The Companions of Tartiël (49 page)

“By the rules, it was a Large
^[41]
dragon,” he said.

I knew my dragons, and black dragons are one of the smaller types of chromatic
^[42]
dragons. If Blackie here was about the size of a horse (minus his wings), then he must have been quite formidable. “Wait… you used its frightful presence ability on us, which means it has to have been at least a young adult.”

“You got it,” our DM said. “CR nine.”

I whistled, and Matt and Xavier let out surprised noises, too. “CR nine? Damn, we must be good. We’re a bit battered, but we took that baddie out pretty easily.” I paused, reflecting momentarily on our past encounters with enemies. “Dingo,” I said at length, “have we ever fought any encounters that were at or below our level?”

Dingo gave me a puzzled look, then sat back, thinking about it. I voiced my thoughts aloud. “Let’s see, the werewolf and wererats were probably EL
^[43]
three… then there was the level-five wizard when we were at second level.”

“The shadow dragon at Andorra,” Matt added helpfully. “I think you said it was CR eight, Dingo.”

“And Sayel. I distinctly recall her making attacks against our level-five characters with something like a plus twelve bonus. And that was
after
I knocked her favored weapon from her hands, too,” I said. “And then the encounters in the city. I think the only really easy encounters we’ve had were the two guards in Andorra and the patrol of wolves and humans here in Ik’durel.”

“Damn, we’re good,” Matt repeated my earlier sentiment. We dithered on for probably a good ten minutes before running out of ways to extol our characters’ abilities and our own playing skill.

“So, about that D&D game we were playing,” I said, “it’s probably best if we get back to the temple with what we have today.”

Dingo nodded, and I face-palmed when a slow smile began to spread across his features. “Okay. Well, you head inside. The temple is quiet.”

“Well,” I said, “I did tell everyone to duck and cover. I use the amulet.
Lady Solaria? It is safe. You can come out now.
”

We all waited for a response. Dingo let the pause hang ominously in the air. Finally, he told me, “You don’t receive a reply. However, I want all of you to make Listen checks.”

We all rolled, and we all beat the DC set for the check. “Well, you all hear a whimper coming from behind the door that leads to the dormitories. It sounds canine.”

Xavier cursed and motioned outward with his hand. “I rush to the door and throw it open.”

“
Wait, Master Caineye
,” I said. “
It could be a trap.
”

But my roommate shook his head. “I don’t listen, Kaiyr. I don’t care. If Vinto’s in trouble, I’m going to his aid.”

I shrugged. “Fair enough. I’m just roleplaying.”

Dingo sat forward in his chair and caught our attention. “Well, Caineye flings the door open. Vinto is there, standing on all fours, but his hide is covered in small cuts… and most of his tail is lying on the ground about ten feet away.” He did not shrink back under the dangerous look Xavier shot him. “Kaiyr, as you get there, you see no enemies, but you do spot the other amulet. It seems to be partially embedded in the wood of the ceiling. It crackles, resounding in all of your ears rather painfully, before a voice emanates from the amulet—”

“An audible voice?” I asked for confirmation.

“Yes,” Dingo replied, “you can all hear it. It says:
I warned you not to trifle with Warteär Nomen. Now, you face the consequences of your actions. Your insolence has cost your pretty plaything a pair of beautiful eyes and her tongue. I took a few other souvenirs, too. I look forward to the moment I face you in battle.

“The amulet crackles again and falls silent,” Dingo finished. “What do you do?”

I took the initiative, figuring Kaiyr would be quick to freak out about Solaria. “I snatch the amulet from the ceiling and stow it in my sleeve as I tear down the hall for Solaria’s room, cursing,
Gods
damn
him to the deepest pits of the Nine Hells!
”

“We’ll follow,” Matt said, speaking for his character and Caineye when Xavier nodded.

“I get to her room and throw open the door,” I said, just as Matt was about to tell my character to wait.

Dingo shrugged. “All right. Are you hit, flat-footed, with a twenty-eight?”

I glanced at my character sheet. “Well, I can’t be caught flat-footed, since I’ve got uncanny dodge, but twenty-eight is higher than my un-buffed AC, anyway.”

Dingo raised his eyebrows and shook his head as though in apology. “Well, you’re taking…” he said as he rolled a d4, “three damage, and I need you to make me a Fortitude save.”

“Poison?” I asked, and Dingo nodded. I just smiled. “All right. I’ve got that extra plus three for my
lesser armor crystal of stamina
, so I’ve actually got a plus eleven against poison.” My d20 clattered across my desk, and when it stopped, my face fell. “But that means nothing when I roll a two. How bad is it?”

Dingo picked up a d8 and rolled it. Much to my relief and his disappointment, it landed on a 1. “You take a whopping one Dexterity damage. However, you can see inside. The room’s dark, but you can make out the form of Solaria on the bed. She’s breathing, but other than that, the level of light here is too low to tell anything else except that there’s some kind of cylindrical object hanging over her head.”

I marked the ability damage down on my sheet, rather unconcerned, since it only marginally affected my abilities, and I had my
rod of bodily restoration
I’d bought upon arriving in Ik’durel. I was going to wait for another minute to see if I took more Dexterity damage before using the rod, in order to maximize its effectiveness. “All right, I’m going to—”

“
Master Kaiyr! Wait!
” Matt interrupted. I paused, looked slowly at him, and lowered my gesturing hand. He went on, “
Something tells me this isn’t the only trap Warteär Nomen set for us, if he came all the way here. Let me take a look here first.
”

I sighed for Kaiyr. “
Very well, Master Wild. You are right. But… please hurry.
I stand aside so you can search for traps.”

Matt picked up his d20 and looked over at Dingo. “I’m going to spend three rounds searching, Dingo, to make sure I don’t miss anything.”

The DM motioned for him to continue. “Go ahead and roll three times, and just give me the highest number.”

Matt did so, rolling on top of his
Complete Adventurer
, as always. “All right!” he exclaimed after his third roll. “My highest roll was a nineteen! With modifiers, that comes to… a thirty-one!”

Dingo raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “I don’t believe it, but you find the trap. It’s definitely a magical trap.”

“Can I tell what it does?”

“With that high of a roll, yeah. You determine that the magic is cast over the doorway. Anyone passing through that square triggers the trap. But rather than harming the person who enters, the trap will release the magic causing the canister over Solaria to levitate. You’re not sure what’s in the canister, but after looking at it, you can tell it’s very fragile.”

Matt nodded. “All right. I explain this to the group.”

We all sat back and thumbed our chins for a moment. Xavier shrugged and spoke up first. “If we wait a day, I could memorize a couple
dispel magic
spells and blast away at the trap until I dispel it.”

“Yeah,” I said, drawing out the word in a tone that clearly communicated that I did not find it to be an acceptable solution. “Only problem I see with that is, what if the magic of the trap and the levitation are tied together? Blast the trap, and it triggers as though we’d tripped it.”

He frowned but bobbed his head. “Yeah, you’re right. We can’t take that risk.”

Suddenly, I snapped my fingers and sat forward. “I’ve got it. Dingo, I’m going to eyeball the distance from the bed to the canister. How high up is it?”

“About five feet over the bed.”

Slapping my knee in victory, I pointed at him and said, “I take up a stance and put my hands to approximate just an inch or two underneath the canister. Then, I use my
amulet of teleportation
to teleport right under the canister, grabbing it immediately.” I looked over at Matt and Xavier, who were grinning along with me. “Since teleportation goes through the astral plane, I don’t need to physically cross the doorway, and even if the trap covers the whole room, I’ve already caught it.”

Mulling it over, our Dungeon Master nodded appreciatively. “Well-played, sir. You manage to grab the canister, which does not drop, telling you that the trap was situated only in the doorway. However, now you get a good look at Solaria… and it’s not good.” He spoke in a grave tone, quieter than before. “She’s missing a few fingers, but that’s just the start of it. She’s covered in small cuts, bruises, and even what look like acid burns. Blood has clotted in her open mouth, which is missing her tongue, and both of her eyes have been gouged out and are nowhere to be seen.”

I made a motion of looking down as I held an imaginary canister. “
By the gods… Lady Solaria!
I tuck the canister away in my sleeve—the extradimensional one, so it doesn’t break—and get down from the bed. I’m going to make a Heal check to bring her around.
Master Caineye! Please hurry; I need your help! Lady Solaria is… not well.
”

I rolled, getting a total of 22.

Dingo shrugged. “She doesn’t wake up. Her wounds look too extensive.”

Xavier nodded. “I go inside, and when I see what Warteär Nomen did to Solaria, I gasp. She’s a creature of nature, being a nymph, so it really hits Caineye hard. I still have a
cure serious wounds
to cast today, so I use it on her,” he told Dingo, picking up three d8s. “Since I have the Augment Healing feat and
cure serious
is level-four for druids, I’m going to heal… three-dee-eight plus fifteen.” He rattled his dice in his hand and prepared to throw.

And kept shaking them.

And kept on shaking the dice.

“Come on,” Matt said after about ten seconds of waiting for Xavier to do something. “Stop jerking off your dice and throw ‘em.”

Xavier held up his finger, demanding patience. I suppose he’s slightly superstitious about how dice work (and seeing how Dingo apparently has the magical critical hit touch, it’s not too difficult to see why), but sometimes the jerking off—I mean, shaking—of dice went on for too long. At last, he let the dice fall. “I heal thirty-four hit points for Solaria,” he announced after adding the dice together, plus his aforementioned 15.

Dingo nodded and said, “Well her wounds heal, but she doesn’t wake up.”

“I’ll try a Heal check,” Xavier said, rolling and getting a 30. But still, Solaria remained unconscious.

We futzed around with various remedies to bring Solaria out of her lifeless state, but nothing worked; my
rod of bodily healing
had no effect, as did Caineye’s
restoration
spell. Even casting
create water
over her head availed us nothing.

“I get a bucket,” I said to several chuckles. Dingo still shook his head. At last, I threw my arms in the air, exasperated. “I give up. I poop on her chest. Does she wake up?”

The others all stared at me for a long moment, silent. Recovering first from the outburst of laughter that followed, Dingo replied, “No… and… you’re evil.”

As usual, this sent us into fits of hysterics for at least ten minutes, during which we all spouted out renditions of the exchange we’d just had, as well as numerous quotes involving, “I get a bucket,” “No dice!” and others.

“All right,” Dingo said after we’d all calmed down. “I was just messing with you back there. Anyway, you bring her around, and she wakes up in what is obviously a hell of a lot of pain. She immediately begins struggling and flailing, trying to get away from you, since she can hear your movements but can’t tell who you are.”

Frowning seriously, I adopted my Kaiyr-voice. “
Lady Solaria,
” I said softly but firmly and quickly, “
listen to me. It is I, Kaiyr. Please, do not struggle or talk; we shall take care of you, but you must calm down.
Let’s get her out of here and to a different and hopefully safer room.”

“You carry her out of the room and down the hall, but as you reach the main entrance, you find the double doors hanging open,” Dingo told us.

“What the fuck?” Matt objected. “We didn’t leave the doors open!”

Dingo just grinned. “Ah, but standing there, in the doorway, are three short fellows—”

“Aw, shit,” I sighed, already knowing who it would be. “It’s those brothers, isn’t it?” I thumbed to the loose-leaf sheet I kept notes on. “Those Lillik guys.”

“Who?” Matt asked, the question completely understandable, as it had been about two months, real-time, since we had seen these halflings, and we had only seen them once.

Xavier answered for me. “The little bastards who killed Astra when she was nailed to the cross, right before the battle with Sayel.”

Matt chuckled, nodding as he remembered the session from several weeks ago. “That’s right… ‘Why is your mother a whore? That’s a taunt,’” he quipped to jog his memory.

I glared at Dingo, who understood it to be Kaiyr looking at the Lillik brothers. “
What do you want?
” I asked after getting everyone’s attention with my long stare.

“The brothers saunter into the temple and look around.
Nice roof
, says the one, referring to the new ventilation in the ceiling, courtesy of the black dragon. The eldest of them demands that you hand over the ledgers that you found in the temple.”

I scowled and held my arms out, indicating I was still handling Solaria. “
I have neither the time nor patience to deal with you right now
, I tell them,
and I know of no such ledgers. Search the temple, but do not appear before me again. Arvanos Sinterian’s interdict against bringing you harm may not keep my spite leashed for very long.
”