Ember Wind: Setting Stone

Thane's Offer

The manor on the edge of town, opposite of  the dwarven tavern, was an equally large house that was very much out of place. It was of nordic design with dulled bronze roofing; a feature often found on the more luxurious Emporian nobleman houses. It was a fenced property but the fence was actually a three foot tall cobblestone wall. In the yard of the manor were two marble statues, both of which were showing age. One was a fully dressed centurion carrying a lantern. His left arm was missing. The other statue was that of a nobleman whose head had been broken off and left at his feet.
   
Overhead, dark storm clouds came in and drop by drop, the rain began to fall. Along with it came wind with mild gusts. Storm and Tilamo made it to the doorstep just as it was beginning to come down in larger amounts. Storm reached for the knocker and slammed it several times against its metal backplate.
   
The door opened inward and warm torch light welcomed them in. the house was set up wide rather than long or tall. It really only had one room but there was a wooden divider on the far right side that separated a large bed from the rest of the gathering space.
   
Thunder echoed overhead following a mad crack of lightning. The sky was in pain and like an ocean wave, a thick wall of rain came rushing towards them and its movement was very watchable. "You coming in or staying out?" the voice asked.
   
Tilamo nodded and nudged Storm inside. The person who'd opened the door for them was a house servent. He was a young boy no older than twelve. He was human, mostly.
   
There was a large hearty laughter that came from their left. A small table where a very large nord and group of familiar friends had gathered around to split a small meal. "By the gods, Mirvelle, I've never heard of anyone doing that."
   
Mirvelle laughed alongside him, using her arms and hands to help explain a story she was telling. "...So then this hag goes flying across the field and just bounces off a tree-" she paused at a second crack of bright white lightning and a long roar of rolling thunder. "Where did this storm come from?"
   
Sitting beside the very large nord was a Tasaki who seemed to be his age if not slightly older. She wore similar clothing to him, a simple one piece robe that was knee long and slightly decorated around its edges in faded threadings. "You'll get used to it dear, Raiden gets a lot of storms. Most of the Tasaki have their homes on stilts and that's because of all the storms we get."
   
"It's that bad? I wouldn't stay if it thundered daily."
   
"It's not daily, but it happens often enough to force us to raise our homes."
   
"Why not the dwarven tavern or this house?"
   
The nord spoke up, "the traditional home was often buried in snow, getting swamp floor was not really an issue. The Dwarves however invented subfloor drainage and they gave us the blueprints to set that up for this house as well. The water floods the ground  and deliberately fills a gap underneath the house which funnels it all into a pipe that takes it to a river about a stone's throw from here and dumps it in there."
   
"Dad, the other two are here!" The boy called out as he rushed to his father's side, his very fluffy tail flicking back in forth rapidly.
   
The nord looked up at the two elves with a bright smile. "Good, I was worried the impact was going to cripple you." He stood up and walked over to them. He stood almost a foot taller than Tilamo and was nearly three times his size in thickness. The nord reached out to them both and grabbed their forearms, giving them a heavy and hard shake. "I am Oswald Hauksson, Thane of Taro."
   
"I am Silver Storm and this is Til-"
   
"I met Tilamo earlier, Storm. He's an interesting lad. Come, sit and feast. You're probably starving after a hit like that." the three of them sat down where there was room at the small table. The nord gestured to the Tasaki beside him, "This is my wife, Emi." then he placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Our son, Iri."
   
"Good to meet you all and thanks for the food," Storm grabbed what looked like a slab of breaded chicken and bit down into it. Hesitantly she swallowed it. "What is this?"
   
"Mallard breast in a special bread crumb blanket. Her recipe," He unintentionally shoveled the blame for the oddly tasting duck meat off onto Emi.
   
Emi grabbed a piece and bit into it as well. "Huh, I don't think it cooked fully."
   
Storm nodded in casual agreement. Mirvelle handed Storm some potato halves. "Try these, they're amazing."
   
Emi smiled, "Thank you dear, I'm glad someone likes my cooking." The second comment seemed a bit more directed at Oswald who probably didn't hear it between his loud munching on the slightly undercooked duck meat.
   
Falcher was silent for the most part. He was only noticed when he reached for more food which was usually in the dead moments of conversation. Gelmen was doing the same as Falcher.
   
The awkward silence passed once again after another clash of thunder. Oswald kept throwing glances at Storm, surprised to see the wounds from earlier be gone so quickly. "How did you manage to bring that thing down?"
   
Storm swallowed hard to get the last bit of duck down. "It more or less killed itself. I was going to the head where Falcher was stabbing it and it tried to squish me like a bug. It broke open and I pulled out a crys- Oh god! The crystal!" Storm suddenly rummaging through her inventory looking for the object.
   
"You mean this purple thing?" Oswald tossed the crystal onto the table. It was cracked and chipped and roughly half the size it was when she found it. "It hit the ground with you."
   
"It was in the skull of a corpse. When I pulled it out, the corpse tried to get it back."
   
"Necromancy..." Oswald frowned and slammed his fist into the table. "Damn it, I thought we dealt with him."
   
"Him?" Suddenly, everyone else was interested. There was no necromancer class for people to play as, it was a sort of unbecoming thing for a hero. Mirvelle looked up in confusion. "Necromancer?"
   
"Yes. It's a long story so I'll shorten it as best I can. We had a town alchemist some years ago, served us well against Boudal's plagues. There was one that swept through here and it claimed his wife. The whole thing ruined him, he left town not long after and every so often, someone would vanish. It'd be no one important, traveller, beggar, the undesirables typically. Sometimes the undesirables would come back... with some nasty affliction that could be easily linked to Boudal. I sent some men to find him and hire him. When they found him however, he was the one making the people disappear. He was running experiments on the undesirables, using them to test new concoctions to fight the plagues."
   
Tilamo shrugged, "good guy doing bad things, nothing new there."
   
"This crystal is a soul gem, it was banned during one of the Emporian Dominions. These gems are the only fate worse than helheim and we caught him ressuracting corpses with it. They killed him on the spot and burnt the research."
   
"If he's dead, that means someone else is doing it," Mirvelle said.
   
"Indeed. However, those colossi, there's more than one person involved in this." Thunder cracked overhead, drowning the room in bright blue-ish white lightning. Everyone fell silent again, waiting for the thunder to end. When it did, Oswald continued, "Our biggest threat as of right now are those colossi. Seeing one of those this close to town spells disaster for us all. Fortunately, the Celestials have blessed me with your presence. I would like to hire the lot of you to hunt down and remove the colossi as well as stop whoever is making them."
   
"Sounds easy enough," Mirvelle chuckled, nudging Storm's shoulder. "You only have to endure a couple more falls."
   
Storm rolled her eyes, "And our payment?"
   
Oswald nodded regrettably and pointed to a chest in front of his bed. "It'll be worthwhile."
   
I remember seeing corpses that glowed an eerie blackened violet... They were clumsy, unstable... They didn't eat, they only killed... But not them...
   
An hour later, the storm finally let up enough to allow a relatively dry passage back to the Dwarves' tavern. No one was out that day, ruined by an endless torrential downpour and frequent lightning. The group took their seats at a booth. It was early in the afternoon despite it being dark and grey outside. "Are we?" Mirvelle asked.
   
"Are we what?"
   
"Helping them?"
   
"When Tang gets here, I'd rather not start pulling bosses without a tank." Storm sighed, "I hate playing the waiting game."
   
"Tang is usually quick about it. He should be here tomorrow or the day after." Falcher commented. "I suppose you have a backup plan in the meantime?"
   
"Naturally. Mirvelle, go find that tracker date of yours, we'll need him."
   
Mirvelle blushed brightly and shook her head to dissipate her rapidly cooking cheeks.
   
Storm continued before Mirvelle could verbally agree. "Tilamo, you're a booky type, see if you can find some sort of library or record keeper. Gelmen, tag along with him"
   
Tilamo shook his head in disagreement, "I doubt these people have that, I'll head back to the Thane's house and probe around."
   
"Falcher, I want you to socialize with the dwarves. It'll be rough but it'll keep their suspicions at bay if you become a regular customer." She then dropped a coin purse on the table, "This'll cover a couple days worth of low end booze, nothing to get really drunk on."
   
"And what about you?"
   
"I'm going to take a hike, perhaps there's another town in the region we can utilize or maybe find a crater where our giant friend was pulled from. We'll meet here in three days and see what our next step needs to be."