Page: << 1 2 3

5: The Lucky Hurggis.

Passing a scattering of further dwelling along the path, the party eventually came to the door of The Lucky Hurggis Inn. Firmly closing the door behind them against the chill of the oncoming night, Bear turned slowly and took in the scene of the Inn and its patrons.

The entry way was stone floored and his group stood on a carpet large enough to accommodate ten men and brushed the snow from their shoulders. Through a small window to the right, Bear could see some as yet unexplored portions of the town and could make out a the Smithies workshop. By the glow of his furnace the smith could be seen finishing his last items for the day and the sound of his hammering drifted across to the Inn, still audible despite the level of conversation in the room.

A crude wooden bench sat along the north wall of the entryway, with a bears head hunting trophy mounted on the wall above it. In front and to the left, small flights of stairs led to the main area of the room and between them sat a generously large octagonal fireplace, in which roaring flames greedily devoured their sacrifice of timber. This filled the entire room with the pleasant perfume of the wood and a welcome heat which turned the bitter weather outside into the most distant of memories.

The Barkeep signalled the group to come over and introduced herself as Jewlynna. She was a young woman of slight build and a troubled air about her, as though it had been long since she had a truly good nights sleep.

"New Faces?" She said. "We don't see many of those around here these days. What brings you to Glacern?"

"We're looking for Ibsen Yamas." replied Bear. "Some of my party have pressing business with the Overseer."

"Indeed?" Jewlynna stopped cleaning the glass in her hand and leaned slightly forward across the bar. "Then you have indeed arrived at the right place, as I am his niece."

She pointed toward two men beyond the flames in the hearth. One of them, a well built man who looked to be in his late fifties, was Ibsen Yamas. The man he was talking to was somewhat younger, his solid frame and correct stance marked him as a military man as much as the uniform he wore. Jewlynna identified him as Lieutenant Shea of the Imperial Legionaries.

After introductions were made, Gyorn and Gloern presented their reports. The Overseer steepled his hands together to pursed lips as he listened to Gyorn's outline of the current situation at Stonebridge. His growing frown deepened then at Gloern's account of the recent trouble at Glitterdelve Mine, where his own brother had been taken captive.

"Indeed," Gloern continued, "Had it not been for this very band of adventurers," he motioned toward Bear, Gyorn and Ulora, "we might be there still. Slaves of the fowl creatures that over ran the mines."

Listening to the unfolding tales of his colleagues, Bear's mind wandered over the path of events that had led him to this point. A dear friend had lain dying in his arms, victim of the dim witted and violent race known as the Krug. Raping the peaceful farmlands that were Bear's home, these murderous creatures swept across the province at will, killing or enslaving its inhabitants. He remembered his flight northward to find help and the blocked roads that had forced him to venture through the Crypt of the Sacred Blood, with the horrifying Arachnid menace that lie secret within its halls. His exhausted arrival at Stonebridge, where the soldier Gyorn had persuaded Bear to accompany him on a journey to Glacern, to report these events to the Overseer. Then their subsequent arrival at the Glitterdelve Mines and Gloerns plea to them to help rescue his brother from the evil that had over run it.

When the reports had finished, the overseer sat silently for a few moments staring into the flames in the fireplace and considering what he had heard. Finally he turned to the party as a whole.

"The realm owes you all a great debt." he nodded. "And were these better times, it would be a heroes welcome you would be receiving in Glacern this very night. But the times are desperate and so it is with heavy heart that after all you have already done, I must ask you for yet more."

"The evil you describe is not limited to the lands south of here. In fact the whole realm has become subject to its dark grip. Even now, our forces to the north of here, fight desperately to hold the Fortress Kroth. Though their spirit is indomitable, their numbers grow ever fewer as the hand of evil takes its toll and now I fear that unless we can do something soon, Kroth may be lost to us."

"There may yet be a chance for us though, to rescue the embattled Fortress. There is a man, a mighty Mage called Merik. Long has his great power helped to hold the forces of darkness in check. But a short time ago he vanished, leaving the evil blight upon us, free to move at will."

"No one had any clue as to where he might be. But my niece who is gifted in part with a second sight has dreamed of the Mage trapped in ice somewhere in the Alpine Caverns that lie north of Glacern. If this is true and you could free him, then the tide at Kroth might yet be turned."

Bear turned and looked at Jewlynna, suddenly understanding a little better the haunted look he had detected in her eye when they had first arrived. Ibsen continued.

"In truth, after all that you have done already, I hesitate to ask any more of you, but...."

"You need say no more" Ulora, who had been sitting silently to one side listening to events unfold, now stood and spoke. "It is clear where our duty lies and there are none among us who will shirk the task now in hand."

The party nodded in silent agreement.

"It is decided then," said Bear. "A first light we set out for the Alpine Caverns and when our mission there is done, Onto Fortress Kroth!"

6: Into The Cellar.

Waking refreshed, the party set off from the Lucky Hurggis soon after dawn. Leaving the comfort of the Inn behind them, they passed more of Glacerns dwellings, where the locals were just beginning to move about in preparation for a new day. One man who was already about his work though was Foulton the local smith. Even at this early hour, his hammer was already in full swing over the anvil, while his assistant Orlov worked a giant set of bellows. The party stopped briefly and exchanged conversation on local rumour while they stocked up on arrows and supplies.

Moving along the path they passed a set of stairs leading up to a dwelling that appeared slightly larger than the norm in the town. Then on their right their attention was drawn to a haughty looking woman labouring at the town stable, who silently watched their progress with a sour look. The sign outside read, The Frozen Yak Corral.

This prompted Bear to glance back at their own mules and he discovered that one was missing. Irritably calling a halt, he brought the group back along the path they had followed in search of the errant beast and found where its tracks in the snow split from their own and led up the steps they had passed moments before toward the large house at the top. With a sigh of exasperation, he instructed the party to wait and set off up the steps to reclaim the missing animal.

Following the tracks around the house, Bear came eventually to a set of steps leading down into what he assumed would be a cellar. Looking around, he saw no sign of the mule's tracks in the snow. The house was set in the centre of a clearing and the trees around its border were too thick for the animal to have gone that way. An old well stood a few feet away, its tiled roof thick with snow. Snow rested also on its upturned bucket resting next to the crank handle. No one, Bear decided, had drawn water here in quite some time. Suddenly he felt a moment of disquiet and stepping around the house he called to the others to join him.

"It seems our friend has taken it upon himself to investigate the cellar of this place" he said. "But something here does not quite feel right."

Trusting by now Bear's frequent sixth sense in these matters, the party drew their weapons and then together they descended the stone steps leading beneath the building. At the bottom of the stairs, set on either side of the passageway were two torches, which the party quickly lit. The flickering light of the flames revealed a stone lined cellar. Rectangular in shape and fairly long, the rear wall lay out of sight in the shadows beyond the reach of the torches.

The missing mule was standing in the middle of the chamber, contentedly munching on an old open sack of oats which it had no doubt smelled as they had passed by on the way to the northern gates. Ulora gathered together the animal's harness while the others explored the rest of the room.

"Come look at this." Gyorn had discovered an archway, which while undoubtedly leading to another chamber of some kind, had been sealed long ago with stone blocks which were now in a state of some disrepair.

"There is air coming through here," said Gloern as he bent to try to see through the gaps in the assembled rock barrier. Bear furtively pushed against one of the upper rocks and to his surprise it fell straight through to the other side! The group looked at each other briefly and then by unspoken agreement they bent their backs to clearing the archway. Most of the rocks gave way with ease. It was obvious that they had been hastily erected and ill maintained. Beyond the barrier lay a short brick lined passage with more unlit torches on either side. When flames were brought to these, they revealed that the brick passage opened up after a few meters into a tunnel hewn from the natural rock.

Leaving the mule to its breakfast, the party moved together into the tunnel, which soon began to angle downward in a gentle slope. A hundred yards along, the tunnel emerged into a large and dimly lit cavern. Water dripped from the ceiling into a pool below and this sound made a ghostly harmony with the mournful wail of the wind through an opening to daylight on the far side of the cave. So the air they had felt at the archway was explained. The path they were walking narrowed to form a natural bridge which crossed the dark water of the pool and then climbed upward toward the newly discovered exit.

Motioning Ulora and Gyorn to stand at the foot of the bridge, Bear and Gloern continued onward up the ascending pathway toward the light above. The two were about to step through the threshold of the cave mouth above when there has a sudden explosion of sound and fur in their path and in the beat of a heart, two Furok Slashers were upon them.

Before the pair had a chance to react, the lead beast cut downward with a claw like hand larger than a mans head and dealt a savage blow to Gloern which left him staggering. Recovering his senses the next moment, Bear grabbed the Dwarf's shoulder and dragged him back downward along the slopped pathway in a desperate attempt to give a clear field of fire for the deadly arrows of Ulora and Gyorn. Half way back across the bridge, the pair turned to face their pursuers. Bear brought up his Mace of Shivery and Gloern hefted his mighty Wedge Axe. The lead Slasher was already upon them and continued his relentless attack on the bloodied Gloern.

The air was thick with yells and arrows and the striped fur of the lead beast bled from the many wounds inflicted by the furiously firing archers. It bellowed and paused for just an instant, but that small eternity proved its undoing as Gloerns axe found its mark and cleaved the enormous skull of the beast in two. As the body crumpled still twitching to the floor, the second creature unleashed a savage rain of blows aimed at the head of the two warriors, but with the advantage of surprise now long gone, the hunter had become the hunted and it's berserk roar of ferocity was cut short as Bear called forth the power granted to his enchanted mace and with a mighty swing, enclosed the beast in a giant block of solid ice. This block however would not prove to be the creature's icy tomb, as the next combined blows of the two warriors shattered it, and the beast within, into a thousand frozen fragments which cascaded downward, to be lost forever in the midnight darkness of the waters below.

For a few moments, the party stood catching their breaths and Ulora applied a makeshift bandage to Gloerns head wound. Luckily enough, the Furok had only managed to land a glancing blow, although the throbbing in the Dwarfs temple disagreed heartily that the wound was less than life threatening. As they recomposed themselves, the group discussed how strange it seemed that the creatures had remained in the cavern, given that the makeshift wall in the cellar above would not have given them so much as a moment of pause had they wished to breach it. It seemed likely that the wall, originally been more solid, might have had some magical warding which had long since faded.

But this was a mystery for another time, and after a few minutes they turned their attention once more to the cave exit above them. The cave emerged onto a wide snow covered ledge, thick with fur trees, that overlooked the chasm that surrounded the town of Glacern above them. None could see the bottom of the rift and its walls descended after a while into a mist that defeated even Uloras keen eyes.

To one side of the ledge sat a large oaken chest. Splintered along one side but none the less secured, the adventurers could only wonder if it had fallen from the town above, or had been dragged here by the Furoks, from the cellar in a time before the archway had been sealed. On forcing the chest open, the group discovered three items, which with some small knowledge of enchantment, Gloern was able to identify as a pair of Brilliant Rock Pelt Boots and a Goring Staff of Burning. The final item was somehow familiar to Bear, although he could not quite remember why - ashining robe described by Gloern as The Burlap of the Badger.

Their packs bolstered by the items they had discovered, the party turned once again into the cavern and toward the town above. The day had not begun to plan, and Bear wondered what waited for them outside Glacern.

But one thing was clear to all. Their duty and their destiny lay north of this place and they would embrace that in whatever form it took and ultimately they would triumph. For the sake of all that was good, they had to.

Page: << 1 2 3