el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
Session #24
Between the eleven of them, mopping up the remaining quaggoths was not difficult. The loudmouth blonde proved to be as efficient as he was showy with his blades, and the stocky dark-haired one in wolf’s fur displayed a strength and fury that appeared to even scare his companions.
In moments both groups were standing at either end of the cavern (Jana, Ratchis and the others with their backs to the cliff) facing each other nervously.
“Debo get scalps,” said the stocky man, and proceeded to use a hatchet to cleave off the tops of the dead quaggoth’s heads.
“Yes, Debo, you cut them hairy floggers up real good,” said the blonde with the curly hair, he leaned on his long sword and smiled at party, his gaze stopping at Jana and going up and down, and then looking past her at Tirhas who was standing in the rear. “Where’d ya pick up the lima bean?”
Ratchis furrowed his brow, and Jeremy sneered. Martin and Kazrack simply were trying to figure out what he meant.
“Ya don’t see many lima beans around here,” the man continued. “Especially ones that look as delicious as she does; a little weird, a little boyish, but that’s alright by me.” His gaze went back to Jana. “Not that you are anything bad to look at, sweetness. Ain’t nothing wrong with a nice little human girl with some muthalovin’ meat on her bones to give ya more cushion for raucous ride only I can give a woman.”
He winked, and then addressed the whole group.
“My name’s Gunthar. I remember you guys, the pig-f*cker and the tall bald guy, where’s he? Anyway, what are you doing down here? Friggin’ dragon’s not the flarn down here – we know.”
“You came down here looking for the dragon?” Martin asked.
“No, ya friggin’ idiot. Where in the hell in the puckered arse of Set would a dragon fit down here? We’re just huntin’ ogres, padding our pockets with some of their ill-gotten booty, but these hairy muthalovin’ father-stabbers ambushed us. Twice! We grabbed what treasure we could find and a few pelts that might be worth a lousy queen’s sweaty armpit bit of copper to some sick kid-humper – but not many ogres about. Most musta been killed by the hairy things.”
Gunthar’s words came out like a hail of arrows from a thousand men, ceaselessly and they seemed to darken the light of the lantern and even that of shield borne by the tall man in black with a shield.
Ratchis wracked his mind to identify the shield’s insignia (see last installment), but he could not place it.
Gunthar’s companions did not talk much, however, the heavily armored man whom the bard referred to as Aldovar placed a hand on him and said softly, “Oh my dark lord, if you see fit please heal this man so that the strong might prevail over the weak as you would have it.”
The bard’s wound closed.
Kazrack cursed under his breath.
“Well, we should go,” said Kazrack aloud and turned to leave, but his companions made no move to follow him.
“Kazrack, these men might have information we need,” Ratchis said softly.
“These men are loud, obnoxious and crude. We should not waste our time with them,” the dwarf insisted.
“Little grubber’s got a problem? Not tall enough to get a woman?” The tall lanky man let out a donkey’s bray of laughter.
Kazrack walked back towards the passage they had emerged from to see if Silverback was still there, but the giant ogre was gone.
“Hey!” Jeremy said. “There is no need to insult my companions, or speak of anyone in a crude way especially the ladies!”
“Oh, ho!” Gunthar said. “What do we have here? Mister Fancy Two Swords! Why shou…”
Gunthar cut himself short and cocked his head, and when he did it, his mannerisms in combination with his blonde hair, build and persistent smile made a bell go off in both Martin and Jana’s heads.
“What’s your name?” Gunthar asked Jeremy,
“Jeremy, why?” the Neergaardian replied.
“Where you from?” Gunthar asked, his eyes squinted and he took a step forward, his hand coming off his long sword.
“Why?” Jeremy responded getting nervous.
“You from Neergaard?”
“Um, no…” replied Jeremy. Martin looked at him suspiciously. “I’m from all over.”
“But not Neergaard?”
“No.”
“Everyone is from some filthy muthalovin’ place originally,” Gunthar insisted.
“Well, if I had to pick one place I’d say Herman Land,” Jeremy replied.
“Kind of light-skinned and haired for a Herman-Lander,” Gunthar said, stepping back, and an edge coming into his voice.
Martin leaned over to Jana and whispered, “Is it just me or do the two of them…”
“Yes, they certainly do. It’s weird,” the young witch replied.
“Oh well, my grand-father immigrated to Herman Land from Neergaard, but we haven’t been back for two generations,” Jeremy said. “You from Neergaard?”
“Uh, yeah.…yeah,” Gunthar suddenly re-gained his swagger.
“Sorry to question ya like your puke-sack old lady when you been out piercing bloated whores with your javelin of poking, ya know what I mean?” He smiled a disgusting smile. “It is that for a second… What’s your last name?”
“Uh, Brighthelm,” Jeremy replied.
This time the entire party looked at him funny, including Kazrack who coming back and seeing his party still talking to Gunthar, decided to go back down the passage himself and find Silverback.
“Yeah, I thought maybe you could be my little brother,” Gunthar said. “But that would be impossible, he died before I ever met him.”
“Yeah, well I don’t have any brothers,” Jeremy said.
“Yeah, well, wishful friggin’ thinkin’,” Gunthar said. “Ever since I found out that I had a younger brother I dreamed of taking him under my wing and teaching him the ways of the world, and when I finally got my chance it was because he had died, and our dad took me as his legitimate heir.”
There was a long pause.
“So, what are you doing down here? Oh, wait, I know same as us,” Gunthar continued to talk. “Well, there is not much left, them hairy bastards running around covered in their own frggin’ sh*te took it all to a central chamber, crawling with the hairy things, like chiggers on my nutsack. Ya wanna stay the Hell away from there. We were going to go down there, but even though Debo can’t die, the rest of us can.” He pointed to the barbarian who said, “Debo can’t die.”
“So you are leaving here?” Ratchis asked.
“Yep,” Gunthar replied. “We have to get back to hunting the dragon. We have a plan.”
“Oh yeah? What is it?” Jeremy asked, curious.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Gunthar said slyly. He turned to his companions, “We’re getting out of here.”
The other party gathered their things and made their way to a passage in rear left corner of the cavern. As they disappeared into the darkness, Gunthar turned and looked back, “Oh, and watch out, there is some huge white-haired ogre running around. We shot at it before. It would’ve been a great kill, but it got away. I think it is injured though, so keep an eye out.”
The permanent gritted smile seemed to be the last thing to fade in the shadows of the passage way.
-----
The party re-grouped, and Ratchis was able to catch up with Kazrack who had found Silverback hiding a hundred yards or so back into the narrow passage they had traveled through.
The old giant commented that the five men the party had run into had attacked him from afar, but that he led them into a quaggoth ambush to avoid them.
Silverback led them along the narrowing cliff edge and then up another passageway, that broadened into a place of many steps going in three different directions. Here he paused and asked for them to describe each to him, before deciding which way they should go. What followed was two hours of going up broad stairs, down narrow twisting ones and then a slow gentle ascent until finally, all other routes and passageways seemed far behind them, and there seemed to be only this one narrow stairway.
Finally, Silverback stopped. As he turned his body, the air changed in the passage, a cold metallic taste caressed them from beyond the giant.
“Ahead is an old watch post. It looks above the central chamber and there is a stair that will lead down to a dry riverbed that is adjacent to the place – which will allow us to take them by surprise, or so we should hope,” his voice was raspy and slower with every word. “There are openings that allow one to look out into the huge chamber, though at this height and with the darkness there will be little to see, but we will most definitely be seen if you make light, so do not.”
Silverback entered the room, and crouched down, nearly crawling to a far corner where he sat down.
“We rest now,” he said. “Tomorrow we go to die.”
Ratchis and Kazrack went into the room and looked around. It was not more than thirty feet wide and about forty-five wide. They immediately could see the openings that looked out and down of the central chamber area, but from where they stood all they could see was darkness. Just off center of the room was a stone bench, about eight feet long, three feet wide and three feet high, decorated with the carvings of countless spiders.
“The cold air feels good,” said Ratchis. “The air was getting oppressive down there.”
“Ratchis! Kazrack!” came a sharp whisper from behind them. It was Martin the Green. “We can’t see. Once we turned off the lantern all but you two were in the dark!”
“Let’s turn on the lantern very low,” suggested Jeremy.
“No!” Ratchis said harshly, but in a whisper. “Here is my hand, we’ll direct you in.”
“I think we can get away with a little bit of light,” said Kazrack.
“No light,” said Silverback
“What do we do now?” Jeremy asked.
“We wait and rest, and tomorrow try to sneak into this central chamber and see if Rahasia or Richard are there,” said Ratchis.
“Right,” agreed Kazrack. “But we should look around here some, and see what we can find out about this chamber and about our options for escape and/or retreat.”
“Might be a good idea,” said Ratchis, he walked over to the openings. He had to squat down because they were obviously built for much shorter people, but Kazrack could see nothing because it was obviously built for people a head taller than him or more.
“You know there is a door over here, looks like it goes outside,” said Kazrack walking over to the left hand wall. “It was kind of half-hidden, but I can make out the mechanism perfectly now.”
And so, the plan was made. Ratchis would cast Silence on the door in case it made a lot of noise while being opened. It was made of stone, but braced with rusted metal. Once this was done Kazrack and Ratchis would go out and see what there was to be seen.
Beyond the door was a narrow stone ledge, which over looked a very long drop off. The watch post was actually built within the corner of an immense piece of stone that made up two sides of the huge chamber. They could not see the walls on the opposite side and directly below them they could make out the vague outline of ridge of soil and stone that might be the edge of the riverbed, and that the center of the chamber was in more than level, with a lower portion being an underground stream with tall banks as well.
There was no way they see of getting down there from here. On one side, the ledge was blocked by an outcropping of rock, and on the other a past rockslide must have smashed away.
They crept back into the room and closed the door before the silence spell was over. One of the others had lit the lantern, and had it burning very low.
“We said no light,” Ratchis said angrily.
“Come on, we need to see,” said Jeremy.
“What if something had happened to you while you were gone and we could not see where it was you went,” reasoned Martin.
“You didn’t even notice it until you came back in because it is so low. There is no way anyone else could see it,” said Jeremy.
“I think it’ll be okay,” said Kazrack.
“Silverback,” Kazrack said. “Do you know another way out of here?”
“There is the stair right here which leads down to the riverbed, that can be followed to the right all way to a cave exit below the town,” the old giant said. “Or back the way we came, not far there is a series of steps that will take you right down to the stream that still runs, this will lead directly into the front of the central chamber.”
The others sat and tried to rest, and turned off the lantern, as the dwarf and the half-orc scrambled around trying to learn more about their surroundings.
“I don’t like it down here,” Thomas said, burying himself deeper into the folds of Martin’s robes.
“It’ll be okay, Thomas,” Martin reassured his familiar.
“I think I am going to go down to the dry riverbed now and just scout around and learn what I can,” Ratchis whispered to Kazrack, as they stood by the archway led to the stairway Silverback had mentioned.
“That would be dangerous,” Kazrack. “But we should learn what we can about this place before rushing in. The ogre chief may be willing to die, but the rest of us are not quite so eager.”
“I won’t take any unnecessary chances,” Ratchis said. “I am going to leave my armor with you, so I will be even more quiet.”
Ratchis and Kazrack began to make their way down the uncharacteristic narrow steps that descended very sharply. Kazrack was to go part of the way down with him, but not forty feet down the stairs, the stone steps themselves stopped, what was left was a slick limestone ramp that the steps had been carved from.
“I had a feeling this places was half-finished,” commented Kazrack. “The stone work here is alien to me, but still skilled, but unfinished, probably tired themselves out with all their extra spider-frills and the baroque ornamentation.”
“Uh, Kazrack, can we discuss this another time, and tie this rope around your waist,” Ratchis replied. “I am going down there, stairs or no stairs.”
“Wait,” Kazrack said, pulling his dwarven rune stein from his pack. “Drink this first. It will fill you with the spirit of Alagh, heroism.”
The dwarf filled the stein with two mouthfuls of wine and passed it to the half-orc, who gave his awkward snarling smile of friendship and drank it down quickly.
Ratchis holding the other end of the rope, began to lower himself down the slick stone. There were only occasional little rough spots of rock that could pass for hand-holds, but most of the descent Kazrack held up the hulking half-orc by brute strength. However, even nearly fifty feet of rope was not enough for Ratchis to reach the bottom of the shaft.
He sighed.
Ratchis scooted over to the very corner of the shaft, trying to wedge himself between the wall and the floor to give himself more slack.
He let go of the rope and moved and immediately tumbled head first down the shaft. He threw out a hand and a foot and halted his fall panfully, but just precariously.
“Ratchis! Ratchis!” Kazrack hissed down the shaft.
“Lower the rope more,” Ratchis hissed back. “I can’t make it down. I need to come back up.”
Kazrack came to the very edge of the end of the stairs and lowered the rope as far as he could. The frayed end of it was only seven inches short of Ratchis.
Ratchis sighed again. “Lower!”
“As low as I goes,” Kazrack replied.
The half-orc leapt from his awkward position up towards the rope, but his leg came off the wall at a weird angle, and he tossed himself more outward than upward, and less than a second later he was tumbling all the way down into the darkness, trying hard to keep his yelps and groans of pain as quiet as possible. At the end was a final fifteen foot straight drop. He lay on a hard stone floor covered in a light drizzle of sand. He sighed again.
Ratchis was in a tiny chamber no more than ten feet at its widest point, but there was a narrow crack, through which he could spy a plateau that lead right down into the dry riverbed.
He got up achingly, and felt a dozen scratches and scrapes burning a once. “Nephthys, close these minor wounds so that they may not be my undoing when I a suffer greater ones,” he said, clutching the scored and broken chain about his waist.
Back at the top of the shack, Kazrack waited at the top for a moment listening to the echoes of Ratchis’ painful descent fade away. He then went back to the watch-post where the others rested.
He told them what happened.
“What the hell were you doing playing around in the first place?’ Jeremy asked.
“We were not playing around,” Kazrack said angrily.
“Ya could have fooled me,” Jeremy said, grabbing his gear and walking past the dwarf carrying the lantern, which he had re-lit, but had on very low.
Jana, Martin, Jeremy and Kazrack got to the edge of the stairway, with Tirhas observing from a few feet back. Jeremy turned up the lantern some more, since there was less chance of anyone seeing the light here.
Kazrack tied the rope around his waist, “Jeremy, you’ll have to lower me down as far as the rope can go.”
“Where is the other rope?” Jeremy asked. “Didn’t Ethiel give us two ropes.”
“Yes, there were two ropes,” Tirhas concurred.
“Ratchis has the other one,” Kazrack said resignedly.
“Well, that’s real smart,” said Jeremy.
“There’s no point in arguing about it now,” said Kazrack.
“Right, there’s no point to any of this at all,” Martin the Green said, tersely. “We don’t even know what we are getting into or where we are going or for what.”
“We’re going after the drow witch, Martin,” Jeremy said, sounding confused.
Martin sighed, “I know. Forget it!”
Jeremy lowered Kazrack slowly, with some help from Jana and Martin, until they ran out of slack. Kazrack then slid his shield beneath himself and untied the rope. The dwarf rocketed down the shaft, turning 180 degrees and then tipping over onto his side as he slammed into the opposite wall of the shaft and down the final fifteen feet with a loud groan.
Ratchis looked down at him.
“What the hell are you doing down here?” Ratchis hissed.
“I came to help you to make sure you were all right,” Kazrack replied.
Ratchis rolled his eyes, “There is no way back up there. The way is too steep and slippery. We’re in trouble, because if we get attacked here, we have nowhere to go.”
A few moments later they heard the wild hooting of quaggoths passing by outside the crack. Ratchis ducked down, and crept to the opposite side of the crack, but beyond in the gray darkness he could see nothing but dim shadows of movement.
Suddenly he heard another voice passing as well, but it did not sound like a quaggoth, it sound like a soft-voiced woman, making a very clear representation of the melodic hooting. They were calling back and forth. She was giving orders!
The quaggoths passed just as Kazrack heard the yelp and the thumping of Jana tumbling down the shaft. He caught her and stepped backward and landed on his rear, and her hip bone struck him heavily on the forehead.
“Nephthys have mercy!” Ratchis hissed. “Is everyone going to come down here and risk their lives? Kazrack you should have told them to stay up there!”
“And split up the group and leave you to die?” said Kazrack. “We needed to come down here anyway.”
Jana nodded, and said, “Get ready, Martin should be next. Ratchis, I brought your chain shirt with me.”
Martin hung from the rope in the utter pitch dark (the lantern had been sent down with Jana, as Jeremy held a dagger with the light spell on it).
“I just gotta let go. I just gotta let go. I just gotta let go. I just gotta let go,” he said over and over again, but simply hung there.
“Martin! You have to let go!” Jeremy called down.
The Watch-Mage gulped and whispered, “Hold on Thomas!” He let go of rope and slid down the shaft. Amazingly, he was able to keep from flipping and slipping, holding his robes open beneath him, and trying to steer by yanking on one side or another.
Below Kazrack heard Martin’s approaching shriek, he braced himself to catch the mage. The impact was loud, as both cried out and Kazrack went flying back against the opposite wall. Ratchis, who had moved over to the other side of the crack to keep an eye open for foes, turned to look at the dwarf, and in that moment, a quaggoth leapt int oteh cavern, hooting loudly and swinging its club at the half-orc.
Stunned, Martin moaned, “We’re all going to die.”
Between the eleven of them, mopping up the remaining quaggoths was not difficult. The loudmouth blonde proved to be as efficient as he was showy with his blades, and the stocky dark-haired one in wolf’s fur displayed a strength and fury that appeared to even scare his companions.
In moments both groups were standing at either end of the cavern (Jana, Ratchis and the others with their backs to the cliff) facing each other nervously.
“Debo get scalps,” said the stocky man, and proceeded to use a hatchet to cleave off the tops of the dead quaggoth’s heads.
“Yes, Debo, you cut them hairy floggers up real good,” said the blonde with the curly hair, he leaned on his long sword and smiled at party, his gaze stopping at Jana and going up and down, and then looking past her at Tirhas who was standing in the rear. “Where’d ya pick up the lima bean?”
Ratchis furrowed his brow, and Jeremy sneered. Martin and Kazrack simply were trying to figure out what he meant.
“Ya don’t see many lima beans around here,” the man continued. “Especially ones that look as delicious as she does; a little weird, a little boyish, but that’s alright by me.” His gaze went back to Jana. “Not that you are anything bad to look at, sweetness. Ain’t nothing wrong with a nice little human girl with some muthalovin’ meat on her bones to give ya more cushion for raucous ride only I can give a woman.”
He winked, and then addressed the whole group.
“My name’s Gunthar. I remember you guys, the pig-f*cker and the tall bald guy, where’s he? Anyway, what are you doing down here? Friggin’ dragon’s not the flarn down here – we know.”
“You came down here looking for the dragon?” Martin asked.
“No, ya friggin’ idiot. Where in the hell in the puckered arse of Set would a dragon fit down here? We’re just huntin’ ogres, padding our pockets with some of their ill-gotten booty, but these hairy muthalovin’ father-stabbers ambushed us. Twice! We grabbed what treasure we could find and a few pelts that might be worth a lousy queen’s sweaty armpit bit of copper to some sick kid-humper – but not many ogres about. Most musta been killed by the hairy things.”
Gunthar’s words came out like a hail of arrows from a thousand men, ceaselessly and they seemed to darken the light of the lantern and even that of shield borne by the tall man in black with a shield.
Ratchis wracked his mind to identify the shield’s insignia (see last installment), but he could not place it.
Gunthar’s companions did not talk much, however, the heavily armored man whom the bard referred to as Aldovar placed a hand on him and said softly, “Oh my dark lord, if you see fit please heal this man so that the strong might prevail over the weak as you would have it.”
The bard’s wound closed.
Kazrack cursed under his breath.
“Well, we should go,” said Kazrack aloud and turned to leave, but his companions made no move to follow him.
“Kazrack, these men might have information we need,” Ratchis said softly.
“These men are loud, obnoxious and crude. We should not waste our time with them,” the dwarf insisted.
“Little grubber’s got a problem? Not tall enough to get a woman?” The tall lanky man let out a donkey’s bray of laughter.
Kazrack walked back towards the passage they had emerged from to see if Silverback was still there, but the giant ogre was gone.
“Hey!” Jeremy said. “There is no need to insult my companions, or speak of anyone in a crude way especially the ladies!”
“Oh, ho!” Gunthar said. “What do we have here? Mister Fancy Two Swords! Why shou…”
Gunthar cut himself short and cocked his head, and when he did it, his mannerisms in combination with his blonde hair, build and persistent smile made a bell go off in both Martin and Jana’s heads.
“What’s your name?” Gunthar asked Jeremy,
“Jeremy, why?” the Neergaardian replied.
“Where you from?” Gunthar asked, his eyes squinted and he took a step forward, his hand coming off his long sword.
“Why?” Jeremy responded getting nervous.
“You from Neergaard?”
“Um, no…” replied Jeremy. Martin looked at him suspiciously. “I’m from all over.”
“But not Neergaard?”
“No.”
“Everyone is from some filthy muthalovin’ place originally,” Gunthar insisted.
“Well, if I had to pick one place I’d say Herman Land,” Jeremy replied.
“Kind of light-skinned and haired for a Herman-Lander,” Gunthar said, stepping back, and an edge coming into his voice.
Martin leaned over to Jana and whispered, “Is it just me or do the two of them…”
“Yes, they certainly do. It’s weird,” the young witch replied.
“Oh well, my grand-father immigrated to Herman Land from Neergaard, but we haven’t been back for two generations,” Jeremy said. “You from Neergaard?”
“Uh, yeah.…yeah,” Gunthar suddenly re-gained his swagger.
“Sorry to question ya like your puke-sack old lady when you been out piercing bloated whores with your javelin of poking, ya know what I mean?” He smiled a disgusting smile. “It is that for a second… What’s your last name?”
“Uh, Brighthelm,” Jeremy replied.
This time the entire party looked at him funny, including Kazrack who coming back and seeing his party still talking to Gunthar, decided to go back down the passage himself and find Silverback.
“Yeah, I thought maybe you could be my little brother,” Gunthar said. “But that would be impossible, he died before I ever met him.”
“Yeah, well I don’t have any brothers,” Jeremy said.
“Yeah, well, wishful friggin’ thinkin’,” Gunthar said. “Ever since I found out that I had a younger brother I dreamed of taking him under my wing and teaching him the ways of the world, and when I finally got my chance it was because he had died, and our dad took me as his legitimate heir.”
There was a long pause.
“So, what are you doing down here? Oh, wait, I know same as us,” Gunthar continued to talk. “Well, there is not much left, them hairy bastards running around covered in their own frggin’ sh*te took it all to a central chamber, crawling with the hairy things, like chiggers on my nutsack. Ya wanna stay the Hell away from there. We were going to go down there, but even though Debo can’t die, the rest of us can.” He pointed to the barbarian who said, “Debo can’t die.”
“So you are leaving here?” Ratchis asked.
“Yep,” Gunthar replied. “We have to get back to hunting the dragon. We have a plan.”
“Oh yeah? What is it?” Jeremy asked, curious.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Gunthar said slyly. He turned to his companions, “We’re getting out of here.”
The other party gathered their things and made their way to a passage in rear left corner of the cavern. As they disappeared into the darkness, Gunthar turned and looked back, “Oh, and watch out, there is some huge white-haired ogre running around. We shot at it before. It would’ve been a great kill, but it got away. I think it is injured though, so keep an eye out.”
The permanent gritted smile seemed to be the last thing to fade in the shadows of the passage way.
-----
The party re-grouped, and Ratchis was able to catch up with Kazrack who had found Silverback hiding a hundred yards or so back into the narrow passage they had traveled through.
The old giant commented that the five men the party had run into had attacked him from afar, but that he led them into a quaggoth ambush to avoid them.
Silverback led them along the narrowing cliff edge and then up another passageway, that broadened into a place of many steps going in three different directions. Here he paused and asked for them to describe each to him, before deciding which way they should go. What followed was two hours of going up broad stairs, down narrow twisting ones and then a slow gentle ascent until finally, all other routes and passageways seemed far behind them, and there seemed to be only this one narrow stairway.
Finally, Silverback stopped. As he turned his body, the air changed in the passage, a cold metallic taste caressed them from beyond the giant.
“Ahead is an old watch post. It looks above the central chamber and there is a stair that will lead down to a dry riverbed that is adjacent to the place – which will allow us to take them by surprise, or so we should hope,” his voice was raspy and slower with every word. “There are openings that allow one to look out into the huge chamber, though at this height and with the darkness there will be little to see, but we will most definitely be seen if you make light, so do not.”
Silverback entered the room, and crouched down, nearly crawling to a far corner where he sat down.
“We rest now,” he said. “Tomorrow we go to die.”
Ratchis and Kazrack went into the room and looked around. It was not more than thirty feet wide and about forty-five wide. They immediately could see the openings that looked out and down of the central chamber area, but from where they stood all they could see was darkness. Just off center of the room was a stone bench, about eight feet long, three feet wide and three feet high, decorated with the carvings of countless spiders.
“The cold air feels good,” said Ratchis. “The air was getting oppressive down there.”
“Ratchis! Kazrack!” came a sharp whisper from behind them. It was Martin the Green. “We can’t see. Once we turned off the lantern all but you two were in the dark!”
“Let’s turn on the lantern very low,” suggested Jeremy.
“No!” Ratchis said harshly, but in a whisper. “Here is my hand, we’ll direct you in.”
“I think we can get away with a little bit of light,” said Kazrack.
“No light,” said Silverback
“What do we do now?” Jeremy asked.
“We wait and rest, and tomorrow try to sneak into this central chamber and see if Rahasia or Richard are there,” said Ratchis.
“Right,” agreed Kazrack. “But we should look around here some, and see what we can find out about this chamber and about our options for escape and/or retreat.”
“Might be a good idea,” said Ratchis, he walked over to the openings. He had to squat down because they were obviously built for much shorter people, but Kazrack could see nothing because it was obviously built for people a head taller than him or more.
“You know there is a door over here, looks like it goes outside,” said Kazrack walking over to the left hand wall. “It was kind of half-hidden, but I can make out the mechanism perfectly now.”
And so, the plan was made. Ratchis would cast Silence on the door in case it made a lot of noise while being opened. It was made of stone, but braced with rusted metal. Once this was done Kazrack and Ratchis would go out and see what there was to be seen.
Beyond the door was a narrow stone ledge, which over looked a very long drop off. The watch post was actually built within the corner of an immense piece of stone that made up two sides of the huge chamber. They could not see the walls on the opposite side and directly below them they could make out the vague outline of ridge of soil and stone that might be the edge of the riverbed, and that the center of the chamber was in more than level, with a lower portion being an underground stream with tall banks as well.
There was no way they see of getting down there from here. On one side, the ledge was blocked by an outcropping of rock, and on the other a past rockslide must have smashed away.
They crept back into the room and closed the door before the silence spell was over. One of the others had lit the lantern, and had it burning very low.
“We said no light,” Ratchis said angrily.
“Come on, we need to see,” said Jeremy.
“What if something had happened to you while you were gone and we could not see where it was you went,” reasoned Martin.
“You didn’t even notice it until you came back in because it is so low. There is no way anyone else could see it,” said Jeremy.
“I think it’ll be okay,” said Kazrack.
“Silverback,” Kazrack said. “Do you know another way out of here?”
“There is the stair right here which leads down to the riverbed, that can be followed to the right all way to a cave exit below the town,” the old giant said. “Or back the way we came, not far there is a series of steps that will take you right down to the stream that still runs, this will lead directly into the front of the central chamber.”
The others sat and tried to rest, and turned off the lantern, as the dwarf and the half-orc scrambled around trying to learn more about their surroundings.
“I don’t like it down here,” Thomas said, burying himself deeper into the folds of Martin’s robes.
“It’ll be okay, Thomas,” Martin reassured his familiar.
“I think I am going to go down to the dry riverbed now and just scout around and learn what I can,” Ratchis whispered to Kazrack, as they stood by the archway led to the stairway Silverback had mentioned.
“That would be dangerous,” Kazrack. “But we should learn what we can about this place before rushing in. The ogre chief may be willing to die, but the rest of us are not quite so eager.”
“I won’t take any unnecessary chances,” Ratchis said. “I am going to leave my armor with you, so I will be even more quiet.”
Ratchis and Kazrack began to make their way down the uncharacteristic narrow steps that descended very sharply. Kazrack was to go part of the way down with him, but not forty feet down the stairs, the stone steps themselves stopped, what was left was a slick limestone ramp that the steps had been carved from.
“I had a feeling this places was half-finished,” commented Kazrack. “The stone work here is alien to me, but still skilled, but unfinished, probably tired themselves out with all their extra spider-frills and the baroque ornamentation.”
“Uh, Kazrack, can we discuss this another time, and tie this rope around your waist,” Ratchis replied. “I am going down there, stairs or no stairs.”
“Wait,” Kazrack said, pulling his dwarven rune stein from his pack. “Drink this first. It will fill you with the spirit of Alagh, heroism.”
The dwarf filled the stein with two mouthfuls of wine and passed it to the half-orc, who gave his awkward snarling smile of friendship and drank it down quickly.
Ratchis holding the other end of the rope, began to lower himself down the slick stone. There were only occasional little rough spots of rock that could pass for hand-holds, but most of the descent Kazrack held up the hulking half-orc by brute strength. However, even nearly fifty feet of rope was not enough for Ratchis to reach the bottom of the shaft.
He sighed.
Ratchis scooted over to the very corner of the shaft, trying to wedge himself between the wall and the floor to give himself more slack.
He let go of the rope and moved and immediately tumbled head first down the shaft. He threw out a hand and a foot and halted his fall panfully, but just precariously.
“Ratchis! Ratchis!” Kazrack hissed down the shaft.
“Lower the rope more,” Ratchis hissed back. “I can’t make it down. I need to come back up.”
Kazrack came to the very edge of the end of the stairs and lowered the rope as far as he could. The frayed end of it was only seven inches short of Ratchis.
Ratchis sighed again. “Lower!”
“As low as I goes,” Kazrack replied.
The half-orc leapt from his awkward position up towards the rope, but his leg came off the wall at a weird angle, and he tossed himself more outward than upward, and less than a second later he was tumbling all the way down into the darkness, trying hard to keep his yelps and groans of pain as quiet as possible. At the end was a final fifteen foot straight drop. He lay on a hard stone floor covered in a light drizzle of sand. He sighed again.
Ratchis was in a tiny chamber no more than ten feet at its widest point, but there was a narrow crack, through which he could spy a plateau that lead right down into the dry riverbed.
He got up achingly, and felt a dozen scratches and scrapes burning a once. “Nephthys, close these minor wounds so that they may not be my undoing when I a suffer greater ones,” he said, clutching the scored and broken chain about his waist.
Back at the top of the shack, Kazrack waited at the top for a moment listening to the echoes of Ratchis’ painful descent fade away. He then went back to the watch-post where the others rested.
He told them what happened.
“What the hell were you doing playing around in the first place?’ Jeremy asked.
“We were not playing around,” Kazrack said angrily.
“Ya could have fooled me,” Jeremy said, grabbing his gear and walking past the dwarf carrying the lantern, which he had re-lit, but had on very low.
Jana, Martin, Jeremy and Kazrack got to the edge of the stairway, with Tirhas observing from a few feet back. Jeremy turned up the lantern some more, since there was less chance of anyone seeing the light here.
Kazrack tied the rope around his waist, “Jeremy, you’ll have to lower me down as far as the rope can go.”
“Where is the other rope?” Jeremy asked. “Didn’t Ethiel give us two ropes.”
“Yes, there were two ropes,” Tirhas concurred.
“Ratchis has the other one,” Kazrack said resignedly.
“Well, that’s real smart,” said Jeremy.
“There’s no point in arguing about it now,” said Kazrack.
“Right, there’s no point to any of this at all,” Martin the Green said, tersely. “We don’t even know what we are getting into or where we are going or for what.”
“We’re going after the drow witch, Martin,” Jeremy said, sounding confused.
Martin sighed, “I know. Forget it!”
Jeremy lowered Kazrack slowly, with some help from Jana and Martin, until they ran out of slack. Kazrack then slid his shield beneath himself and untied the rope. The dwarf rocketed down the shaft, turning 180 degrees and then tipping over onto his side as he slammed into the opposite wall of the shaft and down the final fifteen feet with a loud groan.
Ratchis looked down at him.
“What the hell are you doing down here?” Ratchis hissed.
“I came to help you to make sure you were all right,” Kazrack replied.
Ratchis rolled his eyes, “There is no way back up there. The way is too steep and slippery. We’re in trouble, because if we get attacked here, we have nowhere to go.”
A few moments later they heard the wild hooting of quaggoths passing by outside the crack. Ratchis ducked down, and crept to the opposite side of the crack, but beyond in the gray darkness he could see nothing but dim shadows of movement.
Suddenly he heard another voice passing as well, but it did not sound like a quaggoth, it sound like a soft-voiced woman, making a very clear representation of the melodic hooting. They were calling back and forth. She was giving orders!
The quaggoths passed just as Kazrack heard the yelp and the thumping of Jana tumbling down the shaft. He caught her and stepped backward and landed on his rear, and her hip bone struck him heavily on the forehead.
“Nephthys have mercy!” Ratchis hissed. “Is everyone going to come down here and risk their lives? Kazrack you should have told them to stay up there!”
“And split up the group and leave you to die?” said Kazrack. “We needed to come down here anyway.”
Jana nodded, and said, “Get ready, Martin should be next. Ratchis, I brought your chain shirt with me.”
Martin hung from the rope in the utter pitch dark (the lantern had been sent down with Jana, as Jeremy held a dagger with the light spell on it).
“I just gotta let go. I just gotta let go. I just gotta let go. I just gotta let go,” he said over and over again, but simply hung there.
“Martin! You have to let go!” Jeremy called down.
The Watch-Mage gulped and whispered, “Hold on Thomas!” He let go of rope and slid down the shaft. Amazingly, he was able to keep from flipping and slipping, holding his robes open beneath him, and trying to steer by yanking on one side or another.
Below Kazrack heard Martin’s approaching shriek, he braced himself to catch the mage. The impact was loud, as both cried out and Kazrack went flying back against the opposite wall. Ratchis, who had moved over to the other side of the crack to keep an eye open for foes, turned to look at the dwarf, and in that moment, a quaggoth leapt int oteh cavern, hooting loudly and swinging its club at the half-orc.
Stunned, Martin moaned, “We’re all going to die.”
