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<blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7446836" data-attributes="member: 143"><p>Chapter 174</p><p></p><p>Making the decision to accompany Darik beyond the Darkfall Gate turned out to be easy compared to the elaborate production that was actually <em>getting</em> beyond the Gate.</p><p></p><p>All of the dwarven sentries that they encountered seemed to know Darik, but that didn’t keep them from scrutinizing his credentials twice and asking him in-depth questions about his two companions. To be fair they didn’t seem to give Xeeta any more scrutiny than they did Bredan, but maybe that was due more to the intense look on her human friend’s face than from any tolerance toward tieflings. At one point they were all forced to walk through a rune-encrusted arch that made Xeeta feel a sensation similar to the one they’d experienced on their initial entry into Underhold. She assumed that it was likely magical, and for a brief moment she could feel the Demon stirring within her in response before they were through and she could quickly tamp it down.</p><p></p><p>Darik didn’t have the guards open the massive main gates, but instead took them to a sally port accessed within one of the squat towers that guarded the wall. To get to that they had to pass through two steel doors, the second of which swung open to reveal a narrow passage that could barely accommodate Bredan’s wide shoulders. The walls to either side were generously populated with ominous dark slots that looked just big enough to accommodate a spearhead, and when she looked up she could see that the low ceiling was buttressed by steel struts that likewise suspiciously disappeared into openings in the walls.</p><p></p><p>“Rigged to collapse,” Darik said from ahead.</p><p></p><p>“You certainly have a lot of security,” Xeeta said.</p><p></p><p>“It’s called the Darkfall Gate for a reason,” the dwarf said. “If it falls, then darkness will sweep over Ironcrest and destroy everything that we’ve worked so hard to build.” He’d paused briefly in the guardroom to equip himself with a helmet, shield, and battle axe. He’d offered his companions their choice of weapons, but again they had declined. Bredan did accept a lantern, a heavy device that swung on a thick pole that itself looked as though it could be used as a flail in a pinch. Xeeta was starting to feel a nervous itch from all of the preparations.</p><p></p><p>“Are you certain we do not need an escort for this?” she asked. One of the officers who’d challenged Darik had asked the same question, but he hadn’t pressed it when the dwarf had refused.</p><p></p><p>“We’re less likely to draw attention if we keep the group small,” Darik said. “We won’t be going far from the Gate, just the portions that are well-patrolled.”</p><p></p><p>Xeeta tried to gauge Bredan’s reaction, but her young friend had gotten a lot better at concealing his feelings over the last few months. Trying not to provoke the Demon, the sorceress gently reached out to her magic. She summoned the protective aura of <em>mage armor</em>, feeling better once she felt the invisible barrier settle around her.</p><p></p><p>Darik was waiting beside what had to be the outer door, another slab of solid steel. The mechanism in the center drew back six steel bars that would have held against anything short of a battering ram, based on their thickness. Xeeta tensed as the dwarf swung the heavy door open, but nothing materialized from the darkness to attack them.</p><p></p><p>Despite the massive scope of the cavern that held Underhold, Xeeta had expected something else from the tunnels beyond the dwarven city. Maybe it was all of the legends and stories she’d been told of the world under the surface, or maybe it was just her own preconceptions, but she thought that they would be creeping through narrow tunnels and claustrophobic spaces where anything might be lurking. There was some of that, to be true, and she regarded the side-passages they passed with suspicion. But for the most part, the terrain they covered was unlike anything she could have predicted.</p><p></p><p>The landscape of the underworld was complex and expansive. They walked through caverns that could have swallowed the monumental structures of Severon several times over. There were chasms that looked like they might descend forever, and high vaulted ceilings that the light of Bredan’s lantern couldn’t begin to reach. They passed a cliff face that held what looked like a hundred cave mouths, some of them fifty or more feet above their heads. Xeeta tensed there, feeling invisible eyes marking their passage, but Darik led them quickly by and nothing sinister stirred to threaten them. Their journey would have been a lot shorter if they could have taken a direct path, but the web of caverns had clearly not formed with the convenience of travelers in mind. Darik seemed to know where he was going, and did not stop to check a map or other guide, but Xeeta realized that it would be very easy to get lost down here.</p><p></p><p>But just as she was about to say something to Bredan they reached their destination. This was another cavern that bled into the one they’d been walking through. Its floor was well below where they came in, and they had to descend along a steep slope that hugged one of the walls. It wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle, but it occurred to Xeeta that she would not want to have to make the climb while under attack. The air was damp here, and the bare rock was slick in places that forced them to carefully place each step. Darik reached the bottom well before his companions and waited for them at the shore of the underground lake that gave the place its name.</p><p></p><p>The Lakeshore Grotto was peaceful and might have even been pleasant, if not for the wary mindset that all of the dwarves’ security precautions had placed in Xeeta’s mind. The lake filled most of the cavern, leaving a crescent-shaped shoreline that extended from the base of the ramp. For a moment Xeeta wondered if this body of water connected with the one that filled the bottom of Underhold, but after a moment she dismissed the thought. From all that she’d seen she doubted that the dwarves would miss such a glaring vulnerability in their defenses.</p><p></p><p>Bredan looked a little impatient as they joined their guide. Xeeta noticed him opening and closing his hands, as if he was right on the brink of summoning his sword. A crust of minerals crunched under their feet as they approached the water’s edge. “Well, we’re here,” Bredan said. “What did you want us to see?”</p><p></p><p>Darik reached into his pocket and drew out a thick, stubby wand. “Watch your eyes,” he said.</p><p></p><p>He did something with the end of the wand and a bright light exploded from its tip. It was a flare, Xeeta realized, blinking as she tried to adapt to its intensity. It took her a few moments, but when she could see again she sucked in a startled breath.</p><p></p><p>The flare had driven the darkness well back. Its radiance extended for more than twice the distance of Bredan’s lantern. It illuminated a vast swath of the cavern wall behind them, and it was that which had drawn Xeeta’s attention. Seeing that, Bredan turned and looked for himself, staring up at what the light had revealed.</p><p></p><p>Someone had painted a huge mural on the wall. The quality of the artwork was primitive at best, but the artists had made up for it in scale. The painting extended from shortly beyond the ramp to well out over the lake, and while it never quite reached the ceiling, it did not appear to be from lack of trying.</p><p></p><p>The figures were crude, the colors garish, with the bright red of freshly-spilled blood featuring prominently. For the mural’s topic was violence, and specifically the violence of war.</p><p></p><p>It didn’t take long for Xeeta to make out the targets of the artist’s ire. Darkfall Gate was central to the scene, the huge wall shattered and aflame, and then a space that was clearly meant to be the interior of Underhold. There was a lot of creativity shown in the number of ways that dwarves could be killed. The attackers were somewhat more nebulous. They stood somewhat larger than the dwarves, with monstrous faces full of oversized teeth and long claws that hooked like sickles. They had been painted using dark pigments that made it difficult for Xeeta to make out more details, even in the light of the flare.</p><p></p><p>“Who painted this?” Bredan asked. “Who are those… things?”</p><p></p><p>“Trolls,” Darik said. “Deep trolls. One of the more organized of our many foes, from the Dark World.”</p><p></p><p>“Trolls?” Xeeta asked. She gave the mural a second look. She didn’t notice the water of the lake start to ripple, about twenty paces behind her. “Those don’t seem like any trolls I’ve ever heard of.”</p><p></p><p>“The ones down here, they’re almost a different race,” the dwarf said.</p><p></p><p>“This must have taken a very long time to make,” Bredan said. He stared at the grim painting as if it hid deeper secrets for him. Maybe it did, Xeeta thought. Whatever had happened to her friend, it seemed to give him a strange insight into things that tended to mystify her.</p><p></p><p>“They have been down here for a very long time,” Darik said. “I can give you a closer look of one, there’s a specimen that they keep preserved down at the—”</p><p></p><p>He didn’t get a chance to finish, as Xeeta suddenly felt something hard twist around her ankle and pull her down. She let out a surprised cry as she fell to the ground. The sound was eclipsed by a wild splashing from the edge of the lake behind her as a <em>thing</em> emerged from the water. It looked like an oversized, distended crocodile, its jaws swollen until they could barely contain the rows of bent, jutting teeth that spilled out from them. Several long, slimy tentacles extended out from around that gaping maw, one of which was wrapped tight around Xeeta’s leg.</p><p></p><p>The tiefling screamed as the creature dragged her toward those snapping teeth.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lazybones, post: 7446836, member: 143"] Chapter 174 Making the decision to accompany Darik beyond the Darkfall Gate turned out to be easy compared to the elaborate production that was actually [i]getting[/i] beyond the Gate. All of the dwarven sentries that they encountered seemed to know Darik, but that didn’t keep them from scrutinizing his credentials twice and asking him in-depth questions about his two companions. To be fair they didn’t seem to give Xeeta any more scrutiny than they did Bredan, but maybe that was due more to the intense look on her human friend’s face than from any tolerance toward tieflings. At one point they were all forced to walk through a rune-encrusted arch that made Xeeta feel a sensation similar to the one they’d experienced on their initial entry into Underhold. She assumed that it was likely magical, and for a brief moment she could feel the Demon stirring within her in response before they were through and she could quickly tamp it down. Darik didn’t have the guards open the massive main gates, but instead took them to a sally port accessed within one of the squat towers that guarded the wall. To get to that they had to pass through two steel doors, the second of which swung open to reveal a narrow passage that could barely accommodate Bredan’s wide shoulders. The walls to either side were generously populated with ominous dark slots that looked just big enough to accommodate a spearhead, and when she looked up she could see that the low ceiling was buttressed by steel struts that likewise suspiciously disappeared into openings in the walls. “Rigged to collapse,” Darik said from ahead. “You certainly have a lot of security,” Xeeta said. “It’s called the Darkfall Gate for a reason,” the dwarf said. “If it falls, then darkness will sweep over Ironcrest and destroy everything that we’ve worked so hard to build.” He’d paused briefly in the guardroom to equip himself with a helmet, shield, and battle axe. He’d offered his companions their choice of weapons, but again they had declined. Bredan did accept a lantern, a heavy device that swung on a thick pole that itself looked as though it could be used as a flail in a pinch. Xeeta was starting to feel a nervous itch from all of the preparations. “Are you certain we do not need an escort for this?” she asked. One of the officers who’d challenged Darik had asked the same question, but he hadn’t pressed it when the dwarf had refused. “We’re less likely to draw attention if we keep the group small,” Darik said. “We won’t be going far from the Gate, just the portions that are well-patrolled.” Xeeta tried to gauge Bredan’s reaction, but her young friend had gotten a lot better at concealing his feelings over the last few months. Trying not to provoke the Demon, the sorceress gently reached out to her magic. She summoned the protective aura of [i]mage armor[/i], feeling better once she felt the invisible barrier settle around her. Darik was waiting beside what had to be the outer door, another slab of solid steel. The mechanism in the center drew back six steel bars that would have held against anything short of a battering ram, based on their thickness. Xeeta tensed as the dwarf swung the heavy door open, but nothing materialized from the darkness to attack them. Despite the massive scope of the cavern that held Underhold, Xeeta had expected something else from the tunnels beyond the dwarven city. Maybe it was all of the legends and stories she’d been told of the world under the surface, or maybe it was just her own preconceptions, but she thought that they would be creeping through narrow tunnels and claustrophobic spaces where anything might be lurking. There was some of that, to be true, and she regarded the side-passages they passed with suspicion. But for the most part, the terrain they covered was unlike anything she could have predicted. The landscape of the underworld was complex and expansive. They walked through caverns that could have swallowed the monumental structures of Severon several times over. There were chasms that looked like they might descend forever, and high vaulted ceilings that the light of Bredan’s lantern couldn’t begin to reach. They passed a cliff face that held what looked like a hundred cave mouths, some of them fifty or more feet above their heads. Xeeta tensed there, feeling invisible eyes marking their passage, but Darik led them quickly by and nothing sinister stirred to threaten them. Their journey would have been a lot shorter if they could have taken a direct path, but the web of caverns had clearly not formed with the convenience of travelers in mind. Darik seemed to know where he was going, and did not stop to check a map or other guide, but Xeeta realized that it would be very easy to get lost down here. But just as she was about to say something to Bredan they reached their destination. This was another cavern that bled into the one they’d been walking through. Its floor was well below where they came in, and they had to descend along a steep slope that hugged one of the walls. It wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle, but it occurred to Xeeta that she would not want to have to make the climb while under attack. The air was damp here, and the bare rock was slick in places that forced them to carefully place each step. Darik reached the bottom well before his companions and waited for them at the shore of the underground lake that gave the place its name. The Lakeshore Grotto was peaceful and might have even been pleasant, if not for the wary mindset that all of the dwarves’ security precautions had placed in Xeeta’s mind. The lake filled most of the cavern, leaving a crescent-shaped shoreline that extended from the base of the ramp. For a moment Xeeta wondered if this body of water connected with the one that filled the bottom of Underhold, but after a moment she dismissed the thought. From all that she’d seen she doubted that the dwarves would miss such a glaring vulnerability in their defenses. Bredan looked a little impatient as they joined their guide. Xeeta noticed him opening and closing his hands, as if he was right on the brink of summoning his sword. A crust of minerals crunched under their feet as they approached the water’s edge. “Well, we’re here,” Bredan said. “What did you want us to see?” Darik reached into his pocket and drew out a thick, stubby wand. “Watch your eyes,” he said. He did something with the end of the wand and a bright light exploded from its tip. It was a flare, Xeeta realized, blinking as she tried to adapt to its intensity. It took her a few moments, but when she could see again she sucked in a startled breath. The flare had driven the darkness well back. Its radiance extended for more than twice the distance of Bredan’s lantern. It illuminated a vast swath of the cavern wall behind them, and it was that which had drawn Xeeta’s attention. Seeing that, Bredan turned and looked for himself, staring up at what the light had revealed. Someone had painted a huge mural on the wall. The quality of the artwork was primitive at best, but the artists had made up for it in scale. The painting extended from shortly beyond the ramp to well out over the lake, and while it never quite reached the ceiling, it did not appear to be from lack of trying. The figures were crude, the colors garish, with the bright red of freshly-spilled blood featuring prominently. For the mural’s topic was violence, and specifically the violence of war. It didn’t take long for Xeeta to make out the targets of the artist’s ire. Darkfall Gate was central to the scene, the huge wall shattered and aflame, and then a space that was clearly meant to be the interior of Underhold. There was a lot of creativity shown in the number of ways that dwarves could be killed. The attackers were somewhat more nebulous. They stood somewhat larger than the dwarves, with monstrous faces full of oversized teeth and long claws that hooked like sickles. They had been painted using dark pigments that made it difficult for Xeeta to make out more details, even in the light of the flare. “Who painted this?” Bredan asked. “Who are those… things?” “Trolls,” Darik said. “Deep trolls. One of the more organized of our many foes, from the Dark World.” “Trolls?” Xeeta asked. She gave the mural a second look. She didn’t notice the water of the lake start to ripple, about twenty paces behind her. “Those don’t seem like any trolls I’ve ever heard of.” “The ones down here, they’re almost a different race,” the dwarf said. “This must have taken a very long time to make,” Bredan said. He stared at the grim painting as if it hid deeper secrets for him. Maybe it did, Xeeta thought. Whatever had happened to her friend, it seemed to give him a strange insight into things that tended to mystify her. “They have been down here for a very long time,” Darik said. “I can give you a closer look of one, there’s a specimen that they keep preserved down at the—” He didn’t get a chance to finish, as Xeeta suddenly felt something hard twist around her ankle and pull her down. She let out a surprised cry as she fell to the ground. The sound was eclipsed by a wild splashing from the edge of the lake behind her as a [i]thing[/i] emerged from the water. It looked like an oversized, distended crocodile, its jaws swollen until they could barely contain the rows of bent, jutting teeth that spilled out from them. Several long, slimy tentacles extended out from around that gaping maw, one of which was wrapped tight around Xeeta’s leg. The tiefling screamed as the creature dragged her toward those snapping teeth. [/QUOTE]
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