Move 160: Out of the Rain
The Garlstone Mines--Night, 3 Eleint 1374 DRThe rain held off long enough for Ceth's pyre to burn down, but the flashes of lightning and groans of thunder that started off distant but moved steadily nearer told the group it would not hold off much longer. A suggestion was made to move into the Dream Cave, as it was labeled on Grizzler's map, and most of the group agreed.
The Dream Cave was as it had been described by the scouts, a large limestone cavern with few features of notes other than the bad poetry scrawled on the walls and the pool of water dividing the front portion of the cavern from the back where, according to the map, the Queen of Souls pillar stood.
Aloysius looked at some of the bad poetry for a moment before setting his pack down on the cavern floor.
"Stargazer is already well-rested. I can take the first watch whilst those of you needing additional rest can do so."He looked at Echo. "If thou doth plan to address the chests and would like my assistance, let me know."
Aloysius looked around the cave to see what he could see. "I believe the old dwarf referred to this as 'the Dream Cave' if I recall correctly," he said to no one in particular. "He also said that a shrine of sorts to Selune was on the far side of this pool."
The mage stared thoughtfully at the ground for a moment. "Wonder do I how much the dwarf said is true and how much is miners' fancy?"
Jana helped drag all the stuff back inside. "I'll take a middle watch," she offered. "Doesn't much matter when I get sleep." She looked at the pool. "You think this water's safe?" she asked, to no one in particular. "If not for drinking, at least for washing?" Her armor and clothes were still quite nasty.
"Washing?" Echo asked. "Maybe. Be careful though."
"I'll let you know. Maybe you could hold a torch for me or something right now though," Echo told him as she sat down in front of the chests. "I'd feel more comfortable with some light."
"Do you think you could work from around my shield?" Jana asked. "I mean, if we stuck it in front of you and you put your arms around it, so you'd be partially protected, anyway? Or we could drape one of those sets of magical chain over your chest. Keep your arms free and maybe protect you a little bit..." Jana trailed off, shrugging. "Or I could shut up and just hold a torch on the other side if you want."
"Perhaps Janathell can assist thee by holding the torch," grumbled Aloysius. "Certain am I that such a task well exceeds anything Stargazer has been trained to do."
Aloysius walked over to a wall, sat down, and began writing in a book.
"You seem to have wounded his ego," Daelen said quietly, lighting his sword and stepping to better illuminate the area with the chests.
"That's comforting," Echo snapped. "If we went 15 minutes without someone getting their breeches in a bunch about something, I'd think I was with the wrong group of people. I thought he said he wanted to help. Excuse the hell out of me."
"I don't think we need to open the chests just yet. I'd wager they ARE trapped and the risk probably isn't worth it... but it's your risk to take or not..." Daelen said to Echo with a shrug, "But I'd rather not encourage the risk just yet." he added, moving away to light the walls and look for any more side passages.
"That'd be a safe wager since we've already discussed the wards on them," Echo whispered as she tried to concentrate on the chests. "Damn it, I'm not going to be able to get around it either. So much for my useful contribution."
"I expect you'd like to preserve the chests as _chests_," Arachne whispered to Echo. "Idem est, have them still be useful for carrying the stuff after you've examined it. Let me know if I'm wrong though. I think I could manage to destroy the chests without harming the contents, if you want. I don't know what that would do to any mechanical traps they might be fitted out with," she added absently. "Or magical."
She went over to the pool and stared down into the black water. "I _should_ wash first," she said, then glanced out at another rumble of thunder. "Or shower," she considered. She went over to Jana. "If you're not doing much about opening the chests," she started, then realized who _was_ doing something about opening the chests. "Never mind," she said. "I'm being dense again." She sighed and looked around. "Does anybody else want to use the storm to try to wash off some of the blood and -- and splatter?" she asked. "I don't want to go out alone but trying to get cleaner does seem like a good idea..."
She stood up and sighed, looking at Daelen and Aloysius. "I'm sorry I snapped at you, Daelen. It's just that it seems like the orcs I was with while I was captured got along better than we do most of the time. It's a real shame."
She walked over to Aloysius and bent down to talk to him. "I'm sorry, Aloysius. I didn't mean that the
way you took it. I needed some light was all. I misunderstood your offer to help."She sat down in front of the wizard, "I don't know much about most of you. It might help us get along better if we talked about ourselves. Anyway," her face became sad, "If I die, I don't want everyone standing at my funeral not knowing what to say cause you don't know anything about me."
"I've mentioned before I'm from Candlekeep. I lived there most of my life with my mother. All I know about my father is he's a gold elf and told my mother he was a bladesinger." She lifted her shirt to show her tatooed stomach, "He's supposed to have a tattoo like this. I didn't want to chance losing what it looked like because I don't know how else I'll ever find him. My mom was supposed to get married to a rich guy until she got knocked up. She took care of me by taking in sewing. She never said so, but I ruined her life by coming along. She was real proud when I showed some magical aptitude. She thought I got it from my father so she sent me to study magic. I thought I'd make her proud, but I was the stupidest one in the whole school. I hated it there. That's where I got the name "Echo". I had to repeat everything anyone said to have any chance of remembering, a habit that still sticks. I taught myself to sneak around the towers at night and pick locks to get back at some of the worst of them. Too bad they didn't use more traps or maybe I'd know how to get around those wards on the chests," she added. "I finally couldn't take it anymore so I left. I met the group of you not long after."
She looked around at the others expectantly.
"I loved school," Arachne said, coming back from the cavern entrance. "And I guess I can wait a few minutes for the shower to get stronger outside," she smiled. "Candlekeep... That's on the Coast, isn't it? I'm from Furthinghome. Opposite direction, a long way. Aglarond. Furthinghome's on the coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars. It's a fishing town -- but my parents made a business in pest control: Rats, mice, fleas, that sort of thing. My father and brother -- They're Pomritz and Simmons Convola -- in case you should ever have to write them ill tidings; my mother is Agatha. Don't bother with my sister Cynthia; she'd just say I got what I deserved for going off wandering. Anyway, the family asset is a pack of trained hunting spiders -- giant ones that could take on a pack of rats. I didn't go into the family trade; I went to university instead.
"In Aglarond, a wizard is an awfully shady thing to be. Thay is too close and Thay is ruled by the Red Wizards. They make the whole profession very suspect, as far as Aglarond is concerned. And my form of wizardry -- even though it isn't really wizardry at all -- is rare and even less understood by common folks than the kind the Red Wizards might practice. So, when I showed my talent, I was warned early and often to keep it secret. Tanith (an innkeeper in Furthinghome) was my first teacher, but I've never had a teacher who advised otherwise. So, I always try. But it's awfully hard to use my talent to try to be helpful and at the same time, keep it secret." She sighed.
"It was better when I went away to University. The one at Spandeliyon. Spandeliyon is also in Aglarond, but all that focus on sagacity and arcane knowledge couldn't be sustained without a tolerance for wizardry -- and even for psionics, though much less enthusiastically. At Spandeliyon I found, for the first time, a psionics master -- Faire Mirage. Even she was circumspect about the psionics, but I suppose it might've been a fairly open secret. Not completely open, I think. I studied with her there for years – her loyal, gnomish, disciple who, being as long-lived as I am, had plenty of time for esoteric studies. More than Faire did, perhaps. There came a night when, with only just barely enough warning, Faire decided that it was needful for her to depart from her comfortable teaching position at the University. I lost a lot of my interest in studying at Spandeliyon once Faire left.
Arachne sighed. "I'm still habitually secretive about how I do what I do. And what I do. I'm secretive -- but I'm also proud of it. Not just because it's so peculiar and unique, but also because it's -- well, it's good. I mean, I'm not good: I'm secretive and willing to lie and mislead and sneak -- and I wouldn't be surprised if there simply wasn't anything I wouldn't do if it meant survival. But I can _heal_. I can take the wreckage someone's sword has caused and I can _fix_ it. I can quell fevers...cure. I'm sure that I could've replaced Falgout's arm... eventually. If I'd had enough time."
She shook her head. "What I'm awful at is helping kill things that need killing. It's not that I have any objection to killing them. I mean, I'm lots more bloodthirsty than Ceth was -- or Renn, I expect. I don't feel any scruple about trying to kill that which needs killing. Packs of rats, sadistic orcs, gnolls that take potshots at whatever is flying overhead, evil priests... Gut 'em all, I say. I'm just incompetent at doing any of that myself. So it always impresses me how skilled the rest of you are at killing the various kinds of monsters we meet."
She smiled. "And I'm grateful that you put up with how lousy at it I am."
She shrugged and smiled at Echo. "I guess I've told pieces of this story before, but keeping the psionics out. Any questions?"
Aloysius seemed somewhat taken aback by Echo's story. He thought for a moment, and then asked, "You fancy thyself as 'stupid'? Nay, Echo. E'en the more simple arcane theorems are as fog-ridden enigmas when first encountered. Moonspawn spent many an evening relating to me mine own shortcomings . . . ."
Suddenly quite uncomfortable, Aloysius stopped in mid-sentence. "If I should pass, simply place me in
the ground and try to speak well of me. That's all I require."When it got to be her turn, Jana shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not really from anywhere," she mumbled. "My mom told me I was born in a field somewhere'n Cormyr, or at least she thinks it was in Cormyr. Doesn't matter anyway." She sighed softly and spoke up a bit. "My parents were mercenaries. They met and got married, thinking, or so I heard from some friends of theirs, that they planned on becoming officers in a good company. Probably woulda, but my mom ended up getting pregnant. Mighta been before they got married, but not much before, from what I've heard. But anyway, that pretty much blew their plans all t'hells. So they were in this kinda crappy merc company that was camped out in this field waiting for some dumbass lord to piss or get off the pot and that's where I was born."
Jana brushed back some stray hair. "So my parents pretty much gave up their dreams for me. Every spare coin they had went to me. My dad worked like a dog, taking jobs with scum-suckers so he could support me'n my mom while I was too little to haul around. Then my mom went back to work with him and when the fighting got to close they'd hire some retired merc or a friend of a friend to watch over me. It was pretty bad being away from 'em, but other than that it was okay. I made sure I did my share of the chores so the folks who kept me never got too pissed about it. 'Sides, they were being paid. And mercs stick together. I stayed a lot with my Uncle Robert. Well, he's not really my uncle, but he was a really good friend of my dad and I always called him that. Anyway, he retired and got married and I stayed with his family a few times when my mom and dad had to go on a really long, really bad campaign. Other'n my parents, Uncle Rob was about all the family I've ever had, 'cept he decided to join up for one last fight with some local lord and got killed. I heard his wife remarried. But anyway, I got old enough to travel with the company. Always pretty crappy companies, since the good ones don't allow kids. So my job was to fetch and carry for the officers. It wasn't too bad. The mean ones I just avoided, and there were enough of 'em who at least didn't think you oughta beat kids to keep me out of trouble. 'Sides, my dad, he was a very big man."
That hair just wouldn't stay out of Jana's face. It had long since come out of it's ponytail. "So anyway, my parents paid for me to learn to read. They figured they'd lost their chance to be officers, but if I could read and got trained real good in weapons, maybe I'd have a chance. I mean, not that many of your basic grunt mercs can read and all. So they also paid the companies' armsmasters to spend some time working with me. I stuck to just two weapons 'cuz I'm not really that fast and my aim kinda sucks. Power's about all I got going for me. So anyway, everything was going pretty good. I'd gotta good enough that the armsmaster of the company we were with, even if it was an especially crappy one. I don't think my parents ever had a damned thing go their way since my mom got pregnant. Anyway, the armsmaster said I was ready fighting-wise. But the Captain, he said not yet. I mean, hells, I'll be eighteen in Nightal. I'm more'n old enough. I think he was just pissed because my dad beat the shit outta some of the guys. See, my dad, he was always really protective of me. He wouldn't let any guys near me when I got old enough so that might be a problem. It was kind of a drag, but I understand why he did it. Hells, if I had a daughter, I'd castrate any guy who looked at her funny. But anyway, so he sent my mom and dad off on a recon mission. Small squad. They'd bought horses, 'bout the only thing they'd ever bought for themselves. They usually tried to fight in separate squads, you know, in case something bad happened one of 'em'd be left. But this time they went together 'cuz it was a mounted recon and sure's sunrise, something bad happened."
Jana switched from brushing back her hair to twirling it. "So soon's they'd let me, I went to the place where they'd found 'em. I think they'd died pretty quick, in the fighting, not later. I think. I was pretty awful." Jana rubbed a hand over her eyes before continuing. "My dad's horse was dead, but my mom's horse Daisy Belle was just standing around. I was the only surviving family so I got both of their armor and weapons and my mom's horse. I sold off their armor and my dad's tack and everything of theirs I couldn't use and bought some chain that'd fit me and a sword. My mom was hell with a bow, but I sold hers 'cuz I couldn't use it and couldn't afford to keep it. Wish I'd picked weapons they used, but the onces I knew, well, Dad used a great sword and mom a short sword. So anyway, I bought a bastard sword and a mace too. I had weapons, but they were crappy practice weapons. Bought a shield, too. That was all after I talked to the Captain. I asked to be hired on. He said I wasn't ready to fight, but said I could be his assistant. Didn't take me long to figure out that meant be his personal whore so I took off. I hired a couple of the guys who were quitting the company to help me get my parents' bodies to the nearest town and hired a priest to get 'em buried all proper, then sold off their gear and bought stuff I could use. I figured if I could get a little combat experience and maybe enough money to get a real warhorse, I could get with a decent company and maybe get to be an officer after a few years. I met you guys, or a few of you, thinking maybe finding some kidnapped girl was an easy ticket to some cash. But, looks like the Caislean family luck is runnin' true to form. So really, that's about it. If I die, I don't guess I much care what you do with my body, but I'd rather not come back a second time 'round, If you know what I mean. There's no one to tell about it, anyway. You guys are probably the only people who even know my name." She smiled slightly, a bit forced. "I don't mean to sound like I had a bad life or anything. I mean, I really loved my mom and dad and I never for a minute doubted they loved me more'n anything. So my life's been pretty good. Soon as I can find a halfway decent company that'll hire me, I think I'll do alright. I know I can stand up in a fight, even when I get the hells beat outta me. At least I got toughened up." She shrugged sheepishly and moved back a bit, still twirling and brusing back her hair.
Blacky began sharpening his axe and told his story. "I'm from southeast of here. I used to be a farmer and brewer, damn good one too. Grew my own grain and hops. Made the best ale for miles around. I had a good life, a quiet life, and and the best wife a man could hope for. 'Till they took it all away. Captain of the town guard took a fancy to my wife one day. When she brushed him off, he had her thrown in jail and had his way with her. I appealed to the lord of the town for justice, but the captain was the lord's man and tight in with him. They let my wife go after I paid a fine for her "crime". But all the townsfolk knew the truth of the matter and that didn't sit well with this captain. You see we were a proper lawful town." Blacky paused to spit.
"So him and some of his guard buddies came out one night and taught me a lesson for speaking out against him. Burnt down my farm, beat me and my wife half to death and drug us through the woods with their horses to finish the job. Left us in the middle of nowhere to die. Well they were half right. Somehow I made it, learned to live off the land and restore my strength.
Then I went back. Started ambushing their patrols. Someone must've figured out it was me and they laid a trap. Set my parents up for some crime and they were to be hanged. So I went to stop them.. A lot of men died that day, including my mother and father and that gods damned captain that started it all. But that goodly lawful lord put a price on my head that drew every scum assassin after me. I've been on the run ever since, living off the land and surviving by my axe. It's been a long hard journey and this looked like it might be a good place to settle and start anew. It might just be far enough away. There's just one problem and we haven't managed to kill him yet." Blacky took a long breath and paused in sharpening his axe.
"Well that's my story. I didn't choose this life, no one will mourn my passing, and my head is worth quite a bit of gold in my home town. Now you know."
Daelen stopped walking around and listened to the stories untill Jana finished. "I suppose if I want to get a word in tonight, I'll have to tell you all my own story before Renn." he said with a slight smile to the elf before clearing his throat.
"Let's see... my first mistake was being born." he started bluntly.
"My mum didn't survive and my pa never forgave me. I heard he was a respectable merchant, even owned his own shipping company in Baldur's Gate. Just north of Candlekeep," he added with a nod to Echo. "That was before I was born though. He took to the bottle, lost most of his buisness, more of his hair, all my fault of course. Beat me bloody more times than I care to remember."
He paused to breathe and pulled the helmet off, "I left when I was old enough, worked the docks... heavy lifting you know. Eventualy I got recruited by the Flaming Fist, the arm of the law on the coast. And you know my pa just beamed with pride when I locked him up for beating his second wife half to death. He was released on a technicality. Technicaly he could afford to bribe my superior... apparently some things do escape Helm's gaze. I left after that, well 'deserted' is the word they like to use." he dropped the helm unceremoniously on the ground where it fell with a dull 'clang'.
"I joined up with some other rebels, we did private work like cleaning out kobold holes. Made some good friends, but we made some worse enemies, bandits mostly. One of them had this scruffy little white pup in a cage... I let it go and it just wouldn't stop following me around..." he sniffed once and ran his hand through his hair, looking at his feet for a moment.
"There isn't much else to tell... been wandering ever since our little party disbanded, our leader was killed, gave me his sword before he went though, told me to find something to believe in again... If they do me in, well, just put me in the ground somewhere sunny."
With a heavy sigh, Daelen went to sit at the water's edge, away from the group.
Arachne shook her head. "I have had such a _happy_ life!" she marveled. "I mean, I know where my family is and to the best of my knowledge, they're all healthy and contented." She sighed. "In absolute terms, life's been good to me. And relative to the rest of your stories, hey! I'm insanely rich and should shut up. But the rich tend to be myopic about their wealth, and I have a couple of things I've just got to say:
"I am now completely unsurprised at the ease with which we can rub each other the wrong way. I do think of something a philosophy professor in Spandeliyon once told me. A very gentle man and I hope he's never forced out of his ivory tower. He said, 'Be kind, be kind. Everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden.'" She shrugged. "I'm not qualified to add a thing to the truth of that.
She turned to Jana. "Jana, if there's money in those chests and money is what it would take to get you into a good company as an officer, then you're certainly welcome to whatever of it I'm entitled to. You'd have a use for it. I would, too, but I could always retire to a comfortable living as a healer if ever I feel that evil has been sufficiently thwarted." She shrugged. "Wish I could make that sound less wannabee-heroic," she muttered.
Jana shook her head. "At this point," she replied to Arachne, "I think I can do more for myself demonstrating my ability with my sword than by showing up with a fancy horse. 'Sides, Dai-- my horse has been well-behaved enough. And I probably suck at mounted combat anyway." She managed a smile at Arachne. "So keep your share and give it to your family if you don't need it. But... thanks." Jana resumed playing with her hair. "I'll go outside with you if you want. I'd like to get some of this blood offa me."
"And Blacky..." Arachne turned to the big man with a worried expression. "Please, remember Azrun. He, like you, was wanted -- and the reach of those who wanted him eventually came to this area. I don't know. He seemed to want to go back and face his legal quagmire by the time he got arrested, but he was wanted in _Cormyr_. I've been there -- and hope never to have to go there again. I don't trust that place or those people an inch. It's -- Faire had a term for that kind of society: She called it 'fascist.' She -- I'm digressing. Blacky, I guess for your sake, we should be careful how much we go visiting the local lords."
"Where I come from is beyond Cormyr. I am guessing that I don't have much to fear from the local law this far away. What is more likely to happen is getting my throat slit in my sleep at a local inn by a traveling bounty hunter. But I'll be careful just the same, small one." Blacky replied
Arachne glanced toward the outside. "I still would like to use that storm to clean myself off," she mumbled, getting up and shuffling back toward the entrance. "I owe some sort of prayer to Ceth's goddess..."
Aloysius listened intently to each story, his dark mood lightening a bit with each passing moment.
Perhaps heartened by the openness demonstrated by the others, he spoke once again."Stargazer ne'er knew his parents. My first memories are of Moonspawn and Moonspawn Keep. That is located just to the south of the Storm Horns in Cormyr. Moonspawn was . . . is . . . a mighty mage indeed."
He sighed and collected his thoughts. "From what he has told me, a contingent of guards found me in swaddling clothes at the base of the gatehouse some 20 seasons ago. No one ever did understand how anyone could have gotten so close to the Keep without detection. For reasons that remain unknown to me still, Moonspawn took me in as his personal 'project' rather than simply foisting me off on some woman in the nearby village. At first, I think he just planned on making me his personal valet. All I did was fetch water, scrub floors, and clean anything in sight."
"Apparently, my arcane training came about through a bet Moonspawn made with a colleague. Moonspawn thought so highly of his own talents that he claimed he could teach anyone to be a wizard. His friend bet that he couldn't train me. Being a rather focused sort, Moonspawn threw himself into the bet with his usual fervor. Mind you, my other duties were not curtailed whilst my training commenced."
Aloysius continued with what, for him, was unusual candor. "Night and day, day and night he drilled me, chastised me, and e'en . . .beat me . . . until I could recall whate'er formulae he requested on demand. Nothing e'er seemed to satisfy him. The more I thought I knew, the harsher he became. I could tell you the species of every plant that grows within 5 miles of Moonspawn Keep, but he'd want 10. I could recite Billaro's 14 Disjunctive Predicates when I was 14, yet I'd go to bed hungry for failing to dust my room properly."
"This continued until not long ago. Moonspawn roused me from my bed before dawn one day, tossed a pack at me, and announced that I was no longer welcome and Moonspawn Keep. The robe and hat I used to wear he had made carefully prepared. I was supposed to explain to all I encountered that Moonspawn was my mentor and that all I am I owed to him. I suppose, it most ways, that is the truth. The pack he provided me with also contained my spellbook, some food, and a little bit of money. I had no idea where I would go or what I would do, so I followed a caravan southward to Scornobel. That's where I met . . .well ...Arachne."
The mage giggled a bit. "Arachne, that seems so long go, does it not? In any event, here I am now, with all of you." A distant expression swept over his face as his eyes became glassy for a moment. "No longer am I Moonspawn's pet," he said firmly. "I am Aloysius Stargazer, and I am my own man." He looked up at the ceiling of the cavern. "Moonspawn, you won your bet, damn you. I hope it gave you pleasure."
Rennirolas sat quietly as the others talked about their pasts. He finally said, "I'd not think you would
be interested in the entirety of the one hundred and twenty six years of this Feywarden," Renn smiled
slowly. "But I shall relate that which you may...may.. understand.""The People lead lives that are very unhurried," Renn began. "In one hundred twenty six years, I have not been more than ten days journey from my homeland of Evereska, until this very year. I spent my earliest years in the care of my families' household, learning of our ways, and learning how to create, how to make. The art of the sculptor had I learned in my earliest years, before entering the service of Corellon, during that free time that all of the young People are given.
"My family has always been strong in the defense of Evereska, my father follows Corellon, my mother is an archer in the home guard, and both my brother and sister are wizards in service to the People," Rennirolas explained.
"But it is Corellon's divine grace that permeats my thoughts, my being," Renn said as he smiled warmly. "From earliest days I can remember the spirit of Corellon's teachings. To uphold all that is Elven, to protect the People, and to further the arts, these are all tenants of my faith," he said as he crouched and rested his elbows on his knees.
"It were sadness that brought me from my homeland," Renn said after taking a drink from his waterskin.
"My brother, on a routine border patrol, simply vanished with no evidence of a fight, no sign of foulplay at all," Rennirolas sighed. "I prayed for guidance, and was allowed to search for my brother, given leave by the highpriest himself. It was during this search that the bandits did accost me, and take me prisoner, where I did come into contact with you all," Renn smiled.Once everyone had finished their story, Aloysius walked over to where the chests were. "Echo? If thou
doth still wish for Stargazer to hold the torch whilst thou attempt to disarm the mechanical traps, I shall
be glad to do so. Perhaps once that is done, we can determine the best way to deal with the wards."He looked to the rest of the group. "Why don't the rest of you rest while Echo and I take the first watch? I believe Rennirolas had some type of incantation he was going to employ to assist us in that endeavor. We'll let Rennirolas take the last watch so that all of our spell casters will be fully prepared on the morrow."
"If we didn't already know the chests were trapped I could be of some help, but unfortunately that is as far as my prayers can help," Rennirolas shrugged.
"Be careful," Aloysius said as Jana and Arachne went out to wash off.
The mage turned to Renn. "Rennirolas, does your lord provide thee with access to any spells that counteract extreme cold? I know not of any arcane spells that act as such, but I wondered if there might be such a divine incantation. If you do, I'd be willing to bear it whilst opening the chests, assuming Echo can deactivate the mechanical traps."
He gently rubbed the healing wound on his neck. "It might also be prudent if my injuries were further addressed afore I expose myself to the magic of the wards."
"Indeed He does," Rennirolas nodded. "But that prayer requires a small bit of mercury, which I sadly do not have. Should we leave the chests as they are until reaching the township, perhaps there I can find the materials I do need," Renn replied.
Before settling in for his reverie, Rennirolas chanted at the entrance to the cave. Slowly, a familiar prescence coalesced, and the protective wyvern came into being. "The wyvern watch will attack those who attempt an entry to the cave. It shall last for eight hours, or until the spell catches a foe in it's grip," Renn explained. "Sleep well," Renn said in blessing to his companions. He leaned back against the cavern wall, and entered the elven reverie, his unseeing eyes staring into nothing.
The mage nodded. "Aye, that would seem wise. The chests should be opened when we are best prepared to address the wards and not before."
Echo listened to Aloysius repeatedly mention mechanical traps and nodded. "Renn, if you've got a spell that can find traps, you should probably use it. I didn't see any mechanical traps, but Aloysius could be right in saying there are some. Traps aren't my specialty. But I agree that we should wait to do anything else until we can deal with the wards. I'd like to get someone to dispel them. We could probably leave the chests in here when we go into the lower level again tomorrow."
Aloysius tapped himself on the forehead. "I forgot," he said. "Rennirolas already located mechanical traps
on the chests, Echo. That must have been while . . . ." The mages voice trailed off. "That was before.""Let us rest and renew ourselves further. On the morrow, we can see what else remains on the lower level."
Aloysius sat himself down at the entrance to the Dream Cave to take the first watch.
Previous Move
Next Move
Back to Move Summaries
Back to Night Below Main Page
