Part XX:Close to the Waterfall
5th of Granite, 371Night had fallen when the four bold adventurers returned to the surface from the depths of the dwarven fortress.
After the encounter with the three-eyed toad, they had been more cautious as they went through each and every hallway and room they found. Fortunately there were no more foul beasts lurking in the shadows.
And they found treasure, too.
Rin's backpack was crammed full with gems of many kinds -- rose cut pipe opals, point cut morions, baguette cut jades -- and precious crafts. His low steel boots were now replaced with ones of much higher quality and new earrings dangled from his ears.
“It was a good decision to return here,” he said to the others with a content voice, “Such excitement! Such treasures!”
Though Fencereined was not far, the companions decided to make camp next to a stunted acacia tree -- after dealing with two flocks of those demonic keas, which infested these lands.
They were tired after the day, but before rest it was time for story and song.
And so stories were told and songs sung.
6th of Granite, 371The sky was clear and the weather fair when they woke up and made their way back to Fencereined.
It would still be early morning when they arrived at the fortress.
And indeed, not more than an hour later they found themselves at the tent village outside the walls of Fencereined.
“Let's find that elf,” Suwu said to the others, “Ecu, I think was her name.”
They began to walk between the tents, peeking in some if they were open. The camp was still quiet, but folks were beginning to wake up and go about their morning routines.
As Suwu was about to head further in, she heard sounds of scuffling and Ova's yell from behind.
She turned around and saw bash a dwarf in the shoulder with his war hammer.
What was happening?
Yelling and shouting. Panicked screaming. Sounds of weapons being unsheathed. Tent curtains being pulled open.
Chaos erupted in the tent camp.
But Suwu did not hesitate in the moment. She did not give in to Chaos. She did not let the Prince take hold.
She reacted immediately, stretched her hands out in an effort to show her peaceful intentions.
“Stop! You all! Stop this pointless fighting!”, she yelled, “Put your weapons away! There must be a misunderstanding!”
It worked.
When things finally calmed down and the morning was back to a peaceful one (well, at least for everyone except the couple of shocked scholars who now had broken bones), Suwu and the others approached a rather large group of scholarly types who were in the middle of a discussion during their breakfast.
“Excuse me,” Suwu asked a long-nosed dwarf who had introduced herself as Rakust, “It was not our intention to cause any disruption or problems here... What is going on, if I may ask so?”
“Ah, there was some alarm and confusion, yes,” the dwarf answered, “It was due to the war going on with the Relieved Realms: rumors have circulated that they are about to launch a series of raids on Fencereined. Perhaps they have heard about the... How to put it? Ah, the uncertainty and disarray this scholarly abode is going through -- seize the opportunity, and all that stuff. So, yes, some folk mistakenly thought of you as mercenaries from the Relieved Realms. Unfortunate misunderstanding.”
Ecu, the scholar who had told about Trialdungeons, was among the large group in the middle of the tent village.
Suwu and the others walked to her and greeted her.
“We were to Trialdungeons,” the capybara woman said, “If there was anything foul going on, that is not the case any longer. We took care of it... The goblins who had made the fort their base -- they lie still now, their flesh feeding the worms.”
“Hmh?”, the elven scholar said as she sifted through a pile of parchments, “Why, that is good news. Yes, certainly. Good news. Inevitable, but good.”
She seemed not as enthusiastic about it as Suwu had hoped.
“And as we returned,” Suwu continued, “We entered halls of an ancient dwarf hold -- not far west from here...”
“The abandoned halls?”, the elf looked up from the papers, “Drivefloor is its name. You should not enter that place: Ustxu Bloatswam the Murky makes its lair there.”
“Not anymore,” Suwu replied, “The monstrous toad will not threaten anyone no more. It, too, is dead.”
“Oh?”, Ecu raised her brow, looking genuinely surprised, “My, my, you
are accomplished warriors then... Presuming you speak the truth, of course.”
The elf then returned to her papers, not paying much heed to the capybara woman and her odd group of companions.
Suwu looked at the goblin who had a slightly upturned nose and rather short plum hair. He was dressed in simple fur and leather garb -- typical goblin attire. His right hand was missing its second finger. It was something Suwu could relate to.
After they had discussed with Ecu the scholar and several others at the tents, telling stories of Edu, frustratingly not learning much of what they desired to, the goblin had snuck to her.
“Please, help me. Save me, oh mighty warriors!”, the goblin had pleaded her with distress in his voice.
But when asked for more details, the goblin did not share much. A prisoner he was, that was for sure -- there were plenty of prisoners the companions had seen milling between the tents. It was something thay had not yet dared ask from the current denizens of Fencereined.
Yet, maybe they should have.
When she had asked for the name of the goblin, he had hesitated and said that it mattered not. He only spoke of his daughter, Gozru Flymined, who lived in Stankhorror, a dark pits far to the east.
Or at least that was where she lived when the short-nosed goblin was imprisoned. He did not know how long he had been here, but he said he had long since lost count of the months that turned to years.
She felt sorry for the goblin, and seeing the sadness in Ova's eyes -- he clearly felt empathy for the greenskin -- a decision was made.
They would help the goblin.
Now they were at the outskirts of the tent camp, preparing to leave once again.
Suwu turned to Ova who had a curious smile on his face.
“What's on your mind Ova?”, Suwu asked the mandrill man, “Why such a smile? What happened when you rushed off?”
As they had been making their way farther from the center of the camp, Ova had suddenly rushed off, and returned only mere moments ago.
“A gorlak,” Ova said proudly, “He had some bad intentions. So I chased him. Took care of him. Now you can say 'Ova Clearingcrest, slayer of gorlaks'. Ah, I feel great!”
Suwu was taken aback. What was going on? That certainly was not something she would have expected from Ova. It was not at all like him -- he practically always tried to avoid any excitement or danger if he could!
“We must leave,” Suwu said with alarm, looking around as she drew her sword, “Now!”
Disappointed and frustrated, now burdened with a rescued prisoner they had to protect, the companions headed north into the Dipped Hills.
They were afraid that Ova's rash actions had ruined their chances of finding answers in Fencereined. Even before that, the scholars had eyed them suspiciously and the tension when they returned from Trialdungeons had caused even more caution from the residents.
It was certain that there was no going back there. At least not with Ova, and possibly not openly in broad daylight.
They had no particular destination -- other than Stankhorror -- but they did remember the gorgeous waterfall nearby.
There they would camp for a while, make plans and decide their next move.
“What next?”, Suwu asked as she looked at the stream cascading down into the pool far below.
The sun was already high in the clear western sky. The day was nearing its end and their quest seemed to have ground to a halt.
“What do we do? Where do we head next?”, she continued, frustration in her voice, “Damn it, Ova! Why? Why, for the love of Ôsed, did you do that? There is now no going to Fencereined because of you!”
Ova just stood there. He wasn't ashamed of his actions. There was fear still within him -- there always was after conflict. But there was also satisfaction,
grim satisfaction. And triumph.
“Suwu, do not judge me,” he finally replied, feeling confident, “Mark my words. That gorlak had foul intentions. Things were -- are -- not right in Fencereined. Did you not feel it? No? No, what I did was the right thing to do. Do not judge me.”
Besides, the Rabbit had spoken to him.
'Ova... Ova...', a whisper, no, thousands of whispers, had entered his mind.
'The gorlak... He must be stopped...', the dissonant voices had continued. And Ova was one to heed the words of the goddess when he heard them -- though, he did not expect the Rabbit to sound so... Creepy.
“Look,” Rin spoke up, “What's done is done. It's not like we were anyway getting any answers there. Those scholars were not interested in us. They just wanted to send us off on 'missions' to take care of 'problems'. So that they could concentrate on those stupid books of theirs. On that nonsensical rivalry they have going on with the scholars from Controlledseal.”
Rin kicked a rock down the cliff. The splash was muffled by the sound of the waterfall.
“This quest is dragging,” he continued when the others said nothing, “I suppose it won't end any time soon. Maybe we can't go to Fencereined to read old dusty tomes or get help from the scholars -- though I highly doubt they'd be of any help even on friendly terms.”
“Yes,” Suwu said, still agitated, “That much is obvious. But that does not answer the question: what next? Other than helping our new friend get safely to Stankhorror. How do we find out how to--”
She stopped, looked at the freed prisoner. Was she revealing too much?
”How to complete our quest?”, she finished the sentence.
“If this indeed will take a long time,” Cañar entered the discussion, “We need a place where we can feel safe. A base from where to head off to acquire knowledge, where to return and plan. Where we are with trusted ones... I would otherwise say we return to Waterlures, but...”
The elephant man nudged his head at his backpack. The other companions understood what he referred to: the slabs.
“No,” he then continued, “I say we set up camp here. At this place. Close to the waterfall. This is far enough from civilized lands not to be of much interest. Easily defendable. And the waterfall -- it is beautiful.”
“It truly is,” Suwu said, a smile returning to her face, “This will be a great site for a camp.”
So they spent the rest of the day felling some trees and begun building a stronghold for themselves.
Night fell quite soon, but they continued work into the early hours of the night until tiredness took over. They managed to complete a bridge over the chasm and erect one of the walls of what would become the main structure.
Making a fire close to the wall, they sat down and ate.
“What about that curious beast Ecu told us about?”, Ova said as he thought about the herd of gnus they had seen while chopping trees, “A minotaur. Living in a
labyrinth.”
“Yes, it was interesting... Well, at least in some manner,” Rin replied, “But Riddlethunder is far,
too far from here. If we went there, why, we might just as well return to Waterlures -- it's not that far from there according to Ecu's markings!”
Rin pointed the spot on the map, and indeed, it was about as far from their homes as Finderblunts was. Certainly not a distance they'd like to travel just for the sake of beast hunting and glory.
“Maybe when we return, Ova,” Cañar spoke, scratching the old scars on his trunk, “But if we are to hunt more beasts, to make these lands more safe for all... We could stay in line with what we have done and have experience with: slay giants. And she did mention an ettin, a two-headed kin of giants living in these very hills.”
“And the ettin's lair should be somewhere just to the north of here,” the elephant man continued, “If we are to set camp here -- as we are -- we must make certain there are no menaces around. I think it is the first thing we should do come morning.”
“Wise words, Cañar,” Suwu nodded, chewing on the last of the hyena meat, “We best keep guard for this night. This place may very well be in its path when it goes hunting. Let us keep vigil, sleep with one eye open.”
“Aye,” the elephant man smiled, “When the first rays of the sun shine, we will hunt ettin!”
“A song, maybe?”, Suwu said as she stood up.
And once again the companions -- now numbering five -- sang.
They sang 'Amethysts' late into the night.
But their new companion was not impressed.
He hated the performance.
=====
Bit of a frustrating day with DF this time.
Sorry for the story dragging, but such is the nature of DF sometimes.
Fencereined seems to be quite messed up currently and I had to redo stuff a couple times (there was a plague thrall kid in one tent who attacked the living when he came to view and if confronted, everyone shifted to lethal mode).
But in a weird manner Ova seems to have solved the problem for me. Dude suddenly disappeared, then returned bragging about killing a gorlak. I have no idea what caused him to kill the gorlak (no report except it's on his kill list), but the people at the fortress were shifting from hostile to neutral and sometimes were listed as ally, so probably something like that.
I had no idea how to work into the story the "how to destroy an artifact" thing by talking to scholars and using DF responses as a starting point for the thing (didn't get anything out of anyone that would've "worked" with a little embellishment).
[1]So, yeah, screw Fencereined and the scholars. Let's build a stronghold, hunt us some ettin, maybe sneak into Fencereined to steal appropriate books and have our heroes do the "research" by themselves.
Besides, a named and claimed camp will allow to retire them there for a while, so we can have a look elsewhere in the world.
(Edit.
[1] To clarify, I do have several ideas how the artifacts could be destroyed, but how to relay this information to the heroes without it seeming too forced and out of the confines and possibilities of the game is my problem...)
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Topic: Waterlures - A Capybara Man Fortress & Adventure [DF 0.47.05] (Read 80120 times)