Sharak 17 – Orol 6, 648 DR: Bandin and Velnar follow a stranger through an unfamiliar door. The cabinet stairs. The slaughter of the Urdar. The Craw master and his henchman. Reading is fundamental.

The Beginning:

Malídor, 17 Sharak 648

The neighborhood of Kelspar sat against the South Wall of the City of Oð. The streets were choked with narrow houses crowded so tightly that their roofs seemed pinched. Low stone porches sat before each doorway and the cobblestone streets sloped down into wide gullies where the water seeped into heavy iron grates choked with garbage. It rained often but the walls never got clean. Each raindrop was dark with soot and oil, carried earthward from the omnipresent cloud that spun over the city.

Bandin and Velnar wandered the streets of Kelspar looking for food, money, and opportunity. It was one of the coldest nights of the year and they were down to a couple sausage-links between them, and they’d only managed that by staging a distraction in the neighborhood square using a cat and a burning taper. They were on their way back to their hideout beneath the tavern kitchen when they spotted a large mysterious figure in a tall hat and long coat ducking into an alleyway ahead of them. Rushing to the corner, they spied the figure fumbling with a ring of keys and finally opening an unfamiliar door. As candlelight spilled into the alley from the open door it appeared that there were red feathers where the man’s face should be. The figure slipped through the doorway and the door began to slowly close behind him. Bandin sprinted forward and caught the door before it closed. When Velnar arrived they peeked through the doorway and saw a richly appointed room. Candles burned on a nearby table and a foreign rug lay upon the floor. On the far wall, the doors to a large cabinet closed with a click and the candles guttered to darkness.

Velnar grabbed a board from the alley and wrapped rags around one end. Then Bandin climbed the nearest oil lamppost and lit the torch. With this new light they opened the door and went in. They lit one of the candles and examined the room. Velnar was sure that the stranger had entered the wardrobe and so they chopped and beat at the wooden doors with their daggers and staff until it opened. Holding the torch closer they saw that there was no back to the wardrobe at all, but rather a staircase leading down into more darkness.

Velnar gathered a cobblestone from the alleyway and tossed it down the stairs. The two listened as it rolled down the steps and then skittered across a floor. Below, footsteps and squeals issued from the darkness so the two ran down the steps. Below they saw a carpeted room with a heavy wood preparation table covered with plates and cups and food. Scrambling about the room were a handful of Urdar trying to find ready exits. Another raced toward them with a frying pan in its hand. Bandin threw his daggers and Velnar bashed a second Urdar with his staff, bringing it down. All was too late however, for the alarm had been raised. The two quickly took to looting the bodies.

Bandin found a small concealed compartment in the fireplace which contained a rolled piece of parchment, covered with writing. While he marveled at the words (which he could not read) a door on the room’s far side opened and an Urdar threw a knife at him. The two turned and went for the door, opening it. On the other side they found an Urdar trying to open a far door to get away. He did not.

Trying another door, Bandin found a hall with more Urdar cowering at the far end. Velnar watched curiously as his partner talked with the Urdar about sausages. The ugly little people promised Bandin that they had plenty. In time the argument devolved into another fight and more Urdar were killed.

With the diminutive inhabitants of this place either dead or fleeing, the two boys explored the complex and found a cloak room and a large dining room with seats for a dozen guests. Beyond the dining room they found stairs leading down to a lower level. At the bottom of the stairs, Bandin jumped aside as a pit snapped opened beneath him. In a nearby room hey found a large black bird-like creature wearing armor and a carrying a spear. The Craw attacked them. Velnar was able to Weave a spell that injured the creature before the monster thrust its spear through Bandin’s side, dropping him convulsing to the floor. Velnar was able to kill the Craw guard and drag his friend from the dungeon without further encounter.

Amdor, 18 Sharak 648

Resting and healing in the hideout.

Kændor, 2 Orol 648

After many days of waiting for Bandin to heal, the two returned to the lair. Working their way back downstairs they were stopped in the dining room by a raspy voice of the owner of this place. The red Craw in the long jacket and hat waved his hands and sheets of fire shot from his fingertips, burning Bandin and lighting the tabletop candles. Bandin rushed forward with his torch, but his adversary Weaved another spell, plunging even the torch’s light into darkness. The red Craw Weaved more spells, sending balls of burning light toward the boys, but nothing slowed them down. Toward the end, Velnar was sent sprawling to the floor by the monster’s claw and did not get up. This time, Bandin was able to punch his dagger deep into the monster’s chest and stand there as it screamed and fell to the stone floor, dead.

Bandin used some old rags to bind Velnar’s wound and dragged him back to their home beneath the tavern.

Iyldor, 6 Orol 648

After many days of waiting, they returned a final time to the underground place to find it rank with the smell of the rotting dead. They found some coins and a golden ring on the Craw’s finger with magic writing on the inside of the band. The rest of the rooms they checked were empty. Back at their hideout, the two looked again at the parchment Bandin had found and wondered what it said and why someone had bothered to hide it behind a stone in the fireplace.

“Eren 646 DR, Today I met with my surface colleagues and was assured that they continued to support our research into the Unfettered Weave. The Imp was most displeased with the experiment of four years ago and has demanded results. The more study I do however, the less I am able to remember. I think the magics are having bad effects on me, but I dare not stop. I commit these thoughts to parchment so that I will remember them and the names of those that support me in this. If I should die, I will take them with me.” – written in Crawwok; the reverse of the same parchment has a list of names written by the same shaky hand.

Continued in Into the Dark.

Characters

• Bandin of Kelspar
• Velnar of Kelspar

Played: 19 Jan 2004