DAY SEVENTY TWO

Today was the day we finally escaped this horrible place. I’m still unable to walk, so Thraenor carried me around all day. After a meager breakfast Cehos led the way back to the small hallway we passed by yesterday. There to our left was a second door. Cehos looked positively ill so Ishitari examined the door in his place. She quietly opened it, hinges creaking softly. From the quick glimpse I got of the room, I saw a skeletal creature with multiple heads and wings sleeping at its center.

She looked over her shoulder and put her finger to her lips and shook her head. She backed away and silently closed the door. “We should move on.” She whispered.

“What, don’t think we could take it on?” Sandstorm chuckled.

She glared at the half giant. “Our group has multiple members in no condition to fight a creature like that. If we can avoid a confrontation in here, let’s do so.”

“Fine, fine.” Sandstorm sighed. “Let’s find the thing we came here for and get the hell out.”

We left the slumbering beast as it was and returned to the room we’d slept in. There Cehos suggested we follow through an unexplored door on the Eastern half of the room. Just as we opened the door, a thunderous crack shook the whole place. Some of the others swore.

The hoard of undead outside must’ve broken through the stone door.

We sprinted down the hallway to another room in hopes of getting as far away from the entrance as possible. Eerie purple light trickled out from beneath the door frame. By the Queen I hoped this was the last room we had to search through. Cehos approached cautiously, an arrow locked in his bow. He partially disappeared from view. The nearly silent whirr of an arrow and the roar of an angry owl bear told me we were not alone. Sandstorm went in after the red head, mind blade already drawn.

Thraenor flew me to the door where I could see better. By then Cehos had fired a couple more arrows and killed the first of three owl bears. Ishitari tumbled in and blasted a ray of light into the second about to lunge for Sandstorm. In a second the half giant’s mind blade tore through that same owl bear, nearly doing it in. Thraenor carried me inside, darting for one of the far corners to keep me at a distance away from the fight. As I prepared a power Cinna charged in, livid. Her fire ray slaughtered the second owl bear. My electric lance ready to fire, I struck the last of the beasts. It fell with a painful cry and did not rise again.

Sitting atop a large table at the center of the room was the object we came for. A brilliant ball of violet light bathed the whole place. Sandstorm unceremoniously shoved it inside our bag of holding. “So how the hell are we going to get out of here?”

“We need to get into a defensible position first,” Ishitari began, “Preferably the South side of the outer wall. You could use that pick of yours to break down the walls and escape.”

“Any other takers?” Sandstorm asked the lot of us. When no one else had any better plans he laughed a little. “Alright then let’s do it. It’s the best chance we got.”

Thraenor volunteered to find the best location where we could dig our way out. We returned to the room we’d slept in last night. There he gently sat me down on the floor and propped me up against a wall close to the others. He left silently through a Northern door and did not come back for some time.

“Follow me, I think I found something.” He beckoned hastily on his return.

Thraenor picked me up again and led us to the corner of a narrow, right-angled hallway situated right up against the outer wall. Siphoned off by a door at either end it was the ideal place to defend ourselves against the hoard. Cehos created a series of fire traps at both doors, designing them to detonate once they found us. While we waited I gave him my caltrops. I figured we needed all the delays we had at our disposal and it’s not like I’d used them at all since I took them from my basement several months ago. As Cehos occupied himself with making the traps, Sandstorm began to chip away at the outer wall.

Less than a half hour passed when I heard the low moan of hundreds of undead. Nails scratched on walls and wood. The whole building was amok with them. Doors a couple rooms over splintered apart. They were getting close. We all got in position. Minus Sandstorm, too preoccupied with digging our way out of here. The hallway was tall enough for Thraenor to keep me far out of reach above their clutching hands. We floated less than ten feet away from the Eastern door. I took a deep breath. If the traps failed I knew what I had to do next. I anticipated the worst.

Dozens of bodies launched at both doors almost simultaneously. In a split second Cehos’ first fire bomb tied to the Northern door exploded. The floor above us shook violently and for a moment I feared it might collapse all together. Chunks of stone the size of a person crumbled the door frame to bits, crushing a number of undead along with it. Even amongst the rubble I still heard more undead on their way.

“Good,” Ishitari grinned, “That’ll prevent any more from coming through there. For now at least.” Traps at the other end went off as well, but unlike the other door they were not enough to keep the horde from destroying the Eastern door.

“Now use your barrier!” Thraenor exclaimed. I nodded. He lowered me to the ground where I erected the first of three. While he hoisted me back up I tossed one my water vials at it. The more undead eliminated the better. A couple tense seconds ticked by. Dozens upon dozens of undead tried passing through it, zapped to death in moments. These barriers only last for so long. Just before the first one broke I created the second, combined with another water vile. Soon enough I’d made my third and final barrier.

“Here they come!” I cried, firing an electric bolt and another bottle.

Some of the zombies slipped passed me and shambled toward the others. Cehos’ arrows cut down three or four. Cinna’s fire ray took out the rest. But more flooded through the door frame just as soon as those were gone. I shot another bolt, along with my second to last water vile. A flash of light and Ishitari killed a half a dozen more. We retreated to where Sandstorm swung his pick again and again. A third bolt erupted from Twisted Thunder, and after tossing the last of my water vials into the face of a zombie, Thraenor and I flew over to join my friends. One last swing and a thunderous crack. The ruins shuddered. Faint light trickled in through Sandstorm’s self-made tunnel.

“Come on, this way!” He called over his shoulder before darting through the hole. Ishitari removed a small stone statue of a griffin buried in her knapsack. Once outside, she threw it at the ground and the beast within roared to life. It spread its wings wide and looked to its master expectantly.

Thomytix pointed his thumb at the creature. “So, who’s going first on this thing?”

“Going first?” Ishitari snorted. “Thomytix there’s no time for that. We have to get everyone out now. Sandstorm help me get him aboard.” His armor weighing him down, it took a couple seconds for the half giant and the thri-kreen to get Thomytix sitting atop the griffin.

“I can carry this one here.” Thraenor said, taking me in his right arm and scooping up Cinna in the other. His gaze shifted to the red head. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can carry you too.”

“It’s okay, I can get out of here myself.” Cehos grinned and rose a couple feet in the air.

Sandstorm jumped onto the griffin’s back and held out his hand to Ishitari. “Okay, now it’s your turn.”

She shook her head and pushed away his hand. “The griffin can’t carry all three of us. It wouldn’t even be able to fly with our combined weight.”

Sandstorm’s face paled. “No, Ishitari. Not again. We nearly lost you the last time!”

“I have the best chance of getting away from the undead and you know it.” She reasoned, shouting over the roar of the hoard. “I can jump farther than any of you can run, and most of them can’t even hurt me.”

“Fine,” The half giant spat. “Just go. Get out of here before more of ’em reach us.”

“Wait, Ishitari take these!” I cried, grabbing hold of her. One of my tattoos of distract and my last vigor tattoo sprung to life and jumped down from my shoulder to her forearm.

“Thank you.” She smiled, “I might need those. Go West into the Thak Desert, it’s the quickest way out. I’ll see you all in Aimi!” Ishitari smacked the griffin on the rear and it launched into the air. She waved to us and was on her way, disappearing into mists of the swamp in the matter of seconds.

Thraenor rose higher and higher away from the ruins, his grip tight around Cinna and I. A bit slower than the elemental, Cehos lagged behind by a dozen feet. Thank the Queen the massive swarm of undead funneled in at the entrance and only a sparse collection of them stood by where we’d broken out. The whirlpool at the center of the brooding lake spun faster and faster. The watery vortex whipped around till I could see the bottom. A pile of bones rose from the depths, taking shape into a colossal creature so massive it dwarfed the old ruins. A tight embrace of flesh and sinew weaved around the bones. Last came sickly orange scales that shone in the dim light of the approaching dawn. Twin horns pierced the back of its head.

The monster’s eyes fluttered open, its moss green eyes finding us in the dark. It roared and rose from the lake. Its quarter-mile long tail trashed about, uprooting trees from the soil like a person would bat away a mosquito. It turned towards us and roared again. Its tail sliced through the ruins as if butter, leveling the place to rubble.

Fearing he was too slow in the air Cehos dropped down into the swamp and sprinted for dear life. He managed to keep up with us for awhile. The griffin had sped away far into the distance, so it was only Thraenor, Cinna and I who stayed behind. I heard a yelp and Thraenor zipped down into the forested nightmare. Cehos’ foot had gotten stuck in the mire. Thraenor adjusted his hold on me and managed extend his hand far enough so the red head could grab it. Two tugs and Cehos was freed. He rose into the air once more, wiping away the mud on his boot.

The earth beneath us shook like a leaf in the wind. Whatever the beast was, it was gaining on us fast. We sped into the night. Ten tense minutes passed before I dared look back. The reptilian monster ceased its chase, changing its direction far to the East. I’d never seen such a thing in all my life. What power! I hadn’t even a clue what it could be from all my years of research!

“What in the Abyss is that thing?” I wondered aloud.

“It’s the tarrasque.” Cehos answered. “Strange. There’s only one in the world and its practically unkillable. Somehow someone somewhere must’ve recently killed it and it so happened to regenerate in that pool.”

“It regenerates?” I exclaimed, incredulous. “By the Queen…” That was the last anyone spoke until we reached the outskirts of the Thak Desert. I don’t think I’ve ever been this glad to see sand. We didn’t bother cooking any food and most of the others are sleeping already. No sight of Ishitari yet. I fear she won’t be as lucky this time around.

DAY SEVENTY ONE

This place is so silent it’s giving me the creeps. Even in abandoned buildings there should be some rustlings and bustlings, but here there’s nothing. I’m not the only one bothered by the deafening silence. Sandstorm has been smoking some of his cigars since this morning to calm his nerves. After breakfast we moved on through a door to the South. The room beyond was dark. I vaguely could make out a circle of pillars near the back.

On the Eastern wall written in charcoal were the words “Mind the gaps.”

Cehos entered the room and told us not to follow until he’d searched the place. Sandstorm completely ignored his order and followed shortly after the red head. Cinna took a peek but didn’t enter. Thomytix handed me one of his lit torches so I could see better in the darkness. Thomytix took a step inward, illuminating the shadowed room. To my surprise actual shadows darted away, scattered by the light of our torches. The rest of us quickly filed inside, weapons and powers ready. We had to help Cehos.

Cehos, finally noticing what was around us, dashed back to the door. He fired an arrow at a shadow off to his right but missed by a long shot. Ishitari blasted a light ray into the face of another, killing it instantly. I fired a bolt of electricity at two more of the shadows, slaying both. Two others shrieked at the deaths of the others and were upon me. They swiped at me with their incorporeal hands but I managed to dodge out of the way. More of the shadows attacked the others but I don’t think any of them were hurt.

Cinna killed a shadow with a ray of electricity. Sandstorm swung but missed slicing a second shadow. I saw Thomytix’s scythe go flying past the shadow about to attack him. Cehos’ arrows made their mark and pierced the chest of one of the beasts. Ishitari destroyed two more, swords flying. I summoned a second electricity lance, killing another shadow.

And then one of them was upon me. I felt some of my strength leave my body. I cursed to myself. My strength had been returning to me somewhat since our run in with the hags, but now I was nearly back to where I was before. Another one of the shadows surrounded Sandstorm. Before it could attack him, Cinna struck it with another ray. While she did so Sandstorm’s mind blade swung wide it but missed. Thomytix too missed once more. Cehos finally finished off the one around Sandstorm, an arrow striking it in the back. Ishitari slayed the last of the shadows, the same one that had attacked me.

“What’s over there?” Thomytix asked.

“I don’t know, but be careful.” Cehos replied. “The wall does say ‘mind the gaps’.”

The elan shrugged and tossed his torch at the pillars, revealing piles and piles coins hidden behind them. Still afraid of possible traps between the gaps, we had Thraeor float over the pillars to retrieve the treasure. Among the coins was a plain bag, but Cehos suspected it was something more. He cautiously dropped in a single copper piece. It didn’t hit the bottom.

“I want this.” He said.

“No, we don’t trust rogues.” Sandstorm grumbled, snatching it from his hands.

“I’m a lurk not a rogue. We’re more battle-oriented than them.”

“I don’t care. I don’t trust rogues, Malazhar doesn’t trust rogues…where the fuck is Malazhar!” The half giant shook his head. “We’re going to use this as our new group bag of holding, and that’s that.” For a moment Cehos was going to contest Sandstorm’s claim, but not wanting to devolve into an argument in the midst of such a dangerous place the red head gave in. Although that didn’t stop him from scowling.

“We should camp for the day.” Sandstorm suggested as he transported items from our current bag of holding into the much larger new one.

Ishitari shook her head. “No, we should keep moving. Get what we came for, and get out of here.”

“Fair enough.” Sandstorm shrugged half-heartedly once he’d finished. “I’m really not liking the feeling of this place.”

“You and me both.” Thomytix chuckled.

The next room over was small and cramped, occupied by a long forgotten pile of armored skeletons. Weapons of all kinds jutted out of bleached rib cages and skulls. I wondered how long they’d been there like that. Were they bodies of poor gold dwarves who perished eight hundred years ago when the bomb dropped?

The lurk must’ve not liked the looks of it because Cehos stared transfixed at the bodies. When asked he refused to enter. I couldn’t blame him. I felt the same way. Something felt off kilter. Cinna volunteered to go in his place. She cautiously tip toed inside and poked the nearest skull with the butt of her spear. Nothing. She prodded it again and still nothing. Cehos hastily pulled her away before she wandered in farther.

“Hang on, let me go in. I’ll see what I can find.” Ishitari trotted past the skeletons and turned around to face us. She stood silent, mulling over something. “I know what’s wrong with this place.” she said after a time, “Listen.”

It was quiet at first. Hardly louder than the sound of my own breathing. The noises arose like a monster coming awake after a long slumber. A cold chill raced down my spine. We’re going to die here. The voices whispered. We have to get out or we will perish. Thomytix lit a torch and chucked it at the bodies. Ishitari passed back through the threshold just moments before the torch struck the floor. The burst of light illuminated six shadows that been hidden by the darkness. They shrieked and shrunk away from the torch. But the light did not deter them. Gnarled bony fingers pointed accusingly at us. You’re all going to die.

Then they came at us, their movement kicking up decades-old dust and debris. They swarmed us in an instant, cutting off any means of escape. These shadows were not like the ones we’d encountered the next room over. No. These were twisted creatures vaguely in humanoid form. The other shadows were clearly ethereal in nature, but this lot I could not see through. Like the other shadows, these undead were cloaked in misty robes darker than the deepest mine shaft beneath Nefir. I heard one creep up behind me slowly nearly silent as a tomb. I turned on my heel, a power set to strike. I looked up into the twisted face of a dwarf that looked haunted. Distorted. Full of pain. A tortured soul driven mad over hundreds of years.

And that’s when my mind went dark.

-—

A robed figure in dirty tattered clothes cackled, their glittering crimson eyes the only source of light in the darkness. The figure held me captive by both my wrists, dragging me along the cold stone floor towards my certain doom. Their hands burned like acid on my skin. Their breath ice on my face. An insidious ebony fog whirled all around us.

Let me go! I screamed, squirming to get free. I kicked the figure in the face.

Dre didn’t even flinch and chuckled You’re coming with me, little one.

No, no! I wrenched my left arm free from my captor’s iron grip and whacked them across the face. I hit the figure again. And again. And again. And again. Each punch more frantic than the last. The figure never recoiled from my blows, never dodged, never cried out in pain. They only laughed at me. A hideous laugh that mocked me and beat me down more than any injury ever could.

There’s nothing you can do. It hissed, grabbing me by the throat. The figure lifted me off the ground and pulled me close. I felt its damp lips pressed against my ear. You see, now you’re mine!

-—

“Vilu, Vilu it’s me! It’s alright! Vilu, please come back to me!” A familiar voice pleaded. The darkness lifted from my eyes and I saw Thraenor staring down at me. The worry and fear in drer’s eyes was so intense it made me shiver. Thraenor held me tightly in drers arms to the point Thraenor’s nails dug into my skin. None of the others were around us, but they were somewhere close by. From behind me came Sandstorm’s battle cry and a sword slicing through something.

“Thraenor, what’s going on?” I asked, voice cracking. I blinked to clear my throbbing head. My mind felt hazy. In a deep fog. I gasped. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but Thraenor’s face and arms were covered in bruises and shallow cuts. Droplets of violet blood dripped off Thraenor’s nose. Its electrical charge stung when it hit my forehead.

“What in the Abyss happened to your face?” My breath caught in my throat. I felt the weight of a sharp, spherical object pressed against the inside of my fist. My voice lowered to a horrified whisper. “Why is there a rock in my hand?”

My vision darkened again before Thraenor could answer me.

-—

“Oh no. Oh no. Gods, what do we do? What do we do?!”

My eyes fluttered open and it was like I hadn’t opened them at all. The only thing I could see was darkness. I felt cold stone beneath me and Thraenor’s hand touch my shoulder every once and awhile. Dre darted all around me, terrified of something. That’s when I winced and lay down on my side. Utter agony shot through my lower left leg. Tears streaked my cheeks, doubled over from the pain. It was like nothing I’d felt before. My whole leg ached and burned. When I tried moving it I nearly passed out again.

“Thraenor, where are we?” I half-demanded. I managed to get myself back into a sitting position through gritted teeth. “S-something’s wrong with my leg.”

“I don’t know…” Thraenor lamented, flying just over head. “Do you have any bandages?”

“No,” I wailed, grabbing my knee with both my hands. It was wet. “Cinna’s the one who has those.”

“Well, what about paper?” Dre was beside my leg, drer’s hand on my thigh. Thraenor’s voice a little less panicky. “Do you have that?”

“I could tear out a few pages from my journal…” Warm liquid had soaked my palms and was seeping out from between my fingers. I choked down the panic rising in my throat and patted the ground around me for my misplaced backpack. Thank the Queen it was with in reach.

Thraenor rose above me once more. “And a torch? Do you have a torch?”

“I don’t have one of those either.” I sighed. The one Thomytix had given me earlier was long gone. “I must’ve dropped it, but I have candles.”

I rummaged desperately through my backpack, searching blindly until I felt the waxy surface of one of my candles. I placed it down between my legs, keeping it upright using my thighs. I dug my hand into the front pocket of my bag and grabbed my flint and steel. My hands shook violently. I was terrified of what I might find when there was light. I shakily struck the two together. The spark blinded me for a moment but I got it to my candle before I lost it.

I nearly dropped my flint and steel. My shin was shattered. Splintered bone had sliced through my skin and I was bleeding everywhere. It was broken clear in half, and the broken end stuck out by an inch at least.

I took a couple deep breaths, trying to calm myself. Why had this happened? How could I have broken it? I wiped away some tears with the back of my hand. I picked up the candle and held it up. Even with its nearly thirty foot radius I could not see the the ceiling. Had Thraenor somehow dropped me?

I didn’t know it had the time, but that’s when I began to scream. My chest heaved from my panicked sobs. Where were the others?

All my attention snapped back to my busted leg. I yelped as Thraenor grabbed a hold of it. Thraenor’s face was at level with mine, drer’s eyes no longer the two yellow halves of my Life Crystal. Instead staring back at me were two glowing red orbs. Thraenor’s grip tightened. Intense pain raced through my leg and I screamed again, fighting back fresh tears. In an instant most of the pain was gone and Thraenor let go. I looked down and no longer saw bones. Somehow dre had shoved it back in. Although the nasty gash remained. Thraenor shakily backed away from me, swaying two and fro almost like a glower would. Just before dre receded into the black beyond the light of my candle Thraenor’s eyes rolled into the back of drer’s head and dre crashed to the floor.

“Vilu, are you alright?” Torchlight burst through a door to my left. It was Sandstorm, Thomytix and Ishitari. Thomytix’s face had been bashed in a few times, all bruised and swollen. Ishitari’s chest was singed. She looked worse for wear.

“I broke my leg.” I replied, wincing when I tried to sit up.

Sandstorm knelt beside me and pulled out a jug of his healing water. He yanked off the cork with his teeth and gently poured it over my still open wound. It stung a little, but my leg felt considerably better when he was done.

Thraenor lay there motionless the whole time. The others protested, but I managed to drag myself to Thraenor’s side. I fought the new onslaught of pain that it caused, but I didn’t care. Thraenor needed me. I rolled Thraenor onto drer’s back and cradled Thraenor’s head. “Thraenor!” I said softly, brushing away some of the dried blood on drer’s face. “Thraenor are you there?”

Right then Thraenor’s body disintegrated and turned to mist in my hands. Clouds as dark as night slipped through my fingers. The mists coalesced together. They rose higher and higher, reaching for the ceiling. At the very center of the billowing mass were two crimson eyes. A single word shook the ancient walls around us.

“Yes.”

The dark clouds solidified and took a vaguely humanoid shape. First came his legs and torso. As they took form his arms extended outward; a friend expecting an embrace. Like the life elemental we’d met some time ago two pointed ears jutted out from the sides of his head. Those brilliant eyes shone like coal. Thraenor, now a few feet taller than me, lowered his arms and looked down at us, smiling. “Ah, I remember now.”

“What are you?” Thomytix said after a pause, dumbfounded.

Thraenor’s smile widened and he pointed to his head. Electricity shot from his fingertips and encased him in a glimmering crown of blue lightening. “I’m Thraenor, King of the Thunder Realm!”

I wiped away a few more tears, but these were tears of joy. So it finally happened. Thraenor’s true form has finally been set free…and he still remembers me! He floated back down beside me, his feet hovering just inches above the floor.

“Where are Cinna and Cehos?” I asked Sandstorm while Ishitari placed my leg in a splint.

He shrugged. “Don’t know. We heard you screamin’ so we came running this way. Once Ishitari’s done here we’re gonna go find them.”

“It’s not the best splint, but it’ll have to do until we find the others.” Ishitari said when she was finished. Thraenor knelt down and gently lifted me up by the backs of my knees and shoulders, careful not move my leg too much.

The others led the way back to the room with the strange pit and fire place. Somehow the fire place had been reduced to rubble. We passed by the room where I remember last seeing them, but they weren’t there. We found another door and passed through a small hallway. On the other side of the door we heard muttering. Ishitari carefully opened it and there they were. I saw blood pooled beneath Cinna’s right leg, which was covered in multiple stab wounds. A bloodied dagger lay by her side. Cehos tried wrapping the wounds with some bandages, but it wasn’t doing much. If anything Cinna was doing more of the work.

Ishitari ran over to them and finished patching her up. “We should rest.” She said tiredly over her shoulder.

Cinna shakily rose to her feet, leaning against Cehos for support. “What happened to Vilu?” Cehos asked, “And is that Thraenor?”

I smiled ironically. “I, uh, somehow broke my leg…but this is Thraenor’s true form!”

Cinna shrugged and hobbled over to Thraenor and I. “Looks like your splint could use some work.” With Ishitari’s help, Cinna finished splinting up my leg for the night. She told me it still wasn’t the best, but it had to do until we could find a way out of here. After dinner Thraenor helped me get into my sleeping roll. For now the pain has mostly subsided. Hopefully it shouldn’t wake me when I sleep. Everyone else looks beaten and exhausted and are getting ready for bed themselves.

I still can’t believe it. Thraenor is finally free! For good! I’ve waited all my life for this moment, but I never expected it to turn out this way. It’s almost comical, really. How today went…

At dinner the others gave me a glimpse of what happened earlier. The things that attacked us were allips, and they made Cinna and I go insane for awhile. Sandstorm mentioned something about Thomytix, Cehos and Thraenor losing it too. In the midst of the fight Cehos, Cinna, Thraenor and I got separated from them. The only reason Thomytix didn’t get away too was because Sandstorm “punched some sense” back into the elan. (It sure would explain why his face looked the way it did.)

Well, I best be getting some shut eye. We still need to find that item Cogline sent us here for. I wonder how much more we have to go through until we find it?

DAY SEVENTY

“I may have a way out of here when we get to it.” Ishitari said to us when we began exploring the place in the morning. “I’ll have to take people out in groups, but I can summon up a griffin.”

Thomytix was incredulous. “Since when?”

“I couldn’t summon it back there.” Ishitari reasoned, “The zombies would’ve torn it to pieces before we could do anything with it. It’s why that wasn’t a valid plan then.”

We ate a quick breakfast and moved on. Sandstorm and Cehos took the lead. The lurk took out some parchment and ink and began scribbling a map of the place. Thomytix took up the rear, with the rest of us in the middle. At the end of the hallway were three doors. We took the closest one to the North. From the brief peek I got of it before Cehos disappeared inside I saw spirals of strange emerald rocks. For awhile all was quiet as Cehos went in to investigate. Suddenly there was a loud thud and Cehos collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Cinna dashed inside and dragged him out of there. The poor man couldn’t move at all, or even speak. He stared up at us with wide, terrified eyes.

“So we got another one of these rogues.” Sandstorm sniggered, poking Cehos in the side with his foot.

We stood over him for awhile, unsure what to do. None of us had the ability to heal this kind of damage. The only one who might’ve been able to, Malazhar, has been missing since we returned from the Forge. As we debated what we should do, Cehos’ body began to glow a bright fluorescent yellow.

“Wha—I can move, I can move again!” He exclaimed, slowly rising to a sitting position. All of us were stunned. What in the Abyss?!

“Did you do this, Ishitari? Or Thorumak?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “Didn’t tell me if it was.”

The next room we found was huge, with an unlit fire place to our left and an odd spike pit on to the right. But with nothing else there, we moved on to a door to the West, which lead to a small hallway. The door at the end of that hallway was a large, stone mass. Cehos couldn’t manage to unlock it, so Sandstorm broke it open with the pick. What was odd was he didn’t smash it completely, only split it down the middle so we could pass through. Inside the room had beautiful, if not heavily worn down mosaic flooring depicting legendary monsters fighting each other. My antennae picked up an unpleasant stench near the back, but nothing else. At the opposite end was a second door, and beyond that a massive but luckily empty room.

Still exhausted and worn from earlier, Cehos asked if we could rest up early today. We all agreed. Cinna made a delicious dinner and I think I’m going to doze off soon.

DAY SIXTY NINE

After a quick breakfast the group plus Ishitari trekked off toward the Ightl Marshland. The whole place was damp and reeked of decaying flesh. Fifty feet in we came across two pools of water that extended about two hundred feet out. A narrow five foot wide strip of land separated the two. It would’ve been safer to go the long way around, but through the strip it would be faster. We all decided to take the risk and cross the narrows.

Just before we begin to cross, Thomytix placed his tower shield in front of me. “I want to protect the small one.” he, exclaimed boldly, “The small one can’t obviously fend for itself, so I will protect it.”

“I am a dre, thank you very much.” I growled. I did not appreciate being treated like some child that can’t defend themselves.

Knowing the potentiel risk, Cehos had an arrow out ready to fire for if we ran into anything. We cautiously began to journey across. Half way through three giant crocodiles emerged from the murky depths of the pools. Two were on the left, and one on the right. The first one on the left snapped at Cinna, and the other for Ishitari. The one on the right dove for for Sandstorm. The half giant sliced at its face before the croc’s jaws clamped down on him, hoisting him into the air. Cehos’ arrow struck the one going for Cinna. Thomytix threw his scythe toward Ishitari’s attacker.

I pointed Twisted Thunder at that same beast, channeling my psionic energies into it. Volts of electricity burst forth from the tip, lancing it through the chest. The electricity danced across the water and hit the one attacking Cinna too. But it was not enough to deter it from going for her. Like Sandstorm a moment earlier, it caged her in its mouth. As she struggled to free herself Cinna froze her captor with a ray of ice, but it was not enough. Ishitari managed to avoid being grappled. Cehos fired more a few more arrows, but he missed.

With all his might, Sandstorm pried apart the monster’s jaws, but the crocodile was too strong and bit back down again. Suddenly his mind blade pierced the roof of the crocodile’s mouth. He’d manifested it while still inside its maw. To everyone’s worry, the crocs were slinking back into the water. To being rolling and finish off their prey, as crocodiles do. Cehos shot a final arrow and killed Cinna’s croc. He and dashed for her, desperately trying to pry open the dead reptile’s mouth. Both Cinna and Cehos struggled to free her.

“Thraenor, go help them!” I exclaimed. Thraenor nodded and floated over to the two.

I fixed my attention on the croc with Sandstorm still captured. I took a deep breath. The moment after the croc’s head exploded from my mind thrust. Ishitari stabbed the reptile still attacking her with her soul blade, but she fumbled when she attempted to strike it a second time. Bleeding profusely, the crocodile’s corpse slid into the water. Having lost balance, Ishitari fell in after it.

Thomytix and Thraenor were at Cehos’ side, and using their combined strength, finally opened the jaws wide enough for Cinna to slip free from the croc’s mouth before its body sunk down into the swamp water. Sandstorm got out on his own with out the help of anyone. A moment later Ishitari emerged from the water, totally fine.

We ran the rest of the way across the straight. As we passed by, a few more crocodile heads popped up. Thank the Queen they were no where near as large as the other three and did not attack us. We stopped there and rest briefly before heading Northward, long enough for Cinna to heal herself. Sandstorm, also still hurt, sipped some of the healing alcohol he bought from the greenskins at Sky’s Well. Trekking deeper into the swampland the half giant took the lead. Thomytix fell back to the rear. Ishitari, Cinna, and Cehos flanked my left and right.

“Does anyone else see what’s going on back there, or am I going crazy?” Thomytix said, after a half hour of silence.

Eight large snakes jumped down from the tree tops. Cehos struck one before it even hit the ground. It shrieked in agony, electricity coursing through its writhing corpse. Another attempted to strike me, but its fangs bounced harmlessly off my mithril shirt. Before it could strike again I killed it with mind thrust. Sandstorm cut one at his feet clear in half. Thomytix’s scythe swung downward at the reptile, it dodged. The blade stabbed the earth, the mushy soil swallowing part of it like a starved animal. The elan struggled to wiggle his weapon free while Cinna attempted to stab another with her spear. She tripped on a rotten root jutting from the ground and fell to her knees. Cehos gave an exasperated sigh and fired an arrow at the snake slithering towards her. The arrow pierced it at the base of the head, and the snake fell over dead. Ishitari’s mind blades were in a flurry, but failed to hit any of the remaining snakes.

From behind us I heard twigs snapping and splintering. The snakes were instantly aware of the noise. If snakes could show fear, I saw it in their faces. Whatever it was they were afraid of, they didn’t want to mess with it. They turned away from us and fled for the safety of the underbrush. Before one of them could get away I killed it with mind thrust. I saw Sandstorm and Cehos slay two more. One of the two appeared injured, bitten by one of its brethren in the fight. Thomytix, his scythe finally free, turned towards the source of the sound and stood in front of me. Maniacal laughter echoed all around us, almost apart of the thick fog rolling in. Cinna gulped and rose quickly, rejoining with the rest of us. More twigs snapped in all directions, the pace of the sounds accelerating and unnerving.

“Do you know what this is? Seems undead to me…” Sandstorm asked Ishitari.

Ishitari shook her head. “Undead don’t laugh.”

“What the hell is going on?” Thomytix cried, panic in his voice.

“Keep your head!” Cehos barked at the elan, an arrow already knocked in his bow.

“Yeah, quit being a bitch. You’re a Diamond Knight!” Sandstorm added.

Twenty shadows had materialized in the mists on either side of us. They inched closer, evil grins on all of them. Sandstorm stomped and bellowed in an attempt to dispel some of the fog. The shadows in front of him let out an ear piercing shriek and dispersed somewhat. Just as quickly as it went away, the fog and the shadows were back again. My eyes opened wide. Had we fought that hag on the way to Im’mos, this is one tactic she certainly would’ve used against us. I still wasn’t sure exactly what type of hag we were up against, (You’d be surprised by the wide variety of hags out there) let alone how many.

“Should we run?” Sandstorm asked Ishitari again.

“I don’t know, undead don’t usually use this sort of tactic.”

“These aren’t undead,” I butt in, “They’re hags, like the one we ran from awhile ago.”

By then the fog was almost upon us. The shadows had grown darker, blacker than Sandstorm’s mind blade. With one of the shadows just about to attack, Cehos fired the arrow he’d kept ready. The shadow screamed and dispersed, but reformed once the arrow passed through it. Thomytix rummaged through his knapsack and threw what I think was an alchemic fire to his right. A burst of flame erupted not far off. The fog and shadows close to the fire slunk away from its bright light, roaring with fury.

“Run, just run!” Cehos grabbed Cinna by the wrist and dashed towards the fire. They disappeared into the smoke before any of us could call out to them.

All of a sudden my feet were off the ground. It was Thomytix. He’d picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. “Hey, put me down!” I squealed, pounding my fists against his armored shoulder. “I can run on my own!”

We passed through the fire unharmed, the pungent smokey odor overriding the scent of anything else. The maniacal laughter followed after us. The elan sprinted for some time longer in a desperate attempt to flee. When his breathing grew ragged he put me down. I looked around and saw none of the others, nor could I hear their voices. Terrified, I realized not even Thraenor was with us.

“Where is everyone?” I asked frantically. Thomytix, still gasping for a breath, shook his head.

Don’t worry, I’m fine! I heard drer call in my mind. I’m above the fog trying to find you.

Try using your gusts of wind to dispel the fog. I suggested, relieved Thraenor was alright.

I try eradicating invisibility but nothing happened.

Hear something metal being dragged on the ground. “Sandstorm’s back there fighting, he’s trying to ward off the things that are attacking us. We have to get back and help him.” Ishitari wasn’t coming out of the fog. And why would she abandon Sandstorm in the midst of a fight, even if it was to warn us? And how was she able to find us so easily in the fog? Hags are notorious for imitating voices.

“Thomytix, don’t listen to the voice. That’s not actually Ishitari! It’s a hag!”

Shadows scream and them plus the fog roll in really close. Billowed all around us. The fog was so thick I couldn’t see Thomytix, even though I was standing right next to him.

I heard Thomytix about to cry out something, but his voice was cut short. Almost at the same time my whole body went weak, like energy was being sapped from my body. My joints grew stiff and it pained me to move. It was so bad I couldn’t even scream for help. Cold, damp fingers dug into my shoulder. I peered up into the face of very old female human with only one eye, but I knew this creature wasn’t human. Her skin was sickly green, her hair wrapped around her like a thick vine. Another hag surrounded Thomytix, a thunderstone at his feet.

As fast as his body would allow, he reached down and grabbed it. “Follow the noise!” He shouted and flung it into the fog. A moment or two later came its telltale bang. My antennae blocked my vision as huge bursts of wind collided into us. It was Thraenor. I could see drer now, and Sandstorm too. My creation floated downwards, blowing the rest of the fog away. Sandstorm was charging towards us at a speed I’d never seen him at before, his mind blade drawn. His sword sliced through the lower jaw of the monster still upon me, nearly severing it all together. The hag gargled on her own blood, the red liquid pouring down her chin and neck. Out of the mist was Ishitari, swing furiously at the second hag with all four of her soul blades. Only hit with one.

I saw Cehos floating down from above, firing arrows at the hags. One beside me let out muffled scream and collapsed into a pool of her own blood. Furious at the loss of her brethren, the other hag growled, took a step back, and vanished.

Sandstorm wasted no time and stomped, “Run, bitch!” But she was gone. We looted the corpse of the dead hag. The fire Thomytix started had died down by the time we were done.

“Sandstorm, can I put my silk rope in the bag of holding before we go on?” I asked. It felt too heavy to carry, I could hardly move with it. “I don’t have the strength to carry this at the moment.” The half giant nodded and opened up the bag, allowing me to toss it inside.

Night was fast approaching, and we were desperate to find a safe place to sleep somewhere to the North. Every once in awhile a figure would dash past us. Monsters roared and growled at us from the underbrush. A half hour passed. A hundred feet away I saw lights flash into existence then disappear. It happened a number of times before I remembered what they were. Will-o-wisps.

“Don’t go any farther,” I halted them. “Up over there are some will-o-wisps. They like to feed on powerful emotions, so everybody try to stay calm.”

“Yes, everybody stay calm.” Cehos added, “They shouldn’t harm us and aren’t too dangerous if we stay away and remain calm.”

I still couldn’t stop myself from shaking. Cehos might’ve told the party they weren’t dangerous but I knew better. These things could put up a real fight if we crossed their path. We cautiously detoured around them, hoping they wouldn’t notice or follow us. To my dismay the little lights continued after us even once we should have been completely clear of them.

We were so preoccupied with the will-o-wisps we failed to notice the hoards of undead creeping towards us. We were surrounded. The majority were a couple hundred feet out, but all were gradually advancing. Some others rose from the murky depths of the swamp water and from the earth itself. I almost wondered if they had they been there this whole time, but had simply waited till nightfall to emerge.

When they were twenty feet away I touched the ground, transforming my ray into a wall of pulsating electricity. I tossed one of my glass water vials at the wall for good measure, hopefully killing a few more undead than it would with out. Unphased, the zombies walked through it. A bunch perished instantly, but the ones behind them quickly took their place. There were too many to stand and fight. We needed to run.

“Do you have any wards to stop them?” Sandstorm asked Ishitari. She shook her head.

The half giant and Cehos sped off to the North, taking the lead. The rest of us lagged behind. I saw a hand jut up from the ground and almost grab Sandstorm’s foot. He easily dodged and swung downward, slicing the hand from its owner. Ishitari, Thomytix and I took up the rear, with Cinna a few steps behind Cehos. As we fled I used up my two remaining barriers and tossed more water vials to keep the undead behind us at bay. But all of us in the rear were rapidly falling behind. Sandstorm was at least eighty feet ahead of us.

Suddenlt Ishitari sprinted past us to Sandstorm. “Follow me, I see a defensible position!” She cried, pointing to a ridge up ahead. Extremely steep, it would force the undead to climb up only the sides and the very front. We hastily climbed up the right side, Sandstorm and Ishitari cutting down the few zombies atop the ridge. I felt the hot breath of something on my back. I swerved on instinct, narrowly avoiding being grabbed by an undead at the neck.

Cinna tripped on a hand sticking out of the mud that grabbed her ankle. Cehos ran back to help her back up, slashing off the zombie’s hand with his dagger. Thomytix kept his tower shield in front of the both of us, his scythe tearing through a zombie blocking our way. Back at the trench I could see Sandstorm digging a trench. I shot a sonic lance at an approaching undead which killed it with a thunderous clang. The undead that had been going for the ridge suddenly turned around and clambered after me, cutting Thomytix and I off from the others.

“Ishtari, go! Save them!” Sandstorm bellowed. Almost instantly Ishitari was at our side, defending us against the onslaught of the hoard.

Thirty feet ahead Cehos got bit in the arm just before he fired an arrow. “Fuck!” He cursed.

Thomytix tossed a thunderstone to our left. The twenty or so zombies to the right of us followed the sound, but attacked us as they move passed. Ishitari now in front of us, she hacked away at them. I saw three bleeding bite marks on her arms.

Through the chaos, Thraenor had been firing ray after ray at the undead hoard below. Dre floated down and gently picked me off the ground.

“I need to show you something.” Thraenor said in Auran. Dre flew high into the air, hundreds of feet above my friends. The zombie hoard surrounded us for miles, dozens of will-o-wisps and other such monsters among them. After awhile Thraenor floated back down to where we could see the others. Together we made it to the top of the ridge where the others were waiting for us. Sandstorm was busily hacking away at the ground with his pick finishing up the trench. Over the next couple minutes I could only look down at the others being bitten and scratched by the relentless mass of undead.

Soon enough the trench finished, but it was almost useless to us. Slain zombie after zombie (and even some still going) fell into it, rapidly filling it up. In the back, I saw more undead clambering over each other in a desperate attempt to reach us. There were thousands of them surrounding us for miles. We had no place to go and no way to stave off them all.

A grave look on her face, Ishitari turned to us. “Give me your thunderstones, all of them. Quickly!”

I tossed down the single thunderstone I had tucked away in my backpack. Thomytix had a handful more, I saw them in one of his pouches. But he only gave up two of his. Cehos must’ve seen the others tucked away. “Do you want to live?” He snapped.

“Fine.” Thomytix mumbled, handing the rest over to Ishitari.

“Here, take this too.” A skate tattoo lifted from Sandstorm’s arm and crawled onto Ishitari’s shoulder. His mindblade out, he slashed away at three zombies coming for us. With fierce determination, Ishitari jumped into the air. She landed a hundred feet away, tossing a thunderstone at the ground just before she landed. The zombies nearby moaned and turned toward the sound, stumbling after her. When she landed a couple zombies bit into her. She ignored her wounds and jumped again and again. The undead continued following her until I could no longer see her. By then the giant mass around us was mostly gone. A few moments later came another blast and then a second.

“Go, go!” Cehos shouted, sprinting ahead.

“Ishitari!” I cried out, tears in my eyes. Far off in the distance I heard two more thunderstones, then all went quiet.

We could do nothing to save her, so we ran. Ran as fast as we could farther North towards the place we need to go. Sandstorm threw his mind blade at the scattered undead up ahead.

“No moving slow, fatass.” He growled, throwing Thomytix over his shoulder. We keep to a straight line nearly sprinting for the next hour to keep the remaining zombies at bay. We hacked down the few that got too close. Twenty minutes passed and it was almost as if the zombie just stopped following us all together. Towards the end of that hour the tree line began to break. Just up ahead there were no trees at all.

“We should rest up ahead.” Sandstorm called over his shoulder.

“No, we have to keep moving.” Thomytix argued. “We’ve made it this far. The least we can do for Ishitari is to keep moving.”

Sandstorm agreed and we moved onwards. The brush became increasingly sparse with each step until we weren’t in swampland anymore. Marshy soil gave way to stony earth so barren of life nothing grew. In the midst of this dead land was a black-blue lake. Its waters whirled around in circles silently, like a monster waiting to strike its prey. To the right of the lake loomed a lone building. A long forgotten sentinel still at watch.

“Don’t touch it.” Cehos said of the lake, making a face.

The half giant placed Thomytix back on his feet. We cautiously crept by the lake, some of us armed just in case something rested beneath the swirling waves. Half way past it Cehos and Cinna fell to their knees. Their faces pale and sickly, especially Cinna.

“I need healing water.” She gasped. Sandstorm whipped out one of his own bottles and handed it to her. Using each other for support, they got back on their feet. We must’ve been on the run for longer than I thought. Rays of sunlight appeared up over the horizon.

“Come on, get over here!” A voice called out from the forest a few hundred feet away. A couple dozen zombies stumbled out of the brush. It was Ishitari, badly hurt and bleeding everywhere. She cut some of the zombies down where she stood before dashing towards the entrance to the tomb-like buidling. “We got to get this door open!” She shouted.

As we approached Sandstorm got out his pick. “Don’t.” Ishitari warned him. “We won’t be able to close the door behind us if you do that.”

Cehos and Cinna pushed him aside and opened up the door. We scurried inside and shut it tight. Inside was a dark stone hallway. A dozen feet out piles of rubble littered the floor, but fortunately did not block the entire hallway. Behind me, Ishitari piked up the door to strengthen it against the onslaught I’m sure was outside waiting for us. Violent bashing on the other side of heavy iron door shook the hallway slightly. Once the door was secure she collapsed to the floor. One of her arms hung limp at her side.

Sandstorm knelt down and handed her some of his healing water. “Drink some of this. It’ll help you feel stronger.”

“How did you survive?” Cehos asked, bewildered.

“Did lots of runnin’.” Ishitari replied, her voice dry and raspy.

“Remember she’s also a mind blade specialized to kill undead.” Sandstorm grinned, clapped her gently on the shoulder.

Ishitari shook her head. “There’s more than zombies out there. Whisps, shadows, whites…the whole nine yards.”

The half giant fount a heavy sliding stone door behind the iron one. Together with Thomytix they closed that one also. Right now Sandstorm is sleeping beside Ishitari, both of them leaning against the stone door. Thomytix took the spot farthest down the hallway, his tower shield up and partially blocking the path against any creatures that might be inside. Cehos curled up next to Cinna before both of them fell asleep. It’s been an hour since we arrived and I think the pounding on the door has finally stopped. But I should sleep too. I’m exhausted. Thraenor can keep watch while we rest.

DAY SIXTY EIGHT

We reached the outskirts of Aimi just after noon, and met up with the War Chef there. He waved when he saw us.

“War Chef, do you know if Cogline is around here still?” I asked.

“I haven’t really looked, but I’m guessing he’s still out there in his cottage. Why, you need to go talk to him?”

“Yeah, we do.”

The deurgar cocked an eyebrow. “What for?”

“It’s…” I turned my head to the side. “About the Druids.”

“Need ’em for the fight against the illithids.” Sandstorm added.

The War Chef looked perplexed. “What about the Druids and the fight against the illithids?”

“Yeah, apparently Cogline is one.”

“Yep,” The War Chef crossed his arms over his chest, “I know.”

“Another one still exists in the Forge.” I continued. “He’s a gold dwarf actually.”

“Oh really? I thought they all died. I guess Amanmal is still alive? He was my favorite.”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” I confirmed. “You know of the Druids?”

“I do. Didn’t really talk to you guys about ’em before, but I was alive at the time.”

“What?” Nearly the whole group exclaimed.

“Yeah, I’m just really old. I traveled around with some of the Druids for awhile. Kind of helped me do some training with what I am.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “That doesn’t make any sense. The duergar as a race haven’t been around that long.”

“Oh, I have.”

I was stunned to silence. Was he not a deurgar? What was he then? What species besides the elans could live that long a time? Thomytix, apparently even more disbelieving than I was, called the War Chef on his bullshit.

“Well, since we’re going to war with the illithids, my skills might be helpful. I’m not a duergar, really.”

“So, what are you then?” Sandstorm prodded. “A gold dwarf?”

The War Chef nodded. “I was once.”

“Once? Did over time your skin gray or something?” Sandstorm blinked, still baffled.

“I was dying, and Amanmal was the one who saved me. Using some magical process from the elemental plane of fire which turned my skin pretty much into ash and now I can do this.” Suddenly the entire top of his head burst into flames and his began glowing white hot. “They call things like me an Azer. I don’t know if there are any others like me, but it’s pretty neat. It’s how I get the pot to light on fire.”

“That’s incredible!” I exclaimed, taking a few steps closer.

“I’ve seen some stuff man. First the Shadow Vault, and now this.” Sandstorm laughed. Thomytix, seemingly fascinated by the fire, almost reached out to touch the dancing flames.

“So when you to to war with the illithids I have an interesting talent that might be very helpful.” War Chef continued, pressing the palms of his hands together. He opened his hands and there cupped in his palm was a small ball of fire. He set it on the ground and it sprung to life. It was an elemental. “I could start making some of these.”

“Yes, you should.” Sandstorm agreed. “We’re going to need them. You should talk with the Diamond Knights and help coordinate an attack with the people North.”

“You know where they might be coming through?”

The War Chef gently patted the little fire elemental into the ground. “If I’m going to do that I’ll have to resign as a chef, at least for awhile.”

“That Land Lady is going to be mad at you!” Sandstorm chuckled.

“Wait, that’s a woman?” I exclaimed. All this time I had no idea what the Land Lord’s gender was. A woman! I would’ve never guessed. The others broke out in contagious laughter. I couldn’t help but join them. I felt the War Chef pat me on the back, batting away a tear from the corner of his eye.

“You should come with us to the Diamond Knights, but we need to talk to Cogline first.” Sandstorm said when we’d calmed down.

“Eh, alright. I can go with you to talk to him. Not too big of a fan of his, he’s kind of a jerk.”

“He saved my life a couple times so he can’t be all bad.” I replied, frowning.

The War Chef smirked and led us back to the inn. “I haven’t used much of my fire powers recently.” He mused once inside, juggling fire balls in his hands. Before doing so he grabbed a glass of water from behind the counter and poured the water on his palms, making it look like some cheap magic trick to the other customers. The landlady emerged not long after we returned. To her chagrin, he told her he was resigning. “At least for awhile.” He winked.

War Chef in tow, we then bee-lined it to Cogline’s cottage. The door opened inward at our approach. Fifteen bloodied illithid heads lined the walls like trophies of the hunt. Cogline waved us in. He looked just as young as the last time I saw him. “So, I’ve heard that you’re here to talk to me? I’ve been a tad busy.”

“We’re going to need your skills for the war that’s coming. The Diamond Knights would like to talk to you. We’re trying to coordinate efforts through out the cities.” Sandstorm began.

“We reached the Forge and there’s another Druid there.” I added.

Cogline’s eyebrows arched with interest. “There is?”

I nodded. “A gold dwarf named Amanmal. He’s the one guarding the Forge.”

“He made me this shirt.” Sandstorm grinned, showing off the mithirl chain shirt that had once been his Dwarven pick.

“Yes, I see it’s made of mithril…I wasn’t expecting there to be another Druid.” Cogline fell silent for a moment, then shook his head. “So, what does he want? Is he going to help with the stuff that’s there?”

“Said so.” I affirmed, “Said he wanted us to talk to you.”

Cogline’s hand suddenly glowed purple, a deep violet fire that almost appeared black around the edges. The odd necklace he always wore emanated the same colored flames as his hand. He took a few steps outside and shot some sort of fiery energy up into the air. “That should find him I guess, now that I know that he’s alive. Come in, come in.” He walked back inside and gestured to the War Chef as he walked past. “The War Chef came with you guys too?”

“Yeah, he wants to join in the war effort.” Sandstorm replied.

“What’s a deurgar going to do for you?” Cogline smirked, some laughter in his eyes.

Sandstorm’s eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest. “We know he’s not a deurgar.”

“I figured as much. I’d see no point for him to do anything else but cook.”

Cogline gathered us around a table and we exchanged stories with him. We retold the tale of our journey to and from the Iner Forge, and him about how he killed those fifteen illithids. I noticed that Aldoraen was completely fascinated by Cogline the whole time. He asked the Druid question after question, enthralled by what he could do and what he was. He was relentless. It got to the point Cogline could take no more and asked Aldoraen to stop. But the peaceful meeting wasn’t peaceful for much longer.

The poor door to Cogline’s house flew off its hinges and tossed aside. I groaned softly. The unbelievably tall maenad I’d met the last time I was here stormed inside, looking more than a little pissed.

He must’ve followed us.

Cogline was furious. I could see the fury written on his face, but he made no movements towards the maenad.

“I know that he’s here Cogline! It’s that one there.” The maenad yelled, pointing at Aldoraen. He stormed up to him, cornering Aldoraen against a wall. Aldoraen took a few steps back away from the other maenad with some confusion and fear. To my horror, I could really see just how tall that maenad was. He was at least a foot taller than Sandstorm. Sandstorm_! Bigger than a half giant! A gargantuan axe strapped to his back glinted menacingly in the candlelight. "_You need to learn something."

Cehos whipped out an arrow from his shimmerglow quiver. I was terrified, cursing under my breath. I should have been more careful! More vigilent! I should’ve noticed he was following us.

“What do you mean I need to learn something? What the hell?” Aldoraen demanded.

“Where you’re going you’re going to need some skills. You know what, I don’t want everybody here to die so I’m going to teach you some things.” The maenad grabbed Aldoraen by the scruff of his neck. Aldoraen struggled against his captor’s grasp, but what was he to do when the other maenad’s hand was the size of his head? Cogline looked positively livid but still did nothing to stop him, a defeated look on his face.

Sandstorm put a hand on the maenad’s shoulder. “Let him go.”

The maenad shrugged him off with ease. “I can’t just let him go. A lot more rests on this than you know.”

“Why is he so important?” Sandstorm prodded.

The maenad looked down over his shoulder at the half giant, glaring daggers. “Because of what he is and what his task is going to be. He doesn’t exactly have a choice about this task. Something has chosen him to eventually save everything. He is going to be the one to go outside the dimension to save all of us. He’s one of the two chances that we’ll have, and he’s the only one in which I can actually do anything to help with. I don’t want him to get killed outside of this dimension and not be able to come back and save us, and that is why I am taking him with me.”

Sandstorm backed off a fraction, his palms out. “Sounds pretty decent to me. I don’t want to die and implode.”

“What the fuck?” Aldoraen cursed, still squirming in the maenad’s grasp.

“Just man up.” Sandstorm told Aldoraen, “Because you’re the chosen one apparently.”

“But I don’t have any kind of skills!” Aldroaen reasoned, his voice cracking. “How can I bring back anything?”

“You think I know anything about that?” The maenad almost chuckled. “Hell, not even Cogline knows anything about that, but he knows that you’re supposed to go. The Druids themselves can’t go otherwise he’d probably go himself.”

“Why can’t the Druids go?” I wondered.

“Because they have to get out the exact same way Tyler’s going to get out,” The maenad replied, “But they don’t know how.”

“Fine, just do it.” Cogline growled.

The maenad nodded, dragging Aldoraen out of the cottage by the back of his shirt.

About ten feet outside Aldoraen just gave up fighting. He hung his head, sighing to himself. “I’ll learn what he needs to teach me because apparently I need to go do something.” I heard him say, “I don’t really have a choice.”

“He’s going to teach him that shit he learned from the Vault.” Cogline hissed as Aldoraen and the other maenad disappeared from view.

I shook my head in disbelief. “How can one learn something from the Vault with out going crazy?”

“He asked it a simple question. He refuses to tell me what it is, but I think it was along the lines of ‘teach me how to survive anything’, and now he can’t die.” Cogline shrugged. “It’s made him really mad. It fuels his anger all the time, but now the Shadow Vault can’t do anything to kill him. He can’t be killed, he can’t die…he’s more immortal than I am! Either way, I still don’t know the exact question he asked that key to figure it out. Hell, I don’t know what exactly he learned. It wasn’t actually the Shadow Vault itself, but something similar to it. The Shadow Vault we know didn’t exist back in his time.”

“So, it was something else?” I pondered.

Cogline nodded. “He learned it somewhere, but I haven’t been able to figure out where.”

“Do you think what he’s going to teach Aldoraen will keep him immortal too?”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

“Well, if this entire dimension goes down and he’s the one that’s supposed to save us…” Sandstorm began.

“It’s going to make him really mad, fuel his anger, and we don’t know what that could do to him wherever he’s going.” Cogline shook his head. “He’s supposed to be needed for his knowledge, but what if he’s too angry to concentrate on anything knowledgeable?”

“Maybe that maenad can help with the anger issues too?” Sandstorm offered.

“He can help with the anger issues?” Cogline laughed bitterly. “Look at him! he could barely contain his anger when coming here to calmly do something. He can hardly contain his own anger, how is he supposed to teach someone else to do the same?”

My antennae drooped. “I’m sorry Cogline, I didn’t realize he was following us.”

“It’s not your fault. He probably wasn’t even following you. Probably just came here after hearing about you guys coming through town. He most likely researched for awhile and figured out who Aldoraen was and was coming here just to get me to tell him exactly where he was. He probably checked out the tower first and noticed he wasn’t there. So he probably didn’t follow you, but rather figured out who he was and was trying to find him. It was a matter of time really.”

“Well, it’s out of our hands now.” Sandstorm said, “So, about the Diamond Knights and joining the army to fight the illithids…”

“There is something that I think we could use to our advantage.” Cogline looked down at me. “Of course by now all of Nefir has been overrun by the illithids and their slaves. Mostly dark elves.”

I shook fearfully, my antennae sticking straight up. “They breached the portals already!?”

“Yeah, well they had a gate goin’ right to it, so. However they don’t plan on attacking yet until the rest of the illithids come from the North. If we’re able to concentrate our efforts in any one particular area, then Nefir would be the place.”

“We should burn them out.” Sandstorm suggested.

“Burn them out? That city’s huge. What do you expect to do?”

“Not literally burn them out, but fight ’em out.” Sandstorm stammered, “Push ’em out.”

“Do you want to go down there and do it?”

“With the Diamond Knights army, yes I do!” The half giant gripped the handle of the greatsword strapped to his back.

“You’d have to be careful. There’s pretty small spaces down there and you wouldn’t be able to fit everywhere.” I reminded him.

“Got smaller troops. It doesn’t matter. I’m sure your people want to take it back too.”

Cogline laughed angrily once more. “The illithids will just mind control half your troops and throw them against you.”

Sandstorm groaned. “The troops are trained for that!”

“Then how do you suggest we even have a chance of fighting them?” I asked the Druid.

“We might be able to negate the effects for awhile. There’s an object that we had in our council hundreds of years ago before they dropped the bomb on us. I’m hoping that it’s still there.”

“Let’s go get it.” Sandstorm said.

“Where is it?” I asked.

“Do you remember where the swamp is? The one to the East?”

“The one near Melest?” My eyes opened wide. “No one’s gone in there and gotten back out alive.”

Sandstorm chuckled. “That’s like a lot of places we’ve gone.”

“There’s someone that I think will be able to help you. I’ve already called her over here, she should be arriving soon.” Cogline smiled, turning towards the open doorway.

“What happened to this door?” A familiar voice called out from behind us. It was Ishitari. “So this guy called me over here. Wants me to do something?”

Thomytix instantly readied his shield, for some odd reason. Sandstorm grabbed it and told him to put it down.

“Calm down, she’s our friend!” I exclaimed. Thomytix sighed, and slowly lowered his tower shield.

“So I’ve talked to your Diamond Knights and they’ve made me an introductory member.” Ishitari told Sandstorm, “Gave me this cool badge thing. This guy named Aldoraen was able to modify it a little for me. Check it out!” She pressed the crest on her chest. Instantly her chitin turned dark blue.

“Ishitari,” Cogline said, bringing her to attention. “I called you here because you’re supposed to help them kill a lot of undead.”

“Well, I’m quite good at that.” She grinned, cracking the knuckles on all four of her hands.

“So with her skills to aid you, you should make it in to that place.” Cogline said to me.

“Abd what is the item we’re supposed to get? What is it called, what does it look like?” I asked him.

“It kinda looks like a round ball on a little spire about this big.” Showed how big it was. “It should have little squares around the base that you can push in and can pop back out. It should make lights when you do that. It assists in resisting mind effecting powers, abilities and what have you. So it’ll obviously be very useful against the mind flayers. It dampens an area about a mile across.”

“Just enough to hide an army.” Sandstorm smiled with glee.

“So after we find this item, we’re going down into Nefir?” I wondered. I wasn’t liking this plan, but if it could free my city and maybe Osdon too we’d have to give it a try.

“I believe there is an illithid hivemind there, and if there’s a hivemind there, then there’s also going to be a casing and that casing is what we need to get Aldoraen into. When the dimension shuts down its going to shoot these casings out everywhere, and illithids have decided to put their hiveminds in there so they can reproduce in other dimensions.”

“A hivemind is quite a trophy.” Sandstorm added.

“Yeah, a big trophy.”

“Have the Diamond Knights ever taken a hivemind?” The half giant asked Cogline. The Druid shook his head.

“My people will want to join in on the fight.” I added, standing tall. “They’ll want to defend their home city, as will I.”

“There’s going to be a lot of people wanting to help but we’ll need a little more of a concentrated group than just everyone attacking Nefir. There’s not enough space for that. It would be a kill zone.”

“I agree, it would be way too small. So we’d have to pick carefully.”

“I’m sorry for telling you this, but they’ve probably demolished some of the buildings to make room. But you can rebuild.”

“It’s better than my people dying.” I smiled weakly. “We can always rebuild our city.”

“I recommend you head out on that mission sooner rather than later.” Cogline’s expression was grave. “I’ve been talking to Tyler. He’s been captured and he’s a couple thousand miles from here. I’ve been trying to reassure him so he does not teleport out of the dimension too early. They’re trying to torture him into doing it. Luckily he has pretty good will power.”

“As soon as he leaves the dimension will fracture?” Sandstorm asked. Cogline nodded slowly. “Shit.”

“So we’ve got to get Aldoraen in there as soon as we can, huh?” I stated.

“Shove ’em in that casing.” Thomytix added.

“Alright.” Sandstorm turned toward the door. “Let’s hope the maenad comes through.”

“Hopefully. I’m expecting this to take you guys quite some time just to get over there.”

“We should get horses then.” Sandstorm suggested.

Cogline laughed and shook his head. “The horses will be dead after the first night. Honestly, it should only take a couple days to get there, but you’ll be exhausted by the time you get there. I’m not going to lie to you.”

“Where is this item once we’re there?” The half giant asked.

“Once you go in, it’s going to be to the North. It’s pretty hard to miss once you get there. The building itself should have remained intact after the bomb. The bomb wouldn’t have affected the building itself. We made it so it could withstand nature itself, so it should still be there.”

“Key word being should.” Cehos added.

“Well if it’s not, I suggest you get out of there as quickly as possible.”

“I hope Socks will be okay then…” I patted the ice wolf, who was sitting on his haunches. His ears perked up at his name.

“You wish to leave Socks behind?” Cogline asked.

I patted Socks again, rubbing the sweet spot behind his ears. “If you think he’d be killed if I took him with us, then yes.”

“I’d be worried for his safety, that’s for sure.”

I nodded and told Socks to stay. He should be in good hands while we’re gone. Since it was late in the day by the time we stopped talking to Colgine we’re staying the night in Aimi. We’ll gather supplies while we can then head out in the morning. I drank with Ishitari at the bar for awhile before I headed up to my room. Should get some sleep soon. We have a long journey ahead of us.

DAY SIXTY SEVEN

Three days ago the greenskins, Cehos and I set out for Sky’s Well. Cehos stopped us just outside Kal’wor, saying he wanted to go too. The goblins were pleased to have their map returned, although they still lacked a new Eternal One. I thanked them once more for allowing my group to borrow the map, and apologized for all that happened. The blues said it was alright. Some of the older goblins in the village recognized the three I brought back, like they’d seen ghosts from the past. Joyously reunited with the loved ones they hadn’t seen for so long, the orcs and the goblin thanked Cehos and I for rescuing them.

We stayed there the rest of the day and headed back in the early morning. It took us another day to make it back to Kal’wor. Cinna met up with us at a inn she’d been working at. Then us three were off to Veseeld in hopes of catching up with Sandstorm and Malazhar. That took two more days of travel.

We found Sandstorm drinking at the bar as usual, sitting beside a fully armored elan. His helmet removed, I saw that the left half of the elan’s face was badly burnt. He had energetic blue eyes and dusty blond hair. He rose from his seat and shook our hands. He said his name was Thomytix. Malazhar, however, wasn’t drinking with them.

Cinna was a little annoyed, and almost refused shaking the elan’s hand. Cehos placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her. She nudged his hand away and sat by herself at the far end of the bar.

“I sparred with the half giant a few days ago, but I was just barely the better!” The elan grinned, pounding his fist against his chest.

“Well, we’ll see about next time.” Sandstorm smirked, taking another sip of ale.

“Hey, is it alright if I come with you guys?” It was Aldoraen. He gleefully sat up at the bar next to me. “I want to go talk to this guy too. You said he was a Druid?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Might be someone interesting to go talk to, you know?” The maenad’s face dreamily looked up at the ceiling.

“Alright, just don’t slow us down.” Sandstorm said, chugging down what remained of his drink. He rose from his chair and walked toward the door way.

“What’s a Druid?” Thomytix asked curiously over his shoulder, following the half giant.

“They’re a mythological organization that knew a lot of things while they were around hundreds of years ago. Apparently they still exist and they’re going to go meet with one and I want to go as well.”

“There’s another one in the Forge.” Sandstorm added.

A dark foreboding washed over me. I remembered the mysterious angry maenad that fought with Colgine the last time Ishitari and I were in Aimi. I tapped Aldoraen on the shoulder. “Hey, I need to talk to you for a second. In private.” I jumped off my seat and took him aside to a far corner in the bar. “So, I don’t know what exactly is going on. I didn’t hear all of the conversation, but I know that the Druid knows about you and that there’s something special you need to do. I don’t know what it is exactly, but he was fighting with another maenad about it. I’ve never met the maenad before. Never caught his name, but Cogline knew him. They were fighting over you. I don’t know if you know anything about it, but I wanted to warn you regardless.”

“It’s probably the same shit that the Lodge is trying to get me to do.” Aldoraen spat angrily. “I’m not sure what they want me to do, but they over trained me thinking I was going to be someone special. I don’t know. It’s too much pressure to do all that training. It’s ridiculous! I would train for sixteen hours a day with my mind and everything in the Lodge. Here at least I get to read books and have some time to myself.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to forewarn you.”

He shook his head briefly, the anger disappearing from his voice. “That’s okay. If he brings it up it doesn’t mean I have to listen.” With that Aldoraen and I rejoined the group and we were off to Aimi. At the moment we’ve camped for the night. We’re about half way there, and should arrive about mid day.

DAY SIXTY THREE

My party and I camped at the Iner Forge for four days while Sandstorm regained his strength. The potion Amanmal gave him stopped the progression of the mummy rot he’d contracted, but it couldn’t cure him of the weakness he still felt. Only rest and good food could do that.

Through out these past few days Cinna preoccupied herself with crafting more healing water. We had plenty of time to spare, so she made good use of her time. On the third day she asked if anyone had some honey, so I gave her what remained of my honey jar. I’d eaten it bit by bit with my meals, but there was too much for me to finish. Would go to better use in the healing water anyways. In the end she made three whole bottles, with a fourth almost complete.

The day after we arrived the Druid had a glowing red axe as his new left hand. “It’s only a temporary replacement.” He said when we all gawked at it. “I plan on replacing it with a mechanical hand.”

“What?” I said, confused.

“Yeah. Using the same technology I used to create the spiders.”

“Mechanical? Those things aren’t living?” I continued. Amanmal shook his head.

“How is that possible?” Cehos wondered.

“I made them. They have these cool little gears on them and they’re steam powered but you probably don’t know what that is. Haven’t been out for awhile. They had some steam power when I was out last.”

Cehos shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Nobody knows what steam power is anymore?” The Druid for a moment appeared saddened, but cheered up almost instantly. “Well, I guess you could consider it a form of psionics, even though it’s really not. It’s non-psionics psionics essentially. They’re somewhat of my own design. Worked with Coline on them for awhile. Took a batch with him when he left, but I don’t know what he did with them.”

“They look similar to the spiders near Aimi. I wonder if that’s what they actually are. They’re silvery like these ones are.”

“Well all of them are a bit silvery. Some are gold. And then there’s these guys right here, my protectors. You haven’t seen yet.” He pointed to a spot high above us. A few spiders black as night creeped along the wall just out of sight. One jumped down and landed on his hand. It was practically the size of his whole arm! It looked up at the ceiling and shot razors from its maw, all of which were instantly replaced after firing.

My jaw dropped. “That’s incredible!”

“I’m surprised you don’t have an army of them.” Sandstorm chuckled.

“I do have an army of them.” The Druid smirked. “They protect this place. There’s about a hundred and fifty of them scattered about.”

“Can you show us how they work on the inside?” Cehos asked. I nodded and piped in I was curious too.

“Well, that might be a little bit complicated.” Amanmal went over to a nearby book case and picked up a giant tome nearly half my height. He slammed it down on a table. “This is the full blueprint workings.”

Cehos and I took a peek at some of the pages. It was full of highly complex mathematical equations I barely understood and used some symbols I didn’t recognize. The Druid tried explaining some of it to us, but we understood hardly any better. Something about specialized boiled water and regenerating electricity ran by mechanical power.

“And you built all these?” Cehos asked him in awe.

“Yep. But it’s going to be a lot harder to make more until I rebuild my hand.” The Druid replied, lifting his axe hand.

“I wonder if I could ever make some?” I pondered.

“It’s difficult. It took me awhile to figure out how, and I had a lot of knowledge at my disposal.”

“These could be so useful defending the cities.” I added.

“Once Cogline gives me the word I’ll bring it up.”

At one point during that day Cehos talked with Pe Ell. What about, I don’t know. I couldn’t catch anything they said. That same day Amanmal asked me about Thraenor. A lot of people up here seem confused about my creation. “So what’s up with the steward here?”

“Oh, this Thraenor.” I smiled. Dre waved to him and floated by my side.

“Are those Life Crystals?” Amanmal asked, pointing at Thraenor’s eyes. I nodded. “So it’s kind of like the true form of a Life Crystal.”

“So I’ve heard. I got Thraenor as close as I could to dre being free, but obviously dre isn’t all the way there just yet.”

“We still don’t have the histories of how or why the Life Crystals were being used. I’ve set a few free though.”

“You know about them?” I said excitedly. My antennae picked up. I’ve been trying to find out what they are for years."

“So have we.”

I clasped my hands together. Oh by the Queen I hoped he had some insight I lacked. “You’ve been trying to figure out what the Life Crystals are too?”

“Yes. We know what they are now, but we’ve been trying to figure out what their origins are. Essentially, they’re crystallized elementals.”

“I figured they were elementals, but I still have no idea how they were made either. My people just found them centuries ago.”

“Underground?” He asked. I nodded. “They’re all heavily guarded by psionics too. All of the Life Crystal mines seem to have that. Someone wanted to keep those things protected and we don’t know why. We don’t know who did it. We set free one mine in total when we were still around.”

“My people have been told how to set them free, and the Queen said that Thraenor can still be fully set free too.”

“Thraenor is probably being set free already, but it’ll take awhile.”

I gave him a quizzical look. “What do you mean?”

“While I imagine now that dre is set free from the crystal the natural form will want to take over eventually but that takes some time. We figured these crystals existed thousands of years before we found them, and we found them a thousand years ago.”

“Yeah, my people found them about six hundred years ago after the destruction of The Old City.” My antennae drooped and I looked down at my feet momentarily, remembering the stories I heard as a child. “By the way, would you know the reason why Thraenor has some memory discrepancies? Thraenor has had moments where dre has done things and then dre won’t remember afterwards.”

“That’s probably the true form trying to take over, but it’s hard to guess what’s going on with it.”

Thraenor eventually being totally free on drer own? I was elated! Still am as I write this. For all this time I’ve wanted my Life Crystal to be free, and some day soon it’ll happen. I wonder what Thraenor’s true form actually looks like? Is dre actually the King of the Thunder Realm as dre had claimed back in Melest? But I am filled with some small amount of doubt. Will Thraenor still remember me when dre is finally released?

I guess I won’t know until that day comes.

Yesterday Amanmal shared some of his hard dwarven ale with us. He told us it was aged two hundred years. Two hundred! The duergar was ecstatic and gulped a mug of it down. He instantly passed out, rolling out of his chair onto the floor. The Druid also had a large selection of wines and cheeses among other food stuffs stored in a large pantry. Somehow he’s kept that food fresh for hundreds of years. Cinna, excited to try more wine, went back to fetch some more. Cehos followed not long after her.

To celebrate Sandstorm passed around some of his cigars. The maenad and Amanmal both took one graciously. In turn the Druid offered the half giant some odd stuff he called pipe weed. “Here, have some of this.” The two of them smoked the pipe weed for awhile as the rest of us lightly sipped some of the dwarven ale and wine. We had a grand time sharing our adventures.

After some time passed I vaguely wondered why neither Cinna or Cehos had returned back yet. As if he’d read my mind, Amanmal stretched his tired muscles and stood up. “Hang on, I’m going to grab a bite to eat.”

Sandstorm and I were hungry too so we followed him. Lying passed out on the pantry floor was Cehos and Cinna. What was a little odd was they were almost on top of one another, like Cehos had fallen atop of her and both had fallen asleep like that.

Amanmal grinned devilishly grabbed some cranberries from a bowl. “These things kind of stain a little bit when you get them on your skin.” He broke one in half and, using the juices inside, drew whiskers on Cinna’s face and question marks on Cehos’ forehead. Sandstorm sniggered and popped open another cranberry. He drew what I think might’ve been a penis on Cehos’ neck. Amanmal laughed heartily and grabbed some sausage and cheese. “You want some?”

Sandstorm said yes and the Druid handed him half of what he had in his arms. Amanmal turned around and went to leave, but stopped mid-way. “Wait, wait, wait!” He scrambled to a small backroom and pulled out a mirror. He set it on the table next to the two passed out humans so they’d see it when they awoke. He grinned wildly as he left, picking up a few more of the berries to draw some designs on the duergar still unconscious from earlier.

By this morning everyone was awake. Some of us, mainly those who’d passed out, had nasty hangovers. Cehos sheepishly walked out of the pantry, desperately trying to rub off the penis drawn on his neck. When that didn’t work he rushed back into the pantry and smeared a bunch of the juice on top of the mark to hide it.

“So, you guys heading out today?” Amanmal asked all of us. “That’s what I heard.”

“Yeah, we are. But before we go, can I have some of that pipe weed?” Sandstorm asked.

“Sure. It’s actually a little cooler than that because you gotta watch out. This end is the right end to light it from, but if you you turn it around.” He lit the other end and fireworks shot out from it. Sandstorm appeared to love that little trick and stuffed a few of them in his knapsack.

Also this morning a strange hooded figure arrived at the Vault. Their face masked for the most part, completely covered by a hood. They walked up to Pe Ell and whispered something to him. They appeared about the same height as him. Pe Ell nodded when they were done and the figure disappeared as mysteriously as they arrived. At least for a time.

“Well, I must take my leave soon.” Pe Ell said to us. “Sorry, I have some…other matters I must attend to.”

“We can go out with you?” Sandstorm offered.

The drow nodded. “We’ll probably walk out of this place together.”

“Alright.” Sandstorm shrugged.

The mysterious figure reappeared off in a corner. Pe Ell called them forward. The person removed their hood, revealing a bald female drow. I think she was female from the sound of her voice. Her face was heavily covered in scars.

“This is one of my associates,” Pe Ell said, clasping her on the shoulder. “She’s one of the twenty of us that have escaped captivity. She’s actually the first one I helped out. She’ll accompany us all when we leave.”

We all greeted her one by one. She seemed aloof and calm, and wasn’t much for talking. Sandstorm tried talking with her but the conversation fell flat on its face. After that he asked the members of the rescued party if any of them wanted to join the Diamond Knights.

“Oh yeah, that’s a smallish group isn’t it?” The maenad said, recognizing the name.

Sandstorm grinned. “Not anymore.” The maenad and the duergar wanted to join, but the human women and the greenskins weren’t interested. After Sandstorm’s inquiry I offered the chance for them to join the Lodge Luminous and take them to Malgo if they wished. The goblin and both of the orcs said they did.

Apparently the greenskins arrived there about twenty years ago. “I actually didn’t get smashed by the pillars,” The goblin told me, “But these two did and then during the checkers game I stepped onto the board and when I was taken as a piece I also ended up in the mirror.”

We packed up swiftly. Amanmal and Ith wished us good luck as we departed. Made sure I hugged the githzerai before saying goodbye. With such a large party it took very little time to make our way out of the caves and back to Kal’wor. We fought numerous earth elementals, some quite large with a few others about my height. All were easily defeated with the help of Pe Ell, his drow friend, and the fighters in the rescued party.

Before entering Kal’wor I visited my Life Bond. By now the citizens of Nefir had created a bustling camp town just outside the duergar city’s iron doors. The whole place was bustling with activity. I passed by several make shift shops where some duergar and humans looked very interested in trading with the shopkeepers.

Ealdi was the first to say hello. Dre hugged me, smiling proudly. “Did you have fun adventuring over in that, uh, where did you go again?”

“The Iner Forge. And yeah, it was fine.”

“I see you found some interesting things.” It was Lika’s turn to hug me. “Is that a new staff?” Dre asked excitedly.

“It’s actually the same staff,” I replied, tapping the ground twice with it. “Just covered in this metal called mithril now.”

I stayed with my Life Bond for awhile longer, telling them in brief what happened while I was gone. Dwali and Lika were fascinated by my new mithril possessions, so I let them examine that for awhile. A few hours passed and I rejoined the others of my party. By then the two human women had left, journeying North to Veseeld.

Once with in the walls of the city Pe Ell and his associate vanished. Practically melted into the crowds. They were gone before we decided to split. The remaining party broke in two: I took the three greenskins to the Lodge, while Sandstorm and Malazhar sought out the local branch of the Diamond Knights so he could initiate the maenad and duergar. As they left Sandstorm called over his shoulder telling me to meet back up with them in Veseeld. Cinna and Cehos followed after them.

“So what’s up with ya?” Malgo greeted us cheerily once at the Lodge, snapping his fingers. “Were you successful in finding the Forge?”

“Yes, yes we were.” I smiled, rummaging through my knapsack and handing him my proof. “This is the Tome of Stars and Moons. It can only be opened at night, under the cover of stars.”

“Well, it looks like I’ll be going outside today to read. Thank you.” He gently took the book, studying the tome for awhile. He almost completely ignored that the greenskins and I were there for a dozen minutes before he remembered we were still standing there. “What all else was in there?”

“A lot of other things, but I wasn’t allowed to take many things, so.” My voice trailed off.

Malgo raised an eyebrow. “Who stopped you?”

“Uh, there was a gold dwarf there. He’s the one guarding the Forge, and he only allowed me to take this.”

“Well, that’s interesting.” Malgo replied, stroking his beard. “Did he say anything about allowing others to visit at all?”

I shrugged. “I don’t see why you couldn’t go there. I mean, as long as you don’t take anything he doesn’t want you to take I’m sure he’d be okay with it.”

“Would be nice to have a group of Lodge members to go over there. Maybe explore a bit more in depth.”

“Just be careful. There’s a lot of dangers in there.”

“Do you have any kind of map?”

“I don’t know if I should hand over the actual map over to you.” I said, showing the duergar the worn down map. “It’s being borrowed by us at the current moment, but I could make a copy for you.”

Malgo fetched me some parchment and I quickly jotted down a copy. I added in what rooms I remembered were inside the Forge. As I made the copy I warned him of the various traps both leading up to and once inside the Forge, pointing out where they were on the map.

“This is amazing!” He said with awe once I was finished. “I thank you a lot. As far as this Lodge goes, I consider you favored.”

I smiled broadly, but I shook my head and cleared my throat. “By the way, these three wish to join the Lodge. We found them along with a few others, and rescued them from the trap they were stuck in. They say they’re from the Sky’s Well.”

“Hm, well, all of the goblins and orcs over at Sky’s Well are already considered honorary members of the Lodge.”

“Oh, that’s interesting! How the times changed since we’ve been gone!” The goblin exclaimed with elation. He talked with Malgo for a time, retelling the tale of how they got trapped inside the Forge two decades ago. The three greenskins opted to sleep inside the Lodge for the night before returning home to Sky’s Well in the morning. I stayed at the Lodge for awhile longer then returned to my people and my Life Bond. They’re more than happy I’m be staying the night with them.

DAY FIFTY NINE

Malazhar reappeared just outside camp this morning, just as we were about to head out. Sandstorm looks worse for wear. He wasn’t any better this morning than he did when he went to bed early last night. The githyanki said not a word, but he looked a bit dazed and confused. None of the others questioned him. We headed Southward as the map indicated we should. About a hundred feet outward from the little alcove we’d spent the night came the pungent smell of another muzaru plant. It didn’t take long to find its coal-red glow off in the distance.

It blocked the cavern we had to pass through.

I brushed Malazhar’s arm. “Don’t go near the plant,” I warned. He hadn’t been there the last time we encountered one. “It will try to eat you.”

“How are we going to get past it?” Cinna pondered.

Sandstorm snorted. “Why don’t we just burn it?”

“That would be unwise. See over there?” I said, pointing. “If we toss a rock or two on the opposite side we plan to run by, that should distract the plant enough for us to pass by unharmed.”

Ith shrugged. “Works for me. I’ll volunteer.” The others, anxious to get going, prepared to bolt. With a flick of his wrist he sent a pebble whirling against the left wall. Like a loaded spring relieved of pressure we dashed for safety.

But the distraction wasn’t enough. In the blink of an eye the muzaru plant had Cinna locked in its spindly grasp. The plant engulfed her whole body with its snake-like vines and hoisted her into the air. The acid it uses to digest its victims leaked from its thick skin. Her face was nearly obscured when a burst of flames erupted from her finger tips. I swore the plant shrieked, its stalks quickly dessicated and shriveled up. The fruits, no longer able to withstand the heat, exploded with a pop. Cinna fell to the ground, covered in acid, but mostly unharmed. The juices from muzaru fruits rained down on us like a perfume scented monsoon. We were drenched. And glowing too. All I could smell were the fruits.

I wrinkled my nose, wiping away some of the juice. “Ugh, anybody have any soap?”

“I have a bar of it.” Cinna offered, reaching into her knapsack. In her hand was nearly a pound of the stuff. We all took turns washing off the bright smelly juice that was sure to attract other creatures if we didn’t.

I looked down at the map. The place where we then stood marked its edge. We were in unexplored territory now. I saw Cehos get out some parchment and an ink pen and began sketching a new map . At the end of a long and narrow cave up head came a faint glow. At the time we first found it the glow was too far away to tell exactly what it was, but in my gut I knew we’d found the Forge. We hurriedly walked toward it.

Above our heads I heard claws scraping on rock. I looked up. Blue and white shadows fluttered back and forth just out of view. There were too many of them to count. My blood ran cold. They were cloakers!

“There’s something up there!” Cehos alerted the others, having seen the shadows too.

“Run!” Sandstorm bellowed. The party sprinted toward the glowing light, the cloakers hovering just above our heads. The light came from a radiant golden door. An ancient Dwarven inscription read Only those of pure heart can pass through the doors of the Forge. What that meant I wasn’t exactly sure. I faintly remembered something about the Dwarven language.

“Only a good person can open the door!” I shouted over the deafening screeches of the cloakers.

“What?” Cehos asked loudly, straining to hear me through the commotion. I sighed and tried to push the door open. It didn’t budge. I shook my head in disbelief. I considered myself to be a decent, kind person. I’d never harm someone if I could avoid it. Why wasn’t that enough?

“Hurry up, there’s a big one!” I heard Sandstorm yell. Over my shoulder I saw a cloaker at least twice the size of all the others dive for him. He smacked it in the face. The cloaker howled and backed off, at least for a moment.

“Let me try.” Malazhar came up beside Cehos and I. I stepped aside to make room. To my surprise the doors swung inward at his touch. As Malazhar entered through them Cehos fired an arrow at the massive beast approaching us again. Although the arrow hit, the cloaker still wasn’t down. I turned back to the door. Why hadn’t Malazhar opened the door for the rest of us?

An ear piercing shriek shook the whole cavern. The giant cloaker crumpled to the ground, dark red blood pooling around it. Instantly the smaller cloakers scattered. The gargantuan monster now slain, they abandoned their efforts to kill us. Out of the darkness a figure with a familiar yet disturbing smile pulled his sword from the giant cloaker’s corpse. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was Pe Ell!

The drow stumbled towards us. His left arm was bandaged and in a split. “So could we get in? I wanted to go to the Forge as well.”

“You’re alive?” I said, incredulous.

“Yeah.” He pulled out a rod from his cloak with his good arm. “It’s a rod of unmovable force. Essentially, you press this button and you can’t move it. It’s the only way I caught myself from falling off that waterfall. It also caused me to break my arm.”

“Is your arm okay though?” Cinna asked.

The drow cocked an eyebrow. “It’s broken.”

“Well, I meant if you needed some healing.” Cinna stuttered, face flushing a little.

He shook his head. “Let’s just get inside before one of those things comes back.”

“You sure? I have healing water.”

Pe Ell nodded. “I have some of my own.”

Malazhar pushed open the door from the other side and we all hurried in. The room inside had a door off to the East, and five jewel-crusted weapons ingrained in the North wall. From left to the right a sapphire sword, a ruby axe, an obsidian hammer, an emerald halibird and a diamond spear pointed west, all glittering in the dim light. Malazhar checked the Eastern door. It was locked.

Curious about the direction the weapons were pointing, Cehos searched the West wall but found nothing. He examined the five weapons next, gingerly tugging the obsidian hammer. Nothing happened when he did.

“What if we all tried to move them at the same time?” I wondered. “Maybe something will happen then.”

The others agreed, although Sandstorm and Pe Ell bowed out. Ith at the halibird, I myself grabbed a hold of the ruby axe, Cehos pulled the hammer once more, Malazhar the sword, and Cinna the spear. For everyone but Malazhar nothing happened. But as the githyanki pulled on the sword it suddenly pointed towards the East.

Excited, Ith tried moving the halibird, but the sowrd returned to its original position when he did so. Luckily the sword moved back to the East when Malazhar pulled on it again. Next I tried moving the axe. With a click the ruby weapon now faced Eastward too. Same with Cinna’s spear when she attempted after me, and after her Cehos could finally move the hammer.

“Wait a second,” I said, taking a step back. “In Dwarven, this is in alphabetical order! The way these weapons have been placed, they’re in that order! If we pull each one to the East in that order it could unlock the door! All that’s left is the halibird!”

Ith nodded and with a gentle push he clicked the final weapon into place. Silently the Eastern door swung inward on its hinges. The next room had strange symbols tiled all over the floor, symbols I recognized could teleport those who stepped on them. I told the others what I knew. On the far side of the room near a closed door was a lever.

Cinna cautiously stepped out onto the first symbol. For a moment she vanished, reappearing on a tile ten feet from the lever. Cehos followed suit, stepping on the same tile Cinna had a moment earlier. Cinna tried moving the lever with the butt of her spear but it nicked the wall and she fell over and teleported to another tile on the left half of the room. By then Malazhar and Sandstorm had joined in trying to teleport across the room.

I was about to step on one of the tiles when an idea came to me. “Wait,” I said, looking up at my creation. “Thraenor, can you fly over there and move the lever?”

Thraenor nodded and easily floated above the tiles, grabbing hold of the lever and pushing it forward. Although the symbols did not go away, the far door unlocked. Now instead of teleporting us to random spots on the floor, the tiles teleported us directly to the door.

The narrow hallway beyond had a pile treasure glinting on the far side, but a pit of spikes extended about a hundred feet outward. There were no ledges I could see that we could use to pass by safely. Curious, Malazhar gently tapped his mace on the ground. To everyone’s shock a tiny crack appeared. It was a mirror! I looked up and saw the same spikes dangling fifteen feet above our heads. Malazhar smirked and walked across towards the treasure with out incident.

In the treasure chest we found a power stone containing a few powers and a djore filled with the power vigor. I handed it over to Sandstorm. He out of all of us needed it the most being in his current condition. We gathered the remaining items and shoved them in the bag of holding. The following room had an ominous air to it. Shattered tiles littered the floor. Sandstorm took a quick peek at the ceiling and saw giant columns bolted to the roof, one situated above each and every smashed tile, save for a single row of oddly unbroken tiles that were on far side of the room next to yet another lever. Sandstrom picked up a rock and threw it at the tiles. The ceiling above us rumbled. Less than a second later four of the gargantuan pillars smashed to the ground. All the columns were falling, and falling fast.

Sandstorm ran out and tried smashing the closest column with the Dwarven pick, but it bounced off the pillar harmlessly. It didn’t make a single dent or crack. Sandstorm sprinted for the other side. Cehos followed suit. I whistled and climbed aboard Socks. On top of him I should be fast enough to make it over there safely. Although the ground was uneven and rough the ice wolf bolted past both the half giant and Cehos with ease. Just as I made it by him, one of the pillars squished Cehos. I heard bones shatter and the man cry out. Blood oozed from the pillar’s base. I shook the awful image from my mind and urged Socks onward. Someone had to make it to the other side.

Once in the safely of the unbroken tiles I jumped off Socks and hastily pulled the lever. Sandstorm appeared right behind me, breathing labored. Instantly the remaining pillars stopped falling, although oddly the ones that had already hit the ground did not rise back up to their original positions. Cinna sprinted towards Cehos’ corpse, a depressed look in her eyes. I shook my head sadly. There was no way he could’ve survived.

But an odd feeling rushed over me as we moved on to the next room. Where were Cehos’ items? Even his clothing was conspicuously absent from his body. Where did that all go?

We found out soon enough. The next room was a giant checkers board. The side closest to us was an army of eight constructs, their metal gleaming in the dim light. On the far side of the board were eight statues of undead creatures facing the constructs. I gulped.

Cehos was one of the undead.

Before I could stop her, Cinna walked onto the board. The construct on her square disappeared into mist. She tried moving but her feet were stuck, almost glued to the checkers board. I wasn’t able to warn her that players only needed to think about where they wanted the pieces to go.

What would happen if her piece got taken?

Well, there was no going back now. We had to play, and win, a game of checkers for us to reach the Forge. I asked if any of the others knew how to play. They all shook their heads. I sighed wearily. I guess this was up to me.

The game was a close one, and seemed to drag on and on. My nerves were frayed. Early on in the game we discovered that the pieces turned to dust when they were taken. I kept Cinna’s piece as far away from potential danger as I could, but I could not say the same for Cehos. I avoided and postponed his piece being taken for as long as I could, but at one point I had to take his piece if we wanted to win. When I saw his statue there I half-hoped he might actually be alive somehow, but I feared I’d destroyed that chance. But there was nothing I could do about it, I had to do what I had to do. We had to reach the Forge. When the constructs that reached the opposite side and were crowned Kings they began glowing bright blue. Same for the one or two undead that made it our side.

After a long and tiring game I finally won it. Cinna could move once again. She dashed off to the other side of the board, appearing relieved to be free from it. The next room had a mirror going from floor to ceiling on the West wall. I gasped. Looking out at us longingly from the mirror was Cehos.

He was still alive!

From the looks of it, he was trying to mouth something to us, but I couldn’t tell what he was saying. Written in Dwarven at the base of the mirror was To receive a gift from the lost well you must first pay a sacrifice. Sandstorm grunted and removed something small from his backpack. He opened his hand, dropping his prized tooth necklace in front of the mirror. The necklace bounced once and disappeared. A door to the left of the mirror that I hadn’t noticed before swung open. Cehos walked into the room, appearing more than a little dazed.

“Wait,” he said frantically, “There’s more people in there.” Sure enough, the face of a worried duergar appeared in the mirror. “We should free them. They probably could repay us afterward.”

“They? How many are in there?” I said, aghast.

“As long as they don’t fight us…” The half giant muttered.

“I don’t think they will. I was talking to them for awhile.”

“How can you be sure?” Sandstorm was doubtful.

Cehos shrugged. “I can’t, but I don’t see them having any reason to.”

Sandstorm and Cehos continued to argue. I debated with myself what I should sacrifice, if I had anything worth giving. In our moment of indecision Pe Ell walked up to the mirror and placed seven gems, one by one, releasing the remaining people trapped in the mirror. A collection of two human females, a duergar, a maenad, and three greenskins walked out, relieved beyond belief to be free.

Pe Ell nodded his head as each one walked out. “You must come to the Forge with us because I’m not walking you out of here right now.” He told them.

Psionic light lit up the gargantuan vaulted room beyond. There were piles and piles of gold, silver, and platinum coins. Enough to fill a treasury and then some. The coins were of another time, minted before the surface’s current coin system. I assumed so because the designs were none I’d ever seen. Ancient but well preserved parchments and books were tucked away in stone bookcases. Somewhere far off came the loud and steady banging of a hammer.

Cehos reached for a mithril shirt. Sandstorm reached for another set of armor. I myself gingerly touched a nearby scroll written in Dromidic. Door to the Forge slammed shut. Hammer swings ceased. Gears turning around us. Tiny beams of light pointed at Sandstorm, Cehos and I. I instantly put the scroll back where I found it. The lights remained on me. Cehos whipped out his bow. Instantly ten dots lined up on his readied arrow. I took a closer look and realized the lights were actually metallic-looking spiders, almost exactly like the ones near Aimi except these ones were twice their size.

A robed figure approached us from a set of stairs off to our left. As the figure ascended the stairs they removed the hood of their cloak. It was a gold dwarf, his tanned skin shimmering from beads of sweat. “Someone’s finally made it to the Forge huh?” The dwarf’s smile turned to a disgusted frown. “Trying to loot the place? How’d you even get in the door if that’s the case.”

Silence fell over all of us. I was shaking and had no idea what to say. What could I say to someone who discovered we might be looting their things? That of course was not my intention. We all came in here thinking no one lived in the Forge. When no one answered he bellowed furiously, “Well answer me!”

“We were only looking at the treasure that’s around us.” Cehos stuttered. “I assumed that one one owned it. If that is not the case then I will leave it be.”

“I’d much appreciate it if you did.” The dwarf huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Cehos nodded and put away his bow. Sandstorm dropped the armor. “So what is your business here anyway?” The dwarf continued, “I’m sure most people wouldn’t go through so much trouble just to get in here.”

Pe Ell approached the gold dwarf. “We’re here for a particular artifact one of us has in our possession that we believe is supposed to be returned here?”

Cinna showed the key to the Shadow vault from just beneath her armor. The dwarf’s eyes widened. “Aremis.” He whispered. He waved his hand and the spider’s lights went out. “Yes, yes. Come quickly.” He gestured for us to follow him.

Along a long corridor the dwarf asked over his shoulder. “Do you know of any of the other Druids? Are there any left?”

I blinked. Druids? The mythical organization? I’d read up on them maybe once or twice but never assumed they were real. Mere legends. Everyone else must’ve thought the same thing. In the silence I heard the dwarf sigh sadly. “I guess that means I’m still the last one…” Suddenly he stopped. He turned around, his eyes on the blade at Pe Ell’s side. “I’ve seen that blade before.” The dwarf looked back up at the drow, suspicion on his tanned face. “Could you give me the sword please?”

Pe Ell’s eyes narrowed. He gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and his whole body tensed. He was a bow ready to fire. The dwarf sighed again and dropped the matter. Pe Ell was furious, but just as the dwarf was about to move on he surprisingly handed over his sword. Albeit begrudgingly.

The dwarf was silent for a while, examining the black sword carefully. Five minutes passed then he returned the sword to its owner. “It’s what I thought. One of the Druids are in that sword. That’s one way to avoid everything that’s going to happen to us. Put yourself in a sword and you’ll live forever. Even through the end of everything.”

“Who are the Druids?” Cehos questioned.

“We’re a group of people that have manipulation over dimensional energies.” The dwarf replied. “We’ve been trying to help restore the dimension to its full power but the illithids have been stopping that quite rightly.”

Cehos cocked an eyebrow in disbelief. “Restore the dimension?”

The dwarf looked off to the side. “It’s falling apart.”

“How do you know this?” Cehos prodded.

“Our group knows because a strange monkey man we met a little while ago named Tyler told us about it.” I added. I figured Cehos should know. “But I thought he was just making shit up.” I sighed, my antennae drooping. “So it’s actually happening…”

“At this point there’s no way to really stop it, but almost everybody will be completely fine when the whole dimension collapses.” The gold dwarf assured us. “At least somewhat fine. You’ll be in stasis. You won’t be able to do anything and you won’t know you can’t do anything. You won’t be conscious. If we can bring the dimension back, then we’d actually be able to rework it. But at this point I have no plans to do that nor do I know how. From what I’ve been able to divine it seems like it’s going to collapse somewhat soon.”

“Wait, I thought the Druids were just a myth.” I interjected. Druids. That word had been bothering me.

“Well, we existed. We were kind of taken out by drow and the illithids about eight hundred years ago. Most of us died. We’ve been working mostly in secrecy since then. It’s why we built the Forge here. It’s why Aremis built the Shadow vault in the first place. Kind of consumed him though. It’s all been for a good cause at least.” He pondered for awhile. “So, I’m guessing we want to bring the key to the Shadow vault.”

“That would be a good idea.” Cinna chimed in.

“The goal is to cut it off, to shut it down.”

“So we’re going to use the key?” Sandstorm asked.

“Not exactly. We’re going to use the key to shut the door forever so people can’t use it anymore. I haven’t really left the Forge at all because I need to keep the Forge together. Last I heard, Cogline was out there looking for a solution.”

“Cogline?” I interrupted.

“He’s the other Druid that I know of.”

“We’ve met him.” I said.

A smile crept onto the dwarf’s face. “So he’s alive?”

“He leaves nice pies outside his house.” Cinna grinned wryly.

My jaw dropped. “He’s a Druid?”

“Indeed. One of the survivors like me. We were the only two that I know of other than Dimitri in that sword there. But he turned himself into a sword long ago.

Sandstorm huffed. “He pussied out of the fight.”

“A little. But now when the dimension collapses he won’t die like the rest of us.”

The half giant shrugged. “He’s still a pussy.”

Cehos shook his head. “What kind of life can he have inside a sword?”

“Well normally he can control anyone who uses the sword. What I’ve heard from him just now is that he actually can’t control Pe Ell which is…” The dwarf’s gaze fell on the drow. “Interesting. But come now. We really must finish this Shadow vault business. Please hand me the key.”

We followed him down the stairs, past a giant white-hot forge. We walked for about twenty minutes until at the end of a long hallway we reached a massive all-black door.

“I admit I’ve never actually opened this thing.” He said. “But tou need to open it to be able to close it, which is a weird thing. But we need to throw the key in is essentially it.”

“What’s the risk?” Cehos asked.

The dwarf shrugged gruffly. “I don’t know.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t go to shit.” I smiled ironically.

“That’s what we’d hope for.”

The gold dwarf put the key in the door. It swung open, black mist billowing outward. A deadly shroud of darkness. Walk in. Come to us. Strange disembodied voices whispered. I shuddered. Ith and all seven of the people we rescued awhile earlier began approaching the door, their eyes eerily vacant. Pe Ell stood in front to try and stop them. Cinna screamed. She collapsed, writhing painfully on the stone floor clutching her head. Tears streaked her face.

“What the fuck.” Cehos cursed, dropping to his knees. “Cinna!”

She wasn’t on the floor for long. She rose to her feet, her eyes the same blank stare as the others. She took a step towards the vault. Pe Ell grabbed one of the druegar’s forearms and yanked him back from the door. Malazhar had a hold of some of the others.

Sandstorm picked up Ith by the scruff of his neck. “Snap the fuck out of it you githzerai!”

I quickly attempted to demoralize them, which thank the Queen stopped them momentarily. To my horror the Druid dwarf, the key in his left hand, stood at the threshold of the door. Sandstorm flung Ith away and lunged for the dwarf, but he easily pushed the half giant aside. “I know what I’m doing. I’m not going to lose my life over this.”

“Alright, just making sure.” Sandstorm grunted.

The Druid dunked his left hand completely into the black mist, which engulfed it in an instant and turned it completely black. He winced painfully and pulled his arm away. His hand was gone. He grabbed strips of cloth in the knapsack at his waist with his good hand and wrapped his bleeding stump. He backed away from the vault.

“Could you get the doors closed?” He winced again. Together with the help of Pe Ell, Sandstorm closed the doors of the Shadow vault for good. A blue aura poked out of it for a moment. Some sort of seal. The others came back to their senses.

But Cinna crumpled to her knees, still in agony. The Druid bent over and threw her over his shoulder. Cehos protested for some reason or another. “Do you want to carry her?” The dwarf demanded. Cehos reconsidered and backed off.

“By the way, what’s your name?” I asked the dwarf. He led us back to the forge we passed earlier.

“Well I’m Amanmal.” He grinned, tossing Cinna atop a metal table. He pulled out a hammer laying beside it and smashed her in the gut.

“What are you doing?” I yelled.

Cehos swung at the dwarf but he dodged him effortlessly. I looked down at Cinna. Tattoos similar to psionic tattoos took form all over her body. They looked like words of some kind. Her pained expressions gradually lessened and her breathing returned to normal. Her eyes fluttered open.

Cehos was instantly at her side. “Are you okay Cinna?”

“I feel a lot better now, yeah.” She smiled back weakly. She gingerly sat back up with his help.

“You can control those tattoos, but they must always have to be some sort of words.” The dwarf said to her. “This is the Words of the Druids that’s been bestowed upon you. With the Oracle what I suppose was happening was getting very angry.”

Cinna rubbed her head. “Pretty much. So what do these do exactly?”

“You can put them in any language, and can make them look like images, change their color, emit different lights. But really, their main focus is it allows to take a power from a psionic creature once per day. So if you don’t know how to use a specific power you can take it for a little while.”

Sandstorm suddenly sat on the floor, his energy drained. His face looked even paler and sicker than earlier today. “You want some help?” The Druid asked him. “You look like you have mummy rot.”

“Whatever it is, I feel like crap.” Sandstorm laughed hollowly.

“Well, it will kill you if you don’t get it cured.”

“I figured. It’s been getting worse. So yes please, sir.”

The dwarf nodded and disappeared into the Forge for a moment. He returned with a small vial and handed it to Sandstorm. The half giant thanked the Druid and downed the potion’s contents greedily. Amanmal eyed Sandstorm’s pick and pointed to it. “About that pick there…is that mithril?”

“Yep. Found it in a Dwarven ruin. Use it to smash things.”

“I notice that you’re a soul blade.”

Sandstorm puffed out his chest, even in his exhausted state. “Yes I am.”

“You mind if I make the pick a little better for you?”

“I would not mind that at all.” Sandstorm grinned. He got back to his feet and gave his pick over. He was somewhat pained to do so, but gave it over nonetheless. The dwarf placed it on the table after helping Cinna get off of it. He grabbed his hammer once more and smashed it to smithereens. Metal chunks flew up into the air. He grabbed them with his remaining hand and crushed them to dust.

He tossed to the half giant a shimmering chain shirt. “Now you can use it as one of your mind blades.” The dwarf then turned to me, gesturing to my Thunder Rot. “So what is that broken piece of wood you have there? I saw you walk in with it and I was kind of curious. I see it has a gem on the top.”

“It says Thunder Rot on the top. I know it thunders and shocks sometimes.”

“Thunder Rot?” The dwarf snorted. “That’s a horrible name.”

“I didn’t make the name for it.” I shrugged.

“Well you don’t look the fighting type. You want me to reforge that? Seeing as I’m reforging stuff for everybody else here.”

“That would be nice of you, yes.” I agreed, handing over the staff. Like the pick, he placed it atop his working table. He picked up a piping hot kettle and poured liquid mithril over it. He hammered away, then waved his hand over it. Symbols formed to create the words Twisted Thunder. He lifted up the staff, admired his work, then wrung it like a wet towel. Now the whole thing was twisted from tip to base.

As he handed it back to me I asked. “Do you have any idea what kind of crystal is inside of it?”

“It’s Deep Crystal. It’s a very nice psionic crystal.” He moved on to Malazhar. “That’s a nice shield you got. Is…is that a projan inside there?” Malazhar gave him an odd stare and looked away. “And what about you? Shoot a bow it looks like.” He gestured to Cehos. “I got one of those quivers layin’ around here somewhere.” He retrieved what looked like a pure black leather quiver. He tossed it over to him. “It’s a nice quiver. Called a Shimmerglow quiver.”

“Shimmerglow?”

“It’s something Dimitri made. It gives you twenty specialized Deep Crystal arrows per day.”

Ith, meanwhile, had been silently gawking at the forge the whole time. He cleared his throat. “So, are you going to come out and help us?”

“I can’t leave. I still have to watch over this place.” The dwarf called over his shoulder. He was back at his work table, creating what looked like an axe.

“So all you do is make things in this forge all day?” Sandstorm asked gruffly.

“I have to guard this place. Make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Contains a lot of power somebody could have.”

“You could arm quite the army with this.” Sandstorm observed. He was right. Weapons and armor of all sorts littered the place. From giant ballistas to daggers to full plate.

“Could be quite the army, but I don’t know if you have an army.”

“I don’t have an army personally, but they’re a bunch of people fighting the illithids.” Sandstorm replied.

“And the illithids are going to be invading soon.” I chimed in.

“They’ve driven most of the people to the North Southward.”

The Druid nodded. “You send Cogline over here. We’ll be able to talk about it.”

“We’ll get right on that. Just wanted you to be aware of that.”

“Would you be willing to sell any of the items here?” Cehos wondered.

“Is there anything that you need?”

“I don’t think I could personally afford anything, but other members of my party might.”

“If I may ask, can I take one historical item to give to the Lodge?”

The gold dwarf mulled it over for a moment. “Fine, but of my choice.”

“I’m okay with that. Thank you.”

“Can I just stay here with you?” Ith asked, almost begging. “I want to learn more. Maybe help protect it from the impending war.”

The Druid nodded and clapped him on the back. “You’d be welcomed to stay.” Amanmal departed then, returning with an old book in hand. Tome of Stars and Moons, can only be opened in starlight. The gold dwarf said we’re welcome to stay and rest up in the Forge for a few days. I know we need it. Sandstorm especially. Haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since we set out on this mission.

DAY FIFTY EIGHT

By the time I woke up this morning everyone’s hearing had returned. A few caverns over we found rotten wooden crates against the Eastern wall, and some rotten bread too. In the corner came a thunderous roar as a giant creature charged for us. It looked like a weird cross between an ape and a beetle, with two large compound eyes paired with two smaller eyes beneath them. Its face was covered in feelers that vaguely resembled hairs.

Cehos immediately shot at it with arrows. Sandstorm still looked worse for wear, and I feared he’d be hit by the beast, so I struck it with a lance of ice. I grinned. The lance froze the creature in place, effectively immobilizing it. At least for awhile, anyways. Ith fired a pebble from his sling. Sandstorm charged forward, bellowed loudly and slashed at it with his mind blade. Cinna finally killed the beast with an ice ray.

Exhausted, Sandstorm slumped to the ground and asked if we could stop early for the day. We all agreed and let him rest. As we set up camp Cehos once again created some traps.

DAY FIFTY SEVEN

This morning, after eating a delicious breakfast prepared by Cinna, our group continued Eastward. We left the pass back into the cave systems. The first cavern was small, with several square holes cut into the Southern and Western walls. Also along the Western wall were half a dozen dessicated skeletons locked in manacles and chains. But with nothing else of real value, we moved onwards. Or so most of us thought, anyways.

“Hey, what did you find?” Sandstorm wondered, when Cehos failed to follow the rest of us to the other half of the cavern.

“I think there’s a chest over here.” Cehos said over his shoulder, busy picking the lock of a well camouflaged iron chest that been hidden along the Northern wall. A few clicks later and it opened easily. We poured the coins inside it into the bag of holding. I looked down at the map and led the others to the next place we should go.

The following cave had a stream of crude oil oozing out of a small rock face near the Eastern wall. As we approached two withered corpses emerged from behind the oil well and shuffled towards us. Both were wrapped in dirty funeral bandages from head to toe. The patches of skin that did show appeared wrinkled and leathery. I assumed aloud they might be mummies, mentioned briefly in an obscure religious book I remembered reading a few years ago. But beyond that I had no idea how tough they’d be to fight, nor if they had any weaknesses we could exploit.

Cinna backed away from the oil well and blasted the nearest one with a ray of sonic energy. Being the closest, Ith and Sandstorm got bombarded by multiple swings from the mummies. Ith retaliated and flung a pebble from sling and smacked one of the mummies on the nose. Cehos followed Cinna’s lead and backed away from the oil well too. He kept his bow at the ready, but fired nothing. As Cehos did that Sandstorm slashed at the mummy who hit him, then took a few steps backward but not enough to be completely away from the oil.

I didn’t wait much longer and got away from the sludgy pool as soon as I was able, shocking the mummies with a bolt of electricity. Still not far enough away, Sandstorm and Ith were hit by the mummies once more. Cehos fired a couple arrows, the arrows hitting their target. Cinna froze the undead creatures with an ice raym but Ith’s sling failed to hit either mummy. The half giant swung at the mummies once more. He wasn’t looking too great as he tumbled backward by a few more feet, just barely outside the pool of oil. Ith trailed after him. Cehos shot a few more arrows but missed horribly.

With everyone safely away from the oil, I created a bolt of fire and set it ablaze. The fires engulfed and incinerated both mummies in an instant. What I did not anticipate, however, was the entire Queen damned well catching fire and blowing up. A cacophonous noise erupted from the center of the oil well as the rocks all around exploded outwards. Socks jumped to get away from the blast and flung me off his back in the process. I landed hard. Feeling the scorching heat of the flames crawl up my spine, I frantically rolled around to put the fire out. I felt Thraenor’s hands patting down my singed arms. Through the flames I saw Cinna and Ith in the same position as myself: on fire and in pain. Sandstorm was too far away for me to see what became of him. Cehos kneeled beside Cinna, helping her put the fire out. Ith’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell unconscious.

What in the Abyss! That oil should not have exploded like that! Even if that well was massive, it should’ve only created a large fire ball at worst.

Sandstorm, absolutely pissed, stomped into my field of view and yanked Ith’s unconscious body out and away from the fire surrounding him. Her fire out, Cinna ran over to help stabilize him. Once Thraenor and I finished putting out my fires I rose to my feet.

I rubbed my temples, my head pounded painfully. “I’m so sorry, that shouldn’t have happened!”

I felt my mouth move, but no sound came out. All I could hear was an obnoxious ringing in my ears. I think the others were in the same boat as me. They tried asking me what just happened, but appeared shocked when they heard not a sound. The blast must’ve deafened all of us. Socks nudged my hand. If I could’ve heard him, he was probably whimpering. Patches of his fur got singed in the explosion, and some of his skin was exposed and raw. I got out some wrappings and knelt down to heal him some.

I peeked over my shoulder from time to time as I patched up Socks. Cinna fed Ith some of her healing water, and Sandstorm poured some of the healing alcohol he got at Sky’s Well into Ith’s mouth. As Ith came to, Sandstorm took a few steps back and sat down on the ground. Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead, his cheeks red. I wondered if he had a fever and hoped it wasn’t from fighting those mummies. Cinna gestured for him to lie down and rest.

I scribbled I was sorry and that the oil shouldn’t have exploded and showed what I wrote to the others. Cinna sighed and took my journal from me. It’s okay. She wrote. We didn’t know either. She smiled and got out some of the honey we still had. I asked what she was doing. She wrote she was making some more healing water.

Sandstorm gestured for my journal. We should rest here for the night. We all nodded. While Cinna and I sat beside him and a barely awake Ith to rest, Cehos got up and created some traps to keep us safe during the night. Since I’m the one who caused this mess I volunteered to take first watch. Cehos wrote he’d take second and Cinna’s taking the morning watch as usual.

Since I’m still unable to hear anything, I only hope nothing tries to sneak up on us during my watch.

-—-

Well, I was wrong about an uneventful watch. About half an hour ago a long black cloak-looking thing hung on the far wall of the cave. I watched with terrified curiosity as I watched it dislodge itself from the wall. It caught the soft breeze and unfurled its wings, revealing a bony tail and blood red eyes that glared down at me. I dashed over to the others and shook them awake and pointed at the creature flying for us. When I woke Cehos he angrily smacked my hand away but still got up to investigate.

The cloak monster floated in the same spot, looking positively baffled at something. That’s when I realized what it was: a cloaker. Cloakers subdue their prey using subsonic sounds. Had we been able to hear, we would’ve been in trouble. Annoyed at being awakened, Sandstorm flung his mind blade at the beast and struck it in its chest. Cehos joined in and shot three or so arrows at it. From its lip movements the creature probably screamed in pain. It flew away and fled to the darkness. The thing gone, the others returned to their sleeping bags.

As I write this I have only a few more minutes left before I go and wake up Cehos. I’m grateful the rest of my watch was uneventful. I think my hearing is slowly returning too.