Chapter 3.9: The Plane In Between

“Do you know what I admire about you, Bruq?”
The satyr looks up to Oanoa. His mouth is still full so he nods to let him know he does. He points to his chin.
“No, it’s not your goatee, satyr.” The Beholder sighs with a faint smile on his face. “I’m being serious. Do you?”
Bruq shrugs and swallows his food. “If it ain’t my dashing looks, well, then I don’t know, good sir.”
Lyssa rolls her eyes. “Be serious. Even I know this isn’t the time for jokes.” She rubs her temples. The blackness below her eyes shows her fatigue.
Bruq smiles at her and turns his head to Oanoa. “No, I don’t know what is admirable about me. Tell me.”
“I like your fascination with peculiar things”, he answers. “You don’t collect money, but you collect stories. All those trinkets on your belt say a lot about you as a person. Can you put them on the table?”
Bruq loosens the chain holding his trinkets, shoves his plate away and puts them on the table.
“I have the eyeball of a cyclops and the tooth of an ogre in my bag if you want to see those.” In front of him lie a metal bell, a small leather bag, a monocle, a claw and an angelic feather.
“No, I have seen those already through the mirror, so you can keep those in your bag. It was one of the trinkets on your chain that caught my attention. I was wondering how you got that little bell.”
The satyr loosens the object from its chain and holds it in the palm of his hand. It’s cold to the touch and he could swear he can feel it vibrate.
“I got it as a bonus when I was hunting down a tiny pixie trickster who was troubling an old wizard. When I got her and brought her to him, I got my bounty and he gave me the little bell as well. He told me to keep it close. He said it brought him enough joy and suffering for a lifetime and that I might have use for it someday. I asked him about the clapper, but he said he took it out and that I only must try to ring the bell in my time of need. He looked really worn out and I think he was losing his mind a bit. It didn’t make that much sense to me. I carried the bell with me since, but I didn’t think too much of it. Why do you ask? What’s up with this bell?”
They all look at Oanoa and they can see a twinkle in his eyes.
“I know exactly what you’ve got there and why he removed the clapper. What you’ve got there is a bell of tolls.”


“A bell of tolls is a very powerful magical object”, the Beholder explains. “It is made of a rare kind of metal known as blackrune. It’s a metal only found in and around the volcanoes of Abaddon. The duergar mine the blackrune and craft it into weapons for themselves or offer it to being more powerful than them.”
They all know the duergar, some from the tales they heard as child, others from stories told by other adventurers. They are a special kind of dwarves, also known as grey dwarves, whose ancestral bloodline had been mixed with the blood of demonkind. Their eye for detail is something their dwarven cousins could take an example of. Most of them live near volcanoes or in caves, far away from what most would call a proper society.
“When the proper rituals are performed, a bell of tolls can be made from the blackrune. If someone were to ring the bell, the ringer would be granted a wish.”
Stunned, Bruq looks at the mystical object. He wonders what he would wish for.
“What do I want the most?” He keeps his thoughts to himself, but Oanoa can see him think.
“I know that sounds great and all, but it’s called a bell of tolls for a reason. It demands a price for everything that’s wished for. It’s an exchange and it’s never a pleasant one.”
His face is very serious. His audience stays silent, waiting for what he’s going to say next.
“I remember a king, king Reave, who ordered his court to bring him one of these bells. He wished for his son to be brought back from death. He lost him in the war against a neighboring kingdom. When his son walked in on them having dinner, his daughter died instantly. When he used it again to bring revive her, his wife died. He rang the bell to stop the war with the neighboring kingdom and one week later an even greater war started.”
They all understand where the bell gets his name from.
“This type of magic always comes with a price”, Cyrzana says. “I know for a fact this story to be true. King Reave now lives in my city, chased away from his own castle by pillagers. He was very ill and used the bell to cure himself. All the inhabitants of his kingdom were struck by a deadly plague. He was left all alone and there was no one left to help him defend his fortress. We offered him sanctuary. Us royals have to look out for each other, because there’s a lot of competition out there wanting our thrones.”
“So, Bruq”, Oanoa says slowly and he at the satyr with squinted eyes, “I don’t know if you want to ring the bell, you should ask yourself two questions: what do I want more than anything and I am willing to lose everything else to gain it?”