The mayor looked up from the writ. "And you are the subject of this voucher?" He glanced from the half-elf with her supple cloak and curious longbow slung across her back at the head of the group to its other members; a young woman with twigs in her hair, armor that seemed too big, and an assortment of large weapons; a stocky dwarf with a dour expression and an axe that glowed with unnatural light; a youth with chestnut-brown skin, barely more than a boy, holding a large book that looked like it belonged in a museum, in a robe that he might have stolen from someone with fuller shoulders; a foppy young man with a bored look and impeccable eyeliner, carrying a shield and some foreign fetish; a terrifying young tiefling whose snow-white robes and holy symbol were completely at odds with her horns and ashen skin; and most startling of all, a damned half-orc (a half-orc, in his town!) with a wide hat, salt-stained overcoat, and two sharp blades swinging from her hips. This last one stood in the corner, leaning against the wall, as if she at least had the courtesy to recognize exactly how poor in taste this meeting was.
Robyn cleared her throat and swept her eyes over her little band of misfits, glaring at Charlot to straighten up and at Nula to join the rest of the party. "Yes, your mayor-ly-ness. The duke of Hartfordshire was quite satisfied with our assistance rescuing his daughter. We even saved most of her caravan, as well. Well, most of them who weren't killed by the time we found them, that is."
"Indeed." The mayor's eyes lowered to the parchment again. Everything certainly appeared to be in place, at the very least. He had never met this duke, but he knew from several books in his meager library that Hartfordshire was indeed a neighboring town to the east of his own, as much as "neighboring" could be used to describe any locations in these lands. Still - he glanced back up at the assortment before him - this lot hardly had the look of heroes. Some of them looked to be barely old enough to be on their own! He couldn't begin to guess at the half-orc's or dwarf's ages, but the rest looked like they should be helping out on their parents' farms right now. The only people who stood with any sort of authority were their half-elf leader, who at least seemed old enough to marry, and the strange boy with the dark symbol, who reminded the mayor of the pouty prince who had rolled through the town when he himself was just a boy. This young man exuded that same air of boredom, as if the surrounding world existed to entertain him and it was doing quite a poor job of it. That prince had been quite a pest, from what the mayor recalled.
It was the odd girl wearing a tree on her head that stepped forward, smoothly admitting, "We know we don't look like much, sir, but we've heard from your citizens that there have been other adventurers sent after your problem, to no avail. Surely it couldn't hurt to send a few more?" The mayor found himself nodding to Isolde's suggestion. His citizens, he liked the sound of that. What could it hurt, indeed?
The mayor nodded more deliberately. "Very well, I suppose the voucher says what it says, and we'd be happy to have your assistance. The mine is a couple hours' travel to the south." He made to return to the papers scattered about his desk, but a slim hand quickly poked into his line of sight.
Robyn cleared her throat again. "There's just the matter of payment…"
The band traveled down the southern road with a spring in their step. The mayor had not been keen on paying half upfront, and Nula had needed to lean over his pretty wooden desk and begin cleaning her nails with her dagger before he would reconsider and offer them twenty-five percent before and the rest when they returned with proof the mines had been cleared. Twenty-five percent! Robyn could almost sing. They were certainly on their way; before long, their reputation would precede them up and down the Sword Coast, and perhaps they would even start being recognized in the cities they visited!
Not that Robyn would allow them to venture into a city quite yet; Nula's bar-fueled argument in their last city had been quite eventful, and Charlot had warned the group that the guards were sure to spread word of the temperamental half-orc pirate-ess and her strange companions to every city on the continent. Robyn felt certain he had been joking, but was unwilling to test it, not before the gang had worked up a level of professionalism that would help to offset the looks of confusion and distrust that greeted them wherever they went.
And this sleepy little hamlet with its classic woes of kobold infested mines were a perfect step along that path. Robyn hummed a little tune as they marched, her left hand upon the flank of their trusty pony. She had taken to calling him Eye-gak, after she overheard Oskar murmuring it to the beast in a town months back. It was a quirky sort of name, but she felt it fit well with what the team had going on. Across Eye-gak's saddle was a handy portable chest, nothing too ostentatious, just a locked box for them to store their meager riches and the documents they managed to weasel out of their previous employers, vouching for their reliability to their future hopefuls.
Ahead of her, Charlot and Uzza were arguing again. For clerics of the grave and life domains, Robyn supposed she should be happy their discussions were rarely confrontational. At the moment, however, Charlot was trying to convince Uzza that he could render her more palatable in the loftier company they would surely find themselves in before long.
"I'm not saying that tieflings are unheard of in the proper ranks of society, dear, I'm simply saying that you present an odd blend of ideas, and it can be better to go along with what people expect of you than force them to face their own bigotry."
Uzza bristled as she turned to the boy. "I'm not interested in how your nobles see me, Charlot. I spent my childhood begging for scraps. I won't demean myself again, not to be subjected to the worldviews of those who think themselves above me. Especially not to appease the normalcy of people with more gold than I've ever seen!"
Charlot raised his hands in defense. "Not everyone with wealth is the enemy, Uzza." He smiled wide and wrapped an arm around her. "Fear not, Charlot will guide you through the scary halls of the rich. Perhaps just a light foundation to even out your skin tone, maybe a nice flowery headband to cover those horns…" Uzza groaned, but Robyn saw her mouth quirk in a smile.
Behind her, Robyn heard Idu going on about his many misadventures as a youth on the streets of Amn (truth be told, Robyn felt Idu still qualified as a youth, but she would never say as much to his face). As always, Oskar clung to every word from the younger boy; Oskar had spent most of his life in the mines of his home, and often found the workings of "above-ground" civilization fascinating. Idu clearly picked up on this an embellished from time to time. Robyn suspected he had run out of factual stories early on, but she had to admit the boy had imagination. As he described a flight from a particularly nasty street-guard, using nothing but the friendship of a wild monkey, his free arm swept in wild arcs. Idu always clutched that fancy book close to his chest, as if he were afraid his wonderful life of traveling would disappear if he let it slip for a single moment. Robyn could sympathize; she oftentimes had to remind herself that all this was real, and that she had indeed managed to bring together such an amazing group with whom to spend her days.
Beside Oskar, Isolde nodded along to the story, gasping at all the right moments and asking the questions Idu was clearly fishing for. Isolde had explained to Robyn when she first joined the gang that they were a lovely example of the balance the paladin wished to instill in the world around her; Robyn sometimes questioned the balance of the team, but was thankful for the comparison. The girl's hint of a smile and perpetual far-gazing eyes lead many to assume she was none too bright, but Isolde always managed to ask precisely the right question in the most flattering tone to further the party's interests. She had been quite instrumental in obtaining several of their recent jobs.
As Idu reached the end of his story (with a flourish had Oskar nodding and Isolde politely clapping) Nula snorted and sauntered over to the three, sliding a blade along a whetstone as she grumbled, "Nice story, Books, must'a been real hard running from a fat old man. Ever run… from a kraken?" Idu's eyes brightened visibly. If Oskar enjoyed Idu's tales, Idu lived for the yarns the half-orc would spin. "There I was, lookout in the middle o' the night, naught but a sliver of moon to light the frosty waters o' the Sword Coast. The crew lay a'bed below decks, a senile ol' lubber tending the wheel, when I hear a deep rumblin', like a thousand bellies cryin' for gruel…"
Robyn chuckled as she listened. She knew Nula was not much older than her companions, but her size and confidence made that easy to forget. Like Idu, Robyn suspected that many of Nula's tales were far from the truth, but it was much harder to pick fact from fiction with the half-orc.
Nula was just getting to the part where a writhing tentacle, cut from the monster, knocks the captain overboard when Charlot stopped in his tracks, head tilted to the side. It took a moment for the storytellers to notice, and then they slowed to a stop, as well. "Hear that?" the boy asked, eyes scanning the skies above them. Robyn strained her ears a moment, and was about to ask "What?" when Isolde pointed to the east. As Robyn followed her finger and saw a cluster of specks growing larger, she heard an unearthly melody fill the trees around them.
"Harpies," Nula growled, tucking her whetstone into her belt and drawing her other sword. "Looks like a small group, three, four."
Robyn nodded, deftly sliding her longbow from her shoulder and reaching for an arrow. "Ready yourselves," she called, nocking and drawing the arrow. The party fell into position easily, with a familiarity that would have had Robyn smiling under other circumstances. Uzza, Isolde, and Oskar gathered between the others and the approaching shapes, donning shields and reaching for weapons. Oskar flexed his hand, and his trusty battleaxe winked from its holster to his grip.
Charlot and Idu stepped up beside Robyn, with Nula stalking the area around three, leaving herself plenty of room for what she referred to as her "dance o' death". Charlot tossed back his hair and fingered his dark talisman, cold power seeping from his fingers as he breathed words of power. Idu flipped open his spellbook deftly, long fingers easily finding the proper worn pages, by earmark or familiar wear, and he held two or three fingers in different places in the book, keeping his place should he need certain spells. Satisfied, the young boy nodded and turned his eyes to the approaching beasts, an excited curiosity tinged with cautious fear twinking there.
Robyn slowed her breathing as the harpies gained definition. Before long, they had entered the range of her longbow, and with a practiced focus the half-elf let fly her first arrow. Before it had struck its target Robyn had fitted another into the nock, and as she pulled the string back to the corner of her mouth, she saw with satisfaction that one of the three shapes had fallen significantly below its friends. She aimed at the lower harpy and fired again, and by the time she had fitted her third arrow, the harpies had arrived.
As they swooped down past the trees, their tempting melody reached a crescendo, and Robyn found herself screwing her fingers into her ears. A moment passed, and then she looked around to see the harpies landing among the group. She noted that Oskar and Nula were the only people who appeared to be affected by the siren's song of the harpies, and the rest of her band were already reacting.
Uzza gripped her holy symbol and gestured at herself, Oskar, and Nula, chanting in a strange tongue until a faint aura began to glow around the three. Oskar and Nula both grunted a moment later, shaking their heads and jumping upon the nearest harpy.
Isolde's twig-crown glowed a verdant green, and she struck at the harpy approaching her, thick vines erupting from the ground at the beast's claws to grip her tightly. Idu took this as a cue, and pointed ominously at the trapped harpy, summoning a skeletal claw that gently passed through the beast's ribcage, causing part of the melody to turn to shrieks of pain.
Nula directed her twirling blades at the harpy that had snared her attention. With a cry of "Avast, ye!" the half-orc darted around the harpy, slicing this way and that before pulling away with a grin, deftly avoiding a slicing talon as she stepped outside the harpy's range. Charlot took a breath and held his hand out at the harpy, pantomiming swinging something large, and a second later a deep, ominous DOOM DOOM DOOM filled the air around the wounded harpy. The bell's tolling almost drowned out the creature's death wail, and Nula cried out with a loud laugh as the harpy fell still.
Robyn turned her attention to the last harpy, sliding her arm through the longbow while in the same motion she pulled the whip from her belt. She whistled, a piercing sound that had the intended effect of the harpy swiveling its head on an owl-like neck to the half-elf. Robyn smirked and flicked the whip, slashing the side of the harpy's wing and causing the whip to CRACK as it struck. The beast's eyes widened at the sound, and Oskar took the opportunity to flourish his glowing battleaxe at the startled harpy, sending a flaming bolt at it to crash between its wings. He then yelled a dwarvish battle cry and darted toward the harpy, swinging his blade down between its shoulder blades and sending it to the ground.
That left one harpy, tangled in vines, with Isolde and Uzza standing on either side of it. Isolde continued to strike from afar with her glaive, her serene face set in grim determination. Uzza closed her eyes and called out, lifting her holy symbol skyward. In response, a pillar of holy flame fell from the heavens, engulfing the screeching harpy and the vines that bound it. As the group gathered around, the charred harpy body crumbled to ash.
Robyn nodded at the group, watching as grins spread across their faces. "Good job, team. Uzza, would you mind seeing to Oskar and Nula? I think the harpies got a few scratches in. Isolde, nice work with the vines. Idu and Charlot, try focusing on the same target next time. But excellent work, everyone!" The party began chatting and laughing, and Robyn went to recover trusty Eye-gak, who had begun grazing at the roots of a nearby tree. She glanced at the sun's position and looked to the south, seeing the mountains rising there. Still an hour or so to go; still plenty of time. She nodded to herself and began to shepherd the excited comrades, urging them to continue their march.
The group quietly made their way down the dark corridors of the mine. Their talk had diminished as they stepped into the mouth of the cave system, their voices echoing along the walls before Robyn hushed them. Now, they marched down the main passage, torches scattered among the group, while Uzza kept a sharp eye out ahead. Robyn held her longbow aloft as they walked, elegant silver runes flickering across the arms in the near-darkness of the mine. They had been traveling down the mines for less than an hour when Uzza stalked back to them, her snowy robes luminescent in the torchlight.
"Kobolds," she hissed when she got closer. "Off to the left, a hundred feet further." Robyn motioned for the group to prepare themselves. A minute later, they had doused their torches and gripped arms, walking as quietly as they could manage with Oskar and Uzza leading the way. A minute later, a series of squeezed palms indicated they were approaching the entrance that Uzza had spied, and the blinded members of the party saw a faint glow up ahead. They waited outside the branched passage, barely able to see each others' faces, until Robyn whispered, "Now!"
All at once, Oskar and Charlot jumped into the opening, raising their hands as blips of light sparked into life around the cavernous room. Idu stepped out from behind them and took quick assessment of the situation, then gripped a small bag from his cloak and muttered a few words. A miniature sun burst into existence among the thickest concentration of kobolds, who screeched and scrabbled at the rocky ground to pull themselves away. Idu swept his hand in front of him, and the burning sphere began to ominously cross the room, incinerating the scaly hides it collided with.
Now fully able to see, the rest of the party darted into the room, whip, glaive, and swords eager for purchase as the frenzied kobolds attempted to avoid the flaming death-ball and the new enemies. A group of braver kobolds began to swarm the party, some waving their arms and gibbering while the rest darted in and out, poking with makeshift weaponry.
Isolde kept the kobolds at bay with her glaive, waving it back and forth as they tried to approach her, and soon the frustrated kobolds turned to the half-orc who was laughing as her blades left crimson afterimages in the magical light. Robyn used her whip to discourage the kobolds who were attempting to flank the party, forcing them to choose between approaching the heavily armored frontline or the slow advance of Idu's flaming sphere.
The slaughter lasted barely a minute, and as the sounds of dying kobolds quieted, Uzza saw a flicker of movement across the room. A small cluster of kobolds were fidgeting with a pile of rocks in a corner before one of them seemingly disappeared. Uzza called out to the group and raised her holy symbol, causing an illuminated gout of flame to crash down on the spot of the remaining kobolds. One fell over, dying noisily, while the other yelped and dove headfirst into the rocks, scorched backside trailing smoke. The rushed escape dislodged the larger rocks, and part of the wall sunk in on itself, revealing a tight passage out of the room.
The group turned to Nula, who grunted, "Figures," as she removed her hat and rolled it carefully. "Alright, let's follow the scallywags."
Luckily for the half-orc, the secret tunnel widened to more spacious dimensions several feet in. The kobold had scurried on ahead, and Robyn reminded everyone as they walked on in the dim light of a weakened light spell that they should expect a fight when they reached the end of the passage.
When the tunnel began to widen enough for them to adjust their order, Oskar took the lead. There was a sharp turn, and then the party found itself face to face with a group of orc warriors. Oskar raised his shield and chanted for a moment, a golden aegis illuminating the air around him as arrows flew through the air. Most were deflected, and Uzza was quick to press her hands to the resulting wounds and murmur words of healing. By that time, Nula and Isolde had jumped out of the tunnel and rushed the orcs.
Idu and Charlot stuck behind Oskar, nodding to each other and directing their spells at the furthest orc archer. Robyn stepped to the side and steadied her longbow, focusing on its innate power as she fitted her arrow. Silvery runes flowed across the surface of the bow and into the arrow, lighting it with traces of moonbeams. The shining arrow flew across the chamber to the orcs, a brilliant afterimage tracing its path. As battle was joined, a rumbling came from another entrance to the room, and Charlot's head snapped around, calling out, "Undead!" seconds before a mangled group of dead kobolds shambled into view. Some were missing limbs, others had crushed skulls, but all moved steadily toward the party. At their rear, a larger orc strode, eyes aglow with dark power, hands reaching out to the zombified minions.
Charlot and Uzza caught each other's eyes and both ran to the approaching horde, Charlot lifting his dark talisman while Uzza clutched her holy symbol. Both began a similar chant with vastly different inflections, and as one their voices rose in volume. The combination of holy and unholy power swept forward over the marching corpses, and a majority of the bodies shuddered and began to fall back, mouths vocalizing frightened grunts if they worked at all. The orcish shaman growled with displeasure, cuffing one of her turned minions across its collapsed face as it ran by, sending it crumpling to the floor. The shaman turned to the clerics and narrowed her eyes, lifting a gnarled finger to the tiefling. As Uzza's back arched in pain, an arrow went soaring past the two and embedded itself squarely in the shaman's chest. Sensing the seepage of the orc's life force, Charlot smiled and swung his hand out, an echo of bells filling the room as the shaman fell to her knees. Uzza smiled at the boy in thanks, then grimaced as she turned to the foul necromancer. She felt divine might pass through her as she lifted her symbol aloft, and a moment later the orc was engulfed in holy fire.
In the resulting frenzy, wizards and clerics alike picked off the scrambling zombies, while fighters and paladins and pirates took out the remaining orcs. When there was one orc left standing (apart from Nula), the pirate held her blades to his throat. "What were you after down here, ya lubber?" she growled. The orc spat at her feet.
"I answer to no traitor," he grunted in broken Common. "Found holy site for shaman, born again soon! You pay then!"
He then threw himself at Nula, but simply fell upon her swords. She cleaned them on his shirt and turned to shrug at Robyn. "Worth a shot." The half-elf nodded in understanding and motioned to Oskar and Uzza. The two headed down the passage the shaman had emerged from.
As they walked down the dark corridor, they heard the grave-moans of the undead that had escaped the slaughter in the previous room. As they came upon the aimless bodies, the two dispatched of them with mystical flame and ensorcelled axe. After a few twists and turns, the passage ended with a foul chamber littered with skeletons, and a sickly slab of granite posing as an altar. It was there that they found cruel instruments and implements of torture, along with crudely written notes and several chalices of liquid that resembled blood. In one corner, a pile of clothes and trinkets were tossed unceremoniously.
Once the rest of the party had been summoned to the final chamber, Idu glanced around and immediately came to a conclusion. "Looks like this is where that shaman was raising her dead," he remarked, gingerly leafing through the notes, which appeared to have been written on dried, leathery skin. "The rest of the tools here seem a bit superfluous, though the altar does appear to be some sort of locus for necromantic power."
"Any way you can shut it off?" Robyn asked, not particularly hopefully. When Idu shook his head after a moment's thought, she continued, "I suppose that was a bit optimistic. Oskar, reckon you can cave in this room?"
While the dwarf silently paced the length of the room, pressing his hand against the wall in certain spots and mumbling to himself, the party did its own search of the room. As Isolde was digging through what were assumedly the miners' belongings, she let out a gasp and held up a wooden medallion. "An oak medallion! My mentor told me about these. Woodland elves are known to carry these with them as they travel, to always have a piece of their home with them."
Nula bent down to examine the talisman. "It's made from the wood of their homes?" she asked, squinting at the carved insignia of a wide tree.
Isolde snatched the medallion away from the half-orc. "No, it summons a tree." Nula back away, wary of the narrow walls surrounding them.
After Oskar had finished his circuit, he grunted in affirmation and turned to Idu. "Could you shatter these two points?" He pointed to an area of the ceiling and a section of wall that appeared to already be crumbling.
Idu glanced down at his spellbook and nodded. The party retreated further down the passage and waited as Idu sat cross-legged on the damp rock floor and opened his spellbook in front of him. Several minutes of preparation and chanting later, Idu jabbed from the spellbook to the chamber, uttering a binding word and releasing the spells. Two loud cracks rang out from the chamber, and a torrent of boulders fell from above, splitting the altar and filling in the skeleton-strewn room. As Oskar had intended, there was no spillage into the corridor.
Spirits were high as the party emerged from the dank caves into the setting sunlight. It would be full dark by the time the party made it back to the village, but Robyn was eager to return and report their success to that doubting mayor. The gold was certainly welcome, but Robyn thrived off of the looks of astonishment her team invariably earned as they proved their worth. Today the mayors and innkeepers of the realm learned to expect great things from them, but perhaps tomorrow it would be kings and queens who granted them vast boons for completing daring quests. Robyn knew it was only a matter of time.