Dayel 07 04 06

Dayel sat watching the strange small men with their tame birds and buckets of water, musing over whether there was any point in attacking. There were a number of them... As he mused this over, he wondered whether this could be used more widely - with bigger birds, and if you took away the buckets of water, maybe more people could use birds to travel far faster than even on horseback... Nah, it would never work.
More than a little unsettled by these unearthly scenes, he backed away into the ravine, and safety.

Dayel began walking back towards the valley of the wreckage. As he moved carefully through the narrow pass, he noticed a small passageway leading off to one side that he had missed on the way in. Already unnerved, he looked anxiously around to see that no-one followed him, and slipped quickly and silently into the darkness.

Dayel waited a few moments for his eyes to adjust. He decided to use infravision, which although tiring, would save giving away his presence by using a torch. He saw the rough-hewn tunnel lead away under the mountain, and set off.

He walked steadily for more than an hour, passing openings on either side, but staying always in the wider main passage, knowing that this would be more likely to lead him to the centre of this maze. As he considered a short break, his keen ears picked up the distant noise of boots and voices. He moved into a side tunnel, well back, and waited as whatever was responsible for the sounds approached. As it got louder, he began to distinguish several voices, from seemingly different races, and soon a distant light began to glow.


The group was now close, and he realised that they were reciting and singing childrens' rhymes. As he wondered at the madness of making such a racket in unknown territory, he saw a party of adventurers pass by his hiding place.

First came a dwarf, wearing expensive armour and pushing itself along on a strange machine. It had two wheels, and a platform like a child's scooter, but was covered in armour plates and had the word "Stealth" emblazoned on the side in Dwarvish. The dwarf was yelling at the others "No, I am the leader of this party! If you want to come to my island, you have to do what I say...

Close behind came a human woman, who was telling the others to stay in proper marching order and stop being silly. She spoke in a barely intelligible dialect of Common, and he could just understand what she said “Reet, Stay in marching order leek we agreed, eh? And fingers, how many times do I have to tell you, dwarves can’t swim, so give up on your mythical island!”

Close behind her came a Bard, who was reciting poetry at the top of his voice – in shock, Dayel recognized the taller of the two humans who had bickered over the magical toy, this time clearly wearing the attire of a high level bard. “D is for dwarves who wish they could swim, E is for elves who are even more dim”.

“Hey, fuck off cunt, I resemble that!” came a shouted reply in Elvish, as a disheveled Elf woman came into view, a flask in one hand. Dayel was surprised at this un-Elvish behaviour, and wondered what further surprises were to move past. The elf weaved slightly, and her clothes were of practically cut leather, suggesting she was a thief. However, they were dirty and stained and she was clearly drunk. Her other arm was around a rangy human who was dressed in forest hues, and had a number of herbs hanging from his belt, suggesting he was a Ranger. He held a massive pipe, which he pulled on industriously, and a strange purple smoke rose from the end. Dayel could smell a foul and unnatural stench from his hiding place. “Hey, give us a go mushroom!” shouted the elf, reaching for the pipe. “Fuck off, get your own” came the slurred reply. “Come on, I give you a ram” shot back the elf. Dayel looked intently, but could see no livestock with the group.


Next came 2 human women, one shepherding along a group of children, also holding a small clear flask with “Gin” inscribed in it. She had a shawl with large religious symbols prominently displayed on it. “Oh, for fucks sake mex” she muttered in an exasperated tone, and then with a look if horror on her face, her hand over her mouth, she carefully looked around to see if anyone had noticed.

The other woman walked along not paying attention to the others, her arms folded tightly across her chest. She wore the outfit of a simple warrior, with a plain sword in her belt. She muttered also, her brow furrowed “I mean, how dare he call me a troll. There isn’t even any Orc blood in my family, even though we come from Pootria. He is such a cunt, I mean, what did I do to him? When I agreed to come along in this party, it was meant to be fun, but he just picks on me when I least expect it. I do as much as everyone else, and anyway, who died and made the fucking dwarf king…?” On she went, oblivious to all around her.

Last of all, padding along quietly, came the other of the two strange toy-fixated humans. He was barely taller than the dwarf, and still wore the unusual blue and white attire Dayel had earlier seen. He carried the magical toy triumphantly, making soft “choo choo” noises every now and then.

Dayel was too surprised to move, and stayed concealed as the noise and light moved off down the tunnel. Ah well, he thought to himself, they won’t last long acting like that… as he prepared to move away, he heard a furtive scuttling, growing louder. He shrank back, and saw to his horror a large group of kobolds, sniggering evilly and trailing the hapless party….