CruelSummerLord writes "An image of
Urdlen tearing his victims apart passed through Kalrek’s mind, and he began to
laugh out loud at the thought of it.
He saw that
image a lot.
It pleased him to no end.
Chapter Eleven
Highway Robbery
The companions resumed their journey to Copper
Crossing the next morning after saying their goodbyes to Bretten and Nusanne.
They rode in silence, reflecting on the task ahead of them and the painful
turmoil that Airk was experiencing. Airk was silent, but he looked as if his
mind was somewhere else entirely. He had a faraway look in his eyes as he
silently talked to himself, mouthing words in the gnomish tongue.
The companions’ first day of travel, and the
night they spent in Hommlet, were uneventful. The first half of the companions’
second day of travel was quiet, but shortly after noon they heard the sounds of
battle as they brought their mounts over a knoll. Gazing ahead, the companions
saw a cluster of wagons and horses around which several men were fighting
fiercely. Some of the men were dressed in dark green uniforms and matching
caps, and the companions realized they were probably caravan guards. The guards
were fighting against a much larger gang of rough-looking men, who the
companions quickly recognized as bandits. The guards were outnumbered, and it
wouldn’t be long before the bandits overcame them.
The companions hesitated long enough only to
tie their mounts to some nearby shrubbery before they entered the battle.
Weimar and Seline began the attack with a flurry of arrows and magical bolts,
catching the bandits by surprise and killing several of them before they could
react. Some of the bandits broke away from their fight with the guards to
attack the companions, and the companions eagerly responded.
Ma’non’go led his friends’ charge, bearing down
on a stocky man whose clothes were even dirtier than Ma’non’go would have
expected. The stocky man attacked with a clumsy sword thrust, which Ma’non’go
easily deflected. Ma’non’go ran the man through and tossed his dead body aside
before attacking another bandit. The second man died as easily as the first,
Ma’non’go striking him down before he could even swing his sword.
Glancing from side to side, Ma’non’go saw his
friends overwhelming the bandits as easily as he did. The bandits weren’t
prepared to deal with such skilled opposition, and Ma’non’go saw that their
resolve was crumbling. A third bandit attacked Ma’non’go, swinging his flail
wildly, but Ma’non’go easily deflected every one of the bandit’s attacks. For
the third time in as many minutes, Ma’non’go drove his trident into a bandit’s
chest, tearing his weapon free as the mortally wounded man collapsed.
The battle became a rout as the caravan guards
regrouped and joined in the companions’ attack. Several of the bandits tried to
flee, but Luna yelled for them to surrender. One of them did just that, walking
up to Luna before kneeling at her feet and thrusting his sword point-first into
the ground while bowing his head in obedience. Ma’non’go only smiled, having
seen Luna work such magic before more than once.
A few of
the bandits managed to escape into the woods, but most of them were quickly
caught and killed before they could flee. Soon, the only bandit who hadn’t fled
or been killed was the one who’d surrendered to Luna. He was clearly the
bandits’ leader by his dress and the air of authority about him, and Revafour
securely bound his wrists with a length of cord. The rest of the companions
came to join Revafour and Luna, who was speaking to a tall heavyset man dressed
in finery especially made for rough travel. The heavyset man was one of the
merchants the caravan belonged to, and he bowed graciously to Luna as he spoke.
“Zilchus be
praised for your timely intervention,” the merchant said. “We owe you and your
friends our lives and our thanks. My name is Waylon, of fair Verbobonc. Might I
inquire as to yours?”
“I am Luna,
daughter of Pelor,” Luna said, before she introduced the rest of the
companions. “You’re recently of Copper Crossing, I take it?”
“Aye, and
eager to return home,” Waylon said. “Might I presume that Copper Crossing is
your destination?”
“Quite so,”
Luna said, nodding.
“Then let
me present you and yours with a token of our gratitude,” Waylon said as he took
a pouch off his belt and handed it to Luna. “These moonstones are worth more
than their weight in gold in Copper Crossing.”
“It’s
appreciated,” Luna said with a smile. “Are you at all familiar with this
wretch?” she continued as she and Waylon turned to regard the bandit leader.
The leader was standing now, as the magic of Luna’s command had worn off. He
was securely held in Revafour’s iron grip, and there was no way he could
escape.
“Certainly
not,” Waylon said, shaking. “Scum like him are all too common in the Kron
Hills. They all look alike to me. If there’s nothing else you need to ask us,
we should be on our way. Once again I thank you all, and I wish the blessings
of Zilchus upon you for your help.”
The
companions were planning to interrogate the bandit leader, and didn’t mind the
caravan leaving. They knew Waylon and his fellows were just random victims of
the bandits. The merchants’ presence would have only complicated things, making
their tongues wag with information the companions preferred them not to know.
After several minutes, the merchants and their guards were gone, leaving the
bandit leader surrounded by the companions. He had been stubbornly silent all
the time, but he finally spoke once he was alone with the companions.
“If you
haven’t killed me the way you did my men, I suppose that means I have something
you want,” the bandit leader said with a sneer. “So what is it, then?”
“Information, of course,” Amyalla said,
turning a dagger over and over in her hands.
“And what
makes you think I’d tell you anything?” the bandit leader said.
“The fact
that you’ll die quickly and painlessly if you give us what we want,” Revafour
said, “but if you try to trick us, it’ll be much slower and more painful.” To
emphasize his point, Revafour brought his sword barely a foot from the bandit
leader’s face. The sword still dripped with the blood of the bandit leader’s
minions, causing the bandit leader to take several quick breaths. The bandit
leader quickly calmed, and he soon seemed resigned, realizing there was no way
out of the matter.
“I suppose
you’ll keep your word,” the bandit leader admitted, “more likely than any of my
own kind would.”
“You’re not
afraid of death?” Luna asked. She tried to keep calm, although she couldn’t
fully keep the dismay at having to ask that question out of her voice.
“Not with
the kinds of leaders I’ve served,” the captain said. “Better to die at your
hands than theirs-and that’s what I’d do if I returned to them.”
“You fear
them that much?” Revafour asked in surprise.
“So would
you, if you knew them,” the captain said.
“So who are
your leaders?” Amyalla asked. “And what are your raids for?”
“Just one
leader,” the bandit leader said, “with an emperor’s air, a champion’s skill and
a philosopher’s wisdom. He uses the riches we gather for him to fund his plans
and build his power.”
“So what
are his plans?” Amyalla asked.
“Damned if
I know what his end game is,” the bandit leader said, “but he’s drawing in more
and more minions of all kinds. Not just brigands and monsters, but scholars and
merchants. The more wealth he gains, the more his power grows, and the more he
seeks.”
“So how much power does he have now?” Amyalla
asked.
“He has
agents in Veluna, Furyondy, Dyvers, Greyhawk, the Lortmils, the Wild Coast…and
that’s likely not the full extent of it,” the bandit leader said.
“So who is he?” Seline demanded, appalled by
what she was hearing.
“He’s
called-“ the bandit leader started.
“-Kalrek
Burunne,” Airk finished for him. Airk’s expression was cold and calm, but a
strange light gleamed in his eyes.
“You know
him?” the bandit leader said in surprise. “No surprise-I’d guess he’d be better
known among his fellow gnomes.”
“What else
can you tell us of him?” Airk asked.
“I can tell
you how to find the outpost where we deliver the plunder we collect for him,”
the bandit leader said, before giving the companions directions how to get
there. “I’ve never met the great gnome in person, though.”
“And now
you’ve served your purpose,” Airk said, his expression remaining calm as he
stepped forward and raised his morning star.
The bandit
leader was calm as Airk fulfilled the companions’ promise.
He knew
that dying at this gnome’s hands was preferable to dying at the hands of the
other one.
Kalrek was
not amused by the report that the flow of treasure from the spriggans he’d sent
to the Cairn Hills had stopped. The agents he’d sent to investigate showed that
both the spriggans and the trolls under their command had all been slain, and
that the spriggans’ lair was looted. That was very bad, given that whoever
attacked the spriggans’ lair might get their hands on Kalrek’s communications
with the spriggan commander. Kalrek ordered a priest in his employ to divine
what was happening, and impatiently awaited the priest’s response.
Kalrek
looked up as someone knocked on the door to his private chamber. He’d left
strict orders that no one other than his priest Tooktrilk was to disturb him.
He fingered his sword as he called for the knocker to enter, ready to give an
appropriate reward to anyone besides Tooktrilk who came in. Fortunately, the
knocker was indeed Tooktrilk. The elderly priest was pale-skinned and hairless,
looking less like a gnome and more like a manikin, given how sickly thin and
pale he was.
“You have information?” Kalrek demanded as
Tooktrilk knelt before him.
“Yes, my
lord,” Tooktrilk said, breathing heavily as he did so. The priest’s body was
slowed by age, although he’d been frail even in his long-ago youth. “I know who
dared to cross your minions.”
“Out with
it, then,” Kalrek said, his eyes narrowing.
Kalrek was
rarely shocked, but he was when Tooktrilk described the heroes who’d invaded
the spriggans’ lair and defended the people of Oakdale against the troll
invasions.
I never thought I’d meet Airk Venbelwar again
after all this time, Kalrek
thought to himself. Out of all the people
who might have opposed me, the one that does is one of my oldest friends? I
don’t believe in the Lady of Fates, but if I did I’d be congratulating her on
the irony!
Kalrek
smiled and laughed at that thought, before he remembered that Tooktrilk was
still staring at him.
“My lord?” Tooktrilk
said.
“Divine
where these people who disrupted my plans are,” Kalrek said. “Come to me when
you have that knowledge. Leave me for now-I have much to contemplate.”
Tooktrilk
nodded at his master’s instructions, before he rose to his feet and left the
room, slamming the door behind him.
Once he was
alone, Kalrek smiled again as he considered how much Tooktrilk resembled a
thin, shriveled version of Urdlen, the Crawler Below. Urdlen resembled an
oversized, pale-skinned hairless mole, but he was so much more than that. He
was the gnomish god of bloodlust and greed, who tore through the oerth to
indulge his lust for bloodshed and treasure. The more he gained, the more he
sought, an ever-growing empire that so many feared, but so few recognized.
Like the
other young gnomes, Kalrek heard many stories of the horrors Urdlen inflicted
on his victims. The stories were meant to warn young gnomes against such evil,
and most of the children were terrified by them. Young Kalrek was merely
intrigued by them, impressed by the trickery the Crawler Below frequently
engaged in. Urdlen’s deceptions caused no end of trouble for the other gnomish
gods, and Kalrek found them both amusing and inspiring.
Half the
fun of betraying Flinthold to the Steelheart clan had been to watch his fellow
gnomes suffer, after all. The other half of the fun had been the riches he’d
gained from the betrayal. Although the Steelhearts were defeated by Flinthold
and Garnetholme, Kalrek hardly cared about that. The Steelhearts might have
tried to take revenge on him, but it was simple for Kalrek to get a large
hobgoblin clan to attack their underdefended home. The Steelhearts were too
busy defending their home to chase after Kalrek, who escaped with a good
selection of the Steelhearts’ finest emeralds, rubies and diamonds for his
trouble.
Over the
last six and a half decades since then, Kalrek had continued to work
diligently, expanding his influence the way Urdlen might expand a tunnel. Both
the gnome and his god took pleasure in entrapping their prey, leaving them
hopelessly lost and confused before the hunters moved in for the kill.
An image of
Urdlen tearing his victims apart passed through Kalrek’s mind, and he began to
laugh out loud at the thought of it.
He saw that
image a lot.
It pleased him to no end.
"
