The Talismans of Aerdrim

[Feir Fireb]

An excerpt from "The Unscholarly Journals of Darren the Senalline": No Turning Back

OUR STOMACHS FULL and my tinker's pouch strapped to my waist, we made our way towards the Floating Gardens. At the Garden Gate I explained to the guards that Li Shotay worried the Ki-rin might be breaking down again and wanted me to check the first chance I got, preferably before its next performance. Atrix was to help me determine if it was in tune.

We walked towards the Ki-rin, then as soon as we were out of sight we made a beeline for the secret door in the Garden wall. Atrix again kept watch as I approached the lock with my tinker's tools. Opening the stone faceplate, I carefully examined the area around the lock for openings that could have released the poisoned needle. Sure enough, there were several that might have done so. The mechanism itself was built into the door and probably only accessible from the other side. I thought to disarm it by jamming the holes with picks, but if I were to design a trap like that I would make sure that the decoy holes would also act as triggers in case someone tried just that, unless they were able to jam them all simultaneously. The only way I could block all of the holes sufficiently would have been with a thick and sturdy barrier of an appropriate size and shape, and I think this method would work in the future. With few possessions to our name, finding and obtaining such a barrier would take time that we didn't have and probably another trip past the night guards. So I would simply have to make due, taking care not to trigger the trap again and doing what little I could to keep myself unexposed, which seemed nigh impossible given the placement of the trap with respect to the lock.

[Facing pages: left, diagram of the secret door. Right, inset schematic of the lock.]

I took a moment to clear my head and think about how I'd approached the lock before. The tinker's picks still felt clumsy in the lock, but I took greater care with the pins this time. I heard a "shh" from Atrix and saw him raise his hand a moment with wide, anxious eyes, gesturing me to stop. He then relaxed and nodded for me to continue. Delicately, one by one, the pins fell into place. My pick deep in the lock, I gave it a good, strong wiggle and managed to set the last pin that had been eluding me. With a delicate "click," I managed to turn the tumbler. With another, painfully familiar "click," another poisoned needle jabbed me in the hand. I cursed as the door opened in front of me.

"What do we do now?" Atrix muttered.

"We can't turn back. The physicians won't believe I caught the strange Northern disease a second time. I think one of them already half-suspected poison before you convinced him."

Beginning to feel dizzy and weak in the knees, I leaned on Atrix.

"Do you think you can keep going?" he asked.

"Maybe. It's coming on more slowly this time. Atrix, Kay can't wait another three or four days. We have to go now."

He shook his head. "No, she can't." I knew he desperately wanted to go, but he didn't want to kill me in the process.

My muscles ached and began to revolt against me. I lifted my hand to my forehead and felt warmth.

"All right, let's go," Atrix said, as he hoisted more of my weight upon him and half-carried me through the door, closing it behind us.

 

[Feir Fireb]

Excerpt from "The Unscholarly Journals of Darren the Senalline": Unexpected Company

IT IS WELL that the Imperial Family of Xaiman values the lives of its members, or I might be dead by now. Okordo would have been easy enough to use in that needle trap and would have killed me swiftly. But as I expect the passage was primarily designed for use by the Imperial Family itself, a lesser but still dangerous poison would allow a friend of the Palace to seek aid in the event of a mishap. Based on my description of the substance, my most dedicated reader informs me that it was actually zheido. But even though I responded better to the poison this time around, it was enough to drag me within a few inches of Shinjed’s realm. [Marginal note: I am reminded that most readers know him as Yanluo, but our closest encounters with him were in Kardei, and I use the Kardei name for him by habit.]

[Map: passages within the Imperial Palace]

The stairs curled downwards to a passage that went straight on for a length embedded in the Palace wall. The walls had no lit torches, but discreet cracks in them allowed a modicum of light from the moons to barely illuminate the pre-dawn passage. "I can hardly see a thing," Atrix whispered. I drew my dwarrow amulet from its safe location in my tinker's pouch and placed it about my neck. The passage came alive with light and color, as did the very air itself. I could now hear the clinking of the artificial menagerie and the twittering of real birds drifting in through the cracks. "Keep going forward", I told Atrix. "We'll need to move quickly; it will be 20 or 30 minutes before the amulet begins to give me a headache and I need to take a break. But don't go so quickly that I can't look for traps or other hidden doors."

I limped along, leaning on Atrix's shoulder as the poison continued to burn in my veins. The designers of this passage had fortunately thought a trapped, concealed door in the Gardens sufficient to keep out intruders at this end of the passage. We went along a little ways before I heard something. "Shh," I said, tapping Atrix's shoulder. We stopped, silent. "Footsteps, they'll be upon us soon. Four, maybe five."

"I don't believe it," Atrix whispered in consternation. A pause: "We've got to hide."

I scanned the narrow, largely featureless hallway in frustration and tossed a longing glance at the stairs distant behind us. "Where?"

"I need a weapon. Darren, give me your thickest, sturdiest pick. Preferably one with a handle and a point."

My heart racing, I reached into my pouch and found the very one he'd requested. I handed it to Atrix as he gritted his teeth.

Torchlight crawled through an intersection ahead, followed by the glint of spearheads and then armor. Atrix eased me down from his shoulder and against the wall. Four Spear Path guardsmen rounded a corner to face us and Atrix charged at them.

CATCHING THE SHEEN of torchlight on his swiftly approaching body, they lowered their spears to receive his charge in surprise. Atrix seized the tip of a spearshaft with his off-hand and vaulted against the guard's weight. In the same fluid motion he planted himself in their midst with all the grace of a dancer and planted my pick deep in the eye of a guard. Hoping Atrix had their complete attention, I crawled into the corner between the wall and the floor, inching towards the fray in silent anguish.

As their eyeless compatriot slumped to the ground, bleeding and twitching, the three remaining guards turned to face Atrix, their spears clattering against each other and the close walls. Atrix threw himself furiously into another guard, slamming him against the wall and stabbing repeatedly in his side around the edge of the lacquered chestplate. I trudged forward on my hands and knees, then gradually drew myself to standing against a wall as the other two soldiers dropped their spears and drew long knives to hack the fearless pale slave to pieces. Atrix turned to face them, waving the pick about in a futile attempt to keep both of them at a distance and one swung broadly for Atrix's bare gut. My fellow fugitive hopped backwards, deftly dodging the blade. The guard continued to press forward and on the upswing left a nasty slash in Atrix's cheek. The second guard cornered Atrix and cut a deep gash into his arm as he raised it to block.

Hurling myself from the wall, with one hand I knocked the second guard's helmet up to uncover the back of his neck just before I slammed my other fist into the point where the neck met the base of his skull. He fell into the other wall with a sickening crunch and I slid to the floor with him. The remaining guard, hearing me, whirled about and slashed his knife down hard into my side. Atrix threw a mighty jab at him that glanced from the armor but luckily didn't break the pick. Feeling the full effects of the poison, I backed off, reeling as Atrix squared off with the guard.

Atrix made short work of him. The first instant his opponent overextended on a lunge, Atrix flew nimbly at him, jabbing at his hand, side and neck.

He cleaned my pick of blood on the guard's clothes and made to hand it to me. "We need to get going before the palace begins to wake up. Hopefully nobody heard the fight. Can you move?" The still-bleeding wound on Atrix's cheek would assuredly scar, yet it would only add to his rakish charm.

I grunted in pain, lifting myself up a little. "Yes, I think so." I looked at the bodies of the guards. "Shouldn't you take a spear?"

"I'm a d'Loriad, Darren, not a mercenary. Do you think I've even been trained to use one properly? Until I get a proper sword, I'd do better with these." He picked up two daggers that had clattered to the floor and unbelted one of the guards. "You should take one, too."

I nodded and eased myself down towards another corpse to do likewise. "Clothes?"

He shook his head. "Getting them out from under the armor will take time that we don't have. Let's move."

With that, we hoisted ourselves to standing. I took the support of his shoulder again and limped hurriedly, trying to keep up with him.

 

[Feir Fireb]

An excerpt from "The Unscholarly Journals of Darren the Senalline": Downward Spiral

WE DESCENDED INTO a maze of passages beneath the Imperial Palace, as I have attempted to describe in my map. It should be fairly accurate, as the delay between our journey and my first recount of it was not too long, but I make no guarantees. The ability to see clearly via the amulet did not negate the complexity of the passages. We made several semi-educated guesses where the passages branched, but when given the chance we went down, reasoning that the palace was high above the city and any hope of descending to a lower tier would rest in finding either the base of the palace or a subterranean connection. We also attempted to stay close to the outer edge of the palace, but it was not long before we lost even the scant predawn light of the moons. Estimating our direction and how deep we were beneath the level of the Gardens was relatively easy; estimating where we were in relation to the level of the base of the city became difficult, as it had been over ten days since we first got our bearings while climbing the Imperial Stair.

I would expect the guards that we had encountered were more trustworthy than highly trained; we benefited from the fact that the side passages within the Palace were hidden and scantly used. But used they were, and not so secret that they were unpatrolled, more's the pity. Several levels down, at or near the point checked in red on the map, we saw another set of guards approach us from down the hall. Atrix cursed again. We had little opportunity to surprise them this time and I was in no shape for another fight. Before their torches could illumine us, I squeezed into the darkest shadows of the corners and Atrix made ready to dive into their midst.

Once again he moved with marvelous skill, this time doubly armed and with proper weapons that would bring his full deadly grace to bear. But as he cut a path through them, nimbler than any man I've ever seen, he took spears to the leg and side before killing a pair of guards. I pounced upon another, jamming into his ribs the dagger that I'd taken. I immediately felt a painful jab in my arm as another spear hit bone, probably saving me from it biting through to my ribs and heart. I watched Atrix tear into my assailant, twin blades flashing as I dropped my own knife, gripped the bleeding arm and succumbed to fever and blood loss.

I CAME BACK to consciousness with a torchlit Atrix carefully shaking me awake. If it had been anybody but Atrix, I'd have said he looked a bloody mess. But I don't know that Atrix can look a bloody mess, however torn full of holes he may be.

"Darren? Darren? Thank Ii."

"How long was I out?" Makeshift bandages made from guards' sleeves dressed my side and arm, and Atrix as well.

"Not long, my friend. But long enough that we shouldn't stick around." Nor did we. As we left this time, he leaned upon me for support almost as much as I leaned upon him. I had never imagined that I would miss the unsettling glare of Brother Meeshak so much.

The sputtering torchlight that receded behind us would be the last true light we'd see for far too long a time. Because of the poison, Atrix remained the stronger of us still. He moved bravely forward, half carrying me while taking my directions to ensure he didn't blindly bump into a wall or trip on a step. It was then that I saw the first trap of these hallways. A broad pressure plate -- probably another needle trap, though I could not tell where the needles emerged, nor did we have much time or energy to disarm it. But we could carefully sidestep the plate, which we did. We encountered other such traps as I have marked on my map, disarming the easier ones and managing to bypass the others before the sensations of the dwarrow amulet began to overwhelm my human mind and the growing pain in my skull forced us to rest a little.

 

[Feir Fireb]

An excerpt from "The Unscholarly Journals of Darren the Senalline": Blind Man's Bluff

[A map of an underground complex of tunnels, labeled with dozens of different trap indicators and notes as to local tunnel gradation and composition, as well as estimates of location with respect to different landmarks of Tziwan].

GATHERING OUR ENERGY, we began to wonder if we were on our way out of the Palace complex itself. We had not seen any guards in a while and these passages could prove very dangerous even for anyone who knew the locations of all traps. Spotting them would be difficult even in torchlight. Our own success thus far had been a very near thing in what seemed a deathtrap for the truly desperate. In our condition, a single mistake might well have been the end of us.

[A catalog of mechanical traps, including representative symbol on the map, rough sketches and descriptions of how to disarm or bypass]

I placed my amulet about my neck again and with a little more strength and confidence, we forged ahead, fumbling our way through the dark as I warned Atrix of uneven terrain and deadly traps while he prevented me from collapsing into a feverish heap. His bullheaded resolve and the urgency of our situation kept me from slipping under once more.

I have done my best to indicate the mechanical workings of many traps as I have catalogued them, though I can only speculate as to what useful and possibly older purpose would prevent such passages from being being sealed entirely, closing their link to the palace. Perhaps our most dangerous moment up to that point, though, came at a stone carving in the floor that consisted of a few strange Xaimani characters and caused the air above to thrum with a tension on the edge of dwarrow perception. I had encountered a few basic priestly wards in the North, such as were used to guard holy altars and these carvings reminded me vaguely of them, but I felt no themes of beauty, awe or reverence. I had barely picked up enough knowledge of written Xaimani from Korael to guess that if these runes were wards of a sort, I might disable them by defacing a few choice characters. I had an inkling that the wards might have the same origins as the sorcery that destroyed our Northern armies and gave the Emperor his false halo, and assumed that if I marred these runes I would not offend Ii. Carefully I scratched and scraped and luckily for us we were not incinerated, as we might well have been.

Any thief of the Empire, of course, is familiar with Radiant Path wards of the sort that mystified me at the time and may be less than interested in my own first encounter with them and will want to move onto more practical details if any are relevant. And I have managed to catalog these magical traps as well for the information of those who hold common purpose, assuming they have not been replaced nor the passage sealed up as a consequence of our escape. I have since then also consulted with Rian to determine the specific likely consequences of the traps. Her help in this has been a further immeasurable benefit of her continued health and welfare -- contrary to the instincts of some otherwise eminently sensible people.

[A second catalog, this time of magical rune traps, similar to the previous catalog in organization]

As you can see, we disarmed or avoided many sorcerous traps in addition to the more mundane sort as we made our way, taking frequent rests sitting silently in the blackness to allow my head to recover from having worn the amulet overlong. If I were to attempt entry into the Imperial Palace by this route, I would not rely too much upon the maps as a guide to their locations. My memory in that respect is bound to be flawed. Far better to study the trap designs in detail and gain a general sense of how they are typically hidden, so as to spot them where the map is wrong. And best of all to bring a trusted member of the Radiant or Reflective Path, preferably one who can work magics of at least the third circle if you can manage it. A dwarrow would be excellent, of course, and even one of the Grey Dwarrow would assist with great skill and gusto, but they are sadly few and far between in the lands of Xaiman. The map should, however, be fairly reliable with respect to major turns and markers.

Bit by bit we wormed our way through this hidden underground complex until we came to an opening in the tunnels entirely shrouded by steam, a steam that glowed red in the darkness by the hint of fire that lay within.

 

[Orichalcum]

Glad to see I'm useful for something! --Rian

Seriously, though, given that Rian spent much of the last few years becoming a specialist in _creating_ magical traps and wards, she's probably an extremely good person to consult on these ones.

 

[Feir Fireb]

Seriously, though, given that Rian spent much of the last few years becoming a specialist in _creating_ magical traps and wards, she's probably an extremely good person to consult on these ones.

She did, didn't she

I can't overstate how terrifying our first magical trap was at that point. This was still 2nd Ed and Darren had maxed out on his "Find/Disarm Traps" and "Pick Locks" early on at 95% or whatever it was and there were no DCs at the time, so I suspect havenstone was fudging the numbers so Darren would actually have a real challenge after having breezed through everything else. But we were low on hit points fairly early on during the escape (fighting two groups of guards with no armor and no proper weapons!) and I wasn't even entirely certain Darren could disarm a magical trap (given Dispel Magic was the traditional way of dealing with wards). So yeah. Exciting. And strong motivation to make sure he's a direct beneficiary of the old adage that luck favors the prepared.

 

[Feir Fireb]

An excerpt from "The Unscholarly Journals of Darren the Senalline": Fire and Water

WE INCHED OUR way towards the glowing steam. "Darren, be careful. Can you see anything through this?"

I whispered back, "There's a lot of heat and churning air, but the heat comes from way up. The ceiling, I think. And as far as I can tell, there's no floor. It's all water. Flowing water. There don't seem to be any people, and nothing big is moving. But I hear a sort of clanking noise up above, and something's dripping into the water. Hissing."

Moving in, the clouds became patchier and Atrix saw what I described to be true. We had come to an great cavern filled with gently flowing water. The steam arose from numerous points in the pool where glowing droplets of molten metal splashed from above. Looking up, we saw the ceiling high above and a series of gratings at its center, from whence most of the heat and light came. And the clanking.

"A forge?" guessed Atrix.

"That's what I'd suspect." We had, in fact, made our way out of the Palace complex and to a point under the one of the Great Forges of Tziwan. With the right preparation, the forge itself may be the closest possible means of entry to the Palace by this route, and would avoid a number of other issues involved in adhering directly to our route that will soon become evident.

"Do you think we could make our way up there?"

"There's no way we can climb up there, and even if we could get through the grates we'd probably find Xaimani on the other side."

"Right. So, how do we get out of here?"

"The water keeps flowing out through a passage on the other side of the pool. I don't see any other passages. There's probably a spring feeding the inflow, but to head in that direction we'd be swimming against it."

"Right. Falling molten metal. We'd better keep our heads under water."

We lowered ourselves into the broad, slow stream and submersed ourselves completely, taking care to stick to the shallows and avoid being directly under the grate. As we moved towards the point where the water flowed out of the cavern, the water flowed from all sides together to a common point, picked up speed and began to whisk us along. Out we flowed, back into the darkness again, and down a waterfall into the sewers of Tziwan.

[Map: the sewers of Tziwan]

WITH ONLY A moment to hold our breaths, we tumbled swiftly down, the water slamming us painfully into the sides of the channel. With a great splash we landed in another pool, but a small one that swiftly carried us out into a steep channel, down, down, hitting walls when the current pulled us to the side or the course of the passage turned sharply. With no choice but to drift with the stream's flow and attempt to stay afloat, the water rushed us along until we tumbled over a second waterfall into a pool that filled most of a large, open cavern.

We made our way, sputtering, up to the surface of the water, which had previously been quite clear but was now becoming gradually filthier as we made our way to lower and lower points in the sewer system. Treading water, we took our bearings and spied a sewage tunnel across the pool from us. Lacking any place to make contact with the bottom, we paddled our way through the cavern. Ill, weak and waterlogged, it was all I could do just to stay afloat. Out of the corner of my eye, amongst the detritus that had made its way down here and piled up in the water along the wall, I thought I saw a log blink. Before I could turn to look directly at it, there was a splash of water and the log was gone.

"Atrix, did you see something?"

"What was that?"

"Over there by the wall?"

"No, against my leg!"

Just under the surface of the water, I saw what I'd thought had been a log. It was certainly log-shaped, long and at least as broad as two men, but it swam with startling speed underwater by undulating its powerful tail like a snake. The creature had thick, horny scales and kept its short, stubby legs flat against its sides as it came for another pass.

The creature opened its long mouth to reveal a great number of large, jagged teeth that surrounded the whole of its long, roughly triangular head and attempted to take Atrix's legs in its mouth. Atrix kicked deftly, propelling himself to the side such that only one of his feet was caught in the creature's jaws. Atrix disappeared for a moment as the thing dragged him under by his foot. A second later, and Atrix had wriggled free and returned splashing to the surface. "I'm going after it," he said.

DUMBFOUNDED BUT IN no condition to do much more than watch, I eased my way towards the wall of the cavern as Atrix drew a dagger and dove downwards, kicking his way towards the beast below us. I grabbed hold as well as I could to the cracks along the wall. I waited anxiously. Less than a minute later, Atrix broke through the surface, gasping for breath and followed soon after by the creature. Atrix dove towards it again, grabbing and stabbing as the beast pulled him under, this time at its back. I held my own breath out of nervousness, seconds dragging on as I searched in vain for Atrix's shadowy form. He returned to the surface again, panting, but this time content to stay in one place for a moment. "I think I killed it. Or at least I wounded it badly enough it's decided that discretion is the better part of hunger. It's hard to tell down there, so we'd better get out of here in case I'm wrong."

"Right," I responded, dumbfounded but not eager to press the matter of what exactly it was we'd fought. I am told that these "alligators" are largely solitary and endemic to the sewers of Tziwan but by no means ubiquitous, nor is that place their proper origin. They are creatures of rivers and marshes that favor the hot climate of Xaiman, as if the rivers of Xaiman are not dangerous enough in and of themselves. The alligators wander in and out of the sewers looking for fish or stray animals that also make their way there or nearby. The one we'd encountered had probably made its way into the cavern through an underwater passage that we would have been difficult for us to find. Any attempt to navigate the sewers would do well to avoid them, but hard as they are to spot underwater, one ought take precautions in case warding one off becomes necessary.

With an alertness born of fear and uncertainty, we swam our way out of the cave and through a sewer tunnel whose water again steadily picked up speed.

The sewer carried us along again, this time with breakneck swiftness. The twists and turns brought us to still lower levels of the city's drainage, slamming us again and again against the stone that decided our course. There came a point where we no longer had room to remain above water and watched the air disappear as the ceiling closed in on the water's surface. Taking another deep breath, I prayed silently to Ii that we would find air on the other side. A tunnel shunted us a great distance almost straight down and as we came out of the drop, reaching the end of my breath, my head hit hard into the floor of the channel. As I struggled against the blackness of unconsciousness, I saw Atrix hurtling along with me, his own warm, stale breath bubbling away from his mouth and then ceasing.

 

[Feir Fireb]

Excerpt from "The Unscholarly Journals of Darren the Senalline": Wonders in the Dark

TIME PASSED IN oblivion. I opened my eyes and found myself drifting face-up through the water, Atrix swimming ahead with one arm about me, keeping my head above the water. "Atrix?"

"Darren! Thank Ii!"

"What happened?"

"You blacked out going through that flume. It was a miracle we didn't both drown." His voice sounded strange, uncomfortable. There was a pause. "We came out of another waterfall and into a cavern again. When I saw that you were still breathing, I had to keep you up out of the water and thought it would be best to bring you somewhere shallower. The tunnel we're in isn't too bad depth-wise and the water's been moving a lot more slowly. We could probably rest a little if you wanted to. How do you feel?"

"Sore. Ill. Wet. Getting hungry, actually." The fact that our hoarded breakfast after the Day of Harvest had become more and more distant was now hard to ignore.

"Most of those describe me, too."

We stayed at the side of the tunnel for a while. I looked back the way we came and saw the tunnel went on for a long ways, with no open cavern in sight. Atrix had probably dragged me a long ways. He looked tired, like he had been swimming for a while. We have since attempted to corroborate our memories of the route that we took through the sewers, and from Atrix's memories it is clear that he had carried me quite a distance unconscious. But I have marked the route by which he took me in blue, as his unenhanced senses may have missed pertinent aides to navigation. In any event, I expect attempts to retrace our route of escape would be best pursued in a manner that begins from a closer point to the palace and avoids, for example, the dangerous waterways that propelled us so far. But the ability to navigate the sewers of Tziwan is a useful thing in itself (as the Shrouded Path well know) and so I will continue to endeavor to describe them in some detail.

ONCE ATRIX HAD had a chance to relax from his long slog with my inert body and it had become evident that I could continue as well, we followed the sewer once more. After some time wading through chest-deep water, Atrix whispered, "Darren, do you see light up ahead?" Sure enough, I did, but we had not been so fortunate as to come to daylight. The strange glow gradually grew in intensity and we saw that what had seemed like the reflection of distant light on the water was not simple daylight but rather coming from the water itself in many different colors that seemed to blend together at a distance. The bizarre, faint shimmer of the water began to unnerve us as we progressed until we gradually realized we were moving through the glow of purples, greens, yellows and more. But unharmed as we were, we moved onwards a brief ways until we came upon the source of the glow, the sewer opening into a cavern that contained a great pool of the odd water. Furthermore, strange fungi covered great portions of the cavern walls and the rock ledges that dotted the sides of the pool. It glowed in odd pinks, purples and yellows and much of the light in the water arose simply from reflection of the fungus. But not all.

Wading deep through the pool, we moved to inspect some of the fungus. Hungry as we were, I was not about to attempt to eat any of it and I suspect neither was Atrix. But it had aroused both of our curiosities. As we moved closer to some of the fungi-laden rocks in the midst of the cavern, Atrix whirled and began to convulse, splashing into the water. His muscles gave up their strength and he went limp, drifting just underneath the water as I first attempted to stay him, then to lift him above the water. "Atrix! Atrix!" I cried out. He had stopped breathing and water drained from his nose and mouth. I weakly hoisted his head above water much as he had done to me and scanned for the nearest outcropping. Finding a ledge that was low to the water, I pushed with all of my poison-shorn might just to place half of his body onto the shelf so that I might get out myself, then drag Atrix the rest of the way and hope I could work the water out of his lungs. Emptying the water from him, I began to fear that no man could keep full of water as long as he had been and still live.

I pulled him further away from the water, such that we were almost flush against another mass of glowing fungi. To my relief and alarm, the twitching began and continued to strengthen into mild convulsions as we moved towards the fungus. At least he was alive. But now what? My mind reeled as I took stock of the situation and feared how my friend's life rested while in my hands alone. I could barely move him. Was the fungus doing this to him? Did being closer to it making him worse? I could not tell. Why did it not affect me? Nothing made sense.

I moved Atrix again, this time towards the water and away from the fungus. The convulsions continued, though very mildly. I dropped down to sit by him and rest, praying that he would pull through somehow. I checked his wounds, but they had gotten no worse except that the makeshift bandages had long been soaked by waters of various degrees and kinds of impurity. I had to rest. I needed more strength. I waited a long time in that cavern, surrounded all about by the glowing fungi that silently mocked me. I watched for some sign of improvement on Atrix's part. I could not tell if Atrix's condition was getting better or worse, but the rest had at least allowed me to garner my strength and fight the poison a little. I had to get him out of there. I eased him off of the ledge and back into the glimmering water, descending with him to keep his head above water again. Then, slowly, very slowly, I made my way out of the cavern with my limp, twitching compatriot in tow. The strange lights and colors were gradually replaced by a familiar blackness and the faint and ever-increasing scent of human waste that had always remained under the heightened senses that the dwarrow amulet imparted. My long-growing appetite gradually faded. And Atrix awoke.

 

[Feir Fireb]

Wonders in the Dark: OOC Addendum

The uncomfortable silence after Darren awoke, by the way, was due to Atrix's discovery that he didn't need to breathe and by all rights should have otherwise drowned. If memory serves, Darren found out from Atrix at some point rather later on, as it was just too weird and random a discovery to bring up at the time.

 

[Feir Fireb]

An excerpt from "The Unscholarly Journals of Darren the Senalline": City of Shrouds

IT IS CLEAR now from attempting to recreate the route we had taken that we had most likely been directly under the Square of Wonders. Certainly that would explain the magical influences on the fungi and waters, though it would not have explained why Atrix was adversely affected by his presence there and I was not. In any event, once we had left that cave well behind us, Atrix became as convivial and spry as a viciously wounded, blood-soaked, sewage-drenched, mostly naked escaped slave who hasn't eaten or drunk for an indeterminate amount of time in an Ii-forsaken place which does not see the sun and who fears deeply for his beloved cousin's life could possibly be. His hair was even still in place, of all things, not that I was about to volunteer that information.

The water continued to drift gently down the sewer passage. But I had spent enough time with dwarrow as a youth to suspect that we continued a slow descent even without aid of water or amulet. This was a good sign. As far as I knew, only the dwarrow designed underground waterways that did not eventually flow into some open body of water.

We pressed on through the water and muck, fearing for the state of our wounds and attempting to keep them above the filthy water. After some time, long-rotten doors and windows began to dot the sides of the tunnels, hanging from holes in the brick that otherwise walled us in. All along the way we passed what must have been abandoned shops and houses full of mildew and decay, the ruins of a Tziwan long-gone and forgotten, forgotten and not missed as Tziwan itself lives on as much as it ever had. I do not know how ancient Tziwan is, but the streets of the Tziwan of today city are built upon the roofs of yesteryear, and Atrix and I waded through that era's streets. For all I know, those streets may too be roofs. I have learned as much from the writings of Dergey to mistrust foundations taken for granted. May it be that Tziwan stands on firmer ground than the enterprise of which he wrote.

AS OUR EVER reliable luck would have it, this lost city had a few inhabitants yet. We came upon a pair of doors on opposite sides of the tunnel that looked in better repair than the rest we'd seen thus far, opening onto stoops whose steps quickly descended into the water. A glimmer of light peeked through the crack. I pressed my ear to the door on the left and listened. Nothing. I checked for signs of traps and tested the doorknob. This one was locked. I swam quietly to the other side, again listening. Voices, several of them. The door looked like it would open without much trouble. I returned to Atrix to whisper my findings.

"Can you open the locked one, then, Darren?"

"I don't know that I should. This is very strange. We don't know who's there. I'm not sure we should try either door. In fact, if this area is inhabited, we may want to backtrack. Leave this tunnel entirely. Who knows if we've stumbled upon some sort of guardpost?"

"A guardpost? Down here?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. But I still say we should be careful."

Atrix thought about this for a moment, then nodded. As encouraging as signs of human life were, at this point we couldn't afford to risk everything on a face-to-face confrontation with people whose identities we couldn't ascertain or being trapped after venturing into an empty but frequented room.

WE TURNED ABOUT and made our way back up to the previous junction where we'd decided to move straight ahead, still undecided as to whether to turn left or right instead. I cautioned Atrix to silence as I froze in place. I heard movement in the water, off in the distance in the right-side passageway. It sounded like... us. It was the same sort of gentle, rhythmic splashing and buffeting of air that we made as we passed through the sewer channels. Very faint. We waited. A whisper, something brief in Xaimani, almost as if intended to be too silent for human ears to hear. I told Atrix of what I'd heard in my own careful whisper.

"Well, we can't go that way then," he said.

We took the left-side passage, which then bent to the right. At the next intersection we turned right again. Down the tunnel we saw a faint light from the lower cracks and stoops of two opposite doors, likely in remarkably good condition. This time, the locked door would be at our left instead. Atrix cursed. "We've gone around in a circle."

"We've got to get out of here. We can't go back that way again."

We returned to the intersection we'd just come from and took the left way instead, moving as quickly as we could through the water without splashing more than we had to. Then, just over the faint noise that we'd been making, I heard the sound of still more people moving through the water. I cursed quietly.

"Maybe," Atrix whispered, "We should still move forward. We might be able to win a fight if there aren't too many of them."

"Maybe." I peered far down the alley-tunnel. The sound approached closer, but still no torchlight. "Whoever this is, they're used to the dark down here." The sound continued to come slowly at us. "All right. I see a bit of heat. Three warm bodies. I think they're wearing masks. They're deliberately moving quietly but aren't bothering to hide. They're probably wearing black. I bet they don't think they can be seen down here. But they have weapons out all the same."

"Three? We might be able to take them. They sound like thieves."

WE HAD, IN fact, unbeknownst to us wandered into the sewers that burrowed under the Shroud qohei of Tziwan. Had we continued the way we'd originally been going, we would have encountered many more murderous and unsavory sorts who used the passages of this hidden city to move unnoticed through the city plying their criminal trade. As it stood, we remained only on the outskirts. But that fact alone was enough to place us in great danger.

I looked at the bloody cloths that bound Atrix's wounds but thought better than to contradict his optimism. Suspecting what lay behind us had little choice in the matter. The thieves would be on us soon and time to act was short. A moment's discussion and we moved to opposite sides of the passage, sinking chin-deep into the muck so as to keep unseen as much of our bodies as we could without getting sewage in our noses and mouths. We remained perfectly motionless as they moved towards us down the midpassage. Then as they moved between us, I sprung first. I plunged the dagger I'd taken from the Palace guard deep into the back of the hindmost thief, twisting it hard to dig at organs and arteries. He did not fall, though, and he flailed wildly at his back with dagger in hand.

Atrix, relying upon the sound of my spring through the water, leapt wildly at the same thief from the other side and I took care not to be on the wrong end of Atrix's blade. Both of his daggers hit home and the thief between us expired before he even saw me, toppling into the water. The remaining two masked men turned to face us and we abandoned the newly made corpse between us to barrel into them before they could react. I landed as strong a blow as I could manage on one as he moved to step aside while Atrix cut into the other. His off-dagger swung wide as he failed to guess the exact location of his new opponent in the near-pitch blackness.

My new target took a broad swing at me with a well-bound club and came within an inch of splitting my skull. The other stumbled and jabbed at Atrix with a dagger, missing. We pressed the attack as I made too short of a jab at the club-wielding thief and Atrix made deep cuts in the remaining knife-fighter. Likely a seasoned thug who could tell that Atrix would land the stronger blows in a straight-up fight, the thief with the club turned his attention to Atrix and hit water. The knife-fighter stepped back from another jab and Atrix winced from a deep stab in his side, near where a bandage covered the spear wound from a guardsman. Fresh blood ran down Atrix's side again. Atrix did not pause his assault, continuing to strike at the knife-fighter and again missing in the dark. I landed a feeble blow on the arm of the thug with the club. Again they pressed Atrix and he managed to narrowly sidestep their blows. Springing back into the fray, Atrix felled the knife-fighter with his right hand and bit deep with his left into the gut of the thug. I joined Atrix in his assault, achieving little more than scratches.

The sole remaining thief raised his club again and swung it hard into the side of Atrix's head. He fell sideways with the force of the blow. Attempting to recover his balance, Atrix blacked out and careened face-first into the polluted water, dropping both knives to the bottom.

WITH THAT, THE thief turned to face me. I nearly panicked. Even at my best I was not nearly the fighter that Atrix was. After all we'd been through, one solid blow from this thug would be the death of me, and then of Atrix as well if he wasn't gone already. His life bled out from head and side and mixed with the sewage. I had to test this thief to see how well he could handle the darkness. If his senses weren't perfect, I had a chance. But I had to be fast. Atrix would not last long. I stepped quietly back into the darkness, then watched the thief step cautiously forward, club raised. He moved again, probing the blackness with his weapon. I moved to strike, running my dagger up under his ribcage. He pushed me off of him and swung with his club, again narrowly missing as I let myself fall into the water away from his swing. Sure that I had him this time, I regained my footing and pounced again without caution, driving the dagger home.

As the thief collapsed into the sewage, I rushed over to Atrix and turned him face-up. He still bled frighteningly, but his heart was still beating and he immediately coughed up some of the fluid he'd taken into his lungs. Dragging him along the surface of the water, I found a nearby doorway whose door had long since rotted off and drifted away and first attempted to hoist Atrix up into it. My poison-stricken muscles wouldn't do it. I then climbed up myself, careful not to let Atrix drift off, and then dragged him out of the water, bracing against the ledge with my legs. Setting him down, I saw that the head wound's bleeding was worse, but knew that head wounds often bleed badly at first then stop on their own. I prayed that this was a case and pressed with all of my weight on the newly-opened wound at Atrix's side, hoping to staunch it. Minutes passed and Atrix continued to breathe and beat. Weary, I saw that the bleeding had stopped and prayed that what little I knew about how to cut a man to the quick had been enough to save my friend. I gazed lazily at the three lifeless bodies in the sewer and watched the heat gradually leave them.