by Randy Nargi
Piles of rubble rose thirty feet high—made up not only of stone blocks, but broken furniture, decaying trade goods, and other junk. Everything was covered by either a black moldy substance or a furry pale pink lichen that grew in branches like coral and gave off a faint glow like the fungus on the ceiling.
Some parts of the ground were covered by pools of water, or dark, slow-moving streams, but other areas were dry.
“Spread out,” Pari said. “But keep in sight of one another.”
“What are we looking for, my lady?” Klothar asked.
“I’m not sure, but we were probably sent here for a reason.”
Justin hoisted his short staff and set off to the east. In that direction alone, there were easily a dozen different place for him to explore—from alleyways to doorways to tunnels to debris-strewn lanes between tall crumbled buildings. This whole place was like a giant dwarvish garbage dump.
He settled on checking out a cobbled street wide enough to drive a truck through. The street sloped down to the east for thirty yards before it became submerged into a pool of black water that faded into the darkness.
But there, on the north side of the street, Justin got his first glimpse of one of the fabled Sculpted Arches of Aune. The arch was carved from stone, a dozen feet high, with twin pillars encircled by trees. Each branch of the tree looked like a swirly tendril and the branches curved up to form the top of the arch. The pillars were engraved with all sorts of what appeared to be dwarvish symbols: hammers, anvils, stars, crowns, axes, and forges. It was pretty cool, but he had no idea of what it meant.
Justin concentrated on the arch and popped up his overlay.
At least he tried to. Nothing happened.
That was weird.
He tried to inspect his staff. Nothing.
Next he tried to inspect himself. Nothing.
This was weird. Was his overlay broken? Or maybe it didn’t work down here…
And then Pari screamed.
Crap. He was supposed to keep in sight of her. But now he had no idea of where she was.
He sprinted back towards the main square.
“Pari!” he called.
“Help!” Her cry echoed through the cavernous space. Justin wasn’t sure where the sound was coming from. Maybe to the north…
He scrambled up and over a collapsed building, jumping down off a broken balcony.
“Lad, this way!” Klothar’s voice called. He was close.
Justin squeezed between two massive chunks of stone, each the size of a garden shed, then clambered up on top of a hill made of what looked to be all the broken carts and wagons in the city.
“Don’t come any closer!” Klothar stretched down on his stomach towards the bottom of the hill of rubbish which had tumbled down into a sinkhole. He gripped Pari’s hands as she dangled precariously off the edge of the sinkhole. A strong sneeze would probably send the both of them tumbling to their dooms.
“What should I do?” Justin yelled.
“My pack must be near you,” the ranger called. “Find my rope and secure it. And make haste, lad!”
Justin looked around frantically. Where the hell was the pack? It was really hard to see—even with his glowstone staff.
Finally he spotted the knapsack with a coil of rope secured to it. He freed the rope and then quickly tied one end to a heavy ore wagon. Then he scrambled back towards Klothar.
“Not too close, lad! I feel the hill shifting beneath me.”
“The rope is secured!”
“Good, now how are your rope throwing skills?”
“What?”
“Do you think you can lasso one of my legs?”
“Um, no. Definitely not. What’s Plan B?”
“I’m losing my grip!” Pari yelled.
“Throw the rope to Pari!”
Justin gathered some coils and took a deep breath. He could barely see Klothar and Pari twenty feet below him.
Klothar said, “Pari, keep your eyes on me. Don’t let go. And don’t try to grab the rope yet, my lady. Now Justin!”
Justin threw the rope.
He had no idea if he got it anywhere close to Pari, because at that moment, the hill collapsed.
Caught in the slide, Justin was knocked off his feet. As his staff flew away from him, the last thing he saw was Klothar and Pari disappearing into the sinkhole.
He lay there in the darkness for a few seconds, stunned. Then he pushed himself up on his hands and knees and looked around him frantically. Off to his left was the faint glow of his staff.
Fear twisted his gut. What had happened?
“Guys?” he called out.
No response.
He snatched up his shortstaff and held it up like a torch. There was no sign of his friends. But then he noticed Klothar’s rope. It was pulled taut.
A faint noise echoed up from the sinkhole. It might have been a groan.
“Klothar? Pari?” Justin grabbed the rope and followed it down towards the edge of the sinkhole.
Then he heard Klothar’s voice, weak and distant. “I’ve got her.”
Next, the faint chiming sound of Pari casting a healing spell drifted up from the sinkhole.
“A little help, please!” she called.
Thank god. They were both alive.
“I’m here!” Justin shouted.
“Hold the rope!” Klothar yelled. “Don’t let it rub against anything. We’re climbing up.”
Justin jammed his staff into the debris on the ground and used two hands to keep the rope from fraying itself apart.
It was slow going, but eventually Klothar and Pari emerged from the sinkhole. They were both panting and soaked with sweat.
“You guys—”
Klothar cut him off. “We have to keep climbing. This whole mound could very well collapse at any moment!”
Justin grabbed his staff and the three of them made their way to the top of the pile of broken wagons. At the top, where the ground was more stable, they all crumpled in a heap. Exhausted and half dead, they just rested there for a long time.
Finally, Pari said, “We really need an enchanter in this party.”
“We need to figure out where we’re going,” Justin countered. “This place is a death trap.”
“I’ve seen worse,” Klothar said. “But you are correct, lad. It would be foolhardy to wander willy nilly in a place such as this.”
“It’s so overwhelming,” Justin said. “There are literally a hundred different places to go.”
Pari sat up. “Let’s think about this logically. The last clue we got was that word jumble thing from the tower. It said ‘Find Aune’ and here we are. We found it.”
“Indeed,” Klothar said.
“That means there should be another clue here.”
“Speaking of clues,” Justin said. “I have this.” He reached into his pouch and pulled out the metal scroll case that contained his blood clue. “Seeing Master Desiderius reminded me of it. He gave me this on my first day and said that I would know when to use it.”
“That’s kind of a big deal, Justin,” Pari said solemnly. “Only sages get them, and you only get one. I’d only use it if you’re absolutely sure it’s the right time.”
Justin thought about it. Pari was right. This wasn’t quite a desperate situation—yet. Maybe he should save his blood clue.
“I actually think that Iniya’s carving might be our next clue.” Pari pulled out the wooden plaque and passed it to Klothar.
“What is this, my lady?”
“It’s from my sister. She was a wood carver and I think she left this for me… as a clue.”
Klothar turned the plaque over. “Worlds within worlds will show you the way,” he read aloud.
“Is it me, or doesn’t that sound like the globes in the library?” Pari asked. “I mean, ‘worlds within worlds?’ That’s got to be globes, right?”
“Damn,” Justin said. “I think you’re right. We should have taken some of those globes and cracked
them open or something.”
Klothar shook his head. “I don’t think so, lad. I think the globes really did show us the way when they floated to the ceiling like clouds and revealed Aune’s symbol.”
He passed the plaque to Justin.
Six concentric circles. All broken.
“That design is too specific to just be the city’s logo. I get the feeling that it wasn’t just for decoration. I think it means something.”
“You mean like a literal maze or labyrinth?” Pari asked.
“If that’s a labyrinth, ’tis not a very difficult one,” Klothar said. “There’s only one way to go.”
Pari said, “That’s actually the difference between a maze and a labyrinth. Mazes have different paths, but labyrinths have just one.”
“You’d think the dwarves would know that,” Justin said. Then he turned it over again.
“It really looks like a labyrinth to me,” Pari said.
“Okay,” Justin said. “Let’s assume that it is a labyrinth. Are we in the center or outside?”
“Outside,” Pari said. “Definitely. You always start outside and work your way in.”
“So we’d enter from the east?
“I guess.”
“That’s where I was—before you got into trouble,” Justin said.
“What do you mean?”
Justin said, “I was exploring the eastern side of the square. But honestly, it was a mess. No clear way to go.”
“This whole place is a mess.”
“Not to the west,” Klothar said.
“What do you mean?”
“’Tis an immense structure of some sort that takes up a good third of the square.”
“What kind of structure?”
“I’ll show you.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
As they gathered all their equipment, Klothar re-lit his lantern. Then they set off, hiking west. The ranger led the way past the tall wooden towers that supported the roof of this huge space, past hills of debris, tumbled buildings, and other wreckage.
After about ten minutes of struggling through the remains of the dwarvish city, they finally arrived at the far western edge of the square.
Klothar hadn’t been exaggerating. Before them loomed a huge three-story building that dominated the western side of the square. The front had a long portico of carved stone pillars. It looked like something out of ancient Greece.
There were a half dozen doors running the length of the portico for as far as Justin could see, but the main doorway, right in the center, was framed by another decorative archway. This one depicted two fierce giants, arms upraised, supporting the top of the archway over their heads.
Before they got too close to the archway, Klothar called for them to stop. Then he crouched down and examined the floor.
“These tracks are fresh.”
“How could that be?” Justin asked. “We’re like the first people here in centuries.”
“I think not, lad.” He brought his lantern closer to the tracks. “Two people passed this way. Both slight of build.”
“There is no way you’d be able to figure that out from just some marks in the dust!” Justin exclaimed.
Pari placed her hand on his arm. “Let the man work, Justin.”
Then Justin notice something written on one of the doors. It was a thick blue chalk mark in the shape of a backwards C.
“Check that out.”
Klothar touched the mark, smudging it slightly. “That’s fresh as well.”
“Do you think someone came through here?”
“Seems like it,” Pari said.
Klothar listened at the door. “No sounds within.”
“Let’s go in,” Pari said.
The door opened easily enough and they passed through a wide empty hall that was lit by a soft light that seemed to come from the stone walls themselves.
“What’s making it glow?” Justin asked.
“I have no idea,” Pari said. “Maybe some sort of enchantment in the walls.”
“Don’t touch anything,” Klothar commanded.
Once they cleared the hall, they found themselves in a cavernous space, dimly lit, and supported by hundreds of massive ornate iron columns which ran from floor to ceiling. The space stretched for hundreds of feet in every direction and was filled with what appeared to be ancient, enormous machines. There were giant iron gears, and pistons, and rails with ore carts. A tangled mess of piping ran between the machines, with pipes ranging from the size of someone’s wrist to pipes tall enough to stand in. Most of the machines seemed intact, but a few had tipped over and one was half sunk into the broken floor.
Off in the distance, Justin saw what appeared to be a line of six water wheels like you might see in a mill or something.
All the metal on the ancient machines was rusted and flaking, and there was a thick layer of dust over everything. It made tracking the footprints easy enough for Klothar.
“This way,” he said.
They passed other massive contraptions, as big as houses, connected with other machines by primitive conveyor belts.
“This is insane,” Justin said.
“You know what this is, don’t you?” Pari asked. “It’s some sort of ore processing plant.”
“Are you serious?”
“Those things probably crush the ore,” she said, pointing to one of the blocky machines with an array of giant wheels and piston-like parts. “Those tables there with the sieves… they’re for sorting. Then it probably gets washed, and smelted, or whatever. I’m not really up on metallurgy.”
It made sense. Hadn’t Master Desiderius said that Aune was a big ironworking city?
“Try to inspect it,” he told Pari.
She did and then her face fell.
“That’s weird.”
“Yeah, our overlays don’t seem to work down here.”
“I don’t know how that could be,” Pari said.
“I know, it’s not like we need cell coverage or anything.”
“It must be part of this zone. Not a bug—a feature.”
It took them a half hour or so to finally track the footprints to where they exited the enormous space. The trail led to a big stone staircase at the back wall of the structure. The staircase was easily a dozen feet wide and each riser was decorated with an elaborately painted fresco.
“Up we go,” Klothar said.
Justin held his staff near the stairs so he could make out the designs that ran along the risers. The first several dozen depicted fire and caves and maybe rivers of lava.
“Are you guys seeing this?” he asked, gesturing to the frescoes.
“Yeah,” Pari said. “But I’m not sure what they mean.”
“Or even if they mean anything,” Klothar said. “Sometimes, ornamentation is merely ornamentation.”
They stood on the first landing and caught their breath, while Klothar checked the footprints.
“Onward,” he said. “But stay to the right.”
The second section of stairs was partially collapsed on one side, so they hugged the wall—which is what whoever had made those footprint had done as well. This flight of stairs had different frescoes altogether. These showed scenes of seashores and rivers and forests and then hills and mountains.
There was a final section of the staircase that led up to a low-ceilinged hallway. And the frescoes on this section of the stairs depicted clouds and stylized wind swirls and then the sun and the moon and the stars.
It was weird. Almost like rising in elevation on the earth. Caves and lava, rivers and mountains, and then sky and space.
“Stay in formation,” Klothar said. “Justin, stop lagging. Get in the middle, lad.”
It was darker up here in this hallway, which was wide but low—with a ceiling just a few feet above Justin’s head. They turned a corner to the north and then Klothar motioned for them to stop.
He squatted down and touched something on the floor, then brought it up to his nose.<
br />
“Just water. They must have stopped for a drink.”
“What did you think it was?” Pari asked.
“Blood.”
Just then something big and white noisily flapped over their heads.
“Down!” Klothar yelled.
All three of them dropped to the ground, but whatever it was had flown around the corner towards the stairs.
“What the hell was that?” Justin asked.
“I just saw it quickly,” Pari said. “It looked like a big white naked bat thing.”
“Naked bat thing? Really?”
Klothar stood and dusted himself off. “Probably harmless. Onward.”
As they walked, they noticed that the hallway was lined with alcoves and in each alcove was a statue of a dwarf. But each statue appeared to be stuck in the wall itself. It wasn’t like bas relief or normal decorative artwork. These figures looked like they were trying to claw their way out of the stone. Some of the faces were anguished, others were locked in grim determination.
Justin reached over to touch one of the statues, but Pari pulled him back. “Don’t touch the statues,” she said. “Ever. That’s kind of a dungeon best practices thing.”
“This is really disturbing,” he said.
“Yeah, I know.”
“Someone tried to free this one,” Klothar said from over at the next alcove.
He was right. There were marks on the wall around the statue where it looked like someone had struck the stone.
“It was the party ahead of us. You can tell by their footprints. They were here for a while, but then apparently, they gave up.”
“Which is what we should do,” Pari said. “C’mon.”
They continued down the hallway, but then at the next alcove saw more evidence that the other group had tried to free a statue.
“Whoa!” Justin said. “It’s like they got the top half out, but the bottom is still stuck in there.”
Pari leaned in to look closer, but then she abruptly recoiled. “Okay, this is super gross. You can see its spine and organs.”
“What? No way.”
“Don’t touch!”
Pari was right. At the break where the waist was, you could see part of a spine and spaghetti-like tubes of arteries and severed intestines and other organs. But they were all made of stone just like the rest of the statue.
