The road that wound down toward the town was steep, and we glided much of the way. The gates were open—and despite the surrounding creatures being of a low level, all six of the armored dwarves we saw guarding it were level 8.
“Players?” one of them said, stepping out in front of us before we could walk through the wide stone archway and into the streets beyond.
“We are,” I said. “We—”
“What’s your business in Aranar?” he asked, cutting me off.
“First and foremost, we’re here to warn the town about a gang of bandits led by a chosen named Haroshi that may be coming this way.”
The guardsman, an older dwarf with a wiry, salt-and-pepper colored beard, frowned. “This way, you say? Explain.”
I told him everything, from the attack on Oromar’s Bastion to our encounter in the valley of Eleth’s Cradle—though I left this somewhat vague so as not to give the impression that we’d deliberately driven him toward their town. His face grew grave at the news of the attack, and when I mentioned the devil and the six corpses at the outpost we’d found, he shook his head and gestured for me to stop.
“Damn it,” he whispered. Then, saying it louder, his voice laden with frustration and anger: “Damn it all—was nobody safe?” He shook his head. “Oroth—take them to Headman Kakana. He needs to hear all this.”
“We’ll go with you,” I said as a younger, auburn-bearded dwarf stepped forward. “But know that we can only spend two hours here, at most. We were tasked with hunting Haroshi down—we can’t stay overlong. Whether he’s following us or not, we have to find him.”
The older dwarf barked out a humorless laugh. “Fear not, traveler—Headman Kakana won’t waste your time.”
“Thank you.”
The younger dwarf, Oroth, led us into a town with the same sort of square-cut buildings as Oromar’s Bastion. The sun was just coming up over the mountain-peaks, and the town was in full bustle: we saw people leading goats and chickens through the streets, hawking wares in the square we passed, and driving empty, pony-pulled carts toward the gates. I felt glad to see it all—they hadn’t been attacked like Oromar’s Bastion, that was obvious. Perhaps because they’d had higher-level guards?
But why did they have higher-level guards? Their wildlife was the same level as the Bastion’s.
Oroth led us along the river that cut through town, passing several water-wheels until we came to a grand staircase that led down into the stone. Soon we were walking along an underground promenade, one cut into the cliff face at the edge of town so that one side of the street was entirely open to give a spectacular view of the mountains below, the waterfall roaring as it dispersed a fine mist into the air around us.
Our guide led us deeper, into a guarded compound where he spoke with an armored human. Then we were ushered into the offices of a white-haired dwarven elder with richly-dyed red robes.
“News from Oromar’s Bastion, sir,” said Oroth, nodding to the headman with respect. “This is Alatar and Cuby, and they’re hunting a pack of bandits who attacked the town.”
“I see,” said the elder, presumably Headman Kakana. He looked from me to Cuby, face stern. “And you have evidence that you are who you say you are?”
I shared our bounty quest. “This is the quest that the headwoman gave us to hunt him down in the wake of the attack,” I said. “Beyond that, we have no proof.”
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
He read the quest, but his unimpressed demeanor didn’t change. “And Vorosha didn’t give you a letter, did she? Nothing to put in my hand?” He jerked his head at the pane in front of him. “Just this?”
“Just that,” I said. “We weren’t intending to come here—we were chasing him as he headed to Mirrakatetz. But when his camp was destroyed, we assumed that he might try to rest here, as it was the only place close enough.”
“Explain, then,” said Kakana. “Tell me everything.”
I repeated all that I’d told the guard at the gate. He listened, nodding now and then, seemingly in thought. When I told of the outpost we’d found, and the dead people there, his face darkened. “This explains a little,” he said at last. Then he shook his head. “She should have sent them out to gain experience—out-leveled the players on the first day. Pulling everyone in to defend the town while the players had free reign to level was a mistake—but we’re past it now. It’s done.”
He looked back at Cuby and I, his mouth a hard line. I was really getting the impression that Kakana didn’t smile very often. “You players are worse than refugees. Appearing all at once and expecting us to cater to you; taking everything you can get your claws on because you think it’s yours by right. You want our help hunting this Haroshi, don’t you?” he asked.
“We want to spend our coin supplying ourselves here, then set out again,” I said. Then, thinking that this Kakana fellow was one to appreciate direct honesty, I added: “And truthfully, yes—we want you to keep this town closed to him and his people. Give him no place to rest so that he can’t gain the experience he needs to get any stronger—cut him off so that we can do the job we need to.”
Kakana barked out another laugh. “Better, we’ll just kill the man,” he said. “But I have no way of knowing who his followers are—unless you’ve composed a list of names?”
Damn it, I thought. We’d had plenty of time to—it just hadn’t occurred to me.
“I thought not,” he said. “Rest assured, I trust Vorosha. But you? Players? Let’s see.” He reached up and ran one thin-fingered hand through his beard. “Ah, yes. Both of you: we’ve lost word with an outpost that guards the Pass of Eleth. I want you to go there and investigate it, then report what you find to me.”
I blinked. “Isn’t—” But I stopped as I saw what he’d actually done.
Quest Unlocked – Investigate the Guardhouse in the Pass of Eleth
I opened it and accepted it without reading its contents.
Quest Completed – Investigate the Guardhouse in the Pass of Eleth
I opened this and accepted the reward: a single gold piece.
“Very good,” said Kakana. “You spoke the truth there, far-fetched as it seems to think of a devil among us here in the Scimitar Mountains. Do what you will, but if you should find your Haroshi between here and the Pass of Eleth, don’t attack him—return here with news of his whereabouts and I will dispatch some of my men to assist you. Is that understood?”
“Yes.”
“Have you any other business with me?”
“No.”
“Then good day,” he said, rising to see us out. “Oroth, give them directions to wherever they need to go.”
We were guided out of his offices, and before he left us I asked Oroth for directions to the store I could buy spells at. Once I had these, and the dwarf was gone, I turned to Cuby.
“Know what you want to do?”
“I need to be alone awhile,” she said.
“All right,” I said. “Meet you by that waterfall?”
She nodded, then seemed to simply wander away from me, her attention sliding off me like water, her direction seemingly aimless. I watched her go, worrying about her, then wondered if I shouldn’t also do the same: find a place to be alone and just… process.
No, I thought. I needed to keep up momentum. The game distracted me, and it was too important that I not get bogged down before I reached the dungeon and found out what was going on.
I went to find the mage’s shop. If there was one thing I needed, it wasn’t time to think about being foisted into a virtual reality that might be in the future, one filled with at least enough murder-happy aliens to ruin my day.
No, what I needed was more spells.