by Elliott Kay
“And who reset all those fucking traps and sicced all the ghouls on us?” complained another voice from the hall.
“Aw hell,” said Teryn, letting her first arrow fly. Though the head struck the dwarf’s helm, he didn’t even seem to notice.
Another heavily armored warrior plunged through the doorway, this one a human moving straight to confront another of the hobgoblins. A white glow ran through his sword as he slashed into his opponent. “Justice has come for you!” he bellowed.
“Lawrence, Rothgar, watch out,” called a voice from the hallway. “They’ve got a caster.”
“It’s the wizard,” growled the dwarf. “He’s here.”
“Oooh, boss fight!” shouted someone else. A lithe, thin body with trailing blonde hair sailed over the doorway scrum with an elven saber and dagger. She landed in a roll, only to plant her feet and dive backward to stab into a hobgoblin before it could reach the human warrior. “Sneak attack!” she yelled.
“My thanks, Kiana,” said the armored human.
“Great, they’re doing roll call,” muttered Scars, looking for a clear shot. Though he hardly cared for the hobgoblins up front, accidentally shooting them now would be counterproductive. He sent his first crossbow bolt through the doorway in hopes of keeping the rest of the adventurers back. Yargol followed with much the same thought, throwing an Icefire Dagger after the shot. Neither of them hit much.
A sharp howl beside Scars drew everyone’s attention. Zuck pulled his hands apart in an up-and-down motion, creating a spiral of fire between them that swiftly formed into a humanoid form: feminine, curvaceous, elven…and naked. The fiery elf maiden screamed in rage before she flew across the room to explode right outside the doorway. Flames and bits of debris flooded the entrance, jarring everyone nearby.
“Why?” grunted War Cloud. “Why is she naked? Why?”
“Do you know how much work it is to animate women’s clothing?” snapped Zuck. “What more do you want from me?”
“A little dignity, maybe?” muttered Yargol.
“We’re alright!” called a voice from the doorway. “Keep fighting. We’re fine.”
“Aw, son of a bitch,” Zuck whined. “It looked so cool when I practiced it in private.”
Shady Tooth shook her head. “Gods, I hope you all die.”
The clash of metal and muscle resumed. Scars reloaded his dwarven crossbow with one pull of the crank. Putting the weapon through its motions, he looked back to the drapes again for DigDig. He hoped he’d see the drapes flung aside to reveal a hole in the back wall. Instead, the fabric hung neatly as always. Then he noticed the hole in the roof in the center of the four posts of Zuck’s bed. A rough block of masonry tumbled into view from the mattress behind the drapes.
“Shady Tooth, go,” said Scars.
Crouched behind the overturned bookcase, Shady Tooth looked surprised at his order. Rather than argue, she rushed for the drapes with her head and shoulders ducked low.
“Hey, you can do better than that, can’t you?” called a woman’s voice in the hall. “Is fire all you’ve got?”
Yargol hurled another magical shaft of flaming ice. This time, he struck the dwarf across the back of his shoulder. Chunks of burning ice burst off his armor while a tiny tongue of flame enjoyed a heartbeat of life along the dwarf’s hair. Rothgar immediately retreated into a crouch with his shield up. “Mishael, shut up! That fire does damage!” he shouted. “I need healing! Geoffrey, I need healing!”
Another human in armor emerged through the doorway, this one leading with his shield. The sigil of Lahstul, god of light, shone brightly from his shield. “Hold on, Rothgar. I’m com—wait, you’re barely even burned.”
“I have to stay at full strength!” the dwarf snapped. “What good are you if you don’t keep me healed? I’m the one who carries this whole team.”
“You mean you’re the one who steals all the kills,” Kiana shot back.
“Gods, I hate adventurers so fucking much,” Zuck seethed. His hands crackled with the energy of another spell.
A rope now hung from the hole in the ceiling behind the drapes. Scars reached past Teryn to pat War Cloud on the shoulder. “Go,” he grunted.
“I’m not leaving you behind.”
“Then wait for us.”
War Cloud’s lip pulled back with frustration. He touched Scars and Teryn on the shoulder. “Her Blessings to you both,” he said before rushing for the back of the room.
At the doorway, the adventurers dominated the remaining hobgoblins with ease and even glee. The dwarf laughed as he brought his hammer down on another guard. The elf parried and dodged and cackled. Teryn loosed another arrow, this one striking Geoffrey in the leg. He withdrew behind his shield and the protection of his fellows, but seemed unlikely to stay out long.
“One more moment,” Zuck murmured, his hands crackling with energy again.
Scars drew down on the human warrior, waiting for a clear shot as his target slammed through another guard. With the warrior’s shield thrown aside, Scars pulled the trigger. Though the bolt merely bounced off the chain and leather covering the back of his shoulder, Scars thought he saw a few drops of blood. Then the warrior stood up straight and fixed him with a gaze that glowed with divine magic.
“You!” shouted Lawrence. He pointed his blade at Scars, heedless of the fighting all around him. The toll of a bell rang out from nowhere. A single beam of golden light ran from his sword to Scars, leaving the recipient glowing. “This debt of blood shall be repaid with your life, monster!”
“Really? You’re giving it up for that?” joked Kiana.
“No one else has harmed him,” said Rothgar. He shoved away the last opponent on his side of the door. Only Venko still fought.
“Hold them one more moment,” said Zuck.
“Yargol,” said Scars. He cranked his crossbow while Teryn loosed another arrow. The glow faded, but only a little.
Zuck waved his hands out level and forward, hissing out a final word of magic. With a crackle and a rush of air, the floor stretching from the wizard’s feet to the doorway was suddenly coated with ice.
Geoffrey yelped, slipping and falling against the wall while he tried to remove Teryn’s arrow from his leg. Rothgar’s killing blow against his opponent took an unexpected turn as both he and his foe wound up on the floor. Lawrence only made it a single step toward his declared vendetta with Scars before he also succumbed to the slick sheet of ice.
“There we go,” Zuck growled, raising his hands as they crackled with power.
“Go,” Scars said in the same moment, tapping Yargol and Teryn on the shoulder. The former rushed for their escape without looking back. Teryn followed but didn’t turn, still shooting one arrow after another in her retreat.
Her shots all but vanished amid a hail of blue bolts of energy thrown from Zuck’s hands. All of them found their marks, unerringly striking each of the adventurers without fail. Curses and frustration over the ice sheet turned to yelps and cries of pain as the party suffered the magic onslaught. For a moment, Scars thought the tide had turned.
Then he saw the party’s wizard step forward, conjuring a barrier of transparent purple light curving from the ceiling to the floor to cover each of her companions. The remaining blasts from Zuck’s spell harmlessly vanished against the magical shield. Geoffrey did his part, too, raising his gloved hand with a glowing symbol of Lahstul in his palm. The same shimmering light enveloped each of his compatriots. Yet it was the wizard who promptly got credit from her allies.
“Good looking out, Mishael!” yelled Kiana. With a quick kip-up to get back on her feet, Kiana vaulted herself into the air off of Venko as he tried to rise and get back in the fight. Her jump carried her wildly farther than it should have, bringing her back to ground right on top of Teryn before the bandit could reach the curtain. Teryn stumbled to her hands and knees while Kiana whirled around to hurl her dagger straight into Mierrek’s gut. The hobgoblin king fell against the book case in pain, k
nocking the bit of cover flat to the floor.
Still moving with terrifying agility, the elf woman continued her spin to kick Teryn in the face. Her boot knocked the bandit’s mask free, bringing the only pause to her attack. “Oh shit,” Kiana blurted. “Are you—?”
Teryn kicked back hard, slamming Kiana away and onto her butt. Scars took the opening. He lunged away from Zuck’s side and tackled the elf to the floor. “Go!” he roared.
“Go where?” Zuck asked. “What are—wait, where is everyone?”
Though wrestling with Kiana, Scars pointed back to the doorway at Zuck’s question. The other adventurers had already healed up under Geoffrey’s spell. Lawrence put his blade through Venko before he’d made it off his knees. “Fight!” Scars shouted.
“Mishael, you can’t take care of this ice?” complained Rothgar, still slipping.
“In a moment,” said the adventuring wizard. Her gaze focused on Zuck. “Priorities.”
“Aw hell,” Zuck whined.
Lightning crackled from her hands. Zuck threw up a magical shield, smaller than the one Mishael conjured over her companions but still able to block her power. His face turned red with signs of strain at the effort.
Nearby on the floor, Scars got a solid hold on his opponent’s left wrist and bent it behind her. The elf’s agility and speed were terrifying. Thus far, he had her on her belly and unable to turn her sword on him. He knew his advantage wouldn’t last. He also knew how dangerous she’d be if she got to her feet, even if her friends didn’t come to her aid in time.
Scars put his only real advantages to work. With one hand still clenched around her wrist and the other latched onto her belt, he planted his feet firmly to heave her up over his head.
“Wait, what the fuck, this isn’t cool!” Kiana protested. “Grappling never makes any sense! Let me goooh shit!” she wailed as Scars hurled her through the air. The elf landed in a crash of armor against stone, but Scars didn’t pause to look back at the damage. He ran for the escape behind the drapes.
“Ow! You’re supposed to catch me, you fuckheads!” Kiana complained behind him.
“How? I can barely stand,” said Lawrence.
“I’m not optimized for catching elves,” fumed Rothgar. “Seriously, how do you even get proficient at that?”
“Hey, where are all the wizard’s back-up goons going, anyway?” asked Geoffrey.
“Damn it, guys, a little help here?” grunted Mishael.
Scars left Zuck and the adventurers to their wizardly pushing contest. Behind the drapes, he found the four-post bed covered in rocks and dust. Larger pieces of masonry littered the floor all around after bouncing from the mattress. The rope dangled from the hole in the ceiling, with DigDig and War Cloud watching from the shadows above. “Just grab the rope,” said War Cloud. “We’ve got you.”
Following instructions, Scars expected War Cloud would pull while he climbed. He didn’t expect to soar up through the hole in a single breath. Scars barely had time to get one hand on the edge and push himself away before his shoulder collided with it. An instant later, he was on the floor of another tunnel of dust and scattered bones. War Cloud stood a few yards away, holding one end of the rope. Shady Tooth stood only a few yards farther along, now dropping the line from her hands. Yargol and Teryn waited near her, both holding glowstones to light the way.
Shouts and the sound of explosions carried up through the hole from the bottom floor. The fight raged on in Zuck’s chamber, though it sounded as if it had already taken a decisive turn. They didn’t have much of a lead in their escape.
War Cloud stepped past Scars before he could get up off the floor. As if they’d planned it, DigDig practically leaped into the gnoll’s arms. Catching DigDig at the waist, War Cloud held him up over his head. The goblin swung his shovel at the ceiling over the hole.
Masonry split and broke with each strike. Cracks became fractures. Dust and pebbles fell like rain, soon followed by larger chunks. Though DigDig swung with little in the way of technique, he knew where he wanted to hit. Each blow created a line in the ceiling several feet long, first at one side of the hole, then the other. Seconds later, a huge block of stone fell from the ceiling to plug the hole over Zuck’s bed.
With the job finished, War Cloud set DigDig down at his feet. Their guide looked up to Scars with a proud grin. “We made a plan, too.”
“Good,” Scars huffed. He turned from the pair to his other companions farther down the hall. “Run.”
Shady Tooth led the group, though she hesitated at the first intersection in the hall to look back to their guide. “Which way?”
“Right,” called DigDig. Starting from behind everyone else and running on shorter legs, he couldn’t exactly gain ground on anyone. “Hall goes right, then go up the stairs.”
“Scars,” said Teryn over her shoulder. “The elf woman—did she say anything else?”
“Only more adventurer banter,” he answered. “I wasn’t listening.”
“There’s something I should tell you. All of you. But there isn’t time,” she said.
“Then save your breath for running,” War Cloud urged. “Tell us when we’re clear.”
At the stairs, Shady Tooth lingered again, but only long enough to make sure the others kept up. “Do you think they’ll chase?” she asked.
“Their casters got a workout and they took some hits,” said Scars. “Even if they heal up with magic, they’ll be worn down. The dwarf yelled about being in an optimal state. If we’re lucky, they’ll hold off on chasing us.”
“Have we been lucky so far?” Shady Tooth scowled.
“Depends on how you look at luck,” said War Cloud. “We made it all the way here.” He held his spot at the entrance to the stairway, seemingly taking the rear of the group.
DigDig pushed his way past the bigger companion. He stabbed his shovel into the wall, prying loose masonry blocks and sending them tumbling down the stairway. Darting back from his own destruction, he dug farther up along the staircase with his next few steps. As debris fell from the stairs, he turned his attention to the steps themselves. DigDig jammed the tool into the step beneath him, pushing it deeper with his foot on the shovelhead. His efforts pried the whole step loose along with the next one beneath it. A cacophony of shattering and clattering stone arose along with a grey cloud of dust. He hopped back up the steps and did it again, leaving a gap in the stairway bounded only by the jagged and difficult angles of the natural rock beneath.
He turned back to the others with a proud smile and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Luck,” said the goblin.
Shady Tooth threw up her hands. “For fuck’s sake. You’re a goblin named DigDig and you found a magic shovel.”
“I know!” he replied.
“That’s not luck. That’s something else.”
“I know.” He hurried up the stairs. “We’re gonna make it.”
Yargol threw a grave look at Scars. “She’s right. And that shovel carries no simple enchantment.”
“Later,” said Scars. “We’ll ponder all that later.”
DigDig’s sense of direction held true. Rushing out of the stairwell, they found familiar halls with new tracks in the dusty floor. No one bothered with stealth or shadow now. Half the group held glowstones in their hands as they spilled out of the trading post and into the plaza. At the doors, DigDig stopped to look back, but War Cloud tugged him along. “Too many doors and windows,” he said. “Knocking one down won’t keep them shut inside. Keep going.”
Shady Tooth covered ground the fastest, though Teryn was close behind. “How do we tell which bars move?” Teryn wondered, looking over the network of steel.
Breathing hard, Yargol staggered to a stop beside them. “Should be simple enough,” he gasped. “I should’ve thought of this earlier. Watch closely.” The magician waved his staff and his empty hand at the center of the gate, hissing out a single, unintelligible word. Dust coating the bars of the gate disappeared in the blink of an eye,
though for two bars close to the center, the spell took longer as more dust burst from cracks along the junctures between pieces of steel.
“There,” said Teryn, pointing to the clouds. “It’s that simple?”
Yargol grasped one bar of interest and twisted. The metal turned with little resistance. He pulled it back like a lever, drawing forth a mechanical rattle. “Apparently so,” he said. “If only I’d thought to consider the gate might hold its own trigger. I feel like a fool.”
“Don’t kick yourself,” said Shady Tooth. She gripped, turned, and pulled the opposite bar. “How long do you think it took Zuck to figure it out?”
The mechanical rattle grew ever louder. Dust fell from above as the gate stirred. Splitting at the center, the gate began to open with its sides turning inward. Yargol and the others stepped back warily, looking from the dark caverns on the other side to the trading post.
“I guess it is an all-or-nothing gate after all,” said Shady Tooth.
“Can we shut this thing behind us?” asked War Cloud.
“We can try,” said Yargol.
“I suppose it’s a bad time to ask if it’s any safer on the other side?” asked Teryn.
“Yes,” said DigDig.
“Good,” she breathed.
“No, I mean it’s a bad time to ask.”
“It’s what we’ve got,” said Scars, urgently patting his companions on the back. “Go. Now.”
One by one, they slipped through the gate as it still opened. Yargol and Scars lingered until the last was through before throwing the trigger bars back into place. As they’d hoped, the gate stopped, rattled with a new tone, and reversed. As soon as its motion was clear, the pair followed the rest out.
On the other side, Scars looked back toward the trading post, but he saw only the barest traces of the structure. Light from the glowstones didn’t reach the steps of the edifice. It did, however, limit his own vision in the dark. He accepted the darkness as a good sign, figuring the adventurers needed some light of their own.