Bastien, Leif, Old Kurgen, & Shona. Chapter One.

Bastien stood on the battlement above Fort Arneson's main gate watching the sunrise. In the Ironlands, it was said that Fort Arneson had been built at the edge of the world. When Bastien first laid eyes on the fort it was easy to see why it was described as such. The Fort had been built on a rocky promontory that rose from the ocean some distance from the mainland of the Cobalt Isle. It was only correct to refer to the keep's location as a promontory during low tide, though. When the tide came in, water completely covered the low, narrow strip of land between the keep and the mainland and turned the promontory into an island until, eventually, it receded again.

After sailing for days on end with no land in sight, as ships approached the Fort it seemed, from a distance, as if it were literally rising up from under the waves. If knowing that the fort was the only human settlement on the island and that there was nothing but an endless sea beyond it wasn't enough to justify the claim, the reality of the keep itself certainly was. He stood at the edge of the world, but rather than being at the end of his journey as one might expect, his journey was about to begin.

Seeing the island spread out in front of him covered in strange vegetation and with the blue glow for which it was named still barely visible in the early morning light, he was forced to admit that he was glad that he didn't have to set off into the unfamiliar land by himself. Whether by fate, or merely coincidence, Leif, a fellow passenger on the ship that brought Bastien to the Isle sought answers that he believed couldn't be found anywhere else. It had taken them less than five minutes after they met to agree that they'd be better off if they faced the unknown together and began planning a joint endeavor.

The two were speculating about what they might find out in the wilderness over dinner in the common room of the Inn the night before when a fellow who was seated at the next table interrupted their musings with a prediction that they would certainly meet with a dire end before they were to days our of Fort Arneson if they were foolish enough to set out without someone along who had lived on the island for a while.
He introduced himself as 'Old Kurgn' and informed the pair that they were fortunate, indeed, that he was available and that he would be coming along to look after them. He seemed to mean well and was quite insistent, and by the end of the night, they had agreed that his joining them was, in fact, a good idea. They had parted ways perhaps six hours earlier with explicit instructions to meet in front of the Keep, ready to travel, at no later than an hour after dawn the next morning if they didn't want to be stuck in the Keep for another night.

Bastien was excited about finally beginning their journey and spent a couple of hours tossing and turning until he decided that he might as well give up on sleep. He got up, packed his belongings, and came outside to enjoy the sea breeze while he waited.

---

He had to shake the fortress out of his mind, as the makeshift drawbridge clunked and descended. It had been so long since he had ventured out of its walls. No doubt Scrag was eager, the hound gripped the dirt with eager claws and the future was his. But for Old Kurgan, it took a few minutes to see a life beyond the walls. There where there was nothing enclosed, nothing beyond the blissful sanctum of the Shady Dragon Inn.

The Shady Dragon Inn, not an Inn at all. Something devised by Arneson himself to draw men to the Cobalt. The promise of adventure and quests! If you wanted to get someone out of the Iron Lands, just promise them a dragon. And a shady dragon? Well that was enough, that was enough to even draw an old tired salt like Kurgan to the Cobalt.

He squinted, squinted hard in the low tied. Oh how he envied Scrag, envied how his old hound bit the air, ate the salt, and patted the sand like a bull. Oh it would all come to him, come to him hard. But just to get rid of the haze of the constant four walls, it took but a moment, for it had been so long.

"Oy, men, ya here," he croaked spitting a bit of salt into the earth. "Tis good to see men strong and ready. Now come..." another cough gripped him, no disease, no plague, just inactivity. "Come let us do what we were made to do, explore, conquer and reap!"

Something in his words forced his hand, forced his grip, and suddenly Old Kurgan felt like his Old Kurgan. Which had no idea what the word 'Old' meant at all.

OOC:

Ye gods, my sincerest apologies. Lots going on. But there he is, Old Kurgan. I am working on an asset card where one can take advantage of someone's absence- something like a Kindred card. I will assume that it is NOT only the three of us, but a host of retainers going into the Cobalt.

Movement out on the land bridge drew Bastien's attention as Leif made his way to the Fort, presumably having been out to check on his wyvern companion. Bastien had been surprised by the animal's apparent domestication. and would have doubted any such claim had he not spent the past week sailing from the mainland with it without incident. In light of that fact, it irked him that leadership at the Fort wouldn't allow it inside the gate.

The mage greeted his friend's arrival with a wave then headed downstairs to wait with him for Kurgen. As luck would have it, as he was coming off of the battlement he met the old man and his, hound as they were passing through the gate. Once outside he took a moment to introduce himself to Kurgen's hound, Scrag, and couldn't help but wonder if the hound and wyvern would each accept the other's place in the group, and exactly what they'd do if the animals were unwilling to make accommodations for one another. It was within his power to compel either or both of them to tolerate the other, but he hoped that wouldn't be necessary. Maintaining such enchantments would be draining, to say the least. Also, both animals were most likely intelligent enough to recognize it if he intervened and he could safely say that neither of them would appreciate it. He knew, too, that it really wasn't his place to do anything where the animals were concerned. He'd just have to trust that Leif and Kurgen knew what they were about.

Pushing his concern about a potential conflict between the animals aside, he described their destination to Kurgen in as much detail as he had been able to remember from his dream. Unfortunately, it wasn't much to go on. The only thing he was certain about was that there was a lake that emitted light in the same shade of cobalt blue that lit the night sky above the island. As he was doing so, the woman who had served them at the inn the night before emerged from the gate and called out a greeting as she hurried to join them.

Bastien was genuinely surprised to see her. Yes, she had expressed interest in joining their expedition when she heard their discussion, and yes, they had agreed that she was more than welcome, but Bastien had assumed that she was not being earnest. Rather, he thought, she was trying to create some common ground hoping that forming a bond with them would move them to be more generous in expressing their gratitude for her service when they settled their bill at the end of the night.

He did his best to hide his surprise, the only outward sign of which was a slightly raised eyebrow, and greeted her warmly. He couldn't deny that they could do with all of the help that they could get. Nor could he deny that she was good company, but he wondered what had brought her to the Cobalt on her own, apparently, and more importantly what made her want to journey out into the unknown.

One of the guards assigned to the gate pointed out that the tide had begun to rise and suggested that they move their conversation to the beach if they wanted to keep their feet dry. As they did so, Bastien gave Kurgen a few additional details about where they were headed, although, he admitted that these were details he felt less certain about. The lake may be hidden in a valley somewhere high in the mountains. Its immediate surroundings had seemed rather bleak, but the ambient light had been bright enough that it was impossible to be certain about anything else.

"Do you know of such a place?", he asked, finally.

---

The underbrush in this part of the Cobalt Isle is dense. It forced the group to fight for every inch of ground they covered and consequently meant that they were already burning through their resources faster than Bastien had anticipated. As the day wore on, Bastien became aware of a strange, profound silence lurking beneath the constant cacophony of machetes cutting through the brush.

A short time later, Bastien saw Grendel give Leif some kind of bone. Leif was studying it intently when Bastien joined them to see what the wyvern had found. When Leif declared the bone to be inhuman and pointed out the things that supported his conclusion, Bastien agreed. He came to the same conclusion for the same reasons. Unfortunately, the analysis left another question looming over them. If it wasn't a human bone, then where had it come from?

Leif asked Grendel to show him where the bone had been found, and the pair set off with Bastien struggling to keep up. Soon, the forest gave way to the ruins of a village, and when Bastien saw it, his breath caught in his throat, and for a moment, all he could do was stare at the grim scene before him. The buildings were still in decent shape. Were it not for the skeletal remains of what must have been the villagers scattered about haphazardly, he might have been fooled into believing that this was still a thriving community.

Without the canopy of the forest hanging over their heads, Bastien noticed that they were well into the afternoon hours. They were going to need to camp soon, but Bastien wasn't sure that this was the best place to do that. The site certainly warranted investigation, but they might be better off limiting their exposure until they could figure out what had killed everyone.

He explained his concern to his partners and asked, "Do you want to make camp here, in the village, or look for a site somewhere else?"

No sooner had the words left Leif's mouth, a frigid gust of wind descended upon the group. The wind carried with it the smell of rain, and before Bastien could turn to face it darkness fell as quickly as if the sun had vanished from the sky. With the wind in his face now it was clear to Bastien what had happened.

Having traveled for most of the day under the thick canopy of trees, he had failed to notice that a storm was brewing over the ocean behind them. Now, as he looked toward the treeline he could see the shelf cloud at the leading edge of the storm looming above the trees. A cumulonimbus cloud rose up from behind the shelf to a dizzying height before it suddenly flared out as if it were rising smoke that had reached some invisible ceiling and started spreading out in all directions.

"No time," was all he managed to say before the dark cloud exploded with a bright flash of light followed by a deafening clap of thunder. When the thunder died down the wind picked up, no longer a gust, but a steady flow. Bastien called out to the rest of the group, "We have to find shelter now! A cave, an outcropping.... something!"

"Over here!"

Old Kurgen's voice sounded faint against the wind but seemed to be coming from the other side of a partially collapsed wall that was all that remained of what must have been a large building at one time.

Bastien didn't hesitate. He gestured for everyone to follow and rushed along the crumbling wall until he reached an opening then darted through. On the other side, the forest floor gave way to stone that had once been polished but now was chipped and riddled with cracks. To his left, Kurgen stood at the top of a stairway that descended into the earth.

"We can take shelter down here!", Kurgen called. His hound had already descended a few steps and had turned around to see why his master wasn't following.

Bastien wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea, but he thought he could hear heavy rain approaching through the forest. He begrudgingly shouted back, "Go! We're right behind you!"

As Kurgen turned to descend the steps, Bastien sprinted across the stone floor of the building to follow him. He reached the mouth of the stairway just as the storm hit. A few huge raindrops splattered down onto the stone around him. The raindrops seemed to grow larger and feel more solid with each passing breath, and by the time he had descended the stair far enough to be under the cover of the stone floor above the rain had given way to a hailstorm; balls of ice of various sizes bounced off of the stone stairs and down into the gloom below. Then, suddenly, from out of that gloom an orange glow appeared, flickering against the walls of what Bastien could now tell was a hallway that continued on from the bottom of the stairs.

Kurgen's hound appeared at the bottom of the steps and barked twice as if he were trying to hurry everyone along. Bastien flattened himself against the stone wall to make room for people to pass. He watched the fury of the storm continue to build above them until he was sure that everyone else had made it safely into the shelter. Then he turned his back on the danger above and continued down the stairs to find out what manner of place they had taken shelter in.

"Well. That's a thing," Leif remarked as Bastien followed him into the chamber at the foot of the stairs.

Bastien's breath caught in his throat for a moment when the intricately carved sheet of metal with its glowing runes came into view. The metal was thick, and set partially recessed into the stone wall and appeared to be bolted in place.

"Indeed, it is," Bastien said quietly when the shock of the discovery had passed. "It's beautiful," he said as he slowly approached it.

He stopped three or four feet away from the carving and raised his hand to point at the upper-left most rune, opening his mind as he did so. As his fingers moved through the air in front of the carving they drew in the light from each rune, one after another, and he began to speak the words of a language that sounded nothing like anyone present had ever heard. His voice was unnaturally resonant, and his tone and cadence were that of a zealous cleric reading from a sacred text.

When the light from the last rune had been absorbed into him he fell silent as a gust of wind came rushing down the stairway and swirled around the small chamber extinguishing lanterns and torches and plunging the room into a darkness that was only broken by flashes of lightning that made their way down the long staircase. The lightning was becoming more and more frequent and a low sound that was akin to the roar of a massive waterfall could be felt, as much as heard growing louder, and clearly closer with each heartbeat.

Abruptly the lightning stopped and the sound of thunder rolled away into the distance leaving only the steady, low roar of the wind. The room lay in complete darkness for the space of a breath or two, but it gradually became apparent that light was beginning to spill out into the room from around the edges of the metal plate. The light was of a yellowish-green color that conjured thoughts of rot and infection in Bastien's mind.

He looked on with an expression of profound dismay as the light began to engulf the metal which was rusting away to dust at an unnaturally rapid pace.

"By the gods," Bastien stammered quietly. "What have I done?"

As the last of the metal rusted away leaving a large tunnel opening into the rock in front of the group, the light faded away and the room was left in darkness yet again. Somewhere ahead in the distance a soft, deep chuckle began to drift out of the tunnel. The chuckle grew in volume and quickly became a weird sort of laughter which continued for what felt like a very long time before fading away. When the last echo of it faded from hearing the roar of the wind above had faded away, too, leaving only the sound of rainfall on the stone stairway and a barely audible whispered, "Thank you."