Beastborne- Mark of the Founder

by James T Callum

  Hal finished his beer and set it down. “I appreciate the drink, but I-”

  The tavern keeper raised a massive hand. “You all looked thirsty. It’s on the house. Especially if you’re all going off to try and get into that lost district, it’s the least I could do.”

  He was still looking at Hal when they got up to go. “I appreciate it,” Hal said, sliding off his stool.

  “Hold your karaks just a moment,” Giel said, and his tone gave Hal pause. “You truly going into the Coffin District?”

  Hal shrugged. “I’m going to try.”

  “Then might be I have something for you.” Giel was staring at Hal again. “It’s just in the back here, if you’ll follow me.”

  Elora was already shaking her head. “Wherever Hal goes, we go.”

  Giel looked at each of them in turn, his frown turned into a grin as he took in the protective stares of Ashera and Elora. “Well then, that’s quite the twist. This way.”

  The big lamora led them behind the bar and into a side room. Once they were all packed in, he moved a shelf laden with expensive looking bottles of liquor out of the way.

  A gentle glow grabbed Hal’s attention and he spotted small hidden grooves in the floor that let the shelf slide easily enough that the bottles didn’t even rattle.

  Your Perception has risen to Level 4.

  +2% Perception highlight chance (+8%).

  +5% Awareness of magical items (+20%).

  Elora came forward, a hand going to the curved dagger sheathed at the small of her back. But as soon as she saw the room beyond she froze.

  Ashera let out a gasp as she stepped into the room. Giel followed in after her, beckoning Hal and Elora.

  Once Hal was inside, the shelf and the hidden door behind it slid shut.

  The room was far larger than the tiny storeroom, with more than enough room for ten times their number. It was a secret planning room. The walls were decorated with scorched and singed banners that Hal didn’t recognize but it seemed Ashera and Elora did.

  A large round table dominated the room with papers and notebooks all about and as its centerpiece was a replica of Murkmire. Moving closer, Hal could see the weathered old mountain and the rings that circled it.

  It had amazing detail, but what was most interesting was that it was hinged. The replica was half-opened on one side, showing complex cavern systems and many hidden rooms deep within the mountain.

  “What is all this?” Hal asked.

  “It’s an old rebel planning room,” Ashera said. She walked through the room, gently touching things as if to remind herself that they were real. Her mouth was perpetually open in wonder.

  “My ma’s,” Giel said, nodding toward the head chair at the table. “The Gone Goose was hers too. Forgive me for asking so bluntly but I couldn’t rightly do it out in public. You’ve got the mark, don’t you?” Giel turned his gaze toward Hal.

  Hal tensed but saw the way Ashera and Elora were relaxed and he followed suit. “How’d you know?”

  Giel pulled out a seat and sank into it. “I already told ya’ll. My ma said that one day a man would come looking to get into the Coffin District. And when he did, I was to give him somethin’.” He held up one thick finger. “If and only if he had a mark that glowed like the setting sun.”

  “Who was your mother?” Ashera asked, turning to Giel.

  “A kind woman who wanted better for Murkmire,” Giel answered. He motioned to Hal. “I noticed how none of ya’ll seemed to recoil at so much paraphernalia, so it would seem my ma was right. Show me this mark, if you got it.”

  Hal rolled up the sleeve on his left arm and used Mana Investiture to create a smooth cut line on both sides of the makeshift bamboo bracer. “Sounds like you risked a lot just to show us,” Hal said, taking off the two halves and showing his mark to Giel. “What if we weren’t who you thought?”

  Giving a long appreciative whistle, Giel leaned in for a better look and said, “Ain’t never been steered wrong by her before. Don’t expect to now. It worked out all right in the end, didn’t it?”

  “It’s hard to refute that,” Elora said. She gasped and picked up a small faceted crystal with a shield-like rune carved into it. “Is this what I think it is?”

  Giel turned and chuckled. “Sure is, ain’t many Class Crystals about these days since the Founder cleaned ‘em all up.” He wagged a mocking finger at her. “Dangerous things you know. Founder says hundreds have died already. Better leave ‘em be.”

  Elora shook her head. She came over to Hal, showing him the faceted jewel. “This is a Class Crystal, it’s inscribed with all of the knowledge a person needs to become an entirely different Class. I thought the Founder destroyed them all.”

  “You thought wrong,” Giel said, sitting back and reaching under the table for a hidden drawer. “Everything seems in order. Gotta say, didn’t expect the man that would come see me would be flanked by such beauties.” He shot Ashera a wink as he pulled out a small parcel the size of a paperback book. He handed it to Hal.

  The item was heavier than he thought, wrapped tightly in a velvety black cloth tied with golden thread. Hal could feel the magic within. “What is it?”

  “No idea,” Giel said.

  “You mean you’ve never looked?” Hal asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I made a vow not to,” he said solemnly, pushing his large palms against his knees and standing. He gently plucked the crystal from Elora’s hands and placed it back where she found it. “Just as I vowed not to show anyone this place except the man with a mark. And I always keep my word.”

  “Are you not afraid somebody will turn you in?” Ashera asked, motioning to the whole of the room. “This is… a lot, Giel. Any official that saw this would burn the entire place down and sentence you to a very painful and public death.”

  “Then I’ll count my lucky stars that ain’t nobody going to turn me in,” Giel said with a hearty chuckle. “Ya’ll wouldn’t be in the company of a fledgling Founder if ya’ll were law abidin’ citizens.”

  “Point taken.”

  Hal untied the gold thread and slipped the book out from the black cloth. Bound in plain brown leather, it looked like an ordinary journal.

  Unlike most items, the journal’s name was immediately known to Hal. It was simply called [Unknown Codex].

  Opening to the first page, Hal’s eyes struggled to adjust to the moving text.

  The dark parchment was filled with glittering cramped sigils and runes of gold. They sparkled with an inner light, dazzling Hal. Each of the sigils rippled and floated just above the page the longer he stared, making it difficult for his eyes to focus on any of them.

  Cramped though the pages were hundreds of different sigils, there more than a few blank sections Hal was certain should have been filled.

  No, not blank, he realized a moment later. The ink was faded and difficult to read but the sigils were there if he looked hard enough. Only, they were ordinary. There was no magic in them anymore. They didn’t float and shimmer just off the page like the others.

  Your Perception has risen to Level 5.

  +2% Perception highlight chance (+10%).

  +5% Awareness of magical items (+25%).

  +10% Danger sense (+10%).

  Before he could dwell on it much further, a terrible migraine assaulted him. His head pounded and he shut the book forcefully. Only then did the headache begin to abate.

  Three sets of eyes turned to him. “Hal, are you all right?” Ashera asked, coming to his side.

  “I will be in a second,” he said through gritted teeth. He offered Ashera the book. “See if you can make out what’s in here.”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean, ‘no’?”

  “She means,” Elora said from across the room, “that you should take greater care with such a book. If Giel was instructed to only give it to a Founder, it stands to reason others might not be able to read it.”

  “It is likely protected,” Ashera added. “
With luck, I would see nothing. If I were not lucky? I might suffer an ailment meant to discourage prying eyes. In either eventuality, I would not be able to read it.”

  With a sigh, Hal tucked the book away.

  “Giel,” Elora said, looking up from a partially burned tapestry hanging on the wall. There was a golden triangle motif on its dark brown background. The gold thread used for them shimmered whenever the tapestry moved.

  “What can I do for ya?” he asked, swinging his gaze from Hal to Elora.

  “How are the sympathizers doing?” she asked, a thread of worry creeping into her usually calm, melodic voice.

  “They aren’t,” came Giel’s simple reply.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, stalking toward him.

  “Nearly a month back the last few that I knew about fled. Something about an investigation. Seems like that sort of thing’s been on the rise of late. It’s one of the reasons I aimed to never open this here room except for one like him.” He nodded in Hal’s direction.

  Elora was already headed to the exit. “Ashera, Hal, we need to go. Now. I had Eindor looking for our contact once we came back into Murkmire.”

  Nodding, Ashera joined her. “And you fear that if they were taken not only will our supplies be gone but there may be somebody watching their place.”

  “Exactly,” Elora said.

  Giel ambled over to the door. “You’re free to come spend your nights at the Gone Goose, no charge of course. I’ll reserve a few rooms for ya’ll.” He threw a wink that included all of them this time. “Just in case.”

  They were out in a flash, Elora was practically running by the time they were back in the Mercantile Ring. She dragged them through one narrow slanting alley after the next. The dark of night was full upon them as they splashed through standing pools of water and scattered the various alley cats back to their homes.

  Eindor was sitting on an upturned barrel whistling and whittling at a crossing of three alleyways. Elora cursed under her breath - she had been doing that nearly non-stop since leaving the Gone Goose - when she saw Eindor’s somber expression.

  “It’s gone,” he said with a shake of his head.

  A dark shadow dropped from the rooftop behind them. Another Ranger dressed all in dark clothes. “The safe house is burned down,” she said. “Our supplies are gone. All contacts are burned from here to Fallwreath. We have nothing.”

  Ashera had to hold Elora up as the blow struck her. “Years of work…” she muttered under her breath. A stiff wind would have bowled her over right then. Ashera muttered comforting words to her and held her tightly.

  Hal looked up at Eindor and the elf gave him a sympathetic look. “Murkmire is a large place,” he said in a low voice, answering Hal’s questioning look. “A few of us were to come here once you made it to the Shiverglades and pick up supplies. Wagons, lumber, tools, all the things you would need for a burgeoning settlement. The sort of thing that would take a lot of money. That’s all gone now.”

  Moving closer to the man and giving Elora her space, Hal dropped his voice. “So this place I’m to make… this safe haven is what? Bankrupt?”

  “Essentially,” Eindor said. “What money the rebels had was pooled together and over the years supplies were gathered in the hopes that one day we would have a need for them. Elora has a good reason to be upset.”

  Eindor jerked his chin toward the two women holding each other. “Her father died for this. And much of her young life has been dedicated to an arrival such as yours. We have been waiting for a new Founder for many years now.”

  Hal leaned back against the brickwork of a nearby building. He had no idea. Elora never shared any of that. He rebounded surprisingly quickly though, focusing on the only positive he could find.

  “Then it’s a good thing we came to Murkmire,” he said. “Let’s go back to the Gone Goose. We can talk about it more there.”

  When they returned to the Gone Goose, Giel took one look at the band and held out three keys to them. “Last three rooms on the top floor,” he said.

  Hal nodded his thanks and they wound their way through the thick evening crowds up to the quieter inn rooms.

  They piled into the first room. Eindor slipped outside. The other Ranger - Hal never got her name - unlatched the window and disappeared outside. Ashera shut the window behind her.

  A faint tap echoed on the window, another on the door. “All clear,” Ashera said.

  Elora turned red-rimmed eyes his way, her expression questioning with the faintest glimmer of hope. Hal realized he had to give her something. Anything to hold onto at that moment.

  “Think about it,” he said, forcing himself to be optimistic. “We are in the best place possible to hear this news. It is devastating, and I’m saying that as somebody who barely understands. But we could have already been in the Shiverglades, hoping and relying on supplies that would never come.”

  Ashera sat down on the bed beneath the window and put her chin into her palm, thinking.

  Your Persuasion has risen to Level 3.

  +1% Persuasion success (3%).

  +0.5% Antagonistic persuasion success (1.5%).

  Your Leadership has risen to Level 6.

  +1% Party Damage (6%).

  +2% Leadership Efficacy (12%).

  Elora paced, slowly nodding along with Hal. “And we have a lead,” she added. “Giel mentioned that this Coffin Contract thing gave, as a reward for its completion, an entire district’s ownership.”

  She raised a hand to stop Hal before he could object. “A single block would be enough to house the koblins. We could sell the rest and have more than enough funds to purchase our supplies. We could even cover up the reasoning by saying we were trying to renovate the buildings.”

  Nodding emphatically now, Elora seemed filled with manic energy. “Yes, this could work. We’ll stay here a few days longer, tell the Rangers to dig in and find some suitable shelter-”

  “Angram already said Myla found some caves they might be able to use,” Hal interjected.

  “Good,” Elora said. “That should be an easy task with so many koblins.”

  “And even if we can’t do the Coffin Contract, we could stay here and do some other work, right? This Adventurer’s Guild must have other lucrative bounties that we could do. If I’m able to fight different types of monsters, I’ll be able to get a new Class and contribute more.”

  “We could probably use the Rangers to hunt a few bounties if they have any for the surrounding regions,” Ashera agreed. “It might take some time but I hear the Adventurer’s Guild pays well.”

  “Only one problem,” Elora said, sitting down on a chair near the cold fireplace. “We aren’t members of the Adventurer’s Guild.”

  Stretching and yawning wide, Ashera said, “We can fix that in the morning, can we not? I do not know about you two, but I am looking forward to a hot bath, clean sheets, and a soft bed to sleep in.”

  27

  “I’ll talk to Eindor,” Elora said, her back straight once more. “We’ll use him to liaise with the Rangers so they can be kept abreast of our situation.”

  “How are you holding up?” Hal asked Ashera once Elora was out of the room.

  For a moment Ashera furrowed her brow in confusion, then understanding dawned, slow and steady. “Oh. Yes, that.” Once again, her hand went reflexively to the scarf around her neck. A habit Hal noticed she had developed.

  “Much better, thank you. It is… very odd to be without it. It gave me a strange sense of purpose. I feel guilty when I think about it still, as if I should abjectly hate it but I don’t. In a way… I miss the way it made me feel.

  “Like I was fulfilling a higher purpose. That I was safe with it on. Protected. I feel… sick when I realize I feel that way. Betrayed by my own emotions. I was like some obedient animal, conditioned to want the fake comfort of my cage, mistaking it for a home. A cage I would still be trapped in, if not for you.

  “There is not much I can ever do to repay you
, Hal but I want you to know that I will make it my life’s goal to do so. You have given me so much with that one act.” Tears shone in her eyes and she quickly brushed them away. “If I were to die tomorrow, I would die happy. I have always wanted to see the world, even if it is harsh and dangerous.”

  She shook her head. “I never expected to come with Elora. We had grown… somewhat distant as of late. I am glad I can be here for her, and for you now. My life finally has a purpose again and one of my own choosing.”

  Your Leadership has risen to Level 7.

  +1% Party Damage (7%).

  +2% Leadership Efficacy (14%).

  Elora walked back into the room. She eyed each of them suspiciously for a moment before saying, “All right, that’s all settled. Who is going to take a bath first?”

  Hal furrowed his brow at her. “Giel gave us three keys,” Hal said, holding up two extra bronze keys. “We each can have our own room now.”

  “Uh-uh.” Elora shook her head. “We stay in the same room just in case. We’re stretched thin without the Rangers able to watch our backs all the time.”

  “Do you really think Giel would let something happen to us?” Hal asked. “I mean… considering what he shared with us, it would be in his best interest to make sure we weren’t harmed.”

  “Are you willing to take that risk? For one night of sleep? We’ll pull two mattresses into this room and be done with it,” Elora shot back.

  As much as Hal was looking forward to the privacy, he agreed with Elora.

  Sleeping in communal tents or out under the open stars with dozens of people - mostly koblins - around was far from comfortable.

  He was used to his own bed. His small apartment back in Seattle was at least private and all his own.

  Ashera had, quite clearly, claimed the bed in that room already. Hal tossed Elora a key and they dragged their mattresses into the room. Hal set up near the fireplace with Elora taking up the spot closest to the door.