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The Questing Parties- Chapter 5: Mad Queens and Monsters
🕑 Added 2022-12-28 06:27:54 +0000 UTCIt was a strange group, and an even stranger sight, that marched slowly up and down the rolling hill that separated Waterfall Caverns and Canary Town. Their journey had not even reached the end of its first day, before the unexpected happened.
“Help! Heeeelp!” A woman’s voice cried out from the distance. Following the screams, was a guttural roar, like a lion. The three men began to search the area, trying to track the sound to its source. It was Kozim who, with his experience protecting these hillsides, was able to locate the screams.
“Over here.” Kozim said to Zenith and Roklem. He pointed to a windmill a few hundred feet away, and they saw a large lion-like beast, with a pair of bat’s wings on its back and a barbed tail on its hindquarters, trying to break down the door of the windmill. “It looks like a manticore.”
“We need to help her!” Roklem said.
“That isn’t exactly our job.” Zenith pointed out.
“She’ll die if we don’t.” Roklem said.
“Maybe we could sneak up on the beast?” Kozim suggested.
“You two both have bows, right? Why don’t I get its attention, and then you attack it from a distance?” Roklem said.
“Whatever we are going to do, it should be done quickly; that door won’t last another minute.” Zenith said. “Are we sneaking, or drawing its attention?”
“I’m fine with Roklem’s plan.” Kozim said.
“Alright then, let’s go.” Roklem said, pulling out his sword and shield. Zenith and Kozim both prepared their arrows and bolts respectively. Not bothering with being quiet, the three men charged down the hill, and then back up the next one, and then finally down again towards the beast attacking the windmill.
“Rahhh!” Roklem shouted as he charged the beast. According to their plan, Kozim and Zenith kept some distance between themselves and the creature. Hearing Roklem’s battle cry, the monster turned around, revealing a disfigured humanoid face. It had a masculine appearance, but lacked a nose. Its mouth was split along its face far too wide, and was filled with several rows of sharp, needle like teeth. Its face was framed with a lion’s main.
“Oh?” The manticore said, seeing Roklem, Zenith, and Kozim, all ready to fight it. “Heroes come to save the day…” Its mouth opened wide, as if imitating a horrific smile, “yummy.” With a twitch of its large tail, several of the barbs detached themselves, and flew with perfect accuracy at the men. One hit and splintered against Roklem’s shield, one caught Kozim in the side, and Zenith only barely was able to dodge out of the way of the third.
“HA!” Roklem yelled, and struck at the beast with his longsword. A clean red gash opened on the manticore’s side. Standing back up, Zenith and Kozim both fired their shots, and hit the target. Kozim’s bolt pierced one of the monster’s legs, while Zenith’s hit him in the belly.
The manticore roared in pain, and took two swipes at Roklem with its front claws. His first attack pushed Roklem’s shield to the side, and his second cut straight through his chainmail, opening a one-inch hole in Roklem’s side. Having done some damage, the manticore spread its wings, and took to the sky. It flew up about fifty feet, and shook its massive tail again. Once more, three of its barbs were launched; this time to greater effect. Roklem’s arm, and leg were both impaled, and he was pinned to the ground. The final barb narrowly missed Kozim, who had charged straight at the manticore to get back in range with his crossbow. Zenith and Kozim once again fired their shots at the beast, and both landed clean blows. Kozim’s bolt hit the creature in the eye, while Zenith’s arrow sheathed itself in its guts. As it cried out in pain, it turned its body, and began to flee.
“After it!” Kozim shouted, and began pursuit. The beast was fast, but so were Kozim and Zenith. Both men were able to keep pace with the creature, firing off bolts and arrows until it finally fell from the sky. It laid weakly on the ground, and was put out of its misery by one final bolt from Kozim’s crossbow.
Back at the windmill, Roklem was pulling the barbs from his body, and closing his wounds with healing magic. A small elderly woman eventually emerged from the windmill, and saw the dead manticore in the distance, as well as the three men who saved her. Just as Roklem was finally able to stand up again, the woman rushed out. “Thank you! Thank you!” She shouted. “I thought I was going to die!” She sobbed.
“It was our pleasure ma’am. Are you injured?” Roklem asked.
“No, no; I’m alright.”
“Why was that manticore attacking you?”
“That monster has been a plague on my land for the last few months! It finally killed the last of my cattle a week ago, and I suppose that wasn’t enough for it. Maybe with it dead I can start farming safely again.”
“Strange,” Kozim said, walking up to the woman, “manticores aren’t native to this region. They prefer mountains and dense forests.” Kozim stayed quiet for a moment, lost in thought. “I imagine we have the dragon to thank for its sudden relocation.”
“Well, whatever the reason, I’m just happy its dead.” The woman spat.
“Ma’am, I think you should go stay in Canary Town for a few weeks. Manticores tend to live in pairs, meaning that another may come searching for its mate soon. Besides, if the dragon did cause this creature’s relocation, more unexpected monsters may be coming soon.” Kozim explained.
The woman sighed, “you may be right.”
“Do you need any help packing your things?” Roklem asked.
“No, I can handle that much, but I want to give you something. Please wait here a moment.” Roklem was going to protest, but was stopped by Zenith, who had arrived without either Roklem, or Kozim noticing. The elderly women disappeared inside the windmill for a moment, then reemerged carrying a small blue vile of liquid. “This is a healing potion. I would craft them and pour them into my animal’s water troughs to keep them healthy. But I don’t have any animals anymore, so I won’t need it. Please take it.”
“Um… thank you.” Roklem said, and took the potion. He held it in his hand awkwardly, but respectfully, until the woman walked away, towards Canary Town.
“Are we really going to drink a potion made for animals?” Zenith asked.
“Not unless we have to.” Roklem said.
“We should take the valuable parts off of the manticore.” Kozim said. “Who wants to help.”
“I don’t know a thing about it, I’m afraid.” Roklem said.
“I’ll help.” Zenith offered. The two men began to remove different parts from the monster, and pack them away in their satchels and backpacks. They collected the barbed spikes, claws, teeth, and all of the pelt that they had room for. After about an hour, Zenith stood up, satisfied with everything. “That’s a good haul. Let’s get going.”
“One more thing.” Kozim said, and bent down to the manticore’s head, Kozim’s hunting knife still in his hands. With a few gruesome cuts, twists, and jerks, Kozim severed the beast’s head. “Perfect.” Kozim held the head up proudly, and fashioned it to the outside of one of his saddlebags.
“Oh, that’s disgusting.” Roklem groaned.
“What are you even going to do with that?” Zenith wondered, looking at Kozim like he was crazy.
“I don’t know yet… I’ll think of something.”
“Leave that behind, we don’t need that.” Roklem complained, not even able to look at it directly.
“No way. You got the weird cow potion, Zenith said something about making poison arrow heads out of the barbs, and I want the head.” Kozim protested. Roklem groaned again, and agreed to drop it. With that, the three men resumed their travels to Waterfall Caverns.
The last two days of the journey were uneventful. It was mostly spent talking, telling stories, and recovering from any remaining soreness deal from the manticore. Zenith and Roklem talked about their brothers, while Kozim talked about his life and duties as a ranger.
On the third day of their journey, an hour after noon, they arrived at Waterfall Caverns; they also saw exactly why it was named that. The roar of the water falling down the mountainside was nearly deafening once they were close. They followed the map, which led them down a winding path through a cave and behind the waterfall. All three men plugged their ears the closer they got, until they were inside the cavern, which offered some protection from the noise.
“I don’t suppose you know any spells to cancel out the noise?” Roklem asked.
“Unfortunately not.” Kozim said. Zenith simply shook his head. As they went further down the tunnel, it grew darker, until eventually Zenith had to light a torch. As they walked, Kozim started to wonder something, “Why did you light that?”
“To see.” Zenith said.
“I thought that dragon-born had the ability to see in darkness?”
“He had to do that in the catacombs too.” Roklem said.
“Some dragon-born have that ability, but not all. Just like some have tails, or wings, but not all.”
“The torch may not have even been needed, there is a light up ahead.” Roklem said. As the men got closer, the cave opened up into a kind of underground terrarium, filled to the brim with different kinds of mushrooms. Some of the mushrooms were as tall as Roklem, but most only came up a few inches.
“This… is not what I expected.” Zenith said.
“It’s a Gnome town, right? I didn’t expect anything less.” Roklem said, looking through the mushrooms.
“Got something against Gnomes?” Kozim asked, and picked some of the mushrooms, then stuffed them into his satchel.
“No, but I grew up drinking Gnome wine. It was the only thing my family could afford.”
“What’s wrong with that? Don’t dwarves loving getting drunk?” Zenith said.
“We do, but Gnomes make wine with mushrooms. It tastes exactly how you think it would.”
“Gross.” Kozim said. “These are Wither Writ mushrooms, and those blue ones are probably Spotted Walkers.”
“Yup, their making spiced wine. The worst swill you’ve never wanted.” Roklem groaned.
“I can’t place these though.” Kozim said, holding a large green mushroom. “Hold on, I’ll cast a spell.” Kozim reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a sprig of mistletoe, then began to chant the spell. While he was chanting, small lights appeared around him, and circled his body. Once he was finished, he turned to the others and said, “oh, this mushroom has healing… what are these?”
“What?” Zenith asked.
“These lights.”
“Is that not an effect of the spell?” Roklem asked.
“I don’t know what these are.” Kozim swatted at them, and they simply moved out of his hand’s way.
“Do they hurt?” Roklem asked.
“No, but still.” Kozim continued to swat at them. Once again, he chanted a spell to identify what these lights were. As he did, his skin turned blue. “All I’m getting from them is that they are lights made from magic.”
Roklem and Zenith were both looking at him stunned, and then they both began to laugh… hard. “What?” Kozim asked, confused. They tried to explain, but neither could stop laughing long enough to do more than point from him, to their skin. Thirty seconds passed before Kozim looked at his hands. “WHAT?!” he yelled, which was immediately followed by the other two laughing even harder. Zenith was leaning over, holding his cramping right side, and Roklem was on the floor struggling to catch his breath. “It’s not funny! What’s going on?”
It took a full ten minutes for Roklem and Zenith to collect themselves, and for Kozim to notice that the lights and blue skin were slowly fading. However, continuing down the tunnels, the two men were still snickering. The tunnel was dark, but not pitch black; small bioluminescent mushrooms provided enough light for those with the ability to see in darkness to be able to make out most details. For Zenith, it provided enough light to know where a turn in the tunnel was before he got to it. He was quite thankful he remembered to restock his supply of torches. Eventually, they came upon a sign that read, Waterfall Caverns. Population 135 131.
“Well, that’s a bit ominous.” Zenith said.
“Hold!” A shrill voice from the darkness called out. A small Gnome man carrying a strange metal tube emerged from around the corner of the tunnel. “Who’s there?”
“I am Roklem Throk; these are my associates, Zenith and Kozim. We were sent to Waterfall Caverns by the mayor of Canary Town on official business.”
“What business?”
“Trade. The mayor wants to place an order for magical armor and weapons; as well as any magical tools that might be good for dragon slaying.”
Without warning, the small Gnome man grew large fairy-like wings on his back, and then lowered the metal tube he had been holding close to his chest, “Ah, I see. Well then, follow me.” The Gnome turned and began leading the three men down the winding tunnels. “I’m Stibbledab, one of the guards for this place.”
“You… have something on your back.” Roklem said, stunned that the Gnome didn’t even react.
“Huh?” Stibbledab looked over his shoulder, and finally noticed his wings. “Oh, good; my legs were getting tired.” Without a second thought, he spread his wings, and floated above the ground.
“First you turn blue, and get those sparkly things, now he grows wings and doesn’t even bat an eye… what is going on here?” Zenith wondered.
“First time to Waterfall Caverns I take it?” Stibbledab asked.
“And hopefully last.” Kozim mumbled to low for anyone to hear.
“It is.” Roklem said.
“Well then, welcome. I should warn you, this whole section of town is full of wild magic, so don’t go casting spells without being willing to deal with the consequences.”
“So, if I were to use magic, what would happen? Does the type of magic effect it?”
“It’s called wild magic for a reason, we can’t predict what will happen. Sometimes, nothing happens, and no, the type of magic doesn’t affect the outcome.” Stibbledab explained.
After a minute of walking, and Kozim confirming that the effects are never permanent, Stibbledab led the men to the entrance of Waterfall Caverns. They came up to a large rope bridge, wide enough for even Kozim’s larger body to comfortably walk across, and finally entered the town. The town proper was well lit, enough that even Zenith could see clearly. Most of the light sources were luminous gems in the walls, and lanterns that used glowing moss rather than flames.
“Our lead developer is the person who takes the orders, she is just down the way a bit.” Stibbledab said and led them through town. The town itself was a maze of taverns separated by pits, and sudden elevations. To Zenith, Roklem, and Kozim, it looked as if they simply carved out homes and businesses into an already existing cavern. “Have you ever been in a Gnome city, dwarf?”
“No, but I had a friend who spent a few months in one. It looks exactly as he described.” Roklem said, looking around the parts of the town that he could see.
“How does it compare to one of you dwarven ‘strongholds’?” Stibbledab wondered.
“I wouldn’t know.” Roklem replied.
Stibbledab let out a gruff, “hmm. Would the three of you like a quick tour?” One by one, Zenith, Roklem, and Kozim agreed, each interested in seeing the town for one reason or another. As they walked, Stibbledab pointed out several places; one tavern, one blacksmith, one leather working shop, and one town inn. “Alright, this is the last place before we get to our lead developer’s, Doubleton’s, workshop.” He led them to a large hole in the side of the cave wall that opened up into a storage room filled with large barrels and winepresses. “This is our brewery. If you want to buy any wine, they open up at three chimes, tomorrow.”
“Three chimes?” Zenith asked.
“Our city clock. You can’t see it from here, but you can hear it through the whole town. It echoes pretty well down here as you can imagine.” Stibbledab looked around the area for a moment, and seemed confused. “Odd, there is more than there should be.”
“What do you mean?” Kozim asked.
“It looks like there is an extra barrel. It isn’t harvest time yet, is it?” He placed a hand on his wide bearded chin, then shook his head, “well, never mind that now. Here we are.” He pointed to a large iron door a few meters away, with a two Gnomes standing outside, pounding away on it.
“Your highness, let us in!” A female Gnome shouted.
“The angry one is who you’re looking for. Good luck with that.” Stibbledab said, and walked away.
Roklem walked up to the screaming Gnome woman. “Greetings, we are looking for Double-uh… the lead developer for the city.”
“Doubleton; Elise Doubleton. What do you want?” She asked.
“We were sent by the mayor of Canary Town to place an order for magical armor and weapons, as well as any tools we might be able to use in dragon slaying.”
“Hmm, I can take the order, but I’m afraid I can’t send you off with anything.” Doubleton turned to the large iron door again and resumed pounding on it. “Because our queen is holding us up!”
“I’m not coming out until that monster is dead!” A old woman’s voice cried out from behind the door.
“Crazy old woman!” Doubleton fumed and kicked the door.
“May we help?” Roklem offered.
“Only if you think you can talk our senile queen out of my workshop.”
“She mentioned a monster?” Zenith wondered.
“Yeah, she said she saw a monster eat a man whole, then it disappeared or something. Now she has gone and locked herself and the king inside my shop.”
“Is the king okay?” Kozim asked.
“Nobody’s heard a word from him since it happened. We’re starting to get worried.”
“Who’s out there?” The queen’s voice piped up again from behind the door. This time, a large sliding bar was pulled back, allowing everyone to see a wrinkled pair of eyes looking for the source of the new voices.
“Let me try something.” Roklem whispered, and touched the holy symbol around his neck. He began to channel magic through his words, and once he started to speak, everyone around him suddenly found themselves being magically put at ease. “Hello my queen.” Roklem said, his voice full of magical power.
“Who are you?” The queen asked.
“My name is Roklem Throk, and I heard that you had a monster problem.”
“Uh, yes! Yes! You should all try to get to safety, before it comes back. It can swallow people whole, and vanish without anyone the wiser!”
“Tell me more about this beast, if you don’t mind.” Roklem said.
“It… it killed one of our servants. It was pretending to be a table, and as soon as he got close, it just scarfed him up. As soon as I saw it, I ran and got my husband. But that old coot didn’t believe me! He thought I was going mad!” The queen yelled angrily.
“I see…” Roklem said. “Well my queen, there is no need to worry. Once word of this monster reach my team and I, we came running straight here. In fact, we’ve already slayed it!” With that, Roklem motioned for Kozim to come closer. Once he was close enough for the queen to see, Roklem pulled the manticore’s rotting head off of Kozim’s body, and held it up proudly to the queen. “Here is the proof.”
“I don’t know… it certainly is a monster, but it looks different.”
“Yes, when we fought the beast, it shapeshifted into this form and tried to maul us, but we were too strong for it.” Roklem lied.
“Really?” The queen started to believe Roklem’s deception, and began to open the door’s many locks. “Is this nightmare really over?”
“It is my queen. Good work; you saved the king’s life by locking yourselves in here.” Roklem said.
The queen began to cry tears of joy, and opened the door the rest of the way. “You… thank you brave heroes!” The queen shouted. “Doubleton, go inform the whole town, we are going to have a feast in honor of these brave heroes who have saved our town!”
Doubleton looked at the assistant on her right, “go do as the queen says. I need to make sure she didn’t break any of my devices.” With that, the Roklem pulled the queen aside to talk with her for a moment, Kozim and Zenith freed the king, who had been tied up to a chair, and Doubleton checked on her tools.
“That crazy old woman!” The king shouted as Zenith cut his ropes and Kozim healed his rope-burns. “I’ve been tied up here for a week! She only let me out of the chair to go to the bathroom, and she didn’t even untie me for that!”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Kozim asked.
“She came into the throne room screaming about some monster, and all kinds of other nonsense. When I didn’t believe her, she stunned me with a magical tool and dragged me here.”
After freeing the king, they brought him outside, and found several guards had arrived and were talking with the queen and Roklem. One of the guards came over, and talked with the king. “Are you alright, sire?”
“I’m fine. Just quite angry.”
“What shall we do with the queen?”
“Take her to the palace and keep an eye on her. I will summon a doctor to come and take a look at her.”
“And what of her punishment, sire?” The guard asked.
“I am not concerned about any punishments, only my wife’s sanity and health. Now go.” The king dismissed the guard, and escorted the queen to the city’s palace. “I suppose I should thank you three, for facilitating my escape. Is there anything I can do to repay you?”
“Money would be good.” Zenith said.
“Agreed.” Kozim nodded his head.
“Money is easy enough, and plentiful in my city. It shall be done.”
“It looks like she didn’t break anything.” Doubleton said, finally leaving her workshop. “But I think she used my stunner; it is all out of magical power.”
“If you mean the wretched device that rendered me unconscious, then I assure you she did.” The king huffed.
“Oh… how’d it work?” Doubleton asked, curious.
“Very well.” The king said, sounding annoyed, and Doubleton smiled proudly. With that, more guards showed up, and escorted the king away to go and have the doctor check up on him, and the queen.
“Well, thank you for the help, friends. I guess I can go ahead and take that order from you now.” Doubleton offered.
“Please, yes; finally.” Zenith said, relieved.
“We might need to hold off on that for a moment.” Roklem said.
“Why?” Kozim asked. “We solved the problem, freed the king, and even got the queen psychological help. What more is there?”
“When I talked to the queen, I asked her a bit more about that monster she saw.”
“So?”
“So, I don’t think she lost her mind; I think saw a mimic.” There was a long moment of silence as they each realized the situation.
“Okay, there might be a mimic somewhere in town. Can we prove it?” Doubleton asked, worried.
“Has anyone gone missing recently?” Zenith asked. Doubleton nodded her head. “Then with that, and what the queen saw, I think that’s all the proof we need.”
“We can’t start a panic over just that. We need evidence.” Doubleton said.
“What we need is to find the mimic, and kill it.” Kozim said.
“It was last seen a week ago, it could be anywhere in town by now.” Zenith pointed out.
“We should organize and evacuation. I’ll go-” Doubleton started to come up with a plan, but Kozim cut her off.
“There were too many barrels.”
