Burrows & Behemoths

by Lee Duckett

  “There was a hallway, but it wasn’t lit,” the elf commented, turning around and opening the door. “There might be more remnants here, stay on guard.” The party followed her, trying to be quiet but Aria’s armor clinked loudly as she walked.

  The scout turned to look at her, and she just shrugged. “I’m not good at sneaking, neither is Rurirk.”

  “Oi lassie, I put point in Secrecy,” Rurik rebuked, and he’d indeed been quieter, if still nowhere near as stealthy as Badger, let alone Fayne. “No point in lettin’ the baddies jump ya ‘fore yer ready.” The gnome nodded in agreement and had to suppress laughter at Aria’s sour expression.

  “Fine,” she groused, folding her arms. “Whatever. If you think it’s best, I’ll stay in the back of the bus so I don’t disturb you.”

  The way she said it suggested Fayne should reassure her about something, which the scout didn’t, just smiling and saying, “Thanks! When we have some time I’ll see if I can give you some pointers!” Turning around, she didn’t see the look of offense that crossed the cleric’s face, but she might not have cared even if she had.

  Moving forward as quietly as they could, the party crept up the stairs, across the walkway, and down a darkened hallway. The everburning torches were broken, their moorings smashed to pieces.

  ~Should we be grabbin’ these on our way out?~ Rurik asked, looking back to Badger. ~The one’s from our last adventure will be worth their weight in’ gold, now that we’ve hit level five an’ can sell ‘em off.~

  The wizard shook his head, ~These are broken, and the others were part of the wall. If we tried to take them, they’d just break too. I think they were designed that way to stop people from taking them. We could- nevermind, it’s go time, eyes forward,~ he said, Aria’s light illuminating a large double door at the end of the hall.

  Fayne went to check it over, finding it unlocked and open. ~Get ready,~ she advised, waiting for the party to unholster their weapons. Rurik unsheathed his swords, his katana igniting with amaranth flames. Badger held his hand out, silver liquid pouring out to form his quarterstaff, a few drops of water dripping from the bottom. Aria un-holstered her mace, frowning.

  ~Badger, can you use that hand-thingy?~ the scout requested, stepping back and drawing back on her bow, electricity dancing down the length of her arrow. He nodded, a ghostly purple hand appearing with a murmur and a twist of the wizard’s own appendage, moving the door which grated and creaked a little, but still opened with only a small amount of effort. On the other side was a scene of devastation, the kind that had been conspicuously lacking throughout Dardenhaven.

  While the back of the room had collapsed, electrical scoring lined the walls, criss-crossing with marks from something so hot that it melted away the stone. The damage was almost symmetrical, the patterns of damage centered on a blackened column twenty feet into the room and slightly off to the left. The only furniture left recognizable was stone, and most of that was broken to the point of that they were just piles of carved rocks. The remains of several dwarven corpses littered the space. They were left seemingly mummified, the pattern of damage behind them interrupted, whatever killed them having hit their bodies instead of the wall.

  ~Undead?~ Fayne asked, Badger’s eyes glowing as he checked for magic while Aria peered at the corpses carefully from her position at the back of the group.

  ~No necromancy, though whatever that thing in the middle is, it’s full of magic,~ he advised. ~It might be masking weaker auras.~

  Aria shook her head. ~I don’t think they are, though I can’t guarantee they aren’t.~

  “One way to find out,” Rurik rumbled, taking several careful steps inside. When nothing happened, he waved for Fayne to continue, moving past him and carefully checking the room. As she neared the blackened column, it sparked and sputtered, stopping when she backed off. Rurik moved to the corpses, carefully prodding them with his wakizashi. When none of them jumped up and tried to attack him he got to work checking the one in the right corner of the room, only a dozen feet from the door in case he needed to run.

  As the samurai removed the armor of dead dwarf who was missing his head and legs, the warrior let out a low whistle. “Ya know what ye be sayin’ about missin’ magic items, lassie? Well, either ya spoke too soon or somebody heard ya.”

  He started stripping off the burned and melted armor, revealing a pristine looking vest. “Oi, finger waggler, this be what I think it is?”

  Peering under his shoulder, the gnome nodded. “If you think it’s a vest of resistance, then yeah it is. Only the most basic type, but still better than nothing.” Rurik nodded, stripping the corpse.

  “Um, isn’t that kinda grave robbing?” Fayne asked, unsure. “Taking stuff from the bad guys is one thing, but this feels different.”

  The dwarf shook his head. “One, they’re not me clan, and they’re clan’s descendants are who knows where by now; two, this ain’t a crypt; and three, we be facin’ a dragon, we’ll need all we get can get.” he pointed at the armor he was stripping off. “Whatever killed ‘em wrecked their gear, strippin’ off the magic, but the vest be protected in a way their armor, weapons, and rings weren’t.” He tossed the vest to her, moving to the next corpse in the back-right corner of the room, lying a foot away from the rubble where the room had collapsed. This one missing half its body, the dark vest with golden thread seemingly untouched evident once he brushed off the soot.

  Aria, leaning over to watch him work, asked, “If the others got destroyed, why is it still intact?”

  Rurik stripped the corpse, turning the vest to show the inside of the back of the garment, a symbol of Andruft embroidered into the fabric. “It be customary for me kind to put the locus of the magic hereabouts, so it only be damaged if ya show yer back to the enemy. As long as this be intact, the vest will fix itself, and fit the wearer.” He tossed the garment to Badger, moving past a corpse that had been blasted through the chest just outside of the device’s danger range. The blackened, burned fabric of a ruined vest peeked out from behind the armor, burned into uselessness, though still somehow preserved. Fayne was looking at her vest with apprehension. “Why aren’t ya puttin’ it on? What be the problem, lass?”

  “Um, I, there’s nowhere to change,” she said, embarrassed.

  Rurik just stared at her. “And? We be adventurers lassie, I didn’t take ya for a blushin’ maid. They just be breasts, not like I’ve never seen those before.”

  The elf blushed, “You haven’t seen mine. Besides, you should know from overdoing the drinking that just because your character’s seen them before doesn’t mean that you have!”

  The dwarf blinked. “Yeah, and? I might not’ve drunk ‘fore gettin’ here, but I’ve already seen-”

  “Rurik!” Aria gasped. “You’re fifteen!”

  He held up a hand, palms raised and fingers slightly curled in the universal gesture of ‘you’re being stupid’. “And?”

  Before the situation could deteriorate further Badger stepped between the dwarf and the other two, “There’s the hallway we just came down. Close one of the doors and change behind that. We’ll let you change in peace.”

  “Thanks,” the elf sighed, exiting the room. Aria huffed and turned to look at the walls, missing the wink and thumbs up Badger sent his son, who just rolled his eyes and turned to look over the last semi-intact corpse in the left corner by the door, almost mirroring the first body he’d checked.

  This one had another vest, soot covered so as to not be seen on first glance, but under Rurik’s careful metal-clad fingers it revealed itself. He looked at it consideringly before shaking his head. “Oi, Glowstick!” he called, getting his mother’s attention.

  “What did you just call- bwah!” she started to respond, startling in surprise as he tossed the magical item towards her.

  “Put that on, it’ll be no good for any of us if our healer goes down,” he instructed gruffly, turning away from her to look at the rubble. She looked at the garment bearing magical prote
ctions, and back at him, before moving to the doorway to change.

  “Hey! I’m still changing!” the elf cried out.

  “We’re both women, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” the cleric tried to excuse.

  “And you haven’t seen mine!” she yelled, echoing her previous statement. “Just wait a minute!”

  Aria returned to the room, stepping back in and waiting in a very put-upon manner. Badger moved to stand next to Rurik, away from the doorway, giving him a serious nod of thanks for making sure his wife was protracted, to which the dwarf just shrugged. Turning to join the samurai in looking at the rubble he said, “So, there’s enough stone to block most of my magical sight, but are your dwarf senses tingling?”

  “I wouldn’t be puttin’ it like that, wee man, but yer right,” he admitted, waving towards the rubble to the left. “Somethin’ be buried near the surface, but I’ll not be pokin’ it till the rest be ready. Speakin’ of which, put on the vest. It might be strainin’ the magics, but it should shrink to fit even yer scrawny self.”

  “You sure you don’t want it?” the wizard offered. The dwarf’s flat look answered his question, and he moved to slip off the top of his studded leather armor, revealing the thin padded shirt underneath. Putting on the vest, it slowly shrank until it fit him, the gnome giving a low “huh.” after it finished transforming.

  “I don’t feel smarter or wiser, but a little more. . . confident?” he said, mostly to himself. Opening his character sheet, next to the section detailing his save modifiers he now had a ‘magic’ modifier of plus one to his Will, Fortitude, and Reflex saves. “Yeah, that’s. . . different. It’s not really mind-altering magic as much as. . . enhancing?”

  “Yeah,” Fayne added from right behind them, causing Rurik to freeze and Badger to jump, almost falling over before he twisted and got his feet under him, taking a few steps to the side. “Sorry, thought you guys knew I was here,” she smiled sheepishly. “But yeah, it’s not like what the snake did, everything’s just a bit better. I can see why these guys didn’t leave these at home. What’re we looking at?”

  “Wait for Aria,” Rurik rumbled, waiting. When she came back a minute later he pointed to a section of fallen rubble, just outside of the device’s range. “There be somethin’ half-buried in that stone pile. I be goin’ to go un-bury it, but if it be somethin’ bad, I want you lot prepared ta fight.”

  When no one objected, only readying their weapons, he was pleasantly surprised. The samurai moved forward carefully, keeping to the left wall, skirting the devices range. It still sparked, as if in warning, but that was all it did as he reached the rubble. Slowly, so as not to cause the room to further collapse, he pulled away the rocks, several of them hiding more scorch marks.

  As he worked, he revealed a hidden, scaled arm, damaged but preserved. Moving more rubble, he revealed what was surely a body, but between the fire and lightning damage was nigh unrecognizable. Dislodging caused some rocks to fall, one of which entered the range of the device behind him. What a loud ZAP and the sound of an explosion, the stone was lashed with criss-crossing arcs of fire and lightning, flying backwards to impact the rubble with what would have been bone-crunching force, had the dwarf not moved out of the way, causing more rocks to fall, bouncing towards the device.

  “Rurik, Move!” yelled Badger, unable to help as the rest of the party backed towards the door. The dwarf, prize in hand, moved back the way he came, the ceiling starting to crack and more rocks falling, only to enter the range of the device, still active, blasting them back and making the problem worse. As the blackened column of a magical device lashed out at each rock that entered its range it started sparking more and more, a rising hum filling the room.

  “Don’t be waitin’ for me. Keep goin’ and don’t bloody stop!” the samurai commanded, moving quickly as rocks continued to fall, barely outrunning the collapse. The other three, who had made it to the hallway and stopped to watch, hesitated a moment before complying, the sound of the device ever-increasing. Rurik ran down the hallway, the others already descending the stairs when the hum, which had reached a roaring drone, stopped for a second. Having reached the walkway overlooking the forges, the dwarf turned and leapt, corpse in hand.

  An explosion rang through the space, pieces of masonry propelled down the hall like a fusillade of cannonballs, a fiery explosion right behind them. Rurik hit the ground and rolled, barely missing one of the forges, ending flat on his back as he saw the conflagration expand harmlessly out across the ceiling of the thirty-foot-high room.

  ~You all get out okay?~ Rurik asked, still laying on the floor, the body next to him.

  ~We’re fine, are you?~ Aria replied immediately, concerned.

  He sighed over the connection. ~Aye lass, I be good. Din’t expect that, but it worked out. Meet ya in the burned room in just a mo’.~

  He sat up, looked at the corpse, and told it, “Ya better be worth it,” before taking a pull from his flask.

  ◆◆◆

  Joining the rest, he plopped the body down on a desk one of the others had cleared. “Okay, so, what be this?” he asked, looking at the rest. The body was easily six feet tall and thin, but not like the cadaverous look of an undead, clothed in a burned away jacket that had metal threads interwoven into it. What bone-structure remained unbroken showed fine, almost aristocratic features. Its face wasn’t the draconic snout he’d expected, but an almost human-like formation, though it was a burned mess. The arm he’d first found was the only part that was completely intact. The bones of the hand were thinner than he’d expected from something that looked draconic, closer to an elf’s, though the fingers still ended in claws.

  “Well, I don’t think it’s a kobold,” Aria shrugged, pointing to the scaled arm. While dark, they were a multitude of colors and looked vaguely metallic. “I’ve never heard of kobolds being more than one color.”

  Badger shook his head, “They happen, but I’ve never heard of one being more than two colors. And this size. . . I want to say half dragon, but that doesn’t seem right either.” He shrugged, “Sorry, I’ve got nothing.”

  ~Fafnir?~ Fayne asked, ~Do you know?~

  The sensation of a shrug was his reply. ~I’ve been around for a long time, child, but that doesn’t mean I know everything. This thing likely has draconic ancestry, but it’s been diluted to the point of uselessness. More than that, I cannot say.~

  Badger, who had climbed up onto the desk to get a better look, knelt by its chest and slipped out a dagger from his belt, cutting away at its undershirt while his eyes glowed. The others watched as he revealed a necklace, its sting not around the creature’s throat but held in place against its chest by the fabric of its shirt. At the end of the necklace was a pendant, a yellow, oddly flexible scale, covered in silver arcane patterns. The wizard looked it over before tossing it to the dwarf. “Put this on.”

  Rurik shrugged, doing so and slipping it underneath his armor. He looked back at the gnome. “And what’s that supposed to be doin?”

  “It should make your skin tougher. Not as tough as your head, but I don’t think magic ever could reach that high standard,” Badger joked. “It’s an Amulet of Natural armor, and a second tier one at that. It creates a sympathetic link between your skin and whatever animal part you make it from. I’m not sure what that was a scale from, but it’s got decently thick scales.”

  “A cave dragon,” Fayne added, her pre-game study on all things draconic paying off. “Young-ish. They go from limestone white, to sandstone yellow, to black as they age. They’re flexible so they can fit into all kinds of caves, but you don’t see them outside of the Lower Realms, and unless we’re a lot deeper underground than I thought, we shouldn’t be anywhere close to their territory.”

  ~You might not be, but wherever this thing called home may be,~ Fafnir pointed out, his distaste of the creature palpable.

  Fayne wanted to ask about that, but moved on instead. “Right. I guess we found what did this,” she waved around a
t the destroyed room. “Well, not this room, that was me. I mean what happened to the dwarves.”

  “But this doesn’t tell us anything!” Aria objected. “All we know is that there was a dead quarter-dragon. It might’ve been living here with the dwarves when something else happened.”

  Rurik winced. “While I be likin’ yer givin’ these dwarves the benefit of the doubt, that’s not likely lass,” he divulged. “The dwarves on the island I be from live together with others, but that be because me ancestors couldn’t force ‘em out. Rurik might be tolerant of other races, but like his kin he din’t exactly like ‘em. I not be knowin’ a lot about this place in particular, but these rooms be built by dwarves, for dwarves. You can tell that by the size o’ things.” he waved around the blackened chamber, indicating the desks, all the exact same size.

  “But the ceilings are all high enough for me,” the aasimar argued.

  He looked at her, unamused. “First of all lass, I not be appreciating the crack about me size. Second of all, ye be likin’ ten-foot ceilings in yer home, but yer not eight feet tall. The beds and chairs bein’ low ain’t a stylistic choice, it be practical, and a wee bit passive-aggressive. That, an’ dwarves an’ dragons don’t get along too well. Not as bad as we are with giants or goblins mind ya, but still, the chance of some elf-lookin’ lizard quadroon bein’ allowed in a dwarven master’s workshop in a place like this are. . . well, they ain’t be good.”

  “Either way, we can try to find about these things later, if you like,” Badger added, clapping his small hands together. “So, we’re all intact, Rurik’s tougher, which is always a good thing. Everyone ready to go fight a hopefully not cave dragon?”

  “I am!” Fayne replied, already moving towards the door to the meeting room.

  “Wait!” Aria called, motioning towards the body. “What about this? Aren’t we taking it with us?”