Chapter 9

The word 'understatement'

"The dwarves attack through this entrance," Arundel stabbed the map with a finger, "And we start here."

They were outside the tent, having moved out the table, so that all the dwarves and knights could listen. The horses had been tied to the golem somewhere out of sight and smell.

"That's the open exit of the cave you're attacking through," Bayer objected, "You might be immune to the dragon's fire, but we aren't."

"Listen to me first," Arundel said patiently. "Now, Clurgan.you and your clan members have to go through this entrance, because it leads inside to his 'barracks' where he puts all his creatures. Can you handle them?"

Clurgan hefted his battleaxe thoughtfully. "We killed a lot of hobgoblins durin' the last time he had a go at us," he rumbled, "An' as far as we can see, his ranks 'ave been thinnin'. We shouldha' not many problems.'cept for that tiger-faced bastard."

"Ah yes, the Rakshasha," Arundel mused. "Hmm. Avoid him if possible - he just wants to kill me due to my nearly clipping off one of his ears with a crossbow bolt when he came to attack this place the last time, so he might leave if he sees all of you just pouring in without me. I'd deal with him if he tries to attack me. He's dangerous, and he has spells."

"Let's see if he kin use his magic words with an axe through his brain," Clurgan smiled. Several of the dwarves chuckled evilly.

"I love dwarves," Arundel remarked cheerfully to no one in particular. "Okay. So just go in and create enough havoc with the hobgoblins such that they don't come and bother us."

"We're a diversion, then?" Clurgan glanced up at Arundel through a thick bush of eyebrows.

"Well yes."

"S'long as there's hobgoblins to kill," the dwarf grunted. "Right. So we kill enough of them that they're only int'rested in runnin' away."

Arundel grinned. "If you like. For us, however.the plan is a bit more complicated. Lady Y'vair - I have a scroll of mass-invisibility and a modified silence radius, so we can sneak past spies that might warn the dragon. Tomorrow morning you'd cast both on us when we're in sight of the open entrance, as we get those giant crossbows into position. They're a bit difficult to aim - but I got Bayer here to get Radiant Heart people who know how to use them." he glanced at his friend.

Bayer snorted. "Any knight here who can't use a siege weapon doesn't deserve to be called a knight."

"That's an odd definition," John noted. His panther sat quietly beside him. Apparently it was still preventing itself from being seen, for some reason he didn't know and didn't really care about.

"It's in their training," Bayer shrugged. "Over to you, elf."

"Why, thank you. Okay, what we've done is tie a stout cable of rope and metal each to a bolt, so it becomes some sort of large grappling hook. The end of each long cable we'd tie to one of the pillars or rocks around the area - I did some scouting and found suitable ones. Then the next part - more work for Lady Y'vair, I'm afraid. I have a ring of air elemental summoning I bought from Waukeen's Promenade some time ago. She'd have to use it - the scroll or spell equivalent won't work in the silence."

"That's tricky, but I should be able to do it," Y'vair nodded.

"I'd hope you will." Arundel said seriously, "We need that elemental. I've put together a barrel of certain chemical powders that I'd put somewhat inside the entrance to the cave, then Yoshimo here will fire a flame arrow into it - or I can use my crossbow."

"I can hit the barrel," Yoshimo nodded.

"At which point it'd explode into a large cloud of purplish vapor, and Y'vair has to get the elemental to blow the vapor away from us into the cave itself. A nice stiff wind would do. If you see the vapor coming towards you - move quickly out of the way. It'd make you terribly ill. Anyway, the dragon won't like this vapor, and there'd be a lot of it, so sooner or later it'd come charging out of the entrance."

"The entrance isn't large enough for it to fly, so I'd assume it'd walk, unless it rolls. It'd be maddened, blinded, and ill - hopefully the silence spell would still be in effect, so it can't cast spells. When it appears, at my signal - I'd throw a light flare on the ground - everyone use the siege engines. They're not as large as the normal-sized ones, and the dwarves have made some modifications, so it should be easier to calibrate quickly, depending on whether the dragon attempts to fly or charge. Try to get the bolt into the head, neck or the thickness of the body itself - the wings aren't much use, and the tail's thin. If it's not dead by then, it'd at least be restrained - we tighten the rope and cable and force it down."

John tore his eyes from Arundel's face and looked around. Dwarf and human alike wore expressions of fascination as Arundel matter-of-factly described how they were about to fight - no, slaughter - a dragon.

"It's intelligent, but hopefully the smoke would have confused it. It doesn't last very long, though - so by this time the vapor would have worn off. At this time, anyone with ranged weapons try to hit it in the eyes. Then if it's not dead I'd attack the head - since the fire won't affect me. If you see the mouth pointing at you - run. Red dragon fire is notorious for his power, so I won't insult you by warning you about it. The other knights get your chargers and use lances on it - don't bother with swords, they'd probably bounce off its armor unless you can find weaknesses - and I doubt it. If we stick enough lances into it, it'd probably die."

"Probably?" Bayer said in an awed tone. "If the engines hadn't killed it, and these measures didn't kill it, I'd vote dragons are invincible."

"I hope not," Arundel smiled a little shyly. "Now, do you have any further suggestions?"

The elf was actually looking for criticism. He actually thought his plan might have deep flaws in it that he hadn't noticed. John blinked at Arundel, and wondered how old he was in elven terms.

"Are you sure the cables can hold it?" John asked finally. "I haven't seen a dragon before, but."

"I hope so," Arundel frowned. "If not - the engines should have done their work."

"We have some grapplin' hooks ye kin take along in case," Clurgan suggested. "To git its wings an' tail under control."

"I can use that," Entreri nodded. Yoshimo nodded as well.

"Can't it change its shape?" Y'vair asked curiously.

"Hmm. It probably can.all right, if you see anything coming out of the cave, shoot it - I'd hand out some crossbows or bows, depending on preference. If it's a bird or anything small we can probably kill him with bolts and arrows.and I doubt there's anything bigger he can turn into other than his natural form. And if he attempts to change shape when he's been hit - let's just say that though a siege bolt through a dragon might be an inconvenience, a siege bolt through a human is a big problem."

Bayer snorted. "Have you ever heard of the word 'understatement' before, elf?"

**

There were some spare tents - though dwarf-sized, so there was a mild problem. Some of the knights opted to sleep in the open, since it didn't look like it would rain - one of the tents was erected for the sole purpose of putting in all their armor out of the weather. The party glanced at them, then shrugged at themselves and managed to fit into some tents - John with Yoshimo, if they didn't try to stand up abruptly, Entreri and the panther, to its annoyance, but Yoshimo looked nervous about sharing a tent with an unstable werewolf, and there was no room for the panther in John's tent. Lastly, Y'vair had a tent to herself. It was some sort of unspoken agreement. The panther didn't mind sleeping in her tent, but knew that if - and this was a big if - Entreri did go mad in the night, it would be able to give the party some fair warning.

Entreri seemed to take this caution in his stride - his face was inscrutable.

John's sleep was fitful. It wasn't that Yoshimo snored - the thief did, but it was bearable - but that his dreams were odd, again with the sense that someones, or somethings, was battling. When he woke up, however, he couldn't remember a thing.

**

The next day dawned a dull gray, with the promise of rain. The encampment buzzed with activity - after washing up and a quick breakfast, everyone set to work. The dwarves got into their chain mail and then began to help the knights harness the engines to the horses, with some clever wheel devices that would set down the engine solidly if a lever was pushed, or allow it to be towed behind like a wagon if it was pulled.

The party watched the proceedings with Arundel just outside his tent.

"How were you sure that a mage would be with your group?" John asked curiously, rubbing his sleeve absently. He wasn't used to having a starched-clean trenchcoat every day - Y'vair had insisted on using her cleaning spells on the party. The panther had approved though.it sat down on its haunches happily next to him, sniffed, and purred deeply.

"Well, if you weren't coming - and I hadn't known about you until the mage friend told me - I could have asked the mage to recommend any other mage to me," Arundel shrugged. "There's gold in the having, after all."

"Mages are rather greedy," Yoshimo agreed, with a grin. "No offense, Y'vair."

"I'm a bard, not a mage," Y'vair corrected, "Though I find that singing in battle rather wastes energy if one can handle a sword and fight."

"That's an interesting sentiment," Entreri murmured.

"Are you sure the rest of you would like to come with us?" Arundel inquired, "You could fight with the dwarves if you wanted to."

"We can use ranged weapons," John said, patting his slingshot. The 'medieval' words came a little more easily to him now - though he still woke up with a distinct sense of displacement every day.

Arundel nodded. "Hmm, that seems to be about it. I wonder.perhaps we should cast the mass-invisibility spell on the dwarves as well, for a surprise attack."

"How many scrolls do you have?" Y'vair looked amused.

"Several," Arundel grinned. "I've had a long time to plan this, believe me. Once I considered using the Greater Malison and then Polymorph Other, but it's tricky and doesn't have a full chance of succeeding."

"And this one has?"

"It has a higher chance," Arundel smiled irrepressibly, "But you can have the Malison and Polymorph scrolls just in case. Fighting a squirrel would be a lot easier."

"This understatement thing is truly unbecoming of thee," Bayer announced, clanking up to them.

"But you like me anyway, don't you?" Arundel asked, with an exaggeratedly vapid expression.

"He really canna stop talkin'," Clurgan observed from behind the knight. "Well, elf, we've all finished. 'Tis yer go."

"I thought you'd never be done. Clurgan.Y'vair is going to cast mass invisibility on your group as well. Just get them to stay close to one dwarf that you order to stand in the middle of the group. Now everyone outside, please."

Outside, Y'vair cast Mass Invisibility on a solemn-looking dwarven cleric, and the dwarves abruptly disappeared from view after the obligatory spell pyrotechnics. It seemed that spells just adored having flashes of blue light, clouds, odd smells, and all that. The dwarves could be heard, of course, as they marched off ahead of the group, which made it just that bit more unnerving.

Then she solemnly cast Mass Invisibility and Silence on herself. It didn't seem to have worked - until John attempted to talk. No sound came out. But he could still see the rest of the party.apparently the spell made party members visible to each other, but nothing else.

In total silence - even the crunch of gravel under the siege engines and the sound of the horses' trotting was missing - they made their way to the yawning mouth of the entrance to the dragon's cave, and John, not for the first time since he'd entered this world, wondered if he were insane.

The distance to the cave seemed acutely short - though when Y'vair shot him a questioning glance he shrugged. Synchronicity didn't appear to be working - or if it were, it was working with greater subtlety. The horses didn't look too happy pulling the engines with the knights leading them - so John maniacally imagined them thanking him for shortening the distance.

The ruins were quite a bit more substantial than they'd thought from a distance. Large pillars - that resembled the fossilized fingers - jutted out into the sky, and there were large rocks lying around. John wondered vaguely how it had come about - perhaps the dark ash coating the ground was volcanic, and the eruption had caused the city to be abandoned.or maybe the dragon happened to it.

The cave opening was quite wide, enough for a dragon, but not high enough for it to fly out. It snaked away into the darkness quite a ways - the dark rock landform was massive this close up, like a section of a mountain - then curved out of sight. Nothing guarded the entrance - who needed to, after all?

The knights got to work quite efficiently - rechecking the knots on the shaft of the bolts, and tying the ends to pillars or rocks securely, untying the harnesses from their horses and tying their bridles to convenient places to prevent them from bolting if the dragon came out. Yoshimo glanced to Arundel, flame arrow notched in his bow - his grappling hook hanging from his belt. John sat down on a rock next to a siege engine with Entreri, both staying out of everyone's way. He found that there was an exhilarating excitement involved in this, which made him feel light- headed - butterflies-in-the-stomach that he got whenever doing something recklessly dangerous.

To his astonishment, he found he was enjoying this.

Arundel finally motioned to Y'vair and Yoshimo to follow. The golem horse moved silently into the cave, and he nodded at Y'vair, who immediately seemed to concentrate, palms facing out. The air seemed to thicken and coalesce into a cloud, and continued solidifying until an indistinct, eight-foot-tall, vaguely human shape could be seen in the cloud. The elemental shuddered as Y'vair enforced her will on it, and mage and elemental seemed to be locked in their poses for what seemed to be a long moment - then the elemental stopped moving, shoulders bent in defeat.

Y'vair gestured, and a brisk wind started, ruffling her beautiful hair, and causing dead leaves to waltz erratically in the air. At that same moment Arundel quickly maneuvered the heavy barrel down from where it had been strapped to the horse, then he remounted the golem and galloped out. Yoshimo and Y'vair retreated, and the thief carefully shot. The arrow arched in, burst into flame, and embedded itself into the barrel.

There was a brief pause, and then everyone was treated to the sight of the barrel exploding without sound. The wind grew stronger, blowing the expanding cloud of purple vapor away from them into the cave. Y'vair and Yoshimo walked quickly over to John and Entreri.

They waited tensely, as Arundel carefully took a bottle from his saddlebag and broke the seal. The light-flare, John surmised. Everyone cleared from the wide path out of the cave, to the line of six siege engines - three on each side.

Suddenly the ground shook, as though thunder had rolled through the sky near the earth, or an earthquake had struck - or something unimaginably huge had roared its fury. From the cloud of purple burst the dragon, jaws working as it screamed - or attempted to, in the silence-spell.

John could only stare, mouth gaping open, having seen a lot of damned- scary, bowel-turning sights in his long life, but few as magnificent as this. The dragon was immense - one eye was easily larger than his head alone, and the teeth were as long as short swords, or worse. It belched bright flame into the air, the searing heat even John could feel, this far away, and smell the stink of sulphur and brimstone. It lurched forward, apparently not seeing anyone - the smoke must have blinded it - wings flapping awkwardly, one just missing knocking over a pillar, which would have seriously inconvenienced the knights behind it.

Arundel hurled the bottle up into the air above the dragon - a phenomenal throw, John noted idly. Glass winked with sunlight as it shot high up into a graceful curve. Then just as quickly, the elf cocked his crossbow and shot in a fluid move just as the bottle was beginning to descend from the apex of is arc - and the glass shattered, releasing a short burst of green light.

Immediately the knights - whom had already begun carefully calibrating the engine mechanism when the dragon had emerged, used the engines. The force of the bolts loosed from the engines forced said engines back against the rock, scoring deep grooves in the soil. The large spears slammed into the dragon - one in the neck - long enough that John could see the point emerge through it, blood red - and the other three in the large body, and two in trunk-sized legs, crushing bone with wet cracks and causing them to collapse under the dragon, such that its belly brushed the ground. The other two claws scrabbled frantically on the dirt, and the knights prudently avoided them.

The dragon's eyes widened, and it opened its mouth to scream its pain, but no sound came out. The surprise it felt was nearly palpable, as it snapped its jaws shut, and then it tried to wrench away, head turning from side to side as it tried to clear its sight. The cables held tight, and the bolts had been lucky - with the exception of the neck, where one bolt had been a little too high, and the tail which hadn't been hit, the rest of the dragon was pinned to the ground.

The dragon, mouth open in a soundless snarl, jerked its head around, just enough for jaws to close on one cable from a bolt in its neck, and, mindless in its rage and agony, pulled with its considerable might. This was a definite mistake - the pillar that cable had been attached to was tall, and the cable had been tied high in the middle of it. As the knights around the pillar hurriedly got out of the way, John could see it shift - then the large slabs of stone that made it up came apart and rained down on the dragon, slamming into its head and neck.

Stunned, head close to the ground, John surprised himself by approaching cautiously but quickly and using throwing knives. One skittered off the eye horn to fall harmlessly on the ash on the ground, and the other managed to bury itself to the hilt into its eye. The dragon belched fire in pain, then its mouth worked again and it swung its head to the side as if hit from the other side - yes! John could see two crossbow bolts in the other eye - from the knights. Yoshimo prudently shot a few more arrows into the eye, and then the knights began to use their lances, not very easy since it was thrashing around in its agony.

With the force of the charger and speed, they drove the sharpened poles into the dragon's side, then retreated in an orderly fashion, ten knights on either side of the dragon, two at each charge. The lashing tail was solemnly taken care off as Entreri and Yoshimo circled quickly and got their grappling hooks around it, the ends pre-tied to other rock structures. With his werewolf strength, Entreri surprisingly managed to adjust his end such that the tail snagged tight low on the ground where it couldn't lash out at someone, then he quickly moved to Yoshimo's side to help the thief with his end.

Arundel was singlehandledly attacking the head with his sword, whenever it rose high enough for him to duck under while riding the golem and stick lances into it. He had already ridden through the fire several times without any effect. When the dragon tried to lower his head to prevent that, jerking horribly on the ends of the bolts as it did so, John and Y'vair immediately managed to get close enough to use their ranged weapons on the vulnerable parts - especially the eyes.

The panther prudently didn't try to attack, but stood warily by John's side in case anything happened.

Eventually the dragon's struggles weakened from the onslaught, then it raised its head for a last, soundless despairing roar at the sky and stilled, the head hitting the ground on its side like any slab of meat. Unfortunately, the movement of the dragon when it tilted into a supine state of death caused one of the legs to jerk back, and another pillar fell. Most of the slabs hit the dragon's carcass, but one smaller one glanced off a knight and knocked him and the horse down. The knight fell with a loud clatter, and his brother knights went to help him up - from the way he limped, he had a broken leg, and a sheepish expression. The horse seemed all right.the injury was rather pointless, after the 'battle' had been waged.

All of them glanced at each other - then, fittingly, the spell wore off, and sound poured into the dead silence nearly joyously. Arundel laughed suddenly, a coughing spurt of mirth, and waved his sword in the air. "And that, is how you kill a dragon without getting squashed like the bugs we are to it. How would you know.it worked!"

"You mean you weren't sure?" Bayer raised his visor.

"I was fairly sure it would.but nothing is ever certain," Arundel bowed. "Now, when the dwarves finish I told them to come here and meet us - the smoke hasn't cleared yet, in the cavern, so they shouldn't enter it. Now, Bayer, about the 'donation' to the Order that I'd make to you for helping us."

Still exhilarated, the rest chattered amiably to themselves or watched Bayer argue with Arundel. Eventually they came to a conclusion - next to the bulk of the lifeless head, and clasped hands.

John sat down next to Y'vair, not really believing the enormity of what they'd accomplished. A dragon.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Yoshimo remarked.

"A very logical way of killing dragons," Entreri agreed.

Eventually the dwarves appeared, and they counted their losses. Some dwarves were injured - but none fatally - apparently when they'd gotten in; they'd met the Rakshasha immediately. Clurgan described how the tiger- headed monster had attempted to teleport away but couldn't, 'on accounta the fact that we hit it with three throwin' axes, see'. Once the Rakshasha had fallen, so had the morale of the hobgoblins.

When asked whether there had been traps in that area - Clurgan shook his shaggy head. "Who'd put traps in their livin' quarters?"

The injured were taken back to camp by horse, and Arundel said that everyone should wait for the smoke to dissipate first. At that point the dwarven clerics asked why they couldn't use the spell Zone of Sweet Air to clear the fumes, and Arundel looked sheepish - one of his common expressions.

The elemental had already been unsummoned, when they entered the cave cautiously. There were probably no traps, but Entreri and Yoshimo moved slightly ahead of the group just in case. They rounded a corner in the large passageway out, and came face-to-face with the dragon's hoard.

John had never seen that much gold before.

"By Helm!" Bayer said in stunned fervor. The hoard was mainly an immense heap of gold coins, which could probably fill at least a good-sized hall from ground to ceiling. There were quite a few jewels studding it like so many angular flowers - the dragon Firkaag seemed to have been partial to rubies and emeralds.

Weapons - no doubt magical - had been neatly stacked in sight of the hoard, along with some artifacts on a golden table - including suits of armor, wands, and necklaces. Y'vair pointed at one of the necklaces - identifying it in hushed tones as the Dark Sighing, before handing it to Entreri. The silence of the glittering cavern was getting to everyone - the hollow emptiness of it all, where recent - and centuries-old scars of claws and scorching on the unnervingly smooth walls were all that remained - other than the body outside - of the dragon.

Instead of the chaos that John had been expecting, the division of the gold was quite orderly - probably because it was magical, or scientific, or whatever Arundel used to cause large sections of gold to disappear when he thumbed a device on a switch and caused blue light to fall over said sections. He said that it caused the gold to teleport itself into pre-designated areas - and the knights and dwarves nodded, as if they'd seen it before. It was probably true in the case of the dwarves, and Arundel did not appear as the sort to break his word, oddly enough. However, he insisted on projecting images to show them he had kept his word - carefully, as though he feared that they doubted him. Insecurity, perhaps?

In the dwarves' case - the gold had appeared in a large hall, and other dwarves in the image were wading in it, looking stunned. They nodded at the dwarves with them, and both sides spoke in dwarvish for a while.

"That's the Ironhammer hall, true enough," Clurgan grunted at last. "I thank ye, elf."

Arundel nodded, and pressed a button. The image was replaced by an image of the Hall of the Radiant Heart. The knights in it looked just as stunned - suddenly being knee-deep in a king's ransom tends to do that to people - Bayer spoke to them for a while.

"It is the Hall," Bayer smiled at Arundel. "Thanks."

"We agreed on it," Arundel nodded, and turned off the image.

Eventually the last section of gold disappeared, and the cavern seemed a lot emptier. The dwarves and knights left, leaving the armor.

"Here," Arundel handed them some extremely heavy bags of gold which they had to give to Entreri to put inside wherever his collar secreted things. "That's your share. Thanks - the weapons and such are a bonus.except for this one."

He walked over quickly and picked up a broadsword, the blade dull black that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. Rubies as red as those on the golems adorned the hilt, and an especially fine fire opal sat on the pommel. As Arundel picked up the sword, the hilt glowed pale green for a moment, and the elf sighed, as if a burden had been lifted off his shoulders. Disdainfully, he drew his current broadsword and threw it away from him with a clatter, and sheathed the black sword.

"Today is such a beautiful day," he grinned, his voice echoing.

Y'vair chuckled, then got around to carefully identifying the weapons and artifacts - some with the help of identification scrolls Arundel provided. Apparently the scrolls projected images of what the objects could do into the mage's mind - useful when trying to see if it were cursed or not.

"Here's the Firetooth dagger for you," Y'vair handed John a dagger with one jagged side, the blade a flushed light red. "It returns to your hand when you throw it - and deals fire damage. Hmm.the dragon didn't think of stocking mage robes."

"It can hardly wear those," Yoshimo murmured.

"Maybe it's the draconic equivalent of dollhouses. You can wear these sets of armor though." Y'vair chuckled. "Hmm.do you mind wearing chain mail?"

Yoshimo shuddered.

"All right, all right.there are two sets of leather armor here. Both are called Aeger's Hides for some reason - the identify scroll could only tell me that it's been reinforced in a way to protect against arrows and missiles. The other sets of armor, we could probably sell. Amazing, how there's so much magical material here." Y'vair's eyes were bright. "There's a short bow here called Vyer's Eye.apparently it's more accurate, though I've no idea why. I suppose you may find out." She handed the bow she'd picked up to Yoshimo.

"More accurate?" Yoshimo fingered the silk string. "Interesting.it's not cursed, is it?"

Y'vair gave him a Look. Yoshimo grinned sheepishly. "Only asking."

Eventually, Y'vair chose a short sword which supposedly aided spellcasting, which John noted had a rather valuable hilt that seemed to have been carved totally out of a single dark emerald. Entreri wordlessly took two ugly-looking, serrated edge daggers that gave a degree of magical resistance, but he did not wear the scabbards - merely putting them into his collar's dimension.

"Hmm. Would you consider using a falchion in place of your short sword?" Y'vair had picked up a weapon.

"Why?" Entreri raised an eyebrow.

"There's something to do with magical resistance in this falchion," Y'vair murmured thoughtfully, as she turned it around and around, as if fascinated. It was a weapon forged of a single piece of metal - of a uniform, ugly dull gray of a metal that rather resembled steel, that did not reflect light - not because it was unrefined and unpolished - but because it seemed to consume light. There were no decorations, and the scabbard was plain leather. "Identify doesn't seem to get much out of it - it's like the magic is falling into a vortex. That's the falchion's name, I think - Vortex."

"And the catch is.?" John pressed, astonishing himself. He wasn't really interested, or rather, he told himself he wasn't interested - but there was this sheer enthusiasm involved from such guilty plunder of the dragon's centuries-old hoard that he was beginning to act like someone overdosed on Prozac.

"You're an extremely cynical person, do you know?" Y'vair pouted at John theatrically. "Have you even considered the fact that there might not be a catch?"

"Sorry." John held out his hands.

"As it so happens, there is a catch, but.what are you two laughing at?" Y'vair glared at Yoshimo and Arundel. "Anyway, the catch is the magic resistance, whatever form it takes, has to be activated in some way, and I have no idea how to activate it."

John was about to say something relating the weapon to a bloody science-fiction movie, but instead he found himself saying, "So how do we find out?" He found himself trying to stare at his mouth in surprise. What the f-

Entreri shrugged, and touched his short sword - scabbard and all; it wavered and vanished - into the rather convenient collar. Then he put on the falchion's scabbard. "We'd find out."

"Why are you still here?" John gave up trying to act normal, and addressed Arundel. Later he was going to have a long talk with his head. Maybe with a heavy rock.

"I think I'd like to join your party," Arundel smiled a little hesitantly, as if he wasn't sure of the welcome. "There's nothing for me to do for now - and I believe it's possible we'd make money out of this. In which case, a share for me would be welcome."

"Where did they take K'yanae?" Entreri demanded. "You have not."

"Spellhold," Arundel said promptly. "It's the asylum for the magically deviant - that is to say, all mages who cast spells without first gilding the pockets of the Cowled Wizards. It's inside a well-defended fortress on the pirate island Brynnlaw, of which the exact location is not marked on any map. Only certain captains know of it - and frankly, I have no idea how you're going to find any."

"Brynnlaw?" Yoshimo brightened. "Ah, I have friends that stay there - we could meet up with them. They might help."

"As to reaching there.I suggest we return right now to Athkatla, sell all the loot, then meet this mutual mage friend of ours. K'yanae's father would probably have the resources to locate one of these captains." Y'vair said, with a sidelong glance at Entreri, who didn't notice.

"Maybe he could provide an army too, if you wish to actually enter the fortress," John pointed out sourly. "Knowing this world - the fortress has monsters?"

"Probably," Arundel said, poker-faced.

"Too many traps?"

"That's for sure."

"And mages?"

"Obviously."

"Then we're not going there without some form of backup," John folded his arms. Entreri looked as though he wished to protest, but kept silent.

"That might not be politically feasible, sparrow," Y'vair said dryly, "Zaknafein is one of the Grand Dukes of Baldur's Gate. This might be tantamount to an invasion of a neighbor. We'd have to wait and see."

"I hate that phrase," John muttered, longing for some alcohol. If he were drunk, this would probably be a lot clearer. And that new voice in his head that kept trying to make him charge blindly into fortresses, dragons' caves, mighty battles and all such suicidal absurdities might just be drowned.

--

Little Notes and References:

How to kill a dragon: Er yes - I made this up when thinking along the lines of 'How a chaotic neutral party would kill a dragon without anyone getting hurt'. Good-aligned people would, of course, charge in to fight it 'fairly', ignoring the traps, the fact that the dragon's a hundred times bigger than themselves, and so on. Evil-aligned people.perhaps like Edwin in BG II, would just run away, or try trickery or something. Um. However, this is certainly the way that people who adore their skin would fight a dragon. Yes, it's more costly than say, getting all the knights and the party to charge without any plans, but put it this way: no one likes to be fried.