Reinhardt bundled up the
“No Boar
“Patience, please Magdi.” Otto said in a conciliatory tone. “With another
“Oh? Is tha’ where th’boar is?” Magdi had a sarcastic lilt.
“Certainly not, but the Den Mother is a TannerDoetinningen came through and tried for the magic ”
“Is it valuable?” Reinhardt was all in on the
“More than valuable,” Otto revelled in the rapt audience. “The
Magdi turned to squint up at the man. “Are you saying we could have found a Magical
“Forbearance, I beg.” Otto shook his head. “The chance is only 2% for the Enchantment to spawn. A
Reinhardt whistled low. A Scholars new.
A
They emerged from the forest, almost directly in front of the main gate of the castle walls. The Castle itself was a large, majestic edifice, four storeys high with towers rising nearly twice that again. Made of a foreboding dark grey stone, it stood as an ominous backdrop lit by torches. Many of the windows were lit by fires within the rooms, and Reinhardt could pick out the squares of light standing out in sharp contrast to the stone, nearly black in the darkness.
“Kinda makes me wish we’d waited until morning.” He said.
“We took too long in the caves.” Otto looked pointedly at the Dwarf.
“Don’t ye be actin’ like ye din’ enjoy it.”
“I hated every moment,” Otto said. “My only consolation is the we all gained.”
“Yeah, well,” Madgi began stumping toward the gate. “Does th’time o’ day make a dif’rens?”
“... No.”
“Here we are then.”
Reinhardt knew they were just grumbling. There were, as far as anyone knew, no monsters in the Dungeon
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
The gate swung open easily. Reinhardt was surprised, he thought it’d be difficult, and would screech and squeal the entire time. The gardens were beautiful. Even by the muted pseudo-starlight, he knew they were gorgeous. He hadn’t really encountered ‘wealth’ or ‘nobility’ in his life. The closest had was the ‘Mayoral Manor,’ the small estate where the mayor and his family lived. It was a slightly larger than average house that had a full-sized yard. It was nice, but it wasn’t ‘noble’ in bearing, it wasn’t ‘beautiful.’ The Castle Garden however, was graceful and cultured, perfectly manicured and curated. It was something that was specifically designed to be beautiful for no other reason that to be a show of opulence. He wondered idly if any of the Delvers who went on to achieve fame and fortune after running the
By the dim light of the torches and “starlight,” they could make out the Statues. They would come alive and start wandering around the moment they set foot in the grounds. They had their plan, and they were going to stick to it. There was always the temptation, and Reinhardt could see it now he was looking at it, to sprint up the main thoroughfare - a wide, white-pebbled almost-a-road with a grand fountain immediately before the staircase leading to the entrance hall of the castle. It was wide, open and inviting. The Statues on their plinths were all ten metres from the edge of the Promenade, except a life-size Lord mounted on a Horse atop the Grand Fountain. A perfect trap. People would walk into the Gardens, see the Statues move, and run for it - triggering the Statue’s Flight response.
“” Reinhardt grinned to himself. “” They filed through the gate, warily watching the Statues turn to face them. They walked calmly down the Promenade, turning left almost immediately. A nearby Angel followed their movement with her head. She really was strikingly beautiful, and the craftsmanship was beyond any sculptor had ever seen. The Statues on the far side of the wide path stepped down from their plinths, walking down their paths to follow them. They moved with a jerky gait, like each Statue was a little clay man being manipulated by giant hands into each position throughout the “stride.” Reinhardt was glad. He didn’t know what he would have thought had they walked smoothly and naturally. Things that weren’t humanoids moving like they were was a real phobia, and after the eerie glen” response.
The three made their way as far along the leftmost path as they could and turned to follow the walkway up past the “west side” of the Castle. They were limited to Magdi’s stumping stride, which was almost the same as the speed at which the Statues moved. By now, they had all seven Statues trailing them. The “Horse and Lord” Statue jumping off the Grand Fountain had caused a bit of concern at first. They could tell it walked faster than the rest, despite the helter-skelter nature of the Horse puppet-walking. “,” he grimaced as he looked back at the Statues. “” Reinhardt was curious to see how fast a Living Statue could fly. Faster than Magdi could run, in any case. Luckily, the Horse and Lord were trapped in between an Angel and a Knight. The pack moved as one, as they bumped and jostled each other. They never fell to fighting, but every now and then there was a loud scrape as a Demon clunked into a Knight, or the Horse kicked the Angel in front of it. They maintained their lead on the Statues right up to the “big fountain” on the western side. It was actually a large reflecting pool. As they lined up on the far side, they looked down at the reflection of the castle framed by the pool. Not a breath of wind blew, so the water was as flat as glass. It was truly a gorgeous picture, and Reinhardt wondered if the castle was constructed and oriented in such a way to provide the best reflection. Tomorrow, they would be here during the day, and he swore he’d try to spend a spare minute truly looking.
The Statues had made their way along the long side of the pool, and were now turning to face them. “Patience, brothers.” Otto muttered. “We should move up to the corner and wait. Wait until they are solidly on this short edge. Walk in the middle of the pool until the mid-point, then aim to jump out at that corner.” He pointed at the far corner to their left. “The Statues will come around this corner,” he gestured to where they were now standing, “and will have to walk the full length of the pool. We loop around and trap them along the pool edge. Then follow the same path back to the Promenade, giving us at least a seventy metre lead on them.”
“Pro-me-nard? Th’hell is that?” Magdi screwed his face up at Otto.
“The broad thoroughfare from the gate to the castle.”
“‘Broad thru-a-fair?’ Like when a lass walks through a festival?” The Dwarf squinted at the Mage.
“IT’S WHAT IT’S CALLED, YOU - “ Otto roared, drawing himself up and looming over the Dwarf.
“Time to move,” Reinhardt had cut across Otto, stepping over the knee-high wall of the pool and dragging the taller man with him. His glance back caught the smirk just fading from Magdi’s face. He sighed to himself. In the absence of things to fight, Magdi simply started his own fights. He was sure the Dwarf was not nearly as stupid as he made out, but he never missed a chance to aggravate Otto by playing dumb. The Statues were indifferent to the bickering and didn’t respond to Otto’s raised voice. As they splashed through the calf-high water, they each grimaced.
“Should have taken our boots off,” Reinhardt voiced the thought. He hated wet sock days. Too late now. They could hear the scraping and clunking of the Statues as they bumped into the edge of the pool. The information had been accurate. Despite being able to step off of their plinths and garden beds, the Statues refused to step over the knee-high wall into the pool. They angled their march and clambered out of the pool at the “north-east” corner. The Statues quickly stopped trying to follow their trek through the pool, and turned as one to walk around the edge. Once the mass of stone was good and halfway, they walked at a leisurely pace down and around to the opposite side. The Statues stopped moving across the pool and turned to face them. Reinhardt could see Magdi’s hands working the handles of his tools. He knew the Dwarf wanted to hit them, bash them with the blunt of the block splitter, smash them with his hammer - but they were only
“Come along,” Reinhardt turned to retrace their steps back to the Promenade, but the Dwarf reached out and grabbed him.
“They,” he gestured at the Statues, “cannae gettae us? Wilnae jump th’wall, e’en if attacked?”
“I… don’t know.” Otto looked confused. “We can’t do much about it. We have no weapons to damage them.”
“Are ye a wizzid or wat?”
“Or what.” Otto was frowning now. “Perhaps magic could damage them, but not Kinetic based Spells would be the most dama- .”
“But nothing right now?” Reinhardt was getting antsy just standing here, watching the Statues gently bumping into the reflecting pool edge.
“No.”
“Huh. Nice night for a walk, though.”
They turned away from the pool, taking a leisurely stroll back along the pathways back to the main Promenade.
