to stay away if they ever approached us.
Damu was fidgety, which was unnerving given how calm how usually was, something was up. The small talk between Ramalti and I was broken when Damu asked flatly, "Tell us about the Hobgoblins around here, we are here kill to Jahghu Kazul". It was an awkward moment. Ramalti gave Damu a stern look and me a half stern half worried look and was like, "Yea Kazul, yea he's around these ways, or should be. Last we knew anyway. Look let me tell you guys a few things about this job. The moneyed people here have their head up their ass and all they want to know is when this place will up and running again. Don't listen to them. The military guys are here to watch them. They're only gonna tell you half of what you need to know. Something weird is going on out in the fields. Animals have been acting strange. On patrols at night I've seen bolts of color and light off in the distance, and one night while following what was the tracks of two small feet, they abruptly shifted into the paw prints of a 4 legged creature."
I looked over at Ramalti and he handed me a wine skin, "Also have you two heard of an area called the Jurka?", he asked. "No", Damu replied. Damu didn't know much beyond city life, or even beyond life in Scardale. He was always a tad out of his element on missions like this. Though to be honest I never heard of it either. It is a creepy place we found. "The Jurka", Ramalti said, "is an ugly, sunken scar of land sunken and wide, but also consisting of many hills, little rivers, creeks and the occasional murky swamp lake. It is a lonely and windy stretch of land of irregular width, but hundreds of miles in length. Jurka is Goblin for 'the crack'. Most Goblins and Hobgoblins avoid the place, though I've been told that some powerful Hobgoblin Warlords are buried there.The Gobos say the place is cursed as its not naturally occurring. Something deep below the ground they claim cracked the land open centuries ago. It's not on any known maps, nor mentioned in any journals. For a distinct land mass so big that's very strange. Someone must not want it to be known."
Damu laughed, "I don't care about any cracks or secrets any Hairies keep from each other. We're here for Jahghu Kazul, that's all that matters."
Right before dawn we were woken up to screams and commotions. The first thing I saw upon waking were 4 foxes a few feet away from me. I laughed at first, but when I stood up I realized the place was over run with foxes. Foxes and geese. They were every where, howling and running amok. It would have been funny if it weren't so out of place and deliberate seeming. No one knew what to do and it I think because of that it was really freaking a lot of them out.
Quickly then I saw a fox stare it me. It had a bloody muzzle and in its mouth was a blood-stained pointed Gnome hat. I pointed over to Damu and he quickly drew an arrow and shot the fox. As I ran towards the fox its shape contorted and elongated. By the time my sword was swinging directly at it the fox it had become a tall skinny guy with long matted hair down past his ass, a long matted beard, and just a loin cloth on. His eyes seemed distant yet driven by some equally remote purpose. The Wild Man rolled out of the way. I saw that his hands were glowing and all of a sudden vines grew quickly up from the ground, like water being poured from a bottle, that were wrapping up around my legs. He smiled without humor at this and pulled the arrow Damu Shot him with out of his shoulder. Blood squirted out and a chunk of meat flopped over from the wound.
What looked like a large, stocky Goblin but still not a Hobgoblin walked up to the Wild Man just as he was picking up the bloody Gnome hat. The Wild Man looked over at the strange Goblin and spoke, "This will do. The Dwarves and the Gnomes are just as bad as these Regentum people. The Gnomes maybe even more so. They hide behind their money and get Humans to do their dirty work." The Goblin-thing didn't seemed to care too much, but they never had the chance to debate the matter. Ramalti and Damu charged the two. Ramalti carried a large spiked mace that he swung down towards the head of the Goblin. Catching the creatures cap, but not its head, the Goblin leaped up in the air far higher then a Goblin should be able to leap, and landed on top of Ramalti biting him in the neck. The vines wrapped tighter around my legs and I was worried that my legs would shatter under the strain. Damu threw his dagger straight into the gut of the Wild Man with one hand, and slashed across his face with his sword with the other. The Wild Man fell back, holding his guts into his stomach. The slash across his face caused his nose to dangle and his cheek to flop open. I think some teeth were missing or dangling by tiny threads of mouth meat in his beard. The ground around us burst into flame. Damu leaped out of the way, and Ramalti was still struggling with the creature wrapped around his neck and head. Me, I stuck my legs in the fire and burned away the vines. It was painful, but not as painful as my legs being crushed.
Quickly I tried to stand, but I stumbled as I got up. The Wild Man rushed with his hands transformed into large green glowing claws. A claw jabbed towards my head, but I ducked under it, and swooped my sword upwards and into and out of his chest. The fire abruptly stopped. The Goblin creature jumped off of Ramalti and by the time it hit the ground it transformed into some strange mix of Goblin and Wolf. Later on Damu said such creatures were called Barghests. Whatever it was it took off running. Soon all the Foxes and Geese went away.
The Captain and his men surrounded the Wild Man. I was confused at first because they bound his body in shackles, as why exactly they would bound up a corpse, but my confusion quickly turned to anger as the poured a healing potion down the mother fuckers throat. I screamed out at them, "What the fuck are you doing? He's a Witch, leave him dead! I'm not killing him again unless I get paid extra." Which funny enough we did get paid twice for killing that guy. Turns out he was the crazed Druid who attacked the Meat-Factory in the first place. Gharuun the Druid, wanted across eastern Regentum for various acts of terrorism, spreading blasphemy, and other crimes against the Empire. Around the camp I heard that Gharuun was once the Son of a rich industrialist family out of Tardon. He was supposedly once Francis Applemoore, a scion of a blue-blood family who went insane around the time his family fell to controversy. If I recall right, I think actually the Applemoore's owned a factory outside of Tardon that accidentally poisoned a near-by river with mercury, killing hundreds of peasant-folk, and making many more sick.Butt-Boy Sir Halton and his squad of Knights showed up to interrogate Gharuun and bring him to Elaine for execution, but not until after they kissed Gnome ass. The Gnomes and the Human Merchants were grieving over the loss of the Gnome Harov Goldstein and his money (which the Barghest apparently got away with).
It was found out after a day of torture that Gharuun was working with Jahghu Kazul and his forces out of the Jurka because of mutual animosity towards Regentum. The whole "the enemy of my enemy" bit. Gharuun was bothered by industrialization and by it being this far into the interior of the country-side. Admittedly on that part Gharuun was perhaps right, I myself hate to admit that I agreed with a Druid, but while I grew up in the city surrounded by factories and industry, I've always valued the clean greenery of the country side when I've traveled through it.I could see how he ended up a Druid after coming from a family who's factory poisoned the land. I'd hate to our beautiful country side ruined just to make people like Harov Goldstein rich. Jahghu Kazul however could give two shits either way. Gharuun didn't want loot and worked for free. Gharuun was a zealot, violence for his religion was its own reward. Kazul was a raider and aspiring Warlord. He only valued money and brute force.
That night Damu and I rode into the Jurka.
The very southern most portion of the Jurka came to a tapered tip and sloped down at an easy descent. It really did look like a sunken crack in the earth, as if here the world split open and then was over grown over the ensuing years. A creek ran along the bottom of the valley. We decided for the time being not to go directly into the Jurka but to follow along its western edge, at least until dawn. By dawn we saw that the creek had grown considerably in size further up stream, and off the near distance was a waterfall with what looked like an old, abandoned ruined mill next to it.
Damu scouted out the ruin and it was clear. We camped out there for a few hours. Not even bothering to unravel my bed roll, I just laid on top of a concrete slab and rested my head on my bag. In my nap I had a strange dream about a grand mother living in the mill with her grand children and a giant frog that moved into the water fall that ate her kids. I woke up and didn't want to find out if that was true or not, so I shook Damu awake and we got going.
As dawn rose, the whole of the Jurka was blanketed in an early morning foggy-mist and lit in a pale glow. The place has a strange beauty, yet something is noticeably unsettling about it. Everything is a bit off, and nature with in it goes in unusual courses. During that morning ride along the Jurka Damu and I saw aquatic rabbits. I shit you not, we saw water-rabbits, long and skinny, with wide flat feet and light green fur. Maybe they couldn't breathe the water, but we saw rabbits hopping from land and into water, swimming frantically down stream, and back out again.
By late afternoon we caught sight of fresh tracks that looked like the hoof-prints of the giant boars that the Hobgoblins ride heading from the west and northbound into the Jurka directly. We left our horse and wagon there and headed in. As we did we stopped to consider tactics. We both had fought Hobgoblins but they had numbers on us. Plus we we're only after one of them. The Hobgoblin raiders of the northern plains I have a respect for. On their Boar-Mounts they are deadly. They have a unique style of Calvary tactics that is very different from how we, or the Elves, etc. would use typically fight on horse back. They fight almost like a pack of wild animals, and use hit and run tactics with ruthless efficiency. When I was in the army I fought with units charged with taking out Hobgoblins on a few occasions. While we always won, it was only because of superior numbers. For every raider we took they easily took 6 to 8 of our men. You have to use traps and guerrilla tactics on them, as a blow to blow fight always came with heavy losses.
So we decided that we would try to locate them, then set up what ever traps we could near by, and hopefully lure them in. I knew Damu carried all sorts of nastiness is in his bag. He always came equipped for a millions forms of murder. Though I learned a lot from him in those years. When I first met him I still fought like a soldier as I still thought like a soldier after years in the army. On our first two missions he taught me the difference between fighting and killing. He was a killer born and bred, I was a warrior who learned also to be a killer. I still had to do most of the blow to blow work when it was necessary. But he was right. We didn't fight for honor, or duty we did this work just for money, so it doesn't make sense to take a lot of risks when you're a mercenary.
Right before night fall we came upon a hilly area with-in the Jurka that rang out with a low, droning, moaning sound that seemed to wrap around the area with the wind. It all seemed very somber and morbid. The hills about the place each had various oblong obelisks on top. I stopped to check one out. It had markings on it that neither of us could read and was made of a strange purple-black stone. The pillar had holes carved into it which when wind blew through it created the moaning sounds the carried through this mournful place. At the base of this pillar was a regular limestone slab carved out in Gobbely which read, "Kufaza Derago". This place was a series of Hobgoblin burial mounds! Where they got the strange obelisks, I don't know, but they didn't look like they were carved from the hands of any Goblinoid. Whatever their origin I was glad for them for the sounds they made would provide us some cover.
Damu quickly grabbed my side and motioned me to duck down. In the haze of the setting sun I saw the silhouette of a Goose. "That's not a real Bird, that Druid escaped", he whispered to me as he drew his bow. Sure enough two hills over the goose landed by a mound and quickly shifted its form into that Gharuun. He looked in bad shape. Good, it'd be easier to kill him again. Damu snuck in closer, hugging the shadows between hills, but keeping Gharuun with in constant bow shot. I drank two potions, one to move far more swiftly then I could and another that made shadows wrap around me. He motioned to me to get in position to attack after he attacked first. I saw him dip his arrow head into a little jar of something nasty, plus his arrows heads were not only enchanted, but carved in a way that did even more damage when you pulled them out. Gharuun was kneeling before an Obelesk and had started to perform some sort of ritual when Damu fired a shot through his back and out his chest.
Leaping up the hill I was almost knocked over as the air rippled waves of force in all directions from out of Gharuun. I saw his glowing hands touch the wound and seal it. But with the arrow still stuck through him. Hopefully the healing spell he cast on himself didn't take out the poison on the arrow as well. Mother Fucker. It started to rain like mad out of no where, and Damu got knocked over by huge gusts of wind. Gharuun laughed at me as I swung my sword at his head. He ducked, and swung up with a wooden staff that caught me on the chin. I spit blood in his face and swung again. And missed again. For a crazy naked guy he moved like a fucking tiger, I'll give him that. Then I saw that next to the mound a hole was dug. I quickly figured that if this was a burial mound it was a freshly dug grave. Good. I deliberately made a shitty swing towards him again, and made an equally deliberate shitty attempt to dodge the counter blow from his staff. It hit me in the chest, and I acted like it
really knocked me on my ass as I fell towards the hole. Never, ever gloat over somebody in a fight. As I lay there in the pouring rain, Gharuun stood over me grinning with some violent yet distant look in his eyes. I have no idea where his mind really was, nor will I ever find out for in that moment I grabbed him and pulled us both down into the hole, impaling him with my sword as well hit the bottom. I stood up and saw Damu on top of the hole making a cut off his head gesture. Breathing heavy I nodded in agreement, As I tossed the head up to Damu the rain abruptly stopped.
Something picked Damu's eyes in the distance. He paused and pulled out a periscope, "Hobgoblins, about 5 of them on Boars are coming this way, yet two are pulling a cart carrying something covered in blankets. The lead rider looks important. I bet it's Jahghu Kazul. We have maybe 30 minutes before they see us." It wasn't enough time to get too elaborate with traps. The mud from the magic storm was at least helpful. Out of his side bag, Damu pulled out 4 claw traps and buried them in the mud along the hill. I was hoping for enough time to dig pit traps, they work wonders on mounted attackers. Flint, oil flasks, and trip wires would have to do. Damu made a few fire bombs and handed me one. We hunkered down on the edge other side of the hill as we listened to them ride up. I stuck my flint to light my fire bomb as the sounds of boar-snorts grew louder. I heared the distinct metal snap of a claw trap over top the awful wailing of the obelisks and the roar of a boar bred to gigantic proportions. I through the fire bomb, and heard screams in Gobbley. It was on.
Damu ran around the edge of the hill top to the left and I to right. I saw him shoot a quick burst of arrows that caught a boar in the gut and it's rider in the eye. A boar big enough for a Hobgoblin to ride is a boar big enough to bite someone as small as Damu clean in half. Those things are damn near the size of horses- not as tall, but way wider and sturdier.
Another Boar-mounted Hobgoblin charged at me swinging a morning star as his mount aimed its tusks at me. I quickly saw this was really a feint, as a bigger and badder looking Hobgoblin behind him was drawing his bow down on me. I let the first rider charge me, then I quickly dropped down on my back. It lept over me and I stabbed upwards into its belly, disemboweling the beast, but caught an arrow in my leg in return. Two Hobgoblins on foot were pulling the cart the last of the way on foot. The traps took out their mounts. The rider who's mount I killed swung his morning star down at me, and caught me in the gut, though the spikes only poked me a little bit, my armor took most of the blow. The bigger and badder looking Hobgoblin, whom I quickly figured was Jahghu Kazul was still on his mount and was calmly drawing another bow shot. Fuck the nobody with the morning star, I ran straight for Jahghu.
He leaped off his mount and ran out at me with this really nice, sleek battle axe. He caught me in the left shoulder with it and across my abdomen. I kicked him the shin, and as he stumbled Damu caught him in the neck with an arrow. As he Jahghu hesitated from the arrow shot I swiped across the chest, and down again taking of his left leg right below the knee. Morning star guy swung over from behind me and caught me in the right shoulder. Damu threw his dagger right through morning star guy's throat and I finished off Jahghu Kazul as he lay there bleeding. I took the axe and Jahghu Kazul's helmet. The thing was silver with all these fancy ivory horns. He had large key around his kneck tied with thick leather cord. I took that figuring it had to do with the whatever was under the blankets in the carts. Maybe they were leaving an offering to a recently dead Chieftain I thought. Nothing really could have prepared me for what was under there.
The two Hobgoblins pulling the cart up the hill managed to get what was in the cart off of it just before Damu killed them with a rain of arrows. It sat before the hole. We looted the Hobgoblin bodies and dumped them all in the hole with Gharuun, minus the head of Jahghu Kazul. As we started to peel layers of blankets back from what was under the them, we could start to see a glowing green light come from underneath them. I paused, and Damu's feathers stood on end. I started to feel something or someone around us, and I was immediately knocked back ten feet. I felt like I was just hit in the chest with a boulder. I think ribs broke. I could hardly breathe. As I stood up Damu screeched and pulled back the rest of the blankets.
I told you this mission was a weird one. Beneath the blankets was a big round glass jar mounded on a shinny black base, and capped with an ornate black metal lid complete with a key hole, filled with a glowing green, bubbling liquid that inside floated a large misshapen brain.Worst of all it spoke. "Where is Jahghu Kazul?", we heard a low voice speak from all directions. The Kenku practice black arts and Damu was privy to a lot of creepy shit because of what his clan did, but I could tell he was completely dumbfounded by this talking Brain in a Jar. Damu lifted up Jahghu's head and pressed it to the glass of the jar, "He's dead. We killed him." Balls of steel that bird had, even when confronted with something like this. "Where is the key that he wore around his neck?", demanded the Brain in the Jar. The thing had power, whatever the fuck it was. But it had no legs and so broken ribs or not I decided to play my hand heavy figuring that sense I had legs and the Jar did not I could run. I strode over to it with the key in hand, taunting it, "I have it but if you try that shit again I'll break it!". It made a hissing sound and the liquid inside bubbled. "Very well, what do you want?", it responded.
Damu spoke up, "What are you, why do these Hobgoblins have you and why are you here with them to meet the Druid Gharuun?"
"Very well then, I will you tell my story and then in exchange you will help bring my story to an end. I am or at least I was Draaza Kazul, Hobgoblin Shaman of Derago Tribe. I was Jahghu's Uncle. The Derago are in the employment of another race you Humans and you Kenku know nothing of. They are a foul and terrible race that dwell in deep caverns under the mountains west of Rolheim. There they plot the destruction and enslavement of all the world above and practice rites and foul sorcery so black and alien even I am aghast at the cosmic scope of their horror. Needless to say its better that you don't know this race. Many of us regret the pact our ancestors made with them in order to gain an edge over our rival tribe the Kulshychi Hobgoblins who serve the Hidden Lords of the City of Bayport. Secret wars have been waged for generations now between the shadows of Regentum and Rolheim, wars on both your edges, indifferent to the whims of Human and Dwarf. This place we call the Jurka is a casualty of that war."
This certainly I wasn't going to tell the army when we collected our bounty. On a few missions I've stumbled on to schemes and plots on a scale I tend to avoid. I'll save that shit for the military and the good guys. If this wasn't bad enough already, the Jar went on.
"Some where between these uncontested lands, close to Manas as well, there is reputed to be the stronghold of an Elven-Wizard recluse of significant prowless. I led the mission to find this Stronghold so the Derago could raid it secure the Wizards secrets for those we serve. I failed the first time and as punishment those whom the Derago serve did this did me. With in this jar they said my occult powers would be strong enough to find the Elf-Mages location, which in fact was true, but it was obvious they intended it also to be a punishment for my failure. They locked me in this state of chemical undeath. Nothing pleases a proud Hobgoblin more, other then perhaps the din of battle and the cries of fleeing enemies, then then feel of wind across his face as he rides across these vast, rolling ancestral plains on his beloved Boar mount. I did find the location of the stronghold and a great legion of Derago were called together from across the plains, and from under the earth out of the dark subterranean cities of our employers where we our are numbers are bred like cattle by our employers who have tricked us and are becoming our masters. I dread the day when these creatures have enslaved our race entirely for those bred by them will out number our proud and freeborn numbers with in a few generations. Foolishly we gave them our weak and disgraced thinking they would merely eat them, for they live on the brains of other races, but instead from these few they are raising a region of war-fodder. But as our collective force rode out to the tower we were spotted the forces of Regentum and Guidane. They broke our advance and scattered our numbers. While I have no love for Humans or your culture I am grateful that they foiled this raid. I dread to think of what power lurked in the fortress of that Elven-Wizard that those below, who already are the masters of countless volatile magics, would go to great lengths to capture it, and what they would do with it. I was to be brought here to be buried, what is left of me anyway, to be laid to rest, free of this nightmare undeath, in a proper repose fitting of noble born Hobgoblin reunited with his ancestors. The Druid, a traitor to his kind I'm told, I have mixed feelings about that, was to clean any taint of necromancy that may pollute my remains. It's too late for that now, as I assume you killed him as well. My last request is that you take the key you took from my Nephew's body, unseal my Jar-Prison and bury me with-in the mound."
I looked down at Damu, he shrugged in agreement. I didn't want to fight again if I didn't have to. I had only one healing potion on me and I needed it already. As I unsealed the Jar the sound the moaning obelisks grew to a great roar. A great burst of green-light erupted from the inside and I heard a great loud sigh of relief coming from its voice. In my minds I quickly saw a vision of tall thin beings in ornate robes with pasty pale sickly skin and faces of tentacles. I hoped I never saw such creatures again and it wasn't until our very last mission together that we ever saw any. Years later we saw the very dark truth that the Brain in the Jar that was once Draaza Kazul told us that night on the burial mound deep in the Jurka. As I pulled the brain out and carried it to the hole I saw what looked like a wispy and translucent image of a Hobgoblin adorned with all manner of ritual fetishes and symbols emerge out of the Jar. The image nodded to me and as I tossed it in we heard the ghost of Draaza Kazul say ,"Thank you".
Tired and wounded we hoped that we could make it back to the abandoned mill. I drank my healing potions as we walked into the night back the way we came. Once we were away from the sounds of the obelesks we could could hear yelling and galloping hooves in the distance. We weren't out of the mess yet. A few hours into things, perhaps a hour or two before dawn, Damu paused for a second then I heard a thudding sound as he dropped. An arrow was in his hip, and it was too dark out to tell where it was coming from.Worst off all we back on the edge of the Jurka, out on open plains with no cover. I saw two big lumbering bodies rushing towards me. I ran head long towards them and swung wildly. Two huge Bugbear berzerkers, shock troops for the Hobgoblin raiders. The Barghest had returned and it was on top of Damu! The Bugbears were all fur and muscle and armed with huge spiked clubs. Their eyes glowed a feint yellow in the dark, and they seemed consumed with a frenzied blood lust. Even still I thought I could take them, though with berzerkers of any sort you have to be careful because they'll hut themselves just to hurt you more.
I hate that Humans are damn near the only race that can't see in the dark. Thinking of that I kicked dirt in the face of one Bugbear right as the other swung down his club with both hands. It missed and I stepped on the club, leaped up and swung my sword deep into its neck and collar bone. It fell, and rolled over. The other grabbed in both its hands, making me drop my sword and it lifted me up in an effort to bite my head. I head butted it with my spiked helmet and dazed it for a second. I gutted it with a dagger and it swiped my face with its claws, leaving me with a cut from under my left eye and across my cheek to my jaw line. The other Bugbear got up and I grabbed my sword. It ran full force at me with a bone shiv and I held my ground, but ducked out the way as it went pass me and down into the Jurka. Sadly it was only ten feet to the bottom. The other Bugbear went towards the Barghest. Damu was pretty beat up. I saw him limping and holding his stomach in one hand and swinging his sword in the other. The Barghest was in wolf-thing form and its mouth drooled with a mess of feathers and blood.
Damu could do a bit of magic but he hated to do so. Not that he had a problem with magic, but he prided himself on his talents as an assassin so much that he only used such things as a last resort. Like there in that tight spot cornered between the Barghest and the approaching Bugbear. He chanted something to himself and leaped twenty feet away and over the head of the Bugbear, which he slashed wide open as he went by. As the Bugbear's skull split open I charged the Barghest and ran it through. It shriveled and shifted back into its stocky Goblin shape at the end of my blade. Damu came back and looked over the edge into the Jurka and laughed, "Hey Leo look at that!". Down in the Jurka I saw an albino frog the size of a barrel eating the insides of other Bugbear. Shit the dream was real after all! Lord that place was creepy! We made it to our horse and Damu limped into the Wagon. He was in bad shape, but he'd make it, however shitty the ride would be.
When we got back the encampment in sorry shape the Paladins were gloating at the mess we were in but shut the fuck up when we presented the heads of both Jahghu Kazul and Gharuun. I demanded that we get paid twice for in fact killing Gharuun twice, something the Pollies didn't manage to do once. Which we did, and I managed to negotiate a healing for Damu, though they really didn't want to do that. We had Sir Halton sign and dip a wax seal in our work papers saying we had completed the task at hand so we didn't have to travel all that way carrying severed heads. All in all it was a good mission with no complaints.
In regards of burying what remained of Draaza Kazul I think in this case I did the right thing. It felt right, and despite of the circumstances of why I was there in the first place, I did feel like the burial mounds were in their own way a holy and sacred spot. Don't let the Clerics know I said that, but like I said, in spite of how many Hobgoblins I sent to their ancestors over the years, I do respect them. Maybe the plains of the uncontested regions are better off left in the hands of Goblinoids and crazed Druids. Better then in the hands of Gnomes and equally greedy Humans that will poison the untouched land with factories. Though like Draaza Kazul I dread the day when those below have grown their Hobgoblin slave armies to numbers vast enough to lay waste to our nation. The masters of the Derago have a name for themselves, but as I learned from the Dwarves of Rolheim they are called Mind-Flayers by others. I learned from the one time I went to Rolheim that much of our own history that we are taught is heavily watered down by the Church.
We are taught that the earth is base and profane and that's why Bestial races who come from out of the earth rather then on top of it- Orcs, Ogres, Goblinoids, etc.- inherently have a greater predisposition towards evil. That's not completely true I've learned. These races come from wild, untamed places and are more like animals. Certainly an Orc is dumb and vicious and that viciousness easily favors things we would call evil, but it's nature is more like a hungry Wolf then it is Demonic. Also while they all dig burrows, tunnels, or live in ruins or caves, they live off of the land. They don't live underground. However there are things that live underground, deep underground and these things certainly are evil. But they are evil in a way to that is a mirror to us and that is why the Church hides their existence. There are races down below that are intelligent, build cities and have cultures, though horrific nightmare cultures left buried below. While I was in Rolheim I learned that the 1298 war of Stockdon wasn't really led by a Dragon and its forces. The Dragon served the Mind-Flayers. A small number of them in fact. Rolheim has a long history of waring with these Mind-Flayers.
Anyway, I know that a lot of the work Damu and I did was part of a bigger plan for Regentum to clear out dangers from the wild areas so that industry could be moved deeper into the interior. We were the first generation of a legion of hired swords set out to do dirty work with big business and industry moving quickly behind us. They hire young mercenaries now more then ever. I just hope that its all towards a good end. I don't want Regentum to turn into an Empire of billowing smoke stacks and loud grinding factories. If it were up to the rich the whole country would look like the factory slums of Scardale. I see the guys coming in here boasting of their exploits wanting to blow their gold on my beer and the girls I keep around here. I earned and lost fortunes a few times over to taverns and prostitutes that I know now in my fifties that it's better to be standing behind the bar then sitting in front of it. I hear the kids are getting a lot of work clearing out areas out west for the new railroad and that by the time I'm dead it'll connect Elaine with Scardale. But the government really doesn't know whats lurking out there. Some of them do, the Rangers do, but their the dirtiest bunch of crooks you'll ever run into and they'll never tell the Army, the Church and certainly not the Palladins. We have more to worry about then mere Pirates, Bandits and Goblinoid Raiders.
But if the monsters and other horrors out there don't ruin us the Gnomes and big business will.
MARYBETH, THE KENKU BARBARIAN.
This is my second character for the Greymane's Haven Adventuring Guild ongoing challenge hosted over on @greymane_guild om Instagram! As these characters come together, you may start to notice a theme...
Marybeth is a frightening, small, yet imposing raven-like humanoid known as a Kenku, and is a Barbarian of the Path of the Berserker. She wields a number of bone daggers and shortswords handcrafted and sharpened by her best friend, Sythil, and employs them to devastating effect. Though she has an impeccable memory when her interest is piqued, her selective enthusiasm often ends up coming back to bite her when a mission isn't completed quite how the client requested it to be. Her intense gaze and movements often unnerve those not familiar with her behavior, but her allies know that her loyalty runs somehow deeper than even her ferocity.
GIANT WASP, THE HIVE TERROR.
Happy #monstermonday folks!! This one is a familiar build I'm sure to some of you, as I gave a lil sneak peek of it a couple weeks ago. This was the encounter from the fourth Montown Mob quest post in which Marybeth the Kenku Barbarian went into cave at the behest of an herbalist, and fought a remarkably large insect!
Getting the shaping of the abdomen to curve was pretty fun, though the wings were a bit tricky. Originally, I thought about using the translucent wing pieces from a Hero Factory set, but they ended up wayyy put of scale, so I settled on these for the long, sharp-looking wings that yellowjackets have! What do you think? Did this build make you shudder at the thought of a wasp this big in real life?
Shinto shrine, NW Kyoto, Funaoka-yama Park. Built in 1869 by Emperor Meiji and dedicated to Oda Nobunaga here deified. Main torii gate, largest plain wood torii in Kyoto Prefecture. Fine view of the city from up top. Next time, I'll go up. kenkun-jinja.org/english/index.html
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin,as told by Leo to his Nephew Leto Collins (# 7 of 33)- Into the Jurka.
That bird and I saw a lot of weird shit in our days, some of it still keeps me up at night, most of all our very last job together, but some things we ran into weren't weird in a scary way, just in way that defies any sense. I dunno...but the world and it's truth is far more complicated then what we're taught,and you have to separate the things that really are true from the bullshit the Church and the Military feeds the public to hold our culture together. Don't get me wrong, I still love Regentum, even after all these years. I believe in a God, but not the church or the Emperor. What's important to me about Regentum is that it's perhaps the only place in the world where a common, regular person can receive the benefits of their own hard work. Everywhere I've ever been I've only seen masters and servants. The Dwarves are good to one another, perhaps even better then we in Regentum are. But in Rolheim the Dwarves have a very set and rigid way of life. You're stuck in the position you're born into, but no Dwarf suffers or is destitute. Here in Regentum if you're born poor you can do something about it. Other Human nations that aren't our Colonies, forget it. That's why so many foreigners become Pirates. It's better to be a Pirate then the serf of some Sultan in Lu' Hadej, toil the years by on a Brenendale fishing ship, live under constant war in the mess of Alson, or slave away under some Monk in Nijiro.
After I got out of the Army like a lot of guys I was pretty jaded with all the shit talking about conquering the world for light and law and all that sort of talk. Our leaders fight for money and power and cull troops from the ranks of our working poor after getting them hyped up on religion. I mean look, they take these kids, they start at age fifteen, and all these boys are either from farming villages, or some industrial slum. You take a kid like that who hasn't got much of a future and you tell him that he'll be trained to fight for holy order, and that he will be special, that he will individually play a vital role in shaping the future of the empire and he buys it. Like me and yours Pops. We knew it was either the army, the docks, the factories or jail. It's ugly that it takes a large degree of smoke and mirrors to hold Regentum together, but its better then everywhere else out there.
Anyhow after Damu and I took out that Goblin leader Ertu we were in good standing with the Military as skilled mercenaries who were good at eliminating specific targets that were loose ends they needed cleaned up. It took those motherfuckers less then a month before I got a knock at the door from a Army courier with a new bounty contract in one hand, and a sack of gold in the other. I hadn't even yet spent all my money from before.
I was told that the Military needed a new way to send food supplies to all the troops the world over because the cost of doing so was getting too high due to the sheer number of troops we now how have the world over. Traditionally the food either came from local sources, or was shipped in by merchants with government contracts. The Military hired Wizard-Engineers to design a new system of providing troops with enough food in a cheaper way. So they applied the idea of the factory to the slaughter house. Along the road way between Salsburg and Fieldsview a big warehouse was built in which cattle was slaughtered in mass by huge killing machines and the meat cured, salted and prepped for shipping.
Some Druid freaked out about this place and attacked it. Around this time the Army was routing out a large strike force of the Derago Tribe of Hobgoblins. The Deragos' got their asses handed to them and broke up into a bunch of small rag-tag units. The Druid trashed the place pretty good, and the report in my contract didn't mention as to what happened to the Druid or who he was. Troops, Engineers, Craftsman and supply laden Merchants were quickly sent in to get the Meat Factory up and running. All of these sitting ducks alone along the highway caught the eye of a squad of Derago Hobgoblins who in turn decided to take their own stab at the meat factory. We were asked to find the leader of the Squad, a Hobgoblin named Jahghu Khazul and kill him. The Army in the area was still busy chasing down the bulk of the Derago forces, and had them pinned way up north almost to Rolhiem.
This time around we bought our own wagon and horse rather then catching a ride with a caravan. A nice light brown horse I never got the chance to name or get attached to. After the mission I ended up loosing our horse in a dice game on the way back to Scardale to this skinny toothless drunk in a bar in Salsburg. Damu was pissed off about it, and he laughed at me the whole way home.
Most of the trip there was easy, if even a little boring. We had to go this round about way to get there as there was no highway that went directly there and I didn't want to chance getting shook down with Damu in tow. But even playing by the book we got caught up in some shit. Between Nolos and Salsburg we got stopped by a Polly squad. One of them saw us in Nolos when we stopped for supplies and bitched to the others about a Kenku moving around the interior. Even though the eastern end of Regentum is thought of as being more religiously tolerant then out west, its just that out west they think of themselves as superior given that they eastern region was conquered and absorbed into the Empire. Really everyone in the Empire outside of the big coastal cities clings very firmly to our Religion and its accompanying prejudices. I caught a lot of shit over the years for having a Kenku for a friend.
5 of these pricks rode up on us, battle standards held all high, pole arms drawn, you know the whole fucking works. Big fucking fags in their shinny armor demanding to know what me and the Bird were up to. I held out the contract with the army guys in Scardale and was like, "Were here to do your dirty work". Some big prissy bitch, Sir Halton kept scrutinizing me, being like, "How can I keep the company of a Heathen animal?", and how legal or otherwise "To bring such a foul creature into the interior was an affront to the holy sanctity of our beloved empire". Typical Paladin fag shit. Fuck them. The mercenary rabble were here to wipe their ass because they were too important to do it themselves. Damu maybe a local legend here in Scardale, but out in the country or in the eyes of the Church he was scum.
When we got to the Meat factory there was a bunch of workers busting their asses to fix it, a few merchants and rich Gnomes, some solders, and some hired swords keeping an eye on the place. The ruined factory buildings had maze of scaffolding towering up their crumbling walls, and about the area around them was a decent sized encampment. Various tents dotted the place, though one could clearly tell the difference between tents belonging to the workers, the merchants, the troops and the mercenaries. Worker tents were drab though orderly. The tents of the business men were lined with velvet and furs. The Army tents had various standards embroidered to them, and the mercenary tents were both drab and disorderly. Also they were off to the side of everyone else. I saw a big, ugly mother fucker around the Merc tents, both too big and too ugly to be completely human, but not a Half-Orc. I saw he wore the spiked gauntlets common to Gladiators and figured he must of been a half-breed slave who fought his away from to freedom from the fighting pits. Still fighting on behalf of the gold of the rich, but at least the deal was more in his favor. I hope anyway. One of the other mercs there was this guy Ramalti, a big guy with a shaved head and thick curled mustache. I knew him from the army. Once we fought Pirates together off the coast of Fazas. After checking in with the Captain of the place, we set up camp with Ramalti.
Ramalti had a huge pile of furs arranged under a high posted canopy and laid around a fire with a few extra skinned rabbits cooking. We caught up on things for a hour or so, though I could tell he didn't like that I had Damu with me, though he didn't say anything.Ramalti told me his last gig was doing a hit for people who were part of Snake-Worshiping cult and that he was glad to be away from them. Said that they used pit fighting for a front and had a lot of weird orgies. Didn't seem too bad to me but he warned me to stay away if they ever approached us.
Damu was fidgety, which was unnerving given how calm how usually was, something was up. The small talk between Ramalti and I was broken when Damu asked flatly, "Tell us about the Hobgoblins around here, we are here kill to Jahghu Kazul". It was an awkward moment. Ramalti gave Damu a stern look and me a half stern half worried look and was like, "Yea Kazul, yea he's around these ways, or should be. Last we knew anyway. Look let me tell you guys a few things about this job. The moneyed people here have their head up their ass and all they want to know is when this place will up and running again. Don't listen to them. The military guys are here to watch them. They're only gonna tell you half of what you need to know. Something weird is going on out in the fields. Animals have been acting strange. On patrols at night I've seen bolts of color and light off in the distance, and one night while following what was the tracks of two small feet, they abruptly shifted into the paw prints of a 4 legged creature."
I looked over at Ramalti and he handed me a wine skin, "Also have you two heard of an area called the Jurka?", he asked. "No", Damu replied. Damu didn't know much beyond city life, or even beyond life in Scardale. He was always a tad out of his element on missions like this. Though to be honest I never heard of it either. It is a creepy place we found. "The Jurka", Ramalti said, "is an ugly, sunken scar of land sunken and wide, but also consisting of many hills, little rivers, creeks and the occasional murky swamp lake. It is a lonely and windy stretch of land of irregular width, but hundreds of miles in length. Jurka is Goblin for 'the crack'. Most Goblins and Hobgoblins avoid the place, though I've been told that some powerful Hobgoblin Warlords are buried there.The Gobos say the place is cursed as its not naturally occurring. Something deep below the ground they claim cracked the land open centuries ago. It's not on any known maps, nor mentioned in any journals. For a distinct land mass so big that's very strange. Someone must not want it to be known."
Damu laughed, "I don't care about any cracks or secrets any Hairies keep from each other. We're here for Jahghu Kazul, that's all that matters."
Right before dawn we were woken up to screams and commotions. The first thing I saw upon waking were 4 foxes a few feet away from me. I laughed at first, but when I stood up I realized the place was over run with foxes. Foxes and geese. They were every where, howling and running amok. It would have been funny if it weren't so out of place and deliberate seeming. No one knew what to do and it I think because of that it was really freaking a lot of them out.
Quickly then I saw a fox stare it me. It had a bloody muzzle and in its mouth was a blood-stained pointed Gnome hat. I pointed over to Damu and he quickly drew an arrow and shot the fox. As I ran towards the fox its shape contorted and elongated. By the time my sword was swinging directly at it the fox it had become a tall skinny guy with long matted hair down past his ass, a long matted beard, and just a loin cloth on. His eyes seemed distant yet driven by some equally remote purpose. The Wild Man rolled out of the way. I saw that his hands were glowing and all of a sudden vines grew quickly up from the ground, like water being poured from a bottle, that were wrapping up around my legs. He smiled without humor at this and pulled the arrow Damu Shot him with out of his shoulder. Blood squirted out and a chunk of meat flopped over from the wound.
What looked like a large, stocky Goblin but still not a Hobgoblin walked up to the Wild Man just as he was picking up the bloody Gnome hat. The Wild Man looked over at the strange Goblin and spoke, "This will do. The Dwarves and the Gnomes are just as bad as these Regentum people. The Gnomes maybe even more so. They hide behind their money and get Humans to do their dirty work." The Goblin-thing didn't seemed to care too much, but they never had the chance to debate the matter. Ramalti and Damu charged the two. Ramalti carried a large spiked mace that he swung down towards the head of the Goblin. Catching the creatures cap, but not its head, the Goblin leaped up in the air far higher then a Goblin should be able to leap, and landed on top of Ramalti biting him in the neck. The vines wrapped tighter around my legs and I was worried that my legs would shatter under the strain. Damu threw his dagger straight into the gut of the Wild Man with one hand, and slashed across his face with his sword with the other. The Wild Man fell back, holding his guts into his stomach. The slash across his face caused his nose to dangle and his cheek to flop open. I think some teeth were missing or dangling by tiny threads of mouth meat in his beard. The ground around us burst into flame. Damu leaped out of the way, and Ramalti was still struggling with the creature wrapped around his neck and head. Me, I stuck my legs in the fire and burned away the vines. It was painful, but not as painful as my legs being crushed.
Quickly I tried to stand, but I stumbled as I got up. The Wild Man rushed with his hands transformed into large green glowing claws. A claw jabbed towards my head, but I ducked under it, and swooped my sword upwards and into and out of his chest. The fire abruptly stopped. The Goblin creature jumped off of Ramalti and by the time it hit the ground it transformed into some strange mix of Goblin and Wolf. Later on Damu said such creatures were called Barghests. Whatever it was it took off running. Soon all the Foxes and Geese went away.
The Captain and his men surrounded the Wild Man. I was confused at first because they bound his body in shackles, as why exactly they would bound up a corpse, but my confusion quickly turned to anger as the poured a healing potion down the mother fuckers throat. I screamed out at them, "What the fuck are you doing? He's a Witch, leave him dead! I'm not killing him again unless I get paid extra." Which funny enough we did get paid twice for killing that guy. Turns out he was the crazed Druid who attacked the Meat-Factory in the first place. Gharuun the Druid, wanted across eastern Regentum for various acts of terrorism, spreading blasphemy, and other crimes against the Empire. Around the camp I heard that Gharuun was once the Son of a rich industrialist family out of Tardon. He was supposedly once Francis Applemoore, a scion of a blue-blood family who went insane around the time his family fell to controversy. If I recall right, I think actually the Applemoore's owned a factory outside of Tardon that accidentally poisoned a near-by river with mercury, killing hundreds of peasant-folk, and making many more sick.Butt-Boy Sir Halton and his squad of Knights showed up to interrogate Gharuun and bring him to Elaine for execution, but not until after they kissed Gnome ass. The Gnomes and the Human Merchants were grieving over the loss of the Gnome Harov Goldstein and his money (which the Barghest apparently got away with).
It was found out after a day of torture that Gharuun was working with Jahghu Kazul and his forces out of the Jurka because of mutual animosity towards Regentum. The whole "the enemy of my enemy" bit. Gharuun was bothered by industrialization and by it being this far into the interior of the country-side. Admittedly on that part Gharuun was perhaps right, I myself hate to admit that I agreed with a Druid, but while I grew up in the city surrounded by factories and industry, I've always valued the clean greenery of the country side when I've traveled through it.I could see how he ended up a Druid after coming from a family who's factory poisoned the land. I'd hate to our beautiful country side ruined just to make people like Harov Goldstein rich. Jahghu Kazul however could give two shits either way. Gharuun didn't want loot and worked for free. Gharuun was a zealot, violence for his religion was its own reward. Kazul was a raider and aspiring Warlord. He only valued money and brute force.
That night Damu and I rode into the Jurka.
The very southern most portion of the Jurka came to a tapered tip and sloped down at an easy descent. It really did look like a sunken crack in the earth, as if here the world split open and then was over grown over the ensuing years. A creek ran along the bottom of the valley. We decided for the time being not to go directly into the Jurka but to follow along its western edge, at least until dawn. By dawn we saw that the creek had grown considerably in size further up stream, and off the near distance was a waterfall with what looked like an old, abandoned ruined mill next to it.
Damu scouted out the ruin and it was clear. We camped out there for a few hours. Not even bothering to unravel my bed roll, I just laid on top of a concrete slab and rested my head on my bag. In my nap I had a strange dream about a grand mother living in the mill with her grand children and a giant frog that moved into the water fall that ate her kids. I woke up and didn't want to find out if that was true or not, so I shook Damu awake and we got going.
As dawn rose, the whole of the Jurka was blanketed in an early morning foggy-mist and lit in a pale glow. The place has a strange beauty, yet something is noticeably unsettling about it. Everything is a bit off, and nature with in it goes in unusual courses. During that morning ride along the Jurka Damu and I saw aquatic rabbits. I shit you not, we saw water-rabbits, long and skinny, with wide flat feet and light green fur. Maybe they couldn't breathe the water, but we saw rabbits hopping from land and into water, swimming frantically down stream, and back out again.
By late afternoon we caught sight of fresh tracks that looked like the hoof-prints of the giant boars that the Hobgoblins ride heading from the west and northbound into the Jurka directly. We left our horse and wagon there and headed in. As we did we stopped to consider tactics. We both had fought Hobgoblins but they had numbers on us. Plus we we're only after one of them. The Hobgoblin raiders of the northern plains I have a respect for. On their Boar-Mounts they are deadly. They have a unique style of Calvary tactics that is very different from how we, or the Elves, etc. would use typically fight on horse back. They fight almost like a pack of wild animals, and use hit and run tactics with ruthless efficiency. When I was in the army I fought with units charged with taking out Hobgoblins on a few occasions. While we always won, it was only because of superior numbers. For every raider we took they easily took 6 to 8 of our men. You have to use traps and guerrilla tactics on them, as a blow to blow fight always came with heavy losses.
So we decided that we would try to locate them, then set up what ever traps we could near by, and hopefully lure them in. I knew Damu carried all sorts of nastiness is in his bag. He always came equipped for a millions forms of murder. Though I learned a lot from him in those years. When I first met him I still fought like a soldier as I still thought like a soldier after years in the army. On our first two missions he taught me the difference between fighting and killing. He was a killer born and bred, I was a warrior who learned also to be a killer. I still had to do most of the blow to blow work when it was necessary. But he was right. We didn't fight for honor, or duty we did this work just for money, so it doesn't make sense to take a lot of risks when you're a mercenary.
Right before night fall we came upon a hilly area with-in the Jurka that rang out with a low, droning, moaning sound that seemed to wrap around the area with the wind. It all seemed very somber and morbid. The hills about the place each had various oblong obelisks on top. I stopped to check one out. It had markings on it that neither of us could read and was made of a strange purple-black stone. The pillar had holes carved into it which when wind blew through it created the moaning sounds the carried through this mournful place. At the base of this pillar was a regular limestone slab carved out in Gobbely which read, "Kufaza Derago". This place was a series of Hobgoblin burial mounds! Where they got the strange obelisks, I don't know, but they didn't look like they were carved from the hands of any Goblinoid. Whatever their origin I was glad for them for the sounds they made would provide us some cover.
Damu quickly grabbed my side and motioned me to duck down. In the haze of the setting sun I saw the silhouette of a Goose. "That's not a real Bird, that Druid escaped", he whispered to me as he drew his bow. Sure enough two hills over the goose landed by a mound and quickly shifted its form into that Gharuun. He looked in bad shape. Good, it'd be easier to kill him again. Damu snuck in closer, hugging the shadows between hills, but keeping Gharuun with in constant bow shot. I drank two potions, one to move far more swiftly then I could and another that made shadows wrap around me. He motioned to me to get in position to attack after he attacked first. I saw him dip his arrow head into a little jar of something nasty, plus his arrows heads were not only enchanted, but carved in a way that did even more damage when you pulled them out. Gharuun was kneeling before an Obelesk and had started to perform some sort of ritual when Damu fired a shot through his back and out his chest.
Leaping up the hill I was almost knocked over as the air rippled waves of force in all directions from out of Gharuun. I saw his glowing hands touch the wound and seal it. But with the arrow still stuck through him. Hopefully the healing spell he cast on himself didn't take out the poison on the arrow as well. Mother Fucker. It started to rain like mad out of no where, and Damu got knocked over by huge gusts of wind. Gharuun laughed at me as I swung my sword at his head. He ducked, and swung up with a wooden staff that caught me on the chin. I spit blood in his face and swung again. And missed again. For a crazy naked guy he moved like a fucking tiger, I'll give him that. Then I saw that next to the mound a hole was dug. I quickly figured that if this was a burial mound it was a freshly dug grave. Good. I deliberately made a shitty swing towards him again, and made an equally deliberate shitty attempt to dodge the counter blow from his staff. It hit me in the chest, and I acted like it
really knocked me on my ass as I fell towards the hole. Never, ever gloat over somebody in a fight. As I lay there in the pouring rain, Gharuun stood over me grinning with some violent yet distant look in his eyes. I have no idea where his mind really was, nor will I ever find out for in that moment I grabbed him and pulled us both down into the hole, impaling him with my sword as well hit the bottom. I stood up and saw Damu on top of the hole making a cut off his head gesture. Breathing heavy I nodded in agreement, As I tossed the head up to Damu the rain abruptly stopped.
Something picked Damu's eyes in the distance. He paused and pulled out a periscope, "Hobgoblins, about 5 of them on Boars are coming this way, yet two are pulling a cart carrying something covered in blankets. The lead rider looks important. I bet it's Jahghu Kazul. We have maybe 30 minutes before they see us." It wasn't enough time to get too elaborate with traps. The mud from the magic storm was at least helpful. Out of his side bag, Damu pulled out 4 claw traps and buried them in the mud along the hill. I was hoping for enough time to dig pit traps, they work wonders on mounted attackers. Flint, oil flasks, and trip wires would have to do. Damu made a few fire bombs and handed me one. We hunkered down on the edge other side of the hill as we listened to them ride up. I stuck my flint to light my fire bomb as the sounds of boar-snorts grew louder. I heared the distinct metal snap of a claw trap over top the awful wailing of the obelisks and the roar of a boar bred to gigantic proportions. I through the fire bomb, and heard screams in Gobbley. It was on.
Damu ran around the edge of the hill top to the left and I to right. I saw him shoot a quick burst of arrows that caught a boar in the gut and it's rider in the eye. A boar big enough for a Hobgoblin to ride is a boar big enough to bite someone as small as Damu clean in half. Those things are damn near the size of horses- not as tall, but way wider and sturdier.
Another Boar-mounted Hobgoblin charged at me swinging a morning star as his mount aimed its tusks at me. I quickly saw this was really a feint, as a bigger and badder looking Hobgoblin behind him was drawing his bow down on me. I let the first rider charge me, then I quickly dropped down on my back. It lept over me and I stabbed upwards into its belly, disemboweling the beast, but caught an arrow in my leg in return. Two Hobgoblins on foot were pulling the cart the last of the way on foot. The traps took out their mounts. The rider who's mount I killed swung his morning star down at me, and caught me in the gut, though the spikes only poked me a little bit, my armor took most of the blow. The bigger and badder looking Hobgoblin, whom I quickly figured was Jahghu Kazul was still on his mount and was calmly drawing another bow shot. Fuck the nobody with the morning star, I ran straight for Jahghu.
He leaped off his mount and ran out at me with this really nice, sleek battle axe. He caught me in the left shoulder with it and across my abdomen. I kicked him the shin, and as he stumbled Damu caught him in the neck with an arrow. As he Jahghu hesitated from the arrow shot I swiped across the chest, and down again taking of his left leg right below the knee. Morning star guy swung over from behind me and caught me in the right shoulder. Damu threw his dagger right through morning star guy's throat and I finished off Jahghu Kazul as he lay there bleeding. I took the axe and Jahghu Kazul's helmet. The thing was silver with all these fancy ivory horns. He had large key around his kneck tied with thick leather cord. I took that figuring it had to do with the whatever was under the blankets in the carts. Maybe they were leaving an offering to a recently dead Chieftain I thought. Nothing really could have prepared me for what was under there.
The two Hobgoblins pulling the cart up the hill managed to get what was in the cart off of it just before Damu killed them with a rain of arrows. It sat before the hole. We looted the Hobgoblin bodies and dumped them all in the hole with Gharuun, minus the head of Jahghu Kazul. As we started to peel layers of blankets back from what was under the them, we could start to see a glowing green light come from underneath them. I paused, and Damu's feathers stood on end. I started to feel something or someone around us, and I was immediately knocked back ten feet. I felt like I was just hit in the chest with a boulder. I think ribs broke. I could hardly breathe. As I stood up Damu screeched and pulled back the rest of the blankets.
I told you this mission was a weird one. Beneath the blankets was a big round glass jar mounded on a shinny black base, and capped with an ornate black metal lid complete with a key hole, filled with a glowing green, bubbling liquid that inside floated a large misshapen brain.Worst of all it spoke. "Where is Jahghu Kazul?", we heard a low voice speak from all directions. The Kenku practice black arts and Damu was privy to a lot of creepy shit because of what his clan did, but I could tell he was completely dumbfounded by this talking Brain in a Jar. Damu lifted up Jahghu's head and pressed it to the glass of the jar, "He's dead. We killed him." Balls of steel that bird had, even when confronted with something like this. "Where is the key that he wore around his neck?", demanded the Brain in the Jar. The thing had power, whatever the fuck it was. But it had no legs and so broken ribs or not I decided to play my hand heavy figuring that sense I had legs and the Jar did not I could run. I strode over to it with the key in hand, taunting it, "I have it but if you try that shit again I'll break it!". It made a hissing sound and the liquid inside bubbled. "Very well, what do you want?", it responded.
Damu spoke up, "What are you, why do these Hobgoblins have you and why are you here with them to meet the Druid Gharuun?"
"Very well then, I will you tell my story and then in exchange you will help bring my story to an end. I am or at least I was Draaza Kazul, Hobgoblin Shaman of Derago Tribe. I was Jahghu's Uncle. The Derago are in the employment of another race you Humans and you Kenku know nothing of. They are a foul and terrible race that dwell in deep caverns under the mountains west of Rolheim. There they plot the destruction and enslavement of all the world above and practice rites and foul sorcery so black and alien even I am aghast at the cosmic scope of their horror. Needless to say its better that you don't know this race. Many of us regret the pact our ancestors made with them in order to gain an edge over our rival tribe the Kulshychi Hobgoblins who serve the Hidden Lords of the City of Bayport. Secret wars have been waged for generations now between the shadows of Regentum and Rolheim, wars on both your edges, indifferent to the whims of Human and Dwarf. This place we call the Jurka is a casualty of that war."
This certainly I wasn't going to tell the army when we collected our bounty. On a few missions I've stumbled on to schemes and plots on a scale I tend to avoid. I'll save that shit for the military and the good guys. If this wasn't bad enough already, the Jar went on.
"Some where between these uncontested lands, close to Manas as well, there is reputed to be the stronghold of an Elven-Wizard recluse of significant prowless. I led the mission to find this Stronghold so the Derago could raid it secure the Wizards secrets for those we serve. I failed the first time and as punishment those whom the Derago serve did this did me. With in this jar they said my occult powers would be strong enough to find the Elf-Mages location, which in fact was true, but it was obvious they intended it also to be a punishment for my failure. They locked me in this state of chemical undeath. Nothing pleases a proud Hobgoblin more, other then perhaps the din of battle and the cries of fleeing enemies, then then feel of wind across his face as he rides across these vast, rolling ancestral plains on his beloved Boar mount. I did find the location of the stronghold and a great legion of Derago were called together from across the plains, and from under the earth out of the dark subterranean cities of our employers where we our are numbers are bred like cattle by our employers who have tricked us and are becoming our masters. I dread the day when these creatures have enslaved our race entirely for those bred by them will out number our proud and freeborn numbers with in a few generations. Foolishly we gave them our weak and disgraced thinking they would merely eat them, for they live on the brains of other races, but instead from these few they are raising a region of war-fodder. But as our collective force rode out to the tower we were spotted the forces of Regentum and Guidane. They broke our advance and scattered our numbers. While I have no love for Humans or your culture I am grateful that they foiled this raid. I dread to think of what power lurked in the fortress of that Elven-Wizard that those below, who already are the masters of countless volatile magics, would go to great lengths to capture it, and what they would do with it. I was to be brought here to be buried, what is left of me anyway, to be laid to rest, free of this nightmare undeath, in a proper repose fitting of noble born Hobgoblin reunited with his ancestors. The Druid, a traitor to his kind I'm told, I have mixed feelings about that, was to clean any taint of necromancy that may pollute my remains. It's too late for that now, as I assume you killed him as well. My last request is that you take the key you took from my Nephew's body, unseal my Jar-Prison and bury me with-in the mound."
I looked down at Damu, he shrugged in agreement. I didn't want to fight again if I didn't have to. I had only one healing potion on me and I needed it already. As I unsealed the Jar the sound the moaning obelisks grew to a great roar. A great burst of green-light erupted from the inside and I heard a great loud sigh of relief coming from its voice. In my minds I quickly saw a vision of tall thin beings in ornate robes with pasty pale sickly skin and faces of tentacles. I hoped I never saw such creatures again and it wasn't until our very last mission together that we ever saw any. Years later we saw the very dark truth that the Brain in the Jar that was once Draaza Kazul told us that night on the burial mound deep in the Jurka. As I pulled the brain out and carried it to the hole I saw what looked like a wispy and translucent image of a Hobgoblin adorned with all manner of ritual fetishes and symbols emerge out of the Jar. The image nodded to me and as I tossed it in we heard the ghost of Draaza Kazul say ,"Thank you".
Tired and wounded we hoped that we could make it back to the abandoned mill. I drank my healing potions as we walked into the night back the way we came. Once we were away from the sounds of the obelesks we could could hear yelling and galloping hooves in the distance. We weren't out of the mess yet. A few hours into things, perhaps a hour or two before dawn, Damu paused for a second then I heard a thudding sound as he dropped. An arrow was in his hip, and it was too dark out to tell where it was coming from.Worst off all we back on the edge of the Jurka, out on open plains with no cover. I saw two big lumbering bodies rushing towards me. I ran head long towards them and swung wildly. Two huge Bugbear berzerkers, shock troops for the Hobgoblin raiders. The Barghest had returned and it was on top of Damu! The Bugbears were all fur and muscle and armed with huge spiked clubs. Their eyes glowed a feint yellow in the dark, and they seemed consumed with a frenzied blood lust. Even still I thought I could take them, though with berzerkers of any sort you have to be careful because they'll hut themselves just to hurt you more.
I hate that Humans are damn near the only race that can't see in the dark. Thinking of that I kicked dirt in the face of one Bugbear right as the other swung down his club with both hands. It missed and I stepped on the club, leaped up and swung my sword deep into its neck and collar bone. It fell, and rolled over. The other grabbed in both its hands, making me drop my sword and it lifted me up in an effort to bite my head. I head butted it with my spiked helmet and dazed it for a second. I gutted it with a dagger and it swiped my face with its claws, leaving me with a cut from under my left eye and across my cheek to my jaw line. The other Bugbear got up and I grabbed my sword. It ran full force at me with a bone shiv and I held my ground, but ducked out the way as it went pass me and down into the Jurka. Sadly it was only ten feet to the bottom. The other Bugbear went towards the Barghest. Damu was pretty beat up. I saw him limping and holding his stomach in one hand and swinging his sword in the other. The Barghest was in wolf-thing form and its mouth drooled with a mess of feathers and blood.
Damu could do a bit of magic but he hated to do so. Not that he had a problem with magic, but he prided himself on his talents as an assassin so much that he only used such things as a last resort. Like there in that tight spot cornered between the Barghest and the approaching Bugbear. He chanted something to himself and leaped twenty feet away and over the head of the Bugbear, which he slashed wide open as he went by. As the Bugbear's skull split open I charged the Barghest and ran it through. It shriveled and shifted back into its stocky Goblin shape at the end of my blade. Damu came back and looked over the edge into the Jurka and laughed, "Hey Leo look at that!". Down in the Jurka I saw an albino frog the size of a barrel eating the insides of other Bugbear. Shit the dream was real after all! Lord that place was creepy! We made it to our horse and Damu limped into the Wagon. He was in bad shape, but he'd make it, however shitty the ride would be.
When we got back the encampment in sorry shape the Paladins were gloating at the mess we were in but shut the fuck up when we presented the heads of both Jahghu Kazul and Gharuun. I demanded that we get paid twice for in fact killing Gharuun twice, something the Pollies didn't manage to do once. Which we did, and I managed to negotiate a healing for Damu, though they really didn't want to do that. We had Sir Halton sign and dip a wax seal in our work papers saying we had completed the task at hand so we didn't have to travel all that way carrying severed heads. All in all it was a good mission with no complaints.
In regards of burying what remained of Draaza Kazul I think in this case I did the right thing. It felt right, and despite of the circumstances of why I was there in the first place, I did feel like the burial mounds were in their own way a holy and sacred spot. Don't let the Clerics know I said that, but like I said, in spite of how many Hobgoblins I sent to their ancestors over the years, I do respect them. Maybe the plains of the uncontested regions are better off left in the hands of Goblinoids and crazed Druids. Better then in the hands of Gnomes and equally greedy Humans that will poison the untouched land with factories. Though like Draaza Kazul I dread the day when those below have grown their Hobgoblin slave armies to numbers vast enough to lay waste to our nation. The masters of the Derago have a name for themselves, but as I learned from the Dwarves of Rolheim they are called Mind-Flayers by others. I learned from the one time I went to Rolheim that much of our own history that we are taught is heavily watered down by the Church.
We are taught that the earth is base and profane and that's why Bestial races who come from out of the earth rather then on top of it- Orcs, Ogres, Goblinoids, etc.- inherently have a greater predisposition towards evil. That's not completely true I've learned. These races come from wild, untamed places and are more like animals. Certainly an Orc is dumb and vicious and that viciousness easily favors things we would call evil, but it's nature is more like a hungry Wolf then it is Demonic. Also while they all dig burrows, tunnels, or live in ruins or caves, they live off of the land. They don't live underground. However there are things that live underground, deep underground and these things certainly are evil. But they are evil in a way to that is a mirror to us and that is why the Church hides their existence. There are races down below that are intelligent, build cities and have cultures, though horrific nightmare cultures left buried below. While I was in Rolheim I learned that the 1298 war of Stockdon wasn't really led by a Dragon and its forces. The Dragon served the Mind-Flayers. A small number of them in fact. Rolheim has a long history of waring with these Mind-Flayers.
Anyway, I know that a lot of the work Damu and I did was part of a bigger plan for Regentum to clear out dangers from the wild areas so that industry could be moved deeper into the interior. We were the first generation of a legion of hired swords set out to do dirty work with big business and industry moving quickly behind us. They hire young mercenaries now more then ever. I just hope that its all towards a good end. I don't want Regentum to turn into an Empire of billowing smoke stacks and loud grinding factories. If it were up to the rich the whole country would look like the factory slums of Scardale. I see the guys coming in here boasting of their exploits wanting to blow their gold on my beer and the girls I keep around here. I earned and lost fortunes a few times over to taverns and prostitutes that I know now in my fifties that it's better to be standing behind the bar then sitting in front of it. I hear the kids are getting a lot of work clearing out areas out west for the new railroad and that by the time I'm dead it'll connect Elaine with Scardale. But the government really doesn't know whats lurking out there. Some of them do, the Rangers do, but their the dirtiest bunch of crooks you'll ever run into and they'll never tell the Army, the Church and certainly not the Palladins. We have more to worry about then mere Pirates, Bandits and Goblinoid Raiders.
But if the monsters and other horrors out there don't ruin us the Gnomes and big business will.
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin, as told by Leo to his Nephew Leto Wayfarer: 8 of 33- Our first run in with Alzeya.
You know when we had to take Alzeya out it took a long time for things to calm down. For a few years after that I had to look over my shoulder while walking around town. People admitted it in the long run that it had to be done, and everyone liked to forget at the time that it was her daughter who hired us to kill her in the first place. But really what happened to that lady was accidentally our fault anyway.
Alzeya was at the time a wealthy up and coming "business" woman, but her business was using shipping, slaving and real estate as a cover for smuggling, and running whore houses. She was the Witch daughter of a rich Elven pirate and Human concubine. She was born into a bit of coin and was educated, but she was rich amongst the poor around the docks of Scardale where her Father worked out of, so she ended up pretty gaudy, tacky and full of herself. When she turned 16 she married one of her Father's men, a human named Kiko, and with the dowry that her Father gave to Kiko they started a more legitimate shipping business as a front operation for all their pirate contacts. They had a daughter a few years later that they named Seka, and shortly after Seka was born Kiko was killed in a fight at sea.
One day while I was on my way to go waste my money on hookers and liquor like I always did in those days when I just happened at random to head down to the whore houses by the docks. On my way there this guy Povin I knew from around town started waving me down and walked quickly up to me and so I was like, "Listen I don't care what you're into, but another man is not what I'm headed this way for".
Now Povin was a big mother fucker, but I'm glad he had a sense of humor. We laughed and he said, "Hey Leo I'm working for this rich Lady Alzeya who needs some tough guys to go after some prick who ran off with her stuff and get it back, are you and your Kenku partner available?" I should have said no, but I told him that yes we we're free and we had just got done killing some Ogres' hiding out in swamps half way across the country, but the trip cost us so much that we didn't make as much as we thought we would have. He told me to stop by this one Salon in two days to meet Alzeya and work out the deal. At the time I knew who she was and had seen her around town, but never had any dealings with her.
So two days later Damu and I headed over to the Salon, which was right where the north end of the docks area touches the wealthy commercial district rather then the slums to the south. It was in a nicer area, but not too far into the nice part of Scardale that we stood out.
I saw her right away as we walked up to the place. She was barely covered in a thin flimsy blue dress, and she had extremely long blond hair down to her knees that by some manner of sorcery moved and contorted around her seemingly with a mind of it's own. She came up to us quickly, coyly smiling at us both with a come hither and fuck me look in her eyes. When Damu was unfazed by her behavior she was reflexively irked and I could tell both that she was used to using her looks to get her way and that also she never dealt with any Kenku before. Without skipping a beat a beat however she was all over me, and magic or not I probably would have done anything she asked.
She brought us in to the salon and had a team of servants feed us a huge meal of roasted quail and imported wine. One thing I recall that was out of place was that Alzeya drank out of some weird ivory horn rather then a glass. I always figured it was a some Witch thing, I dunno. She made small talk during the meal and acted more silly and drunker then she really was was. Though at nightfall she hit a gong and the place quickly was deserted except for the three of us. As the last servent left, some old Halfling woman, Alzeya's deminor quickly changed. She sat up sternly and pulled forth a map seemingly out of no where,-.
"A man named Milton that worked for me ran off with valuables of mine and some rare slaves. He was a pirate who fancied himself an explorer. He came to me with these tales of some black egg of mystical power in the mountians near Lu'Hadej and wanted me to fund his desire to explore the region and secure the black egg. I did and Milton managed to get the black egg. However shortly after returning to Scardale he took off with the boat I bought him, money, a ship crew and valuable slaves. After awhile most of the men deserted him saying he was getting increasingly sick and loosing his mind. They came back and told me he was hiding in a old fort of the coast in the jungles of Fazas only a few days to the south. I don't care if you have to kill him or not, I mainly want the black egg back, along with with his research journals and strange young girl he has with him. He keeps the egg in a ivory and gold lined case with a golden spiral on top. You will be well rewarded".
As she said that last bit about being rewarded I felt like a mouse caught in the eyes of a cat. Damu spoke up and soon a deal was worked out.
In a few days we found ourselves on a ship filled with cut throats, derlicts and drunken loosers of a variety of races. We slept on deck and passed the time getting drunk in a constant misty rain. I remember this particularly annoying Half-Orc that always trying to play dice with us that I had half the mind to throw over board, but he seemed well liked by the crew.
Even though Fazas isn't that far from Scardale I really hate going any where near there. There is something really creepy about that place, as if the whole jungle is alive, watching and waiting- 'cause it wants to eat you. When the boats dropped us off at the river inlet along the coast I immediately had second thoughts once my boots hit the sand of the beach. According to the map we were given the ruined fort Milton was hiding out in was only less then a mile up stream from the beach. But it was through dense jungle and high cliffs. I saw the boat sailing away in the dawns early light and felt trapped between blue waters and black jungle. Damu like usual was unfazed, but he had to take off his leather armored hoody, and I my plate mail. He always looked so frail and delicate unclothed, yet he was one of the most dangerous people I ever knew.
It was fucking hell hiking up hill with armor strapped to my back while having to hack through vines, fight off endless swarms of insects, climb sheer walls, and while drowning in a wash of sweat from the unbearable heat. It was like we were fighting against a wave of boiling water. Not even the deserts of Lu' Hadej are as unbearable. It took us half the day to close that mile. When we found the ruined fort it it was a low tower, with a wider base built atop the face of a cliff. From what I could see it was covered in rather ornate relieifs of snakes, but it was over grown with vines and bright pink and yellow bulbous flowers and was falling apart. I stopped to look at it for a second and pondered who the hell made it. It clearly wasn't an abandoned Regentum fort, and it was too fancy for pirates. Maybe some old reclusive Wizard built it years ago?Certainly someone with a thing for snakes at least.
The guy Milton had two Bugbears standing guard who I imagined must of been in even worse hell then us with all that fur. We really weren't in the mood for a fight with these guys so we pulled a pretty cheap tactic to get rid of them. I tied a rope to a bolder, while Damu creeped by them and lassoed them from behind with the other end, and I pushed the bolder off the cliff, dragging them to a quick crashing death. Then we armored up and went in.
Surprising all we found inside was the strange looking valuable slave girl we were told to capture and return. She was stoically sitting at a table eating a bowl of stew. The place was dimly but I got a good look at her. She looked like a regular human little girl, except she was hairless, and her skin seemed to always match the color of whatever she was around. I imagine if she didn't have clothes on I may not have seen her right away. Damu squawked in disgust as soon as her saw her, and dropped a smoke bomb right away. A few moments later after choking a bit and letting the smoke clear I heard him say, "Leo I got her". He was behind her with her hands in one hand and a sword to her neck in the other. A funny site it was 'cause she was still taller then him. I tied her up and starting looking for the ivory case and books. Damu was keeping a sharp eye on her, "The Kenku know these things, they're called Skulks. There aren't too many of them. They're all thieves and killers". "Great", I said but thinking to myself I was like, "How not unlike Kenku! No wonder they don't like them!".
I found the books, but not the ivory case. I walked over to the girl and asked with my sword point at her cheek where the guy Milton and the ivory case was. I don't think she understood me completely, but she pointed downward. We found stairs going down and as we went down them we could hear screaming and moaning. The steps opened up to a cave system and we could hear the rushing of water echoing in the distance. I lit a torch and went ahead of Damu who darted off to the side for cover. I saw the guy laying next to the edge of a crevasse that he was puking over into. As I got closer chills ran through me. The air was foul and thick and chunks of flesh were either falling off of his body or the flesh of his body was shifting around in undulating waves of purplish-green. The chunks that fell off seemed to be frozen, but yet left off a brown steam.
Milton rolled over and looked up at me. In the center of his chest was a solid jet back fist sized ball of what looked liked polished stone and he coughed up a glob of blood and teeth. In agonizing gasps he sputtered, "I....I...know...know she sent you....but I ran away to save her". "Th-this...thing", pointing to the black ball in his chest, "t-took me over. I thought I could control it, but it's..it's...killing meeee....". I looked at the poor fucker and ran him through. I turned around to look for Damu and was like, "That was easy enough", and then was immediately knocked back 20 feet in the direction we came. I rolled around to see his corpse shifting into a larger mass of oozing flesh, eyes and rolling spiked tendril limbs. The thing started to sink down into the crevasse and Damu leaped after it. His acrobatics were always amazing.
I ran to the edge of the crevasse and saw him riding the creature by having his sword plunged into it by the hilt with one hand, while he tried to pry the black ball out with the other. The thing had a huge oval mouth that was growing in size in order to be able to swallow him whole. I had no choice I had to jump too, by my jump was more of straight plunge. I fell about 15ft onto it and caught one end of the creatures oval gaping maw mouth with my sword and let my weight cut through the fucking thing. Quickly I hit a wall of the crevasse at full force, but lucky landed on a wide ledge. Damu yelled out "Catch!!", as I heard a loud popping sound and saw the black egg come flying towards me. I caught it, but immediately put it away without looking at it, the thing was colder then ice!! The creature fizzled away and dripped down the rest of the crevasse towards an underground stream.
We found the Ivory case and figured out right enough that the black egg went inside of it. We took the Skulk girl and got out of there ASAP. On the trip back I read the journals that Alzeya was concerned about. I never heard this before, but when the guy Milton was looking for treasure in those mountain ruins around Lu'Hadej that Alzeya spoke off, he spent a lot of time talking to the mountain folk, who are Human, but not like us, nor like the Lu' Hadej people who are all tan and have big noses. I remember in the army when I was stationed in Lu' Hadej, the people there, who are mostly desert nomads and goat herders, these folks were spooked out about the mountain people who they left alone out of local superstition. I never saw one, but I was told they had thick black hair like the Lu' Hadej, but were deathly pale and had very bright pale blue eyes.
Milton's journal had said that these mountain folk claim that in ancient times those mountains where the original Kingdom of the Dwarves. That earthquakes caused them to leave. The mountain people where descended from slaves that the Dwarves had captured from Human countries to the south that the Dwarves were constantly at war with. I never heard this before or sense. I've only ever known Humans and Dwarves to get along, though I know the Lu' Hadej people hate Dwarves. The note books said that Human countries to south were completely wiped out by earthquakes that sank them beneath the waves and that the few survivors became the Lu' Hadej people, or they sailed away to places unknown. The journal also states that the mountains are completely dangerous and overridden with nightmare creatures and bestial races. Whatever treasure may lie in those Dwarven ruins are in what has been the hovels of demonic monstrosities for countless ages now.
Apparently Milton stole the black egg from a creature that lived high on a mountain peak. He described the creature as a tall shaft of flesh with bone-spur protrusions and a oddly rabbit like head. He learned about the creature from a tribe of Skulks, but who call themselves the Nirna. These Nirna are a cursed tribe of ex-slaves who did the most foulest work for the Dwarves. Dwarven Wizards cursed them to have no natural color in order to reinforce that they were only ever to serve their surroundings. The Nirna train their children to kill and to steal and send them off into the world to either return with goods and riches, or not return at all. During their rare contact with outsiders they often sell their young to keep their numbers purposefully low. The have lived in constant guerrilla war with Orcs for centuries and their only consistent ties with another people are with the mountain folk, whom they were once part of.
On the trip home I taught the Skulk girl how to speak Alsonian a bit. I used to see her around for years here and there, and I hear from younger guys she was working as a mercenary in Bayport recently. I know Milton regretted going into those mountains and finding the black egg, and we should have left it in the crevasse. We saw so much crazy shit over the years, and a lot of it was fun, but somethings turned out to be pretty fucked up in the end.
If we didn't bring Alzeya the goddamn black egg back we wouldn't have had to kill her a few years later.
This drawing is actually a few years old but I just got done writing a new Leo and Damu story based on it-
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin as told by Leo Wayfarer to his nephew Leto Colins: 9 of 33- Piss Granny and the Murdered Mistress.
There was one mission that Damu and I did, the first real dirty one that left me uncomfortable. When we took assignments that came directly from the Empire rather then from bounties that people placed legally through the Empire they sometimes had dirty business for the reasons behind it. It wasn’t all killing Hobgoblins and Pirates. We were in really good standing with army liaisons that hired mercenaries at that point and they knew we could handle difficult and bizarre jobs.
This one wasn’t that hard, in fact it was pretty easy, it was just weird and sad. I never knew the full details, though I picked up a few pieces on the way. The army liaisons always looked for me first at bar and brothels before the knocked on my door, but this was right after we did that first job for Alzeya and I was her man of the moment, so they found me drunk in her garden banging her in a fountain of little angels peeing. Those guys had a knack for timing.
I got dressed real quick and Alzeya just played in water naked splashing me. I remember still how beautiful and playful she was before what happened to her. I still feel bad and hold myself partially to blame. But that’s another story. Anyhow so I’m in this garden drunk pulling up pants to talk to a stiff assed guy in a uniform holding a contract and a two bags of gems. I quickly learned that when they offer gems and not coin its because they don’t want imperial currency connected to anything that could be tied to them.
I was told that there was a girl, a kept girl of interests that I didn’t need to acquire into, that lived in a villa in the capital city of Elaine. She was to killed as was anyone found in the villa and that we should make it look like a Pirate raid. I agreed at first not really thinking anything of it. When I sobered up I realized how fucked up the situation was.
I’ve killed women over the years, but they were mostly Witches throwing fireballs at me, you know women who stood fair chances at actually killing me. I didn’t like the idea of killing an unknown girl for unknown reasons. I knew Damu wouldn’t give a shit, so I rationalized that he would do it. That’s how I talked myself into it.
Also I didn’t want to piss off any Pirates by framing them, not any Pirates who could get back to me anyway. I asked Alzeya about Pirates I could pin it on and she recommended an obscure faction from Stiradon called Swords of the Sun who were religious fanatics that were not only in decline, but were in decline because they tried to fight with the Regentum colony of Hamon over their Paganism versus the Imperial faith. I took the tip and I guess it worked as none of the swords of the sun ever came after me.
I went to the Kenku holding to get Damu and as I walked up a group of brown hooded Kenku were throwing a dead Kenku into a gully that ran next to the old tower they squatted. I knew that Kenku had to have fucked up pretty bad because as far as I knew when a Kenku died they mounted the body in a high up place, so if they through to the ground in death, that was the biggest insult possible. They left that poor bastard bird to get eaten by rats and wild dogs in the trash covered waters that flowed by their dilapidated roost. That building always cracked me up as I knew that the Scardale Kenku were actually rich. They were after all a successful clan of Assassins. The inside of the old tower was pretty slick and decked out, plus they owned a bunch of businesses and buildings with paid off humans running them. I guess they had to play up their mystique of ruthless ghetto scavengers.
They chuckled when they saw me and said “Oh Jukka we’ll get Damu for you”, which is what they all called me. For years I thought “Jukka” met good human, or human friend, but as I learned their language over the years I found it met “pet human”, as they thought of me as Damu’s pet sword slinging human. As far as they were concerned I was just there to do all the grunt fighting for him while he was off killing the important people. I can’t say though that that wasn’t often the case.
It was hard getting a boat to Elaine with Damu in tow, and was too far to go by wagon. No one wanted to be responsible for bringing a Kenku to the city of the Emperor, even with our military contract. We waited for two weeks and ended up sailing in a shipping boat owned by Alzeya. We had two days before the boat sailed back to Scardale.
Elaine is city of cruel contradiction. While Scardale has its rich and its poor, and certainly Scardale is brooding factory slum filled with whores, sailors, criminals and the over worked it’s not supposed to be the center of Gods will on the World. Elaine is really four cities, old Elaine that was destroyed and rebuilt in the war with Nijiro, the Imperial Palace which is a small city in itself, new Elaine which was built after the war where all the rich live, and the tunnels underneath old Elaine that are the old basements and sewers from destroyed old Elaine that were built over top of that is now the persona non grata realm of the Mongrel men who live in the literal absolute bottom pits of our culture.
When we approached the coast from the Kaletian bay after going around Fazas and Hamon the first thing we saw was smoke rising from factory smoke stacks that lingered hazily over the coast line like a putrid veil. Then a few hours later I could see the tall, stained grey spires of the imperial palace that I hadn’t seen in years sense I was in the army. I have to say the site of the old palace always brings back an intense mix of feelings in me. Partially I know its my old army indoctrination, but I do get a bit choked up when I see it. While it also makes me a bit mad at all the wrong things about Regentum, my anger towards the things we shouldn’t be doing, or the inconsistencies of our “holy empire” but still part of me is inspired by the heights of the palace as to what we should be or what we could be if we kept at reaching for its heights. Sadly I don’t think that means killing a girl in her home, but here was the same “holy empire” paying me and a creature it would never allow as a legal citizen to do just that.
We docked and Damu disappeared so he could sneak in. Elaine has a Kenku population, like all the big coastal cities do, but still we wanted to keep a low profile. I told the city militia guys I was just a hired guard for the boat in case they got raided by Pirates and that I was just in town for two days with them while they dropped off their goods.
The first night there we scoped out the villa where the girl lived. I found out from a butcher across the street that the villa was owned by a Priest who was recently excommunicated from the church for unknown reasons and was set to be hung in a few days. Why his lady friend had to be killed I dunno. The villa had walls around it but nothing to high, however the street around it was pretty busy and very visible. The place was a large two story building with a courtyard guarded by an Ogre slave.
Damu found a Mongrel man digging in the butchers trash that night and paid him to show us around underneath. Ugly little bastard he was, about 3 and half feet tall with thick feet like a Halfling, but with a face like a Goblins ass and a weird high pitched voice. Plus he twitched a lot and smelled like a Goblins ass as well. That investment paid off, but only for Damu. He found he could get into the Villa through a sewer grate in the villas courtyard but it was too small for me.
I had to get creative and I didn’t know where to get any potions, nor did I have to track any down. Directly next to the villa was an alley way with a one story barber shop I could get onto the roof of. I had to stash my armor in Damu’s holding satchel in order to pull this off, as you’re not gonna be sneaking around roof tops quietly in platemail.
I got on the roof of the barber shop late that night while Damu hit the tunnels. I ran across the roof top and leaped over the alley, grabbed the top of the wall, and threw myself over, landing in a bush of red roses. I found the servants entrance and kicked the door in, though it was pointless as it was unlocked. It swung open loudly and I heard somebody coming. I ducked behind a kitchen table and in came in a fat old lady who was clearly some working peasant grand mother who probably cleaned and cooked for the place. I couldn’t kill her. I’m not that guy, this lady clearly never bothered anyone in her life.
I pulled a gem out of my pocket and placed it on the kitchen table. I snuck up behind her with my sword drawn and covered her mouth. The old bag pissed herself, I felt so shitty. I told her, “See that gem on the table?”, and sobbing in terror she nodded that she did. “Good”, I said, “Now take that gem and go far far away from this city so I don’t have to kill you !”. Piss Granny took the gem and ran as if the hounds of hell were at her feet!
I quickly checked the place out and found no one else was on first floor. As I approached the steps the Damu nodded to me that the target was served. I went to check her body and to leave a mark framing the swords of the sun. She was beautiful black haired girl barely out of her teens laying naked in a bed of bloody white floral print satin sheets. Damu stabbed her under the ribs and into her heart. I dipped my fingers in her blood and drew two crossed swords with a sun between them, the symbol of the Pirates I was framing. Damu went down the hall and jumped out the window he came in threw. The Ogre slave was standing below the window facing away from it and that little bastard landed on top of the Ogre, gripped the back of its hair in one hand, slit its throat, and landed on the ground in silence as the Ogre fell flopping and gurgling on its last blood gagging gasps of breath.
Even though I got away with out killing anyone it still felt bad. I figured I’d drown my remorse in liquor and more sex with Alzeya but by the time I got back I wasn’t the man of the moment. I never expected anything else from her and it seemed deserving in light of everything.
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin, as told by Leo to his Nephew Leto Wayfarer: 8 of 33- Our first run in with Alzeya.
You know when we had to take Alzeya out it took a long time for things to calm down. For a few years after that I had to look over my shoulder while walking around town. People admitted it in the long run that it had to be done, and everyone liked to forget at the time that it was her daughter who hired us to kill her in the first place. But really what happened to that lady was accidentally our fault anyway.
Alzeya was at the time a wealthy up and coming "business" woman, but her business was using shipping, slaving and real estate as a cover for smuggling, and running whore houses. She was the Witch daughter of a rich Elven pirate and Human concubine. She was born into a bit of coin and was educated, but she was rich amongst the poor around the docks of Scardale where her Father worked out of, so she ended up pretty gaudy, tacky and full of herself. When she turned 16 she married one of her Father's men, a human named Kiko, and with the dowry that her Father gave to Kiko they started a more legitimate shipping business as a front operation for all their pirate contacts. They had a daughter a few years later that they named Seka, and shortly after Seka was born Kiko was killed in a fight at sea.
One day while I was on my way to go waste my money on hookers and liquor like I always did in those days when I just happened at random to head down to the whore houses by the docks. On my way there this guy Povin I knew from around town started waving me down and walked quickly up to me and so I was like, "Listen I don't care what you're into, but another man is not what I'm headed this way for".
Now Povin was a big mother fucker, but I'm glad he had a sense of humor. We laughed and he said, "Hey Leo I'm working for this rich Lady Alzeya who needs some tough guys to go after some prick who ran off with her stuff and get it back, are you and your Kenku partner available?" I should have said no, but I told him that yes we we're free and we had just got done killing some Ogres' hiding out in swamps half way across the country, but the trip cost us so much that we didn't make as much as we thought we would have. He told me to stop by this one Salon in two days to meet Alzeya and work out the deal. At the time I knew who she was and had seen her around town, but never had any dealings with her.
So two days later Damu and I headed over to the Salon, which was right where the north end of the docks area touches the wealthy commercial district rather then the slums to the south. It was in a nicer area, but not too far into the nice part of Scardale that we stood out.
I saw her right away as we walked up to the place. She was barely covered in a thin flimsy blue dress, and she had extremely long blond hair down to her knees that by some manner of sorcery moved and contorted around her seemingly with a mind of it's own. She came up to us quickly, coyly smiling at us both with a come hither and fuck me look in her eyes. When Damu was unfazed by her behavior she was reflexively irked and I could tell both that she was used to using her looks to get her way and that also she never dealt with any Kenku before. Without skipping a beat a beat however she was all over me, and magic or not I probably would have done anything she asked.
She brought us in to the salon and had a team of servants feed us a huge meal of roasted quail and imported wine. One thing I recall that was out of place was that Alzeya drank out of some weird ivory horn rather then a glass. I always figured it was a some Witch thing, I dunno. She made small talk during the meal and acted more silly and drunker then she really was was. Though at nightfall she hit a gong and the place quickly was deserted except for the three of us. As the last servent left, some old Halfling woman, Alzeya's deminor quickly changed. She sat up sternly and pulled forth a map seemingly out of no where,-.
"A man named Milton that worked for me ran off with valuables of mine and some rare slaves. He was a pirate who fancied himself an explorer. He came to me with these tales of some black egg of mystical power in the mountians near Lu'Hadej and wanted me to fund his desire to explore the region and secure the black egg. I did and Milton managed to get the black egg. However shortly after returning to Scardale he took off with the boat I bought him, money, a ship crew and valuable slaves. After awhile most of the men deserted him saying he was getting increasingly sick and loosing his mind. They came back and told me he was hiding in a old fort of the coast in the jungles of Fazas only a few days to the south. I don't care if you have to kill him or not, I mainly want the black egg back, along with with his research journals and strange young girl he has with him. He keeps the egg in a ivory and gold lined case with a golden spiral on top. You will be well rewarded".
As she said that last bit about being rewarded I felt like a mouse caught in the eyes of a cat. Damu spoke up and soon a deal was worked out.
In a few days we found ourselves on a ship filled with cut throats, derlicts and drunken loosers of a variety of races. We slept on deck and passed the time getting drunk in a constant misty rain. I remember this particularly annoying Half-Orc that always trying to play dice with us that I had half the mind to throw over board, but he seemed well liked by the crew.
Even though Fazas isn't that far from Scardale I really hate going any where near there. There is something really creepy about that place, as if the whole jungle is alive, watching and waiting- 'cause it wants to eat you. When the boats dropped us off at the river inlet along the coast I immediately had second thoughts once my boots hit the sand of the beach. According to the map we were given the ruined fort Milton was hiding out in was only less then a mile up stream from the beach. But it was through dense jungle and high cliffs. I saw the boat sailing away in the dawns early light and felt trapped between blue waters and black jungle. Damu like usual was unfazed, but he had to take off his leather armored hoody, and I my plate mail. He always looked so frail and delicate unclothed, yet he was one of the most dangerous people I ever knew.
It was fucking hell hiking up hill with armor strapped to my back while having to hack through vines, fight off endless swarms of insects, climb sheer walls, and while drowning in a wash of sweat from the unbearable heat. It was like we were fighting against a wave of boiling water. Not even the deserts of Lu' Hadej are as unbearable. It took us half the day to close that mile. When we found the ruined fort it it was a low tower, with a wider base built atop the face of a cliff. From what I could see it was covered in rather ornate relieifs of snakes, but it was over grown with vines and bright pink and yellow bulbous flowers and was falling apart. I stopped to look at it for a second and pondered who the hell made it. It clearly wasn't an abandoned Regentum fort, and it was too fancy for pirates. Maybe some old reclusive Wizard built it years ago?Certainly someone with a thing for snakes at least.
The guy Milton had two Bugbears standing guard who I imagined must of been in even worse hell then us with all that fur. We really weren't in the mood for a fight with these guys so we pulled a pretty cheap tactic to get rid of them. I tied a rope to a bolder, while Damu creeped by them and lassoed them from behind with the other end, and I pushed the bolder off the cliff, dragging them to a quick crashing death. Then we armored up and went in.
Surprising all we found inside was the strange looking valuable slave girl we were told to capture and return. She was stoically sitting at a table eating a bowl of stew. The place was dimly but I got a good look at her. She looked like a regular human little girl, except she was hairless, and her skin seemed to always match the color of whatever she was around. I imagine if she didn't have clothes on I may not have seen her right away. Damu squawked in disgust as soon as her saw her, and dropped a smoke bomb right away. A few moments later after choking a bit and letting the smoke clear I heard him say, "Leo I got her". He was behind her with her hands in one hand and a sword to her neck in the other. A funny site it was 'cause she was still taller then him. I tied her up and starting looking for the ivory case and books. Damu was keeping a sharp eye on her, "The Kenku know these things, they're called Skulks. There aren't too many of them. They're all thieves and killers". "Great", I said but thinking to myself I was like, "How not unlike Kenku! No wonder they don't like them!".
I found the books, but not the ivory case. I walked over to the girl and asked with my sword point at her cheek where the guy Milton and the ivory case was. I don't think she understood me completely, but she pointed downward. We found stairs going down and as we went down them we could hear screaming and moaning. The steps opened up to a cave system and we could hear the rushing of water echoing in the distance. I lit a torch and went ahead of Damu who darted off to the side for cover. I saw the guy laying next to the edge of a crevasse that he was puking over into. As I got closer chills ran through me. The air was foul and thick and chunks of flesh were either falling off of his body or the flesh of his body was shifting around in undulating waves of purplish-green. The chunks that fell off seemed to be frozen, but yet left off a brown steam.
Milton rolled over and looked up at me. In the center of his chest was a solid jet back fist sized ball of what looked liked polished stone and he coughed up a glob of blood and teeth. In agonizing gasps he sputtered, "I....I...know...know she sent you....but I ran away to save her". "Th-this...thing", pointing to the black ball in his chest, "t-took me over. I thought I could control it, but it's..it's...killing meeee....". I looked at the poor fucker and ran him through. I turned around to look for Damu and was like, "That was easy enough", and then was immediately knocked back 20 feet in the direction we came. I rolled around to see his corpse shifting into a larger mass of oozing flesh, eyes and rolling spiked tendril limbs. The thing started to sink down into the crevasse and Damu leaped after it. His acrobatics were always amazing.
I ran to the edge of the crevasse and saw him riding the creature by having his sword plunged into it by the hilt with one hand, while he tried to pry the black ball out with the other. The thing had a huge oval mouth that was growing in size in order to be able to swallow him whole. I had no choice I had to jump too, by my jump was more of straight plunge. I fell about 15ft onto it and caught one end of the creatures oval gaping maw mouth with my sword and let my weight cut through the fucking thing. Quickly I hit a wall of the crevasse at full force, but lucky landed on a wide ledge. Damu yelled out "Catch!!", as I heard a loud popping sound and saw the black egg come flying towards me. I caught it, but immediately put it away without looking at it, the thing was colder then ice!! The creature fizzled away and dripped down the rest of the crevasse towards an underground stream.
We found the Ivory case and figured out right enough that the black egg went inside of it. We took the Skulk girl and got out of there ASAP. On the trip back I read the journals that Alzeya was concerned about. I never heard this before, but when the guy Milton was looking for treasure in those mountain ruins around Lu'Hadej that Alzeya spoke off, he spent a lot of time talking to the mountain folk, who are Human, but not like us, nor like the Lu' Hadej people who are all tan and have big noses. I remember in the army when I was stationed in Lu' Hadej, the people there, who are mostly desert nomads and goat herders, these folks were spooked out about the mountain people who they left alone out of local superstition. I never saw one, but I was told they had thick black hair like the Lu' Hadej, but were deathly pale and had very bright pale blue eyes.
Milton's journal had said that these mountain folk claim that in ancient times those mountains where the original Kingdom of the Dwarves. That earthquakes caused them to leave. The mountain people where descended from slaves that the Dwarves had captured from Human countries to the south that the Dwarves were constantly at war with. I never heard this before or sense. I've only ever known Humans and Dwarves to get along, though I know the Lu' Hadej people hate Dwarves. The note books said that Human countries to south were completely wiped out by earthquakes that sank them beneath the waves and that the few survivors became the Lu' Hadej people, or they sailed away to places unknown. The journal also states that the mountains are completely dangerous and overridden with nightmare creatures and bestial races. Whatever treasure may lie in those Dwarven ruins are in what has been the hovels of demonic monstrosities for countless ages now.
Apparently Milton stole the black egg from a creature that lived high on a mountain peak. He described the creature as a tall shaft of flesh with bone-spur protrusions and a oddly rabbit like head. He learned about the creature from a tribe of Skulks, but who call themselves the Nirna. These Nirna are a cursed tribe of ex-slaves who did the most foulest work for the Dwarves. Dwarven Wizards cursed them to have no natural color in order to reinforce that they were only ever to serve their surroundings. The Nirna train their children to kill and to steal and send them off into the world to either return with goods and riches, or not return at all. During their rare contact with outsiders they often sell their young to keep their numbers purposefully low. The have lived in constant guerrilla war with Orcs for centuries and their only consistent ties with another people are with the mountain folk, whom they were once part of.
On the trip home I taught the Skulk girl how to speak Alsonian a bit. I used to see her around for years here and there, and I hear from younger guys she was working as a mercenary in Bayport recently. I know Milton regretted going into those mountains and finding the black egg, and we should have left it in the crevasse. We saw so much crazy shit over the years, and a lot of it was fun, but somethings turned out to be pretty fucked up in the end.
If we didn't bring Alzeya the goddamn black egg back we wouldn't have had to kill her a few years later.
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin, as told by Leo to his Nephew Leto Wayfarer: 8 of 33- Our first run in with Alzeya.
You know when we had to take Alzeya out it took a long time for things to calm down. For a few years after that I had to look over my shoulder while walking around town. People admitted it in the long run that it had to be done, and everyone liked to forget at the time that it was her daughter who hired us to kill her in the first place. But really what happened to that lady was accidentally our fault anyway.
Alzeya was at the time a wealthy up and coming "business" woman, but her business was using shipping, slaving and real estate as a cover for smuggling, and running whore houses. She was the Witch daughter of a rich Elven pirate and Human concubine. She was born into a bit of coin and was educated, but she was rich amongst the poor around the docks of Scardale where her Father worked out of, so she ended up pretty gaudy, tacky and full of herself. When she turned 16 she married one of her Father's men, a human named Kiko, and with the dowry that her Father gave to Kiko they started a more legitimate shipping business as a front operation for all their pirate contacts. They had a daughter a few years later that they named Seka, and shortly after Seka was born Kiko was killed in a fight at sea.
One day while I was on my way to go waste my money on hookers and liquor like I always did in those days when I just happened at random to head down to the whore houses by the docks. On my way there this guy Povin I knew from around town started waving me down and walked quickly up to me and so I was like, "Listen I don't care what you're into, but another man is not what I'm headed this way for".
Now Povin was a big mother fucker, but I'm glad he had a sense of humor. We laughed and he said, "Hey Leo I'm working for this rich Lady Alzeya who needs some tough guys to go after some prick who ran off with her stuff and get it back, are you and your Kenku partner available?" I should have said no, but I told him that yes we we're free and we had just got done killing some Ogres' hiding out in swamps half way across the country, but the trip cost us so much that we didn't make as much as we thought we would have. He told me to stop by this one Salon in two days to meet Alzeya and work out the deal. At the time I knew who she was and had seen her around town, but never had any dealings with her.
So two days later Damu and I headed over to the Salon, which was right where the north end of the docks area touches the wealthy commercial district rather then the slums to the south. It was in a nicer area, but not too far into the nice part of Scardale that we stood out.
I saw her right away as we walked up to the place. She was barely covered in a thin flimsy blue dress, and she had extremely long blond hair down to her knees that by some manner of sorcery moved and contorted around her seemingly with a mind of it's own. She came up to us quickly, coyly smiling at us both with a come hither and fuck me look in her eyes. When Damu was unfazed by her behavior she was reflexively irked and I could tell both that she was used to using her looks to get her way and that also she never dealt with any Kenku before. Without skipping a beat a beat however she was all over me, and magic or not I probably would have done anything she asked.
She brought us in to the salon and had a team of servants feed us a huge meal of roasted quail and imported wine. One thing I recall that was out of place was that Alzeya drank out of some weird ivory horn rather then a glass. I always figured it was a some Witch thing, I dunno. She made small talk during the meal and acted more silly and drunker then she really was was. Though at nightfall she hit a gong and the place quickly was deserted except for the three of us. As the last servent left, some old Halfling woman, Alzeya's deminor quickly changed. She sat up sternly and pulled forth a map seemingly out of no where,-.
"A man named Milton that worked for me ran off with valuables of mine and some rare slaves. He was a pirate who fancied himself an explorer. He came to me with these tales of some black egg of mystical power in the mountians near Lu'Hadej and wanted me to fund his desire to explore the region and secure the black egg. I did and Milton managed to get the black egg. However shortly after returning to Scardale he took off with the boat I bought him, money, a ship crew and valuable slaves. After awhile most of the men deserted him saying he was getting increasingly sick and loosing his mind. They came back and told me he was hiding in a old fort of the coast in the jungles of Fazas only a few days to the south. I don't care if you have to kill him or not, I mainly want the black egg back, along with with his research journals and strange young girl he has with him. He keeps the egg in a ivory and gold lined case with a golden spiral on top. You will be well rewarded".
As she said that last bit about being rewarded I felt like a mouse caught in the eyes of a cat. Damu spoke up and soon a deal was worked out.
In a few days we found ourselves on a ship filled with cut throats, derlicts and drunken loosers of a variety of races. We slept on deck and passed the time getting drunk in a constant misty rain. I remember this particularly annoying Half-Orc that always trying to play dice with us that I had half the mind to throw over board, but he seemed well liked by the crew.
Even though Fazas isn't that far from Scardale I really hate going any where near there. There is something really creepy about that place, as if the whole jungle is alive, watching and waiting- 'cause it wants to eat you. When the boats dropped us off at the river inlet along the coast I immediately had second thoughts once my boots hit the sand of the beach. According to the map we were given the ruined fort Milton was hiding out in was only less then a mile up stream from the beach. But it was through dense jungle and high cliffs. I saw the boat sailing away in the dawns early light and felt trapped between blue waters and black jungle. Damu like usual was unfazed, but he had to take off his leather armored hoody, and I my plate mail. He always looked so frail and delicate unclothed, yet he was one of the most dangerous people I ever knew.
It was fucking hell hiking up hill with armor strapped to my back while having to hack through vines, fight off endless swarms of insects, climb sheer walls, and while drowning in a wash of sweat from the unbearable heat. It was like we were fighting against a wave of boiling water. Not even the deserts of Lu' Hadej are as unbearable. It took us half the day to close that mile. When we found the ruined fort it it was a low tower, with a wider base built atop the face of a cliff. From what I could see it was covered in rather ornate relieifs of snakes, but it was over grown with vines and bright pink and yellow bulbous flowers and was falling apart. I stopped to look at it for a second and pondered who the hell made it. It clearly wasn't an abandoned Regentum fort, and it was too fancy for pirates. Maybe some old reclusive Wizard built it years ago?Certainly someone with a thing for snakes at least.
The guy Milton had two Bugbears standing guard who I imagined must of been in even worse hell then us with all that fur. We really weren't in the mood for a fight with these guys so we pulled a pretty cheap tactic to get rid of them. I tied a rope to a bolder, while Damu creeped by them and lassoed them from behind with the other end, and I pushed the bolder off the cliff, dragging them to a quick crashing death. Then we armored up and went in.
Surprising all we found inside was the strange looking valuable slave girl we were told to capture and return. She was stoically sitting at a table eating a bowl of stew. The place was dimly but I got a good look at her. She looked like a regular human little girl, except she was hairless, and her skin seemed to always match the color of whatever she was around. I imagine if she didn't have clothes on I may not have seen her right away. Damu squawked in disgust as soon as her saw her, and dropped a smoke bomb right away. A few moments later after choking a bit and letting the smoke clear I heard him say, "Leo I got her". He was behind her with her hands in one hand and a sword to her neck in the other. A funny site it was 'cause she was still taller then him. I tied her up and starting looking for the ivory case and books. Damu was keeping a sharp eye on her, "The Kenku know these things, they're called Skulks. There aren't too many of them. They're all thieves and killers". "Great", I said but thinking to myself I was like, "How not unlike Kenku! No wonder they don't like them!".
I found the books, but not the ivory case. I walked over to the girl and asked with my sword point at her cheek where the guy Milton and the ivory case was. I don't think she understood me completely, but she pointed downward. We found stairs going down and as we went down them we could hear screaming and moaning. The steps opened up to a cave system and we could hear the rushing of water echoing in the distance. I lit a torch and went ahead of Damu who darted off to the side for cover. I saw the guy laying next to the edge of a crevasse that he was puking over into. As I got closer chills ran through me. The air was foul and thick and chunks of flesh were either falling off of his body or the flesh of his body was shifting around in undulating waves of purplish-green. The chunks that fell off seemed to be frozen, but yet left off a brown steam.
Milton rolled over and looked up at me. In the center of his chest was a solid jet back fist sized ball of what looked liked polished stone and he coughed up a glob of blood and teeth. In agonizing gasps he sputtered, "I....I...know...know she sent you....but I ran away to save her". "Th-this...thing", pointing to the black ball in his chest, "t-took me over. I thought I could control it, but it's..it's...killing meeee....". I looked at the poor fucker and ran him through. I turned around to look for Damu and was like, "That was easy enough", and then was immediately knocked back 20 feet in the direction we came. I rolled around to see his corpse shifting into a larger mass of oozing flesh, eyes and rolling spiked tendril limbs. The thing started to sink down into the crevasse and Damu leaped after it. His acrobatics were always amazing.
I ran to the edge of the crevasse and saw him riding the creature by having his sword plunged into it by the hilt with one hand, while he tried to pry the black ball out with the other. The thing had a huge oval mouth that was growing in size in order to be able to swallow him whole. I had no choice I had to jump too, by my jump was more of straight plunge. I fell about 15ft onto it and caught one end of the creatures oval gaping maw mouth with my sword and let my weight cut through the fucking thing. Quickly I hit a wall of the crevasse at full force, but lucky landed on a wide ledge. Damu yelled out "Catch!!", as I heard a loud popping sound and saw the black egg come flying towards me. I caught it, but immediately put it away without looking at it, the thing was colder then ice!! The creature fizzled away and dripped down the rest of the crevasse towards an underground stream.
We found the Ivory case and figured out right enough that the black egg went inside of it. We took the Skulk girl and got out of there ASAP. On the trip back I read the journals that Alzeya was concerned about. I never heard this before, but when the guy Milton was looking for treasure in those mountain ruins around Lu'Hadej that Alzeya spoke off, he spent a lot of time talking to the mountain folk, who are Human, but not like us, nor like the Lu' Hadej people who are all tan and have big noses. I remember in the army when I was stationed in Lu' Hadej, the people there, who are mostly desert nomads and goat herders, these folks were spooked out about the mountain people who they left alone out of local superstition. I never saw one, but I was told they had thick black hair like the Lu' Hadej, but were deathly pale and had very bright pale blue eyes.
Milton's journal had said that these mountain folk claim that in ancient times those mountains where the original Kingdom of the Dwarves. That earthquakes caused them to leave. The mountain people where descended from slaves that the Dwarves had captured from Human countries to the south that the Dwarves were constantly at war with. I never heard this before or sense. I've only ever known Humans and Dwarves to get along, though I know the Lu' Hadej people hate Dwarves. The note books said that Human countries to south were completely wiped out by earthquakes that sank them beneath the waves and that the few survivors became the Lu' Hadej people, or they sailed away to places unknown. The journal also states that the mountains are completely dangerous and overridden with nightmare creatures and bestial races. Whatever treasure may lie in those Dwarven ruins are in what has been the hovels of demonic monstrosities for countless ages now.
Apparently Milton stole the black egg from a creature that lived high on a mountain peak. He described the creature as a tall shaft of flesh with bone-spur protrusions and a oddly rabbit like head. He learned about the creature from a tribe of Skulks, but who call themselves the Nirna. These Nirna are a cursed tribe of ex-slaves who did the most foulest work for the Dwarves. Dwarven Wizards cursed them to have no natural color in order to reinforce that they were only ever to serve their surroundings. The Nirna train their children to kill and to steal and send them off into the world to either return with goods and riches, or not return at all. During their rare contact with outsiders they often sell their young to keep their numbers purposefully low. The have lived in constant guerrilla war with Orcs for centuries and their only consistent ties with another people are with the mountain folk, whom they were once part of.
On the trip home I taught the Skulk girl how to speak Alsonian a bit. I used to see her around for years here and there, and I hear from younger guys she was working as a mercenary in Bayport recently. I know Milton regretted going into those mountains and finding the black egg, and we should have left it in the crevasse. We saw so much crazy shit over the years, and a lot of it was fun, but somethings turned out to be pretty fucked up in the end.
If we didn't bring Alzeya the goddamn black egg back we wouldn't have had to kill her a few years later.
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku assassin, as told by Leo Wayfarer to his Nephew Leto Wayfarer: # 32 (of 33) The killing of the "Dragon-Lady".
When Damu told me that his clan had a job for us up north in the pirate city of Bayport I knew we were up for some dirty work. When they gave us a chest of potions up front I knew we were fucked. I was already in deep with the Kenku and there was no refusing their offers at this point. I remember sitting on my porch drinking in my chair on a gray rainy summer day. Dirty poor kids from the neighborhood were chasing some sorry ass mongrel man up the street with sticks when Damu showed up with the potion chest and a bag of diamonds.
"We have to go up to Bayport to kill some gangster called the Dragon-Lady", he said as her tossed the sack of jewels to me.
Shit always rolls down hill, and it always had a funny way of rolling down on top of me. Somebody somewhere fucked up and it always was up to him and I to clean it up. Oh well, whoever this "Dragon-Lady" was I'm sure she was a cunt anyway.
We caught a ride up to Bayport with a caravan belonging to a semi-shady fat, effeminate Halfling merchant named Kyle Oberton. People around Scardale called him leg-rub Oberton as he liked to pay street urchin boys to rub his inner thigh as he jerked off. Either way it was a quick ride on short notice.
After our third day on the road I pulled Damu aside and asked him details on the job.
"This 'Dragon-Lady' isn't a dragon, but no one knows what she is really. Some say she's part dragon, but some are thinking she's part demon. Either way she's got magic, and she lives in a guarded villa. Not only do we have to kill her, we also have to kill anyone who looks like her, and we have to burn the bodies. The rulers of Bayport won't bother us if we are discreet. This is a clean up effort", Damu told me.
So like usual we were to sneak into a lethal situation not knowing even half of the whole story, and kill people we never met. This job was my second to last job before retiring from mercenary work. I had kept telling myself for years that after a few more successful missions that I wouldn't blow all the money I made on hookers and taverns, and that I'd retire before my luck ran out. I'd did that shit for 10 years after serving in the Regentum army from when I was 15 until I was mostly 21.
..[if !supportEmptyParas]-->At the city gates of Bayport Damu and I quickly split from that fat faggot Halfling. The walls around Bayport are huge, towering solid grey slanted walls that are stained with blood and scarred with wear from repelling marauding hoards over the years. By the gates I saw a skinny bitter old man stabbing a goblin with a spear that was locked inside a gibbet. The sorry little bastard was missing a hand and was all bruised and cut up. Huge half-Ogre guards in flat black spiked armor leaning on massive well-worn swords stood at either sides of the cities gate as a few shabby human solders asked everybody as to what their business in Bayport was. Factories spewed black and yellow smoke in the distance, and the first thing that hit me was the intense, pervasive stench of piss. In Regentum our cities have their ghettos, but Bayport itself is a ghetto.
Skinny and tore up opium addicted human whores openly sucked off Orc marauders, while I saw a Gnome playing a out of tune mandolin on the shoulders of a Bugbear who was in a squad of thugs of mixed goblinoid races. Whores of every age and race sold themselves to the killers and thieves they shared their city with. Pirates looked at us two with eager eyes, hoping maybe to capture us and sell us to a ship. Everywhere I saw cripples and lepers begging in the streets and massive throngs of the worst examples of all races crammed in together around tightly packed and haphazardly build shacks made from scraps and tents. Bayport is a grim and vile place.
I wanted to get the whole thing over with as quickly as possible, so we skipped getting a room and headed straight for the villa. The villa itself it turned out to be the size of a small castle and loomed far above everything around it, so we could not get into it from an adjacent rooftop, which is Damu's favorite way to get into a place. The villa was guarded by Hobgoblin and human troops, and some of the Hobgoblins rode on giant malformed boars. Damu snuck around the place and said their was no obvious way in or out of the building besides the front door, or through windows not too far from the roof. I didn't want to wait to be clever and con my way in through the front. I just wanted to be back on my porch drinking.
Damu broke out his set of climbing claws and a chunk of charcoal to blacken our weapons so they wouldn't gleam if we had them drawn. As he quickly, silently, and smoothly climbed up the walls of the villa in a zigzag path between shadows and vines, I downed a bunch of potions that the other Kenku gave us. One potion was for quickness, one for strength, and another to float up to the roof. For once I made it up a building quicker then he did, and the little fucker gave me a dirty look. We got into the building by Damu climbing down another wall, opening a window, and quickly killing a guard with his crossbow. I very carefully floated down into the window as its hard to move quietly in armor.
We were standing at the end of a long hallway that that went straight and turned left at the end. We could hear chanting and loud, heavy drumming coming from further with in the building. Damu went up to the turn first, looked for a moment, and then signaled me over. Looking around the corner I could see a bright light coming from the right at the end of another hall, and could clearly hear a loud and powerful female voice chanting,
"Ye y 'ti mn'g thu 'lh ugg'a aeth Yig fl'anglh uuthah, Deathless Mother-Father, bornless primordial serpent awaken! Ye y 'ti mn'g thu 'lh ugg'a aeth Yig fl'anglh uuthah, upon our hidden obsidian temples awaken! From the blackest pits scribed with blasphemous secrets arise from the bowels of the abyss for you beloved children! Ye y 'ti mn'g thu 'lh ugg'a aeth Yig fl'anglh uuthah, Enter this female vessel so she may guide your hand! IA, IA YIG!!"
Damu went a head again, paused for a few moments longer then before, then again signaled me over. "Leo outside of that door it there are two curved staircases to either side that go down into a large open chamber. In front of that is a balcony. There is a giant snake with arms playing drums while a naked lady who's a snake from the waist down is doing some ritual", he told me in a very matter of fact voice. It seemed absurd, but I peaked around the corner to see a beautiful, lithe, slender, dark haired woman with a 30ft long snake like lower torso in the throws of some occult ecstasy, while flashes of red light and translucent spectral tendrils crawled sensually about her body.
"Leo you go down and get the drummer, I'll get this Dragon-Lady", he said. Damu then hopped up on to the banister of the balcony then with weapons drawn he did a leaping flip towards this Dragon-Lady, and I charged the drummer.
The first thing was her scream. I looked up quickly to see Damu landing, and her clutching her bare chest where he sliced her from her neck, down across her left tit. Enraged the drummer reared up towards a height a few times higher then mine and lunged at me with an incredible speed. Had I not drank those potions I would have been crushed, but I rolled out of the way and leaped on the creatures back. I began ruthlessly hacking away at scales and muscles as hard as armor. It smashed itself against a wall in an effort to knock me free from its back, and in failing to do so knock over a flaming brazier which set a red velvet tapestry with a gold knot work of serpents on it on fire. Pounding my sword away at its neck and back its arms went limp, and at that instant I felt the room grow very cold. I saw Damu dodging blasts of fire and frost, which were shooting out of the hands of the Dragon-Lady.
..[if !supportEmptyParas]-->..[endif]--> The drummer snake shot up and towards its Matron. I leapt off the beast at a good 20 ft in the air, and swung at the waste of the Dragon-Lady. Striking true I cleaved her from hip to the other and fell with her to the floor. For a moment our eyes met and she looked very beautiful. I started to feel sorry for her and then realized she was trying to bewitch me. I stood up quickly and shrugged it off. The drummer snake was lying in a poor of its own blood barely alive, and the Dragon-Lady pathetically was crying and crawling to her severed lower half. Damu put his little talon foot on her head and cut it clean off. I walked over to the drummer snake and brought its misery to an end. We took whatever looked valuable from the room, including this gold and ruby encrusted goblet that I still have. We stacked the bodies together as best we could given their lengths, and set them on fire per our instructions from the Kenku. We left the building the way we came and quickly left that disgusting city. We had to bribe a fisherman to sail us down the coast to the city of Nolos. I'm sure the diamonds we gave him where more money they he had ever seen before.
I never learned what it was all over and that was one job that I don't want to know the reason behind.
A scene from the story below of Damu the Kenku assassin fighting a choker.
The tale of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin, as told by Leo to his Nephew Leto Colins: #14 of 33- Songs of the Little Frog Men.
I saw this old Sorcerer the other day using little tricks, like flashes of colored light and puffs of smoke to amuse children. Quite adorable really, it was a touching moment. It reminded me of one job Damu and did. Not that this story doesn’t have its gloom and doom and some dead mother fuckers, but this story ends with the smiles of children.
So I’m sitting on my porch drinking, watching the smoke stacks rise over the row homes as the bums and hookers stroll by. A few people stop by through out the day, nothing serious. It starts to get dark out and right as I pull my chair up and start to go in for the evening this skinny blonde guy with an eye patch holding something wrapped up in leather close to his chest comes up to me. First thing I notice is that for having one eye he still had crazy eyes, or crazy eye at it were. Second he smelled funny and third he had obvious just got his ass kicked. Dude was covered in cuts and bruises.
He starts talking to me all nasally and frantic, “I…I…Hear you’re an adventurous man…adventurous for pay…pay isn’t it?”. He dropped the wrapped up leather at my feet. I opened it up and inside was Jeweled knife and on the inside of the leather itself, painted on one side of it was a map. I started laughing. You know I’ve worked for the vilest scum bags and the biggest pricks you can imagine over the years, so why not one job on behalf of the insane and annoying?
I brought the guy inside my house and poured him a drink, and he began pouring his heart out in some crazy ramble. This guy, Roderick he said his name was, was a Sorcerer who worked for a Gnome craftsman who made magical Childs toys for the super rich. Basically they were in the business of making Doll Golems. They were making a ton of gold and couldn’t keep enough dolls in stock. The problem was that to make a Golem, weather a huge dangerous one like we think of when we think of Golems, or even a doll Golem, is a difficult and costly process. His boss thought of a short cut and he regretted helping him. What he told me seemed ridiculous at first but when I saw later on that it was true and sadly real, I have to admit it was creepy.
The guy Roderick worked for this Gnome Abe Shulberg. Roderick was a sorcerer of modest talent, and not very prone to an adventurous life. He used his merger magical abilities to get by doing odd jobs. When he heard that the Gnome Shulberg needed to take on assistants he thought it’d be a chance to improve his skills and for awhile he claimed he did learn a lot.
Abe Shulberg, when not working in Scardale, lived in a vast estate between Scardale and Scos. Roderick spent time on his estate and learned that it had a system of caves on the property that he took to exploring. He did warn me that the caves had some creature there that Shulberg had charmed to attack anyone not wearing a certain large medallion that he gave to all his workers.
This cave system opened up to a little out door crevasse that from above was 60 ft below. He found that that inside the crevasse was a pond that seemed like it must be connected to a stream that ran along Shulberg’s house because the house had a water wheel that helped power his experiments which leaked alchemical waste into the stream. Both the stream and the pond radiated faint magic.
In the pond he found that a bunch of frogs lived there. Roderick, inspired by the odd circumstance tried to summon a familiar, something he hadn’t been able to pull off before. This time it worked, a large frog came forth and he named it Gerko. Gerko became his only friend.
A few months later he and Gerko returned to the pond and something strange happened. All of the frogs started following Gerko around. Then abruptly all the frogs could telepathically talk to Roderick like Gerko could. He was astounded. The frogs told him that as soon as they realized that Gerko could talk to people then why shouldn’t they be able to as well? Soon Roderick had a lot new friends and he spent as much time as he could at the pond. Roderick would tell them about Humans, cities and civilization and the Frogs began to worship the idea of Man. But Roderick told them that this was bad and that there was a God, a God of everything, which taught that all intelligent beings should strive towards goodness and light and towards greater and greater things. The greatness of Man he told them was that they followed the greatness of God.
The frogs took heed and soon they grew in size and could walk up right and talk. They built little houses for themselves and spent their days singing the praises of God, Man, and their friend Roderick. He said it was the best time of his life, but soon it was ruined. The greed of the Gnome Abe Shulberg soon cast a sickening cloud over it all.
Roderick took Shulberg to the pond, but instead of seeing a miracle he only saw profit. Shulberg suckered Roderick into taking the frogs to his work shop in the city. He made Roderick convince a small group of them that could help praise Man by becoming singing dolls for children.
Shulberg knew he could magically bind the frogs into doll suits, and that he could in turn use spells that could take away most of their personalities and free will. Plus doing so would be cheaper, much cheaper then building doll Golems. So innocently the frogs went off to the city.
All was fine until he heard screams coming from the work shop. Shulman was sticking thin strips of copper wire into the frogs, something needed for the binding process. He saw a few of the finished dolls and was terrified when he realized their personalities were gone. He started screaming at Shulman, but one of his other workers shot Gerko with a crossbow killing him, and sent Roderick’s body into painful shock upon loosing the connection with his familiar. The workers then beat the crap out of him and threw him out.
Roderick snuck back in later to steal something valuable enough to hire help (the jeweled dagger) and made a map to the pond. We had to protect the frogs from getting rounded up by Shulberg and stop his cruel work. I said this one was an odd one.
I didn’t think Damu would give to shits about singing little frog men, but it perked his curiosity. We got a wagon and headed to the estate. It was easy enough to find the cave entrance. I lit a torch and we went it. I could see odd tracks on the cave floor but couldn’t tell what it was. Going along a bit I could hear heavy breathing echoing through out the cave, but I couldn’t tell where it was. I heard a quick motion I thought was behind me, but I was wrong. Turning quickly something large landed on top of me, hitting me hard and knocking the wind out of me. On the ground I saw some humanoid creature of thick grey hide, and pale white eyes, with arms and legs that had no joints but moved snake-like, and whose fingers were lined with thick rows of hard sharp spines.
Damu drew his sword and dagger and lunged at the thing. Its spindly arms fluidly reached for his neck, but Damu was quicker. He feinted with is sword, which he foolishly moved to block and Damu slashed it across its chest with his dagger spurting greenish-blue blood across the damp cavern walls. The creature reeled and leapt to the ceiling, which by its unique limbs allowed it to latch on to the cave roof. I pretended to crawl across the ground and the creature jumped down on me hoping to pin me, but in mid air I swung my sword deep into the monsters chest and out its back. We found its nest, it had a few coins and a pair of eye glasses it must of taken from someone it killed. I then realized we should of asked Roderick for that medallion, but I doubt he still had it after his beating anyway.
We quickly found the frog pond. Damu laughed but I found it both charming and sad given why we were there. They had built little mud and stick huts and even a little church where they had copies of the light and the law and a copy of the line of purity. It broke my heart to tell them what happened and the sound of hundred crying frog men echoing in a crevasse is damn near the saddest thing I ever heard.
We got them out of there and loaded them all into the wagon. We had frogs jammed in the back, ridding on the roof, and on the horse. Luckily they were only a foot tall. Despite the shitty situation they seemed to enjoy the ride.
We got back to Scardale and met up with Roderick. We couldn’t legally kill Abe Shulberg as these creatures had no rights, and I was afraid if we took them to the Army they just declare them a bestial race and there for make them able to be enslaved. I didn’t think they deserved that. Most of the frogs ended up hiding in my house. While ten of them, Roderick and Damu snuck into Shulberg’s work shop while I waited outside in case any heavy fighting broke out.
Damu picked the lock of a side door and got them in, then disappeared. Apparently all hell broke loose. A fight broke out between Roderick and Shulberg. Roderick lobbed a magic missile at him, and he sent back a scorching ray that caught flammable alchemical liquids on fire and caused an explosion.
Soon the place was leveled, and the Army showed up. Not knowing what to make of the frogs they called a Paladin in. This Paladin, Sir Richard Sinclair, was maybe the only Paladin I ever ran into who wasn’t a complete pompous fag. He saw a group of the frogs and drew his sword, but Roderick through himself at his feet crying and told the whole story. Sinclair was certainly bewildered by the story, but when the frogs started singing the line of purity, the Paladin fell to his knees and cried.
He declared that the frogs were a miracle of God that Mans striving for the light of the lord shined on these animals and elevated them to the light as well. I dunno about that, I think it’s because they lived in a magically polluted pond, but hey who am I to say how God works. Sir Richard Sinclair declared the frogs under his protection and took them and Roderick away after it was all done. Damu apparently made sure that not only did Shulberg not make it out of the fire, he robbed the place too. Smart bird, always a few steps ahead.
Before the frogs left with the Paladin we picked through the building and gave what toys we could find to the kids in the neighborhood. The frogs sang songs to the children as they played with their new dolls. Sinclair pulled me and Damu aside and said he’d keep our names out of it, that we did the right thing, and that he was surprised that two notorious mercenaries would take up such a cause. We shook hands and parted ways.
I never knew what happened to the frogs, but a few weeks later when I heard that at the P.O.L.L. fortress in Scardale all of a sudden they were adding a walled off garden complete with a large pond I kinda figured what became of them. Years later I ran into Roderick real quick on the street and asked him what he’d been doing all this time, and he smiled saying, “Oh…I’m just a gardener for the Paladins.”