Chapter 43
The group prepares for the night’s rest after their campfire dinner and conversation.
“Why, Bilwin, my fine friend, what might that be lying next to your bedroll? The case looks worse for wear, but it’s what’s inside that my curiosity needs to know.”
“This,” the dwarf moves the case so he can open it and tenderly removes his beloved instrument, “is my trusty hurdy-gurdy. It’s gone with me through thick and thin, underground and above, in the air and on the seas.” There’s a glimmer in his eye, “I’ll take first watch for the night.” He begins to play softly.
Gustaf smiles, crawls into his bedroll, puts a black mask over his eyes, puffs of cotton into his ears, and pulls the covers up to his neck.
Dolor is crawling into his own bedroll and looks at Gustaf then Bilwin. “I don’t think those cotton balls are going to stop the noise, but not a bad idea. I’ll take the second watch.”
The rest of the adventurers settle in for the first part of the night. Everyone is surprised to hear a slow-paced and hopeful tune emerge from Bilwin’s instrument. The wistful melody permeates the area around them, causing each of them to smile for some triggered memory or thought. Off in the distance, unknown to the group, a large predator wakes from its day of rest, ready to begin the night’s hunt—until it hears the soothing sounds of the dwarf’s melody, and decides that its prey can wait a little longer.
Long rest….
With the last watch, Grindlefoot wakes the others with the smell of breakfast cooking over the rekindled campfire. Gustaf is the last to wake, but the first to speak. “Hmmm, that smells delicious!”
“I didn’t have to venture far to find some eggs, mushrooms, and berries to make omelettes. I did hear some rustling off in the bushes that sounded like something awfully large, but it also sounded like it yawned.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Oh well, dig in.”
After a short breakfast, they break camp and continue towards the mountain temple. Dolor leads the way, with Bilwin and Gustaf trailing behind him discussing the different geology and rock formations along their path. Mond and Grindlefoot walk in silence behind the dwarf and archaeologist, while Gven keeps watch to the rear.
Several hours pass without any concerns as the terrain continues to change. There are fewer trees, shrubs, and vegetation, and the land becomes more rocky and barren. The path leads them into narrow canyons that gradully become deeper, the tops reaching twenty feet above the ground.
Dolor exits one of the canyons, entering into a small clearing, when an arrow plunks into the ground at his feet. “Far enough, what brings you here?”
Standing next to the arrow, Dolor looks around and sees no one on the ledges above the clearing. “My own business. Let us pass and you’ll have no trouble.”
From a canyon on the other side of the clearing, a tall, muscular human man walks slowly into the open space. He’s wearing plate armor and a greatsword in a scabbard at his side. A few smaller soldiers follow behind him, eyeing Dolor and looking confident in their odds of three to one.
“Who do you serve?”
Before answering, the tiefling sighs and rests his hand on Gleaming Blade’s pommel. “No one.”
The brawny warrior across the way draws his sword and begins walking towards Dolor. “We serve The One!”
During their trek through the canyons, Gven has dropped back from the group to keep a lookout behind them, making sure no one sneaks up and catches them unaware. While making her way quietly, she hears the exchange between Dolor and the other man up ahead, still unable to see them because of the winding chasm. She slows to a stop and looks upward, seeing that the top of the canyon is a short, simple climb.
Gven easily scrambles up the canyon wall to the right side without disturbing any rocks or alerting the enemies to her position. Reaching the top, she slowly looks over the edge and quietly pulls herself up, keeping herself hidden. Scanning the area, she’s able to barely make out two shapes along the top of the clearing, one on each side. They’ve camouflaged themselves with the terrain and are almost impossible to see.
Just then, one of them stands up from their hiding spot, aims their bow down into the clearing, and quickly fires off two arrows at Dolor. Only one of them hits the rogue, and he responds by invoking uncanny dodge to reduce the damage. Before Gven can determine their exact location, the figure drops back down into the rocks, becoming invisible.
Just as quickly, the figure on the other side of the chasm pops up from their cover and fires two arrows at Mond. One of them sticks into the ground and the other clips the half-elf’s shoulder, turning him with its force. The archer quickly drops down into the seemingly barren area and becomes unseen to Gven’s eyes.
The large, muscular warrior—likely a knight in service to The One—notices Mond’s robes and correctly identifies him as a magic user. He moves to attack the sorcerer with his greatsword and accidentally attacks Bilwin, not seeing that the short dwarf stood between them. With a look of shock, Bilwin fends off the knight’s sword with his magic stein. “How dare you attack beer, ya brute!”
Mond reacts to the knight’s attack by casting Shield and moving five feet backwards, out of the greatsword’s reach.
Dolor swings Gleaming Blade at the knight’s arm, but it slides off the plate armor as though it were a toy. He follows up with a slice of his off-hand shortsword on the other arm, but it, too, is brushed away with ease by the heavy armor.
Scooping up a handful of sand from the ground, Grindlefoot casts Fog Cloud above their heads, to obscure the archers’ view. Seeing that he might need to actually defend himself, the druid halfling casts Shillelagh on his stick.
Suddenly, Mond’s signature pink Lightning Bolt erupts from his hands, streaking towards the knight and one of his soldiers, too quick for the naked eye to follow. The soldier bursts into pink flames and within seconds turns into a pile of ash on the ground. The knight screams out in pain from the lightning bolt, but remains standing and glaring at the sorcerer with hatred.
Furious about having his precious stein attacked, Bilwin slides his hurdy-gurdy case off of his back and swings it with all his might at the gigantic knight in front of him. He connects with the man’s midsection, who gives an audible “oof” and pulls his gaze from the sorcerer to the dwarf. Unexpectedly, at least to the knight and his companion, the Spiritual Weapon appears next to Bilwin. The spectral floating hurdy-gurdy attacks the knight, but misses.
The other soldier moves closer to the knight and yells, “Lord Elzibar!” Then attacks Dolor with their shortsword, missing widely in their zealous outrage.
As the battle begins to take shape in front of him, Gustaf remains inside the walled canyon trail, where he can be hidden from sight—and the attacks of zealots.
Finding herself suddenly surrounded by an impenetrable fog, Gven mutters under her breath, “Fucking halfling…brilliant!” She runs into the fog towards the last spot she saw the archer duck down for cover, pulling Tempest Edge from its scabbard, the blade’s blue glow becomes a beacon in the mist. Loud enough for her enemy to hear, “Come to me, for I am The One.”
“Blasphemy!” echoes from an indeterminable direction in the fog, followed closely by an arrow that flies by Gven’s head. Mere moments later, a second arrow slices through her arm, drawing blood and a grimace of pain.
On the opposite side of the chasm, another archer fires two arrows at Mond, both missing the sorcerer and plunking into the ground at his feet.
In the clearing, the knight glares at Bilwin, who still stands between him and his target, Mond. His fury is evident in the clumsy swing of his weapon as it misses the short dwarf by a wide margin. “I’m down here, you big oaf!” With a look of fury, his backswing slices through part of Bilwin’s leather armor, leaving a gash in the dwarf’s forearm. “Better aim, but you’re still mean and I don’t like you very much!”
Standing close to Grindlefoot, Dolor thrusts Gleaming Blade into a soldier’s side, clear to the magical blade’s hilt. As the corpse slowly falls to the ground and Gleaming Blade slides free, the tielfling gracefully twists to his other side and in the same motion slices the knight with his off-hand shortsword, but the plate armor deflects the blade.
Grindlefoot swings his shillelagh stick at the knight and misses. Seeing an opportunity, the halfling reverses the motion and slams his elbow into the knight’s armored shin, causing the big man to grunt in some small amount of pain—or perhaps acknowledgement. Grindlefoot feels his arm go slightly numb. “Ouch, that’s plate armor! What am I doing?”
Returning the knight’s hate-filled glare, Mond calmly raises his hands and, again, casts Lightning Bolt. The pink lightning shoots out across the ten feet separating them and envelopes the warrior encased in metal armor, causing him to arch backwards and scream out in pain. Seeing an opportunity to put more distance between himself and the angry knight, Mond runs ahead into the fog, towards where the knight and soldiers entered the clearing. As the sorcer runs away, the large warrior falls to the ground and lies unmoving.
Bilwin makes a few motions with his hands and bows his head for a brief moment. “Thank you, Hanseath.” Suddenly, everyone in the party feels slightly more energized, as though they’ve been Blessed by Bilwin’s prayer.
Realizing that Tempest Edge’s glowing blade highlights her in the fog, Gven slides it into its sheath and pulls a hand axe from her belt. She walks in the direction from where the arrow came, hoping to find the stealthy archer amongst the rocks. Calling out into the fog, “A little help with this fog, druid!” She hears Grindlefoot’s voice from below, “More or less?” “Less!”
Running into the fog, Mond collides with two cowled figures. One reacts instantly to his appearance, uttering a word under their breath and pointing at the sorcerer, who feels a spell slide by without impacting him. The second figure speaks the same command word as the first, but Mond is able to withstand their spell as well. Loudly, so the others can here, “There are two more robed ones in here!”
Still under cover of the fog, the two archers release another volley of two arrows each. The first two miss Dolor, digging into the dirt at his feet. The other two are aimed at Bilwin, one of which grazes his thigh, enough to hurt without drawing blood. The dwarf looks up, noting approximately where they originated.
Hearing Gven’s voice from above, Dolor deftly climbs the twenty foot canyon wall to join her. Reaching the top, he can’t see anything beyond a few feet into the fog.
Grindlefoot responds to Gven’s request and releases his concentration from the fog cloud, allowing the mist to disperse naturally. Within moments, he’s able to see Mond and the two robed figures. Still holding his fighting stick imbued with the shillelagh cantrip, the halfling runs forward to join the sorcerer. He swings it at the arm of one of the clerics, who grimaces in pain, then follows it with a hand-to-hand attack against the same cleric, causing him to curse and try to pull away.
Now that the fog has dissipated, Mond is able to clearly see his two new opponents, dressed in cowled robes that hang to their feet with hoods covering their faces. He casts Burning Hands at the two, encasing them in a thin sheet of flames. They both bend over in excruciating pain, and when the flames stop the cuffs of their robes continue to glow a deep yellow from the fire.
Bilwin thinks that he can tell where the arrows came from; he climbs the left side canyon wall to look for the archer who attacked him. “Where the heck are ya?”
While searching for the rogue archer, Gven notices that Dolor has joined her on top of the canyon walls. With her attention on the tiefling, an arrow sails past her torso, immediately followed by another that slices through her leathor armored leg.
Down below in the clearing, one of the robed clerics attempts to grappel Mond, but he’s able to twist away and remain free. Agitated by their failure, a spectral jagged blade appears floating next to the cleric and slashes at Mond. Again, the sorcerer is agile enough to resist the ethereal knife.
After being brutally attacked by the halfling, the second cleric touches Grindlefoot lightly on the arm and whispers a word. The halfling druid feels his lifeforce draining away, leaving him lethargic and hazy. Another spectral blade appears and slashes at Grindlefoot, cutting through his leathor armor, leaving a gashing wound in his side that begins to bleed down his leg. In response, the small-statured druid casts Invisibility and slowly retreats from battle.
From above the other side of the clearing, the hidden archer fires two arrows at Bilwin. The first one pierces the fleshy part of his shoulder. The dwarf grunts in pain, reaching for the wound with his other hand and shifting his body’s position, causing the other arrow to narrowly miss.
From his vantage point on top of the canyon wall, Dolor sees that Mond is battling two clerics. He notches an arrow in his shortbow and fires at one of them. The arrow’s tip enters at the base of the hood, piercing the cleric’s throat and killing them instantly. Realizing that he’s a visible target for the enemy archer harassing Gven, the tiefling rogue disguises himself in the surrounding rocks, effectively becoming invisible.
Watching one of the cowled clerics fall to the ground from Dolor’s arrow, Mond points his hand at the last one standing and casts Chaos Bolt. A warbling mass of chaotic energy blasts from his hand and into the enemy, who convulses in agony and barely remains on their feet.
Unable to find the archer above the clearing, Bilwin calls on Hanseath to cast Guiding Bolt at the remaining cleric below. A bolt of light shoots from his hand and into the robed enemy below, who is still convulsing from Mond’s bolt of chaos and falls limply to the ground, dead.
Breathing heavily and tired from the spellcasting and fight, Mond looks up at Bilwin with a nod of gratitude. “Smells like barbeque.”