Ongoing Adventures #0

This "early bird" instalment of Ongoing Adventures fills in some missing information before the end of Search for Dastardly.


Loss of Face

Not long after the man who called himself Dastardly Medieval died, the woman employed as Death was having doubts about her apprentice's fitness for the task at hand.

'I promise, Master. Nothing will happen to it.'

Death walked to the freelancer's cold body and sighed. 'This is very important, Orticia. Dastardly will want his face intact when he returns from his mission, and the Ces need that leverage.'

'Why do you call this freelancer Dastardly?' the apprentice wondered aloud. 'As Death, you would know that he's really called –'

'Listen,' Death said. She placed her hands near the body. It would be an hour or so before the undertaker returned, and another hour still before Waory was contacted by Sir Adrian the Knight. As Death's hands touched the pallid skin, a ball of light – like a parody of a lens flare in spherical form – erupted from the freelancer's empty head. The face then flattened out and the corpse was seemingly devoid of identity.

'Take it to the river delta Skim,' said Death. 'The vault in that city has a place already set aside for it.' Death knew that she would look at another body in the future and wish that Orticia could have completed the task. However, events progressing exactly to plan was not required and this course of action was still valid. Death passed the glowing light – what remained of Dastardly's identity now that his soul was elsewhere – into her apprentice's hands.

Orticia bobbed her head in obedience and looked at the freelancer's “face” between her palms. 'I will not fail,' she said. Death, having seen her failure, did not nod but disappeared to attend to other matters.

***

'How do I get out of here?'

Orticia had blundered into another dead end on her way out of the plains capital. Often, people will ignore death unless it has some bearing on themselves, so almost no one noticed the frantic woman holding a glow between her hands – until a pair of voices came at her from behind, clearly intent on noticing her.

'What have we here, Fred?' said a raspy voice. 'Is she a witch? She's hard to look at, this one.'

'That's coz she doesn't want to be seen,' said a deeper voice, presumably Fred. 'Where are you going in such a hurry, young miss?'

Death's apprentice tried to remember the rite of nothing. 'Everything crumbles,' she mumbled.

The two muggers encircled the transfixed Orticia. Fred, the bigger one, looked at what she was holding.

'Something of value, little miss?' he said. 'You hand it over, and we won't be quite as rough.'

'Nothing is really there forever!' she said, and ran forwards. The bigger thug gasped dumbly as the woman ran straight through him. He collapsed as a strange light shone out of his mouth.

To her horror, Orticia saw that the freelancer's face had gone, but she didn't stick around to see the results – instead she stumbled blindly through walls as if they were mist until she had beelined outside of the city, several metres under a mound of dirt.

'Fred, what's wrong Fred?' said the shorter of the two thugs, the one with the raspy voice. On the ground the bigger thug stopped clutching at his face.

'I'm not Fred,' he said as he stood up.

Search for Dastardly Part 4

The gnome watched the knight and the tough, plucky girl dismount their horse upon arrival at the palace. After they had ascended the wide steps, he procured a large hemisphere, hollow and covered in rubber alternating with chunks of metal.

Nuff then approached the horse. 'Easy there,' he mumbled. 'Just need to see what I think you've seen.'

He scrabbled his way onto the back of the beast – which was visibly irritated but probably hoping he would feed it another apple. When he placed the hemisphere like a cap on its head, he produced another device from his cavernous coat. This one resembled a glowing window lined with brass tubing.

'I knew it!' he said, not a second later. 'This knight was with Dastardly.'

Nuff then leapt onto the cobbles below and replaced the window device inside his clothing. He was halfway up the stairs himself when he turned to notice the hemisphere still on the horse's head.

Damn it, he thought, before shaking his head. Just leave it there.

Following the other two, the gnome opened the gigantic doors by leaning hard against them. The effort required by someone his size was diminished by the fact that he didn't need as much of a crack to squeeze inside.

Voices were coming from the far side of the entrance hall. Nuff went towards the throne room to eavesdrop.

***

Waory was almost finished telling Adrian and Renda about the events of the previous day, before he detailed what had happened since.

'When the Land-Regent killed the freelancer, I couldn't just stand by. Despite what you may think, servants have a lot of power under the laws of the plains.'

'What use is that?' Renda said.

Adrian grinned amiably. 'I think my bold friend here means: what did you actually do?' Renda raised an eyebrow.

'The Civil Authorities realised the more power that the workers have, the less likely you are to have a situation were, say, a trusted advisor plans to usurp the throne. I used the law to arrest Sirus for murder, and it worked.'

'They didn't think that you were trying out usurpation for yourself?'

The advisor shook his head. 'The investigators were brought in, everything went swimmingly...'

Adrian paced across to the vacant throne. 'Okay, so why did the Land-Regent act so rashly? I thought he was chosen for his cool head.'

'We aren't sure, but the investigators did a search of his quarters in case they might have leads, such as another country paying to have Mr Medieval killed.'

The knight stared back at the advisor. 'They found something, didn't they?'

'They found a book that had been missing from the library.'

'That's it?' Renda spat. 'A stolen book?'

Waory shook his head again, like some pantomime character. 'We're drifting off topic here. The reason I needed you to come was because of Mr Medieval's body.'

'Just get to the point.'

'At first we thought it might have something to do with the Land-Regent's poison, but –'

The advisor was suddenly on the receiving end of two dangerous glares.

'His face has disappeared, his clothes are missing and we can't find his identification papers, happy now?'

Renda and the knight swapped puzzled looks.

'So you can't actually confirm that it's him that died,' said Adrian. 'Is it possible that this was all a set up, or a trick?'

The man attempted to appear pensive but came off as stroking an imaginary beard. 'I saw the freelancer die on the balcony, there's no doubt about it.'

Having chosen the best time to make a grand entrance, the gnome joined the circle of people by the throne.

'We could use the book to find out what's really going on,' he said. 'Sorry to barge in like this, the name's Nuff.' Nuff Sed turned to Adrian. 'I saw you get off that airship yesterday, the one my cousin Plen was piloting.'

Before the knight had fully registered this, Nuff continued speaking.

'I'd bet all of my gold on that book being an Illuman relic.'

'The dark artefacts?' Waory said, apparently shocked. 'The Illuman artefacts were destroyed some time before the first World Congress.'

Adrian snapped his fingers. 'That's the connection, it's all there in the library.'

The knight began to elaborate while the others stared on dumbly.

'The research papers didn't describe them, but the author witnessed Illuman relics causing madness to those who used them “too greedily”. Waory – this book probably did the same thing to the Land-Regent that the glass shard did to Siy before we met him.'

'May I see this shard?' the gnome said. Adrian rummaged about in the satchel by his waist, suddenly remembering the night he'd shown some entirely different objects to the dead freelancer. When he found the shard, he passed it sideways to the gnome.

'Interesting,' said Nuff. 'It's like something out of a fairytale.' He pointed to the writing. 'Did you notice this?'

The knight shrugged. 'Yeah, it says “d'Aseere”, but I couldn't find what that means.'

'This does get us somewhere,' said Nuff. 'Not very helpful though, if you don't want to go mad.'

'Hang on, just hang on everyone,' Renda said, holding her arms up defensively. She looked down at the gnome. 'You said we could use this Illuman book to find out what's going on.'

'Theoretically, yes,' Nuff replied. 'As far as I know, the Illuman relics' purpose was to inform their creators of things they could not otherwise know.' He indicated Waory. 'Your Regent was probably using the book to get ahead on a commerce deal, or something.'

Adrian shivered. 'If we are to read this book to find out what happened to Dastardly –'

'And hopefully stop Krotar and Nius from turning the land inside out,' Renda added.

The knight continued. 'We had better make this quick. Waory, can you requisition the book?'

'I recommend that we pay the Library a visit. Let's get going.'

New Serial - First Encounter #1

'The truth is,' the Big Honch began, 'Dag had to be put down because of the lake sickness.'

Talon sat among the other children in the town hall, trying to form the question on his mind.

The Honch continued. 'We don't know why our pets and some of the wild animals are acting like this, but we have to be careful – just in case humans can catch it too.'

Talon raised his arm. 'Why do we still fish on the lake then?' he said. 'And what about the Floating Village down the river?'

'You mustn't ask stupid questions, little Talon,' the Honch said. 'The lake is the source of our livelihood. If we stopped fishing, we would have nothing to trade.'

***

The village Yerz was situated on the long mountain pass that connected South and North Ryndia. Overlooking the south western half of a great lake, their harvest had been constantly great until the start of the lake sickness incidents. Those animals allowed in the water, including the montigers the villagers kept as pets, occasionally returned to Yerz not recognising their owners and even began to attack people who came close.

Lately the montiger known as Dag had contracted the illness. The Honch, the leader of the town, was then left to explain its disappearance to its owners – a contingent of children who were learning to fish on the lake.

'Can you believe that?' Talon said, maybe too loudly, to his friend Daiv as they left the hall. 'He thinks we're babies. I just don't want to be the first human to catch it!'

'You won't,' Daiv said. 'We aren't going in the water – Ferran made sure all the boats were brought to the docks.'

'Whatever.' The two boys approached Ferran for the day's lesson.

'Ready then,' he said without a hint of inquiry.

'Yep,' they replied in unison. 'Let's go catch some trout.'

***

The day was as simple and enjoyable as fishing can be, without the added hassle of catching fish.

'Boys, I know you're having a lot of fun,' Ferran said not long after midday, 'but the village relies on this trade.'

The man rummaged around in his leather bag, producing a three-pronged metal monster. 'This is the Big Momma.'

'A Quondu lure?' Talon said with his eyes aglow.

'Nothing less.' Ferran grinned. 'If this doesn't do it, nothing will, and we'll go home empty handed.'

He hooked “Big Momma” and a float onto the end of the nearest fishing pole, casting over the port stern. Talon noticed the float moving slightly.

'Probably just the wind, mate,' said Ferran. 'You know you've got something when –'

The float disappeared and Ferran was jerked heavily towards the side of the boat.

'Careful now,' he said as the water splashed against the sides. 'Feels like a big one.'

Ferran began levering with the pole to wind in as much line as he could. Suddenly the boat was rocked heavily. Before the boys could register what had happened, Ferran was several metres out of reach and frantically treading water.

'Just go home and get help!' he said. 'I think the line is tied around my ank –'

As their teacher disappeared below the water, Talon and Daiv took to the oars.

***

The sun was setting when the boys reached the dock. Talon tied the boat up and followed Daiv to the Honch's house.

'Ferran was taken underwater by the biggest fish –'

'We've got to go and find him –'

'Take the montigers and rescue –'

'Knives to cut the line –'

'Hang on, just hang on,' the Big Honch told the boys. 'One of you at a time.'

'We have to go and find him,' said Daiv.

'Ferran might still be alive, but he's drowning,' Talon added.

The Honch didn't speak for several seconds.

'Even if Ferran was still alive after being underwater,' he began. 'It is far too dangerous to mount a rescue. For all we know, he's already contracted the lake sickness.'

The boys grew more than just downcast as the Honch continued, knowing they could do nothing to change his mind.

'Neither of you touched the lake, did you?' he said. 'I'll have to keep you here overnight while I confirm that the sickness hasn't spread.' The man stood up and walked past them absently.

Talon exploded. 'You self absorbed, money driven... autocrat!' he said. 'Don't you see that this is just stupid? You insist that we continue to fish on the lake even while you say that it's too dangerous! Ferran could still be out there, and you don't want to lift a finger!'

The Honch turned back to the boy. 'Big words for an unschooled and rude little fisherman's brat!'

'Hey, don't bring his father into this!' Daiv said. The Honch's eyebrows furrowed.

'I think you would do well to spend a night in solitary confinement.' The man then grabbed both the boys' collars, taking care not to touch their skin. The Honch walked them out of the house and down the street as shouts echoed up from the dock.

'What is this about?' the Honch said. He pointed sharply at the boys. 'Stay here, or else.'

'No way am I listening to him,' Talon said.  He followed from behind, as quietly as he could, and stood near the edge of the town hall closest to the lake. In the twilight he was nearly invisible.

'What is going on?' said the Honch. Near the wharf, a man that might have been Mr Sasket was holding onto a dripping body. Ferran twitched and gasped a huge breath.

'Thank the heavens,' the Honch said. 'I was worried that you were gone for good.'

'He needs to rest,' said Mr Sasket. 'Let's take him home to sleep it off.'

As the Big Honch turned back up the slope, Talon raced off and grabbed Daiv on the way.

This is the first chunk of a full story that may turn into a longer series.  I hope that you are anxiously awaiting the conclusion - and please feel free to voice comments or criticism below!