Emirikol, Part 2, scene 1

[subplotkudzu]

As expected, the Lord Ambleer invited our four nobles to his manor house for dinner that evening. The house was large and tastefully appointed, with parts rebuilt by dwarvish labor sometime in the last century. The quartet entered through the mahogany doors and handed their blades over to one of the servants, as per the custom of not wearing a ones weapon inside a nobleman's house without freely given permission. They were soon escorted into the presence of Rolland Ambleer, who is looking the worse for his years. The lord invited all of them to sit and enjoy some coffee (a new experience for Hiram and Cybele, who did their best to hide their shock at the bitter taste), but Roland did not drink from the same pot - Melas surreptitiously craned his neck to see that their host was drinking a tisane of reddish herbs instead of the potent cafe. As the quartet introduced themselves Roland took their measure, with the encyclopedic memory behind his keen yes placing names to families. At Hiram's introduction he gave an almost imperceptible nod and the briefest of thin smiles, but the young actor thought the moment wrong to press the issue, so he merely nodded in the affirmative when their host asked if he was a musician.

The Lord Ambleer thanked them again for their assistance with his servant, and after some small talk explained his circumstances: beset with an persistent condition he has developed a mixture of herbs that offers him some relief, but his servants were attacked on their trip back from Emirikol with his latest shipment. The account from his servant was lucid enough thanks to Hiram's curing of the man's concussion, but it seems clear that bandits have again invested Vulture Point. This time they have somehow trained the place's eponymous avians to attack, as the riders were ambushed by vultures who dropped rocks on them from a great height while the gnomes kept their diminutive forms half hidden in the rock. Three of the four men, two of the horses and both mules were lost, and the surviving servant, Murthas, barely escaped with his life. Hiram manages to stifle the anecdote that came to mind: how the repeated infestations of gnomish and halfling bandits at Vulture Point are often used as a satirical device in the south to mock the ill-organized northerners, and instead forced down some more coffee with a look he hoped indicated great experience with the noble brew. While he could arrange a party to attack the place, Ambleer continued, his own condition prevents him from participating. In any event it would take several days to prepare, and his sully of the herbs runs short....

Melas fills the hanging silence quickly enough, exulting "A birding party? Capital! We can leave before first light I expect." The rest of the evening is spent in pleasant conversation, dining and making plans over Rolland's maps of Vulture Point, which does indeed resemble a vulture head. "What sort of force causes a mountain shaped like a vulture to be named after a vulture an populated by vultures?" Melas wondered aloud, and while Deitrich argued that it was the presence of the vultures that makes us see the oddly shaped rock in a certain light and name it for their presence, the Lord Ambleer supported the doctrine of signatures - that such a mountain would have to have vultures, summoned by its very shape and the order of the universe. Amidst the rustling of maps and the clatter of weapons and armor being laid out for those who lacked them for the morning a fine time was had by all, but given their early start even the full vigor of youth would be taxed by too late an hour, and Melas limited himself to splitting a bottle of wine with the Lady Florane (who on her own then finished off some rather nice port, and woke the worse for it).

Hiram's evening was disturbed by different demons. He had been escorted to a mire distant room, and as at midnight a ghostly figure materialized before his banked fire, singing a plaintive song. Again Hiram's nerve failed him in the presence of the supernatural and the young man screamed and pulled the covers over his head rather than meet eyes with the ghost (which in all the stories bears dire consequences). Soon one of Ambleer's dwarvish servants opened the door and, when pressed by the discomfited nobleman, explained that the manor house did have a ghost, a musician who was reputedly murdered here some centuries back. She must have been attracted by his lordship's own musical talent. Hiram was not flattered by the compliment, and spent the remainder of the evening downstairs in the hall, with the night servants bustling about in their efforts to clean the house and prepare things for the birding party.

In the morning lord Ambleer saw his guests off with horses, crossbows (the servants having repaired Melas' ancestral weapon), provender (including coffee in insulated containers) and a map of Vulture Point. As they were leaving Deitrich commented that since Vulture Point was such a prime strategic position there should be a permanent encampment of the guard present there, only to learn that a century ago that had been the case, but with the growth of sea travel and the diminution of road traffic to Emirikol the senate had deemed it an unnecessary expense, and it was outside Lord Ambleer's lands so he lacked the right to station a force there himself. This cast a new light on Hiram's oft heard tales of how the bumbling northerners could not take obvious steps to defend themselves, even before the sliver of the sun cast new light on the terrain. The nobles set out, intent on clearing away the gnomish bandits and their vulture pets before noontime.

To be continued.

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[40yearsagotoday.livejournal.com]

Hiram is beginning to get a complex about undead.