by Lee Duckett
Aria, gaining confidence at his reaction and taking it as doubt, doubled down on her claim. “I told him what he did was wrong before we came out to join you. I can’t believe you’d think I would support him doing that.”
The gnome’s face flushed with anger, before settling back into impassivity as he gazed at her coldly. “I can’t believe you’re lying to me.”
Aria’s expression of outrage looked genuine as she responded “And now you’re claiming I’m lying to you! You’re being completely unreasonable!”
She looked like she was going to say more as Fayne raised her bow and shot the arrow into the troglodyte den, the explosion of the electrically charged arrow could be easily heard by the party, as could the faint skittering of wood fragments on stone. “The monsters probably plugged the hole because you can easily hear everything that goes on in there without it,” the archer observed coolly. “We heard everything you said. Or didn’t say.”
Aria froze for a moment before rallying, “Well, be that as it may, I-”
She was cut off by Rurik’s hand on her shoulder. “I know yer tryin’ to help lass, but, enough. Me dad’s right, if we’re goin’ ta get into a scuffle over this, we should do it where we can be sure that we won’t get some beastie ready to tear into us as we be tearin’ into each other.” He turned his gaze to Fayne and Badger, “But that sword is still mine, even if I’m not wieldin’ it.”
At their nods, he sighed. “I’ll need somethin’ to fight with, as much as I’d like to take down the ickle beastie with me bare hands, I’m a swordsman at least.” Fayne nodded again, grabbing her bag and handing him the magical longsword she’d claimed from the mushrooms and a shortsword they’d pulled from the dwarven armory, accepting his empty weapon sheaths in return. He gave a little laugh as he buckled them on. “It’ll be just like trainin’, only the monsters’ll be a might nicer than me sensei.”
Fayne looked at the re-armed dwarf and the aasimar for a second before she started to walk back into the troglodyte den, saying over her shoulder, “I’ll go grab the loot, since someone forgot to do so.” To which both of them winced.
Badger walked in after her, stating, “I’ll go with you, everyone needs someone to watch their backs.” As they gathered the treasure, they quietly talked about how they each thought the troglodytes could have managed to collect their probably ill-gotten goods. Every word of their conversation easily audible to the two left behind.
◆◆◆
The gnome and elf returned a few minutes later, the swordsman ready to go and the cleric looking everywhere but at the wizard. Said wizard stared at her for a moment before shaking his head, lighting up his staff with a spell, and heading off back towards the ruins, the rest of the party following. He led them through the desolate dusty streets, the oppressive blackness of the far-off cave ceiling hanging above them, who knows what was hiding in its inky heights.
They walked until the wrecked buildings ended sharply, the flat divide between civilized buildings and bare cavern no less stark the second time they saw it. Badger motioned for Fayne to take out several arrows, casting the Light spell on each, before silently directing her to fire them as far as she could in an arc in front of her, lightning infused arrows splintering on detonation, spreading glowing arrow fragments in large circles where they landed.
The ad-hoc flares did what they were meant to, lighting up parts of the cave, showing them the sides of the great cavern, though Fayne’s bow didn’t have enough reach to illuminate the far wall which was at least a thousand feet away, but one of the shots got lucky, and stuck close to a white pile of something. Badger, if prompted, would guess them to be bones, but whatever they were, the pile boded ill for anyone trying to cross the center of the cavern. To their right however, one of the shots illuminated a structure built flush into the chamber’s side, with a closed door and arrow-slits in the wall.
~So, south?~ Badger sent over their connection, causing the rest of the party jump.
~As long as it keeps us close to the walls,~ Fayne responded professionally. ~Something is up there, and I don’t want to get its attention.~
Rurik nodded as Aria shivered and the four cautiously moved to the southern wall of the cavern, hugging it as they moved across the bare ground, Aria and Rurik doing their best to keep their armor from clinking as they snuck. The group froze as they heard the faintest sound of something moving off in the middle of the cave, catching a flash of something large, with dark scales, near the glowing arrow fragments near the bone pile in the middle of the room before those lights suddenly went out, the rest still giving off their near-fluorescent blue glow. The four of them peered into the darkness, the shadows cast by Aria’s Aureole revealing nothing but bare stone before she squeaked and turned it off. Plunging their section of cave into complete darkness.
~What did you do that for!~ Fayne demanded. Her weapon sparking to life as she held her bow up, arrow pulled back, the electricity that infused the projectile casting light around them.
~Put that out!~ Aria commanded. ~What if it sees us?~
~It either won’t or it already has~ she shot back. ~Unlike you, some of us can’t see in the dark!~
Aria’s circle of divine light blossomed back into existence, Fayne relaxing her hold on her bow, letting the sparks die down.
~Whatever’s out there is big,~ Rurik reasoned, hands on the hilts of his swords. ~So let’s get us to those doors, and get inside before it decides it’s hungry~
Badger pressed on, the group following, freezing whenever they heard the slithering of scales on stone from the center of the room. They finally made it to the structure and the slithering sounds started again, but unlike the past few times they didn’t die down after a few seconds.
~How long does your Light spell last?~ Rurik asked peering into the inky blackness behind them.
~If I don’t modify it, at least half an hour. Why?~ The dwarf pointed into the completely dark cave, their trip only having taken twenty minutes at most. ~Oh. That’s. . . odd.~
Both turned to the door, Rurik moving to open it, but Badger caught his hand. ~Fayne, check the door for traps, quickly!~ The elf sprang to the door, quickly running her hands across the edges, feeling around the handle and lock before shaking her head and giving the door a push. It clunked loudly as it was moved back an inch before hitting a lock.
The slithering sounds paused, but only for a moment, the noise slowly but surely getting closer. Aria squeaked again, her Aureole going out, but a moment later Badger’s metallic quarterstaff, now held in front of him, started glowing with another Light spell. Fayne, now having enough light to work by, nodded her head in thanks as she continued to pick the lock. She popped the door open a moment later and tumbled forward as the rest of the party pushed her in with them. Badger grabbed her lock picks as Rurik slammed the door shut, throwing the lock and deadbolt behind him. The party slumped against the door and started to let out a collective sigh of relief when something large impacted the wall with a deafening crack, hard enough to shake the floor, the metal door buckling, but holding steady.
Badger put out the light of his staff, and the rest of them waited with bated breath in the darkness. After a few minutes of slithering, along with the occasional sibilant exhalations of something enormous, it moved away, the sound of scales on stone retreating into the darkness.
Everyone finished their aborted collective sigh as they relaxed enough to look around the room, Aria activating her aureole. Taking in their meager shelter, they saw the rotted remains of a table and chairs, the wooden door on the opposite wall having collapsed. The smell of water, both fresh and stagnant, mixed together from the cooler air slowly drifting in from the doorway.
Fayne carefully tried to pull the wooden door off its last hinge, the rotten timber coming apart in her hands. She nodded to the group and slowly stalked down the steps, bow ready, party at her back. As they moved down the stairs, the air became heavy with dampness and the stairs grew slick with moisture. At the b
ottom they reached another room, arrow-slits in the walls and two doors, one of stone, one of rotten wood.
Looking out the slit, Fayne saw that the stone door led to a small cave, water cascading down from a large hole in the wall, turning into a small stream. The shadowed waters looked like flowing darkness in the edges of Aria’s light, hiding who knew what. The wooden door led down into a long room, stinking of rot and stagnant water. ~What do you think?~ Fayne asked over the group’s connection. ~go out in the cave, or clear this place first?~
~I don’t like the look of that water,~ Aria warned. ~Stagnant water could have all kinds of disease in it.~
Rurik shook his head, ~We need to make sure we don’t ‘ave enemies at our back, lassie. The door should keep out whatever was up there, but clearing out a safe spot to retreat to is just good tactics.~ He started to head for the door before freezing mid step, turning to the group. ~I’ll go first, but you lot cover me back. Alright?~
Fayne nodded, string her bow and coming up behind him. ~Sounds like a plan. Badger, Aria, you coming?~
The other two nodded as well, following the pair as they moved the door out of the way, stepping down into the knee-deep water, waist-deep for the gnome. The cloudy, moldy fluid obscured their footing as the rank stench filled their nostrils. A door in the back of the otherwise bare room stood, obviously rotten but still whole.
Rurik prodded something in the water, flipping a piece of wood over, making a splash that echoed in the dank chamber. The group froze at the sound, relaxing after a moment with a ~Sorry~ from the dwarf. He moved up to the discolored door, unsheathing his swords, sending a warning of ~I’m gonna charge in. Cover me.~ Waiting for the party’s nods of assent he broke through the door with a shout, swords out, looking for any foe.
Inside the room were the collapsed remains of crates, a stone desk flush with the wall, and nothing else. The rest of the party cautiously moved in, searching around, finding nothing of value. ~Well, this was a bust~ the dwarf commented as he walked back into the long room, Fayne following.
The swordsman stopped, looking down at the yellowed water at his feet. ~Is it just me, or is the water moving?~
Fayne crouched down, looking at it, nose crinkled in disgust. ~You’re right, it-~
Her comment was cut off as a fist of fetid water slammed into her face, sending her flying backwards, landing with an oomph in the foul fluid. Rurik’s swords were out as he looked down and around trying to see his foe. When the water around his feet surged upwards, throwing him off balance, he was carried aloft on a rising pillar of liquid. He slammed into the ceiling as the water flowed unnaturally up, pounding into his chest, his swords slicing into the stream to little effect.
Fayne leapt to her feet as Aria stood in shock. “What is that?” the aasimar asked, horrified.
“Water elemental,” Badger replied, voice controlled and throwing a bolt of fire at the pillar of water, causing it to falter and disperse, dropping Rurik to the ground. “Think of it as pissed off pool,” he added, looking around, hands aflame.
Aria was horrified, “You mean all of this is. . .?”
“No, at least I hope not.” Badger assured her. “It’s hiding in the rest of the water, it’s not actually. Oh damn.”
Everyone followed Badger’s line of sight as the center of the pool started to twist, quickly picking up in speed as the water was pulled sharply into a flat vortex, pulling everyone off their feet. Fayne caught herself, staying upright with a lurching step, but everyone else fell into the swirling water, sluiced with the dirty substance. This ended abruptly as Badger flailed, flipping himself over, bodily lifted up in a pillar of vapor as a loud hissing sound emanated from his back. The hiss was matched by a watery scream of pain as half of the water of the room drew together sharply, creating a figure with a scowling face atop a pillar of water, two thick arms folding out of the fluid.
“My dagger!” the gnome realized with a shout, reaching behind his back and pulling out the desiccating weapon, hurling it at the water creature.
It tried to deflect the weapon with one arm, the dagger vaporizing it on contact, flying past to land in the now ankle-deep water, hissing as it twisted in the quickly vanishing liquid. The one-armed elemental screeched in pain, yelling in a wet sounding language no one understood as it formed a new arm half the size of its original, glaring figurative daggers at the gnome.
“I’ll get it!” shouted Fayne, almost intercepted by the elemental’s punch, dodging under it with a grin only to be caught by the stronger arm, the blow sending her flying with a rib breaking crack, a second crack echoing as she hit the far wall. The elf landed unsteadily on her feet, stumbling, face pained but determined.
Rurik, seeing the opportunity, took a step forwards and sliced into the creature, which winced but kept its attention on the elf. “Don’t ignore me ya overgrown puddle!” The dwarf demanded. “Yer’ mother was swamp water and your father smelt of low tide!” At this the Elemental, who understood the intent, if not the meaning, turned and swung at Rurik, whose blade cut through the blow. The removed limb lost cohesion and splashed to the ground, flowing back into the body of the elemental, quickly reforming with no apparent damage.
Fayne raced past Aria, who tagged her with a hand full of glowing sparks, the elf’s strides smoothing out as she tumbled past the elemental’s flailing, still reforming arms. She grabbed the dagger, and launched herself into her aquatic foe, leading with the water-destroying weapon as it cut swaths off the creature. Rurik moved with her, slicing off its regrowing arms before they could impact the elf who swung the magical dagger erratically, touching blade to water wherever she could. Each strike shrunk the creature farther and farther, until it tried to flee. The dog sized animate water disappeared beneath the surface, only to launch itself out the door in an attempt to get to the stream. A Flame Bolt caught it in the back mid-jump, evaporating it to nothing more than vapor.
Fayne dropped the dagger into the water where the elemental had formed, the weapon hissing as it went to work lowering the ankle-deep water they now stood in. “Guh” she spat, fishing for her waterskin in her backpack. “I got some in my mouth. That was disgusting!”
Rurik nodded as he wrung out his beard. “Aye lassie. Had to deal with the occasional earth elemental back ‘ome, but they’re pretty easy to kill.”
Aria looked at him in disbelief as Badger used his magic to dry off first himself, then his wife. “How do you kill something made out of stone?” she asked.
“Ballistas and explosives mainly,” he offered, nodding appreciatively as Badger got to work on him.
“Oh,” she replied faintly, before turning a concerned look at Fayne. “Are you okay? I thought I heard ribs crack.”
The elf felt her side gingerly, wincing slightly. “They fixed themselves when you healed me. I’m a bit tender, but I can keep going,” waving off Aria as the cleric approached, hand glowing.
“Oh stop being stubborn!” the cleric snapped, sending a slow procession of glowing motes to the elf, who sighed, but relaxed as the rest of her wounds were healed, the ache in her back vanishing.
Badger walked over the damp ground, picking up his dagger from the dried silt it now sat in. He brushed off the dust covering it and frowned, calling “Fayne!” When she looked at him, he tossed it to her. “Take it, you’ll use it better than I can. Besides, this staff is more my speed. More range means I don’t need to get so close to things trying to kill me.” She nodded, sheathing it, and he moved over to the now visible piles of debris on the ground.
The rest of the group followed his lead, searching both rooms much more thoroughly, returning with their findings of a handful of coins and a single potion, its wax seal still intact. Badger examined it with his mage sight, before laughing and putting it in his backpack. “It’s a potion of remove disease,” he told them, prompting chuckles from everyone else.
◆◆◆
The group returned to the stone door leading to the stream, Fayne checking it for traps b
efore cracking it open, revealing the cave beyond. The underground river cut the cave in half, flowing a good twenty feet below them. A section of path ran parallel to it, faux blocks carved from the solid rock, time and moisture having worn the edges smooth and cracked them in places. They followed it as they moved through the cave, which narrowed to a long archway as it bent around the corner.
Fayne crept forward, waving the others to join her to see the next chamber. This one had a stone door in the far wall where the path ended, barely. On the other side of the river lay a small forest of stalactites and stalagmites. One of the ground-bound spires, easily three times the height of the others, twitched as they watched, causing the party to stop and stare.
~Did that stalactite just move?~ Aria asked, gazing at the piece of rock.
~No, but I’m pretty sure one of the stalagmites did,~ Badger responded.
Aria lightly wacked him in the back of the head. ~You know what I mean! Did anyone else see it?~
Fayne nodded while Rurik shrugged, the entire group standing, staring at the offending stone which, upon further inspection, was a different color from the rest, though that was hard to tell at a distance, reddish instead of the brown stone around it. They jumped backwards as the stalagmite awoke, a single large eye glaring balefully as two thin tentacles whipped forward, reaching for the party, coming up only a few feet short. The group jumped back and stared as the tentacles waved threateningly at first, but then waggled more and more weakly until they just twitched pathetically.
The monster that had been hiding as a rock formation opened a mouth lined with sharp teeth and spoke to them in a flamboyant manner that had no right to come from a piece of stone, “Well. This is quite embarrassing! I could have sworn you were closer. I don’t suppose one of you could be a dear and take a few steps closer? Pretty please?”
Fayne looked at it incredulously, “And what happens if we do?”
“Well, I eat you of course. It’s been so long since I’ve had any sentient beings! All I get is insects and the occasional fish. Horribly bland if I do say so myself. There’s something about the brains of something that can think that is sooo scrumptious!” The sixty-foot tentacles, having retreated back to the creature, waggled in ghastly appreciation.