NEVER LEAVE A MAN BEHIND!
The golem trap was another dead-end. It seemed the ancient Maztican temple was full of such wrong turns. The six companions retraced their steps until they had once more reached the site of their battle with the hezrous. There was only one more unexplored exit from that place…the dry corridor which led due east. They ascended a short flight of steps before reaching a broad landing. Life-sized clay statues of ancient Maztican warriors armed with spears stood at the four corners of the open area. All wore high helmets and feathered shields. The tips of their spears, the feathers, and other details had crumbled to dust and long-since fallen off. Sepoto never hesitated. Stepping onto the platform, he swung his chain at the nearest statue, shattering it into hundreds of pieces.
“Just checking,” he shrugged. “You can never be too sure.”
A single, long corridor led south from the landing, and following it, the Legionnaires soon found themselves in a sparsely furnished, square room. Sitting near the walls were eighteen three-foot tall urns. Leaning against one wall were two long-handled fishing nets, harpoons and prying bars. Mandi motioned Tower Cleaver towards the nearest urns. The minotaur obeyed, twisting the top off of one of them. He peered inside, sniffed, and then made a face of disgust.
“Stinks,” he said.
“Ok, kettle,” Daelric snorted. Marius peered over the barbarian’s arm into the urn and saw a viscous, rancid-smelling liquid. It was disgusting, yet somehow familiar. He moved to another one of the vases and opened it. Inside that one was a shuddering, red mud, and in the next was a mass of twitching, headless insects with too many legs.
“Take a look at these,” he said to Mandi. The sorceress came closer and examined the contents.
“Abyssal,” she said, matter-of-factly.
“I agree,” the warmage nodded. “But what’s their purpose?”
“Food for the demons?” Mandi shrugged. “Who knows? It’s obvious there are no shadow pearls hear though, so let’s move on.”
Again, only one passage exited the strange room. It gave onto a short landing, and then a narrow flight of stairs leading down. At the bottom of the stairs, the group found themselves in a natural cave, the floor of which was hidden by shallow water. Hundreds of oysters of various sizes clung to the rock formations near the walls. Six of them had grown enormous, nearly five feet across with black and red striped shells covered with curved hooks and twisted horns.
“Fiendish oysters???” Marius said, incredulous. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“I guess we know what all that muck was for,” Mandi replied. “Looks like we found the breeding ground for the pearls. Cleaver, if you would be so kind?”
The big minotaur shrugged again and waded out into the pool. When he reached one of the demonic mussels, he gripped both valves in his hands and pulled, his sinews straining. With a sickening pop, the oyster opened, revealing a partially formed black pearl the size of a grapefruit sitting inside. Unfortunately, as soon as the shell was opened, an ear-piercing shrieking emitted from the oyster, echoing throughout the cavern.
Within moments, from a tunnel on the far side of the cave, three creatures entered, responding to the alarm. They were instantly recognizable as kopru. Though larger than the ones they had encountered in Golismorga, they were smaller than the great behemoths, but their eyes shown blood-red, and horns jutted from their foreheads. Around their necks, each wore a piece of coral, carved into the unmistakable symbol of the cult of the Prince of Demons. Before the creatures could do more than step into the cavern, however, Mandi sprang into action, calling her magic to her hands. In seconds, a thick cloud sprang up around the kopru and rapidly congealed into the consistency of tar. The creature’s found themselves all but immobilized, barely able to move inside the solid fog.
“You set’em up!” Marius laughed as he summoned his own spell, creating a long wall of slashing, glowing blades right in the middle of the fog bank.
“Hey! You stole my idea!” Daelric protested, as he added as second barrier of blades in the cloud. There was nothing more to do at that point but wait for the inevitable. The koprus howled and screamed as they struggled to escape their death-trap, but their efforts were ultimately futile. In less than a minute, the twin walls of death sliced them to ribbons.
Once the kopru had been dispatched, the companions pried open the remaining giant oysters and gathered up the black pearls. Octurus then systematically went from mussel to mussel, carving the meat out of them with his scimitars. Their shrieking ceased as each one died, and the demon slayer simply watched, impassively.
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Following the passage down which the kopru had come, the Legionnaires came upon a flooded cave with limestone formations that had been shaped into bizarre furniture, which included a semi-submerged table. On the table were dozens of elongated flasks and vials filled with transparent colored fluids, which Marius identified as various chemicals used to stimulate pearl growth in oysters. At first, the chamber appeared to be another dead-end, but Octurus spotted a completely submerged tunnel on the far side, which wound down even deeper into the earth. Mandi had the company pause before entering the passage so that she could imbue all of them with the ability to breathe water.
Single-file, they swam down the flooded conduit, until it opened into another completely flooded cave full of more of the strange, limestone furnishings. It was obviously a living area for aquatic creatures, with algae beddings and fluorescent fungi lamps. The three kopru inhabitants looked shocked and alarmed as Mandi glided into the room. Before any of them could react, the sorceress sent a sizzling, green ray at the nearest, reducing it to a pile of dust instantly, which drifted away on a swirling eddy. As the other two kopru rose from their seats, Octurus darted past Mandi, moving easily through the water as one of the tattoos on his back pulsed rhythmically. When he reached the fiendish beasts, his blades went to work, slashing and stabbing, all-but disemboweling his opponent. Tower Cleaver closed to the second, his axe flashing as it slashed across the kopru’s midsection. An instant later, an arc of fire, burning impossibly bright beneath the water, flared from Marius’s hand and scorched both of the still-stunned creatures. The battle ended moments later when Sepoto joined Tower Cleaver, the combined blows of the two warriors quickly silencing the kopru, while Octurus’s opponent abruptly transformed into a small dog which subsequently died an agonizing death by drowning. Mandi grinned evilly at Octurus, and the demon hunter wasn’t certain which was the more fiendish, his enemies or his new allies.
Several more submerged tunnels branched off the small cave, and the companions chose the nearest one, which ran due east, at random. As they swam down the passage, the water temperature began to rise noticeably, becoming uncomfortably warm as the tunnel widened ahead of them. Abruptly, the water before them changed to boiling hot mud, and they found their skin blistering as they struggled to swim up through the tar-like substance. They gasped for breath as they finally broke through the surface, finding themselves in an enormous volcanic grotto. The air was steamy and foul with noxious vapor and the floor was a field of bubbling mud pots, geysers, hot springs and mineral crusts. Rich reds, browns, and yellows, combined with blacks and grays, vied for dominance in the churning, bubbling morass. Terraces crusted with deposits from mineral springs extended from the sides of the cavern at several points, and here and there formed stable-looking walkways and bridges over the spluttering mud. Stalactites hung down from the ceiling, merging with stalagmites in two places near the center of the grotto to form pillars.
The six adventurers had emerged in the center of one of the mud pots, and they quickly clambered out onto one of the stone bridges to escape the scalding goo. So large was the cavern, and so thick the steam, that if anything living dwelt there, it was all but invisible. Through a momentary part in the mist, however, they saw an ancient throne positioned on a high terrace at the far end of the grotto. Atop it sat a mineral-encrusted skeleton, bone and stone fossilized together. Across the corpse’s lap, equally encrusted by minerals was a large axe. The companions began moving towards the throne, but Octurus hung back a bit, his sharp eyes scanning the pools around them. Thus it was that only he spotted the mostly-submerged kopru as it darted across one of the pools towards his unsuspecting comrades. Shouting a warning, the demon hunter sprang around the edge of the mud pot, moving nimbly across the slick stone. As the creature rose up silently behind Marius, Octurus struck. The flat of one blade cracked across the kopru’s broad brow, sending it reeling backwards. It flung up one clawed hand instinctively to ward itself from another blow, but the Maztican’s second blade sliced off the appendage neatly at the wrist. Shrieking, the kopru made to dive beneath the surface of the mud, but Octurus stabbed down with both swords, the blades crossing in a deadly X, severing the monster’s head before it could escape.
Unseen beneath the surface of the mud, two more kopru’s observed the death of their foolish brother. Nodding silently to each other, they swam deeper, towards a passage at the bottom of the pool. They had to warn Khala.
While the other Legionnaires voiced their thanks and approval to Octurus, Tower Cleaver reached the throne. Reverently, he grasped the haft of the greataxe, pulling it free from its stony prison. As he did this, the blade flared to brilliant life, shining with the light of the sun itself. The minotaur felt power pulse through his arms, and he bellowed a challenge for all to hear..
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Khala listened as the kopru told their tale. Of course he was already well aware of the intruders’ presence since their first encounter with Xerkamat, but it displeased him to know that they had penetrated so far into his domain, and that they had destroyed his oysters, the source of the priceless black pearls. Still, he was not unduly troubled by their imminent arrival. In fact, he anticipated it. His Father would be pleased if Khala removed this potential thorn in His side before it became worthy of His attention.
“Let them come,” he growled to the kopru. “Their blood shall provide the basis for a new crop of shadow pearls!”
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The Legionnaires stepped from the tunnel into what appeared to be an enormous shrine. The forty-foot high ceiling arches were supported by eight massive, square pillars, which also separated the central part of the hall from two balconies. Four passages, including the one they had just come from, opened on each of the balconies, which ran fifteen feet above floor level on the long sides of the hall, and which were accessed by flights of stairs at the north and south ends. The main entrance to the hall, a monumental arch at the base of a great stairway up on the north wall, was completely obstructed by rubble. The patron deity of the shrine was represented by a twenty-foot tall statue which stood by the south wall near a smaller entrance. The statue had been damaged by age and moisture, and a large crack had split its face. The effigy stood before a platform that extended over a pool full of foul water and floating algae. On the platform itself was a four-foot tall dais of black stone, with a melon-sized black pearl on the top. As the pearl appeared to throb with eldritch power, waves of magical ectoplasm seemed to reach from the pool to envelop the dais.
Two of the demonic kopru hovered in mid-air at opposite ends of the shrine, but what drew the immediate attention of the company was the creature that stood before the raised dais. It was vaguely humanoid, with broad shoulders and saurian legs. Its flesh was mottled black and dark green, with a light green and yellow belly. Frog-like skin with patches of bristly black hair adorned its shoulders and hips. Its arms were boneless and tentacular, but ended in three-fingered hands with large, black talons. Its tail was long and powerful, splitting into three flukes like that of a kopru. Although it had two heads, its two fanged, baboon-like faces ran together in one oversized and horrific maw, although in the middle between the two sets of jaws, its gullet was gaping and toothless. From it, a long, tentacle-like triply-forked tongue writhed.
‘You are welcome, and expected,’ a hissing voice spoke into the minds of the Legionnaires. At their surprised expressions, the voice chuckled evilly. ‘You will bear witness to the birth of one of the seeds of the Prince of Demon’s grand design, but more importantly, your life’s blood will be the midwife that will usher in this birth!’
Khala’s tentacles flailed, as he ripped an instantaneous rift in space and time into the Abyss, from which he called one of the great servants of his kind. The retriever appeared as an immense spider with four, glowing, multi-colored eyes. It manifested just at the edge of the balcony on which the six companions stood, its rear legs standing in the pool below.
An instant later, the dark pool of water began to churn as six crocodile-like demons broke its surface. Two of them immediately scaled the walls to the balcony and scuttled towards the group. As they approached, a wave of power emanated from them, and as it washed over Octurus, the demon slayer felt his muscles grow lax and jelly-like, slow to obey his commands. One of the demons lunged for Sepoto, seizing the crusader’s leg in its jaws and shaking it back and forth, like the crocodile it resembled. Behind the goliath, Tower Cleaver roared, foam slinging from his mouth. Shoving aside both allies and enemies, he barreled out onto the ledge, his new axe blazing with light as he swung it. When it struck the demon that had Sepoto, the fiend shrieked and skittered back several feet, releasing the goliath as it eyed its new opponent warily.
Just then, the two flying kopru dove toward Tower Cleaver. The minotaur saw them approaching and launched himself into the air, his flight enchantment carrying him aloft. As the first kopru reached him, it sank its fanged maw into his shoulder, biting viciously. Cleaver roared again and prepared to rip the creature’s head from its shoulders, but at that moment, Khala wove another spell, and as it enveloped the minotaur, Cleaver felt the magical wards and protections around him begin to fail, including the one that held him in the air. Slowly, he sank back towards the balcony below.
Despite his handicapped reflexes, Octurus was not about to back away from a chance to kill a demon, with his bare hands if he had to. He leaped towards the second demon on the ledge, and slipped his scimitar into the soft fold of skin beneath its neck as it raised its head to snap at him. Blood spurted in a black spray as the fiend howled, shaking its head back and forth, trying to dislodge the blade. A moment later, Sepoto ended its struggles with a flurry of brutal cuts from his whip-like chain. With a grunt, he kicked the beast over the edge of the balcony, and with the same movement, whirled towards the enormous retriever, slashing into its rock-like carapace with another might swing of his chain.
Marius crouched within the mouth of the passage, trying to avoid the frenzy of steel, teeth and claws raging just feet from him. Peering over the balcony, he saw the other four skulvyn’s, for that’s what the crocodile demons were, swimming ever closer. In a few moments, they would be literally awash in demons. He gathered his focus, calling the words of his spell to his lips. A small ball of fire zipped out over the water, and then detonated like Greek fire hurled into a lake of pitch. The flames spread almost to the far side of the cavern, engulfing four of the nearest skulvyns, as well as the retriever and one of the kopru. When the blast exhausted itself, the skulvyn that remained on the balcony was burned to a cinder, pungent smoke rising from its ashen carcass.
Once Marius had cleared the balcony, Mandi moved forward, but she had gone no further than a handful of steps when the blue eye of the retriever settled upon her and crackled with energy. A bolt of electricity sizzled from it, setting her hair on end and momentarily stopping her heart. Still jittering, she continued to stalk forward, her staff gripped tightly in her twitching hands. When she reached the edge of the balcony, she pointed it in front of her and unleashed a blast of freezing air, ice and snow. The cone struck the skulvyns in the water below, as well as the retriever and one of the nearby kopru. The latter froze solid from the blast, and dropped like a stone into the water below, floating there like a monstrous ice berg.
By that time, the four skulvyns had reached the base of the balcony, and began to climb. The retriever positioned itself to cover their approach, but in doing so, it brought itself in close proximity to Tower Cleaver. Still enraged, the minotaur chopped at the beast, his axe flaring once more as it crushed the demon’s thorax. In a flash of smoke and brimstone, the retriever vanished. The last kopru took the opportunity to dive at the barbarian’s unprotected flank, but at the final second, Cleaver spun, cutting the fiend in two. His momentum carried him towards the edge of the balcony, and looking down, he found himself staring directly into the eyes of one of the climbing skulvyn. Snarling, the minotaur began hacking at the scaly horror.
“We’re wasting time here!” Sepoto shouted to his comrades. “The true threat is there!” He pointed towards Khala. “Hold them off and cover me! I’m going in!”
With that, the crusader soared into the air and sped over the pool, towards the dais and the demon standing there, waiting for him expectantly. Sepoto shouted Savras’ name as he attacked, his chain slicing Khala’s flesh…but only leaving a minor flesh wound. Khala roared with insane laughter, the cacophony amplified by his twin maws. Flailing his tentacles again, he focused his power on the crusader, ripping Sepoto’s magical protections from him. Sepoto sank to the ground at Khala’s feet, his ability to fly dispelled. With another twin roar, Khala struck, teeth and claws raking at the goliath with brutal abandon.
“You heard the man!” Marius shouted. “Cover him!” The warmage then wove his magic, summoning a column of flames to smite Khala as he loomed over Sepoto. The demon hissed in anger, his four eyes locking onto the gnome and marking him. Meanwhile, Octurus moved to engage the first of the skulvyns to heave itself over the balcony rail. His scimitar whickered through the air, opening a gash from the demon’s chin to its brow, then thrusting forward, impaling the fiend’s brain, dropping it as if pole-axed. Likewise, Tower Cleaver continued to pummel the skulvyn attempting to climb past him, finally ending it and watching it drop back to the dark water below. Then a third demon reached the landing, and Octurus was in motion again. His reflexes seemed to be responding better, and he danced like death incarnate, slashing at the skulvyn more times than mortal eyes could count. The fiend slumped to the floor, bleeding from numerous deep gashes. The demon slayer looked around for his next victim.
“Enjoy your impotence, mortal,” Khala jeered scornfully at Sepoto as he rose into the air and beyond the goliath’s reach. “After I’ve flayed your friends alive, I will return to give you my full attention.”
The great fiend then soared across the pool, heading straight for the landing where the remaining Legionnaires were gathered. As he came, Marius flung another spell in desperation, striking Khala with a glowing ball of force. Khala’s twin faces roared, the duel bellows shaking the very stone upon which the heroes stood. Then a second spell struck him, and Daelric suddenly shimmered into view as his invisibility cloak vanished. At the same time, the flight dweomer that Khala had cast upon himself ended prematurely, and the demon sank slowly into the pool until he was standing knee deep.
“You are pathetic!” he taunted. “Is this all that you have? I can’t believe even the meanest of my minions fell to such feeble attempts! I am not even certain that your blood is worthy of sacrifice to my Father!”
Several things happened at that point. With a roar of challenge, Tower Cleaver vaulted over the balcony railing, landing in the water a few feet away from Khala, his shining axe gripped in both hands, a look of pure, feral rage in his red eyes. At the same moment, the last skulvyn lunged for Octurus, its whip-like tail opening a deep gash along his floor arm, which began weeping blood like tears. Octurus turned towards the demon, but abruptly, his eyes locked with those of Khala’s left head. In that instant, the Maztican demon slayer knew fear as he’d never known it before. In those eyes he saw the promise of eternal torment and damnation, of all that he’d lived for amount to ashes, of those he had loved debased and in agony for all eternity. Unaware of where he was going, or what he was doing, knowing only that he had to get away, to flee before terror was all-encompassing, Octurus turned, and ran.
Sepoto fished in one of his belt pouches and quaffed another flight elixir, all while watching what was transpiring on the other side of the shrine. He saw Octurus leave. He saw Tower Cleaver rush towards the demon, his axe an arc of light. Though the blade struck true, the fiend hardly seemed to notice. He saw Marius fling sizzling beams of flame at Khala, which only seemed to enrage him further. He saw Khala rise into the air once more, batting aside one of the deadly disintegration rays that Mandi was so lethal with as if it were nothing. Khala moved towards the ledge, and Daelric hurled holy fire at him, engulfing the skulvyn as well. Still, the demons refused to succumb. Khala was among his comrades by that point, and it would only be a matter of seconds before the dieing began in earnest. Sepoto couldn’t delay any longer. Leaping into the air, he streaked towards Khala’s back, his chain a blur of steel before him. Crying out incoherently, he struck the fiend full on, the force of the blow sending numbing pain down his arms. An explosion of white light filled his eyes, blinding him for an instant. When his vision returned, however, Khala was nowhere to be seen. Instead, rearing up before him and his companions was the wastrilith, the same one they had fought, and be forced to flee from at the temple entrance. At that moment, Sepoto knew despair.
They were dead. Mandi knew this as well as she knew her own name. Both her magic and Marius’s were all-but depleted, and Daelric’s own divine power was suited more for defense. Octurus was gone, and though Sepoto and Cleaver could still fight, she knew what was coming next. Knowing that it was futile, she triggered her staff again, sending shards of ice at the wastrilith and the skulvyn. Marius tried Mandi’s own trick of disintegration, an act of desperation, and no more effective than her own attempt had been. And then it happened. The wastrilith opened its mouth and spoke one word, one terrible, blasphemous word. An instant later, Marius had collapsed to the floor, directly in front of the skulvyn, his strength weakened to the point that he could not even support his own body weight. Daelric was in the same state. Sepoto and Tower Cleaver still stood, but were staring blankly and open-mouthed, dazed into submission. The battle was lost. Alone among her allies, Mandi could still function. Laying one hand on Marius, and the other on Tower Cleaver, she shouted so that her companions could hear, though if they would be able to act on her words, she had no idea.
“Flee if you can! Come to where we met before!”
And then she was gone, taking the minotaur and the warmage with her. Sepoto and Daelric were alone.
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He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. He wasn’t even certain of his location. All that Octurus knew was that he was himself again, but instead of bringing him relief, the realization brought nothing but shame. He had abandoned his friends, left them to die. Just like his tribesmen had died. Worse, he had run in the face of the one threat he had trained all his life to battle. The humiliation almost left him catatonic with despair. But then he knew that if he could not live with such a burden, then he must die in the only way that might bring him some measure of redemption. He would die avenging the deaths of those he’d left behind.
He began to run, legs pumping and heart beating a measured cadence. Down dark halls and flooded chambers he ran, past the pitiful remnants of his ancestors’ bygone civilization. Deeper into the earth he went, a sixth sense guiding him back the way he’d come. Finally, he found himself in the volcanic grotto, and he nimbly darted across the natural bridges and through the tunnel on the far side. There, he stopped. Up ahead he could see the shrine, but it was not the two-headed demon that waited for him there, but instead the eel-like fiend they’d met at the front stairs. Octurus was confused, but he did not let that interfere with his duty. He saw Daelric sprawled a dozen yards ahead of him, the skulvyn looming over him, tearing great chunks of flesh from his body. Not knowing whether the priest lived or not, the demon slayer darted forward. The skulvyn’s eyes went wide as it saw him approaching, and involuntarily, it took a step back. Octurus seized the back of Daelric’s tabard, and hauled the priest back down the passage, depositing him on one of the ledges overlooking the grotto.
“Sepoto…” he heard the priest wheeze.
“You…you’re alive?” Octurus said, incredulous.
“Sepoto…still…back there,” Daelric whispered. “Others…gone. Help…Sepoto…but the…demon…its voice…”
Octurus understood immediately what Daelric meant. He had borne firsthand witness to the power of the wastrilith’s magic. This time, however, he had a solution. Calling on his own small store of magica, he wove a spell of silence about him, engulfing himself in the total absence of sound. He patted Daelric reassuringly on the shoulder, then turned back towards the shrine.
Xerkamat was untroubled that some of his prey were escaping. They weren’t his concern. Khala had called Xerkamat here to die in his stead, but the wastrilith intended to show his master he was of more value than that. He still had one plaything left, and while he kept the goliath helpless with his unholy speech, he called the skulvyn to come and begin devouring the wretch alive while Xerkamat looked on and enjoyed the entertainment. His surprise was great, therefore, when he saw the Maztican savage coming back down the corridor again.
‘Excellent,’ Xerkamat thought. ‘More amusement.’
The human leaped off the balcony and landed in the pool, interposing himself between the goliath and the skulvyn. Xerkamat failed to notice that the warrior made no sound as he hit the water. The wastrilith only understood what was happening when he spoke his word of blasphemy again, and couldn’t even hear his own voice. Rage filled him as he saw the goliath free himself of his torpor and rise into the air. Xerkamat summoned more of his magic to his mind, ripping the magical silence from the Maztican, as well as any other enchantments he might have. Then he opened his mouth again, this time to speak the last word either of his victims would ever hear.
“Octurus! Jump!” Sepoto shouted. The Maztican, ten-feet below, looked up. Gathering himself in a cat-like crouch, he sprang into the air, wrapping his arms around the crusader’s ankles. Sepoto was in motion the second Octurus’s feet left the ground. Flying as if Demogorgon himself was at his back, the crusader made for the great stairs on the far side of the chamber. A moment later, he and Octurus were beyond hearing of the wastrilith, and they streaked through the empty halls of the temple, desperate to reach the surface and reunite with their companions.
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Daelric lay on the floor of the grotto, steam obscuring his vision, barely daring to breath. He could not hear the sounds of battle any more, and he was not certain he wanted to know what that meant. Slowly, he felt his strength returning, and when he felt he could stand again, he quickly twisted the ring on his finger, vanishing from sight. Then, as quietly as he could, he made his way across the misty grotto toward a narrow flight of stairs on the far side. Glancing once behind him to make sure he was not pursued, he darted up the stairs disappeared into the darkness.
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![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
