by T. H. Lain
"That's a verbeeg," said Sonja from behind. "They're fairly intelligent. Maybe we can reason with it."
The club struck against the door again, knocking Lidda backward with the door's recoil.
"This one doesn't sound especially reasonable," the halfling said, springing back to her feet.
"Get away from the door," Sonja advised, and the others took her advice. They backed away to the corners of the room, weapons drawn and ready to fight. Regdar made sure the Frozen Pendant was secure within his coat and readied his greatsword as the verbeeg struck the door again, and again. The final blow smashed the door inward to hang limply on its bent and torn hinges. The giant bent low and squeezed its head and shoulders through the doorway, preceeded by the menacing club.
"Where is the Pendant!" it bellowed, sweeping the club to and fro, smashing crates and upsetting pedestals. Its Common was oddly accented and deafeningly loud.
Hennet fired a burst of magic at its massive chest. The spell briefly draped the room in sepulchral green. His magic missile slipped around the verbeeg's shield to strike squarely on its chainmail-covered breast. The monster reared back in pain but only slammed against the doorframe. Enraged, it surged forward, tearing out most of the doorjamb and plunging headlong into the treasure chamber.
Regdar and Lidda dired to the floor as the massive club swept just above their heads. Boxes, vases, picture frames, and rolled tapestries crashed and tumbled across the room. The tumult triggered several traps-arrows and darts launched from hidden points along the walls brought a sharp cry from the verbeeg, which stared dumbly at three metal shafts now buried in its arms and shoulder.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Regdar dashed forward and drove his sword against the wide shield that the verbeeg held before its pendulous belly. The giant responded instinctively by thrusting the shield forward, and almost slammed it against Regdar, but the fighter pulled back in time. Even before it had turned to face the warrior, the verbeeg's club was sweeping around in a powerful swing. Regdar readied himself to parry the blow, but it did no good. The blow was driven by such force that the human and his greatsword were both batted aside. Regdar bounced against the wall, and his sword stayed embedded in the verbeeg's weapon.
The monster would have finished Regdar there and then if not for the crossbow bolt fired by Lidda that sliced into a nerve in its lower leg. The well-placed shot was far more painful than injurious. When it whirled back to find the attacker, Hennet rushed out and pulled Regdar to relative safety behind a mahogany cabinet. From there, Regdar caught a flash of Sonja's blonde hair in one of the room's corners, but Lidda was nowhere to be seen.
"Which of you worms," shouted the verbeeg, "is going to give me this damned pendant?"
"Why do you want it?" came Sonja's voice. Whether because of the strange acoustic properties of the room or druidic magic, the verbeeg could not pin down the source of the sound.
"It will earn me a place in the cold ones' new order-and the chance to crack a few human skulls."
The verbeeg pried Regdar's greatsword from its club and threw it through the open door into the oven room behind it, where it skidded across the floor with a metallic clash.
"If we could get on the other side of it," Hennet whispered to Regdar, "I could catch it in a web and trap it."
"Why not do it from here?" asked Regdar.
Hennet shook his head. "We'd be trapped along with it."
The verbeeg scanned the damage it had caused, looking for whoever might be hiding in the ruins of the treasure room. Cautious and clever, it had no intention of plunging headlong into a room full of hidden enemies.
In the corner of his eye, Regdar saw Lidda peek out from beneath a collapsed suit of armor and slither across the floor. He gaped as she slipped unnoticed between the verbeeg's legs. The halfling crouched behind the giant, then with a spring, she gripped its chain armor and climbed its back like a monkey ascending a thick tree.
The verbeeg snarled in surprise and dropped its shield to the floor with a clank. Its arms flailed right and left, high and low, as it groped for whatever was crawling on its back. Before it could get hold of the halfling perched precariously on its verbeeg's shoulders, Lidda drew her short sword and spiked it against the side of the giant's head. The blade gashed the monster's ear and scalp, drawing a torrent of blood, but the blade bounced off the thick bone. The verbeeg slapped its free hand against the gushing wound and let out a mighty roar that shook the whole room, then slammed its shoulders backward against the wall.
Lidda had already shifted position, and when the verbeeg hit the wall, she sprang forward off its shoulders into a graceful, two-point landing on a nearby treasure chest. The verbeeg slashed its club aimlessly in her direction, but she had already vanished amid the broken cabinets and fallen treasures.
"We need to draw it farther into the room," Hennet yelled as he rose above the cabinet where he was sheltering. Another magic missile slammed into the verbeeg's upper body but did little to injure or even distract the giant from its slashed scalp.
Regdar emerged as well. Without his greatsword, he grabbed the giant's fallen shield and shrank behind it against the remains of a shattered cabinet. The verbeeg strode uneasily toward the center of the room then threw caution away. Its club swung indiscriminately, tearing apart whatever it struck.
"Now! Move!" shouted Hennet.
At last Sonja emerged from her corner, leaped up into the verbeeg's face, and launched a brilliant flash before its eyes. The giant instinctively brought both its hands up to its face to shield itself from the dazzling light, dropping its club as it did so.
Seizing the opportunity, three humans and a halfling dashed past the dazed giant. Lidda snatched the torch on her way out. Ducking under a flailing elbow, Regdar saw that the far doorway leading out of the oven room was still open. Recalling the tendency of these doors to close on their own, he shouted a warning to Hennet, who again slid his short spear into the doorway just in case. Regdar scooped up his greatsword from the center of the room as he passed. Panting and battered, they turned back to look at the verbeeg, still smashing its way through the treasure room.
"Back here, ugly!" Hennet yelled at the verbeeg, readying his spell.
The verbeeg started, finally realizing that it was alone in the room. With awkward steps it made its way forward, through the shattered doorway and into the oven room. Lidda's gash still ran with blood. As Hennet let his spell fly, a large, intricate, gossamer web unfolded in the air and attached its corners to each wall and the ceiling with the verbeeg at its center. The giant struggled against the constraining silk, but as it did it only become more entangled. It screamed until the web tightened around its face and silenced it completely.
For a minute they watched the verbeeg laboring vainly against Hennet's spell. There was something pathetic about it, and Regdar stepped forward with his greatsword to end the monster's misery.
"I wouldn't do that," cautioned Hennet. "You might not be able to get the sword back."
"Then how do we kill it?" asked Sonja. "Your spell won't last forever."
"I don't know. Right now, though, I don't want to risk cutting the web or accidentally dispelling it with another effect."
Without warning, the door to the treasure room stirred, rose up from the floor, and wedged itself back into the ruined jamb. Four pairs of eyes turned and looked back at the other door, but it still stood wide open, with Hennet's spear lying in the opening. All of them thought the same thing. If the room would heat up again, that would surely kill the verbeeg.
"Will the heat melt the web and free the verbeeg?" asked Regdar.
"It probably will," Hennet said. "But I don't think it has enough strength left to force the door."
"We could probably kill it with arrows," Regdar said, "but we probably would empty our quivers in the process. Lidda, you're our leader down here. What do you think?"
The halfling walked closer to the enwebbed monster and gave it a hard look. "It's not movin
g. It could be dead already." She turned back to the others. "We roast it."
"What about the Pendant?" asked Regdar. "If we leave it in here, even if it survives the heat the mephits will have a really hard time retrieving it."
"Will they?" asked Sonja. "They sent the verbeeg. They sent us. I think it's safest in our possession."
The other three nodded in reluctant agreement. When they left the room, the door swung shut behind them. Within minutes, they could feel the heat through the wall.
"How long do you suppose it's been since the Frozen Pendant has been taken out of that room?" asked Lidda.
"Not nearly long enough," said Sonja.
13
As they marched back through the long hallway, Regdar pulled open his bulging pocket and looked at the Frozen Pendant. Its chill threatened to bore a hole in his side. The artifact shone white as a star, and its imperfect dimensions gave it the rough grace of an uncut gemstone. For an awful moment he fancied he could hear it whispering to him, and he thought that as he stared at it, it stared at back at him. An unwelcome shiver shot down his spine, and he found that he couldn't stand the sight of the thing. He closed his pocket tightly, silently acknowledging that the destruction of this awful object was more important than any of their lives.
They reached the base of the hallway with ease and swiftly climbed the spiral stair back to the large, underground hall above them. The old, familiar chill returned as they left the magical warmth behind, but with memories of the oven room threatening to cook them alive still fresh in their minds, the cold felt like an old friend. Sonja in particular was glad to be free of the narrow passages.
Faced with the ebony door in the side of the cylinder, they silently drew their weapons and wondered what waited for them on the other side. Regdar took the lead, as the strongest and best-armored of the party. The door creaked as he eased it open.
With his greatsword in one hand and the torch in the other, Regdar strode forward, casting his eyes over the sprawling mall that underlay the wizards' city. The torches that illuminated the hall when they'd first entered were all gone or extinguished. In the less-than-adequate light from the lone torch in Regdar's hand, he could see a dozen monstrous eyes staring at him from the icy murals encircling the cylinders that formed the foundations of the towers above. He wondered if any of those glittering orbs were set in mephit sockets or if they were all icy crystals on the walls.
The familiar debris littered the mall as before, but an unsettling silence hung over the place. With each step forward, Regdar heard its echo through the farthest corners of the mall. Cautiously, the others followed him through the doorway. With slow, deliberate steps on the icy floor, they traced the circumference of the cylinder from which they'd just emerged. Regdar kept his distance from Hennet.
"Are they here?" asked Lidda, holding her crossbow at the ready.
"If they are," Regdar whispered, "they're keeping quiet."
Hennet started. "I thought I heard something." He shook his head, peering into the blackness. "It was…I don't know where."
"It could have been an echo," said Sonja.
"I don't think so. It didn't sound like it came from where we are."
"I think I heard it too," Lidda agreed. "It sounded like… breathing."
A new sound echoed out from the silence, the distinct flapping of tiny wings.
"It's one of the mephits," said Regdar. "Be ready."
They stood with their backs against the cylinder on the opposite side from the door, looking in the direction of the noise. Lidda raised her crossbow and loosed a bolt that sailed into the dim distance, making a tiny, clinking noise as it struck the far wall. That was followed by the distinctive clinking of a chain and the raking of claws against ice.
Staring into the darkness so intently produced phantom dots of light before Regdar's eyes. He blinked heavily and darted his eyes from side to side. A new pair of eyes flickered in the white torch light, and he was certain they weren't part of one of the ancient murals. Breath came heavily, snorts from a massive nose clouding the air with tiny ice particles. A faint growl rolled in the back of the thing's throat as it strode into the light. It was a great cat, unlike anything that patrolled the world's savannahs. Like the giant scorpion, this was a creature of the Plane of Ice. It resembled a lion in form but not composition. Instead of the familiar, tawny yellow, its fur was shades of white, with a thick mane of shimmering, icy blue. A thick, iron collar encircled its neck, and a length of chain trailed alongside it, clinking as the lion dragged it across the frosted floor. Wiry and powerful, the snow lion drove its claws into the icy floor and reared back, ready to pounce. It let out a mighty roar that blasted throughout the cavernous mall, echoing off the walls and ringing until it was all the warrior could do to not clap his hands over his ears.
Hennet had seen enough. He loosed a magic missile toward the lion. The green spell-bolt struck the creature head-on but did little to slow its drive forward. The adventurers scattered away from the cylinder, not wanting to be pinned against a wall by this mad animal. Only Regdar ran forward to engage the beast, trusting his armor to protect him. He hoped to draw the lion away from the others so they could strike it quickly and safely.
The snow lion leaped on Regdar, knocking the fighter back onto the ground. His helmeted head struck the black floor hard. The lion's chain flailed dangerously, slapping the ground next to Regdar's head and cracking the icy coating where it struck. Regdar skidded backward on the slick floor with the lion digging its claws into his breastplate. Its massive weight kept him pressed against the floor while it reared its maned head and roared into the gloom.
Lidda loosed another crossbow bolt that struck the lion in its neck as it was roaring. The shaft sank deep into the frigid flesh. It whipped its head around, spotted Lidda, and uttered a growl that resonated through Regdar's bones. In a flash it abandoned the pinned fighter and pounced after Lidda. She turned to run, but she'd gone only a few steps before slipping on a slick patch of floor and tumbling forward onto her belly.
As the creature raced after Lidda, Sonja dashed back from her sheltered position behind the cylinder and leaped onto the lion's back. It roared in protest and snapped its head back hoping to buck her off, but the druid clung tightly to the glassy skin stretched tight over icy bones. She attempted to magically calm it, but her spell had no effect. This snow lion was too alien a being to be affected by the same magic that would affect an earthly animal. Sonja released one of her hands to pull her cudgel from her waist, hoping her grip on the lion with her other hand would be sufficient. The lion sensed the opportunity and began leaping and bucking like a mad horse. Sonja was hurled through the air to land on a decrepit table alongside one of the cylinders. The table shattered under her impact, and the lion raced to where she fell, ready to deliver a death blow.
From the shadows, Hennet hurled his short spear. It arced through the air and plunged deep into the lion's side. The enraged beast snapped its jaws at the shaft in a furious effort to dislodge it, but it was too far back along its wiry form. Sonja cracked her cudgel against the lion's face, and the beast drooled some, blue otherworldly equivalent of blood as it turned to face her. She struck again, this time knocking its skull against the nearby cylinder and breaking teeth of solid ice from its mouth. The lion's legs buckled. As it collapsed, Hennet buried the point of his short spear into its frozen brain. With a final twitch the lion expired.
Regdar pulled himself up and walked over to join the others. "If that's the worst of it," he said, "then we should be in the clear."
"That's not the worst," Sonja said. "I suspect they still have Glaze in reserve. That would explain why the dragon didn't kill us when it had the chance-the mephits needed us."
"But Glaze nearly killed Hennet, and it chased me down when I ran for the tower, while you were unconscious," protested Regdar. "Then again, I didn't understand why I made it. I thought Glaze would overtake me for sure. Could it really have been staged?"
"I
don't see why not," Sonja said. "White dragons are trainable."
"My store of spells is nearly exhausted," Hennet admitted. "Between Glaze, the mephits, and our tangles with the verbeeg and this lion thing, I don't know how much magic I can contribute now."
"We heard a mephit before," Lidda reminded them. "It must have unleashed the lion. Where did it go?"
"Through there." Sonja pointed almost exactly above them, to the trapdoor through which Hennet had fallen hours earlier. It was small, but any of them could fit through it.
"Interesting," said Regdar. "They won't expect us to come through there. We could probably pile up enough of this old junk to reach the trapdoor and attack them that way. At least we could get a look at what we're up against."
"Good thought," said Sonja.
Everyone set about collecting the debris for this purpose, scavenging for the more solid desks, tables, and chairs that littered the great hall. Recalling the huge pile of broken wood the mephits froze against the door to the tower they claimed was Glaze's lair, they attempted to prize some of it off but found it solidly resisted their best efforts. Ultimately, they managed to gather a fairly sturdy platform that could support even Regdar's weight. As the tallest of the group, Regdar volunteered to look through the trapdoor. Mounting the platform, he slowly eased the trapdoor open, avoiding the accumulation of snow that fluttered down.
He cautiously craned his neck through the trapdoor and saw the familiar towers of ice, now casting longer shadows as sunset approached. Something felt different about the area above ground, and he couldn't quite identify what it was. Regdar turned in a complete circle and studied the stark, empty city. Neither mephits nor Glaze were in evidence. With an idea in mind, he took a quick look straight up to be sure.
