53: The Fly Lord

I felt triumphant. But I knew we needed to do more. We had met servants of the fly lord. This was the first time I had come face to face with Shallya’s nemesis. And it was my duty to oppose him. And I felt that what we were doing was important. I was in a war, right now, with the fly lord. And this was my calling. This was why I was here, and why Shallya had put me together with this bunch of ne’er-do-wells.

I felt a bit sore, too. But I bandaged my arm and did what I could. Otto said he would help me. I had been teaching him some of the basics of healing over the past few weeks and he thought he was getting good at it. I wondered who would ever be desperate enough to have Otto try to heal them, and he suggested Schnitzel. Perhaps, he was right. I don’t know how dumb Schnitzel is. I prayed to Shallya that I would never be left in a situation where I was relying on Otto’s healing prowess.

He was already checking out the swords the diseased knights had been carrying. The knights seemed to have burned their own handprints across the hilts of the weapons. I wasn’t sure why he was so attracted to strange looking blades. Any way Erhardt told him to leave them alone. I had a look under the helm of one of the knights and the bloke was indeed human. I had wondered. But he was diseased and green, and covered in pustules. I had a look at their mounts too and they seemed mutated or deformed. One of them had a horn protruding from its head, but despite Otto’s insistence, I don’t think it was a unicorn.

We wondered what to do next, whether to stay and ambush the other marauders that Erhardt had spotted, to visit other nearby farms and see whether they were suffering the same as Kurtis’, or to go straight to the heart of the matter. In any case, we decided to move off quickly, and discuss it on the move as the marauders would be sure to wonder where their outriders had got to.

We had discussed how the killing of the farmers in such a ritualised manner was somehow creating magical energy that was moving through the forest towards some unknown destination, and that there was at least four, and probably more sources of this power. We had destroyed one of the sources, by burning Kurtis’ farm, but there could have been any number of others. We realised that as the marauders had been following a magical trail, and not simply causing it, as I had thought, we would be able to overtake them and get to their destination first. That felt like a good plan, but we weren’t in agreement.

Ursula wanted to cut off the heads of the knights and take them to the witch hunters. Kurtis wanted to charge in and avenge his farm. I agreed with Kurtis, but not because of his farm. And Erhardt, I think, wanted to do the same. Solvej wanted to go and visit all the local farms. And Otto wasn’t sure.

I asked Otto, if he knew that several cheese shops were having their cheeses stolen by rats, whether he would stake out all the cheese shops, or would he go straight to the rat lair and stop the problem there. It seemed like an obvious answer to me, but Otto, goaded by Solvej, decided he should do lots of staking out to get more money from the cheese shop owners. I told him he didn’t understand the analogy, and he asked what ‘analogy’ meant.

In the end, we decided to press on to the root of all this, veering off from the magical flow and trying to overtake the marauders. Solvej got a bit upset again and told us that we were obviously going to our deaths. I thought that after the way she dealt with the two knights, and her skill in hunting and foraging, she should need to fear less than the rest of us, but she was still on edge.

I think everyone was feeling on edge, to be honest. And as we went the air seemed to get darker, even for me, the trees and undergrowth became increasingly strange and twisted and there was a foul smell in the air. But something else was wrong that we couldn’t really put our finger on.

So, we travelled n as quickly as we could until night fell. Ursula made another shelter, this one was better than the last one, but only had room for two. I think she just wanted to share it with Erhardt, anyway. I find it strange that considering the irrational Sigmarite distrust of magic (in contrast to the rational Shallyan distrust of magic) that Ursula should be so attracted to the grey wizard.

Solvej went out to get us some food and found a couple of rabbits that were nearly enough for a meal, and despite our fears, they did not seem to be spoiled in any way. We could see, when Morrslieb rose that it was larger than we could remember ever seeing it, and it had an unusual green-brown tinge to it. This made us even more uneasy.

Erhardt and Otto were supposed to be on first watch, but Ursula stayed up to talk to Erhardt. Otto asked her about the winds of magic and seemed to think that this included farts. I wasn’t awake at the time, so not sure of the grey college’s stance on the issue, but am pretty sure Otto’s intestinal gas is not magic, though it may be tinged with brown and green.

Then I had to go on watch with Otto. Thankfully, I did not have the nightmares that I had the previous few nights. I checked in the morning, and nobody did. Otto told me that Erhardt had said his farts contained magical wind, but I told him that Erhardt was probably lying, or joking. He then talked about the fly lord and whether he was made of flies. I told him that it was like fleas on rats, a rat could be called a flea lord even though it wasn’t made of fleas. And Otto agreed, and that he might be a flea lord too and he said if we killed the lord of the flies then the flies would die too. I think he is sometimes wiser than we give him credit for and sometimes he has great insight. So I told him he was an idiot savant.

Then it was Solvej and Kurtis’ watch. I’m not sure what’s going on between the two of them, and I don’t really care, but Ursula seems to be increasingly interested in them. Solvej told Kurtis that she was convinced she was going to die. Her dooming references a stench, and Otto’s magical farts notwithstanding, we were now approaching a really foul stench. Kurtis told her not to be a baby, and then when Solvej got mad at this, he told her that he was just joking. And then he lectured her on how she should have a better sense of humour. In the end, Solvej told Kurtis that he was highly strung, and when Kurtis got mad at that, Solvej revealed that she was just joking. Touche! Or just touchy.

While Otto was sleeping, Ursula tried to sneak up on him and steal his jar of dead rats. I think she was worried it might contain profane whatsits or something, because of the glowing eyes. But she disturbed otto and woke him up. He was convinced she had been trying to sneak into bed with him. So, Ursula’s cover story was that she was just trying to bring Otto’s attention to Kurtis and Solvej being boyfriend and girlfriend. Otto thanked her for the gossip, but I don’t think was really interested.

In the morning Otto told everyone he was an idiot croissant, which pleased him a great deal, even though there were no croissants for breakfast and Kurtis didn’t have his magic bell. Solvej managed to rustle up a meagre meal, but it was better than nothing.

We set off and converged on the course of the tainted power, confident that we had now moved ahead of the marauders. The trees were becoming increasingly twisted and putrid, the smell was growing, and a cloud of darkness seemed to linger just beyond us, as we made our way inexorably towards it, never seeming to get any closer.

Kurtis started to get a bit nervous. He said this wasn’t like the stories, which was telling. I think in his mind he is the hero of a story that he is making up as he goes along. But he was right, this wasn’t a story, this wasn’t something we were making up between us as we were going along. He decided that maybe we should scout around to find the marauders who had destroyed his farm and not worry about the real cause behind this. I asked him who he would blame if an army had come and attacked his farm. Would he blame the common soldier, or would he blame the general who ordered them to do it. And then I tried to explain that this was why Shallya had brough us all together, specifically for this thing, and how it all made sense to me. But I don’t think he got it. Otto said that it didn’t seem like Shallya was around now, and he had a point.

And then we finally reached the source of the darkness. There was some sort of veil across the forest, and everything within it was dark, and the veil seemed to stretch in both directions, as far as we could see, like it was a curved wall around whatever awful thing lay at its heart. Erhardt decided it was not a magical spell, but something else he had not sensed before. And so I entered the darkness, hoping that Shallya would protect me. And inside, it was night-time. I looked up and saw the looming presence of Morrslieb peering down at me, and I imagined a leering grin on its features. And I had a sudden and brief vision of swarms of flies around the dying and diseased, and bodies covered in sores and pustules. And then I collapsed, I think. Otto ran through the dark veil, too and hugged me. And he saw the night sky and the moon, too, and we agreed that whatever moonbeams were shining down upon us, they weren’t Shallyan moonbeams.

So, everyone stepped through into the dark area except Solvej. She decided she wanted to find a way around it, and scouted along its edge for a few yards until she realised it was so large that she would takes ages to get around it, and she joined us. We pushed on towards the centre of the dark area, and all the while it was getting darker and murkier, and the plants were more twisted and diseased. And after about an hour we could see a break in the trees in front of us. Erhardt told us to stop, and he went towards the tree line. He seemed to just disappear into the gloom as he went. A few minutes later he reappeared and reported what he had seen.

The break in the trees was caused by a crater and Erhardt had managed to creep up its edge. There were seven humanoid figures, a lot like the ones he had spied on earlier, and the two outriders we had killed. Three of them looked powerful and were wearing heavy armour, like knights. The other four were more regularly dressed but were mutated in strange ways. All of them looked diseased and green-tinged. The crater was old, and covered in undergrowth, but this growth was particularly rotten and putrefied. And at the centre of the crater there was a large slab of stone that looked like some sort of profane altar. And upon the altar was some sort of strange, pulsating growth, which had the three-circle symbol of N_____ upon it. The one we had seen on the outriders, and upon the bodies of the slain farmers, and I had seen in books back at the temple.

Erhardt said he could see the magical wind we had been following flowing and he could see three other trails coming from different directions and all converging on the altar. As we had seen at least four different strands merging to form our trail, it made me think that a lot of farms in the area must have been ransacked and any number of farmers murdered to feed whatever was growing on the altar. Even if it was only from Erhardt’s description, I knew that that creature had to be destroyed.

Erhardt seemed to think it was good news that there was only seven of the marauders there, and that if we attacked quickly this would be to our advantage. He probably had a point, especially as we knew there were about twenty of them coming behind us and presumably simlar numbers following the other three trails. We quickly decided that we would charge in as soon as we could, Kurtis, Otto, and myself, while Solvej and Erhardt supported us from a distance.

But Ursula decided that she needed to be with Erhardt and Solvej. I wondered why, as she had been armed with her flail every since she had been travelling with us, and was always threatening to use it. However, he only time I had actually seen her use it on someone else was on Solvej’s backside. She had been useless with the crossbow in our fight with outriders, and it made sense that she should charge in with us. So I asked her for my crossbow back. I guess it was mine as Solvej had given it to me. Ursula refused. And I couldn’t really insist, she might have shot me with it.

I told everyone of my intention to attack the strange thing on the altar while they set up a diversion. Otto gave me his three firecrackers, to help with this. And so we were ready to go. Otto told Schnitzel to stay with Solvej. Solvej and Kurtis hugged, and Solvej told him not to die, which was probably good advice.

Without wasting any more time, we charged. Kurtis led the way. He likes to pride himself that he is our leader, after all. And he charged straight towards the altar. So, Kurtis’ idea of causing a distraction and drawing the enemy away from the altar while I could get to it, and see what this creature was, was to charge straight to the altar, drawing everyone towards it. What a leader he was.

So, we legged it down into the crater as fast as we could. The mutated creatures, who were nearer the altar, turned to cut us off. Then the three knights turned too and began to come towards us. I was expecting a storm of magical power from Erhardt to drive back, but that didn’t happen. At least Ursula’s crossbow bolt hit one of the knights, but it didn’t look like it hurt it much.

Solvej shot an arrow at a mutant who had the face of a dog, and then Otto attacked it, but it struck back, wounding Otto badly. So, I slowed to pray to Shallya that I might take Otto’s wounds upon me, which might not have been the wisest move, as I had an important job to do. Solvej managed to shoot dog-face again, and Kurtis bashed through the mutants with his shield and jumped on top of the altar shouting something about Sigmar that he probably didn’t understand.

One of the mutants, the one with three eyes, lunged at me with his sword and the dog-faced one swung at Otto, and the plan wasn’t looking as promising as it had first seemed. Thankfully, I saw some sort of magical bolt explode into a couple of the knights. And Otto, wielding two daggers, did some sort of move on the dog-faced one and killed it. While the fly lord is the sworn enemy of Shallya and therefore Otto was doing her good work, I’m not sure if practicing dual wielding killing moves in his spare time should really be the activity of a prospective monk.

I reached the altar and inspected the growing thing. I didn’t know what it was but it seemed to be some sort of mass of putrescent throbbing and growing flesh, adorned with the mark of Nurgle, and swarming with flies. It was clear it had to be destroyed so I stabbed it with Kurtis’ dagger. As I did so, I sensed some sort of power ebbing from it, and I heard a low-pitched scream. I looked to see the knights falter, slightly. So, I shouted to Kurtis, ‘hit the idol.’ And then the three-eyed creature swung at me again.

One of the mutants, one covered in pustules, scrambled up the side of the crater and attacked Erhardt. Then Erhardt threw his magic at it, and it staggered backwards. And Solvej hit it with an arrow and it staggered back some more, then she hit again, and it fell dead.

I’m not sure whether Kurtis heard me or not, but from on top the altar he was trading blows with the tentacled mutant. And Otto joined him. The tentacled creature managed to hit Otto, and of course, as I had asked Shallya, his wound was visited upon me, and I felt a wound open on my body and begin to bleed. And then the three-eyed mutant hit me. I felt like he nearly killed me and I could barely stand.

Kurtis decided that I needed protecting, just as he had protected me from the outrider’s steed. He concentrated on defending the blows aimed against me, as I stabbed at the idol thing once more, damaging it, and again the knights recoiled. The battle was raging about me now and I couldn’t see much of what was happening. The bolts and arrows were flying, and Otto was fighting the three-eyed mutant, buying me some time. And so with one last effort I stabbed the idol and destroyed it.

I’m not sure what happened after that, overcome by my bleeding wounds I fell to the ground unconscious. From what I understand, destroying the idol also destroyed the remaining mutants and made the knights weak enough that they could be defeated.

I woke up to find Otto seeing to my wounds, dressing them, and stopping the bleeding. He saw me open my eyes and gave me a big hug, and I didn’t even mind. Otto had saved me, and shown that he was a proper Shallyan moonbeam, after all. And a croissant.

But in the distance we heard screams of pain and anguish moving through the forest. Whatever we had done, it looked like it had disturbed the many marauders that we thought might be converging on the crater. We may have destroyed the fly lord’s foul minions and wrecked his ritual, but I suspected that there would soon be creatures converging upon our location, desperate for revenge.