"Magic" broke in Krinn.

The dwarf nodded. "Hard be it to say whether this was trapped at one point. Magic, I hear said, has a half life. Now, for the box. He felt carefully. Opened the latch gingerly and waited. Cracked the seal of the box and waited. Finally, he looked away again and opened it. Nothing happened. Inside sat a book, a medal, and a dagger.

El Sid took the medal. "Lascom's Cross... an ancient medal of valor. He eyed the dagger. It was ornate, with a handle made out of something bone white but smooth and cold like stone. Two gems were inset in the hilt and the round metal butt of the hilt had a family crest engraved in it, a trident crossed with a spear. "Family dagger... a nice one. And," he continued, eyeing the book, "what looks like a diary." El Sid looked up. Krinn, what do you remember about the Orc-Human wars?

Krinn looked thoughtful for a moment as she tried to recall history lessons from her mother's estate. "Lets see, the fall started about 500 years ago... five hundred and fifty exactly, in 9952, with the destruction of the human High Council. Of course, at the time, it wasn't recognized as such. It's sort of the arbitrary marker the historians use. The first Orc Human war didn't start until almost seventy five years later, although the Humans and Trolls were still at it, fighting sporadically in the mountains outside of Nol. I vaguely remember something about Morgart saving the Cherifyr Peninsula near the end of the first war. The second started almost a hundred and fifty years later. The humans got crushed that time. The Dtamu Cult had killed off most the high level human magic users in 10132, and on a hand-to-hand basis, Urakai are difficult to beat."

The Don broke in. "So, Morgart could not have been alive for the second orc-human war."

Krinn shrugged. "There were much more powerful spells available back then. You never know. I don't remember anything about him dying."

"Go on" suggested the Sid.

"The second war lasted ten or so years, and at the end, the Orcs held down to what is now Kanday. The third war was a bit of a fizzle. The Orc attack dissolved in petty squabbling and while they captured a bit more territory, they suffered a lot of losses. Then, about eighty years later, Funda Kai showed up on the scene and began the fourth war, uniting the Urakai tribes into a potent weapon. By then, Kethem had build the great wall, and the Stangri had taken everything between the wall and the Urakai held territory. Heritime had just been crowned King of Kanday on his eighteenth birthday, and he was outflanked by Urakai... warships landing in the night with thousands of Urakai and four or five thousand Urakou, a coordinated offensive no one knew the Urakai were capable of. That was before they really knew about Funda Kai. Kethem could have sat behind their great wall and watched. Instead, a senior Colonel in the Kethem Guard hit the Urakai from the side with three thousand troops, leaving the wall all but unmanned. That was the beginning of the Kanday-Kethem alliance, and for the next forty years the war continued in endless little skirmishes. In 10385, Heritime ambushed and killed Funda Kai, dying himself in the battle. But where other people picked up from where Heritime left off, Funda Kai was the only Urakai in their history that could unit the clans, and over the next ten to fifteen years they were driven out of Pranan. That was about sixty, seventy years ago. The human offensive ended in Pranan because the city-states were too independent, and the humans couldn't sustain warfare without solid bases of operations that far forward."

The Sid nodded. "And Kethem went into its isolationist stage."

Krinn nodded.

"Well, it is getting near dark, and I would suggest we camp for the night. I've got some reading to do."

September 6th

The next morning, Sid sucked down the last of his Klava, then popped a few beans in his mouth and chewed them. Don looked at the bloodshot eyes. "Up all night?"

"Go to hell" replied the Sid, crossly.

"Right behind you."

Krinn peered out of her sleeping bag blearily, took a breath of the chilly air, and pulled her head back it. A second later, it was back out, and she was blinking sleep out of her eyes. "Did you find anything?"

El Sid frowned. "It is a diary, a diary of the Captain of the Ship. Zem Ural, master of the Backbreaker, a "destroyer" class warship, whatever that means. Some interesting stuff. Mostly background noise that a historian would love to read, but not of much practical value. Must have been interesting living back then; the thing is full of politics, between holds, in the military, even in his own hold. No wonder we lost the war. We were too busy fighting each other."

Krinn stretched, shivered, and quickly pulled her leather armor on. "Good thing there's no political infighting between the holds now" she said with a sly grin.

El Sid started an angry retort, suddenly went impassive, looking at her suspiciously. "Just a joke" she said, holding her hands up in supplication. He didn't answer, just looked at her. "Oh, come on El Sid, you don't have assassins attacking your personal servant after sneaking out of Kethem surreptitiously without SOME kind of reason" she said with exasperation.

He turned to the book without comment. Small slips of paper stuck out from three places. "Three items that might be of some interest. He read out loud from the page marked by the first slip of paper.

"Prior to docking in Cidan, we stopped at Bethalen Station to take on supplies and a score of Kethem Guard to escort upriver to Valen's Point. The Guards were scouts, the leader Jeleb Parenne, a fighter-wizard out of Telen. Jeleb is very closed-mouthed about their business, but I have no doubt they intend to move to Chelto. The rumors that Demonbinder has been found by the Urakai in the mountains outside that city have been heard everywhere, and indeed Wendel Quel was last heard of fighting Orcs a hundred and fifty years ago."

Krinn nodded thoughtfully. "Demonbinder. One of the eleven... or twelve, depending on who you listen too, Greatswords."

El Sid nodded. "Yes, and one other point. Bethalen Station. A military base, obviously, but not one I've heard of. Yet it is mentioned many times in the diary on runs the Backbreaker made between Cherifyr and Cidan. It may be just that it has passed into history, and we will have to check, but it may have been a hidden base Kethem was using somewhere between Cherifyr and Cidan."

By this time, several others had gathered around the Sid. He turned to the second marker. "This is about six months later." He read "On another run to Morgart's Edifice. The package this time is not as odd as some things we have taken there in the past, but it still disturbing in many ways. A large black crystal of a material I have never seen before. I would not have even seen that much if the box the Earth priests were carrying did not fall and break open. This in and of itself is odd, since they were using a telekinesis spell and I have never seen one fail before. But their reaction was even more puzzling. Cranston, a crewmember, went to retrieve the crystal and the Earth priests literally sent him flying with another TK. He was knocked unconscious, and seems to be somewhat dazed even now, two days after the incident, but otherwise the attack did not harm him. It was a good thing I was on hand, because several of the crew were going for weapons, but I could see the Earth Clerics were just reacting in panic, not out of hostility, and I stopped it. The Earth Priests restored the crystal to the box, again using TK spells, and stowed it in the forward compartment, padlocking it with their own aura-keyed lock. Afterwards, I had the two of them eat with me in my cabin, the crew's attitude such that I felt it wise not to have them eat in the galley. It became clear that these two were part of Morgart's Human League, a group I must admit I despise despite the trouble that could cause for me. They generally did not talk about the crystal, but one mentioned without thought that they had been on board the Kalakapu into Bethalan station. I did not mention it to them, but I had breakfast with the Kalakapu's master the previous day, and he told me they had just returned from a expedition to Tawheim. I am not sure what to make of this, but I am happy that I will be offloading this artifact tomorrow."

Krinn thought about it. "Hmmm... Tawhiem was still riddled with Chen Kunda at that point. Not exactly a safe place. And Morgart's human league... it sounds like he was alive."

El Sid shook his head negatively. "There are a couple of mentions of the Human League; it was an organization founded by Morgart, but it is unclear as to whether he still leads it or if it just bears his name." He turned to the last marker. Krinn could see it was the last page with writing on it; following pages were blank. El Sid read "We are scrambling for Valen's Point, having received confusing orders that indicate a major battle may be underway there. We left Cidan a few minutes ago, and I shall make all haste to determine what is happening there. We shall only have an hour or so before reaching it. I have some trepidation about this trip, and want to ensure we are ready for anything. I will write more once I know Valen's Point is safe."

El Sid looked up. "That's it. The important thing to note is that they expected it to take a little over an hour to go from Cidan to Valen's point."

Glorm nodded. "It be perhaps fifteen miles back to Cidan, moving upriver. A most excellent speed for a large ship."

Krinn broke in. "Some kind of magic propulsion system. The elves have them, and while humans don't now, they still had some that were still working back then left over from the days when they had their higher level MUs. They were gradually failing as time went on."

"So this is what we have. We have a rumor of the Urakai uncovering DemonSlayer. The Kethem military seems to dismiss this, but someone (the KIA?) places so much credence in the report that they send a crack group of commando's to investigate and either deny the report or attempt to recover the Sword. Shortly after that, Urakai from the same reported stronghold (now Chalto) suddenly erupt (chasing someone?) and hurl themselves at a human base which also happens to be the closest water transportation. At the height of the battle, suddenly, odd, unstoppable critters appear that proceed to kill everybody and leak lantern oil all over the place (demons?). He died, she died, they ALL died. The other Urakai tribes see the dismal state of human preparedness and grab their weapons in glee. They stream out of the north. The Second Orc-Human war has begun. Valen's Point, the spot of the unexpected, furious first battle is lost to humans for hundreds of years."

"And your point, Lord Sid?" asked Glorm.

"The point is that we may have a bigger salvage operation on our hands than we thought. How Mogart works into all this, I don't know, but if the beginning of the Second Orc War was the last anyone heard of Demonslayer..."

Man and Dwarf turned and gazed across the river at the main ruins of Valen's Point. "Hmmmph," grunted Glorm, "Well." He cocked his head and began to study the remains with a new, analytical look in his eyes. His hands began to pack his pipe. "Well. Hmmmph."

Finally, Glorm spoke. "I see your point. This whole thing could quite a lot bigger than we imagined. I had not thought about the possibility that the Backbreaker was here before the conflict started. But the diary entries concerning Demonbinder and the presence of Jeleb Parenne and his commandos is odd. I think your ideas bear investigating. "

At this point Krinn interjected a few words. "I have been thinking about this glowing door, and it brought to mind something my mother once mentioned. She said the KNI was working on a copy of the elven ships, but that they had foolishly ignored using a 5D hyperspatial shield to enclose the power source. She seemed to think this could be a grave danger to the crew and local fauna."

"Aye" said Don. "That fits with some wierd rumors that floated around Kethem the last few years. The certainly has been some odd species coming in with the fishing fleet. And there was a rumor about a black ship which had a green wake..."

Sid considered this and finally responded. "Whatever is behind that door, it is not worth risking some major accident at this point. The site as a whole is far too valuable to us. What we need now is some serious Detect magic spells and a great deal more water breathing spells. I suggest we head for a port town. If we can get Krinn to an Elvish embassy or to the Evael itself, she can learn D. Magic. Hopefully a port town of any size will have a water temple where we can bargain for some charged water breathing items."

"Tendut comes to mind" Glorm said. We can follow the river north to the bridge, and then head overland to the southwest. Who knows what we can find out about Morgart in Tendut... Of course Cookie and I would have to make camp outside of town, but I am sure we can make due. Perhaps one more dive to map out the ship more carefully and look in those port holes. After that we can pack up and make for Tendut. It seems to me there is no reason you cannot use that dagger El Sid. Whatever it's powers--real or imagined--it is no worse than the one you are using. You may want to do a few experiments with those gems as well..."