Baern's page

A day later the group is trouping up into the hills, armed and provisioned for a week of travel and riding in a cart pulled by a rented mule. They arrive at the estate in much less time than their last journey, and leave the wagon at the bottom of the hill with the mule. Petrus also stays behind to guard the wagon and provisions. The rest of the group heads back up the hill to the house and find the trap door again. Strangely, they find more orcish bodies outside the ruins, mauled by unnatural claws. They head back down to the cellar and Baern searched again, this time finding the concealed door he was convinced was there. The group ventures into the dark corridor behind the door.

The corridor seemed to shortly end at a room full of barrels of a potent alcoholic brew. Footprints in the thick dust on the floor, however, led to another concealed door in the back wall. Behind that door was another long, dark corridor, with a pair of parallel rails in the floor. The corridor ran for miles, and the group walked nearly half an hour before reaching the end of the corridor.

They spied a four-wheeled cart resting on the rails and a figure within the cart. They could not see clearly, and Kylar crept ahead to get a better look. He spooked, however, and swung at the figure with his staff before coming back to report that he had found Tanaila. Baern and the others looked at Kylar a bit disgustedly and Baern gave Kylar a cuff to the back of the head. Baern took a vial of healing potion from Kordan and fed it to Tanaila, who was lying unconscious and bleeding in the cart. She soon awoke and blearily greeted them. As she regained her strength she switched from thanking them for finding her to berating the group for their slowness and dull eyes and rough treatment.

She told us a tale of her hiding in the tunnels from orcs that had apparently commandeered the buildings outside. It was a distillery that had been operated by her grandfather. Kylar had some crazy suspicion that the distillery was being used to make Shiver, and we decided to battle the orcs in the distillery and shut it down. Just on the other side of the cart was a set of doors leading outside, where the distillery was to be found. Kylar silently opened the doors and snuck out. Only 20 feet from the doors of the corridor was a massive building: the distillery. They could hear no orcs at the door, only a few piping voices inside, lamenting their lot. The group burst in; though Kordan stayed just outside, out of sight. There were some children in the building, moving barrels around. A single older boy stood up on a raised platform, directing them. He sees the group and assumes they were sent by Gaedren, telling them to get inside and get to work, and grumbling about how long it has been since Gaedren sent any kids.

Kylar asked him about the orcs and he said that the orcs were enforcers hired by Gaedren, and not to worry about them. Baern concealed his crossbow and wandered closer to the older boy, then quickly drew the crossbow on him, ordering him to keep still. The boy raised his hands, but blustered at the group, telling them that Gaedren would punish them for their actions.

Shouting of orcish voices outside disrupted the little tableau inside the distillery. Kordan listened to the voices for a few moments and looked at the older boy, asking him if their enforcers had been paid. The boy’s face grew intensely frightened as he listened to the shouting and peered out the windows. He told the group that the orcs had taken to banging on the doors at night, shouting for Gaedren, but they always left after they got no answer. The boys recently started barricading the doors in the evening before the orcs came to the building. The shouting grew intense and Baern looked out the windows to see groups of orcs rushing at the doors to the distillery, though they squinted and shielded their eyes from the sun.

The group gathered the boys together to quickly barricade the doors to keep them out. Baern tried to shoot the orc’s leader, an unholy shaman of some kind, but the orc’s foul magic protected it and drove reason from Baern’s mind for a time. Kordan easily dealt with the orcs attempting the doorway they had originally entered, and the rest of the group managed to fend off the orcs attempting the other doors until a horn call outside drew the orcs away.

The orcs fortified positions outside each doorway, obviously waiting until darkness when they would not be pained by the sun’s rays. Baern and the others fortified their own positions as best they could, and Baern’s searches through the building discovered a pair of ensorcelled books, though there was no time to decipher them now. As the sun grew low through the smoke screen the orcs had made the orcs attacked again, flinging torches through windows and battering down the main door with a battering ram. Kordan came to the main door to repel them, smashing aside the orcs with ease. Then, out of the smoke came the orc shaman, roaring his anger at Kordan.

As Kordan faced down the orc shaman, orcish screams came sharply out of the smoke along with low unearthly moans. The sounds of the orcs pounding on the doors were replaced with more screams as unknown figures attacked the greenskins in the smoke-tinged dusk. Kordan attacked the orc shaman as Kylar and Baern raced to aid him. The orc shrugged aside Kordan’s blow and muttered a few guttural words. An inky blackness started from its fingertips and raced up its arm, seeming to shrink and shrivel its own flesh. The orc reached out and touched its black hand to Kordan’s chest. Kordan staggered back and caught himself, but then seemed to shrivel and dropped to his knees. His hair turned a sickly green-grey and his skin sagged on his bones, his flesh seeming to putrefy instantly. Baern watched with horror as the orc’s foul magic sucked the life from his father’s body. Kordan hunched forward, a wheezy sigh escaping from his lips, and the orc raised a monstrous fist and brought it down on Kordan’s head. Kordan’s head exploded in a spray of rotted flesh and bone, splattering Kylar and Baern.

Baern stared in horror and mounting rage at the body of his fallen father and the chuckling orc looming above him. He dropped his crossbow and pulled his heavy cudgel from beneath his cassock. Baern’s rage drove him to rashly charge the monster, swinging his club. Baern barely registered the figures coming out of the smoke, but they drove a cold feeling of fear and disgust into the others, as the figures were not natural. Cadaverous and filthy, corpse-like creatures dragged down and feasted upon the orcs and drove in upon the distillery.

A pair of these corpse-creatures attacked the orc shaman from behind, but he turned on them and bellowed a single word: Rovagug. The corpse-creatures shrank back from the orc, cowering on the ground before it. The orc shaman turned and charged through the door into the distillery, flinging Baern and Kylar aside. Orson dashed over and picked up Baern, who lay briefly dazed upon the floor and carried him back to the door. Baern, still consumed by his rage, wrenched himself free and flung himself at the orc yet again. The orc knocked Baern back contemptuously and then turned to the door at the rear, where the group had first entered the doomed distillery. He thundered the word Rovagug again at the corpse-creatures that stood at that door, then charged again, through the door and across the lawn to the cliff-side door, and disappeared into the darkness of the corridor.

As his quarry disappeared from sight, Baern’s mind cleared, and he took stock of his surroundings. Nearly half of the distillery was engulfed in flames, punctuated by explosions of the vats and barrels of alcohol. Only he and Kylar remained in the building, Tanaila and Orson having fled at some point. Kylar ran up to the office platform and peered through a window before smashing it and leaping through. Baern’s tired body told him in no uncertain terms that any such exertion was too much to bear. He stumbled to the main door, averting his eyes from his father’s fallen form, and stumbled out into the smoke and darkness. He stumbled across Orson, lying face down in the dirt not far from the building. Though he could barely bring forth the effort, he drew on his healing powers to revive Orson, and the pair of them set forth for the river.

Baern and Orson spent a cold night in a small boat on the river, mooring themselves in a small cove under a cliff where the orcs and corpse-creatures would not discover them. As dawn broke, the pair went back to the distillery to find their friends. They could detect no sign of orcs or anything else, but shouting for their friends soon turned up Tanaila and Kylar, who had hidden in the trees all night.

The group looked over the burned out ruins of the distillery, finding charred and mauled bodies but none still living. Chillingly, Kordan’s body was missing, but no one could reason how it disappeared. Among the ruins Kylar found Kordan’s crossbow, miraculously undamaged from the furious fires. Baern tearfully cradled the crossbow as the rest of the group discovered something else. Hidden inside the shell of one the massive brass vats was an opening to an underground chamber and a sturdy metal ladder leading down. The group ventured down and found a small, bare, stone room and a massive pair of stone doors. The doors were completely covered with sigils and runes of arcane origin. Tanaila recognized them as powerful symbols of warding, far more powerful than she could defeat. She knew of a book in the library of the Academae where she had found a method that could be used to open it, but she could not recall its words. They concealed the opening to the chamber with scraps of metal and dirt to hide it until their eventual return.

The group, tired and defeated, circled around the hill of the estate to their cart. Though the cart remained, there was no sign of Petrus, and the poor mule lay mauled and partially eaten where it had been picketed. Shouting and searching turned up no sign of Petrus, not even a recognizable trail. The group did not want to be caught by orcs or corpse-creatures in another night at the estate and so, utterly without hope, they salvaged what provisions they could from the cart and started the long walk back to Korvosa.

An upcoming event is being held at the Acadamae: their “Thieves’ Night”, where any enterprising burglars are invited to try to make their way past the lethal wards of the Acadamae vaults for a prize of 10,000 gold pieces. Only one is rumoured to have made it past the wards in a previous year, and he was rumoured to have then been invited to join the Acadamae itself. Several days before the event, the Acadamae is holding a festival outside their grounds. The boys see this as an opportunity to fleece a few of the festival goers as well as to find some information about Tanaila. Baern goes to the festival as well, as his slightly more respectable appearance may garner responses the boys could not achieve.

They finally manage to discover a receptive younger student who tells them that Tanaila had not been seen at the Acadamae for six weeks. He was somewhat vague on the reasons, but he thought she might have been expelled, or at least suspended, for some thing or another. We couldn’t get much out of him on where she might have gone, though he likely just didn’t know. He also tells them that Rolf, the troublemaker at the Acadamae, has been gone for many weeks as well. He has heard rumours that his wealthy family decided to have him tutored in magic privately rather than at the Acadamae.

...

The group tries to think of somewhere Tanaila would have gone. They do not know anything of her parents, but Petrus used to work on Tanaila’s family estate, which had been abandoned and sold back to the crown following her grandfather’s disgrace. They think that she might have gone there if she was looking for a safe place to continue her studies, as her grandfather had been a wizard of great power and supposedly had a hidden sanctuary on the estate.

Baern speaks to his father, Kordan, the following day, telling them of their plan to go looking for Tanaila. It is only a few days from Korvosa, and if they leave on Toilday they should be back by the following Sunday. Baern also asks to borrow the crossbow that he has been training with, as he does not have enough money to afford one of his own. Kordan flatly refuses, telling Baern that adventuring is dangerous business and not for children. He tells Baern to keep to his studies at the Mission and keep himself out of trouble, and the discussion ends there. Baern is troubled by this. He is by now desperately concerned for Tanaila, and secretly more than a little excited at the prospect of adventure. But he has never before flouted his father’s authority.

His concern for his friend and his excitement finally overrode his respect for his father’s authority and the next morning, when the house was empty save for his mother in her sick room, he took the crossbow and the few quarrels that were with it. Before long Baern, Kylar, Orson, and Petrus were walking across the North Bridge out of the city, heading into the rugged hills where Tanaila’s old family estate could be found.

...

The first day was difficult, especially for Kylar and Petrus. That evening Baern tended their blistered feet, and when tending to Kylar the actions seemed to come so easily that Baern realized how proficient he was becoming in the healing arts. That night the group had their first real fight. A wolverine was snuffling around the camp, and Petrus whacked it with his staff, angering it. While Petrus alternated between trying to confuse the thing and whacking it again, the other three beat, shot, and stabbed the wolverine to death. Victory!

Of course the next night, after another long day of hiking, a large animal, probably a bear, stole all their food, including the wolverine carcass.

However, the night of the fight Baern had a wondrous thing happen. In administering to Petrus’ bites and scratches, Baern felt the tingling in his fingertips again. A blue glow with golden sparks started from his hands. Petrus, alarmed, tried to push him away, but Baern was determined that he would not fail again. Though he could feel the weakness inside him, Baern will was strong enough, and the blue glow flared into a golden light, and Petrus’ wounds magically healed and disappeared. Baern sat back heavily, exhausted from the effort but triumphant.

The rest of the trip was extremely difficult, even for Baern and Orson, as they were short of food after the bear had stolen theirs and the terrain was rapidly growing steeper and more rugged. They finally arrived at the edge of the estate, exhausted. Kylar insisted on pushing on up the last hill to the ruins that night and they dragged themselves up the switchbacks to the ruins. Petrus and Kylar collapsed, utterly exhausted, outside the ruined house.

Alarmingly, the group realized that they had heard chanting coming from inside the ruin, that abruptly ceased when they drew near. Orson and Baern pulled the others into hiding on the far side of the wall, but when a pair of brutish, ugly creatures came out of the ruin they spotted Orson’s spear standing up above the wall. Petrus looked up and saw them, hissed a single word: “orcs”, then flopped on the ground, apparently unconscious. The orcs came for Orson, waving their fists and shouting. Baern, out of sight further down the wall, took sight with his crossbow and fired, grazing the top of the shoulder of one of the orcs. He quickly reloaded and fired again, this time with a better hit, in the upper arm, but the orc came charging at him, swinging a hand axe. He managed to dodge once, but a second blow fell true. Baern tried to block the swing with his arms but to no avail. The blade cut through his left hand, severing his little finger before sinking into his shoulder. Baern fell to the ground and knew no more.

...

Baern later awoke within a dark cellar with Kylar, Petrus, and Orson desperately piling crates and barrels at the bottom of the cellar stairs. The sounds of more orcish voices were coming from the stairway along with the thud of metal on wood. He realized that they were still in desperate straits, though he did not know how much time had passed. He felt his power now, bubbling just beneath the surface and ready to use. He focused on the power and turned it inwards. A golden glow suffused Baern’s vision and he felt the wound in his shoulder closing. As he felt his wounds healing he also felt a strange instinct that there was something hidden nearby, and he began searching the stones against his back. Before he could find anything though, the golden light dissipated and he could not see for a moment.

Then the cellar door above crashed in and orcs spilled down the stairs. The orcs swarmed in and came for the lads. One rushed in and struck down Baern with the flat of its axe, and two more attacked Kylar, Petrus, and Orson. Baern’s power flared strong again and he used it, not to heal, but to attack the mind of the orc. He stretched forth his wounded hand and it shone a hot reddish gold. A ghostly outline of his lost finger appeared as well. The orc’s eyes grew wide and it fled, screaming, up the stairs. Then Baern’s overtaxed strength failed, and he fell to the floor, unconscious.

...

Baern awoke again to a blessed sight. Kordan, Berend, and Grau stood around the boys, and a pile of dead and burnt orcs lay in a pile, smouldering still. Kordan’s face was a mix of relief and towering fury, and though Baern suspected that he would not soon be allowed many freedoms, he was thankful to be alive.

...

The group is able to bring the delapidated cart back to St. Casperian’s in time for a local festival that evening. The urchins disperse, leaving the cart behind the Mission to repair at a later time, while Baern attends to his duties: giving aid and alms to those wandering into the Mission. He is kept hopping on this particular evening as the festival brings many people together, and drunken scuffles and other altercations occur frequently.

The evening comes to a close as Baern observes Petrus and the Shoanti lad, Orson, leading a horse in behind the Mission. Baern follows behind, and sees the two boys handing the horse over to Geadren, the local slum lord, in exchange for a purse of coins. Geadren speaks to the boys for a short time, and then leads the horse through a hidden entrance into the Mission. Baern is dumbstruck, as Geadren was expelled from St. Casperian’s months ago.

The boys head back around front while Baern keeps to the shadows. Petrus, however, stands for some time by the side of the building until Orson is out of earshot. He turns and looks at Baern, saying "it's safe now Baern, you can come out." Baern, still too stunned to think straight, wordlessly thanks Petrus for his discretion and heads back to the front of the Mission. He sits on the front steps, his thoughts racing.

Early the next morning as Baern was lighting the candles in the pulpit, Petrus and Kylar bring one of the younger urchins down from the second floor. He was knocked senseless not too long ago, though the boys did not tell Baern how he had become so injured. While tending to his injuries, Baern feels a strange sensation: a hot, tingling sensation in his fingertips. Suddenly faint and weak, Baern nearly collapses against the table. He quickly recovers, though, and finishes with the boy.

As he traveled home that day, Baern thought about the events he had witnessed over the last two days: the Mission urchins obviously stealing things, the presence of Geadren, and the injuries to the young boy. He decided that day to speak to his father and his friend from the dueling academy, Grau. He convinces them (though it wasn’t exactly difficult) to help train some of the younger urchins to defend themselves.

Later that day Baern returned to St. Casperian’s and helped the urchins start repairs on the cart. While they worked Baern mentioned that he knew a man from the dueling academy who would be willing to teach them to defend themselves, and the urchins all eagerly agreed to come and see him. The very next day they all came out to the inn and met Grau, who trained them in the inn courtyard for several hours.

Over the following months, Baern and the urchins trained irregularly with Grau. Baern doggedly worked at his duties at the Mission, trying to ignore the activities of Gaedren and his lackeys. Baern spoke regularly with Ishani about the man, and what they could do about him. Ishani knew full well that Gaedren still secretly lived in St. Casperian’s, and of his criminal activities. However, Gaedren’s sizeable donations to the Mission were all that kept it open, and without St. Casperian’s there would be many people who would have nowhere to go, and they would be far worse off. For the sake of these people, Ishani turns a blind eye to Gaedren.