September 9, 1372
In
the morning you are told that you will soon meet Silverbeard. After
breakfast you array yourselves in your finest. Kailar dons his Elvis
suit and puts you all to shame.
Soon thereafter you are ushered into a large, shadowy chamber. You gape
at its size: it must be at least a mile long and a half a mile wide.
The ceiling arches off into darkness. Narrow windows allow beams of
light to shine in from the outside. At the far end of the chamber is a
throne. You can make out a figure sitting on the throne.
You walk the length of the chamber, and face Silverbeard.
He appears a dwarf to you, but 17' tall. He is bald and has a silver
coloured beard. He wears a coat of steel chain mail. His expression is
stern but not unkind.
He regards each of you in turn.
"Kadlian Lun'Folard," He rumbles, "Trinity, Kailar Krookedtoes, Nikodemus Ebrenheail, Dor D'Och, Malvis, Edelle and Windul."
He pauses, and you wait.
"Each of you aided my servant, Hlarn Meg, in your own way to achieve
his ambition. For that I shall reward you by sending you and your
friends home."
He awaits your answer.
Niko whispers to Dor, "Wow! So that's what a dwarven god looks like!"
Niko tries to recall how Silverbeard compares to Poseidon.
Silverbeard is sober.
Kadlian bows low at the mention of his name.
"That is extremely generous of you, Silverbeard. We have been
searching for Hlarn Meg, but we fear the worst. Is he dead?
And if so, is there any way to bring him back to life to continue his
ambitions?"
"He lives. Now that he is a High Priest, he has been called back to his home world to aid his father in ruling their kingdom."
"Whoa," says Trinity, her voice with that child-like quality, at Silverbeard's comments.
"He's really a king now? We should go see him," she says to
Kadlian. "I bet we would surprise him a whole lot. And after what
we saw in that crystal ball thingie with him getting tortured and
everything. That scared us."
"Is there anything we can do for you, Mr. Silverbeard, sir?" asks
the woman. "I mean, how did you know we were here and all, when
we didn't know where we were and all. We made a not-wish to bring
Niko back to live, and he got alive, but somewhere else, in space or
something, and well, we had a small mishap with some portable holes in
extradimensional spaces, and bam, we were here. It was very nice
of you to send your dwarves to help us and all, and well, is there
anything we can do for you?"
"No, thank you," he rumbles.
Kadlian, not even realizing he has been holding his breath, exhales
with relief. "That is great news! Would you be willing to
pass a message to him the next time he speaks with you, Sir?"
"And what is that message?"
"That his friends think of him often and miss his companionship."
"I will tell him."
Kadlian bows to the god. "Thank you."
"Kadlian," says Trinity, still child-like, "Gods are not messengers! We
can send a message to Hlarn ourselves. I'm sure Mr. Silverbeard
has more important things to do than to send a message for you. Ain't
that right, Mr. Silverbeard sir?"
"It is a trifle."
Kadlian blinks. "Really? How can we send him a
message? I just wanted to let him know that we are well and
thinking of him."
"Email silly, it's a cool, but powerful magical spell that allows you
to send all sorts of messages across the planes," says
Trinity. "We can send him a card too. I bet he'd like
that, as I hear being king and all can be very busy and tiring."
"Then I withdraw the request."
"Kadlian, if we're not in a hurry to return home, and if it's not too
much trouble with our gracious host, I would recommend staying here for
a few days."
"I am anxious to go back to that tower and find out where all those
monsters came from. And I do not wish to overstay our welcome.
Silverbeard has been most gracious in allowing non-dwarves into his
home and I know that is a rare honor. Let us not push it."
Dor bows deeply before this god.
"Thank you for your offer to return to the world I come from. I gladly
accept so that I may continue my battle against evil and chaos. This
most amazing and unexpected meeting has served to harden my resolve to
fight these twin scourges wherever I find them. Thank you Lord."
The god smiles.
"Spoken like a true warrior. Who do you serve, Dor? My followers need
not be dwarves if they are warriors in the cause of Law and Good. You
shall serve Me."
"Great Silverbeard," Dor begins. "My family worshipped Tyr when I was
growing up. However, I find that I have not been very observant these
last few years to him or any god. Since you are the first god I have
ever met, I find myself dissatisfied with my lapse. With no disrespect
to Tyr, I pledge my honor to you and will worship you until the day I
die."
"I accept your pledge. And when your time comes to depart the realm of
the living, you shall serve me here in these great halls, with my other
warriors."
After a moment, Dor asks Silverbeard a favor. "Lord, may I humbly ask a
favor that I fear I may not have earned. May I unsheath my sword, Bill?
He is also an enemy to evil and chaos, and I think he might appreciate
a chance to be in the presence of such great good and lawfulness."
"Let us see this blade."
Dor slowly withdraws Bill from his scabbard. "Bill we are in the
presence of the great god Silverbeard. Can you feel the radiance of his
goodness and lawfulness? I have just sworn my loyalty to him. I offer
you the chance to do the same if you desire."
"Urp," says Bill, "Uhhh, hello."
"I have never seen a talking sword at a loss for words," the god chuckles.
Niko frowns, "Hey! What's wrong with chaos? Chaos rocks!"
Realizing where he is, he quickly and quietly adds, "As long as it isn't evil!"
Silverbeard regards Niko coldly.
"You are fortunate that you are Hlarn Meg's friend."
Niko wisely says nothing.
And suddenly your audience with Silverbeard is over. You find
yourselves standing on the front lawn of Occa's mansion. It is early
evening, warm but cloudy, and from within you smell the scents of
dinner cooking.
You head inside.
Kadlian's party returns from
wherever they have been for the past few days. With them is Niko, who
now appears to be alive. It is evening, and dinner is just being
served. What a coincidence.
Ragnar and Galil still need to train.
"Ragnar, Galil, train now while you can. The rest of us will relax and keep ourselves busy until you are done."
Ragnar speaks. "I will need to travel to Strabath for training. I will get my things and leave now."
Kailar pipes up, "I can teleport you there. That would save time."
"Thank you, Kailar. I would appeciate that."
Galil smiles, still quite bemused over their recent adventures.
"Thank you Lord Kadlian, I will do so that I may be of more use in our
next adventures."
Kadlian nods, not quite sure what to say.
"Before you and Rangar head out, how much money are you going to need for the training?"
Galil shrugs. "That I do not know my Lord as I am far from my own
lands. I will ask and then let you know before I agree to accept
the price."
"Is there a separate guild for Cavaliers or do you just go to the fighter's guild?"
"I do not know. Among my people, it is not as ordered and
segregated as it seems to be here among humans and other kind. I
will first inquire at the Fighter's guild and then perhaps see if there
is a temple of Forseti in the area as I serve that order," Galil
replies with a small
bow.
Kadlian nods. "I will go with you to the Fighter's guild.
If you can get trained there, then you need to join the guild,
first. And that requires a payment as well. Once you are a
guild member, the training costs are fixed."
"Thank you," Galil replies. "I am ready now if you are."
Kadlian nods. "Very well."
After eating his fill, Niko takes his tankard and heads to the MAIN community chest.
Salaam is working on vials of holy water and potions of healing.