Burrows & Behemoths

by Lee Duckett

  “If it’s that big,” the wizard explained simply, “Then facing it in the open caves is stupid. However, if we go to the ruins we can lead it on a chase, dropping lights for it to go after, we can buy ourselves enough time to get to the guard outpost.”

  “Or we could try and trap it in the ruins and kill the bastard right proper,” the dwarf suggested. “Take care of the problem then and there.”

  Aria looked at her son in disbelief as Fayne shook her head, “Maybe, but I don’t want to risk it. Shino told us that stealth was important here. This entire place seems to be built to encourage stealth over direct confrontation. The full orc group would have been a tough fight if we hadn’t pulled off half and surprised the others, and the stirges were just, ugh,” she shivered. “The trogs probably could have been picked off, and there’s no way we could have fought the roper. The first adventure got us used to adventuring, this seems to be built to get us used to adventuring smart.”

  “That’s why I be suggestin’ we kill it, but smart-like. With tactics,” Rurik argued.

  Badger hopped up onto a desk, taking his chin in his hands as he studied the map closely. “If I knew what we were fighting then I might agree with you, but as it is, no. Discretion is the better part of valor here. I don’t care how good our tactics were, we couldn’t have handled those hives. We only ran into them though because we made a mistake, not that we blame you for that Rurik. I think we did something wrong to get that. . . can we agree that it’s probably a serpent?” he asked the group.

  At their nods he continued, “that serpent’s attention. Now that we have it, we have to be smart about it. We don’t need to fight everything,” he said, jerking his head in the roper’s direction. “We just need to get past obstacles to achieve our goal. Right now, our goal is getting out of here alive. Heck, if we want to we can come back when we’re stronger, but I don’t think we can take whatever is out there right now.”

  “Yes, no fighting the giant darkness snake!” Aria agreed. She took a deep breath and let it out, hanging her head when it was clear that the other three were united on going back out. “So what, exactly, is your plan?”

  “We have Fayne shoot some light arrows in an arc from the North of the cave to the east, assuming that where we are is South, getting it away from where we need to go. We move as fast as we can to the ruins. Once inside we drop lights as we go, hopefully the streets and alleys will distort the light, making it take longer to eat them, or whatever it does. Once we get out of the other side we run for the guardhouse and get inside, hiding out until it loses interest. Sound good?”

  “No!” Aria snapped. “There’s so many things that could go wrong, and we don’t even know if it will work at all! What if goes straight for us once it gets close? What if it just waits for us to leave the ruins? What if it can fly? You’re just guessing!”

  Badger stared at her, restrained anger playing across his face before his expression went blank and he shrugged, spreading his hands, “Shino said he wouldn’t give us another unwinnable scenario. There is a solution here, we just need to figure out what it is. If you’ve got a better plan, then please, tell me. I’m listening.”

  Aria just glared at him.

  ◆◆◆

  The group finished searching the office, finding nothing more of value, and returned back the way they came. They waved to the pleased abomination, who waved back with a tentacle, using two more to floss using some piece of its bounty that did not bear thinking about from its teeth. When they ascended the stairs, they were left to look out the windows into the larger cave, the darkness absolute past the range of Aria’s aureole.

  “Okay!” the gnome said, hyping himself up. “So, arrows. You have enough to do this right? We’ve been going through a lot of them?”

  Fayne snorted, drawing a dozen shafts from the Bag of Holding. “I bought four hundred when we were in town. If they don’t ground themselves in something, they explode when I shoot them, so I can’t exactly reclaim them. I have enough.”

  Badger nodded, repeatedly casting the Light cantrip as he held them one by one. “Okay good. Everyone else ready?”

  “I still say we should try to kill the bloody thing, but I’ll follow your lead wee man.” Rurik said. Aria nodded, scowl shifting to a grimace of worry as she stared into the black.

  “Fayne, if you would?” Badger motioned, pushing the door open for her to take her position.

  The elf took a deep breath and took her bow in hand, a slow line of lightning playing along its limbs, and dropped the glowing arrows in her quiver. With the ease of long practice, she sent the missiles flying into the darkness in an arc, north to east, each detonating with a crack at the end of their flight. As she drew her last the rest of the party took off running for the ruins, Aria’s golden radiance lighting the ground for them to tread. After the last arrow was loosed Fayne turned on her heel and ran after them, easily catching up with her companions with her ground eating strides, taking position at the front, a mundane arrow strung as she watched for trouble.

  They ran on, fearful, Aria glancing back every dozen steps to see if the serpent had fallen for their plan for the fourth time, and blew out a sigh of relief as she saw the first light of distraction wink out on the other side of the cave.

  She turned back and focused on her task sending a message of ~It’s working!~ over the mental connection they shared. Rurik and Badger nodded, the dwarf focusing on his destination, hands on his weapons, while Badger struggled to keep up, his tiny legs blurring to keep up with the rest of the party.

  Fayne strained her eyes, trying to see what was in front of her, looking for the ruins that would shelter them. She tried to hear the sounds of the monster moving over the echoing of their footfalls and the sounds of Badger’s labored breath, but the silence surrounding them was deafening. When she finally saw the reflection of light on broken glass, she looked back at the rest of the party to tell them, and realized the last light had already disappeared, leaving the party as the only visible thing in the sea of darkness.

  ~In the ruins! Now!~ she commanded, darting to the space between two buildings, arrow strung and crackling as she frantically tried to find their hunter, the blackness revealing nothing.

  ~Why?~ Aria asked, pace slowing as she glanced backwards, head whipping forwards as she picked up her speed, grabbing her husband by the backpack as she flew past Rurik towards the relative safety of the Ruins before taking up a position behind Fayne.

  ~Oi!~ called Rurik as he caught up with them. ~Don’t leave me behind here!~

  ~Sorry!~ Badger replied, trying to catch his breath. ~I was having a bit of trouble.~

  Fayne motioned for them to keep moving as she unslung her quiver, holding in front of Badger. ~We need to keep moving. Badger, Light these up and I’ll fire them as we move.~

  The wizard nodded, ~Will do, just remember not to leave them in straight lines; we want to slow it down, and anything that big should have trouble turning once it gets going.~

  Fayne nodded as they started to move again, the ruins feeling much more ominous than they had before. After Badger had finished enchanting the arrows, concentrating hard to cast the spell from his unstable position, Fayne re-slung her now glowing quiver, tossing Badger another quiver to enchant from the bag. The gnome grabbed them and started casting, almost dropping them when they heard the sound of breaking masonry from the point where they had entered the ruins.

  The party sped down the streets, taking turns at random but still making their way north, Fayne firing magically lit arrows all around them as they did, and most of all putting distance between themselves and the sounds of disturbed rubble. The group had made it halfway through the ruins when a hissing noise echoed through the cavern, the lights they left behind dying one by one, like snuffed candles before an oncoming wave of blackness. A long hiss permeated the air, reverberating through their bones, and the quiver full of glowing arrows in Badger’s hand went out as one.

  The world returned to dar
kness, lit only by the halo of Aria’s light, which itself was not nearly as strong as it should have been, flickering shadows seeming to press in on them from every direction. Badger tried casting Light onto the arrow he was holding again, only for the arrow to flicker faintly with luminescence, even that meagre light fading in seconds. He swore, trying again only to have the same result.

  ~What happened?~ Fayne demanded, looking all around them for signs of the serpent.

  ~I don’t know!~ the wizard replied, frustration coloring his thoughts. ~It’s like the magic doesn’t want to take!~ He tried casting a different spell, and shot a bolt of fire down an alley. However, unlike the almost solid missile of flame the spell normally produced, this was a thin, wispy thing, fading out after only a few dozen feet.

  ~’Aving performance issues little man?~ The dwarf tried to joke, failing to break the tension.

  ~I’ve never heard of this!~ Badger said. ~With magic!~ he added, seeing Rurik about to respond. He thought for a moment, as the party stared into the dark. ~Fayne, shoot your bow. I want to test something.~

  The archer shrugged, firing back the way they came. The arrow flew, crackling with electricity, the irregular flashing illuminating up parts of the street as it flew down the straight road, several hundred feet before hitting the ground and shattering with a flash. The light showed the ruins they’d travelled, and the flash illuminated falling masonry of a building as it was disturbed, the noise of it crashing to the ground reaching them in the darkness immediately after.

  ~Let’s keep moving,~ Aria suggested as she moved, the rest following suit.

  They hurried on, taking corners, heading for the northeast corner of the ruins. At first, they moved carefully, but stealth was quickly forgotten, as the sound of their hunter closing reached them quickly grew.

  ~We need to do something!~ the cleric implored as they ran, their death approaching. ~If it’s magic, maybe we could light torches?~

  Fayne nodded, drawing the two normal torches she had left in her bag, not needing them anymore since she had Everburning Torches, though the supposedly permanent illusionary flame had been extinguished by whatever the serpent had done. Holding them out towards the wizard Badger looking at her for a second before slapping his head and casting Flame Bolt. The magical fire, weakened as it was, did not blast them out of her hand, but merely lit them. She tossed one down a street, the other inside a store front, thinking hard. ~Keep running~ she told them, spinning around and plunging into the darkness.

  ~Fayne, wait!~ Aria called, turning around.

  ~Keep. Running,~ her husband commanded, face resolute. ~Out of all of us she knows what she’s doing~

  ◆◆◆

  I really don’t, the elf thought as she retraced her steps, running back to the dropped torches, picking up the one in the alley without breaking stride. Her speed, increased by her training as a scout, took her down the twisting corridors of wrecked stone, almost running faster than the torch could light the way. The slithering sound that echoed all around was deafening to her ears. Her flight carried her to the building where they had found the helm, the one covered in stupefying fungus, whose effects she still hadn’t fully shaken off. Maybe that’s why I’m doing this, she thought to herself. This plan is stupid enough. But they needed light, and while the buildings were stone, the mushrooms covering this one were definitely flammable.

  The elf tossed one torch into the building, running before it even hit the floor. Her way was lit by the quickly building flame as the field of mushrooms covering every surface of the ruined shop caught, blazing into a bonfire.

  She turned a corner, only to slide to a halt as the other end of the ally was covered in unnatural inky darkness. Freezing, she waited for something to emerge from the shadows that she’d have to fight when she realized the darkness was moving. A closer, hesitant look showing that it wasn’t darkness, but the ebon scales of something at least ten feet tall, slowly sliding past.

  Fayne held her breath, not making a sound, as the noise of slithering moved past her, no more than a street or two over. Once the body of the monster finally slithered past, the darkness tapering off to the end of the snake’s enormous body, something that took far, far too long, she crept on, quiet as the night, and took the way east, leaving the ruins by the flickering light of the pyre that lit up the entire ruins in dancing shadows.

  Slipping out of the buildings, she spotted the golden light of the party, shining bright in the darkness as they hugged the wall. Aria was glancing back towards the ruins but didn’t see her as the cleric turned to look forward, following Rurik as she still carried Badger. Fayne dropped to the smooth cave floor and sped through the darkness, stumbling on unseen dips and bumps in the ground, as well as the occasional bit of debris that skittered across the stonework far too loudly, sounding like bone as they rattled away.

  Aria gave a little shriek as Fayne rushed at meet them from the darkness, dropping Badger as she tried to grab her weapon. Fayne started to reassure her when a hissing shriek tore through the otherwise silent cave. Everyone turned to see the ruins, one block highlighted by the reddish light of the inferno which covered the building. Through dancing shadows, a serpentine form rose in the air, easily over a hundred feet tall, waving back and forth in pain as flames covered its head.

  They watched what was hunting them in mute horror before Rurik let out a chuckle. “I be thinkin’ it tried to eat that bonfire ya set lass, and didn’t like the taste.”

  Badger chimed in, “Hopefully it spoiled it’s bon appetit!”

  “Or we just made it angry,” Fayne cautioned. “Let’s keep moving.”

  They took off, following the cave wall. It eventually fell off to the left, but they continued moving straight, hoping the map was accurate. It was, and Aria’s aureole, which Fayne noted was back to full strength, illuminated the corner of a large, one-story building with thin arrow-slits for windows. They ran around it, coming to an impressive double door, locked tight. The group kept watch as Fayne fell on the lock, opening it in moments, leading everyone inside, closing, locking, and barring the door behind them.

  ◆◆◆

  Inside the guardhouse was a waiting area, with many desks, and a staircase in the back leading down. Aria stumbled over to one of the stone seats and dropped down, mentally drained. “What was Shino thinking?” she asked the room at large, too tired to be truly outraged.

  “How were we supposed to fight that?” she asked the room at large. “How were we supposed to survive against that. . . thing?”

  “We’ve been doing pretty good so far.” Badger shrugged as the rest of them took seats. “Misdirection and trickery seem to work. Whatever it is, it doesn’t really plan, it just goes for light. I wonder why?”

  “Maybe light means prey?” Fayne offered.

  “But then why did it go and try an’ eat the fire?” Rurik questioned. “Most animals know what fire be. An’ why did it go after the light bolts before Aria? I be glad it did, but why?”

  “Who cares why?” Aria sighed, defeated. “It’s going to get us next time!”

  “Not necessarily,” her husband mused. “Shino said he would never make a no-win scenario, so there has to be some way to get through this. We got past it last time, when you said it was going to get us; we just need to be smart.” He hopped up and started pacing. “Rurik, you said it went for Aria last. What makes her light different than mine?”

  “It be gold, whereas yours be blue,” the dwarf observed, expression one of utmost concentration. “She was movin’ as well.”

  “It’s also divine,” Aria added. “Maybe that makes a difference?”

  “If it was undead it would,” Badger mused, nodding, but stopped at Aria’s frown.

  “I don’t think it is,” she disagreed. “If it were, it would either go straight for us, because we’re living, or be intelligent enough not to fall for the same trick twice.”

  Fayne took off her backpack, laying down on a stone bench, hand over her eyes. “So,
if it’s not undead, what is it? That thing wasn’t normal.”

  “It’s obviously magical, that’s how it could lay down that darkness effect,” Badger noted.

  The prone elf sat up, looking at the wizard, “Is that what happened?”

  “Yes,” he nodded, speaking more to himself than her. “Now that I’m not. . . now that I’ve had some time to think, it’s obvious. A light spell can be cancelled by a darkness spell of the same order, or overpowered by one of a higher order. My Light spell is a cantrip, so even an ability at the strength of a first order spell can smother it. Aria’s light, along with natural light like torches, are just lessened in effectiveness. A deeper darkness spell would stop their light, but not anything less than that, and maybe not even that depending on how Aria’s works.”

  The party absorbed this information. “So, what does that mean?” Aria finally asked.

  “It narrows it down,” Badger shrugged. “It could be a magical beast, which is self-explanatory. It could be from another plane of existence, the plane of shadow sometimes crosses over into places that have been too dark for too long, and this might count, or it could be an aberration, in which case the only thing we know about it is that we don’t know anything about it, though aberrations are usually intelligent so that’s probably not the case. It goes after light, but arcane blue light that isn’t moving first, so maybe I can do something?” He shrugged. “I need some time to figure out a plan.”

  “Well, I’m a bit tired out,” Fayne admitted, looking at Aria who appeared to want to fall asleep right there in her chair. “So we should check out this place to make sure there aren’t any surprises.”

  Aria looked around, confused, “What’s there to ‘check out’? All I see is desks.”

  Fayne pointed towards the stairs at the back, Aria following the line of her finger and letting out a grumbling sigh of irritation. She forced herself to her feet, her chainmail clinking lightly. “Fine. Let’s do this. But then I’m taking a nap!”