NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4143210" data-attributes="member: 143">Hope no one is getting bored with the Adventures of the Bad Guys; we'll get back to the DBs eventually, but I was enjoying this little diversion into a different perspective, and I ended up fleshing it out more than I'd initially intended.* * * * * Chapter 12LEAVING A BLOODY TRAIL“Bloodsuckers and meat puppets,” the Seer said.  “Those things are what we will become, if we let the mushrooms touch us.”  He lifted his hands and began incanting a spell.  The toadstools and their puppets shambled forward to attack.  Zuur’ka and Falah stepped forward to block them from the casters, but their enemies moved too slowly, giving them ample time to unleash their magic. Navev gestured, and a forest of twining black tentacles erupted from the floor, seizing all three of the bloodsuckers and the four meat puppets.  The puppets, their bones dissolved by the process of their transformation, squished violently as the tentacles tightened around their bodies, and a terrible moaning rose from within the area of the invocation as the dark energies began to freeze them solid.  “Effective,” Ghazaran said.  They merely watched as the guardians struggled to escape the chilling tentacles.  One of the bloodsuckers tore free and approached them.  Zuur’ka stepped forward to meet the thing, but before it could reach the edge of the tentacles Navev hit it with an eldritch blast, knocking it back into the center of the effect.  Within a minute it was done, and as the tentacles vanished back into nothing only a mess of crushed and frozen matter was left behind on the floor. “Well, shall we proceed?” the cleric suggested. They were alert for other dangers, but the cavern did not present further hazards until they reached the far side.  The cavern’s walls narrowed around them as they followed a bend into a long, tapering tunnel that culminated in a stone door set deep into the surrounding wall.  Zuur’ka started toward the portal, but Ghazaran held the nycaloth back. “There are black encrustations upon the wall around that door,” the cleric said, holding up his hand so that the daylight could better illuminate the area. The Seer peered at the substance from a safe distance.  “Ah, memory moss, I believe.  A dangerous hazard—you have good eyes, priest.”“My kind are accustomed to the dangers of the underworld,” the cleric replied.  The colony of moss was obliterated by a fireball from the Seer.  The door was sealed, and while they found a keyhole, none of them possessed the skill to defeat the lock.  The question became moot when Navev blasted the portal with a series of eldritch blasts, reducing it to rubble.  The area beyond the door was once again worked stone, a corridor that deposited them into another large hall.  Here again were ranks of stone sarcophagi, and again some permanent illusion magic reshaped the designs atop them into the visages of the companions.  This time, however, the faces carved into the stone bore expressions of terror and suffering, and the detail work was sufficient that they could discern worms eating at the flesh of their arms and legs, strips of skin being flayed away, and other depictions of tortures in progress.“A charming place,” Ghazaran said dryly, as they made their way to the far side of the hall.  The only exit was another shaft leading down, navigated by another iron ladder.  Zuur’ka and the Seer flew down, while Navev merely glanced over the edge and magically transported himself to the bottom.  They waited while Ghazaran, followed by Falah, took the more traditional means of the ladder to descend.   “How long is this going to take?” Zuur’ka asked, as Ghazaran stepped down off the last of the rungs onto the floor of the shaft.  “I have important matters awaiting my attention in Gehenna.”“If we do not complete the task within the fourteen hours allotted within our contract, I will release you,” Ghazaran said.  “By my estimation, it has been little more than one hour since I called you to the Prime.”The nycaloth subsided again, muttering imprecations. The bottom of the shaft contained a pair of heavy doors of black marble, set with large pull-handles in thick, shiny brass.  Navev stepped forward again, its magic coalescing around its bandaged fingers, but this time the doors were neither locked nor trapped, and Zuur’ka pulled them open with ease.  The heavy doors swung on recessed hinges, assisted by some sort of hidden counterweight. “How much further to the entrance of the Bloodways?” Ghazaran asked. “We grow near,” the Seer replied.  “There is another set of guardians, and perhaps the mistress of this dungeon.  With Orcus gone, I do not know if she will still be present.”“She?”“An undead thing, of ancient and eldritch power.  She was my escort on my first visit here.”“Interesting.  If I may ask, what was your errand, on that initial visit?”“I sought knowledge,” the Seer said.  “Many and powerful are the secrets of Rappan Athuk.”“Indeed.”  The cleric turned to Zuur’ka, who was waiting impatiently at the doors.  “By all means, let us proceed,” he said.  He fell in beside the Seer and Navev; for now Falah brought up the rear. The doorway gave onto a short passage that opened onto another long hall.  A large stone arch, carved into an oval with curved lines decorating its length, served as the transition from tunnel to chamber.  Ghazaran’s light shone off a high ceiling of polished white marble, a stark contrast to the dark and neglected areas that they had passed through thus far.The Seer held them at the arch.  “Arrek veltex,” he said.  “A password?” Ghazaran asked. “It should be safe now... if my memory is accurate.”The cleric’s reply was a raised eyebrow.  But nothing happened when they moved into the hall, and as they made their way down its length, following it around a bend to the left, they came to another set of black doors.  These had been carved extensively, and while they had been defaced by deep slashes across their surface, it was immediately obvious what they had been shaped to represent. “The demon lord looks rather reduced,” Ghazaran observed, looking up at the damaged depiction of Orcus.“The lords of the Abyss still squabble over the spoils,” Zuur’ka intoned, issuing a noise that might have been a laugh.  “The pits roil with chaos unleashed.”“Such is a constant, if anything in the Abyss can be called such,” the Seer observed.  “In any case, I believe the doors to be safe; at least I cannot detect any fell auras about them.”The doors opened to reveal a downward sloping corridor, a full twenty feet wide and fifteen feet tall.  The walls were covered with plaster, which bore images of funeral rites that grew more morbid and disturbing with each step.  The hall extended straight for almost the full range of Ghazaran’s light, ultimately turning left.  The group made its way forward.  The hall continued its subtle but steady descent as they continued around the bend.  Their light indicated another left turn up ahead as Zuur’ka paused, its eyes narrowing as it focused its stare into realms beyond the mere physical. “Three quasits approach,” the nycaloth said. “I will deal with them,” the Seer said.  He stepped forward and said, “I will answer your questions, and pass beyond to the Bloodways.”But the only response was a frenzied flapping.  “The imps withdraw,” Zuur’ka said, his tone indicating that he was not impressed by these defenders.Ghazaran and the Seer exchanged a look.  “It would seem that discipline among the guardians has broken down,” the cleric observed. “This does not bode well,” the mage said.  They set out again, the yugoloth in the lead. The hall turned once more, and culminated in a large chamber.  Here the images that decorated the plaster were truly grim, filled with demons and other foul things that cavorted among the ritualists, seizing the dead and dragging the souls of the departed down to the Abyss.  The chamber held no furnishings or other decorations, but there were three quasits darting and dancing in the air near the far wall.  As soon as they caught sight of the intruders, the little demons darted toward the wall.  As they reached it, the trio vanished into the plaster, each passing into a painstakingly detailed and gruesome image of a tall, vulpine vrock demon.  None of the companions were particularly surprised when the images began to shimmer and twist, and the demons stepped out of the mural, taking on solid substance as they confronted the intruders. “Well now,” Ghazaran said, as the vrocks shrieked and leapt at them.</blockquote>

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