Gamers Eight ACT IV- Chapter 5

There was some discussion between the gold and silver teams, out of earshot of Kuya, Xach and the Lord and Lady. It wasn’t that they felt, cheated or anything of the sort. It was that the Gold teams felt inadequate, and even though they had gained levels and skills from the fight with the dragon, and even a large share of the treasure.

“It’s that every time he is nearby, my [danger sense] is screaming. I though it was something else, it’s him.” Kenton said.

Brigette nodded, “there is something about him that terrifies me. Like we are out classes.”

Emily, Em to her to team, “I like his son, asks good questions, even some I don’t really know.” She looked around, “His daughter, has taught me a few things, she has a grasp of magic. What really terrifies me is she has only had access to real magic for a couple of months.”

Haran listened, “You want to abandon him now, after all he has done for us. We chased them down, and now that we have scored you all want to leave?”

“Its not that Haran,” Amanda said, “Its I want to keep this gear and money, we can retire. We can do better behind the wall than out here, looking for who knows what?”

“Yes, outclass is a good apt description, he didn’t need us in that fight, we know we can’t take that key or the mirror, at least not by force.” Euan said.

“Hrak you have been quiet.” Brigette said to the drake.

“Its dishonorable, to leave an ally because he’s more powerful than we are. We are gold teams are we afraid of him?” Hrak asked.

“What are you saying we should do?” Brigette asked.

“Be honest with him, we have all been out here and even with his magic book, its not safe out here in the blight” Summer said.

“Who’s going to let him know” Nerris asked.

The adventurers looked around, at each other, two gold teams and the silver team.

“I’m staying with them.”  Zail replied.

“Why?” Nyteria asked.

“I think your all wrong, I asked Xyrediane his wife why he brought me back, she didn’t know either. She did say that he is kind and generous to people he likes. Has he ever said an unkind word to any of you?”

There were looks around the group, “Its not that, we just don’t trust him.” Vala said, “Think about it he could take over the kingdom if he wanted, who’s going to stop him? Who could stop him?”

“I don’t think he is like that” Shen said.

“Every Lord I have ever met has wanted power and didn’t care how they got it, you know better than I do Brigette” Vala replied.

“If you had asked me a two weeks ago I would have agreed, now, I really don’t have an answer.” Brigette said.

“Ok teams let us call a vote then.” Nerris suggested.

“I don’t think we can be a part of this,” Gyrmoth said looking at his team mates.

“I’m with Bloodstone“, Zail replied.

“I follow my brother, he’s never been wrong” Nyteria said nodding a slight quiver to her bottom lip..

“Gwill, Vala, Kenton?” Gyrmoth asked.

“I’m out, being this far out into the blight scares the crap out of me.” Vala said.

“I am with Vala,” Gwillunlu said nodding in her direction.

“We have our gold, I want a chance to spend it,lets go home.” Kenton said flipping a gold coin across the back of his hand finger to finger.

“We are breaking up the team?” Gyrmoth asked.

“I guess we are,” Zail replied holding out a hand.

Gyrmoth shook in and pulled him close, “Who knew I could get along with half-elves, for as long as we have been together.” He looked over at Nerris and Brigette, “And what about your teams?”

“All the Red Blight are leaving, unless any of you wants to drop from the team.” Nerris said looking them over.

“You’re a real hard bitch” Haran said, “I’m telling you it’s a mistake, but I go where the team goes. No one ever listens to me anyhow.”

Not one other member of the Red Blight said a word. “I guess we are all out, and the Golden Swords?”

“I want to stay,” Em said looking over at the other swords and stopping at Brigette,” Admit it your intrigued”

“As much as I would want to see how he gets past eight mithril golems, I know my limits.” Brigette said looking down.

“I will follow where you go Brigette” Shen said putting his hand on her left shoulder, “We are comrades.”

“I want to go home”, Balis said

“I too want to see where this Lord goes,” She said looking at Brigette, “You have to decide,” she looked over at Em,”Do we really owe Brigette or Bloodstone?”

“We do, what’s the verdict?” Em asked.

“I…I just got you back, I want to go home now. My brother needs me home and told me as much from his last message. There are thing happening on Izril that needs me to return home.”

Hrak looked around at his team, “I have no problem returning to Issrysil, after hearing about the death of the Tidebreaker, there will be war. Perhaps we can convince Lord Bloodstone to journey there with us?”

“I guess that settles it, Em are you staying or going?”

 Em looked at each of her friends, “I have been dead twenty years, and to be honest, I have no-where to go back to.” She looked sad and if she wanted to say more. “I want to go with him. Not for some greater purpose, or because he brought me back from the dead. You have been my family, I just have a feeling, that I need to be with them. I can’t explain it, its, like knowing, that your whole life has been going the wrong direction and finding the path by accident. It’s something he said to me, that has me wanting to see this through.”

“What was that Em,” Brigette asked.

“I never told you, who my parents were. My mother was a pretty good mage and had some issues with money, she was good with secrets but bad with charging for them. She spent time with my father, whom you most likely know. I will not say his name. My mother died, and I know it drove him mad. We left just before the Antinium wars and came here. I was running from my father. I don’t want to go back, to many painful memories, and maybe Lord Bloodstone will let me bring back my mother.”

There was silence for a moment, and Brigett asked, “We never asked your family name.”

“Chandler, I don’t know if any of my siblings are alive. After mom died, things got bad, really bad.”

“Are you telling me you’re the daughter of the Necromancer?”, Summer asked grasping the hilt of her dagger.

“I am yes, I just thought of him as dad, not yhat he was around much. After mom died I…I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“How many siblings do you have?” Nerris asked.

Em looked at her, “Well that’s a secret, what’s it worth to you?”

Everyone stared at Em and then Nerris laughed, “Now that I think about it, I don’t really want to know.”

Em nodded, “So me, Zail and…” Em looked at Zails sister, “Um, its Nyteria right”

She nodded.

“Well, we are the only one staying, so who is going to tell the Lord you guys are leaving?” Em asked.

“I’ll tell him,” Brigette said getting up and going to look for Bloodstone.

She found him messing with what looked like a stone door near the entrance to the caves. “What are you doing?” She asked him.

“Making a door. Now that it’s been cleaned up it can be used by adventurers in the blight, there is fresh water and if I could get some dirt there could be some plants growing.” He said lifting the door up, it settled and fell into stone grooves on the top and bottom. He then placed two small blocks and they each covered the door pins top and bottom. With a tap of the pick-axe it became solid stone again.

“Seems kind of a waste, no one is going to use this place.” Brigette said.

Bloodstone shrugged, “I’m done here,“ he said closing the door.

 “We are leaving, all three teams.”

“I see, anything I did wrong?”

“We just are nervous out here, and it’s not that we are not grateful for all you have done.”

“Is it because of the loot split?”

“It’s not, even with you lending us the bags of holding its very generous. We have most of the magic items and a good portion of the gold. It’s just we want to be able to spend it, some of them want to go home.”

“I see, and one more adventure into the blight is one to many?”

“Em and Zail and his sister are going to stay. The rest we are all heading out in the morning.”

“Oh, good, I want to get out of this Blight! Any of you want to hire a fashion consultant. Blood was kind enough to give me some gold and a letter of introduction to his second wife.” Delilah said giving him a weird look, “That still sounds weird to me.”

“Well in that case take the scouts and Delilah. They are still green and have a higher survivability with your group than with mine. Em knows the way to the white tower, so it’s all good.”

“I thought you would be mad.”

“Why because you told me the truth. If I got mad, about that, that just makes me petty. No, I understand. We are going to go look and might be a couple of days behind you. You forget we can still communicate with the wall. I have been keeping Coreen apprised of the situation, they will be expecting you.”

“I should have known.”

“There is one issue I want to talk with you about” He said looking out into the Blight

“Whats that?”

“I have an offer, I will put anyone’s name on the plaque who agrees to a geas of not being able to talk about the mirror.”

“I um, really? Why, what plaque?”

“To protect the secret, and have an incentive to do so. The plaque of names across from the mirror, I keep it covered when I open the door for guests.”

“I can talk to the others about it”

“Oh, and one other thing, the goblins will be coming with us.”

“Goblins? I haven’t seen any goblins since we left.”

“Good, that was the plan. They are giving us a buffer if demons show up they know the blight.”

 “When did you set that up?”

“I didn’t Kuya did and the goblin she made friend with has gained some prestige for going into the wall.”

“How many goblins?”“Goblins? I haven’t seen any goblins since we left.”

“Never asked, you want to talk to them?”

“No, was just curious.”

“How come you never said anything about them before now?”

“You and your attitude towards goblins frankly is disturbing. There are drakes, sephalids, dwarves, and a bunch of other races you don’t have a problem with. Goblins can be the ally we need. Let’s me put it another way, if goblins could turn the tide of a battle, in the kingdoms favor would you want the help even if it cost you later down the line?”

“I don’t know.”

“An honest answer, that at least means you would weigh the options. Anything else?”

“Be careful of Em, she is always been, a little shady.  After finding out she is the daughter of the Necromancer, I kind of understand why.”

“I have contingency’s in place, I’m not worried about her, I will keep an eye on her.”

“See you in a few days then.”

The next morning the two groups were at the entrance. Delilah handed Bloodstone a black vial, “It’s still pretty nasty, I figured have you keep one of the vials and I will keep the other, just in case.”

“Yeah sure.” He said putting it away in a potion case.

The two groups shook hands and made their farewells and the larger group headed south back to the wall of the blighted kingdom. The other headed north, to find the tower, and see if they could locate the vault that was spoken of in a book.

The blight was black grass, and other strange plants, that seemed to cover the landscape, some looked like wild thorn bushes, other plants that looked like short warped trees.  There was a grove of plants that looked like apples trees, if there was a deep black and purple fruit, that looked like an apple.

“Any idea if these are edible?” Bloodstone asked as they passed through the grove.

“No,” Em said simply.

“How do you know?”

“Look around, over there on the ground.”

There were rotten fruits on the ground, a few strange looking animals were decomposing under the tree.

“I wonder….” Bloodstone said slowing his horse to a stop.

“This really isn’t a safe place “, Em said turning around on her horse.

Bloodstone removed a small vial from the same potion container, the black vial was in. There was a small vial with a rainbow-colored slick. He then let a single drop fall onto the tree. The change was instant and dramatic, the bark went from a sickly red purple to a deep brown, and gold. While the change moved slowly, it was noticeably across the single tree.

“Will have to check when we come back through here.” He stoppered the vial and put it away, the shimmer continued.

“Apple trees, Blah” Kuya said, “I can’t eat apples.”

Bloodstone remounted the horse and caught up to the others, “There is one thing that I have noticed, there are no bird or insects.”

“The blight is like that”, Zail said.

“They had crickets brought in from Izril and released out into the blight, a few years later there was a giant cricket invasion. They don’t bring insect over anymore.” Nyteria replied.

“When was this?” Bloodstone asked.

“A few centuries back, no idea if it is true, it’s what I read on certain monsters seen in the blight.”

As the sun began to set, Bloodstone whistled loudly. Four goblins revealed themselves.

Zail reached for his bow, “Goblins!” He said.

“Its fine Zail they are here to show us a place to camp, and we will share a meal with them if that’s all right with you.” Bloodstone said getting off his horse.

The four goblins looked skittish and a little afraid.

Kuya said something in goblin, and they looked at her and one of them said something back.

One of them pointed and the horses followed, were the four goblins lead them.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Rana asked looking everywhere, but mostly at the four goblins.

“We are in the blight, nothings really safe.” Bloodstone said to her, “You are really high strung.”

The goblins lead them to a larger group, of goblins who all paused when the group entered, it was obvious they didn’t know whether to run or wait and see. The larger hobgoblin, whom had fought with Bloodstone weeks ago stepped forward with the smaller goblin. There were at least fifty goblins, a half dozen hobgoblins were mixed in with them.

Bloodstone dismounted, and walked over to the hobgoblin, who still looked massive compared to him.

The Hobgoblin stood with his club over one shoulder, as Bloodstone approached, “You talk?” The goblin asked.

“If you will listen?”

“Talk then.”

“You know about the cave back that way?” He asked.

“Know.”

“I fixed it up, you can grow plants if you can get good dirt.”

The goblin looked at him somewhat confused. “Grow?”

“You know like corn or potatoes”

“Not know what that is.”

Kuya had dismounted and walked over to talk with the small goblin, the other goblins seemed to relax around her, as if reading the body language of the goblin she had befriended. “Daddy,” Kuya called

Bloodstone looked over and saw her standing next to a small goblin child who had been bandaged across one eye and her head. The blood was still soaking the bandage.

“Who did that to the child” Bloodstone asked the Hobgoblin.

The hobgoblin pointed out into the blight, “Bad things.”

“Demons?” Bloodstone asked.

The hobgoblin shook its head, “Bad things” As if that explained it.

“Goblin run or kill bad things.”

The Hobgoblin, thought about it for a moment, “Kill if can run if can’t.”

Kuya removed the bandage, and the small goblin looked afraid and in pain. A nasty slash had taken out her right eye and left a deep oozing wound across the small goblins face. Xyrediane watching from her horse, “That’s a pretty nasty wound, looks infected. I wouldn’t use a healing potion on it.”

“You want to heal her or should I,” He asked Kuya.

“Um, can you do it?”

Bloodstone walked closer to the small goblin, who shrieked back in fear. He stopped and knelt and opened his hands so that the goblins could see he didn’t have anything in them.

“Why are you bothering” Em said, “That goblin will most likely be dead soon anyhow.”

“Em, you really should learn to shut up”, Rana said blocking her view.

“Whatever.” Em said looking around, at the goblins, “Complete waste of time.”

One of the adult goblins pushed the small one towards Bloodstone, there was some exchanges between the goblins and Kuya hissed and said something. Every goblin looked at Bloodstone.

“Your scaring the poor think,” Lady Amethyst said.

Bloodstone nodded and took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Something changed, everyone there felt it.

“What was that?” Em asked.

Bloodstone opened his eyes and almost touched the goblin and traced his finger along the wound. It closed as his finger moved just above the skin.  The goblin reached up to touch the wound, “No little one, I am almost done.” He said softly. The wound itself was closed, the eye however was still damaged. He reached down into one of the bags at his waist and the goblins moved closer to see what he was going to remove.  He removed a small gemstone.

“Is this how you fixed, Isabell’s eyes?” Xyrediane asked.

“Yes, please don’t interrupt my concentration.” He said releasing the stone, instead of falling, it floated in front of her face. It was a diamond, and he gestured, and it moved to the damaged eye. It merged with the eye, and there was a gasp from the small goblin and she reached for the eye, bloodstone caught her small hands and held them away. The damaged eye changed, and became, like glass then turned the normal color, the iris was a pale blue.” He released the goblin and she blinked. She had mismatched eyes, one red and the other a white blue. He let out a breath and the atmosphere shifted, and the strange feeling was gone. 

“Was that a skill?” Rana asked.

“Yes.” He looked over at Rana, “It’s a Skill called [Matter Transmutation] its part of the [EMPTY] class.”

Em snickered, “I have never heard of a class like that and I have studied rare classes. What other skills does that class have?”

“Rather not say,” He replied.

The small goblin squealed and wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. There was a commotion with the goblins. The Hobgoblin came up and slapped him on the back. “goblin friend.” The Hobgoblin then said something, and they started bringing out what looked like food. Kuya said, “we can share our food as well.”

The meal was awkward and tense for both sides, once they settled in and tasted the foods, the goblins settled. It was strange for both sides, having humans and goblins in the same place, and not fighting.

After they had eaten, the goblin leaders and the small goblin that had befriended Kuya sat with Bloodstone and the others.

“You go to death tooth?” The big goblin with the club asked.

“We want to see what is there, “ Bloodstone told him.

“Death, goblins no go there, bad bad place. Metal things kill, not alive. Why you go?”

“Something is supposed to be there that’s important to my king.” Bloodstone said.

“Only death, only pain. Sometimes see bug men.”

“Bug men?”

The big goblin said something, and a small goblin stepped into the circle, and he looked a little intimidated. “Tell her, she can draw it” Bloodstone said pointing to Kuya.

“I will try”

There was a conversation in goblin between the chieftan, and several other goblins. The small goblin started explaining in goblin and Kuya began drawing what he described. She showed it to the goblin and they made comments and she fixed what they told her.

“Antinum” Kuya said holding up the picture for them to see.

Bloodstone looked at the goblin, “When?”

There was some conferring, and counting on fingers, and then the big goblin shrugged, “When Tripfeet was small.”

“Um, ok.”

“What’s that mean?” Eve asked.

“They don’t have a way to record time, even here they mark time by the kings reign. The only ones who really have a grasp of time is the lords and especially the king with his

[chronomancer]

[steward].  These goblins could tell you what happened yesterday, and maybe last week and possibly monsters they know about but what happened last year this time, they wouldn’t know specifics.”

“Oh”

“They wouldn’t care, they are survival driven. You saw what they foraged, they live out here. They know more about what moves through the blight than even the kings men and all the adventurers. It foolish to hunt them, and there is a terrifying thought that just occurred to me. If it’s true, and I have a way to check, I will be so pissed off, this world will know how pissed off I am.”

“What just occurred to you?” Eve asked.

“If the goblins were here when the blight was made, what were they before?”

“I don’t ….” Eve looked him in the eye, and then understanding popped in her head. “Oh shit!”

“It’s just a hypothesis, one that I can check, or have a certain [Geneticist] check.”

“Daddy what are you talking about,” Kuya asked.

“Nothing just speculation, no proof. Its not important and not like I can prove anything.” He turned to the hobgoblin, “What’s important to goblins?”

The goblin stared at him across the fire, “Food, good weapon, fast feet.” The goblin smiled, “What’s important to you?”

“Getting home, and survival, I know you could teach us a lot about doing that in the blight.”

The goblin grunted and offered him a bowl that looked like black paste.

Bloodstone sniffed it and it smelled horrible. The goblin watched him intently.

“Is it food?”

The goblin made no move and other goblins stared at him. He looked around and saw other goblins with similar bowls.

He dipped one finger in and tasted it, and without making a face swallowed. The goblin leader roared in laugher, “You like?”

“It’s horrible. What is it?”

“Medicine, for cuts.” He laughed more.

The other goblins laughed as well.

“Oh, I see, Xach see if he likes the peppers you found.” Xach dug around and pulled out three small red dried peppers he offered them to the goblin who took one and took a bite.

The goblin began chewing and beads of sweat were forming on his brow. “Good huh” Xach said eating one and the another. The goblin stared at Xach, who was chewing them as well.  They both swallowed at the same time. The goblin said something, and a bowl of water was brought to Xach. “Im good.” Xach said.

“Now know why humans are so tough,” The goblin said. “Have more?” He asked Xach.

“Yeah,” Xach passed him a couple more and they both were chewing them. Em looked at the peppers, “Are you crazy those are really painful to eat.”

“Good though, just right amount of heat.” Xach replied, offering her a handful. “Also makes concentrating on magic easier”

She hesitantly took one and put it away.

The small party wound down and the goblins settled into a routine, they slept on and under black mats woven of grass. They offered them to the humans as well.

The goblins also kept watch after dousing the fire. The sounds of the blight became more pronounced. The goblins lit no fires, and only a few people were able to see, there were clouds that obscured the stars. Others were able to see as well if not better than the goblins.

“How are you able to see?” Rana asked Lady Amethyst.

“I have a buff, that gives me the ability to see in the dark.” She replied.

“Buff?” Em and Nyteria both asked at the same time.

“Jinx” Kuya said.

They both looked at Kuya, “Whats a buff” Em asked.

“It’s a spell that is usually an enhancement, like strength or speed or special abilities.” Lady Amethyst said, “I can cast a couple of buffs on you like a magic regen one.”

“Magic regen?” Em asked.

“Yes it’s like the potions you drink maybe faster. You never said why you wanted to go with us and not your team.” Lady Amethyst asked Em.

“I want to be with the best team to stay alive. I have knowledge of the tower, and I died once already what’s the worst that could happen.  I kind of like your son. Can you cast that magic buff now?”

“Addict,” Kuya said.

“I can,” She said ignoring Kuya. She cast a spell and there was a blue glow around Em.

“Oh wow, I can feel the magic, how long does it last”

“About a day.”

Before Nyteria could say anything, Lady Amethyst cast it on her.

“Now there are two addicts” Kuya teased.

“What about Rana and Xyre?” Em asked.

“Rana doesn’t need the buff, and Xyre gets mana from touching the ground for some reason and doesn’t need the buff either.” Lady Amethyst said.

The goblins shushed them and rolled over on their mats.

The next morning, the goblins were ready to leave at first light, it took about a half hour for everyone else to get mounted. The goblins dispersed as the group rode north.

“Ok I am officially freaked out,” Rana said looking everywhere.

“Oh?” Bloodstone asked yawning and stretching on the horse.

“I can’t keep track of the goblins, they blend in to well with those grass mats.” She said somewhat frustrated.

“It’s not surprising they have been out here for a long time, they have tricks that some adventurers could learn from.”

They walked until near noon and the goblins called a rest. “To hot, wait then go” The Cheiftan said.

“Is it safe?” Eve asked.

The goblin shrugged and walked off into the blight.

“You didn’t have to come with us. “Marcus said to Eve.

“Are you kidding Delila is annoying, and if she asked me one more stupid question about my hair….”

Marcus laughed, “she should fit right in when we get back”

It was while they were resting when Em approached,”Lord Bloodstone, I have some questions to ask you.”

“Sure, you can ask me anything, doesn’t mean I will answer.”

“How does the mirror work?”

“You mean its rules or how it works in general?”

“How does it bring someone back from the dead?”

Bloodstone looked at her and thought about it, before answering. “It’s a bunch of spells together, the first is that it identifies a name or a body part in the reflection it does a divination to find the most healthy version of that person in the past. It takes that body as a template, and then finds when they died, and copies every memory the moment they died to the new body. Then if the person’s soul is there is brings those things together in the mirror.”

 She stared at him silently, “How can you explain that so simply the spells required doing that…”

“Are very high level” He replied.

“How do you know them, how is that possible, you are from a world without magic.” She said somewhat in disbelief.

Bloodstone shrugged, “That’s how I would do it, doesn’t mean that’s how the mirror works but my guess it’s some variant of what I just said. Possibly in a different order but you get the idea.”

She swallowed, “I am afraid, what you might say if I told you I was the daughter of a necromancer.”

“Should I be impressed, or sad? They way you say it, it sounds like you’re a little embarrassed or ashamed of your old man.”

“I, think I underestimated you. Your son has been asking me about necromancy.”

“Well we both have some knowledge of that field it’s a viable school of magic. Why do you think you underestimated me?”

“I thought you were like everyone else here and had a disgust for things undead?”

He looked at her,” I think you are making assumptions, I never said that I would use undead, at least not if I don’t have to. Don’t misunderstand, I know undead have uses and each situation is different. I won’t kill something just to raise it as an undead. It other words I’m not going to kill just to get a better weapon. I don’t need to kill unless I have to.”

“what about using the bones, of the dead?”

“That’s fine, as long as you either have permission, or are aware of the stigma you are going to cause.”

“I have been dealing with the negativity all my life, it’s just odd how you, seem to take it all in stride.”

“He does that all the time,” Rana said

“I see things differently than most people, let me ask you both a question. You are in a small town you have never been to before, everyone seems to be afraid of you or shuns you. What is your first thought as to why that might be?”

“Because I am a half gazer?” Rana said.

“I’m a necromancer?” Em replied

“what if your both wrong, it’s because the town has had bad experiences with outsiders. How do you break the ice so to speak?”

“Why would I want to,” Em said cutting off Rana.

Bloodstone sighed, “you are missing the point, you automatically assume is a bias, and by doing so you can unintentionally alienate yourself. In addition, you may cut yourself off from valuable information, or skills that you could use.”

Zail walked over whipping sweat from his brow and breathing a little heavy, “I did what you asked, and went hunting with the goblins. They kept surprising me, we killed a boar. I should say I killed it.”

“You learn something?”

“Yeah, I think your right about the goblins, I hate to admit it. I never saw them as people before. I am ashamed to admit that, I have killed goblins.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of, it’s part of growing and learning. Its knowing when to admit you may have made a mistake and you re-evaluate your position.

“Well we did get a boar, I’m going to teach them how to cut it properly.” He said turning to go back to the goblins.

“Did you kill it or them?” Bloodstone asked.

“I did, they didn’t seem to want to bother with it.”

The goblins ate well that night.

It took them three days to find the tower, with the goblins help. It was a tower, situated in a small valley surrounded by ruins. The tower stood in the middle of the ruins, of what appeared to be a town made up of stone. It was rubble mostly a few building walls still stood a monument to the massive structure that did still stand a white gleaming tower that stood well over a three hundred feet. There was what looked like a large metal door, set into one face of the tower.

It was the eight metal golems that stopped anyone from approaching the tower. They were twenty feet tall and each had two long metal curved blades of the same silver looking metal. It wasn’t silver, as it hadn’t tarnished. The two people on the ridge of the valley looking through the small spyglass, noted the skeletons, most appeared to be missing a head or cut in half.

The goblins refused to go into the ruins and told them they would wait for them to the south.

“See, those are Mithral golems, it would take a couple of gold teams to take down one, never mind eight” Em said to Bloodstone who was looking through the spyglass.

“The enchantments on them are, intact. I think you might be right.”

“You can see the enchantments on them from here?”

“Yes, I also see some paths in the stonework, how long have you watched them?”

“We watched them for two days, and they moved every few hours.” As if on cue the eight golems moved into a different position, each moving several dozen feet from where they were.

“Those are some high-level enchantments, I don’t see a way past them, without someone dying.”

“You could use the mirror?” She suggested.

“No, that would leave equipment unrecoverable, I can sense some basements and openings in the earth below the ruins. I don’t think there is an easy way into the tower from the ground.” He turned and looked at the top of the tower. It was domed, and there was a shimmer from the balconies at the top. “Flying is out as well.”

“What?, Why?” Em asked.

“Take a look.” He handed her the spyglass.

She looked through and could see inside the dome area, there were three more golems in the space. “Is that a statue?”

“Let me look.” He took the glass back and looked. He was quite for a good minute. “I don’t think it’s a statue, I can’t make out much detail. Hold on, “he said and took out a small tripod and tightened the spyglass to it. “Hands to shaky, and I want to use my phone to get a better picture.”

After the tripod was setup he attacked the phone to the other end of the spyglass. “You had that spyglass and stand made to use with your device?” Em asked.

“Yes, I was worried they wouldn’t get it sent before we left.“ He then turned on the phone, and connected several dots on the screen with a line and the phone loaded. He activated the camera application and hooked it up to the back of the small telescope.  After maneuvering the whole thing to where they could see into the top of the dome. He took a couple of pictures, there were three more golems, and what looked like a statue of a woman.

“What’s that haze?” she asked looking at the picture.

“No idea, going to zoom in onto the woman as close as I can.” He then took the picture.

“Looks like a Half-elf, hard to tell though the light is horrible “ Em said.

“Ok lets get some good pictures of the golems as well as the ruins.” He said panning the focus to the golems, and taking pictures, and even video.

“Well I think that’s about all I can show you” Em said.

“I knew I should have brought Rana, let’s get off this cliff and see if we can’t figure out a way in to that tower.”

“You think you can get into the tower?”

“We have what a week to figure it out before we have to head back. with some of the food the goblins helped procure, were have extra time.”

The two of them climbed back up the ridge to the path they had found. They rejoined the group who had setup camp near the mouth of the valley.

“Well?” Kuya asked.

“No frontal assault, eight golems and no idea what they are programmed to do, best guess is they are heavily enchanted.”  He stared at Kuya, “I don’t think your staff would work on them, and I don’t know what other defenses that might trigger.”

“But I could just….” Kuya started to say.

“No, …” it was at that moment his earpiece chirped, “Just a moment” he touched the diamond, “Hello?”

There a long moment of silence, “That’s good to hear,” He listened for a bit, “You do what’s best, we still have a bulk of the gold and the cache of magic items with us. We did find it and just finished scouting the tower.” He listened, “Its real, I have pictures.” He listened for a minute in silence, and rolled his eyes twice, “Well I can’t guarantee we will be there, by then. If we leave now maybe, I can’t see giving up on this, we just got here. Has he ordering me to return?” He was quite for a long time, “Thanks, Ill contact you tonight.” He touched the diamond.

“What was that all about?” Lady Amethyst asked.

“Coreen says the king heard about the group returning and is going to be doing an inspection, she wasn’t sure when his delegation would arrive. There was a request that we host him and his people next week sometime. Hopefully the gifts we sent back will be enough to leave us alone. Otherwise we have to cut this short and head back tomorrow at the earliest.”

“Your going to defy the King?” Zail asked.

“Not if I can help it, we only got word from Susan, that the king is making rounds after the assault, making sure everything is on the up and up. Coreen said that Isabel told her we do not show up anytime soon. The request came in right after Susan reported to Coreen.”

“Why not head back, now then,” Zail asked.

“It’s kind of like this, we have lord and lady titles,” gesturing to himself and Lady Amethyst,” granted by the crown, if for some reason they were revoked. We would most likely know it instantly. That usually means everyone in the family would be enemies of the crown, I don’t think it’s come to that, especially since we did send very generous gifts to the crown from the Sutters holdings and also from the dragon’s horde. If we can find this vault, we can at least have some extra leeway with the crown. Perhaps find out more about this ritual he is using and putting a stop to him killing off his own people to bring people from our world. If nothing else at least get the information as to what he is using.”

“Do you think you can convince the king?”Xyrediane asked.

“Maybe, I have no idea. Sometimes, it’s talking through a problem and showing solutions to pieces can let you solve the bigger issue. The king is reasonable.  He let us try some of our ideas, maybe having a dialog could help with more solutions, a king makes choices based on information given, if you have bad information you can make bad choices.”

“Let’s see the pictures”, Lady Amethyst said.

“Sure, let me download them off the phone to the laptop.” Bloodstone setup a table, that had been stored in the ‘room’ as it was being called. A tent was setup over it and they began to examine the pictures, that had been taken.

 “Look here, here and here.” Rana said pointing out corpses on the pictures. “they all are inside that white stone around the tower.”

“She right, I don’t see any other skeletons, and all of them are around the edges.” Marcus said.

“So as long as we stay out of that ring, of stone we should be safe.” Zail asked.

“I could take em,” Xach said eying the golems.

“Let’s not go that route. We can’t walk up and flying to the balconies up top is out, that leaves underground. What do you think Xyre?”

“Maybe there enough voids or dead areas under the area, it’s possible and if you use that pickaxe, maybe we can find an underground entrance.”

“Ok let’s do this, since only me and you have the ability to sense metal and stone. We become the team captains, and you get to pick first.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, go ahead and start us off Xyre”

“Ok, Rana”

“I pick Kuya then.” Bloodstone said pointing to her.

“Lady Amethyst” After she was called she walked over to Xyrediane, she smiled, “I’m using my siren illusion”

“Elmok”

“At your service my lord” Elmok said

“Nyteria”

“I guess we have a bunch of mages in this group” Nyteria said.

“Em”

“It’s because I am gold rank?” She asked.

“Hijala”

“I will stay with my lady” She said fanning her wings.

“Violet”

Violet grabbed one of the bags they used for potions and stood behind Em.

“Xach”

“Whatever” and walked to stand next to his mother.

“Eve”

“Why did I get picked last?” She asked.

“Just how it worked out, this should be a good team setup, I’m giving Eve and Xach the pickaxes, since they were picked last.”

“You want the east or west side, Xyre?” Bloodstone asked her.

“East”

“Ok let’s meet back here in a couple of hours, if you have any issues message the team leaders.” They walked down through the entrance to the valley, once it opened to the ruined town they went left and right, checking for holes in the ground, and ready for anything that might jump out at them.

They searched the houses in the ruins for an entrance underground, after searching they returned and compared notes.

“There are voids and areas that are detecting as solid stone, all over the place under the ruins. Most of what we could investigate were collapse basements or buried in with debris.” Xyre said

“We found pretty much the same thing, and even digging down a little we just had small pockets of space that were filled with dirt. There was one spot that we didn’t have time to really check but it’s a massive void to the north, or it’s just not detecting stone or earth there. Any thoughts?”

They ate lunch and talked out some suggestions, “The biggest issue is that there is a lot of loose dirt, and even if we could find stone we would have to move it to make a passage. “ Xyrediane said.

“What are your thoughts?” He asked the others.

“Take out the Golems?” Kuya suggested.

“Mine over to it,” Eve suggested looking at the pickaxe.

“Yeah but the pick axes don’t work on loose stone.” Xach said.

“Your parents are capable of making something that can.” Eve replied.

There was silence for a minute, “Then use that to move the dirt and build a mine to the location, we have access to unlimited stone and an easy way to move it without breaking our backs.” Eve suggested. Everyone stared at her. “Well we do.” She said.

“I think I can make something that works on dirt.” Bloodstone said, “the next question is where do we start and how much time do we have to work?”

“Well me I can pull up raw stone and then someone can use the pick axe on it” Xyrediane suggested.

Em, and Nyteria wanted to see this enchanting, there were some suggestions about where to start and what the goal was and how much time they had.

As the sun began to set, a plan to get into the tower was being worked on, Xyre was working with Eve, Xach, Marcus and Elmok to harvest stone, so they had a supply of it when they were ready to start work in the morning. Bloodstone made the call to Coreen”

“Good evening,” He said as the person on the other end answered, “Oh, Hi Isabell” He listened to her talk for a minute, “That’s good to hear. We have a plan and will put it in effect tomorrow to try and get into the tower.” He listened to her talk and said um, and ok, and then hung up.

“What was that all about” Lady Amethyst asked.

 “Coreen is entertaining the King, he wasn’t happy we were out, in the blight. He also wasn’t upset. They arrive early to surprise me. Brigette and the others seemed to mollify him since they got back yesterday. Three gold teams and a silver team, talking our praises seems to have won us a reprieve at least for the time being. Beth and Newton are making progress on the wall, more than the king anticipated.”

“They are keeping things together?” Lady Amethyst asked.

“For the time being, luckily the King is still going around checking all the holds, Isabel didn’t get to far into what’s going on as the Queen was with her as well. Other than that I think we can continue. Unless anyone has an objection?”

“Any thoughts as to why the king didn’t contact you himself?” Rana asked.

“Now that you mention it, my guess is that he doesn’t want anyone to know about the communication devices, or he turned them over to his mages, I will ask him the next time I see him.”

———-

Isabel handed the device back to Coreen. “Thanks, I missed talking to him.”

The queen sat across the table staring at the two of them. “Did he say when he was going to return?”

Isabel shook her head no, “He did not say.”

“I am really good and finding out the answers. I asked Brigette how she returned with the team we were told had died. She did not have a believable answer. Do either of you know?”

“I do, I would however like to defer that specific question to my husband, as he has the specifics.”

“Convenient, as he is not here, what can you tell me?” She asked.

“Nothing that isn’t just speculation on my part, your Majesty. Do I know what he has, yes, do I know where he got it no.” Coreen, stared at the Queen, “Did he get it from my father? I don’t know. I have gone through everything my father had as holdings on Rhir and you know that the artificial inflation on healing potions has been fixed, that’s was his doing not mine. As well as the other issues that have come to light, far be it from be to question other lords and ladies, since I do not have a title myself.”

“We understand your position, and how vulnerable to politics you are right now without your husbands support. The information you have given me has elevated your position, somewhat. I will talk with the King and see if you are deserving of a title.” The Queen said eyeing Isabel.

“And you my dear, last time we spoke you were such a scared child, alone in the dark.”

Isabel curtsied, “Your guidance was invaluable your Majesty.”

“We do not appreciate your deceptions, as well and the obfuscations. Tell me young lady, what you know about how your husband was able to restore a gold team from death. They seem to be under the assumption that they will be allowed to leave Rhir.  Unless I get answer to my questions, I see no reason that your parents can’t be held accountable.”

Isabel swallowed slowly, “Leave them out of this, I don’t know, you know I would tell you if I did.”

“That’s right, we are running a kingdom, protecting it from monsters and demons. What could you possibly know about those things, your father begged for someone to save your life, offered anything. We needed a [seer], and that’s what you are. Now tell me [seer] what you know about Lord Bloodstone.”

“He’s kind, he loves people, triex to do the right thing. I told you before, that he can save the kingdom, but he needs help and if you interfere with him, the kingdom itself will fall. You want proof that I am a Seer, the world has already seen the greatest strategist living. There are powers moving that even you cannot stop.” Isabel glanced at Coreen, “Lord Bloodstone, will be where he needs to be, when he needs to be there.” She stared at the Queen, “I know you and the King are trying to protect the people in the kingdom, I understand that as well as any, give him the chance to help. Please don’t threaten my family, your Majesty, I have no control over how my husband would react, and my sisters would most certainly object most strongly if something were to happen.”

“We do not threaten dear, only state the obvious.” She turned back to Coreen, “The gifts we have received are impressive, and even the details of where they came from has been vague. Would you care to enlighten us?”

Coreen nodded, “As I understand it, there was a dragon, who was dying they finished the job and freed Brigette’s team. I do not have all the details.”

“Nor do they it seems. We will overlook this for now, since we detect no lies from you or them. We will revisit this when the Lord returns. It is late, and I have a long trip tomorrow” She rose and left them her maids following behind.

It was even later that Coreen and Brigette sat with Nerris and Gyrmoth. “Did you get the asking price for that ring” Brigette asked.

“I did, even some of the mundane things sold for more than we thought they would.” Coreen replied.

“How did your talk with the Queen go?” Nerris asked.

“As well as expected, I have no idea what to tell her about your team Brigette.”

Brigette smiled, “It’s not like we can tell her anything, you would have to go to the monolith to say anything. We know we just can’t talk about it.  You know but you are under no such compulsion.”

“I was surprised when he told me you all agreed to have that done.” Coreen said somewhat shocked.

“It’s not like we can’t slip up, this way we are protected, and since no one can get to where it was done, at least not easily. The spell remains.” Brigette shrugged.

“How does that work?” Coreen asked.

“To be honest, we have no idea, Lord Bloodstone asked if we would consent, after that the spell and the specifics of what we can’t remember, some of it is a blur, and we understand it’s something we agreed on for something more.” Nerris said.

Coreen nodded, “I know what the agreement was for, it’s been nice having you here. I understand your going to travel with the King for a bit?”

“Yes as two gold teams, with the crown I don’t think there is much that we can’t take down, with all the extra gear Lord Bloodstone gave us, we should be named within six months.” Gyrmoth said smiling.

“You staying” Nerris asked Brigette

“Yes, I should head home to help my brother, I just can’t seem to work up the courage to. I made a life here, I know more about magic than I did a year ago. I can do some good here.” She shrugged, “I feel old, drained, maybe a little sad.”

They talked into the wee hours of the night, about the future and the plans they had.

In the blight, Bloodstone sank exhausted into the sleeping furs, he had spent hours enchanting two shovels. They were not ornate or even decorative, just two simple shovels, with a long handle. The metal part of the shovel had a similar enchantment that the pick-axes did, they would make cubes of dirt. There was a third shovel that had been set aside, as it had malfunctioned, it was fine making the dirt cubes, the spell binding them however was not strong enough and the cubes tended to let go with explosive results.

—-

None of the party were aware they were being watched and had been for some time. The goblins had learned to stay away from the tower, after members of the clan had gone missing, or vanished without a trace.  There were antinum still on Rhir, they were the ones who stayed behind, as a rear guard. They did not know the outcome of those who had sailed decades earlier, most had only been around for a few months. They informed the [Last Queen] who gave no orders. She was almost done with her last project, the crowning achievement, a new antinum queen one that could blend in with the races, before the next wave.

The next morning, they started on the mining plan, using the two shovels and the two pick-axes, they worked in shifts to dig and reinforce the tunnel to the tower. The dirt blocks they used to fill in the stone they removed. The path they carved was solid stone, and each iteration of the blocks got them closer and closer to the white stone ring. Once they passed through what they thought was solid stones, it broke open a passageway that was filled with rocks and other debris. They found that it was an old sewer line, that had used enchanted stone and didn’t show up as hollow but as solid. Once they were inside they found they could navigate to the central tower, there were places that the stone had been broken or the ceiling caved in, it was easy to fix once they began using the two tools.

They camped underground, there was no water, in the line, just an old unused passage. They rested and continued towards the goal. It was towards night time they had cleared a path to the central tower, it also was made up of enchanted stone. The pick-axe couldn’t break the enchantment. They started digging east along the enchanted wall and by luck found a section that had fallen into the structure. It was small but with them pulling the stones out one at a time, they widened it enough to enter what was a storeroom. The door was made of wood and opened easily. They move cautiously, opening the door slowly listening for anything out of the ordinary. It took them hours to clear the hallways and the rooms off the hallway, they found the stairs leading up. The whole floor seemed to be storage, except for the large metal and stone archway that had what looked like a metal door with runes, and glyphs on it. The runes glowed a deep red when they approached.

On the first floor, they found more stairs up and a main foyer as well as a sitting room. There was a thick layer of dust over everything. They found a kitchen that still had several broken plates, and a skeletal body that had its skull smashed. They continued to search the first floor, the dust was stirred up and Lady Amethyst cut cloth and made masks to block out the dust. Kuya refused to go into the tower without a dust mask. She retrieved a bandana from her backpack and put it over her face.  She then pulled her staff out and spoke with Esprit and the feathers on her staff dropped down and she began to suck up the dust into her staff.

“What the hell” Eve asked.

“What it’s a magic vacuum I can’t stand dust makes my nose runny”  Kuya said waving the staff around, cleaning.

“I’m shocked,” Bloodstone said.

“She’s cleaning?” Lady Amethyst said.“Who are you and what have you done with our daughter”

“I don’t like dust” Kuya said through her muffled bandana.

The cleared the first floor, there were two more bodies, one was in what looked like a bathroom, and had several arrows in its chest. The other body was buried under the dust and found when Kuya cleaned that part of the floor.  The burned scorch mark in the back of the corpse seemed to indicate a spell of some kind.

“We go slow, oh and don’t open the front door.“ Bloodstone said to the groups as they moved through the first floor.

They went slowly through the tower, they found more bodies, some we killed in the beds they slept in. they found six bedrooms on the second and third floors. A library that seemed to be intact on the fourth floor, there were some shelves that had the contents strewn about. They found a much larger bedroom on the fifth floor, and two large workspaces for what looked like alchemy and magic. They found the three golems on the top floor, and they were still active.  At the bottom of the steps was a corpse, that had been decapitated, the blood still visible  on the stairs and wall.

The golems didn’t shift position unless someone came up the stairs. The golems then moved to an attack posture. Taking precautions they used a phone to get a layout of the room, since the close quarters and three mithral golems was not a good combination.

The started looking at the pictures taken, the woman they had seen was still there, in the same pose as if warding from an attack. It became obvious that there was something strange about the woman,

Lady amethyst attempted to Lull and pacify them, to no effect, they did not react at all to the spells but they still moved when they spells did land.

“I betting immune to that type of effect” Bloodstone said as they retreated down the steps for the fourth time, they had gotten some pictures as well as some video when the golems moved.

“It seems like they get ready to attack if they hear someone on the steps, and the way they creak there’s no way to get up there.” Eve said.

The examined the pictures, and saw something that was unexpected and strange. “Is that an hourglass?” Em asked when they zoomed into the object near the woman’s right hand.

“And a dagger,” Eve said.

“That distortion, it’s a time bubble.” Bloodstone said looking over their shoulder

“Huh, how can you tell?” Eve asked.

“That dagger is floating in the middle of that hourglass, you can see the cracks in the glass. It was knocked from her hands. There’s a second dagger here.” he said pointing to the picture.

“Poor girl”,Violet said, “How long do you think she has been there?”

“No way to know, not really. Best guess a very long time” Bloodstone replied.

“I’m not messing with that “ Zach said, “Time stuff sucks”

“There’s no way to free her is there?” Nyteria asked.

Bloodstone stared at the picture, “I have no idea how, maybe if we could get in the room, the golems prevent that. Let me think about it. Let’s check that vault looking door downstairs.”

They went downstairs to the large door in the archway. It was sealed, with what looked like mithril and the runes glowed a soft red when anyone stood in front of the door.

“Maybe a password is needed” Xyrediane suggested. “I can’t sense anything beyond this, it must block skills as well”

“The books seems to be in good shape in the library, we should start packing them, into the book of storage, and examine them later. Maybe have a team come back later, I don’t see any easy way to get into this vault.” Bloodstone said examining it without touching the door.

“Why do they glow red?” Nyteria asked.

“Maybe it’s a warning, I do see some serious attack spells as well as a reservoir of magic it’s tied to.” He answered.

“I could drain the mana” Kuya suggested.

“I wouldn’t advise that it’s got all kinds of fail safe spells, its complex. It also has wards to prevent tampering, they keep the whole door refreshed with magic and prevent tampering, it’s pretty cool now that I have seen spells like that functioning.”

Brigette was looking at it as well, “This is even beyond you?” She asked.

“Yeah, its layers of spells on layers of spells that interact with each other and there are some that even obscure what’s visible.” Bloodstone replied.

“It’s pretty though” Kuya said

“Yes it is, but it doesn’t do us any good. Its been a long day we should setup in the basement, get some rest and decide what to do in the morning.

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