Chapter 159: 9.2 – Secrets of Tarin-Tiran

Robin sent Rerebos ahead to scout. The little dragon slipped into the shadows, then went invisible for good measure. Ruprecht was held back from advancing into the target room proper by the presence of another team of adventurers. Robin had a sneaking suspicion who Rerebos might see if he got close enough and his stomach jumped off a cliff into a bottomless chasm when it was confirmed.

Gis. The evil old man was here, with bodyguards and backup no less! They were ransacking the place! Tearing it apart in search of something.

Don’t get too close! Robin sent to Rerebos as Gis’s eyes suddenly pierced the shadows where the little dragon was hiding. He has some kind of familiar in his head. I’m not sure how much it sees, but it can sense lies.

I will rip the pretender from the foul priest’s skull and claim its skull as my rightful spoils of victory!

Robin sensed a wave of hatred emanating from his familiar. Not that he didn’t agree, but he was a bit surprised at the depth and quality of Rerebos’s ire. He could sense that part of it was a dislike for what the priest and his snake stood for, but the larger share was for how Gis had harried Robin in the past.

Which was a bit touching, as most of those bad memories were formed before Robin had summoned his familiar.

‘What do you see?’ Jhess whispered.

Robin recounted what he saw through Rerebos’s eyes. Then, after a moment, he added what context he could.

‘Gis is a priest of Urkhan. When last I saw him I’d recently pissed him off quite a bit, after ruining him and his god’s plans to take over a local keep. He has a snake that lives in his left eye socket—‘

‘Seriously?’ Jhess looked green. ‘That’s disgusting.’

‘It fits his personality,’ Robin observed drily. ‘It also has some ability to magically sense lies—‘

‘I’ m sure that was fun for you,’ Vance said with a smile.

‘Can we be serious, please?’ Drev pleaded. ‘We’ve got enemies on all sides, including a dungeon that wants to eat us!’

I assure you I have better taste than that.

Robin hid his grin.

‘He’s a devout follower of Urkhan, and that he’s survived Basgar’s failure at the keep says how much his god values him.’

‘He’s very dangerous,’ Savra said slowly. ‘I cannot see much around him, but his connection to the one her serves is incredibly strong. He may even have risen to disciplehood, if he did not have it when last you met.’

‘I don’t think he did, but I can;’t say for sure.’ Robin shook his head. ‘I don’t know enough about it to be certain, but he does have more of an aura around him, now.’ Robin glanced again through Rerebos’s eyes. ‘Yeah. There is an extra gravitas to him now, a feeling of iron. He’s definitely more powerful. And before he was taking all the orders. Now he’s giving them. Something’s changed.’

‘What about those accompanying him?’ Vance asked. ‘Can you tell us anything about what their capabilities might be?’

‘Two big guys in full armour, real dark knight stuff. Black metal, spikes, the whole fear me, I’m a bloody tyrant, rar, vibe. One has a massive hammer—a maul, maybe?—and the other has a nasty looking mace. No blades that I can see.’

‘The faithful knights of Urkhan tend to use blunt instruments rather than blades,’ Savra noted, ‘as those weapons more purely express the power of force. Blades have connotations of requiring skill or finesse and Urkhan prefers expressions of simple power over everything else. I think we need to assume that they may be Dark Paladins or have some form of magic to enhance their combat capabilities.’

‘Agreed,’ Vance said. ‘I’ve met the type before. Seems likely. What else?’

Two hobgoblins in leathers,’ Robin continued, ‘moving nervously around the perimeter. I’m guessing they’re scouts of some kind. They look scared of the others they’re with. We might be able to scare them off, take them out of the picture with minimal effort.’

‘Or just stab ‘em when they’re not looking,’ Jhess said, casually flipping a dagger.

‘There’s a brutal looking woman with scarred cheeks in some very business-like robes,’ Robin continued, ‘some kind of mage I’d guess.’

‘Scarred adepts,’ Drev jumped in. ‘They would fit with the ideals of the Church of Urkhan. Channel bodily force to produce magical effects. Tend to play mostly with elemental tricks. Fireballs, lightning bolts, your basic energy manipulations. It can be effective, but you don’t need any real skill. Very basic magical workings.’

‘Any others?’ Jhess asked. ‘Or is that it?’

Robin hesitated.

‘I don’t see anyone else,’ he said slowly, ‘but I’m not sure. There might be someone else in reserve? They’ve got a lot of brute force, but there’s no way they can bash their way through this dungeon on main strength alone. There are too many traps and tricks. Is there any way he could be that powerful? Because if he is, we might need to abandon this part of the quest for now. Go fix another of the target areas, then return to this one after they’ve left.’

Robin winced. Gis and his crew were doing a lot of damage to their surroundings, tearing apart seats and benches, ripping decorative panelling off the walls, defacing runic structures when they revealed themselves—there might not be enough left to salvage when they were through with the place!

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Not only was that a huge loss to history and, more to the point, Robin personal accumulation of knowledge, it might cause them to fail their quest! Nilsiir gave them the know-how to effect minor repairs, but something that was seriously damaged or destroyed? That would be beyond them.

Robin passed along what Gis and his minions were up to, as well as his concerns. As much as he would love to sneak in there, bloody the priest’s nose, and then lure them all back as a snack for Ruprecht, it was up to the party to make an assessment of what should be their course of action.

Because it could end in a slaughter.

‘You don’t think we could take them face to face?’ Vance asked, running a thumb along the edge of a paper blade.

‘We might be able to,’ Robin conceded, ‘but we’re outnumbered and have no way of knowing how much divine punch the old geezer is packing. That’s hard to counter.’

‘Can we find out? Test them somehow?’ Drev suggested.

Robin looked to Savra. The seeress looked dubious.

‘I can try,’ she said, ‘but my powers are hindered down here.’

‘There are one or two things I could try as well,’ Robin said grudgingly, ‘but I’d need to get closer, undetected. I can’t do as much from a distance as Savra can.’

The seeress looked at him for a moment, as if sifting his words. Then she nodded, as if she had found something.

Robin bit back a hiss. Why the fuck did she have to do that? It was bad enough that just being in her presence gave him the heebie-jeebies.

‘Right, while she’s doing her thing, what are our other options?’ Jhess asked.

‘Baiting them into chasing us through a series of death traps designed by Ruprecht,’ Robin said immediately. ‘He’s one of our best cards, if we can set up a play where he can bring his strength to bear.’

‘Dangerous,’ Drev observed. ‘We might not be able to get away, or they could prove too powerful, as you said, and have no trouble circumventing Ruprecht’s traps.’ Drev reached out to press a hand to the wall. ‘No offence. Your work is exemplary, but we do need to consider all scenarios.’

No offence taken. Though I, too, would dearly love to bloody the nose of that walking pile of excrement.

Robin perked up his ears at that. That was some serious dislike there. That sounded…personal. Had Ruprecht had a run-in with Gis as well?

‘Sounds like we still want a slightly better assessment of their capabilities,’ Vance said.

‘We could lead another monster to them, send it in and see how they deal with it,’ Jhess suggested.

‘If we can find one,’ Robin said. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea, but we may not have time. They’re destroying the place now. If we want to preserve it, we might not have time to hunt down some cannon fodder.’

‘Every divination I have turned to the question of whether our facing off with the group in the room, right now, ends with a mix of weal and woe,’ Savra said, eyes distant. ‘There is great danger, and I think overall the danger is greater than the reward, but not so great that I think bracing them would be certain doom.’

‘So we’re probably slightly outmatched, but there’s a chance we could still trick our way into a victory,’ Robin said. ‘Got it.’

‘It is uncertain,’ Savra said unhelpfully.

‘Let me see if I can sneak closer and get some more solid information,’ Robin said with a sigh. ‘But we should have a plan for if they spot me and this all goes tits up.’

The party outlined a strategy quickly. Ruprecht, though limited in energies, set to creating some limited traps and hidden passages that the party could use to escape the enemy if things went truly wrong.

Robin made sure he had the plan solid in his mind, checked with Rerebos that Gis and his lackeys hadn’t changed their behaviour in the meantime, and then moved slowly down the corridor, wrapping himself in shrouding illusions and assuming a form more suited to stealthy movement.

He quickly and quietly cast his mindreading spell. It might not reveal exactly how powerful they all were, but with some luck he’d find out what they were here looking for, and what, if anything, they might be afraid of, lurking down here in the dark with them. That would be useful knowledge for the coming confrontation.

And it would hopefully tell him exactly how to screw over the evil old man and his wankstain of a god. With extreme prejudice. Because not only did Robin owe Gis a bad turn or three for their past encounters, it sounded like he owed Urkhan more than a few bad turns for what the god had done to Rhyth and Tarin-Tiran.

‘Here we go,’ Robin muttered as the spell settled into place.

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