Meeting
Blondung, Von Fedel and Soggrin The woman you saw chained to the rock outside is now chained to the other wall of the cave, out of reach and still asleep. The two men who were working the treadmill are also held in place by the rod running through the leg irons and are locked in together with you next to Ceely. One of them is awake and observing you.
Your backs have flashes of hot pain, but its obvious that you've been healed considerably. The last of the skin was gone from your backs before you fell unconscious. You see the back of one of your friends, and the only sign of the scourging are slightly swollen red welts.
It occurs to you, that it's probably a new day. The light outside the cave seems to be first morning light. One of the other prisoners - the younger of the two men - speaks to you:
"Well met," he says, and chuckles a bit at the irony of his own words. "I'm Blondung." He points to the older man, who is just awakening, and says, "He's Von Fedel". Then he nods toward the still sleeping girl and says, "She's Söggrin. When you work at the mill, the orcs will stand behind you with a scourge. But as long as you behave, you only get whipped that one time, just as a warning. They don't want to injure us.
"They want hard work out of us, so they keep us fit. If you get sick or hurt, Xred makes Grazzght heal you. They make the orcs hunt for you too. They even give us halfway decent food. For some reason, it's really important to Xred that we work the mill. I don't know why he doesn't just make his orcs do it. They're stronger than we are."
The older man of the two is awake now. He has just a bit of a loony look in his eyes. He say, "I know why. Because he's totally insane. That's why. Praised be the Dark Sun! I'm Von Fedel".
You can see that the girl is waking up too. She looks at you, shrugs her bare shoulders, and says, "Too bad. Now Von Fedel and Blondung won't have to work so hard anymore."
Then her eyes light up a bit, and she says, "Maybe that'll give Xred an excuse to whip them again. The fools are a couple of Zhent weaklings. My father's a warrior with the Black Raven tribe of Uthgardt! Manshoon captured me, and these idiots were my guards. Blondung there is a Zhentarim mage, and Von Fedel is a Cyric priest. Watch out for him. He's a useless fool, but he's almost as fruity as Xred! If you get a chance, kill them!
"When your breakfast comes, eat well. They're going to chain you to a treadmill and make you grind schoellweed seeds. I get chained to the rock. Xred doesn't want me to work. He thinks I'm going to mate with him - over my dead body!!"
Von Fedel giggles a bit watching Lucretia test the chains and the iron rod. Blondung shakes his head sadly listening to Milo and Lucretia. "I can't see us being able to break that!" he says. "I mean, it's got to be at least an inch thick iron! Apart from that," he continues, "what are you going to do if you manage to get out of the cave? There's a village full of orcs out there remember? I for one couldn't fight my way out of a paper bag without my spell book and spell components!"
"Of course, you don't actually need to break the rod" added Söggrin. "Each night, the orcs let us free in the cave for a while, before fitting the rod before we go to sleep. If any escape was even considered, it would have to be then." She sighs and slumps back against the wall, her chains rattling slightly. "Of course, though I hate to say it, Blondung is right, there ARE a few hundred orcs and an ogre living right outside, so what hope do we have of escape."
Von Fedel giggles again, looking along the row at Ceely. "You're a half elf aren't you? I'm surprised Xred or the orcs let you live!" He pauses, his head cocked on one side as if listening to something. "Of course," he continues, "our *real* opportunity to escape will come when Agatha finally gets angry enough at Xred for stealing her schoellweed!" He looks about in a conspiratorial manner. "And I have a secret plan!" he whispers, and winks broadly.
> Milo looks at Von Fedel. "do tell, mage. I am all ears!"
> "Hmm...likewise." (adds Lucretia)
Von Fedel frowns a moment, and then says "No I won't"
Söggrin shakes her head sadly. "By the beasts, he's going to talk about his magic bag again."
Ceely wrote:
> Ceely smiles at Lucretia, not making fun, but just
> because she seemed to get the upper hand on a fighter
> about strategy.
>
> Then says : "von Fedel, please I am all pointy ears...."
> and smiles at her own joke...
Blondung glances at Ceely as if for the first time again. "Hmmm... you are a half elf too..." he says. "If I were you, I would try to keep that fact a secret from the orcs and Xred." he pauses. "He only wants humans to grind his Schoellweed seeds."
> Balnor finally wakes up, tests his bonds then inspects
> them thoroughly...then just listens to the other people for
> a little while. After noticing that they are waiting for a plan
> he says "OK from what I can put together we need to find
> a way for the black dragon to find out that Xred is stealing
> her(his) Schoellweed, this might help to make a distraction
> for us to escape with all of our equipment. The other thing
> is that this Xred character seems to be a little slow in the
> head though tough on the out side, if we could make him
> think that he could trust us 100% maybe he would start to
> give us a little slack and not be in chains all the time,
> we could make use of this kindness and make our escape there.
> As you say that our best chance of escape is when we are let
> to stretch with no shackles we will also be guarded the best
> then, we will need to strike when they least expect it.
> It would also help if we could know why they are going
> to be so nice to us if it is because they are stupid, good
> for us, if it is for a reason. We need to find out that reason.
> Also Agatha he said will be RIDING Some thing maybe the dragon??
> he also wants us to do all the work for some strange reason
> not the orcs which he seems to have full control over. Now as
> you all know by now I might just be able to do a great deal of
> scouting and getting our stuff back if I can get loose I also
> might be able to get you all loose too. but before any action
> we should learn as much as we can about our situation, if that
> means playing the good captives for a few days then we will do
> it, other wise we will be uninformed and probably not have a
> very good plan. If what our good captive friends say is true
> and we will not be hurt then I say we just wait until we know
> all we can about this place. My good mage if I could get you
> your spell book would you be able to help us??"
Blondung smiles at Balnor and says "You get me my spell book, and I'd be very grateful, but if I have to go up against Xred, I'd rather run like hell. Xred may be screwed up, but he is a powerful ogre mage. More powerful that Manshoon gave credit for I'd say!" A fleeting expression of regret crosses his face for a moment. "You have misunderstood a few things there, although you're scouting skills may come in useful if ever we do break out of here!". He pauses and looks at Yvandel as the puppet master starts to talk.
> Yvandel, still watching Von Fedel through squinted
> eyes, speaks up for the first time since waking up in
> the cave.
>
> 'This Agatha you speak of, the one the Ogre keeps
> referring to...am I right in my understanding that it
> is a black dragon? And from what the Ogre says, am I
> right in my understanding that Manshoon has her as
> his, shall we call it 'pet'? And that there are
> numerous black dragons hunting in the Neverwinter
> Forest?'
>
> Before giving the spell caster an opportunity to
> respond, Yvandel continues.
>
> 'And you say this Ogre Xred has stolen something
> belonging to Agatha? 'Schoellweed' you called it...'
>
> Yvandel gave his own words some more thought. 'This
> Xred, is he truly concerned for our safety? Is that
> why he keeps us locked up in his camp? Or is there
> another motive for him to keep us imprisoned against
> our will? What is the work we will do for him as
> slaves good for?'
>
> The questions keep flooding into Yvandel's mind now,
> faster than he can even speak them. 'What if this
> Agatha finds this camp, what will happen? What will
> Xred do if he finds us trying to escape? And what is
> this secret plan you talk about? Tell us...'
Von Fedel opens his mouth, about to speak, but Blondung cuts him off. "I'm not surprised that you all have a few things mixed up there. Old Xred is almost completely mad these days, so most of what he says is pretty mixed up. Have you heard of Manshoon? Our glorious leader? Arch-mage of the Zhentarium? Well, he *does* have a black dragon which he rides. Agatha on the other hand is an undead spirit, a wailing ghost, er, what's that other word? Ah yes, a banshee. She lives, or perhaps I should say un-lives, elsewhere in Neverwinter woods, somewhere to the east of here."
He pauses to scratch his chin.
"She haunts a clearing in the forest where Schoellweed grows. Xred has had his orcs harvest the seed for some reason, and has been making us grind it for him. Problem is that the seed is as hard as rock, and with just us two doing it, we aren't doing it very fast. Those grindstones were made by orcs, and are pretty useless. I guess he wants you to help supply human manpower to grind the seeds."
"And if you're not human, your useless to him and he'll get rid of you!" blurts Von Fedel, annoyed at being interrupted by Blondung. He carries on quickly before Blondung can interrupt him further. "When Agatha finally figures out what is happening to *her* schoellweed, she will come here. Xred has underestimated her, and she will charge in here one day, wailing her scream and killing everything in sight! And when she does, I've got the ingredients to a spell the Dark Sun has granted me, that will protect me!" He pats his chest. It's all here in my secret bag!" He puffs himself up and looks proud.
Söggrin sighs and ignores the Zhent priest.
Blondung continues after Von Fedel's interruption. "Xred is paranoid that Manshoon will find him here. You see, Xred used to *work* for Manshoon, but then he stole something..."
"ME!" blurts Söggrin.
"...something valuable to Manshoon. " he continued, ignoring Söggrin's interruption. "Despite Manshoon's best efforts to guard her, she was stolen away by Xred and brought here."
"Pah! Best efforts! Manshoon set these two incompetents to guard me! And anyway, Manshoon originally kidnapped me from my tribe over six months ago!" Söggrin sits up straight with her shoulder's square and her chin up. "I am Söggrin, daughter of Sorath Three Hands, the Chieftain's Number One Warrior, of the Black Raven barbarian tribe!"
"And both Xred and Manshoon want to mate with you!" Von Fedel giggles
as
Söggrin glares at him.
"So who are you?" Söggrin asks, having now introduced herself more formally.
>"My name is Coelacanth Seasearcher, but you can call me Ceely."
> She look seriously at Blondung and says "Yes, I am a half-elf
> and I will not hide myself anymore. Not from myself, even
> worse from a bunch of orcs, or ogres, or whatever."
Blondung shrugs. "It's your funeral" he says.
> "I think our safest bet is to play with the orcs fears.
> Yesterday, when Dolo and Volo told their tale, they seemed
> very impressionable. And since Xred is an ogre
> magi, it becomes very obvious from their looks when we
> were at the whipping posts that they revere him because of it."
Söggrin agrees. "They virtually worship Xred and would do anything for him."
> Ceely goes on "Also, we have to consider the fact that we
> have to major players against Xred. Manshoon and Agatha."
> and turning to her new friends, she completes her thoughts
> "There´s gotta have something about them that we can
use to
> either attract this guys here, or to toy with the orcs."
"Manshoon is probably very angry, and I'm sure he has been looking hard to find Söggrin again." Blondung interjected. "I heard his search for her the first time took over a year. Of course, if Xred didn't have some form of anti-scrying spell cast over this area, Manshoon would probably have been able to find Söggrin here ages ago."
> "About the shackles, if we can get access to the blacksmith´s
> hut, can anyone here remove the shackles safely, without
> tearing our legs apart?"
Herod pipes up. "Get me in front of proper blacksmithing tools, and I'm sure I could do it."
> "Yvandel Janusen, puppeteer-master at your service.
> These two here," Yvandel says, pointing to his puppet,
> "are Volo and Dolo."
>
> (VOLO) "And we are not to be toyed with!"
>
> (DOLO) "Don't pay too much attention to him, he got
> hit with a hammer in the head when he was young. Now,
> this Schoellweed...what exactly does it do?"
>
> (VOLO) "Weed? Why are we talking about weed? Shouldn't
> we just talk about escaping instead?"
>
> (DOLO) "No, my little brother, for in the secret of
> the weed might lie the solution to our escape."
>
> (VOLO) "Ah, escape. Sounds like a plan. So...about
> this weed..."
With a jangle of chains, Söggrin claps her hands and laughs. "You're very good!" she says to Yvandel. "I can see how you managed to convince the orcs to let you keep it now!"
Blondung looks at the puppets with scorn. "I can't see how a two faced puppet is going to help." he grumbled. "Good skill with the voice though," he complements Yvandel. "So what were you?" he says looking at the rest of the party. "A circus troop?"
Von Fedel's eyes gleam when he sees Yvandel use the puppet. "Just like us! Just like us!" He dangles his chains pretending to be a puppet on a string, laughing manically.
Blondung laughs. "Xred is a powerful mage. He may be a bit mad, but he isn't stupid. And I really can't see him being taken in like the gullible orcs!"
> "Not if you tell tales of how to kill a banshee or a
> powerful mage...., off course, lying through your teeth."
> Ceely says.
Blondung laughs again. "If Xred can't deal with Agatha, he certainly isn't going to believe that a young lad with a puppet is going to know the answer of how to deal with a banshee!" He pauses to wipe his eyes. "I don't mean to put water on your fire, it's a good idea, but not one that would work on Xred I feel. Might be a useful diversion for the orcs though..." he muses.
> Milo To Ceely "You are right. We need to get out
> of here now, and I am starting to get frustrated
> that I can do so little. I don't trust the other
> captives yet. What if they are plants, placed here
> to squash an early escape attempt. I just don't know!"
Söggrin obviously has better hearing than you credit her for, as she interjects "Hell, we want to escape from here as much as you do!" She twists around to show the wheals on her back. "I may not have to go on the Treadmill, but they flogged me as bad as they did you when I tried to escape once!"
> Ceely nods at Milo and says : "Yeah, I know. But here is
> the catch. If Volo and Dolo present themselves as having
> the solution for Xred problems, they might discover the
> anti-scrying spell that Xred uses...."
Blondung again laughs. Some chance. I'm an experienced magic user, and I have no idea what type of spell he is using! All I know is that there must be something, because Manshoon would have come by now otherwise.
> Ceely continues: "...When we get away," and turning to
> Lucretia " and WE WILL GET AWAY, we should try to get at
> least Manshoon to get here. When he arrives, the orcs
> and Xred will have other problems at hand, and will not
> pay attention to a few, say, runaway slaves."
Von Fedel grimaces at the mention of Manshoon arriving. "If Manshoon arrives on his dragon, Xred will be done for, as will we be, and probably everything else bar Söggrin in a half mile radius!"
> Turning to Milo, Ceely continues "Knowledge is power, an
> old man told me once. If this anti-scrying thing can be
> used by us, could prove must valuable on our mission also.
> While they are up there, they might even get to know why
> Xred is using those schoellweed."
Söggrin says "I know why he needs the schoellweed seeds." She pauses as everyone looks at her. "It's because Manshoon read an old document dating back to the ancient super-powerful magic users who used to live thousands of years ago. He read that the most powerful of them all had invested all his power in a yet to be born descendant of his. Manshoon believes that I am the mother to be of this powerful descendant, and he wants to be it's father." Her faces screws up with anger as she relates the tale. "Of course, Xred pried into Manshoon's belongings, and believes HE can be the father, hence he kidnapped me. The ancient document apparently says that the conception of this wonder child," you see the whites of her knuckles as she grips her chain in frustration, "has to take place on mid-summer night. Manshoon thinks it is supposed to happen next year, Xred interprets the document to mean this year. Xred also apparently believes that the conception must take place with the presence of a lot of ground schoellweed."
As she sags against her chains again, her face turned to the wall, Blondung continues. "It is true that the ancient Netherese used a lot of schoellweed as a magical component in their spells."
> Ceely continues: She changes her posture as to maximise
> the effect of her gestures "In an escape, all this input
> will be valuable. The rest of us will be down at the
> millstone working hard, and Balnor might get a chance to
> find his ´proper tools´." And she goes on "The
thing is,
> we have to act as one, at the same time, whatever we do.
> We have to share the same goal, and reach it at the same
> time. This is not the time for personal vendettas or
> exhibitionism. We cannot allow the orcs time to think,
> or even take a breath."
"Well said" says Herod. "At the moment though, we still have no idea what opportunities to escape might come our way. I for one will be keeping my eyes open. I will pray to Tempus for deliverance! - if only I had the components I need for my priest spells!"
> Milo strains to listen in on any outside orcish
> conversations, trying to glean any further info
> that may facilitate their departure...
The other prisoners all fall silent as Milo listens, trying to understand the muffled noises from outside the cave. After a few minutes, the noises become clearer, and a couple of toothless old female orcs enter the cave, carrying a large cauldron between them. The smell of meat stew permeates the air, not ideal fare for breakfast, but you guess as slaves, probably the only choice you'll get.
The cauldron is placed out of reach, and then servings of the aromatic stew ladled out into wooden bowls. One of the old orc women hands the bowls around, saying in heavily accented common "Eat! Eat"
Blondung eats his food very slowly. "Don't want to start on the treadmill too early!" he explains.
As the party slowly eat their meal, a group of eight orcs armed with only spears come in to the cave. Four of them disappear behind the large boulders hiding the cave entrance end of the rod, and after a few moments, a scraping noise can be heard, and the rod begins to be extracted, freeing first Von Fedel, then Blondung, and eventually the remaining members of the group. Three of the remaining orc guards watch on fairly impassively, holding their spears fairly relaxed, whilst the fourth takes a crude key to the padlock chaining Söggrin to the wall.