The Iron Teeth

Playing With Fire 4

The paladin, Sir Masnin, cautiously followed Herad as she led him deeper into her camp. He got a few hostile glares but most of the bandits seemed more concerned about the squad of angry looking riders parked in front of the entrance to their base than the single man following their leader on foot.

Few, if any, of them thought of him as a threat to their chief. She had a certain reputation after all.

Like most the other bandits, Red Dog and the other lieutenants seemed focused on watching the knights at their gate. They were arguing about how best to fight the riders but Blacknail didn't care about that.

The knights were just sitting there on their horses and glowering at everything and everyone nearby. That was really boring to watch and Blacknail didn't want to look at their ugly and smelly horses anyway.

Somehow, these horses looked even more arrogant and mean than most. The hobgoblin had to resist the urge to throw a rock at the one in the lead to show it who was boss. He held back though, because that would probably lead to a misunderstanding and get him in trouble.

No, it was the paladin that interested Blacknail. The riders were just standing still but he was moving around and stuff. He was sure Herad and her guest would soon do something exciting and he planned to be there when it happened.

Blacknail could hear snippets of their conversations as he stalked them through the camp. The hobgoblin kept his distance; he wanted to keep out of sight. If Herad noticed him then she might send him away, and that would be no fun.

The paladin threw a quick look over his shoulder, and Blacknail ducked out of sight behind a tent. After a few seconds of looking around, sir Masnin apparently didn't see anything suspicious because he just frowned in confusion and then turned back to Herad.

The bandit chieftain led the paladin around the camp for a few more minutes. The only place Herad didn't take him was inside Mahedium's workshop. After the tour was complete, she showed him the scarred circle of earth where the burnt remains of the ghouls and everything they had touched were buried.

Just as Blacknail had predicted, they didn't find anything of interest. If any ghoul bits or infection was still around the hobgoblin would have smelled it long ago. He was the best, and only, ghoul sniffer around.

Blacknail slipped up beside a small group of nearby bandits where he wouldn't stand out. From there he could get a good view of what was going on.

Masnin was standing on the filled in pit. The dirt below his feet was dry and grey and nothing had started to grow there yet.

"Hmmm, I'm quite surprised your... group handled this as well as you did," the paladin mused as examined the large circle of broken earth. "You don't seem very well equipped to deal with an outbreak like this. Much smaller packs of the accursed things have been the bane of cities."

"Those cities didn't have my leadership. I kept order here and we have a few old hands around who have dealt with the dark plague before. They knew a few useful tricks," Herad explained as she drew a dagger and started nimbly twirling it through her fingers.

Hey, what was this now? Blacknail scowled at his chieftain's words. Why hadn't she mentioned him? He had done more than anyone else to get rid of all the ghoul gunk and find the stupid humans who had gotten it all over themselves!

"Still, it is very impressive," sir Masnin replied as he looked up and glanced around the camp.

"Then you're easily impressed, because this is nothing compared to what I'm really capable of," Herad remarked smugly.

"Yes, I think I've heard quite a bit about you, Herad the Black Snake. Unfortunately, most of it was far from complimentary," the paladin said as he frowned in disapproval.