choose your own adventure, episode 12a

KNIGHT SWORD, EPISODE 12A

“Let’s find Caius,” you tell Dietrich. “There’s a rebel with him, a man named Mourner. If we can convince them to help us, we can fight past your father’s thugs.”

Dietrich nods. “Makes sense. Lead on.”

“They’re in the passage under the Ghost Boar Inn,” you say. “I’m not sure how to get back. I…got lost.”

“I know the way,” says Dietrich, lifting his torch. “My father had me help him smuggle finished pieces in and out of the town. This way.”

He leads you on a circuitous route, no doubt to avoid Donald’s thugs.

A short time later you hear Mourner’s voice.

“You damned fool!” he says. “You scared her off!”

“Me?” said Caius, voice shaking with fury. “You with your fool talk of killing us! You lost the soulblade! For twenty years Jerome and I hid that sword from the Blood Queen and her Ravens, waiting for the day when the Paladins would return, and you…”

You step into the passageway, Dietrich at your side, and both Mourner and Caius fall silent.

“You damned foolish girl!” says Caius, stalking towards you. He is trembling with anger, his face so red you wonder if he’s about to have a stroke. “I have devoted my life to guarding that sword, since before you were born, and you take it into that empty head of yours to…”

Dietrich frowns.

An instant later Caius is flat on his back, wheezing, while Dietrich grunts and flexes his fist.

“She is my betrothed,” Dietrich announces. “You should really speak more respectfully to her, sir.”

Mourner bursts out laughing. “Oh, we should, should we?”

“And you too, sir,” says Dietrich. “You look like a dangerous sort, but only if you can get that sword out of its scabbard faster than I can punch.”

Caius manages to sit up, still wheezing.

“He’s right,” you say, voice low. “Ulmoch and his orcs want to kill us all and take the sword. We must work together, or Ulmoch will take us while we squabble. Let us agree to first take the sword to Curtwall’s farm. We can decide where to take it from there. Is that acceptable?”

Mourner considers, then gives a nod. Caius staggers to his feet.

“Damn it, boy,” he mumbles. “Where’d you learn to hit like that?

“No different than working iron, sir,” says Dietrich.

Caius grunts. “So. If we’re to cooperate, how shall we get out of these tunnels?”

“I know the exit,” says Dietrich. “But my father is an informer for the Ravens. He’s sent some thugs to guard the way out of the tunnels.”

“Then we’ll just have to deal with them,” says Mourner. “Lead on.”

Dietrich does, and soon you come to a stone gallery with a flight of stairs spiraling to the ceiling. Four rough-looking men are waiting there, but they’re no match for Dietrich and Mourner. Even old Caius wields a short sword with considerable skill.

Once the thugs are unconscious or dead, you follow the men up the stairs.

Into the darkened hills, outside of Moridun.

Outside the walls.

You shiver. There are many dangerous things that prowl the hills of Moridun, especially at night. Tribes of wild orcs sometimes raid the villages, seeking easy prey. Giants come down from the mountains, looking for slaves. And sometimes darker things come from the Haunted Lands, on the other side of the mountains.

You remember your father’s scream of pain, you remember Ulmoch’s sulfurous yellow eyes, and shiver.

There can’t be anything worse than him loose in the hills.

“Which way to Curtwall’s farm?” says Mourner.

Caius points. “There’s three ways. The main road from Sigildun, but that Night Raven might have left some of his pet orcs to block it. We could cut through the woods, but wild orcs and bandits like to camp there. Or we could take a shortcut through the old graveyards. But no one’s been through there since the Blood Queen outlawed the Church of the High God.”

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