Thralls of a Dread Lord (1.34T)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Welcome to my weekly serial. This is a rough draft that I am working on, for your reading pleasure.
It is a fairly grim tale, so be warned.
Here is the first post from this series.
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For a moment after walking into the tower, Retaak was disoriented. The vaulted ceiling of the chamber seemed impossibly high and the walls did not line up with his impression of the building.
“It is bigger on the inside here,” said Uyaashie, noting his discomfort.
“Elf magic,” spat Uyage. “I will keep watch by the door, Retaak.”
“Fine. What are you looking for here, Uyaashie?”
The Hob woman adjusted her glasses, peering down her nose at him. “A map, actually. The owner of this house knows the location of something that Wechegak seeks. He would not tell me more than this.”
Retaak nodded. “I don’t see any maps here, lets move quickly. The presence of a Deathseeker and an Archmage bodes ill.”
They mounted the stairs, moving up floor by floor. The first floor was guest rooms, some of which had maps on the walls, but Uyaashie took a quick glance at each of them and shook her head. The next floor was a sitting room, which featured an enormous map painted on the walls. It was beautifully painted and precisely detailed. Retaak stopped to stare in wonder; there were many places that he had never seen or heard of on this map.
“That’s not it,” said Uyaashie.
The next floor was a study. Retaak’s jaw dropped when he saw that the walls were covered in maps and each of the many shelves held cylindrical containers of the type that elves used to store precious maps.
“Fuck,” muttered Ashoktyaar. “How are we going to find it in here?”
Uyaashie looked around and frowned. “Wechegak gave me a device which could help to find the map, though he also warned me against using it.”
“Why?” asked Retaak.
“He didn’t say. The map is very valuable though, it will be in a safe place, likely under lock and key.”
Retaak grunted, and began looking around. He hated the idea of pulling the wondrous maps off the walls to find some safe, so he left that to Ashoktyaar and searched the bookcases.
“If it were me I would just hide it in one of these map tubes and leave it in with the others,” muttered Retaak after a few minutes of searching. “No one who does not understand the filing system would ever find it.”
“Agreed,” growled Ashoktyaar, ripping down a stunning map of the mountains to the West.
“Hurry, the explosions have stopped,” came Uyage’s voice from below them.
Retaak grimaced. Deathseeker be damned, he would hunt down the elves if they had killed Kuzat. Until he was certain he would cling to the hope that the wily goblin had made his escape.
“Enough,” said Uyaashie. “It is time to use Wechegak’s device to find the map, Retaak, I don’t see any other choice.”
“Are you certain that he did not tell you what the device was?”
“No, he said to open it here if I could not find the map quickly,” answered Uyaashie, looking nervous.
“It’s bomb,” said Retaak. “If it were used for finding what we are looking for he would have had you use it immediately. Think about it, Uyaashie.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Perhaps he does not want anyone else to have the map?”
“… That’s paranoid,” responded Uyaashie. “I’m going to use it.”
“Don’t,” said Retaak, holding up his hand as Uyaashie lifted the device.
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