The Great Horror: Discovery. Patrick Mew
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chairs or tables along the walls, the same brazier arrangements as in the outer ring, and piles of crates and sacks strewn about across the floor. The contents – food, cloth, salt, and coins – lay in piles that fanned outward from their containers. On the far side, embedded in the clay floor, were two large crudely made wooden trapdoors, about a meter and a half square. Rusty iron bands circled both and it was uncertain whether the iron was holding the wood together or the other way around.
“After you, Kida,” Rusga said, bowing mockingly. The kitsu inspected the two doors painstakingly and looked over every nook and cranny near them.
“Looks clear to me,” she said, sitting up and brushing the dirt off her armor. “I didn't find anything dangerous on either one.”
“How can you tell?” Algan asked, searching the doors for something that Kida had seen, or hadn't seen. “It just looks like an ordinary trapdoor.”
“If there are traps there's usually some sort of evidence of their presence. A javelin trap might have a tiny sliding stone panel to cover the hole where the javelin shoots out, while a magical trap might have runes or writing inscribed in the stone or wood where the trap is set to activate. It's all a matter of careful looking and training, so you know what to look for.”
The human shrugged and shook his head. “I don't really understand all of that. I'll stick to what I do best, heh.”
“Suit yourself, but the option is open! I don't like working alone on things like that. Or do I... hmm, if I work alone then I don't put others at risk if I fail and then...” she muttered to herself, trailing off into silent thought. She caught herself after a moment and came back to the present. “Oh, right! Well, seeing as the trapdoors aren't locked or trapped... after you!” The two massive humans groaned, Riun heading down the left trapdoor first and Algan following suit. Kunya followed with Rusga and Kida picking up the rear once more.
The tunnel down was rather wide for goblins and the ladder creaked and strained to hold them against gravity. Bits of earth and clay tumbled down the chute as the ladder moved and twisted under the weight, but it remained upright and anchored as they climbed down to the bottom. Like the previous den, torches lined the walls about every twelve meters and provided more than enough light for the five to see clearly. Shadows danced on the walls as they moved about in the landing chamber, painting the walls black and yellow like an overgrown hornet. The place was eerily silent, with only the collective crackle and pop of the flames signaling that anyone was home. The entire cavern system seemed to be holding its breath in wait for the plunge.
“Pick a tunnel and we'll go clear it out,” Kunya said, refreshing the defensive magicks upon the party. “This cave system probably fans outward in all directions anyway.” Riun grunted and hurried down one, his massive sword at the ready for anything that jumped out. A few screams echoed up the passageway but were cut brutally short by the tribesman in his hunt for blood. It seemed contrary to what the wizard expected and there was no large gathered force in this hall, but the passage dead-ended after about fifty meters with no side chambers or forks in the path. They rebounded and turned to the next path to the left, Riun once more taking charge. He easily cleared a path through their forces, leaving Algan to mop up the remainder with his shield wall. Each time they went through a tunnel the results were more or less the same. A half dozen or so goblins awaited the group through each path and a minor effort dispatched each cluster of opposition.
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
All except the last two passages, that is. The first of those two dead-ended with a bar-windowed door, as if it was a prison cell. Within was a figure that appeared to be elven but with dark, almost ebony-black, skin. It heard the approach of the party and sat up quickly, backing away from the cell door and looking through the window with wary red eyes. A cloak covered the figure before they got close to the cell's window, but Kunya already knew what it was from the gleaming eyes.
“It is alright, dark elf; we mean you no harm if you mean us none. I am Kunya and we are here clearing the goblins from this den. If you are being held here I assume that means you are in bad blood with them as well, and you are welcome to aid us if that is what suits you. If not, you are welcome to leave.” The wizard had to stand on her toes to see through the bars and Kida went to work on the lock, popping it open after a minute of work.
The dark elf seemed leery to answer, and silence enveloped them for a tense moment. “Thank you, human. I'll go with you if only to spill the blood of my captors. They deserve such from me for locking me away like some animal for slaughter. My name is Xron.” He was formal but spoke little of the situation's details.
“Do you need a weapon?” Rusga asked, brandishing a couple of daggers. Xron shook his head.
“Hah, no, I am my own weapon,” the dark elf replied, his hands glowing with purple energy. It crackled and made the party's neck hairs stand as he grinned maliciously. “Forgive the appearances, but it takes raw emotion to call forth that power.” Kunya paused for a moment to think about what she'd just seen.
“I do not believe I have ever seen one in person. This is exciting for me since I have only seen this sort of power described in books. A warlock, if I am correct?” The dark elf nodded, dismissing the energy. “Most interesting. A wizard, a sorcerer, and a warlock...” she said, pointing to herself, Kida, and Xron in turn. “There is a lot of magic here.” They continued along on the other fork of this last path. It straightened out as it went on, the tunnel becoming smoother and abruptly shifting material to something much harder than the packed earth and clay of the rest of the den.
This section was much more structurally sound, having been lined with carved stone blocks and lit with wrought-iron sconces on the walls. Three meters in each dimension, it was perfectly straight instead of twisted and turned like the others. Their footsteps echoed toward the surface as stairs descended some thirty meters down the hall, terminating in front of a large iron door. It depicted scenes of madness and slaughter with terrible visages of pain, suffering, and insanity under a bleak, black sun as storm clouds gathered in the distance. Two handles, each a ring with a fanged skull for the knocker, stood out from the landscape. Only later would the significance of this scene become apparent.
“Time to get to work, Kida,” the catfolk announced, nudging his friend forward.
“Alright, alright, give me a few minutes to look it over.” She went looking as she had with the trapdoors at the top of the goblin nest, prying into every corner and crack she could find and looking for the signs of traps. Xron joined her, evidently possessing the same sort of skills, and the two worked together. After a minute they were satisfied that there was nothing to surprise them. “Looks clear to me, though the handiwork on this door is something else. I've never seen detail this painstaking or this horrifying. Who on earth would design this?”
“I do not know,” Kunya answered, inspecting it in detail. None of the imagery looked familiar to her nor had she read about anything quite like this. “Whoever it is, I hope we do not cross them unprepared, should we cross them at all.”
“Agreed.... yeugh.” The kitsu retched at the scenery and the other four looked at it in turn, grimacing slightly as Kida stood back and waited for the doors to be opened. Bows drawn and steel ready, the two warriors each took a handle and pushed them open. The dark elf charged his hands with the mysterious purple energy again, ready to blast it forth upon an enemy. What greeted them was something altogether unexpected.
As the doors parted and the chamber ahead became visible, the six were taken aback by what stood in the room. Four goblins and two orcs, each bearing finely crafted armor and weapons, stood in a half-arc in front of a strange creature. It was tall, at least two meters in height, and humanoid in frame. Bulging blue-white eyes and glistening, sickly greenish-gray skin stood out prominently and in place of a chin, three tentacle-like appendages draped from its face. Its four six-fingered hands ended in wicked fingernails and it wore finely-made black silk robes. It pointed a hand toward the party and uttered something in a strange language, then vanished. The goblins and orcs readied weapons and moved forward with an unnatural cunning, far beyond what their species should have.