by Sam Ferguson
The air in the alternate plane smelled of sulfur and something akin to rotting flesh. Moisture hung in the air, but there was no visible fog or mist. It was a sticky humidity that soon matted Al’s hair under his helmet. There were strange sounds as well. The vents were familiar with their exploding whoosh! Yet there were other noises, like clicking nails against stone, guttural grunts and gargled shrieks the likes of which Al had never experienced before. There were also the more familiar sounds of heavy footsteps, growls, and whimpering cries that came from deeper within the tunnels.
Having no other information to go on, Al tried to use the sounds to navigate. He reasoned that if there was a three-headed demon guarding a large crystal that was the source of their power, then that shrine might be located in the midst of a large gathering of demons or lurkers.
The prospect of trying to sneak up on either of those types of creatures was beyond intimidating, but Al let the warm energy flowing from Murskain steady his nerves. He was destined to find this place. That is what Sylus had said.
He would soon discover whether that sentiment was true.
Another flash of fire shot out from a vent nearby and Al signaled for his warriors to crouch low. A lurker moved along the shadows seventy yards away from them, but it didn’t notice them. Al began moving again as soon as the light died down.
Then everything took a turn for the worse.
A blood-curdling scream tore through the otherwise peaceful air in the network of tunnels and caverns. Al knew that someone had been slain. The dwarves were now discovered. They would have to work fast to find the crystal before they were all killed.
Dozens of clicking feet scurried in the darkness across the stone. War cries went up through the air as lurkers snarled and growled. A blue light formed around a winged demon that flew toward the sound of battle and began to blast the area with green lightning bolts.
“Come, we have to move,” Al whispered. The warriors at his back hastened their pace as he picked his way across the ground toward a nearby tunnel that led out from the large chamber they had appeared in.
He didn’t stop to help the other group of embattled dwarves. He didn’t even stop to watch as they were obliterated in seconds by the flying demon and his magic. The dwarf king pushed forward, then turned into a tunnel on his left. In this area there were strange, fungus-like things growing along the wall that gave off faint, blue light. It made running through the tunnel quite a bit easier. With the vent-filled chamber receding behind them, the group slowed to a more silent pace, but not a pace so slow that they might be discovered by the flying demon who would surely be patrolling the area now.
Al’s group rounded a corner to the right and then froze when Al held up his left arm. There, in a large dead-end, sat the largest lurker he had ever seen. It was easily twice the size of the other lurkers, and its abdomen was much, much longer. Instead of four legs and two arms tipped with claws, it had six legs and a pair of arms that were only half the size of the other lurkers Al had seen. The claws were made of the same white material, but they were only a few inches long instead of several feet long.
“A queen?” one of the warriors asked.
Al shrugged. He studied the creature carefully. It was lying still on its side, breathing heavily. It hadn’t seen them yet, so perhaps they should move out of the tunnel. Al turned to glance around the corner, but one of the warriors in the rear of the group signaled him away.
“Lurker coming in, Sire,” the warriors whispered.
Al knew there was only one way to survive. He signaled for the warriors to fan out and attack the queen. They charged in without yelling or shouting, though their plated boots did announce their presence with their loud clanking and slapping. The queen awoke and shifted to rest upon her underbelly. Al prepared for a challenging battle, but the queen proved to be lethargic and hardly worth the warriors’ time. She barely turned her head toward them before they hacked into her. Unlike the lurkers they had fought before, her scales were soft, barely sturdier than boiled leather armor. She grunted and wheezed, then fell flat and lifeless.
The lurker that had entered the tunnel was rushing in after them, though. Its clicking feet sped around the curve and it scanned the chamber for the intruders. Al and the others had carefully taken cover behind the queen, poking their heads up and parting the thick fur on her back just enough to watch the lurker in the soft light given off by the glowing mushrooms.
The beast came close, pausing before it stretched its neck out to sniff the queen.
The dwarves came out from their spot and launched a coordinated assault. Al struck the monster across the face with Murskain. Two others hacked off the front left leg. Three more drove spears into the lurker’s right side. The rest circled around and attacked the creature from behind. The lurker lashed out with its right hind leg, catching one dwarf in the throat before it was cut down.
Al and the others rushed to the injured dwarf, but there was nothing they could do for him. He convulsed as he bled out in a matter of moments. Al led the group from the tunnel back to the main chamber, ignoring the battle continuing to rage on and searching for another place to explore. A great series of eruptions started roughly two hundred yards away, blasting through several vents, each one closer than the one before and washing the whole chamber in a fiery red light.
Al dropped to his stomach to keep a low profile and used the light to survey the area. In the brighter light, he could see that the network of tunnels was like a hive network. Several smaller shafts branched off from the main chamber they had entered when they stepped through the portal, but there was one wide tunnel that led downward and disappeared into the darkness.
The dwarf king couldn’t be sure, but he felt like the shrine would be found in the biggest tunnel.
He signaled for his warriors to follow as he pushed up and moved out across the stone toward the main tunnel. He had gone only a few yards when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He turned to the right and saw a pair of glowing, icy blue eyes staring back at him. A green web of lightning appeared a moment later. Al reacted on instinct, swinging out with Murskain and driving the spike deep into the demon’s chest. Two other dwarves rushed in and pierced the demon’s neck with their swords, silencing any scream for help the creature might have otherwise mustered.
They moved as quickly as they could while maintaining silent footsteps. Another eruption of fire vents had them scurrying quickly toward the main tunnel, abandoning silence for speed so as not to be seen from a distance.
The tunnel descended so sharply that they almost lost their footing as they went down. They had to move to the wall and steady themselves to keep from sliding along the steep incline. Behind them, more sounds of battle and dwarven screams erupted.
Al could only hope that he was going the right way. To think that all of them might perish without ever laying eyes on the crystal was nearly more than he could bear. This time, the screams and clash of weapons and blasts of spells did not die down quickly.
“They are putting up a good fight,” one of the warriors noted.
Al nodded. “Then we should honor their sacrifice by accomplishing our task.”
None of the others said a word, but Al knew they agreed.
Another two hundred feet and the tunnel leveled out. It also turned around to the left, curving one hundred and eighty degrees. As they rounded the bend, Al saw yellow light reflecting off the walls some three hundred yards ahead where the tunnel curved out to the right. Shadows danced and moved along the light on the walls.
There was a chamber ahead of some sort. Al was sure of it.
The group crept along the tunnel, glancing over their heads and watching for any sign of danger.
The sounds of battle were quieting as they continued to distance themselves from the main chamber, but the battle itself sounded no less intense. Judging by the number of shouts and cries, Al figured that most of the other dwarves were currently engaged in battle. For all he kn
ew, his was the only group still wandering free and looking for the crystal.
The dwarf king froze mid-step when he heard a howling noise coming from around the bend in front of them. A great shadow moved along the wall. Al studied it and started to smile when he counted three heads atop a large body. They were close.
He doubled their pace, stopping again when they reached the corner so Al could carefully peer around the curve and see what waited for them. He saw a long, rectangular chamber with naturally formed columns and a spring of purple liquid bubbling up in the center of the chamber. Fires burned beyond the alien spring and there, hovering in the air above what appeared to be a stone altar, was the blue crystal Hiasyntar’Kulai had spoken of.
Al smiled and glanced to his group. “This is it,” he said. He then turned his gaze back to the chamber. He hadn’t seen the guardian yet. He waited for a few moments before a massive, muscular leg stepped out from behind one of the natural columns. Then the body appeared. The demon’s alabaster skin was almost painful to look at because of how intensely it reflected the firelight. The three heads were not at all what Al had expected. The center head looked much like an ogre’s head, somewhat round, but a bit flattened out as if someone had dropped a boulder on top of the skull and flattened it a bit. The head on the left resembled a large, black wolf head. The pointy ears twitched this way and that as the head stuck its snout in the air and sniffed loudly just before howling. The head on the right looked like a great eagle’s head.
Yet, the rest of the body was most definitely humanoid. The bare, extremely white skin rippled with human-like muscles. The demon held a spear in its right hand and an axe in its left. Al waited until it crossed the width of the chamber and disappeared behind another row of natural columns. Then he signaled for his warriors to charge with him.
They ran down the last portion of the hallway leading into the shrine with the crystal as quickly as they could. Al assumed that with the demon’s wolf head, it would hear them or smell them coming even if they tried to sneak along, so it was best to charge in and go for the crystal.
Unfortunately, he had misjudged the demon’s abilities.
The ten-foot-tall demon appeared out of thin air in the midst of the dwarves. He drove his spear through one of the warriors and cut another down with his axe. Al and the others turned in to attack, but he vanished and the dwarves caught only air.
“Spread out!” Al commanded. “Don’t bunch together and give it easy targets.”
The group spread out as much as they could in the tunnel and resumed following Al as he made a straight line for the blue crystal.
The demon appeared in the middle of the shrine and hurled his spear with great speed and accuracy. Al managed to jump aside, but the spear skewered two more hapless warriors and carried their bodies several yards to crash into the far wall of the tunnel behind them. The spear then reappeared in the demon’s hand and the middle head began to laugh.
Al narrowed his eyes on the demon and felt a rage boil inside of him. Without turning around, he commanded his warriors to each go for the crystal and leave the demon to him. A couple of them protested, but Al wasn’t listening. He ran for the demon.
The painfully white creature vanished only to reappear behind Al. The eagle head screeched loudly while the ogre head laughed and the wolf head snarled and growled ferociously. The dwarf king turned and ducked as the axe sailed over his head. He then jumped up and twirled to the side as the spear struck out at him. Al swung with his hammer, but the demon vanished before the weapon could connect. The momentum of the attack caused Al to spin and lose his balance. He stumbled out toward the wall, but quickly regained his footing and turned to run toward the shrine once more.
The demon appeared in the center of the shrine again. This time it launched the spear and the axe. The dwarves all tried to dodge the flying weapons, but the axe caught one and the spear stabbed another. The weapons disappeared shortly thereafter and the demon vanished as the ogre head laughed again.
Al held up his hand, signaling for everyone to stop. He turned and commanded them all to swing as he aimed for the empty space in the middle of them all. Most of the warriors were confused by the order, so only two others lashed out.
The demon appeared, right where Al had predicted. He drove Murskain’s spike into the demon’s left thigh while the two who had followed his orders managed to score minor hits on the demon’s buttocks. The monster howled and vanished.
“Now throw!” Al shouted. He turned and launched his weapon with all of his might toward the crystal. This time, all of the other dwarves obeyed. Spears, swords, and axes flew through the air. The demon reappeared where he had the previous two times. Murskain pummeled the demon in the chest, while the other weapons pelted the creature with varying degrees of success. The wolf head howled, the eagle head screamed, and the ogre head shouted in an unintelligible language.
Al and the others charged into the shrine, fully expecting the demon to retreat.
Again, they misjudged it.
A blinding light tore through the shrine and a deafening thunder shook the walls and floor around them. Dust fell from the ceiling as cracks split the stone. When the light faded, there stood three giant creatures, not one. A massive ogre, a black wolf larger than any of the lurkers in the upper chambers, and a gryphon.
The wolf lunged in and seized a dwarf in its massive maw, crunching down on the armor and shaking its head violently. The gryphon launched its attack second, pinning two dwarves against the stone wall and biting at them with its beak.
Two dwarves charged the ogre, scooping up their weapons from the floor and attacking the massive creature’s legs. It took the cuts and stabs, staggering back toward the spring of purple liquid. It stumbled into it, flailing its arms as the dwarves finished it off.
Al rushed in and picked up Murskain. He then turned on the wolf and delivered a massive hammer-strike to the creature’s ribs. The bones boke, snapping loudly and bending inward. The wolf collapsed on the ground and Al and the others were able to finish it off without much more hassle.
The dwarf king barely heard the flapping wings before a tremendous force knocked him onto his back. He bounced across the stone floor, skidding to a stop just a few feet away from the stone altar below the blue crystal.
“Go for the crystal, Sire! We’ll handle this,” one of the warriors shouted.
Al looked up to see the dwarves battling the gryphon. He then glanced down to his chest and saw an open gash across the outer layer of his armor. He wasn’t sure if the gryphon had managed to cut all the way through, but he also didn’t have the time to stop and evaluate it. He need to get the crystal, and then he had to find the nearest portal out of here.
Al jumped up to his feet and ran to the altar. He clambered atop and used Murskain to hook the hovering crystal and bring it down. It wasn’t as large as he had thought, just the size of an acorn squash, but it hummed vibrantly with incredible energy. Just touching it invigorated his body and soul. He gripped the middle of Murskain’s shaft in his right hand and tucked the crystal into his left elbow.
He started running out of the shrine.
Two more dwarves fell by the gryphon. One had his head bitten off, helmet and all, and the other was cut down by the large talons of the gryphon’s front feet. That left only three dwarves fighting the creature. They did their best, hacking and stabbing at it, but Al knew they would not be able to defeat it. The gryphon was so fast and nimble that they had yet to land any hits on the creature.
He ran past, mentally thanking his warriors for their sacrifice.
He heard the gryphon screech out an ear-splitting cry and then a cacophony of metal crashing against stone erupted behind Al. He knew at least one more dwarf had been killed, but he couldn’t stop to look back now.
He hooked around the left and sprinted toward the curve leading to the main tunnel. As the light from the shrine dimmed, the crystal he held glowed brightly, lighting the way for him. In a matter of secon
ds he rounded the next corner and then made the difficult run up the ascending tunnel.
When Al reached the half-way point, a lurker came around the entrance and reared up on its hind legs, snarling and hissing at Al. The dwarf king prepared to launch a savage blow with Murskain, but fortunately a group of seven dwarves tackled the beast a moment later and put it down before Al reached the top of the tunnel.
“My king, this way!” Benbo shouted.
Al was beyond happy to see the commander. The seven dwarves formed a wedge and began sprinting off to the right. The scene around them was not a pretty one. Lurkers and demons swarmed the area. Fireballs and blasts of lightning were zipping through the air. Dwarves were tirelessly fighting through it all, cutting down as many enemies as they could.
A lurker lunged at Al, but one of the seven dwarves with Benbo jumped between them and took the creature’s attack for the king. Al had to turn away as the lurker ripped into the dwarf and sent blood spraying out over the floor.
The wedge reformed, tightening due to the loss of a member and pulling Al closer into the center of the protective wall.
Shouts and cries went up through the remaining ranks of warriors as they realized that Al had the crystal. So too, did the demons shriek and wail when they noticed it. In seconds, lurkers and demons were pressing in toward the wedge.
“To the king!” Benbo shouted. “To the king!”
Dwarves did their best to consolidate around the path that Benbo was leading Al over, but it wasn’t flawless. A lurker leapt over several dwarves and grabbed the dwarf right beside Al, leaving a gaping hole in the wedge. A moment later, a flying demon of some sort shot through the gap in the wedge and grabbed at the crystal. Al smacked the creature in the face with the top of his warhammer. Blood shot out from the monster’s skull and it flopped to the ground as Al wrenched the crystal free and kept it safely tucked in his arm.
“Here,” Benbo shouted to Al. “Just a few more yards!”
Al looked through the crowd of thrashing bodies to see a faint, pink glow upon the ground. They had almost reached an addorite mound.