| "Remember, we only have an hours worth of daylight left," Fred calls
to the rest of the crew. They had broken up into groups of twos and threes
to more quickly. He and Alicia naturally ended up together as they went
exploring.
Needless to say, the fort proves to be well stocked with gunpowder for
cannons, ammo, and corpses. What proves to be usual is the one special
room with glyphs and other arcane things. The glowing items on the table
practically makes Astra's teeth hurt!
"Well, if that eerie glow wasn't a clue," Astra says,shoving a robed
figure on the ground. "Then this guy on the floor with all those magical
signs on his britches give it away. This is a magi's lab."
"Yep," Fred says. "Not too uncommon to find a wizard nearby when there's
a need for black powder. You don't need to be a magic user to be able to
make the stuff, but a magic user is almost gauranteed to have the tools
to be able to produce the powder from raw materials."
"I'll tell you ONE thing," Willian says, staring at the glowing items
on the table (mostly glass tubes and other less identifiable things). "Your
Carradene can come here himself and take possession of this stuff! I'm
not going to touch them!"
"Ahen to that!" says Alicia. "Who knows what'll happen if we try to
touch it!"
"Carradene will just have to be happy with that." Fred says staring
with great respect at the items on the table. "Anyway, we came and found
out what we expected. This place is as about as perfect for the Pack as
we can reasonably expect and want! I think that we need to leave now, though."
Fred smiles as the group head back to the safety of their ship. This
place is perfect for the needs of the Pack. At least, it was for conventional
attacks. A dragon would have a harder time of taking out the Pack in this
complex on land, according to Carradene (the reasons being that the dragon
wouldn't be able to as easily magically incinerate a large section of the
land........something to do with the massive amount of land that the continent
has in relation to an island.......) Fred and the Pack could end any attempts
at a more conventional attack with cannons and ballista bolts . . . . especially
dragonbane laced ammo......
**********************************************************
Nine find himself staring down at his own body in shock. The last thing
that he had remember was a bunch of . . . . strange looking animals and
two local pests . . . . and a cracking sound.
"Well, isn't this interesting?" a spectral voice says from behind Nine.
"It isn't everyday you see a Lizardman ghost."
Nine just gapes and points down at his limp body.
"Yes, that's what you look like dead." the former mayor of the city
chortles. "If you hadn't eaten my body and thrown the rest of it away out
into the alley outside, I could show you what I look like, dead. Funny
that no wild animals bother the dead killed by . . . . whatever killed
us."
"How . . . can a Soulless One leave behind something after death?" sputters
Nine. "One on of the People leave behind something after death!"
"Well, first, as you can see....." drawls the mayor. "Your world views
are limited. There are more things out there who are intelligent AND have
souls that a bunch of lizards. I'd check that attitude at the door, bud.
We are going to be together for a LONG time! Unless, of course, you somehow
manage to complete whatever you were trying to do . . . . that anchors
you to this world. The other ways is to have a priest of some type perform
a proper ceremony on our corpses. Otherwise, we're just vengeful spirits,
ready to literally scare the living to death."
Nine rushes over to where the com unit is supposed to be, and then screams
out in anger.
"Where is it!?" the reptilian ghost screams to the heavens. "I need
to contact Command to let them know!"
The mayor smiles.......
|
