finding the duke

[cellio]

November 19 (Thursday)

This is going to be a challenge.

We arrived in Draneken yesterday afternoon. It's basically a small palace with a small town -- not at all like Covanion. I thought the ducal seat would be bigger.

We met with the duke's seneschal, Calem Larinthan. She told us that Duke Larith had disappeared from the battle, pretty much as Lord Marius had said, and that his wizard Keeland then appeared and said the duke was safe. That's the last anyone has seen of the duke. (The bugbears were eventually repelled.) Meanwhile, the duke's son, Melan, is eager to claim the throne. He's even minted new coins with his portrait on them! Thus far there have been some unfortunate delays in the coronation logistics, but that will end eventually. We passed Melan in the courtyard at one point; he struck me as kind of brusque and self-absorbed. He sounds pretty insistent, though. If we don't find the duke soon, he might return to find that he's no longer duke. I wonder how the local laws handle that? I didn't ask.

Calem had nothing but good to say about Duke Larith. I asked her assessment of Keeland; she said she had no doubts about his loyalty, though maybe some about his industry. No one seems to know exactly what he did to the duke -- and to himself; he hasn't been seen since the night of the battle either.

With Calem's permission we broke into the wizard's quarters to see what clues we might find. Gah, the man has no color sense whatsoever. Garish. But I digress. It looks like no one's been there in weeks, and we wouldn't have known that a wizard lived there if not told. Where were the spell books? The lab? The experimental notes?

Eventually we found a small secret room, but still no spell books. There was a magical fountain with a faint aura; no idea what that was. And there was a box containing a magical ring. A heavily booby-trapped magical ring, as it turned out. Prolix picked it up and wham, the next thing I knew I was lying on the floor of the outer room coughing and desperately trying to breathe. So were Hrolf and Kyle. Apparently there was some sort of noxious cloud.

Prolix eventually got the ring and put it on. Almost immediately he began getting a strong sense that the duke is somewhat far to the north, a few days at least. A ring of "locate duke"? Why doesn't Keeland have it with him?

Well, it's the best information we're likely to get, so we're heading out this morning. We were in no shape to travel after that poison gas.

November 19, evening

I've heard of "birds" that are bigger than barns, but I thought they were just stories. This afternoon, as we headed north in search of the duke, we came upon a flattened farm house. A hysterical woman was outside calling to her husband and son, who were trapped inside. We ran to help and were able to pull them to safety. But it was obvious that this wasn't a regular collapse.

The people explained that a giant bird had snatched up a cow from the field nearby and sat on their roof to eat it. This caused the building to collapse. Obviously we are not talking about ordinary birds here. Further, this wasn't a unique occurrence! The woman said that once or twice a year one of these birds is spotted in the area. Usually it grabs a cow or horse and goes away without doing further damage.

We couldn't just leave them there with the ruins of their house, so we suggested that they grab what they can and we'd escort them to the next town. It'll be a little crowded in Prolix's bubble-hut, but we'll manage.

November 20 (Friday)

One of the people in town said the "bird" is a roc. This is not good.

This afternoon we were attacked by bugbears, like the ones who attacked Draneken. They demanded money and food, we refused, and when the fighting was over they were all dead. One almost got away, but I shot him down. I took his masterwork morningstar as booty. It doesn't hurt to have a good weapon, just in case I have to fight with physical weapons.

It's been lightly snowing all day. An advantage of this is that we were able to press on a bit further into twilight than usual. Every extra hour we can squeeze out for travel helps.

Hrolf brought in a good-sized chipmunk tonight for dinner. He said the snow helped. I asked him if hunting is going to get hard now that winter is setting in, but he assured me that things are fine and he won't need to resort to "people food".

November 21 (Saturday)

Last night more bugbears attacked us. They can see in the dark and we can't, so the fact that we were hidden in Prolix's dome didn't help as much as it could have. Kyle slipped out and hurled fire-pots at them, engulfing the one who turned out to be their leader. Hrolf delivered a major shock to the leader, too. Prolix distracted some of them with illusions. But many of them charged our dome and the fight landed on top of me and Prolix. It turns out that bugbears burn quite satisfactorally; between my flame spheres and Prolix's burning hands we were able to wear them down until Turok could get to us with his sword. He had one spectacular blow where he thrust his sword through one bugbear and into another, killing both of them.

Bugbears smell really nasty when they're on fire. Even worse than bugs.

Later, just after we got back to sleep, Prolix jumped up again. He said it wasn't more bugbears -- the ring had given off a sharp twinge. I don't know what that means, but it can't be good. So this morning we got up as early as we could see, readied spells, and headed out. Of course, the weather had to turn nasty.

Today, after following one road that turned out to be a dead end, we came to the only crossing point across a huge gorge. And, naturally, the ring is summoning us to the other side. The problem is that the bridge that used to be here has collapsed -- and in a very unnatural way. The ends don't line up; not even close. There's no way we'll be able to get the horses across, despite Prolix's theories about magical ropes and pendulums and "reduce" spells. I took an arial survey (Hrolf didn't even laugh) and there aren't any other ways across, at least within a reasonable distance.

Earlier we had seen (and sneaked past) a cave with some huge insects in them. The whole place stank. But that's the only cave we've seen today, and a cave is our best bet for keeping the horses safe until we can return. So we went back and fought the creatures. It turns out that their tentacles can paralyze people; they got Kyle, Turok, and Liandra before my flame spheres and magic missiles and Prolix's crossbow bolts finished the creatures off. Fortunately, the paralysis wore off an hour or so later.

I summoned some servants to clean out the cave. Liandra is talking to the horses, and Slade and Kyle's dog are going to stay behind to help guard them (and keep them here, we hope). We think we've got enough time to cross the gorge tonight, so as soon as Liandra is done we're going to head off.

I hope we're as close to the duke as Prolix says we are; the ring hasn't exactly been consistent sometimes. I mean, this morning it said northeast, then northwest, the due north, then... a person can't possibly move as quickly as the ring seems to be saying, unless we're practically on top of him. I mean, it's not like the duke is likely to have sprouted wings and gone exploring, now is it?

November 21, addendum

We are safely across. We are currently camped at the foot of the highest mountain around. The ring is pointing straight up. I flew up looking for caves or other places where the duke might be hiding, but I found nothing. The sun was setting as I was doing this; we're going to have to wait until morning.