So the three of us left first thing in the morning. Once more, Wraith had to kiss his entourage goodbye again. He donned his signature Arabian Knights getup, and we took off together towards Tolly’s house.
“Question,” said Wraith, “what do you know about this Brasshaven place?”
“Well, it’s a steampunk fantasy world…”
He interrupted me, “Hmm, steampunk. You know there’s probably gonna be a giant
robotic spider, right?”
“Well, that’s a bit presumptuous.”
“Did your fathers notes mention one?”
“No,” I huffed.
“Then somebody's working on one.”
I just shook off his comments and changed the subject. I wondered how Emily was fairing. This would be her second day in that world. She could handle herself, but I was still worried.
Finally, after a trek across the desert, through the plains, and into the mountains, we reached Tolly’s house. The three of us dismounted our pack animals but I approached the house first. The door flung open and the fiery lumberjack of a scotsman came out,
“Just what do you think ye are doing back here?! Surely you don’t think I’ll just pick back up yer trainin now do ya? I’ll be havin none of it!”
“No, no, relax, Tolly! I just came to ask a question.”
“Oh,” He said, as he calmed down and looked disappointed.
“I remember you told me about a magical item that was imbued with divine magic a long time ago. What was it called?”
“Aye. The Rod of Resuscitation. It’s the closest thing a non-cleric can have to a
Resurrection spell. But it has to be used on the victim…”
“...By the end of the current lunar cycle,” I interrupted him, “yeah, I remember. But I was wondering. Do you know where we can go to retrieve it?”
“Well sure I do. It’s on the Isle of Bard’s Tomb in the South Sea.”
“How long would it take us to get there from here?”
“Oh, I’d say maybe two or three days. You’ll have to charter a ship. The nearest port is more than a day's ride from here.”
I counted in my head. This was going to be extremely close. We had nine days left until Anabel and Stephanie’s fates were sealed. It would take us three days to get there and probably at least a day to find the rod, assuming we even could. Then three more days to get back to the spring. Any trouble at all and we could lose a day at best.
“Thanks for everything, Tolly. We’ll be on our way now.”
“Just hold it there for a moment Mr. Noble,” he said, as he stopped me from leaving,
“aren’t you going to introduce me to your comrades?”
“Yeah, I suppose that was a bit rude of me. This is my long time friend Wraith. And the lass here is Arduwan.”
“Jumpin Jahorsefat! You mean to tell me that this is Arduwan the Barbarian Princess?!” he exclaimed.
“Yeah. That’s me,” she replied with a big smile.
“By golly! Your father and I used to do battle…long ago. Before you were born.”
Okay, this was awkward. He seemed almost happy about that revelation. But I can’t imagine anyone being happy about meeting the daughter of their former opponent. “Oh?” she asked, “was it from the days of Vale raids?” Ah! Arduwan was being awfully casual about this too.
“Yes! ‘Twas. Long ago, before the current diplomatic layout, the kingdom of Vale hired anyone who could cast a spell or swing an axe to fight the barbarians. Luckily, I could do both! I fought your father personally on several occasions. How’s he doing?”
“He’s great! Well, he got turned to stone for a few years. But that was my fault. Not that he turned to stone in the first place, but that he stayed like that for so long.”
“Oh, oh I see,” Tolly nodded along.
What the hell? Why was this such a relaxed conversation? Curiosity was getting the best of me.
“Umm, sorry to interrupt. But doesn’t that make you two enemies?” I asked.
“Now, now Mr. Noble. That was a long time ago. Besides, I’ve got my own qualms with the Kingdom of Vale. There’s a reason I live out here, north of the Grasslands now.”
“Yeah, I don’t hold anything against him, Eric,” Arduwan added.
“Well, alright. Just seems a bit radical to go from killing each other to friendly conversation with your former enemy’s family,” I noted.
“Hahaha! Welcome to Callist, lad,” he joked.
I didn’t find it funny. This place was freakin’ brutal!
“Well, you should probably be getting on yer way now. Don’t want the clock to run out on your friend's death now do ya? Oh, by the way, have ya at least been keeping up with your magic, son?”
“Actually, I’ve had several opportunities to use it since I left here.”
“Splendid! That’s what I wanted to hear, my boy. Okay, okay, away with ye now.”
He shuffled us along so that we could make haste to the nearest port south of us. As we rode on into the plains, I noticed that Wraith was particularly quiet. It was unusual.
“Hey, man. You good? You’ve been quiet since we were at Tolly’s place.”
“Yeah. I’m fine. It’s just…the Rod of Resuscitation. That sounds familiar. I feel like there’s something about it that Tolly may not have realized. It’s bugging me.”
“Oh, you’ve heard about it?”
“Not here. Not in Callist. I swear it’s from a game I’ve played before. Probably not a big deal. But it’s bugging me.”
* * *
The next couple of days flew by. To be fair, we were one track minded. Get to the port, hire a boat, and check out the Isle of Bard’s Tomb. Thankfully, Wraith covered the cost of our ship. We opted to hire a small Schooner so that we could get there in optimal time. With a small crew of only eight men, it made it easier to convince them to wait for us while we were on the island. The last thing we needed was to get deserted on top of all our other problems.
The men on the ship were practically drooling over Arduwan. It wasn’t uncommon for men of the sea to lust after fair maidens. But I wasn’t worried about her at all. She could annihilate everyone on this ship, including me and Wraith if she wanted to.
The day finally came when we reached the island. It was a lot smaller than I expected. You could see a large stone structure covering most of the land. It must’ve been the Tomb.
A.K.A. the dungeon we needed to get through in order to get the rod. I had asked the ship's captain what he could tell me about the island. The only thing he said was that it was cursed. Because of course it was.
The crew agreed to wait twenty-four hours for us. They didn’t want to get too close, you know, because of the curse, so they tread water just a few dozen yards offshore. Wraith, Arduwan, and I swam to the beach.
“Well, what do we do now?” Arduwan asked.
The three of us just stood there looking ahead towards the little bit of jungle between us and the stone structure. It was such a short distance that we could even see the wall from the beach.
“I guess we just walk on up and see if we can find a way in,” I answered.
We started to make our way towards the stone building, stepping into the brush along the way. Wraith had his plasma rifle ready. He was keeping an eye out for anything that might try to ambush us.
Without much fanfare we reached the wall. But it was just a solid stone wall. Nothing to even grab onto to climb up. I’m sure Wraith could scale it if he wanted to though. But there really didn’t seem like a point yet.
We chose to walk to the right and just follow the wall until something seemed different. I estimate we walked just over a half an hour before we got bored of that.
“Guys, I’m worried,” I said, “what if we follow this thing all the way around and we just end up back where we started?”
“That’s nonsense, Eric,” Wraith assured, “we’re bound to eventually find a way in.”
Just as he said that, the ground opened up below him and he fell into the abyss. Arduwan and I leapt backwards just in time. On my hands and knees, I scuttled over to the square shaped hole in the ground where he fell and started yelling for him. “Wraith! Wraith! Wraith!”
We waited a moment for a response. Finally, he shouted back. “I’m okay guys. It’s not that deep. It’s just dark. I can see you from here.” “Well, we can’t see you,” I said, reinforcing just how dark it was.
“Here. I can toss my grappling hook up. One of you secures it to a tree and you can make your way down. We can come back up this way later. I see a tunnel leading into the tomb.”
Arduwan grabbed the hook and tied it to the trunk of a sturdy looking tree. She lowered her bottom half into the hole and had me climb onto her back. Once I was firmly fixed in place, she started to repel us down.
Pretty soon we were on the ground with Wraith. Just enough light came down that we could see each other. But the tunnel was pitch black ahead. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our headlamps with us.
“Now what?” Arduwan asked, clearly afraid to go down the tunnel.
“I’ve got an idea,” Wraith said, as he unshouldered his plasma rifle.
He took aim and let off a five second burst into the tunnel.
“What the hell? What did you do that for?!” I scolded him.
“I mean, if anything was about to get us, surely I hit it right?”
I grit my teeth and smacked the barrel of the rifle down then said, “if anything down there is about to get us then you just ensured they would.”
He just shrugged his shoulders in response. But he did give me an idea. I gathered some nearby brush and made a makeshift torch with one of my arrows. I then fixed it to my shortbow and used Ignite to light it up. Then I sent the arrow flying down the tunnel to give us a point of interest to walk towards. It gave a little light in the area ahead we couldn’t see and would warn us if anything was coming our way from that direction.
We walked about thirty feet which put us a little over halfway to where the arrow landed. Arduwan kept her sword at the ready and walked on my right side while Wraith did the same on my left with his scimitar. I kept another arrow notched up and ready with it pointed ahead of me.
We realized that just beyond where the fiery arrow laid was a three-way split in the tunnel. We could continue straight or we could move left or right.
Arduwan said with a quivering voice, “which way should we go, Eric?”
“Since we’re a little pressed for time, the sooner we find the Rod and get out of here the better. So I say we each take a different tunnel.”
“Ha! Never split the party,” Wraith admonished.
“Err, you’re the one who took off up the wall at Davol’s place!”
“Oh yeah,” he recollected before suggesting, “well, let’s at least only pick two paths that way we’re not spread too thin. If the one of us that’s alone runs into something crazy, we can run back to this point and shout for the others. I vote that it’s you, Eric. Arduwan, you and I can take this tunnel.”
“What? Oh no, you’re not taking my Barbarian life debt bodyguard with you. We’re either splitting three ways or she’s coming with me,” I stated.
“I’m sorry, Sir Wraith. But I really must stay with Eric.”
“Oh…well then. Which direction will you be going in?” he asked, admitting defeat.
“We’ll continue straight on this path. You pick either the right or the left. Then you can follow that plan of yours, of running and screaming back to this spot when something comes after you.”
“Okay, I choose left then.”
“Fine.”
Geez. Glad that was over. Now we could figure this place out and get out of here. I sent another fiery arrow down the tunnel ahead. This time I didn’t need to use Ignite though because I was able to light up another using the remaining flame from the first arrow. Wraith disappeared into the darkness of the left path.
