Chapter 4
I opened my eyes and grabbed my head where I was just assaulted by a dwarf, yelling in pain, "Ow! That really hurt Torvin!" I griped at my combat instructor, Torvin, who had been trying to teach me all week about the "fundamentals of swordplay". Which I'm pretty sure means "this is how you knock the bloody tar out of someone!" The stout dwarf paladin walked over and gave me his hand, "Oh don't be such a wee baby, pick up your stick and let's have another go. Just remember, you need to keep yourself balanced or I'll probably knock you in the head again." Out of all the things a fifteen year old Tiefling would be doing, I bet getting beaten by a dwarf is not one of them. I grabbed the stick and his hand and got ready for round forty-five I believe it was; I don't know what I was doing wrong. I did everything right, I parried and dodged when I needed to and kept an eye on my surroundings but every time it was the same thing; he would knock my sword away when I lunged and he would hit me on the head, which sent me spiraling to the ground.
"Try tumbling behind Torvin and take his feet out from under him," I heard a familiar voice say to me, before I could turn around Torvin tripped me and sent me face first to the ground. But, before I hit the ground I felt a top of a foot keeping my face from touching the floor. It lifted me up the rest of the way I was standing in front of my favorite teacher, Master Kia. "Oh well look who it is, the only man alive that can beat me in a fight. Come to gloat have you? I'll knock that dirty brown badger clean off your face!" said Torvin in a very banter like way, "You don't always have to make fun of my beard just because you can't grow one," he retorted, Torvin started to laugh and Master Kia joined him. Soon the whole room was filled with those two laughing. When they stopped Master Kia turned to me, "I always found that Torvin had trouble changing his footing to block someone from behind, but that is only one of many weaknesses. Yours Morgukia is that you put too much anger into your attack, and not enough control. If you used your strengths instead of your weakness, perhaps you could beat the big mouthed dwarf." I grew frustrated, "What strengths? I'm not good at fighting this is a waste of time." He then approached me and put two fingers on my forehead, "Your strength comes from here," he put two fingers on my heart, "and here, just use them. Begin!" He said as I nearly got smacked upside the head by Torvin right when he said that. So, I did everything again like usual, but instead of lunging at him I got a brilliant idea. I took my tail and wrapped it around his leg and pulled it out of his stance, and as he knelt down to pry my tail off I disarmed and wacked him in the head.
"Ow! That's unnecessary!" he yelled, but broke out into a toothy grin afterwards, so I helped him up and then I was dismissed to have some free time. During my free time; I saw a woman standing in my room. For a second I didn't know who it was, until I saw the tail and horns, "Mother!" I shouted, she turned around and smiled at me and opened her arms. I ran towards her and we embraced each other.
"Son, sit down I have to tell you something," we sat down on my bed and she began her story, "You know how I told you that I will have no more children, and that you were my last one. Well that's true, but I never told you about your older brother. I had him when I was young and at a very "low" point in life. When he was born his father was mortified that he had a Tiefling son and gave him to an orphanage behind my back." She looked very sad, depressed even. I myself was in shock; I never gave it much thought that I had siblings. "His name is Drexel, and when the monks send you to do works in other cities try to find him. He'll be all you have left soon; when your father and I pass away."
After that she left, and then I made it my mission to do so. Every town they sent me to I asked around, but came up short every time. I almost gave up hope, but I couldn't abandon my mother's wishes. I'll find him; even if I have to do it in the afterlife.
…..
A few months had passed, Drakak stayed below deck most of the time because of a fear of drowning or something. All of us that didn't have beards were a little scruffy now, and I had a lot of time to get familiar with my staff. It didn't take too long because of the ki focus with it, so I just spent most of my free time meditating and training my martial arts. Then one day we hear the guy up in the crow's nest yell,
"Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy!" we all thought that it was a friendly trade ship for a second, but then Mythrik noticed something odd about the flag.
"Does that flag have a red skull?" we all leaned over the edge of the ship and saw that indeed it did, Marfedelom's red skull.
"Friends of yours?" said the half-orc captain, he looked like he could take a ballista to the face and he wouldn't even blink.
"Old friends, Bhar go get Drakak. I think we're about to have a fight on our hands." He ran down the stairs and into the crew quarters, I thought I heard Drakak go "Huh!? ONE SE-"*DING*. I was later told that the others had placed a frying pan above his head for when he wakes up. Anyways, Aireon came up and had a brilliant idea,
"We got any oil? Me and the Halfling can go up into the crow's nest and take out their sail with fire arrows. Cut off their way to escape or chase us." I thought about it for a moment with the captain, "Yeah that might work, if they don't see you going up there. They could possibly recognize you." Said the captain.
I knew I could do something about that, "Here, I'll use my powers to cast some mist on us so we have the element of surprise." And then I noticed the ballista, "May we use your ballista captain? We could try and take out the mast so they have no chance against us." He readily agreed and went to prepare his men to board the ship once we disabled it. I used my Elemental Attunement to cast a light mist to block their view. Then, Bodo and Aireon swiftly climbed up to the crow's nest and readied their arrows. By this time Bhar and Drakak had gotten back on the deck with me and Mythrik, and so I revealed the plan to them,
"Okay you three, you're going to help me fire one of the ballistae at that ships mast. As we're doing that; the two rouges are in the crow's nest with fire arrows at the ready. I need you to help me man the ballista and take down there mast so we can board. Any questions?" Drakak's hand shot up, "Can you tie me to the ballista missile?" Why is he such an idiot? I thought; that would be funny to watch though.
"No Drakak, you most likely wouldn't survive the impact," Mythrik said, Drakak and Bhar seemed a little downtrodden but they knew it was for the best.
I chimed back in to avoid any other really bad, but funny ideas, "We only have one shot to hit the mast, a ballista doesn't hit the same place twice. Wait for my signal." By this time the enemy was about one-hundred yards away, so we got into position and waited for them to get closer. They finally got to where we could see their faces; they were utterly confused as to why there was a random "ghost ship" floating around the sea. They were especially surprised when I gave the signal,
"NOW!" I shouted, and thanks to Aireon's new bow there were about twenty arrows flying through the air by the time we set the ballista. With our enemy confused and scared because of their flaming sails, Bhar hit the release on the ballista and sent it hurling through the air. Thanks to our well placed shot the mast shattered at the bottom, like a tree when struck by lightning. I dissipated the mist and the captain's men sprang into action.
"Alright men!" yelled the hardy captain, "Let's go bang some heads together!" all of his men charged up and boarded the ship almost before we could blink. Drakak, Bhar, and Mythrik had gotten there before me though and it looked like they had an easy fight. There was goblin blood soaking the water and deck and goblin body parts strewn about everywhere; some with arrows sticking in them and pinning them to parts of the ship.
"Men, don't let the ship go to waste! Let's salvage what we can before she goes under!" yelled the captain. We all got off the sinking ship and let the sailors do their work; we didn't get much off the goblins we killed so we just helped load and store things.
"How much longer do have before we can get off this bloody boat," said Drakak, who had appeared to have vomited a little over the side of the ship.
"We only have one month left of travel before we get to Rivian; don't worry, you'll live dwarf." said the captain as he patted the dwarf on the back. The next month was just all laughs and merriment. The captain became good friends with all of us and offered us a favor from him if we ever need it.
When we got to Rivian, it was surprisingly big. All you could see for miles was the kingdom and large towers and walls protecting it. We decided not to waste any time and head directly to the castle, where the king lived. When we approached the gate the guard let us in thinking we were just some common tourists, but we told him what we were and why we needed to see the king. He escorted us to the king; the king was sitting on his throne talking to other dignitaries and generals. When he saw us he dismissed them, and the throne room was silent.
"What is your business here?" he asked. "We have traveled from the Monastery of Eberron on the grandmasters wishes. He feels that you are in need of some aid, so is there anything we can do to help?" I asked, he perked up and gave us a grin, "Now why would I need the aid of a few bank robbers in this time of war?" We were stunned; Drakak's crime has crossed seas? What other kingdoms know of this?
"Um sir, some of us are actually innocent." Said Bhar, the king looked at us with a worried expression. "I don't care about your crimes; I'm about to face a war tomorrow and need aid. If you're willing to help I'll reward you." Everyone else liked the sound of that,
"What kind of reward?" asked Drakak.
"One of two choices, one weapon or piece of armor from the royal armory; or something from the treasury. But, we have to win tomorrow or you get nothing." said King Garret.
We accepted the offer, but first everyone needed to improve their weapons and armor. Well, everyone accept me and Bhar; Bhar wanted to go play in the bath tubs and I wanted to talk to the generals about this situation. But, I needed to ask Bodo a favor,
So I asked him in Infernal," Can you use your criminal contacts to find my brother? His name is Drexel, and I don't know if he's alive or not. I would really appreciate it if you did." He agreed to help me and we all went on our way.
When I entered the war room there was multiple generals; some tall and built to destroy, and some who were short and skinny. There was a wide variety of them in size and shape, but they were all humans. So I spoke and asked for the one they take orders from,
"Excuse me, which one of you is in charge? I and a few of my friends were asked by the king to help with this war. I wanted to consult you first though."
One of them looked at me with disgust, "Who let a demon in here?" he said, I was used to people being racist towards me so I just calmly answered,
"Sir, I am a Tiefling. Not a demon and I am here to help." One of the Generals spoke and said,
"I don't see a demon, just a possible ally. Come now, and ask away." Everyone appeared to heed his words, so I spoke.
"How does the battlefront look and how many troops do we have compared to theirs?" I asked
"This looks like an easy fight, they have five-hundred troops and we have two-thousand. Not only do we have that advantage but from what our sources told us their lead general is a coward. Although, we can't assume anything yet." He replied, I dismissed myself afterwards and met up with everyone else in the town. I found everyone coming out of the blacksmiths shop; Bodo came running out the door to greet me in infernal,
"I didn't find him, but I did find his son. He's in the town, just go down the main street and take the third alley on your right; from there you should see a green door. He's in there, so we'll meet you back at our quarters when you're done."
I scurried down the main street and tool the third alley, but only to find that I went left so I rushed the other direction. When I came to the door I got chills; I was about to meet my nephew, and I almost couldn't open the door. I think it was just the uncertainty of it, but I stood there for a few minutes thinking about opening it. Finally, I built up the confidence to open the door; it was a dark room and all that I could make out was a man sitting at a dimly lit area in the middle of the room. When he looked up at me I realized that he was a Tiefling, and he looked really similar to me. But, when I took a step towards him he pulled out a dagger and lunged at me. Before I could react he tackled me to the floor with the dagger to my throat, and I instinctively palmed him in the chest and sent him flying towards the ceiling. He hit his back on the ceiling and came hurling back to the ground; I had enough time to roll out of his path and get up so I could calm him down. When he hit he let out a groan, and rolled over on his back to look at me from the ground,
"Is that how you greet all your family members, nephew?" I asked him
"What? I thought you were my dad, so I attacked you. What do you want?" he said, rubbing his chest where I just assaulted him.
He was young, maybe about sixteen years old and about five feet tall. I gave him a hand and helped him up; he looked like me when I was his age. I decided to explain my situation,
"I'm looking for your father; do you have any idea where he is?" when I asked him this he looked down at the dagger in his hand.
"No, a few years ago he handed me this dagger and said "good luck". I've been following his footsteps; trying to become a master thief and all." He chuckled at that last sentence, and I couldn't help but crack a smile.
"Ok, how about we help each other. I'm traveling around right now so if I find him I'll try to contact you immediately, and you do the same on your end; deal?" I extended my hand hoping he'd shake on the deal, but he hugged me instead,
"Deal, I got to go. I hope we see each other again; in this life or the next."
We both went our separate ways, he went to his people and I was on my way to mine. I found everyone sitting around the room the king provided for us; it was a nice room with six queen size beds and six bathrooms. They seemed to be waiting for my arrival to discuss the quest, so I pulled a chair up to them and began to discuss tomorrow's battle plan,
"Ok, tomorrow the goblins are going to attack with an army of about five hundred and the king will defend with over two-thousand. There are rumors that the underboss leading the army is a coward, so if we overwhelm him we should have the advantage. If he falls, his men will most likely scatter, any questions?"
No one had anything else to input, so we went to sleep. Hopefully we all come out of this intact.