The Baron's Hunting Lodge.
I should have asked Kivan some questions... like "where do you and Georges hope to find your two companions? Did you keep regular routes?" [thinking "should we expect to run into them>"] And "have you detected any pattern to the orcs' parties' appearances? Do they always come from the same direction? Do they usually come in groups of about 8? Bigger groups? One or two stragglers? What purpose do they seem to have in the forest? And "do any besides foresters and the baron's hunt frequent the forest normally?"
Paris had gone out to the porch to watch the stars and consider how best not to contribute to the discord amongst her own fellows. And to wonder why anyone would bring books to the forest or, for that matter, store them in the baron's village (even though it was bigger than Jouet)? What books could be so valuable as to go back to a fell-controlled village to get them, and yet not be willing to seek the duke's protection? And how could any books kept in the baron's village help the poor duke in his current magic-induced condition. Magic did not exist in these lands before That Night. So no magic books could have been stored before then. So -- IF Anton was right and the book man was a mage -- it was more probable that he had the books -- if they can deal with a magic problem -- with him, rather than stored. And if they were stored, they were not magic. If they were not magic, this was a wild goose chase. A wild goose chase was of no help to the duke. {Thank goodness they returned the ox before the cost reached duke-ly proportion!] Unless she had been wrong in her observations that the magic cards had not basically affected Things; just People and Places..... By which time her head hurt. She tried to just listen to thhe night sounds of the forest. Crickets, frogs, the plash of an occasional fish in the stream, the hoot of an occasional owl. The moist night breeze bringing the scent of new growth and old bracken.
"Still no wolves," a quiet voice said from behind the girl. Paris turned, startled, to see that Kivan has moved quietly out on the porch. "Haven't heard any wolves since the... orcs came." He seemed to pause before the unfamiliar word, uncomfortable about its use. He looked down at the step she was sitting on. "Mind if I join you? Always takes me a while to get used to sleeping indoors again."
Paris gestured a welcome. Her mind thought over the word. Orcs. A slimy, choked-off sound. She sat, letting the night sounds soften the pain the word brought with it. He was quiet for a while, eyes closed, listening intently to the forest. Paris noticed his fingers drumming silently on his leg.
"Where do you and Georges hope to find your two companions?" she finally asked.
"Hm?" he said, turning to her. "Oh. The morning after the big flash of light, we started back to the castle to see what had happened. Came across a big trail, looked like a lot of people had been through. Claude and Ralf went south to follow the trail, Georges and I went north."
[S: I'm maybe a bit confused. The orc trail to/from Jouet was south/north.]
The ranger continued, "Ambushed one bunch of those orcs on the way. We saw the village, crept up to the rubble and looked a bit to see if we could find anyone still there." His voice was low and strained. "Couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, so we ran back to the forest. There's," and he swallowed, "there's a few places someone might run to in the near edge of the forest. Kids run off and hide there on summer days, have to chase them back out. We split up to look at them quickly, didn't want any townsfolk running into the orcs. We were going to meet back up where the big trail was, tomorrow." He wiped his face on his sleeve, a motion she could just make out in the dark night of the new moon. "Man, I am so glad you told me Yvonne is safe. How is she? Is she going to find an inn to work in, you think? How's her mom?"
[GM: They came from the north. The 'people trail' from the baron's to theduke's should have been going east. The foresters patrol the southern forest. Therefore, to go to the [baron's] castle, the rangers would have gone north.]
[S: Are you saying that the foresters -- while heading northerly -- found a north/south trail? Implying (given the people/survivors went east) that the gargoyles were accompanied by something that made a trail (similar to Jouet's orcs') which either did or did not come from north of the barons (as Jouet's orcs came from north of Jouet) but kept on going after hitting the baron's -- instead of turning around the way Jouet's orc's did. Whew! Does that make any sense at all? If I have understood you correctly, then Paris probably needs to comment on the similarities and differences in the experiences of the Baron's and Jouet.]
[GM: Bingo, I think. :) It might help if you don't think of the terrain as flat, but the rolling hills and valleys with the open forests of that part of Europe. Because of the valleys, you might first travel east/west to travel north/south, depending on where you are. At this lodge, you are south and east, slightly, of the Baron's place. The other lodge is further south, and west. There's at least one east/west valley in between. The foresters, when they cut the trail, didn't know whether the group had headed north or south, which is why they split up.]
"I --I did not think to ask Yvonne about her family," Paris said softly. "I - I don't know any of us who survived who -- who did not lose someone." Paris thought hard, trying to remember. Were there sounds of work, of tasks being done, in any of the other rooms of the inn? Softly still, "I had asked so much of your lady in asking her to tell me of the lands south... It was clear such questions brought you to mind and -- and happier days. She was so ... obviously distressed to think she might never know what had become of you that I would not have asked more lest I cause more pain."
"But, she was busy. Many are busying themselves in doing as an anodyne to grief. And the three stars sign was up. It was clear that they intend to reopen the inn in the duke's city. The duke's city is much changed and much larger, and he is parceling it out to those who survived that night. You will find the baron's people in the west section towards the center."
"If the Three Stars is open then the town still lives." There was a faint glint of white from his smile. "That was where everything got done, the place to be. Her great great grandfather opened it, named it for his three kids. Everyone who owned it had three kids, generation after generation. Yvonne's older brothers moved away a couple of years ago. Yvonne and I were going to..." and his voice tailed off. "Sorry, ought to get back to here and now, and the orcs."
Paris chuckled softly. "The town will need you and Yvonne and the Three Stars more than ever now. Plan on it. It's at least as important as the orcs." She paused for a brief moment. "As for the baron's town... your feeling of being watched... Did you note any ... seeming carved statues of winged ... creatures huddled atop the battlements? They seem but ugly crenelatioms. However Claire -- our companion who wears the star within the circle -- had the knowledge to say that they were called gargoyles and are," Paris gestured in mild frustration, "akin to living stone. They see in the dark and, we assumed, were responsible for the destruction of keep and town -- unless even more horrible creatures had left or were yet inside when we came that way."
His voice was sure. "They were there all right. And the tower, blackened all down one side." He shook his head. "I don't know why, but I think there's something else inside. No, I know why. Those things on the wall reminded me of the little scavengers that flock and wait for a chance, until the big ones are done."
Paris' voice held more than regret. "I -- thought some might be left inside. But -- we were not -- are not cognizant enough of our new skills and knowledges to devise a means of passing the gargoyles. I -- intend to think more about -- what could be done. I wonder.... the black marking of the tower. Fire? Something -- spilled? Or lightning?"
"No," he said, and she had the sensation that he was shaking his head in the darkness. "Not fire or lightning. They burn from below up. It's more like... west of here, quite a ways, is a rocky peak where some vultures roost. The stain they leave on the rocks is shaped much the same as on the tower. But not nearly as large."
Paris felt her insides shiver as she thought about the size of creature that could -- leave its wastes so down the tower. Not the gargoyles surely, although they were probably larger than vultures. Her thoughts turn to some of Anton's fantastical tales of far places -- and wondered if the word that comes to mind could possibly be true. Dragon? Something, at any rate. Her voice was very low. "In our village -- to our eyes, only orcs -- of various sizes -- razed Jouet. They came, they destroyed and desecrated, and they left the way they had come. Partway north my companions and I followed the churn that was their track. We did not notice any -- wanderers such as you seem to find in this forest. Or did I wrongly understand you? Do the orcs you have fought seem to have a purpose in this forest? Do they seem always to come from one source heading towards the same direction? Have you noticed any pattern?"
He shook his head, and moved to stand. "I only met the one group. Georges and I followed them a bit, looked like they were searching the forest for something. Not real organized aboout it. Told them to go away. They charged me, Georges had been hiding. He fired and we ran. They aren't too clever about running, one of us would hide as the other ran, once they passed we'd shoot the last one. They'd turn around and we'd reverse the process. Took a while, but we got them all." He stretched and yawned. "Thanks again for the conversation." A pause. "And thanks for bringing me news of Yvonne." He moved towards the door to the lodge.
"Good rest to you." Paris watched him through the door and the turned back to the stars and a consideration of the possible entry points into the baron's keep. She came to the conclusion, undoubtedly, that she had too little information. She continued to keep watch until she felt it was time to wake Calais for the next 'watch' - although the group hadn't set watches. She told him to wake Brillig for 3rd watch. (There are, after all, orcs in them thar woods.)
"Kivan" copyright 1999 P.Shea & S.Knowles. The contents of this site are copyright 2004 Sheryl A. Knowles unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.