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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3246791" data-attributes="member: 143">10,000+ views... w00t!I played around with some of the NPC names in this section, as a riff on some of the ideas I brought up in my last post RE naming.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> * * * * * Chapter 68THE MADNESS OF BANTHThey had been victorious over the master transmuter of Rappan Athuk, but the cost had been incredible.  All of them had been burned, frozen, and beaten to within an inch of their lives.  Dar couldn’t even rise until Allera healed him, and he likely would have bled to death if she’d lingered just a few more seconds. “Gods and demons,” Dar said, once Talen had helped him to his feet.  “Who was that guy?”“His name was Banth,” the old man said, coming to stand before them.  “He was mad, driven by his quest for power and his desires to create ‘perfect’ beings.  You will not understand fully until you see what lies beyond yonder door.”“And who are you?” Talen asked. The old man bowed.  “My name is Setarcos,” he said.  “I am Drusian, as was Banth.  I am a member of the Order of the Vigilant Fists, a monastic association dedicated to the protection and preservation of the natural order of the world.  When Banth first came to our attention years ago, he had already earned a reputation as a monster.  Three members of my order were sent to deal with him.”“I take it you were unsuccessful,” Varo said. The old man nodded.  “We underestimated his power.  Banth had uncovered a cache of ancient magic in one of the tombs of the Old Fathers, including items of eldritch power and lore that greatly enhanced his own considerable talents.  Otalp and Eltotsira, my brothers, were tortured and slain by the transmuter, but I was transformed into the form of a harmless white mouse.  That was his favorite way of dealing with his enemies; at one time he had a cage full of them.”“So it would seem,” Varo said.  He opened up his hand, revealing a furry little white mouse.  The creature tried to jump out of his palm, but the cleric quickly grabbed it with his other hand.    “The elf?” Talen asked.  Varo nodded.  “Well, he’s easier to carry now, at least,” Dar said.  “Will you be able to dispel the enchantment?” Allera asked. “With some effort, perhaps,” the cleric replied.  “But I think that our fighter may have a point.  It may be wiser to keep him in this form, given his mental state... at least until we win free of the dungeon.”“I hope you kept that cheese from the ogre lair,” Dar said. “I am curious why the mage threw you at us,” Talen said.  “The cockatrices, I can understand, but why release you?” “I think he may have even forgotten that I was still alive.  He kept his mice in a large brass cage, jumbled together.  Some of them retained awareness of what they were, while others were mice in mind as well as in body.  I think he enjoyed watching us suffer the complications inherent in our new condition.  When you arrived, myself and the three transformed cockatrices were all that were left.  He tossed us into the sack... you know the rest.”“A costly error, on his part,” Varo said.  “Your aid was instrumental in our victory.”The monk nodded modestly.  “Where is this place?” he asked.  “You are not Drusian, and I do not recognize the architectural style here.”“You’re a long way from Drusia,” Dar said, as Talen said, “This place is in a southern Camar, a dungeon known as Rappan Athuk.”The monk nodded.  “The Dungeon of Graves.  Yes, its reputation is known even in distant Drusia.  Appropriate, it would seem, for one such as Banth to end up here.  A suitably grim locale for his foul arts.  It would seem that I have you to thank for completing my mission, and rescuing me from the clutches of the wizard, although my current situation does not appear to be less dire for it.”“We’re not too happy about it either,” Dar said.  “We’re not here by choice... most of us, anyway.  I don’t suppose you know the way out of here?”The monk shook his head.  “While I retained some flickering remnant of my consciousness while in my altered form, my memories of that state are... cluttered.  Before I was cast into that sack, I spent most of my time in the transmuter’s laboratory, although sometimes he brought the cage into the chamber where he held his experimental stock captive.”“Experimental stock?” Allera asked.  The monk nodded.  “It is not pleasant,” he said. “What about the woman?” Dar asked.  “The one who sicced the golem on us.”“Woman?”“She was in her twenties, plain looking, rude-cropped hair,” Varo said. “It sounds like Banth’s apprentice,” Setarcos said.  “Kupra.  I do not know where she came from, only that she appeared here about... six or seven months ago?  He abused her terribly.  She treated me and other creatures kindly; I do not believe that she is tainted with the same evil that pervaded Banth.”“She might be able to help us,” Allera said. “Um, are you forgetting the golem?” Dar said.  “She tried to kill us!” “Almost everything in this place has,” Talen said.  “If she attacks us again, we may have to kill her, but Setaros is right, she might be willing to change sides.”“First, we have to find her,” Varo said.  He indicated the door.  “I believe we’ll find the wizard’s quarters through there.”Talen turned to the monk.  “This place is extremely dangerous.  You are welcome to accompany us, but I ask that you defer to my leadership.  We have clashed with the cult of Orcus and the undead creatures that dwell in this place, but our primary objective is to find a way out.”Setarcos bowed.  “A goal I wholeheartedly share,” he said. After checking the wizard’s body for loot, the companions, now numbering five, turned to the far door.  Allera and Varo had worked their remaining healing upon them, but were unable to fully restore their bodies from the abuse Banth and his deadly allies had inflicted upon them.  Dar, in particular, looked wretched, his recently-acquired garments once again cut, burned, and soaked with blood both from himself and his enemies.  But the fighter took up his club and his position at the front of the line without complaint.  Well, without much complaint. “Wretched or not, if that bitch casts a spell on me, I’m going to put her head through the wall,” he said.  “The same goes for anything beyond that door!” he growled loudly, as they drew close. “Your companion does not appear to value the advantage of tactical surprise,” Setarcos said. “Yeah, well, you get used to it,” Allera said dryly.The door opened onto a passage that quickly deposited them in a long room, brightly illuminated by permanent magical lights set in sconces high along the walls.  The place had a distinctive aroma of beasts, mingled with a heady scent of fear.  As they moved into the room, they could see that it was dominated by large iron cages, some arranged along the walls, others set into recesses in the floor.  The cages were all occupied, and as they drew closer, each of them could see what Setarcos had been getting at before. The prisoners were wretched beings, animals that had been horribly mutilated.  The first contained several monkeys that each possessed five arms.  The creatures barely stirred as they entered, looking up at them with expressions of pure suffering.  The other cages contained mergings of different creatures, beings with features of rats, wolves, spiders, or even humanoids.  None of them did more than recoil against the back of their cages as they approached. “This is... terrible,” Allera said, her expression stricken.  “Banth was a monster,” Setarcos said simply, his own eyes filled with grief. “We should put these things out of their misery,” Dar said. “No!” Allera said.  “They are innocent!”But Talen put his hand on her shoulder.  “I know, Allera,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.  “But what can we do for them?  We cannot bring them with us... and if we set them free, into Rappan Athuk, we may as well be sentencing them to death, an end far more grim than what we could offer.”“I... I don’t know,” Allera said, turning away from him. “There is a door over here,” Varo said, pointing at the far wall as he completed his circuit of the room.  “Maybe you could take her out of here,” Dar said to him.  “Just for a few minutes.”“No,” Allera said, turning back to them.  “No, if this must be done, then I should do it.  I can... I can minimize their suffering.”“This creature has not been mutilated,” Setarcos said, drawing their attention to a row of bars covering a long pit in the middle of the floor.  The companions gathered over the pit, where they could see a massive tiger lying in filth below.  The creature was almost twelve feet long.  It looked up at them as they stared down, but did not make any other movements. “A dire tiger,” Varo said.  “It does not look as though Banth had gotten to it, yet.”“What’s that?” Dar said, noting movement within the pen.  Varo pointed the light of his staff through the bars.“Oh gods,” Allera said.  “Cubs...”The little cubs were each over three feet long, but it was still obvious that they had not been long outside of their mother.  Allera fell to her knees beside the cage, tears falling down her face.  “No, I cannot,” she said.  Dar looked at Talen.  “You should leave, Allera...” the mercenary began.  “No,” she said, looking up at him with a ferocious expression.  “No,” she repeated.  “I will help you with the others; they have suffered long enough, and I accept that nothing can be done for them but to ease their torment.  But these, these neither you nor I shall harm.”“We cannot just let them go,” Talen said.  “The mother, at least, is dangerous.  She may look quiet now, but she must weigh thousands of pounds.  Defending her cubs, she would tear us to pieces.”“Leave them to me,” Allera said.  “I give you my word that I will not threaten the safety of the group, Talen.”There was a moment of awkward silence, but none of them seemed willing to challenge the healer’s commitment on that issue.“So that is decided,” Varo finally said.  “But before we take any action, I would recommend that we finish our search, and resolve the matter of the wizard’s apprentice.”They all agreed to the cleric’s suggestion, and gathered near the door.  When Dar indicated that he was ready, Talen tried to pull it open, without success. “It’s jammed,” he said.  A few seconds later, the door exploded inward.  Dar strode through the remains of it, his club in his hand.  The space beyond the door was little more than a large closet, maybe fifteen feet on a side.  It was crowded with a small, sagging bed, a crude desk formed out old crates topped with uneven lengths of board, and a chair that looked as though it would collapse at the slightest disturbance.  Otherwise, the room was empty.  “Nobody in here,” Dar said.  Talen and Varo had followed him in, standing in the threshold of the ruined door.  Varo stepped in, and took a quick look around, careful not to disturb anything that might be trapped. Finally, he stepped back, and pointed toward the bed.  Dar strode forward, and heaved the bed over with a single massive yank.  It flipped over, revealing the gray-robed woman huddling beneath it.  She shrieked and tried to rush past, but Dar seized her and hurled her against the wall.  Her breath was knocked out of her, and before she could get enough of it back to yell again, Dar was there, one hand around her throat, the other holding his club. “One word of magic, and your brains will be splattered all over this wall,” he growled.  The young woman stared at him with eyes wide, paralyzed with terror.</blockquote>

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