Chapter 4

Six months came and went for Tamalain and the rest of the residents of the small island. Her legs healed and the Spider Queen discovered how a vengeful Woodelven can be a very bad thing. Tamalain didn't play games with chance this time. She left a squashed, smoldering mess on the forest floor in the first 30 seconds of the rematch.

Her time making arrows proved to be a time of contemplation. Word had finally reach Murrar Sharr that the sea lanes to Qeynos and Freeport were once again open, but the Butcherblock route was still impassable from the continued fall of Luclins corpse. One task towards the end of her stay was to find the cause of the corruption of the Sipwell Goblins. The number of corrupted goblins had increased, and they were becoming harder to kill as time went by.

Her explorations into the inner parts of the island proved that another force was in play and hidden further in. She found smoking wood totems had been placed in the goblin village. They emitted a vile smoke that over time poisoned the minds and bodies of the goblins, turning them into mindless killer zombies. Once she knew the immediate cause, she was able to slip in one night and removed the totems, burning them in a fire pit she had prepared in advance. The following morning when she returned to the village to see if the effect was fading, she was dismayed to see all the totems had re-spawned after she destroyed the first set.

She knew she would have to go deeper into the islands center to find the source and cause, then eliminate it with extreme prejudice. Getting past the village proved to be more of a challenge than she expected. The large wolves the goblins kept as pets and mounts proved to be able to sense her in her camouflaged state. She spent several days trying different routes, only to be sniffed out and chased most of the way back to the barricades every time she got near the pass beyond the goblin village.

She asked one of the gate guards where the waterfall in the far end of the bay came from on the island. He seemed surprised she didn't already know and escorted her to Murrar Sharr. She was then shown the map of the island he kept hidden from general view. "I keep this hidden to protect the tribes up there from the sicker minds down here. The top of the falls has a small feeder lake that is supplied by a spring of fresh water. The Sipwell leader lives in a tree house about a mile inland. There are caves and tunnels in the surrounding hills as well. How far and deep they extend is unknown even to the goblins."

"What about wildlife and other locals, will they cause me any problems?"

"Some of the water creatures might object to your being in the river, and the bears are less than friendly towards non-goblins. Some of the guards will also not like your presence in that region. They leave us alone so long as we do not try to expand to the inner parts of the island, so show caution when approaching the tree house."

"Thank you Murrar, I have not been able to get past the wolves in the main village. I have never encountered their type before and they can sense me no matter how carefully I tried to cover myself."

"Miss Arrowmark, please do be careful in this little adventure. One incorrect action on your part could cause the upper level residents to come down and drive us into the sea."

"Don't worry Murrar; I will do my best to stop the poisoning. What ever else happens will be up to them."

Without another word, she returned to the bank to repack her gear in a waterproof pack and prepared to go for a swim. By this time the sharks had started to learn caution when the water was chummed. They were no long as quick to surface for a quick snack of chopped Trigger fish. They had also started staying away from the fishermen in the shallows as they had lost many of their numbers there of late as well.

She chose her spot and entered the water as close to the falls as the cliff face would allow. Several sharks did take notice of her, but steered clear for the time being. They had learned her scent meant death for them if they got to close. Swimming along the cliff wall, she soon reached the base of the waterfalls. She carefully worked her way behind the wall of falling water and mist to study the rock face and was surprised to find a partially blocked cave entrance. With her infravision on, she could see the warmer walls in the cave. She tried to move one of the stones and barely managed to force it aside enough to climb through the opening.

Once inside, she pulled a small stone from her pack and held it up. It was a Greater Lightstone from a Willow the Wisp. She had traded a new long Bow she had made for it with a hunter several weeks earlier. This gave off enough light for her to see the entire room of the cave. It was about eight feet high, sloping down at the sides about a foot, and at the back. It was around twenty feet wide and thirty deep, so there was plenty of room to move around. She could see several piles of rotted and collapsed wood in the center of the room, looking for all the world like they might have once been a table and several chairs.

Along the right wall there were what must have been shelves at one time. When she went over to take a closer look, she found several broken glass vials. There was no way to tell what might have been in them at one time though. It was the back wall by a collapsed wooden door that she hit pay dirt. A small chest made of metal, covered in rotted burlap sat in a protected alcove near the floor. She cleared away the material, carefully tried to open the box, only to find it was firmly locked.

She did a more careful study of the room and found a small pile of rust on the floor not far from the watery entrance. She could see where a peg used to be in the wall, and figured the rust at one time was the keys for the rooms and the chest. Returning to the chest, she studied it for traps and found a nasty poison needle trap in the lock itself. Had she tried to pick it, her fingers would have been stabbed. She slowly worked it until it popped out and she was able to disarm it fully. With that out of the way, she tried to pick it, and only succeeded in breaking her picks. She decided to wait until she could move it out of the cave before she would try it again.

The doorway in the cave rear led to another smaller room, only ten by ten, and six high. It had an opening in the right hand wall that was dark, but she could tell it led upwards and curved to the left. This limited her view to about forty feet, so she spent a few minutes searching the room for anything of interest. Several more collapsed shelves were all she found until she lifted a rotted plank that quickly fell to dust in her hand. Under it was another metal box, this one with no lock. She again searched it for traps, but found none. Carefully lifting at the lid, she was able to open it.

Inside, were a single book and a gold ring with a gemstone of some sort. The binder and cover were of a fine leather, very dark and almost warm to the touch. When she opened the book, it was in a script she was not familiar with. Placing the book in her pack she studied the ring next. The gold was untarnished and the gem a ruby of fair size, say twenty carrots. It was well cut and mounted, and did not seem inclined to fall off anytime soon. This she placed in a small bag and in a secure inner pocket in her pack.

Holding up the Lightstone again, she started up the tunnel to see if it led to the surface in the area she wanted to go to. The tunnel quickly rose and soon the curving had her above were she had started and it continued on in the manner for four full turns. The tunnel came to an end at what appeared to be a solid stone wall. Not to be deterred, she studied the wall and soon found a scratch in the floor that matched the edge of the tunnel and the wall.

"So," she murmured out loud, "You are a secret door. I wonder what could be on the other side." She continued to study the door and found a small concealed latch in the wall. Checking it for any traps, she found none, so she carefully set her hand on it, moving it to feel which way it might want to move before she tried to actually activate it. She felt it seemed to want to pull out towards her. Carefully applying pressure to the ancient switch, she pulled until it slid out and inch then stopped. Now it felt to her fingers that it would turn a bit. She slowly twisted it clockwise, but in did not want to go far, so she turned it the other way and was rewarded by it turning all the way around once then stopping with an audible click. It would not turn any further, she pulled it again, it did not move, so she pushed and it slid smoothly back home with another loud click.

After it clicked, the door slid a few inches inwards then stopped. There was light beyond the door that now shown through the thin opening. It wasn't daylight, but the flickering of torch's and lanterns. She pocketed her Lightstone, then slowly pulled on the door a little to see if it would open further. It slid on silent hinges and she was soon able to see enough of the room to know she was in another cave. Listening, she soon heard several voices approaching the part of the cave the door was in, causing her to engage her camo. She slid through the opening and pulled the door shut behind her so not to be noticed. She found one of the curtains along one wall was set out far enough for her to slip behind and remain hidden from any chance view.

One voice was human, the other was a deep guttural sound, like an Orcs. The two beings entered the room and it was as she had guessed. They went to a barrel along the wall opposite were Tamalain was hidden and pulled mugs from the shelf, filling them from the barrel. After drinking, the human spoke some more.

"I am telling you, somebody tampered with the control totems in the village. They went into re-spawn five days early."

"Well, nobody was seen removing them, so explain that necro."

"A skilled hunter could pull it off over time, but all of them at once, I don't think so." He stopped and thought for a moment, "That Woodelven bitch, she could do it, I am sure of it."

"Maybe, but she stays near the village, doesn't go out far at all." Grumble the Orc.

Both moved back to the door, squeaking as it closed behind them, they returned to the other part of the caves. Tamalain did a quick study of the hidden door and located the switch and used it to re-enter the tunnel. Once secured, she carefully unpacked the waterproof pack and began putting on her new Chainmail and padded leather armor. The suit was a mix, the boots were leather, the legging chain, the tunic was chain, arm and gloves leather. This kept the weight down somewhat and helped her stay quiet as she moved.

She decided to go with her newest weapon, a rapier and parrying dagger since she would be fighting in close quarters. She released a small charge of mana into her weapons to pre-charge them, as this would reduce the full charge time in a fight. She had found that it could take up to a minute to cold charge the steel weapons. The silver plate she used to have only took a few seconds. By pre-charging the steel, it cut the power build up to less than ten seconds.

Putting her ear to the door, she listened to see if she could detect any signs of the inhabitants in the room, not hearing anything, she carefully cracked open the hidden door again and listened some more. After about two minutes she opened it further. She didn't see any sign of the necro or Orc, but took extra care. Activating her camo, she slid a small mirror around the corner and used it to study the parts of the room the door blocked from direct vision.

Again no sign of either of the beings, nor of anything else living, but with a necro, that didn't mean too much. She opened the door just enough to slip back into the room and quietly closed the door behind her. Once the door was secured, she waited another minute to make sure no new alarms might have been tripped. She berated herself for being so careless the first time she entered the room. 'You are getting sloppy girl, what the hell were you thinking, you weren't, that's what.' She thought to herself.

Looking down at the floor now, she looked for any sign of trips or traps. Not seeing anything, she moved around the edge of the room to the right. Several objects on one shelf had caught her attention and she wanted to take a look at them. Making sure and taking great care not to disturb anything, including the heavy layer of dust on everything, she looked at several wood totems. One was the shape of a wolf, black with red stripes. This caused a cold shiver of fear in her guts. These idiots had a storage shelf with over a dozen kinds of killer totems.

She did not touch any of them, and quickly moved to the door to the next chamber. Again, putting her ear to the door to listen, she didn't hear anything from the other side. She lowered herself down to the floor and saw that there was about half and inch gap between the door and floor. Getting her left eye down and close to the floor as she could, she peeked under it and hoped to spot and feet of the occupants. The room was poorly lit and she could see anther door strait across from this one. Several crates along the edges led her to believe it was another store room of some sort.