Narg and the Necromancer

Village.

The next morning found the three travellers awake early. The day was brighter than the previous one, but still overcast and damp. Narg, Gorgus and Shogun marched through the day without incident, deeper into the forest. Though they saw and heard no-one, Narg couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched.

As the day started to draw to a close they stumbled, quite unexpectedly, into a clearing, which turned out to be hiding a small village.

The companions walked warily down the single street and into the village square, where they stopped. A group of youths were standing in the middle of the green, a couple of other villagers passed by, ignoring the heavily armed travellers. Around the square were a dozen small buildings, some barely more than huts. The general air was one of ‘let be’. Narg looked around and then waved towards a larger structure. You two, see if you can find out anything there. I’ll ask around out here.

Whilst Gorgus and Shogun walked towards their target, Narg approached the band of youths. In the centre of the band a lad, maybe about seventeen, swung a large sword about, obviously impressing the crowd of onlookers.

The youth stopped when he saw Narg approaching and the crowd turned towards the hero, eyeing him curiously.

“Any of you seen any strangers pass through here lately?” Narg asked.

The lad with the sword responded to his question with another.

“That a magic sword?” He pointed his own weapon at Bloodletter.

“Firstly,” said Narg. “Didn’t your mother, assuming you had one, teach you it’s rude to answer a question with another? Secondly, don’t point that sword at me.”

The lad lowered his sword a little, but was bolstered by the presence of his onlookers. “Maybe I ‘ave, maybe I ‘aint’ he said, in response to the question.

Narg stepped forward a pace, but saw a couple of farm-hands and adults approaching from the other direction to see what the fuss was.

“’ad a lot of fights ‘ave you?” asked the boy again.

“Aye. Lots.” Narg said grimly, in tones that several demons had flinched from.

The lad wasn’t intimidated.

“Won a lot?”

“I am standing here aren’t I?” Narg said coldly.

Something of Narg’s manner maybe trickled through to the youth, because he lost a little of his bravado. “Aye, well yes.”

Narg gave up and turned away to seek out someone a little more responsive.

“I bet you only win ‘cos you ‘ave a magic sword,” the boy said, showing a fine lack of survival instincts. Some of his friends in the crowd tittered.

Narg stopped walking away. The boy fell silent as he turned around and walked back slowly. He stopped a few feet from the youth, who wasn’t looking so confident suddenly.

“Really?” he asked calmly. “How about a little competition then? Bigshot?”

“W... w… h… competition?” stuttered the lad, bravado fleeing in the presence of confrontation.

“We’ll make it fair. Let’s say I have, oh I don’t know,” Narg looked around and plucked an apple from the hand of one of the onlookers. “This apple. And you have your sword. Sound fair?”

The would-be hero gulped and looked at the apple as if it was a wand of fireballs. He looked back at his sword and then at his friends. He straightened up. “Okay.”

“Fine,” said Narg. “After three okay?”

“Okay.”

“Ready?” The lad nodded and took up a stance with the sword held in both hands in front of him.

“One, two…” There was a blur as Narg threw the apple hard. It hit the lad square on the forehead, dazing him for a moment. In that moment Narg had closed the gap between them and kicked the sword handle with his foot. It spun out of the boys grasp, performed a neat little spin in the air and landed in Narg’s hand. Before the dazed youngster could do anything, the tip of the sword was at his throat.

“Now,” snarled Narg. “What two things have we learned from this exercise?”

“D… d… d…” the boy stammered, trying to get away from the blade without actually moving. “D… don’t trust anyone to count to three?”

“Near enough. And?”

“A… ah… anything can be used as a w… weapon in the right hands?”

“Mmm, could be…” Narg suddenly whipped the sword to one side and grabbed the youth by the collar, pulling the kids face up next to his own so they were nose to nose.

“I was thinking more along the lines of: Don’t piss me off!!” He yelled the last four words, and then let the youth go, allowing him to collapse in the dirt.

Narg moved away, turning the captured sword over in his hand, examining the quality.

A farmer sidled up, hat held in front of him, Mexican peasant style. Narg looked at him and threw the sword at the ground so it landed point first in the dirt at the man’s feet.

“Here’s your sword farmer,” he said, without malice.

“T… thank-you good hero sir. I shall hide it away and make sure the boy never goes near it again, I swear.”

Narg looked at him. “I don’t know, the lad didn’t do bad. Grown men have pissed their breeches when I have come close to them. Of course,” he scratched his chin, “so have grown women, but for a different reason. Hehe.” He chuckled to himself for a moment. “Give the lad the sword back when he wakes up, and teach him not to trust anything and anyone. If he keeps practicing, then one day… who knows? Maybe I’ll be the one on the floor. Now, I have other affairs to attend to.” With that Narg turned about and marched towards his companions, leaving the farmer looking at the sword stuck in the earth and scratching his head.

“Having fun with your new friends?” inquired Shogun when he reached them.

“Shut it short-arse,” Narg replied, still annoyed he had let a youth rile him. “What ya got?”

Gorgus answered. “The local village elder, or whatever they call him around here, informed us a party of four passed through here a few weeks ago. They stayed a short while and asked questions about the tower. He told us the tower is several days to the north, he told them the same, but apparently when they left they took the road west.”

Shogun scratched his head. “Sounds like Ezal’s daughter’s lot. Maybe we should rest up here and find out a bit more about them.

“I am not sure my short friend” said Gorgus. “I believe we should be making all haste towards the tower to fight this foe we face. What say you Narg?”

“Well, we did say we would track the girl and her party, but the tower is bigger money. I dunno…” Narg scratched his head and thought about it… “Why did they go west when the tower is to the north? It may be worth finding out.”

“They must have had information we are not aware of,” Gorgus replied. “Their quest was to find and kill the necromancer too. Maybe he’s not in the tower after all.”

Narg sighed and looked up at the sun peering through the clouds. “Well, let’s rest here for tonight anyway, tomorrow we shall go west I think. I don’t suppose there’s an Inn in this rat hole?”

“Didn’t see one,” said Shogun. “But we didn’t look far.”

“Well, you don’t have the best view from down there do you,” Narg said. “Let’s look around.” He walked towards the nearest building, which turned out to be the headman’s house. They started to explore the buildings around the square, and quickly came across a middle aged peasant sitting on a very short stool in, for want of a better word, a garden.

As they passed the peasant stood up and stumbled towards them. “Sirs! I knows what you are looking for oh yes.”

Narg stopped and looked the man over, causing him to flinch slightly. He was middle aged and scrawny, dressed in dirty furs crudely sewn together. A patch covered one eye and a scar ran down the middle of his face, making it look like someone had split his head in half and then sewn it back up when they found it empty. Covering his balding palate was a hat made from what looked like an entire fox skin, head tail and all.

“And how can you help us exactly?” asked Narg.

“I know what’s west I do,” said the man, and let out a suddenly wild cackle. He moved closer to Narg in a conspiring fashion, causing Narg to lean away to avoid the odor of dead animals and unwashed crazy man. “I seen I has!” He tapped the side of his nose and winked in an exaggerated manner. “I’s seen the castle. Oh yes!” and he leapt away, prancing around the garden, kicking his feet up and jerking his knees whilst cackling and singing to himself.

“I see you’ve found a companion of equal mental stature,” Shogun said dryly, watching as the hunter performed a series of really quite good cartwheels.

The mad hunter suddenly stopped his prancing and ran back to the group, causing Shogun to cough and back away. “I was there I was. I was in the castle! They sez no-one comes out but I did I did I did.” The man seemed to like the sound of that, and started to sing and dance again “I did I did I did…”

Narg sighed and turned away, ready to continue his exploration of the village, but the man rushed back and grabbed his elbow. “Heeed!” He whispered savagely. “Heeeed mee. The way to the tower is hidden! You need a key you do! A key a key a key! A black stone to pass the Gate! Black stone key oh yes. The stone’s in the castle and I seen it I did! Ooohh whooo the dark place the dark place it was.” The man stopped a moment, looking to a place no eyes could see, then in a suddenly terrifyingly sane voice: “That’s where they did this.”

So saying he pulled his top up. The three gasped. His chest was a horrific mass of scars, burn marks, lumps and un-natural depressions, as if half of his insides had been removed. Narg had seen t*****e before, more than he would admit in mixed company, and he recognized the signs, though how this person had survived such a mangling was beyond him. The reason for the madness the old hunter showed was now apparent. Anyone would c***k under that much a***e.

The man lowered his top. Now his eyes filled with tears. “They done this they done this,” he said and slowly turned away to return to his stool. “They done this they done this they done this…” an ongoing litany of a broken man.

Shogun turned to Narg. “Now we now know why the first party went west.”