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Part 8: Dungeon Dangers
Chapters 32, 33, 34, 35
He awakens to a bright light filling the cavern. Cold and hungry, he blinks the sleep out of his eyes and looks around. Unsure of what woke him up, his eyes focus on front of the tunnel where two orcs stand guard.
A semi-loud grumbling from the other side of the tunnel catches his attention. He turns his head and sees the orc scout who went up the middle tunnel. He is all scratched up with blood welling from several small wounds. His armor is dented in several places. He looks around and see the others also waking up. The orc mage and the old man have opened the sack he brought back and have spread between them several of the items found by the party, they seem to be examining them. The orc mage has the wand the orc scout offered to him sticking out of one of the pockets in his robe.
Burk, Gwydeon, Magnus, and the silent mage seemingly of one-mind join the two mages in examining the items spread before them.
Others seem more intent on eating as they scrounge though their packs for some food. The orcs seem to be pulling strips of meat from the carcass of some dead animal. Since it is mostly bone now there is no way to tell what it originally was.
Magnus looks around and moves over to speak with Pendran.
Mordred moves over to join the mages and says, “Did ya find a shield for me?” None of the mages even spare him a glance. After a moment he turns away disappointed.
Suddenly, both the old man and the orc lunge for a small item. Both grab the ends of it and begin to pull, when they realize that both want the object they stop pulling and stand silently staring at one another. Both are holding on to the wand made of green wood, neither apparently willing to let go.
Upon seeing this, every orc starts quickly grabbing their meager belongings and heading for the entrance. Dayal, Pendran, Je, Poj, and the silent mage follow them quickly.
The ogre moves over to try and calm things down between the wizards. He is joined by Magnus.
“There is more here than just that wand. This treasure is meant for all to share...” He falls silent as both wizards turn their cold gazes on him.
The priest says, “All I found were these gauntlets that don’t fit.” He drops them on the ground with the other items, “I found some coins and this statuette, which I can’t quite figure out. It has some religious significance, but I can’t figure it out. It is definitely not of Gaea’s sect.” He holds the statue up examining it.
Both wizards look at the statue the priest is holding and drop the wand reaching for the statue instead. They are beaten to it by of all people ogre.
Holding the statue up high, the ogre stares at it wonderingly, “ASSYIR!”
While the ogre is holding the mages attention, Magnus discreetly removes the contested wand from the pile.
Obviously seeing that they are not getting their hands on the statue, the two mages turn back to the pile. When they don’t see the wand they start tearing through it looking frantically. Upset that the wand is now gone. The two mages glare at each other and move back to their respective corners.
Seeing that things have calmed down a little Burk returns to his things and begins reading his spell book.
Magnus also pulls out his spell book and begins to study.
The ogre takes the statue over to the wall sets it down and begins to pray.
Some of the others return to the tunnel. All give both the old man and the orc mage a wide berth.
As the mages settle down to their books, Voruth and Dayal go through their packs and split the rations they find with several hungry mouths.
Zraxin moves over to the pile of treasure and examines it, after examining a few odds and ends he picks up the gloves dropped by the priest.
Several orcs join Zraxin at the pile and pick halfheartedly through the stuff.
As he watches the ogre pray, there is a sense of unease hanging in the air. Almost as if someone is trying to tell them something, but the message is too obvious to notice. “Kind of like seeing your nose. You know its on the end of your face and you can see it if you look, but normally you don’t notice it even though it should be obvious”, he muses.
Gwydeon picks out several items from the pile. Also looking at the bag the priest dropped, he pulls a handful of coins out. A few moments later he pulls some food from his pack and wanders over near Mordred to eat.
Mordred sits on the ground and begins cleaning the blood off of his sword and his armor. “It seems we aren’t out of trouble yet,” he remarks to Gwydeon “there may be a lot of fights to be fought.”
After wiping off as much of the blood as he can off his armor, Mordred gets up and joins Zraxin at the pile. Obviously disappointed at finding nothing useful, he lets Mordred examine and try the gloves on.
The guard gives a shout and one rushes back to Je. After a moment, Je turns and says, “Poj has returned and it seems that they have not run into any trouble. I think the time to leave will be soon.” He smiles.
A few minutes later Poj and the two orcs he left with return. He and Je consult at the tunnel entrance. Then Poj goes to sit with the orcs and helps himself to the rest of their breakfast. Je turns to the rest of the group and says, “They did not find the orc scout, nor did they find any tracks or spoor of any animal. They also did not find any magical traps that could also explain his disappearance. The other scout found no exit, but he did find that animal for breakfast. He also did not find anything dangerous. We must decide as to which path to take.”
The orcs are starting to pack up. One of them moves over to the pile and kicks things around. Picking up an old battered sword, he examines the hilt. After staring at it for a moment he smiles and slides the sword in and empty belt loop.
Zraxin looks around and says, “Poj and his group may have missed something in that cave, but I doubt it.” With evident disgust he says, “It seems that the more dangerous way is the only way out of these infernal caves.”
As the ogre finishes his devotions, Sivad approaches him and with a smile asks, “Excuse me, it is obvious that the statue has religious significance, I was wondering about its meaning?”
The ogre turns to the priest and smiles, “This is a statue of my god, Assyir. It is a holy relic of my people, and as such is prized highly. As you carry your holy symbol reflecting your beliefs, so too do our priests wear this”, he gestures to the statue,” to reflect on our beliefs. Perhaps it is a sign that Assyir favors me, perhaps not.”
Je looks around and says, “Me and my companions have decided to attempt the middle tunnel. If you wish to come, then prepare. We leave as soon as the magi are ready. The truce will still be in effect until we get out of here.”
After Je’s announcement, Zraxin looks at him and says, “I shall go with you, brother. It may not be easy, but it looks like that is the only way. May Gaea help us out of these caves.”
Voruth looks around and says, “Well unless anyone else has any bright ideas I say we stick together. Maybe they know something we don’t.”
This seems to be the general consensus as everyone else starts putting back on their armor and preparing to go.
Pendran looks around, “Not a single torch left. I guess we have to hope these magic light spells hold.”
Poj and one of the orc scouts head out and everyone falls in behind them.
“Make sure the mages are near the middle, “ Dayal says, “By the way, who is carrying the little guy?”
“I can walk just fine thank you!” comes a voice from the shadows, as the little man steps out into the light. “I don’t how I got here or why you are cooperating with them.” He looks pointedly at the orcs, “But I’m fine, and I can take care of myself. But if any of you try anything funny.... it’ll be the last thing you try.”
Poj calls back “Come! We leave now!”
With that everyone starts off, with Poj and two orcs in the lead followed closely by the ogre and Voruth. Following them are four orcs. Next come Gwydeon and Mordred. Next come Burk, Magnus, the old man, the silent mage, Sivad, and the orc mage all surrounded by orcs. Bringing up the rear are Je, Zraxin, Pendran, Dayal, the little man and the last of the orcs.
The somber party crosses the chasm and enters the middle tunnel, for hours they travel through the winding tunnel which seems to twist and turn and rise and fall almost at random. During this time several small instances happen when a giant bug or two peeks out from a hole in the roof. The bugs seem to watch the party before running away. After some consultation with Poj, Je explains, “These bugs are cave fishers. They will not bother a party as large as ours. Though I would suggest we keep alert.”
These words are no sooner out of his mouth than the tunnel is filled with the noise of many claws on stone. Dayal and Zraxin cry out from the rear of the party at the same time that Poj and Voruth do from the front. Coming from both sides of the tunnel are creatures that are seem to have a large round head and a long armored body behind it like a giant centipede. But coming from the head are not pinchers but lots of tentacles surrounding a giant maw. The creatures are moving on multiple rows of claws giving the group plenty of warning.
As the creatures barrel down on the group from both sides, Burk calls out “Carrion crawlers! The tentacles will paralyze you!”
Magnus grabs a scroll and unrolls it.
Burk cries out again, “Meflow nelers! Bewen deso!”
Taking the warning to heart, Zraxin, pulls out his short bow. The orcs on both sides take up positions to receive the beasts charge. Dayal, Pendran, Voruth, Mordred, Gwydeon, Poj, and Je all pull out their weapons and prepare to fight.
Pendran changes his mind and drops his sword and with a glance toward Magnus takes a good grip on the war hammer.
Zraxin fires his arrow, the arrow streaks toward the creature attacking from the rear. The arrow flies true and hits the creature near an eye. It pierces the creatures armor sinking deep inside. The creature lets out a loud squeal and charges even faster.
After Magnus speaks the rune in front of him, the paper glows briefly blue. The blue glow streaks from the paper toward the creature charging from the front slamming into it.
A moment latter Burk speaks the same rune. A greenish glow forms between his hands the glow breaks up into two arrow-like missiles, which slam into the creature charging from the front. Neither do anything to slow it down.
The creatures slam into the waiting wall of metal that is set for it. The swords pierce deep into the fleshy tentacles. A few even pierce the heavy armor. But the momentum of the two creatures carries them past the front line of the defenders and into the center group. The creature attacking from the front is grabbed behind the neck by the ogre, who lifts the heavy creature up and tosses it into a nearby wall.
The creature from the back stops in the middle the party tentacles flying everywhere.
The mages all scatter as they try to avoid the wavy limbs. The old man, and the silent mage aren’t so fortunate as the rest. Trying to dodge the large creature the two get pushed up against the wall. Several tentacles shoot in their direction and brush against them. The creature then ignores them as it goes on to other targets, but neither mage moves an inch from their position.
Picking themselves up, Mordred, Gwydeon, and Pendran charge the creature along with four battered orcs. Mordred, cannily judging his shots thrusts in and scores on the creatures’ tiny eye. As the creature lets out another squeal and violently moves its head, Mordred’s sword is wrenched from this grasp. Gwydeon, taking advantage of the creatures’ distraction, slams his sword into the other eye. An orc who had crawled onto the back of the beast plunges his sword into the back of the creatures’ head. The creature starts flailing wildly knocking down everyone in the rear of the party. Its squeals of pain are almost deafening as they echo back and forth down the tunnel. After a few moments it stops moving and falls silent.
At the front of the group the orc mage speaks a rune and a sizzling sound is heard as a red arrow appears in front of him. The arrow streaks forward and hits the creature as its underbelly is exposed. The arrow seems to splatter and stick to the creature. The smell of burning flesh becomes evident. Voruth, Poj and the two other two lead orcs charge the creature while its bottom is exposed.
Barely missing the flying arrow from the mage, the group slams into the creature swords first plunging them deeply into the creatures soft flesh and then they violently jerk them around to cause as much damage as possible. A moment later they are all crushed under the creature as it rolls over to protect its belly. The creature rolls over again as the swords are pushed deeper into its belly from the ground.
Wielding his mace, Sivad strikes a mighty blow toward the creatures’ head. The cracking of the shell echoes thought the tunnel. The creature stops moving, its tentacles flailing once hitting a nearby orc and Sivad. Both reflexively jump at the touch of the creature.
As the creatures die, and the echoes of their screeches fades into the distance, silence covers everything. For a moment, everyone stops looking around in shock. Then a scream is heard again from both the front and the back of party. A clicking is heard quiet at first, then louder. In the front, the ogre, Magnus and a battered Poj charge forward to see one of the orcs beings dragged away by a cave fisher. Dayal, Zraxin, and Pendran charge to the rear to see the orcs fighting four cave fishers. On the ground behind one of the cave fishers is the body of the old man. He is wrapped in what appears to be white strands of material.
Gwydeon and Mordred pull their swords out of the dead crawler.
Voruth is helped up by the little man. Both stagger towards the rear, where the greatest commotion is going on.
First on the scene, Pendran swings his war hammer in a clumsy arc. The hammer connects with an unlucky cave fisher and shatters its shell and knocks it well out of the way of the fighting. However, his clumsy swing costs him, as the momentum of the hammer drags him off his feet and back the way he came where he almost slams into Zraxin, who dodges at the last moment.
Burk starts muttering a rune.
Dayal slashes at a cave fisher, but his sword just bounces off the hard shell. He has to quickly jump back to avoid an attack by the creature.
Gwydeon and Mordred turn to see what is going on and immediately charge the fishers. Gwydeon yells, “Try to get them off their legs, their underbelly is the most vulnerable. Concentrate on the one with the old man behind it!”
The orcs have split into groups of threes. Two orcs attacks the fisher from the front, the third attempts to circle around it.
Sivad cries, “Gaea protect me!” as he attacks a nearby fisher.
Mordred and Gwydeon also work together to attack the cave fishers from multiple sides.
Je joins Dayal stopping the creature from backing him into a wall.
Zraxin seeing the others tactics joins Sivad.
A cry goes up as one of the fishers tries to run, it is slowed down because it is dragging two of its’ cut legs. It is quickly overtaken by the orcs.
Burk’s muttering comes to a climax as he finishes his rune... behind the cave fishers a large ball of fire appears and moves toward one of the fishers.
Sivad smashes his mace into the creature’s side knocking it off its legs and cracking it’s shell. While the bug is turned over, Zraxin slashes the soft underbelly spilling its guts.
Seeing this creature take care of he spots the old man’s predicament and he runs over and stands between the old man and the cave fishers.
It seems Mordred and Gwydeon also taste success as manage to cut the creatures legs out from under the cave fisher they were attacking. Turning it over, they plunge their swords into the creatures’ body, killing it.
The clicking of one of the creatures is added to by a shriek as the giant fireball rolls into it from behind, scorching its shell. The remaining two creatures break combat and retreat back into the darkness. As the group charges them, several of them trip and cry out as they find themselves stuck to a sticky strand that starts to move upward. Zraxin, Pendran, and Gwydeon along with two orcs reach the two retreating creatures and attack. Three mighty warriors, Mordred, Dayal, and Je slash at the strand pulling them, but to no effect.
“Heiyaaaaaa!” screams the little man as he jumps out of the shadows and slashes at the strand. The strand parts cleanly as his dagger slices through it.
The creature falls backwards as the strand is cut. Voruth plunges his sword into the creatures’ underbelly and twists the sword, he is promptly knocked down by the thrashing limbs of the creature. He gets up apparently only scratched as the creatures’ legs stops thrashing about.
Zraxin and one of the orcs run around the cave fishers as the creatures pause in their retreat to fight their pursuers. Gwydeon slashes and his sword bangs off the creatures armor and hits the ground. The creature jumps toward him knocking him down. Pendran swings again a little more reserved this time. Again the hammer smashes the fisher knocking it for a good distance and again the hammer pulls Pendran him off of his feet and out of the fight. Zraxin and the orc hack at the creature on Gwydeon, until it stops moving. They then pull the bug off of him. Zraxin bends down to examine the unconscious Gwydeon, but find the damage is only minimal.
A short while after the last battle has finished the ogre rumbles, “Is it me or are these guys just a little nervous considering we won the last two battles?” He looks over to the group of orcs who seem extremely agitated and jump at ever little sound. They had insisted after the last battle that they move away from the immediate area before worrying about the recovery of their comrades.
As the group rests, Magnus moves over to an agitated Je and asks, “What are we running from? It looked like we were doing well against the cave fishers.”
Sivad moves over to the two mages to check their injuries.
Je responds, “According to Poj, the cave fishers never act that organized in battle. They also wouldn’t attack a party of our size, even after fighting the crawlers, because there were to many of us still standing. He believes that some beings known as the mind seekers were controlling them. They may have also been controlling the crawlers too as they don’t coordinate attacks either. Usually they would fight each other over a meal before cooperating. If this is true, we could be attacked at any minute.”
Seeing that the mages are fine, Sivad moves over to check over Gwydeon.
Burk pulls out his lantern, increasing the amount of light in the area. The sound of swords being drawn is heard as the lantern goes on. It seems the unexpected light source has startled the orcs who seem ragged and on edge. As they realize the cause of the light, they start to re-sheathe their weapons.
Magnus moves over to Voruth for a moment, checking to see if he is all right.
Seeing that there is little he can do for Gwydeon, Sivad bandages his bruised head and moves on to Pendran.
After a few minutes Poj returns, “Leave now. Must hurry.” And runs back to the lead. It takes a few minutes for the party to line back up with mages in the middle, and start off again. Progress is slower, because the two mages are still recovering from their paralysis, but it is still fairly rapid. After an eternity of traveling the tunnel opens up and splits into three other tunnels. Poj and the two scouts confer for a moment and then take the rightmost tunnel. As they travel they definitely notice the upward slant of the tunnel. Also as they go along they notice that the tunnel widens in some places and tightens in others.
Finally they enter a cavern, where there is a breeze blowing fresh air filled with sweet flowery scents and promises of freedom breeze blowing faintly. At the other end of the cavern, daylight shines through. The orcs let out a ragged cheer.
“Don’t celebrate just yet”, says ogre ominously, as he points toward the roof of the cavern. Looking up, they see nothing but the stalactites. Each stone cone showing a wild pattern of colors and bedecked with sparkling minerals. Just shining a light in that direction causes the whole roof to sparkle and twinkle. The ogre’s gesture confuses everyone.
The orcs, who were starting ahead stop, and look back worried at the tone in the ogres’ voice. Poj runs back and consults with Je, who turns to the ogre and asks, “Why are you worried? There is nothing between us and the freedom of the outdoors.”
After a moments silence, the group babbles forth with questions for the ogre.
Magnus: “What have you noticed? I can’t see any danger?”
Voruth: “Are you nuts? It just rocks!”
Sivad: “What is in the stalactites?”
Pendran: “Is it a trap?”
Little man: “I don’t see nothing, you know something we don’t? If so, share it man!”
Zraxin: “I don’t like this. I don’t like caves at all, but I’ve never even heard of these…things. If there really are these.... Mind Seekers, do you really think they will let us get out of here that easily? Maybe this is a trap.”
Dayal pulls out a dagger and taking aim tosses it up into the darkness. A faint ching is heard as the dagger hits a stalactite and falls back down.
After the party has quieted down the ogre rumbles, “Perhaps my eyesight is better than yours. I just noticed that normal rocks don’t have mouths with teeth in them. I have heard of creatures that live in caves and drop down from the roof and spear anything that passes beneath them. They then devour the creature. It is said they look like the stalactites themselves...”
Upon having this translated for them, some of the orcs slightly raise their shields over their heads and look up suspiciously.
Others look at the ogre as if he had just said something incredibly stupid.
Burk speaks up, “Perhaps we might try moving along the walls, there aren’t as many stalactites along the left wall.”
The old man says, “Trust the ogres instincts, what do you suggest we do?”
While most of the group stands dumbfounded a few people express their opinions.
Dayal says, “Nothing happened, if that was a creature my dagger it then its skin is fairly tough.”
“Since I see nothing, I would normally be inclined to say that this is perhaps taking your fears a little too far”, says Voruth in a reserved voice. “But since we started this little trip into this underground nightmare I have seen a few things that I would believe to be impossible. I say we try to scout out a safe path on the sides like the cook suggested.”
Poj and Je are quietly consulting the orc mage near the back of the group. The mage looks thoughtful.
Magnus looks up at the ceiling and says, “We should take the side of caution and suspect all of the stalactites of being dangerous. I agree with Burk, we should move along the left and keep from going under any stalactites, however we should watch out for traps on the ground as well as for any other hostile creatures.”
Burk moves forward to the front of the group and says, “Let me try something.” He concentrates for a moment and begins speaking a rune. After he finishes nothing happens. Then suddenly from the back of the party an orc in leather armor with a shield strapped high on his back to protect his head, bolts forward and runs full tilt for the entrance of the cave. This move surprises several of his companions who shout for him to stop. The orc gets about halfway to the entrance when it starts. A high piercing noise combined with a low rumbling one is heard and one of the stalactites shifts and falls, followed by another, followed by two more. The first miraculously misses the bolting orc. Again the second also smashes into the ground behind him, as do the other two. The orc seems to be moving at an unnatural speed. Now the orcs are cheering him on as zooms across, dodging three more deadly missiles, most of the way. A particularly large stalactite drops and slams into the speeding orc, who disappears completely under the rock.
The orcs stand shocked for a moment. Then Poj pulls his sword and plants it into the ground and bows his head. Je and the other orcs follow the example. For a moment the only sound heard is a low grinding sound coming from the fallen rocks.
The rocks that fell before strangely aren’t destroyed with their impact with the ground. In fact, they are still whole. Lying sideways on the ground. As a light is shined in their direction, tiny mouths are in fact seen slowly moving on the rock. This is the source of the low grinding sound.
“I think perhaps we have an idea”, says the little man. He points a smallish orc, the same orc that went scouting with Poj and was wearing a black cloak. “We think that perhaps we can scout out the best path on the sides. If one of those creatures starts to fall, we have the best chance to avoid it, as it has farther to go to hit us and I’m pretty nimble on my feet. Besides if they do fall perhaps we can kill them while they are on the ground. Then the path will be clear for future generations of cave loving fools.”
The old man chimes up, “Yes, very good ideas all of them, we must choose one.” And he goes over to stand next to the silent mage and talks with him for a moment, then moves on to Voruth and starts talking with him.
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