Leeka and the Blade Trials, Chapter 3

Leeka and the Blade Trials, Chapter 3
File:Leeka and the Blade Trials, Chapter 3 (lorebook).png Hint: Found through Durstin Tallow
Category:	Misc
Area:	Serbule Hills
Visibility:	Ghosted Until Found

Leeka and the Blade Trials, Chapter 3 is a Lorebook found through a quest given by Durstin Tallow in Serbule Hills.

Content

The night was at its darkest when Leeka suddenly jerked awake. A loud scraping sound was coming from the door. Leeka snatched the Viewoscope from the ground, threw her pack on her back, and charged toward the door.

A pair of torches lit a pair of orcs at the stone door, waiting patiently for it to open. She stumbled in the dark, her orcish vision little help in the near-pitch blackness, but she was heartened to hear that even though the figures were shouting to be heard, the horrendous scraping of the door muffled their words into gibberish. The sound would muffle her approach as well.

She reached the door after the figures had already gone through. She could see they had just turned left in the hall ahead, their torches casting complex shadows on the halls inside. The door was closing, so Leeka slipped in and crouched in the gloom. After another moment, the door stopped with a final thud and the air instantly became still. She was inside. The silence was startling in its relief.

Up ahead, one of the figures was talking, and a few words were disconcertingly loud in the sudden quiet. "BE ANY DAY NOW..." then his words became indecipherable as he lowered his voice. It was an orcish voice, but speaking the Human language. And the voice was familiar.

She slunk forward to where the hall turned, then watched as they slowly worked their way down the hall. Curious.

"What are you waiting for?" hissed the sword. "We need to see what they do!"

"Shut up. Watch their feet! See how they move?" Leeka hadn't drawn Heartseeker, but she knew it could see everything she saw. They watched in silence until the figures took a left-hand turn and their torchlight slowly faded from view.

"What were they doing?" asked Leeka. "It was like a dance. Forward, forward, right, then right right back, then..."

"Knight's moves." Heartseeker's voice was low and intense. It was thinking. "It's from a boring old crone game called Chess. We need light. Don't step anywhere without light!"

Leeka dug a torch from her bag. She didn't use torches often. She'd inherited her father's excellent low-light vision, and her usual sword could light up on command. But here she was with the supposedly legendary Heartseeker and still had to use a torch! She managed to light it, and held the torch above her head while she drew Heartseeker with her other hand. The flickering light showed a grid pattern on the floor. And above, the ceiling had many holes where spears or darts no doubt descended. A trap corridor.

"Okay, the hallway floor is a grid eight tiles wide, with one tile protruding from the board. That's where you stand first. And see how lots of the tiles are black instead of white? You can't step on those. It's a puzzle. You have to get down the hall making only knight's moves and never standing on an invalid square. Okay, step onto the first square. I don't think that counts as a move, you just start here. So! Take two squares forward, then one square left." Leeka did as instructed, her eyes on the ceiling. Each tile moved very slightly when she stepped onto it, but nothing shot at her. "Now again, two squares forward and then one square left. Now step left two squares, then one back. No, best to keep facing forward. Just step backwards. If you turn your body, the directions change. My 'lefts' and 'rights' would get confusing."

Leeka slowly and calmly worked her way down the corridor under Heartseeker's guidance. When the voices ahead were gone and their torchlight couldn't be seen, she asked, "how do you know to do this?" She continued to move in the strange patterns. Forward forward right, right right forward, forward forward left...

"I told you: before I was a Blade of Melkar I was a Blade of Romast. Romast! You know, the god of martial arts?"

"That was before my time."

"Well no shit, it was thousands of years ago! But he was a great god! An orc god! And you learned nothing of him?!"

Leeka gave no answer. She took three more steps and then stood still.

"Oh," said Heartseeker after a moment. "You need more directions. Okay, left left forward, forward forward right. Anyway, Romast loved chess. His priests taught that if you were good at chess you'd be better at martial arts."

"Is that true?"

"Nah. Now that Romast is dead, I have to admit: it's always just seemed like a game to me. It teaches almost nothing about martial arts. The stuff you learn from it is just, like, basic ideologies. Nothing you can't learn in easier ways. Those old monks thought they were gaining skill by playing chess, but I think they were actually gaining skill the normal way: by fighting every day. Forward forward left, then backwards backwards left. Then forward forward left again. That was a tricky bit! Okay, forward forward right."

They turned the corner and the grid pattern finally ended. The hall ended in a pair of wooden doors. The left-hand door was somewhat open and light was coming from beyond, so Leeka cautiously followed the light.