Lwaxy
Cute but dangerous
They had made their way out of the former mess hall and had gone right, ignoring the burial chambers ahead of them. The bard had explained they had cleaned out the area before but their priest had assured them the undead would rise again, so there was little point to bother. They also ignore the former slaughter room, where they were told the unlucky group of adventurers had disposed off some dwarf ghouls. Zaza shivered at the thought. Now they were standing at the closed double doors of what the bard had guessed was a praying room of sorts, but he had just run past with the kids without giving it much thought.
There were voices on the other side, speaking in draconic. Kronk had his ear pressed to the small opening between the doors and listened in to the seemingly upset kobolds on the other side. "They are unhappy with their unlucky king," the monk whispered. "I can hear at least 4 people, maybe more. One of them is preaching about how they keep dying off and their stupid king does nothing but putting them into more danger by capturing pink-skins and trusting an insane old shaman."
"Maybe we just need to wait and they finish themselves off?" Zaza suggested.
Jarrdreg shook his head violently. "Nono, Great Arrow-Stab Zaza. Only few go tsk-tsk at king. King still greats power, much shiney-shiney. And wives. Wives all go crazy crazy over him as long as he has them haves shiney. You not likes king, you goes in pot for big stew-stew."
Kibbo agreed. "If we's to kick king in butts, we's best off to stir up slaves and makes the king haters comes with us, Great Liberator."
"Now, there is a thought," the half-orc nodded.
"Maybe Kronk should claim to be our leader and have come to liberate the Truescales from their dumb king?" Zaza suggested. "I know your tribes haven't gotten along that well but you could always blame it on their leader."
"Yeah, good idea," Edawon agreed. "Make it sound like all the pink-skins know it is just their king that is the problem. And that shaman, whatever his name was again. Maybe say your tribe's spies know all about the situation and you've been watching them."
Kronk seemed to smirk, although it was hard to tell with kobolds. "I like that. Alright." Without wasting more time, he pushed the door open and began addressing the 6 assembled kobolds, a bunch of green and brown ones and a blue leader, in draconic.
It became clear very quickly that the small group of wannabe rebels was all too happy about the assistance. The blue guy – a weird one with an overgrown ear with lots of humanoid finger bones dangling from it – seemed happy enough to leave the main leadership to the strange yellow kobold. He talked very quickly, introducing the others but no one really got their names in all the fast draconic babble.
"This is Kerrdremak, but we might call him Kerr," Kronk finally introduced the blue guy in common. "He's a mystic of the tribe and not at all happy with their so-called king causing the decay of their tribe."
"Hello, Kerr," the half-orc nodded. "Nice to meet you. Cool earrings." He smiled a toothy smile, to indicate no one would go mad at him for having taken trophies from former victories.
Noting the alchemist's fangs, the kobold grinned back. "Would have taken teeth but most humanoid's teeth are soo tiny and not pretty-pretty. Yes, I speak language of above-folk better than others down here. I been there before."
"Yeah you speak our language very well," Zaza assured him. "But of course you must be clever to realize your leader is leading you only to ruin."
The blue kobold fell for the obvious compliment. "Since he's been leading, we lost more than half our number. It's not only a bad sign, it is the middle of the cat-as-trophee," Kerr nodded. He had trouble with the last word, making Krell and Zaza grin. "We all die if we not stop him."
"And we will," Kronk nodded. "Our tribes may not always get along well, but you are our dragonkin brothers, and if you perish there will be too many pink-skins and not enough of us. Not good for balance." The monk was so convincing saying that, it made Zaza frown for a second.
At the mention of dragonkin, the mystic stood up taller. "Yes. What happen to guards for slaves? You free them, is fine for me. Them yours now. But the guards were friends."
"They are alive, back there, bound and as safe as you can be in a dungeon," Edawon assured, rubbing his shoulder which was still hurting.
"Oh, not so safe down here. Many rats." He turned to the 5 others and hissed at them. "They go bring them. They will be with us if I talk sense to them."
The half-elf girl was getting restless. "We need to hurry to help Jurin," she reminded the others. "Our friend," she explained to the kobold. "something took him in the forge."
The kobold seemed to pale. "Bad thing, bad thing that. Leftover from dwarf time. Undead thing steels your souls to make chain."
"Undead, huh?" The half-orc's hand closed around the holy water he had taken with him, heeding the words of their paladin friend before they had parted. "We can deal with that."
"We go when your group is back with the guards," Kronk decided. "Can't waste much more time."
Zayel looked apologetically at Mook while he had one eye on the door of the girl's room to see if their new friends would come back. He had no intention of involving the summoner into this. "I really don't know more than what we've both been told," he assured the gnome. "There is a group of elves after the legendary drow, who really exist, and they want me to be part of it and help their only present member to dispose of them. You know how it is with prophecies, you make them yourselves every now and then."
Mook looked a bit sad, and accusatory, and resigned at the same time. "S-so, those l-legends are r-real, and we've b-been told they a-are all bad. How c-can a race be all b-bad? Not even g-goblins are all bad, d-despite the w-way they were created. It's n-not possible, by the g-gods. And yet..." She chewed her lip.
"What? You don't believe Amaran's story?"
"On the contrary, I d-do b-believe... n-no, I kn-know it is true. A-and that's w-what scares me s-so. A whole r-race of e-evil beings? And they d-don't tell anyone th-they are there? E-even act-tively kill the kn-knowledge of them" Nervously, Mook twisted a strand of her hair, which had grown out quite a bit since they had left home.
The three-quarter-elf thought about this for a moment. "You have a point, but remember, he said there aren't many of them. So they are possibly not that much of a threat if they can get them quick enough."
"They are many, the drow." Mook's eyes took on the half-blind, milky look they always had when she was relaying the information of one of her gods or the other. "Too many for the Lantern Bearers to deal with."
"The Lantern Bearers?" Zayel inhaled deeply. "That's the one information Amaran didn't want me to tell you. Their existence, well at least their name, is supposed to be a secret."
"Well, you m-mentioned they exist, knowing their n-name is not that m-much d-different. A-and this must be s-something imp-portant for me t-to be t-told like that." The oracle forced a smile on her lips. "The gods w-want all us to be i-involved, so we w-will all 3 g-go with Amaran."
"All 3?" Zayel frowned in confusion.
"Of c-course," Mook chuckled. "You h-haven't g-gathered yet that T-Tiva is linked to us n-now?"
Just then, the black haired summoner entered the room with a basket of dried laundry. Zayel had forgotten to keep watch for her. "Did I hear my name?" she smiled.
A loud crackling sound filled the room. The smoke that poured from it was blistering hot and lit with a strange orange light. A massive forge responsible for the hellish atmosphere took up the entire far wall of the cavern. Between the forge and the entrance stood a massive anvil, and nearby rested hammers, prongs, and other blacksmithing tools. A faint whimpering sound was almost lost in the roar that came from the forge. The sound of hammer on anvil eachoed through the room.
"Jurin?" Kimi called out without thinking. "Where are you?" She coughed as more smoke entered her airway, despite the wet scarfs Zaza had suggested they'd use. The scarfs helped only so much, and they were mostly out of water now.
"Shhh, don't call it's attention too soon," the half-orc, hand with a bottle of holy water raised, whispered.
Krell was the only one not affected by the smoke; from the looks of it, he was half in the shadow realm right now, with the meager light vanishing even further around him, and tendrils of shadow sneaking out from his form every now and then. He stood next to the alchemist with an expression that was almost a grin. The others knew that he would try to pull the undead thing into the shadow plane, but how exactly, they didn't know, or if it could be even done and if it could, how big a danger this was for Krell.
Suddenly, the sound of the hammering stopped. The light of the lamps the former slaves carried had gone out just a bit before, and the torches seemed to be partially extinguished by the smoke. The hellish fire from the forge was the brightest light source, and against, the mixed group could not see a shadow moving. The blue kobold gave a warning cry.
The choking odor of smelted steel tinged with burnt hair and flesh sifted across the room on a foul wind, mixed with the acrid smoke. The jangling of heavy chains echoed ominously. A hulking dwarf wrapped in heavy steel links approached. Its face, hands, and body were riddled with glowing hot hooks and half-melted razor wire. Black smoke arose from its smoldering beard, framing its freakishly contorted face in ashy darkness. The tormented thing hefted a black iron hammer and as it charged the chains draping its form sprung to life like metal serpents.
Zaza growled while Edawon gave a little shriek of surprise. Kibbo let lose an arrow which bounced off the chains without any effect. Jarrdreg was hiding behind Majek, and the other kobolds stayed even more behind. The children were held back by the bard, who had hefted a replacement sword Krell had carried to try and protect them. The half-elf girl was not happy about being restrained, but with her club she would stand no chance whatsoever. Majek hesitated, waiting for the undead to come closer. While he was really good at throwing things, he wanted to be sure he would get the full effect of the holy water. Kronk stayed at the back, being sickened by the smoke more than anyone else and not effective against an undead like this with his martial arts skills.
"Can't you sing again?" Kimi asked the halfling bard.
"My voice is still tired from before," he answered regretfully. "Asides, undead are not swayed by music."
One of the chains attempted to wrap around Edawon's ankle as the ranger landed an ineffective bolt in it's hand. The halfling sidestepped it at the last moment. "Now would be a good time," he hissed at the half-orc.
Th hammer of the dwarven hulk came down at Edawon, leaving its hideous face open to attack. Majek launched the first bottle, and it broke right at the hulk's nose. The alchemist was relieved; hitting the chains wrapped around the form would have likely brought no result at all.
The face of their foe sizzled and hissed as the holy water acted like an acid burning into unholy undead flesh. A sickening smell rose from the point of damage, and with a gurgle the twisted shape grabbed its face, dropping the hammer right next to Edawon.
"This won't destroy it," Kerr hissed. "We needs to break the chains."
"Seriously?" Zaza shouted. "And how are we going to do that?"
Krell stepped forward and hacked at the monstrosity's left hand, barely missing the twisting thing which was trying to find the hammer again while clawing its face still. The second and last bottle of holy water hit the back of its head, and more bad smell drifted towards the group. Savram vomited behind the group just as Edawon was pulled down by a burning chain, unable to sidestep. His bolt flew wide. The halfling screeched in pain as the hot sizzling chain burned into his flesh. His eyes fell on the links and he paled. Each link seemed to have a face contorted in terror on it. The captured souls of the undead victims.
Zaza jumped forward, rolled under the propelling arms and grabbed the heavy hammer to drag it out of the undead's reach. She managed to move it only a little, despite the momentum she had. It was way too heavy for her. As she lost grip, she rolled behind the anvil and bumped into the prone form of a boy. She coughed, the smoke was worse here despite her being on the floor. The boy, Jurin no doubt, seemed to hardly breathe anymore. He was loosely bound in chains, and the girl quickly began to untie him.
Majek pulled Edawon out of the way of another searching chain and got scorched in the process. He took the small handaxe he carried at his belt and started hacking at the sizzling chain. With some effort, it broke. A ray of frost hit the monster from behind the group and hit it in the already badly damaged head. The blue kobold chuckled madly. The large hulk of the thing swayed back and forth before dropping to the ground in a loud clatter of chains. Nothing was left of its head.
Now the half-orc grabbed the heavy hammer of their adversary. "This should do it," he growled and started destroying the links of the chain. Edawon shook the remaining chain off his injured ankle and growled as well, though more in pain. His shoulder wound was bleeding again, too.
"Help," Zaza shouted. "I found Jurin but he is barely breathing."
"Get him out of there. Quick!" Majek ordered before being overtaken by a coughing fit despite the scarf.
Krell, undisturbed by the smoke which got lighter now that the acid contribution of the undead had ceased, went forward to where he could barely make out Zaza. He lifted both the boy and the coughing girl up and moved back towards where Kronk was. He found the monk breathing heavily still, sitting just outside the smoky area. "He'll need some healing," the shadow man shouted as he checked over Jurin. "Anything against poison might do. We were just in time."
Kerr appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the boy's throat, mumbling a prayer of sorts Krell and Zaza didn't understand. Jurin gasped and took a deep breath, but then fell unconscious again. He was breathing fine now, though, and it seemed color was returning to his face.
One by one, the others showed up, Majek last. The half-orc was thoughtful. "Each broken chain releases a soul, it seems. I broke the chain in lots of small pieces but it will take time to finish breaking them all, later when we have the time."
Krell looked at him doubtfully. He didn't like the idea of carrying that thing, now bot burning after the undead dropped, around with them. But he could not see leaving it here to be used again, and with all the souls still trapped, so he nodded, too.
"What now?" Zaza asked wearily, watching Kimi trying to rouse her rescued friend.
"Down we go," the blue kobold said almost cheerfully. "Let's un-king the king."
There were voices on the other side, speaking in draconic. Kronk had his ear pressed to the small opening between the doors and listened in to the seemingly upset kobolds on the other side. "They are unhappy with their unlucky king," the monk whispered. "I can hear at least 4 people, maybe more. One of them is preaching about how they keep dying off and their stupid king does nothing but putting them into more danger by capturing pink-skins and trusting an insane old shaman."
"Maybe we just need to wait and they finish themselves off?" Zaza suggested.
Jarrdreg shook his head violently. "Nono, Great Arrow-Stab Zaza. Only few go tsk-tsk at king. King still greats power, much shiney-shiney. And wives. Wives all go crazy crazy over him as long as he has them haves shiney. You not likes king, you goes in pot for big stew-stew."
Kibbo agreed. "If we's to kick king in butts, we's best off to stir up slaves and makes the king haters comes with us, Great Liberator."
"Now, there is a thought," the half-orc nodded.
"Maybe Kronk should claim to be our leader and have come to liberate the Truescales from their dumb king?" Zaza suggested. "I know your tribes haven't gotten along that well but you could always blame it on their leader."
"Yeah, good idea," Edawon agreed. "Make it sound like all the pink-skins know it is just their king that is the problem. And that shaman, whatever his name was again. Maybe say your tribe's spies know all about the situation and you've been watching them."
Kronk seemed to smirk, although it was hard to tell with kobolds. "I like that. Alright." Without wasting more time, he pushed the door open and began addressing the 6 assembled kobolds, a bunch of green and brown ones and a blue leader, in draconic.
It became clear very quickly that the small group of wannabe rebels was all too happy about the assistance. The blue guy – a weird one with an overgrown ear with lots of humanoid finger bones dangling from it – seemed happy enough to leave the main leadership to the strange yellow kobold. He talked very quickly, introducing the others but no one really got their names in all the fast draconic babble.
"This is Kerrdremak, but we might call him Kerr," Kronk finally introduced the blue guy in common. "He's a mystic of the tribe and not at all happy with their so-called king causing the decay of their tribe."
"Hello, Kerr," the half-orc nodded. "Nice to meet you. Cool earrings." He smiled a toothy smile, to indicate no one would go mad at him for having taken trophies from former victories.
Noting the alchemist's fangs, the kobold grinned back. "Would have taken teeth but most humanoid's teeth are soo tiny and not pretty-pretty. Yes, I speak language of above-folk better than others down here. I been there before."
"Yeah you speak our language very well," Zaza assured him. "But of course you must be clever to realize your leader is leading you only to ruin."
The blue kobold fell for the obvious compliment. "Since he's been leading, we lost more than half our number. It's not only a bad sign, it is the middle of the cat-as-trophee," Kerr nodded. He had trouble with the last word, making Krell and Zaza grin. "We all die if we not stop him."
"And we will," Kronk nodded. "Our tribes may not always get along well, but you are our dragonkin brothers, and if you perish there will be too many pink-skins and not enough of us. Not good for balance." The monk was so convincing saying that, it made Zaza frown for a second.
At the mention of dragonkin, the mystic stood up taller. "Yes. What happen to guards for slaves? You free them, is fine for me. Them yours now. But the guards were friends."
"They are alive, back there, bound and as safe as you can be in a dungeon," Edawon assured, rubbing his shoulder which was still hurting.
"Oh, not so safe down here. Many rats." He turned to the 5 others and hissed at them. "They go bring them. They will be with us if I talk sense to them."
The half-elf girl was getting restless. "We need to hurry to help Jurin," she reminded the others. "Our friend," she explained to the kobold. "something took him in the forge."
The kobold seemed to pale. "Bad thing, bad thing that. Leftover from dwarf time. Undead thing steels your souls to make chain."
"Undead, huh?" The half-orc's hand closed around the holy water he had taken with him, heeding the words of their paladin friend before they had parted. "We can deal with that."
"We go when your group is back with the guards," Kronk decided. "Can't waste much more time."
Zayel looked apologetically at Mook while he had one eye on the door of the girl's room to see if their new friends would come back. He had no intention of involving the summoner into this. "I really don't know more than what we've both been told," he assured the gnome. "There is a group of elves after the legendary drow, who really exist, and they want me to be part of it and help their only present member to dispose of them. You know how it is with prophecies, you make them yourselves every now and then."
Mook looked a bit sad, and accusatory, and resigned at the same time. "S-so, those l-legends are r-real, and we've b-been told they a-are all bad. How c-can a race be all b-bad? Not even g-goblins are all bad, d-despite the w-way they were created. It's n-not possible, by the g-gods. And yet..." She chewed her lip.
"What? You don't believe Amaran's story?"
"On the contrary, I d-do b-believe... n-no, I kn-know it is true. A-and that's w-what scares me s-so. A whole r-race of e-evil beings? And they d-don't tell anyone th-they are there? E-even act-tively kill the kn-knowledge of them" Nervously, Mook twisted a strand of her hair, which had grown out quite a bit since they had left home.
The three-quarter-elf thought about this for a moment. "You have a point, but remember, he said there aren't many of them. So they are possibly not that much of a threat if they can get them quick enough."
"They are many, the drow." Mook's eyes took on the half-blind, milky look they always had when she was relaying the information of one of her gods or the other. "Too many for the Lantern Bearers to deal with."
"The Lantern Bearers?" Zayel inhaled deeply. "That's the one information Amaran didn't want me to tell you. Their existence, well at least their name, is supposed to be a secret."
"Well, you m-mentioned they exist, knowing their n-name is not that m-much d-different. A-and this must be s-something imp-portant for me t-to be t-told like that." The oracle forced a smile on her lips. "The gods w-want all us to be i-involved, so we w-will all 3 g-go with Amaran."
"All 3?" Zayel frowned in confusion.
"Of c-course," Mook chuckled. "You h-haven't g-gathered yet that T-Tiva is linked to us n-now?"
Just then, the black haired summoner entered the room with a basket of dried laundry. Zayel had forgotten to keep watch for her. "Did I hear my name?" she smiled.
A loud crackling sound filled the room. The smoke that poured from it was blistering hot and lit with a strange orange light. A massive forge responsible for the hellish atmosphere took up the entire far wall of the cavern. Between the forge and the entrance stood a massive anvil, and nearby rested hammers, prongs, and other blacksmithing tools. A faint whimpering sound was almost lost in the roar that came from the forge. The sound of hammer on anvil eachoed through the room.
"Jurin?" Kimi called out without thinking. "Where are you?" She coughed as more smoke entered her airway, despite the wet scarfs Zaza had suggested they'd use. The scarfs helped only so much, and they were mostly out of water now.
"Shhh, don't call it's attention too soon," the half-orc, hand with a bottle of holy water raised, whispered.
Krell was the only one not affected by the smoke; from the looks of it, he was half in the shadow realm right now, with the meager light vanishing even further around him, and tendrils of shadow sneaking out from his form every now and then. He stood next to the alchemist with an expression that was almost a grin. The others knew that he would try to pull the undead thing into the shadow plane, but how exactly, they didn't know, or if it could be even done and if it could, how big a danger this was for Krell.
Suddenly, the sound of the hammering stopped. The light of the lamps the former slaves carried had gone out just a bit before, and the torches seemed to be partially extinguished by the smoke. The hellish fire from the forge was the brightest light source, and against, the mixed group could not see a shadow moving. The blue kobold gave a warning cry.
The choking odor of smelted steel tinged with burnt hair and flesh sifted across the room on a foul wind, mixed with the acrid smoke. The jangling of heavy chains echoed ominously. A hulking dwarf wrapped in heavy steel links approached. Its face, hands, and body were riddled with glowing hot hooks and half-melted razor wire. Black smoke arose from its smoldering beard, framing its freakishly contorted face in ashy darkness. The tormented thing hefted a black iron hammer and as it charged the chains draping its form sprung to life like metal serpents.
Zaza growled while Edawon gave a little shriek of surprise. Kibbo let lose an arrow which bounced off the chains without any effect. Jarrdreg was hiding behind Majek, and the other kobolds stayed even more behind. The children were held back by the bard, who had hefted a replacement sword Krell had carried to try and protect them. The half-elf girl was not happy about being restrained, but with her club she would stand no chance whatsoever. Majek hesitated, waiting for the undead to come closer. While he was really good at throwing things, he wanted to be sure he would get the full effect of the holy water. Kronk stayed at the back, being sickened by the smoke more than anyone else and not effective against an undead like this with his martial arts skills.
"Can't you sing again?" Kimi asked the halfling bard.
"My voice is still tired from before," he answered regretfully. "Asides, undead are not swayed by music."
One of the chains attempted to wrap around Edawon's ankle as the ranger landed an ineffective bolt in it's hand. The halfling sidestepped it at the last moment. "Now would be a good time," he hissed at the half-orc.
Th hammer of the dwarven hulk came down at Edawon, leaving its hideous face open to attack. Majek launched the first bottle, and it broke right at the hulk's nose. The alchemist was relieved; hitting the chains wrapped around the form would have likely brought no result at all.
The face of their foe sizzled and hissed as the holy water acted like an acid burning into unholy undead flesh. A sickening smell rose from the point of damage, and with a gurgle the twisted shape grabbed its face, dropping the hammer right next to Edawon.
"This won't destroy it," Kerr hissed. "We needs to break the chains."
"Seriously?" Zaza shouted. "And how are we going to do that?"
Krell stepped forward and hacked at the monstrosity's left hand, barely missing the twisting thing which was trying to find the hammer again while clawing its face still. The second and last bottle of holy water hit the back of its head, and more bad smell drifted towards the group. Savram vomited behind the group just as Edawon was pulled down by a burning chain, unable to sidestep. His bolt flew wide. The halfling screeched in pain as the hot sizzling chain burned into his flesh. His eyes fell on the links and he paled. Each link seemed to have a face contorted in terror on it. The captured souls of the undead victims.
Zaza jumped forward, rolled under the propelling arms and grabbed the heavy hammer to drag it out of the undead's reach. She managed to move it only a little, despite the momentum she had. It was way too heavy for her. As she lost grip, she rolled behind the anvil and bumped into the prone form of a boy. She coughed, the smoke was worse here despite her being on the floor. The boy, Jurin no doubt, seemed to hardly breathe anymore. He was loosely bound in chains, and the girl quickly began to untie him.
Majek pulled Edawon out of the way of another searching chain and got scorched in the process. He took the small handaxe he carried at his belt and started hacking at the sizzling chain. With some effort, it broke. A ray of frost hit the monster from behind the group and hit it in the already badly damaged head. The blue kobold chuckled madly. The large hulk of the thing swayed back and forth before dropping to the ground in a loud clatter of chains. Nothing was left of its head.
Now the half-orc grabbed the heavy hammer of their adversary. "This should do it," he growled and started destroying the links of the chain. Edawon shook the remaining chain off his injured ankle and growled as well, though more in pain. His shoulder wound was bleeding again, too.
"Help," Zaza shouted. "I found Jurin but he is barely breathing."
"Get him out of there. Quick!" Majek ordered before being overtaken by a coughing fit despite the scarf.
Krell, undisturbed by the smoke which got lighter now that the acid contribution of the undead had ceased, went forward to where he could barely make out Zaza. He lifted both the boy and the coughing girl up and moved back towards where Kronk was. He found the monk breathing heavily still, sitting just outside the smoky area. "He'll need some healing," the shadow man shouted as he checked over Jurin. "Anything against poison might do. We were just in time."
Kerr appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the boy's throat, mumbling a prayer of sorts Krell and Zaza didn't understand. Jurin gasped and took a deep breath, but then fell unconscious again. He was breathing fine now, though, and it seemed color was returning to his face.
One by one, the others showed up, Majek last. The half-orc was thoughtful. "Each broken chain releases a soul, it seems. I broke the chain in lots of small pieces but it will take time to finish breaking them all, later when we have the time."
Krell looked at him doubtfully. He didn't like the idea of carrying that thing, now bot burning after the undead dropped, around with them. But he could not see leaving it here to be used again, and with all the souls still trapped, so he nodded, too.
"What now?" Zaza asked wearily, watching Kimi trying to rouse her rescued friend.
"Down we go," the blue kobold said almost cheerfully. "Let's un-king the king."