Friday 30 June 2023

A Fistful of Baubles, Part 4: A Tarnished Soul


Marner
Hradji drummed his fingers on the tabletop, wondering why in Kord’s name he had agreed to meet with Marner’s mage. That was his name? Cinniúint. What sort of name was that, anyway? What good would come of it? He didn’t have need of a finger-wiggler. He had a skald’s lore at his disposal, and the wisdom of a Sister of Mercy.
Cinniúint is more than just a mage, Marner had said. He’s an adventurer.
What does that mean? Hradji had asked.
The world, Marner had answered, somewhat illusively, Hradji thought.
The door creaked open, revealing this Cinniúint—a Flan, for the love of Lendor! —, ushering in a breath of the storm sweeping up the coast. It smelled like home: the spray of brine, kelp washed up on the rocks, of fish, mollusks, oysters, clams, shrimp, and crabs. It smelled like the sulphurous conflagration of blue and green; and it smelled like those who dwelt within its confluence. Not like the weakling that washed in with it. He smelled like the dusty tombs and ink he carried.
Hradji shook his head. What worth could this Flan possibly have? Had they ever been a proud and valorous people? Some say they were, once. The crone swore by that notion. But in the songs of the skalds they had always been as weak as they were now. Why did they paint themselves, like that? Hradji wondered. And what did those runes and figures on their flesh mean?
Cinniúint
The mage offered his hand once he set aside of his burden. And withdrew it when Hradji did not acknowledge it. The mage sighed then, and sat. “I’ve taken the liberty to do a little research before our meeting,” he began.
“I didn’t ask you to,” Hradji said.
“Be that as it may,” the mage began before Hradji cut him off.
“It was their idea that we meet.”
“It was,” this Cinniúint said. “Alright,” he continued after a moment’s pause, “I understand your peoples’ prejudice regarding magi….”
“No, you do not.”
“Actually, I do; and better than you do, I imagine.”
Hradji crossed his arms. “Do you?”
“I do. You blame us for the Rain of Colourless Fire. And for the Fall.” The mage raised his arms as if to say, guilty as charged … whatever. “I also know that a certain Zelligar the Unknown rained death upon your people not so long ago. But shouldn’t you also hate anyone who wields steel then, too, considering how many of your kin Rogahn the Fearless slaughtered?
“Stupid descriptors,” Cinniúint pondered. “Unknown… Fearless… One imagines a less than learned scholar translated those from Old Oeridian; or from Suloise to Oeridian to Aerdian….” He shrugged. Whatever. “Magic is a tool to those who wield it. So too the channelling of divine will, and you don’t censure your Sisters of Mercy. Or hate them. Or your skalds, either. Or your forest rangers, for that matter. And they all practice one Art or another.”
A silence lingered between them.
“Now,” Cinniúint said, “I’ve taken the liberty to gather together what we know of Tostencha and the Griff Mountains.” Cinniúint glanced up at Hradji and recognised the Friztii’s confusion. “Shrellingshald …?”
The silence between them lingered. 

*** 

A cacophony filled the void’s absence.
What happened? What was that? Is Fridmund dead? Each frantic question hurled at Cinniúint entwined with another, and fell into another void, as Cinniúint seemed disinclined to answer any. His eyes darted from one dark corner to another. No new void was gathering. Indeed, the darkness that filled the void’s absence was a benign comfort in the wake of the horror that had passed.
“I don’t know,” he said once the questions abated. To which question, he did not say.
Hradji took hold of the mage; he shook him, he lifted him off his feet, and hammered him into a runic pillar. “Do something,” he shrieked at the mage. Hradji was wild with fright, fertile soil for the anger that grew within him.
Ylva cried, “Don’t,” pulling at Hradji, restraining the blow sure to follow; but Hradji was deaf to her plea.
“What would you have me do?” Cinniúint asked.
“Get Fridmund back!”
“From where?”
Hradji’s shriek deepened to a growl. “From where that … thing … took him.”
“And where is that? I detected no magic where the vortex was. It was no gate, no portal; it was nothing at all.”
Hradji dropped the mage, who fought to keep to his feet. “Then what good are you?”
Hradji remembered then how Cinniúint stared at Fridmund before they descended into the bowels of the temple. He recalled how Cinniúint shivered, and had not uttered a word of warning. “What did you see before we entered this place,” Hradji asked? “What did you … divine?”
“Nothing that I can describe.”
Hradji advanced on Cinniúint again, but stopped short when he sensed Scáthú’s presence in a nearby shadow. Hradji backed away, raising his axe. Use me!  invaded his mind. He had the thought of pressing the orb to the mage’s head, and incinerating him.
“Try.”
“I believe this is a temple venerating the Elder Elemental God.”
“What’s that?”
“An evil older than the eldest evil. Little is known about it. Nothing concrete, anyway. It may be older than creation, itself.”
“And that took Fridmund?”
“I think so.”
“Why?”
“I do not know.”
“You knew; and yet you said nothing.”
“I felt fear and horror when I read the cards. Mine, yours, Fridmund’s, everyone’s. Of what could I have warned us?”
Hradji gripped the agate, listening to its murmur. The mage covets me. Use me. Collect us all.
“Collect the other baubles,” he commanded.
Gunnar’s eyes darted from Hradji to the others in turn, before his gaze settled on Hradji again.
Hradji did not break sight with Cinniúint and Scáthú. “Don’t touch the black alter, and you’ll be safe.” Gunnar was not convinced of Hradji’s certainty.
“Leave them,” Cinniúint begged.
“I will not leave here empty-handed.”
A glance from Hradji set Gunnar to his task. He approached the first with caution. Nudged it with a toe, and then a gloved finger before daring to lift it to inspection. It was cold to the touch, a simple stone. It did not become the golden globe he worried would deal death by touch. He gathered the rest, each making its way into a pack. And gave it to Hradji, as bid.
“Nothing can be done for Fridmund?”
Cinniúint shook his head.
The passage out...
“Then let’s be rid of this place.” Hradji pointed at Scáthú. “You lead.” Then to Angnar and Runolf. “And you keep watch on the
älva.” 1
The passage out was swift. And silent. None spoke. Each was lost in their thoughts. Each strained to hear what might lurk in the darkness, wary that more of the Sons of Kyuss or some other horror might spill out from every echoing chamber, from behind every blind corner. None did.
Did this Keraptis create them, Hradji wondered.
…and they waste away, to this very day, the crone had said, before cackling her pleasure at presumably having foreseen his and their deaths. She would pay for her silence, Hradji vowed. The mage too, he decided.
Day had dawned upon their crawling out of the temple’s depths. Brightly. Dazzlingly. Hradji had to shield his eyes to the glare, regardless that its radiance was muted by the temple’s tarnished magnificence. Even so, they stumbled about in the dull glare, and despite their care, their exit echoed as piercingly as had their entrance, the scattered kaleidoscope of shattered glass crackling underfoot. If the temple had been bright, the courtyard was truly blinding. And as blessedly vacant as before. The snow scintillated without the earlier windswept clouds to dampen its ghastly brilliance. The air was still. Silent. Casting a portentous shroud of warning over the court.
The air was still. Silent.
Scáthú stepped out into the blaze, his eyes casting from the undisturbed expanse of snow to any and all rooftops that might harbour danger above. Angnar and Runolf followed, their bows strung, their senses taut. A moment later, the rest followed. Quietly. Sullenly. As dourly as from if a funeral. It’s grief, Hradji reasoned. It’s the press of horror upon the memory of Fridmund’s end. Gripped, bleached, gossamer, and snapped out of existence.
I pray he’s dead, Hradji, thought. Please, Wee Jas, if you have any power in that netherworld the boy was snatched to, kill him quick, if he isn’t dead already. Please. But before they could find their way into the safety of the outward radiating warrens, a slate tile shattered in the distance, its breaking resounding ominously, unto renewed silence.
Shattered by a screech. One. Another. A sudden discordance of them.
A whirl of arrow shafts cut though the discordance. Scáthú ducked under the volley and sprang for the enclosure ahead. Until a kobold, then two, then ten, then a score more burst out of the radiating streets, from the gaping wounds of the surrounding blackened buildings. There seemed no end to them.
Kobolds!
“Kobolds!” Angnar yelled, before releasing an arrow at the leading edge of their rushing mass. Another fell to Scáthú’s blade before he was forced to retreat. Angnar and Runolf each released another arrow before the two drew their blades to meet the rush.
Hraji took no note of what Cinniúint and Ylva intoned, rushing to aide his soon to be hard-pressed kin, Gunnar close on his heels. It was then that Hradji spied the gigantic kobold, who had led that ill-fated attack on his people, leading the fray. The kobold bellowed its rage, the same bellow that had almost lured Hradji to his death upon the trail. It howled; it bayed. It flourished its spear above its head and clashed it against the scaley shield it brandished. Hradji hurled his small axe at it, only to see it ricochet off the seemingly flimsy defense without any perceptible effect.
Hradji roared and rushed it. It rushed at him, and sidestepped Hradji’s hastily swung axe with ease. It ducked beneath his return swing and stabbed at him, and backed away, discovering in panic, that the press of its clan had cut off its escape. Its eyes widened as Hradji hued down on its lesser height. Hradji expected his axe to cleave the leathern shield with ease. Only it didn’t. It rebounded. And the impact numbed his grip, causing the axe to spiral away. The kobold barked laughter. Oh no, you don’t, Hradi seethed as he threw himself on the shield and the kobold under it, satisfied by the bleat flattened beneath it. He drew his poniard, and thrust it under the leather frame. It kicked. And flailed. But it could not throw Hradji, who stabbed under the oval frame repeatedly, until it bucked and flailed no more. It was Hradji’s turn to laugh as he pulled the leather-wrapped frame from the dragon dog’s arm, surprised that it did not tear from its body from the strain. He used it to beat back the press. Before long, they were too beaten by it to approach again.
Hradji held the shield and poniard wide, begging them to try to kill him. When they did not, he retrieved his axe, and stepped towards the craven beasts.
“Come and play,” he whispered.
But before he could take another the oerth shook beneath his feet. A thunderous roar followed. The kobolds tittered, and scattered, their chittering laughter lingering even after they had clambered back into the buildings from which they had only just boiled.
Hradji turned to meet the next thunderous roar, into a resounding flap of wing, like canvas taken by the wind. A moment later, an enormous blue-white shape resolved out of the sunlight and lit atop the temple’s dome, where it glared and blew icy torrents about its reptilian head. Its wings beat at the air, stirring the once placid court into whirls of snow, each flap punctuated by the barbed tips of its leathery wings, each rush suffused with the smell of snow and ice and the taint of carrion. It flung its head higher than the spire it curled around, and shrilled into the heavens.
“Fuck me,” Hradji breathed.
He might have heard a whisper enticing him to: Use me, but if he did, he was deaf to it as the dragon stretched its wings to their fullest, draping the court in shadow.
It leapt.
They scattered, each to the closest cover they could find.
But as Hradji looked left and right, he knew all too well that he could never find shelter before the drake was upon him. If he ran, he was sure to be crushed, or impaled, or played with as a cat might a mouse before the slaughter; but if he closed with the descending behemoth, it just might overshoot him. Or so he hoped. Kord hates a coward, he reasoned, as he leapt forward, convinced that this was the biggest mistake he had ever made in his life. And his last. Arrows flew at the dragon as it plummeted, each deflected and snapped, not one able to find any weakness it its scaley hide. Hradji knew, even as he began, that he would not succeed. The dragon dropped too quickly and would soon land before him, if not atop him. So be it! He raised the kobold’s scaley shield and prepared to spend his life in the futile hope that his axe would do what the barrage of arrows had yet to accomplish.
A hot, blistering cackle of lightning flew up at the drake, engulfing it, and the monstrous lizard shrieked. It twisted in agony, it crumpled in on itself. It no longer flew unerringly at the doomed Hradji; but fell like the weight it was without its wings darkening the court below its path, its impact shaking the oerth and showering the then levelled Hradji in a blizzard of blinding snow.
Hradji rose and prepared to meet his fate when the burley Gunnar swept past his thane and battered the prostrate beast with his sword. It clanged as it bounced from the dragon’s hide, its rebound carrying the brave swordsman back from the stirring white horror. He and Hradji were thrown further back when the White pummelled them aside with its forelimb, tumbling them hard across the cracked and broken cobblestones. Hradji decided then that Kord had no use for the foolhardy, either. He gripped Gunnar by the cloak and hauled his kinsman up and back towards the temple gate, their only hope of shelter when he realised that the enormous beast was inhaling. Hradji grasped that that inrush of air could only mean one thing: It was going to blow such cold on them as they had never known!
“C’mon,” he screamed! “Run!” And he did. They did. For their very lives. For naught, Hradji believed. The temple appeared a lifetime away, no matter their haste. The cobbles were slick with hoarfrost, their traction unsure. And with the White so close, the very air sapped their strength, exhausting them. Gunnar’s hard breath laboured next to his, his heavy step skating as franticly as his own.
A blast of the White’s bellows...
Hradji looked back over his shoulder as he heard the blast of the White’s bellows release. He threw the kobold’s shield above him, purely by instinct as the dazzling cone of ice descended, unabated by the column of fire that suddenly alit upon the dragon’s considerable bulk. Gunnar heard the beast’s release as well, and he too cast a desperate, doomed glance back up and into the descending torrent of ice. He might have shrieked, would have shrieked, but it caught him full in the face, lacquering him with layer upon layer of deathly rime. His dropped his sword, he raised his arms, but they afforded him no relief. He fell back, a white sculpture that clattered to the ground, mere feet from the wall that might have saved him. Hradji was far more fortunate. That supposed flimsy shield somehow deflected the torrent, sparing him Gunnar’s fate. But not entirely. His limbs stiffed, slowed, curled in on his self. He struggled up the final steps to the temple.
Deafened by the roar that chased him through the cavernous arch, Hradji managed to take a few final steps before collapsing to the tiled floor of a vast domed chamber amid a cacophony of coloured glass. The ground shook as though struck by Jascar’s Hammer, far in excess of the clatter of his axe as it rang upon the shards of glass and the mosaic beneath it. A rush of ice crystals sparkled the arctic air around him. His heavy breath added to it, its issue devoid of heat even as it blew from him.
Got to keep moving, he thought, as he dragged his numbed self further into the vault, scraping and grinding the shards of glass under him. It took immense effort, but his legs slowly found pliable strength as sensation returned. He could feel the cold sweat on his skin, winter’s sting piercing his nose and his fingers.
The Haze of Ice and Snow
That fucking crone,
he seethed. That bitch! He recalled her wry smile. Her cackling laugh. She must have known it was here! But she had not said a thing.
Fool, the whispers erupted. Did you think steel could save you?, they scolded. Release us, they commanded.
Hradji fumbled with the pack, his fingers indifferent to his command. Finally, after an eternity that was but a few seconds, the baubles of onyx and agate and jade spilled out, but instead of rolling free amid the cacophony of scattered glass, the now golden orbs took flight, and spun about him, their orbit as measured and graceful as those of Luna and Celene. He was suffused with invulnerability and power. The drake, fearsome a moment before, appeared a trifle then.
Hradji stood and bewilderingly staggered back whence he came and perceived the chaos that reigned in the courtyard below. Vatun must surely have taken a hand, His radiance shimmering the haze of ice and snow that swirled throughout with abandon, aiding his kin in their desperate fight, hiding them from the White’s fury. The White was powerful, indeed, though, despite His favour. It spun and clawed at the gnats that pestered it. It snapped, it bit. It tumbled the twins with buffeting wing. And Ylva would surely have been called to Wee Jas’ side as she rushed to the felled Scáthú’s aide had the Flan not blistered the wyrm with another blinding bolt of lightning. It reared; its serpentine neck poised to pounce.
“What shall ye risk?” the crone had whispered to him. “For fate is fickle,” she had said.
Repeat my word, a whisper commanded. And he did. And the wyrm froze. It writhed in utmost agony, shuddered by that very Word. In the wake of that Word, its head spun to face his. Hradji saw fear in its eyes. And then unequalled fury. It screamed! It screeched! It inhaled as it unfurled its vast span of wing and lunged towards him.
Fuck fate, he felt! And fuck you, too, he fumed, cursing the crone, the dragon, and anyone else who thought they could stand against him.
Repeat my wordanother whisper commanded. And he did. The White writhed in flight. It crumpled. And fell. Its eyes remained fixed upon Hradji’s despite their lack of radiance. Hradji knew that it was dead, that it had felled by the Word. A smile cracked Hradji’s frozen face.
Snow settled. Silence reigned.
Ylva staggered around the then still White, cold with disbelief. Then the twins. Runolf actually prodded the beast, to what end, even he could not imagine, judging the shock that glazed his eyes. Cinniúint was more cautious than the others, more wary, Hradji noted; but the Flan’s scrutiny was not directed at the dragon, but at him, and the golden orbs that continued to revolve around him. Scáthú was even more wary. Hradji believed he recognised murder in the olve’s eyes.
Good, Hradji thought, let them be wary. They have need to be. 

*** 

They will come for the orbs, Hradji understood. They covet them, he knew, every one of them. Especially the mage. He was jealous of Hradji’s newfound power. Of his artifacts. He was feeble without them, and he knew it, and he would have them. The orbs had told Hradji so. He would have to deal with the Flan and his pet älva before too long; soon, he realised. Before they reached basecamp, perhaps. Ylva would surely intervene, and she would have to suffer the same fate as her lover for her betrayal. That was unfortunate. The twins would protest afterwards, he knew, but they would come to understand, in time. It was for the good of the clan.
The Morning Woods
But he was spared the pleasure. When he woke the next morning, the others were gone. The only evidence that they had bedded down the night before was their indents in the snow where they had lain. The fire crackled, silently. Deathly silently. The embers snapped and spiraled up amid the rising smoke, but without any sound at all.
Fucking magic, Hradji fumed. Fucking coward, stealing away like that.
Hradji panicked. The mage would not have just stole away; he’d have stolen the prize! Hradji snatched at the pack that had lain tucked beside him and tore at the ties, sure that the slippery elf had been at it while he slept. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the onyx and agate and jade baubles jumble within.
Hradji stood and scrutinised the surrounding woods. He spied their tracks. They had been in such a hurry to escape that they had not even bothered to cover them. Not this close to camp, anyway. Hradji knew they would disappear a short distance away, which they did, despite the stillness of the air, or that there had been no snow in the night. That was Angnar and Runolf’s doing, most likely. Hradji heard the crunch of snow beneath his feet shortly after crossing the treeline.
“You’d better run,” he bellowed into the woods, regardless his belief that they were hours away.
Traitors!
“I’ll get you. I’ll get you all!”
What would he tell the host at basecamp? That they had died. All of them. That was easiest. That they were heroes to the cause. He also understood that he should never tell of what they found in the depths of that dark temple. They would surely covet his prize, just at the others had. And he had need of them if he were to survive the trek out of the Griffs.
No, he realised, palming his prize, his fistful of baubles. He would survive, so long as he had his orbs at hand.

***

Her eyes clear and intent...
“Good,” the crone said as she leaned back out of her scrying smoke, her voice strong, her back straight and firm, her eyes clear and intent. “Very good, indeed.”
After all this time, she would finally gain Keraptis’ Crown, and be rid of this stinking hole. The Crown would abandon Hradji as surely as they had betrayed every other fool who presumed to wield them since they had revolved around their King’s noble head, unwilling to serve anyone less worthy than their original master, their creator. They would serve her, of course. Indeed, they would.
The fool would resist her; but that was of no never mind. His would be a futile struggle. Her tongue slid across her lips in anticipation. Tarnished souls were the most savoury.
She heard a tentative tap upon her door. A cautious tap. A nervous rap.
“Baba,” the youth quavered. “Are you there, Baba?”
“Come in, dear,” she rasped, her back bent again, her vision seemingly sightless.


The End.
 

1.  älva.” Elf




Special thanks to Kristoph Nolen of Greyhawk Online and the Oerth Journal, who reached out to me to submit something to the Journal. If he had not, this piece might not/would not have been written.
It will see the light of day in Oerth Journal #37 when published, and will be found there, forevermore. I encourage you to download the issue, and many more, as the articles within are written by fans of the Greyhawk setting for fans to savour and use as they see fit.


The Art:
The Haze of Ice and Snow, by Jeff Easley (?), from Wilderness Survival Guide, 1986

Copyright:
This is a work of fiction, penned by myself, set in the world of Greyhawk.
It is not to be copied or reprinted without the author’s permission.


Sources:
2023 Greyhawk Adventures Hardback, 1988
1015 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set, 1983
9025 World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980
11743 Living Greyhawk Gazeteer, 2000
2010 Players Handbook, 1st Ed., 1978
Players Handbook, 5th Ed., 2014
Monster Manual, 1st Ed.. 1978
Monster Manual, 5th Ed., 2014
2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1st Ed., 1979
9016 G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, 1979
9027 S2 White Plume Mountain, 1981
9058 G123 Against the Giants, 1980
9033 Return to White Plume Mountain, 1980,1981

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