I tuck away the cigarette Corley gave me. I am not comfortable with the idea of smoking something made by the same dwarf who had devised a fake death potion. I don't like being called king either, but show no sign of it. Minutes later, Corley and Urvad seem to become more sluggish.
"I suppose now we wait for thirty hours then. No problem. I have food and drink for all of us here. The inspector will be busy going through the cell blocks and sweatshops, which will take days anyway. If he comes here to ask, he'll hear something about a search for apparently stolen property on the premises, no one allowed in or out, the works."
"Now. Let's discuss the future."
Best to do this while Corley is still conscious. Over the next two hours, while the lad is still awake, we discuss the terms of this alliance. I hear the fractaldwarf's plans, as well as Emdief's ideas for the defenses. No doubt about it, the lad is a genius.
When the two dwarves, noble's son and doublecrosser, both lose their senses and begin to fall, I'm there to keep Corley from banging his head. Urvad is not so lucky. His helmet will protect that empty melon. I catch Emdief taking a sample of the drug, but give no indication of it.
A sign of trouble. Seems like the fractaldwarf stole something of Emdief's. The lad starts making threats. I move to defuse the situation before it gets ugly.
The engineer is agitated. "Maskdwarf could be watching us right now. And we have no way of knowing," he says, perhaps a bit louder than he intended.
"He's not watching us." The two dwarves raise inquisitive eyebrows. "Even he can't hide from my gaze."
Through a careful combination of orders and common sense, I manage to get Emdief to stand down long enough for the fractaldwarf to explain himself. The two speak at length until the matter of this thaumometer, as the lad calls it, is settled. Then I turn to Emdief again.
"Feel free to start testing. Just no injuring or drawing blood. From either of them."
The lad goes about his business meticulously, testing the two dwarves for response to any and all kinds of stimuli, taking notes along the way. For all intents and purposes, they seem to be dead. Neither dwarf responds to anything. Not even the nutstomp, though the lad was gentle enough that it wouldn't hurt by the time they recovered from the potion's effects.
After testing is done, I quickly clean my desk. From a drawer, I pull out three mugs and a bottle of wine, still sealed. I uncork it with a buckle on my armor, and fill the three cups, taking a swig from my own to show that it's safe. From another drawer, a platter of plump helmets.
"Take your seats, have a meal. There is still much to discuss."
The drug works as advertised. After lengthy discussions on the logistics and future of Steelhold, wild speculation as to the maskdwarf's intentions, six redos of Emdief's stimuli tests, and unterminable rounds of charades (at the fractaldwarf's insistence), Corley and Urvad finally wake up. They are groggy and exhausted. Emdief and I get them to their feet, direct them to the food and booze on the desk. Neither of them bothers to consider that it might be poisoned before digging in with gusto. Once they are sated, I forcibly boot Urvad from my office, and gather the three dwarves around.
"You held up your end of the bargain. Now I'll hold mine. But before the three of you leave, remember that I promised to reveal secrets. I intend to keep that promise as well."
From a cabinet, I retrieve several papers. Most are recent, not yet aged or mildewed. All but one. I settle them down on the desk and direct their eyes to the first paper, which I unfold and turn so they can read it. On it is a timeline, drawn by me during the night, beginning with a marker for the year 28 and going all the way up to the present day.
"First, the order of events." I point to each date as I mention it. "Year 28, still in the Age of Myth. Asmel Pulleyclenches, the first queen of The Gloves of Admiring, our civilization, is killed in deadly combat against a one-eyed horror mate Alath Citymoral the Tenebrous Phantom of Twilight in the mountainhomes, Sprinkledlabor, in the dead of winter. Months earlier, a similar creature had slain Shem Bravepainted, her son, whom she was grooming to become king."
"Year 29, early in the spring. Finding that most of her siblings were either dead or unwilling, Zasit Lashedtrusses, the queen's fifth daughter, takes it upon herself to rule from her mother's throne. She quickly becomes a favorite of the people."
"Year 36, very first day of spring. The colony of Chainbell is founded. The Gloves of Admiring grows in power, influence, and population."
"Year 76, midsummer. Likot Lockedgears profanes The Tenebrous Abbey, a sacred temple in Chainbell where he served as high priest. For his sacrilege, the gods curse him to prowl the night in search of blood."
"Year 92, early summer. Obok Wealthsbanners is born. Her father, Tun Cryptscribed, mayor of Chainbell, fears he will lose the next election, leaving him with no way to support his family. He goes to the Tenebrous Abbey to pray. Finding his prayers unanswered, he defiles a sacred idol and is cursed with the bloodthirst for his sins."
"Year 98, middle of autumn. I am born in Paddleunion."
"Year 109, early winter. Two strange dwarves arrive in the human town of Orderumbral in the dead of night. They run into the sewer system, saying something about needing to be underground. Thus began what the humans now refer to as the Tyranny of Orderumbral, when the vampires Likot Lockedgears and Tun Cryptscribed ruled the settlement from the shadows, taking thousands of lives over a number of years to sate their bloodlust."
"Year 110. I marry Onul, and begin hunting in the Persuasive Blizzards to support us."
"Year 112. Caught in a blizzard while out hunting, I take refuge in what appears to be an abandoned cave. Inside, I find Olon Daggerfinger, the queen's elder brother and spymaster. He presses me into service and begins teaching me the arts of espionage and military strategy that very night." They look mildly suprised at that. Wonder how they'll react when the big stuff rolls around.
"Year 118. Dobar Theaterurges, the one surviving son queen Zasit, is slain by a cyclops. Zasit is left with no surviving children, and thus no heir."
"Year 133. After twenty years of service, I am finally permitted to tell my wife what I'm really doing. I am also given my own network of spies and become spymaster for the Queen's Third Army."
"Year 150. The vampire Tun Cryptscribed is slain Oku Constructcudgel, a human woman. She frees a dwarf woman whom the vampire had taken captive - Obok Wealthsbanners, the vampire's own daughter."
"Year 152. Olon Daggerfinger dies of old age. I inherit the position of royal spymaster."
"Year 167. Queen Zasit Lashedtrusses dies of old age. The royal line is extinguished. From the chaos emerges a charismatic dwarf woman - Obok Wealthsbanners of Chainbell. She gains the support of the people in a handful of months, and is crowned queen later that same year. My spies investigate her, and find that she was missing from Chainbel for years."
"Year 170. Obok begins purging her precedessor's advisors one by one. As you might expect, she starts with the royal spymaster - me. I am branded as a deserter and common criminal, and forced to flee in the night with my wife before they can arrest us. We return to the Persuasive Blizzards, change our names. I stay in touch with my agents, and find out that the queen has been making arrests left and right, rooting out the old regime. She doesn't seem to pay much mind to the ones that escaped. Investigation into her life continues, but at a crawl."
"Year 183. My daughter is born. Many of my agents have gone off the grid, but the realm is more calm now. If you discout the rising corruption throughout the kingdom. Onul and I are too far from the major cities to really be bothered with it."
"Year 185. Midsummer." My face and tone turn to frozen steel. "I return home from hunting to find my door smashed in, and a trail of gigantic footprints leading into the nearby woods. I follow them, and find my daughter's broken body in the hands of a cyclops. The cyclops escapes before I can regain my composure."
A short pause as I shake the memory from my head. Then I resume.
"Year 194. Queen Obok gives birth to Kol Ivyattic. One year later, my own son Udil is born. My spy network has been slowly recovering, but is still much smaller than when I was royal spymaster."
"Year 206. The queen gives birth to Rith Ochreblotted, her first daughter. News reach my ears of numerous deaths in Chainbell Penitentiary. An entire wing of the prison collapses into a sinkhole. A wing made up almost entirely of political prisoners of Zasit's reign."
"Year 214. Kol Ivyattic, the queen's firstborn, dies in a cyclops attack. Year 215. Kivish Brasswords, our current queen, is born. By the time she can walk, her mother has begun to groom her as heiress to the throne. My spies finally discover where Obok was during her absence from Chainbell. She was in Orderumbral."
"Year 225. Rith Ochreblotted, eldest of the queen's children, is killed by a cyclops while on a hunting trip. This leaves Kivish as the oldest surviving child."
"Year 233. A patrol from the mountainhomes arrives at my home to find it empty. I had already fled with Onul and our baby Stinthad, deep into the frozen wastes. Months later, when I emerge and establish contact with my spies again, I find that my son Udil has been killed in Chainbell. By a cyclops."
"Year 235. My family is still being hunted, and we are running out of money, food and safehouses. I leave my wife with the boy at a relative's place, recruit some thugs and take up organized crime. If they want me to be a terrorist, then I'll be a terrorist. My investigations continue, but the network has shrunk again."
"Year 240. Kivish, heiress to the crown, disappears. The queen makes a grand show of appearing distraught, but my sources tell me she doesn't even send out a search party."
"Year 243. Queen Obok dies of old age. Within weeks, Kivish has returned to claim the throne for herself. During winter of that same year, my gang gets ambushed by guardsmen in Sprinkledlabor during a robbery gone wrong. My entire crew is killed. I alone am taken prisoner. Since I had changed my name and aged considerably, no dwarf could recognize me as Queen Zasit's royal spymaster. I am sent to a common prison in the mountainhomes. Upon hearing the news, my wife gets herself arrested as well. I pull some strings, and we end up on the same cell block. My agents continue their work, but no reliable way of getting their intel back to me."
I fold the timeline away. "We all know the rest. Steelhold is founded. We get transferred. And so on. I was almost willing to give up on my old life and start again as a heartless, iron-fisted criminal warlord. Until I saw that raccoon-thing kill a child in front of me."
"Until last year, I'd had very little word from my agents. But it turns out that one of the merchants in the caravan from the mountainhomes was one of my spies. He gave me the results of his search, and I gave him new assignments to hand out. It's thanks to their work that I have all of this information now."
I unfold another piece of paper, lay it down on the desk. A list of names, accompanied by date of birth and, if applicable, date of death. A small genealogy of the royal lines of The Gloves of Admiring, along with several others. Including a particular family of cyclopes.
"The pieces finally clicked into place when I put them together like this. Central to this mess are The Tenebrous Abbey in Chainbell, the vampires Tun and Likot, the cyclops tribe and Orderumbral." Laid out on paper like this, it was impossible not to see. The current royal line descended from the vampire Tun. Tun, who had been dead for over a century.
"My agents couldn't investigate the Abbey. It is patrolled around the clock by a dedicated company of guardsdwarves. We also lost all trail of the vampire Likot after his partner Tun was killed. All we know is that he's not in Orderumbral anymore. But we did manage to investigate the cyclops tribe."
"It turns out that the monsters are linked to Linkot. We don't know how. We do know that they are being controlled, and had contact with the vampire mere months before he moved to Orderumbral. Somehow, they are either under Likot's control, or at the beck and call of the royal family. Some of the family, anyway."
"And now for the big one." I took the last paper I had prepared. It was a scroll, too large for a dwarf to handle comfortably. Its rim was frayed and edged in rot, but it still didn't look its full age. I unroll it to the best of my ability, keeping the inside turned to me.
"When the human Oku killed Tun, she took the opportunity to raid his treasure vault. It was filled with gold, jewels, statues and forbidden tomes. And at the back of the vault, in a small alcove concealed by a fake wall section, she found this."I turn the scroll toward them. They gape.
Drawn on the scroll was a perfect likeness of the maskdwarf's mask.
OOC: Final update and save coming today!
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Topic: The Insidious Sons of Steelhold -- Revival Succession Fortress (Read 282238 times)