The Companions of Tartiël (48 page)

“I do.” The watcher waited, studying the trio of adventurers, who also waited for the creature to divulge more.

Wild took the initiative as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Could you, ah, happen to tell us what we’re dealing with here?”

The shadow wriggled, the yellow points of light serving as its eyes zipping left and right. “It is not my place to reveal that which has not yet happened. However, I can show you the danger which lies on the horizon,” it finished over Wild’s and Caineye’s complaints. Turning toward the great cloud of dust still hanging in the air, the watcher’s gaze pulled with it the companions’ attention. A few heartbeats later, a gust of wind rushed through the street, blowing Kaiyr’s hair and robes into a flurry and nearly bowling Wild head over heels. The wind traveled down the street, slamming shutters open and closed and shattering many windows in its wake. When the two forces met, the dust kicked up into an angry swarm, but the clear air fought it off, dispersing the cloud and revealing what lay beneath.

“By the gods,” Wild gasped. Kaiyr’s eyes narrowed again as he silently recognized the castle that lay beneath. “That’s the stronghold we saw in the portal in Andorra… the one leading to the swamp.” A brief grin crossed his face. “I wonder if they ever found that body….”

As the dust dispersed, Kaiyr hopped from windowsill to windowsill in order to gain a better vantage point from a nearby rooftop. Peering into the distance, his keen eyes could make out many dark forms swarming over the ground. He could not be certain whether the clearing of the dust had anything to do with the fact that they were surging outward from the spires of the black fortress that had plopped itself right inside the city, but it was a safe bet.

“We must go,” the blademaster called down from the rooftops. “There is an army around the castle, and now that they are exposed, we seem to have drawn their ire.”

“Have they spotted us?” Caineye asked.

“No, we are too far away and too few,” Kaiyr said with certainty. “Come. Follow me as you did on the way here.” Glancing down at his companions, he saw that the creature calling itself “Jinn” had disappeared. “Hm,” the blademaster muttered, annoyed. “Like smoke.”

*

“So, you all make it back to the temple without running into any more patrols,” Dingo told us. “What are you guys doing now?”

I shrugged and tossed my d20 back into my box. “Well, I guess we should prioritize taking care of the people inside the temple. Xavier, shall we implement our little plan to get supplies?”

Nodding, my roommate responded, “Sure.”

“All right,” our DM said, “what’s this plan?”

“Well, I’m going to suggest Caineye prepare several copies of the
burrow
spell from the
Spell Compendium
, maybe even
mass burrow
. Kaiyr then asks all available clerics to, on the morrow, prepare several
purify food and drink
spells. That way, we can bring back even poisoned and rotting food and water, and their spells will make it edible and even fresh. We’re going to start by raiding the nearest houses first and stripping them of supplies before widening our search.” I sat back as I explained my plan and punctuated it with a swig of Pepsi.

Thinking about it momentarily, Dingo slowly nodded. “All right. You do that. It only takes a couple buildings to find enough supplies for a week, considering the clerics and Caineye can all cast
create water
, and a few of the clerics can also cast
create food and water
to supplement what you guys manage to bring in.”

“We’ll do it by burrowing out to the nearest house,” I explained. “Once we’re away from the temple, we can walk around aboveground, since Caineye’s spells will only hold for seven minutes. Then, once we’ve filled our sacks, or, in my case, sleeves, with stuff, we’ll burrow back again. Xavier, can you think of anything I’m forgetting?”

He shook his head, and Dingo nodded. “All right. How long are you going to be doing this?”

I looked at Xavier and Matt, who merely shrugged. It was sort of my plan to begin with. “Well, I guess for a couple days. It makes more sense to stock up now and keep the food fresh. I doubt even the clerics’
purify
spells will work on piles of dirt.”

Matt chuckled. “I’m imagining a cleric casting that spell on the ground somewhere, and—
poof—
a birthday cake springs up on the grass.” We all laughed at the idea, even coming up with a few more inane spell bloopers. However, when I brought the question up in a slightly more serious tone, Dingo assured us that no, we couldn’t reconstruct someone’s million-year-old birthday cake from a patch of dirt.

“However,” he said, “on your third day of collecting supplies, I want all of you to make me some Spot checks.” We all rolled our d20s and added our modifiers. All of our rolls totaled higher than 20, Caineye taking the lead with a 29, Wild trailing with a 23, and Kaiyr in the middle with a 26.

“Jeez.” Our DM scratched his head and raised his eyebrows. “Well, it’s as you’re between buildings that all of you happen to glimpse a shadow flying overhead. Kaiyr and Caineye, since you rolled higher than twenty-five, you two make out the form to be a black dragon.” He waited while we all resounded with “oh, shit” and similar bits of wisdom. “It seems to notice you, as well, and begins flying directly toward you.” Flipping open his
Monster Manual
, he turned to the page regarding black dragons and then jotted down a few notes on a spare sheet of paper. “What do you do?”

I scowled. “I brace for impact,” I quipped. I hadn’t had Kaiyr memorize any immediately useful spells today. “I’m going to stand in the street between the building and the temple, out in the open, and assume Total Defense. That brings my AC up to thirty-two.”

“Don’t forget that when you take Total Defense in my game, you also add your maximum bonus from Combat Expertise,” Dingo reminded me.

“Ah, that’s right. Thirty-seven,” I amended. “As if I needed it to get any higher.”

*

Kaiyr took up a mobile, defensive stance in the city square before the temple of Alduros Hol, where all those he had sworn to protect now cowered as the approaching black dragon let loose a terrifying roar. Its shadow flashed over the trio on the ground, and although the blademaster felt a jolt of unease momentarily weaken his stance, he shook off the dragonfear and steadied himself.

Caineye and Wild had taken up positions in or near the shadows; Wild had disappeared into the alley, while Caineye took cover and called upon the powers of nature to grant him the ability to call lightning bolts down from the sky, like he had done the other day against the “wolf patrol,” as the group had taken to calling the enemy groups. He thanked the gods that today was overcast and threatening to storm; the added natural energy would make his lightning bolts more effective.

The dragon wheeled in the air for a second pass, and as it did, it opened its terrible, horn-flanked maw and let loose with a stream of steaming acid, diving low to deliver it in a long stream that caused the cobblestones to boil and melt. Kaiyr, ready for the attack, nimbly dodged aside from the dragon’s breath, which continued as it flew by and rose into the air. The tail end of the attack splashed onto the great tree containing the temple, searing a hole high on the trunk.

“We have to keep it away from the temple!” Kaiyr heard Caineye call out frantically from behind him.

“Indeed. I have no means of reaching the dragon and must frustrate it until it attacks me directly. It is not so large; its patience should flee it quickly. Have you any spells that might bind it to the earth?”

Caineye’s response came after a moment’s hesitation. “No. I can only hurt it,” the human replied.

Kaiyr nodded. Then, sending a message through the amulet of telepathy the group had received from the Terth’Kaftineya a few weeks ago, he sent a message to the current bearer of the amulet paired to his own.
Lady Solaria, we face a black dragon right now. Gather those inside into the sanctuary and stay away from the walls.

O-okay
, came the reply.

Wild, winding up his crossbow in the shadows, watched his companions and waited for the opponent to strike.

The black dragon made several more passes, spitting acid from its maw in great lines that tore up the street. Finally, after five such passes, as the dragon opened its mouth to send more green liquid in Kaiyr’s direction, a great bolt of lightning leaped down from the sky, transfixing the dragon and causing its muscles to spasm. Faltering in the air, the black dragon crashed to the ground, throwing scree and cobblestones into the air, along with more than a few of the scales covering its hide.

Kaiyr rolled out of the way of the dragon’s crash-landing, finishing the movement on his feet and already rushing back at the dragon, which roared in fury as it pushed itself to all fours.

The two met in melee combat, Kaiyr scoring a hit on the dragon’s flank that cut loose another shower of black scales. Then, after his initial strike, the blademaster relented slightly, taking measured attacks against the powerful foe.

The black dragon, only slightly smaller than the draconic shadow the group had faced outside Andorra, was nevertheless a more powerful opponent, swatting at Kaiyr with the deftness of a cat playing with a mouse. This mouse, however, was proving cleverer and more agile than the cat. The blademaster ducked under and leaped over the dragon’s talons and dodged aside whenever the horned head came in for a vicious, acid-dripping bite. In return, the elf managed to land a few minor blows on the dragon; unfortunately, these small victories did little more than further enrage the already incensed creature.

“I will kill you!” roared the creature in Draconic, a language Kaiyr knew. The blademaster ducked as another of Caineye’s bolts of lightning crashed down from the sky, scorching the black dragon’s hide and momentarily stunning the beast.

“You shall fall here,” Kaiyr replied calmly in the dragon’s tongue as it turned away from the blademaster to pursue the druid, who kept calling down bolts of lightning. But the blademaster would not let the dragon escape. When the dragon let down its guard, Kaiyr surged forward, scoring a telling blow along the creature’s side that partially disabled one leg. “
I
am your opponent, beast!” the blademaster intoned contemptuously.

The dragon suddenly forgot all about Caineye and spun around, its tail whiling about to slam into Kaiyr. The blademaster had known it was coming, thanks to his intuitive prescience. The blow, however, struck harder than he had expected, and although he twisted to avoid most of the impact, the blademaster still found himself thrown to the side, landing on his feet and skidding across the cobblestones.

Wild clucked his tongue at the battle. His crossbow had done him little good in this encounter, his bolts clacking uselessly off the dragon’s thick, scaly hide. Sneaking closer in the alley, he winced as he saw Kaiyr swept aside by the dragon’s tail.

Taking up a position just inside the shadows of the alley, Wild leveled his crossbow at the dragon again as it reared its horned head back to bite down on Kaiyr. Aiming quickly, Wild’s arms jerked slightly from the recoil as he pulled the trigger.

Kaiyr heard the whistle of Wild’s bolt as it sped toward the dragon, and he looked up just in time to see the little projectile bury itself in the dragon’s eye. “My… my eye!” the great creature roared, thrashing about and nearly knocking Kaiyr over with its tail.

Just then, Caineye raised his arm to the heavens and called down the last bolt of lightning his spell could grant him. The black dragon twitched and jerked, the magic cutting through its defenses. Seizing the moment, Kaiyr charged back at the dragon and bounded into the air. As the black dragon regained its senses, it noticed the blademaster’s falling form coming right at its neck—just as the killing edge of his soulblade came crashing down on the weakened scales there. With a crunch and sanguineous fountain, the dragon’s head fell from its serpentine neck. Blood pooled on the ground as its heart slowed to a crawl, and then to a stop, and the light left its one remaining, green eye.

Kaiyr stepped back from the rapidly expanding, red puddle and released his soulblade. His chest heaving with exertion and his entire body sore from having been battered by the dragon’s paws and tail, he barely noticed Caineye and Wild approach the dead dragon.

*

“I approach the dragon’s body, watching to see if it decides to move again,” Wild said, “and after pulling off my shirt, I reach inside the base of its neck.”

I snapped to attention, roleplaying my character. “
Master Wild, what are you doing?
”

Matt winked at me. “
Why, Master Kaiyr, I’m surprised you don’t know. Traveling dragons sometimes like to eat some of their own treasure so they can regurgitate it later to sleep on. Gold and gems are like mattresses and pillows for dragons.
”

I raised one eyebrow and kept my expression neutral as a blademaster. “
Disturbing.
”

Xavier nodded, chiming in, “
Wild’s right, though. Dragons can eat their hoard, especially if they cast a particular spell beforehand, called
hoard gullet
. Rather useful bit of magic, as long as one doesn’t choke on the gold pieces as they go down.
”

“So,” Matt said, clapping and folding his hands together, “do I find anything?”

Dingo nodded. “Yeah, you do, actually. Aside from gross things like kidneys, spleens, and the remains of small children, you manage to pull out three hundred and fifty plat, nine thousand gold, two emeralds, an amber gem, an amethyst gem, a silver comb, a golden circlet with four aquamarines, a scroll case with two arcane scrolls, a
potion of haste
, and a
+1 dagger
,” he told us over the course of several minutes of rolling for random treasure.

“Just how big was this dragon?” I asked out of curiosity.