Continued from June entry.
Pie looked around as the walls that used to be a subterranean cave melted away in the light from the dias. That central raised area was the only thing left of the original cave. He was now standing in an open field, one that stretched a good ways in every direction. A gentle wind rustled the tall grasses around him, making them sway at about hip hight for his small frame. The sky overhead was a clear blue for the most part but an odd greenish hue tinged the area to his left with a green color and there was no sun in the sky, nor moons or any other celestial bodies. Just wispy clouds that moved and churned through shapes that almost seemed recognizable before they shifted or dissipated again.
Pie blinked, and turned around in awe as a massive ruin appeared around him and then disappeared again as quickly as it had come. He blinked again, with purpose this time and slightly slower. He got a view of the ruin on all sides for a smidge longer, but then it was gone again. Intrigued he tried squinting, trying to find just the right spot when his eyes were open but not open at the same time and though his vision was a bit blurry like that he could almost focus on the ruin around him.
The ruin looked to have once been a whimsical keep, stone archways and half collapsed towers stretching up into the sky in ways that would not be physically possible under normal circumstances. It was in a state of ruin, with crumbling walls, missing roofs and doors and windows, quite apparently abandoned for a great deal of time. Pie tried to ignore the headache from squinting this long as he started walking around. The text he had discovered hinted at a great treasure hidden here, should one solve the rainbow puzzle.
It was hard to maintain focus for long like that, but the goblin stumbled around, trying to avoid walking into walls that he couldn't see when his eyes weren't scrunched into an uncomfortable squint. He discovered that the ground was not as clear as it seemed as well, and he had to be careful not to stop on items that had been abandoned and were left half claimed by the ground as soil and plants had overtaken the long forgotten items.
What were these barely visible ruins? Some fey nobles castle? There was no indication of the tragedy that might have brought about the ruin of what might have been a beautiful shimmering place. Had it fallen from sight as it had fallen from grace? Pie shrugged, nothing he saw seemed to present any answers. Even in a long chamber that must have been the royal hall or something similar everything was the same. He saw no evidence of bodies or bones, just random things forgotten by whomever had dwelt here.
"Ow!" His toe cracked against something. Something sharp. He hopped for a minute, holding his toe as a trickle of blood slipped past it. Without squinting it was only short moments before he slammed into a wall he could no longer see and dropped to the ground, half crying half laughing, feeling embarrassed and silly. He sat and held his toe until the bleeding stopped and then squinched his eyes looking for the source of his pain.
Half buried in the ground was a star, it was stone that had a pearl or jade like surface. He scratched around it, and found it attached to a bracelet, though the metal fixtures had suffered from the effects of time and fell apart as he pulled the star shaped stone from the earth. He tucked it into one of his vest's hundred pockets. He wandered around a bit more, but found only fragments of rotting and broken everyday items. Perhaps the treasure itself was the way to this place and the fortress it once held.
He hadn't known what this effort would bring, and he'd not even been sure he'd find the rainbow puzzle or be able to solve it when he set out. So finding this place, and the way to it, seemed to be rewarding enough. He did one final walk around the outside, occasionally scrunching his eyes to avoid another blunder into unseen rubble. There was no sign of anyone having been here in quite some time. There was however the occasional fuzzy buzzy darting through the trees to his left, and not all of them were friendly. The feywild was a wonderful place, but that often came at the price of unusual and unexpected dangers.
He pulled the teleport stone he'd purchased in Berdusk from one of his pockets, the item springing to his fingertips though he had no idea which pocket it was actually in. It was one way and one destination. He couldn't remember the name of the shop anymore, but that fake Elminster they kept summoning produced some good things for relatively little coin. Just 50gp to summon him and provide answers or services! Just 50gp to summon him and provide answers or services!
He said the word that triggered the stone, and then tried not to throw up as time and space distorted around him, taking him across the planes from the land of the fey back to Faerun, and into the prepared circle in his room at the Sign of the Silver Sword. Well, Brunhildys room to be precise. He shook off the disorientation for a moment, then headed for the door and down the carpeted hallway and stairs where the one eyed dwarf was sure to be cooking something exotic or serving guests.
The fiery curls of Brunhildys hair bobbing came into view and the greeting on his lips dies when he saw how serious she looked, overtaking even her surprise at seeing the goblin who'd been gone with his companions for many months now.
"Pie! Thank Torms short hairs! The harpers be in trouble. Git to the library! That Dwarf in charge of the Temple just ran out saying they were being attacked. Go help!" Despite the urgency, Pie was giddy to see her, and the roundness of her belly. He swept by her, planting a kiss on her lush lips and patting her growing belly. "Hello there boys! Papa has to run, but I'll come visit later!"
He glanced back wistfully once last time, then was in the streets. Citizens were standing in confused clusters as some of the city guard and the warrior priests from the temple of Helm ran by, their steel booted feet clanking loudly as they went. Pie followed, not really able to keep pace with them, but he knew the way already.
His sprint through the streets was brief, and he found himself at the library that housed the Harper's "secret" meeting place. Soldiers and warrior priests surrounded the building, ducking and hiding behind whatever cover they could find, overturned tables, pillars across the street, and a decorative fountain in the road. From the doorway cloaked figures said words of power and bolts of energy slammed into the protections the soldiers were using to shield themselves, shattering them and sending the warriors there scrambling for something else to protect them from the dark and destructive energies.
Along the side, a huddle of soldiers were pushing down the alley next to the building. Perhaps they knew another way in? He snuck along the street, trying to avoid the notice of the weirdos shooting magic bolts from the door way. When he got there, one of the guards was talking to the person in charge.
"They have this door covered too. We won't be able to get in that way without significant losses." the person in charge turned around, glancing at the gathered soldiers, whose lives might need to be traded for access to the building under siege.
"We'll have to deal with the losses, we need to get in ther- What in the hells are YOU doing here!??" Her face twisted into a snarl.
Pie stopped short. "Sean with two arms!" He recognized the greying hair and weathered face of the veteran harper from their dealings in the past.
The Harper waved him off. "It's Lashantha! Lashantha Duarn! Now begone. This does not concern ruinous little bastards. Now you men gather up, it will be difficult to break in and some of us will fall, but we must get in there, now!"
The men prepared themselves, but Pie tugged on her cloak insistently. "Sean with two arms, I can get you in there, easy peasy." He flinched slightly as she whirled back towards him, her hair flying wildly in an arc.
"Don't you dare make promises you can't keep you little green shitbag! Can you actually get us in with your trickery?" Her arms plonked down on his shoulders hard, enough to hurt with how tightly they dug in. "Don't fuck around. People are dying and there is a lot more at stake here than just that. The things hidden away in the hall are not meant for the masses, nor those who would use them for ill gains."
Pie looked up into the older woman's gaze. "I can get us in real eazy. See that wall?" He shifted uncomfortably to point. "That's the side of the library. You can see the Librarians vase I gave her right there in that little window."
Lashantha threw up her hands. "How are you to get us through that tiny gap unnoticed!?"
Pie, relieved her tight grip was removed, took a step toward the wall, then turned slowly back. "First though, I need to know it's actually you and not some shape changer. You remember the password right?" He crossed his arms and waited expectantly.
She shook her head back and forth, groaning. "Not this shit again! I will not play along with this childish game while lives are at stake!"
Pie tapped his foot, and waited. He wasn't moving until he was sure it was her. "We suffered a whole bunch because that one guy, Commando stick so far up his buttSky, was always a bad lady instead, oh by the way, her name is Karmina, and she's preggers with a goliath baby right now. We made really good friends with her and everything - BUT! We didn't know that then! So we totally felt betrayed! So fess up with the password or I'm not helping!"
The human woman, on of the top harpers in the center of their seat of power, sighed long and loudly. She lowered her voice trying to pitch it low enough that her soldiers couldn't hear. "Wyvern junk."
Some of the nearest guards eyes widened in surprise, and a rare few among them groaned, they had been thee or heard about the infamous day the goblin lawyer of berdusk had rocked the political landscape of Berdusk. Several now turned to look at this simple little goblin, clad in only plain breeches, a vest teeming with pockets and a simple cloak, disbelief in their eyes showing that they were having trouble matching this figure to the tales heard round the alehouse when none of the leadership was there.
"Yay! It's really you Sean with two arms!" Pie was satisfied. "I hope you've been good while we've been gone!" Pie walked across the ally and stopped in front of the wall. "Are you guys ready to go in?" He waved them over, and then reached into one of his many pockets.
When he pulled a large window out of the pocket that was only a single goblin hands width wide, they gasped, but it was even more entertaining as he put it up against the wall and the window became one with the stone, and Pie reached down and lifted it up, making a decent sized open entry right into the wall and the open expanse of the library within.
"It should be pretty safe right here. The Librarian wouldn't let anyone get this close to harming the books. Just be careful when you get past her and into that funny shaped room with the chair." He stepped through first, he wanted her to know it was friends coming in. She was there in between the shelves an stacks of books, partway through the room. There had been some damage, but it was minimal, and the corpses scattered around indicated the strength of the no longer spectral guardian of the library. Her long braid flowed in wind that wasn't there, the last part of her that still resisted the physicality that had been making her more and more tangible as time and their interactions went by.
"Hi! It's Me! Pie! It's been a while huh? I brought some friends to help defend. Can you let them through to where the bad people are?" He grinned as the librarian lifted a long bony finger and pointed, as was her traditional sole response whenever anyone asked for anything. He waved the others through, and they filed in one by one, ducking through the new opening into the library and then heading towards the area where the undead keeper of the books still gestured without moving.
"Wow you really got these guys huh? I knew you were bad ass! Did that guy ever make it here to ask about the naughty books? No? Too bad. I hope you've been well while we were gone. I see the flowers are still blooming perfectly! I don't know how you do that, but they are so pretty!"
Lashantha was the last one through perhaps still shaking her head in exasperation. She ignored the goblin and followed the soldiers without a single further word. "Bye Sean with two arms!" Pie waved as she passed, and then turned back to the librarian, who lowered her arm but as usual said nothing.
Pie reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a bright red flower. "I have another one for your collection! This one comes from the woods near the elf town where Miss Aelita's parents live, and my friends killed a bad dragon man who was possessive and a total perv for hot ladies. It even has a little dragon blood on it, see?"
The librarian took it from his hand with that newly acquired tangibility, and placed it in the vase with the others on the windowsill. The librarian placed a cold hand on his back and ushed him in the direction the others had gone. Pie was a bit surprised. "Oh, you think I should help them? Must be some pretty bad guys in there. Ok. I'll see what I can do for them. Don't go anywhere ok? I'll be back to catch up when this is all sorted out."
There was little chance the librarian would not be there on his return, she'd never left the library in all the time he'd known her. He padded along the carpeted floor to catch up to the others, not knowing that the buried treasure he'd found in the realm of the fey would have a key role to play in the events that were about to unfold.
To Be continued...