Amibar and Arkady wake up after some time as Dakath is going through the chest. Rubbing their eyes, the others tell them what they have missed.
Smiling at his companions, Dakath says, "Well come and have a look at this."
Within the chest are two huge sacks, too large for probably even Ullar to lift. They are both full of gold, thousands of gold pieces each. However, there are also some other interesting little tidbits in there, a plain vial with a metallic looking liquid inside, a small ebony box with a silver needle and golden thread within it. Right next to that is a carved ivory scroll case with an ancient-looking scroll within it.
A little reluctantly, Dakath also shows you a beautiful jeweled silver casket, which when opened contains a dozen fine gems. Indeed, a quite valuable haul!
"Wow.. it's even getting better." says Ullar, eyeing Dakath with some suspicion for holding this item a little bit longer than 'normal'.
"Let's take what we can and get out of here." Dakath replies.
"This is great!!" exclaims Ullar, slapping Dakath friendly on his back.
"We have accomplished our mission; freeing Stephen, and now we can set course to a village to get ourselves new supplies and.. " a big smile appears on Ullar his face, ".. we can give Rhune and Asif the most beautiful wedding ever held in that village!"
"What do you all say about that?" asks Ullar, clearly in a much better mood than before...
Stephen ignores the horde of gold and everything else, picking up the scroll case and the ebony box. He seems quite excited, "This is it! He left it behind!" He pops open the scroll case, looking at it in confusion for a moment, then hands it very carefully to Dakath, "Can you read this, my friend?" Dakath looks at the strange symbols. They do not even look like letters. Sadly, he cannot understand them.
"Dakath, can you give me the scroll case, maybe I can make some sense out of the scroll.", Pietro asks Dakath.
However, Pietro can also make neither heads nor tails of the scroll. It is not in a magical language he understands, for certain.
Stephen does not seem put out, though. "We must return immediately to the village. If we do not, Golthar will first." He thinks for a moment. "We shall rest here for the night so that your companions can recover. Then we must go." He puts both the box and scroll case away in his pouch carefully
"Hold it my friend!" says Ullar, while putting both of his hands on Stephen his shoulders.
"What is it you took? I'm not going to debate on whether you are supposed to take anything, certainly not considering the fact we barely rescued you here, but in your words I find a hidden agenda. So what is it that you took, what value does it have, or should it have according to you and why does your village need it so desperately?" asks Ullar, on a calm, but stern, tone.
Stephen responds with a tired gleam in his eye, "It's not that we need it. Golthar needs it. That was the whole purpose of everything. The goblin attacks, taking me and the others prisoner. They wanted to know where the golden tapestry was, and I am afraid they found out." He sags his head, "Using his evil power, Golthar read my mind and found that the tapestry was at Sukiskayn, and I don't think he'll be subtle about claiming it. If you think the goblin attacks were bad, they were nothing. The man has evil magics to strike down the village, killing everyone inside."
He takes out the box with it's needle and thread, "However, in his haste to escape, he left this behind. If we can get back to the village before he gets there, I am certain that we can find out what he is looking for. Then we destroy the tapestry and he won't be able to use it!" He looks at you, clearly exhausted, "If you will help me, this last time, the rewards will be beyond your imagination, I assure you!"
The huge sacks would bear down even Ullar and Forte's horses, but as most of the group rests, some take to counting the money. There must be over ten thousand gold pieces here! A king's ransom! There is also the flask and the gems, which seem quite valuable (Alexandrite, Aquamarine, Azurite, Citrine, Garnet, 2 Hematite, Onyx, Star Rose Quartz, Star Ruby, Topaz, Tourmaline, Turquoise, and Zircon.
Waking with a foul taste in her mouth and a headache the size of the English channel Rhune looks up at the others in a weak voice, "Am...I alive?" then looks over at Asif and smiles wanly at him, reaching out to try and touch her lover.
Asif's mind struggles to fight its way clear of the suffocating feeling of the darkness of his prison of the past 24 hours. A glimmering light beckons to him to follow. Tendrils of web which once bound him, no longer impede him as he staggers forward in a dreamlike state towards the distant beckoning light. As he finally feels the warmth of the light upon his face he suddenly hears a voice calling him. A musical voice which stirs his heart. Eyes heavy with fatigue flutter open for the first time in many hours. With an increasing tempo of his heart he turns to face the voice calling him. The dark memory of Rhune falling to the spider bursts into his mind and with terror in his voice he screams. "RHUNE PITY US. ATEN BE MERCIFUL, TELL ME THAT WE ARE NOT DEAD?"
Hearing Asif's words and seeing his eyes opening, Rhune smiles, "Oh, Asif. we are alive. At least I think we are. I feel as if I have been tossed around by several of those baboons and then trampled by a herd of goblins." touching his hand with her fingers.
Asif struggles desperately to rise up from his tangled bedding. His eyes wide with a mixture of fear and relief. Much weakened, the task is difficult but soon he is free. He looks down upon himself with great distaste, his senses assailed by the smell and sight of his torn robes stained with the sweat of the fever which had bound him. Shaking his head, he staggers at last to his feet his arms outstretched to embrace Rhune.
But before contact is made a torrent of anguish gushes from the dazed Arab's lips and his hand fall to his side....
"Thank Aten you still live. One thousand apologies my love, that such a beggar now stands before you. A diseased beggar, not the Faris to which I was born, and to which you gave your heart. Such a failure..... that my wounds made me too weak to keep you from harm. A creature of darkness laid you low. .... By Aten I am surely useless....Aten forgive me!"
Holding her arms open to him, "Oh Asif, it wasn't your fault. Give me a hug. I love you no matter what you look like. besides I probably don't look so good either." uttering softly, her silver hair plastered to her face and shoulders, her lightly tanned skin even paler than normal
Asif's grieving heart is much soothed by Rhune's words. Asif pulls Rhune close, his strong arms surrounding her. A shiver of pleasure caresses his shoulders as the pain of the last couple of days is released by the warmth of the embrace. He whispers quietly into her ear.
'My love for you is like the Nile in Egypt. Without it Egypt is nothing. Without you I would surely die. Pray soon that we can find a safe place, where we can be alone and rest"
Feeling safe and secure at last, her nightmares of the past few hours rapidly fading in Asif's arms, Rhune nuzzles his shoulder, "I shall pray for that with all my heart, Asif. I love you."
After being filled in on what has happened and smiling weakly, she helps the others find something to carry the gold and gems in, "How about using the blankets and sheets on the bed? We can cut them up and make sacks out of them. Split them up between the horses. I would love to carry the gems." she offers with a mischievous smile
The bed sheets, however, have been burned by the explosion, and the ones on the beds below are too fragile for such usage. The sacks within the chest are very strong leather, though, if the warriors could manage to lift them up and move them, they would most likely stay intact. Stephen is willing to help, as he's a fairly strong fellow.
Tolik, rather than carrying coins, takes another ingot from the dried-up fountain. He walks around for a moment, trying to decide if it will slow him down, and when he decides it won't he puts it with the other and returns up the stairs.
"Let's take all of the gems, the flask and as much money as our pouches can hold. I think it will even prove to come in handy when we face some more goblins; just throw some of the gold to them and they are distracted." Ullar fills his pouch and part of his backpack with gold. He then moves down and takes all the pouches from the wounded ones, including Tolik and Pietro if they let him, and fills them as well.
Tolik does not offer his pouches, preferring to keep weight down. He figures the two solid gold ingots would be more than enough for his wants. He takes half a dozen coins, then begins getting ready to go.
The group finds some large sacks amongst the stuff in the lockers in the floor below. Several larger fellows take them and fill them with gold: Amibar fills his backpack with 500 gold, Arkady fills two sacks completely with nearly 3000 gold, Asif one sack and his pouch with nearly 1600, Forte fills two sacks with 3000 gold, Ullar a sack and his backpack filled up with 2000, and Rhune filling up her backpack with the remaining 100 or so.
Amazingly, the group has put all the gold onto their persons, though the warriors are using their hands to hold the loot rather than fight at the moment.
Tolik starts to feel guilty about not doing his share and runs back to grab the other five ingots.
After that, Ullar asks Dakath to divide the gems evenly in value, among the party members, so that each has a gem in his or her pouch as well. The flask he gives to Pietro and says: "I don't know what this is. Perhaps you or Tolik can find it out! I kinda had a bad experience with 'unidentified' potions before.." the warrior says, rolling his eyes.
Tolik shrugs. "Don't look at me."
Once it's been decided on how best to pick up the treasure and the room has been thoroughly searched, Dakath proceeds to walk down the steps. Dakath spies Tolik "How are they doing my friend ?"
"Alive, but not overly well. Ratlin hovers near death, and Forte and Pietro are very weak," Tolik whispers to Dakath.
"There were four yellow robed wizards, it's a bit of luck really that they chose to flee. Blowing a hole into the side of the tower and they flying off, bit extreme I think but I'm not complaining." He moves closer to Tolik extending his hand to the Elf "You fought well." Whether he takes his hand, Dakath pats him once on the shoulder before wandering over to Forte "You know if I had wanted to be a warrior I would of joined the army. Next time do you think I could leave the fighting to you ?"
"Sure," Forte replies with a grin.
He grins as he kneels down next to the warrior "It's good to see you alive, I'd of hated to have to of dug your grave after this, your just so goddamn big." With that he helps the big man up and proceeds to move him down to the room Asif and Rhune are in.
"Ullar, could you or Stephan get Ratlin down?" Tolik then moves to help Pietro rise to his feet and down to a bed.
Wondering how his condition is, Ullar picks up Ratlin and carries him, carefully down and places him on one of the spare beds.
Forte laughs, but then turns serious for a second, "I am glad to see you survived your encounter with the wizard. What did you find up there?"
"Let's just say we're not poor anymore." Dakath says with a grin. Although there were four yellow robed wizards and not just one. I was about the only one left standing when they decided to blow a hole in the tower wall and fly away. I'd say that was a lucky break."
"Lady Luck has certainly smiled on you today." Forte looks thoughtful for a second. "Not poor any more. Hmmmm? Maybe now Ullar can buy his own sword. And then you can truly leave the fighting to me," he says with a grin.
Dakath grins "I make my own luck Forte, you should know that, and the dice I play with are weighted. Believe me Ullar can buy a lot more than one sword."
The party rests in the dormitory downstairs for the night and into the day, rotating guards to watch for goblins, baboons, hounds, or any other danger. There is no way to see outside, so they simply sit and wait. However, no one bothers them.
Under Tolik and Pietro's excellent care, everyone seems to feel better in the morning. Pietro is forced to expend all his magical talents on healing for the seriously wounded, and manages to bring Asif and Rhune through their torturous night. They awake, feeling miserable and weak, but able to move about nonetheless.
He does not have such luck with Ratlin, however, as the energy bolts seem to have damaged him quite severely. Perhaps another day? Stephen urges you all to ride back to the village as soon as possible, taking as much loot as you can. "Petr will keep it safe for you, but we must return there, now!"
Tolik looks at the piles of gold then at Ratlin. "Umm, he'll have to ride with someone, correct? So that would leave an open horse that could perhaps carry some of this," he motions his hand over the huge sums of money.
"Well.. we have Stephen to accompany us, so I doubt that" says Ullar with a light shrug. "I bet he is even heavier!" he continues, with a sigh.
Seeing his urgency, you all return down the several flights of steps to the base of the tower. As you begin to head toward the library, Stephen motions toward the door in the southeast corner. "You came in through there, didn't you? That's how they brought me in, past the guards there."
"I expect there are no guards left" replies Ullar, remembering the fight from the previous day, ".. since we brought a lot of them down." He stares at the unconscious body of Ratlin in his arms and sighs deeply.
Ullar is a bit comical (mUllar indeed) as he carries a heaping sack of gold in one hand and Ratlin's small body in the other. Forte and Arkady come along behind him with huge sacks in either hand. Perfect time for an ambush.
"I suggest we take the door to the clifftop, for then it will be easier to reach our horses and leave this place as fast as we can. Ratlin is unable to climb the robes up, and I doubt any of you.." says Ullar, with a nod towards Asif, Forte, Pietro and Rhune, ".. can climb it in your current condition."
"I agree, Ullar. I don't think I could climb" Rhune smiles weakly at the big man, as she has added about 100gp coins to her pack.
"I think we should try to go out this door. We would have to climb back up the cliff for the horses if we don't and with all this loot it would weigh us down considerably, and for one I don't think I could climb that well anyway." Rhune replies
Tolik slips his cloak back on, trying to readjust to wearing it. "Whatever, doesn't matter to me."
"What does?" asks Ullar, then adding, somewhat cynical: "Staying alive?"
Tolik scowls at the man, then walks away not looking back.
"Dakath, perhaps you can scout? Yesterday there were goblins with baboons on a leash. I just hope that they left as well." Ullar suggests.
Stephen leads the group out the back door, where you refreshingly see no goblins, though you hear the hoot of a baboon or two. Making your way around the gulley, he leads you to a place where the buildings are built across a narrow canal. You drop down and then get back up, looking across toward where the horses were left. They are nowhere in sight, though you are sure that you can see where you left them from here.
Looking down, Dakath is inspired to see hoof prints in the dirt where you are standing. They lead back toward the tower! There are small footprints along with them, indicating they were led. Knowing that you will never carry all this stuff back to the village without the horses, Dakath heads back, following the trail.
"Why am I not surprised? Things were going much to smoothly." Tolik looks at the spot where the horses were. "I never really liked the stupid beast, but travel went quicker." He walks over to the edge on the canal and sits dangling his feet down into the canal. "So what now?" he calls over his shoulder, not noticing that even now Dakath is following the trail.
"Leave our stuff here and get them back.." says Ullar, irritated by the whole situation.
Pietro manages a small grin. "Life is a gift, Tolik, treat life like that, and the sun will be shining for you. I must admit though that I wouldn't have minded for the horses to be here as well. I dunno why, but I cannot say that I am overly fit, I feel even worse than the time I had two bottles of wine and had a hangover from hell."
Chuckling, "I hear you Pietro. I don't feel so good either." Rhune replies with a tired smile, not looking so good either.
"Damn. I hope they haven't done anything more than lead them to that stable we found." Rhune utters with a shudder at the thought of her horse being goblin food, as she plops down on the ground to wait for Dakath's return, breathing hard from the exertion already.
Arkady sees the horses are gone and he begins to curse and swear in a mix of Italian and Russian. The words he uses would make the most diehard street criminal blush. He drops the bags of coins, draws the silmar blade and the maine gauches and sets off after Dakath, blistering the ears of those around him.
The trail leads back into the tower, and once inside, it disappears on the hard stone floors therein. Dakath returns to tell you what he saw.
"Dakath, do the tracks from the horses lead into the tower as well, or just the tracks from the small creatures? Are the tracks made by goblins or any other creatures you know?" Even though he is badly hurt, Pietro is interested, and his eyes are shining with an unnatural light.
As soon as Dakath returns Ullar is most curious to what he has found out. After hearing his story a huge frown appears on Ullar his face. "Well.. seems to me we have to fight some more Goblins, if they did not already eat our horses..." he adds, shaking his head a little worried.
"I say all those able to fight, and that does NOT include you Forte, Rhune, Asif and Pietro, should go down. Forte, Asif and Rhune can give us missile cover if needed. We just go for the horses, only fight those in our way and move back up here as quickly as possible. While retreating the three of you.." says Ullar, with a nod to the previous once mentioned, ".. can give us any assistance available."
"Are you sure, Ullar? You're barely in better shape than I am," says Forte. But knowing they need the horses to haul all the loot away, he puts down his sacks, grabs his bow, and nocks an arrow. "And if it's a choice between carrying your body and this gold, well..." he pauses for effect, "We'll be poor again," he says with a smile, remembering the story of how Ullar carried him from the tomb to the lake. Turning serious for a second, he utters a quick "Be careful" to the former gladiator and others who will attempt to retrieve the horses.
"I can try Ullar." Rhune says, taking out her bow and some arrows and getting ready for any type of trouble
"The flesh is currently weak efendi. I pray that Aten will give me the strength to draw my bow. Fear not I shall do all that I can to keep you, my friends from harm. It saddens me that our horses are gone. WE MUST Find them. That my steed Kharrt-as (Desert Wind) or that of Dakath, Stenu (Prince) shall be upon those greenskins table sickens me to the core"
Pietro looks up to Ullar. "Maybe I haven't mentioned it before, but I am fairly proficient with my sling, so I will be able to cover you as well. I am getting the feeling though that you guys are doing all the dirty work, and I am standing back here, not being able to do anything at all. I know, I know, I am taking care of the wounded, but it is still difficult sometimes."
"My humble apologies, Pietro. I didn't forget about your skills on purpose. It's just that I didn't know that you had the proficiency in using a sling." says Ullar, with a slight bow towards Pietro.
"Ullar, I wasn't trying to rebuke you, I was just mentioning an ability I have. For the rest, I was just feeling sorry for myself for a moment. Go ahead and try to get out horses back. We will give you all the cover you will need."
Tolik drops his cloak and rubs his hand on his dagger, feeling more confident about this fight. He flexes his wings, then says, "Lead onward."