Meric the Storyman: Rega and the Dragonstones
Chapter 27: The Word is Out

It was already dark when she was told.

“They are heading out.” said the man to Kiram. “Two men, a woman, a half-orc and two halflings. They also had two more with them. I think they might be brownies.”

“Good. Gather the rest of the men and stay with them.” said the female thief.

She followed her men a few moments later.

The man had his orders. His job, just like the other four men, was to slow the progress of the group. This would let them surround the wagon, allowing Kiram the chance to collect the gems.

He had heard rumors that these gems held magical powers. That was fine with him. It would mean that they would bring in more money. More money meant that everyone involved got a larger cut. Granted, GITA was going to take the largest cut, but there was going to be more than enough for everyone.

He had followed them without being seen so far. He looked around and spotted two of the other men. One was following them by using an adjacent road. The other man, an actual city guardsman on the Guild’s payroll, was in plain view. He appeared to be ensuring the safety of the city folk living in this sector.

He looked back in the direction of the wagon. The two men, woman and the half-orc were on horseback. The halflings were steering the wagon. He saw no sign of the brownies.

It was time to move again. He hurried to the next building, hiding in the shadows as much as possible. About halfway there, he was suddenly stopped by slamming into something. He shook his head and looked again. There was nothing there, but yet he couldn’t go forward any further.

He didn’t get any more time to check out this mystery. A huge fist came swinging into him. He went unconscious when his head hit the wall of the building.

Jaltor had left the city soon after hearing about the Dragonstones. His horse ran swiftly towards the desert.

He now understood why Hulafason had sent him to Makloran. This information would be valuable to the blue dragon. Hulafason might even give him his own kingdom once they killed off the humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, other good humanoids and finally the good dragons.

Rega was getting nervous. A city guard had been following them for several blocks. Sure, the guard made a show of checking homes and businesses, but Rega knew it was done to try and throw them off.

“Do you think the stalker knows about the guard?” he asked Lobaki.

Lobaki glanced at the guard before answering. “The stalker has to be given a very specific set of instructions. If the orders are vague in the slightest way, he will try to warp them to his satisfaction. With that in mind, the guard probably hasn’t triggered a reaction with the stalker.”

Rega looked up ahead. They would be soon passing into another sector of the city. “If the guard continues to follow us there, maybe then he will trigger a reaction.”

“That should do it.” agreed the wizard.

They continued. Soon, they entered the next sector. Rega could tell that it was newer than the one they had just left. Obviously, as the population grew, so did the city.

The thief glanced back at the guard. He saw him pause and look around. A moment later, the guard headed to the new sector.

All of a sudden, Rega saw him go flying up in the air, as if he were being lifted. The guard was then thrown, landing on his head. He lay there motionless.

“Well, we know the stalker is still there.” he said to Lobaki.

Kiram watched the guard get thrown as well. She had already found her other four men along the way. Two were knocked unconscious, one a broken arm, the other one had two broken legs. This was the first time, however, she had actually seen one of them being attacked.

She was baffled. There was nothing there. How was the guard lifted?

She decided it was best to wait a few minutes before going to see how the guard was doing, just in case the thing was still there. She knew her mission had failed. Rega’s party had some extra protection, most likely magical.

After a while, she went to the guard. As she got close, she could tell that he was dead. His neck had been snapped in two places.

She needed to return to Cirrick as soon as possible. He would have to be told about what happened.

They made it out the city gates safely. He was to wait at the gate another hour to ensure no others followed them. If the hour passed with no further incidence, he would report back to the wizard who summoned him. He could then be allowed to return home.

He had enjoyed his duties this time. Rarely was he actually allowed to attack. He had hoped that there would be more than just the five he found tracking the group, but those five would have to suffice.

He waited.

While watching for any more followers, he thought about the last time he had been called upon to assist someone on this world.

The wizard was using the spell for the first time. “Bring me his head!” was the order. It was too bad for the fool wizard that he wasn’t more specific.

The invisible lurker chuckled about the results of that command. It took him two months to track down the individual the summoning wizard wanted. He got the head and swiftly returned to the wizard.

Just to show the conjuring individual how important his time is, he took the upstart wizard to his own elemental plane of air. The wizard still resides in his abode today, placed in suspended animation. The head is placed on his chest. He followed the orders given to him. They may be a little perverted, but the wizard has the head he wanted.

After an hour had passed, the stalker started back to the wizard who summoned him this time. His task here was complete.

Rega studied the map again. They should make it to the northern edge of the Dralmag desert in a little over a day. It would take another day’s travel to get to the entrance of the cavern which led to Dragonlair.

Although they would be traveling near the mountains, it would still be necessary to take extra water with them traveling in the desert. In addition to the map, the Wizard’s Guild had provided them with several small empty barrels which could be used to store water.

He thought about the gems. Word was sure to be out about them now, especially after Fokar’s display. He hoped that the stalker bought them enough time before anyone else came after them. Time would tell.

Hulafason had changed his original plan only recently. His spies had let him know that the good dragons were planning a surprise. What the surprise what, he didn’t know. He just had a feeling that it would be large enough to be a problem. So, instead of having the dragons attack the cities first, he decided to get them all together to attack the good dragons and try to thwart their so-called surprise. Then the humanoids could die afterwards.

The blue leader studied his army carefully. Besides the orcs, goblins, ogres and the few giants, he had gathered together eighty-seven dragons. There were red dragons, blue dragons, green dragons, black dragons and even some white dragons. Although, the white dragons tended to complain a lot about being so close to a desert environment.

The evil queen had asked him to plan for the upcoming battle when he was a young adult. Now, many years later, as one of the land’s more ancient dragons, the battle was close at hand.

Keeping these dragons together was the most difficult part so far. If that fool, Pyrdon, hadn’t been injured trying to protect his silly treasure, his job would be easier. The powerful red dragon was his second in command and had a lot of influence over the red and green dragons.

There were originally ninety-one dragons. Losing Pyrdon was bad enough, but when a young adult black dragon stepped on the tail of another young adult green dragon, he lost another three. The black dragon died of the green dragon’s poison breath. The green dragon died of the black dragon’s acid breath. Then there was the stupid white dragon. Thinking he could stop the fight, he got between the pair, getting a dose of both the green and black dragon’s breath.

The thing that kept the dragons unified was pure greed. They had been promised to take whatever treasure they could find once the good dragons had been taken care of. Many of them had planned separate assaults on some of the land’s cities after the main battle had been completed.

Hulafason’s thoughts were interrupted when he got word that the human he had placed in Makloran had returned with some information. If it had something to do with the good dragon’s surprise, Jaltor would be rewarded.

Kiram had reported back to Cirrick. He was furious.

His anger was even more fueled by his desire to have the Dragonstones. So, going into his personal vault, he gave Kiram several items for protection. She was to try and catch up to Rega and get the gems for him.

She waited a few hours before starting out, allowing Rega’s party the chance to feel there were no more pursuits as well as let whatever that thing was go away. Based on her description of what she observed, Cirrick believed an invisible stalker was involved. He told Kiram that she was very lucky to not draw the creature’s ire.

She thought about the magical items given to her. First there was the ring of protection. It added a little extra protection for her against physical and magical attacks. Second, there was the Dust of Appearance. This magical dust will coat all objects, even revealing invisible creatures. The final item was a magical short sword. There really wasn’t anything special about the weapon, but it was able to go through armor better than a normal sword.

There would be no others going with her on this mission. It required speed and stealth. As she left the city gates, she easily found the trail left from their horses and wagon. Hopefully, they would be a little lax in security. At least, lax enough for her to get the Dragonstones.

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