The tracks led, after a while, to what looked like a campsite or rendezvous point, where we saw two wagon tracks leading to the northwest and the southwest. I recalled that instance in Egypt when I knew Keef was in grave danger (when he put on that necklace from the temple of Set), and tried to see if I could somehow sense which way Keef went. It didn't work, but I got a hideous pain in my right arm; it felt like I'd broken it. Sanjay consulted the crystal ball again, and tried to see some of the terrain around Keef; it didn't look as hilly as we'd expect the way to the north would be, so we decided to follow the southwest trail (headed towards River's End).
I recognised the voice; I'd know that voice anywhere. It was NOT a voice I'd ever thought I'd hear in the middle of the woods in fucking Steinhall.
"Dave?" I asked, "What the fuck are you doing in a tree in the woods in fucking Steinhall?"
"Could you help me down from here?"
I called Erose over, and climbed up to see to Dave. He was in a bad way; it looked like he'd been treated badly, there were bruises all over him, he was filthy, there were rope burns on his wrists. I doubted I could carry him down the tree, so I got Erose to help out. When we got him down, I gave him some of the Martek water, which cleared up some of his injuries, and made him feel better. He wasn't willing to discuss his situation in front of a stranger, so I didn't press. We took him back to the group.
He was willing to talk about what had been happenning to him. He was on the run from some fellows in England, who apparently caught up with him in Franconia a few months ago. He thought they'd be taking him back to England, but they didn't. He doesn't remember much about his captivity; they kept him drugged most of the time. He was freed last night by a big ugly fellow prisoner, who by Dave's description was Keef. Apparently Mr. Harris underestimated Keef's capacity for narcotics, and Keef woke up earlier than expected, got loose, and set Dave loose. Unfortunately, Harris caught up with Keef, and broke his right arm.
Dave gave us a description of Harris and Teri. Harris is a short human with red hair, very wiry, in his early 20s, with a scar on his face. Carries a sword, and is way stronger than he looks. Teri is not much bigger than Harris, dark hair and eyes, swarthy complexion, very good archer.
We stopped to camp by a stream that evening, I gave Dave some soap to wash up. Vrba seems to have had a recurrance of the fleas or whatever they were, he did some serious cleaning and fumigating of himself and his belongings. Erose and Sanjay got into a fight over something stupid. Before they could kill everybody in the camp, Dave intervened by asking Erose if she wanted to dance. She seemed so surprised by this that she accepted. Thank the gods. That woman needs to learn to control her temper.
We travelled some more, and finally got to Dreistall (A little village NE of RE) about a week and a half after Keef was kidnapped. Apparently, the area's been having severe orc problems. The town was fortified with a wood wall, and there were lots of militia about. We asked around about that Harris bloke, or Teri. Nobody recalled seeing anyone of their description. We went on to RE the next day.
I went to see Keef's parents to tell them the bad news. Doris mentioned that a stranger had been asking around about Keef about a month or so ago, he was especially curious as to when Keef was born. This guy matches the description we have of Harris. This was about a month and a half ago, around the time we were at Martek's tomb. I then went to see Throntax, to request her assistance in seeking Keef out. She mentioned that she felt the presence of a very powerful magic artifact off to the south about a day and a half ago; I'm sure that must have been the amp. She suggested Sanjay try to do a location spell on the cart he'd been scrying; if he found it, then that means we'd been following the right cart all along, if he didn't, then we may have been following the wrong one. He did it, and found the cart in a rental place. We found out from the guy in charge that the cart had been hired by "Karl" and "Otto" who returned it yesterday. Further inquisition revealed that K & O were known to drink in the Bloody Fist, a disreputable tavern to the north of town, near the whorehouse. We did find a clue in the cart, the word "London" had been scratched into the wood on the bottom of the cart. That's two things pointing to England as the source of Keef's kidnappers.
Erose, Elspeth, and I went to the Bloody Fist to seek K & O. In the bar, we met a friend of Erose's, one Klaus by name, who agreed to help us question those guys over Keef's abduction. We located the two of them, I tried to talk some info from them, but they got suspicious, and tried to jump me. Erose & Elspeth intervened, meyham ensued, they got arrested. After questioning, we found out that they'd been hired by Harris to drive out with a cart during the night. Harris met them with Keef, the Amp, and Linwere. They were also met by Teri. They split into two groups, Harris, Karl, & Otto taking Keef and the amp towards RE; Linwere and Teri took the majority of the group's posessions and went NW. Harris killed some orcs (he's apparently the "wimpy red-haired butt-munch"), then shortly after that, Harris took Keef and the Amp off on his horse, leaving K&O to drive the cart back to RE. Oh, and apparently I was a kidnap target, too, although they didn't seem too avid in pursuing that goal; they could have got me if they'd really wanted to. I was running after them, after all.
I hung out with Dave tonight, catching up on the past seven years. He's definitely changed some. He's more reserved; that's probably due to playing His Lordship^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H his father's role. He seems visibly weighted down by his responsibilities. I'm glad I didn't follow him into that life. Heh. He's married now; part of the package, I guess.
Fuck. I was checking everything before turning in, and I discovered that I've been robbed. Somebody's stolen one of Keef's guitars (the six-string). Nothing to do about it now, I'll deal with it in the morning.
I was walking in a beautiful wooded glade; there were some excellent horses wandering about, birds were singing like no birds I've ever heard. They were more of a chorus than random birdsong. Bizarre. I saw a gorgeous male elven bard sitting beneath a tree, playing some of the most incredibly lovely music I've ever heard. Then, I heard another tune cut across the first; it wasn't quite so exquisite, but still damn good. A voice began singing, and somehow I knew it was Keef, even though it didn't sound a thing like his singing (it was really good, among other things). The song he was singing went like this:
< Music Notation > We, in our present life, knew that the stars were right. That if you are the first to go, you'll leave a sign to let me know, Tell me so. Please, carry the Lantern lights. You crossed the sea of night, free from the spell of fright Your cloak it is a spirit shroud. You'll wake me in my sleeping hours, like a cloud. So, please, carry the Lantern high. Me, in my sorry plight, you waiting ev'ry night. My face, it turns a deathly pale, you're talking to me, through your veil, I hear you wail. so please carry the Lantern light. The servants sleep, the doors are barred. You hear the stopping of my heart--we never part. So please, carry the Lantern high. < /Music notation >
I hope this doesn't mean Keef is dead. I'll have to get Sanjay to check.
I went to Throntax and got her to put warding glyphs on the remaining instruments and the MIC. She said she'd keep an eye on them, if she could study them. I agreed. Sanjay has a pet. It's a weasel, how appropriate.
Erose talked to Baron Draco via a magic mirror. He's heard of Harris "through deals", says he's good at his job, which is "being smart." My guess is that Harris & co. are expensive mercenaries who may, occasionally, operate on the shady side of the law. I'll have to check them out via channels, when we get to a larger town.
Erose tried to get Dave's story out of him. He was willing to discuss some of it, but not all the details. She asked me some about England, and I told her about the spate of deaths which had befallen the government of that country in recent years, and how as Archie gained power, the country slid downhill. She asked me when did it start, and I told her about Keef Glimmer's death about 20 years ago (speared through the heart with the splintered neck of his own guitar). Going over all that made me realize something--my mate Keef Richards was born within a year of Glimmer's death. This could be the significance of Keef's birthday. I was looking at local Steinhall events around that time, but I should have been looking at England all along, since, according to Dave, that is the origin of the plot.
Could it be that somebody thinks that Keef Richards is Keef Glimmer reborn, and they had him stolen in connection with that? It seems bizarre for an elven spirit to be born into a human body, and so soon after the end of its previous incarnation. (The priests say that a spirit usually rests for some time in the otherlands before moving on to its next life. Granted, one of the exceptions they claim is a violent death.) I suppose it _could_ even be true; I knew there was something special about Keef the moment I met him. If so, there must have been some heavy-duty magic that went into locating the soul. This doesn't bode well for our rescue mission.
Anyway, as my da used to say, once is luck, twice is coincidence, thrice is a conspiracy. This is three pointers towards England: Dave's story, the message in the cart, and Harris' interest in Keef's birthdate, which was in a significant time period for England, but not Steinhall. They must be taking Keef to London, or at least to England. I shall follow; hopefully we'll be able to get a ship.
Klaus had some leads on local theives' stashes, and so we took Vrba to check them out. He found the guitar hidden in a root cellar. Klaus, Vrba, and Billy Ray staked it out, and caught a girl. Klaus took her off for questioning. BRB & Vrba made amusing potato sculptures. Later, they caught the owner of the premises, and took him down to the barracks. Klaus had gotten the girl to confess to being the thief; she said she'd been hired by a Greek, Elitherios Baronos (aka Teri), to steal the guitar and bring it to Steinhall and meet him in an inn called the Puking Chicken on a date two and a half weeks hence.
While Billy Ray and Vrba were in the cellar, I took the guitar to Throntax for security glyphing, and to leave it there. Sanjay checked on Keef, saw him lying unconscious in a bed, with his arm splinted. Linwere and a guy Sanjay said matched Harris' description were in the room talking. I gave Sanjay that clairaudience potion. He heard them discussing whether it was a good idea to wait for the guitar, or whether they should proceed without it. Linwere detected Sanjay's presence, and broke the connection. This means they are on to us, and they might go without the guitar. I wonder what kind of plot they (or their employers) have which involves Keef, the Amp, and a guitar?
We all met for dinner that evening, and discussed what to do. I begged everybody to help me save Keef. Some of the River's Enders were reluctant to leave their town when it was having trouble, but I think we managed to convince them to help Keef. Dave wants to head back westward, so he'll be going with us at least partway. I'm glad; I'll get more chace to catch up with him.
We decided to leave for Steinhall the next day. However, the local Lord wanted to talk to us in the morning. so, we went up to her castle-in-the-works for breakfast. She wanted the group to act as agents for her; she wanted us to give her information on the situation in England, if our quest took us that far. I couldn't promise to serve her interests; I have other loyalties, but the River's Enders were willing to do her job, and she was satisfied with that.
Throntax gave us a bunch of gems and gold for the books.
Hm, that sentence didn't come out the way I intended it to.
Two weeks of travel. The usual thing. I keep having that dream about the wooded glen, and the bard, and Keef singing so well. It must mean something. There was also some kind of odd group-dreaming thing goin on, over the course of our travelling, we all had the same dream, on subsequent nights. It involved standing in front of a full-length mirror, like they have in expensive tailor's shops, and in the mirror, you could see all your merits and flaws. Then, the mirror fell down, and it was filled with people. You tried to look up, and then you woke up. Somebody is messing with our heads.
Yeesh. That Erose sure is testy. Whenever anybody points out a potential flaw in an idea of hers, she gets all affronted and acts like we've insulted the honor of her clan. From the way she acts, it's as if she thinks she's the only one with half a brain in the lot of us, or as if her opinion is the only one which counts. I wonder if it's because she's a so-called "lady." I do wonder at human customs at times. Just because somebody owns a few acres of farmland, they're automatically superior in intellect, and not subject to criticism? What's the deal with that?
Vrba did some magic-shopping, and got himself a new book, and a new spell, and a long copper rod. Now he can try that long-distance Shocking Grasp thing he's been trying to come up with. With that copper rod and his bright red cape, he's quite a sight to behold. Somebody called him the Electricity Fairy, and I think that epithet has stuck.
I got Dave to go out for some low-key entertainment. The poor guy really needs to have some distractions from his problems. I asked, with some trepidation, if he'd go to bed with me. I needn't have worried. I think he's been very lonely; I don't think politics leads to making many close friends. If I don't think about the fact that somebody's trying to kill or kidnap us, or about Keef, it's almost like old times.
Heh. How's this for irony: after all the vain efforts I've made to get her in bed over the past few months, _Elspeth_ made a pass at _me_. Any time before yesterday, I'd have gladly grabbed the chance. However, I want to spend as much time with Dave as I can; I guess I've been lonely, too.