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Back to Empire on the HPe3000
... and ...
"Harald!" Gytha yelled from twenty feet down the chute. "You
nearly shook me from the rope. Give some warning before you do something
like that again."
"Sorry Gytha." Harald said sheepishly.
The red haired cleric let Harald pull her up the rest of the way
as recompense. She grabbed the wooden lip and swung over the edge,
tumbling ungainly to the floor.
"Are you all right?" the halfling asked.
"I'm fine." said Gytha. "Just lost my balance there, that is quite
a climb, even with assistance. How are you doing?"
"Better now that you two are up here, that crazy pair of scouts
ran off." said Harold.
"Where did they go?" she asked.
"Around the corner," Harold pointed to the north.
Harald the ranger began pulling on the rope to signal for another
climber to ascend, but they had let it go slack while he hauled Gytha up
and no one below felt the jerking of the line.
"Harold," said Gytha, "do you have another pouch to drop?"
"I'll cut some of this sacking away and use it instead. I notice
that you left my other pouch behind." said Harold. He used the ogres knife
to stab a sack of grain, the large kernels poured out and piled on the
floor. He'd cut low with a malicious intent, to add one more petty trouble
to the woe that they had brought to the steading already.
* * *
"You nearly blinded me man! What magic was that?" Ivo cried.
"None that need concern you gnome." Henri replied contemptuously.
"I came here to find some privacy, do not complain when your interruption
might have cost you your sight."
"I came to tell you we were off, my mistake." said Ivo. "One
which I will not make again." He left the room and Henri before he said
or did more.
"Did you find our cleric?" asked Telenstil.
"My bad luck, I did." Ivo replied. "I told him we were leaving,
maybe our luck will change and the arrogant so and so will stay behind."
"Don't count on it." Talberth agreed, he did not like the pholtite
priest or his hirelings, the mercenary pair. "What is taking them so
long?"
"Talberth please check the rope." said Telenstil
The young mage gave it a tug and and was almost jerked from his
feet by the reply. He pulled back and with a shout rose into the air then
fell back and landed on the piled muck. "Yuchhh!" he said and flicked
brown viscous droplets from his hands.
The rope continued to rise, then stopped and then the slack fell
loose again.
"I see we have a small communication problem." said Telenstil.
Talberth pushed himself to his feet, his robe covered across the
back with slime and rotting chunks of greens. He drew out a small
handkerchief and tried to clean his hands, then tossed the fouled bit of
cloth away. "This is disgusting!" he complained to Telenstil
"Here." said Telenstil. The elven mage cast a simple spell and
with a whistling breath and a circle in the air with his outstretched
hand, sent the mire flying from Talberth's clothes. "Now we had best
have Harald draw another of us up, Ivo can you hold two packs while
Harald pulls?"
"Give me two of the small ones, we don't want to overstrain our
friend up there." Laughed Ivo. "And thanks, I want to be away from that
pompous popinjay before I test a bit of magic on him."
Telenstil went over and grabbed the rope. He tugged it with care
this time and after two or three attempts reestablished contact with those
above.
They looped the rope around Ivo's waist, then gave the line
another pull. The old gnome laughed as he rose up the chute like a bale of
hay being drawn up into a loft above a stableyard.
* * *
(To Be Continued)