The Dragons Bane

“Now that we are here, should we set up camp, or start looking for them?” asks Maximar, leaving the choice up to Freedar.

“I think we should start looking for them. We should start flying over the area, maybe we can find them or their camp. Then we won’t have to worry about setting up our own camp.”

“I agree. I just wish you had bothered to ask your son-in-law where their camp was,” comments Tolkar.

“Didn’t you ask your daughter if she knew anything that could help us find them?” asks Maximar.

“No, I chose not to tell her. I didn’t want her to know about any of this until after we left. It wouldn’t have been good.”

“I figured as much, from the way Teela was acting when I came into the inn,” says Tolkar. “I guess we’ll have to wing it. Besides, it shouldn’t be that hard to find them or their camp from the air.”

“Then let’s get going, we have a lot of ground to cover,” replies Maximar, as he lifts from the ground, followed by the other two.

It takes the three of them a couple of hours before they spot the wagons stashed inside of some ruins. Choosing to land inside of the ruined structure hiding the two small wagons, they immediately notice that someone or something has found the wagons before them. Several of the branches that were used for camouflage have been ripped aside, which is why they were able to spot the wagons from the air.

“Their camp must be close. We will have to search on foot,” reasons Freedar.

“I don’t suppose you have anything in your bag of magic tricks that will help us find their camp?” asks Maximar.

“No, I don’t. But I did see a rather large structure over that way. Why don’t we start with it? There are eleven of them now, so I doubt they set up camp in any of the smaller ruins.”

Finding their camp proved to be a lot easier than we thought. The whinnying of the horses as we got close gave its position away. The shouts and curses of the two men that were trying to steal the horses also helped.

Coming through the bushes concealing the entrance first, Freedar immediately recognizes the thieves. “And just what do you two think you are doing?”

“I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen,” apologizes Clarmain. “He just wants to get away from here.”

“And I will, too. So don’t try an’ stop me!” yells Dectron.

Coming up behind Freedar, Tolkar merely looks at Dectron and says “hold!”

Caught in the mage’s spell, Dectron can do nothing, finding himself frozen in place.

“He is just scared, don’t hurt him. The rest of our party is dead. We barely escaped with our lives. The dragonmen ambushed us as soon as we entered the dungeon. If we hadn’t been at the back, we’d be dead too.”

“Do you know anything about the Dragon’s Bane? Have you seen them?” asks Freedar.

“No, we only stumbled on their camp by luck. One of the horses whinnied as we were walking by. I wanted to stay here until they returned. I didn’t think we could make it back to the castle by ourselves. But he didn’t want to wait. Scared stupid, he is. Doesn’t care what he has to do to survive. He wanted to take the horses and the food, along with one of the wagons, and make a break for home. He wasn’t even going to go back to the castle.”

“Well, he won’t be going home just yet. When we get back to the castle, Lord Muldoon will decide his fate. In the meantime, we’ll have to tie him up so he doesn’t get into trouble,” says Maximar.

“Let’s have a look around, maybe we can tell how long they have been gone,” says Freedar.

“Just let me get this fool tied up, and I’ll give you a hand.”

“It couldn’t have been more than a few hours. The fire is still damp, and it was soaked when we first came in here about an hour ago,” says Clarmain, determined to help out as much as possible.

“You wouldn’t by any chance have any idea how they got into the dungeon, would you?” ask Freedar.

“No, but I can show you how we got in. It is east and a little north of here.”

“You didn’t come across any tracks on the way back, did you?”

“No, we didn’t see any sign of them, no tracks, nothing.”

“It is all their fault we are in this mess! My comrades are all dead, and it’s all because of them!” The now tightly bound Dectron, free at last from Tolkar’s spell, has started to yell vindictives about us, the dungeon, and the Dragons Bane.

“What do you mean it’s all their fault?” demands Freedar, allowing some of his anger to seep into his voice.

“It was them that the dragonmen were after, not us. I heard one of the men that lead them say so! I heard him tell his men to kill us, that we couldn’t be the ones that the dragon wants because there were no dwarves or elves in our party!”

Tolkar, tired of his ranting and raving, starts to cast another spell.

Seeing Tolkar begin his casting and guessing at his intent, Freedar agrees. “I’ve heard enough from him, silence him before he brings the whole forest down on us.”

Tolkar nods and casts his spell of quiet on the still-cursing man. And while Dectron is still plainly yelling and cursing, no sound can be heard from the man. Going over to him, Tolkar and Maximar drag him to the farthest corner of the structure.

“Blessed is silence,” says Tolkar, returning to Freedar and Clarmain with Maximar close behind.

“Now what do we do?” asks Tolkar.

“I think we should try and find their tracks,” replies Freedar.

“And what should we do with these two?” asks Maximar.

“Dectron, we leave here. There is no way we can drag him around with us. As for Clarmain, I suggest we leave that up to him. Clarmain, do you want to accompany us into the dungeons to find the Dragons Bane?”

“I would prefer it, but I think I had better stay here and look out for him. I don’t really owe him anything, but I was foolish enough to sign onto the charter with him. That kind of makes me responsible for him, but don’t worry, I won’t untie him. I just can’t let him starve out here, it wouldn’t be right.”

“I can understand that. Good luck to you and may the Mother Tree watch over you.”

We leave the cleric and his charge to their fate, knowing full well that should a monster or creature of the woods stumble across them, we will probably never see either of them again.

It is Maximar who spots their trail first as we circle the ruins about a hundred feet out. Following it we come to a place where the tracks disappear, obviously wiped away by someone. But looking ahead along the route that the tracks were headed, we can see an overhanging rock that appears to have a shallow cave under it.

“How much do you want to bet that cave leads into the dungeon?” asks Maximar.

“That’s a bet not many would take,” replies Tolkar with a smile.

“Remind me to tell them about hiding their tracks, even a first year novice could have found them,” comments Maximar.

“Yes, well, I guess since it is my son-in-law, I’ll go first.”

“And I’ll be right behind you,” says Maximar.

“I guess that means I go last.”

Taking off their packs, the three squat down and check out the cave under the overhang. Taking a light stone from a pouch, Tolkar tosses it into the shallow cave. The stone travels back into the cave for about fifteen feet, and the light given off by the stone illuminates a tunnel for another thirty feet or so.

“How many more of them light stones do you have?” asks Freedar.

“A whole bag of them. I thought to try to sell them at the shop a few years ago on the advice of a friend, but nobody bought any.”

“I still think it was a good idea,” says Maximar.

“Well, they sure will come in handy today. Let me see some of them,” says Freedar.

“Here, take the whole bag.”

“Thanks.” Freedar then throws one a ways down the cave illuminating more of the passage. “Follow me!”

The three seasoned veterans proceed down the tunnel, tossing more light stones ahead of them as they go. They remove their packs and push them ahead of them where the tunnel narrows down, almost causing Freedar a moment of panic when his wide girth causes him to get stuck.

“What’s the holdup?” asks Tolkar.

“I think he has been eating a little too much of his own cooking,” comments Maximar with a snicker.

“I heard that!” responds Freedar.

“Well if you would come down to the yard a little more, maybe you wouldn’t be stuck now,” complains Maximar, giving Freedar’s feet a hard shove and forcing him through the tight opening. After regaining his feet, Freedar gives Maximar a hand up as he clears the hole, a favor that Maximar extends in turn to Tolkar.

As they approach the tunnel’s end, they halt to listen for any signs of trouble. After a few minutes of silence, Freedar tosses a light stone into the room. Finally emerging into the room, Freedar moves the light stone on the floor to the middle of the room.

“We made it. Now let’s check our packs and get ready.”

“I see the dungeon is just a dank and dusty as ever,” comments Tolkar.

“What did you expect? That someone decided to come and clean since we were here last?” asks Freedar.

“Where do you think we are?” asks Maximar, changing the subject.

“Well, somewhere on the first floor of the dungeon, I would think,” replies Tolkar.

“Don’t be getting daft on me. I know we’re on the first floor of the dungeon. The question is, where?”

“I suppose I could check, but I don’t recall any room with a tunnel like this in it,” replies Tolkar. “It must be less than twenty years old, or we’d have found it when we were adventuring.”

“Just check the map and make sure,” replies a rather gruff Maximar.

“Yes, break out the map. I want to refresh my memory of the place,” asks Freedar. “Besides, we may have to figure a strategy for searching the place. Unless you two think we should just run around yelling for the Dragons Bane?”

His comment causes the other two to laugh at the prospect.

“Well, this is only the first floor, and we have enough magic that we could probably get away with it,” replies Tolkar jokingly.

But his joke actually has Maximar considering the idea, at least for a moment. “No, if the dragonmen are here waiting to spring a trap on the Dragons Bane, we don’t want to alert them. And if they have already caught them, we don’t want to make it too easy for them to avoid running into us.”

“Yes, that isn’t exactly the best idea. Now, will you please break out the map?” asks Freedar.

“Oh. Yes, I almost forgot. Here it is.”

Taking out a bone case, Tolkar removes the caps at both ends and pushes the rolled up map out. Unrolling the map on the floor, the three adventurers examine it quickly but thoroughly.

“See, I told you there aren’t any rooms like this with a tunnel leading into them.”

“I knew you were right, but I want to see if we can get some bearing on where we might be. Besides, it has been a long time since I’ve seen this map,” replies Freedar.

“Ain’t that the truth,” agrees Maximar.

“As I recall, you two really didn’t pay much attention to the map back then, anyway,” says Tolkar, reprovingly. “You two were more interested in killing monsters than maps. I suppose that is why neither of you have any of the maps from back then.”

Maximar and Freedar look at each other a moment, then start chuckling. “He has a point,” admits Maximar.

“At least the first floor is laid out in such a way that we can’t stay lost for long. Sooner or later we will hit one of these hallways and then we will know exactly where we are. In the meantime, I will keep a quick copy of the rooms we have gone through so that I can update my map with the way out,” says Tolkar.

“Good enough, I leave our way out in your capable hands,” agrees Freedar.

Now that the packs have been checked and everything tightly secured, the two fighters approach the only door, with Tolkar slightly behind them, holding aloft one of the light stones.

“Ready?” asks Freedar.

A nod from Maximar and they both raise their swords before flinging open the doors.

“Empty,” says Maximar.

After Freedar tosses another light stone into the middle of the room, Maximar asks “which door?”

“There are more scuff marks going to the west door than there are to the east door,” observes Tolkar.

“Yes, it looks like they went to the east door first, and then went with the west door,” comments Maximar.

“The west door it is then,” replies Freedar.

Forming up on the door, Freedar nods to Maximar and they fling open the doors.

“This room is definitely not empty,” observes Maximar, referring to the dragonmen bodies scattered around the room, most of which are but charred remains.

“That looks like Nordok’s handiwork,” says Maximar, pointing to the burned bodies.

“What do you mean?” asks Freedar.

“Only his fire could have done that, a fireball in this small of a room would have burned everyone.”

“Yes, you are right, it wasn’t a fireball that scorched these vermin,” agrees Tolkar.

“I still don’t understand. What does Nordok have to do with this?” asks a puzzled Freedar.

“You really should spend more time with your son-in-law. You mean to tell me that you don’t know about his ability to shoot fire like a dragon?” asks Maximar.

“Since when?” asks a very confused Freedar.

“Why, since their last trip here. Many of them gained a special power. Mizdar told me all about it,” replies Tolkar.

“I had to give Delgar’s training partner a magical armored girdle of snow giant strength just so he could give the dwarf some competition, not that it helped that much. The dwarf has the strength of a thunder giant, and nothing short of a god can beat that,” adds Maximar.

“I guess I have been spending too much time in the kitchen,” admits Freedar.

“Let’s check the next room. I’ll lay odds we find more of their handiwork,” says Maximar.

Not surprising, the next room has even more dragonmen bodies piled about. There are also four ogres mixed in among the dragonmen.

“Look at that, ogres on the first floor of the dungeon. The dragon cult must really want them,” comments Tolkar.

“Yes, but from the looks of these, I think our concerns may have been unfounded. Any party that can do that to four ogres doesn’t need rescuing,” observes Maximar.

“Still, we have to find them and warn them. I can’t go back without them,” states Freedar.

“Well, finding them shouldn’t be too hard. All we have to do is follow the bodies,” jokes Tolkar.

“I won’t leave till we do, even if it means going all the way down to the dragon’s lair,” vows Freedar.

“And we will be right there with you, old friend,” Maximar reassures him.

END OF VOLUME ONE