The Companions of Tartiël (14 page)

She sighed and shook her head. “I… I don’t know, really. When I woke up, that shadowy man was chanting things and then talking to me.”

From the shadows under which he sat, Kaiyr narrowed his eyes as he analyzed her words and expressions. There was something amiss about her, but then again, most everything about this creature was strange. She indeed seemed to speak the truth, so the blademaster relented in his scrutiny, instead joining the conversation. “My lady, do you have a name by which we can call you?”

The young woman paused, her mouth hanging open as she searched for an answer. Settling down, she realized that she had no name. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Is there anything you want us to call you?” Caineye asked. “Or, I suppose we could offer suggestions.”

She thought about it for a while. The second moon crested the horizon; tonight was a triple full moon; in a few hours when the third moon rose, the land would be covered in light nearly as bright as day.

“Luna,” she said at long last. “I’ll be called ‘Luna.’”

The other two nodded. “Very well, Lady Luna,” the blademaster replied. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

She gave them both a shy smile, pulling her legs up to her chin and wrapping her wings around her body.

“We should get some sleep,” Caineye said, grunting as he pulled out his bedroll and tossed it onto the ground.

“Mm,” Kaiyr agreed, pulling his robes a little tighter around him to ward off a slight chill despite the warm night. “We should continue north on the morrow. I have no desire to meet with the agents of the werewolf’s organization again. Good night, Master Caineye, Lady Luna.”

The three of them settled in around the small campfire and closed their eyes for the night.

*

Kaiyr, ever vigilant, noticed a slight rustling as of feathers at some point during his meditation, followed by the padding of bare feet across the forest floor. He allowed his consciousness to rise out of the trance and opened one eye to see Luna rising and stretching. Judging by the light of the moons, it had not yet been two hours since the trio had laid down to rest.

“Is something the matter, Lady Luna?” the blademaster asked softly.

Luna whirled, a look of shock on her features, and an instant later, she exploded into motion, sprinting away from the camp and toward the stream. Kaiyr sprang up from his lotus position to give chase. “Lady Luna! What is going on?”

“Master Kaiyr?” Caineye grumbled sleepily, rising and rubbing his eyes just in time to see the blademaster take off after the winged woman. Cursing, he, too, leapt from his bedroll, nearly tripping over the comatose Wild as he gave chase.

Kaiyr kept pace with Luna, though he remained a few strides behind. “Please,” he called, “tell me what is going on! Lady Luna!”

Luna slowed slightly in her sprint to send Kaiyr a look that stopped him dead in his tracks. She launched herself into the air over the stream as Kaiyr ground to a halt, Caineye arriving a moment thereafter. She beat her wings against the air and rose into the sky. As the two land-bound companions panted for breath at the brook’s edge, the last sight they caught of the winged woman was of her silhouette passing before one of the brightly shining moons.

Caineye turned to the blademaster. “What in Alduros Hol’s name was that about?”

Kaiyr, leaning with his hands on his knees, stared after Luna. A severe expression slowly grew on his features, and Caineye suddenly dreaded hearing the response. “Master Caineye… I believe the Nemesis is back.”

X.

“You have
got
to be kidding me,” Wild grumbled, sitting up next to the fire in the wee hours of the morning. Kaiyr and Caineye had returned to the camp after staring after Luna for a long while, the latter hoping that the young woman had just wanted to stretch her wings but both of them certain that that was not the case. “Astra is
so
not going to be happy about this. You know,” he said, looking at Kaiyr, “she’s going to rub it in your face until you cry ‘uncle.’”

Kaiyr regarded him gravely. “Let her. It is my duty as a blademaster to protect those whom I deem need my aid, but even we blademasters are not infallible in our judgment.”

“Ah, so you’re human, too.”

“Master Wild, please,” the elf replied in a pained voice. The halfling just giggled again.

“Well,” Wild said at length, “You two get some sleep. It’s my turn for watch, and I’m rested and ready to go.”

“Appreciated,” Caineye said, rolling over in his bedroll and promptly falling asleep again.

Kaiyr nodded at the halfling before settling in again. He found his thoughts troubled by the events of the night, and nearly an hour went by before the blademaster could clear his mind and descend into restful meditation.

*

Matt crossed his arms over his chest after Dingo had left to take a restroom break. “I still don’t like it,” he said, frowning. The rest of us looked his way and let him continue. “I still think Luna’s trouble. I’m kind of with Astra on this one. But the thing is, Wild isn’t. He likes her well enough.”

“I dunno,” I responded, “I can see where you’re coming from, but didn’t her swim in the magic hot springs turn her into something different? Why should she still be a Nemesis?”

“Why shouldn’t she?” Matt said.

Xavier chimed in, leaning forward in his seat as he was wont to do whenever he spoke. “We don’t have enough information to make a call either way.”

I nodded. “True. And we can’t metagame
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this, either, but we need a working assumption whether or not our characters actually trust Luna enough to give her a second chance if we meet her again, regardless of our feelings as players.”

“Well, she did give us the evil eye before she took off,” Xavier replied.

We all sat back in our chairs and sighed. I stared at the laminated grid I provided for our use. The cabin where we had taken down the wizard and rescued Luna was still scrawled on the map, though we had long ago collected the figurines we used to represent our characters. Kaiyr sat on my desk, overlooking his own character sheet like some stoic sentinel.

“So, what’s our decision?” I asked the other two.

Matt spoke first. “Well,
I
don’t trust her, but Wild’s willing to give her a chance. Maybe she’ll come back and be all happy. Mike?”

I stared in mock confusion at him. “Who’s Mike?”

“Shut up, ass,” Xavier chuckled. “Well, I think she’s all right, sort of. I mean, she’s still a creature of nature, so my character is all for giving her a chance.”

“All right, guys,” Dingo said, rounding the corner into the room just then. “Are you ready to continue? We’ve got a little more to cover tonight before we call it quits. What’s the matter?”

“We were just discussing the stuff about Luna. Can I make a hunch check on her?” I asked.

“What’s the DC for that?”

“It’s a DC 20 Sense Motive check. It doesn’t tell me much except that something’s up or fishy.”

“What happens if you fail?”

“Nothing; you just don’t get a read on the situation, and you can’t retry without another confrontation.”

“Roll it.”

My d20 clattered across my desk and stopped on something less than a 13, which was the number I needed, since I had a +7 bonus in my Sense Motive: +2 for having a Wisdom of 14 and +5 for the skill points I’d spent on the skill. Despite having maxed out my ability to read others for this level, it wasn’t good enough.

I shook my head. “No good. I continue meditating,” I sighed.

“Anyone else?” Dingo asked, but Matt and Xavier shook their heads. “All right. Well, luckily for you guys, the night isn’t done messing with you yet. Wild, make me a Listen check.”

*

Wild looked up, frowning. He certainly was feeling a bit peckish, but he was also quite convinced that the muted rumble he had just heard hadn’t come from his belly. “Well, time to go see what’s going to try to eat us,” he muttered. “The others aren’t going to like this. Master Kaiyr?”

Kaiyr’s eyes snapped open. “I am here. Is something the matter?”

Wild shook his head. “I don’t know. But I heard something moving around. Didn’t sound close, but it sounded… big.”

Kaiyr nodded and rose, but before he could awaken Caineye, Vinto rose and nudged the druid with his nose until the human woke up. “Danger?” Caineye grunted, rolling over and strapping his wooden shield to his arm.

“Indeed.” Kaiyr helped the druid to his feet.

The trio took off into the underbrush under the cover of darkness. With Wild to advise them and take the lead, the less stealthy managed to remain inconspicuous.

The blademaster, druid, and wolf stopped when Wild held up a fist before pointing ahead, between the trees. He indicated that Kaiyr should join him, since the elf had the best eyesight of them all.

“I can’t make it out,” the halfling whispered into Kaiyr’s ear. “What the hell is it?”

Kaiyr peered into the darkness. Despite his eyes’ ability to cut through shadows, he had trouble discerning exactly what it was he saw—until it moved.

“It—it is some kind of land-bound dragon,” he hissed in surprise. Shimmering scales the color of a moonless night covered the creature’s form, but more concerning was the cloud of shadows that seemed to follow its every movement, as though it were made of the darkness itself. It had no wings like that of a true dragon, but its body, both serpentine and feline at the same time, resembled that of the majestic creatures. A black mist boiled out from its nostrils each time it exhaled, suggesting that it, too, could breathe some kind of dangerous energy if it so chose.

None of the group dared speak another word or move a single hair for fear of betraying their presence. Easily three times as long as a man was tall, and with an extra fifteen feet of tail that looked powerful enough to crush a foe to death in combat, this dragon was not something they wished to fight.

At long last, the dragon, which had been sniffing around the underbrush like a curious pup, turned north, away from the adventurers hiding in the bushes. Its tail knocked over a small tree in its wake, but the shadowy beast took no heed as it lumbered away into the night.

*

“All right. The rest of the night passes uneventfully, and you all get your rest. We’ll start next time with the following morning,” Dingo said, snapping his
Player’s Handbook
closed.

“Level up?” I asked hopefully, but he shook his head.

“No, not until next time, I don’t think.” The rest of us let out a communal sigh, but Dingo looked back at me. “But… God damn the way you manhandled that wizard. I still can’t believe it was over that fast.”

I showed my teeth in a grin. “Well, considering the fact that wizards suck at grappling, I did what needed done and grappled him, of course. What level was he, though? You said Caineye Spellcrafted the one spell as a
summon monster III
spell. He had to be at least level five to cast that!”

Dingo nodded. “Yep, he was level five.”

Everyone’s eyes popped, and for a moment, nobody said anything. “Damn,” Matt said for the group.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “A group of not even APL
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two took out a CR five. Either we’re really awesome, or he just sucked at being a wizard. Also, the grappling helped.”

“Well,” Dingo admitted, “I do kind of suck at playing wizards. I’m not much of an arcane magic user, but give me a cleric, and I’ll rule the world.”

“All right, guys,” Matt said, packing up his folding chair and gathering his gear. “Peace out. Good game. When are we playing next?”

We all looked at each other. “I’m really excited about this game,” Dingo said. “My schedule’s completely open this week. You guys?”

Xavier and I also had open schedules. Matt had something to tend to the next night, so we agreed to gather two days hence. Matt left, and Dingo followed suit, leaving myself and Xavier, both of us ready to hit the sack. So we did.

XI.

Looking back, I cannot say for certain how our group managed to stay focused on this game so intently. The nights went by quickly, with the clock encroaching upon three or four in the morning with disturbing regularity, so lost we often became in the story we told. As for myself, much of my time not spent rolling dice was spent
thinking
about rolling said dice.

We met up two days later. With all of us excited about the game, we were quick to get down to business and begin roleplaying.

“All right,” I said, organizing my character sheet in a meticulous manner approaching obsessive-compulsiveness. “So, we wake up the morning after witnessing that black dragon thing. Um, what’s the nearest town to the north that Kaiyr would know of?”

Dingo glanced down at his map. “Well, since you said Kaiyr’s from a faraway, backwater little village, you’re only going to know of cities that would appear on every map. Which, in this case, would be… Is’thvern.”

“Wh-hat?” Matt half-chuckled.

“Iss-th-vairn,” Dingo said slowly, enunciating the name.

I shook my head. “Great, I’m never going to remember this one, not with Ist’viel having been our first city…. Is there some kind of pattern with these ‘Ist-Is’ names?”

“Yep,” said our DM. “Those are prefixes that relate to the sky and clouds. Like there was Viel and Ist’viel, Is’thvern is a sky city, with a smaller town that serves kind of as a station on the ground.”

“Aha,” I said, nodding, “so all these cities on the map are sky-cities, and they each have a smaller one on the ground?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” I nodded in response, and when nobody else spoke up, Dingo went on, “Okay, well, you arrive in Thvern after about a week’s travel while hunting and foraging. It’s little more than a balloon port to take visitors up to Is’thvern. The trip up will cost a gold per, so mark that off your sheets. After the ride up, you find yourselves in a decent-sized city of mixed human and elven architecture.”