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13.10 – Secret Passage
The patrolling guards never saw what hit them. Einarr blinked to realize there were only two who came to investigate, and those two were already down. They continued on their way. The passage Mornik led them down showed every sign of having been long forgotten. They passed truly massive spider’s nests and other signs of…
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13.9 – Improvisation
“We’re not going in that way,” Mornik assured them in a whisper. “We’d have to be fools to try,” Kaldr muttered, staring up the staircase. The approach was a defender’s dream: all it lacked were enclosing walls to make it all but unassailable. “This way.” Mornik turned back the way they came and wound them…
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13.8 – The Temple Path
The two days of waiting dragged out until they felt more like two weeks, but at last Brandir had matters arranged to his satisfaction. The eight of them would be the only ones to venture into the Mount, while a rather sizable number of dvergr caused a distraction in Nilthiad proper. The path to the…
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13.7 – Cleansing
Grim-faced, Jorir drove the butt of his axe into the solar plexus of the man he had just disarmed. He fell to the ground and did not get up. From the corner of his eye, Einarr saw one of the black-blooded dvergr coming up on Gheldram from behind. He lunged and embedded Sinmora in its…
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13.6 – Kin No More
There was, on the outskirts of Nilthiad as on the outskirts of most cities, a rough part of town, where most people weren’t going to ask too many questions so long as you didn’t go making a big deal out of yourself. It was to a small, apparently abandoned house in a neighborhood such as…
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13.5 – Jailbreak
Without another word, the eight men – four dvergr, four humans – slipped out into the hall to follow Gheldram. In silence they crept through the halls of the dungeon until they reached the storeroom, where they set to searching for the belongings of the humans. “I had half expected you to have… company by…
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13.4 – Infiltration
Einarr kept his eyes locked on Jorir as he was marched to the front of the Hall, and Jorir could feel the weight of their disappointment heavy on his shoulders. Soggvar stood. Despite his sickly appearance, his legs were just as strong as Jorir remembered, and his hands steady. “So,” he said, walking to the…
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13.3 – The Court of Iron and Brass
Jorir took a little of his remaining coin, small though it was, to visit the bathhouse that night. He would give Thane Soggvar no excuse to abuse him that he could avoid. The next morning he put formal braids in his beard and – for the first time in many a year – wore the…
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13.2 – Scorn
Jorir sat on a large block in Brandir’s smithy, pressing his hands against his knees to keep from pacing. As he had feared, the situation now was far worse than when he had left. That was fine. It would be fine: he had found the Cursebreaker. All he had to do now was convince the…
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13.1 – Rude Awakening
Consciousness returned slowly to Einarr, and when it did it was made more uncertain by the dearth of light. But, he could feel his body again. Everything ached, except his head. His head felt like someone had driven spikes into his temples. Even still, he was aware of the hair that felt plastered across his…
