A deathly silence ran through the halls of the ancient, unhallowed lair, whose winding and maddeningly complex tunnels sat beneath the sleepy and unassuming village of Little Silverhorne. Many a story of it's deeply buried and mysterious caverns had been told to the children of the village at bedtime; stories of great adventurers plundering it for treasure, and of great monsters and elaborate traps, designed to sabotage would-be thieves planning to steal from the legendary Sitharli. The Lipomancer.
One such tale had found it's way to the ears of Jane Drake. She sat in the Hare and Vole Inn, which lay at the heart of Greatmanor, one of the largest human settlements in the north, and by far the northernmost. She sat looking out of the window at the sunset over the snowy valley, sipping a glass of wine, "Another if you please Barkeep." she said turning to face the burly looking man behind the bar.
She spoke in a firm, but melodious voice. A man walked over to the bar, sitting next to Jane "Drake?" he asked.
"Yes. Watcher?" she replied.
"Indeed." he said.
"Will you have one?" Jane enquired, lifting her wineglass.
"No, thank you..." he said hoarsely "... about the deal."
His face was obscured by a pointed brown hood, somewhat like that which a monk would wear, but Jane was certain he wasn't a monk. "Of course, I have the money with me now..."
She untied a small brown leather satchel from her waist and laid it down on the bar before him. "Good..." he said simply and took the money, putting it in the inside pocket of his cloak, adding "Yes... very good."
"And your end?" she said, not too eager about the fact that she still had nothing and he had her money "Can you tell me where this village is?"
"Of course, to find the Lipomancer's lair..." he breathed in deeply "...seek out the village of Little Silverhorne."
And with that he slid off his chair again and began to slink his way out of the Inn. "Wait..." Jane shouted after him "...that's it?"
"That is all you need to know to find it, although you may come to regret doing so..."
"What do you mean?" Jane yelled after him as he left.
"...you'll see." he said as the doors closed shut behind him.
Jane sat up in her room above the bar, the sound of dancing and merriment could be heard from below. Jane looked over the map that she had spread across her table, the light dancing across it as the candle flickered a little in the wind. She picked up her compass and stared at it for a moment, flicking it a little so that it found north. It was only a six or seven hour journey from Greatmanor to Little Silverhorne. "I should set off first thing in the morning..." she thought to herself "...so that there is still daylight enough when I get there to try to find the Lipomancer's lair."
She was pleased with herself and decided to turn in for the night; putting her hands up above her head she pulled a small headband from her hair, releasing it in a cascade of jet black. She pulled a nightgown over her slim, pale skinned frame and lay her head on her pillow, closing her pale blue eyes.
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author