“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he muttered to himself. He darted back the way he came. His flame followed until Zanzibarber disappeared down the corridor and the chamber turned dark once more.
Creeping through the darkness, the cave slime hadn’t eaten in days. The last poor souls to venture in the Cassian caves ended up digested in the transparent guts of the cave slime. Its monstrous body was ten feet wide, yet could displace itself through cracks when pursuing a meal. The cave slime was not to be trifled with, as it only existed to feed its hunger. Fire was its mortal enemy, although there were tales of cave slimes that engulfed entire parties of adventurers, torches and all. Now, this cave slime clandestinely crawled along the rocks, in the shadows, waiting for an opportune moment to strike upon its unsuspecting victim.
Zanzibarber made it back to the fork and hurried down the other corridor in hopes of finding Darkwind. He began sweating under his robes as the fear welled up inside of him. He hated to admit it, but he would feel safer once Darkwind was around.
The mage turned a corner and ran into Darkwind, who was casually returning to the entrance.
“There you are,” cried Zanzibarber. “There’s no sign of those travelers anywhere, but there is something in this place.”
“Yeah, I didn’t find anything either. Let’s get out of here,” Darkwind replied.
That eerie feeling of being watched fell over Zanzibarber.
“Darkwind, something’s in this room with us.”
Darkwind peered through the darkness, waving his torch overhead, illuminating the cold, rocky cavern. The ceilings in this chamber reached up to forty feet, and whatever was in this room with them was surely lurking up there. Whatever it was, Zanzibarber had no desire to stick around. He decided that he wasn’t going to stay in this cavern any longer. He was leaving, with or without Darkwind.
“Whatever it is, I’ll destroy it,” Darkwind said, holding Helga at-the-ready.
Darkwind could hear the faint sound of something moving across the ceiling in the darkness.
Zanzibarber slowly started to back away behind Darkwind before turning and breaking into a run. “You’re on your own, Darkwind!” he drifted off down the corridor.
Darkwind gripped Helga and stared into the darkness. His torch was dwindling, so he began moving backwards, waving his torch overhead. He still couldn’t see anything.
The cave slime had already retreated from the room under cover of darkness, and had set itself up at the cave entrance, where it laid in wait.
Zanzibarber tore through the corridors and other chambers leading to the mouth of the cave. His magic flame flitted behind him trying to keep up with his pace. The mage could see the waning twilight, which produced silhouettes of the stalactites and stalagmites that Zanzibarber remembered. This is the entrance! He was so excited that he didn’t notice the cave slime as it ambushed him, dropping down and engulfing the mage. Zanzibarber screamed as he clawed at the rocky floor. He looked down at his legs, which were fully inside the creature. “Ahh! It burns! Get it off! Darkwind, help!”
Darkwind heard Zanzibarber’s cries. Is he trolling me or is he really in trouble? Darkwind shook his head in dismay. “Dammit, Barbie, you’re gonna owe me big time for this,” he murmured. Then, he ran towards the entrance.
Zanzibarber’s screams were getting close, and worse. The cave slime was now up to his waist and Zanzibarber’s HP was nearly drained. His legs were half-dissolved inside the creature and he seemed to be succumbing to the pain and shock. “Darkwind…” he called out with the last of his strength.
Suddenly, the cave slime screeched before scattering into thousands of small globs of slime, which disappeared into the darkness of the cave. Darkwind stood over Zanzibarber. The mage wearily smiled at his nemesis.
“Don’t say I never did anything for you,” huffed Darkwind. “I guess I’ll have to carry you, too, seeing as how you don’t have any legs,” he chided.
“I guess this means I lost the bet,” Zanzibarber said as Darkwind hoisted him onto his back.
“You lost so bad, Barbie. I don’t think anyone could’ve lost any harder than you. You should always take comfort in the fact that you’re number one at sucking at this game.”
“I guess this is it, then. No more Exalted Realms for me,” Zanzibarber lamented.
“Yeah, you won’t be missed,” said Darkwind. “But I’m not going to force you to quit playing. If I ever see you in-game again, I will destroy you. Keep your distance.”
Zanzibarber’s eyes widened. He’s being…nice…to me? “I don’t understand.”
“It’s not my place to keep players from playing the game. Honestly, it’s not a responsibility I’d want. I just want to kill shit, get paid, and have fun. That’s the Darkwind way. So, go ahead and keep playing, just avoid me at all costs because you know me, you know what I can do, and you know I can do it. Got it?”
“Thank you,” Zanzibarber replied.
“Got it?” Darwind reiterated.
“Got it.”
Darkwind strapped what was left of Zanzibarber onto his back.
“I hope there is some nice, warm mutton when we get back,” Zanzibarber said.
“You’ve had your legs eaten by a cave slime and you’re thinking about mutton?”
“What? I happen to like mutton.”
Darkwind exited the cave and headed in the direction of the tavern.
***
Max was curled up next to the fire, his ears twitching at some of the sounds of the tavern. He was awaiting the sound of Darkwind’s armor. Chezzy sat at a table, eating a bowl of rice and meat. He savored each bite.
Nurox paced the room, stopping occasionally at the bar to have the barkeep pour another ale. He slammed his cup down. “It’s been all day. Something happened. I think we should go after them.”
“Calm down, Nurox,” said Josie as she peered out the window. She walked over to Nurox and put her hand on his arm. “It’s sweet of you to want to help Darkwind, but we promised to stay here.”
“You’re right, Josie. I just thought we could help.”
Then, the tavern door flew open. Darkwind entered carrying Zanzibarber.
“Darkwind!” exclaimed Nurox.
Josie and Chezzy also gathered around Darkwind. “What the hell happened to you two?” she asked. Darkwind merely shot them a look of disbelief.
“First, there were no friends inside the caves. There was, however, a nasty cave slime that nearly devoured Barbie, which I should’ve let it do. Then, I had to carry him all the way back here. This is one heavy shitbird.”
He unstrapped Zanzibarber, who crashed to the floor. “Ow!” cried Zanzibarber.
“Oh stop complaining, you’ll get your legs back when you rez,” Darkwind assured him. “I could’ve left you, but now you can come back here to get all your gear. You’re welcome. And by the time you get back here, we’ll be gone, Barbie. That means I don’t want to see you again, or else.”
“I understand, Darkwind,” Zanzibarber spat out before his body faded, leaving all of his belongings in a pile on the floor.
“I need a drink,” said Darkwind. The barkeep poured a tall cup of ale, which Darkwind drank down with haste.
“What happens next?” asked Chezzy.
“We go to the dwarf kingdom of Cassia. The Earth Crest is kept under the watchful eye of the Rock Golem,” Josie explained.
“Rock golems. Very difficult,” Nurox chimed in.
“From there we need to head to the Tower of Pearl at Lake Baijer. I studied the books and maps back in Mevalon, and even copied some of them.”
“And what awaits us in the Tower of Pearl?” asked Chezzy.
“There weren’t many passages about the Water Crest’s whereabouts in the tower, but there was mention that the wizard Maurolot possessed the Water Crest.”
“That guy is the worst,” Chezzy sighed.
“Now that Darkwind is back, we can con
tinue,” Josie said.
“Darkwind is taking a nap. We can leave in the morning,” Darkwind replied.
XIX
Max leapt over the tall grass that populated the fields of Craynor. This time of year, there bloomed a variety of flowers, whose colors dotted the landscape. The wind gusted over the fields. The deermat pounced at flowers, snapping at the bees that hovered around the petals. Pieces of grass clung to the matted areas of his coat, but Max was unaware or did not care. An open field was just about the greatest thing to a deermat. He licked his lips and trotted back, circling the group.
Josie walked at a slower pace as she was fixated on her maps and notes. They were still a good two days from Cassia, and she wanted to be prepared.
Chezzy hovered in the air, legs crossed and eyes closed as if in a meditative state. He floated next to Josie for a moment. “What you’re looking for isn’t in your notes. It’s in this book,” Chezzy said as he produced a tome entitled Keeper of the Earth Crest.
“What? How?” Josie asked in surprise as she accepted the book.
“I have some very fast fingers, Josie. Not a soul saw the books I stole from Gonquist’s library,” he boasted.
“But how did you know what I was looking for?”
“You didn’t know it, but back in Mevalon, you told me with your mind. You only asked me for it now.”
Josie was impressed. Chezzy smiled and floated forward.
Nurox trudged up the grassy incline, his brow beading with sweat. The sun was bright in this part of the world, and there was no shade to speak of.
The mountains of Cassia were in the distance, and Darkwind could only bow his head in shame over having ever gone to that boring dungeon. He had no desire to return to the Cassian caves anytime soon. Worst. Adventure. Ever. At least Zanzibarber was out of the picture. What an absolute turd.
The party carried on until nightfall, where they slept on the moors. The chill in the air swept over Darkwind and the others as they camped under the open sky. Josie pointed out the constellations of Marduk, Onassassa, Phera, and others. She drew them in her journal, which she then stashed in her satchel. She sat down next to Nurox and opened the book Chezzy had given her.
Chezzy was off by himself, basking in the cool breeze, his waist scarf fluttering as he seemed to dance in the moonlight. He wore the Wind Crest on a necklace. It gave off a green glow that illuminated his every move. The clouds seemed to follow him as he danced, swooping down and engulfing him before dissipating and shooting back into the night sky. The clouds looked as if they were waves crashing against the moon.
Nurox watched Chezzy from afar, his movements and the green light lulled the knight to sleep. As he snored, Josie slapped him with her book. Nurox turned over and shuffled to get comfortable again.
Max curled up under Darkwind’s blanket and fell asleep, his snout nuzzled in his thick, bushy tail. Darkwind nodded off thinking about the traps they would encounter at Cassia. He’d seen a lot of traps in his day, and none had gotten him yet, but he’d never dealt with the likes of Cassian traps. Dwarves were sneaky little folk, and they were renowned for their traps that kept outsiders from getting their hands on their hard-earned treasures.
The night wore on uneventfully. Everyone slept until the early morning barra birds called out overhead at first light. They prepared for the final leg of their journey to Cassia. The mountains continued east, which were their guide. Darkwind found it hard to believe that the cave system he and Zanzibarber entered went on for days under the Cassian mountains.
The dwarven kingdom of Cassia was where all the Cassian caves led to. The dwarves that designed and built the kingdom knew that as the keepers of the Earth Crest, they would need to create an underground chamber set with a series of traps that would need to be passed to reach the inner sanctum where the rock golem awaited hapless travelers seeking the ancient elemental crest.
No one had ever dared to attack Cassia out of fear of unleashing the rock golem. Now, they were going to walk directly into the lion’s den and try to take the Earth Crest. Darkwind never fought a rock golem before, but he once heard that its stone body could snap steel like it was wood, and its strike could topple a wrenwood tree.
Josie was confident that they would be able to obtain the Earth Crest. After all, they’d already retrieved two of the four elemental crests. How hard could this one be?
The party approached the gates of Cassia, which were two arches of hard angles that were carved directly from the mountain, which no longer existed on the site, as it was excavated and made into a sunken kingdom. The subterranean palace was comprised of four levels, including the inner sanctum, where the ancients placed the Earth Crest and its rocky guardian. The base of the kingdom had a single round door in the ground. It was larger than your average door, and there was only one way in.
“Mosotto galinar Cassia,” Josie read from her book.
The ground trembled for a moment before they heard the grinding of metal. Slowly the round door peeled apart, revealing the darkness below. Nurox looked over the edge. The first level was only a short drop inside.
Nurox went in first, followed by Chezzy, who merely floated down. Josie jumped down and Nurox caught her. Darkwind set Max on the ground. “Wait here until I come back,” he commanded. Max sat and licked his lips. Darkwind jumped in and the round door closed behind them.
“Illestro luminus,” Chezzy chanted. The entire level lit up. The chamber was hexagonal in shape, and there was a round hole bored into each wall. The ceilings were roughly ten feet high, and there were no columns holding it up. In the center of the room, there were six orbs stacked lined up two-by-three and sitting in divots in the floor. There were no markers or runes that they could discern anywhere.
“So what do we do, Josie,” asked Darkwind as he tapped Helga against the stone walls. “What are those balls for?”
Josie consulted her book for a moment. “Okay, it says here that the first level is the easiest of the traps…the orbs…here we go! Each wall represents one of the six dwarven gods — Pershat, Tommo, Dremnar, Golick, Tarnat, and Rignar — and each orb represents their powers. We have to match the correct powers to each god.”
“Seems simple enough,” Darkwind said reaching for one of the orbs.
“Wait,” cried Chezzy. “It’s not simple. We are made to think it is simple, but we will be the fools if we misplace the orbs. The dwarves set this trap to stop anyone from reaching the Earth Crest.”
“He’s right,” said Josie. “If we put the wrong orb in the wrong wall, the power of that god will consume everything in this room.”
“Do you have a cheat sheet in there?” Darkwind asked.
“No, but I pulled some clues from the text, so I think I have an idea of which ones go where.”
“You think you have an idea? That’s not going to work,” said Darkwind.
“Well do you have any better ideas?” Josie scoffed.
“Not at this time, no,” Darkwind responded.
“I suggest that you let me try to scan the room for any hidden clues,” offered Chezzy. He sat down and brought himself to a meditative state. A blue aura lined his body. He entered another state of existence. He escaped his physical body and flew across the room, looking for any signs that he could glean from this experience.
The room around him glowed bright with yellow light. He looked at each wall and ran his hands across the rock. As he did this, runes appeared. He continued around the room, revealing the names of each god on the walls. Chezzy then examined each orb, and they too revealed the names of each god. Chezzy burned this information into his memory to share with the others.
He returned to his body and came out of his trance.
“Did you find anything?” asked Josie frantically.
Chezzy immediately rattled off the names of each orb and the order in which they went around the room. Josie drew and labeled a diagram, which everyone then followed. Once each orb was placed in
to their respective walls, the room shook and the center of the floor where the orbs had been, retracted to reveal the next level below.
“Told you it was gonna be easy,” Darkwind said.
“Don’t count your dragons until they hatch,” she replied.
They all dropped down into the next level. The ceiling slid closed. When Chezzy cast his spell, the room lit up, exposing the shapes within. This room was smaller in floor area, but was deeper than the last one. From the ceiling hung sharp spikes carved from the rock. An altar stood at the center of the room, with a metallic cube placed upon it. A chain connected the cube to the altar base.
“What is this trap?” asked Nurox.
Josie consulted her book again. “I think I can do this one,” she said, closing her book. “All I have to do is solve the puzzle before the trap goes off.”
Nurox gulped. “What happens if you don’t get it?”
“My guess would be it’d have something to do with those spikes crushing us.”
“Great,” Nurox sighed. “We’re toast.”
“Nurox, give the lady a chance,” Darkwind said.
Josie nodded, swallowed the anticipation in her throat, and stepped up to the altar. She didn’t dare touch anything until she examined the cube and had a better feel for the puzzle. Each of the cube’s six sides were different. It was made of multiple metals, and each side bore a different design—one featured what looked like a figure standing against the sun, another had what resembled a warrior with a great spear, yet another with the partial image of a tree. The six sides made Josie think of the six gods.
She ran back to consult her book one last time. She found a spread inside the book that showed the images from the cube in their final, solved form. There were even instructions for solving the puzzle, but they were incomplete. She put the book down and returned to the altar.
Exalted Realms Online- Harbinger of Chaos Page 16