Tarn’tera 4

First watch in Frandor’s Keep started at sunup. There was an official morning bell, then all the gates were raised and the bridges lowered. Duromar found himself caught up in the flood of people starting the day. One event that caught his eye was that of two guards escorting a man through the lower bailey in chains. He wasn’t sure, but it looked like the same man chained to the pillory two days ago.

“Jaspar.”

Duromar turned, startled. At his side was the woman from last night, Brigitte.

She nodded at the man in chains. “That’s Jaspar. He was caught in the warehouse after dark.” She turned away, disinterested. “I have a horse in the stable. How far are we going?”

Duromar shook his head, thinking about the basket and the long tunnel through the mountain. “No safe place to leave a horse. Can’t take him in the tunnels.”

Any reply she might have made was drowned out in a clopping of hooves as a double-sized patrol of cavalry came through the inner gate and headed out. After they cleared out, the duo followed.

Outside the gates, half of the cavalry stood gathered on the road. Duromar caught the last part of something being said by one of the guards as they unlocked the prisoner. “...Jaspar Churdagan, are banished from the keep.” The guards turned and went back into the keep.

The lead horseman spoke up. “Start running.” With a shuffling jog that no one would call a run, Jaspar started down the road to Farzey, the patrol following after him at a walk.

Duromar and Brigitte followed the sad procession for half a mile before the trail they needed curved away to the north. It was another half mile before he spoke up. “You knew him?”

She was quiet for long enough Duromar wasn’t sure she’d answer. “He was an idiot.”

----

The unnamed small mine was undisturbed, and they had no issue riding the basket down to the lower level. Birgitte needed a torch since she had the weak eyes of a human, so Duromar was astonished by the glittery nodes dotting the walls.

“Fool’s gold. Don’t waste your time.”

In the torchlight, she unthinkingly brushed tucked her hair behind her ears, revealing her face for the first time. The left side was scarred terribly, the skin puckered from a bad burn.

Duromar nodded. “That explains why the mine was abandoned. This way.”

He led the way through the mountain, coming out in the same lush green valley. “It’s a half-mile more, then the fun starts.”

It wasn’t long before the boxed end of the valley came up, with nearly a dozen visible mine entrances. “Unless you’ve got a professional opinion on where to start, I was just going to take the first on the right and see where it goes from there.”

She shrugged in response.

Heading that way, they could see that there were three likely entrances, the first two covered in canvas cloth. One covering was fairly small, only about four feet square in size. Any opening it covered would be too small for Duromar anyway.

There were plenty of tracks going in and out of the larger one, but none that went near the smaller one. Heading directly towards the larger one, he paused. “I’ll go first.”

Brigitte nodded, already inspecting the tarp. “Looks safe. Go ahead.”

Duromar eased the tarp up, then sighed in frustration as he saw the opening was only six feet high. He’d have to crouch the whole way through this. He stepped in, then paused.

MInes of Chaos: 0 of 11 regions cleared

Thirty feet down the entrance, the tunnels branched off in three directions, with a blue tarp covering the way forward. Brigitte slipped past him and started examining the door in the left passage.

She whispered, “Fake door. Trapped, too.”

Duromar motioned to the right passage. She nodded and started that way. Not even ten feet down the passage, she stopped and pointed at the floor. “Pit.” She worked at it for a moment, then nodded. Duromar stepped forward, and the floor promptly collapsed under him, dropping him ten feet down. [-1 dam]

There was a loudly yelled “Bree-Yark!” from ahead. He sighed and started to climb out. It was easy since with his height he could already reach the top of the pit. But as he did so, arrows and javelins went flying over his head in an exchange of fire. Most went clattering away, but one hit him. [-3 dam]

At the same time, one goblin was now sporting two arrows. Three, by the time Duromar moved up to them and took a swing [-11], finishing that one off and slicing into a second one. He grinned, once he got in melee range, this fight was as good as over. The three remaining goblins stabbed at him, and then he swung again [-8] with a glancing blow. The arrows stopped coming, but he hit again [-8] and again [-14], dropping a second one. The remaining two panicked, and turned to run, letting him take free attacks on both. Both went down [-10] in a [-14] flurry [-7] of [-10] swings. [+63 E.P.]

“Sorry. Trap was more sensitive to weight than I expected.”

Duromar shrugged. “I’ll live.” Looting the bodies gave some silver and some ears.

From this room, there was an alcove, a door, and stairs leading up. The door was another fake, and the stairs were trapped too. With further investigation, Birgitte decided the stairs couldn’t be made safe, so were probably fake. “Goblins really love traps.”

The next hallway had another pit trap, which Birgitte disarmed. Duromar stepped forward, and the floor promptly collapsed under him, dropping him ten feet down. [-2 dam]

“Seriously?”

The next door was yet another fake. “Do they in fact have any real doors here?” she sarcastically asked.

Turning the corner, a squad of six running goblins confronted them. Birgitte sliced one to pieces before Duromar could swing, but he hit [-10] with [-7] both attacks. She sliced another one, but he didn’t go down. Duromar swung again, [-11] and [-10], finally cutting one down. The goblins couldn’t seem to hit either of them. Birgitte cut down a second one, then Duromar swung [-16] and swung [-14] again, leaving just two. The last two goblins, having lost four already, tried to run. Duromar growled at the pathetic hits [-7] his swords made [-8], but it still took one down. The last, bleeding badly, slipped out of range. Birgitte whipped out her bow, and sank an arrow into him, dropping the last one. [+48 E.P.]

“Could be more. I’ll watch, you loot.”

Duromar nodded and looted. “You know, you’re doing much more fighting than I was expecting. Not a complaint.”

She glanced his way, then went back to watching the hallway. “Want to change the split to equal shares?”

Duromar grudgingly nodded. “I think it might be more fair.”

Moving on, they crept down the next corridor. At the end of the hall, there was a door and the hallway turned left.

Birgitte checked the door, then leaned back. “No trap. Looks like a real door.”

“If I fall in another pit, I’m gonna be irked.” Duromar grabbed the handle and yanked the door open. It was, actually, a real door. Behind it was a room crowded with bunks, some filled with sleeping goblins.

Leaping inside, Duromar laid about himself with every swing of his sword he could on the surprised goblins. He laid [-11] about [-8] himself [-11] with [-8] abandon, [-10] and it paid off with an especially hard blow [Crit! Severity 21, Lower Side, -26, +1 honor] that cut one in half and nearly downed a second. But the goblins were still struggling to get up, so [-10] the blows [Crit! Severity 18, Inner Forearm, -15, +1 honor] kept [-10] coming [-10], until all [-9] the goblins [-11] were scrambling up. There were only three left of the eight the room had started with, and only one was uninjured. With javelins in goblin hands, Duromar slowed a bit to have some defense, but [-14] even [-11] so, it was down to two before they had a chance to attack. He ducked under the throws, hitting [-19] both with the follow-through, and then finished it [-10] with a final swing. [+126 E.P.]

Birgitte pulled the door closed to help loot. “Impressive You must really hate goblins.”

Duromar paused in the middle of cutting off ears. “Uh. No. I admit that was fairly brutal though, wasn’t it?”

Birgitte snorted. “Goblins are scum. Only things worse are gnomes.”

“Not orcs?”

“Orcs are bad. Goblins are worse.” She thought for a moment. “Kobolds are worse too.”

His soft question, “And worst of all are gnomes?” got a harsh nod in response.

There was a wide area that had some tools stored in it, then a door that Birgitte worked on for longer than any before. “It’s got some kind of trap on it, but I can’t figure it out. I think we should skip it.”

The next door was untrapped. Pulling it open revealed a massive horde of smaller goblins and a dozen larger ones. Duromar hesitated. At first, it looked like he’d come upon a nursery. But these were goblins. They saw him and rose up in a wave of attackers, biting and clawing. The larger ones didn’t attack immediately, instead yelling something that was almost certainly a command to attack. Duromar fought back, killing multiple with each swing of his swords. The notifications scrolled by in the corner of his eye, but he ignored them.

With his armor and their lack of weapons, they never had a chance. [+404 E.P.]

The final door at the end of the hallway was also untrapped, suggesting they had penetrated into the normal living spaces and traps were more limited in placement.

But behind this door was another horde of smaller goblins. They never had a chance either, but only partway through the slaughter, a pair of armed and armored goblin guards walked in.

The smaller ones backed off when the guards came in. They seemed frightened of the full-sized goblins. Duromar hit the first guard [-7] cleanly [-10], but he didn’t go down easily. It took two [-8] more [-8] blows, and one was still up. The second tried to run but fell [-9] after being [-9] struck by two sword blows and one arrow to finish him off. As soon as both were down, the smaller ones swarmed again. He then finished the gruesome work. [+383 E.P.]

There was a guard station around the corner and two hallways. The first hallway led to a privy behind one door, and the first locked door they’d encountered. Behind that one were a full dozen prisoners, mostly humans but there was one halfling, one dwarf, and one whose delicate ears suggested half-elf. They huddled together in the back of the cramped room, frightened, cold, and probably ill.

Birgitte slid past his bulk, taking charge. “If you’ll all keep very quiet, we’ll get you out of here. We haven’t found all the goblins yet, so stay very close behind us.” She then started opening their chains.

Duromar stepped back, taking up the rearguard position. Shockingly, they missed any more of the roving patrols, and bare minutes later, they exited into bright sunshine.

The trip back took the rest of the day. None of the former prisoners were in good health, so Duromar carried four at a time, rotating through the group. He insisted on carrying the dwarf and the halfling especially, knowing all too well how slowly they walked.

They arrived at the keep with the sun just barely above the horizon. The guards, who might have been underpaid and prone to throwing around what authority they had, weren’t callous and made the questioning brief. Refugees from goblins weren’t about to be turned away.

The guards take charge of them with no argument. Some had been headed to the keep originally when they were captured. The rest would have to find work or go back to Farzey or Arz. Duromar hoped they’d be alright.

It was late, so he didn’t get a chance to visit the paymaster. If the paymaster was pleased with seven pairs of orc ears, Duromar was really curious how he would react to 146 pairs of goblin ears.

----

Not quite the way I expected the day to end. I didn’t want to question them much, but I did ask if they knew of any other prisoners. They weren’t sure but believed there might be more. We might have managed to keep major alarms from being raised today, but they’ll certainly discover everything we did. Tomorrow will be harder.

Had to repair the armor again. Should probably have an expert look it over soon, seeing as how I’m living right over one. Checked the blades too while I was at it.

P.S. [Damage: +273 E.P.] and [MVP: +1575 E.P.]

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Name: Duromar

E.P.(+5%): 20557

Next Level: 24001

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Name: Brigitte

E.P.(+10%): 1385

Next Level: 2501

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