Pools of Blood gestured towards the door. "Raven will take you back to the Dead Forest."
"No, wait. I came for an emerald. Isn't there something else I can trade you? Come on, Flynn, give up your skull," said Terran.
Flynn crossed his arms across his chest and shook his head emphatically. "No way, no how. Skully is the only thing I have in this mad, mad place. If you take that from me, I'll freaking go insane."
The resolve in his friend's eyes made Terran sigh and turn back to the high priest. The emerald was important, but it wasn't more important than his friend's sanity. Flynn was fragile enough as it was.
"Isn't there something else we can offer? A task? Please, anything," said Terran, leaning on the table.
Pools of Blood blinked slowly. "Please wait outside."
Terran and his companions left the building as the two Shades gestured with their silent speech.
Luna raised her furry eyebrows. "Please, anything? Stink of desperation much?"
"Yeah, not my finest moment," said Terran. "But I was surprised when Flynn said no."
His friend still had his arms crossed, a dark cloud on his brow. "I'm sorry, Terran. I... I just couldn't."
"No," said Terran. "It's fine. I'm sure we'll find another way. They haven't kicked us out yet."
Flynn's face cracked with relief. He unclenched his jaw. "Thanks, Terran. I feel terrible about it."
"You might want to save that feeling," said Luna. "I have a bad feeling about what's next."
Raven of the Fifth Doom led them back into the building. The high priest stroked his chin as if he had a beard, his jaw pulsing with unexpected anger, which made his gossamer robes shimmer in the ghostly light.
"I offer a task for which the reward is the emerald you seek," said Pools of Blood. "Beneath the Final Tomb, in the dark halls of the mines, there lurks a fell creature we have named the Grinder. It moves in silence, kills equally, and has kept us from using the mines from which we make our trade for the last three months. If you can eliminate the threat, then we will give you your just reward."
You have been offered a quest: Eliminate the Grinder in the mines beneath the Final Tomb
Reward: Increased reputation with the zythri and an emerald.
Terran sucked in a breath. "We accept your quest. Point us in the right direction and we'll take care of this Grinder."
Pools of Blood looked away momentarily with a touch of melancholy, which was like saying that a gruesome murderer was sad.
Raven of the Fifth Doom ushered them from the building. His face split in what was either a grin or a grimace.
"Pools of Blood grieves. His favored daughter, Darkness Sighs, was killed by the Grinder when she was sent to slay it for her initiation to the priesthood. After that, no one has dared to visit the mines, for she was a powerful oestomancer. If she could not kill it, then no one else would dare try," said Raven of the Fifth Doom.
"An oestomancer?" asked Flynn.
"Bone witch," responded Raven of the Fifth Doom with far too much teeth.
"That's terrible," said Terran. "May I ask about the carving on the wall inside the temple?"
Raven of the Fifth Doom looked up. "No, you may not. Follow me."
The Shade headed back the way they'd come without further comment, his pace much brisker than during the procession to the temple. Terran quickly could tell that they were being led away from the main area, as they saw fewer and fewer Shades. They reached a wide crack in the wall, passing a checkpoint, and the other Shades—all of them with fewer markings—nodded towards Raven of the Fifth Doom.
The passage went for a long way, slowly descending, which made the air hotter. After a half hour of walking, beads of sweat had formed on Terran's brow and Luna was panting. Raven of the Fifth Doom stopped at a second checkpoint, this one barricaded and guarded by a dozen Shades. He spoke to them in their silent language, which resulted in numerous incredulous glances at them. Clearly the guards thought they were headed towards their deaths.
The interior of the gate had three separate bars, each which took four Shades to remove. When it was finally open, Terran noted that the wall was at least two feet thick, made with intricately locked stones.
"If you manage to kill the Grinder, come to this gate and bring proof. They will hear your calls and let you through," said Raven of the Fifth Doom.
Flynn stepped forward. "What if we, like, don't kill the Grinder, but decide that we're done with the quest?"
Raven of the Fifth Doom stared back blankly.
"Right," said Flynn. "All or nothing. Thanks a lot, Skully."
"Wait," said Terran. "Where do we go in the mines? Can't you tell us anything else about the Grinder?"
Raven of the Fifth Doom's lip twitched slightly. "It is said when the Grinder appeared in the mines, the only warning was a faint pressure in their ears, like they'd come up from the deeps too quickly, and then a darkness so deep that even the ghost lamps could not penetrate it filled the empty spaces, and only screams remained." He paused, sucking on his teeth. "In the lore of our people, great wurms crawl through the deep earth, devouring all that they encounter, for nothing can stand in their way, and in their passing, they create highways that extend extreme distances. There was one such tunnel that was discovered a few weeks before the Grinder appeared. We believe the Grinder is not a wurm, but it traveled through these passages, found our mines, a nice place for a meal, and hasn't left since."
"What about Darkness Sighs? Why would Pools of Blood send his daughter into the mines to fight such a terrible creature? Why did they think she could win?" asked Terran.
Raven of the Fifth Doom hesitated before answering, glancing at the guards before stepping close. "Pools of Blood is only one member of the council. The others were not fond of his daughter and used the Grinder to eliminate someone they did not think should join the priesthood. You see, they must defeat a great enemy to be considered for a position of leadership. Pools of Blood defeated a pack of Barghests in the Dead Forest when he was her age."
"Shadows below, that's impressive," said Terran, reevaluating the strength of the Shades by this new knowledge. Pools of Blood was a few levels higher, but even then it shouldn't have been a fair fight between the Barghests and him. "Is there any chance that she's still alive?"
"The head of the mines, Broken Femur, saw her swallowed by the darkness, then heard her scream moments later. There was nothing but blood afterwards, more than you would see after a sacrifice," said Raven.
Terran nodded to Raven of the Fifth Doom, who stepped out of their way. As soon as they stepped through, the guard closed the massive gate. The sound of three bars slotted into place echoed through the stone. Once they were finished, the three of them stood in absolute silence.
Luna looked up at him, her whiskers twitching. "They're going to let us back through once we kill this Grinder, right?"
"We'll find out eventually," said Terran.
Flynn shrugged. "We could take the short route back. Not a fan, but a quick death is better than this hellhole."
"We need that emerald," said Terran. "If we can't find an arborist, then I'm afraid the leaf rot is going to destroy the Mother Tree."
Flynn wrinkled his forehead. "I didn't realize it was that bad. You should have told me."
"I didn't want to stress you out," said Terran, avoiding his friend's gaze. "Come on, let's get moving."
To their surprise, the ghost lamps were still lit in the upper portion of the mine. Flynn grabbed one since he couldn't see in the dark. The first section was wide, with tracked passages heading off in different directions. Mine carts and other gear had been left abandoned. Terran could almost picture the mad escape to the gate, while the eater in the darkness hunted.
They didn't have a good idea of which passage to take, so they started on the left, vowing to check each one, though Terran had a good idea that it would take a long time, since the mines in a place inhabited this long were likely to be vast. The stone tunnels were most
ly hewn, with occasional blasted sections where they'd removed big chunks of rock with explosives or magic—Terran wasn't sure what the Shades were capable of.
After a couple of hours they found themselves in the center tunnel, which had a steep downward slope. The air grew thicker and Luna panted heavily, stopping frequently for drinks from their dwindling water supply.
"I'm swimming in my own sweat," said Flynn. "Good thing you don't have that problem, Skully."
"Hey, there are some weird tracks over here," said Terran, peering at shapes stamped in the black dust.
Tracking (INT) 2 - skill
The tracks were pretty obvious, but you've gotta start somewhere.
The others gathered behind him. The shapes in the dust looked like triangular feet with gnarly, clawed toes. It looked like dozens of them had been in the area, stripping the gear left by the Shade miners.
"This isn't the Grinder, right?" asked Flynn.
"These look like scavengers of some kind," said Luna, frowning at the dust, then sniffing. "Smell like coffee."
"Coffee? You're sure?" asked Terran.
Luna rolled her eyes at him. "I can smell that piece of bolete mushroom in Flynn's pocket that he forgot last week, judging by its decay. I think I know what coffee smells like."
With his face wrinkling with disgust, Flynn pulled the moldy hunk from his pocket, flicking it away to land in the dust.
"Ewww."
"Great, so we have coffee-scented scavengers hiding out in an emerald mine where an enormous creature patrols," said Terran.
"Should we go any further? I just don't like the feel of this passage," said Flynn.
"We need to check them all. Come on," said Terran, keeping his crystalline staff at the ready.
A short while later, in a big room containing reinforcing scaffolding on the right wall, shoring up a partial collapse, and smaller tunnels heading out in a spoke-like pattern, they found the first body. The Shade had minimal body markings, only a few slashes of ink on the shoulders—it was hard to tell because of the decomposition—was missing a right arm, and had maggot-filled gouges in its midsection.
Luna sniffed the corpse, her whiskers twitching. "This Shade died a month ago. The body is starting to liquidate."
"Didn't the high priest say that the mines had been closed for three months?" asked Flynn.
"Good point. Are you sure about the month?" Luna gave him a look, so he held up his hands. "Fine. I'll stop questioning your nose, though I'm a little worried about why you know how to tell time by a corpse."
"When you live on your own, sometimes scavenging is the only way to survive," said Luna, holding up her head. "Don't judge."
Flynn nudged the body with his boot. "Maybe he hid deeper in the mines and got caught by the Grinder, or the scavengers, when he tried to escape."
"Maybe," said Terran. "Curious. Spread out and take a look around. I bet we can find more clues on where we need to go."
He moved to the farthest tunnel, examining the ground for more tracks, or something fallen. A lot didn't add up about the circumstances that had been laid out before him, but he didn't quite know what it was. At the very least, the mystery had engaged Flynn, who was scouring the other half of the room as if he'd lost a priceless gem.
At the entrance to the smaller tunnel, Terran noted that it wasn't as dusty as the other area. He checked with the two nearest tunnels to find they were thick with the gray mining leftovers.
"Check this out," said Flynn, gesturing to the ground, eyes wide.
A sword the size of a human forearm lay amid the rocks. It wasn't a dagger, due to the hilt, but the wielder of it had to be only a few feet tall.
"I bet the owner of those tracks used that sword," said Flynn with his hands on his hips triumphantly.
"I bet you're right," said Terran, smiling at his friend.
The ground rumbled softly in the balls of his feet. Terran looked around while Flynn stared at him.
"Did you feel that?" asked Terran, but Flynn shook his head. "I must be able to feel it with my affinity to earth magic."
Luna trotted over. "I felt it. Deeper in the ground."
"Parts of these mines are old," said Terran, craning his head. "I bet things shift and collapse all the time."
"Sure, keep telling yourself that," said Flynn as he was tossing three ghost lamps into the air successively and catching them. "Skully and I know better. This place is going to be the death of us."
"Did you find anything at your tunnels?" asked Terran.
Luna wrinkled her furry snout. "I smelled those scavengers, lots of them. They're far too close."
"Told ya," said Flynn, flashing them a grin, but missing a ghost lamp, which careened off his knee and bounced across the stone floor, the glass in the brass housing cracking. As it rolled to a rest, the uneven light shone into the tunnel nearest, revealing four sets of eyes. It brought a yip of surprise, and two of the creatures scurried into the tunnel, screaming in an unintelligible language, while the other two exposed their jagged teeth and pulled small swords like the one they were standing over from their sheaths. They looked like reddish bipedal lizards with long snouts, wearing dirty leathers. The taller one of the two had a pair of welding goggles on his forehead, and he pointed his weapon at them and shouted in broken Common.
"You no take mine!"
The outburst might have been comical if it weren't for the snarl on the creature's lips.
"Oh, no, Kappers," said Luna as she bared her teeth in the response. "They think lynx is a delicacy."
In the span of heartbeats, many of the other tunnels bloomed with light, the chatter of incoming Kappers sounding like an impending tidal wave.
Kapper - level 9
What they lack in size, they make up for in ferociousness and sheer, overwhelming numbers. As the saying goes: "If you see one Kapper, you're probably already dead."
The roar echoed through the room. Terran dragged them towards the exit, only to find the walls glowing with light, signaling they were cut off. A quick rotation revealed the only tunnel not potentially filled with murderous Kappers was the large one on the farthest side, the one heading deeper into the mine.
"Follow me," said Terran, running headlong in escape while a wave of the little creatures burst into the room, raising their tiny weapons and screaming at the top of their lungs. While he couldn't understand their language, he could sense that if they were caught there wouldn't be much left on their bones.
The horde of Kappers streamed after them while they barreled down the tunnel, heedless of danger. The descending angle aided their flight, but made steps precarious, as placing a foot wrong would have them ending up with a face full of rocks, and then a back filled with tiny swords.
Terran turned and made a stone wall rumble from the floor, blocking off part of the passage. When the Kappers dodged around the obstacle, he blasted them with a Vocal Slam, knocking the lead critters off their feet. This didn't dissuade the horde, so he triggered a patch of deep stone, sending a blast of rock into the Kappers, killing dozens, but still they came, undeterred by his displays of magic.
"Come on," said Flynn, tugging on his arm.
They ran like lemmings to an unknown doom. The tunnels split, but they kept to the middle, going deeper, staying ahead of the horde of murderous lizards bent on carving them from their bones. At times, Terran turned and blasted them with a Vocal Slam, or exploded deep stone into their midst, hoping that eventually the casualties would dissuade them from pursuit, but it only encouraged their wrath, eliciting screams of rage and the clattering of swords.
The mine grew less cultivated, more natural stone, deep caverns sliced through in the search for emeralds and other precious stones. But when they stumbled into a huge round tunnel heading perpendicular to their path, Terran's stomach did a backwards flip.
"I don't like the looks of this," said Flynn. "One of those deep wurm tracks, right?"
"We're waaay deep," said Terran, craning his head in all direct
ions.
Luna peered back at the tunnel as lights flickered brighter on the walls. "I know we're in trouble if neither of you has made a deep joke."
"Come on," said Terran, "the tunnel continues over here."
A break in the wall, which opened into a massive cave, was their route for escape. They scrambled over the ridge, heading into the space.
"Maybe we can hide in here," suggested Flynn.
Luna wrinkled her nose. "Something doesn't smell right. Or I should say, something smells bad. Real bad."
Something about the space left the hairs on the back of Terran's neck at full attention. Even if Luna hadn't said anything, he didn't like where they were at. He moved into the cave cautiously, only increasing his pace when the horde of Kappers hit the wurm tunnel. Terran eyed the opening, wondering if he could close it off with a couple of walls, or maybe use it as a funnel to kill the Kappers, rather than flee deeper into the cave, because doing so seemed like an extremely bad idea.
To Terran's surprise, the Kappers hit the edge of the cave and went no further. They lined up in the wurm tunnel, the mass of creatures eyeing them from a distance no further than a weak stone's throw. When the line of them broke and a Kapper fell into the cave, he shrieked as if he were on fire and clambered back into the group.
"They fear to come here," said Terran.
"I mean really, what could be worse?" asked Flynn. When both Terran and Luna stared at him, he raised his arms. "I'm joking, I'm joking. Right, Skully? Never a dull day for me. I would like a dull day. A particularly uneventful one where I stare at the clouds in the sky and imagine them as fluffy sheep on a mountain pass."
"Is he always like this?" asked Luna.
Terran chuckled at the lynx. "We haven't even hit peak Flynn yet, just wait."
"What are we going to do about these Kappers?" asked Flynn, gesturing forward with his ghost lamp.
Almost as soon as he motioned towards them, the Kappers fell back, disappearing into the wurm tunnel, and then back up through the mine.
The Ghost Tower: A LitRPG Adventure Page 10
