Otto’s Goblin Adventure Pt. 2

The morning sun stabbed spears into my eyes, I pulled myself up, my body felt refreshed as I gathered my equipment. I looked around the camp and saw everyone getting up, everyone except the giant dragonborn. The rest of my comrades approached the giant lizard and placed their hand on his arm to roll him over.

"He's cold and dead." I stared at the giant form on the bedroll.

"Kai is what!" Corvo shouted in disbelief. The others tried to find a cause of his death, and as they did so I played my mandolin to aid them in discovery. The Drakemaster and the drake began to tear apart the camp to find a clue.

"Kai is dead, and his brand is crossed out. There seems to be a necromancer in town, he's already killed one of us. We need to be on guard, and from now on, we need to maintain a watch at night while sleeping." Korus said while looking at the body.

"His body's been looted as well, all his weapons are gone." Corvo, the drakemaster, said in his same grumbly manner.

"There's some chicken scratch on this window sill here. Might be useful." Syafitri said in his brogue accent. He then took a piece of parchment and a a piece of charcoal. Then he rubbed the charcoal over the parchment and a copy of the scratches were now onto the parchment. I looked at the scratchings and couldn't make heads or tails of it. I can't quite see how that'll help us.

The tavern door opened with a great flurry of noise and saw Bernard standing shirtless in the doorway.

Korus approached the brawny man and put a massive hand on his shoulder.

"Tell your wife that one of our party members has died." I approached Bernard and added my piece.

"There seems to be some dark sorceries at foot here." I added to the stunned barman. Corvo looked at the paper and threw a haymaker at the wall. The entire building shook as he breathed out what it meant.

"Death has claimed his due." He held his fist as he said those words.

Bernard looked at the ground, his eyes held a look of terror as he said, "I hope you'll forgive me, but we're going to have to close the tavern for the rest of the day." He hurried toward the back room of the bar. I heard some muffled noises as he came out with a clean shirt on.

"If you please, accompany me to the guard's barracks to let them know about this." I followed the barkeep to the barracks. The sun just began to crest over the horizon as we approached the squat building. I heard the call of the birds as we entered the building. It truly was a beautiful morning. The lights were still dark inside the barracks. We approached the hut in front of the barracks. A tired guard confronted us.

"Halt, state your business."

"We're here to give testimony about the death of our friend. He died last night in the tavern."

"Aww shit, why does everything happen at the END of my shift. Here, take these and fill out your testimonies." We all stared at him as he produced multiple scrolls and ink wells. Then the guard retreated to a small door that led to the barracks. We all wrote as neatly and succinctly as possible, with Bernard writing the least among us. Then less than ten minutes later the guard came back with three equally sleepy guards.

"Alright, what's all this about someone dying?" One of the guards asked.

"Yes, our friend died during the night. We think it's murder. We woke up, and he was dead."

"Ah, he woke up dead." My right eye twitched as I fought myself to not correct the guard. The guards turned on a dime towards the tavern. Bernard approached us and shook our hands.

"I want to let you all know that you're all welcome back in my bar, hopefully when you come back, it'll be under better circumstances." Bernard also turned and paced back to the tavern. Then the 3 others with me walked into the distance, mumbling something about a grave. I may be an embarassment, but I'm not going to dig a hole.

I followed them to the gravesite and oversaw the work. Then a few minutes later we were approached by the three guards from earlier.

"Ah, diggin' the hole yourselves?" The lead guard said, staring at the modest hole.

"It was cheaper than paying the coroner." I said quickly.

"What's a coroner?" One of the other guards asked.

"It's someone who deals with dead bodies." I said.

"Oh I know, that's part of a buildin' isn't it?" The third guard asks.

"Just say yes," Huasir hissed at me.

"No, the peasant needs to learn people words. The coroner, is someone who deals with the dead. Preparing them for the funeral and burying them." The guards stared at me, flabbergasted. The original guard that we met suddenly appeared and beckoned the other guards back to the barracks. We completed the makeshift funeral and proceeded with the quest that we were sent on by Lady Selune. I turned to look at the winding dirt path.

"Does anyone know where we can find a cart and horse?" Syafitri asked.

"I can summon a horse, so we've got that covered." Korus added. We walked toward a lonely farm in the middle of the forest.

"I want to see about buying your cart."

"You want to buy my rickety old cart?" The farmhand asked, his threadbare clothes blew in the breeze. He looked rather young, aged by stress and work.

"Yes, sir. We'd like to buy it for transport. You look like you need the money." The farmhand glared at Syafitri for a minute as Syafitri realized what he'd done.

"As a farmboy myself, I'm well aware as to how much it costs to run a farm." The farmhand stared at Syafitri and frowned.

"Show me your hands." He said as he grabbed Syafitri's hands and felt their calluses. The farmhand nodded and calmed down a bit.

"I'll be able to sell it to you for 15 silver." Syafitri tossed the farmhand two gold and inspected the cart. Huasir approached the cart and casted mending. I watched the rickety cart suddenly become much more strengthened and renewed.

"If I had some scrap metal, I could reinforce this cart, make it better." Korus mumbled.

"Do you have any scrap metal to sell?" Syafitri asked the farmhand. The farmhand rubbed his chin and walked to an old man leaning on a fencepost overseeing his crops. I watched them talk, and then the man smack the farmhand in the back of his head. The farmhand rubbed his head as he walked back to us.

"The old man isn't going to like this, but we have some scrap metal to help you with. We'll give it to you for free since you paid so well for the cart." I watched Huasir approach the collapsed roofing of an old grain silo and cast mending on it. Almost immediately the pitted and rusted metal was restored to a shiny plate. I watched him approach the farmhand and hand him a pendant. I didn't see the pendant in its entirety, but the farmhand put it into his pocket. The sun now showed over the rooftops of the houses and bore down on us. I climbed into the cart as Korus summoned his steed and strapped it to the cart. As the cart began to roll, I retrieved my cards from the pack as I waved them in one hand.

"Anyone up for some poker?" I asked the group. Syafitri and Corvo took me up on it. Syafitri took up the game rather quickly and managed to beat me with a straight royal flush. I was astounded. I'd never seen it happen. On our next round, Corvo managed to get a straight flush. Tymora has surely not seen to my luck. Must be because nothing was bet. After that last round the horse finally arrived. It was MASSIVE. I'd never seen something so big, and the cart looked like a child's wagon compared to a war horse. The path was relatively clear of stones, but due to the reinforcements we didn't even feel it. The horse wasn't even at a trot as it seemed that we passed quickly. The scenery was like any that you'd find in the country, the wind was pleasant as I looked around. I saw the right side seem to get progressively taller. We continued along this giant hill until the horse came to a stop.

"There's an entrance here, friends." Korus said as he pointed to a small opening in the rock face. I could see a small fire within the cave. I looked at the mouth of the cave, and didn't see anything. The small drake darted into the cave and I heard a rumbling from inside. I heard the same rumbling echoed by Corvo. We all tumbled off the cart into the cave. The cave was smaller than I anticipated, it was full of stalagmites and stalagtites. The fire I saw from outside was sitting on a bed of sediment. I couldn't see any evidence of anyone else being here. Then I heard the sound of the rumbling once again, deeper into the cave. Once again, Corvo echoed the sounds and proceeded further into the cave. There was a loud crack of stone breaking as I rushed into the room. I saw a brightly lit cavern as we all pushed into the new space. It had many basic iron chandeliers along the ceiling with candles that never seemed to run down and torches along the wall with no scorchmarks on the wood. I marveled at these seemingly never ending light emanating from these devices. We saw a small wooden door at the other end of the room. I couldn't seem to make out where the hinges began and where the stone ended. Korus took point as he opened it and walked through. Fulgur, the drake ran through first with Corvo following. The door moved quickly as it shut in our faces. I watched the others attempt to pry the door open, but refrained from doing so myself. I opted to sit against a wall and write my journal entries for the day. The door didn't open, but I heard the roar of a dragon from my left hand side. I jumped as I saw Corvo with a new sword and a shit eating grin. I finished writing and put my journal away. Syafitri gently opened the door and walked away shaking his head. Then in less than a minute later, Huasir opened the door and walked through it. I took out my cards again and started a game of Solitaire to pass the time. I matched up the last pair of cards as I glanced over to see Huasir holding an ivory and gold gilded musket with some sort of wheel on the side. I'd never seen such a peculiar rifle before. It looked almost like the the statues of past kings that I'd see in the Imperial Court. I looked back to the door to see Korus walk through it. I shuffled the deck again to deal myself another hand for another game of Solitaire. Once again as I finished my game of Solitaire, Korus was back with a puzzled look on his face. He held a massive golden blade with a giant crossguard. He pressed a small button on the pommel and the entire thing morphed into a club. I rubbed my eyes as I watched, astonishment now becoming prevalent on my face. He stepped aside and started to swing. The sword/club sounded heavy. It smacked the wall with a thunderous echo. I looked at the other party members and they seemed to either not be paying attention or admiring their own weapons. I stared at the new weapon that Korus had and watched him swing at the wall once again. I heard the door close, but didn't turn my head to look at who was going through.

Syafitri now stood in the middle of the cavern holding a silver scythe decorated with skulls and also found himself the new owner of a traumatized look. It looked almost innocuous, like any farm scythe, but for some reason I couldn't take my eyes from it. I thought I heard voices emanating from it but shook my head and there were no more sounds. At last it was my turn to enter the door. As I crossed the threshold I found myself surrounded by oppressing darkness with torches lining a wall. I followed the torches until at last they stopped, as I stepped into the inky blackness I felt a dark presence grab me. As if I were traveling through a veil. I looked into the distance and saw a beautiful woman with golden armor and a beautiful crown that sat upon her raven hair. She smiled as she saw me and I approached. I bowed in front of her and she put a hand on my arm and whispered into my ear.

"Rise to your feet." On my other shoulder I felt the icy cold of a thousand winters with a raspy command whispered into my left ear.

"Grovel, worm!" The voice commanded. I ignored it stood proud. Her eyes were mesmerizing, but there was business to attend to.

"You are Lady Tymora, I presume?" She smiled, her full lips parted to reveal gleaming white teeth as she laughed.

"I am indeed, Otto. My faithful servant." I smiled back, but noticed that her demeanor seemed to change all at once.

"Thank you, My Lady." Her smile began to fade as I felt the icy cold feeling I'd felt before.

"Otto, there's a game we must play. What will you wager?" She said, her words tantalizing.

"Everything, My Lady." She was taken aback. Was it the first time one of her servants would wager everything, including their very being? She smiled once again and put her hands on my face, one to each cheek.

"Well then, I will wager this." She produced a gorgeous quarter staff. Half of it was gold with the other half a cold, dark energy. I took it in both hands and as I did I found myself in the chamber with the rest of the party. I found myself with a quiet feeling that the game had only just begun.