DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Dawn of Revolution
The Collector
One year before the coalition war began...
"Hey mama, look at that funny man! He's got a big beard!"
Rangwin looked up from the little alchemy jug she was polishing (it was over three centuries old, finely made), and saw the gnome gentleman stepping into her antique shop with two friends of his.
"Now, Carys, let's not make fun of people we just met," Rangwin chided her daughter. "He's a customer!" She set down the alchemy jug and beamed, folding her hands over her navel. "Welcome, good sirs, to Curious Antiques. I am Rangwin, the owner. I offer excellent prices on a wide variety of fascinating trinkets and curios found all over the queendom! How can I assist you today?"
The gnome man, who had a bushy blond beard and a green coat over his cream-colored, brass-buttoned vest, beamed. "Good afternoon, madam Rangwin, and I take no offense to your daughter's words. She seems a most wonderful child."
He extended his smile to Carys, who giggled. "Hi, mister," she said a bit shyly.
Rangwin called out over her shoulder, "Owain! Padraig! Come here, boys. We've got customers. You should practice your customer service skills and not just play with my surplus stock back there!"
Her eldest son Owain and the youngest child, Padraig, shuffled in from the antique shop's stockroom, Owain looking confident, Padraig looking terribly modest, even afraid. The poor boy didn't do well with strangers.
"Good afternoon, sirs!" Owain hollered, offering a salute. "I promise you our ma offers low prices you can't beat in the entire Fae Queendom of Talwydd! Just ask our previous customers!"
"But they aren't here," Padraig mentioned timidly.
Owain scowled. "Well they oughta be, so they can back me up! I'm makin' a sales pitch here! Ma told me to!"
Rangwin and her three gnome guests burst out laughing. "Ah, firbolg children are such a delight," the lead gnome man said with a guffaw. "And where are my manners? Dear me! Madam Rangwin, my name is Tiernan Powys, a professor of archeology at the University of Elwyn Llwyfain. I have a proposition for you."
Rangwin's long, blue ears perked up at that, and she motioned for her three children to gather around her to hear this.
Tiernan cleared his throat. "Recently, some associates of mine discovered an ancient temple of the war god Ulsteri in the forest just a few miles northeast of here, and initial surveys are promising. As a respected antique dealer, I propose that you join us and lend us your expertise in sorting historical treasures from... well..."
"Junk!" Carys cried, throwing up her arms.
Tiernan laughed again. "Your daughter doesn't mince words, madam Rangwin! Yes, I need someone with an expert eye to help me decide which items are worth salvaging and which are not. We can only carry so much. And of course, you will be compensated for this."
Rangwin folded her arms over her chest, cocking her head as she thought it over. "Hmmmmmm. I may run a shop, but I'm in the business of antiques for the love of it, not for gold. You should know my kind isn't easily swayed by coin."
"Oh, I have worked with firbolgs in the past, madam Rangwin," Tiernan said casually. "I was not offering gold or even precious gems. What I meant was, you may keep one antique of your choosing if our mission to Ulsteri's long-lost temple is a success."
"Whoa. Ma, you should totally do it!" Owain said, pumping his fists, his bright green eyes shining. "That sounds really cool!"
"What if mama gets hurt? The forests have lots of monsters," Padraig mentioned nervously. "Like driders and giant apes and slaads and stuff!"
"Slaads and stuff will not be a concern, my boy," Tiernan said confidently, puffing out his chest. "I hired several mercenaries here in town to protect us in case we come across bandits or other creatures. I paid top coin for them. I assure you, your mother will safely return by nightfall for supper."
Rangwin hesitated. A trip to a long-lost temple to find fresh antiques? She couldn't ask for more! Her last few trips to the wilds hadn't been fruitful... but she liked to do these things with her own discretion, and she had been swindled before by so-called business partners and shady collectors...
But she also fancied herself a good judge of character. Mr. Tiernan Powys was all right.
Rangwin made a warm smile and spread her arms wide. "Very well, Mr. Powys, you've convinced me. How soon can be we off?"
"Excellent! And to answer your question, right away." Tiernan clapped his hands together and looked around. "I don't suppose there's someone who can look after your little ones?"
"Yes. My friend and her husband run the next-door shop. They sometimes babysit the kids." Rangwin motioned to her sons and daughter. "Owain, Carys, Padraig, how'd you like to spend the day with Mr. and Mrs. Doyle?"
"Yeah! I bet they'll have sugar cookies again this time!" Owain cheered. "Come on, let's go." Owain, ever the go-getter, took his brother and sister by their blue hands and guided them out of Rangwin's antique shop and to the potions shop next door. They'd be in good hands... so Rangwin could get her own hands on new treasures!
"Lead the way, sirs," Rangwin said with a polite bow.
Half an hour later, Rangwin and her three new gnome business partners had trekked down the capital city's main cobblestone streets as steam-powered zeppelins lazily drifted by far overhead, and then Rangwin met Tiernan's hired escorts. They were a motley squad of eight adventurers, including a burly human man with no shirt but a huge ax, a wood elf lady with wicked daggers and a crossbow, and even another firbolg, a young man with a shortsword at his hip and a coiled length of rope tied to his other hip. He gave Rangwin a curt nod that she returned.
"She's the one. Meet Rangwin," Tiernan told his hired help as they gathered near Elwyn Llwyfain's busy main gates. "She is an antiques dealer and collector. She'll help us sort the historical treasures from the -"
"From the crap. Right," the wood elf ranger said with a cocky grin. "Are we gonna go or what, Mr. Powys? Time's wasting."
"That it is! Great discoveries await us! Let us go." Tiernan snapped his fingers, and the united squad rented a horse-drawn carriage out of Elwyn Llwyfain's safe, walled confines and into the enchanted fairy forests that lay beyond.
As Padraig had worried, a few creatures of the forest came close to attacking Tiernan's team once they ventured into the woodland, but the eight mercenaries kept them at bay with warning shots and loud cries. A nasty-looking blue slaad was the first to cower and flee when Tiernan's hired helpers said "go away" loud and clear with two well-placed fire arrows in the tree trunk next to the creature.
"Not much longer... almost there, now..." Tiernan said, panting as he led the squad deeper into the mystical forest. He wiped his brow. "And... there! See it? Right where I was told it would be."
Rangwin gasped at the sight of a well-preserved stone temple to the war god Ulsteri, complete with a slightly peaked roof, thick columns carved with leaf and vine motifs, and the distinct T-shape of the entire structure, with the longest part in front.
"Oh, yeah. Gotta be lots of treasure in there," the barechested, ax-toting man said as the team marched right in, torches held at the ready. "Hey, Mr. Powys, do we get a bonus if there's lots of goodies in here? Like if we find some gold crowns or a whole treasure chest of rubies?"
"Perhaps," Tiernan said vaguely, eagerly looking all around the temple's interior. Rangwin didn't blame him for being so preoccupied; this place was wonderful! The smooth interior walls, carved from pale gray stone, were lavishly decorated with carvings and mosaics depicting great battles and divine scenes from the Fae Queendom of Talwydd's history, including an ill-fated invasion from the Ayalakh Khanate about four centuries ago. Stone benches and empty water basins helped fill the otherwise empty temple. Emphasis on empty.
"Hmmmmm. Not seein' much treasure in here. So much for that bonus," the elf ranger lady said sourly, running her hands along a mosaic.
"Waste of time," another mercenary grumbled.
"Now, now! Temples like these always have secrets that they're reluctant to surrender to intrepid explorers like us," Tiernan said brightly as he and his gnome friends pressed further into the temple. "But... that's odd..."
Rangwin, who was admiring a mosaic depicting Ulsteri befriending the archery god Boghdreacht, turned and saw Tiernan's point. The three gnome gentlemen stood before another mosaic-covered wall at the temple's back, but based on the temple's size, this wall was oddly placed. The back wall should be about twenty or twenty-five further back! Why was there so much wasted space?
"I can take care of this. May I?" Rangwin joined the gnomes and put her hands on her hips, examining the temple's back wall.
"Do you have an idea, madam?" one of Tiernan's associates asked.
"I sure do." Rangwin grinned and touched a hand to the mosaic, running her fingers along the green, brown, and blue stones set into it. "I've seen scenes like this in murals and pottery from all over Talwydd, but none of them were arranged quite like this. The figures and trees in this mosaic are gesturing toward something as though to say 'look at this!'."
"But there's nothing here," Tiernan's other associate said dejectedly.
Rangwin's smile widened. "Ah, my friend, you should learn to see what's not there, and realize that some absences are a presence." She saw the pattern come together in her mind, and pressed her large hand on the exact right spot.
A small, blank section of the smooth stone wall slid inwards with a gentle push, and then a ten-foot-wide section of the entire wall retreated inward about fifteen inches and slid to the side, revealing a hidden, pitch-black room that was positively humming with sinister magic. Surely, this was where all the promised treasure lay!
"Oh, dear me. I am not setting foot in there," one of Tiernan's friends cried, taking an automatic step back.
Once again, Rangwin hesitated. Her sharp firbolg senses didn't pick up on any monsters or even any harmful plants, spores, or mold in this hidden room. But she did feel a noxious wave of dark, deathly magic that came from a focused point on the room's far side. She waved her torch around, but it wasn't enough to light up the whole chamber.
"Does anyone have illumination spells or scrolls on hand?" Rangwin asked over her shoulder.
"I gotcha. Here." The elf lady with far too many daggers stepped forth, drawing a scroll from her pouch and reciting a few words. Then she held up a spare, unlit torch, with a brilliant sphere of white light glowing on its end. Rangwin shielded her eyes, and then she squinted through the brilliant light to examine the room.
This room had exactly one thing in it: a shortsword held on a wooden bracket mounted on the far wall.
"A sword? That is all?" Tiernan asked, clearly dismayed as he stepped into the brightly-lit room. "And it looks so foreboding."
Rangwin had to agree. The shortsword, which was in perfect shape and clearly of elven make, had a shiny black blade and an amethyst set into its pommel. It would clearly fetch a fine price in any weapon shop in Elwyn Llwyfain, but this wasn't the kind of treasure Rangwin and Tiernan had in mind, that's for sure. Rangwin had a rather odd feeling about it, too.
Then Rangwin had a really bad feeling, her instincts screaming at her to fight.
"AAAAAARGH!"
The elf lady snapped into motion, throwing one of her daggers right into a fellow mercenary's chest, where deadly poison sizzled in the wound. The mercenary collapsed, choking as he died. And that wasn't all. The bare-chested human man turned on the other mercenaries too, striking them down before they could even prepare their weapons. Then, when the elf lady finished another mercenary with a second dagger, she and her burly friend turned on Rangwin and the gnomes, wicked grins on their faces.
"What is this! What have you done!" Tiernan shrieked, clutching his face.
"Shut up, shortstack." The elf ranger pointed at him with a dagger. "Don't you know what that sword is? It's priceless! My pal and I are gonna take it and make a name for ourselves with its power. Consider our contract terminated."
"But... what... my word..." Tiernan turned back and forth between his traitorous mercenaries and the sword on the far wall. "What manner of sword is that so you'd betray us for it?"
"That's Loranleth. Ever heard of it?" the mercenary man said with a greedy look in his eyes. "One of the four Noble Swords! It vanished here in Talwydd a hundred years ago. Looks like Ulsteri's followers decided to hide it here, but now it's ours."
Rangwin blinked. Of course! Loranleth, the Noble Sword of necromancy! It, Eril-va, Vardindal, and Bara-shun were the greatest weapons in the world, always passed from one owner to another.
"You're collecting them, aren't you?" Rangwin asked, her voice a nervous croak. Her mouth felt dry with terror. "The four Noble Swords? So you can unlock their secret?"
"That's the plan," the elf mercenary said casually. "Loranleth will be a good start. Then we'll find the other three and see what happens!"
The burly man, meanwhile, took this opportunity to march across the room and seize Loranleth for himself. He gave it a few test swings and whistled. "I don't need some foolish battle-ax when I've got this!"
"Yes, yes. We can play with it later," the elf said, gesturing. "Now help me tie these fools up."
Rangwin automatically backed into a corner, her heart racing, thinking only of her three children and her husband, the latter of whom was currently speaking with his clan's elders elsewhere in the forest as he often did. Would she never see her family again? If these two traitors didn't kill her, they'd take her prisoner and force her to help them find the other three Noble Swords, most likely. She said as much.
"Heh. That's right, lady. We're gonna need you four to help us find the other Noble Swords," the elf said.
"Would be easier to just kill 'em," the man said as he tied up the three gnomes with a length of rope, binding their arms to their sides.
"Maybe after we've gotten the swords," the elf said. "For now, let's just get outta here."
Rangwin wanted so badly to pummel these two criminals and make a break for it, but she didn't dare fight someone who wielded the world's greatest necromancy sword! She could overpower any human or elf with her natural strength, but Loranleth... that was a different matter.
With immense regret, Rangwin stood still and allowed the mercenary man to bind her wrists with rope. Then the two mercenaries forced their four captives to march back out of the temple of Ulsteri and retrace their steps through the forest, toward their waiting carriage at the forest's edge.
Think, think! Rangwin tried not to tremble from fear and indignant rage as she marched at swordpoint, her mind racing. She could still fight back, but one slash from Loranleth, and it was over. And Tiernan and his associates weren't fighters at all. If Rangwin tried something and they got killed, she would never forgive herself. It was nothing but the six of them, the trees, and all kinds of nasty monsters...
That's it!
Rangwin closed her eyes and opened her mind, allowing Talwydd's natural rhythm to flow through her ears and nose. Her people were closer to the wilds than any foolish human, or even the elves for that matter. Rangwin felt the sparkle-roads of the fairies winding through this forest, along with the musty scent of giant apes and even the sooty smell of a lumbering fire giant. And...
Rangwin stopped, opened her eyes, and let out a particular shriek that echoed through the forest.
The two mercenaries stopped. "Quit makin' a racket!" the man demanded, gesturing carelessly with Loranleth. "Or I'll cut ya!"
"Don't cut her. Just beat some sense into her," the elf told her ally. "And maybe those foppish gnomes too for good measure..." Her voice trailed off, her eyes wide, her pointed elf ears perking up. "Oh, no."
"Huh? What -" the mercenary man let out a terrified yelp when a scaly green dragon, a young one the size of an elephant, came bursting out from the foliage, snaking its head around to find its prey. It let out a deafening roar that stank of poison, its wings stretching wide in a display of aggression.
"A dragon! You gotta be kidding me! Now, of all times?" the elf lady roared in frustration. "Come on, let's chase it off! This is our chance to test Loranleth's power!"
The dragon merely inhaled, then exhaled its deadly breath weapon: a narrow, smoky cone of deadly poison gas.
The two mercenaries wailed in unspeakable agony as the poison gas enveloped them, rotting them to the bone before they could even muster a defense. Loranleth dropped to the ground, innocently laying there, looking so oddly helpless.
"Dragon! By the gods...!" Tiernan and his fellows turned and ran, but that only made them more obvious as prey, and the green dragon stalked toward them, sinking its huge, clawed paws into the dirt as it went, snapping off tree branches with its wings. It was now or never.
Rangwin let out a cry and leaped down onto Loranleth, slicing her ropes apart with the weapon's edge, careful to not let that blade directly touch her skin. Success! The ropes fell to pieces, and Rangwin, unable to believe what she was doing, seized Loranleth and approached the green dragon.
Knowing she only had one shot, Rangwin tightly gripped the Noble Sword in her right hand, making another cry to get the dragon's attention. Once the dragon turned from the gnomes to the brave firbolg woman approaching it, the dragon parted its jaws, more poison gas leaking from its maw -
Rangwin let out a defiant shout and hurled that priceless elf-made shortsword as hard as she could. Loranleth shot through the air like an arrow loosed from its bow, and struck the green dragon right into its upper chest.
The green dragon threw back its head and screeched in pain, with Loranleth rapidly corroding and rotting its flesh, filling the air with noxious black smoke and the foul stink of decay. Once Loranleth chewed its way through a wide circle in the dragon's chest, the sword fell right out, and the agonized dragon whirled around and rushed off, clutching a hand to its ghastly wound. Rangwin watched it go, confident that no other creature would dare come close after hearing a dragon make such a ruckus. Come on... come on...
A few moments later, Rangwin was convinced the dragon was gone, and she sank to her knees, panting and trembling. What was that! She was no fighter! She was an antique collector and a proud wife and mother of three! She looked at her own two hands, wondering if this made her a warrior... or a monster.
No. She was no monster. She saved Tiernan's team's life, and made sure she would return home today. Firbolgs didn't believe in war, but they also didn't believe in cowardice and foolishness. Rangwin had done well today.
Rangwin wiped her brow, collected herself, and freed Tiernan and his gnome friends from their bonds. "Are you hurt?" she asked them urgently.
Tiernan hugged Rangwin's leg. "Madam Rangwin! We owe you our lives. And what incredible heroism! I cannot thank you enough!"
Rangwin made an exhausted smile. "I just did what was right. Now let's get out of here. I know this forest and its denizens; I'll make sure we return to the carriage and get back to the city." She looked over her shoulder at Loranleth lying n the ground, adding, "and I'm bringing that with me."
Tiernan's team had no objections. Carefully, Rangwin collected Loranleth once again and held it at the ready, escorting her three gnome friends through the fairy forest and back to their carriage, where the nervous horses snorted and pawed at the ground.
"Shhhh. It's all right," Rangwin assured the two animals, speaking to their primal instincts. "The dragon is gone. We're safe."
The horses agreed, and they swiftly carted their four passengers back through Elwyn Llwyfain's front gates and into the safety and comfort of the city, just as the sun was going down. Once the group disembarked, they headed for the university in Elwyn Llwyfain's academic district, where Rangwin offered Loranleth. "Keep it. For study," she told them.
Tiernan shook his head. "I dare not take that weapon, and not just because of its fearsome power. It is yours by right, madam Rangwin."
Rangwin gave the three gnomes an incredulous look, and they all nodded. "You saved all our lives with it," another said.
"We trust you as its new master," the other added.
Rangwin laughed nervously. "Perhaps I should hand over to the city guard captain. Or even show it to the queen."
"That is your decision to make, as Loranleth's new wielder," Tiernan said solemnly with a bow. "Farewell, madam Rangwin, and give our best to your children and husband."
Still numb with shock, Rangwin bade them goodbye and wandered through Elwyn Llwyfain's streets, her mind buzzing. Should she give it to the town guards? But what if it got stolen or was misused? She would never do anything like that...
Rangwin looked down at her Noble Sword, and the reality of it finally sank in. She gripped its handle tighter. This mighty weapon was now hers, and no one else's. Perhaps Loranleth had psychic properties, too, because Rangwin already felt oddly attached to it, even identifying with it. She was the wielder of a Noble Sword. It could be no other way.
Rangwin hummed to herself as she wandered back home, finding a decent shortsword sheath in a weapons shop on the way there to keep Loranleth's deadly blade at bay. She would always treasure this new weapon, but returning home to her three children was what truly made her happy, and her shop seemed to beckon as a safe haven of commerce and antique intrigue. That was enough fighting for now. For a long time, in fact. But still...
Never mess with a mother.