Dragavan's Den

Fiction: Phil’s Tale

Dragavan — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:54:07 +0000

I am currently running a game of Don’t Rest Your Head and had a moment of inspiration, so I wrote this short story based on a character not actually in the active narrative of the story (at least yet), but that is tied to the backgrounds of two of our three protagonists (his father and his best friend). What’s been keeping one of them up is that he noticed Phil’s been missing and he is determined to find out what happened to his one only friend, and the other has been struggling to try and help his son achieve some sense of self sufficiency so he can feel secure is his job as a parent (and not have to end up working himself to death to support his son the rest of his life).

The protagonists are all currently coming to grips with finding themselves in the Mad City, as dealing with that can (at least at first) supersede any other active goals they may have. Very soon, however, they will have to start to work on what they really came here to deal with, or it will start to deal with them. This story, however, falls somewhere before it all happened to them, telling the story of how Phil came to be missing and hinting at where he might be now.

I wrote it for the players to read and enjoy, but I thought others might find it interesting as well, so I am posting it here. Comment if you like it (or find any glaring errors, as I have not done a thorough editing job on it).

But enough jibber-jabber, let’s get onto the story…

Phil’s Tale
By: Dragavan

Phil Ketley’s life wasn’t exactly perfect, but he lived it and tried to make the best of what came his way. It wasn’t easy growing up the son of a janitor of the very school you went to, with all the cruel teasing and torment kids that age can dole out, but he knew his father did the best he could with what he had to offer. He knew it couldn’t have been easy raising an active, although not academically inclined, kid all alone. Especially after the death of his mother at a young age. But none of that understanding made the growing up any easier.

All through school Phil just didn’t seem to have anything that really clicked with him. He tried all the sports, but he just wasn’t that into the athletic. He never got the point of the arts. Science and programming were never things he could wrap his mind around. All through it he never felt like there was anything he was truly good at. Nothing he was really meant to do.

That was until he took his first driving lesson.

It was like nothing he ever felt before when he sat behind the wheel of car. It was what he knew he was meant to do. He never felt more alive than when he was behind the wheel of a car moving at high speeds, so it was just a matter of time that his youthful indiscretions would either lead to jail or the track. Thanks to the guidance and help of his father it was the latter.

Although it was only in the local circuits, and the occasional regional trials when he was really doing well, Phil was obsessed with the stock car racer’s life. Every cent of his money, and much of his father’s, went into his cars and his time at the track. More than a fair share of his time disappeared there too. There are at his friend’s garage, where most of his cars got worked on in the wee hours of the night. It wasn’t unusual for his father not to see him for days on end when their schedules didn’t sync up.

Phil still lived at home with father and didn’t have a lot of friends, but those he had he was close to. Chuck, down at the Rat City Raceway, gave him his first break and was his mentor on the track. Chuck took him under his wing and showed him the ropes. He raced under him, as one of the Rat City Boys, for nearly six years before getting a car of his own. Then it was all his, in both the work and the glory, which felt like he was reborn into a new man.

Unfortunately the feeling wasn’t meant to last.

First his transmission fell out of the car and he had to take out a loan against his cars to replace it. Then he had to get a couple credit cards to pay for extra parts and track fees. His father helped when he could to pay off the loan, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell his dad about the cards. The farther he went trying to run the circuit on his own the more in debt he seemed to go and the winnings in this field don’t really cover the kinds of expenses he runs into, at least at this level.

It wasn’t too long after he started to slip down that path that they first approached him, with promises of backing and big things on horizon. It was simple things at first, like a new set of tires or help with an entry fee he was just shy of, but over time the help they gave grew more substantial and they started to ask for repayment more frequently and in larger amounts. He did everything he could to make sure they got paid, but he couldn’t tell his friends or father what he really needed the cash for. What would they think if they found out he had gotten mixed up with these types?

Then came the first time that he came up short and couldn’t pay them back. He didn’t have the cash they required of him, but they let it slide in exchange for a little favor. Something he could handle for them out on the track. This was the first time he threw a race, and took out the leading competitor in the process. Nobody would suspect he did it on purpose, since it meant he lost as well. That was the point. But it just didn’t sit well with him. But he dealt.

He vowed to himself to not get mixed up with them again, and did his best to keep to it, but that was before the engine on his main car ceased. His father was already stretched thing working long hours just to keep a roof over their heads and something that resembled food on the table, so there was no help there. He couldn’t ask his friends for help, after all they were struggling in these financially troubled times as much as anyone. So that just left one place to turn, unless he wanted to drop out of the state trials, and that wasn’t an option.

That’s when he started having trouble sleeping.

At first it was just long hours at his friend’s garage, working on anything he could to keep them running or even to make a few extra bucks to cover what he could, but nothing he did was going to make them disappear. He just wasn’t making enough. As the days went by, he knew they would come knocking and either take everything he had or possibly ask him to do something he didn’t want to have to do again.

Unfortunately this wasn’t what they had in mind this time. His value wasn’t what it used to be, as his rankings were slipping as his stress and insomnia continued to rise. They told him he had one last chance to come clean or he would be used as an example to the others. It was the tone in their voices that told him he would survive the kind of example they had in mind.

Phil knew he only had two choices left at this point. Fight or flight.

If he ran, he would have to do it fast and without warning. No ties to the past could be left to lead them to him. It would leave his family and friends in danger, as they would most certainly be used to try and smoke him out or track him down. So the cost of that would be higher than what he thought he could risk.

If he fought, it would have to be on bigger ground that what he was used to. It couldn’t be fists in the street, because he would lose that one in no time. No, the fight he would have to bring would have to be bigger. Something they would actually fear… But it would come with a price too. If he went to the government and told them about the men, it would mean that his secrets would come crashing down around him and his family and friends would learn the truth. There was also the risk that he wouldn’t succeed and his protection would be pulled away from him, leaving him to the very wolves he tried to bring to light.

Neither of these choices seemed very good, but he had no choice. He had to choose one and ride it out, or all would be lost. At least that’s what he thought. He didn’t even know a third choice was just around that dark corner of his sleepless mind.

On the eve of his final day, knowing that the next morning was the moment they would arrive to collect what was theirs (one way or another), he sat in his car outside the track and considered his options one last time. He thought the rest of his life was resting on the next decision he made. He wasn’t allowed to make that decision.

They must have known he was up to something, because they were already at the track watching him. They knew he wasn’t going to make the payment, so they were going to get the dirty part out of the way that night. He never noticed them as they moved up around the car, so it came as a start when he was suddenly surrounded.

His heart skipped a beat…

The world seemed to stop for a second…

His mind inhaled a slow breath…

Then all around him was fire and noise. His car was ablaze, the men were engulfed, the screaming was deafening, and the roar of the flames seemed to speak to him… But Phil was untouched in the center of this inferno. He was in shock and couldn’t move from his seat at the wheel, but he knew there was no way he was driving away from this one. Nothing recognizable was left of the rest of his car.

Slowly the blaze started to die out and darkness was once again surrounding him, but the smell of smoke and death was still thick in the air. Not sure how he could, he managed to step out of the car and walk away virtually untouched. Sure he was smeared with soot, but there wasn’t a burn anywhere on him or his clothes. In a daze he stumbled away from the scene and into the streets.

It wasn’t very long until he was pulled out of his stupor by a sharp voice behind him pointedly speaking to him. “You can’t get away from your debts that easily, Phil.”

Phil knew it wasn’t over and his shoulders sank as he slowly turned around to face his end with at least some level of dignity. What met his eyes was something beyond what could have ever expected to see and he felt his mind slide just a little to the left inside his head.

What stood before him was what appeared to be a tall thin man in a rumpled gray suit with a sweat-stained shirt below it, but instead of a head he had a large white ball with a straight pin pointed directly at him sticking out from the center. On either side of this Pin Head were what appeared to be rather large brown dogs, only they had large sewing needles in place of their heads, which were threaded with a wispy red thread that ran down their spines and wagged behind them like ghostly tails.

Raising its hand, the mouthless monstrosity pointed at Phil and spoke in that same unearthly voice. “You can’t run away from your debts. The Tacks Man will have what is his, and his Needle Nose Bloodhounds have your scent now, so there is nowhere you can run.”

He wasn’t going to take this abomination’s word for it so he turned and ran. At first he could hear the dogs on his trail, their loud sniffs and low growls biting through the shadowy darkness, but as time passed they become less noticeable. He never actually looked back, but after what felt like hours of running, ducking down alleys, and slipping through the cracks in fences, he thought he finally lost them.

Unfortunately for him, he too seemed to be lost by this point. He didn’t recognize the streets any more and he wasn’t sure what he could do about it. All he did know was that he didn’t want to have anything else to do with whatever those things were. So he would do whatever it took to keep them away and keep himself from ever being brought before this Tacks Man.

Unbeknownst to him at the time, he had slipped into the Mad City and no roads forged lead back out again. To the outside world of the City Slumbering he had simply gone missing, and many wouldn’t even notice that at first…

But there are those who did.

One in particular.

But that’s another story.

Another Huge Project I Can’t Not Do

Dragavan — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:43:33 +0000

Every so often an idea hits me and I am required to follow that path. I have no say in the matter. That thing inside me, that drives me, forces me to follow that crumb and I have no say. It doesn’t mean I have to complete it, although that is the general intent, just that I have to run it out and see where it goes.

Well, that has happened again. Several weeks ago, in fact, and I have been chasing it down that road. Don’t even have a name for it yet, so I just have been calling it by the code name MSM (not gonna say what it stands for just yet). All other projects are put aside while I chase one of these, at least temporarily, so my total focus can be put on it.

So what does that mean for all the others? Nothing more than they ever meant. The Game Chef game is pretty much dead. I didn’t have strong feelings for it and when I got sick it pretty much ruined the fun of trying to finish it in time. N.W.G. and Whispering Bluff are still very much alive, but these kinds of long term RPGs slide in and out of active development all the time with me.

So, let’s talk about the new project. It’s gonna be a huge board game (which I plan to sell through The Game Crafter at this point) with hundreds of cards, lots of markers, dice, several character sheets, and three large boards that combine to create a huge playing area. It’s going to be a co-op game, where the players work together against the game and whatever the chosen “mystery” is. The funny thing is, I can’t set the specifics of how to win until most of the rest of the pieces are in place. But I think all that is getting a little ahead of myself. How about we start with some basics.

Every player will play one of the students of a large school of magic (yes, I know this theme is going to sound familiar, but we are not going to mention it anywhere because it’s not that). Each will choose a character, from one of the available sheets, and each sheet will have a number of attributes set on them. They will also choose a starting “Persona” for their character, which are a separate set of cards that add more information about them, including starting items and powers.

Now, about these attributes. Four of them will be relatively stable but are depleted and refilled through play. Those ones are Actions, Health, Hope, and Luck. Actions are spent to do things during your day. Health is just that and is depleted by damage. Hope is a measure of your state of mind and makes things harder when reduced. And Luck is a special thing you can choose to spend to gain bonuses. The other four attributes are more fluid and slide along tracks on your character sheets, like skills they have. These can be raised or lowered through training, special cards, or adjusting them actively. They are Speed, Magic, Brains, and Brawn. They are mainly used to make skill checks for things.

Okay, so I also mentioned special items and powers. These what make up the rest of your character’s starting skills. Powers are special abilities they can use in accordance to what they say. These can as simple as drawing extra cards or rolling extra dice in certain situations to being very special powers that are truly unique to the character. Items are a collection of random or non-random cards they get to start with from one of the several special Inventory decks.

Okay, about those Inventory decks. I plan for there to be five of these decks, most with several sub-types within them. The first is Books, which has General Books, Textbooks, and Tomes. The second is Potions. The third is Items, which has General Items, Food, and Weapons. Fourth is Artifacts, which are basically rare and powerful Items. And finally there are Spells, which come in Enchantments, Invocations, Conjurations, Divinations, and Curses.

All together this makes up what you play in the game, but doesn’t really explain much of how the game plays.

Now let me get into some of the basics of how I see it playing, even though this doesn’t explain how it’s won… yet. The main mechanic of the game will be the Check (usually an Attribute or Skill check). You roll a number of dice (six-sided) equal to the number of the attribute or skill being checked and every 1 or 2 is counted as a success. Most checks also have a target number (usually 2), which is the number of successes needed to pass them. What happens when they are passed depends on why they are being made, but the mechanics are almost always the same.

Luck can be spent to get an extra die when making a check. For every 1 Luck spent you get 1 extra die to roll (unless some other power gives them more). The only exception to this rule is if you are making a Luck Check, in which case you can’t spend any Luck to increase the roll. This is because one die is already being rolled for each Luck point, even though none of them are being spent.

The game will also be broken into Weeks, Days, and Segments (Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Night). Each week starts with a Sunday and ends with a Saturday. Each day starts with the drawing of a daily event card, which has to be put into effect or resolved as the wording on it says before play can move on. Then players assign their Action points (average of about 8 each) to the four segments of the day, with at least one in each. This is done now, and can’t be easily changed later, so they have to plan and think ahead a little. Then come the segments themselves, which include the player’s turns, but first all NPCs have the chance to move.

Players take their turns in sections, with each player performing the required part before moving on to the next one. The order must stay the same in each segment and each player must complete their part before the next can act. First they each activate or perform any turn-based actions they want or have to use. Then they spend all their available Action Points allotted to this Segment to perform any number of legal actions. Then they finish up by performing any end of turn actions they have to or choose to take.

What actions they do depends on where they are and what is available to them. Movement takes an action (and allows movement up to their current Speed), Attending a class takes an action if they are in the right place (and sometimes is rewired to avoid trouble), Activating a location ability usually takes an action, Searching a location takes an action (and allows the drawing of a Search card), Some Items or Spells require an action, Starting a Duel might require an action, and altering the current level of some things (like skills) also would require an action.

So that’s the general outline of the game’s basic mechanics. Not including the victory conditions or goals of the whole thing. The theme is there will be some large mystery going on that the players have to beat, mostly by fulfilling requirements (like finding clues, activating things, etc.), and if they don’t do it in time they lose. The actual requirements and timing of it all is what’s still in limbo. I do think it will have to do with advancing “chapters” of the mystery in the form of flipping cards until either the players can win or they lose. But before I can figure that out I have to have the rest of the game working on some level first.

Now I should get back to working on it, I have a few hundred more “search” results to write. As of this point I am on the Dungeon, set 5 of 12 (with 12 cards with 3 parts each in each set), so there is still a ways to go. So, any comments or ideas on this idea so far? I am sure I will have more to say later.

Game Chef: I now have a name and a Game Board

Dragavan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:43:18 +0000

Taking a break from writing the rule and trying to reorganize them I figured I would work on the game board graphics for a while. In the process of working on the board I came up with the name of the game. I was looking for sample graphics of French sailing vessels to use as a model and I found a list of classes of ships in the 1700’s French navy. One of them was called the Magnanime and that name just struck a chord with me. I liked the sound of it.

So the name of the game is: The Mutiny of the Magnanime

I also finished the game board, or at least the version of it that will be used with this early Game Chef version of the game. If I ever do more with this thing it will most likely change, but I think this version is good enough for the one week challenge version. What do you all think out there?

Game Chef: Putting the story into the game

Dragavan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:53:16 +0000

So now that I have worked the mechanics and the cards and the boards and all those aspects of the game into something that seems usable and feasible, I am now ready to put them all together around the story elements of the game. This is supposed to be a hybrid between card/board game and scene framing/storytelling RPG after all.

The game is broken into round, which each have three turns in them (one for each player) and possibly a bonus turn for a trial. Each player’s turn also has a number of smaller parts, but should be relatively simple to understand.

When a round begins an Event Card is drawn and put into play. This is something that could effect the whole round and be part of all the character’s stories throughout the round. Then it’s time to determine who goes next. The player with the fewest cards in their hand, who hasn’t yet framed a scene yet this round, goes next. If there is a tie any one can give up a card to go next, discarding until there is a clear winner. If none of them want to give up a card, they have to decide among themselves who goes next.

A scene starts by the active player stating which of the three action types their scene will be (Rule/Law, Logic, or Underhanded) and then starting to tell the tale of what happens in the scene surrounding their character, but not limited to it. It should incorporate, at least peripherally, the current Event card in play. The story can be told in any way the player wants, first person, third person, or even as if it was a flashback about the scene. They just can’t tell specifically what the other player’s characters are doing without their approval, but they can tell about the actions of other crew.

The scene should center around some relatively small (in the greater scope of things) thing their character is doing to move suspicion off themselves, gain support for their leadership, and/or push things towards mutiny.

During a scene their may be several smaller actions their character or NPCs take that aren’t the crux of the scene. Most of these just happen as part of the narrative, but any opponent can interrupt them by playing a card of a type that could be used to interfere with or alter the action. They then have to explain what could happen (using that type) to counter that action. The active player can then play a card of a different type to counter the counter, explaining how it could avert it. No new cards are drawn for these used. There is no set limit to how many times this can happen during the scene.

The active player can also include any one of their special Item or Skill cards into their narrative (noting when they do by sliding the card forward on the table) to use and gain whatever action it causes when the time comes. This is not required and can use up the special ability, as described on the card.

Scenes should be relatively short, since there are going to be many of them during a game. Just remember they are only part of a whole story, so save some story for later on. When the story of the scene grows to the climax moment of it the scene should stop for the vote. The vote determines if the main action of the scene is a success or failure for the character at the center of it, but the active player gets to describe how the success or failure happened.

When the scene ends a number of things happen: Any special actions that happen at the end of a turn go off. Any Skill or Item cards used that take place at the end of the turn go off. All players draw two vote cards to replace the two they used for the vote (even if they didn’t have two to use). The ship counter is moved one space. The active player placed a token on their turn counter on the board. Then the next player in line then takes their turn.

If it’s the end of the round (all three players have had a turn to tell a scene) a few more things happen: Any actions that happen at the end of a round go off. All players draw 2 cards (up to 7). All turn counters are removed from the board. Check the Crew Unrest counter, if it is high enough the Mutiny happens (skipping the rest of these end of round actions and going right to the end game). If any character has 10 (or whatever I decide on) or more Suspicion a trial takes place, following those rules.

Then draw a new Event card and start the new round.

Game Chef: Quick note about Special cards

Dragavan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:09:23 +0000

While I was working on the order of events during a narrated scene I thought about how another type of card can be thrown into the mix. They would be found in the vote deck and would come in two flavors, Items and Skills. These are drawn like normal vote cards, but when they are drawn during normal character card draws (not as random cards in a vote or as part of a trial) they are immediately placed next to your character sheet, as if they always had it, and a new card is drawn to replace it in your hand. They can never be held in your normal hand.

When you have these next to your character sheet they can be used to help out during a scene, activating whatever ability they happen to have. This will be explained in my next post, which will be about scenes. If they show up as the random draw during a vote only the voting symbol in the circle in the corner will count.

The cards will be made up of five basic parts, one of which I already mentioned (the voting symbol). There is also the card type (Item or Skill), the name of the card, the image (to be added later, so currently a blue square), and then the description of what the card does. Some of the cards (if they have the room for it) will also have a fun quote or something extra at the bottom.

Here is a quick mock up of what these cards will be like, using the examples of cards and powers I was thinking about here:

Item – Book of Maritime Law (Rule/Law): Current vote includes 1 extra Rule/Law vote.

Item – Military Cutlass (Rule/Law): Draw two extra cards this turn.

Item – Charts of the Southern Seas (Logic): Move the ship one extra move in either direction.

Item – Concealed Boot Dagger (Underhanded): Counter all attempts to interrupt the scene.

Item – Forged Papers (Underhanded): Cause one Character sheet in play to flip sides.

Skill – Royal Navy Training Regiment (Rule/Law): Counter any Support lost this turn.

Skill – Charming Demeanor (Logic): Gain 2 extra Support, even if none is gained.

Skill – Seabird Knowledge (Logic): Cancel movement of the ship this turn.

Skill – Bald Face Lying (Underhanded): Counter any Suspicion gained this turn.

I don’t think these need to be that common, so they are special when they come up. They are also discarded when a character dies and can’t be stolen or given to another character.

Game Chef: Just some updated graphics

Dragavan — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:28:27 +0000

Not a whole lot to add… I needed to take a break from mechanics and hard thinking, so I played with the graphics and made them my own. I also colorized them.

The background color is what I am going to use for the background color of the cards, or at least close to it. Most likely also the background color of the character sheets “good” side.

Game Chef: Characters and NPCs

Dragavan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:59:28 +0000

Since this is going to be part RPG, we need to have characters in the game. But unlike most RPGs I want them to be relatively simple pre-generated characters that players choose from. Also, since they can die during the game and be replaced with another, we need to have a decent number of them. Being a three player game, where characters can die and be replaced, there should be at least 9 characters to choose from. This would give enough choice and replacements for deaths.

These characters should have some basic information about who they are and a few special traits they can use to get bonuses on things. Things like: Always -1 suspicion or +1 support in votes, allowed extra cards in hand, always breaks ties in their favor, can attempt to pump up unrest once per round, can cause a redraw of an event card once per round, etc.

I can’t think of any other attributes or anything that the characters really need mechanically. I mean, what good is a Strength, Agility, or Charm when the mechanics aren’t going to support such things for conflict resolution. So that means that the character sheets are going to be relatively short, just a few special abilities and a description of what the character is basically like.

I did a simple mock up of what this might like look like.

I also thought it could include spaces at the bottom for putting some kind of counters to keep track of their current levels of Support and Suspicion. Always helpful to have these kinds of pools to clearly visually see numbers of things.

Player character sheets would be easy to do on card stock like a little game board. They may even be made to be two sided, reflecting their powers and status before and after they have had an accusation that didn’t kill them. Perhaps only when they are found guilty but allowed to live. Once flipped, they will have a harder time losing suspicion, but an easier time gaining support, and may have different powers to reflect this.

Again I did a simple mock up of how you might visually represent this. I replaced the Fleur-De-Lis with some daggers to show that they are now no longer clearly one of the “good” members of the crew. Might also use a different color background when it gets to that part of the design phase.

There might even be a reason to get oneself accused so that they can flip these cards over. Adds another element to the game. Who knows.

Perhaps the Captain can have an NPC character sheet as well, with his own special abilities that counter some of the player’s actions (perhaps even depending on his anger status). It too may be two sided, changing when unrest on the ship grows to a certain point. I like this idea. Plus that would make an even ten sheets, which would fit on the large board option over at The Game Crafters site (you could put them all on one and have it cut apart by the players into each individual sheet when they buy it, to save on cost).

Just some more ideas.

Game Chef: The Card Stock GM and Trials of the Accused

Dragavan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:08:35 +0000

As I talked about in my post about the board, the voyage and mutiny are times according to markers on the board. This is something that the GM usually takes care of in most RPGs, but since this is going to be a board/RPG hybrid that doesn’t have a GM I made some of their actions automatic or under the control of the players. My thinking along these lines also goes as far as to having a special deck of cards that set up what is going on in the background in each round.

What I am going to call the Event deck.

Cards in the event deck are drawn once at the start of a new round of play (before any players start calling for scenes) and affect all three scenes within that round and all action that takes place within them. None of them are absolutes that dictate actions, but should have the ability to affect what happens in the bigger picture of the story and on the board. Some ideas for things in this deck are as follows:

Open Seas: Nothing special happens (one of the only duplicated cards).

Dead Calm: Ship does not move and unrest increases by 1.

Fog Bank: Ship only moves once for whole round. -1 suspicion caused by voting outcomes this round.

Headwind: Ship moves an extra square this round.

Inspection: Captain called for a full inspection of the crew and quarters. +1 suspicion & +1 support caused by voting outcomes this round.

Traitor Exposed: An NPC is exposed as a traitor. Double suspicion earned. +1 unrest caused by voting outcomes this round.

Rationing: Supplies are being rationed (although not necessarily low) by the captain. +1 support & +1 unrest caused by voting outcomes this round.

Shore Leave: Ship doesn’t move this round. -3 unrest. +1 suspicion caused by voting outcomes this round.

Illness: Sickness found on board. +1 unrest & +1 suspicion removed caused by voting outcomes this round.

Bad Omen: Something is seen as a bad omen. Unrest increases by 1. +1 suspicion & +1 support caused by voting outcomes this round.

Pirates!: Pirates are seen and possibly attack. Double support earned and suspicion removed caused by voting outcomes this round.

Tribunal: Even if no character has enough suspicion, the highest one is called to trial this round.

Whichever of these are active in a given round should affect the scenes that are framed by the players. They don’t have to focus solely on these events, but they are happening during the scenes (even if in the background) so they have to be acknowledged at least. They also affect other aspect of scenes, especially the way voting outcomes can happen.

Then there is Suspicion

When suspicion reaches a certain level on a character (say 10, although that is likely to change once I start balancing the math) they are brought to trial at the end of the round (only the character with the highest level is brought forth in a round, even if more than one is above the needed level). They may plead innocence or admit to lesser crimes in hopes of getting off easy. They choose one player to be their advocate and one player to be the accuser, but they may not do either themselves. Both of these players place their own hands aside and draw seven vote cards.

The Accuser may play up to two Logic cards from their new hand as evidence, clearly stating their case as to what evidence they are bringing forth for each. This might possibly done one card at a time instead of both at once even… not sure yet.

The Advocate may then play up to three Logic cards as evidence against these, but the total support on these cards must match or exceed that on the suspicion on the opponent’s cards played. They must also clearly state how the evidence proves the accuser’s evidence false. Again, these may be done back and forth with the accuser cards if I go that way.

After all the evidence is shown and cases are made the vote happens. Both players place two vote cards down (face down) and draw 1 random card to join them, just like a normal vote except the accused gets no vote. If there are more Rule/Law cards the accused is let off as innocent. If there are more Underhanded cards, the accused is convicted. Logic cards are ignored in voting. If there is a tie, the winner of the evidence wins.

If the accused won, they get to reduce their suspicion by the total number of suspicion in the vote, plus on their evidence cards (not the accuser’s).

If they lost, the accused suffers according to a chart based on (their total suspicion/2) + all suspicion exposed in the vote + from any accuser’s evidence not countered. Chart will include things like humiliation up through death by keelhauling.

When a character dies, they are put out of the game, but the player gets to choose a new character from the unused crew to play. They start with 2 suspicion and (no support or half their other character’s support, not sure which yet).

There is more to follow soon in another post, which should be shorter and talking about the character themselves. I just figured I had enough in here for this one already.

Game Chef: Ideas for the Board and Cards

Dragavan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:31:18 +0000

When it comes to working with ideas that involve some kind of item or graphic, I tend to have to do some simple layout ideas to see if I can make it work. This means mock-ups. Nothing fancy and no real style to them, but something I can play with visually. So I used some clip art, some google found images, and some simple layout in FreeHand to put together the items I think I will be using. None of this is expected to be final graphics, but it helps me work.

Here we have a few of the cards as I was thinking of using them. The top of each card represents the category of the vote (as stated in the previous post and using the symbols only, no text). Below that is the line for how much suspicion the card can potentially cause (ranking from 0 to 2), shown as a number of pointing fingers. Finally are the stars, which are potential support the cards can give (with dark ones being negative stars).

How these cards are potentially going to be used was outlined in a previous post. I have to refine those concepts, but I haven’t gotten there yet. Luckily the weekend is upon me and I have four free days to work on this now.

Now for the board…

The board will have several trackers on it, used to keep track of the progress of the game elements outside of the control of the players. I also thought that it would give me a place to have out card decks sitting nicely and some cool graphic across the top or something.

At the top of the working part of the board will be the Voyage tracker, that some kind of marker (or ship) should move along. This is a simple timer that ticks down each turn, although some events and things should be able to delay it a little. The goal should be to cause the mutiny before this reaches the end, and be the one with the most support. If it reaches port the mutiny never happens and the story ends without a climax.

Below this is a line of pips you full up with markers of some kind. This measures the crew unrest and when it fills up it means mutiny. Filling this up before the voyage ends without causing so much suspicion on yourself that you are tried and punished is part of that goal I mentioned.

I also thought about having a place where each player places a token when they take their scene in the round, so they don’t have to be in the same order all the time, but they do each have to take one. This would help keep track of who has gone in this round and who hasn’t… not a huge deal, but why not do it if there is room on the board.

That’s enough for now… but I am still working on it, so who knows if that is all for today.

Game Chef: Kind of a slow day for games…

Dragavan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:06:06 +0000

Today was a crazy day at work and I had to do some chores at my mom’s house while they are out of town, so I didn’t really get much done in the way of work on the game… Luckily I have Friday off (as well as Monday) so I can catch up on those days. Today I mostly just refined a bit about the scene types and voting, but also had an idea about why people might be inclined to help others succeed in their scenes.

I was thinking that perhaps there should be a reason to help a person in their vote and scene. Showing support can gain you support as well. Throwing in with the person having the scene can gain you a little something, but requires you play a card of support in front of you. Play it face down and only expose it if they win the vote for the scene.

If they lose the vote, you discard the card along with the rest of the normal vote cards (without exposing it). Simply slide it into the stack with the others, face down, and then place them all in the discard pile together. That way it never gets exposed for what it was and your secret is safe.

If they win the vote, you expose the card to show if you truly supported them or not. A matching vote symbol gains you 1 token of Support. Expose the card to show a non-matching vote symbol and they gain 2 Suspicion tokens. This way you can use it to help yourself by helping them, or using their action to expose them as a possible traitor. It can work out well both in slowly gaining you support and pushing suspicion onto others, but risks angering them when you do (since they can see your action).

This can also work against the third player too, as it could look like you were trying to help and support the main character of the scene and they weren’t. Even if your actual votes were against them, it could look like it was the third player voting against them when they fail.

Still all just thoughts at this point… so not sure how clear any of this is yet.

Also considering having another deck of cards for spicing up scenes with some kind of “event” or “problem” taking place that round. Could be things like Storm, Captain’s suspicions, Pirate sighting, or other things that might have effects of their own but also just be seeds to have going on in the background (at least) of the scenes that round. Not sure about this part yet.

Let me know what you think.

Game Chef: Playing with Cards and Symbols

Dragavan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:56:01 +0000

First off, let me say that I am now leaning most heavily to the concept of a mutiny brewing on a ship. Each player is a mutineer trying to quietly gain support of the crew so that when it happens they will be put in charge, but being careful not to expose themselves too soon and being brought up on charges (which usually means instant death on the high seas). This should be done through scenes where they do something on the ship while working their social mojo.

In thinking about how scenes and votes are going to be handled during the game I had to further think of how they are going to be linked. There will be three kinds of focuses for scenes, which they should announce when they start their scene: Rule/Law, Logic, and Underhanded. These focuses tell what the character is trying to accomplish through their actions in the scene.

Characters will have two main pools of points that can grow and shrink: Suspicion and Support. Support is what they need to have higher than all the others when the Mutiny happens to win. Suspicion is something they want to have low, so they don’t get in trouble before the mutiny actually happens. Smaller levels could lead to violent punishments. Too much and they could even find themselves killed or abandoned at sea.

Using Rule/Law they are trying to avoid suspicion they may have garnered by going by the book and supporting the current powers that be. They act in accordance with the laws of the King and the rules of the Captain. This is not likely to gain them any support with the mutineers and may even lose them some.

Using Logic they are going to speak carefully and openly about things being done, and how they should be done to improve things. This is not a place to openly speak out against the status quo or the Captain, but to be constructive and act helpful while showing that you are intelligent. This could gain you some support, but if you aren’t careful it could also gain you some level of suspicion from those in power.

Using Underhanded is the best way to gain support with the mutineers, by secretly speaking of what you want to see happen and how it should be done. This will stir up discontent with the crew, move things closer to mutiny, and gain you much support. The down side is that it is also the most dangerous one for raising the level of suspicion against you.

I am thinking that each Vote card will have three parts. One being the Vote itself, which will be in accordance with the three scene focuses. Symbols here will be something like a Fleur-de-lis for Rule/Law, a Map and Dividers for Logic, and a Dagger for Underhanded. To vote for one you play that card in the vote (or either one of the others to vote against it).

The card will also have two lines of symbols at the bottom, one for Suspicion and one for Support. These will be lines of symbols for each, like Stars for Support and a Pointing Finger or possibly just an X for Suspicion. There will be 0, 1, or 2 Suspicion and 1, 2, or -1 Support on each card. These are used to determine what the outcome of the vote causes for the player.

Right now there is no absolutes here, so this is just brainstorming on how this voting process could work out in each case. Each scene type would have a different outcome if they fail or succeed, based on the risks of the actions they are taking. I also think that doing underhanded scenes should push mutiny closer, as could punishment scenes. Okay, so lets talk about scene outcomes caused by votes.

Rule/Law: On a success remove a number of Suspicion tokens equal to no-Suspicion marks on all vote cards (both for and against) in the vote. On a failure lose Support tokens equal to negative Support markers on winning vote cards only.

Logic: On a success add Support tokens equal to total Support on all cards other than the ones matching the scene focus and add Suspicion tokens from winning vote cards. On a failure lose Support equal to negative Support markers on losing vote cards and add Suspicion tokens from losing vote cards.

Underhanded: On a success gain Support tokens equal to all support markers in the vote and add Suspicion tokens from losing vote cards only. On a Failure lose Support equal to all negative support markers on vote cards that match focus of the scene and add Suspicion tokens from all cards in the vote. Can also cause a hearing if Suspicion is high enough

When a character’s level of suspicion reaches certain levels they should be forced to hold a hearing. At these hearing cards will be used to determine if they are found guilty or not and punished. Outcomes of these punishments could cause them trouble, lose them support, and possibly kill them.

Some sort of counter will build during the game showing the unrest of the crew. When this counter fills up the mutiny happens and final bids for support take place. Not sure how this will all work out, but in the end one of the players will end up in charge of the mutineers and the rest simply must follow them. That is the goal of the game.

Still a lot to figure out and need to add more depth to the characters you will play and other aspects of them, as well as other powers, abilities, and skills they may possess. I do want this to still be a role-playing game, only with a strong board/card game aspect to it.

Comments, Ideas, anything?

Game Chef: The Dragon Has Entered The Field of Play

Dragavan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:00:57 +0000

This year I have decided to enter the Game Chef Competition that has been going on for several years now. It’s a enter if you want and there ain’t no prize at the end kind of contest. The real prize is similar to that of NaNoWriMo, the good feeling you get at succeeding at something hard.

In past years the contest has been a very tightly crafted event with very set and strict rules, making it something of a real challenge. You were given a single theme and a choice of ingredients you had to pick from. Usually it was choose three of four, although they mixed it up sometimes. They would also occasionally throw in some other restriction, like it had to fit into a certain play time or number of pages.

This time, however, it was announced that it was an almost all optional contest. The only real rule being “Make a game”. It isn’t even clear that it has to be an RPG (and one of the medals being “make a board game” make it seem to not be required). All the extra badges are cool and would have been a great addition to the main style of the restrictive theme and ingredients, but having everything being optional kinda took the air out of it for me.

I was really looking forward to the group challenge of everyone being in the same boat with the same restrictions and limited resources, just like Iron Chef. I couldn’t wait to see what everyone else was going to come up with using the same starting points I did. I was all ready to be amazed at how divergent we would all be in our creations. Now it won’t be quite as much of a tight grouping and it won’t have as cool of a feel to me in the end.

That all being said, I am still looking forward to trying my hand at doing this thing… and I plan to do it according to the old rules. I am going to make it on theme and use at least three of the ingredients… I will be looking forward to seeing all that gets made, but mostly to others who do the same thing with the rules. The classic Game Chef rules followers. Although I will be going for some of the extras too.

So, as it stands now I have my set guidelines (as I am going for the classic Game Chef rules) and I have been mulling over ideas on them. All I have to do is pull them together by next Monday and have a workable RPG by then.

I have my theme (as set by the rules): Intrigue (Nice and vague enough to work in many styles of games)

I also have to use to three of the following ingredients:

Fleur-De-Lis (The symbolic lilly flower used on many royal crests in Europe and other art pieces)

Dividers (also known as a measuring compass, used for making measurements on maps and in geometry)

Seabird (any of a number of birds that live at or near the sea, such as gulls, pelicans, and even penguins)

Star (could be either the common symbol, the glowing masses of gas seen in the sky, or a celebrity)

There are also a number of extra bonuses I think I may go for or at least am leaning in the direction of. These are not requirements by the rules (current or classic), but make for a fun extra challenge.

The first two will fit together rather nicely and will use my account over on The Game Crafter to include the needed parts. Using their POD system I plan to include special cards and a board that will be critical to the play of the game. That means these two should be automatic if the game goes this direction.

The Gabriele Reinsch Discus Appreciation Award: Make a game that requires a custom-printed POD object besides a book or booklet.

The Royal Academy of Flatland Award: Make a board game.

The next one that simply intrigues me is this one, since it puts another neat limitation on what I can make the game work for. It will also make me lean more towards a GM-less game that is playable by only three people.

The Cerberus Award: Make a game for three players.

Since there will be a board and cards used, which I can have some of the extra rule explanations on, it will making the rules shorter and more concise much easier. That means another award may be within my reach (even though I am rarely short for the writing).

Brevity Award: Keep the rules of your game to 4 pages or less.

So now what ideas am I dealing with on the first day? Let me tell you what I’ve been thinking…

So far I am thinking of a game where everyone takes on the role of a captain in the royal navy, each with their own ship. They will all be working on secret missions set forth for them by the king (a randomly drawn card giving their personal winning conditions), trying to win favor. Although they want to succeed faster and better than the others they can’t openly act against them, as that would be treason, but they can use their influence and trickery to cause problems for them.

The other idea in a similar vein is one about everyone being on the same ship, but all vying for control over it through a mutiny. Although they have to work together to quietly incite the mutiny without being exposed to the captain and those loyal to them, they each want to have the control in the end. That control will go to the one who has squirreled away the most support and power by the time the mutiny happens.

Both of these ideas will use a special deck of cards that mostly contains voting power symbols, but also some other special action cards that can allow other special boons. The game resolution system would use these cards, dealt out to and earned by each player, to secretly vote when there is a resolution needed. The cards will have Positive (success) votes, Negative (failure) votes, and perhaps other special types of votes that can all be chosen from the cards they have in hand.

Each player would place down two vote cards (face down) and one or two would be dealt randomly from the deck to represent the randomness of others’ involvement. These hidden vote cards will all be shuffled together before being revealed, to keep them secret as to who played what. The outcome of the challenge would depend on how many good vs. bad cards appeared in here.

This style would allow each player to have some control over the outcome of events for all players, but not enough to force anything to happen by themselves. Their influence over others could be more important than their own votes. You would also have to be careful with how you vote, because if it becomes too obvious that you are sabotaging them it could lead to some kind of treason vote being called against you or something.

Not sure where it’s going to go from here, but it is only the first day and I have only been home a few hours where I could actually work on it. I also asked for Friday off, leaving me a lot of extra time this weekend to work on it if I need to.

You can follow my progress here or head over to my Game Chef only blog (a requirement of the contest) to just follow the notes about it there: DRAGAVAN GAMES CHEF

Also, if any of you have any ideas or opinions, I would love to hear them…

ToK Stories: The Hardest Thing To Do, Part 4

Dragavan — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:19:08 +0000

The Travelers of Karn
Ravendorn’s Quest
The Hardest Thing To Do
By: Dragavan

Chapter 4: Not All Changes Are Bad

Leaving her men and Sadie with the horses in the stables, Sir Althea and Kendrick make their way into the main structure of the military compound. Two soldiers, who have said nothing after “Yes Sir” to Althea, are leading them. Kendrick is dressed in his finest clothes and has combed his hair, carrying the letter from his father importantly. Althea is also in full regalia and is carrying herself as officially and rigidly as she can.

They are led to an office on the third floor of the main building and the soldiers stand outside the door, opening it for their guests. The two of them enter the office and see an overweight white-haired man sitting a large desk on the far end of the oversized office. He looks up at them and a pleasant, but somewhat forced, smile appears on his face. He waves for them to sit and speaks in a full, but tired voice. “Please sit. I hear you were quite persistent about seeing me right away. From Duke Ravendorn, was it?”

Althea nods and speaks in s clear and serious tone, but does not move to the chair. “Yes sir. Duke Ravendorn said he had a serious message to deliver and sent us on our way immediately. He told us to give it directly to you, General Graves, and sent his only son, Kendrick Ravendorn, here to deliver it personally.” She holds out her hand to signify the boy next to her. “I believe it is best to skip any pleasantries and get us both out of here as soon as we can.”

The general’s eyes pass over to Kendrick and the boy nervously smiles before speaking in a cracked voice. “T-t-that’s right genera… I mean, sir. I have come to deliver this personally.” He stiffly holds out the sealed envelope and the general takes it.

“Thank you. Both of you.” He places the letter aide on his desk and nods to them. “You have done as you Duke requested. You may go now.” He waves his hand towards the door.

Kendrick shifts from one foot to another and glances over at Althea nervously. She looks stoic and stiff as ever. Her unbreaking gaze seems to strengthen him, so he turns back to face the general. “S-s-sir?” His voice is still cracking, but seems a little stronger than before. “My father, the Duke… Ravendorn. He said I am to wait here until you read the letter and not leave until you give your reply.”

Althea nods slightly with approval. The boy handled that better than I expected. Let’s see if he sticks to it. She doesn’t move from her spot at his side and lets him do all the talking.

The general blinks and looks them over with new interest. “Hmmm.” Without a word he reached for the letter and flips it over a few times in his stubby little fingers. After tracing the seal with his fingers he breaks it and opens the envelope. Unfolding it he pulls out the stack of small papers inside and starts to flip through them. After a moment he waves towards the chairs again. “You may want to take a seat. This looks like it will take a while to read.”

Kendrick looks at Althea and she simply nods to him. Up to you boy. He nods back and takes a seat. She follows suit and sits in the other chair. The general then starts to read with an interested, but rather annoyed look on his face. A few times he looks up from his reading to glance at his guests. As soon as he flips to the second page Kendrick starts to fidget in his seat.

As the general gets through the second page and flips to the third his expression changes to one of genuine interest and even amusement. A smile grows on his face as he reads. He glances back at Kendrick, with a full smile, when he flips to the fourth page. Althea notices that Kendrick seems to be becoming rather nervous. Perhaps he is starting to realize what the letter says.

General Graves is now actually nodding to the letter as he reads it, the smile still curling his lips. By the time he reaches the final pages he has taken out a quill and is making notes on a blank piece of parchment beside him. Althea can almost make out words as he mutters to himself while writing.

He flips to the last page, which is of a slightly different shade than the others, and lays it flat on the table. Reaching for a stamp, he pulls out the ink brush and paints some onto the stamp. He then slammed it down on the page, marking it for some reason, before signing his name next to it. Lifting the paper to his face he blows across the surface to speed the drying process along. Once satisfied it’s dry enough he slides the page into a stack on the far side of his desk. The rest of the pages are shuffled back into order and placed on another stack near the center of the desk that appears to be full of random letters from people.

He looks at the two of them and gives them a friendly nod before pulling out another piece of parchment and starting to write on it. He then glances over to Althea with a more serious expression and gives her a solid nod before starting to rapidly scribble on the parchment. It only takes a couple minutes to finish what he had to say and quickly dabs the excess ink off before blowing it dry too. He folds it in half, placing it in a folded envelope, and seals it with his official wax ring.

Standing up he hands the letter to Sir Althea, who also stands to meet him and take the letter. His voice sounds more alive and vibrant as he speaks, with a slight hint of jolliness under it now. “Take this to Fredrick and tell him everything will be arranged for him. I accept his offer to let me repay his debt, but would have done this for him even without that. I live for days like this.”

They salute each other as the General continues. “You may go now. I’ll have his things sent up. You are welcome to stay the night if you so choose, but I would guess that you aren’t going to.”

“No sir.” She says, slightly shaking her head. “We will be going as soon as I return to the others downstairs.” She then salutes again and turns to leave, sliding the letter under her armor, so she doesn’t have to carry it, and swapping it for the other one found there.

Kendrick, who had also risen during this exchange, turned to follow Althea out but is stopped by a strong but stubby fingered hand on his shoulder. He jerks his head around to look the man in the face, having trouble hiding his outrage. The general just stands there with a smile on his face.

“Not so fast there, Kendrick.” The white-haired official says in that same serious but calm voice, with the hint of amusement behind it. “We still have a few things to discuss before you are taken to the barracks.”

Kendrick’s face sags and his jaw drops. His usually pallid face goes even paler. “B-b-barracks?” he manages to stammer out. “Staying? What? No! Can’t be. Huh? NO!” His head whips around to look at Althea with pleading eyes, hoping she would have a different answer. She just stands there, holding a letter.

General Graves applies a little pressure and Kendrick slumps back into his chair. The general then moves around the desk to his own seat. “That is what most of this letter was about Kendrick. Your are going to be staying with us a little while and learning a few things. Your father asked us to train you to be an officer and show you what discipline can do for a man. But every officer must first learn what it means to be a soldier, so you will be going through basic training with the others and then moving to the academy next month.”

“Impossible!” Kendrick yells and jumps up, spinning around to facing Althea with those pleading eyes now mixed with anger. Before he can say another word she holds out the letter for him, which simply has his name written on it in his father’s hand. He takes the letter and slumps back into his chair before even opening it. He knows what it says already.

The general just sits there and smiles as Kendrick opens his letter and reads the contents, which are much smaller than the one the general received. Kendrick seems to be growing weaker as he reads the letter and Althea believes this is all she needs to see. She salutes the general one last time and turns to walk out of the office. Once through the door she can’t help but smile to herself, but makes sure it’s gone before leaving the building.

Sadie sat reading her book on the cart as the group sat waiting in and around the stables. She is working hard to maintain her air of anger, but inside she is actually troubled with that twinge of fear about what will happen to her when they get back. Althea’s words did comfort her slightly, but the not knowing what they truly mean still leaves enough room for doubt to stir. This stirring leaves an uncomfortable feeling in her chest.

They’ve been up there for a long time. She thinks while spacing on her reading for a while. I wonder if that is a good or bad thing. I really don’t want to go home. If I even have a home to go back to any more if I mess this thing up. Master would take me back in. Wouldn’t he?

Kobe and Drall went outside almost as soon as they got here and haven’t come back yet, while the others, including Dragavan, have been in and out of the stables to pass their time doing all sorts of things. Right now they are over by the door, just outside, playing some game with the local soldiers milling around. I wonder how much they’ve scammed off them so far.

Suddenly there is a slight commotion outside and Althea walks briskly into the stables, with the rest of her men in tow. Even the guys gaming outside. She looks serious and calls for everyone to line up. Her gaze glances up to Sadie, as if to say ‘even you.’ Sadie hops off the cart, leaving her book on the seat, and lines up next to Kobe looking confused.

“Our job here is done.” Althea starts to explain to everyone. “And I can finally tell you what we were really doing. Duke Ravendorn wanted to do something about his son, who was growing more troublesome with every passing year, but couldn’t bring himself to do it himself. So he arranged for us to escort him here under the guise of him delivering an important message to the general. In reality he is being enlisted in officer training and will be staying here.”

“What?” James blurts out in a voice of shock and awe. “We’re leaving him here? For how long?”

Dragavan just started laughing and Sadie couldn’t help but smile. Looking at Kobe she saw he too was smiling broadly. Althea allowed them their moment and then cleared her throat to call them to order again. They have some trouble keeping their amusement and excitement under control but at least fall mostly quiet again.

“This takes years, especially due to the service he will be expected to perform after his training is done. He will be a changed person and we will all be better for it. But now, get the horses ready and anything unloaded put back on the cart. Drall and I are going to deliver Kendrick’s trunks and I want to leave as soon as we get back.”

She soon leaves, carrying two smaller trunks from the back of the carriage that were never even unpacked during the journey once. As soon as she is out of the stables the guys start laughing and cheering again. Overall the moments are light and fun, and Sadie is unable to maintain her air of anger as she is so pleased that Kendrick is no longer going to be with them.

Sadie was also very pleased when she realized she would have the entire carriage to herself for the return journey. She quite liked this luxury. I could get used to this. Wonder if I’ll ever have enough money for something like this? Would probably have to marry someone like Kendrick to get it though. So, not worth it.

Even after they are on the road and headed back to the Bluff, Dragavan and James didn’t stop breaking out in fits of laughter for several miles, and would still have fits of snickers for several hours. Most of these were broken up by stern looks from Althea, but it never seems to keep them from happening again down the road. Sadie would even be unable to stop herself from quietly smiling when it happened.

Kobe had a look of smug vindication on his face that he couldn’t seem to lose for the rest of the day. It slowly fades on the next day he seems to remember his position as servant of the Duke for two more jobs, but his general air was still much improved.

The rest also seemed pleased, but were far more subdued about it. Neither Drall nor Darth were as stoic as Althea, as they did show smiles much of the time, but they handled it with relative silence. Darth did laugh with the others at the start, but it didn’t keep happening after the initial round.

Unlike the trip down, which took nearly three days, they were heading back into town in just over a days journey, with a short nights rest in the middle. Only a basic camp was made and neither cart nor carriage was unpacked the whole time. Sadie even slept in the carriage, having grown quite enamored with it. Now that the arrogant twit wasn’t in it.

The sun was still a couple hours away from setting as they pulled into town. Althea made sure to tell them to “Stay in the barracks tonight. The Duke may be ready for us to leave again in the morning. I will let you know later if things change.” She was then gone, off into the manor house, as the others unpacked and handed the horses off to the stable hands.

She did not contact them before night fell, so after a couple hours of watching the guys playing cards Sadie made her ways off to bed. Once back in her room Sadie unpacked a few more things from her trunk, with a large defiant smile on her face the whole time. So she knew. That’s what she meant. Looks like I’m staying here for a while after all… Not such a bad place after all. Good people… Fredrik. She faded off to sleep.

The End of this story… More stories to come…

ToK Stories: The Hardest Thing To Do, Part 3

Dragavan — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 20:13:17 +0000

The Travelers of Karn
Ravendorn’s Quest
The Hardest Thing To Do
By: Dragavan

Chapter 3: The Games People Play

Kendrick was not as poor tempered as everyone seemed to be expecting when he finally rose. Being a little hung over seemed to keep him in a calmer state. As he ate, the guys packed up the rest of the things and loaded the cart. Even the grill was being packed as soon the food was done cooking. Sadie saw this time of activity as her moment to move into action.

She made her way over and sat where she was sure Kendrick would see her as she slowly combed her hair, even though she had already done this today. Once she was sure he noticed her she got up and gracefully walked over to Althea, who was not too far away from the boy. It’s time to set the trap.

“Excuse me, Althea.” She says in an almost girlish voice that was far softer that her usual tone. “Is there any food left? I’m feeling a little peckish.”

Althea glanced down at her with a confused look. She knew she had already eaten this morning with the others. Play along woman. Don’t question it. “I’m afraid the cooked goods are already packed. You can have some fruit from the packs if you want.”

Sadie slumps her shoulders and makes her voice sound weak and despondent. “Oh.” She slowly turns away from Althea and shuffles passed Kendrick. Take the bait. Come one. Take it.

Out of the corner of her eye she sees Kendrick suddenly put his best face on, apparently trying to look charming. “Excuse me, miss.” He says in a friendly, but still rather arrogant voice. “I’m full, so you can have the rest of mine if you wish.”

She smiles sweetly. Gotcha. And looks at him with big doe eyes. “Thank you, sir.” She takes a seat opposite him and slowly picks at the bacon on his plate, never taking her eyes off him.

“The name’s Kendrick.” He says with a casual but obviously intentional and well practiced flip of his hair.

She shyly looks down at the table and tilts her head to the side, speaking softly. “I know. I’ve noticed you around before, but never thought you’d talk to me.”

“Why wouldn’t I talk to a beautiful thing like yourself?”

She blushes and looks away from him coyly. It’s working. He’s going for it. I hope I’m not overdoing it. This could get really ugly back at the manor if I do.

Althea steps over to the table and looks seriously at Kendrick. “It’s time we moved on, sir. Would like anything prepared for the journey before we finish packing?”

Kendrick smiles and looks at her with an air of arrogant superiority. “Yes there is. Make sure I have some wine, cheese, and crackers. And two glasses. I see no reason why this lovely young lady should be forced to ride in anything less than luxury.” He passes a glance at Sadie and smiles.

Althea looks at her, with concern on her face, but quickly goes stoic again. “Yes sir. I’ll bring it to you right as soon as you have boarded.” She waves her hand to the carriage, leading the way for the two of them. Kendrick slowly rises and puts his hand out for Sadie. She takes it and walks to the carriage.

Drall rushes ahead and opens the door for them. Kendrick starts to climb in, but then seems to think better of it, stepping back out and waving for Sadie to enter. “Your carriage awaits, m’lady.” His hand extends up and he gives her a little bow.

Sadie looks up and notices Kobe leaning over from on the cart to look at her with confusion. She gives him a strange look, trying to explain what she is doing with a glance, but not wanting to tip her hand with Kendrick at the same time. All it seem to do is make Kendrick look over his shoulder towards him. She feels his hand falter in hers and become more rigid. Crap. He just noticed Kobe. This could get ugly.

The two of them just stare at each other for a moment, neither of them moving and trying to remain stoic. Kobe doesn’t flinch, but Kendrick turns, dropping his hand away from Sadie, and glares at Althea. His face contorts with shock and anger, with a voice to match. “What is the Land of Worms is this criminal doing here? This is an outrage. This fucking Elf struck a noble. Struck me! I can’t believe my father would allow this outrage.” He ability to speak falters, as the rest is just sputters and incoherent sounds.

Althea’s eyes narrow when he used the word “Elf” and her face locks in cold concentration. Sadie can’t believe he would actually say the word in front of her, seeing as how much of an insult it is to her people, even if Kobe is also a Frenal. Althea’s face remains stoic and hears her voice come out in a very controlled tone that Sadie is sure hides the resentment she must feel. “He is here as part of his payment for that crime. Your father sent him with us to drive the cart carrying your things. He will do just that. The rest of the time he stays out of your way, which he has been doing well at, seeing that you have just now noticed him.”

Kendrick’s eyes narrow to slits and his mouth stiffens. His voice is cold and low, but the anger can still be heard bubbling beneath the surface. “If he steps one out of place I want him in chains.”

Althea nods slowly, keeping her face like stone. “Of course, young sir. Now, please board and let us finish our work so we can go. I will have your wine and food shortly.”

Sadie slides into the carriage and waits for him to join her. I hope this doesn’t ruin things for me. He apparently stays out there and stares for a moment before coming into the carriage. At first he seems shocked to see her there, but then it seems to dawn on him why she is there. He doesn’t smile, seeming to be still worked up, so he just slumps down in his seat and fumes, mumbling under his breath. “I can’t fucking believe that prick has the audacity to show himself in my presence. How could my father even allow this? I bet Althea had a hand in this. Fucking Elves always stick together.”

Well. Sadie thinks to herself, as she sits there quietly. What have I gotten myself into here? Listening to this spoiled prat grumble isn’t going to accomplish anything. He better lighten up soon or am going to have to find an excuse to get out of here. But what?

Althea appears in the doorway again, this time holding a basket of goodies, with a bottle sticking out of it. “Here you go, sir. Wine, cheese, crackers, and two glasses. Just as requested. We will be leaving shortly.” She sets the basket on the seat and passes Sadie a questioning glance. Sadie tries again to convey something comforting to her with her eyes, but it doesn’t seem to work. She just doesn’t seem to have the same connection that Althea has with her men.

Kendrick looks through the basket and then leans out the window to yell at Althea. “There isn’t any Stilton or Camembert in this is there? You know how the Bleus and Brie types make me ill.”

That’s it! Sadie’s face light up with the sudden thought. I can suddenly come down with an ill tummy from the food or ride or some combination of them. I’ll tell him I can’t usually ride unless I am sitting up front and can see where we are going. He seems stupid enough to believe that.

“That woman.” Kendrick shakes his head as he slumps back into his seat. “She thinks I don’t I see it, but I see the way she looks at me. Thinking she’s better than me. The only reason she even has this job is because my father took pity on her. Saren told me nobody would take her on after something she did in the war.”

Sadie tries to look vaguely interested, while reaching into the basket for something to nibble on that can be the cause of her illness. Kendrick doesn’t even seem to be paying her much attention as he continues. “It seems she caused some big problem and nobody waned to touch her. Tainted goods, you know? But suffering from such a stigma for forty years? Who’s that lame? Anyone worth their salt would have worked their way back up on their own.”

The cart jerks as the horses start to pull and Sadie nearly drops the cracker she was holding. Kendrick doesn’t even seem to notice and just keeps rambling on. “But father felt sorry for her and took her in. Gave her the most important military post in his lands. I mean, what a waste. We could have had some real knight or even a paladin, instead of that wanna-be-a-man thing.”

He seems to stare out the window, in the general direction he seems to think she would be riding. Sadie is tired of this already and wants to change the subject, directing conversation into something she could use. So she quickly starts to look around the cart, as if she was really interested and impressed with all that she sees. “I’ve never ridden in a cart this nice before. You are so lucky.”

Kendrick glances around casually, looking rather bored, before settling his gaze on her. “Oh this? This carriage is fine, but you should see the larger one father has for official gatherings and noble guests.” She tries to look interested and lets her eyes grow large as she continues. “I even got to ride in one of the royal carriages when I was a child. Father took us to Senton City for a ball at the palace, although us kids were only allowed to gather in the courtyard and lower level rooms. I was only eight. Anyway, those carriages were quite impressive. Gold trim and bejeweled handles on everything.”

“Wow!” Her eyes grew even larger as she feigns rapt interest. “You got to go into the royal palace? That must have been something to see. Your house is the most amazing place I’ve ever seen, so I can’t even imagine what the palace must look like.” She lets her gaze drift upwards, as if dreamily thinking about it.

Kendrick smiles, looking like the cat that ate the canary. Sadie is sure he thinks he is really impressing her and charming her pants off. She smiles back, easily hiding the revulsion she has towards him. If I can keep him talking about pleasant things like this I can start being loud to let them know how much fun I’m having. That’ll show Dragavan I don’t care about him. Yeah. Who does Fredrik Dragavan think he is anyway?

After loading up the table and final pieces of the campsite, and the altercation between the boy and Althea over Kobe’s presence, Dragavan mounts his horse and follows them out. It wasn’t too long after they started up the road that he noticed Sadie wasn’t riding on the carriage or the cart. His brow furrowed with worry and he rode up to ask Althea about the possibility of leaving her behind. He never had to ask.

As he pulls up past the carriage soft laughter wafted from within. It was not Kendrick’s voice, but that of a young woman sounding amused. She’s in there with HIM! His eyes become slits and his face hardens. He could feel his jaw clench and something slowly rising through his body. It was a cold heat, if that was even possible, but he just told himself it was worry about another young girl falling victim to this knave.

Riding back next to the cart he tries to relax his face and look over at Kobe. Keeping his voice calm, hiding what he was feeling, he spoke softly to him. “What is she doing in there with him? Doesn’t she know what kind of man he is?”

Kobe’s face seems to twitch for a second, but also seems to relax into a falsely calm look. “She was acting strangely when she accepted his offer. I don’t think she’ll do anything stupid though.”

Dragavan can’t help but narrow his eyes and glance at the carriage again. Kobe must have noticed this because he smirks and quickly adds, “Although she did say something about possible interest in the Duke’s son, or something along those lines.”

Dragavan has trouble keeping his composure, doing a really poor impression of casual interest as his insides flame up. “Did she now.” He feels his jaw clench. “How interesting.”

Kobe just nods and smiles, almost looking amused.

Dragavan speeds up to pace himself just in front of the carriage, so he could hear anything loud that may be said. He is nowhere near pleased about this turn of events. His head starts reeling and turning on itself. I thought that girl had brains in her head. Seemed rather bright, with a certain spark. Not the kind that would fall for that ponce’s trickery. What could she possibly see in… HIM.

Other than the money. He starts to reason and his mood sours. He is the son of a Duke and has a lot to offer in that area. The large house, fancy carriage, nice clothes and gourmet foods. Not like I could really offer any of those things to her. Well, I could, but I can’t. That has to stay hidden.

But he’s such an insufferable prat. He argues back at himself. There is no way she could possibly find him charming or fall for his guise. She may not have looked my direction… yet… but there is no way she could go to his. She must be playing him for a nicer ride or something. That has to be it. She’s just playing a game with him. She better be.

Just then there is a loud series of giggles from within the carriage and Dragavan looks back in hopes of seeing inside. Sadie’s hand falls out of the window and seems to spill most of her wine as she lets out another heavy laugh. Dragavan grumbles and starts to shake slightly with anger.

I have to do something to keep her from being fooled by this kid. This is far more important than all those others we saved from him. This one is special. He knows this from the very bottom of his heart. But no branch through the window or bear noise is going to work this time. I don’t even care if he knows it’s me this time. She just can’t know.

Unfortunately he can’t seem to come up with something, even as the hours pass. Her voice occasionally happily wafting out the window spurs him on though, but still nothing comes before evening does, and he has to set up the boy’s pavilion again.

Kendrick and Sadie stayed in the carriage until the campsite was set up and the food was already being cooked, this time as the sun was going down. Althea was able to push them a little longer since he was distracted by Sadie’s presence. Drall was cooking and the guys were mostly off setting up their own small tents, but Kobe noticed Dragavan was taking an exceptionally long time securing lines back at the cart. He’s waiting for her. Kobe smiles to himself.

Althea finally opens the door on the carriage and waves the two inside out. They come out and walk over towards the table. Kendrick seems to be leaning slightly on Sadie, with his arm around her shoulders. Kobe sees her glance at Dragavan and then quickly looks away, flipping her hair and chuckling at something he couldn’t hear.

Once they have taken a seat at the table, Kobe watches as Dragavan suddenly finishes securing the ropes and makes his way over to the others, although taking a path that curved very close to the two of them. Kobe smiles to himself. I never expected dinner and a show on this trip. As Dragavan passes the table, he speaks so loudly to the others that even Kobe could hear him from this distance. “So, who thinks they can beat me at cards tonight?”

Sadie seems to whisper something to Kendrick and the boy turned to speak up. “I’ll take that challenge. You, men, bring your game to my table.”

A smile crosses Dragavan’s face, starting out sly and then shifting to a casual one before turning away from Kobe and walking back to the table. “Gladly. I didn’t know you played, sir.”

An arrogant smile crosses Kendrick’s lips and Sadie leans on him, also smiling. With a slight slur he loudly announces. “I’ll have you know I’m quite good, so don’t be upset when I take your meager purse. So, are any of your other friends going to join us? Or are they all afraid of me?”

Dragavan looks over at them, including Kobe, but most of them just stare back in shock. “Anyone else in? It looks like we play at the table tonight boys.” He seems to glance directly at James, as if trying to egg him on.

James sighs quietly and rises. “Yeah, I’m in. But we’ll need to keep the stakes low, you already took most of my traveling money last night.”

Kobe really wanted to see this play out, but knew that he couldn’t get involved without the boy throwing a fit. Instead he simply moved around to where he could see and hear what was going on, while looking like he was simply setting himself up for the night. This way I can lie here and watch and listen to them without causing a scene.

James sat next to Dragavan as he shuffled the cards. James dropped a small coin purse on the table and Kendrick snickers. Dragavan then pulls out a bulging belt purse and drops it on the table with a loud metallic thud. Kendrick seems to raise an eyebrow with interest and nods his head. Moving Sadie off him, he then rises from the table and walks into his tent for a moment, returning with small lockbox, which is set on the table with a much louder thud. Kobe is sure that there is enough in there to pay all their salaries for the year.

The first hand goes to Kendrick, but everyone seems to stiffen and start to play more seriously at that point. Sadie was cheering Kendrick on, which only increased his smugness. Then he started to lose to both James and Dragavan, which soured his mood but made Kobe smile to himself as he watched from the dark. Sadie’s well-wishing also seemed to start to get on Kendrick’s nerves as he shrugged her off told her “Quiet girl. I have to concentrate.”

Instead of being upset, however, Kobe saw a smile play on her face behind her eyes, although her mouth stayed rigid. Dragavan seemed to notice this too and looked confused.

The game kept going downhill for Kendrick and it continued to please Kobe from his dark seat. Finally he slammed his lockbox shut, which was considerably lighter now, and got up from the table. “Enough! I grow bored of this and tired. Leave me, I am going to bed.” Kobe could clearly see a different story on his face, as his eyes burned with anger and frustration. He stormed into his tent and there were muffled grumbles and then a loud chink as the box was thrown to the floor.

Sadie also rose from the table, but said nothing. She simply let out a short laugh and walked over to her own small tent, which the guys set up for her earlier. She was acting a little annoyed, but Kobe still saw that smile behind it all.

Dragavan smiles at James as they both scoop up their substantial winnings. James looks back at him with a strange look in his eyes. “What was that all about Drag?”

Dragavan composes himself and seems to put on a casual air. “Just getting a little back from the kid. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure to lighten that purse of yours a little soon enough.”

Knowing his entertainment is over the evening, Kobe looks up at the sky and fades off to a peaceful sleep.

The morning comes and goes much as it did the day before, except for Kendrick being in far more foul of mood. He nearly completely ignored Sadie, even as she tried to make herself noticed, and mostly seemed to glare at Dragavan the whole time. Crap. She thought to herself. I think I overdid it by getting them into the game together. I’ll have to be more forward today if I have a shot at this at all.

“It’s time, sir.” Althea announces to him late in the morning. “We should be there just before midday if we leave now. It’s best we don’t show up too late. You know how those military types are.” She stares at him more intently, as if to punctuate her words.

Kendrick rolls his eyes and sighs deeply. “Fine. Let’s get this waste of my time over with.” He rises and slowly lumbers over to the carriage, waiting for someone to open the door for him. With a huff he looks back at Althea, who was giving orders to the rest.

It’s now or never girl. Time to pour it on. Sadie slides around the edge of the carriage near him and smiles. “So, do I have to ride on top again this time?” She bats her eyelashes and gives him her best sickeningly sweet look.

Kendrick slowly rolls his eyes down to look at her and a half smile crosses his lips. “No. You can ride with me.” He then raises his voice. “If the help ever gets around to opening the door for us.”

Sadie sees Althea close her eye, clench her fists, and take in a big breath before blanking her expression and making her way over to the carriage. Kendrick steps out of her way to let her open the door for him. Kendrick then helps Sadie into the cabin before following. In a low tone, rich with venom, he says, “About time.”

The carriage pulls away and Sadie does her best to try and create some friendly conversation, doing everything she can to avoid mention of Althea, Kobe, or Dragavan. His enemy list keeps growing. This makes things harder on me to keep him talking nice. As with before, she takes any opportunity she can to laugh very loudly, but she realizes that she may be pushing it a little much today. I think he’s getting suspicious of my sincerity.

“I know you like me.” Kendrick says with a smug look on his foppish face. “But you don’t have to try so hard to impress me. If I wasn’t interested, you wouldn’t be riding with me, now would you? You can tell I don’t usually fraternize with those my father hires.”

Damn, he actually thinks it’s still about him. Moron. Quickly she tries to change her look of surprise into one of coy shyness, with a soft voice to match. “I guess I was just overdoing it a bit. I’m just so excited to be here and everything.” She rolls her eyes up to meet his and smiles sweetly. If I have to keep this up I am going to be sick.

“That’s understandable.” He says in a slower, drawling voice. The arrogance just dripping off it. “But you do understand that this,” He waves his hand around, as if to point out the interior of the carriage. “is just for the journey. Some company to pass the time on the road. Once we are home you go back to just being the help, where you belong. Our kinds just don’t mix.”

Sadie didn’t even try to hide her feelings on this one. Heat was rising through her body and boiling into her face, which was reddening. Her eyes closed to nothing but slits, not even showing the white any more, and she clenched her lips so tight they were turning white. The playfulness was gone. She just sat there and stared at him, trying to burn a hole through his head with her thoughts. You fucking arrogant prick. You actually think any girl with a brain in her head would ever choose to spend time with you? Like you have anything but money on your side. If you only knew why I was really here. I should let loose and just fry your ass right now. I don’t care what the others would think. Most of them would applaud me. I can do it too. You could be burned to a cinder. But your father is a good man. I can’t do that to him. You are lucky. But just wait, I will think of something to make you pay.

He seems to be taken about by her reaction, a small smirk crossing his lips. When he finally speaks his voice is rich with arrogant humor, which doesn’t find funny at all. “Wait a minute. You didn’t think? I mean, you and I? A commoner? Silly girl.”

It didn’t seem possible, but her eyes grew even narrower. He’s going to pay, Duke’s son or not. He is going to feel the heat. She didn’t want to spend one more minute with him. It was taking all her self-control not to set him on fire where he sat, but she had another idea.

Kendrick is suddenly confused. Up until now things seemed to be going smoothly with this common girl his father hired to help out that annoying woman knight. But now she suddenly has gone from clingy to crazy. She couldn’t have possibly believed she was going to be more than a travel toy.

He seems to lose a little of his humor and looks at her tentatively. What’s wrong with her? He speaks slowly and in a softer tone. “Are you going to cry?”

“How DARE you!” She suddenly exploded in an angry outburst. She grabs the window edge in a tight grip and pushes off the floor, as if to get to her feet. Instead her back slams against the back wall of the carriage with a loud THUD! “I don’t care WHO you are. You have NO RIGHT!”

Kendrick sits there in shock, his pink lips parted as is jaw hangs agape. What is she doing? Has she gone mad and lost her ability to control herself?

Sadie stomps several times on the floor and then reaches through the window, grasping for the door handle. The carriage lurches, suddenly slowing and she falls forward into the floor with another loud thud. “You FOUL little man. BEAST! Horrible, noxious, arrogant, WASTE of human flesh.”

Kendrick face flushes as his confusion and shock quickly change to that of mild fear. Didn’t father say she was a mage? What is she going to do to me? Am I going to end up like sister? Suddenly images of all sorts of horrible things cross his mind. Being turned into a lizard or losing his hair.

With her left hand Sadie grabs the neck of her dress and pulls at it, ripping it slightly and popping off two buttons. Is she reaching for a wand or something she has in there? Her right hand is still out the window, flailing, and Kendrick is worries she is about to do something horrid to him.

Sadie flings the door open and throws herself out of it, hitting ground hard with her feet and stumbling to a stop. The carriage continues to move a little farther before it comes to a stop. Kendrick looks out the door at her as she turns and yells at him. “Don’ you EVER come near me again. I don’t even want to hear your loathsome voice.” Her hands are clenched into fists as she stomps away from the carriage, heading down the road towards their destination.

Ashen faced, Kendrick looks around, but just sees Dragavan’s cold stare looking down at him from his mount. Dragavan reaches out, making Kendrick flinch, but just slams the door in his face. With a huff, he sits back and exhales deeply, not even realizing he had been holding it in. Crazy bitch. I’ll have to talk to father about her when we get back. Have her sent packing within a day if I have anything to say about it. The way those people were looking at me.

Sadie was stomping down the road, making a real show of her anger. That worked out perfectly. See how Dragavan was right there in his face? He so wanted to deck the boy. Should have. Smug bastard deserved it.

Althea rode up next to Sadie and looked down at her, a look of true care and worry hidden within her stoic face. Another new look for her, as far as Sadie could tell. “Are you alright Sadie? Are you hurt at all?”

Sadie shakes her head, keeping up the rigid anger. Her voice was controlled, but made sure it had the right level of anger and coldness to it. “I’ll be fine. Arrogant Bastard. Thinking he’s better than everyone else. He’s nothing.” And after this he will be seen as even less than that.

Sadie thought she saw a smile fight to appear on Althea’s lips, but it never formed. “He didn’t hurt you at all did he?”

“No.” Sadie snaps. “But I am sure he will make things worse for me back at the manor. Good thing I didn’t have a chance to unpack yet. It’ll make it easier for me to leave when we get back.”

“You won’t be leaving.” Althea doesn’t even try to hide the small smile this time. “Believe me. When we return, none of this will even be mentioned to the Duke.”

Sadie stops walking and looks up at her with a quizzical expression now mixing with her anger. What does she mean by that? He will most certainly have his father send me away now. Is what the Duke asked my master for my assistance with really that important? What is she not telling me?

Althea was reading her expression and simply nodded before looking back at the others. “Now, do you want to ride up with Darth on the carriage or back with Kobe on the cart? We only have a couple hours left to travel today and should be going.”

Sadie shakes her head, trying to understand everything that just happened, and says, “The cart.”

She is helped up next to Kobe, who looks at her with a bemused expression, and the lot of them start to move again. Not a peep is made from within the carriage and soon enough the wall of Poono can be seen in the distance.

Continued…

ToK Stories: The Hardest Thing To Do, Part 2

Dragavan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:05:02 +0000

The Travelers of Karn
Ravendorn’s Quest
The Hardest Thing To Do
By: Dragavan

Chapter 2: The Long Hard Journey Begins

The loading process took well over an hour, especially with that annoying kid up on the balcony constantly barking contrary orders. Kobe was pleased that he was able to avoid being seen. As long as I can make sure we are well on our way before he notices me it’ll be okay. To keep it up he makes sure to be busying himself with something when Kendrick comes out to be loaded into the carriage. Kobe noticed he looked rather upset or even annoyed as he went, which pleased him.

Darth sat up on the front, to drive the carriage, with Sadie. She was wearing a lovely deep red dress, sitting at the right hand of Darth. Did she braid her hair? Looks nice. Kobe slips up onto the cart, to drive it, and watches the rest of them mount their horses to form the official escorts. They look like honor guards. Too bad they aren’t guarding anyone of honor.

The first part of the journey was easy enough, since Kendrick kept to himself. Most likely pouting. He only occasionally blurted something out about a bump or jostle. It was all easy enough to deal with, but once he was over his self-pity party things took a turn for the worse.

Nightfall was still quite a ways off when Kendrick’s drawling voice called from carriage with a slight whine. “I’m hungry. When are going to be somewhere I can get something to eat?”

Althea sighs and slow down to match the carriage’s gate. “Nightfall will be here soon enough sir. We will set up camp and eat then.”

“Camp?” The voice was filled with shock and utter disgust. “You mean we aren’t going to be staying at an inn or some noble’s manor house? That is intolerable.”

“There are no inns near here to stop at, sir.” She lied, as they had just passed one not more than a mile back. Kobe chuckles to himself as she continues. “We did bring your father’s pavilion for you, so you needn’t worry about having your privacy, sir.”

He huffs annoyed. “Very well. Stop and set it up. This travel wearies me ad I want something to eat.”

Kobe could tell it was killing her plans, especially wasting all this good daylight, but Althea called for them all to stop at the next clearing. “Halt here men, we set up camp for the night. Unpack the pavilion and raise it over in that field. Dragavan, get the fire going. James, take care of the horses.”

Kendrick sticks his head out of the window and yells. “Don’t forget my bed.”

Once they come to a stop Althea opens the carriage door for him, but Kobe catches his reaction of disgust. “You don’t expect me to come out there now, do you? Come back when my tent is ready.” She forces a smile and bows before closing the door. Right as it shuts he shouts one more command. “And bring me a bottle of wine. I’m thirsty.”

She grits her teeth, but forces her voice to remain even. “Yes sir.”

With one look and no words she conveys the next orders to her men. Kobe is impressed at how well they all work together and tries to do his part. Drall is already at the carriage with the bottle before Althea even has a chance to get things moving on the tent, much less the bed.

It took them less than an hour to completely transform the field into a regal campsite, complete with covered dining area and pavilion tent for the boy. Within the tent they even set up his bed, laid out his trunks, and made it as nice as possible, all under the orders of Althea who said, “It will be best for all of us and give him less to complain about.”

Off to the side was the collection of smaller pup tents the men use and the cooking fire. None of them really wanted to be this close to Kendrick, but Althea wouldn’t let them set up across the road as they wanted. Drall was cooking some steaks and preparing Kendrick’s meal, whole Kobe sat away from the others, where he hoped the boy would continue to not notice him.

Kobe watches with interest as Althea returns to the carriage to retrieve Kendrick, sure he has had to of finished that whole bottle of wine by now. The boy almost falls out of the carriage when the door opens, and would have hit the ground if Althea didn’t catch him. Kobe wishes she hadn’t. He staggers slowly over to the table to eat, using Althea’s arm for support and then slapping it away with disgust until he starts to loose his footing again.

Kobe just wanted this situation to be over without another confrontation, but the arrogant attitude of the boy was making it harder for him to remain quiet each passing moment. He needed to do something, but whatever he did would cause only more grief for himself and most likely the others. I need to talk to Darth. He better hit twice as many ruts tomorrow.

But he is troubled to see that Drall seems to be seeing to all of the boy’s requests the best he can, and taking much of his abuse about the “poor state” of his meal. Kobe thinks being mute must help him and seems to be ruining some of Kendrick’s fun since he doesn’t get any replies. He took two steaks himself, although half the second one was actually wasted when he cut it to shreds complaining about it being undercooked. The vegetables were mostly ignored, although he did pick at them occasionally with comments about their “bland flavor” and the general “lack of decent spices”.

After finishing nearly a whole second bottle of wine Althea helps him into his tent, to get to bed. As they passed through the flap everyone could hear Kendrick’s loud voice slurring. “I don’t need your bloody help. I’m fine, not pished at all.” Which was immediately followed by a crash and a thud of a body hitting the floor and something falling over. I hope he broke something.

“Who put this blasted thing there?” The boy’s voice bellowed. “Does no one know how to arrange a decent room? I am surrounded by morons.”

It wasn’t but two minutes later that Althea walked out of the tent with loud snoring billowing out from inside. Everyone in the campsite could hear it. I bet anyone within a mile could hear it.

“At least we don’t have to worry about any animals happening upon us in the night.” Kobe quipped, trying to keep the mood light and hide his resentment. “That’ll sound will surely keep them away.”

The others mostly chuckled, but it faded quickly when Althea walks up looking grim. “Get to sleep men. I want to leave as early as we can tomorrow. The sooner we finish this the better.”

They all say “Yes, sir!” Even Kobe, this time, catching himself off guard.

She passes them and immediately lies down on her bedroll, looking exhausted. Kobe is sure it’s more mental than physical, but after seeing how Kendrick has acted all day he doesn’t blame her. He is sure he wouldn’t have been able to keep his composure as well as she did.

Within the next half hour the rest have either crawled into their tents or laid out on the ground, which Kobe preferred. Ever since his days back in the village as a child, where he would often sneak out to sleep in field during the summer nights. He loved the feel of the earth below him and sight of the stars above. Much better than a bed any day.

The night was pleasant enough once Kendrick was asleep, as Sadie was given a small tent of her own and everyone was too worn out from the day to do much more than go to sleep themselves. She assumed some kinds of watches were set with the men, but she didn’t bother to ask or check. She simply wanted to sleep and forget the boredom of the travels. The sounds of the woodland soothed her and drew her deeply into the dreaming that awaited her.

The last couple nights her dreams have been the same. Always the same. Ever since that night on the mountain in the cave, where they met and spoke with that wicked dragon. She had never met a dragon before and the encounter was a profound one. The beast teased and threatened them all, but she couldn’t help but be fascinated by him. His size and majesty. It was only when the creature took the life of that young solder that she realized what dangers it really posed for them. But the bargain was struck and they were allowed to leave.

In the dream she is back there, or at least someplace similar, staring up at the magnificent beast filling the cavern, but it’s not really the same dragon. This one is different and doesn’t seem as cold and menacing. Its large yellow eyes the only thing truly piercing the darkness of the cave. Although she is alone with the beast she feels no fear. In fact she feels a true sense of peace and safety in its presence. To most it would be a nightmare, but to the young mage it leaves her well rested and waking in a good mood.

In the morning she sat and watched Althea pace back and forth, trying to contain her frustration. Things obviously aren’t going as quick as she had hoped. Sadie sipped her juice and ate her cheese bread as the camp was packed up around her. At least all but the Duke’s pavilion in which his son still slept.

Kendrick was obviously not a morning person; at least not after all he drank the night before. Each time Althea had tried to rouse him all Sadie heard was angry mumbled retorts about “not now” from within the tent. The men had already completely packed up everything else, but couldn’t finish loading the cart until he was out of his tent.

At least this isn’t a total loss. Sadie thought to herself as she watched the men work and play. I get to relax and read a little and watch all these guys work. That’s not a bad thing. Most of the time she seemed to focus more on Dragavan than any of the others, but any time he looked her way she suddenly found extreme interest in the book open before her. If one was actually to ask what it was she reading she would be hard pressed to answer.

There was just something about him that seemed to catch her fancy. She couldn’t seem to put her finger on it, but it was definitely there. He’s arrogant, smug, and a total scammer. He may be charming and kind of good looking, but he’s not a good guy. But there is something about him. And Althea and the men sure seem to put a lot of trust in him.

At one point, while the guys were working on something, Sadie got lost in watching them. Mostly watching him. But she is shocked out of it when Kobe’s teasing voice sounds from right next to her. “Looks like someone has eyes for Dragavan.”

She huffs, sounding insulted, and looks at Kobe. “What? Him? Please!” She shakes her head and rolls her eyes, crossing her arms defiantly. “It’s just he’s hiding something and I’m trying to figure it out.”

Kobe smiles at her before looking over at Dragavan. “Right.”

“Seriously!” Her voice growing sharper than normal. “He’s a liar and a cheat. And what’s with that hair? I’m onto him and his little games. You’ll see.” She nods seriously.

“Uh-huh.” He nods slightly back with a smirk.

She huffs. “Like I could be with a common soldier. Pah-lease. I’d rather spend time with the Duke’s son. At least he’s rich.”

Kobe rises, smiles larger than before, and starts walk back over to help the men tie down the equipment on the carriage. Before going he leaves her with one last thought. “He’s noticed you too.”

It takes a great measure of self-control for her not to yell out her immediate thought at this moment. Really? Fredrik noticed me? She even inhales quickly, as if preparing to speak, but manages to not make another sound. It was only a moment later, having time to think about it, that her expression changes to confusion. Wait a minute. He who? Kendrick or Dragavan?

Her expression then changed again. This time to pure annoyance. Probably the noble boy. Stupid, arrogant bastard. Her eyes narrow as she stares at the tent. I can use that against him. I can find out who Kobe meant. Once lazy moron gets up and we leave, that is.

She sighs and goes back to reading, trying not to look up at the guys as much as possible. She often fails at this task and sets her eyes back on the blond man talking with his friends. Fredrik.<;/i> She sighs.

After most of the campsite is packed up, Dragavan tries to busy himself with other things to keep occupied. He knows there isn’t time to start a game of anything, as they would have to stop and jump as soon the boy rose, but he didn’t want to try and mingle. What he would really like is to go over and sit with Sadie and talk to her. But she busy with her books. Wouldn’t want to disturb her.
He does notice that Kobe has a brief conversation with her and wonders what it is about, as she seems somewhat upset. He could order Kobe to tell, but that would reveal his interest. He couldn’t have that. He needed to work it out of him more casually. Find out more about her that way.
He calls Kobe over to help him with some ropes on the carriage, which he just loosened for the third time. Kobe quickly takes the line and pulls it tight as they tie it down. Finishing, Dragavan puffs on one of his cigars and tries to act casual as he prepares to speak, unsure of how to word the thoughts in his head. Once it’s tied off he rounds to Kobe’s side and puffs out a large cloud of smoke.
“So,” He says to Kobe, working to keep his voice casual. “Does it look like we’ll be leaving any time soon?”
Kobe shrugged. “I don’t know, I haven’t checked.”
Dragavan does his best to keep his voice calm, but looks at Kobe sideways to see his expression. “Then what were you doing over at the campsite?”
“Just chatting with Sadie for a minute.” Kobe seems casual as he speaks.
“Oh.” Dragavan’s eye narrow slightly, as he glances over at her, but keeps his voice as casual as he can. “She have anything interesting to say?”
Kobe smiles slightly, looking over at her reading her book. “Well, interesting to me.”
What’s that supposed to mean? Dragavan glances sideways at Kobe again, but only makes an audible grunt. “Huh?”
Kobe smiles larger. “Sweet girl that.” There is a moment of silence between them as they both look over at her, before Kobe adds, “For a human.”
Dragavan grunts again, still looking at her. “If you say so. Didn’t really pay attention myself.” This was a lie, but he didn’t want the Frenal to know it. He didn’t like hearing it from him neither. Kobe shouldn’t be trying to move in on her. She is not for him. She is too sweet and attractive to be approached by some woodsy elfish criminal.
Trying not to get upset and looking to change the direction of the conversation, Dragavan points over to the cart. “Anything left we can load on that before we have the bed?”
Kobe seems to think for a second, smile still on his face, but then looks over at the cart. “Not really. We need that useless lump of a kid to get up before we can do anything else.”
“Hopefully we’ll be able to pack up the rest while he eats breakfast. I sure hope he doesn’t complain and make us wait until he’s done.”
Kobe rolls his eyes. “That sure sounds like something he’d pull. He doesn’t seem to want to make this pleasant on us.”
Dragavan nods and spits out the finished stub of his cigar. “That’s for sure.” His foot grinds the butt into the ground.
He didn’t learn all he wanted to, but he did find out something he didn’t like. He’ll have to watch Kobe and make sure it was just idle words and there isn’t something more on his mind. After all he did like the guy and would hate to have to defend her honor against him. But he knows he would do it.

Continued…

ToK Stories: The Hardest Thing To Do, Part 1

Dragavan — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:18:04 +0000

The Travelers of Karn
Ravendorn’s Quest
The Hardest Thing To Do
By: Dragavan

Chapter 1: Trouble in the Morning
After the events on the mountain and the meeting with the Duke last night, Althea didn’t sleep well. The loss of Morgan Dragg and breaking her oath to not leave another man behind, alive or dead, were both weighing heavily on her. Every time she closed her eyes she just saw it happen again. The knife slide into his chest. The light leave his eyes. The body falling limp. That beast carrying him away. It was still well before dawn, and well before her normal time to rise, but this was the sixth time she woke up tonight already and wasn’t going to bother trying again.
She sat up and wandered over to the bowl of cool water on her dressing table. She dips the cloth into it and places it on her face. This helps a little. At least I feel the cool instead of nothing. The sun wasn’t even peeking its rays into the sky yet as she dressed and headed downstairs to get something to eat. She would let the others rest a bit longer, if they actually can.
After eating some fruit, bread and cheese from the kitchen, also not wanting to wake the cook, she returned to her room to read a little before waking the rest. It had been a while since she last took her Tome of Uthdor. Been a while since I needed your comfort, old friend. The flipped open the cover and started at the beginning.
She sensed the approaching sunrise before ever seeing its glowing fingers reach over the trees and finished the chapter about the Campaign into the Fogrotton Swamp, now known as the Orc’s Blood Swamp. She closed the book, patting the cover as if to thank it, and went to wake up Drall, so he could help her finish getting ready for the day and join her as she waited to see the Duke. As requested by the Duke she was to dress in her finest armor, complete with flags and ropes in place. She was to look the part of a noble’s steward.
After dressing and waiting until the last moment she could, she walked down the hall and rapped on each door. “Ready yourselves men, we work when I return.” She doesn’t wait for a reply and heads down the stairs, Drall in tow.
As she crosses the courtyard to the manor house the first lights of day peek over the horizon. Without waiting for an escort she passes through the main hall and walks right into the meeting room to wait for the Duke. She wasn’t worried about how this would be taken, as it was not unusual for her to do this she when called for and was even expected by most of them by now.
About a half hour passed before the Duke walked in, dressed more casually than normal but still looking quite regal. Walking behind him, still dressed in sleeping gowns and bleary eyed, was someone far less regal looking, his son, Kendrick Ravendorn. He was looking rather put out about being awoken at this hour, obviously just rousted by his father, and quickly took a seat at the table, plopping his head down on its cool surface. The Duke takes his seat at the head of the table and waves for Althea to take hers opposite Kendrick.
“Sit up Kendrick.” Ravendorn spoke sternly, turning to look at his son. “We have important matters to discuss.”
Kendrick sighs heavily and rises up to a casual sitting position with what seems to be much effort. “Yes father.”
“Are we still waiting on Mr. Blain or someone else, my lord?” Althea asks, trying to keep things professional and not reacting to Kendrick’s behavior.
“No, everyone needed for this is here. I have something important for both of you to handle. Something I can only entrust to you, my most loyal servant and my own blood.” His voice seems to fade off slightly as he finishes the statement. Not enough for most to notice, but Althea picks up on it after dealing with this man for so long.
Althea nods importantly, but Kendrick just rolls his eyes and says, “Will this take long father? I have plans with David and Roland come Feast Day.”
“You will have to cancel those plans.” The Duke says dryly. “Your trip will be longer than a couple days and can not be delayed. You leave today for…”
“Today?” Kendrick exclaims with an air of disgust, interrupting his father. “But I have not packed or anything and I need time to ready myself.”
“I had the servants pack your basics for you last night while you were out. As for anything else you may need I believe you can have it ready soon enough, but that is not important right now. Let me explain what I need of you before you interrupt me again. Understood?”
Kendrick nods, looking annoyed but staying quiet for the moment. As he listens he twirls his blond hair around his fingers absentmindedly.
“I spent much of last night drafting this letter asking a favor of General Graves down in Poono. He owes me and it’s time I called it in. I need his help with a problem I have been unable to take care of myself and in preparing some possible passage for later, so it is important that he reads and answers this letter while you are there with him. Do not leave until he reads it and replies.”
“Sir Althea and her men will be escorting you as both protection and as a symbol of how important this is to me.” He turns to address her as well. “You too are not to leave until the General has addressed this letter and gives you the order enclosed within to come back with his answer, accepting my request. If necessary, you will stay in Poono until he does accept, so it may take a few days if he resists.”
Kendrick looks aghast at the idea of staying in Poono, but Althea just nods in acceptance and understanding.
“Do not delay or take any detours on the journey. The General will be found in his office at the military compound just outside of Poono, on the edge of the Butch Desert. I need this taken care of as quickly as you can. I have something of great importance to take care of with Mr. Blain. So if there are any questions you must ask them now, as I will not be available for the rest of the day.”
Althea just shakes her head. “None sir. We leave as soon as he’s ready.” She glances over at Kendrick. That could take a while. This boy won’t be ready for anything any time soon. Perhaps for years, if ever.
“Can’t you just send her?” Kendrick says, looking down at the sealed letter in his father’s hands. His voice drops and almost becomes a whine. “Please?”
The Duke inhales deeply and lets out a large sigh, seemingly trying to recapture some lost strength and composure. “Sorry, son, it has to be you. There is no one else I can send on this one. It won’t work if anyone else takes this.” He then hands the letter to Kendrick, looking more resolved than before.
Kendrick looks down at it again and pauses. He then takes the letter with a resigned sigh. “Fine. I’m going to go get cleaned up and have the servants pack the rest of the things I’ll need.”
The Duke nods, but his eyes betray a sadness within, even if his voice is steady and serious. “I won’t see you before you go, Kendrick, so have a good journey. I’ll miss you while you’re gone, son.”
Kendrick stops moving and raises an eyebrow. He then shakes his head, mumbles something to himself, and continues to walk out of the room in a huff.
As soon as the door closes behind Kendrick, the Duke’s shoulders slump and his head droops slightly forward. He sighs deeply and speaks in a very soft voice. “Take care of him Althea. This is going to be harder on him than he realizes.”
Althea turns her head slightly and looks confused, but says nothing. The Duke is showing some difficulty with this one. I knew there had to be more to this than a simple escort job, but I never expected this. It’s about time he did something. I hope it works.
After the short pause, the Duke continues to talk in that same low tone. “When the time comes, and you will know when it comes, please tell him that I love him and give him this letter.”
He slides another letter, slightly thinner than the last, out of his pocket and hands it to her. She takes it without question and looks down at the Ravendorn seal in the wax. Making sure he is finished she finally speaks in a soft tone. “If you are doing what I think you are doing, don’t be too hard on yourself. You have made the right decision. This will be the best thing for the both of you.”
He raises his head slightly and smiles at her, but the sadness still lingers in his eyes. “Thank you. You will be in charge of getting things going from this point forward. I don’t think I could go through with it if I was still here, so I am going with Mr. Blain for the afternoon to distract myself.”
She nods and rises from the table, sliding the letter under her armor for safekeeping. “Good day sir. It will be done. Do not fear. He will be fine… in time.” She then turns to walk out of the room to supervise the loading of the coach and other preparations.
The Duke droops his head, the sorrow on his mind weighing heavily on him. A dark figure moves out of the shadows behind him and walks over to his chair. “She is right. Are you ready to leave?”
Ravendorn sits up and turns to look at Mr. Blain. As Althea closes the door to the room she sees the two of the rise. The door muffles the Duke’s reply. “Yes, old friend. Let’s go before I change my mind.”

After the loud banging on the door and the wake up call roused him, Kobe rolled out of bed and quickly readied himself for the day. Even though he did this as fast as he could the other men were already eating at the table downstairs when he arrived. They mostly remained silent, trying to get as much food into them as possible before Althea returned to drag them off on whatever fool hearty job she had for them this time. Kobe joined in to do the same. To his surprise and apparently theirs as well, from the way they were acting, they were all able to finish without interruption, even Sadie who came down a while after he did.
After what felt like an hour of waiting the guys started to relax and play around. Dragavan pulled out his cards and looked around to see who wanted to join him in a game. Not only did he feel like playing with them, Kobe noticed that Sadie sat with them as if to play as well. But she refused the hand offered her when the game started, saying she simply wanted to watch. As seemed to be the norm, Dragavan was ahead of the rest within no time at all.
After losing another hand, Kobe asks a question of them all. “So, any idea what the Duke or Althea has in store for us next?”
Dragavan shrugs and takes another puff on his cigar.
James shrugs as well. “Nope. Most likely won’t be doing much of anything for a while. Most of these jobs are rather spread out, and after what just happened I have a feeling we are going to be doing light duty and down time for a while.”
“Besides,” Darth adds with a shrug. “Althea won’t tell us anything until it’s nearly time to go anyway, so there’s no point in worrying about it.”
Dragavan takes his cigar out of his mouth with his left hand, since he was holding cards in his right, and looks directly at Kobe. “Right, it doesn’t matter.” He then looks down at his coins on the table, at his hand, and then back up at Kobe. “What does matter is, are you in or not?”
As Dragavan puts the cigar back between his teeth Kobe tosses two silvers on the pile. “Yeah, I’m in. Call.”
Kobe keeps quiet again for a while, just playing along with the game, but wondering how long he is going to be tied to this group. I agreed to three special jobs and then I’d go free. Sitting around and doing daily duties was not part of the deal. The Duke better not be trying to pull something here.
The silence is finally broken after a while by James, as he tosses his hand down and looks at Kobe. “Is it true that you socked the Duke’s son? And that that’s how you ended up working here with us?”
Oh crap. Here it comes. So much for getting along with these guys while I did my time. Kobe lowers his head and closes his eyes for a moment, trying keep his composure and trying not to remember that day in the Green Dragon when his good turn went bad and got him punished. He slowly raised his head, shaking it slowly, and looked at James with tired eyes. “I did not know who he was at the time I struck him, but yes. I have to do three specific jobs before I am set free, which that thing in the mountain was the first, but I don’t know what the others are going to be. I wish I had not done it, but I have to deal with the consequences now.”
James starts to smile broadly before Kobe even finishes. “Lucky Bastard. I hate that little prick.” The rest all seem to nod in agreement as he continues. “I sure would love to give Kendrick a good what for now and then. Pow! Right in that smug twit face of his.”
“Nothing like his father at all.” Dragavan casually adds, talking around the cigar. “But, it is the Duke’s fault in the end. Too soft on the prat.”
Kobe has trouble believing what he was hearing. Are you kidding? They are both arrogant bastards who feel they are above the rest of us. Amoral holier than thou pricks, the both of them. It just proves the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“I’m just glad we don’t have to spend much time with him.” James starts again. “Other than the occasional official gathering, where he has to be on his best behavior, and the random accidental meeting down at the Green Dragon, we only have to deal with him if he wants us to do something for them and his father has him come to us personally.”
All the soldiers shudder slightly.
“Those are the worst.” Darth says with a disgusted face.
“Remember the time he had us escorting him down to that little village so he could seem important when meeting with that blond he was trying to scam a little play from?” James says while shaking his head. “Poor girl would have gone through with it too if that old tree didn’t happen to crash through the window and ruin the whole moment for him. Lucky girl.”
Kobe thinks he notices Dragavan smirking slightly as James recounts the story. Hmm. I bet there is more to that story than he’s telling.
James’ eyes suddenly widen, as if just remembering something. “Oh, how about that time he wanted us to go down and arrest that gambler for ‘Illegal Betting’? Bastard just wanted his money back after losing it on that arena event. It was his own fault for betting against the Rowgrran.”
Dragavan nods and pulls out the cigar again to talk. “Good thing Althea suddenly needed us to meet up with her at the Jernak Outpost.”
“Yeah.” James nods back to him. “Such luck. That letter arrived just in the nick of time. I wonder why she felt she needed us there though? Things sure didn’t seem that important when we got there. But I guess we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Kobe notices that smirk return to Dragavan’s face as he puffs on the cigar.
“Oh, what about the time we had to go retrieve him from that traveling circus?” Darth stated with smile. “Thought he could pull a fast one on a bunch of carneys. Idiot.”
“By the Creators, that was dumb of him.” James shakes his head with amusement. “The Duke sent us down there to make amends and see what we could do to get him back with as little trouble as possible. Althea and Drag here must have been in that meeting with the owner for hours to work it all out. You ready to tell us what you had to give up yet?”
James looks at Dragavan, who smirks but keeps his voice serious. “Nothing I am allowed to talk about, and never will be.”
“Man, Kendy sure wasn’t happy about it either.” James says with a smile. “Remember the ride back? Those two hours felt like two weeks the way he kept going on and on. I really would have loved to sock him that day. You are a lucky man Kobe, never forget that.”
Kobe smiles slightly, but just shrugs. Don’t exactly feel lucky at all, but at least these guys aren’t on that prick’s side after all.
“I’ll just be glad if we don’t have to deal with him again for a good long time.” Darth says and they all knock on the table twice. Kobe even nods his agreement.

The door opens with a small crash as Drall rushes into the room. Everyone’s head turns to look, but Sadie notices that Dragavan’s hands quickly shifted a couple cards around while everyone was distracted. Sneaky one Fredrik. Drall rushes over to the table and starts to wave his hands frantically, trying to get them all up and following him. He seems flustered and rushed.
Dragavan snaps his fingers to get everyone’s attention, and stops Drall from flailing for a moment. He then speaks to him in a calm voice. “What is it? Althea ready to go?”
Drall frantically signs back, looking a little exasperated, but Sadie can’t seem to understand all of it since he is going so fast and she hasn’t kept up on her hand signing studies. That can’t be right. Not ‘bed’, but what? I think I misunderstood something.
Dragavan replies back with only his hands, losing everyone else in the process, even Sadie. They are going too fast and must be using some kind of shorthand or dialect. I can’t follow this. I can hear master now. ‘I told you it would be important one day.’
Dragavan doesn’t exactly look happy as they continue to talk. Occasionally Dragavan will point to his cards or the table and Drall will point to the door. Finally Drall sighs and signs one final thing that Sadie clearly understands. “Fine, just hurry.”
Everyone looks back at Dragavan, who forces a big grin before speaking. “I have some good news and some bad news.”
“What’s the good news?” James asks with a sigh.
“Drall says we can finish our hand before we have to go.” His smile becomes a little more wicked and less fake. “At least it’s good news for me, because I am so gonna win this one.”
James shakes his head and Darth tosses his cards to the table, as if to fold. Sadie just sits back and watches amused.
Kobe, who doesn’t seem to be paying attention to their conversation, looks up at Dragavan finally and says, “I missed a lot of that, you were talking too fast. Something about a carriage and bed. So what’s the bad news?”
Sadie smiles smugly. Ha! So I wasn’t wrong, it was a bed.
Dragavan looks at Kobe with a glint of respect. “Let’s finish the hand before I tell them the bad news.”
Kobe tosses his cards on the table to fold as well, but James looks at his hand and then at Dragavan and then back at his hand. Finally, looking back at Dragavan, he says, “Let’s just call it here, without drawing cards, and see who wins as it stands now. Make it quick for us all. Then I can collect my winnings and you can tell us the bad news.”
Dragavan gives him an appraising look and then glances down at his hand. “Okay. But you called it so no hard feelings when you get your bad news first.” He drops his cards, face up, and James lets out a loud curse, tossing his own down with all the others. Dragavan shrugs and starts to collect his winnings.
Once the table is clear of coins he speaks to the group. “Okay, the bad news. We have our new job, but first we have to help load a bed onto the Duke’s carriage. It appears his good son won’t leave on his little trip without it and Althea asked us to help hurry things up so he can get going.”
“Kendrick’s leaving?” James says with a smile. “How’s that bad news?”
Before Dragavan can reply, Darth lets out a “Huzzah!” and smiles broadly, but then let’s James’ question sink in and his smile fades. “No… No… Don’t tell me.”
“Yep, our job is to escort him on the trip.”
James and Darth both groan and it’s Kobe who curses this time. Sadie just raises an eyebrow. This should be interesting. If their stories of these trips are anything to go by, this could be quite amusing.
Drall frantically waves at them all and they finally start to move to follow him. The grumbling and muttered complaints follow them out the door.
Sadie moves over next to Dragavan and speaks in a very low tone. “I saw what you did.”
“Saw what I did where?” he asks in just as low a tone, giving her an appraising look up and down.
Her eyes narrow and her mouth curls into a cute little wicked smile of her own. “With the cards when everyone was looking away. And don’t play coy with me.”
He smiles back, more roguish this time, and speaks softly. “And?”
“I expect my cut.” She does a quick double raise of her eyebrows. “You know, for keeping quiet about it and all.”
His smile changes to one that Sadie thinks looks very genuine and respect shines in his eyes. “You got it. A Duck sound fair?”
She nods and walks away from him, towards Kobe, but looks back to toss him a final word. “I’ll keep a tab for ya.”
In the courtyard they see the carriage, several large traveling trunks, and a huge oak bed sitting in the sun. Althea, looking slightly tired, sees them and waves them over to join the four house servants standing next to the bed. They have a large flatbed cart behind the carriage and move the bed onto it with some difficulty. Sadie notices that Kendrick watches from a balcony with some amusement. The trunks are then carefully loaded on top of it and everything is tied down.
Sadie notices that Kobe is carefully keeping himself out of sight of the balcony as much as possible, never being noticed by Kendrick. Must not want to face him again.
Seeing everything is being taken care of, Althea walks over to Sadie and speaks to her quietly. “Mercedes, this is going to be a formal escort journey for a noble, so we are going to have to put on our best faces. No matter how uncomfortable it gets.” She shifts the side of her surcoat so it stops rubbing her neck. “So, would you be so kind as to return to your room and put on something more fitting of a young lady of your stature in the presence of a noble?”
Sadie looks down at her nice shirt and leather chausse, with the cloak resting on her shoulders. This is fitting my stature. She thinks to herself, as her face reflects the thought. I ain’t no princes or anything. Sheesh. Whatever. I guess I can wear that burgundy dress. Yeah, that will go great with the silver necklace master gave me last Roltasha. My cloak will still work with it too. I’ll just have to change my hair a little though, this tail just won’t do with that look.
As her face shifted from upset to wonder and then happy thoughts of clothing and accessorizing, she just nodded to Althea before wandering back to her room. Sadie hears Althea mutter “Kids” under her breath, but it just makes her smile.

Continued…

ToK Stories: The Man On The Mountain Part 4

Dragavan — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:08:03 +0000

The Travelers of Karn
Ravendorn’s Quest
Prologue: The Man On The Mountain
By: Dragavan

Chapter 4: Return to the Bluff
Sadie quietly followed as Kobe led them all back to their things and then took off to take the lead, far ahead of the group. He prolly doesn’t want to be around the rest of them right now. She thought. I don’t exactly blame him. That wasn’t easy to see or allow. I can’t imagine what they are all going through. From what she gathered in talks with him before, she is sure he blames the Duke for allowing this.
The group walks in silence through the rests of the day, all of them seeming to be lost in thought. Sadie is torn on what to feel. She got see and interact with a real speaking dragon, but was also witness to a horrible murder of a man not much older than herself. The ill feeling in her stomach proved her current state was leaning more towards reaction to the latter. …But it was a real live dragon.
There were no words Sadie could think of to describe how Althea looked. Her eyes were open, but there was nothing behind them. It was like she was dead inside. The extent of the sadness and anger in those eyes was heartbreaking to the point that Sadie couldn’t keep looking at her. Even the occasional glance at her struck like a knife in her own heart. She knew better than to disturb this woman in any way until this look changed.
It wasn’t until they set up camp that night that any of them really said more a single word. Althea set her bedroll away from the camp and seemed to try to sleep. Sadie assumed it was not so easy for her. Drall sat watch, also a short ways away from the rest, but not right next to Althea. The rest sat around the campfire and shared drinks and some bread. Kobe joined Sadie at the fire, but like her, said nothing.
James took a drink from his skin. “He was too new to have gone like this.”
“He did what none of us were willing to do.” Darth replied.
“He was the best of us.” Dragavan spoke solemnly and then a small smile crossed his lips. “Even if he was still a worthless scrub.”
“Oh, that goes without saying.” James too cracks a small smile. “Still, too green for any of this, but the best of us nonetheless.”
“You remember the time he mistook Althea’s surcoat for part of his new uniform?” Dragavan’s smile firmly in place now.
“Yeah.” Says James. “And he started to take it in to make it fit him better.”
Dragavan starts to chuckle. “We could have told him.”
“But it was too much fun to watch.” Darth says, also smiling now.
“If it wasn’t his second day with us she would have torn him a new one.” James glances towards her apparently sleeping body. “She almost did anyway.”
“You sure could see it in her eyes.” Dragavan’s voice lowers and Sadie sees a sadness seep into his eyes. “Nothing like what she is now.”
“Remember when he brought those flowers to Katie down at the Green Dragon?” James obviously tries to keep his tone jovial.
“Silly kid.” Darth shakes his head. “Not that he was the first to take her flirting as more than what it was.”
“Or the shield thing. I couldn’t believe he tried to fit the…” Dragavan starts to chuckle and chokes a little on his drink.
“The WHOLE thing.” James says over Dragavan’s choking. “I thought I was going to die with laughter.”
The lot of them all laugh heartily at the memories, and Sadie can’t help but smile at the stories and love from these men towards their fallen comrade. Over the coming hours the tone mostly stays jovial, with occasional moments of solemn refrain. It makes her feel good to learn all about the man she watched die, helping her deal with happened in the cave as much as it seems to be helping them. Kobe doesn’t smile, but seems to relax over time, eventually being the first of them to go to sleep. The rest fade off eventually, leaving Dragavan to sit lone watch as Sadie falls asleep for a relatively restless night.
Her dreams are filled with dragons and death.
The next day’s journey is not nearly as tense and quiet, but the mood remains somber. Althea seemed to wake in a better mood, but still remained silent and distant. Nobody made eye contact with her nearly at all, except for Drall, who almost seemed more like an extension of her than an entity of his own. Kobe leads them from far ahead, rarely coming back to join the others. Sadie stayed in back with the guys and listened to more stories of their days in Howling Bluff.
As they approach the base of the mountain trail Althea has them set up camp early, as to avoid staying at the Fort Donovin and dealing with all the questions. Early the next morning she has them make their way there and arrange to retrieve her horses and leave before too much official questioning can be done. The General never even comes down to see them off. By evening they are back in the Bluff and on their way to the Duke’s manor.
Sadie looks back on what just happened and stares at the walls of Ravendorn Manor. Good be back. Not exactly home, but I sure am glad to see it. I still can’t believe this is what Master had in mind when he sent me here.

Duke Fredrick Ravendorn was sitting in front of the fire in the sitting room reading a little about the history of the Min Frenal, hoping to find a clue to what he needs. Sure, he has read just about anything he could get his hands on in hopes of finding something, so he his hopes weren’t too high for this one either. In the distance he head the main gate opening and a smile crossed his face. Sounds like they are back. That must mean they have it. This could be it. The time could be growing close.
He puts the book down on the end table and calls back to Eric, his butler. “If that’s them bring Althea and Mr. Blain directly here.”
“Yes sir.” And he is out of the room, leaving the Duke alone.
Moments later the door opens again and he sees Althea and Mr. Blain walking in. He can’t help it as a big smile crosses his face. “Welcome back.” He says as he waves them towards the other chairs by the fire.
Mr. Blain slides over and stands beside one of the chairs, as is his norm, using it as an armrest. He never sits if he can help it. Althea, on the other hand, gladly takes a seat in the nearest chair, but doesn’t look all that glad as she looks at him with weary eyes and a stoic face. She looks tired. Must have pushed to get here so quickly.
After gazing at the two of them, he settles his gaze on Althea before speaking. “So, did you get it? And the name of the temple?” He does his best to keep his voice even, trying to keep the excitement from seeping out too much.
Mr. Blain extends his hand from his robe and an amulet on a chain drops from it, dangling before the Duke. It hangs there, slowly swinging and spinning in front of his eyes, sparkling in the firelight. The crystal in the middle seems shine with beams of light, firing in random directions, as it spins. Dots of light appear on the walls around the room, appearing and disappearing with the motion. That’s it. It’s real. It’s perfect.
He can’t help but let his eyes light up as he looks at it. Uncontrolled he lets out an almost inaudible sigh. He can’t hide the excitement on his face any more as he looks up at Althea. “What about the temple? Do we have a name?”
Althea tenses slightly and locks her face into an expressionless state as she speaks. “Yes. Moorpam. The beast said it was far east, near the base of the Crescent Moon Mountains. But…”
Not meaning to cut her off, but unable to contain himself, he gasps loudly. “Excellent! More than I expected. We should be able to pinpoint it in no time.” He turns to look at Mr. Blain, who has not moved other than to pull his hand back inside his robe, but doesn’t get the chance to speak.
Speaking louder, letting a little of her anger seep out, Althea continues her previous thought. “There was a price beyond what we expected to get these. A price I am not comfortable with. We lost a man to it. That monster took Morgan Dragg as payment. Killed him right in front of us. Required we witness this before he would give us the name.”
Duke Fredrick Ravedorn’s face dropped. Damn it. His excitement was still there behind the surface, but he felt the hit hard. His eyes showed the sadness and he slumped his shoulders. In a lower voice he says, “I should have known Gran-Dar-Rik would pull something like this. Damn dragons. Can’t really trust them to treat an honorable debt the same as the rest of us. Cruel greedy bastards.”
He sighs deeply and looks down for a second, leaving the room silent except for the sound of the fire. When he looks back up he doesn’t make eye contact with Althea. “Nothing we can do now except honor his death by moving forward. We have even more reasons to succeed now.”
Althea nods, but he can tell she isn’t completely comfortable or sold on it.
“But now we have some research to do.” Ravendorn says, looking up at Mr. Blain. He then looks back at Althea. “We can’t risk the others talking too much or getting involved in anything before I need them together again. Tomorrow I will have a little delivery job for the lot of you, just to pass the time while Mr. Blain and I head the research. Should give us the time we need and keep you all together and busy.”
Althea nods her acceptance, but has a question. “What about Kobekoon Minasela Roontasa and Mercedes Windsmith? They are not part of my unit, but they were at the cave with us. I know Kobekoon has a debt to fulfill with you, but Mercedes has no such need to come.”
“Take them with you anyway. They may not be needed for this delivery, but they will be needed for what follows. I just can’t have them running around and running their mouths around town. Sorry, it’s just two more you will have to baby-sit on this trip.”
She nods again and starts to rise, but then looks at him with a slightly confused look. “Two more? I assure you I do not see my men as being baby-sat, so two more of what are we talking about?”
He waves his hand, as if to shoo her question away. “I’ll explain everything in the morning. Right now Mr. Blain and I have a lot to go over and discuss.”
Althea seems to accept this and heads out of the room, closing the door behind her.
As soon as she is gone he rises and reaches for the amulet, which Mr. Blain already has out again. It feels cold in his hand and the edges are nearly razor sharp. He holds it towards his face, with the fire behind it and examines the craftsmanship closely. In a nearly inaudible voice he speaks his internal thoughts. “The time is close now. This one is real. I can feel it. Soon it will finally be over.”
Mr. Blain nods and the two of them head towards the room to start their work in the table room. Right before they pass through the door the Duke stops and jerks his head, remembering something. He rushes back and grabs the small stack of books sitting on the table next to his chair, carrying them out of the room with him. Handing the top one to Mr. Blain he says, “This one should come in handy. It’s about the dogs’ land.”

The end of the Prelude… but not the story.

ToK Stories: The Man On The Mountain Part 3

Dragavan — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:49:07 +0000
The Travelers of KarnRavendorn's QuestPrologue: The Man On The MountainBy: Dragavan Chapter 3: The Man In The Cave Just as Althea predicted the hike took a full day and a half, including another wonderful night under the stars, before reaching the cave they mentioned. There it is. Kobe thought to himself as ...

ToK Stories: The Man On The Mountain Part 2

Dragavan — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:32:16 +0000

The Travelers of Karn
Ravendorn’s Quest
Prologue: The Man On The Mountain
By: Dragavan

Chapter 2: Up The Mountain Trail
Morning came far too fast for Sadie and a loud banging on her room’s door woke with quite a start. Who wakes before the sun? We aren’t farmers here. Groaning she sat up and quickly pulled on robe. Getting to her feet she yawned and stretched before answering the knock. Her eyes still blurry in the dim light of the early morning, with the sun just starting to peek into the sky, she squints as she reaches for the handle.
Opening the door she sees a large form standing there, but is unable to focus on it yet. She can make out that it’s a person in some kind of metal armor with a surcoat over it, but it’s not until she hears the female voice speak that she realizes it’s Sir Althea. “Get dressed. Get packed. And get down to the hall to eat something. We leave at sunrise.” She then leaves, not waiting for a reply.
Sadie blinks twice, grunts angrily, and slams the door shut before collapsing back onto the bed. Her long red hair flung wildly about her head and across her face. Not only does she expect me to wake before the sun rises, but we leave when it does? I don’t I like this job. I want to go home.
This position is only temporary, as she knew she had to get up and ready to go. Within a couple minutes she rises to a sitting position and looks around her darkened room. She mumbles a few words and flicks her fingers towards the corner of the room. Small purple sparks shoot from her fingertips and strike the lantern hanging there, instantly igniting it. The room flares into light, which simply elicits another groan from her as she squints her eyes against it.
It doesn’t take her long to pack, since she never really had time to unpack the night before, but getting dressed seems to take longer than normal due to her annoyance and still being drowsy. Thinking that traveling was not going to be much fun she decided that leather pants and her lace-up bodice would be a better choice than a dress. She never did much care for them anyway, but accepted that they were expected behavior for a young Human girl of her age and stature.
After combing and tying off her hair into a long ponytail she makes her way down to the lower hall of the military quarters, where the rest of her traveling companions were already gathered and eating. She looks around and sees more people than she expected, and Mr. Blain appears to be missing. Thankfully. She sees Kobe, who seems to be getting along well enough with some of the other new men around the table. Four of them seem to be soldiers of some kind, as they are all dressed mostly the same.
The fifth unknown man is dressed in lesser clothes than the rest, but seems to carry himself with more dignity. He is sitting at the right hand of Sir Althea, who doesn’t seem to be eating as much as contemplating something silently to herself. She appears to be staring off into nothing with a serious look on her face, ignoring the loud talking and joking of her men. Her companion is eating, but seems to be maintaining the same level of serious silence as her.
As the group seems to notice her standing there watching them, all eyes turn to face Sadie and silence fills the room. Kobe smiles at her and nods a greeting before nudging the blond man sitting next to him. She catches Kobe quietly commenting to him, “Huh? What did I say?”
That seems to break the silence and everyone seems to go back to talking, although with a number of suggestive noises and passing knowing glances around at each other without accompanying words. The blond man next to Kobe doesn’t seem to be taking part in the conversation as much as the others and seems to regularly glance in Sadie’s direction.
All of this has made her a little uncomfortable. What did Kobe tell them about me? What does he even know about me? Please stop looking at me. She takes a seat at the far end of the table, away from the others, and a servant brings her a plate of ham and eggs. She tries not to look at the rest of them while she quietly eats her food. Occasionally she looks up and catches one of them, usually the blond, looking at her before they quickly look away. These are the people I am going to have spend the next weeks or months of my life with? Why did you do this to me master? This can’t be what you had in mind.
As the meal progresses her discomfort with them grows until a sound of a soft deep voice beside her makes her jump. “Fear not young one.” Her head snaps around to see Mr. Blain sitting next to her, with his expressionless hooded face just a foot from hers. “This lot is harmless and once on the road they will seem quite a different sort. You will come to depend on them as they will you.”
She looks at him, as his cold blue eyes seem to pierce into her own green ones, but no words are able to form on her lips. Mr. Blain, on the other hand, continues to talk in that low monotone. “Your master had good reason to send you. This is where you belong at this time, but it will take time for you to understand that. For now, just follow along and learn.”
She isn’t exactly sure why, but she nods in agreement with his words. He slightly nods back to her in greeting and gets up from the table. The rest seem to notice him now and fall silent. All eyes pass onto him as he glides over to Sir Althea and takes a seat next to her. Once he is seated the others go back to talking, but not nearly as loud or rowdy as before.
She doesn’t know why, but no matter how much he creeps her out, at this moment Sadie trusts that man more than she has ever trusted anyone other than her master. She is more comfortable now and seems to look at all the others with new eyes. He’s right. They aren’t that scary at all. I bet I could wrap any one of them around my little finger if wanted. Besides, I could fry any one of them in an instant if hey actually tried anything funny.
After speaking briefly with Mr. Blain, Sir Althea stood and commanded the group in a much stronger and serious voice than Sadie had heard from her before. “Pack it up men, it’s time to move out.”
Mr. Blain then seems to pass her a strange glance and nods slightly towards Sadie. Althea turns to look at Sadie and directly addresses her in the same voice. “You too miss, it’s time we got going.” She then turns and walks out of the room with Mr. Blain at her side, followed closely by her companion, who is carrying a large pack and two swords in ornate scabbards.
The rest of the men scramble to their feet to follow, taking final bites of their food as they rise, and grabbing what few supplies they had at the table with them. Kobe is the last move, having the most to pick up and carry. He looks over at Sadie and smiles kindly again. “Ready to get going kiddo? I have a feeling that this Althea woman isn’t going to wait long for us.”
She smiles back at him and grabs her pack as well. “Yeah, not exactly the most friendly of ladies. But then, she doesn’t seem much like any kind of lady I have ever met before.”
Kobe chuckles. “Yeah, that she doesn’t. But I can sure see wanting her to be on your side in a fight though.”
“No doubt. She is the largest Frenal I’ve ever seen. Man or woman.”
“Yeah, we’re not all built like her.” He raises an eyebrow to go along with his boyish smile and a playful nod. “And we don’t all have that attitude either.”
Sadie snickers and the two of them pass out into the main courtyard of the manor. This guy is nice. She thinks to herself with a smile. At least I’ll have someone on this trip I can talk with.

The air is crisp and cool, but not exactly as cold as Sadie thought it would be at this hour. She is glad she brought her cloak nonetheless, wrapping it around her. It appears that they are going to travel by horseback, as Sir Althea has several horses packed and saddled and two of her men area already mounted. Then there is the one that must be her squire, as he was the one sitting with her at breakfast and now securing her things to her horse.
Just then she is struck by something and tugs on Kobe’s sleeve to get his attention. Quietly she asks, “There is one thing I wan to know. Perhaps you know. If Althea is a woman, why do they all call her Sir?”
Kobe silently chuckles to himself and leans close to her to quietly reply. “This is a military operation of a Human kingdom, and therefore set up by and for men. Frenal, however, make no distinction when it comes to position and rank. When the two are mixed and Human terms are used, they don’t allow changes to be made for the sexes, as it would offend many of our kind. So she is Sir Althea in the military, but Madam or Ms., I am not sure which in this case, when dealing with social circles.”
Sadie nods in understanding and two of them walk over to join the others. Sir Althea turns to them as they arrive and points to two brown horses. “Kobe, Sadie, those are yours. Mount up. We are leaving.”
Sadie nods and looks uncomfortably at the large horse before her. I’ve never ridden one this big before. And it’s not like I really ride all that much anyway. Why couldn’t they just have a coach or cart or something? Keeping these worries to herself she cautiously grabs the reigns and pats him on the side of the neck.
Althea notices this and looks down at her from her own mount. “You do know how to ride, don’t you?”
Sadie nods, showing her nerves and reddening slightly. “Yes, ma’am… Sir.” She then tries to get her foot up into the stirrup.
One of the other solders, a dark haired man with a beard and a friendly smile, steps over to her and says, “Here miss, let me help you with that.” He puts his knee forward for her step on she takes his hand. Once she is nearly up, trying to swing her leg over, he pushes her on the side and she slides into place. He lets her hand go slowly and gives her a small bow.
Sadie smiles sweetly at him, but think something quite different. He seems rather sure of himself. At least it’s in a nice way. In a soft voice she says, “Thank you… umm…” She pauses for a moment and loses her smile a little. “I don’t believe I’ve been given your name.”
“I’m James Mason, miss.” He bows deeper, showing off for the lady. “And you already know Sir Althea, but that may beside her is her squire. We just call him Drall, but his name is Drallnik Tendriline. Won’t find a better squire within a hundred miles, but he won’t tell you that.” He drops his voice for the next line. “Being mute and all.”
She looks over at the man and is immediately reminded of the stable hand back at school, only a little younger. He has auburn shoulder length hair and a young face, although there seems to be a age beyond his years in his eyes. I wonder if he knows sign. Would give me a chance to practice something other than Mages’ Cant in it.
“Over here,” James continues, waving his hand at a man with shoulder length brown hair and beard sitting on his horse. “This is Darteneth Redkin, which is far too much of a mouthful for any of to bother with, so we just call him Darth. A nice enough fellow, but not much of a talker… At least until you get enough ale into him, that is.” Darth smiles at her and gives her a small two-finger salute and nod.
No wonder he’s so quiet. Her thoughts flit between James’ words about Darth. He’s so much older than the others. I bet he feels like their father or something.
“That young man up there is Morgan Dragg.” This time James waves up at a younger looking man with light brown hair and a childlike glint in his eyes. The man smiles and also gives her a small nod as James keeps talking. “He’s a nice kid, but still a bit green. And gets even greener when he gets some ale in him too.”
Now he shows promise. She smiles sweetly to him. I could so make him kiss my feet. But I bet he’s just some dumb old farm boy like those I left behind.
“And finally, we have Dragavan.” This time James nods and points to the clean shaven blond man atop his horse. There is a playful glint in his eyes as he smiles and gives her a slight half nod. “Watch out for him. He may be Althea’s sergeant, but he’ll rob you blind with a smile on his face. Best damn card player I have ever seen.” He leans in and lowers his voice again. “His full name is Fredrilk Dragavan, but anyone using his first name learns to regret it fast.”
Fredrick. She thinks while making a slight “Hmm” sound. I’ll have to remember that. Fredrik. Freddy. Fred. Might come in handy with this one. Seems like he might be trouble.
“Enough with the introductions, James.” Althea commands loudly. James quickly skips away from Sadie and to his horse. Althea signals to the gateman for it to be opened. “Move out men, we ride to Fort Donovin by nightfall.”
As soon as the large gates open wide enough Althea and Drall are off, with the rest following within seconds. They pass into the streets of Howling Bluff and within a few minutes they are out of town and on their way down the road.

The journey was hard and fast. Kobe learns that Althea isn’t one for taking things slow or taking rest stops along the way when the trail is clear. Once they pass through Oagville, up the Oag River many miles from Howling Bluff, Althea tells them that they are now leaving the Senton Kingdom and would be traveling the rest of the way through the small Elwrock Kingdom. “You are representing our King, our Duke, and our country, so be on your best behavior men and get your flags out.”
She said nothing more and nothing more seemed to be needed. Immediately her men started pulling out surcoat, flags, banners, and other symbols of their kingdom and duchy and putting them on. Within minutes they were fully decked out as a royal transport. Kobe suddenly felt underdressed.
From what he remembers, the Elwrock Kingdom is a small land ruled over by the closest thing to a true Frenal monarchy seen since ancient times. The ruling family had been in charge of the kingdom since it formed after the fall of the Great Wolf Empire, and the current king has sat upon the throne for over 400 years. Under the king sits seven appointed advisors, based on the castes, and under them are the local leaders of the regions. The king is not the real power o the kingdom though, as the trade guild really has all the control.
Located directly between the Kingdom of Undermountain and the Senton Kingdom afforded the guild with a unique opportunity, as the only liaison between the two. Undermountain, being a true Dwarven mining empire, produces some of the best metal goods and precious stones in the region, but needs many of the things only found in the lowlands. Elwrock set itself up as a powerful go-between, and the merchants controlled the trade.
Once passed the border towns they picked up two escort soldiers from the main fort, dressed in the finest Elwrock uniforms. Kobe noticed them scan him for his Frenal broach and nodded once they saw it. They explain that they are to escort them to Fort Donovin, but after that none of them really talk much, choosing to travel mostly in silence. The exception was Sadie and Kobe, who hung back and talked most of the trip. Mostly she asked about the Frenal and the kingdom, which he explained what he could and actually knew about, but they also touched on other areas.
It was nearly nightfall before they reached the fort, at the north end of the small Elwrock Kingdom. Fort Donovin proved to be a relatively small fort compared to those they had seen in Senton and just within the Elwrock borders. Despite its size it still seemed to house a good number of men, many of whom were sent out to greet them, standing in ranks. They were greeted by the head of the fort and shown to the rooms they were being granted for the night. They were not quite as nice the one he had back in Howling Bluff, but it was still a great improvement over his cell.
All this seemed to have been arranged for ahead of time by the Duke, including housing them and their horses. They were even given a fine meal first thing in the morning, before being escorted to the base of some mountain trail on foot. They were given some supplies and then Althea was given a warning from the leader of the men, an important looking Frenal named General Kedzakal.
“I tried to talk your Duke out o this.” The general said to her in a strong but saddened voice. “But he seems intent on sending you for reasons I could not fathom. No amount of pleading or explanation would sway him from this course. I agreed only so I could have control over his people’s journey, since I was certain he would send you anyway, with or without my help.”
Althea started to say something but the general raised his hand to silence her as he continued. “So now that I have you here I am attempting to appeal to you directly. None who take this trail to its end have ever retuned. They say it is cursed and that a great evil awaits those who dare disturb the mount. Elwrock doesn’t even claim the land beyond this point, as we want nothing to do with whatever darkness lives up there.”
Kobe exchanges worried glances with Sadie and wonders what he has gotten himself into. He has seen some things in his time that lead him to usually accept warnings of this level.
“I ask that you do not continue on the path your Duke has before you. He does not understand what it is he asks of you. Something else has blinded him. He is sending you to your death and do not want to see this. Tell him you could not complete the task. Tell him you could not find whatever he seeks. Tell him whatever you have to, but please do not leave this place on this path.”
Sir Althea waits to make sure his words are done before speaking. Her face never shifts from her normal serious state, but she does nod to him out of respect. Her voice is a tone of understanding, but backed by a strength and unbreakable certainty. “General, you know we are all in positions were we must follow the orders of others. Your king tells you to run this fort and you stay here and do just that. My Duke tells me to go to the cave at the end of this trail and I go to the cave. There is no other option for people like us.”
He shakes his head slightly and looks about to speak when Althea continues in a louder voice, but with a softer tone. “Besides, our Duke understands more than you think about what he asks of us here. We have something none of those others have had. Fear not, we will all be returning and sooner than you think.”
The general tilts his head slightly in shock and raises his eyebrows, looking at her more intently than before. “What is this you have that will make you the first ever to return?”
“That is between Duke Ravendorn and myself.”
“Right now I would say I am between your Duke and yourself, and I have your horses stored in my stables, so that makes me involved.”
Althea stands taller, looking down at her fellow Frenal, and grows more imposing and stoic, which Kobe would have sworn was not possible before seeing it. Her eyes narrow and her hand touches the hilt of her sword, but before she has a chance to speak Mr. Blain appears at her side. He too appears taller than Kobe seems to remember, for is now staring directly eye to eye with the general. He speaks clearly and slowly, enunciating each word and pausing briefly between each of them. “General… Kedzekal… Zeke…”
The General’s face goes pale and eyes fill with shock as he shrinks slightly away from the dark figure before him. Mr. Blain continues. “We all have our secrets Zeke. Some we keep out of fear. Some we keep out of shame. Some we keep out of trust from others. No matter the reasons, we keep them or a reason, and believe you me… Zeke… we keep ours for a very important reason.”
On that he turns away from the general and walks towards the trail, letting his final words hiss out without even looking at the general. “So why do you keep yours?”
The general says nothing more and simply waves to his men to head back to the fort. He glances once more at Althea and shakes his head sadly before following his men. Kobe sees Althea smile slightly before she turns to follow Mr. Blain up the trail. The rest move into ranks behind them and journey begins.
Kobe trades a look of surprise with Sadie and softly speaks to her. “I say we stay on his good side.”
Sadie nods in agreement.

As soon as the general and his men are out of sight Althea pulls off her surcoat and hands it to Drall, who packs it away. Most of her men also seem to follow her lead and relax as well. Dragavan lights up a cigar. James undoes the front buckle on his armor, letting it flap open to show his chest. Morgan is the only one who keeps his colors on and uniform completely intact. All of this gives Sadie more to think about in her mental analysis of these men.
“Kobe.” Althea calls out for him from the front. “This is your lead now. Time to earn your way and get us there quick and safe.”
Kobe cracks his knuckles and leans over to Sadie. “Looks like it’s time to go to work.” He then leaves her behind and hurries up to the front talking loudly. “No problem folks. I’ll let you know if anything looks like trouble. Until then, this is all mine, so just enjoy your stroll.”
Sadie chuckles to herself and watches as the rest of the soldiers fall into ranks. It’s obvious they have done this before as they take up positions behind Althea and Drall. Morgan and Darth are directly behind her, with Dragavan and James moving back into the rear, behind Sadie and Mr. Blain. She isn’t exactly sure how he ended up besides her and isn’t exactly comfortable with it. Slowly she lags behind him, hoping he won’t notice and will just keep walking in step with the others. Soon she finds herself walking between Dragavan and James.
“Not too fond of Tall Dark and Spooky, huh?” Dragavan quietly says, leaning in towards her.
Sadie jumps slightly, startled by this voice in her ear, but turns to look at him. He is smiling, obviously amused, with his cigar sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Her eyes quickly dart towards Mr. Blain, as if to make sure he wasn’t looking, and then speaks in just as soft a voice. “He seems okay, but yeah, he is kind of scary.”
“Pfft!” He sounds off, a puff of smoke wafting between them. “He ain’t nothing’ to be afraid of. Besides, he’s on our side. You’ll see.”
Again Sadie nods, but says nothing for a while, just thinking to herself. When does, she turns to face Dragavan again. “So, how long have you known him?”
“Well,” He starts, rolling his eyes and taking another puff of his cigar. “I wouldn’t exactly say that I know him. I don’t think anyone besides the Duke, perhaps, can actually say that. But I’ve seen him around and what he’s done as long as I’ve been assigned to the Bluff. Goin’ on four years now.”
“What’s he done?” Sadie’s mind reels with horrible ideas of the kinds of things she can imagine Mr. Blain would do. Scary things. Perhaps he flies or turns into a bat.
“All sorts of things. I’ve seen men hung upside down from posts and signs. I’ve seen them tied to fences. I’ve seen hardened criminals begging to admit their cries and go to prison rather than see him again.”
Her jaw hangs agape. These are much darker than anything she was imagining.
“I’ve seen guys stuck to walls… on the second floor… on the outside of the building… by steel pins through his shoulders.”
She doesn’t blink and her mind seems to have frozen.
“You don’t do real crime in the Bluff unless you are damn sure Mr. Blain is out of town for a good long while.”
Not even realizing it she nods in agreement with his words, and then softly speaks. “But he’s out of town right now.”
Dragavan chuckles and shakes his head. “Like he announced he was leaving. You think anyone saw him go? Do you even remember seeing him with us as we left town? We’ll be back in the Bluff before anyone even has a chance to notice the streets are fair game again.”
I remember him leaving the Duke’s place, but he did seem to go off another direction. But he was with us when we passed the forts. When did he come back with us? She nods once more, turning to look ahead to Mr. Blain again. I hope he doesn’t have a problem with mages. I really don’t want to get pinned to a wall.

As darkness approaches the group is halted, as Kobe appears to have found them a suitable place to set up camp. A nice flat area in the lee of a large rock outcropping with a good line of sight in both main directions along the path. The guy knows his stuff. Dragavan thinks to himself, assessing the site, before setting out to arrange watches for the night. He knows they will do as they are assigned, but sees no reason to make it all seem like orders. He never was one or all that leadership crap anyway. It’s not his fault Althea made him her sergeant. The only part he really cared about was making sure Drall hurried up with that supper, so he personally oversaw the making of the campfire.
They all finished their stew and started to set up bedrolls, staking out their places for the night. Dragavan knew the time was right, so he pulled out his deck of cards and started shuffling them loudly. I wonder if these new fish have anything good. James and Morgan instantly start to clear a spot on the ground near him and get their things ready for a game.
Dragavan looks over at Darth but he shakes his head and waves him off. “Not this time Drag, you already have my next month’s coin.”
Dragavan shrugs and forms his face in that perfect combination of innocent and hurt. “So, this will give you a change to win it back.”
Darth rolls his eyes and makes a “Pfft!” noise at him before rolling over and trying to get some sleep.
Dragavan shrugs it off and looks over at Althea, who is talking to Drall. “Either of you two want in for once?” Yeah, like that will happen. They both turn and look at him for a second, without changing their expressions, and then go back to talking amongst themselves. He shrugs. “Yeah, didn’t think so. But I had to ask.”
He turns to look at Sadie and his smile falters upon looking at her in the firelight. I can’t. Not this time. Not to an innocent girl. Not to her. After a moment he lets his gaze shift over to Kobe and feels the old calculated smile return before speaking to him. “How about you Kobe? You know how to play?”
Kobe smiles back and makes his way over to them. “You bet I do. Deal me in so I can take your Ducks.”
“You can try.” Dragavan smiles at him. He knows his stuff here too. I think I’m going to like this guy. Too bad I have to take all his pay for this trip.
The four of them sit there and play into the night as the others fade off to sleep, or at least seem to be trying. Dragavan notices that Sadie keeps rolling over and adjusting her position, twitching at every little sound from the wild. Not used to camping out. Poor thing. It takes a few nights to really get the feel for it. I bet she never spent a night away from her comfortable little bed.
After a couple hours she seemed to finally have fallen asleep and Morgan and James left the game to finally get some sleep themselves. This just left Kobe to help him finish off the first watch. I must be getting soft. I left them with some coins and actually let Kobe win some. The two of them talked softly for the rest of the watch, mostly about what they plan to do with their winnings once they get back. Kobe seemed to be doing his best to try to keep the talk light and Dragavan didn’t feel like pushing it at this time. They will have plenty of time to really get to know each other.
When the time came, Kobe laid down to get some rest and Dragavan woke up Drall for the next watch. The squire quickly awoke and started to motion towards Althea, but Dragavan grabs his hand. Drall looks at him and starts to sign, but Dragavan softly says, “Let her sleep. I’m not tired so I’ll take her watch tonight.”
Drall smiles and signs back. “You always do that.”
Dragavan shrugs and gives him a cockeyed smile. “I guess I just don’t need as much as most of these guys. She has a lot to deal with once we reach the cave, so I say we let her have as much rest as she can.”
Normally this was the case on missions like this, but this wasn’t completely true this time. There was another factor at play here. Something he wasn’t even so sure about himself. Something he would never admit or speak of to any of them. He passes a glance down at Sadie. She sure looks sweet in her sleep. I wonder what she’s dreaming of. Luckily he knows Drall will keep quiet about it.
When third watch came around Dragavan finally got some rest as he let Drall wake Morgan and Darth. His dreams were the usual kind, including those ones he could never make heads or tails of and never remembered in the morning. Dreams of times past. Dreams of purple lights and clouds of swirling darkness. A screaming in the dark.
When he wakes he catches Althea’s glance as she shakes her head softly at him. Yeah, I let you sleep. Sue me. Drall already has breakfast cooking and the rest are waking and packing up camp. Soon enough they will be back on the trail and on their way again.
“At this rate we should be at the cave by midday tomorrow.” Althea announces to them as they get up to leave.
Just outside of Althea’s earshot Dragavan leans over to Sadie and whispers. “At a normal Human pace we would arrive sometime next week.”
Sadie snickers and then quickly stifles her laugh in case someone else may have heard it.
Dragavan smiles quietly to himself.

To be continued soon in chapter 3…

ToK Stories: The Man On The Mountain Part 1

Dragavan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:22:39 +0000

I decided to start posting stories to my blog. At least ones that are related to my games in some way, especially The Land of Karn. Most of these fall into two main camps, Travelers of Karn stories and Narstint Perfecto stories. The first being a novel based on game characters and the second being a planned webcomic that has become a novel in the works. I will start with the Ravendorn’s Quest part of the stories of the Travelers.
Ravendorn’s Quest was going to be a novel, but the story became larger than one novel could hold so it’s broken into smaller parts that each act both on their own and as part of the whole. So far there are two finished novelettes, one finished short story, one finished draft of a novel, and a second novel in the works. Not to mention several possible short stories yet to be written.
I will start with the first story of this series, where we first meet our characters through the eyes of the last member of join their ranks and the forming of the group. This is the first story of the Travelers of Karn.

The Travelers of Karn
Ravendorn’s Quest
Prologue: The Man On The Mountain
By: Dragavan

Chapter 1: The First Gathering
The huge archway of the main gates into Ravendorn Manor tower above her small form as Mercedes walked into the grounds, unlike anything she had seen before. She comes from the country. A small town in the plains. The academy was even small compared to this mansion. Even her time at her master’s place never prepared her for something this large or regal. This is the palace of the Duke. How could she have ever expected to find herself here.
She isn’t even sure why she is here. Just last week she was still working under her mentor as an apprentice mage, with at least a year’s worth of work still left before she would normally be sent out on her own. And that’s not including the time she would have to work with others before she could officially be classified as an official mage with the guild. Then she suddenly found herself being sent away for some job in Howling Bluff, under the control of the Duke.
Thinking to herself as she walked up to the manor house she supposes, I guess it could have had something to do with that fire. But it’s not like that was the first time that has happened, and he has never sent me away before. Sure he lost his shed this time, and part of the house, but the lab and library were fine. Not even smoke damage in there this time. Besides, if he would have just spent more time teaching me the fire spells – Like I asked – I wouldn’t have had to practice them on own when he wasn’t around. So, really, it was all his fault…
Her thoughts trail off she walked into the main hall of the mansion. It was even more amazing than the outside and completely unlike anything she had ever seen. The hall is at least three stories tall, with a huge vaulted ceiling and large staircases rounding up each side, and light streaming in through the massive windows on the wall now behind her. Long peach draperies hang from the walls around her and colored light shines down from the amazing stained glass windows around the edges of the dome at the top. The entire place seems to glow in a dazzling play of color and shadow.
A man in a fancy suit walks up and bows his head to her. She is unable to reply as this is not something she has ever had anyone do toward her before, so she simply nods back. He smiles kindly and speaks in a soft voice. “Miss, I believe your presence is requested right away in the Duke’s chambers. The others are already waiting.”
“Others?” Her voice seemed small and weak. A sudden wave of worry comes over her. What others could he be speaking of? Are they from school? The guild? Am I going to be stripped of my title before I have even earned it? Was the master really that upset? It’s not fair. I was so close.
“Yes, miss.” He waves her towards the door at the back of the hall. “The Duke has gathered his council and some others in his meeting chamber. As soon as you and one other arrive they are going to explain everything. Right now they are working on some basics and awaiting your arrival.”
She follows him, still unsure of what she is doing here, but trying hard to remember what her master told her when she was being sent on her way. “This will be good for you. It may better show you how important self-control is. Something I have not yet to been able to do.” It sure didn’t sound like I was going to be stripped of anything. I hope it’s not some kind of punishment or something.
He leads her through the double doors and into another large room, although this one doesn’t have he same high ceiling or light show. Still, this room alone is larger than her entire house back home or the even the library and lab at her master’s place. At the far end of the room she sees a large table with an important looking older man sitting in a regal chair and surrounded by a group of others. He has short gray hair and a full beard, which gives him a very strong appearance, but his eyes look sad and tired. There are books and papers strewn about the table before them and he is pointing to one of them while speaking quietly to the man on his right.
This man is quite different from the regal looking man speaking to him. He is not dressed in fine silks with fur trim, but a simple black robe with no markings of any kind on it. His hood is drawn up to shadow his gaunt face, which seems to be normal but rather non-descript. It’s almost like her eyes simply side off it without registering anything about him. He is listening intently to what the gray haired man has to say.
On the other side of the leader is a short broad Dwarf with a braided beard and slightly graying red hair. He is dressed in fancy armor, which almost seems to shine on its own. He doesn’t seem to be paying attention to what is being said, almost looking bored, but the tall powerful looking woman beside him seems to listening with rapt attention. She too is in fine armor, which seems to match in general style but isn’t as fancy as the Dwarf’s. Her hair is mostly cut short and black, with no bangs at all, but there is one shock of white hair that hangs down nearly a foot longer than the rest on the side of her head. Only her pointed ears sticking out from her hair betraying her as a Frenal and not Human.
The man standing beside Mercedes clears his throat and announces, “Young Miss Mercedes has arrived sir.”
The group looks over at her and the gray haired man stands up, passing her a forced looking smile. Waving her to an empty chair on the other side of the table, opposite the dark robed man, he speaks. “Ah, good have you here Mercedes. I am Duke Fredrick Ravendorn, this is Mr. Blain,” Signaling to the dark robed man. “And these are Sir Flagstone and Sir Althea. Please have a seat and join us.”
“Hi.” She smiles weakly and moves to the chair, feeling quite uncomfortable. She isn’t exactly pleased to be sitting across from the spooky looking gentleman she now knows is called Mr. Blain. Trying to seem more steady than she actually is, she speaks to them as casual a voice as she can muster. “And please call me Sadie. Everyone does.”
With a look of disgust on his face, the Dwarf turns to speak directly to the Duke in a gruff voice. “What is this child doing here?”
“This ‘Child’ is here to help Gathron.” The Duke’s voice is firm and clear. “She may only be sixteen, but I am told her talents with the mythic arts literally blows away most mages even twice her age.”
Sadie’s face starts to heat up as the crimson flushes her cheeks, but this also starts to worry her. Why were they told such things about me when I seem to screw things up more than help? Who could have possibly told them? Master would never say such things. Or did he tell them these things to get them to take me off his hands? What are they expecting of me?
Sir Flagstone simply grunts. “We’ll see about that.” Neither a note of approval or anger in his voice.
Her thoughts snap back completely to the room around her as Mr. Blain turns to look directly at her. She feels like she is under a microscope as his steely gaze locks onto hers. His bright eyes seem to pierce out from shade beneath his hood and bore right into her. She wants to look away, but his gaze holds onto her and all she can do is squirm in her seat. Just as suddenly he turns wordlessly away from her and speaks softly to the Duke again, in a voice that even she can’t hear. At this point she doesn’t care because if his gaze stayed upon her one minute more she would have certainly passed from nerves.
The rest of them go back to discussing whatever it was before she arrived, but in voices that seem just loud enough for the Duke to hear clearly. Occasionally she catches a word or two, like mention of caves and curses, but none of it seems to have to do with her, so she simply sits quietly and tries not distract them. Mostly she simply hopes Mr. Blain doesn’t look at her again. It mostly seems that the Duke and the Dwarf are advising the others about some kind of task they have to take care of in the mountains.
It seems like ages pass before anything happens, besides the discussion at the table, but most likely it has been less than an hour. The door she came in opens behind her and she turns to look.

Flanked by two large men in guard’s uniforms a shabbily dressed man is led into the room in chains, although his features are unmistakably Frenal in all respects, from his soft long face to his pointed ears. Behind them a man in the suit pull the doors shut, closing them in. The Frenal is dressed in prison garb and seems rather filthy, but his long white hair seems perfect and has a beautiful sheen, as if it was regularly combed and treated with eastern oils. A genetic trait that is common among his kind. He does his best to not show the fear and anger he holds inside, putting on a brave face, but is pretty sure it’s not fooling everyone.
The room falls silent and all eyes turn to him. The Duke is the only one to make a sound. “Ah, good. I see our final guest has arrived.”
“Go ahead.” Says the chained man in a defiant voice. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Silence!” Yells one of the guards as he clubs him in the ribcage. The man glares at the guard and mumbles something to him under his breath, sounding like “Noem Shacen.” He knows they most likely don’t know what he said, but saying it gives him a little pleasure nonetheless.
“Enough.” The Duke’s voice is stern and makes them all freeze. “Kobekoon here is a guest. Remove his chains so we may speak more peaceably.”
The guards look confused do a double take between the Duke and their prisoner, but seeing the resolve on the Duke’s face they quickly follow his orders. The chains drop to the floor and the Frenal massage his wrists as the guard manhandle him into a chair at the table, across from the armored Dwarf next to the Duke. His brave face falters, as he can’t help but worry what the Duke has in store for him.
“What’s going on here?” Kobekoon says, trying to keep his voice stronger than his appearance and looking directly at the Duke. “Is this a hearing? Do I finally get a chance to defend myself?”
“No.” The Duke’s voice was firm and final. “You are guilty of striking a member of the nobility in front of dozens of witnesses and you must be punished by doing your time. What we are here to decide is how you are going to pay that time.”
Kobekoon’s eyes grow with dawning understanding. I am going to be a slave to this man until my time is done. That is the one thing I always hated about the world of so called ‘civilized’ men. How can they be so willing to enslave others to their bidding? Men re born and should always be free, no matter who they are or where they come from.
His face hardens and his eyes narrow as he speaks in a calm voice that teeters on the edge of breaking. “So I am to be your slave. Or will you give me to your son? Let him revenge himself upon me that way?”
“Kobekoon.” The Duke’s voice was suddenly cold and pointed. “I would advise you do not speak to me in such a manor or risk losing what I am to propose here before you even hear word of it.”
Confused, Kobekoon nods to the Duke, but still doesn’t alter his posture. He still doesn’t trust the man but wants to hear what this is about. He softens his voice, but the anger behind it still seeps through the tone. “Sorry sir. And please call me Kobe. I stopped using my fill name ages ago.”
“Very well, Kobe.” The Duke continues. “I offer you a choice of punishments here, and do not worry. Neither of your options are slavery.”
Kobe sits back in his chair, relaxing slightly for the first time since being told the Duke requested his presence. Perhaps one of these options will keep me out of that cell. Not like I deserve to be in there in the first place. How was I to know that stupid loud mouth kid was the Duke’s son? Nobody else seemed willing to stop him from making things miserable for the rest of us in the pub. I guess I now know why. Still, teaching that brat a lesson after he struck me should not have ended with me in that pit, being fed that slop, locked away from the sun and trees. It’s not like he will even have a bruise to show off.
After allowing Kobe this moment to relax, the Duke presents his offer. “Your first option is to spend the rest of your sentence in your cell, which should be about six more months. Then you are to leave Howling Bluff and never return to my Duchy again. I you are seen in my lands after this time you will be sent to Senton City for more serious, and permanent, sentencing. That would not be my first choice for you Kobe.”
“Mine either.” Kobe agrees.
Duke Ravendorn allows the corner of his mouth to curl into a small smile at this reply, but quickly stifles it before continuing. “Your second choice has come up because of what we are working on and what we discovered about your particular skills and training. It appears that you are a skilled ranger that once worked for a number of the older noble families up north, but that was many years ago. You haven’t been seen in those parts for more than ten years. In fact, from what I have been able to determine, you haven’t been seen much of anywhere since that time.”
Kobe tries to keep his look casual, but hearing the subject of his own former life brought to the forefront causes anger to bubble beneath. He shifts in his seat and looks around at each person in the room through his narrowed eyes, hoping not to see any he remembers from those days while doing his best not to make eye contact with any of them. What business is it of theirs where I’ve been? Pompous bastard. Poking his nose into my business. What gives him the right?
The Duke obviously notices Kobe’s discomfort and moves on before too long. “Yes, well, none of that is important to us in the hear and now. The point was that you are skilled and practiced as a qualified wilderness guide. You know how to handle yourself and to work within an organized group, even if you haven’t been doing so recently. We happen to be planning three excursions that would require those very talents and I thought we could help each other out. Get you out of that cell and doing something useful instead. You will be paid, although far less than a person of your skills would normally make, but in exchange you would be paying off your crime. Also, instead of a set amount of time you would only have to complete these tasks to earn your freedom.”
“But sir,” One of the guards said, taken quite off guard. “What is to stop this criminal from running off as soon as he leave the Bluff?”
“His honor, of course.” The Duke’s eyes never leaving Kobe’s face as he speaks.
The guard looks aghast at this statement. “Honor? From this criminal?”
The Duke’s eyes snap onto those of the guard. “He is no common criminal Redmon. Our research shows that Kobekoon was once one of the most trusted men in the kingdom, at least within his line of work. Nothing shows that he has ever done anything to change his colors, even if he no longer works for others the way he used to. I trust the honor of his word more than some of those in my own employ. If he agrees to this and gives me his word, that will be more than good enough for me. Which means it will more than suffice for you.”
“Then you have my word.” Kobe speaks out before the guard can reply. His voice is clear and strong, but without emotion. At the words of the Duke he started sitting straighter in his chair, appearing taller than he has been. I still don’t trust this man, but he seems to understand honor. These jobs sound a lot like a form of indentured servitude, which is just another word for slavery, but at least I will be out of that cell. Plus, this could be quick and I will be able to be on my way sooner than half a year. “I will take the three jobs you require as long as you give your word that I will have my complete freedom when I am done.”
“Then it sounds like we have an agreement.” The Duke’s eyes are now once again locked on Kobe’s. “Please join us as an equal as we discuss the first of these jobs.”
Kobe slides his chair up to the table and quite enjoys watching the guards being dismissed by the Duke. Their faces filled with spite towards Kobe, but having no power to do anything about it in the presence of the Duke. There is then a quick round of introductions before the group, now six, start their discussion of the job.

Hours passed before the doors to his father’s chambers opened again the six inside slowly made their way out. Standing on the stairs, half a floor above the entrance, is a young man with wavy sandy-blond hair and an air of boredom. He watches as Sir Althea and Sir Flagstone walk out first, straight through the hall and out the main doors, talking about equipment or something they would need for mountain travel this time of year. No surprise there, they are always so dreadfully boring.
Next, an attractive young girl with long red hair walks out and is met by the butler, who agrees to show her to her room in the soldier’s quarters after a short tour of the grounds. The young man on the stairs raises an eyebrow in interest and watches her more closely as she led out the side door into the dining hall. Attractive but a bit young for my tastes these days. Might have to give her taste anyway though. He thinks idly. Can’t let the others know though. Especially if she is going to be one of the new servants. Still, she looks like she could have a wild side that would be good for a couple slow nights.
His thoughts are interrupted by something that truly shocked him. The next man to leave the room is non other than Kobekoon – the very man who struck him in the Green Dragon no less than two weeks ago – and he is followed out by Mr. Blain and his father. Why isn’t he in chains? I can’t believe what I am seeing. This is an outrage. And why are they talking so casually and friendly with this common criminal? Why isn’t he locked up where he belongs and where are the guards?
The Duke clasps Kobekoon on the shoulder and says something that makes the convict smile. He then calls for a servant to show the criminal to his guest room in the soldier’s quarters. The servant smiles and leads the Frenal away, passing through the dining room door as well. He is giving him a room like a guest? What the hell is going on here? I am going to find out why father is letting this criminal walk free after what he did to me, his own blood.
He starts down the stairs to talk to his father and watches Mr. Blain softly say something to the Duke before walking back into the chamber they just left, his black robe seeming to move on its own before the doors close. His father then turns and notices him as he reaches the bottom of the stairs, greeting him with a smile.
“Kendrik,” He says, slowly walking to meet him at the base of the stairs. “What’re you about this evening?”
Kendrik waves his hand before him, as if to swat the question aside like a fly. His voice was livid as he spoke. “What was that criminal doing walking out of here like a guest in our home, rather than in chains?”
“Kobe is my guest now. He is going to work with…” But he is interrupted before finishing the thought.
“Look at what he did to my lip?” Kendrik yells, starting to lose his temper so there is a hint of a wine behind it. The Duke looks, but the small cut has already almost completely healed and there is no sign of scarring whatsoever. “You are letting some stinking ‘Better-than-you’ Elf beat your only son and then give him a room and job?”
He then throws his hands up in the air in exasperation and lets out a large melodramatic sigh before continuing. “What’s next? Highwaymen counting our money? Killers serving our meals? I can’t believe you would let him get away with this.”
The Duke places his hand firmly on his son’s shoulder and looks into his eyes with a stern, yet understanding expression. “Do not worry, my son. He is not getting away with anything. He is going to pay for his assault, but not by having him waste away in some cell. We are going to use his skills to help us save your sister.”
Kendrik slumps his shoulder at these words and rolls his eyes. Everything is always about Morgan. I should have known. His father’s grip tightens as he waits for a reply. Kendrik sighs and tried to make his voice sound understanding. “So I have to wait until he is done with these jobs for you to punish him?”
“No.” The Duke shakes his head and his face seems to loose some of his stern resolve and shows the sadness that always lies underneath. “Kobe will be risking his life and it is entirely possible he won’t survive, but if he does he will have earned his freedom. I am asking a lot of him in exchange for a simple crime.”
Kendrik tenses up at these words. A simple crime? Striking the son of the Duke is simple? But before he is able to form a reply the Duke continues, in a much more stern voice again. “A crime that he would not even be his to suffer if you were not my son, I believe.”
The Duke looks at him through narrowed eyes and Kendrik knows exactly what he means by this, but is too stubborn to accept it. It doesn’t matter that I struck him first. He should never have spoken to me that way. I am nobility and he is filthy commoner. He needed to learn his place.
“Fine.” He says with a sigh, sliding out from under his father’s hand. “You do what you think you have to. It doesn’t matter anyway. At least he will be out of my hair for good.” On that he turns and stomps back up the stairs, showing his anger rather than saying anything.
Once at the top he looks back at his father. “I’ll be going out tonight, I need a drink.”

Duke Ravendorn shakes his head as he watches his nearly grown son stomping up the stairs and throwing a tantrum like a little child. The sadness in his eyes returns for the night and he slumps his shoulders with an exasperated sigh. Starting up the stairs himself he thinks about how he failed both his children. First I failed Morgan eight years ago and she lies upstairs as a testament to that failure. Then, in my grief over her, I have failed to be the father I should have been to Kendrik. I failed to make him into the good man he should be, but I now have a chance to turn things around and save them both. It’s not going to be easy for any of us.
He stands outside the door to his daughter’s room and pauses. After all these years she will finally wake if my men find the chalice. My mistake will be undone. Both of them. I can’t wait to see her smile again. I must go in and tell her the good news. We have our guide. We have our team. Soon it will be over.
Taking a deep breath he opens the door and walks in. The light from the hall slices through the darkness of the room, across the large bed with the lone figure lying in it. He looks at Morgan’s still form and sits down next to her on the bed, taking her hand. In a soft voice he tenderly speaks. “It’s nearly time honey. The men have nearly all the clues we need. Soon you will back with us.”
He leans down and kisses her gently on the forehead, whispering. “I love you Morgan. I miss you.”

To be continued soon in chapter 2…