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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3641821" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 209AFTERThe sky was a dirty gray blanket, the air thick with chill.  But for the five humans that emerged from the narrow hillside cave into the weak light of afternoon, the relief was palpable. There was no conversation with their guides.  The goblins cared little for parlay, and they faded back into the darkness. “Mark this place,” Shay said.  “In case we need to return.”There was no reply to the scout’s comment, but it was quite clear what her companions thought of the implication of her statement.“The goblins said that the ruin is less than a league to the west,” Dar said.  They started in that direction, but the going was slow due to the choking brush that covered the hillsides, and gathered in tangled thickets in the low dells between.  Shay moved into the lead. There was little conversation.  Talen remained silent, his eyes shadowed by deep hollows.  Varo had been able to resurrect him, after freeing the knight’s life force from the ring that had protected it following his brutal death at the hands of Maphistal.  The spell had exhausted Varo’s hidden cache of diamonds, but even if he had possessed more, there was nothing he could have done for Kalend; the thief’s essence had been consumed by the Sphere of Souls upon his death. Dar and Allera remained in close proximity.  The healer had restored Dar’s arm, but no mere spell could fully erase the memory of what they had experienced.  They said almost nothing, but Dar was there to provide a supporting hand whenever they essayed a particularly difficult stretch of terrain, and Allera accepted the help freely, her touch lingering a moment after they’d negotiated each such obstacle. Varo remained alone.  He spoke to no one, and no one tried to speak to him.  The cleric had a dark, contemplative look frozen on his features. He had not shared what he had seen, after Shay had destroyed the Sphere of Souls.  Dar had asked him, once, after they’d regained consciousness in the dark and empty temple of Orcus, some time later.  What had happened?  Had they won?  Was it over?For a long minute, Varo had not replied.  Finally, he had said, “I do not know.”Allera had stopped the bleeding from Dar’s severed arm before they had confronted Maphistal, so the fighter had not bled to death while lying insensate on the stone floor of the temple.  When they had all finally stirred, they’d had no idea how long they had been unconscious, only that nothing had crept up to disturb them.  The only thing left of the Sphere was a few shards of broken glass scattered on the floor around the bare steel length of Beatus Incendia.  They had packed up Talen’s body carefully, placing it in Shay’s bag of holding for transport.  Dar had brought Kalend’s body himself, despite the lack of his arm.  With the Sphere gone, they could now see the massive stone statue of Orcus on the far side of the temple, a huge construct of black onyx caked with the blood and gore of old sacrifices.  Before it stood a basin that was filled with hot, bubbling blood.  They hadn’t messed with the altar.  Varo had merely walked over to it, taken a look, and then returned to the entry where the others had been preparing to depart. They had each expected to meet resistance on their way out, and Shay had carried Beatus Incendia openly, the holy flames dancing up the length of the blade.  But they had not encounted so much as a zombie on their way out, as they retraced their steps through the third temple level, back up to the slave pits, and then up the stairs to Grezneck.  They had finally run into something living there, but it had only been a party of goblin scouts, and some fast talking by Shay had averted conflict. The goblins had permitted them hospitality of a sort, although it was clear that the “alliance” had died with Herzord.  The goblin leadership had devolved to a triumvirate of sorts, with one of the surviving hobgoblin fighters, a goblin cleric of Dagos, and their erstwhile companion, Filcher, jointly calling the shots.  With goblins being what they were, it was likely that a strong leader would ultimately rise to the top, but for the moment the creatures seemed content to rebuild their shattered society.  After sealing themselves into a room provided by the goblins, the companions had rested and recovered their spells.  The next “morning” Varo and Allera had restored Talen and Dar, and healed Shay.  They cremated Kalend, and Dar had taken the thief’s ashes with him for burial somewhere where the sun shone and the wind blew. None of them had wanted to linger a moment longer than was necessary.  After meeting with Filcher, they had learned that the goblins had another secret way out of Rappan Athuk, a vertical shaft that connected the deep tunnels near Grezneck with the rough hills above.  The goblins had been reluctant to share their secret with outsiders, but Dar and Allera made a potent diplomatic combination, with the healer’s conciliation nicely offsetting the fighter’s casual statements about putting every single living thing in Rappan Athuk to the sword.  The two groups were happy to be finally rid of each other. So now they found themselves crossing the rough hills near Rappan Athuk once more.  The weak light of the day began to weaken with the promise of night, and they hastened their pace, hoping to come upon the army’s camp before night descended on the hills. “I smell smoke,” Dar said, as they made their way up another rugged slope toward yet another crest.  “We must be getting close,” Shay said.  “They should have patrols out...”  She trailed off as another smell reached them over the evening breeze, one that was all too familiar to each of them. “No... no...” Allera said, hastening her pace toward the crest of the hill.  The others hurried after.  “Wait, Allera!” Dar warned, but the healer did not stop, and unburdened by the fighter’s heavy armor, she quickly left him behind.  Shay, augmented by her magical boots, caught up to her just as she reached the summit, and the two women stopped there, frozen by what they saw. “What...” Dar began as he reached them, then trailed off as he looked down at the ruins spread out below them. The site had once been a considerable stronghold.  It had not been built on the tallest of the surrounding hills, but the ruin was flanked on three sides by steep cliffs at least fifty feet high, leaving only a rough, steep slope to the west as the only feasible means of access.  The only thing left of the ancient structures that had topped the bluff was heaps of tumbled stone that formed the rough outlines of walls around the perimeter, but even that offered considerable benefits for a determined defender.  Not that it had helped the men who had gathered here. The companions were silent as they made their way down the hill to the base of the bluff, then climbed back up the narrow trail that switchbacked up to the ruin.  They started encountering bodies even before they reached the trail, and at least two dozen more littered the path up the bluff.  Some of them had been worked over by scavengers, but there was enough left to show that they had been killed by powerful, vicious blows.  In some cases, what was left was scattered over a small area, and many of the bodies were... incomplete.“What... what did this?” Shay asked, pale despite all of the death that she had already seen on this mission. No one had an answer.  Allera continued up the bluff, forcing Shay to hurry to keep up.  Dar, bringing up the rear with Talen and Varo due to the weight and bulk of his armor, cursed and followed as quickly as he could.  At the top of the bluff there was a gate of sorts into the camp; the walls had been patched up recently, and what was left of a wooden gate lay scattered about.  There were more bodies, another dozen or so.  Those whose garments could still be recognized were split roughly equally between the orange and brown of the city The flies and the stench hinted at more among the maze of stone blocks further back. “Ikarus!” Allera yelled, although there was no indication that anything lived in this place.  The stench and other clues suggested that what had happened here had taken place days ago, at least.  “Ikarus!” Allera repeated, clambering over the ruined gate to head deeper into the camp.  The wreckage of bodies grew thicker as the healer delved further past the gate.  The clinical part of her mind registered the incredible carnage.  She recognized the places where soldiers had sought shelter under the stone blocks of fallen walls, only to have been dug out and torn apart.  “What... what could have done this?” Talen said, looking around. “Whatever it was, it was big,” Dar said, bending to examine a print in the lee of a nearby wall.  The claw-shaped print was almost double the length of Dar’s booted foot. Shay indicated a fragmentary wall that bore deep gouge marks along its top.  “Whatever it was, its claws could score solid granite,” the scout said.  Dar pressed forward, “Allera!  Damn it, hold up!” He found her just ahead, in the doorway of a structure that been at least partially rebuilt.  The low walls had been hastily mortared with new stone in places, and there were sockets for support beams in anticipation of a new roof.  It looks like the work had only just gotten started when the attack had come.  There were shattered planks scattered about, reduced to kindling; clearly they hadn’t been enough to stop the attacker. Dar looked over Allera’s shoulder and froze. The last stand had taken place here, it seemed.  There were over fifty mangled bodies crowded into the wide open interior of the place.  Dar recognized the camp chairs and overturned briefing table scattered around the edges of the room; this had been the headquarters of the base.  Blood gathered in thick puddles across the floor, and the air was thick with flies.  Dar did not recognize any of the men here, but at least half of them wore the familiar if haphazard non-uniform of the Border Legion.  His men.  Allera started forward, but Dar held her arms.  “Allera, no.”“Let go of me,” she said, quietly.  He released her, and she walked into the room, her boots leaving sucking prints in the sodden, bloody ground.  She walked over to the far side of the chamber, and crouched beside a ruin of a body.  There wasn’t much left to identify, but as she reached down and carefully lifted a bloody fold of cloak, she saw a human hand, severed at the wrist.  It was still clutching a wand, and she did not need to pick it up to know its manufacture.She started to shake.  Dar was there, and the fighter took her in his arms, and brought her back to the doorway.  The others were there, their eyes wide as they took it in. “The entire outpost, destroyed,” Shay said.  “Six hundred men, just... gone.”  “Surely some of them must have fled,” Talen said. Allera was turned away from them, staring at nothing.  “It hunted them down,” she said, her voice as cold as ice.  “It did not stop until they were all gone.”“I didn’t see Doran Pravos in there, but he would have gone down fighting,” Dar said.  “The question you need to be asking is, where is it now?” Varo said, adding his first words since they’d left Rappan Athuk. As one, their gazes turned north, toward the line of hills that extended off as far as they could see. Toward Camar. THE END OF BOOK 3</blockquote>

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