by Jason Cheek
We moved out with Ulia once again in the lead. This time the going was noticeably tougher as we wound our way down the slope running parallel to the plateau below. While there were enough underbrush and rocks to keep us mostly hidden from the invaders below, the running, sliding and scrambling on all fours over forty-five to fifty-degree slopes took a toll on our bodies. By the third hour, I was covered in dirt and sweat, besides being worn out from the strain.
The terrain was physically and mentally exhausting. Instead of being able to zone out and focus on running, every step required intense concentration and planning. One misstep would send us tumbling down the slope to the enemy’s camp below. This went on for hours as we slowly made our way down the cliff. By the time I noticed the trail was finally flattening out onto a small rocky shelf that ended at a dark crevice in the rocky face of the cliff, Ulia had already drawn her blade and was signaling that she was going in. I had a moment to see Keela’s pinched face hurriedly glance back at me as she gripped her spear tightly in both fists, before diving in after her friend. Pushing aside the exhaustion weighing down my limbs, I swung my shield in front of me and readied my free fist to cast as I plowed into the dark cleft at full tilt.
I let my shoulder scrap along the walls of the entrance until I felt the stone fall away as I quickly broke left with my shield held high and my fist wreathed in shimmering, blue light. With a spell ready on my lips, my eyes swept the small chamber confirming that we were alone. Breathing a sigh of relief, I released the hold on my magic plunging the room into darkness, until my vision switched over to darkvision. Speaking in a whisper, I told Keele to take the tail-end Charlie position as I tilted my head towards the descending tunnel signaling for Ulia to take the lead.
Thankfully I wasn’t claustrophobic, because the tunnel was tight. Sometimes forcing us on all fours as we made our way deeper into the mountain. We headed down for what felt like forever until the cramped tunnel came to an abrupt end, opening out into a much larger space. Immediately, Ulia held up a hand signaling the rest of us to stop as she tilted her head to the side listening. Minutes passed before she waved us up to where she waited. Coming to a stop behind her, my eyes searched the darkness as she leaned forward whispering into my ear.
“From here on out we’ll need to be alert. While the tunnel we need is nearby, there are sometimes predators from the deep that prowl near the surface. Once we start our climb, we’ll be in enemy territory, so I recommend taking a moment to eat and rest before moving on.”
Keela and I both readily agreed as we tiredly plopped onto the ground. Pulling out my backpack, I shared out my wolf meat as Neysa sat down on her haunches beside me, while Ulia kept watch near the mouth of the tunnel. For a long moment, no one spoke as we focused on eating our simple fare. Even though we’d voluntarily skipped breakfast this morning, it wasn’t from not being hungry. I held off from eating too much. I didn’t want my body to feel sluggish from being too full. Packing the rest of the meat away, I caught Ulia’s eye.
“Can you tell me anything about the layout of the lower levels or the castle?”
Ulia thoughtfully frowned as she began speaking slowly while drawing in the dirt with a dagger. “The lowest four levels are large storage rooms,” Ulia explained, pausing for a moment to complete her basic diagram. “The three top levels are the cookhouse and servant quarters, with the cookhouse being just below the surface. After that, it’s the Hold’s main assembly room and the armory, all of which are on the ground floor. Above that are the quarters for the warriors, mages, and nobles.”
I look doubtfully at the crude map drawn in the dirt, before meeting Ulia’s eyes. “You’re not much of an artist are you?” I asked, arching my eyebrow questioningly. The layout she’d drawn was basic in the extreme … just square rectangles with scribbles in the middle. Keela smothered a laugh as Ulia gave me the stink eye.
“You’re welcomed to draw your own freaking maps from now on.” Ulia snapped at me with a roll of her eyes as I held up my hands in mock seriousness while giving Keela a quick wink.
“No really, I’m good. No way could I compete with that level of natural talent.” I sarcastically said, going back to studying the map as Ulia grumbled under her breath about the quality of her tools. While the dirt map might be lacking in artistic design, it was better than nothing. My face turned suddenly serious as I jerked my chin towards Ulia. “Any idea where they might be holding the children?”
Kneeling down next to her map, Ulia began filling in some additional details around the cookhouse as she spoke. “While they could hold the children anywhere, my first guess would be the storeroom at the far end of the kitchen by the stairwell. It’s close to the assembly hall and easy to secure.” Keela nodded in agreement as she leaned over the map.
“Okay, that sounds like our first destination. Anything else we need to worry about? Goblins taking over the servant rooms or …” My voice trailed off as the women began to talk hurriedly. They finished a moment later as Keela addressed me directly.
“The storage rooms should be clear.”
“Yea, the entrance to the secret passage is well hidden.” Ulia chipped in helpfully.
“But, the servant quarters could be in use,” Keela added in a subdued voice. “We won’t know until we’re inside.”
“Not like that changes anything.” Ulia finished harshly. The determination clear in the set of her shoulders.
“We’ll kill them all or die trying.” I agreed, holding both women’s eyes. “Ready to move out?”
Both women nodded in agreement as we began packing up the remains of our cold breakfast. Within a few minutes, we moved out with Ulia leading the way. A couple of rocks gave away underfoot as we made our way down to the floor level of the main cavern. Even with my Darkvision the ceiling and walls disappeared into the distance out of site. The chamber we were in was immense since my Darkvsion was good for a distance of 60 yards. Bones from numerous small animals were scattered across the floor of the cavern and crunched under our feet as we did our best to make our way across the rock-strewn ground silently.
Obviously, something feasted here regularly on the smaller game that came through. The tunnel we needed wasn’t far, maybe a 100 yards or so up ahead but I could now understand why the women had been so nervous about predators. Even so, we saw nothing, it felt like eyes were boring into the middle of my back as we made our way over the uneven ground. I pushed the anxiety away as we came to a stop, my eyes never stopping their constant scanning.
“The tunnel’s clear.” Ulia’s voice slightly echoed as she ducked inside the opening. “I’m heading up.” Before she’d even finished, Neysa took off into the tunnel ahead of her. Giving me an annoyed look, Ulia gritted her teeth and ducked into the entrance without saying a word. Keela gave me a nervous glance as we both faced the dark cavern. Jerking my chin back towards the tunnel’s entrance, I motioned for her to go next. The relief was written all over her face as she hurriedly disappeared into the mouth of the tunnel after Ulia. The smile that split my lips was brief as I warily continued backing up. Instead of finding a tunnel like the one we’d entered the cavern with, this one was a crawl space that went up at a sharp angle. This meant I had to back up to the incline and turned my back to the main room, before getting out of dodge. The itch between my shoulder blades didn’t fade until I was well up the tunnel.
The shaft was cramped and gritty with an incline that was as steep as a playground sled, only one that was a mile high. While the tunnel thankfully wasn’t as slick as a metal sled, the loose rocks and dirt weren’t much better. I was constantly forced to keep my head down and cocked to the side from the cascade of small stones raining down on top of me from the women climbing above. Thank goodness I wasn’t claustrophobic or I’d be having a hell of a time with this tunnel. We crawled for what seemed like forever in the dark, which made the trek down the cliff to the outer entrance seem like a cake walk in comparison. If you’d ever worked out on one of those inclined climbing
machines at the gym for more than ten minutes, then you know what I mean.
By the time we reached the top of the shaft, my endurance had taken a major hit, and I had dirt and grit plastered to my sweaty face. Even worse, it felt like I had half the mountain plastered to the skin under my armor. All that I wanted to do was collapse in a heap. Yea once again for realism. Thankfully with this being just a game, it only took a minute or two and some water to get me back to a hundred percent. Silently, I passed the water flask around to my companions and readied my weapons as Neysa waited next to me patiently. Taking a deep pull, Ulia handed me the flask back and motioned for Keela to take up a position on the other side of the block of stone we’d stopped next to as she signaled for me to go through first. No one said a word as we quickly got into position.
The stone blocking the passageway had to be at least six feet high and three wide. Deep gouges scarred the stone, looking like something had tried to force its way in at some point of time, which made me eye the darkness of the shaft below with new respect. Obvious something powerful enough to gouge solid stone roamed these tunnels. Otherwise, the wall was smooth, without any obvious crevices to pry open or handles to pull. Even if there were, the door itself probably weighed somewhere in the one to two ton range, and while I was much stronger in game, I wasn’t that strong. I was still studying the wall trying to figure out how Ulia was planning on moving the massive door when the swordswoman signaled for me to be ready and sliced her hand open with her dagger. Stepping up to the smooth stone, she pressed her bleeding palm to the center of the block of stone.
Shimmering magic runes lit up on the edges of the flat rock as the whole wall suddenly shifted, sliding open with a heavy, grinding noise as Ulia and Keela threw their shoulders into the swinging door forcing it to open even quicker. As soon as the gap was wide enough for me to pass, I sprung into the chamber beyond with my shield raised high and my glowing hand ready with a Frost Nova spell on my lips. In the lightless room, the shimmering light made my Darkvision go in and out as I strode further into the chamber scanning for enemies as Ulia and Keela followed a second later behind me with Neysa taking up the rear.
The magic glow surrounding my hand flickered out as soon as I confirmed no guards or patrols were waiting to spring a trap on us. On either side of the central aisle, there were barrels and wooden crates stacked to the ceiling that was covered in a thick layer of dust and finger thick cobwebs. At the far end of the long room was a solid ironbound door. Behind me, Ulia turned back to the doorway of the secret passage and pressed her bloody palm against the door frame at chest level.
Immediately red, glowing runes came to life within the stone around the doorway as soon as she touched the wall. Once again a loud grinding noise rang out throughout the chamber as the massive stone door slowly slide back into place. A minute later the secret passageway had disappeared looking the same as any other wall within the room. As the door boomed shut, Neysa’s low growl reverberated off the stone walls as I caught Ulia’s eye. I couldn’t keep the annoyance out of my voice as I nodded towards the sealed door at the far end of the room.
“Wouldn’t it be better to keep it open until we know for sure whether or not this is a trap?”
“It would be if not for the greater cavern worms that roam these tunnels,” Ulia replied solemnly, ignoring my tone.
“You saw those gouges on the outer door, correct?” Seeing my nod, she continued. “We can’t risk having one of those beasts come up behind us. They’re nearly invulnerable head-on within their tunnels.”
“Wow, thanks for that belated warning,” I said with a frown, remembering the itch between my shoulder blades at the start of the climb.
“There are worse things than cavern worms roaming the dark!” Ulia said giving a derisive snort. Ignoring my annoyed look, she brusquely pushed past making her way towards the ironbound door at the far side of the room. “I can’t warn you about everything down here.”
“Thanks for the support,” I muttered sourly, falling in behind Keela as I patted Neysa reassuringly on her flank. Catching up to the sexy mage, I glanced back at the secret door speaking out loud to myself. “How does the door even open?”
“It’s powered by blood runes.” Keela spoke up helpfully. “Anyone from House of Kayden can open the door with just their blood.”
We made it to the ironbound door before I could ask Keela more about rune magic. Coming to a stop, Ulia gripped the handle with two hands as she turned around to face us. “Same plan as before. If there are too many Goblins to fight, we’ll have to fall back to the tunnel.” She said as Keela took up a position on the opposite side of the door. Seeing our nods, she continued. “On the count of three. Three … two … one … GO!”
I sprung through the opening prepared for battle as the girls flung the door open and flowed in behind me. Seeing no immediate threats, I let go of my magic and inspected my surroundings. The corridor before us was strewn with debris. Pieces of crates were scattered down the hallway from the rooms to either side of the corridor that had been forcefully busted open. Discarded grain from ripped sacks, shredded cloth, broken furniture and chunks of raw ore were haphazardly scattered across the floor. My eyes were still taking everything in when I felt Ulia’s hand grip my shoulder from behind.
“Stairs.” She whispered into my ear as she pointed to the other end of the dark corridor. Nothing was visible in the darkness beyond our Darkvision limit, but I understood what she meant. Nodding, I signaling for her to take the lead and fell in behind as I signaled Neysa to stay close to me.
We moved like ghosts down the corridor, only stopping for a moment to ensure each room was clear before proceeding further. The storage rooms we passed were mostly trashed. The crates, barrels, and sacks were either smashed or ripped open with most of their contents scattered across the floor. The leftover tracks of many clawed footprints were clearly visible throughout the mess.
It was hard to tell if anything had been taken. Mostly it looked like the contents of the room had been simply trashed just for the sake of it. Still, my heart thudded in my chest from the adrenaline pumping through my veins as we moved from room to room. The tension was so thick you could have cut it with a knife and was as much of a rush as any first-person shooter I’d ever played. This was what I loved about gaming. This was what made all of the work a game like this entailed worthwhile.
Obviously, whoever had ransacked these rooms were long since gone. Still, the invaders could be anywhere, so we moved with care. Unfortunately, we never made it to the stairwell that Ulia was expecting. Halfway down the corridor, I suddenly realized it ended in a jumble of rocks and dirt from a massive cave-in from above.
Catching Ulia’s eyes, I nodded towards the end of the corridor as Keela came to a stop behind me. I could see the hesitation in the set of her shoulders as she studied the collapsed corridor, but it disappeared a second later as she silently pointed out the gaping hole in the ceiling. Signaling for everyone to remain silent, she continued creeping forward.
We cleared the last rooms before reaching the cave-in. Although, it wasn’t until after we cleared the last two rooms that we noticed the stench of death and rotting flesh that seemed to permeate the air towards the end of the collapsed corridor. Keeping my shield up and a free hand ready to cast, I took the lead for the last twenty feet. My eyes never leaving the hole in the ceiling as we crept to the base of the cave-in. Sliding up behind me, Ulia gripped my shoulder while signaling she was heading up to take a look as I nodded in agreement. Even if it smelled like an open crypt, it wasn’t like we had any other options at this point.
Before I could give a word of warning, Ulia was skittering up the rock pile like a squirrel after a nut. Only slowing down to a creep as she neared the lip of the next floor. I was watching her back as she peeked over the top when her body went suddenly rigid. Hurriedly she ducked back down, urgently holding up a palm for us to freeze where we stood. The dread of what she’d seen was clearly visible on he
r face. I didn’t know what more we could do. We were already in Stealth mode, so I just kept quiet and listened.
At first, I didn’t hear anything, but slowly as we waited the shuffling sounds of dragging feet came to my ears, quickly grow in volume until it sounded like a massive crowd at a football stadium was passing by overhead as the entire ceiling creaked dangerously from the strain. Nervously I watched as a few of the looser stones at the edge of the jagged hole plummet to the floor around us for several minutes before the lumbering sounds slowly faded away once again. As soon as Ulia gave the all-clear signal, I was up and moving. Scooching around Ulia, I carefully peeked over the edge of the floor to see what was going on. What I saw stopped me cold.
Darkvision worked differently than normal vision. Unlike the partial shadows you’d typically see like a human, my Half-Elf’s Darkvision was either 100% on or off. There was no in-between. Like a night eye on a security camera, once the light brightness was low enough, my vision automatically switched over on its own. Even weirder, my Darkvision just ended at nothing 60 feet out … which was about where the final line of rotting horrors was fading out sight down the corridor.
Walking horrors … aka feral zombies. Most were Half-elves. From the shredded clothing and bits of armor I could see, it was obvious they’d died defending the castle. The rest were Goblin invaders that had fallen during the assault. All had jagged gashes running through their bodies from where they’d been cut down while they’d lived. Focusing above their heads, I saw the ‘Feral Zombie’ title shimmer above the tail end zombies before their jerking; shuffling steps took them out of the range of my Darkvision.
