The King's Company: Chapter Four: The Door to Destiny

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#5 of The King's Company: A DnD Style Story

Hello! Sorry for the slight delay in uploading, got a couple new games on Steam, and have been enjoying them! Anyways, you guys know the lines at this point, if you want a role in the story, whether as the first person featured in one of the side smut stories (I would like to make the first one with a feature), an actual story role, or just someone the party meets along the way, or even a specific monster encounter (or a specific side smut encounter with a monster too), just comment or DM, and we can discuss details! Hope you guys enjoy chapter four!


Now, Rengar and Tobi both knew the Flaming Falconer was a tavern for the underworld of the city, and that if Val learned about it, he definitely wouldn't leave it alone, so the easiest way was to drug him, and leave him in their room to rest, before attempting to complete their mission on the morrow. However, whether or not Rengar thought about it, Tobi intended to make this as easy as possible, and dealing with the bandits was just not part of that. This tavern was frequented by criminals, some, or maybe even a majority, would have connection to the guild. And Tobi happened to know a guy who could have all the information, who would have heard plenty of the tavern-goers at their drunkest, when information flowed freely. This of course, was Roberto, the stallion who manned the counter. And, luckily for Tobi, the stallion was a good friend of his, and Tobi had a... Payment channel, with the big guy. Some time spent behind the counter, and in the room behind the door, and he had his answers. Three names, the ones most likely to talk. Vlad, a fox known for his infiltration skills, Gorehound, a bugbear, one of the muscle actually hired for the most recent raid on the caravan, but clearly back in town, given he'd been seen in the tavern. Finally, Uhg, the ogre, who Roberto had mentioned hadn't paid his tab in a while, clearly hoping that they would be the target, since, what else would Tobi be looking for names for? Tobi was fine with going for the ogre, but it'd depend on the others. He excused himself, getting some rest of his own before the morrow.

The next day:

_ Val _

Val was shaken awake, groggily sitting up to see Tobi and Rengar standing there. Rengar spoke up, "Wake up Hotshot, you planning to skip another day, or do you want to actually get to the thieves' guild?" Tobi followed up, "We have a name, and I have a location. We don't have to go and deal with those bandits again." Val jumped to his feet excitedly, staggering into Rengar accidentally, before catching himself. "W-Woah, sorry about that, feeling kind of off. Anyways, that's amazing, Tobi! Where did you get the info?" the fox spoke confidently, "Well, last night, while you were sleeping, I talked to someone, an old contact of mine, and they helped me get the info we needed." continuing before Val could interrupt, "No, I'm not revealing the name of my informant, sorry, when you're small in a city like this, you've gotta have some secrets. Though I don't know if I'll be able to hide it from you, hehe." Val quirked an eyebrow, but didn't follow up. Frankly, having connections to the criminal underworld was useful, and, well, not having to deal with the bandits again would be nice. That was his first real combat, and, while it didn't go badly, all the blood everywhere, especially on Rengar, seeing the dead bodies on the ground... Well, it was going to be a little bit before Val would get used to that. He was going to, though. He would prove he could do it, that he had what it took, and prove his family wrong. "Alright, thank you for the info Tobi, I won't pry. So, who's our target?"

They found themselves in the inner edges of the city, surprisingly in the upper middle class region. Uhg's hideout was inside a sewer grate, where the waste buckets were emptied out. There was a ladder there for maintenence, and a small walkway to the side of it. Tobi gave a groan of disgust, and, suddenly, the awful smell, for some reason, disappeared. Val glanced over at Tobi, meeting his gaze, and nodded appreciatively. Only one of them could have done that, and Rengar was already going down the ladder, somewhat awkwardly due to his bulk, but luckily it was built for easy access. Further into the sewer, the walkway widened out in one large circle, making a doorless room the ogre called home. There was a ratty straw mattress and blanket, probably intended to be thrown out, then stolen. There on the mattress, a sleeping ogre. Perfect. Tobi's info had been good. The images of dead bodies flashed again through his mind, he turned to the others, whispering, "I want to do this with as little violence as possible, understood? Maybe I could wake him up with a sword at his throat, and he'll spill everything he knows?" Tobi smiled patronizingly for a moment, before it turned into more of a real smile, "Tell you what, talking is my thing, okay? Rengar's a big, hulking thing to see when you wake up, so, if you want no violence, I'll wake him up, you just point your bow at him, Rengar looks as intimidating as he can, and hopefully he'll be scared out of his wits, and tell us what we need to know. Sound good?" Val nodded, and they took their positions. It went better than they could possibly have ever hoped. (I know I said I wouldn't get much into the nitty gritty, but I just want you guys to know that Tobi, who had advantage, rolled two nat 20s on the intimidation roll. TWO. Why can't I get that in a game I'm playing in, heh.) Uhg opened his eyes to the sight of flame dancing in front of his eyes. With a roar of fright, he jumped to his feet, trembling, only to be greeted by an arrow pointed at his face, and a huge ursari who grinned at him, licking the edge of their battle ax handle. This large ogre, who happened to have been badly burnt in a previous accident, was now terrified of fire, let alone death. He spilled his information quickly. He regularly went to the doorway of a building in the outer edges of the city to see if they were looking for some muscle, because he got food whenever a job was completed. Usually the food was better than the rats and scraps that were down here with the sewers. There was always someone inside, Uhg could smell them, even if they didn't answer him. Val tossed him a day's worth of rations in return (to Rengar's disapproval), and then left, the rest of the company following.

_ Rengar _

The outer edges happened to be an area Rengar was well familiar with, so he led the party there, though, he didn't actually know what they were going to do once they got there. It was going to be difficult to sneak into a den of trickery and sneaking, and probably equally as hard to break down the front door to bum rush the leader of the guild. Rengar was strong, sure, but not stupid, despite what he was okay with people believing. He just... Had a reaction, when things went bad, to remove his problems forcefully, whatever it took. A red haze would settle over his vision, and he'd catch himself, noticing the guy who insulted him was now halfway through the wall. Not that he felt bad. He enjoyed the haze, sometimes he could even summon it by choice. Even if he got the pardon, it would only keep the guards off his back for a bit, because at some point the haze would appear again, and he'd be in trouble. Still worth it, it was good to get some real battle again, it had been too long, and Rengar wasn't exactly in his prime anymore.

They made it to the building, a ramshackle shed next to an abandoned house. It had been perfectly cleaned up, there weren't any traces of tracks anywhere, at least, not that the boy was noticing. He was still intrigued by the pup, and his supposed four years of training. As they walked closer to the door, he realized something. He had been chafing a bit, thinking he didn't to follow every stupid command the whelp gave, or suffer consequences due to the Geas, but the specific wording was to aid him to the best of Rengar's power. And Rengar had quite some power. He turned to the others as they got up to the door, gave his best bone-chilling grin, before turning, raising his battle ax, ignoring the quick warning that one of the two behind him gave, then charged through the door, smashing it like matchstick. Breaking into the room, he could see a wulf who had been laying in a hammock, now on the floor. He ran up to the wulf and put his massive ax to her neck, drawing a thin line of blood, cutting a thin line of her gray fur. The wolf babbled, "What, wait, I'll give you whatever you want, just don't kill me don't kill me! I'm the secondary informant, I know everything that goes on in this city, I can get you anything!" Rengar laughed. Now this, this was the reaction he enjoyed. "Tell me how to enter the thieves' guild, and where to find your leader, or I'll just let my baby go slowly down... Just a little bit lower is all it'll take..." the wolf froze, staying there as still as possible, trying her best to think of some way to get away, but she was just caught too much by surprise. "T-The ladder over there," She pointed to the corner of the room, where a mat lay in the floor. Covering it? "It leads to a tunnel that will take you to the caves the guild uses. T-The leader though... I don't know. He has chambers, but he's almost never there. He disappears somewhere, but he always knows if someone messes up, or if someone says something they shouldn't." suddenly her face, if possible, blanched even further. "O-Oh no, he knows, he knows, I'm dead, I'm dead. I was good at my job, I never asked questions, I just got the information and passed it on, please... No..." He laughed again, bearing his teeth at her. A noise at the door caused him to turn his head, seeing Val peeking around the door. Nervous of him? Maybe? If so, good. Maybe he'd think twice next time before throwing around random orders to a guy almost twice his size. He raised the ax, allowing the shewolf to breath, before uttering one, simple word. "Run." she started to run towards the mat in the corner, but Rengar caught her by the back of her tunic, turned her around, and pointed her out the door. "That way." she was gone in a moment, not even noticing Val and Tobi, who walked in the door a second later. Rengar smiled, suddenly calm again. "I know where to go!" Val walked up to him, a slight spark of anger in his eyes, tempered by fear. "Rengar, you shouldn't have done that. Sure, this is theoretically just an outpost, but if there had been multiple people in here, you could have been mobbed, or someone could've gotten away to sound the alarm. We could have been down to just Tobi and I, which, no offense to Tobi, would have left us in a much worse spot. Please - I mean - don't do that again." Rengar growled, the brat dared to speak with him like that? Maybe he'd be in trouble again as soon as the stupid geas was gone, because it was taking everything in him not to teach the whelp a lesson right here, and right now, about ordering Rengar around. He stood up, cracking his neck, grumbling, "Fine. Let's get my pardon, so I never have to see either of you again." he almost felt bad about the look of hurt on the pup's face, but the haze was dancing around his eyes, so he turned and moved on. They went down the tunnel, passing by random crates, stockpiles of weapons and gear for people heading out maybe? Not a bad setup, though perhaps some might run with as much as they could. Rengar thought about the shewulf, freaking out about the nameless leader knowing she'd done wrong. Frankly, if the guy knew they were coming, that was just fine with him. Just meant things would be over sooner. The boy spoke up behind him, "If we're going to get to his chambers to ambush him, we need to try and blend in. I'll use my hood and just try and be an assassin type guy, and-" "You do that, hotshot, and don't speak, or you're going to give us away. The fox is the talker, let him talk if need be. If not, we walk straight through to the chambers of this guy, he comes in, unsuspecting, job done, pardon acquired, we say our tearful goodbyes." Val nodded, sliding up his hood, as the light at the end of the tunnel got brighter.