by G. R. Cooper
“Not really,” said Corwin, “and besides, how would we get it out there? Out where we need to dive? Any weight heavy enough to help drag us down would need a boat to get it to the diving spot. No way could we swim with it.”
Wulfgar nodded at the truth of it.
“I don’t see any other way, apart from just diving down. I don’t think we’ll be able to take much, at least not our backpacks. Just weapons and clothes. Our packs would probably hinder our way down as much as anything. They’d probably act as balloons tied to our backs.”
“Likely so,” nodded Connor.
Wulfgar began pulling on his shirt, pants and shoes, “So unless one of you knows where a boat is around here, it looks like we’re doing a shore dive.” He stood and looked at the rest, who nodded. “However, there is one thing that we should take care of first.” He carried his backpack away from the shore, and set it down near the verge of the copse. He knelt over it and opened it, rooting through his inventory.
He pulled out several small items.
“Acorn?” asked Connor.
Wulfgar nodded and dropped the acorn to the ground, then stacked a number of other bits of woodland detritus on top of it. Then he smiled and put it all back into his pack, laughing softly at himself.
“What?” asked Corwin.
“I was just going to make a shrine for us. I’m a druid. One of my abilities is to make a shrine that will let us bind and res here before we dive down.”
“Then why are you putting all of that away?” asked Connor.
“Because I’m an idiot,” laughed Wulfgar. He stood and pointed at the woods, “I can also just use an oak, ash, apple, hazel, elder or yew tree. Any of the trees that was holy to the ancient druids.” He walked to the edge of the trees, “Like this old oak, for example.” He closed his eyes and willed the tree to become his binding point.
“Until the end of this lunar cycle, we can use this as our resurrection point,” he looked at the werewolves - they seemed to be following the conversation, indicating that they weren’t AI; AI never seemed to pay attention whenever players talked about player-specific rules. “Once the lunar cycle passes, your bindings will revert to wherever your previous binding was.” He shrugged, “Unless, of course, it was a different druid holy tree.”
He looked to Bael. One of the benefits of becoming a druid was a plus two Reputation with the Faerie, but the little prince seemed to take no notice of this part of the player conversation. The humans and the Canis Arcturus all flashed green as they bound to the res point.
“When does the lunar cycle end?” asked Corwin.
“No clue,” smiled Wulfgar.
Bael looked skyward, rejoining the conversation, “We seem to be in the middle of the cycle. So, two weeks.”
Long after resurrection is turned back off, in any case, thought Wulfgar, so the specific date doesn’t really matter.
Bael looked back down, “It pleases me to see you all give thanks at the holy tree before partaking this quest. Especially,” he frowned, “since I cannot join you. We cannot go into moving water.”
Wulfgar nodded, looking at the werewolves.
“We are strong swimmers,” said one, answering the human’s unasked question, “and can certainly join you. We are not really divers, though, and might need some help getting to the bottom.”
Wulfgar kicked, pushing himself away from the surface of the lake. Nop’s teeth clamped the werewolf to the collar of Wulfgar’s shirt. It made for a difficult swim; much more so than the previous dive. The group had decided do dive in intervals, with thirty seconds between. That would allow each to get through the doorway and make room for any following.
“But what if there’s not a way through?” asked Connor. “What if there’s nothing down there but a glow?”
Wulfgar had laughed, “Then we’ll probably see each other back up here. Resurrecting around the oak tree.”
They needed to travel lightly. Minimal clothes and their weapon. Wulfgar had taken off his Sack of Herbs and another small pack, and wrapped them tightly. He put them in the small of his back, underneath his shirt. He tucked his shirt back into his pants and tightened the belt as much as possible. He had only hoped it was enough to keep water out and the contents dry.
Wulfgar could feel water working its way down his back as he continued swimming downward. He was being slowed by dragging the Canis Arcturus, but he was reasonably sure that he could make the bottom before his lungs gave out. Through the gloom, he could just see the faint glow he’d seen before, and he redoubled his effort, pushing himself and his ally ever downward.
They reached the bottom and, his lungs screaming for air, Wulfgar pushed Nop through the opening, then kicked himself into the light. He coughed and sputtered as his face broke the water’s surface within the small cave and he stood, activating his Illumination spell. He was in the center of a roughly circular room. He was standing in the middle of a downward facing doorway - a trap door that dropped from the room’s center and into the little alcove in the lake-bottom cave. He stepped out of the hole and onto the stone floor.
As he did, the world flashed green.
He looked to Nop, “Did you flash green as you entered the room?”
The werewolf nodded.
“Hmm,” Wulfgar said, looking around, “interesting. That means that we’ve just bound to this spot. Coming through must activate it automatically.” If they died in this dungeon - or whatever it was - they would automatically resurrect here.
“Shit!” cried Wulfgar softly, turning and lunging for the door. He tried to go back through the opening, but something prevented him from dropping down into the water. Whatever this gateway was - it was a one way trip, at least it was for a live body. He knelt, lifted the wooden portal and slammed it shut then stood on it.
“What are you doing?” asked Nop, moving toward the human.
“If we die here, we’re going to be resurrected here. At the beginning, or end, of this dungeon. We can’t go back out the way we came in and we have no idea what we’re in for in there. We might be totally outmatched. This quest felt red when we accepted it. And whatever is in there,” he pointed to the lone, dark, dank stairway that led up into darkness, “it chews up and spits out elves. Dead elves.”
They heard scratching on the other side of the door, then a frantic pound.
Wulfgar looked to Nop, “If we let them in, we could all be trapped here. As it is, I have a high level of Stealth and have a spell that I can use to give one other player a high level of Stealth. The two of us can sneak our way through to the other side if we have to. But the others,” he looked down at the door as the scratches stopped, “the others wouldn’t have the ability to Stealth. They could be trapped in here forever.”
Nop looked at the doorway, “They will not be happy with you,” he said quietly.
Wulfgar nodded, “I know. It can’t be helped. Look,” he said looking toward the doorway, “we can turn this into a scouting mission. You and I can go through and find the other end of this thing and get out. Then, if it seems feasible, we can bring the others back in.”
“You’re assuming that the others will follow you again,” sniffed the werewolf.
“I am. I think that once they hear the situation, they’ll understand why I did what I did. Even if it turns out I’m wrong. I just didn’t have the time to find out and couldn’t take the chance.”
“Why do you think that there even is another way out of this place?”
“It’s an assumption,” Wulfgar agreed, “but I don’t see whoever lives in here using this,” he pointed between his legs toward the door, “as the main entrance. It’s at the bottom of the lake, and I doubt they enter their home like we did.” He shook his head, “No. This is the trash chute. When they’re done with an elf, they bring him down here and push him through.”
“When they’re done doing what to the elf?”
Wulfgar shrugged, “That’s the real question, isn’t it?”
He
moved off of the door and lifted it. Connor’s dead face burst through the surface of the water. Wulfgar dropped the door gently back onto the floor, in the open position, and pulled Shepherd’s Bite from its sheath. He began carving onto the wet face of the door. A large “O”, then a slash through it. As quickly as he could, he carved two words.
No Enter.
Then he lifted the door again and closed off the entrance. He hoped that if his friends tried to dive back down, they would receive, understand, and follow the message.
He moved to the bottom of the stairway and looked up. Nop joined him on the other side of the opening.
“The smell,” whispered the werewolf, “reminds me of the trees above.”
Wulfgar nodded. His assumption was that the real entrance to these caverns was in the copse - somehow magically shielded from discovery.
“Have you smelled it before?”
“Just on you. I noticed a slight smell of it on you three humans today.”
“Before we got to the trees?”
Nop nodded. “There’s something in the smell that’s the same between what I smelled on you, what I smelled in the wood and what I smell now. It’s like a musk.” He thought for a moment, “It’s not the smell of death that you probably smell here and in the woods, but the smell was also there and here. I wasn’t sure in the woods if I was smelling it new, or if I was just still smelling it on you humans, but now, I’m smelling it stronger. Coming from up the stairs.”
Wulfgar nodded, understanding but not knowing the smell to which Nop was referring.
“Did you smell it on me before? When we met in the tavern?”
The werewolf shook his head.
He wondered if the smell that Nop was referring to was the pheromones used by the nymphs. Wulfgar frowned, looking up the stairs.
Could there be nymphs up there? Is this where they live?
But that didn’t make any sense to Wulfgar. Whoever was up there was killing elves. Bael said that nymphs didn’t kill. It wasn’t in their nature.
But he said they didn’t kill humans. Maybe they kill elves? If so, this shouldn’t be all that dangerous - but Wulfgar doubted that. Nymphs, he knew, were historically - or mythologically - water dwellers. They lived in rivers. Not in underwater caverns. Whatever lived in this place must surely not be nymphs.
He shrugged it off - they would find out soon enough. He looked back to Nop.
“The spell I have. It will allow me to grant you the ability to use Stealth. At half of my modified level, which is fourteen. So you’ll be at level seven. That will give you,” he did a quick mental calculation, “seventy seconds of Stealth. That will help keep you from being seen, but try to stick to the shadows. Try not to make any noise. There are ways that you can still be discovered even while hiding, so tread carefully.”
The werewolf nodded, “I can move quite silently when needed.”
“Good. My spell can only be cast once per hour, though, so we’ll have to use it sparingly.” He thought for a moment, “Do you think it’s worth experiment with first? Before we begin moving into the dungeon?”
“Probably. It would be best for me to have a little experience using it before I have to try it out in an emergency.”
“Agreed. Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll cast the spell on you, then I’ll begin moving up the stairs. When I get near the top, I’ll go into Stealth. My level fourteen gives me twice as long, nearly two and a half minutes. Plus,” he smiled, “my cool-down is much less than for the spell. Ten minutes. So I’ll do a lot of the scouting ahead, but we’ll be making way slowly. Lots of rest periods.”
Nop nodded agreement.
“So once I get to the top of the stairs, I’ll either come back down to join you if it looks dangerous, or I’ll give a little whistle. At the whistle, go into stealth and join me up the stairs. That should give you some practice using it.” Wulfgar un-tucked his shirt and took out the two small bags in the small of his back. He put them both on the belt then refastened the buckle. Reaching behind, he made sure that Shepherd’s Bite was positioned for a quick draw.
Once sorted, he looked to the Canis Arcturus and activated the Confer spell while concentrating on his Stealth skill.
Nop smiled, “Just got a message. I have been conferred Stealth level seven by Wulfgar. It says I need to use it within the next day.”
Wulfgar wondered if he’d be able to Confer multiple skills on people over the course of a day. That would certainly come in handy - he would be able to give multiple people within the group the Stealth skill before embarking on their plane travel, for example.
Shit! he thought, Maybe I didn’t have to close off the rest of the group. He thought about it some more and decided that having to wait an hour in between each Confer of Stealth would be unwieldy. Best to just have one other to need the skill. For now.
He looked down at Nop, “Good. Do you know how to use Stealth?”
“Yes. I have the description. Stealth lowers the detection likelihood and radius of the player. Each level removes one point five percent of radius, multiplied by player’s Agility. Separate checks are made for visual and aural radii, each based on several environmental variables. Each level allows for 10 seconds of stealthy movement. Cool-down 10 minutes. Active.”
“That’s the one,” smiled Wulfgar. He turned and began climbing the stairs. Turning off his Illumination spell, he was enveloped in darkness. He reached to the left wall and guided himself up what turned out to be a circular stairway. His right hand he rested on the handle of his short sword, still within its sheath. He could see nothing at first, but his eyes adjusted to the darkness much more quickly than his biological eyes would have. He could make out the barest hint of the stone wall that shepherded him upward and to the right. The wall felt damp, and the dank smell increased as he rounded the stairs.
He began to wonder how much longer the stairs would go.
Can’t be too much further, otherwise they’d have gone through the surface of the lake.
He shrugged and smiled into the darkness, then again, that one-way portal we came through could have transported us anywhere. We might not even be underneath the lake any more.
The stairwell began to lighten as he climbed; more than could be explained by his adjusting eyesight. He was nearing a light source. Probably the opening into whatever lair was above. He began to move more slowly, trying to regulate his breathing to be as silent as possible.
The light quickly grew brighter and a doorway finally came into view. The stairway ended and opened into a well lit room. Wulfgar paused for a moment where he was, listening. In the pure silence he could hear nothing coming from the room, so he began to creep his way toward the opening. He began to scan the room as he moved closer to the door, and scanned across the area as he gained the opening. The room wasn’t large, maybe ten meters by ten meters. There were a pair of wooden tables side by side in the center, illuminated by lit torches, one sconce on each wall. A closed door was on the far wall and the one on the right. The left wall had closed cupboards. There was no sign of life.
Wulfgar turned and, forgetting their previous plan, jogged down the stairway to the waiting Canis Arcturus.
As he entered the little room, Nop looked up and asked, “There was something up there?”
“Just a room,” he answered, pulling open the pouch that hung on the other side of his belt from the Sack of Herbs. “I thought we might as well not waste your Stealth yet. I have about forty-five minutes left before my Confer spell cools down, and I forgot that I have some treats for us. He reached into the pouch and pulled out two pieces of beef jerky, handing one to the werewolf.
He explained who Enquire Arenis was and how Wulfgar had purchased some of the man’s wares before leaving Edonis. Wulfgar began chewing on the piece of dried meat. In addition to the incredible, mouth-watering flavor that flooded his senses, he received a message.
Your agility has increased +5 for six hours!
From the grin on the werewol
f, Wulfgar knew that Nop had received a similar message.
“This tastes incredible,” the werewolf whispered, smacking his lips over his large canines. “There will be a supply in the village?”
“I hope so,” replied Wulfgar. “I’m kind of surprised that Snorri never mentioned this guy. Never gave you any of the man’s food. He was the one who introduced me to it.”
“That is a question I will have to ask Snorri. His answer could determine whether or not he lives,” grinned Nop.
“In any case,” continued Wulfgar, “the increased agility should help a great deal with our Stealth. I was thinking that you might as well not activate it yet, since at the top of the stairs is a small room. There are doors, but they are closed. There are also cabinets, and we should search the room. You know,” he smiled, “just incase there’s any good loot.”
He turned back to the stairs and said softly over his shoulder, “Just be ready to activate Stealth instantly if one of the doors begins to open.”
The pair entered the room and quickly split up. Wulfgar went left, Nop right. In addition to the row of cupboards on the left wall, a smaller pair flanked the doorway they’d just gone through. He reached up and pulled the torch from that wall’s sconce and snuffed the flame, then returned it - a little darkness covering their escape route could come in handy. Then he turned to the cabinet, opening the first door he came to. Wulfgar grinned in happiness as he saw two small backpacks stuffed into the storage space. He grabbed one and whistled softly to get Nop’s attention, then tossed it to the werewolf. He pulled the other onto his back and saw Nop shake his head; nothing in that cupboard worth taking.
He pulled open the second door on the sideboard and was rewarded with a beautifully crafted musical instrument. A lute. Wulfgar picked it up and examined it, careful not to touch the strings; he didn’t want to risk any noise. It was some kind of wood, highly polished and deep brown. The workmanship looked to be excellent. He tried to identify it, but couldn’t.