Its finally time to leave this rotten city, speaking of rotten, I started preparing food stuffs so they wouldn’t spoil during the long sea journey ahead of us. Once everyone was packed, we disguised ourselves as a shambling group of invalids. We met no resistance during our trip to the warehouse where we were to meet our ship’s crew. I set about securing the perimeter and our path to the ship while Suri ensured the surly seamen would surely be perfect gentlemen in the presence of a certain clergy-woman.
The few guards that had been lazily patrolling this rather deserted part of the harbor were relieved of duty by yours truly. I carefully propped them up against the wall, gravity, a piece of cord, and their stools would hold them and their torches steady until their muscles stiffened.
A twig snapped behind me, I quietly signalled my dogs to cut off the noise-maker’s escape. Once I got nearer I recognized Sandwiches friend from our trip through time. She was carrying the thief we met when we first arrived in this godforsaken place. He was cut, covered in arrows, and dead. Norin had also taken an arrow in her shoulder. I helped her haul the body to the warehouse, where the cleric healed her shoulder. She told us of awful things happening to the North. Suri, Eredil and I decided to investigate.
The stench of rot became ever more present the farther North we rode. Torches, marching boots, and rattling chains filled the streets leading to the north harbor. We finally found all the missing townspeople, though by their smell and dead expressions, they haven’t been alive for a long time. Powerful magic would have sounded an alarm if we’d gotten any closer. We returned to the warehouse to alert them of the imminent threat of an invasion force now boarding for Tantras.
We all agreed that the best thing we could do was to try to get to Tantras first, we might be able to warn and prepare them. We headed for the ship. I rode ahead, to clear any guards that may be farther down the docks. Two of them stood in front of our boat (the state of decay the “ship” was in could hardly be called seaworthy) joking about the sorry sight they were sent to guard. “I’d sooner be troll-stone cold than aboard that pile of wormwood!” one said. “As you wish…” I thought as my arrows flew through the air, expertly finding their marks.
Those guards were bait, unfortunate for them. From a dark alley, an old wizard, wearing the mark of Bane, and an armoured sergeant walked into the torchlight.
No comments:
Post a Comment