#43 - Betrayals and Bounties

Excerpt from the Cypher's Codex: The Scrawlings of a Warforged Scholar

Our time in the city of Graywall was coming to an end. The medusa cleric Zerasha warned us that to stay would be dangerous. The first night of Long Shadows had passed, but two more darkening days lay before us. We had resupplied, built, repaired, fought, and learned many things. It was time to move on.

We had grown in number but had lost individuals. The Cyran cleric Kard had proven himself worthy on the battlefield of the Arena and seemed to be in need of a platoon for the next stage of his journey. Additionally, I have much interest in learning more about him and his connection to the downed warforged Claviger; it presents a puzzle to me, and I will need to keep him around to solve it.

Grapnel continued to follow us, with the body of his former Karrn captain slung over his shoulder at all times. I sympathize with my brother; he has yet to understand free will and its right to all warforged. He seems to have no notion but to follow us and our desires so we will continue to travel with him. Perhaps in time he will develop an understanding of the freedoms that are unequivocally his.

Xoma had slipped away into the night after only some cryptic words, presumably venturing further into the lands of Droaam. I will miss his alliance as our quests take us in different directions. I hope I was able to teach him enough of the language of the dar (Goblin) to survive a conversation.

As a group we decided to make for Sharn via House Orien caravan. At the Orien station in Calabas we made arrangements for passage on the secure, and far more expensive, faster, and dragonmarked heir-conducted caravan. Each member of the party had to pay 30 gold pieces, and I paid for Grapnel's passage since he had no money. He seemed quite intent on returning his former master’s body to "Karrnathi soil," so we pooled our galifars and commissioned a simple but secure wooden casket for the body of his captain. Zerasha used a divine ritual to preserve the human's otherwise decomposing body, saying the effects would last for exactly seven days. It was quite costly to stow the casket, at 120 gold pieces, to get it to the next major city in Breland, Galethspyre, but it seemed a small sum to offer to our new warforged friend. Grapnel thinks that he is indebted to us now, and despite the fact that we do not see it quite so severely, for the time being we are not trying to convince him otherwise. He cannot yet grasp the differences between companionship and servitude.

The caravan was not set to leave until later in the day, so Magnus, Rendar, and I set off to say farewell to the couple who owns the House of the Nine, the inn and religious house where we we'd been staying. I have learned of most creatures’ desire to part company in an oddly celebrated way, although I have yet to fully understand the need for such fanfare. I did, however, agree that we should apprise them of our departure, as they were holding our rooms for our return from the Arena.

To our surprise, we found the woman had been assaulted and the home disturbed. Leaking ocular fluid, she relayed a message that her husband was being held by the former Brelish General Darveshek, and he demanded our presence in order to release the man. The situation was quite disturbing, but we left Grapnel at the House to keep watch, as we had been instructed to come alone to an abandoned tavern some distance down the road.  

I should mention that my newest companion: a homunculus crafted under standard Iron Defender specifications. I have named it Rungo. I infused a fragment of my own creation energies, and through this a bond-matrix has manifested. It is not a warforged, lacking any will of its own, but it follows my every command without thought to consequence. This bond that we have is quite new and unknown to me, and I wasn’t always aware of Rungo’s presence nearby. However, when we arrived at the abandoned tavern, I remembered the iron defender and sent him around both sides of the building for reconnaissance. It found no alternative entrances.  

The situation was less than ideal.  General Darveshek was previously an ally, or at least had proposed to be. We had fought in the Arena to satisfy his needs and we had been successful. I expected that we were to be compensated for our triumph, yet instead we found ourselves forced under duress into an unfavorable tactical scenario.

Without much alternative, however, I went to the door, with Rungo close beside, and banged loudly to gain entry. The door was opened a bit but no one made their presence known, so I slammed it open and sent the iron defender inside to harass whoever was concealed behind it. There being no chance of surprise, the only tactical advantage left to us was to project force, so we all advanced, showing no reticence. 

There were several men, humans and dwarves, armed and ready for a fight. The general was there in full battle armor. At the far end, the unfortunate innkeeper was bound to a weapons rack beside a table full of torture implements, along with a rough-looking man who I deemed quite capable of inflicting considerable harm to the man's body. General Darveshek began talking to me. I demanded to understand the reason for this situation and he obliged.

Governor Trazzen had placed a considerable bounty on our persons—1,000 gold per head, or 10,000 for our entire group—and Darveshek had lured us here to collect. He deemed it more advantageous to receive this bounty than to continue an alliance with us. He threatened to kill the innkeeper if we did not put down our weapons and surrender ourselves. I calculated the time it would take for me to get to the torturer; I was not quite fast enough to neutralize him. However, Rungo could get there almost in time to make a difference. While my companions made motions that suggested disarming themselves as the general demanded, I told Darveshek that I could not remove my armbow, as it was a part of my armor. He did not seem pleased with this, and set his brute to slash the innocent man. I immediately loosed a bolt and sent Rungo to tear at the torturer, but the damage had been done. The torturer didn't slash the other's throat, but he did deliver what could quickly become a fatal stomach wound.

The ensuing battle was quite ferocious. Once I reached the far end of the room, I was able to use the healing eternal wand to stabilize the innkeeper before he was completely disabled. As we fought these men, I determined them to all be Brelish by their accents. This disturbed me quite a bit, to be fighting against former Brelish soldiers. But equally disturbing was the general’s betrayal; I was horrified that Brelish could have become so menacing. 

I had intended to take this man alive, to take him as my prisoner into Breland, but my anger swelled inside of me when Darveshek nearly destroyed my iron defender with a single swing of his sword.  I manipulated the arcane energies within myself to conjure a force greater than any other I had ever managed before. I focused it into five perfect spheres of energy and sent them shooting forth from my fingers on a direct path to the target of my wrath. As expected from such beautiful arrangements of arcane forces, all five missiles struck General Darveshek in the head and shoulders, instantly disabling him beyond repair.

Although I would have liked to have brought him to justice in Breland, disgraced General Darvishek’s demise suited me, too. I may yet return to my homeland with his head; perhaps there are other, more affluent individuals who would be happy with that end to his tale as well.