Ch: 201 Who Can It Be Now?
They made a careful circuit, back around the house to the back side. The faded track did in fact lead to a smaller, less grand entrance. This door was no less formidable, nor was it susceptible to Gary’s blandishments. Finally, Tallum reared back with that massive sledge Gary had been working on from time to time for weeks and turned the solid bronze door into a concave birdbath. Even after a ringing, gong-like blow that inverted the hefty sheet of reinforced metal into a new shape, it was a struggle to pull it out of the doorjamb.
A simple bar of bronze slotted through brackets in the door, seated in the stonework, easy enough to cut through, once it was exposed, but still time consuming. Tallum pulled his Wardco Buzz-o-matic Multi Point Wonder Tool™ and sawed through the bar in short order.
As the giant lifted the door away, a soft clack sounded, followed an instant later by a loud ‘clang’ as a heavy iron crossbow bolt shattered against the door.
“Trap!” Liam shouted…
While Tallum bellowed: “Incoming!”
#
“Sounds like they broke in…” Luna muttered, as a loud, brazen clang echoed across the lake.
“Report.” Khan said, into his comm button.
“Under attack, situation normal, do not approach!” Liam’s voice came quick and crisply, accompanied by the clashing of arms and armor.
“Bollocks…” Khan grumbled. “Luna… Put a couple arrows in that weathervane, maybe if it’s broken off…”
With a grin, she uncased her deeply recurved hornbow, stringing it with a cord of braided spidersilk, mounted with monster bone beads. “I can do you one better.” She said with a wicked chuckle. “The boy said he couldn’t make a bow as fine as this one, yet... But he did whip me up some silliness.” She pulled a green lacquered shaft from her quiver and set it on her string. “Be ready, this really takes a toll on me.”
With a sigh of effort, she concentrated and drew back her arrow. A tiny mote appeared at the point, glistening like a glowing bead of green amber. She loosed her shaft and watched it lazily drift over the hundred and twenty yards or so, to pip the eagle weathervane right in the breast, setting it spinning wildly.
“Well… Ok.” Khan said sourly. “I expected something…” He fell silent, when Luna thumped to the grassy meadow, landing on her bottom, looking dazed.
“I said be ready, did you think I meant be ready to watch me fall down?” Luna complained weakly. “Help me up, fool of a man.”
When Khan looked back, the peak of the house was shrouded in thick, dark green leaves and gnarled woody vines.
“Shatterstone kudzu…” She gasped. “My spell will send it growing wild for a few minutes… with luck…” A soft cracking noise drifted up from the lakeside house, as the high parapet slowly slid down the face of the building, taking the weathervane with it. The mass of tumbled stone, roof tiles and tangled vines crashed down, demolishing most of the portico, sealing the front door quite thoroughly
“Nothing for it but to test it…” Khan muttered, as he handed Luna off to Annie, for safekeeping. He strolled to the line and stepped over, ready to leap back at the first sign of danger. Instead of a bolt of searing electricity, a small smoke cloud puffed up from among the tumbled stones and vines. Half a minute later weaker smoke puff erupted, followed a few seconds later by an anemic crackle and fizzling sound.
“We are coming in, lightning neutralized.” Khan snapped into the comms while the rest moved up.
“Hold position, there’s another one over here… Shite!” Liam’s voice cut off with a metallic clang.
#
The ‘trap’ turned out to be a heavy armored crossbowman, stomping down a wide hallway, cranking another bolt into position very quickly.
Tallum took his huge, heavy, improvised shield and hurled it down the hall like a toboggan, clipping the man’s ankles and sending him on a wild ride down the slick stone corridor.
“Nice one T!” Gary called, while dodging another crackling bolt of energy from the dragon weathervane on this side of the building.
The celebration was short lived, the armored man got up with surprising ease and was joined by three more men in heavy platemail of strange design and a half dozen figures in lighter armor.
Liam looked at the crowded hallway and grinned. “Clear the door, I’m going in!” He shouted, to Tawny’s horror.
“Liam, no!” She yelled, as he backed away for a run up, readying his sabre and shield.
With a mad cackle that reminded her chillingly of Gary, he caught a bolt of arcane lightning on his shield and giggled as lightning Liam charged down the hall and into the fast marching throng of warriors.
Two crossbow bolts wobbled and skittered out of the doorway, discharged against walls or ceilings during the Liamsplosion of electrical asian. One of the light armored figures staggered out of the door with a crossbow bolt transfixing its head entirely. It collapsed in a smoldering ruin of empty armor just outside.
Gary and Shai teamed up on one side of the doorway, while Tallum and Becky took the other. Liam dodged back under the eaves, while Ivy took his cue and stepped out into the open, her shield held up to face the doorway and the crowd of still frisky beings struggling to emerge.
Gary swung around and jabbed his baton fully into the abdomen of the first light armored warrior to emerge, hurling it back into its struggling comrades, in pieces. A few scraps of shadow were left entangled in the spinning blades of his baton, ragged and rapidly being consumed. Shadow, but not shadowstuff like his, some other substance was holding it together, rather than a sentient Animus. He shrugged and shredded it away with a flex of his will.
“These are constructs! Smash ‘em hard!” He yelled, while Ivy sent another blast of stolen lightning arcing into the mob.
Becky used her baton to trip a heavy armor out onto the porch, for Tallum to hammer flat with a single stroke of his sledge. Shai’s murder shovel opened them like rusty cans, spilling their controlling essence into the sunshine, where it evaporated away.
Once the team mixed it up, Liam and Ivy brought it in, joining the wild melee under the porch roof. Liam’s warshovel didn’t do much damage to them at first glance, but any hit was enough to send them crumpling to the floor within a few seconds. Its enchantment corroded and devoured the very energies manipulating the armor from within, rendering them inert.
Fallowfield Spade, enchanted spade, ax, farm tool, spiritual enchantment. Rank, iron. Quality, unique. Elemental affinities: Earth, Death, Spirit, Life, Nature, Light, Darkness.
Effect, Ghost Whomper: Undead and spiritual entities may be struck with this weapon, regardless of tangibility.
Effect, Entropy: on wounding target, weapon may apply the following afflictions: Call Of The Grave, Entropic Decay, Unholy Vigor. Base chance to afflict, ten percent scaled against: Rank, Might, Will, Animus, Resilience, Mind.
Entropic Decay: curse, constructs, objects and artificial entities degrade rapidly, increased effects of: friction, gravity and inertia. Mana and or magic drain.
Ivy’s mace did little damage to them, but she was very adept at setting her foes up for her comrades. More than one construct found itself tipped over by a deft maneuver or baited into range of a shovel or hammer that would end things decisively.
Becky teed off on the last stumbling wreck to come staggering out. It was scorched, battered and missing both feet, stumping along on its shinguards. Its helm went bouncing along into the sunshine, while the smiling girl jammed her baton into the thing’s torso through the now vacant neck hole of the armor and gave it a good tidy bowl scrubbing.
“Everybody all right?” Liam demanded, when silence fell. They sounded off in order and once they established all was well; they fell into line, grimly eager to be done with whatever this was.
“Slow and steady, we find the front and open the door for the others.” Liam ordered, standing is a scattered field of armor.
#
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“They are inside, no injuries… The plan is to open the front door for us.” Khan relayed to the rest, with an embarrassed smile.
“Scratch that plan, front door is sealed by wreckage.” Khan muttered into the comms.
He paused for a moment then grinned. “Will, Susan, stay with the horses. Squad, let’s move out, straight to the wall, hug the eaves around to the back.”
Just a few short minutes had the entire group gathered under the wide rear porch roof, staring at the hollow armor with curiosity.
“Construct creatures animated by magic.” Liam said with a shrug. “It’s weird fighting enemies that don’t bleed, feel pain or stink.”
They slowly entered in pairs, Ivy and Liam in the lead, shields ready, while Tallum and Becky followed Gary and Shai inside. Ivy stepped beside the first doorway in the long corridor and waited a heartbeat, while Liam darted to the other side.
Ivy and Liam ducked their heads into the darkened open doorway together, then slipped inside. “Clear. Guardroom, empty.” Liam called softly over the comms. They emerged, dusty and frowning. “Bunks, trunks and armor racks, no sign of bodies or violence. Everything is rotten or collapsing.” High slit windows let in a bit of light, the thick glass panels were dirty and dusty but intact, even after so long.
Gary and Shai took the next door, a mess hall with collapsed tables and crumbling benches sat empty, ready and forgotten. Centuries old, desiccated bread sat on a tray, beside a bowl of… mummified something. The iron spoon nearby was little more than a dusty rust stain on the worm chewed tabletop.
A door at the back had collapsed under the weight of time, revealing wide stairs down.
Gary nodded significantly at Liam and pointed down the stairs. “Below somewhere. I don’t sense anything undead upstairs.”
“Did you sense those animated armors?” Becky asked pointedly.
“Good point.” Liam muttered. “Team two, we are heading downstairs, hold position and stay alert. There may still be hostiles on the upper levels.”
“Confirmed… keep us updated.” Khan’s answer was accompanied by muffled complaints from pangbourne, naturally.
That team slowly followed the long, gently curving stair, down into the manor’s foundation. The first landing was also the last. Glowstones unleashed their light among the warriors, illuminating the way.
Three wide doors opened off of the square chamber, Liam and Ivy took the first on the right again, while the others formed up on the remaining doors.
At his nod, she twisted the door handle to open it, she frowned when the whole handle arrangement and lock mechanism pulled free with a quiet crackle of splintering wood. The glossy, varnished panel cracked, crackled and sagged to the floor in a pile of dusty, hollowed out crud and sawdust.
“Huh… termites.” Liam grumbled. As a gentle draught entered the long sealed chamber, piles of linens and cloth, presumably ancient laundry, blew away into a soft mound of lint. Generations of insects had lived and died in the sealed room, becoming dust themselves.
Only scattered carapaces and empty cocoons revealed clues to the tiny drama that had played out so long ago in the laundry room. Collapsed washtubs, long dry stone basins and the nearly consumed, lacy skeleton of a long handled scrub brush were all that remained.
Tallum tapped the next door with his sledge, with similar results. When the dust cleared, a huge kitchen opened before them. All the cookpots had corroded into colanders, shot through with holes. The stove of heavy stones and wrought iron plates was intact, but deeply rusted and starting to sag.
The shelves and crates of long abandoned foodstuffs were best left undisturbed, nothing good was coming out of there.
Gary and Shai took the last door, it was as fragile and crumbly as the rest. In the long, narrow room, piles of rotted, dusty wood were mixed with glass bottles, all tumbled to the floor and mostly broken. What few were intact were without corks or stoppers, bringing a disappointed sigh from the team. Barrels and kegs lined one long wall, stretching off into the dark, all stove in and collapsed.
Only the faintest vinegar pong lingered in the dusty air of the winery. A wide barn door on the far side led up to a ramp, sealed with a stone slab on bronze runners. The remnants of a huge mill and press sat abandoned in the open space at the foot of the loading ramp, along with what could have been winemaking supplies… or an exploded medieval meth lab.
“Dead end, no threats, coming back up.” Liam whispered, as they retraced their steps. They rejoined ‘team two’ and continued down the corridor, carefully checking doors as they went. Aside from the guardroom with the empty armor racks, they met no resistance in abandoned, empty room after room.
The only surprise was in the larger of two small chambers, Tawny suggested that they were the head maid and head butler’s offices, since they were on a separate corridor of their own and held the remnants of desks and ledgers.
In the bigger one, Gary found a heavy bronze safe door mounted into the stone wall, concealed behind a sagging cupboard.
“Treasure…” Shai whispered reverently, while her boy got out his tools.
It was a complex lock, with a cogwheel arrangement that required the key to wind back several bolts on loaded springs. That made it tough on the would-be cracksman. “The key must be freaking enormous…” He grumbled, as the door creaked and shifted forward on its hinges at last.
“Shai… if you would?” He asked gallantly, with a sweeping bow in the crowded room.
She giggled with glee and gently swung the safe door open with a silent gasp of delight.
“Wow… silverware… real silver too.” Becky whispered in awe, peering past the giant woman’s hip at the treasure box.
Tallum choked a little at the sight of all that dusty green patina. “Gotta be ten pounds here, if it’s all real…” Becky hissed with evil, larcenous glee. Liam, get in here and loot this thing!”
Gary and Tallum were eyeing the safe door, as well. “Two hundred pounds of bronze… and I want to get a look at that mechanism…” The big smith rumbled.
“Let’s clear the current occupant out before we start making plans…” Liam complained, while looting the safe. “Coins! And gems too!” He giggled gleefully, before putting his sensible leader face back on.
“What’s going on in there? Report.” Khan sounded a little concerned.
“No worries…” Becky came in clearly, sounding only slightly evasive. “We’re coming back now. We’re just sifting through the rubble for clues…” Her voice became slightly muffled for some reason. “There’s a small strongbox in the desk too…”
Khan winked at his kids when they emerged, dusty and looking pretty excited. “Lots of ‘clues’?” He asked calmly.
“Yeah, lots.” Liam answered with a wide grin. The last door before the double portal at the very end of the hall led to a long staircase leading up. The no frills wooden construction said it was a servant’s stair, leading to the upper floors. It was also little more than splinters and dust. Gary and Shai took the left side of the double doors, Becky and Tallum the right, while Liam Ivy and Tawny backed off down the corridor. Team two was staged in the guardroom, peering down the hall as the two pairs moved to open the doors in tandem.
The heavy, bronze sheathed doors swung open with a rattling, groaning rumble. The right sagged on its enormous hinge, but remained attached as they swung ponderously aside, revealing a grand entryway and a set of similar bronze doors with a heavy bar slotted through, into the stone. Light poured in through a huge gap near the ceiling, where some stonework had collapsed, recently.
Long, graceful marble steps led up to the upper floor, with the remnants of what was probably a really fancy carpet clinging grimly to their boots.
Nothing moved in the entryway, nor on the mezzanine above. They split evenly into two groups and climbed the stairs to the upper floor cautiously.
As intact as the structure seemed… or had seemed, from below, upstairs told a grimmer tale. The slate roof had held up well, but nature had managed to sneak in here and there. Cracks and leaks between the slates allowed plants a foothold, which let more water and roots in… The wooden floored servants quarters had improved their position, by the simple advent of collapsing into the upper living quarters in a moldering jumble of refuse and rotten timber. There was a lot going on up there, but none of it was a threat, nor was it going anywhere.
Back downstairs in the entry, on the far side, behind the stairs, Liam spotted another bronze sheathed door. Green with verdigris and sagging in its jamb, it was the last remaining way to go.
Tallum wrenched the rotting panel free and dropped the nearly empty bronze cladding to the floor with a muffed clang.
A wide granite ramp led down at an easy angle, ending at a stone door, designed to roll away on bronze runners. There was a complex lock built into the stone wall, intended to hold the slab, but it was unlatched and rusted into a single mass. Tallum gave a firm shove and the door slab rumbled out of the way revealing a huge, dark room filled with indistinct shapes, reaching off into the distance.
The whole team ignited their glowstones to light the place. Gary cast a few fistfulls of small round stones, enchanted with a minor and temporary light spell into the far reaches of the room, revealing some less than encouraging details.
“Corpse jars… lots of them…” He whispered in disgust. Ranks of heavy glass apothecaries’ jars lined the room. Most were small and held the remnants of unfortunate animals. They gradually increased in size becoming even less charming. A large number of human brains and spinal columns floated in cloudy liquids of a dozen different hues, a few had wide staring eyes attached, seeming to look at and through, everything.
Bronze knobs emerged from each wax or brazen seal on each disturbing jar, connected by slender strands of braided copper and spidersilk in a complex network of interconnected nodes.
A vast cobweb of spun metal cable and spider silk hung above them, all coming to a head at a tightly braided funnel of copper and web with a very large and far more elaborate jar at its center.
“Spiders again… interesting.” Gary snarled softly. “I’m sure gonna smush this one.”
#
“Bandits… in my duchy, preying on my roads…”
“Not good bandits, your grace, I suspect them to be something else entirely, my investigation is ongoing.” Tony nodded soberly at the duke’s raised eyebrow.
“I would rather not speculate at this time, but I do not believe this to be a random attack.” He smiled wanly. “The wagon in question was hauling for Ginger Dreadnought and the Orphan’s League.”
“You think the demon summoning cult…?”
“No your grace. If I must speculate, I suspect a trade war carried out by other means… The Patissiers Guild, though I have no evidence yet and the ‘bandits’ are only talking about spiders.”
#
Jerry was relaxing in the Adventure compound baths, chatting with a few veterans and up and comers, soaking away the stress of an Adventurer’s life.
“...Next thing we know, we have a wagon load of would be bandits and all their gear… which was mostly not worth hauling. The plowhorse was stolen, of course, so she went home; three other horses and a pony sweetened the deal nicely though.” He remarked off handedly.
“How ever did you get all those ruffians back to Wheatford with just you and apprentice Carlos form the Carter’s and Drayman’s guild?” Colette asked the handsome, older warrior, drawing a mildly sour look from Issac.
“Since Carlos is the hero of the tale, I’ll let him tell it.” Jerry said, with a satisfied grin.
“Me? You stomped all those bandits while I was trying not to wet my bench!” He complained, from the other side of the bath, where the pretty girls were. A general twitter of amused giggles rose from the steam… Carlos was doing just fine.
“Yes, they were easy meat and unaware… like lost chicks fallen from a nest… any hungry creature could have snapped them up.” Jerry let his accent rumble around the vowels a little, the ladies liked that, usually. “T’was the lad who made bringing them all the way into the city possible. He told them a fatty of a lie and they ate it up.” He said with a wry smirk.
“Ohh?” Anouk the lay healer asked from the poolside, while she slipped into the hot water. “What lie was this, brother Jerimiah?”
“There is some local rumor about a man who became a spider… or spiders.” He shook his head in amusement at the yokels. “Carlos convinced them that the large population of giant spiders, currently infesting the River Road, were actually my familiars. They were so frightened, I had them do my wash on the road back. Bandits are shit at doing laundry, by the way.”
“So what will happen to the brigands?” Anouk asked mildly, as she scooted closer.
“Order is checking for bounties and warrants, so we might get a sweet payday from those clowns, beyond their animals.” He murmured happily. “Otherwise, probably indenture to War for five years. If they get convicted that should be a nice bit of coin as well. They seemed like idiots, so I don’t imagine our cut will be more than, say… a gold mark for the lot.” He mused, while the rest of the bath became uncomfortable. “Maybe I’ll pick up a couple of Adventurers myself, start with a trio and work up….” His finely honed senses detected a level of growing discomfort and distaste as he maundered on.
“What?” He asked the suddenly less welcoming pool.
“Jerry, They don’t do private indenture bands in Wheatford… didn’t you read the briefing before coming here?” Anouk asked in amusement and embarrassment.
“I don’t read.” He answered flatly. “But I did receive a small bonus… I have a supply of very fine chocolate… in my quarters.”
“Now who is the hero of this story?” She purred warmly.
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