AN: The world of Exile/Avernum belongs to Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb Software. Persons and places belonging to the game will be put back unharmed when I'm done. While Walner and other denizens of Fort Duvno appear in the game, most of the conversation held in this chapter is my own invention. Likewise, my adventurers are my possession.
Even less than two weeks in Avernum, and Jynx was finding that circadian rhythms had adjusted to the life with the never-varying green fungal light, and she felt that it truly was morning rather than the disorientation that she had felt on her first days in Avernum. Feeling uncomfortably itchy, Jynx got out of bed, eliciting a muffled groan from the still-sleeping Ansel, and she began to wash herself.
As she realized that her monthly flow had started, Jynx began to curse softly, though she had to admit that she found this to be much more welcome than discovering that she was with child.
"What's wrong?" said Ansel, sitting up, awakened by Jynx's swearing.
"Nothing," snapped Jynx, then she said, "just the damn monthly."
"Oh," said Ansel, sounding unsure what might be safe to say in reply. "Uh, do you need anything?"
"I'm going to go to Walner's shop," she said, arranging some rags. "See if he's got anything to help."
"Um, ok," said Ansel, taking the bag of coins, and removing ten of them. "You'll need this, right?" he said, handing her the bag.
"Yeah, I won't spend too much," she said.
"It's ok," said Ansel, "we've got something coming in, anyhow."
"I'll be back," said Jynx, as she finished lacing her gown, and then she made her way out of the inn.
Walner seemed somewhat surprised at the early visitor to his shop, but recognized Jynx from her earlier visit.
"Good morning," he said, "and how may I help you today?"
"I want to know what you might have for a woman's flux," said Jynx.
"Oh, just the thing," said Walner. "I've got a collection of enchanted rags, fifty gold." He held up a hand to stave off Jynx's protest at the price, as he quickly added, "They're specially enchanted to, upon removal and speaking the word, become clean and dry instantly. The whole set should be sufficient to your needs for many years."
"You designed that?" said Jynx, surprised.
"No, not I. Lovely lady by the name of Cordelia," replied Walner. "Of course, she went up Formello way, I think she was going to study alchemy up there, or perhaps to question Motrax about some of the uncertainties in the potions translation."
"Motrax?" said Jynx, as Walner's use of the name implied someone well known.
"A dragon," said Walner. "Likes humans, and pretty friendly so far as dragons go. Lives up north of Formello somewhere, but I've never been. Now, if these rags won't suit, I have some preparations that make a flux complete in one day, although there are some rather regrettable side effects."
"Side effects?" said Jynx. "Such as?"
"Great deal of discomfort," replied Walner. "I personally wouldn't recommend it for regular use." He looked somewhat apologetic as he said, "The preparation is also used if . . . well, if the flux is delayed."
"That won't be a problem," said Jynx, making up her mind as she reached into the bag of coins. "I'll take a set of those enchanted rags."
"Very good," said Walner, opening a cabinet door, and wrapping up the package in parchment. "The command word is 'poikase'."
Jynx counted out the coins and said, "Thank you."
Taking the wrapped package, Jynx made her way back to the inn, deciding that she wasn't going to openly volunteer how much money she had spent at Walner's. Finding the others already at the table, she found a seat, which, for the first time in several days was not next to Ansel, as Duncan and Brynja occupied those positions.
"Everything go ok?" said Ansel.
"Just fine," said Jynx, giving him a glare to warn off further discussion of the matter when all the others were about.
Catching that look, Duncan said, "So, what's the plan now, chief?"
"I figured we'd start on our way up to Formello," said Ansel, looking a little startled at the title of 'chief'. "Though, it'll take awhile to get there."
"Counting on trouble?" said Duncan, grinning.
"Well, sure there's like to be them bandits Jason mentioned," said Ansel, "and cat heads, but it's also eighty miles."
"Good thing I've kept that hair," said Jynx, looking up from her breakfast. "I guess I'll be using that spell quite a bit."
"I suppose you could get by without keying it to all of us," said Rudel.
"Sure, and if you have to piss in the night, you can't go off, or you'd set it off," said Jynx.
"I guess it is a good idea, then," said Brynja with a laugh.
Seeing that Jynx had finished her food, Ansel said, "Well, I guess we're ready to go." With that, he got up and settled the group's account with Alice.
The day's journey had been uneventful enough, traveling along the road that stretched through what seemed a rather desolate part of these caves, for there were no houses, and only the occasional cavewood tree, stalagmites, and growths of mushrooms to be seen. Finding a semi-sheltered spot away from the roadside surrounded by cavewood and stalagmites, the group made their camp. The campsite augmented by the alarm spell, the watches passed quietly in turn, and they continued on their way for another day and night just like the first.
They had not gone far at all when five leather-clad men, leading a couple lizards who were as tall as their waists, came out from the stalagmites toward the group.
"This is our road, and we'll collect your fee for passage," said the spokesman of the group, "or else we'll have to get violent."
Ansel made a derisive sound as he drew his sword, and said, "We're not much for paying bandits. We are getting good at carving them in two, though, ain't we, Dunc?"
"What ones don't get fried," replied Duncan, drawing his sword, and looking at the group, daring them to advance or stand down.
Perhaps it was boldness inspired by the presence of the large lizards, or a lack of intelligence, or some deadly combination thereof, but the bandits didn't back down, and a battle was soon enjoined. These bandits were bolder than the others, and despite the battle going ill for them, none of these bandits seemed to be of a mind to surrender or flee.
Eventually, with several of Brynja's darts shattered, and a few deep wounds to Ansel and Duncan, the group prevailed, leaving the five bandits and two lizards dead on the cave floor. Rudel rushed to Duncan's side, beginning to patch up his lover, while Brother Theo moved over to tend to Ansel's wounds.
"C'mon, Brynja, let's see what we can use, and get these bodies set for burning," said Jynx. "Suppose we could carve some steaks out of these lizards--it's a shame to waste it all."
Brynja started sorting through the pockets of the fallen men, and said, "Not more than a half dozen coppers. We must have been their first intended victims today, but it seems there ought to be a camp nearby then."
His color looking significantly improved after Brother Theo's assistance, Ansel came over, and said, "We can always go looking once we've finished cleaning things up here. I like the idea of getting some nice lizard steaks for our dinner today." With that, he began to hack up dead lizards into more manageable pieces, and said, "Figure they were reasonably healthy, right?"
"Why do you ask?" said Jynx, looking up from the task of divesting the dead from their useful gear.
"Just . . . I dunno, if they had some disease or something," said Ansel.
"Nah, they're healthy," said Duncan, who likewise looked much better now that Rudel had finished patching him back together. "Only reason they're dead is what we done to them." He grinned, and said, "Here, my axe is probably better suited to hacking them up than that sword."
"Fine," said Ansel, "have at it." He began to clean the blade of his sword, and said, "I'll get these bodies piled up."
Perhaps an hour had passed by the time they finished hacking the lizards into slabs of meat, taking some cavewood to try to dry some meat to preserve it for a later meal, stacked the searched corpses, and set them afire.
"Let's go," said Ansel, surveying the group's handiwork with a satisfied expression.
They had not gone very far at all when they saw the walls of the cave curving down to meet the floor, and sheltered behind a large collection of stalagmites, they saw the remnants of a campsite.
"Think this was their camp," said Ansel, as he looked about, counting the bedrolls and looking things over.
"Fascinating," said Jynx, studying the stalagmites. "This isn't a natural crop of stalagmites here."
"What do you mean?"said Rudel, moving over to look.
"Look here," said Jynx, pointing to hairline fractures. "Looks like they took these from somewhere else around, and made their shelter out of them. But there's still not that much . . ."
Jynx broke off as she saw Brynja lean against the cave wall and then suddenly vanish from view.
Brynja's head poked out of the cave wall a moment later, and she said, "Over here--it must be a powerful illusion or something, but there's a giant room in here, and it's full of stuff."
As he stepped into the room, Ansel lit a torch, and let out a low whistle. "This is something else," he said. "Wonder . . . I mean, none of them used magic, and I figure they would've if they could. Wouldn't they?"
"I sure would," said Jynx. "Perhaps they discovered this and just decided to exploit it. Or there used to be a mage who worked with them. Probably not the same one as at that fort, because that illusion is very powerful."
"It could take us the better part of the day to sort through this," said Rudel. "What do you think about camping here?"
"This early?" said Ansel, and then the fatigue from his injuries came to him, and he said, "Yeah, I guess it'd be a good idea."
"Let's check the walls," said Jynx. "If that is the only way in here, that'll make it easy to set the alarm."
Checking the walls, they found no other concealed doors, and so Jynx set the alarm across the entry to the main cavern, and the group set about sorting through the stacks of things that they found.
"Great, a drying rack," said Ansel, "I'm going to get this lizard meat set up while the rest of you are going through that stuff." He gestured vaguely at the crates stacked alongside the wall.
Hours had passed by the time they had investigated all the crates, finding a fair amount of food and wine, some very nice javelins tucked along the wall behind the crates, and one crate partially filled with golden coins.
"I'm sure that's all the take from earlier victims," said Jynx, "but I don't know how we'd ever find them to give it back."
"Don't think we can at all," said Ansel. "Just have to make sure that we put it to good use, stopping these kinds of people when we can." He stopped, flushing, and added, "Or something like that."
"And when we get to towns with a large church, we can give a donation," said Brother Theo, "to help defray the costs of helping those who have become refugees due to the bandits."
"That's all good to plan," said Duncan, as he started to gather wood to make a fire to cook some of their fresh lizard meat. "But right now--do you suppose it's safe to cook in here?"
"Must be," said Brynja, giving some crates a shove. "They've been cooking here, from the looks of it."
Soon enough, Duncan had gathered a good bit of wood, and brought it over to the spot that Brynja had noticed, and they had their lizard steaks sizzling merrily on the fire before diving in, washing it down with some of the mushroom wine that they had found in the chamber.
When morning came, Jynx felt the edge of a headache from the wine, but that soon dissipated when she had gotten something to eat, though she decided that from here on out, she would imbibe just a bit less of the mushroom wine.
Leaving the hidden chamber, the group made their way to the road, and had traveled some distance further toward Formello when they saw smoke rising from a tiny house in the distance.
"That smoke doesn't look like cooking," said Rudel. "Someone might be in trouble over there. Should we go check it out?"
"I think so," said Ansel. "C'mon."
As they drew closer to the house, they could see the cavewood shingles were alight, but no one was immediately visible.
"Better check inside, to make sure no one is in there," said Ansel, and he led the way to do just that.
Inside the cottage, things had been thrown about, evidence that someone had definitely been searching for something.
"No sign of blood at least," said Brynja. "Guess whoever lived here got away unhurt."
"All right," said Jynx. "Let's go before the roof falls."
They had no more than stepped outside again when a group of ten roughly dressed men approached, and the apparent leader of the group said, "You look to be fair bit prosperous, newcomers. Around here, folks share."
"Around us, that sounds like fightin' words," said Ansel. "Think you're nothing more'n a buncha thieves."
"You'd call us thieves?" said the man with a sneer. "I am wounded. No matter--we'll take what we want from your corpses."
"It's only fair to warn you," said Ansel, drawing his sword, "we're getting to be a dab hand at stopping bandits."
"Since you like fire so much," said Rudel, drawing out the scroll from Silvar, and he read it, and with a loud whoosh, a great ball of fire engulfed five of the thugs.
When the flames had diminished, two of the thugs fell to the ground, apparently too overcome by the pain of the fire--and quite possibly dead. These men fought with a ferocity that was much greater than the bandits the group had faced beforehand.
As the leader's blade bit deep into Ansel's arm, he suddenly cried out, "It burns like that poison!"
As Jynx dropped that man with a well-placed burst of flame, Rudel rushed forward to Ansel's side, his holy symbol in hand as he began to chant the prayer to remove the poison. Duncan's axe and Brynja's darts claimed the lives of more thugs, and then there was only one left, and he started to turn tail to run.
"Not so fast," said Jynx, and she aimed a spell at the thug's feet, turning the cave floor so slick that his feet shot out from under him.
Almost immediately, the greasy film vanished, and Ansel, strength renewed by Rudel's assistance, put the point of his sword to the back of the thug's neck as he started to try to regain his feet. "Where do you think you're going?" said Ansel.
The man was silent for a moment, slumping back to the ground, before he said, "Shit!"
"Well?" demanded Ansel.
"You're going to kill me now, aren't you?" he said, his tone an odd mixture of resignation and sullenness.
"Most likely should," said Ansel. "Think of any reason why I shouldn't?"
"No," replied the downed thug, only resignation in his tone this time.
"Least you're honest about that," said Ansel, looking to the others to see if they had anything to add.
Duncan, who was being tended by Rudel for his own gash by poisoned weapon, made a chopping motion with his hand.
Brother Theo came over, and said, "You want to make a confession before you die?"
"Go to hell," he said, trying to spit at Brother Theo's feet, but falling short.
Brother Theo stepped back, his face showing clearly how he felt about the situation, and said, "There is no reason for delay."
A crash sounded as the roof of the burning cottage collapsed, and with a resolute expression, Ansel drove his sword home, the thug's lifeblood spilling out over the cave floor to create a new slick spot.
"May as well make use of this fire," said Duncan, his tone quiet. "Let's tend the dead."
A quick search of the corpses revealed that they carried no coin with them, apparently not having been successful earlier this day, though each carried a vial of thick, greenish fluid.
"Undoubtedly poison," said Duncan. "Not an honorable way to fight." With that comment, he started hurling the vials into the burning cottage, causing the flames to jet higher for a moment and burn blue before returning to the usual red and orange.
By the time that all the corpses were thrown into the burning house, the flames were still raging, but Jynx looked northward, and spotted some movement in the distance to the north.
"Suppose that's where they came from?" she said, pointing.
"Don't know," said Ansel. "Might as well go find out."