Chapter 3
We slowly entered the cave, only lit by a really dim campfire. There were about six goblin cutters, two by the campfire, two by a rock on the left side of the cave, and two by a log on the right side with a tent pitched up behind the two in front of the fire; it had another dim fire coming out of it so we assumed Guldur was in it. They all appeared to be sleeping, so those of us not in hulking heavy armor moved up; Bodo stayed at the entrance and shot one of the two on the left side without waking anyone up. Mythrik and Drakak went to the ones on the right who were asleep on the log; with discretion Drakak crushed the windpipe of one of them, but when Mythrik went to kill the other one he swung and missed with his greatsword just barely. However, he threw himself off balance and fell on top of the goblin, crushing him on impact.
I turned my attention to the two at the campfire, Aireon did the same. I took one of my darts and, with perfect aim, tossed one into one of their eyes; he opened the other and looked at me, his eyes wide with terror, but he wasn't able to speak because he died a few seconds later. Aireon pinned the other one's head to a log and went to go kill Guldur, I followed and took out the fire pit; not everyone had Darkvision but those of us that did were okay. And then, Cruven yelled,
"Behind us, blackblades! They knocked out Bodo I need back up!" I took off over there; vaulting over a big rock, I out ran Cruven and led the charge with him and Bhar to take on four blackblades. They were all standing over Bodo, who lay unconscious on the ground; one of them turned and looked at me, I was the last thing he saw. I struck him in the jaw with my left hand and used the momentum and spin kicked with my right leg and broke his neck. By that time Drakak got there so I disengaged and let them fight, I wanted to make sure Guldur died so I ran back over there, and saw Aireon standing over his body with an arrow in him. I turned around to go back and help the others and saw that they killed all of them with ease and Bodo, a little shaken, standing up and surveying the battle.
"Is that all of them?" yelled Mythrik, we all looked around for a small bit just to make sure that there wasn't any more of them lurking around.
"Yeah that's all of them," said Bhar, "loot who you killed," I looted the goblins that I slayed and then sat by the campfire; Mythrik couldn't see what was happening and threw a torch into it after I put it out. I had used a bit of my Ki when I attacked the blackblade, so I started to meditate for a brief moment and noticed something; I felt something different, like an attunement with elements around me. So, I tried something, I looked at the fire and thought go out, and the fire went out. I was astounded! I knew that some of the monks could do that but I never thought I'd figure it out!
"Hey who turned out the light?" said Mythrik,
"Don't be alarmed, it's just me. Watch this." I did the same thing I did to put it out except backwards and, lo and behold, it lit again. They all thought it was really cool, and so we started to leave, but I needed to do one thing before that. "Hey, someone bring me a sharp, medium size stick; I need to do something, just in case." Bodo brought me the stick, and I went to Guldur's body, with my shortsword I decapitated him and stick his head on the end of the stick. Everyone was a little startled, but they didn't say anything about it, when we got back to the entrance I stuck the stick in front of it to warn other goblins who try to settle in these lands. As we were heading out to go back towards town, we saw the captain of the guard.
"What the hell are you doing here!? I specifically told you NOT to come here." He yelled, he was fixing to pop a blood vessel. But I noticed something; he had brown eyes instead of blue.
"You told us we could come down here and wipe them out, I thought you had blue eyes?" said Cruven,
"What are you talking about?" he said, he was really irritated and confused; but then someone came up from behind him, and before we could say anything the mystery person snapped his neck. Everyone jumped back and pulled out their weapons, we were about to charge him until he put his hands up and we noticed who he was. He was the captain of the guard, the one with blue eyes instead of brown. And then he started to transform into in to someone different, black smoke rose around him as he undergo the process, when it was finished he looked like an elf; he had some demonic looking armor, with a staff with what appeared to look like a blackened human skull in one hand, his eyes were bright red with evil.
He started to talk; his voice had changed to a more sinister tone, each word carrying malice as they left his mouth. "Hold on now men, I did not come to fight I came with a proposition for you all. My master, Demogorgon, and I have been watching you since Bork, and he is impressed with all of you. Come back with me and serve in his army, and you will be rewarded greatly." Aireon and Drakak wanted no part in it and charged him, flanking him on both sides, but with a simple lift of his free hand he shot out a powerful blast that split and hit both of them simultaneously, knocking them to the side.
"Stop friends! Let me deal with this," I said, and so I slowly approached him; and when we were face to face, I felt something thundering within me, a new power with such strength that I couldn't contain it. I extended my hand out for a handshake, and as he was getting close to greeting it I let it out. Let it out is kinda an understatement, all of a sudden the spell thunderwave exploded out of me; sending rocks, dirt, and the loudest thunder clap ever, in every direction. He stumbled back a few feet, but decided to talk instead of fight.
"Well, since you won't listen to reason I refuse to stay, but please consider my offer. It would be a waste to destroy you." He said, and just as he turned to leave, Mythrik shouted,
"That's right, turn your tail and run you cowardly rat!" He turned, his eyes an even brighter, sinister red.
"You know Mythrik, I remember you," his voice now booming louder, "My dragon feasted quiet well on the corpses of your parents!" and with that a giant cloud of black smoke surrounded him, while sinister laughter followed the event. And in an instant, he vanished, leaving a rock with a bright red skull painted on it. We stood around the rock in a circle, until Mythrik picked it up. He was trembling with rage, so much that he crushed the rock in his hand to dust.
"Well where do we go now?" asked Bodo, I turned and noticed he was asking me. Everyone looked to me. "I'm going back home, I know where the dragon lives. I'm going back there to kill it!" Mythrik yelled, he was letting his anger control him, I thought to calm him down.
"Calm down Mythrik, there's no use in using your anger for revenge, it'll only get you and the rest of us killed," he lashed out, "THAT LITTLE HARLOT KILLED MY FAMILY! I'm going to kill his pet; afterwards I'll rejoin you all." Everyone seemed uneasy to join him.
"Did they ever teach you about Marfedelom at your monastery Morgukia?" asked Aireon.
As soon as he said that it hit me; I do know who Marfedelom is, the Grand Master taught our history sessions and every now and then he would bring up his name. "Yes they did, but he is no ordinary warlock. His own name means "Death" in a secondary dialect of Dragonic. Maybe if we head back to the monastery we can find out more about him and see if someone has ever defeated him."
Everyone agreed to go, except for Mythrik, "No, I'm going to my family's grave. I won't kill his pet just yet. Afterwards I'll come join all of you at the monastery." We all understood why he needed to go there; he just met the owner of the monster that killed his parents, and he needs wisdom and clarity. Visiting his parents will remind him of what he needs to do and why, I hope.
"How long is the travel to get there?" asked Bhar.
"About a month's travel on foot, but with Drakak's cart we can probably cut that travel in half." I turned to Drakak and pat him on the back, but he had this guilty look on him,
"Um, about that, I'll tell yall when we get back to town." So we all headed to the entrance of town, but before we went in Cruven put us to a jerking halt, "Stop! Look at the top of the entrance!" We all looked to the top of the entrance and saw wanted posters, with our faces! All of ours said "Wanted for accomplice in bank robbery", except for Drakak's; his said "Wanted for bank robbery and destruction of property." We decided to head out then and there so we didn't alert all the guards, and then have them find their dead captain in a location we weren't allowed to be at.
Aireon decided to turn our attention away from Drakak, "So let's start our journey-", he then teleported five feet to the left, we were all shocked! "How did you do that!" said Bhar, "I don't know, it happened when I said journey-"and he teleported back five feet backwards. So he took off a ring that he must've taken off Guldur's body, it was probably enchanted with blink; blink teleports the wearer five feet in any direction on the command word, so the command word was probably journey.
After that strange event we decided to head north, to my monastery, hopefully we'll discover how to defeat Marfedelom.
…..
We hid for a day in the forest just outside Dustinshire; Cruven got a letter from his order and had to leave us. Drakak admitted that he blew up and robbed the bank and sent his cart back to his home so now we had to walk everywhere. Bodo had a contact in the town and he gave us a map to my monastery and we decided to leave and head there. On the map it had four locations other than Dustinshire; on the road a few miles up was a military checkpoint that we'd need to get though. After that was a fork in the road, one that lead to a destroyed village (that's what the map said), and the other lead to a small town called Dregu. After Dregu was another fork that led to Mount Hilcrest and The Monastery of Eberron.
And then, I thought for a second. I know what that destroyed village is called; I hope it's not the one I think it is. "Mythrik, do you know what the name of that village is?" I asked him, and he just looked down at the ground with a sad look on his face. "Yes, it's called Hearthshire. It's my home village."
"Well, do you want to visit your parent's grave?" asked Aireon, he nodded and so we decided to continue on. We continued down the road for five hours and finally came across the checkpoint, but we didn't get close enough to get spotted. We saw four guards at the gate and one sentry a story and a half above them. The wooden fort walls went two stories high and were pointed at the top, and the walls seemed to go on for miles into the forest.
"LETS CHARGE THEM!" shouted Drakak, but before he could start I nearly close lined him," No, we don't know how many are in the checkpoint and we don't want to add more to our bounty." I said, we all sat for a moment and punched Bhar and Drakak whenever they suggested charging the checkpoint. I suggested that we light a tree on fire near their walls and sneak through during the confusion, but then Mythrik had a great idea.
"Why don't we use Bhar's and Aireon's disguise kits and dress up the rouges as bounty hunters, and bind us with rope, and escort us through the checkpoint." We all thought that was an awesome idea so we dressed Aireon and Bodo up as bounty hunters. When we approached the guards; me, Drakak, Mythrik, and Bhar were tied and bound. They stopped us,
"Halt, what is your business here?" said one of the guards, "We're traveling to Dregu to turn in the bounty on their heads." Said Bodo, one of the guards looked and saw that three of us where missing, "Where are the other three? There's no way you'll get the whole reward without the other three." Aireon looked at him and said, "They fled deep into the forest, we'll come back for them later." After that they let us right on through, and there was an extra thirty guards inside. They only gave Bodo dirty looks, and he whispered the word racists. I whispered his name in Infernal and stared speaking to him with it,
"Bodo, tell everyone else in Elvish not to screw this up. Make it sound like your insulting us." He nodded and then barked my message to everyone else. When we finally made it out of there we untied ourselves and Mythrik, Bodo, and Bhar decided to go the destroyed village while the rest of us went to Dregu.
Dregu is a really small, poorly educated, dirty town. We decided to not even stay in it and we went on to the monastery. I almost wanted to stay and help, but my quest is too crucial to stop right now. We traveled for a few more weeks and eventually met up with Mythrik and them; he told us that some zombies were waiting for them in the graveyard and appeared to be controlled by Marfedelom. When we asked how he knew that, he said they found a stone with a red skull that fell out of one of the corpses. When we got nearer to the monastery, we were shocked. Above it was a red, giant, swirling cloud. And on the ground were legions of undead and about one-hundred monks fighting them with ease.
"Um, that wasn't there when I left," I said, still frightened but curious about the red cloud. "Should we go help?" asked Bodo, but right when he spoke the Grandmaster walked out; he was a medium sized man with a long grey beard, and he wore a white and gold monk robes. He walked down the steps until he reached the last one, and looked around at all the undead plaguing his monastery. With one clap, he cast such a powerful thunderwave that it knocked us down from all the way back there. He had destroyed the entire army of undead, without leaving the steps of the monastery; it is a rare privilege to see the Grandmaster fight.
As we got closer we saw some of the other monks clearing the undead away from the road and burning their bodies. When we finally got into the monastery the Grandmaster was waiting for us.
"Hello Grandmaster," I said with a bow, he looked at me with his piercing blue eyes and spoke in a very gruff voice, "Welcome back Morgukia, it is nice of you to finally visit back at the monastery." He then looked at my friends and proceeded to name them, "And this must be Mythrik, Bodo, Aireon, Bhar, and Drakak. How odd of you to come together in such manner, a funeral, and to stay by each other's side because of some goblins. So why are you here?" I had the feeling he already knew why but I told him nonetheless,
"We need information on Marfedelom, he visited us two months ago near a cave we cleared of a goblin named Guldur. He requested that we join his army and serve his master, Demogorgon." He had a grim look on his face, like he dreaded this question, "We actually don't have much on him, he believes he is an orphan and thinks that serving Demogorgon is his life goal, he hasn't appeared for a few decades though. But, the last time he was here he waged war all across the land in hopes of bringing it to its knees to serve Demogorgon." I got frustrated, "Is there really nothing else about him? Any weaknesses or people who've defeated him before?" he just shook his head,
"However," he continued, "I have some special items for all of you; I think they will interest you." He then opened this chest behind him and started handing items to everyone; it appeared to be magical because he was pulling weapons of out of it that seemed too big to fit with all the other items in there.
"I believe this goes to Cruven, the one who went back to his order for a time." He pulled out a good sized javelin, and it had strange runes and markings that I didn't recognize. He threw it at the wall and strait through an armor stand and let it sit for a few seconds. He then extended his arm and opened his hand, and then all the runes on the javelin started to glow yellow and it flew right back into his hand.
"Next, a ring for master Bodo; be sure not to drop it or lose it in a volcano," he took the ring and studied it for a moment; it had in Infernal the word "vanish", and when he said the words he disappeared! Now we have an invisible Halfling on our side.
"And now, you Aireon, a short bow," that's what it looked like, but it had a strange golden glint to it. He notched an arrow, and in almost the same time it took to fire one arrow, he shot another. And I've seen this elf fight, he can shoot an arrow in less than five seconds at a target; but now he can do two in the same amount of time.
"You, Drakak, I give you Thunderhammer, now you carry the force of thunder with your blows." It looked like a warhammer, but the top part looked like a thunder cloud with a lightning bolt as the spike. You could feel the hairs of your neck stand up as you stood around it.
"Mythrik Locke, I give you Dragon's Bane, it belonged to your father before we found it as we were searching for survivors in Hearthshire." He pulled out a silver longsword, the hilt looked like a red dragon's tail, and where the hilt and blade met was a dragon's head that appeared to be "breathing" the sword; just like a dragon would breathe fire.
"Bhar, I give you this greatsword. It may not appear to do much but it carries lightning with each strike! Use it well." It was exactly as he described it, a greatsword with some lightning.
"And now, you Morgukia, I give you this staff so that you may become one with it as you have become one with your Ki." It was a regular two-handed quarterstaff, but right when I held it I could feel my Ki energy flowing through it. Like the staff was just another extension of myself.
As we were thanking him for these gifts, his eyes turned white and he spoke with a ghastly tone, "Go to the kingdom of Rivian across the sea," as he finished this sentence he commanded us to take a ship from the docks and go, you just simply don't ignore the grandmasters visions. We were to go and speak to King Garret of Rivian, and see if he is in need of our aid. But for now, I need rest; I feel that the next couple of months were going to be the longest ones.