Arcanis: Gonnes, Sons, and Treasure Runs (COMPLETED)

Deus Ex Machina - Prologue

Quintus looked up from the ground. Small people dressed in pallid masks and robes were ripping off his clothes. They were gnomes or dwarves. They poked and kicked at Quintus.

“Up!” they shouted over and over. “Up! Up!”

Quintus snarled. “I’ll kill you!”

He punched one of them in the face. It fell back, a bright red stain appearing on the pallid mask. Then one of them touched him with a crackling hand. Pain jolted throughout his body. He fell back down to the ground.

“Finish stripping him!” said one of the gnomes.

The other gnomes pulled all of Quintus’ clothes off. Something was fastened around his neck. It was a dog collar. Quintus got a glimpse of the leash before one of them yanked hard.

“Up!”

They led Quintus through the abandoned Illiirite church to the altar. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see rows upon rows of pews, piled up in the moonlight.

“Where are you taking me?” he snarled.

They stopped pulling him along.

“Down.”

“What?”

The other gnomes yanked Quintus down by the leash. “Down!” He fell to his knees.

The shock hit him again. It was a spell. Quintus knew it was a spell, he’d seen it before. It convulsed him. He collapsed to the ground.

“Just kill me and be done with it,” Quintus hissed through clenched teeth.

“Oh, that would be too simple,” said a sibilant voice.

Quintus looked up. It was a bald man with a broad grin. He was sitting on the Illirite altar, using it as a makeshift throne.

“You!” snarled Quintus. “I remember you…”

Quintus had traveled to Freeport with the others but had no intention of staying. When the Illirite priest, Parsippus, asked for his help, Quintus couldn’t say no. They were supposed to simply throw out squatters.

Parsippus shouted and then Quintus saw stars before his eyes…

“Memories?” said the man. “Oh, I would advise against them. They don’t call it the past ‘tense’ for nothing, you know.” He laughed at his own joke. “Memories are so treacherous. They remind us, over, and over, and over again, just how insane this world really is! Memories can be vile, repulsive little brutes,” he grinned over at his strangely attired servants. “Like gnomes, I suppose.”

“What did you do with Parsippus?”

The man rose and started down the steps towards Quintus. He looked almost concerned.

“Fear not, legionnaire.” He patted Quintus on the head. “My name is Khorbon and I am here to set you free. I am your savior, and I have come to you with a new holy word.” He sat down on one of the steps, just above Quintus’ eye level. “Can a man live without remembering? I say they can! But ah, you say, memories are the foundation off our reason. If we can’t face them, we deny reason itself. That is so very true, an excellent point. But I say, why not deny reason? Where has reason gotten us? You are not contractually bound to reason!”

“You’re insane,” said Quintus.

“Most definitely,” said Khorbon. “But that changes nothing. And everything. When you find yourself heading for those places in your past where the screams are unbearable, there’s always madness! Madness is your emergency exit. You can just step outside and close the door on all those dreadful memories. Lock them up forever, and walk away a new man. Happy, mad, and free”

“When your gnomes aren’t looking, Khorbon, I’m going to kill you with my bare hands,” said Quintus.

“Kill me? Kill me?” Khorbon gestured at the gnomes behind Quintus. “Did you hear that? He’s going to kill me? Well, he’s very confused, isn’t he?” He leaned forward to look Quintus in the face. “It’s quite the other way around, I’m afraid. You see, my memories have a home and the key is Ambrose. I’m not sure how, but Ambrose got out of Carcosa and he’s working very hard to get back. We’re going to follow him through a portal to a very important party. But you can’t go to a party without bringing a gift, can you?” He lifted his arms up. “Of course not! You, my stalwart friend, are going to be my gift to the King. A gift of madness! And he will make me Prince of Carcosa, as I am destined to be.”

Khorbon nodded to one of the gnomes, who pulled Quintus’ leash.

“Come.”

Quintus looked back and forth from the gnome to Khorbon. “What are you going to do to me?”

“Go with these gentlemen, my new friend,” said Khorbon. “I have a party to prepare for.”

Then they put the mask over his head. And the nightmare began.

Part 1: Nothing is Sacred

“Now Cal, do you understand your instructions?” asked Lucius.

The big lizard, topping over six feet, nodded.

“Repeat it back to me,” said Lucius in the boldest tone he could muster. “Please.”

“Take this note to Ilmarė,” said Cal, waving a crumpled up piece of paper in his hand, “in the western arm of Drac’s End, near the Merchant and Temple Districts.”

“And?”

“And no one else is supposed to read it. Not even me.”

Lucius nodded, satisfied. “Not even you. I found many disturbing things in the notebooks of Garniss the Sage, but that note is the most disturbing of all.”

Cal nodded. “What do I tell Ilmarė when I find her?”

“She’ll know what it means,” said Lucius. “She’s read the story before.”

The ss’ressen turned to leave.

“I would not normally entrust such a mission to you,” said Lucius, “but your particular talents make you the best…man for the job.”

“Because I’m big and strong?” asked Cal.

“Because you can’t read.”

Deus Ex Machina - Part 2: The Heist

Cal didn’t have much to fear from Freeport. In fact, it was one of the few places he felt comfortable. Although people openly stared, he preferred it to the nervous side glances of more polite cities. In Freeport, if someone didn’t like you, they let you know it. If they feared you, they let you know that too.

So it was surprising when a woman approached him. Few locals dared. The thugs large enough to threaten him had learned his lesson. Besides, Cal was perpetually broke anyway.

“Blimey!” she said, looking up at Cal. “Yew 'ook like a big strappin' fellow. Might I be able ter offer my services? Nuff said, yeah?”

Cal’s pupiless eyes blinked. He sniffed tentatively in the woman’s direction. Her eyes and lips were painted extravagantly. Her clothes were too tight, especially the top part.

“Orww, right, come on now. I know I don't 'ave a look like much, but I fink I can 'andle the likes of yer. Wotcher say?”

“No thanks,” said Cal.

The woman awkwardly stroked one of Cal’s scaly forearms. He pulled away from her.

“Psst!” shouted someone from a nearby alley. He was in front of a two-story rough stone building with a drainpipe up the side. “Over here,” said a voice concealed in shadows.

Cal was only too happy to put distance between himself and the prostitute.

“Down here!” shouted a voice somewhere around Cal’s knee.

He looked down. A confident-looking short little man with shifty eyes was staring up at him.

“Listen,” said the man. “My name’s Harcourt. Resseka spends a bit of time 'ere. She lost one of 'er children at sea more than year ago, and 'as no brass. I try ter wotch out for 'er, but sometimes she goes a wee too far wiv 'er propositions.”

“Maybe she should go look for money from someone else,” said Cal.

“Cal!” shouted a familiar voice. He could make out the svelte form of Ilmarė the elorii and the squat silhouette of Beldin the dwarf walking down the street towards him. They had hopped a portal to Freeport upon receiving urgent word from Lucius.

When Cal looked back, Harcourt and Resseka were gone. “What the…”

“Stop, thief!” shouted someone else, jogging past them. Chemb was a big man with blonde hair, tan skin, and a perpetually startled expression. He pointed towards the roof. “He’s getting away!” A female gnome named Claret, who pointed in tandem with the big man, accompanied him.

Cal looked down at his belt, which was basically a rope holding up his loincloth. The note was gone!

“My note!” he shouted.

Harcourt clambered up the drainpipe. Chemb tried to climb after him.

”Cal, what is going on?” asked Ilmarė. “Whatever Lucius wanted better be good; I interrupted my vacation for this.” Beldin’s axe was out in his hands.

“I have something for you from Lucius,” said Cal. “I’ll go get it.”

Then, using one claw after the other, Cal dug himself footholds and began climbing the sheer surface of the stone building.

Deus Ex Machina - Part 3a: The Chase

The little man ran across the rooftops as fast as his little legs would carry him. He easily sped across a four-inch wide plank onto a two-story stone building.

Harcourt spun around to kick the plank. It clattered into the alley below.

Harcourt flashed a brief smile at the ss’ressen that was pounding after him. It was a good ten feet distance between the two buildings.

Then the lizard was gone. Harcourt spun around…

Only to nearly smack right into Cal. “Give me back my note,” said the lizard with a hiss.

Harcourt took a step backwards. Cal stepped forward. The roof groaned under the three hundred pound lizard man’s weight. Then it gave way.

Cal collapsed up to his chest. He was stuck.

The thief laughed and ran right up to Cal. Then, using the ss’ressen’s head as a stepping-stone, Harcourt launched himself over the broken rooftop.

With his formidable forearm strength alone, Cal lifted himself out of the hole. He crawled across the rooftop just in time to see Harcourt crossing to the next building on a tightrope.

Just to show how dexterous he was, the thief walked backwards across the tightrope while facing Cal. “So long, yer big alligator!” shouted Hargrove. “Right!”

Then a whistling axe snapped the tightrope in half.

Harcourt shrieked as the tightrope collapsed. He grabbed on to the edge of the roof, struggling as much as Cal to maintain his balance.

From the alley, Ilmarė pointed one finger at the note. It was hastily stuffed into Harcourt’s belt pouch, and part of it was still visible.

“I believe that’s mine,” she said. The note floated down out of Harcourt’s pouch towards Ilmarė.

A roiling mist filled up around the alley. From out of the mist, a tanned arm snatched the note out of the air.

“Not if I have anything to say about it!” shouted Chemb.

“I’m really getting tired of this,” said Beldin. He caught sight of the female gnome. “You!” he said. “You two were in on it!”

Claret squeaked as Beldin reached for a throwing axe. She backed up to the wall of the stone building.

Beldin hurled the hand axe. The blade whistled end over end. Instead of skewering Claret in the forehead, she disappeared into the wall, eyes crossed as the axe embedded itself in the stone.

“I hate gnomes,” muttered Beldin.

The big man was running for his life. “Oh no you don’t!” shouted Ilmarė. She drew her bow…and then relaxed.

Chemb looked over his shoulder and flashed Ilmarė a quick smile. He was going to escape.

Then he ran into something big, green and angry.

Deus Ex Machina - Part 3b: The Belfrey

“Are you sure Harcourt ran into this old church?” asked Ilmarė. She hopped down to join the others at the bottom of the belfry.

Cal nodded. His tongue flicked out. “I can smell his fear,” he said.

“I hope this note was worth the trouble,” said Beldin. “What’s it about, anyway?”

Ilmarė put her hands on her hips as she surveyed the room. There was a door at either end. “It’s an invitation to a party for someone named Ambrose. I’ve read about him in Garniss’ books.”

“Who?” asked Cal.

“Ambrose is a fictional character. The invitation is exactly as it was described in the story that Garniss the Sage wrote. Now I’m not so sure that he was the original author.”

“So why did they try to steal it?” asked Cal.

“I don’t know what they would want with a note,” said Ilmarė. “They could have forged the invitation themselves if they’re that desperate. Perhaps it’s magical.”

“That’s odd.” Beldin peered at the ceiling.

Cal and Ilmarė looked up. There were two pairs of parallel grooves running from one side of the ceiling to the other, right above each doorway.

“It looks like tracks of some sort,” said Beldin. “I’ve never seen anything like it. And I should know, the dwarves of Solanos Mor are known for their stone craftsmanship.”

Ilmarė rolled her eyes. “There’s something else.” She pointed at a large symbol, a strange triskelion with tentacle-like arms. It was painted in yellow over a burning gladius engraved on the wall, the symbol of Illir. “This was once a Temple to Illiir. But that’s the Yellow Sign, so the Brotherhood must be here.”

“You’ve mentioned them before,” said Beldin. “What would they want with that invitation?”

There was a strange whirring from the other side of one of the doors. A horrible screeching, the sound of metal that had become unaccustomed to moving after decades of neglect, tormented their ears.

Ilmarė drew her bow and faced the door. “Did I mention that Ambrose was a master of clockworks?”

The door burst open. A tall figure in dark clothing, moved jerkily through the doorway. It walked funny, with movements that were broad and exaggerated.

“Now you tell us,” said Beldin.

Deus Ex Machina - Part 3c: The Marionette

“Down!” shouted Ilmarė.

A whistling blade flew through the air, boomeranging around the confined belfry. Cal ducked down just as the blade returned to its owner’s hand.

It was a life-size marionette, dressed in ochre and purple robes, with china hands and face. Chains hung down from a dozen points on its body, leading up to metal ball bearings nestled in the tracks above them.

With a roar, Cal hacked at the marionette with incredible force. The marionette snapped sideways and spun, its arms flailing about helpless. It spun around and around, twisting its chains so much that it lifted upwards towards the ceiling.

“Cal,” said Beldin, “I don’t know if that was such a good idea.”

Slowly at first, the marionette untwined itself. It whirled faster and faster, until it whistled through the air at cyclonic speeds. Then it trundled forward towards them.

Beldin held up his shield, only to be rewarded with a rapid-fire series of strikes. Sparks jumped where the marionette’s spinning blade met his shield.

Ilmarė fired an arrow at its emotionless features. The head tilted slightly from the impact.

“How do we stop it?” asked Ilmarė.

“Aim for the chains!” shouted Beldin. He was pinned down. It was all he could do to keep the marionette from slicing through the shield.

Cal hacked at it again, higher this time. The spinning stopped for a brief moment and the marionette bounced sideways. Then its haphazard arms surged forward. The big lizard barely ducked the swipe of its throwing blade.

Beldin dropped his axe and unhooked his morningstar. The marionette was preoccupied with Cal, advancing again with slow but relentless swipes of its blade. He lifted the morningstar over his head…

The marionette’s head spun around 180 degrees to look at Beldin. Then its body snapped around to face him.

Beldin smashed downward with the morningstar, towards the center of the marionette’s body. Unlike the slashing attacks of the axes, the marionette felt the full force of the morningstar. One of the chains snapped and the marionette’s arm holding the blade went limp.

“Now Cal!”

The huge axe that Calactyte wielded sliced downward at an angle. More chains snapped. The marionette collapsed, lifeless.

Beldin looked down at it. “Unbelievable,” said the dwarf.

“I know,” said Ilmarė. She stared down at a dead body dressed in the robes of a priest of Illiir. It was sprawled across the doorway to the room where the marionette came from. “It looks like Illirite priests tried to reclaim this temple.”

“Quintus with them?” asked Cal.

Ilmarė turned the body over. The man’s face was frozen in a rictus grin. It was not Quintus.

The elorii exhaled. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath.

“This is amazing craftsmanship!” exclaimed Beldin, completely unphased by the fact that a puppet had nearly murdered them.

Ilmarė rolled her eyes. “Let’s get going before someone else pulls our strings.”

Deus Ex Machina - Part 4a: Psychological Torture Chamber

Every day, the cultists entered Quintus’ cage wearing expressionless, pallid masks.

Khorbon nodded towards one of the gnomes. “Whillispur, if you please?”

Suddenly, loud, hard music blasted all around him. The world spun. Psychedelic colors flashed everywhere.

The pallid masks appeared; hundreds of them, floating in space. They surrounded him.

Whenever Quintus tried to close his eyes, he was poked with the shocking wands.

“There’ll be no closing your eyes,” said Khorbon. “I have so much to show you.”

The world spun. Quintus struggled mightily to keep from vomiting. His head throbbed.

“Illusionists are really marvelous, aren’t they?” asked Khorbon. Quintus couldn’t respond. “When they really get going, they can be downright dangerous. For example, we’ve been digging through your mind for quite awhile. And look what we found!”

Images appeared. A woman. Her faced covered in sweat, her eyes bloodshot. Her hair was matted all around her. She was dressed in a simple white robe, but her lower half was spattered with blood.

“Oh, I know you’re confused, you’re frightened. Who wouldn’t be? Lets face it; you’re in a hell of a situation. Life’s a bowl of cherries, and these are the pits, but remember,” he took a deep breath and began to sing.

“Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa
Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa
Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead,
Die though, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa
The stars that burn their charcoal death
Shrink back, they feel the hoary breath
Of he who ransoms
Great Carcosa
He flees where queen and prophet meet
Where twin suns fall but never set
Escapes the tomb of
Lost Carcosa.”

The images flickered faster and faster, from faces of the pallid mask, to that of a woman, her eyes glazed, blood vessels burst beneath her delicate skin. Blood stained her distended stomach. Her legs were limp.

“Baebiana!” screamed Quintus.

Then the pallid masks surrounded him. The music stopped.

Khorbon bent down to peer into Quintus’s face. “Poor bastard. It’s a shame they don’t let legionnaires marry. Got her pregnant, then she died on him in childbirth. “

Quintus didn’t move. His eyes were open. Tears stained his cheeks. Quintus’ breathing was slow and shallow.

“Well, we cracked him. He’s catatonic,” said Khorbon from behind his mask. “I think he’ll make an excellent gift for the King in Yellow.”

Then he left.

Deus Ex Machina - Part 4b: Psychological Torture Chamber

An eternity passed. Quintus lay there in the darkness until the door opened again.

“Quintus! Are you…are you okay?

Ilmarė opened the cage. Quintus didn’t come out. She went into the cage with him.

“Quintus,” said Ilmarė. She touched him on the arm.

Quintus blinked. Slowly, he turned to focus on her. “Gods…” he said. His voice was hoarse from screaming. He clutched the elf to him.

“It’s okay,” said Ilmarė.

“Khorbon…that bastard!” said Quintus. “He killed Parsippus. He tried to drive me mad.”

“You’re safe now,” said Ilmarė. “Beldin and Cal are with me. I can stay here if you need me.”

Ilmarė took off her cloak and put it around Quintus.

“No! No, I’m okay. You have to go after the Brotherhood,” he let her go, staring into Ilmarė’s eyes. “They’re opening a portal to a place called Carcosa. They’re using Ambrose to do it. You’ve got to stop them!”

“I’ll do my best,” said Ilmarė. She looked at the naked legionnaire with concern. He had lost weight. Quintus’ face was haggard and drawn, with over a week’s worth of beard.

“How long have I been in here?”

“I don’t know,” said Ilmarė. “I haven’t heard from you in three weeks. I thought,” she fumbled with the words. “I thought that maybe you had changed your mind.”

Quintus shook his head. “Three weeks!” He looked around, too weak to move, as if his eyes could release him. “It was supposed to be a quick favor for the Church of Illiir before I set out for home…you have to stop them!”

“I’m leaving you some food and water. I’ll be back for you.”

Quintus grabbed her arm. “You have to show them. You have to let them know that it didn’t work! I’m still sane!” Quintus’ voice was hoarse. “I’m still sane!” he shouted again, his eyes unfocused.

“I will,” said Ilmarė slowly. Then the crash outside of the room forced her to abandon him once more.

Deus Ex Machina - Part 5: Collapsible Room

Cal sniffed tentatively into the empty room. It was covered in flagstones. Ilmarė had padded across through a doorway on the same wall. She was talking to someone; he thought he heard a man’s voice on the other side.

“What are you waiting for?” asked Beldin, swatting at Cal’s twitching tail with his shield.

Cal tilted his head to listen. “Quintus?”

He took a step forward. Something creaked beneath him.

“Don’t…move,” said Beldin behind him.

The big lizard didn’t move. His black pupils darted everywhere. “What?”

“Those flagstones are trapped,” said Beldin. “They’re loose. Ilmarė was too light to set them off. But you,” he took in Cal’s three-hundred plus pound frame, “are heavier.”

“Now you tell me,” said Cal.

“We’re going to move slowly off the stones, one foot at a time.” The dwarf had both arms out, trying to maintain his balance. The flagstones creaked beneath them.

Someone shouted from the other room. Calactyte’s tail twitched in agitation. Beldin’s eyes crossed as he watched the lizard’s long, whip-like tail sway back and forth in front of him.

It was too much. Two of the flagstones collapsed beneath Cal. He fell through the hole up to his waist and clawed for purchase.

“Stop!” shouted Beldin. But it was too late.

More flagstones fell in. To Beldin’s horror, the collapsing flagstones radiated outward. Cal disappeared with a yelp.

Beldin caught a glimpse of Ilmarė sticking her head out of the doorway. Then the ground fell out from beneath him.

Deus Ex Machina - Part 6a: Maze

“Ouch,” said Cal. He rose out of the rubble, shrugging off several large wooden panels.

They had fallen into the room below, a maze of sorts. Wooden panels, eight feet tall and five feet wide, supported each flagstone above them. They were connected to sturdy wooden poles.

“I told you to keep that tail under control!” muttered Beldin from beneath a pile of wood and debris.

Ilmarė landed next to them.

“Why didn’t you set off the trap?” asked Cal.

“Osalian blesses my steps,” said Ilmarė with a sniff. “I have nothing to fear from such things.”

Just then, the sound of chanting reached their ears.

“That can’t be good,” said Ilmarė. “Let’s go.”

She turned down a corridor flanked by the wooden panels. The sound of many small balls clattered along the floor.

Ilmarė windmilled as she stepped on them. Beldin caught her on his shield.

“Your god still blessing your steps, huh?” the dwarf said gruffly.

“Very funny,” said Ilmarė. She looked around. “Now where did Cal go to?”