Xnauth’s Cowhide – Part 4

Xnauth’s Cowhide – Part 4 (June 23, 2011)

Pharast 26

My blood is boiling. Zyraso plays the trained monkey for Devargo and Tyrion bellows empty words that make Devargo shake with laughter. I cannot convince Tyrion to take out the spider man on the ship. Levies and taxes should not stop us from dethroning the king of Eel’s End. Tyrion wants to leave that to the Hellknights. Apparently I have missed the hundred armored warriors always waiting for a wave from the runt to carry out his orders with cold steel. The guards watch us and we leave the galleon. Syrandor disappears into the Dragon Breath for a moment. When he comes back, his grin is carved into his face. He is weak in the head. And since he is weak in the body too, I shove his head into a rain barrel.

On the way back, a huge otyugh attacks us from the sewers. The fight is hard. I hack into its leg good and hard. The Hellknights take that as an invitation and come running. Damn tin cans. They can drag their own tentacle-swinger out of the sewers. Zyraso’s arrow hits the creature and it collapses.

We go to the Citadel and hand over the letters. That is enough for the cause and the mission is done. We are sworn to secrecy. Tyrion takes Cressida to task because she will not order us to arrest Devargo. His actions hurt the city, but the “levy” makes them all right. I do not understand any of this.

On the way back to the tavern near Zellara’s house, we witness a crime. Three thugs are threatening a guardsman. Three stripped bodies lie on the ground. They have been dead for some time. We attack. The guardsman is killed, his throat slit with a dagger. Chokers with tentacles attack us from the Shingles. I cannot hit the little beasts and want to chase one of the men as he runs away. Unfortunately, a tentacle holds me fast, and my attempt to drag the creature and three square meters of Shingles behind me gets nowhere. By the time I get free, the thug has escaped. Even Calista’s grace fades among the rafters.

We bring the dead guardsman back to the Citadel and return with help. I climb up into the Shingles through an empty house with a large bloodstain inside and question the locals. They do not want to see what is going on here, and I get angry. Seems this has been going on since the king died. The questioning gets us little information and one volunteer for the Korvosan Guard. The guardsmen who came with us gossip. They think the king was stabbed or poisoned. All idle talk. Later we learn that the men in the alley were trading in corpses.

Back at the Three Rings Tavern, everyone is in favor of going to Eel’s End. Tyrion will eat through the galleon’s hull with acid. Unfortunately, this turns out to be impossible. Seems Abadar’s acid is only good for cleaning the green crust off the golden gargoyles.

Pharast 27

We visit House Lannister and I scrub myself under the horse shower while the fine gentlemen slurp tea. Unfortunately, the talk does not seem to go very well. The old judge suddenly storms out to the carriage. On the way, he gives me an angry “greeting.” I briefly consider whittling “his judgeship” down to Tyrion’s size, but decide against it. Seems Syrandor tried to renew old acquaintances. A shiver junkie in the tearoom, a son who wants to sink a galleon, a naked half-orc in the stable. Seems it was too much for the old man. After the incident, Tyrion is not sure he can take part in the mission. He says he can no longer take us to his estate.

We talk it over and decide to bring Devargo down after a visit from Zellara. The shaman tells Syrandor that the “time of the dance” has come. I hope it is a different dance from the one on the side of the galleon. Syrandor and Davian’s fate will soon be fulfilled. No telling if mine will ever come to pass. Thanks, Zellara.

Pharast 28 (Moonday)

We row past the city wall to Eel’s End in the middle of the night. At the galleon’s stern, Zyraso swings himself up the side and secures rope ladders. The hour of the crowbars has come and we pry the windows out. I learn that barbarians bristling with weapons are not good at climbing through narrow windows. Inside, we hear a voice in our heads begging to be set free. It is the pseudodragon. I give it its freedom.

We go through a door into the belly of the galleon. Devargo catches Zyraso eavesdropping and tries to slice his ears off with the blades on his hands. Devargo is quickly overpowered, but still manages to sic his spider helpers on us. Among them are a large spider and a spider man named Chittersnap. The creature catches Davian in a web. While we stomp the spiders into the floor, the guards break down the wedged door and others swing through the trapdoor into the spider room. I block the door and butcher one guard after another. Syrandor coaxes rats, little thunderstorms, and mountains of flesh from Hell out of his shiver-rotted mind. Nothing surprises me anymore. Davian disarms guards and blocks the passage to the spider room. Without Tyrion’s healing and the others’ help, I would have fallen myself. The last guard surrenders. Unfortunately, that does him no good either. He knows too much. I kill him, on Tyrion’s recommendation and with Tyrion’s compliments. The little spiders are dream spiders. They are milked for shiver. I make sure Syrandor does not lick them.

We leave the galleon and take Devargo and his shiver supplies with us. We go by boat to the Old Fishery. From there a woman’s screaming reaches our ears. Three men are forcing themselves on a Shoanti woman. A boy watches. I lose it and my sword splits the first man in two with one mighty blow. Davian kills another. The last bastard is not lucky enough to die right away. Tyrion heals the woman. Her name is Wakor. I take her upstairs with the boy. Before we settle down for the night, Syrandor and I empty the shiver vials into the Jeggare River. I do not think he has ever sweated so much in his life.

Pharast 29

After a sleepless night, I kill the third man with a fishhook in the morning. It is the way of the orcs. Zyraso comes into the room. I shout at him and shove him out. My deed has the opposite effect on the two Shoanti. They are distraught. Tyrion sets me straight. I am tired and at the end of my rope. I cannot deny my life among the orcs. I know nothing about life among the Shoanti.

That morning, the others interrogate Devargo. It does not seem to have yielded much, because he gets a quick trial.

We return to the Three Rings Tavern. Wakor and her son Holg come with us. On the way to the tavern, I hand my greatsword to a guardsman to take away. Gorum wants fighters. He does not want butchers. I am not worthy to wield his weapon. At the tavern, I rent a room for the two of them. Teandra, the innkeeper, and Thauk Par will look after them while they recover.