Chapter 20 - Boar's Pit Keep
General Summary
After Cilly returns from her morning hunt for herbs, she discovers that her companions have again left her behind. This time, she will follow them, so she trades an Elixir of Boldness brewed the previous night for Ran's strange raven to guide her to the vicinity of the Boar Pit. The black-blue-and green bird leads the healer through the woods, and sometime after dark, it locates the fire over which her companions are roasting the Schwarzalbenheim boars.
The following morning, the travelers enjoy their first feast in quite a few days. The ham and hocks are sweet and delicious, and some of the companions help themselves to seconds, and thirds. Franz der Schwarzhoffen especially outdoes himself, and though initially the meat makes him feel good, he soon gets sick, and has to be attended by Dietmar. Not surprisingly, Klawuhn, who apparently shares the same origin as the boars, is unaffected. To speed things along, Reinhard preserves the meat from decay and summons a large disk to move it through the woods.
Over an hour after leaving camp, the travelers come upon a compound that can only be the Boar's Pit Keep. The compound, built with cyclopean stones, is surrounded by a 20-foot wall, though it lacks gates and can be easily entered through multiple gaps. Reinhard's owl flies over the keep, and sees six squat round towers roughly equidistant from one another, and in a regular hexagonal pattern. Each tower has small window- and door-like apertures and flat platforms on top that rise a few feet higher than the compound walls. At the center of the towers lies a bloodstained body that seems to be dressed in the elven fashion. Other than that, the compound appears to be abandoned. Eddi inspects one of the gaps, and locates tracks in the shape of elven footwear that seem to lead out of the compound, and then end. She then leads the group into the compound in order to inspect the body, but as she does, boulders begin to rise up off the ground, and fly at the travelers, while vines creeping up out of the ground and from the walls attempt to envelop them. Worse, bright flashes of light emanate from one of the towers, targeting Franz as the apparent leader of the group. The searing pain of Albenheim light causes Franz extreme pain, and in general, seem like the most effective of the compound defenses.
The flying rocks crash into the tower walls as most of the travelers run into the nearest tower and climb a stone ladder to the top platform to inspect it. From the top, the shape of a small creature briefly appears in the neighboring tower. Klawuhn clambers up to the top of the surrounding wall to try to get at the creature from the other side, and is barely missed by another flying rock. Most of the group is restrained by the ropes, but Franz manages to envelop the neighboring tower in darkness, and slowly makes his way towards it. After a horn is blown from inside the tower, he is able to locate the small creature - to all appearances, a three- or four year-old boy, and knocks him out with his scythe just before Reinhard was about to kill him with arcane energy. But the danger has not passed - the blown horn has apparently summoned another Schwarzalbenheim boar, and the shaking ground tells the companions that the beast is approaching. Fortunately, they have a chance to heal up and are ready for it. Dietmar's divine fire envelops the monster, and Klawuhn's arrow shot from above finishes it off.
The effort to search the boy's body then commences. He has several items that Reinhard identifies as magical, and which Cilly subsequently identifies. He was wearing a helm that caused him to turn invisible, though it seems to be sized for his head. He also had a pearl that apparently allowed him to create the radiant fire that nearly killed Franz, as well as the visualization of any locale at the Pool of Insight. He also had a magical dagger fashioned out of cold iron that is especially harmful to denizens of Albenheim. Though touching it harms him as well, Klawuhn borrows a glove from Franz, and takes possession of it. Lastly, the child had a horn that allowed its owner to cast Mind Sliver and to summon Schwarzalbenheim boars in proximity of the pit.
The unconscious boy, Cilly's magic determines, is human.
Rewards Granted
- Lots of boar meat and a boar heart
- Peal: casts Guiding Bolts and a form of clairvoyance if on the Pool of Insight
- Horn: casts Mind Sliver and summons boars if near the Boar Pit
- Cold Iron dagger (+1, fee are vulnerable)
- Child-sized Tarnhelm
Missions/Quests Completed
- Boar's Pit Keep secured
Character(s) interacted with
- Rán (Cilly)
Comments