I rifled through the desk, looting everything that wasn’t bolted down. It wasn’t much. I took the chair. I knew I could easily lift the desk, but I didn’t want to risk making a loud noise.
Katia: Three guards just stepped outside. They’re smoking cigarettes and talking, huddling against the wall in the shade from the balconies. I think they’re taking a break. When the door was open, I could see the four of you and one more camel on the second floor. Your path to the room with the basement is clear. Go now. I’ll warn you if they come back in.
I hesitated. This wasn’t the plan. The three guards could walk back in at any moment.
Katia: Oh shit, I see several more camels out there. They’re making their way down the street. I think it’s a shift change. Unless you want to sit there for the next hour while everyone gets settled, go now.
Louis moved, and the floorboard creaked loudly. Damnit, I thought. We couldn’t wait.
“All right, we’re moving out,” I said. “We can’t disguise our steps on these floors, so walk with calm purpose. Not fast, not slow.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Firas said.
“Just follow me,” I said. I strode out the door, revealing a long hallway. A row of paintings hung on the wall, each portraying the image of a stuffy, bored-looking camel. The wood floor was covered with a runner carpet, long and intricately patterned. The building was noticeably cooler. We walked down the hallway and down the stairs.
We quickly crossed the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, which branched off toward both exits. The guards at either end did not see us as we walked past. We passed a few open rooms, a small kitchen, and then we came to a fortified door at the end of the hall.
“Okay, same thing,” I whispered. “There are two guards on the other side of this door, so we have to do it quickly. Donut will cast her hole spell, and you’ll cast your cloud spell. You have to wait until after their dots turn red. I’ll take care of that. Don’t step in front of the hole in the door. We don’t want them seeing you. Once they’re down, I’ll try to open the door.”
Louis looked as if he was about to pass out. I didn’t know how this guy had managed to make it this far. He cracked his neck and hopped back and forth on his legs like he was getting ready to run a sprint. “Do it.”
Donut cast Hole, and I tossed one of my new sparklers through the opening. I’d discovered them while trying to make lower-powered explosives. All they consisted of was a wick and fuse from a hob lobber. They did hardly any damage. They made very little sound. But they shot sparks everywhere for a good five seconds. The crackling flickers shot off like angry hornets, stinging when they hit.
“Now,” I hissed the moment the two dots turned red.
Louis flung his arms forward, casting his spell. I stood off to the side, but in that moment, I saw the distinctive shape of a camel. He was sitting at a table, holding playing cards in his hands, covering his face in surprise at the sparkler attack. A heavy spear was leaned up against the wall.
A deep, black smoke filled the room. The two camels within collapsed. One of them knocked over something, probably the damn card table, and a loud crash echoed throughout the hallway.
“Fuck,” I whispered. I put my arm through the hole and reached desperately for the latch. Only there was no bolt to turn. It was just a key hole. And it was higher than I expected. It did not line up with the key hole on this side. There were two bolts, I realized. One had to use a key to unlock it from both sides to open the door.
“Shit, I can’t get the door open,” I said, retracting my arm.
“What was that?” a voice echoed from down the hall.
“Check it out,” another called. These were the guards from the front and back talking to one another.
“I’m gonna have to blow the door,” I said. “Everybody step back.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Carl,” Donut said. “Watch this.”
She snapped off her Hole spell. She cast it again, but this time she placed it a few inches to the right, so the disappearing part of the hole included the two deadbolts and part of the wall and door jamb. The spell currently had an effective depth of about eight inches, which was plenty thick. She pushed at the door, and it swung open easily. There was a half-moon bite taken out of the door. The second half of the hole remained in the wall.
“What the hell?” I said. “Why haven’t we been doing it like this the whole time?”
I pushed my way into the room as the black smoke billowed out.
“How long does the smoke last?” I asked, waving at it, suddenly alarmed. It was much thicker than I’d realized it’d be. Unlike with my smoke bombs, I couldn’t see shit. It stank like diesel exhaust. I didn’t want to move deeper into the room in fear of touching one of the two camels. They woke up the moment you touched them.
“It’s only a minute.”
I heard steps. A camel was coming to investigate. “Shit, they’re going to see the smoke.”
The smoke started to dissipate. I could now see the two forms on the ground, though there was something off about them. I pushed the door closed. “Turn off your hole, Donut.”
“Really, Carl. You need to find a less offensive way to say that.”
Shouting rose from down the hall.
Katia: A guard just opened the door and yelled something. All of the camels are pouring inside. You have about 15 of them coming at you.
“Goddamnit, Donut. Kill the spell.”
She killed the spell.
That ended up being a mistake. The moment it happened, I realized why we shouldn’t ever use the Hole spell to break open doors if we wanted to ever utilize said doors again. I’d either pushed the door closed too tightly, or not tightly enough, but when the missing part of the door reappeared from wherever it went, the bolts weren’t perfectly lined up with how they’d been before. The door cracked loudly and then swung back open. Two hunks of metal—pieces of the actual bolts, I realized—fell to the floor. The whole side of the door looked as if I’d hit it with a small charge.
“Well that was unexpected,” Donut said. “Carl, what did you do? If you were going to do that, you should’ve just blown it up.”
“Oh shit, oh shit,” Louis said. “What’re we going to do? Cat, you gotta teleport us out!”
“Cat?” Donut said. “I am Princess Donut, you buffoon!”
I rolled a goblin smoke bomb down the hall and then pushed the free-swinging door back closed. I pulled one of the heavy chocks from the subway level. I leaned it against the entrance and pushed the brace against the ceiling. They’d have to work hard to get in here now. But we were also trapped.
“You two, be useful and hold this closed.”
Louis and Firas jumped up and leaned against the door. Louis whimpered. Their presence against the door probably didn’t help, but it gave them something to do.
I returned my gaze to the room, focusing on the two passed-out dromedarians. Only they weren’t dromedarians anymore.
“What the shit?”
These were changelings. They’d both reverted to their faceless, humanoid form. The one I’d seen just a moment ago playing cards was passed out on the floor, cards spread out all around him, only now he was much smaller. His head pulsed with an odd, sapphire luminescence, almost like a jellyfish.
I examined his properties. He had a 50-second timer over his head, which was significantly shorter than we’d anticipated, even with the level discrepancy between Louis and the mob. Louis said they were usually out for over five minutes.
Svern – Changeling Principal. Level 49.
This mob is Exhaust-ed.
Have you ever visited the home of an elderly widow and seen her collection of miniature spoons? Or thimbles? Maybe they’re refrigerator magnets, or salt and pepper shakers. It’s always something. They’re all part of a set. There’s a display case involved, with a special slot for each one. It was ambitious of her to buy the case before it was filled. It sits there in her home, a layer of dust
atop it where she can no longer reach. A shrine to youthful optimism.
Inevitably, as life steamrolls on, she’s become more concerned with what is missing from her collection rather than what she already has. That ashtray from Niagara Falls was a hard-won souvenir, sitting proudly next to the one from Branson. But the moment it was obtained, it lost its value. And now all she thinks about is that empty space, right there. Right next to Graceland. It eats at her.
It is a totem to everything she did not accomplish. Her failures. She stares at it, sometimes. That space. That damn, empty space. All she wants is to fill it.
That is both the curse and the driving force of the Changeling Principal.
Carl: What the fuck is a Changeling Principal? The description is some high school essay bullshit.
Mordecai: Ah, shit. Damn. I should have known.
Carl: Explain. The guards were these things, pretending to be camels. Now I’m wondering if all the camels are shapeshifters. No wonder everybody hates you guys.
The door crashed, but it held firm. Louis cried out in fear. Firas gritted his teeth. We didn’t have long.
Mordecai: They’re rare. It’s an old story I haven’t seen used in a long, long time. They’re a sect of changeling culture. Sometimes they give them new, special powers. Cultish, kind of like those city elves from the third floor, but less apocalyptic and more power hungry. They are obsessed with getting a full library. Changelings can only change into something they’ve physically touched, so they seek out rare creatures.
Carl: Any special way to kill them when they’re in their weird, faceless form?
Mordecai: Get the brain. The glowing part. If you kill one, take the head. I can make a cool potion from it. It only works if it’s not transformed when you kill it. Try to knock them out first. Sometimes that makes them revert form.
What any of this had to do with the damn gnomes was beyond me, but I strongly suspected whatever was going on right now was a mirror of what had happened over in the Bactrian town. The crawlers had fucked up the City Hall quest, just like we were in the middle of doing.
The original plan was to get in and out without being noticed or hurting any of the NPCs. And if we had to do something with the collateral, we had a plan to shift the blame. But with this changeling fuckery, we couldn’t afford to be diplomatic. I activated Talon Strike and smashed down on Svern’s head with my foot. The Exhausted debuff disappeared, but I hit him again before he could react, stunning him all over again. I hit him one more time, killing the level 49 monster. The moment he died, the body shriveled like a raisin, all except the round head. I picked the whole thing up, sticking it into my inventory.
There was another door here. A trap door, leading down to whatever it was they were protecting. We’d get to that in a second. The second changeling guard had less than 15 seconds left until he reawakened.
“You two. Kill the other one. Hurry.”
“What?” Louis asked, horrified. “He’s going to wake up the second I hit him.”
“He’s going to wake up anyway. Hurry the hell up. Hit him in the head.”
Firas pulled his mace, and Louis pulled his weapon: a glowing baseball bat covered in spikes. I leaned up against the chock as it banged again.
Carl: Donut, kill him the moment he wakes up. A full-power missile to the head. Just make sure they each get a few hits in.
Donut: HE’S BOSS LEVEL STRONG. WHAT IF IT DOESN’T WORK?
I didn’t get a chance to answer. Firas took his mace and smashed it as hard as he could directly into the changeling just as the timer ran out. Louis smacked him with the bat. Both of them pummeled it in the head a few times. The spell enhanced the damage for several seconds, but they barely caused the creature’s health to fall at all.
Donut slammed it in the head with a point-blank, double strength Magic Missile. It almost killed him. She quickly hit him again. That worked. Luminescent, blue material splattered over the room like she’d broken open a glo stick.
“Stay here,” I said to Louis and Firas as I pulled open the trap door. I was assaulted by a blast of fetid-smelling cold air. “And get back to the chock. Hold it closed.”
The two both returned to their spots against the metal blockage. “I went up two levels,” Louis said to Firas, who had also gone up to level 24.
Katia: There’s a bell ringing now. The camels are coming out.
I could hear the bell through the walls.
Carl: Stay put. We’re almost done. I hope.
“Donut, pull out Mongo and stay up here.” I pointed at the solid, left wall. It led to the outside. “We’re going to escape that way. If they breach before I come back up, go without me. Try not to let them see you, but if they do, flee. Don’t fight. We’ll meet back up at the saferoom.”
She started to protest, but I quickly descended the stairs into the darkness.
I lit a torch and dropped it. It fell to the bottom of the short ladder, and it filled the cavern with light.
The shape of the room appeared on my map. It wasn’t big. There didn’t appear to be anyone else in here.
Mongo appeared at the top of the trapdoor and squawked at me. “Stay up there,” I said.
The ground was stone, carved with symbols that looked like Egyptian hieroglyphs. I was standing atop the tomb. The ceiling was low enough that I had to stoop. There was no way a camel could fit in here. There was a table, and a small chair. On the table was a roll of paper. I picked it up.
Map. The Necropolis of Anser.
You’ve discovered the catacomb plans. The information has been added to your map and to the map of everyone in your party.
“Shit,” I said as the scroll dissipated into dust. The minimap showing the area below my feet populated. I zoomed the map out, revealing a maze that made the map of the Iron Tangle look like child’s play. Fuck me.
There was also a small bowl on the table. It had a trio of shriveled, black plants within. Mushrooms, I realized. Not the kind you eat. At least not for food. I pulled the bowl into my inventory. Then I took the table and chair.
Katia: Something odd just happened. Two of the level-30 camels wanted into the town hall, but another camel stopped them. It was one of the waster guards. They fought, and the guard camel killed them both. He dragged their bodies inside.
Carl: Did they stay camels when they died?
Katia: Uh, yeah. Why?
Carl: I’ll explain later.
Donut: HURRY UP, CARL. I CAN HEAR THEM TALKING ABOUT HITTING THE DOOR WITH A MISSILE.
I could now see the room went on even further than I realized. What I thought was the end of the chamber was actually the boundary line to the subterranean zone. Even with the map, I wouldn’t be allowed in there. Not until we dealt with the gnomish castle.
But I also noticed something else. The white dot of an NPC. It was on the other side of the barrier, so I wouldn’t be able to get to him.
“Hello?” I called. The back of the room was filled with shadow.
“Henrik? Is that you? Back so soon?” a voice croaked. “I heard fighting. Who will you pretend to be today? My mother, perhaps? The last dose has not worn off yet. If you feed me more, it might kill me this time. I can only hope.”
I couldn’t see the creature, but the voice was similar to that of a Bopca.
I was about to light another torch when I saw the lantern hanging from the ceiling. It had a tiny flame within, like a pilot light. I turned the handle, and the whole room lit up.
The shimmering wall of the quadrant boundary appeared. And just past it, tied up in chains to the wall was an elderly gnome. The creature was not wearing the red hat, and he looked sickly and pale. He had scabs on his face, and he looked half starved to death.
Wynne. Dirigible Gnome Flesh Mechanic. Level 50.
The Dirigible Gnomes were once a peaceful race. All they ever wanted was two things. One, to figure out how the world worked. And two, to be left alone.
In order to escape a busy, teeming world fille
d with competing intelligent species, all of whom loved to wage war, the Dirigible Gnomes learned how to take to the clouds, building a variety of airships and floating settlements, allowing them to escape any sort of trouble.
But as we all know, trouble doesn’t care if you don’t want to be found.
The history of the Dirigible Gnomes is long, complicated, and tragic. But the end result is the inevitable result of all peaceful races. They were, eventually, forced to choose between fighting or being wiped out. They chose to fight.
Wynne is the great and favored uncle of Commandant Kane of the Dreadnaught Wasteland. He is a Flesh Mechanic, a healer gifted with the ability to bring the long dead back to life, if only temporarily. He is being held as hostage by the Dromedarians, as a guarantee of peace.
Quest Complete. Stay out of city hall.
I now had more questions than answers. What had seemed so simple at first was now shaping into a complicated story. The dromedarians had this gnome guy as hostage. But it appeared the changelings had infiltrated the ranks of the camels, and they had their own interests in the gnome. And I still had no idea how I could use this information to get my ass into the throne room of the Wasteland, thousands of feet into the sky.
If I can get him out of those chains, we can take him. Talk ourselves onto the flying platform.
As if it was reading my mind, the system gave me an update.
New Quest. Free Wynne from his bondage.
Wynne the Dirigible Gnome is in chains. Free him, and he will provide easy access to the Wasteland.
Reward: You will receive a Silver Quest Box.
Katia: Nice. Now get the hell out of there.
Donut: CARL. I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING DOWN THERE BUT YOU NEED TO GET BACK UP HERE BEFORE LOUIS DIES OF A HEART ATTACK.
I couldn’t approach him. I had an idea, but it would require Donut. I started to call her, but I paused the moment I saw the group of five blue dots on the map.
Crawlers. On the subterranean side. They were running down a hall toward me, coming fast.
The Gate of the Feral Gods Page 10
