LongestRoad Sil BackstoryN
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Gallopya – 1359 AF (1779 AF in Alsomia calendar)
Wednesday, 13 Growing
Just got back to Aldacre and am very tired. Went east to the wilds, wandered around for a month, and found very little. I haven’t found anything to support the rumors of bronze dragons out there. Possible that they’re just closer to the ocean. I didn’t make it that far. I did run across a couple of human and half-elven nomadic groups. They’ve been around the wilds for generations but don’t have a name for themselves. I’ll probably try to find them again later and see if they can help me find a path.
I brought back a little bit for the tower treasury, mostly some semiprecious stones and wild-tribe artwork. Zahn’s been out for about a week. He went with one of Owen’s caravans down south, but they should be back soon. Guess I’ll hang around here and write some more old memories down.
Thursday, 14 Growing
Aldacre is looking much nicer these days. He’s started building a mansion to attach to the tower, and the road from the town square is now stone instead of dirt. Some of the workers have decided to settle down here, and built houses along the road. If we can get funding for his plans, we’ll have plenty of work for them.
Last time I was here, he was talking to Cecily about moving her inn closer to the tower. He planned out a new town square right nearby, and wants to build a new inn to go with it. Bigger, cleaner, better. He’s known Cecily forever and she’s done a good job with her father’s place but I wasn’t sure if she was going to be willing to take the risk of either moving entirely or trying to run two places. I think he must have convinced her, though, because there are a bunch of plans in our room with her notes on them, and they’ve started digging for the foundation. I guess I was just wondering if the fact that she knows him would keep her from being won over so easily. Nope, not so much.
Still, the treasury isn’t as full as it used to be. I should probably review his budget when he gets back. He usually knows what he’s doing but sometimes he gets carried away.
Friday, 15 Growing
Zahn came back this afternoon. He was very excited about something. He wants me to come with him back to Gallopya. There’s an opportunity there that he won’t tell me much about, except that it could be profitable and he needs me there. He left the rest of the caravan in Gallopya and used a Phantom Steed to get back here so fast. We’re leaving in the morning.
Monday, 18 Growing
Got in to Gallopya around lunchtime, met up with the caravan to let them know we were back. Zahn then took me on the city tour.
Gallopya is big and expensive-looking and crowded. It has been built and rebuilt on top of itself for hundreds of years. They have a beautiful museum of ancient treasures, some dating back to before the Cataclysm. They also have a large number of merchant guilds and banks to support them. Basically, the upper class of this city is very, very rich. And the rest of them are … not so much.
So that building and rebuilding has led to massive old-city buried underneath the current one. It’s a labyrinth of tunnels that are being used as sewers, and there is a tribe of kobolds that have been living there for longer than anyone can remember. There are only a few major ways to get down into the sewers, and the people who live near them are generally poorer, so they’re the ones that have been dealing with the kobolds. Everyone once in a while a neighborhood will put together a small reward and get a group of young adventurers to go clean out the nests of kobolds closest to them. Then the kobolds will leave that neighborhood alone for a while and switch to another one. The tribe is never completely eradicated. Zahn thinks that they’re barely touched by this group, and that there’s probably a fairly large group of them down there. Basically, no one cares enough to clean them out because they don’t bother the rich folks.
Except that about half a year ago, some of the upper-crust banks and guilds, like the goldsmiths and jewelers, started being robbed much more often. The town guard thought it was the regular group of thieves, but cracking down on them didn’t affect the frequency of the thefts. It took them months before they got the first hint that the treasure was disappearing down the drain, and in the past few weeks they've been sending groups of mercenaries down to try to find their lost goods with no luck. They've killed plenty of kobolds, but haven't gotten back more than a few gold coins.
There's a general call of groups of adventurers to reclaim these treasures. The city has blocked off all known entrances to the sewers. Groups of treasure hunters have to petition for a chance to go down there, and the town guard sends a couple of people with them so they can recover the stolen goods. Zahn and I not here to hunt kobolds and gold, though.
He's setting up a meeting with the heads of the goldsmiths and jewelers guilds. He wants to try to mediate a truce between the tribe and city and get the robberies to stop. It’s his usual schtick with organized monster races—he’s good at it, and the guilds may actually have heard of them. He’s got me along as a translator, because he hasn’t learned Draconic yet (Hint! Nudge! Little busy, you know) and that’s what kobolds speak. Also because my shininess makes him look all noble and stuff.
I'm not sure if the people in this city will go for it. Something has obviously changed with the kobold tribe. They probably have a new leader with a knack for coordinating his people more efficiently. I think that as soon as the humans up here get the chance, they'll assassinate him and go back to treating all of the kobolds like vermin. Then again, if I've figured this out then Zahn certainly will have. He probably just wants to get on the guilds' good side and get them to stop sending other parties down on extermination trips.
Tuesday , 19 Growing
The goldsmiths guild was not particularly interested in diplomacy, but the jewelers guild and the Varden family bank both agree that Zahn's idea has merit. Which, according to him, means that they're in agreement that there's something new happening with the kobold tribe, and that they recognize that he's got experience talking to monster races and getting them to trust him. They're putting together a group to accompany us down into the sewers in an attempt to communicate with the kobolds.
We're set to enter the sewers Wednesday night. There are four people coming with us. I haven't met any of them yet, but Zahn says they're all human. He's arranged a large reward for us to take back to Aldacre if we can come out of this with a treaty and the treasure that's been stolen. He's got it in writing, even, though I haven't read any of it. He told me that I need to dress the part of a scholarly monk instead of a fighting one, because he sold them the idea that I'm as specialized in dealing with monster negotiations as he is. I don't know what he was thinking. He bought me some new clothing, though: two sets of robes in green with white trim, and a formal dress. And under things. And he wants me to stop writing so I can try them on. He can be very distracting some
Everything fits just fine.
Wednesday, 20 Growing
I met the group this morning. They’re an urban ranger, a priest, a traps specialist, and a swordsman from the city guard: Tanson, Kresh, Camille, and Noel. They're all very serious, and not people I'd go out drinking with. Then again, I was acting the part of a reserved, serious monk. Zahn said it reminded him of when we first met. I mostly stayed quiet and listened to everyone else talk.
The plan is to enter the sewers from the Grayson street tunnel. Tanson says that it's closest entrance to the large concentrations of kobolds. Kresh is terse. I'm not sure what god he serves. They say that we will be the only group down there tonight, and the guilds are going to keep other groups out through Saturday, but if we don't find anything before that time then they'll let other groups back in.
Zahn's stressed. He says the guilds are keeping some information secret. He was out all morning talking to people around the city. There are a lot of rumors going around. A lot of the street merchants think that the mages in Bythandeos are using the kobolds to rob the big guilds here. That would make sense, as they've had a harsh winter as far as their port is concerned, but Zahn didn't buy it. Apparently, the mages in there are "piss-poor enchanters" as a group. He'd know. He overheard a bunch of farmers saying something about a plot by the banks against the guilds. The lower ranks of the town guard seemed annoyed about playing babysitter to random adventuring groups, and more than a couple of them think that the guilds are using this as an excuse to get more power over the city government. It seems to me like they already have a lot. Also, the robberies haven't changed the number of kobold attacks in general. It's not like the kobolds have decided to be focus on rich people now. They're still coming out at night and stealing food and things from people in the slums. I don't know if he found out any more than that. We chatted after lunch and now he's napping. He expects to be up all night. I guess I should get some rest, too.
Thursday, 21 Growing
We were out all night with no luck. The tunnels are obnoxiously complicated. Kresh is keeping the map and marking the path. Tanson talked about seeing signs of kobolds everywhere, and wasn't sure why we weren't seeing any actual kobolds. Zahn complained about the smell at first, because he's a big baby. I think he was trying to get the others on his side, but they're not very friendly. Now he's frustrated with the whole concept because they're not giving us enough time. When we got back to our room, he ranted for a while about the impossibility of working with these deadlines. At least, that’s what it sounded like from the bathroom. It took forever to get clean. I really wanted to go out to a bar or something with him, but nowhere was open. We had a big breakfast in our room and he took a bath and went to sleep.
We're going back in tonight, from a different entrance closer to the city wall. It's a very run down part of the city.
Friday, 22 Growing
We saw some kobolds last night, and tracked them through a long stretch of tunnels, but we didn't get close enough to talk to them. I did hear them talking to each other, though. It was like small dogs speaking Draconic--very strange. It sounded like they were leading us away from their main settlement. After some discussion with Tanson, Zahn came up with a good idea of where we're going tomorrow. He's hoping that if we can find the settlement and get negotiations started, that we'll be able to push our deadline off a little bit.
Then there's the second part of his plan--he wants to polymorph us into kobolds so we can blend in a bit better. So far it's just me and him, since we're the only ones who can speak to them. He's cheating with magic, but said that he wants to learn the language after this. We'll see.
The other four are, unsurprisingly, skeptical. They don't seem like the diplomatic types. I'm pretty sure they're along to be the first-strike team once we find out who is directing these kobolds. That's probably the real reason why Zahn wants us to go in alone. He wants to set something up that will be foolproof, something the humans can't break so easily. But, he also talked to me about a secondary plan. If there is a smart kobold, he wants to give them the option of coming back with us to Aldacre and setting up their own, independent settlement. I had to point out the major issue with this--the people already living in Aldacre are not going to appreciate it. I know he's trying to turn his town into the kind of place where anyone can live, but I don't think this is the right place to start.
I also heard Noel and Camille talking about a rat while we were down in the sewers. It was less of a vermin discussion and more of a title for something. I don't know what the "Rat" is, and Zahn hadn't heard of it yet. He thinks it must be their name for whoever is making the kobolds bolder.
Saturday, 23 Growing
Last night was a long night. It's actually Saturday afternoon now but this is the first chance I've gotten any time to write. Let's start at the beginning.
We went down into the sewers again. Zahn was pretty set at getting to the entrance to the tribe's settlement, or at least where we thought it was. Kresh was marking the tunnels and map as usual. Camille and Noel were on alert, and Tanson and I took point.
Kresh stopped to examine something and I went ahead down the tunnel because I’d heard something. Once I was out of the torchlight, I saw a little figure crouched by the wall. He looked like a small child. He was watching me walk slowly up to him, and looked like he was ready to take off. I stopped a few feet from him, out of arms reach, and slowly knelt down to try to get to eye level with him. I sat there watching him watch me. I could tell that he was a half-dragon, but I couldn't tell what color and his horns hadn’t really grown in enough to tell shape. I tried calling him over, but he didn’t respond to any of the languages I knew.
I heard the rest of the group coming up the tunnel behind me, so I told them to keep quiet and go slowly, but I never looked away from the boy. They quieted down, but the boy looked more skittish. Camille and Noel came up behind me and their torch showed me the boy had black scales with a little glittery sheen, like a hatchling. Everything was quiet for a moment. Then, all at once, Camille was shooting at the boy with her crossbow, he bolted, and I turned and tackled pushed them both back.
The rest of the group caught up with us about then. Camille yelled about me making her miss the Rat, saying that they could still catch him. I had a good grip on the both her and Noel and made it clear that they weren't going anywhere. There was a bunch of yelling and struggling. Tanson wanted me to let Noel and Camille go after the kid. They were sure he was the one doing most of the stealing, or they thought he had a way to lead them to the treasure. Zahn was trying to get people to calm down and explain things. I had positioned myself to block the tunnel and keep them from going after him. Tanson loaded his own crossbow and aimed it at me, telling me to get out of the way. I rolled my eyes at him, ready for a fight. Instead, he turned and shot Zahn in the gut.
The bolt didn't look big enough to really hurt him, but he fell. I threw Camille and Noel into the walls and tried to get Tanson, but Kresh got between us. I was ready to fight all of them, but Tanson said that Zahn had been poisoned, and that I'd better rush him to a healer in the city above if I wanted him to survive. I was so mad, but I controlled it enough to pick Zahn up and run. I was hoping the little boy had disappeared, or that I'd be able to get back in time to help him.
I couldn’t tell how bad the poison was hitting him. I threw him over my shoulder and ran back the way we'd come, but I got lost. I could swear now that I followed all the markers Kresh had left and I remembered the path, but either my memory failed me or the markers changed because I got lost at some point and couldn’t find the exit where it was supposed to be. I laid him out to try to slow the poison, but it didn’t look like I was helping. I checked the side tunnels, trying to find where I'd lost my way. By that point, I was complete panicking. I’d managed to get away from where I’d put him down, and I was afraid I couldn’t find him again.
When I did find him, he wasn't alone. The little boy was standing next to him and poking at him. I froze when I saw them, and watched as the boy pawed through a large bag that he hadn’t had when I’d seen him before. He pulled a little vial out of it, opened Zahn's mouth, and poured it down his throat. Zahn coughed and started breathing more deeply. I let out a long sigh. The boy twitched at the noise and ran back a few feet. I walked very slowly over to check on Zahn. He was waking up already. I put a hand on his chest, and told him lay still. He turned his head to look at the little boy, who was staring at me.
Zahn asked, very quietly, what had happened. I explained that he’d been shot and poisoned and that I’d gotten lost trying to bring him to a healer. "This little one brought you an antidote." I bowed my head at the boy. "Thank you."
Zahn stared at him, bewildered. "He's tiny," he said. "He can't be more than three." I had been guessing six or seven, but Zahn's a better judge of ages than I am, especially with humans. He was very small. I reached my hand out to him, but he shuffled back and scowled at me. Zahn told me to back off and to let him try. I crawled back a few feet and stood up, still facing them. I stepped back further still and took a good position to keep watch.
Zahn cast something discreetly, not bothering to sit up. He started talking, asking the boy for his name, but got no reaction, so he cast something else. After that, the child's scowl softened a little. Zahn rolled on to his side and pulled himself up to sit against the wall. He looked exhausted. He started talking to the boy again, saying nice things in a gentle tone. He held his hand out and the kid crept forward a little. It took the better part of an hour, but eventually the little boy warmed up enough that Zahn was able to scoop him up and bring him over to me.
We had a quick discussion about what to do next. The boy stared at me the whole time with wide eyes. Zahn was pretty sure that he could understand speech, but hadn't started talking yet. I wanted to get him out of there and hide him away or bring him back to Aldacre immediately, but Zahn said that we needed to find out what his relationship was to the kobolds. No information was going to be gotten by standing around, though. We started walking around the tunnels, watching him for a reaction and listening for the other group. Zahn walked ahead of me, and the boy propped his chin on Zahn's shoulder to watch me. We found a large open room with moonlight shining down from a grate in the street above. The boy perked up when I stepped through the light. He said something that sounded Draconic. Zahn stopped and had him repeat it. The boy pointed at me and said it “shiny,” like treasure.
Once we had him talking, it made things easier. He spoke in single words, all in Draconic, and he didn't understand everything we said. He understood treasure, hoard, nest, and concepts like that. He also understood danger. We talked for a little bit. He took me by the hand and smiled and I melted a little. I let him lead me down a series of ever shrinking tunnels. Zahn and I had to crawl for some of them. We eventually came to a hole in the wall that was too small for Zahn to squeeze through, so I went in after the boy while he stood guard. After every few feet, he would stop us, play with something on the wall or in a cubbyhole, and then move on. I eventually figured that he was disarming crude traps. We emerged into a long, low room with dozens of ledges and shelves all covered in sparkling treasures. The boy ran up the room, counting and touching various things. He pulled down a delicate golden crown and brought it over. He put it on my head, then ran around the room a little more.
I found a nest of cloth and blankets and a basket of stale and moldy food. The room was filthy, smelled rank, and obviously had a rat problem. And while there was a lot of treasure in this room, it didn't add up to the amount that the guilds and banks had lost. I tried to figure out how to convince him to come away with us. Zahn was getting impatient. I got the boy to settle down and tried talking to him again. He thought that I was another piece of treasure for his collection. I eventually bribed him into coming with us with the promise of treats and toys, new concepts for him. We crawled back, with him resetting his traps on the way out. Zahn mocked me for the tiara, so I made him wear it instead. I told him about the room, and how I'd gotten the little boy to agree to come with us for now. The boy climbed up on to my back as I was talking. Zahn got him to show us an unguarded way out of the sewers
Zahn and I came up with a plan for the next couple of days. We snuck him back to the inn. I gave him a bath and Zahn fed him. He's sleeping now, using one of Zahn's undershirts as a nightgown. Zahn went back to the guilds today to protest the way we were treated, but the next step is to try to get this little boy to lead us to the kobold settlement so Zahn can broker a new treaty, one that involved trade with Aldacre instead of peace with Galloypa. Zahn says he found that the laws in this city treat the sewers as wild country in order to legalize the kobold "population control" efforts by adventuring groups--this means that any treasure the groups find down in the sewers is treated as found treasure.That was why the guilds and banks have been so pissed about this. They’re trying to get new laws passed to get around that, but if no one else takes it the boy’s hoard is legally his.
I still don’t know his name, if he even has one yet. I'm staying with him today. We'll see what happens when he wakes up.
Zahn just got back from talking to the guilds again. They were most displeased. They are going to make sure that we are not allowed back in the labyrinth, blah blah blah. Not much of a threat since the little one can show us how to get back there and to the kobolds. It is a good thing that we distanced ourselves from the caravan before going to talk to the guilds, though, so they’re not getting any of this backlash. Today’s meeting was mostly a bit of acting for Zahn. He made them think that he was supremely offended and stuff, something something misinformation something something diplomacy something something. I didn’t really pay attention to his explanation because it woke the little one up and he wanted to play. He so cute! He plays like a big kitten, wrestling with the blankets on the bed. I gave him a sticky bun when he calmed down and he made a mess. He’s a person, not a pet.
At some point Zahn came in from the other room (where he’d been talking as packed up some things) chided me for not paying attention. I just told him to get to the point.
The point was this: the guilds are going to commission a lot of experienced adventurers to clean out the sewers of kobolds, half-dragons, whatever. We are definitely not invited. They’re starting tomorrow, so we have tonight to get down to the labyrinth to warn the kobolds, broker some kind of deal, and pack up the little one’s hoard for transport back to Aldacre. We’ll probably not be showing our faces in town for quite some time if we pull this off.
Monday, 24 Growing
Things have been too hectic to write. We’re on our way back to Aldacre, and we have Vin (the little boy—that’s what the kobolds called him) with us. We also have a small group of kobolds coming with us to set up a camp in the woods outside town while the rest of the tribe deals with the people invading the labyrinth. Zahn was able to convince them to start evacuating, but there are hundreds of them down there. People. I need to start adjusting my language to say people instead of “kobolds” or “them.” We’re going to be neighbors.
Zahn was right about there being a new chieftain for the tribe. His name is Fyri, and he was building up the tribe for … something. I don’t think he intended to go to war with Gallopya, but I think he wanted to be able to show that they could. A small group of rogues within the tribe had taken Vin out on raiding runs to the banks and guilds. They had been teaching each other how to get better and better at stealing, and Vin took his share of the loot back to his hideaway. Fyri had not been aware of this, and was not pleased because it got the town’s attention before he was ready.
That made it easier for Zahn to convince him to move the entire tribe up to Aldacre, though it took most of the night to get to that point. By then, scouts had verified that larger groups of adventurers were preparing to invade the tunnels. Fyri had his troops collapse the easiest routes to the main settlement and buckle down for a long fight. There are too many people to move in a day.
Vin threw a tantrum when he realized that he was about to be cut off from his treasure room. It interrupted things, and I had to convince him to let us pack all his things up to take with us. He wouldn’t let anyone else come with him, though, so I spent the better part of Sunday morning packing it all into bags of holding. First, I had to show him how a bag of holding worked. That was fun. But we got almost all of it out and narrowly avoided the first wave of Gallopyian goons in getting back to kobold settlement. Suddenly want them to be grim goblins instead?
In the meantime, I’d missed the tail end of negotiations. I’m not sure exactly what Zahn agreed to, or how he’s going to get the people in Aldacre to accept having a tribe of kobolds for neighbors, but I’m sure he has a plan.
We got out through a newer tunnel that led out to the town’s farmlands. It seems that when Fyri took command a few years back, he made them start digging their own tunnels to expand the tribe’s reach. There are a few exits that are well hidden, but only one on the north side of town. The tribe is going to use this to get groups of families out to travel north, to Aldacre. They’re in the process of packing up everything and our group is going to lead the way. We left with about twenty warriors, and at the end of the day we find a safe spot to camp and hide a larger group. Then three or four of them walk back to the previous day’s spot, to act as guides for the groups that go through. It’s probably going to take us two weeks to make it to Aldacre, and then the groups of families will start trickling in. We’re not going to have much time to make the town ready for them, and I’m not sure how long the main settlement will hold out.
