DDW: Post Crumble

[Jim Roberts]

[Feb 5 AM – The Waterworks]

> The tall legged scout clearly did not wish to join in the speculation
> about what such a monster’s “finding fee” might bring in. Tramma,
> seeing her pal’s distress, lightly touched Lomi on the shoulder.
> “C’mon,” the silver haired bard suggested. “Let dear Fin and the other
> Big Brains talk for a bit. There’s something here you and I can do.”

While the more seasoned adventurers continued their productive
discussion, the bard led her buddy through the door, holding out the
Mikey that she’d borrowed from Finfin for human friendly light. Just
inside, some odd clutter could be seen.

Tramma pointed to a circular jumble arranged in the far corner. “Now I
know what a rust monster nest or bed looks like.”

"Weird place for a jumble of boards," Lomi pointed toward the only
significant pile other than the nest the rust monster had made from some
of the jumble.

Tramma eyed the little pile narrowly. "Hmmmn, ya know, those are about
the right size... yeah, look! This was the lid... and... that's weird."

"I always worry when you use that word," Lomi grumbled warningly.

"No, look - all the metal that held the chest together is gone, and the
hinges, and whatever latch or lock there was, but see? Metal," Tramma
insisted, pulling a weird round construction out of the jumble. "Steel,
and... itsa besagew."

"Gesundheit," Lomi commiserated.

"Part of a set of plate, made to protect your armpit," Tramma explained
patiently.

"I thought that's what good soap is for," the ranger shook her head.

"Oh c'mon, you know that's a weak point on humanoids," Tramma reminded
her. "Only the best armor doesn't leave it exposed."

"I guess I do, since that’s a weak point we often aim for," Lomi
admitted. "Had no idea there was a special plate to cover it or that it
had such a weird name."

"If you look, the Abbot's armor has them, but an older and simpler
design, not as nice as this one," the bard said absently, digging in the
rubble. “Fate, I guess, these even have decorations on them that would
work for him.”

On the other side of the door, the discussion had turned to simply
trussing up the now stable Crumble and either leaving him somewhere for
future collection – or backtracking to dump him on the scaly claws of
the Foreman. Jeyshann in particular liked THIS notion, and while it
would add delay, they were not exactly on a tight schedule. Quickly,
with Laquendi providing the guidance, the monster was efficiently hog…
or rust monster tied.

Back in the wreckage of Crumble’s lair, Lomi was looking dubiously at
the clutter her pal was rummaging through, having thought of a new
concern. "If that was a chest, couldn't the parts be trapped," Lomi
asked warningly?

"Ever see a trap made entirely outta wood," Tramma asked, triumphantly
pulling another matching round piece of armor out of the clutter to
match the first.

"Deadfalls, punji sticks, weyr traps," Lomi began reciting.

"That would fit on a CHEST, I mean," Tramma said repressively, though
she grinned at Lomi scoring a point on her. “Look, MORE armor parts, and-”

“A leather quiver. That makes more sense, I guess,” Lomi nodded. “Why
did the rust monster eat the rest of the suit, and not these parts?”

“A very interesting question,” Tramma replied absently, sorting her
finds into neat piles. “Some gems, no coins though.”

“They were delicious,” the tall ranger announced, jerking one thumb
toward the now trussed up rust monster out in the hall, while her friend
began to sort the various bits and pieces into piles.

Meanwhile, outside the discussion had continued. There had been an
interesting notion considered about curing and releasing Crumble upon
the surface through what the map promised to be a nearby exit, leading
into one of the many SJE’s surface population centers. But releasing the
creature in broad daylight would expose the very existence of these
covert tunnels, undermining the whole point of the operation and
eliminating their utility to the Upwinders as a covert – and QUICK –
means of infiltrating the various SJE sites.

Teleportation had some real possibilities. Each wizard had one or two
Teleportation, or Teleportation equivalents, spells ready. That would
leave enough reserve capacity to allow Finfin’s “Getaway” emergency exit
spell, should the Away Team find themselves overmatched… AND would still
allow a Teleporting response, should any of their allies call for help
with the magical communication gems they had been distributing as part
of the “Plains For Peace” Initiative.

Of course, it was not without downsides of its own. Should the
Teleportation party wish to Teleport back to rejoin the main group in
the Waterworks Tunnels, allowing them to continue their mission for the
Foreman, they would first have to spend at least SOME time becoming
familiar with a “landing spot” for the return trip. Preferably an hour.
But compared to the downsides of other notions, this downside was at
least possible, if not convenient. Though dumping a trussed up Crumble
on the Foreman still had a certain amount of appeal, and would add a
comparable amount of delay without burning any magics.

Back inside, Tramma’s attention locked onto one of the items in
particular that she’d salvaged "Ooo! Here’s something that might help!"
Tramma exclaimed cheerfully, holding up the transparent and apparently
rust and acid proof scrollcase. "I can kinda make out a few of the words
on it, and maybe it's useful?"

Lomi sighed, looking up from idly scuffing her foot to push around some
of the junk and clutter littering the floor. "Songbird, you're supposed
to let the big gun wizards look over stuff like that."

"Yeah, but they're busy," the silver haired bard replied with a shrug.

“Not so busy as to not hear when Little Sisters, OR their friends,”
Laquendi observed dryly from the other side of the open door, “are doing
things that perhaps they ought not. Just what have you found that
wizards should examine?”

The silver haired elf turned to her fellow wizards. “If you will excuse
me for a moment. It appears there are some friends of the Little Sisters
in my crew that need supervision.” A moment later, Laquendi was standing
over what both Tramma and Lomi had gotten themselves into.

“We have been meddling again,” Lomi admitted sheepishly. She didn’t seem
all that repentant.

Tramma pointed triumphantly at a cleared space of floor with 8 piles
neatly arranged in a hollow square.. “I have it all neatly sorted, and
have a fair guess what a few of them are.”

First, she pointed to a neat pile of pieces of lumber. “That was the
chest which held all this, until our forlorn friend Crumble helped
himself to the nails and latches and hinges holding it all together. It
all fits together, mostly, though I think a few bits ended up in the
nest over there.”

Tramma pointed to a jumble of various sized wooden rods, ranging from
the size of arrow shafts up to staves or spear shafts. “We think those
all came out of the quiver, or at least from whoever was carrying it.
All the metal heads are gone, of course. Even more of the same mixed
into the ‘nest’.”

Next she pointed to a small pile of gems. “I fear any coin there might
have been was eaten, but this is not a bad consolation prize. But here’s
where it gets interesting.”

Tramma waved toward the one of the bigger of the remaining piles, all
neatly arranged on what appeared to be a gambeson of the sort worn under
a set of plate, complete with chain gussets at key points. “Gambeson,
besagews for the armpits, couters for the elbows, and poleyns for the
knees. All very fine steel, all decorated with the sort of motifs the
Abbot will love, all exactly the sort our buddy Crumble would love to
chow down on. Yet here it is, uneaten - interesting, eh?”

“Same mystery of uneaten metal here,” the bard opined. She pointed to a
little bundle by itself, which seemed to be a pair of long, flat metal
images about the length of a person’s hand wrapped up neatly in some
leather cording. Closer examination revealed they, too, were metal and
had been cast, carved or stamped to resemble lizards, quite apparent
from the parts not concealed by the long piece of cording binding them.
The cording was much longer than needed just to bind the two pieces
together.

Next she pointed to a leather quiver lying by itself. “This I strongly
suspect is an Efficient Quiver,” Tramma informed them. “Lomi and I
experimented a bit, and it’s dimensionally transcendental.”

“That’s her fancy words for ‘bigger on the inside than the outside’,”
Lomi put in.

“I am SURE Laquendi knows that,” the bard announced loftily. “It had
more arrows with the points rusted away, and what we think were
originally spears. And we found pieces of a broken bow in the nest.”

“Some poor archer came to a bad end,” Lomi said darkly. “But like Tramma
said, it might not have been Crumble who got him, all we know for sure
is the loot ended up here.”

“This, now, is a real find,” Tramma said, reverently picking up a very
pretty silver necklace, with a narrow lacework of threadlike chains with
tiny jewels at the intersections, and prominently set at the center one
larger star sapphire in a star-shaped net holding it. “I am no expert,
of course, but that sure looks like mithral alloy to me. It is not all
there, but this looks like the upper part of a Necklace of Netted Stars.
I bet Laurelin will know, they are de rigueur among Valyan high
priestesses. We had a replica on display for a while at the Conservatory.”

“I figure it was too tasty to eat all at once,” Lomi smirked.

“I told you, that makes no sense,” Tramma grumbled. “No way a rust
monster would nibble away at it so symmetrically, and leave exactly this
upper section intact. Not to mention I should think a mithral alloy
would be immune to rust monster antenna. Besides, even if this were just
a replica, the full necklace would have 6 more stones the size of that
one, and only 1 or 2 of the gems in that pile there are even vaguely
close to the ones traditionally used. They are meant to represent the
Seven Sisters, so the colors and the types of the gems are very
important in the symbology of-”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t put us to sleep with all the details,” Lomi broke in
hastily to cut off Tramma before she really got rolling. “You still have
this to show Laquendi.” She pointed to another glass fluid, acid, and
corrosion proof scrollcase just like the one they had found with the
ooze. “A scroll, that we need one of you wizards to look at, I am not
sure how much longer I can restrain Little Miss Knowitall here from
looking at it herself. She always has to look.”

The exchange, by this point, had attracted Finfin’s and possibly
everyone else’s attention. Seeing no volunteers eager to examine the
scroll closer, Finfin stepped forward.

“Thanks, Fin!” Tramma replied admiringly, handing over the scroll tube
and then quickly retreating what she hoped would be a safe distance
away. Lomi very much hoped so too, as she made a point of standing
BEHIND her shorter pal. “We shall tell Mithi you died bravely,” the tall
scout offered.

“Thank you,” the elven officer replied absentmindedly as he first
opened, and then perused the scroll. No Pillar of Salt or any other such
transformations happened. Instead, Finfin simply raised one eyebrow.

“I see a certain irony at hand here,” he observed neutrally. “It is
indeed an Arcane wizard scroll, with four moderately powerful spells
inscribed. Mass Daze, Wall of Chaos, Mystic Bond, and…” Here he paused
for a moment, and blandly continued, “Baleful Polymorph.” Wrapping up
the scroll again to replace it in its tube, he glanced through the door
at the trussed up figure of Crumble.

“Yet more weird,” Tramma grumbled. “First we get a club perfect to fight
oozes, from the chest dissolving in the body of the granddaddy of all
oozes, and a scroll that’s perfect for the cleanup. Now we get some nice
stuff that I do not yet see how it was perfect to fight a rust monster,
but what do you bet it turns out that way? And another scroll that’s
just what we need, too.”

“My bet is the kobolds are lurking somewhere laughing their tails off,”
Jeyshann growled darkly.

Tramma’s prediction, at least as it concerned the scroll, turned out to
be entirely true. The scroll, or at least one of its spells, was exactly
what they needed to facilitate their current situation’s challenge.
“Baleful Polymorph”, sometimes known in older Arcane Treatises as
“Polymorph Other”, was indeed a very handy spell for transforming an
unconscious Crumble into something considerably smaller… and more
tractable if it ever did manage to become conscious on its own.

Normally, Arcane scrolls were highly prized by Arcanists, particularly
when they contained spells previously unknown to any wizard present. As
was the case here; several of the spells were destined to wind up in
some wizard’s spellbook, presumably to then be shared with the others.
But Laurelin, and perhaps one or two others back in the greater Gelmir
Vale Wizarding Community, already knew the Polymorph magic, though the
elven wizard/priestess had not had it memorised today. But that meant
that this spell could be invoked directly from the scroll and actually
USED, without having to bemoan the loss of potential Arcane knowledge
once the magical writing faded away upon the spell’s invocation.

So soon afterwards, the unconscious Forlorn Rust Monster was an
unconscious Forlorn Painted Turtle, a longstanding favourite for
Polymorphs. Lomi then assembled a quick sling out of a blanket she’d
found in the monster’s nest, well capable of holding the now much
smaller and lighter unconscious creature. This, she then presented to
her pal Tramma.

“Why me?” the silver haired bard pretended to grouse, even though she
well knew the answer. But she didn’t mind giving her friend a chance to
actually SAY it.

“Because, Songbird,” Lomi began to explain, “you’re stronger than me,
and will hardly notice the weight. And if you can give up whacking
things with that stone club, you’re one of the least likely of all of us
to need to get into a punchup. I’d probably hurt the poor thing if I
tried firing my bow with it slung over my side. And the scent of its own
blanket should reassure it, in case it DOES wake up.”

“Fair enough, Legs,” Tramma readily agreed.