Kievan made his way up the stairs from the noisy tavern room to the guest rooms above the inn. Reaching the door of the room he and Tomas had rented, the young thief glanced carefully behind him before he unlocked the door to let himself in, closing the door as soon as he got into the room.
"You should always check the room first before entering it, boy," remarked Tomas who was lounging on the room's sole chair.
Kievan swore as he turned to face him. "Ye gods, Tomas, you're fast. I came here as quickly as I could and you still got here before me." He unslung the black crossbow he carried on his back and presented it to Tomas. "Here, you can have this back."
Tomas took back the crossbow and gave it a quick check. Kievan watched him as he re-cocked the loading mechanism. "That's quite a fine weapon you have there, Tomas," he said. "Loads quickly and fires very smoothly. Is it dwarven?"
Tomas smiled at some memory. "No," he replied. "It's gnomish."
"Gnomes? Those little ditch rats that run around smelly construction sites?" exclaimed Kievan. "iThey/i built this?"
"Not exactly," said Tomas. "One of them did. But he's gone now." He looked down at the crossbow again. "The exploding bolts are my own addition though."
Kievan sensed Tomas's unwillingness to talk about the mysterious maker of his crossbow, so he asked another question. "So what's the plan now?"
"We go to the mountains."
Kievan snorted. "And what? Ask around if anyone has seen a group of suspicious-looking priestesses?"
"I wish I could oblige you with a better idea, boy, but that's all we have at the moment," said Tomas flatly. "Tomorrow, we leave early and head for the mountains."
"They are headed towards the mountains," insisted Malvon to the shadowy figure in front of him. The Guildmaster stood under a dim lantern light that failed to illuminate the rest of the room.
The shadowy figure lifted a long-stemmed pipe into the dark recesses of its hooded face and blew out a thin stream of blue-coloured smoke. When the figure spoke, it was in a female voice. "How unfortunate that the Taker's re-appearance came with such disasterous circumstances. We are not at all pleased by the loss of our entire iperculiad/i shipment, guildmaster." The light tone of her voice held only the slightest hint of suspicion.
"That son of a varg is a walking menace," Malvon declared, oblivious of the speaker's tone. "He must be hunted down and killed at once."
The shadowy figure seemed to consider this. "Yes, of course," she replied finally.
"I am glad that you agree," said Malvon as he turned to leave. "I will organise a bounty and a group of men to track him."
"We will send a few of our own to assist you in your hunt for the Taker, of course," said the figure suddenly.
Malvon stopped mid-turn. "Assist? I, uh, hardly think that that is necess-"
"Oh, but think of how much more efficient this will be with our wizards assisting you," said the figure as she leaned forward into the light. Long, silvery hair framed a beautiful pale face with blue eyes that was off-set by a cold smile. "Why, a few Far-seeing spells would greatly reduce the time taken to locate him. No one escapes the White Orchids, guildmaster. Not even the famed Taker."
The first of them began to arrive at Necroselleum that morning. The city guards at the gates first mistook them for homeless settlers or gypsies. Only after some of them were questioned did the truth emerge.
By mid-afternoon, more than five hundred of them made their way slowly up the road that led to the main gates of the city. Their many wagons began to clog up the road, making outward traffic from the city near impossible. Families with their possessions, traders with their goods, farmers with their livestock, they all progressed their way into Necroselleum. When the current number of guards proved insufficient to manage the tide, the city guard officers began to call on off-duty guards to help.
Fleeing their homes, the newcomers all bore the same grim tidings.
The goblin horde was coming.
"The entire marketplace had to be closed to make room for them," informed Judith to Lydith as they both sat in the room which Judith and Karyn shared. "The merchants were furious and they sent a heavily worded complaint to the governor via their Union." The Acolyte was Karyn's roommate and officially (at least among the Initiates and Acolytes) the source of inofficial news and gossip, both from inside and outside the Temple. Her uncanny ability to ferret out news and spread it was the stuff of legends among the Initiates and Acolytes. Currently, she was savoring her role as a dispenser of thrilling news to an equally thrilled audience of two - Lydith and Karyn. Or at least, Lydith, as Karyn seemed more pre-occupied over pulling out things from her closet in search for something.
"Where did they all come from?" asked Lydith, as captivated an audience as Judith could wish for.
"Oaksfyod," replied Judith, naming a nearby farming settlement. "After some of their outskirt farms were razed by the goblins, the entire settlement decided to pack up and leave. Necroselleum is the closest walled city in the region, so they made their way here."
"I don't recall Oaksfyod having so many people," called Karyn from her closet, apparently still part of the listening audience despite her endeavors in her closet.
Judith looked momentarily apprehensive that her facts were being questioned. "They're not all from Oaksfyod. When the neighbouring settlements heard about the raids, they too packed up and left. There's word that there'll be more of them arriving tomorrow."
"Where are all of them going to stay?" asked Lydith, shaking her head in bewilderment. "The city is full enough as it is."
"Oh, the governor will probably have to get the guards to stop them from entering the city and get them to settle outside the walls," speculated Judith off-handedly, as if this was something city governors did every day.
A muttered curse from Karyn turned both their heads. Almost half of Karyn's belongings were piled on her bed, with more to be added from the looks of her progress. "What is that girl doing?" asked Judith to Lydith who shrugged.
Lydith noticed a small, leather-bound book among Karyn's possessions and picked it up. "What's this book?" she asked while examining it.
Immediately, Karyn reached out from her closet and firmly took the book away from Lydith's unresisting hands. "It's a diary," said Karyn defensively after a while.
"A diary? You never told me that you were keeping a diary," said Judith looking rather cross that she was not privy to the fact.
"I've only just started to," said Karyn, glancing down at the book. "My father sent me this two weeks ago. Said that it helps him keep his scattered thoughts in one place, so perhaps I might benefit from one too."
"What do you write in it?" asked Lydith curiously.
"Oh, this and that. Ideas and things," replied Karyn evasively before adding, "Like how incredibly nosy my friends are."
Judith rolled her eyes while Lydith giggled. "Just as a nosy friend," said Judith archly. "What are you doing emptying out your closet like that?"
"It's my ring," said Karyn, wringing her hands in frustration. "I can't find it."
"Your golden ring?" asked Lydith in surprise. "You never lose that."
"Well, I just did," replied Karyn pointedly. "Now stop sitting there like a couple of gossiping fishwives and help me-" she suddenly stopped as her eyes grew wide.
"What is it?" asked Lydith, slightly alarmed.
"Oh, by Krypta's blood," moaned Karyn as she sank down on her bed. "I know where it is. I took it off this afternoon to clean the Vaults. I think it's still in there!"
Karyn's anxiety over her missing ring seemed to increase over the next two days. Lydith, unfortunately, was chosen to be her outlet to vent her despair, and was thus forced to put up with a never-ending stream of anguish on the topic. "I heard that they do not open the Vaults for years at a time," she told Lydith gloomily during their Kryptian history lesson. "I can't leave it in there for years and years! It's the one valuable thing that my parents gave me, and I had to misplace it in there!"
Lydith had about had enough and was about to enlighten Karyn about this fact when a sharp voice called her name.
"Lydith," called a plump, middle-aged priestess named Sister Lifesteal who was facilitating the lesson. "What were the fundamental terms that were established in the Gorgoth Plains Treaty with the Ardanian lords at the end of Necrolyte Wars?"
Lydith, having read this somewhat the night before, stood up nervously. "Um.. never to attack any lands or holdings of the Ardanian lords?" She continued on hurriedly, noticing that Sister Lifesteal was expecting more. "And that men never be allowed to use the power of Krypta?"
"Precisely," responded Sister Lifesteal, much to Lydith's relief as she sat down. "Because the Necrolyte Wars were solely initiated by the Necromancer Kings, it was decreed that men should never wield the power of Krypta ever again. We know now that this is also Krypta's divine will, for since the Wars, the power of Krypta has shunned men and allowed itself to be manifested in women, particularly daughters of priestesses themselves. Even ordinary women can, after much devotion to the Ways of Krypta, achieve a certain amount of control over the power of Krypta. Not so for men - they cannot wield the power of Krypta any more than a rock can."
Sister Lifesteal then proceeded on with the economic aspects of the Treaty that the Ardanian lords had shrewdly put into place. Lydith glanced at Karyn, expecting a grin of "well done", but found her staring glumly into space.
After the history lesson, they proceeded to their usual haunt in the Temple library and sat down among the stacks of books that were left all over the place. The Temple library was shockingly disorganised, with only one old priestess serving as the librarian, who spent most of her time snoozing in the corner. Karyn had made it her life mission to sort out and categorise the vast number of books that the library possessed. Today, however, she was too preoccupied to even close a few books that had been inconsiderately left open on the table.
"Why don't you ask Sister Fallowmoon for permission to enter the Vaults again?" asked Lydith finally, trying to break her friend out of her misery.
Karyn groaned, apparently anticipating such a suggestion. "She'll just give me one of those piercing stares of hers and say that we should not be attached to material things, or something like that. I can hear her voice already, 'Take this as a lesson from Krypta that you must be ready to forsake all your cherished possessions.' I can't bear listen to that, Lydith!"
Lydith was about to say something to the extent of never knowing until she tried when another Acolyte approached the table where they were sitting. Paulyn stopped next to the table, her face as spitefully smug as ever.
"Still moping over your ring, Karyn?" asked Paulyn with a slight smirk. Word had gotten around without Judith even putting much effort into it.
Lydith decided that having the Acolyte around was definately not a good idea. "Go away, Paulyn. She doesn't need to listen to any of your silliness."
"Oh, but perhaps she does," said Paulyn, giving no indication of leaving. "Perhaps I have something that could bring little Miss Karyn out of her miserable shell." She retrieved something from a fold in her robe and placed it on the table. It was the bronze key to the Temple Vaults.
Lydith and Karyn stared at the bronze key with a mixture of horror and hope; Lydith more horror and Karyn more hope.
"Where.. how did you get that?" asked Lydith, her voice hoarse with shock.
Paulyn shrugged. "I was assigned to clean Sister Fallowmoon's study this morning. Guess what I found in her personal cabinet?"
Before Lydith could ask what Paulyn had been doing looking through Sister Fallowmoon's personal cabinet, Karyn reached out a tentative hand and picked up the key. "It really is the key," she whispered in awe. "I can see the same engravings on it as on the Vault door."
"You cannot be seriously considering going into the Vaults without permisson just to get your ring," demanded Lydith. She regarded Paulyn suspiciously. "And you, why the sudden show of selfless concern? What do you want?"
"Nothing," replied Paulyn nonchalantly. "I just thought that if you two were interested in going down to the Vaults, then I would be interested to come along too." She looked at Lydith, her eyes suddenly bright with excitement. "Think of it! There are so many things we could find in the Vaults! Not the mundane things that the priestesses have been showing us in the first rooms, but the real treasures in the perhaps the second Ante Chamber! And what about that lead cylinder we found? Are you not curious to find out what's in it? The two of you couldn't get your eyes off it."
Lydith forcibly suppressed her curiosity and an urge to throttle Paulyn when Karyn said to the smirking Acolyte, "I'm going if you are. I don't care about treasures or anything. I just want to find my ring."
"Wait," said Lydith angrily. "There's something not right with this." She glared at Paulyn. "Why did you even ask us to come with you? You could have gone by yourself. You don't need me or Karyn to tag along."
Paulyn nodded. "True. I admit that I found the prospect of going down there alone rather.. daunting. I'd much prefer having some company along, and you two were my most likely candidates." She clasped her hands together. "So, are you coming or not? If we do this tonight, I can get this key back into Sister Fallowmoon's study before she goes into it in the morning. She'll never know it was even missing."
Lydith already knew what their answer was, but deep down inside, she felt that they were all going to regret it.
The war with the serpents lasted four short years, but saw some of the bloodiest battles in history. Remnants of the serpent empire once ruled by the insidious Serpent Queen Scrylia had rallied under the leadership of a rare two-headed gorgon general and pushed their way out of their swamplands in the south, determined to re-establish the old kingdom of the snake spawn. The warriors and paladins of the Sovereign had barely recovered from a recent war with the minatour tribes, and were reluctantly plunged into yet another series of vicious battles. For three years, both sides lost and won ground equally; a grudging stale-mate sustained by sword and shield, scales and blood. It was only the addition of the warriors of discord from the Cult of Fervus to the Sovereign's cause that finally tipped the scales of war. With the brutish warriors on their side, the Sovereign's armies drove the snake spawn back into their southern swamplands and killed their two-headed general in the battle at Gorgon Valley.
Gameth had served the forces of the Sovereign for the last two years of the campaign against the snake spawn. Having seen first-hand the devastation a group of discords could do among the ranks of the enemy, Gameth had little doubt over the role his warriors of discord were going to play in any upcoming battle. With their superhuman strength and lack of reasonable fear, a company of discords were the perfect shock-troopers for any army, to be used to spear-head attacks. The simplicity of the role made the discords happy, and the mortality of the role made the rest of the army happy that they had no part in it. All in all, it was a win-win situation.
The problem, however, was getting the discords into the vicinity of the enemy in the first place. Gameth remembered one particular time when the entire army was delayed because a number of discords had taken it into their heads that squirrels were snake spawn. Gameth had spent half the day sitting down on the grass with the rest of his company while watching the army officers (dubiously assisted by several cultists) try to round up the hulking discords who were shouting threats up the trees.
As such, Gameth had decided that all he really needed to do was to teach his discords how to march as a group. Once they got that established, he could just turn them loose on the enemy and let matters take its course. Over the past two days, however, Gameth had found that this was harder than it sounded.
When Aunt Daedra and Sister Shadowlife visited the Warrior Guild that afternoon, they found a battle taking place in its inner courtyard. The warriors of discord did not have their gruesome scythe-like weapons with them, but they were tearing into each other with hands, feet, nails and teeth that it was a wonder that no weapons were being used at all. Aunt Daedra spotted Gameth (who was watching the fray from one side) and they proceeded towards him.
"Krypta's blessings, Sir IronEdge," greeted Sister Shadowlife as they approached, carefully skirting around a pair of discords who were wrestling on the ground. "I see that your discords are sparring."
Gameth shot her a black look. "I'm trying to get them to stand at attention," he informed her.
Daedra had to look away to hide an unbidden smile while Sister Shadowlife maintained her impassive stare."I see," she said after a while. "It seems that it will be some time before the discords heed your orders."
Gameth grunted. He noticed a nearby discord and bellowed, "Finnigus! I saw that! Stop it!" The hulking discord, who was attempting to pull off another discord's boots while the latter thrashed on the ground, threw Gameth a guilty look and promptly released his downed opponent.
"What was that discord doing?" asked Daedra, mildly curious.
"That one? He's called Bootstrap Finnigus because he has an unwholesome appetite for leather. Ate my last pair of boots, that one." Gameth turned back to the priestesses. "So how can I help you ladies?"
Aunt Daedra ignored his brashness and spoke, "We have some news. Apparently, the goblins are moving faster than anyone had anticipated. They are already swarming down from the mountains in their war bands. At this rate, it will not be long before the rest of the horde comes down as well."
Gameth nodded as he listened. He had heard it once mentioned that goblin hordes moved like a dying animal crawling its way along the ground. Groups of raiding goblins spun in and out of the horde at their own whim like swarms of flies, striking nearby locations where they can make a hasty retreat back into the horde if they encounter stiff opposition. Because of the disorganised nature of the horde, it progressed very slowly and having the horde already sending out proper war bands was unusual.
"The Sovereign has decided to expediate the muster of his forces," continued Sister Shadowlife. "We've already received word that the Daurosian forces have left their city of Basille and are on their way here."
"Here?" asked Gameth, raising an eyebrow. "They are coming here first?"
Aunt Daedra nodded. "The plan is for us to join them when they arrive and then move to meet the horde as it comes out of the mountains before it can spread out into the provinces."
Gameth decided that this made sense. Hitting the goblins all in one spot was much more preferable than chasing goblin war bands spread out everywhere. "When are the Daurosians arriving?"
"In three days," replied Sister Shadowlife. "I would hope that you would have a better hold over the reins of your discords by then."
They left Gameth swearing and shouting at his brawling discords who paid little or no attention to the aged warrior.
"So, Sister Daedra," said Sister Shadowlife as they exited the Warrior's Guild. "What is your opinion over the discords coming with us?"
"Personally, I think it's a disaster in the making," replied Aunt Daedra honestly.
Sister Shadowlife nodded. "And after seeing them for myself, I am inclined to agree. I will bring this up with the Convent Mother. Perhaps it is time we used another alternative to the discords."
Aunt Daedra frowned at what she knew Sister Shadowlife implied. "The Daurosians will not like it," she said finally. "They might even refuse to march with us because of them."
Sister Shadowlife smiled. "And that, Sister Daedra, is the Sovereign's problem, not ours. Perhaps it will make him re-think on mix-matching his armies in the future."