Kai Tsintah’s Letter to Yugao via Clockwork Pigeon
By Pippa Bushell
Dearest Yugao,
I hope that this message finds you well. Thank you, the pigeon was a great idea for us to communicate and I will try and update you on our progress as much as I can. I think it will be beneficial to my mental health to have some female contact, even if only by letter. I am surrounded by plague, death, and monsters and stuck with a group of innuendo spouting weapons of mass disruption—talking to their swords, trying to get their companions petrified, throwing axes at people—I swear if I hear one more line about “sword penetration,” I will loose off a few penetrations of my own.
There is now another woman in our merry band, but she is more of a cause for concern than comfort. A onetime “gaoler” of our mutual acquaintance joined us at Ebon Point, accompanying one of the troupe’s erstwhile lady travelling companions. I shall mention no names, as I do not know who at Thule may intercept this message, but I hope that you may deduce. Anything that you could find out about them from your side could be helpful to us on our mission, and I know how much you enjoy the intrigue. Do you think you could also provide me with some advice regarding Vallen? He’s getting a little bit worrisome of late.
Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, we found ourselves once again stumbling into the Gauntlet. It was, another new destination (I wonder how many there are?) and I don’t think you would have liked it much. A stone maze of tunnels, under two feet of water and riddled with traps, it would have ruined your nice boots. Now this is where the beginning of my concerns about Vallen are going to become apparent; he waited until we had already navigated through a considerable amount of said maze, triggered two traps, and were engaged in combat with some acid-glob-wraith-thing to decide to treat a wound sustained by Marcus before we even entered. Can it just be a simple matter of inattention to allow a companion to wade for ten minutes in thigh deep water with an arrow in his arse before helping?
I guess that if it was just a lack of empathy I could relate, but Vallen seems to be becoming worryingly inconsistent as well. Messing up badly on the simple stuff, but then acing some major arcana with hardly a complaint. He fluffed a straightforward bit of first aid getting the arrow out of Marcus, causing way more damage, but then later, somehow managed to… well, I’ll get to that. He also seemed to think that ripping a considerable hunk of flesh from his companion was worthy of humour (“There is no glory in that hole!”—seriously, they are children). Despite the distractions caused by Vallen and Marcus, Tavin and I dispatched the creature with a few well-placed grenades, with poor Tavin receiving a face full of the corrosive gel for his trouble and being partially blinded after an unsuccessful attempt to remove it in the water.
We decided at this point to put Elre in the lead. You know how Elre seems to have that knack for somehow knowing when something is about to go wrong? It certainly served him well in managing to avoid the next few traps (a battering ram and a falling ceiling), and the rest of us followed behind with no further injury. That is until Elre got a face full of leeches. They leapt from the water and struck at him, faster than we could remove them, causing Vallen to drop a fireball on him to burn them away. I was at first not sure if the fire damage was worth the result, that is until the leeches attacked again and again, one of them half blinding the flailing Elre. It took Vallen a while, and a few more leeches, before he convinced Elre to wade a little further into the corridor and allow himself to be covered in the blood suckers, before delivering the final fireball to destroy them. We had a few more close calls: a dragon carving that spewed fireballs (I dodged that one), a shrapnel barrage (Elre survived due to some tricky magic crafting by Adoril), and then an intriguing find.
Now, I am certain you are going to be interested in this one; it’s almost as good as that awful whip you are after. At the end of the next corridor we found a big metal statue. Upon requesting that Vallen check it for magical traps, instead he pulled out that old pickle jar we found—remember that one, with the little golden figurine in it? It became apparent that the figurine was a replica of the statue now before us. Vallen then proceeded to inspect it, and as he was circling, I may have accidentally nudged into him as I leaned in to take a closer look. He touched the figurine to the statue as he tried to halt his fall, and it awoke, transforming into a huge golem like creature constructed mainly of shields (see sketch).
In another example of how Vallen is becoming more unstable, he instructed the damned thing to slap me. Fortunately, I dodged out of the way, and after a few experiments, we determined that the silent creature will follow Vallen but seemingly does not have the intellect to really comply with anything other than the most basic of instructions. After seeing that the corridor behind the Shield Golem (which Vallen has decided to call Lloyd) was a dead end, we backtracked, only to find a portcullis gate now blocking our way. With the assistance of Lloyd, we hoisted it up to carry on our way.
Taking the lead for a while to allow Elre a well-deserved rest, I went ahead and stood on a caltrop. I know, rookie mistake, right? It was only a minor injury to my foot, and as I went to remove the offending item, I noticed a strange sticky substance had been smeared all over it. Although I feel that this was a ploy by whomever laid these traps to make their removal from flesh more difficult, it also enabled me to gather the rest of them quite quickly on my pole-sword, with no further harm to myself or anyone else. I have enclosed one of these along with my letter as I feel it may be of interest to you and the guys in Thule. If you can figure out what the sticky stuff is, it may come in useful.
As I had failed so miserably in my scouting, Elre again took point, but as he carefully peered around the next corner, he was turned to stone. A serious curse, no doubt, and one that we could not risk on anyone else, so we carefully pulled Elre away hoping that removing him from the proximity of the effect would allow for the magic to dissipate. Alas, Vallen confirmed that the change would be permanent unless he could successfully remove the curse, but that it would take an hour to do so. Although eager to continue, we could not leave our comrade behind in such a manner, so Vallen undertook this impressive task. Whilst we awaited the result, Adoril conceived of a magical way to check around the corner and informed us that the corridor contained only a carved relief of a Gorgon’s face, one that he described as being that of Medusa. I cannot decide at this point if I should be pleased that Vallens skills have improved so much or be worried by this, as indeed in the matter of just an hour, Elre was returned to his normal state. Having no memory of the previous events and asking what had happened, Marcus replied that he should take a look around the corner and find out. Tavin and I managed to stop him from doing so, but I feel that Marcus should find a way to curb this mischievous leaning of his before serious damage is caused.
After navigating our way around the final trap, with our usual mixture of skill and dumb luck, we found ourselves facing a large metal door with a wheel in the centre that upon opening, allowed us to enter a circular chamber. I was unsettled, to say the very least, to find that when I walked through the door I began to glow. A strange red aura surrounded me and matched a glowing orb placed on a pedestal in the centre of the room. Alongside this was a second pedestal with a blue orb and a blue glowing Marcus to match. On the wall behind each pedestal and facing each other, we saw depictions of Marcus and me, garbed and ready for battle. It seemed obvious at this point that as the considered instigators of the Gauntlet, Marcus and I would be expected to fight. Thinking we could get this over quickly, I placed my palm upon the red orb, only to be suddenly surrounded by utter darkness.
After a mere moment, and a feeling of sickeningly fast movement, the light returned, revealing our new and disturbing location. Trapped behind a wrought iron gate, I looked out over a wall encircled cemetery with a single large sarcophagus in the centre. I found Tavin and Adoril to my left and could only assume that they too had chosen to touch the red orb. Seeing Marcus, across the field in the distance, accompanied by Vallen (with Lloyd) and Elre, a growing sense of dread fell upon me with the realisation of what might now lay ahead. As I cast about, desperately looking for an escape and seeing only a gate in the distance to my right, a booming voice intoned overhead. “Members of the Gauntlet may not fight each other outside of the Gauntlet. Only one may leave. You have 1 minute to prepare.” My worst suspicions confirmed, I quickly asked Adoril if he could assist in increasing our speed. I feared that in a panic at our situation, one of the others may do something foolish and hoped that I could get to a gate and try to open it for our escape before a more dire fate befell us. Adoril confirmed that this was possible, and in our remaining preparation time, cast his spells. Upon the very moment that our countdown ended, the glass doors before us opened and without delay, I sprinted for the closest gate, only to find it locked and resistant to my attempts to force exit.
Resigning myself to the fact that another solution must be sought, I joined my companions in the centre of the field. We first attempted to open the sarcophagus, hoping on my part at least that this would reveal a hidden way out of this place. It soon became apparent that our strength was not equal to the task and that there may no way out other than by means of violence. We determined that perhaps the sinister glowing auras held the key, and if we could extinguish them, then this may lead to our escape. Marcus, in an impressive display of selflessness, volunteered to be knocked unconscious to test the theory. Feeling responsible for this entire mess, I did not have the heart to pass the onerous task to anyone else and took it upon myself.
I fear that this was not the correct choice. Being divided in my spirit by the wish to swiftly achieve the attempted goal but to cause the minimum amount of injury, my blows lacked the power required. I confess, I was unable to achieve the speedy result I had so desperately wanted, and my distress at this only weakened my resolve. Many blows were rained down upon my stoic compatriot and to my utter despair, when he finally succumbed to insensibility, that damned glowing light remained. In my growing state of depression, I was unable to act any further or to stop others from acting. I could only stand by and watch as Tavin choked the remaining life from our fallen companion.
My slight elation at the sight of that ominous blue glow disappearing from Marcus’s cooling corpse was swiftly replaced by wracking guilt at the realisation that this had not forced the appearance of the exit portal as I had hoped. It appeared to me that the only remaining solution to ensure the escape of my remaining companions was to extinguish my own light, and with that in mind, I withdrew the death grenade from my bandoleer with the intent of using it upon myself to spare anyone else this additional stain on their conscience. As I prepared to throw the vial at my feet, it was almost knocked from my grasp by an axe thrown by Elre. Shouting some obvious lie about trying to save my life, it was instead clear that he had taken the selfish decision to ensure my demise. My instincts, and to my shame I must admit a fit of ill temper, overtook my better nature ,and in swift and unthinking retaliation, I threw the grenade toward him. Weakened by the effects of the deathly vial, Elre still put forth a valiant defence, and with the aid of his new magical steed, charged towards me. After repeated strikes and retaliations, and with both of us now gravely wounded, my last sight before darkness took me was that of Tavin dealing a terrible blow to Elre and of Adoril, in the distance, disappearing in a blaze of fire, delivered, I could only assume, by Vallen.
So, at this point I think you must be assuming that as I am writing this missive to you, that a terrible fate was avoided. Alas dear friend, that is not the case. I shall not describe to you what happened immediately after my fight with Elre ended and I fell into the black. It is too much for me to convey, and I fear that I shall never have the strength or courage to speak of it. Suffice it to say that my next waking thought was of piercing light, and pain, and being dragged from a place of supreme darkness. I awoke to see Vallen above me accompanied by some of the elder women from the island. It was relayed to me what had occurred after I fell into unconsciousness, and I shall tell it to you in the same way. The fireball was indeed cast by Vallen and was of such scale that it dealt an immediate death to Adoril upon impact. Thus, with Elre out cold at his feet, Tavin was left to face Vallen alone. After a gallant effort, he soon realised, that his attempts to disable the mage were unlikely to succeed in part due to the protection offered by the shield golem; Lloyd. So, to bring the whole abhorrent situation to a swift closure, and at the entreaties of Vallen, Tavin embraced his death and sacrificed himself to Vallen’s next infernal sphere. Once alone on the field of combat, Vallen set to restoring Elre to health who then proceeded to ensure that all those who had touched the red orb were quickly despatched to the yáʼąąsh. With the deed complete, the exit portal appeared, and our surviving compatriots departed, taking the bodies and equipment of the fallen with them.
It is then that the truly wondrous and awful plan that Vallen had conceived came to fruition as over the following week, and with the assistance of the village elders, he resurrected our fallen allies. I can think of no other words to describe the depth and breadth of my concern over this remarkable series of events. I am, and shall forever remain, indebted to Vallen for his returning of my life, but I cannot help but look upon him with a newfound trepidation. He has not been able to explain to me why he did not choose to tell us of this new ability, and thereby avoiding altogether the anguish that we suffered in our battling of each other. Indeed, had he made us aware of this option, we could have proceeded to minimise the number of deaths required, not to mention the associated guilt. This episode, I am sure, is bound to offer far reaching consequences to the future of our company, and I can only hope that it has not forever damaged our trust in one another.
As we await the readiness of our vessel and the recovery of our party, I am taking the first small steps in rebuilding, offering training to Elre with his acrobatic skills and spending as much time as I can in kindly speaking with Vallen. However, these are small concessions, and if you have any insight into how I may reach through the distance that Vallen has grown around himself, I would be beyond grateful.
Yours in all hopes of a swift response. I remain, as always, your friend,
Kai
P. S. Remember that little bet you proposed? That I couldn’t convince someone to let me shoot them with one of those cool negation arrows? I shall expect the $10 you owe me by return pigeon. Should we say perhaps an extra dollar bonus be added, as he himself suggested that I hit him in the backside and very considerately dropped his breeches. I laughed so much I almost missed (and you know I never miss).
P. S. S. Oh, and for your future reference, even when both parties agree to it, an arrow wounding is enough to summon the Gauntlet.
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