Road to Kebnegard, Chapter Eleven

Resting and More of Wong's Suitors
Monday, February 13th, 988 AD

Iarena, the Lord Mayor's wife, invites us all to stay in the Mayor's Mansion in order to heal. We agree and since only Jean-Claude, Edward, and Reynaldo can actually walk, Captain Gaafa calls for some stretchers and we're all moved to the mansion. Once there, Iarena tells us that there might be a way to cure Ivan's insanity and Anna's sudden onset of youth, and that's by going to the magic pool that cures her sickness. We agree to go there once we're all good, but meanwhile, Reynaldo and Edward go get Conrad and Svipdag from the hospital tent where they had been staying at and they also joins us at the mansion. We all go to sleep, but the Lord Mayor comes to Reynaldo's book and asks about the Black Sword that the woman from the pool had fallen on. It seems Captain Arkady had it after the battle, but then lost it. And Arkady can't seem to remember anything from about three weeks back. Reynaldo feigns ignorance on both counts (he knows Edward picked up the sword and that Arkady can't remember anything because Gunther's soul has left his body) and the Mayor goes away. Reynaldo sneaks over to Edward's room and explains the situation. Edward has Stepanova look at the Black Sword to see if it's evil and sure enough, it is. Edward and Reynaldo take it to the Mayor who says they ought to keep it until the council meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

Later, a girl comes looking for Wong. It turns out, when Wong had to flee Novgorod because everyone was trying to become her husband, she stayed with a farming family. Wong was dressed as a boy then and accidentally agreed to marry the girl, named Prebana. Prebana had come to Novgorod because her father had died and had just recently heard of Wong's return. Instead, Wong crushes her dreams by revealing that she's in fact a girl, but cooks up a plot in which she'll take two of her fiancees, Svipdag and Prebana, and marry them to each other. We all sleep the rest of the night.

Downtime Things and the Evil Sword
Tuesday, February 14th, 988 AD

Wong's matchmaking immediately falls apart as Svipdag wakes up early and says he has to go west as soon as possible. Reynaldo begs him to wait awhile and they'll all go together, but Svipdag says he's sorry and leaves. Wong immediately places Gaafa in Svipdag's place. Anna tries to cure Conrad's sickness, but can do no good because the magic afflicting him is too strong for Anna. Wong has to tell her merchant friends that their son, Obid, died leading a merchant army in the great battle of two days ago. Edward runs off to help Christian churches and Reynaldo tells a page to round up some urchins so they can look for caterpillar cocoons. An hour later, they all show up empty-handed with the exception of one, named Sabota, who brings 23 of them. Reynaldo is of course very pleased and promises Sabota a dinner as well as giving him a gold piece for every cocoon.

We go to the council meeting where we all feign ignorance on Arkady's condition, and the Lord Mayor let's us know that Vasli's ridiculously large club was found on the battlefield near the entrance of the caves, the evil cleric (or possibly clerics) as well as the three men who snuck in the wheat barrels are still at large, and that the black sword used to belong to a woman named Olga Ponyatevna, a fighter in Novgorod from 75 years ago. She was a pretty good fighter until she found the sword, and got much better. We agree that the sword should be locked in the deepest darkest vault we can find. The Lord Mayor and Sadko also ask us to stay in Novgorod as its defenders for the rest of our days. We tell them we'll think about it.

While walking to a blacksmith to get a lead box for the sword, Edward, who was holding the sword, suddenly disappears. The rest of us look for him for a half hour, with the help of a Locate Object from Iarena, before he finally sends a message through the boxes asking us where we are. We find him walking around in the northwestern quadrant of the city, near an abandoned warehouse of some sort. He says that only a few seconds have passed for him since he disappeared, but the black sword is gone.

Also, Wong sets up Prebana in Sadko's household as a maid, and with Captain Gaafa, who takes her out on a date.

The Tarot Deck, One Last Time and Restoring Ivan and Anna
Wednesday, February 15th, 988 AD

Reynaldo and Anna use the last two gloves to don two more Tarot cards: Reynaldo draws the right-side up World card, and immediately feels stronger, more dexterous, and more charismatic. Anna draws the right-side up Temperance card and immediately feels more intelligent, but less wise.

We head off for the pool that Iarena says will restore both Ivan and Anna. Once we get there, we find Vasli neck deep in the pool surrounded by three apes, a patchwork girl, a giant, a sabre-toothed tiger, and a tailed man. Reynaldo Levitates the tailed man and an ape, while Edward casts Sticks to Snakes and has them kill the tiger. Anna, Thalia, Edward, Wong, and Stepanova kill an ape, the giant, and the patchwork girl, and Reynaldo kills the last ape. The levitated tailed man kills himself and the ape comes crashing down and then tries to run away, but Thalia and Jean-Claude run him down. Vasli explains that he cannot leave the pool because the poison that the Scorpion Man put in him will kill him. Reynaldo and Nicolae rush back to Novgorod to get some Stone Mules and let the city know that we've saved Vasli. Meanwhile, Ivan's craziness is cured and Anna becomes fourteen years old again, but as Iarena warned, this will most likely only last a month. Reynaldo and Nicolae rush back to the pool and we sleep by the edge of the it.

Eight Tarot Dungeon Books
Thursday, February 16th, 988 AD

In the morning, Edward casts Neutralize Poison on Vasli and we ride back to Novgorod. We sleep in the Citadel and Reynaldo and Jean-Claude look through the eight books they found in the Rakshasa's library in the Tarot Dungeon. They are as follows: one book full of priest spells, one book full of mage spells, two books which allowed one to become better at one or another thing when one read them all the way through, one book gave great power to any good mage who read it all the way through, one book contained Igwolf's magic animal shopping list in full, one book contained a letter from Igwolf to the people of the future (that's us), and the last book was a trap that hurt a lot and possibly took control of one's mind. We healed and went to sleep.

End Chapter Eleven