Day 5, 25 days remaining.
The End
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| Back to the tunnel once more. |
The ugly human is going down the stairs master. Same as before master.
Little one, tell the others this, they should be downstairs Warn them not to scare him away..
Master says to tell you the ugly human is coming. Run, hide, do not scare him away.
Grumblejack, Stixx, and Urgeon rushed back about two-hundred feet to stay out of immediate range. They could hear the large stone slab behind the false wall began to grind open and thus began prepared themselves. Bellam had either become careless or overly confident as he didn't even bother closing the secret door this time. He stepped carefully.
Maldrake, his familiar, Kiliketz, Kallista, and Stryder moved in and saw the door wide open. They saw the innkeeper just leaving their sight and closed in. With no regard to being quite or acknowledgement of stealth Maldrake and Stryder slammed the secret door shut. Urgeon summoned earth elementals and they began to earth glide into the walls of the tunnel. They traveled inside the stone walls detecting the tremors made by the walking Bellam. Bellam has no idea he was being followed by the minions.
We could now see the look of terror on Bellam's face and he looked behind himself and began to walk further and faster down the tunnel. Uregon motioned to his minions to get ready and grab his legs to trip him and trip him they did. Bellam quickly looked around with a confused but still horrified look as the elemental grabbed his legs and dropped him to the ground. He howled and screamed. They surrounded the little man, holding him easily in place.
"Shut up. No one can hear you down here. Make any more moves and my elementals will glide you into the walls and leave you in a prison of stone." Urgeon warned.
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| Bellam was not cut out for this life. |
"Nu, nu, nooo. I, I, I, I, will give you what you want. I didn't think anyone needed the, th, the, wine." Bellam stuttered.
Maldrake and the rest closed in, "Oh no friend. We are here for more than wine." he said with a sadistic guffaw. "You're going to tell us what you know about this tunnel and your going to tell us right now." He added with a small kick to the weak man's back as he was trying to get up from being tripped.
Bellam's situation began to become more and more real to him as his torch revealed the guests who had been staying in his inn. He nervously continued, "If this is about The Dalliance's service, I assure you, I can make sure you are handsomely refunded."
Silence and nothing but filled the barely lit tunnel. We look at each other and began to laugh.
"Get up." Urgeon commanded and lifted the scrawny man to his feet. Two streams of wet could be seen running down each pant leg.
Surrounding him, they all took off their circlets and began to transform. Bellam's eyes bulged with barley controlled chaos and bared his teeth in dismay. Shifting his eyes from a gnome one moment to a goblin the next. We could debate all day about what really caused him to shit his trousers, but we knew it was seeing a two foot tall ugly gnome transform into an almost ten foot tall ogre. Grumblejack smiled at Bellam.
"Oh no. What do you want from me?" Bellam asked.
"What are you doing down here?" Kallista asked.
Taking a huge and deep breathe, Bellam began, "Ok, Ok, Ok. I give in. Captain Barhold was going to put away at least a couple years worth of the finest wine this side of the watch wall. We're not even at war and supplies keep getting wasted on that blasted garrison! It's not right! My family and generations before me have always supported the troops of this region and we get nothing for it. So about twenty months ago I chased a couple rats down here and saw this door open, and then I decided to go in and that's when I found the stash of food and such at the garrison and I and I and I though I should have some and."
Kallista slapped him, "Get a hold of yourself. Go on."
"It wasn't right to see it go to waste so I took it. I know it's a crime, please don't turn me in to Balentyne, they will send me to Branderscar. I can't live with filth like that." Bellam said.
Maldrake bent over and picked up the dropped torch and rolled up his sleeve. He stepped right up to Bellam and put the torch near his arm and showed him the forsaken brand. With a smirk Maldrake stated, "You already have been." Then he slugged him and caught him before he could go down.
"You've got a lot worse to worry about than Balentyne good buddy." Urgeon said.
"I'm bored with him. He's useless and worse he's weak. Feed him to Grumblejack." Kallista added nonchalantly.
"Wh, wha, what? No, no, not that. Ok, Let's see, the tunnel is roughly 50 miles long. It goes along the coast and heads all the way to Balentyne. No one knows about it, not even the high ranking officers, generals, or anyone!" Bellam exclaimed.
We all nodded and gestured for him to continue.
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| Kallista was done playing games. |
Stixx lit a bomb and puts out the fuse, lights it again, and puts it out, while looking at Bellam and said "That's too bad for you, right Kallista? Right Maldrake? Right Urgeon?"
"Grumblejack, feast away." Kallista beckoned.
"No please wait!" Bellam begged.
Kallista motioned for Grumblejack to stop just as he was about to take off Bellam's hand. "Yes?"
What came next was mostly a mishmash of ramblings, whines, and cries. Kallista had heard enough and just as she was about to motion again Bellam spoke up with something so surprising and shocking to Kallista that she was momentarily speechless. A rare thing for Kallista mind you.
Bellam began, "Now, I don't mean to threaten you. This is not a threat. I am just stating something that I have no doubt clever individuals like yourselves have already figured out but as I am nearly to lose my arm to your big friend their it bears repeating. If I am killed, the local township will start to wonder where I went. I've been here for decades as has my father's father and his mother and wives before them. I do not know your plans for this town nor do I care at this point. I only know that prisoners like yourselves won't want and investigation around here."
Speaking as though anything past his first sentence didn't happen Kallista replied incredulity, "You don't mean to threaten us?"
And those were the last words Bellam heard as she motioned for Grumblejack to take it to the bone and don't leave any meat on said bones. A bone shattering scream came out of Bellam as Grumblejack's rotten teeth buried into the warm flesh of the man. He tugged and pulled at his fresh arm meat and broke it off at the elbow. Bellam went crashing into Maldrake to whom he looked up at him before succumbing to the loss of the blood and certain shock and said, "You forgot about my wife, Alicia." Bellam smiled and passed out.
After the slaughter pieces of brain matter splattered the darkened walls. Pieces of splintered bones littered the tunnel floor. Tattered remnants of the weak man's clothing could be found haphazardly everywhere now. Maldrake then looked up from the mess with only timid concern, he spoke calmly and rationally now, "Lets get back upstairs, get cleaned up as best we can and prepare for tomorrow. I will handle his wife."
11:30 P.M - Day 115, Rova 15, 3042 AP (After Peace)
Dear Alicia
Maldrake slipped into Bellam bed looking as close as an Assimar can look to Bellam's appearance. It was dark and almost no moonlight was shining in. Alicia mumbled something about coming to bed and there was nothing else left to do but end her life. She was a loose end. Maldrake slipped a dagger into her throat and as she gurgled out her last dying breaths, Maldrake smiled into her eyes as the moonlight shined through the window.
The rest went off to sleep. Grumblejack slept in the tunnel and feasted greatly on Bellam and his wife Alcia.
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