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Back to Empire on the HPe3000
... and ...
"Hey!" Harald called to his halfling friend Harold. "Where did you
get to, I've been looking for you."
"Hey yourself. I've found something," Harold laughed, "All that
muscle and fat can be put to good use."
"Fat!, you're one to talk, you eat more than I do!" the ranger
laughed back.
"Only when I can, and on better rations than we have with us."
Harold complained. "But you're distracting me. I've found a door, and
it's one of these cursed giant things that weigh more than a wagon."
"Where?" the ranger asked. He looked around but saw only the two,
Talberth stood before the one they'd come through and Ivo waited at the
other which the wizard had asked them to investigate. "I just was looking
for you to tell you about a door. That one!" Harald pointed toward Ivo.
"That's not what I'm talking about," the halfling shook his head.
"it's that one behind the manticore pelt."
"I don't see a door." the ranger peered at the wall.
"That's why I 'm telling you about it." Harold said with
frustration. "Do you have a brain in that big head of yours. The door is
hidden, that makes it all the more intriguing."
* * *
"So I cut off its tail and then I saw the door." Harold finished.
Telenstil had lowered himself down the wall and was cutting
the bottom of the map east to west, following Gytha's good advice. He
stopped and looked down at the halfling.
"A hidden door you say." He glanced at the wall. "Talberth is
guarding the entrance, Gytha please go with our two Harrys and check into
this, and Ivo." he turned his head toward his left and spoke to the old
gnome. "Please ask Henri and our two scout to check into that room
there, tell them it should be the chiefs private storeroom, that should
motivate the scouts at least."
"Who do you want me to follow?" Ivo asked.
"Best to stay here and keep on eye on everyone else while I am
distracted with this map." Telenstil said and began cutting the map free
once more.
* * *
"Henri!" Ivo called up to the table top. "Henri, I hate to break
your meditations but if you would be so kind..."
"Yes master gnome." Henri called down from above, He dropped
nimbly from the tables edge onto a chair and then lowered himself to the
ground.
That mask and robe, Ivo thought to himself, they always make me
think that this arrogant priest is older than I, and his manner, always
the wise elder to the untried youth. Ivo gave a scowl, he'd not been so
irritated by anyone in years and never by someone he had to trust with
his life.
* * *
"Here it is" Harald said standing before the manticore hide. "Pull
that ugly skin away."
The ranger reached up and tugged at with two hands, it was firmly
nailed and the tough old hide wouldn't tear. Gytha grabbed the other side
and they both pulled, it tore apart without a sound, two long splits that
ran across the top where nails had been driven through each shoulder of
the skin.
"I love these giants." the thief began.
"What!" the ranger broke in.
"So trusting," Harold smiled. "no locks, not even on a door they
thought to hide."
* * *
(To Be Continued)