Whispering secrets

29th December 5000

The morning started early for the group. Yesnarel got up first and went looking for his friends, hoping to have company for breakfast. Walking past Rameldin's door, he merely shrugged, letting her locked inside, he was in no hurry to see her. So, he woke the knight up instead and seeing that Erleothir was already getting ready, he invited himself in his room, to discuss some issues in private. The moment didn't last long however, a knock at the door interrupted them. It was Draug, their new acquaintance. He was oblivious to the silence his presence created and started talking, asking about the rest of the group. The two friends quickly realized this could be put to their advantage : he could be sent to "free" Rameldin and explain the night before.

What the men didn't know, was that Rameldin hadn't been waiting for them to get up. She had heard Yesnarel when he knocked on her door previously and had unceremoniously asked him to leave her alone. After that, she quickly got dressed and walked to the door, planning on opening it discreetly to sneak out. She was surprised to find the door locked. Looking around, she quickly found the key at her feet and resumed her exit, this time clearly upset at her fellow companions. Not bothering to check on them, she went downstairs and sat at an empty table, facing the stairs to be sure not to miss them. At that point, it was reasonable to doubt of their willingness to keep her in the group.

The knocks on her door were left unanswered and Draug quickly got back to the guys who were surprised to find the young woman already seated and widely waving to them: correction, to Erleothir. Yesnarel only got a dark glare that mysteriously and quickly soften until Rameldin was almost purring. Her interest however was all over the new comer, that young knight, in full armour showing a great load of confidence. She pressed him with questions, disgusted if not jealous, Erleothir left them and walked to the buffet, followed by Yesnarel. When they came back, Rameldin naturally help herself with their food and went on talking and talking.

Gustavius, finally arriving to the inn after trying his best to clean his place and make an inventory of missing items. Upon seeing the scene, he couldn't help but smile, and share the pain of the two older. He joined the group and ordered some beer which Erleothir promptly refused. Now wasn't the time to play anymore, they had a little expedition to prepare.

Rameldin, who wasn't aware of their new business, immediately found a dozen questions to ask the dwarf, while on their way to the administrative quarter. She managed to be so annoying that Erleothir, following his instinct of sacrifice ( or call it sense of duty ), offered to take her for a walk in the shopping area. Gustavius wasn't really keen on splitting the group but the girl was insisting and, after making sure the two would stay in the shopping area so that a courier could find them if needed, the group left them turn toward the stores.

It was easy and quick for Gustavius to find the proper office where to request access to the old mine. Finding a map proved to be a little more difficult; they were sent to another office in order to talk to an old sage who used to play in the now abandoned area when he was a child. The whole group was surprised by his age and his long white beard. Hadn't he been so short, he could have been really impressive. They exchanged a few words and gathered precious information about the mine and its design, and the potential foes that could be found. They almost got in troubles when, bidding their farewell, Rameldin added a "Grand-Pa". She didn't mean to disrespect him, it was more a way for her to express the feeling of confidence and wisdom he conveyed. Rameldin still had to learn a lot about dwarves and their lifestyle.

The group didn't waste any more time and started in direction of the old mine. At the entrance they were given as many torches as they wanted, being a girl, Rameldin could only carry two and gave the rest to the guys. After another little discussion between the members : how long would the exploration last ? In which order should they walk ? Is the mine really safe ? What are they looking for exactly ? Did they all need to go ?
More sighs and finally they were in, Draugh broke an old wooden fence that was blocking their path and they crossed in a cloud of spiderwebs.

The passage was surprisingly high and of decent width, they could at least walk at ease. However, walking at ease and progressing are clearly two different things for the company. At the first crossroad, about two minutes away from the entrance, the conversation started again : the path was opening on the right, should they go together and check this unmarked track or should they stick to the main road as described on the map ? But if they were looking for something, shouldn't they explore what is not written ? Since the rest had been explored already ....
The conversation was animated but in the end useless. They all followed the unmarked track which lead them to a dead end. Coming back on the main road, they also reached a dead end. Gustavius' face showed his puzzlement.

" there must be something we missed ... a door, a path ... " he mumbled holding his torch along the wall checking the wall for imperfections or a hint of some sort. The other imitated him, Draugh was pounding on the stone, testing their echo, Rameldin was caressing the stone, feeling for a niche, Yesnarel was sensing whatever he could find, oh, a soft wind coming from the right ! All their efforts combined and it's the newcomer who opened a secret door. All turned to the new entrance, Draugh was obviously pretty proud of his discovery. But of course, before they set foot on the new path, they had to discuss a little bit more. This time the concern was about getting lost, they wanted to make sure they would find their way back since the map was now rendered useless.
Rameldin had an idea but not many people ready to listen her out. Erleothir came to her rescue.

" you have tissue we could use to mark our way ?"

Rameldin produced a long piece of cloth, uncut and started cutting ribbons with the help of the knight. The idea was to tie those ribbons to the wall asperities so as to remember where they came from. However, they realized that the mine was a one way road anyway and that the tissue carefully selected in Shotia in hope to make a nice dress had been cut for nothing. They all engaged in the entrance and set to explore the lower levels.

They arrived in a circular room which had three rooms on the side, each room holding an anvil and a hammer. No exit. It looked like they would have to solve a little puzzle to move further. That one was easy : nodding in understanding, Gustavius, Erleothir and the yound Draugh Othar each entered a chamber. On the count of three given by Yesnarel, they hit the anvil and following a loud “clang” the walls started to tremble, Rameldin came closer to Yesnarel and they retreated in the entrance door. The floor disappeared gradually and they could now see stairs of stone, leading to some underground level. Once all movement was finished, they made their way down. Rather confident.

In the second level, a second quiz awaited them. Erleothir was amazingly fast at resolving it…only to find another puzzle. That one was about triangles and more triangles… in the end, Gustavius managed to satisfy whoever placed the puzzles there and the room configuration changed again. Another circle appeared and a ladder on its side was leading the way always a little deeper in the mine. How would they come out?

In that level, on a sort of altar were several statues and some raw material. The adventurers were not used to so much thinking, and, let’s face it, not all of them had the patience required in those situations. In the small room, chaos started, all were thinking aloud, none were afraid to touch the items, experimenting several solutions. It’s Yesnarel and Erleothir who finally solved the riddle. Rameldin had long give up and all noticed that she was the kind of person to get bored pretty quickly.

Now that the final test had been passed with success, the room morphed for a last time: the ground opened and on a half height pillar sat a blue triangle. All reacted to the view, Draugh and Rameldin might have been the most curious: they had never seen such a thing before.
Fearless, as usual, the company didn’t waste time deciding what to do, of course they would collect the item and climb back up, mission completed. They should have learned by now that things rarely were that easy. So, when Leo grabbed the triangle from its resting place, problem started. Namely, the ceiling started to fall down on them. Seeing the speed at which it was falling they had little time to think: Erleothir could only take one other person under his shield, Yesnarel wasn’t sure his magic could built a shield strong and big enough for the rest of them. What should they do then? When panic was about to win them over, luck (or was it destiny?) took the form of a little block on the wall and saved them. The ceiling stopped for a few extra seconds, just long enough for them to jump under cover of the previous platform. Once the ceiling was completely down and turned into a floor, they walked out of their cover and Gustavius reversed the mechanism of the ancient trap, thus transporting the complete company on the highest floor again like on a lift platform and back to fresh air, exhausted.

On their way back to the city the youngest were excited by the discovery, Gustavius, showing little emotions was at best satisfied. The knight looked worried and the mage impatient to study the artifact for the moment in possession of the dwarf.

They pushed the door of the inn open, now was time to rest.

Of knights, robbers and pain

28th December 5000

When he looked towards his shop, Gustavius did not linger long and immediately ran into his shop, quickly followed by the rest of the company. From the strict and straight-forward lines and corners, which one would normally find in dwarven architecture was nothing to be recognized. The shop was simply a mess of relics upon relics, covered with trinkets, broken statues and an occasional mechanic device that could now be found everywhere on the floor. Gustavius ran to the back of his shop where the rest of the company could not see him anymore, but soon they would know exactly where he was. “NOOOOOO, NOT MY …..”, he said before he suddenly stopped as if he realized that he was not the only person in the shop. Yesnarel offered his help, but Gustavius just grumbled and mumbled something about “thieving bandit” and what would happen if he got his hands on him.

In the meantime, Erleothir and Rameldin were looking around the place to see if there was something interesting. Rameldin stumbled on some relics and tried to hold her balance by grabbing a table cloak which was not intended to hold the weight of even a young light girl. She fell on the floor and was now covered with the table cloak and everything that was on that table. Erleothir just looked outside the window and it was clear that something on the street caught his attention. “I will go outside towards that inn on the other side.”, he said and Rameldin mumbled from underneath the blanket that she would join him. Erleothir sighed, but he helped her up and accepted to join him.

Outside the shop, the two were greeted by a dwarf who walked steadily towards them. “Greetings, you must be the friends of Gustavius Anvilsong. My name is Valberin, an old friend of Gustavius and his friends are my friends.”. Before Erleothir or Rameldin could say anything, the dwarf took their arms and pulled them back into the shop again. “Come with me, my friends, because I have information for Gustavius of which I’m sure you will all be very interested.”.
Back inside, Valberin told the group that he has waited for them to arrive and that he knows where the robbers currently. “Well, don’t just shimmy around there and tell me what you know”, said Gustavius. “The bandits, who did this to your place, have been arrested and are now held being captive in the prison of the garnison.”. “Aha! So there were more than just 1 robber, I understand.”. Valberin continued: “The garnison has been waiting for you to arrive, because they were sure that you would be interested in why they came into their shop. As per Dwarven law, you will have the right to interrogate them.”.

Gustavius was pleased to hear that the robbers were caught, but he was also sure that he needed to get back to strength after this long journey, not to forget the shock to find his house burgled. He decided to go for a meal first in the inn on the other side of the street. While passing the street, Erleothir made a good look to the sign outside of the tavern. Even though he is not skilled in the dwarven language and its runes, he was still pleased to recognize 2 rifles crossing each other, fired shortly before as smoke was still coming out of it.

Inside they sat down and Gustavius showed himself a worthy host by ordering drinks and food for everybody. Even though Rameldin has worked in a tavern and one would expect that she is used to some alcohol, the strong Bor beer made her feel light-headed and she moved closer towards the knight. “Oh, master knight, you look so strong in your armour. Do you think you also have what it takes to make a young girl happy?”. Erleothir quickly grabbed his drink and did not feel well about this. Not sure what to do, he gulped down his glass, which was not such a good idea as his head was going woozy and it decided to drop down on the table. Yesnarel, who has seen this all happening, laughed loudly and Rameldin, who was rather disappointed by the knight’s endurance, started to draw her attention to the mage. However after another sip of her beer, Rameldin was not able to react to anything anymore and was now lying with her head on the table as well, right next to Erleothir. Gustavius and Yesnarel finished their dinner, making sure not to spill anything on the 2 and after a well-deserved supper, they brought Rameldin to her room and locked the door just to make sure she would not start to seduce a dwarf from the inn. Gustavius asked for the “foreigner-special” and sipped something in Erleothir’s mouth. Directly after that, Erleothir sprung awake, shaked his head, looked around and let out a gigantic burp so loud the tables in the room shivered. “HUZZAHH”, the crowd of dwarves cheered and they raised their ale in the air.

“Feeling better again?”, Gustavius asked Erleothir and helped him up his feet. “We must go to the prison now and see why these bandits came into my house.”. After a short walk towards the legislative area, they arrived at the prison of the Garnison of Boradon. They were greeted by Kilring, the boss of the Garnison and he announced that he has heard of Gustavius’ return and expected his arrival at the prison. He also informed them there is another person of the “big folks” who has been asking to visit the prisoners. The group was quite astonished to hear that they were not the only people interested to see them and followed Kilring inside.

“I demand to see the prisoners”, they heard a man’s voice from afar. With swift steps, the group went towards the shouts and there they saw a tall man, wearing fully armour and he was also not to stingy about weapons either. “Who are you?”, asked Gustavius. The stranger answered: “My country has ordered me to investigate the robbery on the shop of one Gustavius Anvilsong. I demand to see the prisoners in order to get more information out of them. Ah, but where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ohtar, Draug Ohtar, I’m a knight of the republic of Palmyrion”. Erleothir was astonished to find another knight in these areas, and one from Palmyrion even. Palmyrion is much like Sommerlund. It is a defiant nation with the strength to resist the dangers of the Darklands and the will to fight for what is right in the world. Self-sufficient and powerful, Palmyrion is a model nation and an inspiration to its neighbours. “Well, it happens to be that I am one Gustavius Anvilsong”, Gus answered back. “If you are willing to help us with your investigation, I can allow you towards the prisoners, as per dwarven law.”.

Draug was willing to join the group and they continued towards the prison cells. They were welcomed by a dwarf with a big smile and red clothes. It appeared to them that he chose to wear red colors, because one would not be able to see blood stains on them. They entered the prison cell and immediately they saw a person hanging on the wall. His hands were above his head, manacled on a chain which was pinned in the wall and his feet a bit up in the air. He was blindfolded, so he could not see his own looks, but he must have felt his enormous amount of bruises and cuts, as it was clear that the dwarf was not so keen on robbers in his jurisdiction. In the middle of the room was a table covered in blood or rust (it was not so clear to tell anymore) and on this table was instruments that were made for 1 purpose only: to make people talk. “The other robber is on the other side of this room.”, and he showed them the way to the passage leading to the other room. “Have fun, my lads.”, he grinned.

Draug immediately stepped towards the robber and punched him in the stomach: “What were you doing in that shop?”, he shouted. Erleothir asked him to stop punching him as this is not the way a knight finds out the truth. “Truth?”, said Draug, “I’m here to seek answers and to commit justice.”. Gustavius answered: “Well, no answers are given when they’re dead, so take it easy on them…….at first”. The robber then started talking: “If you want answers, I’m not the one who will give them to you. Yes, I’ve robbed your store for good money. Do you want to know why? Well, guess what, you will never find out from me…..”. Draug quickly took the blindfold and gagged the robber with it. Erleothir stood at the back and asked what he was doing. “Ah, haven’t you learned anything in Sommerlund about questioning a prisoner? I’m gagging him, so he can’t bite his tongue and commit suicide. We’re not getting answers from him yet, but I’m not willing that he departs from us so soon.”. He then took his knife and cut the pinky finger of the robber, quickly following by heating up the wound, so it did not bleed anymore. The robber shouted in pain, but also made a noise as if he was laughing behind his gag. Erleothir was visibly shocked, but also astonished by the ways of the Palmyrion knight. “Let’s go to the other robber”, Draug continued; “maybe he is more willing to talk or he can be easier convinced.” and the group went towards the other room

All in all, it looked the same, another prisoner hanging on the wall in the air and a table with instruments just in front of him. However the expression of this robber was different. He looked…..scared, not knowing what would happen to him. Draug and Gus did not lose much time and started the same strategy on this fellow. “Please”, the robber said, “please don’t hurt me. I did not want to rob your store, but I had to. I was in need of money. That’s all I can say”. Gustavius said: “You better start talking, because if your friend next-door is more willing to speak, there is no use for us to you anymore.”. To make sure that the robber understood what Gustavius was talking about, he also cut the finger of this robber and put a hot iron on its stomp end. The robber screamed in pain and underneath the blindfold, a tear strokes his cheek.

The group went back to the first robber again. It was now clear that he was the leader of the two and hopefully he could provide them with more information. Even if he did hear the screams of his fellow robber, he showed no notice that he was concerned about what was going to happen. Before Draug or Gustavius could take over, Yesnarel did a step forward and said: “Let me have a go, I may have a way to make him talk” and while he said those words, his hand went to the crotch of the robber. Even in his wildest imaginations, the robber would not think of what was coming next. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck out of the hand of Yesnarel. When the rest of the group saw this, they automatically put their hands on their own crotches as if they felt the pain as well. The eyes of the robbers opened so wildly that the rest feared his eyeballs would fall out. After a few seconds, which seemed like minutes, the room was filled with the smell of burnt flesh. “Now ask your questions.”, Yesnarel said in a rather common voice and he ungagged the robber. The robber just provided the group with an – almost toothless – smile and then suddenly started choking. Before anybody could react, the robber found a way to bite his tongue and died a rather painful death. “Well, I guess we won’t get answers from him anymore,”, Draug replied, “so let’s pay another visit to the other fellow. Oh right, and Yesnarel: nice way to provide justice.”.

When the group entered the other room again, the other robber looked even more feared than before. He must have seen the enormous light flash that could be seen in all the prison cells. The screaming of his former colleague was still loud enough for the other prisoners to know what was going on, even though he was gagged. “So,”, Gustavius continued, “are you now more willing to talk?”. “Please don’t hurt me, I’ve told you all that I know!”, he cried. Draug simply said: “Well, that’s not enough for us at the moment.” and with a knife he cut another finger of him. “Ok, ok. I can’t tell you who ordered us to rob the store, but I can tell you where you will find the device that you are currently looking for. You will find your key in the undergrounds.”. SNAP, another finger flew in the air, followed by a loud scream. Draug replied: “Why don’t you want to say who you are working for? And can your description be even more vague?!? What do you mean with the undergrounds? Speak swiftly.”. The robber continued: “Please don’t hurt me, I’ve told you all I know. I could not see his face, nor did I hear a name. And I’ve only heard of the other two talking about the undergrounds and that the key is there. We only robbed your store, because we heard that you had a map of the place. Please, it’s all I know, I swear!”

Erleothir, who was still standing near the door when he saw all this happen, looked rather disturbed by this sight, but also intrigued by the ways of the Palmyrion knight. Then all of a sudden, Draug turned around to Erleothir: “Well master Knight”, he said, “I think we have heard all the information we will ever receive out of him.” He looked at Erleothir with a little smile: “Why don’t you finish him off?”. Erleothir was baffled: “What?!? Do you want ME to kill him?”. “But of course not. I only want you to speak justice of him”, was the answer he received.
Erleothir took out his dagger, which was covered with a polished red ruby and walked towards the robber. He held the dagger on his throat and closed his eyes shortly. Then all of a sudden, he took away the knife and said to Draug: “I cannot kill a man who is already dead. After all it is clear that he was not the brain behind his mission, but a poor old sod who knew the wrong people.”

The 3 adventurers had found more than they imagined, but less than they had wished for. They were not too happy with the amount of information they received from the robbers, but on the other hand, they found a fellow companion. Draug followed the group outside and he was soon invited to join them towards the inn. “Let’s see how Rameldin is doing, and let’s not forget that we still have to pick up Mulchanor if we are about to go in the undergrounds.”, said Yesnarel.
Now it was Draug’s turn to be intrigued: “Rameldin, you say? Who is she? And who is this Mulchanor fellow? And what is with the keys that the robber was talking about?”. Gustavius simply replied: “All in good times. It’s been a long day. Let’s first have a drink first and we’ll discuss the more important things later.”

The group entered the “smoking rifles” inn and Gustavius ordered Bor beer again for the group. Erleothir quickly interrupted and said that he would like to try a nice glass of Vassagonian Beer. The waitress looked at the knight with an understanding smile and soon after, everybody had their drinks in front of them. Erleothir slipped something in his pocket, but the rest did not notice, for the music was loud and the atmosphere was merry. The group held their glasses in the air and Gustavius proposed a toast. “To Draug Ohtar, knight of the Republic of Palmyrion, a man who knows how to make people talk”. “Hear hear”, he replied. “To many new introductions.”. They all drank their Bor beer (except Erleothir who had a Vassagonian one) and only seconds later, a loud bump was heard. On the table they saw Erleothir’s head with closed eyes and a merry smile on his face.

Suddenly, words !

even wondered how often some words appear in our story. here a small cloud


and now.. without our names