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Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 2.46.


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#1 Guest_Theodur_*

Posted 29 June 2003 - 07:34 AM

Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 2.46.

The narrow passageway leads us into a large storage room, filled with many chests and barrels. Since it has two exits, to the left and to the right, I toss a coin to help me choose which one we should take. Right exit leads us into a similar room to the previous one only with one small difference – instead of chests and barrels it is filled with trolls and yuan-ti’s. I would never have imagined these kinds of creatures being associated with slavery, but whilst killing them, there is no time to ponder about their involvement in these occurrences.

What once seemed scary, terrifying creatures now are easy pray for us. The large green skinned trolls with their mighty hands that are able to deliver massive damage with their vicious slashes – they present threat to us no more… not even speaking about the clumsy snake-creatures. Slowly, but surely I have became a very adept melee fighter, even Jaheira has once or twice reluctantly complimented me on my prowess… Control, anticipation, sheer physical strength, agility, I possessed most of the required qualities before, it was just a matter of practice before it all came together…

I am not the only one who has been improving and gaining power, though… while Jaheira’s physical strength and agility has always been impressive, her flamboyant, impetuous style of fighting has now been replaced by much more precautious and prudent approach and with Silvanus granting her more and more impressive spells to protect herself in the battle, I have less and less reasons to be afraid of us not making it to the end together. Yet I fear still…

In the short stint in which Viconia has been accompanying us, she has made an impression on me. She seems to be more adept in fighting melee than before and I am wondering what could have happened after our parting in Baldur’s Gate that forced her to improve on her fighting skills. Her clerical skills have developed to a whole new level too - obviously she is on very good terms with Shar…

With all the money she had, I thought she was going to buy her a nice, new life and I was genuinely surprised to see her here, in Amn. Yes, she run off with the largest half of our money, back then… blasted, cunning blackmailer. I had to succumb to her demands though – even if everyone knew about Jaheira and me… well, only Odesseiron did not know, he had the knack to figure out the difficult things, but he was absolutely ignorant of those obvious things unfolding under his nose. Still, I did not want it to come out into the open, so I chose to pay her. I probably could have killed her instead, but at that stage I didn’t think of it as an option. I couldn’t help thinking of her as a friend… and I still find myself thinking about her as one.

Our short respite and my trail of thoughts are interrupted as Jan informs us that the room to the left is full of slavers, including a couple of mages. The presence of a mage can always make a simple encounter to become a very tricky one, so tactics need to be devised.

Before the slavers have been alerted of our presence, Jan and Jaheira start casting their spells and as soon as Jaheira has completed the Entangle spell, the room next to us is full of green vines, rising from the ground and wrapping up the slavers in their tendrils, holding them immobile in their places. Jan quickly completes his own spell and after the Cloudkill has been cast in the slaver room, we hear heavy coughing noises and panicking screams.

It is very hard to see through the cloud of gas inside the room, so we stand ready, prepared to pounce if someone manages to free themselves from the entangling vines and make their way out of the room. It turns out to be the correct tactic as soon one of the mages appears in the doorway. We hit him with arrows, bolts and sling bullets, unwilling to stand close up to the poisonous gas in the next room. While we tear off his stoneskin protections and false images, he manages to complete an incantation. I do not quite recognize it and it didn’t seem to have affected any of us and soon the mage crumbles to the ground, my arrow protruding through his neck. I greet the floor a second afterwards, hit on the back of the head by a heavy blunt object…

As I open my eyes once again, I see Jaheira bent over Viconia’s fallen form, trying to wake up the collapsed drow.

“What happened?” I mutter, trying to rise up from the floor, “who hit me? And who hit her?”

“Confusion,” Jaheira replies nonchalantly, “she knocked you out cold and then I knocked out her… I will not deny it, I felt a little satisfaction…”

“Oh, she is going to be pretty sore when she wakes up,” I snicker, “we better think of a little white lie of what happened, otherwise she’ll be at your throat quickly.”

“The coast is clear, no more slavers to be seen,” Jan returns from the scouting mission, “let’s get the wee ones and be gone from here… oh, I see the drowsy is still out cold… my, my, that was one funny sight…”

After Viconia has come back to her senses and shown unexpected understanding about her being knocked out by her own companion, we return to gather all the kids and make our way out of this place. The children have been waiting for our return and quickly crowd us, eyes wide in anticipation. True, they seem to be a little more afraid of me than of the others – then again, I look distinctively worse then the others too, my face and leather armor all smeared with blood and brain particles.

Jan leads the way and I follow him closely, both women encircled in the crowd of children follow us. They both look like they are feeling slightly perplexed from the attention they are getting, but are showing admirable restraint and understanding, even care in the eyes of them both.

“Is this the exit?” I ask Jan as we have reached a large wooden door, mounted directly in the frame of the boat. Jan answers with a nod of his head and nimbly picks the lock. With a swift strike of my boot I yank the door open and much to my surprise I hear a loud scream coming from the outside, a scream that ends quite abruptly with a loud thump somewhere below us.

I quickly dash through the doors and find myself atop of a large stairway, as I look down I see a body of a door guard splayed across the dirty ground, looking quite dead… Well, I hope that nobody is going to cry over this poor sod…

“We should take them to the temple, we are putting a lot of strain on Ilmater, I know that, but we can not take care of them and we have other pressing concerns to attend to,” Jaheira states and together with Viconia they lead the children off to the Temple of Ilmater.

“So, Jan,” I turn to the gnome, “we seem to have all the money we need and when we sell the loot we gathered from the ship, we will probably be over twenty thousands… which means that you can leave us with no worries, just as your Lissa and the kid are able to travel.”

“I will miss you, My Worship,” Jan smiles, “just like an insipid turnip stew misses a pinch of salt… we are planning to leave this eve, the preparations have been done. I think, I’ll probably take my leave of you now, while the ladies are away – I can’t stand sappy, tearful goodbyes… especially if my chances of getting a goodbye kiss from our drowsy are next to nothing. So, give my regards to the ladies and the best of luck on your adventures, my Worship.”

I shake Jan’s tiny hand and he quickly spurts away to his home. Just another one of us, having to fight hard for a tiny bit of happiness in his life…

“I saw Jan leaving, did he left for good?” Jaheira asks, having returned from the temple. I answer her with a silent nod of the head.

“Finally, abbil,” Viconia smiles, “getting rid of the gnome is the first smart thing you’ve done since we have reunited. Now, perhaps… you can follow it up with another, equally smart decision,” she looks at Jaheira meaningfully.

“I sincerely hope that was a joke, Viconia,” I reply sternly, “because if it wasn’t…”

“Oh, stop taking everything so seriously,” Viconia sighs, “I was a bit sore of that blasted druid knocking me on the head like that. Just look at that lump, you half-breed ruffian! Ouch!”

“Well, as much as I enjoy looking at the lump on your head, Viconia, there are more important things we could be doing in the meantime,” Jaheira sniggers, despite the seriousness of her words, “since we have all the money we need and Bayle’s house is only a few yards away…”

“Very well, I get the drift,” I wink at her, “let us go and see how our cooing man is doing… and Viconia – hand your mace over to me. I do not want you to knock him out again, just about as we are to pay him the money…”




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