Chapter 3-15 - The Kanaalden
The last of the party slipped unnoticed through the archway and found themselves in a long narrow corridor, running roughly parallel to the main highway. Not nearly as impressive, this passage was narrow and much more crudely constructed, and it carved a gentle meander through the stone of the mountain, unlike the unnaturally direct approach of the main route. A complete absence of artificial light in the passageway made the terrain treacherous, particularly to Ryoko, whose Quan born eyes were not used to such extreme darkness. Once the group was safely out of sight of the entrance tunnel, Clootie conjured a few orbs of dancing light, and instructed them to orbit close to the dragonborn.
Up in front, Juliana stopped and cleared her throat a little,
"Ok. The Kanaalden goes on for many miles. It'll be at least two days travel until we're clear of the mountains. Because of this, the Republic maintains what are known as pitch sites in chambers off the main route. These are provisioned camping grounds, with firewood, water and other supplies. We’ll head for the second of those (so we’re not too close to Kanaalden Mort if they come looking for us) and try and get some rest while we wait for Aurora. These maintenance tunnels connect to the back of each of the pitch sites, so we should be able to check it out before we reveal ourselves. Shouldn’t take us much more than two hours to get there. Does that sound ok to everyone?"
A general murmur of assent rippled through the group, and Juliana sighed in audible relief.
Juliana and Ramas took the lead. As they walked, the young mage started to talk to the half-elf,
"Thank you for helping us back there. I just wish we had been in time to save Bram. Who are you all? And how did you end up in Kanaalden Mort?"
Ramas considered maintaining his usual aura of mystery, but ultimately decided that the young mage prying for the rest of that walk would be exhausting. He explained the gist of their story, how Badger had been captured by the Thal’Ahd, and they had come to rescue him. Juliana looked especially curious whenever Ramas mentioned Miaug,
"So… I have to ask… Miaug... How did she end up travelling with you? When did she leave the Republic? Aurora is the only Tabaxi I've met who has turned against the Council?"
“Oh. She’s not from Verani. I think she’s from over in the Andidean somewhere…”
“Really? I’ve never heard of a Tabaxi from outside the Republic. They Council isn’t known to lets go of any of their creations”
'Creations?’ Ramas thought, ‘That’s something we’ll need to explore'
But instead, he tried to keep the conversation light,
“So - how did you do that trick with the wall. That’s a skill I could do with mastering, in my line of work”
Juliana seemed oblivious to the half-elf’s comment,
"I'm a Journeyman of the Order of the Hammer. We're transmuters, using magic to change the shape, or material, or nature of objects. I'm not very powerful, so mostly I just work construction - sometimes channeling out spaces like this, or maintaining the buildings in the city. My sister was the real talent in the family. She’s actually the whole reason I ended up with the Resistance”
"Felicia scored highly in Transmutation and Enchanting. High enough that she was offered a place to train to become a Magus. The whole family were excited for her. It was her ticket out of our normal life and into high society. But my parents were sad about it too. I caught my Mum crying after Felicia got the letter. But obviously she didn't let Felicia know."
"When kids go off to join the Magi, their family basically never hears from them again. High society don't mingle with the commoners. But Felicia and I were close, and I was sure that wasn't going to happen to us. So we agreed to send each other messages every night through our sending crystals. She told me all about her training, and all of the crazy things she was learning to do. Then one day, the tone of her messages changed. She got more aloof and abrupt, then suddenly they stopped altogether. I don't believe for a second that my sister just gave up on us... on me... So I started asking about… It turns out, nobody I spoke to whose child or sibling had joined the Magi had ever heard from them again. That doesn't seem right to me. I was convinced something happened to her. So I kept digging. And that's how I ended up getting involved with the Resistance."
Bringing up the rear of the group, Oghar and Clootie both hung back to support Ryoko. The jungle born Iskathi wasn’t used to spending this long unable to see sky, and the oppressive weight of mountain overhead was beginning to affect her. Trying to distract her, Clootie had started to speak about her favourite subject - her time as a professional wrestler in the Sand Pits of Rakheen. She expected the usual response of tolerant silence she had grown used to from the group whenever she started on this topic; but to her surprise and delight Oghar seemed intrigued. She spoke at length to the half-orc about the storylines she’d been involved with, the promo’s she’d cut, her long running rivalry with Jahn Seena; and Oghar hung on every word, entranced.
After a few hours, Juliana motioned for the group to stop. Ahead, a smaller passage split off from the maintenance tunnel, curving left back towards the main thoroughfare. Juliana whispered
"That's the second pitch site. Ramas, do you want to come with me and we'll check it out? The rest of you wait here, unless you hear a commotion?"
The pitch site turned out to be a good sized rectangular cavern, with the main entrance from the Kanaalden in the opposite wall. In the middle of the floor, in a sunken pit filled with ashes, hung a cooking spit. Directly above the pit, a vertical chimney burrowed upwards into the stone ceiling, it’s depth impossible to determine. Around the edges of the pit, the stone had been molded into a circle of smooth stone reclined seats. The walls on either side of the chamber were carved into a series of alcoves, each filled with shredded straw bedding. In the back corner of the room, beside the maintenance tunnel entrance, stood a stack of small crates, filled with cured meats and dried fruits, and barrels full of wine. Beside the crates lay a small stack of firewood.
As the group set about making camp, Oghar sat down heavily on one of the reclined stone chairs, wincing quietly. Arina looked up concerned, taking in the beads of perspiration standing out on the half-orc’s forehead. She gently removed his dressing, seeing the wound beginning to look inflamed. At her request, Letho quickly got a small fire started and began to warm some water; and Miaug used the last of her Mother’s Wart to create a small healing poultice. Arina then cleaned and redressed the wound, applying some of Miaug’s poultice to the edges of the wound, and finishing it off with a small healing prayer. Oghar looked visibly soothed, and thanked her profusely.
After some dinner, the party settled down to have some much earned rest. Letho and Ryoko agreed to take the first watch. As the rest of the group retired to the wall alcoves; except the kenku, who clustered themselves together into a mound of black feathers near the fire; Ryoko poured two cups of wine and passed one to the half-elf,
“So - where are you and Arina from?”
Letho took the cup gratefully, “I’m from Rakheen. Arina’s from somewhere up on the dwarven plateau.”
He took a swig of the wine. He could tell it wasn’t good wine, but it tasted wonderful after his long imprisonment. Ryoko smiled at his appreciative noises,
“So, how long were you two held by the Verani?”
“I’m not really sure” he said, thoughtfully, “What month is it?”
“It’s the 17th of Brineah, I’m pretty sure.”
“It’s spring already? Selune’s grace! We’ve been in that hole for two months!” Letho looked aghast,
“How did you end up here?”
“Well… that’s a long story. I work as a hunter, tracking and killing monsters on behalf of villagers or townsfolk. I was out in the northern part of the Issati Peaks, near the town of Holmfirth. A group of farmers had hired me to track down something which had been running off with their livestock. I’d been on its trail for hours, and I was deep in the mountains. It was dark, and I was getting pretty tired of picking my way up scree slopes. That’s when I found it - an umber hulk. A big-ass four eyed creature, like a bipedal bug. They tunnel through rock, and they’ve been known to venture into human territory to grab some sheep or goats. They’ve got four eyes - two big compound eyes on either side of their head, and two little black ones in the middle of their forehead. Those little black ones are the dangerous part - they can see into your soul. It’s uncanny, just looking at them affects your memory, makes you confused. I had a feeling that was what I was after, when one the farmhands told me a bunch of garbled nonsense about big jaws and swirling eyes. Anyway, it took a bit of work, but I managed to deal with it and took it’s head - partly as proof for the farmers, but also ‘cause their mandibles are worth a bit to enchanters. By this point I was fairly exhausted, and a little beat up, so I decided rather than head back down, there was a spot nearby where I’d made camp before.
When I got there, that’s when I met Arina. She was there with two little armoured dwarf guards. She’s a Sister of Silvanus, and she was on her way to some town in the mountains, can’t remember the name, to try and help them with some sort of disease flare up. Anyways, I must’ve been a sight when I came lumbering out of the darkness to their campfire; she looked remarkably perturbed and both her guards immediately grabbed their big hammers. I persuaded them I meant them no harm, and they eventually settled down and let me rest by their fire, especially once I offered them some of my ale. Although - in spite of her being a Sister of Silvanus, she pointedly ignored all my wounds. Just saying - if I’d been fully healed, maybe we wouldn’t have ended up here.
Aye - anyway - we were relaxing beside the fire, having a bit of banter, when the Verani ambushed us. I saw a good couple of evokers, then I got blindsided by a conjurer. The dwarf guards were tough sons of bitches though, and their hammers were pretty fancy. I thought we were gonna be fine, then one of their transmuters came barrelling out of the darkness, fully stone armoured. He bashed right through one of the dwarf guards, and the rest ganged up on the other guy. He didn’t stand a chance. Then they clocked me one, and when I came to, they had me and Arina both chained up onto a big long slave gang.
They marched us south for about a week, then they split me and Arina off the chain gang and brought us to the Kanaalden. They hadn’t really gotten to doing much with us yet, they were still working their way through Aurora’s crew, but judging from the screams I wasn’t looking forward to my turn.”
“Yeah, you were lucky. Nobody comes out of the torture rooms in the Kanaalden Mort the same as they went in” a voice echoed out of the darkness, and Aurora stepped into the light of fire, dressed in a far more ornate uniform than she’d been wearing earlier. “Trust me on that”
As the Tabaxi settled down beside the fire, Ryoko passed her a cup of wine. She smiled gratefully.
“Did you do what you needed to?” Ryoko asked
“I did indeed. Killed a couple of guards; impersonated an officer; caused some chaos. They’re pretty convinced we slipped back over into Quan now. They’ve got patrols combing the jungle. That should buy us enough time to get out of the Kanaalden and disappear.”
One of the kenku started to shiver and chirp softly, obviously having a nightmare. With a low yawn, Badger trotted over from the alcove he was sharing with Miaug, and curled up around the little feathered creatures. This seemed to soothe the kenku, who let out a contented trill and settled back down.
Two hours passed, then Ryoko roused Aetilius and Raymond for their shift on watch. They shared a few drinks, and after a while the conversation turned to how Raymond and Oghar found themselves in Verani,
“We were transporting some goods from Triboar to Neverwinter. I’ve just recently set up my own trading company. I used to work for the Lionshield Coster as an accountant. My father worked for them as a caravan master. About three years ago, he was thrown from his horse when it got spooked. It shattered his lower spine, and he’s been unable to walk ever since. He lost his job, couldn’t take care of himself, or my Mum. I’ll be honest - I was a bit sickened by the Lionshield Coster's attitude - now that he couldn’t ride anymore, they just cast him aside to die. I saw how much coin they were making, they couldn’t at least afforded to help him out a little. So I decided to go into business myself to try make enough coin to take care of my parents.
So - I knew a lot about the Lionshield Coster’s trade routes from their books. I used that to let me undercut them for a while. I made some good coin, and I hired Oghar as a caravan guard. It all seemed good, until Oghar overheard a group of mercenaries in a tavern in Triboar, talking about a contract they had picked up from the Lionshield Coster to waylay and kill a merchant who sounded a lot like me. Oghar and I were worried, so we left Triboar immediately, and tried to take a more discreet path back to Neverwinter. I persuaded Oghar that we should camp a distance off the road on nght, out in the foothills. He told me it was a bad idea, but I could swear I could hear the hoofbeats of those mercenaries following us. Anyway - during the night we were ambushed by a Verani patrol. Oghar fought like a bear, but they wounded him and captured us both.
We’re lucky to be alive, thanks to you. But I lost everything we were trading. I’ll be ruined when we get back to the Empire. And I’m pretty sure the Lionshield Coster will see me dead anyway.”
The little merchant looked up in despair. Aetilius leaned forward,
“Look. I might have an opportunity for you. We’re setting up a town just outside Neverwinter, in the ruins of old Thundertree. We need to make sure we have a steady flow of goods in and out, basic supplies for now, but hopefully soon it’ll be luxuries and trade good. We could do with an experienced trader and accountant to manage that. If you were to set up there, and work with us, you would be under our protection. And as Lords of Neverwinter, you’d also be under the protection of the Duke. How does that sound?”
Aetilius looked intently at Raymond, and he extended a hand over the flames. Raymond grasped it firmly,
“Are you serious? You won’t regret this. I’ll make sure of it”
“Take care of us, and we’ll take care of you.”
Next: Chapter 3-16: Aquiliath
Previous: Chapter 3-14 - Jailbreak
Up in front, Juliana stopped and cleared her throat a little,
"Ok. The Kanaalden goes on for many miles. It'll be at least two days travel until we're clear of the mountains. Because of this, the Republic maintains what are known as pitch sites in chambers off the main route. These are provisioned camping grounds, with firewood, water and other supplies. We’ll head for the second of those (so we’re not too close to Kanaalden Mort if they come looking for us) and try and get some rest while we wait for Aurora. These maintenance tunnels connect to the back of each of the pitch sites, so we should be able to check it out before we reveal ourselves. Shouldn’t take us much more than two hours to get there. Does that sound ok to everyone?"
A general murmur of assent rippled through the group, and Juliana sighed in audible relief.
Juliana and Ramas took the lead. As they walked, the young mage started to talk to the half-elf,
"Thank you for helping us back there. I just wish we had been in time to save Bram. Who are you all? And how did you end up in Kanaalden Mort?"
Ramas considered maintaining his usual aura of mystery, but ultimately decided that the young mage prying for the rest of that walk would be exhausting. He explained the gist of their story, how Badger had been captured by the Thal’Ahd, and they had come to rescue him. Juliana looked especially curious whenever Ramas mentioned Miaug,
"So… I have to ask… Miaug... How did she end up travelling with you? When did she leave the Republic? Aurora is the only Tabaxi I've met who has turned against the Council?"
“Oh. She’s not from Verani. I think she’s from over in the Andidean somewhere…”
“Really? I’ve never heard of a Tabaxi from outside the Republic. They Council isn’t known to lets go of any of their creations”
'Creations?’ Ramas thought, ‘That’s something we’ll need to explore'
But instead, he tried to keep the conversation light,
“So - how did you do that trick with the wall. That’s a skill I could do with mastering, in my line of work”
Juliana seemed oblivious to the half-elf’s comment,
"I'm a Journeyman of the Order of the Hammer. We're transmuters, using magic to change the shape, or material, or nature of objects. I'm not very powerful, so mostly I just work construction - sometimes channeling out spaces like this, or maintaining the buildings in the city. My sister was the real talent in the family. She’s actually the whole reason I ended up with the Resistance”
"Felicia scored highly in Transmutation and Enchanting. High enough that she was offered a place to train to become a Magus. The whole family were excited for her. It was her ticket out of our normal life and into high society. But my parents were sad about it too. I caught my Mum crying after Felicia got the letter. But obviously she didn't let Felicia know."
"When kids go off to join the Magi, their family basically never hears from them again. High society don't mingle with the commoners. But Felicia and I were close, and I was sure that wasn't going to happen to us. So we agreed to send each other messages every night through our sending crystals. She told me all about her training, and all of the crazy things she was learning to do. Then one day, the tone of her messages changed. She got more aloof and abrupt, then suddenly they stopped altogether. I don't believe for a second that my sister just gave up on us... on me... So I started asking about… It turns out, nobody I spoke to whose child or sibling had joined the Magi had ever heard from them again. That doesn't seem right to me. I was convinced something happened to her. So I kept digging. And that's how I ended up getting involved with the Resistance."
Bringing up the rear of the group, Oghar and Clootie both hung back to support Ryoko. The jungle born Iskathi wasn’t used to spending this long unable to see sky, and the oppressive weight of mountain overhead was beginning to affect her. Trying to distract her, Clootie had started to speak about her favourite subject - her time as a professional wrestler in the Sand Pits of Rakheen. She expected the usual response of tolerant silence she had grown used to from the group whenever she started on this topic; but to her surprise and delight Oghar seemed intrigued. She spoke at length to the half-orc about the storylines she’d been involved with, the promo’s she’d cut, her long running rivalry with Jahn Seena; and Oghar hung on every word, entranced.
After a few hours, Juliana motioned for the group to stop. Ahead, a smaller passage split off from the maintenance tunnel, curving left back towards the main thoroughfare. Juliana whispered
"That's the second pitch site. Ramas, do you want to come with me and we'll check it out? The rest of you wait here, unless you hear a commotion?"
The pitch site turned out to be a good sized rectangular cavern, with the main entrance from the Kanaalden in the opposite wall. In the middle of the floor, in a sunken pit filled with ashes, hung a cooking spit. Directly above the pit, a vertical chimney burrowed upwards into the stone ceiling, it’s depth impossible to determine. Around the edges of the pit, the stone had been molded into a circle of smooth stone reclined seats. The walls on either side of the chamber were carved into a series of alcoves, each filled with shredded straw bedding. In the back corner of the room, beside the maintenance tunnel entrance, stood a stack of small crates, filled with cured meats and dried fruits, and barrels full of wine. Beside the crates lay a small stack of firewood.
As the group set about making camp, Oghar sat down heavily on one of the reclined stone chairs, wincing quietly. Arina looked up concerned, taking in the beads of perspiration standing out on the half-orc’s forehead. She gently removed his dressing, seeing the wound beginning to look inflamed. At her request, Letho quickly got a small fire started and began to warm some water; and Miaug used the last of her Mother’s Wart to create a small healing poultice. Arina then cleaned and redressed the wound, applying some of Miaug’s poultice to the edges of the wound, and finishing it off with a small healing prayer. Oghar looked visibly soothed, and thanked her profusely.
After some dinner, the party settled down to have some much earned rest. Letho and Ryoko agreed to take the first watch. As the rest of the group retired to the wall alcoves; except the kenku, who clustered themselves together into a mound of black feathers near the fire; Ryoko poured two cups of wine and passed one to the half-elf,
“So - where are you and Arina from?”
Letho took the cup gratefully, “I’m from Rakheen. Arina’s from somewhere up on the dwarven plateau.”
He took a swig of the wine. He could tell it wasn’t good wine, but it tasted wonderful after his long imprisonment. Ryoko smiled at his appreciative noises,
“So, how long were you two held by the Verani?”
“I’m not really sure” he said, thoughtfully, “What month is it?”
“It’s the 17th of Brineah, I’m pretty sure.”
“It’s spring already? Selune’s grace! We’ve been in that hole for two months!” Letho looked aghast,
“How did you end up here?”
“Well… that’s a long story. I work as a hunter, tracking and killing monsters on behalf of villagers or townsfolk. I was out in the northern part of the Issati Peaks, near the town of Holmfirth. A group of farmers had hired me to track down something which had been running off with their livestock. I’d been on its trail for hours, and I was deep in the mountains. It was dark, and I was getting pretty tired of picking my way up scree slopes. That’s when I found it - an umber hulk. A big-ass four eyed creature, like a bipedal bug. They tunnel through rock, and they’ve been known to venture into human territory to grab some sheep or goats. They’ve got four eyes - two big compound eyes on either side of their head, and two little black ones in the middle of their forehead. Those little black ones are the dangerous part - they can see into your soul. It’s uncanny, just looking at them affects your memory, makes you confused. I had a feeling that was what I was after, when one the farmhands told me a bunch of garbled nonsense about big jaws and swirling eyes. Anyway, it took a bit of work, but I managed to deal with it and took it’s head - partly as proof for the farmers, but also ‘cause their mandibles are worth a bit to enchanters. By this point I was fairly exhausted, and a little beat up, so I decided rather than head back down, there was a spot nearby where I’d made camp before.
When I got there, that’s when I met Arina. She was there with two little armoured dwarf guards. She’s a Sister of Silvanus, and she was on her way to some town in the mountains, can’t remember the name, to try and help them with some sort of disease flare up. Anyways, I must’ve been a sight when I came lumbering out of the darkness to their campfire; she looked remarkably perturbed and both her guards immediately grabbed their big hammers. I persuaded them I meant them no harm, and they eventually settled down and let me rest by their fire, especially once I offered them some of my ale. Although - in spite of her being a Sister of Silvanus, she pointedly ignored all my wounds. Just saying - if I’d been fully healed, maybe we wouldn’t have ended up here.
Aye - anyway - we were relaxing beside the fire, having a bit of banter, when the Verani ambushed us. I saw a good couple of evokers, then I got blindsided by a conjurer. The dwarf guards were tough sons of bitches though, and their hammers were pretty fancy. I thought we were gonna be fine, then one of their transmuters came barrelling out of the darkness, fully stone armoured. He bashed right through one of the dwarf guards, and the rest ganged up on the other guy. He didn’t stand a chance. Then they clocked me one, and when I came to, they had me and Arina both chained up onto a big long slave gang.
They marched us south for about a week, then they split me and Arina off the chain gang and brought us to the Kanaalden. They hadn’t really gotten to doing much with us yet, they were still working their way through Aurora’s crew, but judging from the screams I wasn’t looking forward to my turn.”
“Yeah, you were lucky. Nobody comes out of the torture rooms in the Kanaalden Mort the same as they went in” a voice echoed out of the darkness, and Aurora stepped into the light of fire, dressed in a far more ornate uniform than she’d been wearing earlier. “Trust me on that”
As the Tabaxi settled down beside the fire, Ryoko passed her a cup of wine. She smiled gratefully.
“Did you do what you needed to?” Ryoko asked
“I did indeed. Killed a couple of guards; impersonated an officer; caused some chaos. They’re pretty convinced we slipped back over into Quan now. They’ve got patrols combing the jungle. That should buy us enough time to get out of the Kanaalden and disappear.”
One of the kenku started to shiver and chirp softly, obviously having a nightmare. With a low yawn, Badger trotted over from the alcove he was sharing with Miaug, and curled up around the little feathered creatures. This seemed to soothe the kenku, who let out a contented trill and settled back down.
Two hours passed, then Ryoko roused Aetilius and Raymond for their shift on watch. They shared a few drinks, and after a while the conversation turned to how Raymond and Oghar found themselves in Verani,
“We were transporting some goods from Triboar to Neverwinter. I’ve just recently set up my own trading company. I used to work for the Lionshield Coster as an accountant. My father worked for them as a caravan master. About three years ago, he was thrown from his horse when it got spooked. It shattered his lower spine, and he’s been unable to walk ever since. He lost his job, couldn’t take care of himself, or my Mum. I’ll be honest - I was a bit sickened by the Lionshield Coster's attitude - now that he couldn’t ride anymore, they just cast him aside to die. I saw how much coin they were making, they couldn’t at least afforded to help him out a little. So I decided to go into business myself to try make enough coin to take care of my parents.
So - I knew a lot about the Lionshield Coster’s trade routes from their books. I used that to let me undercut them for a while. I made some good coin, and I hired Oghar as a caravan guard. It all seemed good, until Oghar overheard a group of mercenaries in a tavern in Triboar, talking about a contract they had picked up from the Lionshield Coster to waylay and kill a merchant who sounded a lot like me. Oghar and I were worried, so we left Triboar immediately, and tried to take a more discreet path back to Neverwinter. I persuaded Oghar that we should camp a distance off the road on nght, out in the foothills. He told me it was a bad idea, but I could swear I could hear the hoofbeats of those mercenaries following us. Anyway - during the night we were ambushed by a Verani patrol. Oghar fought like a bear, but they wounded him and captured us both.
We’re lucky to be alive, thanks to you. But I lost everything we were trading. I’ll be ruined when we get back to the Empire. And I’m pretty sure the Lionshield Coster will see me dead anyway.”
The little merchant looked up in despair. Aetilius leaned forward,
“Look. I might have an opportunity for you. We’re setting up a town just outside Neverwinter, in the ruins of old Thundertree. We need to make sure we have a steady flow of goods in and out, basic supplies for now, but hopefully soon it’ll be luxuries and trade good. We could do with an experienced trader and accountant to manage that. If you were to set up there, and work with us, you would be under our protection. And as Lords of Neverwinter, you’d also be under the protection of the Duke. How does that sound?”
Aetilius looked intently at Raymond, and he extended a hand over the flames. Raymond grasped it firmly,
“Are you serious? You won’t regret this. I’ll make sure of it”
“Take care of us, and we’ll take care of you.”
Next: Chapter 3-16: Aquiliath
Previous: Chapter 3-14 - Jailbreak
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