Part 17: Kazg Wheels, Kazg Deals Part 2

Kazg Wheels, Kazg Deals Part 2



Off in a nearby alcove is the servile warrior who intervened for you at the northern gate. He wears a thick steel breastplate and a long sword. The breastplate looks like it has been passed down for centuries and has seen the damage of dozens (if not hundreds) of battles. The servile wearing it is similarly worn.

"I am Eko Blade, Shaper, warrior and loyal Taker. I have been instructed to speak with you and enlist your help in several tasks of value to the Takers."

"The Takers are opposed to my kind. Why should I help you?" you ask. He must have heard your exchange with Gnorrel, and without carpets and tapestries, voices would reach far throughout the keep.

"Because, if you help us, we might ally with you. We can offer you much. Much knowledge, and much power. Do not underestimate us, Shaper. Speak to Gnorrel, and you will learn more. Lately, things have gotten better, for reasons I should not discuss with you," Eko says.

"I've already spoken with your leader. What do you think I should do?"

"East of here, there is a band of outsider humans. Leave Kazg to the east. Cross the bridge. If you say I allow it, the guards there will let you pass. Travel to the wet, dank caves to the east. Kill the outsider humans you find there. Do this for me, and I will pay you well. This will be a token of the power the Takers can offer you, for your help."

This must be the splinter group of outsiders, those who rebel against Trajkov. "Why do you want them dead?" The Takers must be doing Trajkov's bidding for some reason, but you don't know why.

But Eko Blade isn't interested in sharing intelligence. "Because Gnorrel wishes it. Do this, and you will be well rewarded."





You pass a nook full of Taker warriors who are just itching for Gnorrel to order an assassination. You give them all a hard look, and then walk to the other side of the hall.

This audience chamber is a far cry from what it would have been during the Shapers' rule. All that remains of its true beauty is this gallery. The Shapers know all about function following form, and this informs your culture's art -- the function of the abstract is to provoke contemplation and evoke certain emotions. These are of an older style that you are less familiar with, but you think their orderly, spiraling fronds were meant to draw out the feeling of harmonious cooperation and the solemn joy of fulfilling one's role.

Now, though, they only collect foul dust. No one but you has visited this little public art display in ages, and it's unlikely anyone else ever will.





You find what appears to be the Takers' prison. A table with cuffs and a stained knife show that dire conversations have taken place here. The blood on the knife is long dry. No one bothered to clean it.

The serviles outside watch with worrisome smugness as you approach the lever. They don't move as you pull it. They don't care what you see or hear.

Inside is a servile who can barely keep himself upright, but, when he sees you, he stands to attention. He looks hungry, and he has been badly beaten.

"Shaper. At last. I am Houten. I am an Obeyer. At last, you have come."

"You are very ill. How can I help you?" You try to use your healing craft on him, but he has lost so much weight and is so malnourished that there's little for your magic to cling to. His body is already devouring itself.

"Please, Shaper, do not. Soon, the Takers will haul me out, and they will kill me, and I will show them how a servile should die, in the true belief of the true will of the Shapers. If one servile must die to forward the will of your kind, that is a small price to pay. I will not eat and I will not escape," he says.

Starvation and torture are horrible ways to die without combining them like this. You know that you can't walk Houten out of here -- even if you might survive the effort, you wouldn't be able to protect him. All you can do is try to give him some comfort in what are certainly his final days. "You are wise and noble, in your way. We Shapers approve of your obedience."

"Thank you, Shaper. You are kind to comfort me in my time of trial." Houten watches you vacantly. He doesn't have the energy to speak.

"Why have you been imprisoned here?"

"I was sent by Rydell. I am supposed to watch what the Takers here are doing. I was found out. Now, though, I can give my information to you. You will surely help us against the evil Takers."

"What do you want me to know?" you ask, leaning in closer to hear his thin voice.

Houten's voice takes on some strength as he focuses on the chance you represent. "The Takers here, they deal with the outsider humans. They are called the Sholai. You must tell Rydell. You must warn him. Tell him!"

"Who is the leader of these humans?" You can't pass up the opportunity for additional confirmation. With more factions of outsiders on the scene, you must be certain of all the players on this stage.

"All I know is his name. They are led by one called Trajkov. He was their leader when they came here from over the sea, and he leads them now. He lives in the tunnels to the north." Interesting -- that's where the rogues come from and where the blight originates, if Gnorrel is to be believed. This also confirms your hypothesis that the outsiders are hiding in the forbidding northern region... The serviles' fearful avoidance of that place grants a great deal of privacy.

"What do the outsiders want?"

"There is something... something called the Geneforge. I don't know what it is or what it does. But I know it is here, and the Takers and the Sholai seem to think it holds the key to everything. I tried to... tried to talk to the rebel Sholai. But I could not reach them." Houten must have been captured while trying to reach the outsiders penned up east of here. That's still a long way from Pentil. You wonder if the bridges were blocked before or after he got here.

"Rebel Sholai?" you ask.

"There are some of the Sholai. They... they are hiding in a cave to the east. Outside the outskirts of... Kazg. The Takers trapped them in a cave. Find them. Reach them. Talk... talk to them." He chokes. "They know things. Valuable things. I am sure of it." With this, Houten runs out of strength. You leave him though your heart is filled with regret.

The Obeyers certainly don't flinch from using force. You saw their own mirror of this place. They certainly torture and kill in the name of the Shapers. Both sects are setting up their own echoes of human evil. It's only human nature that you find it more sickening when you're forced to confront the results directly.



Foul decay assails you when you open this door. The Takers have left a piteous corpse here. They have no consideration for anyone who doesn't conform to their ideals, not even fellow serviles, not even to straighten the bodies of the dead. You do your best, but this body is too far gone.



The southwestern corner of Kazg houses most of the living quarters. This is where the tower Poola told you about is. It's just a squat guard tower, but apparently one of the more important Takers now dwells in it.

As you approach, a guard runs up to you, weapon drawn. "Halt! You not supposed to be here! This private tower!"

"I am proving myself to join the Takers. If Gnorrel finds out that you're interfering with her diplomacy, she will make you pay," you snarl.

Your acting certainly fits the tower guard's impression of how a villainous Shaper should behave. The guard is confused and nervous. Mostly nervous. Fortunately, he finds your act convincing, and he quietly returns to his post.

You just hope he's too intimidated and embarrassed to ask anyone about this later.



The stairs to the second story of this tower are long gone, probably rotted and cleared away. The upper floor appears unreachable and uninhabited, but the ground floor is comfortably furnished by servile standards. You investigate the desk on the far wall first.


This isn't enough by itself for you to decipher that letter, but it's something. You check Toivo's cabinets to see if there's anything else that might help you deal with the Takers and the Sholai.


The other cabinet contains living tools. You help yourself and shut up the cabinets before you go. No sense in making your little thefts more obvious.



You find a library in the heart of the compound, near where its counterpart in Pentil is located. And, just like in Pentil, there's a wizened servile who has claimed the place as his personal domain.



You accidentally corner the library's tyrant by one of the light crystals. While this servile is clearly afflicted with the madness common among Takers, he also seems quite calm and intelligent. He is also very at home in his library.

"The Shaper comes. Yes. I am Learned Toivo of Takers. I speak with you of Taker learning."

"Why do you look after our Shaper writings? Why don't you just destroy them?" you ask. Toivo must see that the texts here are useless, worth less even than the moldering scrolls they're written upon.

"The Shapers enslave us. The Shapers is the enemy. And the wisdom of tactics is to know all you can of the enemy, so you can use their powers and defeat them." A Guardian would approve of this theory, though not of the one saying it. "Each year, we learn more of you and the secrets and tricks you I use to keep us down. One day, we use that knowledge," Toivo says.

"Why do the serviles in Kazg speak much more crudely than serviles elsewhere?" The first time you heard the familiar argot was Clakkit. Your meeting with him seems so far away now, though it's been barely more than a week... you think. It's hard to say anymore.

"Crude to you, honest to us. Other serviles, they say they might want freedom, but in head, they weak servants who imitate masters. We choose not speak like you. Who is Shaper to say how servile talk or not talk?"

You choose not to argue the merits of proper grammar and obedience. "What have you learned here?"

"Ah, but you not a Taker. You not an ally. I help you not. Talk to Gnorrel. Ally with us, and I give you full access to the learning here." Little does he know that you've already read his little journal. Still, he might have access to more knowledge that you would find useful. Toivo absently arranges the scrolls as he speaks with you. "What else you know?"

Poor Dayna would be so depressed to see all these Shaper scrolls in such pathetic condition. For you, the most offensive part about this library is the mold -- it makes you want to sneeze, but doing that in front of a Taker feels undignified.

"What do the Takers believe?"

"We believe, like the Awakened, that we should be free. But we know that you Shapers will never give freedom to us. We must take it, using every weapon we have," he says.

"I see," you murmur, and make your excuses to get away. Toivo's phrasing is useful for one thing -- now you understand exactly what the Takers want from you in a very concisely framed way. They want to point you like a sword against the Shapers' throats.

You take your time investigating the Kazg library, though that makes avoiding Toivo rather awkward.





You found one of them in Toivo's tower, you're pretty sure; you wonder where the other may turn up.





The market of Kazg is the largest you've seen yet. This region must be rich in Shaper artifacts and records even if it is terrible for agriculture.

You greet one of Kazg's merchants. This bazaar looks like it used to be host to a thriving trade. No longer. This merchant looks thin, hungry, and desperate for more business.

"Ah, the Shaper. This is my humble shop." Though the merchant is hungry for business, she isn't sure whether she should deal with you.

You decide not to let her dwell too long about what the others might say. "How is business?"

"Ah, Shaper, well. These the trying times for us all. So we do not trade with other serviles. But it is for greater good, I assure you." She says it, but she doesn't look like she believes it. For all the Takers' talk about being independent, they still obey someone -- they've just shifted that obedience from its rightful subject to Gnorrel and her guards.

"Why don't you deal with the other towns?"

"It been made clear that they are actually enemies, and that the Takers have new allies now. That is what I know, and I do not like talk of it. It is not to me to question great wisdom of Gnorrel," the merchant says.

"Well, I would like to trade with you," you reply, subtly motioning to the bulging purse at your waist.





After you unload some heavy salvage, you make another lap around the keep. This time you stumble upon the mine breeding lab at an opportune moment. Kyazo has stepped away, and none of the patrolling guards are in sight. You quickly rifle through the chests and cabinets until you find something interesting -- another spore baton, but this one is green. You pocket it, close up the chest, and leave before anyone can corner you.



You use the wand to swiftly detonate the green mines here. Back in the second to last room you find where the servant mind for this keep used to be, as well as a locked cabinet containing more mind nutrients. You take the jar just in case.

The real prize is in the last room. You find that there's only one canister remaining -- someone destroyed them all with a hammer that still lies in a pile of ruined canisters. PurpleXVI couldn't differentiate between broken and intact canisters, but no matter. The last remaining canister still works. It doesn't poison you like the defective thing you found in the marsh. Instead, you find that you now know how to shape a vlish.

Such a creation would be a potent help against the rogues and outsiders, but you can barely manage three varieties of creation at this point. Any more and you know you would lose control. You haven't been Shaping long enough to wrangle that many divergent wills at once.

You decide that you need to think on what Gnorrel has said and that you also want to try to make peaceful contact with the rebel Sholai... And you don't think you can rest safely in Kazg. You'll need another place to lay your head tonight.



Next time: It Can Only Get Worse