Today
I was involved in my first battle, which reminds me of what my Da used
to say: "Och, corse tis heavy! Tis a pole-axe! Yuill be glad enoff to
hav it in a real scrape!" Not that I hit anything with my Da's poleaxe,
but it was quite comforting to have it during the heat of battle.
Still, I think I'd rather stick with my self-bow so I don't have to get
in close with all the icky blood and guts.
After helping the Underworlders escape the Karakaln trap, we hid in the
woods and made our plans. Most of the Vikul separated and went their
separate ways, as Vikul are wont to do. That left Timroth the Tangroo
and Tok the Vikul as the two sole Underworlders; Tev the Lapador and
his companion Krelga the Gabter, both from the wastes; the mysterious,
enigmatic, and just a little phlegmetic Nakaro the Jiliroth; and
myself, Icee, last shining beacon of Cold in this pointless world.
We unrolled the map and had a look. Several locations presented
themselves as possible places to hide from Tanarak Dell, captain of my
detachment who I knew to be one who would hunt us down to the ends of
the lands. There is a small place in the mountains, almost a village,
that doesn't trade with the outside world. The inhabitants somehow
don't starve, and no one who has gone there has ever returned. As if
that wasn't warning enough, Tev wanted to go there since it was the
"closest cool spot to go to, like bark".
Not having any better suggestions, we decided on that course and made
our way. Along the way we were attacked by four dire wolves. Tev led
one on a merry chase, I shot one in the leg, and the other two were
quickly dispatched by our warriors. One wolf carcass was left, and we
persuaded Krelga to carry that for food instead of the dead Vikul from
the last battle.
It didn't take long to reach Bardel (the name of the place as we were
later to find out). Approaching it, it didn't look all that imposing.
Five structures, four arranged making the points of a square with the
fifth, larger building in the center. But from the center of the
compound, stretching out to encompass the buildings and a bit farther,
there was no snow! No ice or even slush, but a green covering that I
dimly remember was once referred to as grass.
We stepped inside this evil land and were at once transported to
another world. Suddenly, the ice was gone everywhere! A blazing sun
beat its hellish rays down upon me as a blast of practically
incandescent air scalded my skin. Oh, woe was I to be cast down into
this forsaken place, this Dantean nightmare of eternal torment, this
life-sucking wasteland from a forgotten time, this--
<Slap> "Snap out of it!" this from Nakaro, "it's not even 60
degrees." Not knowing what he meant, I nodded dumbfounded and followed
the others. Two Vikul were there to greet us. Never having found out
their true names, I shall now designate them Ackbar and Jeff. "Welcome
to Bardel!" said Ackbar with open arms, "the blessing of Stasis on you
all." At that point Tev barked something and ran away, where he
proceeded to discover that he was back on our world, in the snow,
though we could see that he was on a grassy plain.
Krelga surprised us all when she started animatedly talking to Ackbar
and Jeff as if the warm air had loosened her vocal chords at last.
Ackbar explained that this was a shrine to Stasis, and they both
expressed puzzlement at the talking dog and blue Jiliroth and myself.
Why, what year is this? It is of course Heat Age year 332! Curioser and
curioser, said the rabbit (that would be Krelga) under her breath.
But the two were quite friendly and healed us all with some "simple"
healing spells that are alas now quite rare in the Cold Age. The
central building was their home and shrine, while the other four
buildings were rockslug pens, for what unholy use I will not guess.
Krelga talked to them for a few hours while the rest of us honed our
weapons and rested, thinking that this would be a good place to spend
the night.
The next morning brought us a startling surprise, as Ackbar and Jeff
once again greeted us as if we were strangers. Puzzled, Krelga talked
to the two and repeated the previous day's conversation. After some
more questioning Jeff did mention that they had prayed to Stasis to
save them from the Heat Empire which ruled their Age. We could only
assume that Stasis had done so, but at a price: the two would relive
each day as if it were the previous day. And in fact, it was the
previous day, as we discovered that even the produce taken from the
vegetable garden had been miraculously replaced.
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Well, so much
for our plan to have them teach us healing (not that they could) while
we vacationed here. But perhaps they'd have some knowledge of the clues
hidden in the Underworlder's prophesy. Krelga talked to them again, and
after conferring with their God, they came back awed. We had future
knowledge which was unknown in their time. Knowledge of things yet to
come. Some mumbo jumbo Stasis rationalization followed which I didn't
understand. But the end result was that they would give Krelga a spell,
a gift from their God for revealing the prophesy to them. The choices
were sleep, slow, or glue. Krelga chose sleep, the better to sneak up
on people and brain them, she explained.
But would this work the next day? I didn't support that course of
action. As my dear Ma once told me: "never loot a town clean when you
can exact tribute from them instead." No, that doesn't make sense. It
must have been Da who told me: "no bloody thief is daft enoff to come
back to steel agin. That's joost asking fer trooble." Anyway, it felt
wrong to take advantage of Ackbar and Jeff this way.
Not that that argument stands up to the cold hard reality of free
spells. So Timroth and Tok both got slow spells. I think Tev would have
done it too had it not been a Stasis spell. Only Nakaro declined
without reason. Actually, he kept saying "blue blue blue" whenever we
asked him, so we took it as a no. But before we had time to implement
this plan, Tanarek Dell caught up to us.
Tev was the lookout and spotted them first. We hid on the roofs of two
of the buildings and tried not to make a sound. They were apprehensive
about this magical place, but a squad went in and started looking
around. That only got Ackbar and Jeff mad. Tanarek Dell made the
mistake of challenging the two, who quickly subdued one squad with rune
magic. Undaunted, Dell left one squad behind and took the other squad
to get reinforcements, convinced that we were here somewhere since
there were no tracks leavin the place.
The squad left behind was my old squad. A lieutenant, three Vikuls, two
Amazes, and Slushee were left. Good old Slushee, another Razor like
myself, he didn't really believe in that Holy Quest to Save Cold. Oh
well, at least he was a good friend and didn't let me get beat up too
much by the Lieutenant. I tried to convince everyone that we should
just slip away into the night, but they wouldn't listen. They figured
that now was the time to strike as we numerical parity and we could get
healed later by Ackbar and Jeff.
With a yell, we charged the surprised camp. Tev and Nakaro got there
first and started trading blows. Well, Nakaro did. Tev danced around
like a bootmere on gnerts until someone finally hit him and brought him
down. By then we were all deep in the fight, Tok swinging wildly while
the Lieutenant and Krelga faced off. I tried to reason with Slushee but
after a few seconds it was clear that he wouldn't listen until after
the fight, I only hoped that he would survive.
Slushee fought Nakaro singlehandedly while Tok sparred with a
weaponless Vikul. Timroth was already down, as well as Tev as I
mentioned. Meanwhile Krelga and the Lieutenant traded knicks as they
searched for weaknesses in the other. I joined in and ineffectively
swung at the Lieutenant. Then Tok joined our little fight and it wasn't
long before Krelga got in a decisive blow. With the fight over, and the
Lieutenant dead, Slushee and the last Vikul gave up.
We took some of their equipment (armor for Tok, some arrows for the
bowmen) and then sent the rest on their way. Slushee promised to tell
Tanarek Dell that we attacked their squad and mowed them down quickly.
I'm not too sure what that would accomplish but Tok and Krelga agreed
that it was how we wanted the battle to be recounted. We then got the
rest of our spells and left Bardel behind us.
This battle only reinforces the fact that we have no healing spells. So
now we head to a small valley. I've heard that there is a race there
that worships Wilurin, so perhaps they'll teach us healing. If not then
we'll have to change our strategy or else we'll soon be a bunch of
walking wounded. But enough of such gloomy ruminations. The sky is
overcast, the wind is blowing a nice chilly breeze, the snow crunching
underfoot. After Bardel, it's good to be in the environment I was born
to be in.
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