by Ian Rodgers
“It was a ritual and a magical array, the very same one you can see in the corner,” Rongold stated, pointing at the blood stains. “Bolos kills a few slaves every week, and binds their souls into the weapons I make. They’re not real Dancing Blades, more like Possessed or Haunted weapons, like the kind you see near Undead or in regions of intense necromantic corruption. But because of the ritual he uses to make the daggers, they possess no Dark magic, and are thus impossible to detect as possessing bound souls.”
“Vile and disgusting, but ingenious,” the dwarf weapon smith snarled. “And he needs me. Ordinary steel will crack and tarnish under the sheer force of energy being sealed into them. Only dwarven crafted steel is durable enough to contain a soul. And then he sells them! That bastard treats lives like currency! A monster through and through!”
“Then help us!” Lily exclaimed. “Help us stop him!”
He looked at her with surprise, and she explained her plan for dealing with Bolos. Rongold frowned and stroked his beard, the only part of him that looked cared for.
“Solid idea, and I would love nothing more than seeing his plans collapse, but he has more charms and enchantments protecting the airship and his room than you can imagine. I should know, I helped design some of them!”
“Then you can help break them!” Lily said excitedly.
“No can do. Bolos thought of that beforehand. He ordered me to never tell anyone except him about the traps. I can say nothing on that matter,” Rongold said apologetically.
Everyone glanced at the slave collar which forced his obedience and winced. Even thinking about trying to go against the orders given could cause pain, depending on the quality of the collar. Rongold sighed sorrowfully.
“It’s truly a shame I cannot tell you about his traps. At least a copy of their schematics is kept safe in a secret compartment of the enchanting desk down here,” the dwarf said, winking at them.
Lily’s face lit up and she dashed over to the table, looking it over. After a few minutes of searching she let out an ‘ah-hah!’ and rushed back to the group holding a stack of papers in her hands.
“Oh dear, you found my notes on the traps in Bolos’ room,” Rongold said in an utter deadpan. “Now nothing can stop you from finding the instruction manual to the airship!”
Lily rushed over to the dwarf and gave him a crushing hug.
“Thank you! With this, we can all leave the island!” Lily chirped happily. The dwarf shook his head, however.
“Not me. Maybe some of the other slaves, but I cannot leave this place.”
“What? Why not?” the red-head said. He moved a bit, revealing his legs. The group gasped in horror.
His limbs were twisted, clearly having been broken and never set properly. Forget escaping, walking would be impossible for him! And then there were the metal anklets that kept him chained to the stool he was on.
“Bolos broke my legs so I couldn’t try and escape, and chained me to my workshop,” he said with a snarl. “He also ordered me to commit suicide if I leave the room. So even if your big, furry friend were to carry me out, the collar would command me to die. And I would have no choice but to do so.”
“Damn it!” Lily swore, her sentiments echoed in the dark expression of her companions.
Rongold reached out and patted the young archer’s shoulder. “I do not mind. My life and soul were forfeit the moment I helped him create those monstrosities. Besides, I have my own plans for getting revenge on Bolos. You four just concentrate on saving the rest of the slaves here, and getting off the island.”
“We’ll find a way,” Lily promised. “We won’t leave anyone behind.”
The dwarf just chuckled sadly and untangled a token hidden in his beard and passed it over to the young woman.
“When you get out of here, please let my family know what happened to me. If you’re ever in Arv Prith, return my clan token to them, if you would.”
“Of course,” Lily vowed, holding it tight. The weapon smith than waved them off.
“Go on! Hurry up, you don’t have all night!”
As they left, Gaelin paused, stopping at the door long enough to bow his head towards the dwarf in respect. He then left, closing the door behind him.
As it clanged shut, Rongold offered the empty room a smile. He then turned to the anvil he had been chained to for over five years and lifted the now cooled piece of metal up in a pair of tongs. He thrust the lump of metal back into the magical flames of his forge, and a sharpness entered his grin as runes, revealed by the flickering heat of the furnace, appeared on the soon-to-be knife.
“I have my own plans, Bolos. Oh yes, I do indeed.”
Maniacal laughter, tinged by years of suffering and isolation, boomed through the room. However, this laugh was filled with a sense of victory.
There was something about that quartet that filled him with confidence, and Rongold knew that Bolos’ time was at an end. All he had to do was wait.
.
According to these notes, most of the traps are non-magical,” Lily said as she looked them over.
The group was huddled together in a room, busy pouring over the assorted sheets of paper under the glow of a few Dancing Light spells. They detailed information about not just the traps, but the layout of the entire fortress. Being the one who had designed the structure and the traps it used, Rongold was intimate with everything about the building.
It was a wealth of facts more precious than any sort of treasure. And it would become a blade pressed against Bolos if used properly.
“The most difficult magical traps seem to be these two that contain a duo of spells,” Vala said, pointing out a pair. “Immobilize, a simple Level Four hex designed to hold the target in place, and Gravity Crush, a slightly higher difficulty Level Four spell that basically grinds the target into paste by smashing them into the ground with massive amounts of pressure. The traps these two spells are with appear to be linked, so triggering one activates the other. Surprisingly complex set-up for someone who isn’t a mage.”
“And it’s clear the traps are protecting the most valuable locations in the base,” Gaelin continued, looking over the information with a critical eye. “One of them is set up in his quarters to stop intruders. The other one is in the airship’s control room to prevent hijacking.”
He shot Vala a questioning glance. “Could you get us through these spell traps?”
“If I had time to set up a counter spell, then yes,” the Druid said after a moment of contemplation. “But it would take an hour or so for each one. And I’d have to do it right there, I couldn’t prepare a method beforehand. I’ve never done much studying on how to break or even create these sorts of magical defenses.”
“Hmm. Any other ways we could bypass them? There are magical arrays carved into the floor and ceiling, so could we go in through a window?” Gaelin suggested.
“He’s thought of that. Boobytraps all along the windows around his study, according to Rongold’s notes,” Lily said, shooting that idea down. “And the windows are reinforced glass. Nothing short of Bigg Guy could break them easily. Though that doesn’t mean we can’t go over the traps. It says here they only activate in the events someone steps onto them, or under them. So, if the spells don’t detect either of those things, then they won’t activate!”
“But how are we going to get across them without activating?” Gaelin wondered.
A glint appeared in Vala’s eyes, and she turned to Lily, sizing her up.
“How much do you weight?”
“What?! Vala! You should know it’s rude to ask a woman that! Being a woman yourself and all!” the red-headed adventurer protested.
“Fine then,” Vala said, rolling her eyes. “How about this for a question: are you heavier than a barrel of wine, or lighter?”
“Lighter!” Lily shouted indignantly.
The Druid took a moment to examine the princess, humming in thought as she gave the red-head an exaggerated once-over. After a moment a twisted
grin smeared itself across her face, and she gave Bigg Guy a thumbs-up.
“Yeah, she’s good enough for a ‘Special Delivery,’” Vala said.
Lily became pale as she heard Bigg Guy start to laugh, while also shooting her a sympathetic look. Gaelin, on the other hand, looked intrigued.
“Lily’s going to hate whatever your plan is, isn’t she?” the adventurer inquired. The smirk on the earth elf’s face only grew, and did not ease the archer’s worries.
.
“This is payback for the hard time I gave you back on the boat, isn’t?” Lily demanded, struggling slightly in Bigg Guy’s grip. A rope, plundered from one of the store rooms they had passed, was wrapped around her waist.
“Of course, it is. See, Gaelin, I told you she’d know what was what!” Vala chirped, smiling over her shoulder at the brown-haired halberdier.
Said adventurer just sighed and continued to stay on lookout duty near the end of the hall.
After making their plan, the quartet had quickly gone to the upper floors of the fortress. There, they’d made their way to Bolos’ quarters, which were near the top just like Lily had surmised.
Vala was currently in the process of picking the lock on the pirate captain’s door with magic, while Bigg Guy held Lily over his shoulder.
“You do know I won’t try and bolt away, right? I mean, this is the only way we can get off the island! Where would I even run?” Lily asked, annoyed at being treated like a sack of turnips.
“Just a precaution,” the Druid said cheerfully before there was a click from the lock.
“Got it! I knew that lock picking spell would come in handy again someday!” Vala cheered to herself as she carefully opened the door. She then turned to the others and gave a bow. Gaelin applauded politely.
“Now, are you ready, Lily?” Vala asked. Lily nodded, a determined look in her eyes.
“Ready,” she asserted.
Bigg Guy shifted his grip on her, and, while still holding tightly to Lily, brought her down into a position that looked similar to the set-up for an underhand toss.
The Ursine swung his shoulders a bit to loosen up, and then threw Lily through the open door. She sailed past the magical traps just inside Bolos’ door, bypassing both magic arrays without activating them. The red-head was like one of her arrows, moving too fast for either of the defenses to detect her.
Past the traps at the door, Lily landed heavily on the floor right in front of a heavy oak desk. She leapt to her feet, ignoring the stinging pain from the impact and flashed the trio a smile of victory. The three on the other side of the doorway let out breaths they hadn’t known they’d been holding.
“That worked. I honestly didn’t think it would,” Gaelin admitted as Lily began to root through the drawers on the desk, and rifle through the bookcase and dressers in the room.
“Both traps were designed under the assumption that whoever was going to enter would do so normally,” Vala explained. “If a target moves too fast, however, the detection system in the arrays won’t work.”
“Huh. Good to know. Not sure she’ll ever let me do that again, though,” Gaelin mused, thinking about all the possibilities a ballistic princess projectile could offer on the field of battle. His thoughts then transitioned to imagining the aftermath of such an attack with Lily striking him repeatedly upside the head for his antics.
“By the way, how did you come up with the idea to tie her to a rope?” he asked, glancing at the bearman who was currently holding onto his end of the line that connected to the red-head.
“Ever heard of a yo-yo?” When Gaelin shook his head, the earth elf elaborated. “It’s an elfish toy, which involves string, a disk, and that’s about it. My brother was really good with one, could make it do all sorts of tricks.”
“I see. So, Bigg Guy also knows how to do this ‘yo-yo’ thing?”
“I traveled with her brother for a while. He was a good elf. Taught me many things about the world beyond my tribe’s forest,” the Ursine revealed.
“Don’t be distracted, Gaelin! Keep an eye out!” Lily called from within the room, not even looking up from her exploration. He rolled his eyes but complied, turning back to the hallway and staring out.
The odds were against anyone showing up this late at night. It was an hour or so past midnight, the gate was locked, and the only worry was having some pirate looking up and noticing the glow coming from the floating orb of light Lily had hovering near her shoulder.
However, the curtains were drawn in the captain’s office, so there were no worries of some random grunt looking up at the fortress and spotting an eerie light coming from the quarters of the man who practiced murder-rituals. And, for those exact same reasons, it was highly unlikely a pirate would want to investigate strange sounds and sights that originated from their captain’s private domain if they did notice anything.
Sailors, be they merchants or pirates, were uniformly superstitious, and without direct orders, would not take the initiative lest they anger a ghost or something.
Gaelin shook his head in amusement at those thoughts. Lily really was something else. She would make a great queen with that level of insight. Young she might be, but already it was clear she knew how people worked, and how to use that.
She had taken all these factors into consideration when making her plan to sneak into the pirate’s fort. The fewer factors left to guesswork, the better, as she explained it. He was proud to know the runaway princess of Tashel, he decided. Besides, how many other adventurers could claim to have been the companion of a tomboy princess?
On Lily’s side, things were going smoothly. A quick Detect Magic ensured no other unknown magical defenses had been hidden in his office, and after that the red-head had started to plunder several drawers, looking over all manner of ledgers, reports, and bookkeeping.
She was honestly surprised, and a tad impressed, at how meticulously Bolos kept his information. He would know if any crew member was trying to skim from the profits, and if any of his black-market business partners tried to cheat him, he wouldn’t be fooled for long.
That meant that any attempts to outright steal his files would be detected, however. To that end, Lily was carefully jotting down notes and facts from the pirate captain’s books on spare scrap paper he hopefully wouldn’t notice was missing.
“Anything interesting?” Vala inquired after an hour of silence.
“A lot, in fact. He’s working with the Scam King of Riggs as one of his many hired crews to cut out the competition. Not to mention Bolos somehow has had deals with the Tower Lords of Annod Bol to supply him with slave collars in exchange for a few Dancing Daggers,” Lily said in disgust.
“And there’s quite a bit of dirt on so-called ‘respectable’ nobles who use him to smuggle all kinds of contraband over the ocean. Some even from Tashel!” She shook one of the ledgers violently at the earth elf to make a point. “We’re a landlocked nation, and yet some of my noble subjects were willing to shell out massive amounts of gold to a pirate when it would have been far easier to get someone else to do it!”
“Although now that I think about it, he has an airship,” Lily mused aloud. “Why limit his operations to the ocean alone? He probably uses it to traverse over land. Ah! So that’s how he has contacts in the Dreadlands!”
She frowned. “Actually, that’s rather disturbing. A pirate who can operate both on land and at sea? No wonder Bolos’ infamy grew so quickly. He’s not limited to the old methods of plunder like his predecessors.”
A cruel smirk cut across her face. “Still, this isn’t all bad new! All this dirt gives me something to hold over those idiotic noble’s heads when I do make a bid for reclaiming my throne.”
She devolved into nearly diabolical laughter as she copied down the intel into her own little black book of bribery, Her companions shifted uncomfortably.
“Anyone suddenly worried she might turn into some sort of mad monarch?” Vala asked in a quiet voice.
“You have
to be sane first to turn mad,” Gaelin whispered back. Bigg Guy huffed softly in amused agreement.
“Hey, guys! Quit gossiping and get back to work!”
“Technically, we are. All Bigg Guy has to do is hold onto you. Gaelin just needs to look down the hallways, and I already did my part. So there,” Vala replied, sticking her tongue out at Lily.
Not one to back down from such a childish gesture, Lily stuck her own tongue out and blew a raspberry, before turning back to the piles of secrets.
Several hours passed, and the lack of sleep was starting to affect them.
“Come on, Lily! Don’t you have enough blackmail material yet?” Gaelin whined, slumped against the wall, desperately trying to stay awake.
“Yeah, you’ve filled an entire book with evidence of Bolos’ business! Now let’s find a place to hide before morning, and the pirates, come!” Vala whimpered, pointing at the window at the far end of hall.
Beyond the window, a sliver of reddish-gold was creeping up over the horizon, staining the ocean purple. Dawn was approaching.
“I’m not done yet!” the princess retorted, stifling a yawn as she flipped through yet another ledger. “There’s just too much here!”
Finding nothing of value within it, she carefully returned it to its spot, before looking back over the bookshelf behind her. It was stocked with most of Bolos’ paperwork, but a few nondescript tomes were there as well. One of them called out to her, and she took it.
As she flipped through the pages, her eyes widened.
“Guys, I think I found Bolos’ diary!” Lily exclaimed.
“What?!”
“Yeah, it’s got lots of personal stuff written down here.” Her eyes narrowed at a section that caught her eye. “Hey, it even talks about the blood-ritual he stole off that mage! The one he uses for his knock-off weapons!”
“Listen to this: ‘I finally managed to decipher the mage’s journal. In it, he describes a method he believes would mimic the ritual the Val’Narashi mage-priests used to create Dancing Weapons. It uses blood. And lots of death,’” Lily read, and her companions pricked up their ears, listening closely as their tiredness evaporated.
