Beastborne- Mark of the Founder

by James T Callum

  After the children were safely within the town’s walls, Qalmor turned to Hal in the cramped Watch Tower. “Your group has done an amazing thing, bringing so many little ones back from the brink. They have suffered a great ordeal, that much is obvious, but it is better than being dead. Come, we’ll put in a good word at the Laden Coinpurse Inn for you and yours.”

  “I doubt they have room for nearly two hundred people,” Hal said skeptically.

  That brought the Captain up short as he headed toward the stairs that led to the first floor. “What do you mean? There are even more of you?” His eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  Hal made a motion vaguely in the direction of the forest where they had left a few Rangers and the koblins to make a defensive camp until they came back. “The koblins are still out there.”

  The look of realization on Qalmor’s face told Hal all he needed to know.

  “You aren’t going to let them into the town,” Hal guessed. “Are you?”

  The Captain placed a palm on the crystalline pommel of his sword and leaned against the balustrade that fenced off the stairs. “I am not on the Council. I am not able to make laws or even force people to follow the ones we do have. And even were I able to, you would find no inn or tavern willing to put up so many of the creatures, let alone possess the space.”

  Hal’s chair toppled to the ground as he sat up, fire in his dark brown eyes.

  The Captain held up a hand. “Peace, son. I mean no disrespect to the creatures, but most people would not be able to see the difference between them and the raiding goblins you have cleared out for us. I’ll tell you what. Find a place that will take them in - all of them, mind - and I will allow them entry into the city for as long as they have lodgings.”

  New Quest: Rest for the Weary.

  Find somewhere within Murkmire that will lodge the koblins.

  Objectives

  Question local innkeepers.

  Find a place for the koblins to rest within the safety of Murkmire’s protective walls.

  Rewards

  Murkmire Reputation (Variable).

  Koblin Reputation (Variable).

  Experience Points (Variable).

  It seemed obvious that Qalmor was just trying to appease him. But Hal wasn’t about to back down. He accepted the Quest and was determined to complete it.

  He was not going to leave Murkmire with the koblins out on their own. With the Rangers protecting them and finding proper shelter, they were safe for the time being.

  But when the Rangers left with him to the Shiverglades….

  It boiled Hal’s blood that the koblins were treated like some animal to be kept out in the rain with the numerous dangers that lurked just outside. Hal turned to the Rangers gathered there but they were already on their feet.

  Angram patted Hal on the shoulder as he passed him, following the other Rangers to the stairs. “No need to say it,” he said. “We’ll watch over the koblins and find a semi-permanent home. I think Myla said she spotted some caves to the south. At any rate, it will be an easier job than finding a place that will put them up in town by far. I do not envy you.”

  “He isn’t wrong, you know,” Qalmor said after the Rangers had left. “This area is particularly thick with beastmen activity and the goblins have been notoriously active of late. But if you want my advice? Try the Gone Goose in the Mason’s Ring, two rings up from here. Tell the Tavernkeep that I sent you.”

  Together, Hal, Elora, and Ashera filed out of the tower and headed up the thoroughfare toward the first of the inner walls separating the districts. It took them ages to navigate the winding curved streets and packed multi-story buildings that blocked sight of anything beyond the next turn.

  The town was made up of concentric rings that grew smaller and tighter the farther up the mountain they went. Every tavern or inn they passed, they popped inside to ask the proprietor about letting the koblins stay or if they knew anybody who would.

  The result was the same almost every time. They first had to explain what a koblin was and that, “Yes, I’m sure I didn’t mean goblin,” upon which one of two outcomes happened; either they were laughed out of the place, or chased out.

  Nobody was willing to even hear them out.

  The whole affair grated on Hal’s nerves and by the fifteenth place they were kicked out of, he wondered if perhaps it was the koblins that were too good for the likes of Murkmire.

  Compared to the bigoted people they had met so far, the koblins were saintly. They had immediately jumped at the chance to help. The innkeepers couldn’t even spare a single room. Hell, they wouldn’t even give them a place to sleep in the stable.

  “Is this whole city uphill?” Hal griped, wondering if putting a few more points into VIT would prevent the cramps in his legs.

  Elora shook her head at him. “Considering it’s built into a mountain, yes.”

  “It was nice of the Captain to point us in a promising direction at least,” Ashera said as they climbed another sloping ramp up through a pale stone gate flanked by two members of the Watch. “Oh, look, there it is!”

  Sure enough, not far to their left after entering the Mason District was a sign that very clearly had a painted goose on it. As they got closer it read, “The Gone Goose Tavern.”

  “If this is some tongue-in-cheek joke about how Qalmor sending us on a wild goose chase, I am going to lose it,” Hal said, wrenching the large door open.

  They were immediately drowned in the sound of music, talking, and uproarious laughter. Best of all was the aroma that wrapped them in a warm blanket of familiar and comforting food. There was freshly baked bread, the heady aroma of beer, and the ever-present smell of roasted meat.

  The tavern was warm and inviting. And despite the tables packed with people who were all focused on the performer on the small stage, they found their way to the bar easily enough.

  Hal craned his neck every which way trying to look at everything at once. Like everything in Murkmire, the Gone Goose was several stories tall. Its center opened up all the way to the rafters. Several balconies looked down upon the first floor and the stage.

  “What can I get ya’ll?” the large man behind the counter drawled. He was absolutely massive and looked like he bench pressed cars for fun. Watching him wipe out glasses with a white cloth was practically comical. He could barely fit two fingers into an empty beer mug.

  Not to mention the horns or the messy curls of fiery red hair that drooped into thick muttonchops. Before any of them could respond, the bartender’s bright green eyes fell upon Ashera. “Oh-ho! Another lamora! Don’t see too many of our own kind this far out west.” He smiled handsomely at Ashera who gave him a polite smile back but said nothing.

  “Qalmor sent us,” Hal said, hoping that he was the tavern keep. With his white apron over a simple brown shirt and pair of slacks, he fit the bill. Then again, Hal rarely heard of stories where the tavern keeper looked like he could toss a person into the next county.

  The tavern keeper nodded sagely and continued to wipe the clean glass for no other reason than to keep himself looking busy Hal guessed. He glanced Ashera’s way every now and then but she wasn’t paying much attention to him or his massive bronzed horns that looked like small spears.

  “Well?” Elora prompted, ever impatient it seemed when dealing with people.

  “In a rush, are we?” the Tavernkeeper said in his slow rumbling accent. “Very well, don’t get your mana in a twist. First thing’s first. I don’t deal with anybody whose names I don’t know.” He set the mug down, extended one thick hand, and smiled. “Name’s Abegielamanonalos. Most folk call me Giel. As you probably already guessed, I run this place.”

  Hal extended his own, Giel’s hand enveloped his up to the wrist but he had a gentleness to him that Hal hadn’t expected. “Hal.”

  “Pleasure.” Giel’s eyes widened as he looked at Hal. For a moment the man opened his mouth as if to say something more then shut it audibly. The warmth he had in his smile faltered
and he looked like he was staring at a ghost.

  “Elora,” the Ranger said sticking her hand out and prompting - once again - Giel into action. The lamora shook out his curls and let go of Hal’s hand as if it were a lump of hot coal, taking Elora’s after a brief pause. He was all smiles after that, but Hal noticed he wouldn’t look at him again.

  Hal couldn’t shake the feeling that the big lamora looked like he had seen a ghost.

  Once introductions were made and they had explained to Giel what they were looking for, he lapsed once more into silent introspection. “That’s a mighty fine pickle you folks have there. I don’t reckon most would do the same in your shoes. How serious do ya wanna see this done?”

  “Badly,” Hal answered. “I get that a lot of places won’t even entertain the idea but if you know anything, please tell us.”

  Maybe it was the desperate plea or the fact that Giel couldn’t look Hal in the eye, but in either case, Giel put the mug down on the counter and let loose a gravelly sigh. “I got an idea that just might work. But you sure as shoot ain’t gonna like it.”

  26

  “Well, are you going to tell us?” Hal asked impatiently. “You’ve been holding that pregnant pause forever.”

  The bull-horned innkeeper chuckled and leaned down onto the counter. The wood groaned and creaked. “Thinking it might’ve been adding an air of ‘gravitas’ as they say.”

  After the constant string of defeats, it was an effort not to lose his temper. Hal took a deep steadying breath and looked up at Giel who was still taller than any of them even bent over as he was.

  “I get it,” Giel said finally, still not looking at Hal. “Ya’ll are in a rush. So, there used to be a district, see? Up on the Cloud Ring with all the hoity-toity types. A full district, gone. Just like that.” He snapped his fingers and it sounded like a small firecracker going off. “One day something came through the protection of the Manasapling and most of the poor folk living there were wiped out.

  “It was quite the spectacle from what my ma told me. People thinking the protection of the Founder failed or maybe the Founder was displeased with us. But nawp, none of that. Founder came the next day, sealed the whole thing up and said it was for our own good. Or so the story goes.”

  Giel looked directly at Hal then. The big lamora searched his face and furrowed his large brow in confusion when Hal didn’t react how he expected.

  “As I was sayin’,” Giel continued, dropping his voice to a low bassy rumble. “That ain’t the whole thing. Ye’see, my ma had some connections at the time and knew a bit more. Wasn’t just a day. No siree. Week or more by her reckoning, all fightin’ some secret battle in the district.

  “She never would tell me what exactly happened, but she said the Founder wasn’t there to help us. Good men and women died fightin’ a battle ain’t nobody wants to talk about. So they believe the lie.

  “The Founder said that everybody should forget about it. And forget they did. He said it was one day, and the folk of Murkmire that remained repeated that lie until even those that were there began to doubt their own memories. Easier on folk who only care about their bottom line rather than the people of this fair town.

  “Weren’t always that way. Folk around here used to have spine. Grit.” He shrugged his mountainous shoulders. “So my ma told me, ain’t seen it myself. My ma carried the secret of that district - even it’s name which was scrubbed from every record - to her grave, rest her soul. Folk now call it the Coffin District on account of its all sealed up like a coffin. But my ma did say a man might be comin’ one day lookin’ to get in to where he ought not to be pokin’ about. If you gather.”

  With that, Giel continued to wipe out the nearest glass, staring at them all with a meaningful expression.

  Hal shot a concerned glance at Ashera and Elora. “I’m not sure I follow,” Hal admitted. The way Giel was looking at him was making him more than a little uncomfortable.

  “Ya’ll need a place for these whatsits-”

  “Koblins.”

  “That’s the word,” Giel said with another firecracker snap of his fingers. “Ain’t nobody in this godsforsaken town gonna give you the time of day. Much less open their homes and hearths to ‘em. But if’n you could reopen the Coffin District, then you got a mighty big space for them kobbers all of a sudden.

  “A place people have long lost their claim to. There’s a big ol’ bounty from the Adventurer’s Guild called the ‘Coffin Contract’, completin’ it gives you the ownership rights to the district wholesale.”

  “An entire district?” Hal asked.

  “Yep, not a ring mind you, but a district’s plenty large. Each ring is divided up into three districts y’see. And a third of a ring, even the Cloud Ring all the way up there, is a nice chunk of land.

  “’Course, you could sell it and probably get yourself a seat on the Council if you didn’t care much for them kobber-folk.”

  The vehement shake of Hal’s head at that notion had Giel grinning from horn to horn.

  “How long ago was all this?” Hal asked, curious as to how old the Founder was. To set all these towns and cities up he’d have to be well into his fifties. And Elora said there hadn’t been another person marked like him for at least a decade.

  That was a long time to solidify a seat of power.

  “About twenty-some years ago? I was just a wee calf,” Giel said. “Ever since, the Adventurer’s Guild has also been looking for some people brave – or stupid – enough to find a way into the district and clear it out. Every year that Coffin Contract gets more and more lucrative.”

  “Isn’t it as simple as walking into it?” Ashera asked, drawing a broad grin from the innkeeper.

  “Why darlin’, it ain’t quite so easy as all that. See, the Founder sealed the area with some of his special magic. Then ordered the Mason’s guild to block up the district tight so nobody tries to wander in. Whole place is a tomb now. Only one way in and it's guarded.

  “They only let them with Adventurer Guild badges in. Most people walk straight back out, shaking their heads and claiming it ain’t possible. Some adventurers ain’t never come back.”

  “So, let me get this straight.” Hal dropped onto a barstool and for the first time all day, let himself relax a little.

  Whether Giel sensed it or he was simply being a good tavern keep, he pulled up the glass mug he’d been wiping and filled it from a massive barrel behind the counter with beer and slid it to Hal.

  Hal grabbed it and nodded at Giel. “Thanks. There’s an area of the city, an entire district, that’s entirely walled off and forgotten about? And if we complete this ‘Coffin Contract’ we get the rights to that place? We can do whatever we want with it?”

  “That’s right. You can mosey on down to the Adventurer’s Guild if you like and read the contract yourself. All stated very plainly. Now, I ain’t sayin’ you’re gonna succeed where every other has failed but if you’re lookin’ to find a place for your little kobber friends, well…” Giel let the notion hang in the air.

  Quest Updated: Rest for the Weary.

  Following the mostly fruitless leads of questioning Innkeepers and the like, you’ve come across your first promising thread. If Giel is correct, completing the Coffin Contract will give you the authority to allow koblins to live within the protective walls of Murkmire.

  Objectives

  Question local innkeepers (Complete).

  Find out more about the abandoned district.

  Investigate the “Coffin Contract” at the Adventurer’s Guild.

  Find a place for the koblins to rest within the safety of Murkmire’s protection.

  Rewards

  Murkmire Reputation (Variable).

  Koblin Reputation (Variable).

  Experience Points (Variable).

  Hal took a sip of the beer, unsurprised to find it cold and refreshing.

  I love magic, Hal thought with a smirk. He was never a big beer drinker back home but the drink was perfectly
balanced with a hint of pumpkin and ginger. It tasted far better than anything he ever had before.

  And of course, as one of Hal’s favorite perks of living on Aldim, the drink had magical effects that gave him a series of buffs.

  You drink [Giel’s Brew].

  +10% HP | +10% SP.

  +2 STR | +2 VIT.

  Duration: 2hrs.

  It was a shame it only lasted 2 hours.

  They could ask every inn and tavern keeper in the entire town and they likely wouldn’t get a better opportunity than the one Giel was offering them. Hal noted, however, that the hulking man hadn’t offered his own establishment as possible lodging despite the lead he’d given them.

  Not that the nearly 200 koblins would fit. But Giel didn’t know how many there were. They had never gotten that far in their conversations with the various proprietors.

  Deciding it was better not to press Giel’s kindness, Hal let the matter drop. If there really was a whole district and he was able to clear it out, there’d be plenty of room for the koblins.

  Whether they would want to stay was an entirely different matter. The goblins seemed to have lived somehow without a Sanctuary or Sanctum. Maybe the koblins wouldn’t even want to live in a town.

  Somehow he doubted they’d be opposed.

  Elora was watching Hal as she drank her own mug of amber liquid.

  “You mentioned the Adventurer’s Guild,” Hal said, setting down his mug. “Where could I find them?”

  Giel scratched at the scruff of hair at his chin. “Well, you’d want to go down to the Blade Ring, then.” When they looked at him uncomprehendingly he shook his head. His bronzed horns glinted and caught the light like the point of a knife. “You had to pass through it to get up here. It’s the second ring of Murkmire. Just go down one level, ask any of the Watch, they’ll point you true.”