Notepad Stories - Kymil

This story apparently starts from another notepad I haven’t found yet. It also ends in another notepad that I have yet to find. The page before these many pages outline four characters with race, classes & levels, alignment, skills, & some of their magic items that have previously been defined. I will only mention the two magic items that Kymil actually uses in the text below - a Ring of Invisibility (makes the character invisible at will, instantly & this ring is rarer as it also makes the wearer inaudible) and a Girdle of Storm Giant Strength (massive strength increase and allows the wearer to hurl rocks up to 212 pounds up to 16 yards away like a Storm Giant).

This was written in the late ‘90s in my early 20s. The alley fight and the description of the secret passage under the Roc’s Nest definitely need a rework, but I wanted to preserve the two decade old writing. Some of the basic pretext to this, that I remember, is Kymil escaped a massive battle between rebels and the Tauran Empire that the rebels lost and he’s been hiding in his cabin on two of his ships, switching between the two anytime one is searched.

The merchant was lucky as this man was jumpy today.

The man went down to the next door which had an engraved jewelers sign above it, opened the door, and entered. The jeweler came out from his back room. “Might I help ye today?”

The cloaked figure looked up so that the jeweler could see his face and said, “afternoon, Bouler.”

“You!” At that the jeweler quickly looked around his shop and out the window, and then called to his apprentice to have him watch the shop. The jeweler then took the man to the backroom and closed the door behind them.

“Kymil, what’re ye doin’ here?”

“Bouler, surely you heard about the attack at Cilar?”

“Yes, we heard, but we thought all that lived had been captured. And we had no word of you being among the dead.”

“Nay, they are not that good. They did kill half my force and captured more than half of them that yet lived, although most of them were wounded and I doubt that they shall live long in the dank dungeons of Pahras’ Citadel.”

“What do ye do here then? They must know that ye still live, and…”

“Yes. They know I still live, but the soldiers of the Empire know not where to find me, and I was given an item that hides my location from the Tauran wizards.

“Now, onto why I came here. First of all I knew that you were still here, and secondly I know that you still have contacts that wish to see the fall of the Empire. Can you contact all of them and have them meet at the Roc’s Nest in two nights?”

The jeweler’s eyes lit as if comprehending what Kymil was going to do. “We will all be there in two nights.”

“Thank you, friend.”

Kymil left the jewelers and headed back down the alley towards the docks when he heard the soft clink of metal armor. The cloaked figure known as Kymil was a whirlwind as he spun about with blades drawn. The two soldiers that had followed him into the alley were hiding behind their shields and stood with their swords in hand.

“Two young fools? Is that all the Tauran Empire can muster against me? Come out behind your shields and teach this old master some new tricks. Look! I even have a sword for each of you, so come now, dogs of Tauran, fight me.” At that the two soldiers charged him. Kymil swung his first sword high, causing the soldier to raise his shield in defense. Striking his shield with his first sword, Kymil quickly followed it with his second sword towards the soldier's knees. Failing to see the second sword whistling towards him the soldier screamed as it cut through his right leg and then he fell to the ground as the shock overcame him.

The second soldier was a bit more experienced and used his sword to deflect the first swing and used his shield to knock aside the second blow. Kymil heard the sound of two more soldiers running down the street towards him. He swung at the soldier causing him to stumble over some boxes in the alley. Kymil turned, swung his arm back, and threw his sword at one of the two new soldiers in one smooth motion, catching the soldiers by surprise and skewering the one the sword had been thrown at. He then drew his shortsword from its sheath behind him, and turned to face the guard who had stumbled over the boxes and found him just arising and trying to find his footing among the boxes. Kymil whipped his shortsword back behind his head and launched it towards the soldier just as he looked up in time to see the blade of a sword hit him in the side of his face and then he saw no more as his body fell over backwards from the impact.

Kymil ducked and tumbled to the side as the last soldier swung at his back. Kymil picked himself up, jumped towards the first soldier he had felled, grabbed the unconscious man’s shortsword, and launched the sword at the last soldier. The soldier raised his shield to deflect the sword, but was knocked down by the impact of the sword hitting his shield. Dazedly the soldier stood up dragging his shield up with him. Wondering about the extra weight of his shield he closely examined it and found the sword that Kymil had just thrown at him was stuck clear through his shield. He had enough time to wonder at how this could be when he felt a foreign object enter his back and poke out between his ribs, he looked down and saw the tip of a sword sticking out of his chest. At this he screamed and fell lifeless at Kymil’s feet.

Kymil quickly cleaned his long sword, yanked his shorter sword from the head of the one soldier, and quickly cut a piece of cloth from his surcoat. He heard the stomping clank of a troop of soldiers marching in his direction and decided it was time to leave. He took the shorter sword from the last soldier he had killed, wiping it quickly on the soldier’s surcoat, sheathed his longer sword, and ran down the alley, pulling his second longer sword from the chest of the soldier he had thrown it at.

He started to wipe the blood off his sword, but the yell of, “there he is!” had him running down the alley in the opposite direction. “Stop him!” yelled the lieutenant as Kymil rounded the corner to a side alley and slipped his ring on his finger. The soldiers rounded the corner and passed him, continuing on down the side alley until they reached the street. The lieutenant, who was following a safe distance behind, rounded the corner and came to a sudden stop. Screaming at the pain he looked down and watched as a shortsword suddenly appeared through his stomach. He heard a soft chuckling as he clasped the hilt of the sword and sank to his knees. He made one last feeble attempt at breathing before his eyes glassed over. He then fell forward, driving the blade deeper into his lifeless body.

The soldiers finally huffed back to where their lieutenant lay dead, and one of the soldiers piped up. “Hey look! Mirak’s dead.”

“Yeah, but his ‘daddy’, the duke, is going to want someone’s head. You want to be the person that tells him we lost our prey and his son?”

“Nay, Mort, ye can have that pleasure.”

Kymil circled back around to the docks, keeping his ring of invisibility on his finger. He stayed in his cabin for the rest of the two days.

A turn of the glass past the evening meal found Kymil sneaking down the alley alongside the Roc’s Nest. He rapped thrice upon the door and tapped it once with his boot. He then turned to look at the wall of the next building down and scanned up the wall, looking so bored that he could barely stifle a yawn when he spotted a little head peering over the top of the wall. He then looked down the street and rubbed his nose when he saw a street urchin sitting outside a house. The door opened behind him and he turned and greeted the young man who let him inside.

He stepped into the building, waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness within, and then followed the young man down the hall to a set of stairs leading down. They both pressed a section of the wall, spoke a garbled collection of meaningless words, and walked down the stairs, making sure they touched the outside wall on their way down. They stepped off the stair one at a time, left foot first, walked about ten feet down the right side of the hall ignoring the door on the right and left, hopped over to the left side of the hall, walked about another ten feet down the hall and stopped in front of a blank section of wall.

The young man set his hand against the wall, raised his hand slightly away from the wall and turned it ninety degrees clockwise, then forty-five degrees counter-clockwise, and said, “with this key, I open thee.” A crack formed in the shape of a door and slowly moved away and to the right of the young man. The two of them stepped through the door, which slowly closed behind them, and into a dark room. They carefully moved to the left and out of the cube of darkness. After moving around the cube of darkness they traveled the center board towards the door in the far wall, knocked once, and waited. Bouler, the jeweler, opened the door with dagger in hand, he spoke some arcane words, and waved his hands at the two of them. He looked at Kymil, smiled, and then let the two of them into the room.

The room was large and dimly lit by a few torches along the wall and a candle on a table in the middle of the room. Street urchins, merchants, farmers, soldiers, and others filled the room, and each was armed with at least a dagger, club, or short sword. Kymil spotted Mort and a couple of the other soldiers that had chased him two days ago, and walked over to them. “You gave me a bit of a scare the other day.”

“What? You were scared m’lord?” replied Mort.

Kymil chuckled a bit. “Yes, I was scared that you’d catch up with me and that I’d have to skewer you like I skewered that other soldier.” At this everyone chuckled a bit, and Mort roared with laughter.

“M’lord, I’d have flailed my sword about like a newborn babe and played dead at the first chance. If ye wouldn’t have taken Marles’ leg off I woulda sworn he was actin’ dead!” At this all the soldiers who had chased Kymil a couple days before laughed some more.

Kymil put a finger to his lips and the room quieted almost instantly. “I am glad that all of you have come here today. I see many faces here today that weren’t much older than ten last time I was here, and they have grown into young adults. I have come here to ask all of you to help me regain our country.” At this point he pulled out an ivory scroll tube, an inkwell, and a quill and set them on the table.

“I want everyone here to think about what I am asking of you. Many of those who come with me will perish.” He waited several moments, opened the scroll tube, and pulled several sheets of parchment from it. “Anyone who wants out can leave now. Everyone else must put their mark upon this parchment.” At that the whole room surged toward the table to be the first to leave their mark. One darkly cloaked man stayed in the shadowed corner and didn’t approach. Kymil noticed the man as the only occupant of the room that had not moved, and approached him. The man backed farther into the shadows until the wall stopped his movement. “Why do you back away from me?” asked Kymil. “All I wish is to know the reason why you do not wish to join us.”

The man put a finger to his lips and slowly lifted the hood of his cloak so only Kymil might see his face. Then in a low grumbling growl as if to disguise his voice, he said, “I have a few things I must attend to, and then I can join you, but ‘til then I can do no more.”

Kymil nodded in understanding, “‘til you can join us then. I must ask you to leave though.”

The cloaked man nodded in agreement and then moved along the wall towards the door. Everyone in the room watched him leave. Kymil went back over to the table and proceeded to have everyone mark the parchment. Once the parchment was covered with the mark of everyone in the room Kymil continued to tell them his plans.

The next morning Kymil came topside from his cabin to find several people, including Mort, coming aboard his ship. Once everyone was aboard, the sailors raised sail and pushed away from the docks. A darkly cloaked man came running down the crowded docks towards the ship. Just before the ship reached the end of the dock the cloaked man jumped off the dock towards the boat. Missing the deck, the man desparately grabbed the railing of the ship. The two sailors who jumped to help him aboard gasped when they saw his pleading face looking up to them. “It’s the…”

“Quiet!” barked Kymil. “Help him aboard and then bring him to my cabin.”

“Aye sir,” they both replied and finished pulling the cloaked man aboard. Once he regained his breath the two sailors took him below deck to Kymil’s cabin.

“I thank you m’lord,” said Kymil. “But why have you joined us?”

“For many reasons, but for now, let us just say that I am tired of the leech that calls himself emperor. He has destroyed much that is his.”

“But how were you able to get into the meeting?”

“Ah, but I am the Shadow of my own city. The people themselves call me Ajaris.”

“But he’s been dead for over eight hundred years. Why would they think he is still alive, and what have you done to deserve that title for thyself?”

“Do you think I like it? It forces me to live up to his legend. Something that I cannot do! The greatest of my feats have been naught but the worst of his. This gives me the chance to help with something that no one has been able to do these past two hundred years.”

“That is all? Surely if that were all, you would have caught us at the next port instead of jumping aboard my ship at the last possible second.” At that he grinned a bit and the Duke looked back at him.

The Duke of Aralis slowly reached within his cloak and withdrew an ivory scroll tube. “This is yet another reason why I needed to join you at once.” He handed the scroll tube over to Kymil and continued, “this came to me this very morning.”

Kymil looked at the carved tube for an instant and undid the intricate latch and opened it. He pulled a scrolled parchment from the tube, unrolled it, and started to read. Once he had finished he looked up. “So, what is your plan of action?”

“Well…”

“It’s been two days out to sea and no sign of any pirates, captain.”

“That’s good. I just hope it stays that way.”

“Captain!” shouted the cook from the kitchen. “Come quick!”

Kymil gave some more orders, then headed for the kitchen. He entered the small, crowded kitchen to find the cook staring at the head of one of the seamen. “It’s Jarvik, captain,” the cook said frantically. “I… I… I… That’s all that’s left, sir.”

“Byram, it’s okay. I know who did it.” At that he reached down, grabbed the head by the hair, and carried it out on deck. “I want everyone topside, now!” he shouted. The whole crew and the few passengers aboard gathered around him. He lifted the head up so everyone could see whose it had been, and several gasps escaped from the crowd. “I know who did this and why. What I want now is for Jarvik’s accomplice, not his assassin, to confess.”

“Pirates off the starboard bow!” Yelled the sailor who was still in the crow’s nest above Kymil. “They’ve got the Merry Mermaid capt’n!”

“Damn them,” he cursed. “What stripes do they fly?”

“None, sir!”

“Dismissed!” Kymil shouted. “Now let us make for the Mermaid!” The crew scurried about to follow their captain’s orders. The passengers went below to gather their weapons for the coming battle. The crew and passengers watched the pirate attack on the Merry Mermaid while they waited to get close enough to aid their fellows.

Smoke started billowing from the Mermaid as they watched, and as they came closer they could see that the pirates had already murdered the crew of the Mermaid. The pirates, finished with their looting and seeing Tiira’s Love armed and ready for a fight, raised sail and sailed off as quick as the wind permitted. The Tiira’s Love gave chase, and with the aid of Aryl’s spell of wind, she was able to quickly overcome the pirate vessel.

The archers of Tiira’s Love rained arrows upon the deck of the pirate caravel as the two approached each other. When the ships closed for combat the crews of both loosed spears upon the other before joining battle. Several pirates swung across on ropes only to reach the Tiira’s Love as pincushions of arrows. Kymil stood at the rail raining arrows upon the oncoming horde of pirates with deadly accuracy.

As the ships touched Kymil jumped upon the railing with his swords drawn, spearheading the assault on the Buccaneer’s Daughter. He greeted the first pirate by bringing his sword down upon his enemies helm, cleaving both helm and skull. The next pirate thought to stab at him, but blinked only to find his sword stuck in the wood of the railing and his opponent nowhere in sight, at least until he turned to see a sword slide between his ribs. He gasped for air and held his side, hoping that the air he breathed would stay, then he dropped to his knees, and was then trampled under the feet of fighting men.

The battle raged for a short time until there were few pirates left living. One pirate continued to fight, even after his comrades had stopped fighting. Kymil swaggered his way over to where the man was cornered. “Know you who I am?” he asked.

“You are Kymil, the Rat,” answered the pirate.

“That I was, but now I am Kymil, the Avenger,” he rumbled. “And you have killed my men. In whose name do you fight me?”

“Lazarum sends his greetings.”

Kymil burned with rage when he heard the name and charged. When the pirate raised his sword in defense, Kymil smote the man with one powerful stroke of his sword, cleaving him in two from shoulder to hip. The man had a surprised look upon his face as he dropped his sword and collapsed in two lifeless to the deck.

Kymil ordered his followers to tie up the remaining pirates as he went below. As the ship rocked back and forth Kymil made his way below deck, looking for any captives the pirates might have taken from the Merry Mermaid.