by Ian Rodgers
Chapter 7: Evil in the depths
Dora did not know how long they walked. The fungus lined tunnel stretched endlessly away, only a winding trail of glowing green mushrooms marking the path. It was gloomy, but at least the strange mushroom-dryad wasn’t trying to kill them. She hoped.
But trudging along for hours in the semi-dark was boring. So, Dora tried to entertain herself by whistling. She wasn’t all that good at it, but it passed the time. Sadly, her lack of talent was driving a certain sensitive pair of pointy ears up the wall.
“Please Dora, for all that is holy, stop whistling!” Ain whimpered, hands clamped tight against his ears.
“Oh, uh, sorry,” she apologized.
“Can’t believe you forgot that elves have such sensitive ears,” Enrai chuckled. “Of course, that explains why they have such terrible taste in music.”
“Our music is not terrible! It’s refined, mellow, soft, and…!” Ain protested, but was cut off by Enrai raising a hand in front of his face.
“And to a human, sounds ridiculous. By the way, is that light up ahead? Light that isn’t coming from a mushroom?”
Eyes turned to peer deep into the darkness, and sure enough, there was a faint blue glow in the distance that mingled with the bioluminescent mushrooms.
“How long have you been able to see that blue light?” Ain demanded, and Enrai shrugged.
“I dunno, a minute or two? Honestly, watching you squirm was a lot more entertaining than I’d initially thought, so I got distracted,” the Monk admitted.
Ain muttered oaths of vengeance under his breath while Dora beamed widely.
“Come on you guys! What are we waiting for!” she shouted before hurrying off towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
With nothing better to do, Ain and Enrai jogged behind her, keeping pace easily. It took ten minutes to reach the end of the tunnel, and when they did, they were surprised by how little there was at the end of it.
There was a cavern at the end, fairly small, with five other tunnels leading away from it. The floor of the intersection was well worn, proof of repeated use. Dipping down from the ceiling was a crystalline stalactite that shone with a steady, baby blue light. Propped against one tunnel’s entrance was a large slab of white metal, covered in an unknown language. Much of it was faded, but there were still a few words left visible.
“This must be the place she was talking about,” Dora said, looking around.
“Intersection with a metal grave? Seems like it,” the Monk mused, wandering over to the leaning tombstone. Ain was examining the glowing stalactite and the surroundings carefully, making sure there weren’t any traps waiting for them.
Dora was about to join them, but before she did, the Healer turned back to the passageway and leaned down to one of the still glowing mushrooms.
“Thank you for your help,” she said, patting the fungi fondly on its cap. It shivered at her touch, before blinking rapidly. The green glow then died, and the fungal tunnel returned to darkness.
Dora smiled to herself at that, nodding once more towards the home of the mushroom-dryad, before walking over to stand beside the Spellsword.
“We need to head down the tunnel with the most heat in it,” Dora reminded him, and he nodded.
“Yes, I do recall that. However, I’m not sure how we can do that without venturing down each tunnel individually and checking to see which gets hotter. Something like that would take a long time, as well.”
“Why don’t I try?” Enrai suggested. “I’m attuned to the Element of Fire, so I’m pretty good at sensing where sources of heat and burning objects might be. Plus, since we’re looking for magma, there should be plenty of Fire mana in the tunnel that leads in that direction.”
“That could work,” Dora said thoughtfully. “Alright! Do your best to find the way!”
The Monk nodded and proceeded to walk into the entrance with the metal grave. He went in a few feet, to the very edge of where the light permeated the tunnel’s darkness, and closed his eyes, going into a trance. For several minutes he simply stood there, prodding and probing the Ambient Mana inside the tunnel, trying to find traces of heat and power in the cloying, thick, and earthen energy of his surroundings, the former being clear signs of Fire magic in the atmosphere.
After another handful of minutes, he opened his eyes with a sigh and a disappointed shake of his head.
“Not down that way. Too much Earth Elemental mana,” he announced, before moving clockwise onto the next passageway. Again, he fell into a trance at the very edge of the shadow as he examined the area. He shivered when he emerged from that tunnel.
“Nope! Too cold down that way,” he declared, and went on to the next passage way, skipping the tunnel they’d just left.
This time, a smile crept across his lips. “Found it! The traces of Fire mana are faint, but they’re definitely stronger down this way than the others,” Enrai stated confidently.
“Are you sure?” Dora asked, and he nodded.
“Absolutely! I can almost feel it against my skin!”
“In that case, down we go!” Dora said, and she took the lead entering the tunnel. Enrai quickly took point, however, in order to follow the Fire mana to make sure there weren’t any other twists or turns that might lead the group astray. With Ain bringing up the rear, the trio made their way down into the depths of Gaeum.
An hour or so later, Dora was starting to notice a tingle of heat in the air, and Ain was beginning to sweat. Enrai, used to increased temperatures thanks to his magic and training, only noticed that the concentration of Fire Element mana was growing stronger.
“Reminds me of springtime in the Cracked Land,” Dora said as the temperature rose steadily higher the deeper they went.
“This was springtime for you?” Ain asked incredulously. “Was it this hot in the Cracked Land when we first met? I don’t think it was.”
“Nah, it was the end of summer, beginning of autumn when we first ran into each other. Almost winter by the time we went through the jungle and reached the city of Argyle,” Dora revealed.
“I see light ahead!” Enrai exclaimed, interrupting their talk. Eyes swiveled, and there was indeed a reddish orange glow at the end of the tunnel. “I think we’re nearly at the exit!”
“About damn time!” Dora cheered, and together they ran towards the light. Before reaching the end, however, she pulled up short. Ain and Enrai jerked to a halt behind her. The latter whistled, impressed, at the sight before them.
The passageway terminated at the edge of a steep cliff. A serpentine walkway of stone wound around the side, leading to a set of small steps carved into the side of the cliff. These in turn led down to a plateau which perched above a long, bubbling river of molten earth. Magma splashed and burned below them, the lazy river of fiery stone and minerals providing all the illumination in the cavern.
The chamber itself was extremely tall, allowing the smoke and other gasses rising up from the magma to drift towards vents and tunnels in the ceiling. The river of molten subterranean materials was over a hundred feet wide, and five times that in length. On the right, the magma stream emerged from a crack in the chamber wall, while on the left the magma trailed off into a fiery waterfall that plunged down into a vast, dark abyss on the group’s left.
What was most important, though, was that the mushroom lady had not lied to them. Indeed, there was a settlement of some sort! The encircling wall defending the houses, chimneys belching smoke, and tiny specks that were probably people scurrying around proved it to be so. Sadly, the village was on the opposite side of the magma from them.
Luckily, the plateau beneath the tunnel the trio stood in was connected to the opposite side of the chamber by a long bridge of black, glossy stone.
‘Obsidian, most likely,’ Dora thought to herself. She looked from the bridge, to the village, then back down the tunnel they’d come. With a sigh, she folded her arms and gave the heated chamber a defiant glare.
“We have t
o cross the bridge,” Dora declared, even as she gave it and the seething magma beneath it wary glances.
“We’re gonna have to be very careful. I might be fire proof, but even I’d get incinerated if I fell into that magma,” Enrai warned, also giving slender obsidian bridge a cautious look.
“Can’t you just fly us over to the other side?” Ain asked, causing the Monk to slap his forehead.
“Oh, right, yeah, completely forget I have that spell,” he chuckled in self-deprecating humor. With a flash of red, two pairs of fiery wings rippled out of his back, and with a quick motion, he grabbed both Dora and Ain in his arms.
“Hold on tight! There’s not a lot of Wind mana down here, so I’m going to have to overload on the Fire mana to keep my wings active!” he explained over the blistering heat and roar of his majestic pinions. “Oh, and I apologize in advance if you get burnt!”
“Starting to think this might be a bad idea!” Dora said worriedly.
“Too late!” Enrai smirked, and his flaming wings doubled in size with a loud ‘FWOOSH!’ of superheated air. He shot off like an arrow out of the tunnel, zooming over the plateau, the bridge, and the magma with ridiculous speed.
He was going so fast Dora didn’t even have the chance to scream before the wind pressure shoved her voice back down her throat. Out of the corner of her eyes, she caught a glimpse of Ain looking as uncomfortable as she felt.
Wisely, Enrai chose not to land in front of or inside the village, and came to a stop at the other side of the obsidian bridge. However, his flight over had not been subtle, and the inhabitants of the village had noticed, if the clamoring and bells were any indication.
“Praise Cynthia!” Dora cried as she fell to her knees after Enrai let her go. “Oh, sweet ground! Sweet, Sulphur-y ground!”
Ain merely shook his head, swallowed down his nausea, and slapped the Monk upside the head.
“Thanks for the lift, but try to be a bit smoother in the future,” he requested. Enrai slapped the back of his head in response.
“Okay, next time I’ll let you walk.”
“Shut it you two! We have company!” Dora called out as she scrambled back to her feet.
Across from them, the gates to the village were creaking open, and a host of squat figures emerged, brandishing weapons.
At first, Dora thought they were a mix of dwarves and goblins. On closer inspection, however, the figures she’d assumed were dwarves lacked the earthy or metallic skin tone of Eraforian dwarves, possessing instead extremely pale and ashen colored flesh. They also had horns reminiscent of goats poking out of their heads.
The other species that emerged from the village was goblinoid is shape, as one could not mistake the lanky, stunted, monkey-like creatures as anything else, but their skin was a nasty purplish bruise color, and their arms were so long they reached their ankles, something Eraforian goblin arms could not do.
At the head of the war party was a horned dwarf carrying an axe that pulsed with heat. At first, Dora assumed it was still molten and freshly drawn from the forge, but as the warrior drew closer, she saw that the axe was unharmed by the primal heat radiating off of it, and was most likely enchanted in some fashion.
Seeing that their welcoming party looked ready to fight, Dora quickly threw her arms up into the air.
“We come in peace!” she shouted. The group marching forward paused, and the leader looked to his companions. They argued for a bit with a lot of head and fist shaking before the leader with the molten axe stepped forward, along with a goblinoid carrying a metal staff that held a silver cube at the top.
The horned dwarf shouted something at the trio, but the looked at each other with confused expressions.
“Do either of you understand what he’s saying?” Dora inquired.
“Nope, not one bit,” Enrai said with a shake of his head. Ain nodded in agreement.
“It does not have even the slightest relation to Durg Lidde that I am aware of,” the Grand Elf revealed. “Which means this are likely not dwarves from Erafore. Or dwarves at all.”
“Yeah, kinda figured that, what with the horns and skin,” Enrai said blandly, gesturing at the duo that had approached them.
The axe-wielding dwarf shouted at them again in its guttural tongue, and Dora sighed.
“Well, crap. How are we going to communicate with them now?”
“…Sign language?” Enrai suggested.
“That’s crazy enough it just might work!” the half-orc declared brightly, so she stepped forward and began making wide and wild gestures with her hands.
“We… Come… In… Peace!” she said slowly and loudly, moving her hands around to accompany her words. “We… Want… To… Leave! Do… You… Have… Portal?”
The horned dwarf slapped its forehead and grunted something at the goblinoid, who nodded and raised its staff high into the air. A bright flash of silver escaped the cube in the staff, and Dora felt her tongue quiver and tingle.
“Acck! What did you do?!” she demanded, sticking her tongue out in shock. “Why does my mouth taste like fish all of a sudden?!”
“Can you understand us now, green-pig?” the goblinoid inquired.
“I beg your pardon?” she asked, her tone turning icy. Enrai quickly stepped up to her side and laughed warily, pushing her behind him.
“Don’t cause a scene, Dora!” he said quietly, and discreetly nodded at the crowd ahead of them, reminding her that there was still a large number of armed people in front of them.
She backed down, but folded her arms in displeasure and watched as Enrai tried to speak with the group.
“Hello! We’re just passing through! Would you happen to know where a larger settlement might be, or failing that, a portal to another place?” the Monk asked politely.
“Be gone from this place! We have no interest in dealing with anyone who freely works alongside an orc!” the horned dwarf spat. Enrai’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he kept up his polite smile.
“Perhaps you might have had bad dealings with them in the past, but Dora wouldn’t hurt a fly! Besides, all we want is to move on…”
“Go back the way you came!” the goblinoid shouted. “You are not welcome here!”
“Just tell us where we can find a way to get to a city or something and we’ll do so,” the Monk retorted, folding his arms defiantly.
“We outnumber you,” the horned dwarf warned. “So don’t go making any demands!”
“And I’ll bet we’re stronger than you, so don’t get all uppity!” Enrai shot back. Ain sighed and walked over to his friend, patting his shoulder in an attempt to reign him in.
“Calm down, this arguing won’t get us anywhere,” Ain told Enrai.
“I think we might want to leave,” Dora whispered to them, and they glanced back at her. The half-orc gestured to a number of heavy looking collars and chains being held by a few of the armed group. “Those look a lot like slave catching equipment to me. We should just try and find another way out.”
“I don’t think that’s possible anymore,” Enrai muttered, as he watched the crowd carefully. They were growing antsy and their faces all held scowls dark expressions.
“What are the odds we’ve stumbled onto some sort of smuggling operation?” Ain wondered aloud. Perhaps too loudly. The horned dwarf with the molten axe and the staff wielding goblinoid stiffened when they heard what he’d said.
“Kill them,” the horned dwarf commanded, and the war party surged forward with battle cries.
“Curse you, Knight-God! I wanted this to go peacefully for once!” Dora grumbled. She readied her crossbow and fired it into the crowd. The bolt went into the throat of the goblin with the staff, who’d begun chanting under his breath. He fell with a gurgling screech as blood erupted from his mouth, and the spell he’d been attempting to create fizzled and died.
Enrai sent a punch forward, and a rippling wave of fire lashed out at the axe-wielding horned dwarf. To the trio’s surprise, he swung his molten axe at the fla
mes and his weapon absorbed Enrai’s spell-fire, the blade glowing even brighter as a result.
“That’s not good,” the Monk declared. Ain suddenly leapt in front of him, protecting Enrai from an attack from the snarling horned dwarf who lunged with supernatural speed at the bald fighter.
“Take care of the grunts, I’ll deal with this one!” the Spellsword declared, and began fighting off the axe master. Sparks flew as their weapons collided.
“That I can do!” Enrai claimed, and he proceeded to send furious flaming punches and kicks towards the slavers charging at them. Without their leader to protect them from his magical flames, the lesser fighters scattered or fell, blasted apart by heated blows.
As good as the battle was going for Enrai, things were not as kind for Ain. The superheated axe was far too hot for the Grand Elf’s sword to handle. As high-quality as it was, it was still steel going up against a weapon enchanted with the heat of a volcano.
‘The only thing keeping my saber intact is a constant Magic Edge ensuring it resistance to his weapon’s heat,’ Ain thought to himself as he countered blow after blow. ‘If I want to win, I need to find a way to disarm this dwarf, at the very least!’
“You cannot stop me! I shall break you like a rusted dagger! And then I shall butcher that green-pig like the beast it is!” the warrior sneered, pressing his weapon down against Ain’s saber. The heat wafting off of the axe caused the elf to wince. He could feel his skin burning just by being close to it!
Ain narrowed his eyes, however, and channeled more magic into his weapon. “I won’t let you lay so much as a finger on her!” His saber glowed yellow as the Magic Edge fought off the overwhelming force of the axe.
“In that case, is that all your magic can do?!” the warrior demanded. A barked laugh from the horned dwarf made the Grand Elf’s eyes widen in shock as the axe head began to glow a violent, cherry red.
All at once, all the fiery energy the axe blade had absorbed from Enrai burst forth, along with a series of explosions of superheated air that sent Ain tumbling. He coughed up smoke and flinched as he felt his skin turn black and charred. He tried to raise his sword to get back into the fight, even though every limb felt like he’d just been barbequed, but he stopped and stared at the shattered weapon in his hand. The blast had broken his saber, even with an overcharged Magic Edge upon it!
