As we began to explore the summit, we noticed a rustling noise from the Bag. Suddenly, the Bag flew open, and the golden chain (from the mouth of dragon) came spinning out. It grabbed two of us and summoned four puppets of swirling stick and stone. The chain and its puppets lashed out at us.
As we battled, they stunned us and dazed us, keeping us off balance. But together, we were able to beat them back. Garg marked all of them to kept them from attacking some of us. Firinne smashed and badly damaged the puppets. Bran snuck behind and struck one of the puppets and kept the others from attacking him. Finally, the tide turned when Carlagnios destroyed one puppet with a lunging strike, and Kale split apart another puppet in a cloud of daggers.
After we defeated the gold chain, Kale carefully examined it. He was concerned that the chain might come back to life.
"I will melt this down into ingots."
"No, don't destroy it!" yelled Carlagnios. "It is worth something as a gold chain."
"But I want to make sure that it is dead and won't attack us again."
"Fine," snarled Carlagnios, tearing off a small section of the chain. "I'll take my part of it, and you can melt down the rest."
Kale cast a magical fire to melt down the gold chain into ingots. Carlagnios held the ends of his section of the chain to the fire. "Can you melt these two ends together?"
We searched the summit and eventually found the fossilized stump. Kale carefully poured out the drop of life from the vial, and, after it fell slowly (almost too slowly), it hit the stump. The drop sat there, beading on top of the stump. Slowly, the drop changed color from gray to brown.
Then, suddenly, a tree grew up out of the stump. It was a small sized tree -- scrawny but healthy. It was perhaps twelve feet tall. Kale caressed the tree, mentioning that it was a cute, tiny thing.
"OK, that's kind of creepy," Carlagnios remarked.
Kale then began to cast the Ritual of Challenge. Bran suggested that we all rest while Kale cast the Ritual, since we were exhausted from our battle with the chain and the puppets.
At dawn, Kale finished the Ritual, speaking the last words in old warrior: "And so we begin the Ritual of Becoming the One Hundred."
With that, the tree came to life and spoke:
"Since the time of the deep past,
the One Hundred have stood to defend our people and our way of life.
You have begun the Ritual.
Who will will stand to join the One Hundred?
Who will stand for justice?
Carlagnios woke up. "What's that noise?" he growled.
"I think we have a volunteer," Kale replied.
After some discussion, Carlagnios agreed to go through the Ritual. "I will do it," he answered the tree.
"Who do you challenge?" demanded the tree.
"The Owl?"
"I do not know that name."
Carlagnios searched through the book that explained the early Centenarchy. He was looking for a name. "Gezu?"
"Gezu is dead." replied the tree.
"Fine... then, Logrid," Carlagnios spat out. "That one's a bastard."
"Aza Logrid Paladus. The challenge has been sent. You must wait a day and a night for her to arrive."
"Will I fight her alone?" asked Carlagnios.
The tree stood in silence. Carlagnios continued to question the tree, but the tree did not respond.
Kale suggested that we lend our magical items to Carlagnios to help him with the battle. But even with the items, Carlagnios was unsure of his victory and began to have second thoughts.
Kale tried to calm him down. "Logrid swore not to attack us. So perhaps she will not be able to fight back."
"But we're putting her into a bad situation," observed Bran. "She doesn't deserve this."
"Maybe some practice rounds will help me to feel more confident about the battle," Carlagnios thought aloud. Kale agreed to help him practice. Carlagnios swung at Kale with furious blows, and Kale warded off the attacks with his magical shield.
Even if Carlagnios could defeat Logrid, he was still unsure what else he would face in the Harrowing Ordeal to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.