Road to Kebnegard, Chapter Nineteen

New Companions and New Dangers
Tuesday, April 10th, 988 AD

After failing to copy Phantom Steed from memory, a very angry Reynaldo, a frustrated Wong, and a relieved Conrad finally leave the cave that has been their home for the last month or so and set for Kebnegard. But first, they need to go to nearby Toksha to restock on supplies.

Once there, Wong notices a man using the Mason signal for "Holy jeebus, I need help." And of course, Wong immediately asks him what it is he needs help with. He introduces himself as Grettor.

Grettor: You're of the Square?
Wong: Well, not really, but I have helped them from time to time, and they've helped me.
Grettor: Okay, well that's fine. I need help in retrieving a sword.
Reynaldo: How much?
Grettor: I'm sorry?
Reynaldo: How much are you going to pay us to retrieve this sword for you?
Grettor: Well, I can't pay you anything--
Reynaldo: Goodbye then.
Grettor: No, wait! I can't pay you anything, but the people the sword belongs to will surely pay you handsomely.
Wong: Wait, I thought it was your sword?
Grettor: No, I was merely transporting it. I was bringing it to some people in Vastigarna on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
Wong: How'd you lose it?
Grettor: I was set upon by Pythagoreans! They stole the sword from me!
Reynaldo: Wait, wait. Your sword was stolen by a rival math gang? That's possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, and I've been to Venice where they don't know well enough not to build below sea level.
Wong: Although that tends to come in handy when the city catches fire.
Reynaldo: Hmm, that's true.
Grettor: So, will you help me?
Reynaldo: Sure, how tough could math geeks possibly be?

Grettor leads us to a tavern where he picks two other adventurers to help out. Their names are Vera, a homely Russian "security expert," and Shara, a Pictish druid. They also agree to help Grettor and he tells us that the Pythagoreans have holed up in a clearing outside of Toksha, past a forest. We head out there, and Reynaldo and Wong take the time to get to know their new companions.

Reynaldo: So, Pictish, huh? How's that working for you?
Shara: I like your cat. She is a beautiful creature.
Reynaldo: Yeah, she's cool. She comes in real handy sometimes.
Shara: Have you trained her?
Reynaldo: Well, she sort of... came trained.
Shara: Interesting (starts looking at Isabela very intently and does signs with her hands).
Reynaldo: Whoa there, quick draw, what the fuck are you doing? Are you casting spells at my cat?
Shara: I merely wish her to be my friend.
Reynaldo: You'll find that to be easier to do if you don't cast spells at her. She doesn't like that shit.

Wong: So, security expert, huh?
Vera: That's the nice way I put it so that normal people don't get all fidgety.
Wong: So you're actually a thief?
Vera: Yeah.
Wong: Well, that's good. For a second there, I was worried you might be the law, and that would have been problematic.
Vera: You have problems with the law?
Wong: Seemingly everywhere we go.

When we got near the clearing, Reynaldo asked everyone to quiet down and did some reconnaissance. The clearing is surrounded in a semi-circle by the forest and a sheer cliff face on the far side. There is a shack in the middle of the clearing and a stone door on the cliff face. There are two guards on either side of the stone door, one carrying a crossbow, which excites Wong to no end. Isabela tells Reynaldo that there are two more men inside the shack. Reynaldo goes back to the rest of the party and they begin to plan.

Reynaldo: I think we should separate and make a three-pronged attack on these guys. Conrad and Shara go left and Wong and Vera go right. Stay within the tree line and make sure not to get noticed. I will sneak up on the shack and try to keep the two men from leaving. When I give the signal, the four of you rush the other two guards and take them down. Grettor will stay here out of harm's way. How's that sound?
Shara: That sounds adequate, but allow me a moment to prepare myself.
Wong: Prepare? For what?
Shara: For battle, of course.

Shara takes out blue paint and starts to cover herself with it.

Reynaldo: Because this party doesn't look freakish enough as it is.
Grettor: I ask only that you not kill anybody. I would hate to start a war between our clans.
Reynaldo: I don't know. A math geek war sounds awfully amusing.

Reynaldo polymorphs into a rat and goes to the shack. In it he sees the two men, possibly arguing and polymorphs into an imp. When he sees that the two teams are in place, he webs the inside of the shack and the two teams rush the guards. One of the men inside escapes the web so Reynaldo is forced to fight him hand-to-hand in order to keep him away from the rest of the party. We quickly find out that these guys hit really, really hard. Their fists smash our faces and they hurt a lot. Reynaldo takes down his guy, but the guy still stuck in the web starts to force himself out, rather quickly. Reynaldo decides to ditch the no-killing policy and Lightning Bolts him. He burns the webs and nearly destroys the house, but the man is still standing.

Meanwhile, Conrad, Vera, Shara, and Wong fight their guys hand to hand and take one of them down, but not before Vera accidentally shoots Wong in the back. Vera goes to where Reynaldo is and helps him take down the other man, so the final man decides to yield. Grettor steps out of the woods.

Reynaldo: Where's the sword that you stole from this man?
Man: It's hanging from a rock in the shack.

We all go to the shack and see a rock over a hole, but no sword.

Man: It was hanging here. You must have burned it.
Reynaldo: No, I think your buddy over there untied it. Why else would he have taken so long to try to get out of the webs?
Man: Well, it's fallen now.
Reynaldo: Well, then I'm just going to have to go get it.

He climbs down the well and sees a small hole at the bottom, dug through the rock.

Reynaldo: Let me guess... the sword fell through here.

The man nods. Reynaldo sighs and polymorphs into a black pudding and squeezes himself through the hole. A short time later, he comes back up.

Reynaldo: Listen, Grettor. I'm sorry, but we won't be able to get your sword for you.
Grettor: Why not?
Reynaldo: Because this jerk dropped your sword into a dragon's lair, and we're not ready to deal with that quite yet.
Man: There are no dragons in these parts.
Reynaldo: Shut up, chuckles. This is all your fault.
Grettor: Did you see the sword down there?
Reynaldo: No, but the dragon seemed mighty annoyed at something.
Grettor: So the sword could have been taken out of its lair. What's behind that stone door?
Man: Small dog-headed creatures who wouldn't leave us alone, so we barred the door.
Reynaldo: Kobolds... This day gets better and better.
Wong: I bet the two places connect and the Kobolds maybe took the sword.
Shara: So we go in and demand the sword from these dog creatures.
Reynaldo: Okay fine. But we're resting first. Can we trust you guys not to attack us in the night?
Man: We won't if you won't. Sometime tomorrow a large number of fellow Pythagoreans are coming and we'll be leaving with them. No one will harm you.

So we rest for the night, but first we inspect the stone door and see an inscription in Norse that says "The Outpost of Motsognir." No one knows what it means.

Kobolds
Wednesday, April 11th, 988 AD

We wake and get ready for dungeon hacking. Grettor is less than excited about the prospect.

Grettor: I don't understand why I have to go with you. I'm no fighter.
Wong: What kind of Masonic kensai are you?
Grettor: I'm not. I'm merely a courier and messenger.
Reynaldo: You're going down there so that you can see all the nonsense we have to go through. I figure, even if we don't recover the sword, your bosses will have to go give us a little something for giving it the old college try.
Grettor: So I'll be a witness only? I won't be expected to fight?
Vera: Not at all. We'll protect you.
Wong: But you should probably pick up a sword if we all die. You may want to defend yourself then.
Grettor: Oh, I've got pretty good legs, actually.

The party removes the bar across the stone doors and pulls them open. They elect to leave them open in case they need to make a speedy exit. Vera makes listen for whatever she can listen for and hears scrabbling and pitter-patter of little feet. We assume the Kobolds are getting ready. We go down a staircase and down a long corridor that leads into a room.

Vera: Hey, so I've been running my hand on this low ceiling, and I'm starting to feel holes in it.
Reynaldo: Shit! Turn around, go back, quickly!

Vera's warning saves the party from being doused with oil, but not from being shot at through murder holes on either side of the hallway. On top of that, two portcullises comes crashing down in the middle of the hallway, and at the other end of the room, whose floor is now covered in oil, trapping us. A Kobold riding a large weasel comes out of a side door and starts shooting at us as well. Vera and Shara shoot back. Tired of getting shot at, Wong turns on her fear which causes many of the Kobolds on either side of the hallway and the one on the weasel to start running around, crazed with fear. Vera and Shara kill the weasel and Reynaldo polymorphs into a black pudding so that he can squeeze through a hole. Once over there, he uses the confusion so that he can polymorph into a Kobold and blend in. He follows the side hallway around the room and sees more Kobold archers ready to shoot into the room. Since they're obliging by standing in a straight line, Reynaldo explodes them all with a Lightning Bolt. He goes back the way he came and webs the corridor there. One Kobold escapes and Reynaldo kills it with his Axe. He slits the throats of the Kobolds trapped in the web and finds two switches that control the portcullises. The rest of the party joins Reynaldo in the secret parallel hallway. They continued along and saw that this side hallway joined up with the secret hallway on the other side of the room, as well as the room itself on the other side of the portcullis. We continued along and saw a single Kobold with a fancy headdress on his head.

Kobold: Halt! Why have you invaded the Kingdom of Korminak?
Reynaldo: We didn't invade! Man, why does this happen every time we go into a dungeon? You attacked us first, you ambushed us in fact. We merely defended ourselves.
Kobold: Then why did you bar our doors if not as a precursor to invasion?
Reynaldo: That wasn't us; that was some other group of guys. We don't particularly like them.
Kobold: Then why are you in the Kingdom of Korminak?
Reynaldo: We're looking for a sword.
Kobold: Have you come to bathe in the blood of the dragon as well?
Reynaldo (aside): I fucking told you there was a dragon... (to the Kobold) Uh, not if we can help it. We dropped a sword into the lair of the dragon and are looking to retrieve it. Do you know where we can find it?
Kobold: No, but the demons past our fortifications might.

Further into the dungeon there was in fact a lot of debris that had been piled up by the Kobolds.

Reynaldo: Demons, you say. And what are they like?
Kobold: They threaten the Kingdom of Korminak, so they are forced to live out their days behind our fortifications.
Reynaldo: I see. Listen, we're going to go back outside and rest. Will it be alright to come back tomorrow?
Kobold: Will you bar our exit again?
Reynaldo: We didn't bar it the first time, and no, we will make sure it doesn't happen again. Are you going to attack us tomorrow?
Kobold: Not if you announce yourselves.
Reynaldo: Deal. We're off then.
Kobold: Hail Korminak!
Reynaldo: Yeah, hail Korminak.

We leave and rest in the now burned out shack.

Reynaldo: I did not burn the rope.

End Chapter Nineteen
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