After an undermined time underground the notion of time elapsed for our heroes, they couldn't tell how long the thieves made them turn around in order for them to never find the entrance again. Unfortunately for both the guild members couldn't imagine they were lost after the first turn in the sewers. They managed to get out in the middle of town, knowing for sure this was not the only exit or entrance, depending on the need. A simple hour took them to the Sommerlund Ambassy, where they received their hardly won paid.
As they were now together and bounded by the one day group pass Ricaro gave them, Rameldin was eager to go around on her own, reminding the group of how well they were without her. As a cherry over a cake, she pressured everyone to pay her due as she wanted to be sure she'll get Alast money. Gustavius requested a receipt, quite insistent over this matter. Dwarves will always be dwarves.
All were glad to have left the sewers, their pouches still heavy even after paying the first part of the repairs for the "Green Rat Inn" to Rameldin and quite content of themselves they headed towards "The Bluebeard Inn" on recommendation of the two dwarves. The evening passed by in a joyful athmosphere as all were enjoying the food and drinks and for a moment all the darkness of this world were far from them. As Gustavius was paying for the dinner a small discussion arose in the background about where to sleep, the inn having only dwarven beds and they decided to simply head back to the "Dragonfly" and spend the night there.
The night passed by uneventful and the next day around noon, Captain Padoka set course for Bor, the trip would last only six days. A welcome break for all.
But not all was well, there seemed to be some tension lingering between Erleothir, Gustavius and Mulchanor. Nothing hostile but it was clear that some slight incertitude was rising. Erleothir caught Mulchanor and Gustavius having some discreet discussion and neither the frown he received from Mulchanor nor the dark glare Gustavius threw at both of them was reassuring.
"Gustavius, I know you have the feeling you have lost your time, but... I know we will find someone who can help us in Bor..." seeing no acknowledgment on Gustavius' part he continued "Listen, I am also more than disappointed and you know that I intended to save Mellini in Shotia, now she has been carried away and..."
"A waste of time !" Interrupted Gustavius "I had told you we should have headed to Shotia first, but you were the one to decide otherwise." Gustavius stopped, quickly thinking if he should continue blaming Erleothir, it itched him to, but he decided otherwise "well, we all do bad decisions from time to time..." a short silence followed.
"We will need your help in Boradon. You know the place, you live there, can we... can I count on you ?" asked Erleothir in a friendly tone
Gustavius sighed "yes... yes I'll help you out as much as I can in Boradon"
"and then ?"
"then what ?"
Erleothir sighed and started closing the door "is there anything I should know about ..." but the rest of the discussion was muffled.
The next day Mulchanor surprised Gustavius in the forge
"you closed the door to the forge, that's unusual of you..."
"yeah, we ran out of grenades... and for some rather obvious reasons, I don't want the girl to see me crafting explosives."
Rameldin, the girl, was on the upper deck. Erleothir had thought that it might be a good idea to train her a bit in sword fighting. He was training her with wooden swords and was showing Rameldin how to hold it correctly as well as the basic parrying moves. this lasted on for several days and the rest of the company sometimes gathered on the deck with their tankards in hand to watch. At some point he thought it might be a good idea to start a small duel to test her abilities. On his first attack he swiped her wooden sword out of her hand.
"But I wasn't ready !" complained Rameldin as the wooden sword slid across the deck.
"it's not like the thugs will be waiting for you to be ready" replied Erleothir
all eyes were locked on her as she bowed to lift the sword from the ground, Erleothir could not help to notice.
"also your dress isn't exactly appropriate for such training" he muttered for himself.
After countless other tries and a rather large number of wooden swords stroke overboard Erleothir started showing some signs of fatigue.
"you're so strong Erleothir, can't I just rely on the fact that you will protect me?" fluttered Rameldin with her most charming smile while coming close to him. Erleothir's attempt at keeping a stern expression at her failed miserably while the sound of his companions respectively chuckling and choking on their beer could be heard on the background.
"hey, strong guy!" said Yesnarel while putting a hand on his shoulder, "we should have a quick look at the ... thing... we recovered." he turned to Rameldin "so that your new 'pupil' can take a break." and they headed down, leaving the young woman contemplating the landscape...
Unfortunately their investigations proved to be in vain. The stone they had recovered from the underwater temple was now lying there in their hands but its secrets could not be discovered.
"It's a very ancient artifact, from the Shianti. that is no doubt. also the design of the temple were we recovered it does not leave any doubt about it. but now... hmm the surface is absolutely even, nothing there...." started Yesnarel
"were they actually worshipping a stone?" wondered Gustavius
"hmm well it was indeed glowing... why is the glow gone?" continued Erleothir.
"maybe it only glows when immersed" hazarded Yesnarel
a few minutes later all were standing around a bucket filled with water.
staring at the stone bathing in it.
"nope.... still not glowing"
"maybe it's not the element that makes it glow. maybe it's about the location where it is ?"
"we could try with another element ? fire for example?"
"NO FIRE! ... you know.. let's just lock it up again for today, maybe we'll find something more helpful in Bor..."
*
* *
* *
The "Firefly" was now whirring between snow capped mountains but the weather was clear. They had reached their destination. Jack turned over to Gustavius and Mulchanor asking if they knew a good parking spot by the city. Both just stared blankly back at Jack. Before leaving Boradon they had never seen any skyship not to mention traveling aboard one. Gustavius was feeling uncomfortable that they had crossed the border and how the Bor military would react upon seeing a skyship trespass over their country. His fears soon turned out to be unfounded.
Padoka and Jack had found a suitable place to park the skyship, above a collapsed mine entrance, close to the south gate of the city. Some patrol arrived very quickly and Gustavius was the first to head down the ladder and speak with them.
"I am really sorry if we trespassed in some area we should not be..." he started apologising. but the guards just turned it down.
"no need to worry... as long as the ship stays were it is everything is fine. what's your business?"
"coming back from a trip, I'm heading back home..." he produced his id out of one of his pockets "and I have some friends I wanted to show the place."
"humans?"
"yes, three humans and a fellow dwarf.... they are all trustworthy."
"fine fine, that will be enough, you can enter the city..." the guard waved Gustavius away and was about to continue his patrol or head back to whatever task he and his colleague was doing.
"but..." started Gustavius "... no need for papers for the three humans ?"
the guard turned back and sighed "no need, we have your name and address, and you arrived aboard a flying ship, if stuff goes wrong we know where to head. now if you excuse us, we have business to tend to"
"but..."
"listen, we don't have time for you, we took your id, that's all we need for now. Materials and guns have been disappearing recently, we are sure you'll understand that it keeps us a bit more busy."
Pictures of sealed crates stored at Rakuniki's shop, then being carried across Shotia and loaded aboard a ship at night flashed through Gustavius' paranoid mind.
"oh my... that's err... terrible. what ... fellow dwarf would do that ?" he muttered... but the guards were already gone.
The company crossed the immense south gate of Boradon and started walking down a corridor of impressive dimensions. Soon enough the corridor stopped abruptly and opened on a cavern of gigantic dimension.
"behold Boradon!" under the stalactites hanging some hundred meters over it, the circular city could be seen lying before them, like a large circular amphitheater in which center the palace of king whathisname was standing. the city was divided in 3 different terraces down towards the palace. shafts of light were falling from the surface and reflecting by large mirrors atop towers.
Rameldin could not hold her curiosity and started bombarding Gustavius with questions while the rest of the group seemed also quite eager to listen.
"so where are we heading?"
"to my place."
"oh great ! where do you live?"
"the second terrace"
"will we stay at your place?"
"no, it's too small, but there's a tavern just on the other side of the street"
"oh... will we meet your wife?"
"i'm not married"
"you have any pets?"
"er.... what ?"
and on and on. soon enough they turned into the Frothing road and reached the Hrimrath plaza just at the the promenade over the innermost circle of the city. and there they were. at the end of the street a sign was hanging "Gustavius Anvilsong's Antiques and Rarities Emporium" written in fine dwarven runes. And another sign hastily written and hanging below just stating "and repairs". but the door was barricaded.
"that's not how I left the place...." muttered Gustavius
"looks like there was a break in at your store...." started Erleothir.
But Gustavius was already rushing the door of his house.
28th December 5000
XP!:
Alast: 500xp for global session (yes he is making Xp on his private adventure and yes, he managed to survive alone),
Gustavius: 350xp for global session, 300xp for the receipt request, 300xp for trio discussion, 200 xp for getting them passing over Dwarf police control,
Rameldin: 300xp for global session, 200xp for training, 200xp for the idea of checking the keys, 150xp for fishing info,
Yesnarel: 300xp for global session, 300 xp for the key discoveries,
Erleothir: 350xp for global session, 300xp for trio discussion, 200xp for training Rameldin,
Mulchanor: 200xp for global session, 300xp for trio discussion,
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