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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Canaan" data-source="post: 3253303" data-attributes="member: 40239">Chapter 32: The Dark-SidersAt last the steep stony mountain path began to level out. Talon lead the way, keeping several paces in front of myself, Lilian and Hu Li. Shallahai had transformed himself into a bird and flew gracefully far above us as we toiled up the path.         Talon stopped and waited for us to catch up. Shallahai roosted on a small outcropping on the side of a cliff nearby. Up ahead we all spotted what was undoubtedly the entrance to the mine. The mouth was only 6 feet tall, but spanned nearly 40 feet in width. The softened earth was scarred with tracks left from cart wheels, mule hooves and the boots of miners. Empty carts stood in a row to the west of the mine and we could smell the heavy stench of the mules’ manure wafting from a wooden stable just behind the carts. Other than the occasional irritated neighing the tethered mules emitted from their cells, all was quiet. Canaan’s grace was with us. We had arrived at a time when no miners were on duty.     Talon suddenly jerked his head toward the east. A muddy road snaked off behind a tall cliff just beyond the mine’s entrance. Talon turned to us and whispered. “Someone is coming.”    Just then a solitary armored figure with a halberd slung lazily across his shoulders appeared and made his way toward the mine. He suddenly became alert as he saw us and deftly took hold of his halberd, lowered it threateningly.     “What business have you at Dourstone’s Mine?” He asked with authority, but there was something else in his tone, something oddly congenial and welcoming.    “We seek passage into the mines.” Lilian answered striding forward, her hand resting on the pommel of her sword. “We hail from Turgos and learned that a great evil resides in the mines. We mean to destroy it.”    The guard watched her a moment and then dropped his stern demeanor. “You don’t want to go to the mines. You want to go to what’s under them.”  The guard said sagely.    Lilian looked back at us as if for assurance she had heard him correctly.    “You know what is in these caves?” I asked the guard.     He laughed. “Of course! We all do! We are hired to keep people, people like you, out so they can… do whatever it is they do down there. Dourstone’s been paid handsomely by those blokes. But me? I’d be better off a slave. At least slaves get fed. I have to take copper out of my wages to pay for the slop they call food up here.”     He spat at the ground.     Lilian strode forward. She moved in and spoke to the guard softly and conspiratorially.    “How much do you require?” She asked the man, her face so close to his that I imagined her having to battle with his noxious breath. “How much to purchase your aid? We require a guide who can see us safely through the maze of caverns…”    “One thousand gold coins.” The man abruptly interrupted. I was beyond shock. A thousand gold coins? That is more than most poor souls would see in a score of lifetimes. Lilian opened her mouth to counter the offer, but the man held up his gauntleted hand.     “That is my fare.” He said firmly. “Take it, or find some other fool to risk his livelihood and his life to aid you.”     Lilian nodded at the man and rejoined us. Hu Li was the first to respond to the guard’s demand.      “Let me transmogrify this mongoloid into gruel.” He snarled. “There should be enough of him to last us for days.”     “He is not evil.” Lilian told us. “He is little more than a slave, and by his tone, he is desperate to leave this place. This gold frees him, and he has the potential to go off and do good, rather than rot here protecting evil.”     “Not to mention we’ll be lost in those caves without his help.” I added. “What is gold to us? Give to Soliel what is theirs. Give to Canaan what is His.”     After more grumbling from Hu Li, which we ignored, we emptied our pouches. Shallahai and Talon had nothing of earthly value on their persons and, thus, could not contribute to this cause. Between the few hundred coins I carried, the small pile of gold in Lilian’s purse and the half dozen pearls Hu Li was willing to part with, we collected a worthy sum of just over nine hundred gold.     It proved to be sufficient and the guard agreed to be our guide into Dourstone’s mine.     “I will take you only to the shaft that leads to the temple.” The guard warned us.  “After that, I am taking this money and going on a very long holiday.”    It was the last words he spoke to us. With our greedy stranger in the lead, we ventured into the cave. Several times he stopped us and maneuvered ahead, out of our view. Each time Hu Li shot us all a vexed look.    “Ready yourselves.” He would hiss. “He means to betray us to his Masters.”     And then, just as the paranoid wizard finished, the guard would reappear and beckon us forward with a gesture of his hand. We would hurriedly follow. Talon noted to us later that, each time, he spotted the boots of other guards or dwarf miners turning corners to our left or right, timed perfectly so as to guarantee no chance of them either seeing or hearing us.     “This guard…” I told the ascetic. “… clearly earned his wage.”     After what felt like hours of this fox-ducking-from-the-hounds gambit, the guard brought us to a lonely, unassuming wooden lift. It was illuminated by four dim flickers of oil lamps that hung on wrought iron hooks that had been hammered into the roughly shorn walls. A thick coil of rope tethered the lift to an iron pulley.      Lilian turned to thank our guide for his service, but he was gone. Hu Li’s eyes narrowed into slits.     “He has gone to warn his allies.” He whispered. “We have been duped!”     Lilian and Talon both ignored the mage’s warning by bravely moving up to the lift.     “He did his job.” Shallahai said. “The rest is up to us.”     Hu Li harrumphed and opened his mouth to counter Shallahai’s call, but he was interrupted by Lilian’s voice.    “We found the lift’s crank.” The Champion of Canaan said with command. “We go down.”     “My Lady…” Hu Li began, affecting a syrupy relish to his voice that failed to mask his cowardice. “Must we be so hasty? Must we, once again, go blindly into a…”    “Yes.” Lilian said with such righteous and fearless determination that all heads turned to her.  She had the mien of a woman who had made up her mind and would not be argued with.  For a moment there was a palpable silence, and then Lilian took hold of the crank that lowered the lift. “Everyone on board.” She ordered.     We obeyed and gathered onto the wooden planks. Lilian turned the crank. We were slowly lowered down a narrow shaft that suddenly opened up into a wide, smooth cavern lit by blood red tongues of flames dancing within pools of brass braziers that lined the cavern floor. As eerie and unsettling was the light those braziers cast, I was quietly thankful for it, for nearly one third of the floor was occupied by a massive pool. It was filled to nearly overflowing by some unnamable black ooze. I feared if there had been no light, one of us would have undoubtedly fallen prey to the pool’s horrors.     No one spoke. The lift ended its descent and we parted from it. We were in the dead center of the cavern. The walls were surprisingly smooth and expertly crafted. Three corridors, one leading North, one East and one West, jutted out from the chambers. Each ended after only ten feet with a large iron door bearing a symbol. The pool took up the Southern portion of the chamber. In the dim light, and at the distance we stood, it was difficult to discern what each symbol was, but I had little doubt what one would be to devil tyrant Bael, one to the horrid sleeping god of death, Nerull and the last to the vile demon prince of bloodletting, Lazbrul’thul.     We had found it, the tri-temple of the Axis of Annihilation.     “Talon!” I heard Shallahai calling in a harsh whisper. I turned to see that the fey’s spirit within the monk had again taken hold. Talon had gone up to one of the braziers and stood transfixed and giddy by the chaotic ballet. Shallahai took a few steps over to him, but Lilian interceded.     “Leave him.” She said. I admit I was surprised by her suggestion. “Allow him a moment’s indulgence, lest he be continuously burdened by the spirits that haunt him, with no respite from their whispers. As he is lost to their song, let our remainder investigate these doors.”    “Yes. Doors.” Hu Li mumbled just loud enough for me alone to hear. “I so love doors. We only ever find wonderful things behind doors. Wonderful, glorious, friendly…”     “Are you finished?” I asked. Hu Li’s chalky mien turned away from me.     “We are all finished.” He snarled. “This is folly.”     The sharp, steely ring of Lilian’s blade being liberated from its sheath filled the stone dome we found ourselves encased within.       “We investigate each doorway, one at a time.” She said with authority. “Be alert. No doubt there will be traps and other surprises awaiting anyone…” “Stupid enough to come down here uninvited?” Hu Li finished her sentence with a satisfied titter. “What of Talon?” The wizard asked with incredulity, waving a thumb at the monk. “Do we just leave him to his show?” “Yes.” She said with finality.  “If his skills are required, we shall wrest him, but until then, we leave him alone.”     At that very moment, a voice, booming and shrill, filled the massive chamber without warning. The suddenness and volume of the noise was severe enough to bring Talon back to sobriety.     “Be off, then!” The voice said. Hu Li trembled. We all recognized it at once. It was Master Balian. “They await you! Go! GO! GO!” Was he speaking to us? To Hu Li? To me? Why was he down here in this pit of depravity? Was he secretly working at odds to us? These questions and countless more flashed like flickers of fireflies before me.     Hu Li had gone fetal, rocking back and forth on the dusty stone floor.     “Master! He calls!” He was almost chanting. “He calls me home! Away! Away! Away from this trough of idiocy! Take me! I am ready!”     Before any of us could react, a fleshy, puckered circular orifice appeared above us. It spun much like a child’s top, and as it did, a viscous slime bled from the center. The slime, as I recall with growing horror as I write this, did not so much splash when it hit the floor, but collected into chunky, turgid, pungent wads. Slowly, the edifice revealed a putrid, boil- bedecked sphincter that bubbled open and ejaculated a solitary figure, cocooned in taupe excrement.     An instant later, the nightmarish portal vanished, leaving its ooze-drowned charge on the cavern floor. It did not move.    “Is it dead, then?” Hu Li asked, taking a step toward it. He recoiled and screamed like a harpy robbed of its mate as the man suddenly sat up, hacking out pounds of gray phlegm from his lungs.     I admit without shame that I shared Hu Li’s horror and was startled enough to recoil, myself. Talon, reclaimed by the intoxicating sighs of his faean proclivities, alone strode forward and bent over the figure. His eyes were lit with curiosity and wonder.     “And who are you?” He asked, his normally stoic voice suffering under the strain of his impish urges. “How did you get here? And what are you covered in? I say, I have never experienced such a potent perfume in all my days!” Talon then did something that forced me to clench my stomach in an effort to lock it down lest I let loose my distressed humours all about the cavern floor. He took a finger full of the waste and brought it up to his trembling proboscis and sniffed, deeply.    “I am Feir’inj.” The man said, wiping slime from his lips. His accent was as thick as the gunk he sat in. I recognized it immediately. The last time I heard such a treatment of the Common tongue it was by the Shuuthian merchant who had purchased the Goldfire Glen shop from Tanner’s family, the one that we later learned was a Succubus.  “I am from Shuuth.” He continued, validating my memory. “I was sent here by a wizard named Balian. For what purpose I know not, only that he was insistent that you needed my aid.” He began to stand, but his sandaled foot slipped on some of the slime under him and he tottered. Luckily Talon had somehow grown lucid in the seconds that had passed and his lightening quick reflexes were sufficient to catch the stranger before he fell. Hu Li stepped forward, waving his arms in elaborate gestures that resembled mopping an oily floor. “Beitir!” He shouted his prestidigitation and ghostly hands bearing buckets of water laden with rose petals appeared all around Feir’inj. The buckets upturned and the Shuuthian was showered by sweet scented arcane fluids. An instant later, the grime was gone from him, Talon and the floor. Even the smell had evaporated. Feir’inj checked his clothing, which consisted of a suit of brown leather armor, a deep green cloak, boots that rode up to his knees and a curved blade that rested in an ornately decorated leather sheath tethered to his belt. All were completely dry. “Thank you, wizard.” Feir’inj said with solemn appreciation. “You must be the Acolyte Hu Li, of whom Balian spoke.” He added. Hu Li gave the stranger a side long glance.     “I… could be....” He answered cautiously. “What did Balian say of this… Hu Li?”     Before Feir’inj could answer, Lilian stepped forward.    “Balian’s wisdom has once again proved fortuitous.” She said, holding out her hand in welcome. Feir’inj looked at her hand for a brief moment as if it were the head of an adder, poised to strike, but then his features softened and he took her hand in his. “Well met, friend Feir’inj.” She continued as they shook hands. “We find ourselves, once again, facing down dangers that may prove beyond us. Any help you may provide in ensuring we succeed in our righteous endeavors is most humbly appreciated.”     The Champion of Canaan then released her hand from his and bowed. Feir’inj smiled and nodded.     “Though you are not skilled in the language of our people,” He said “Clearly, you are well versed in our customs. I most humbly answer your call, and pray that the Sleeping Gods may bless us and allow this lowly child of sand the means to aid you on your noble quest.    He returned the bow.     “Great!” Hu Li spat. “If that’s all done, can we get on with this? I have books to read and things to summon!”     “One moment.” Shallahai tersely rebuked. “Forgive my prejudice, but the last of your ilk we had dealings with was, in truth, a succubus disguised.” The Green’s Answer moved in close to Feir’inj and his voice took on a deep, cruel, vengeful edge. “How do we know that you are not another masquerading fiend?”     “Because I would know.” Lilian said, irritation seeping through her usually regal and poised demeanor. “This man is not evil. He comes to aid us in our time of need.”     “I defer, Champion, to your counsel.” Shallahai said with a slight bow. “But I must make it known that I find all this far too convenient.”     “What manner of creature are you to judge me, simply by my mien?” Fier’inj asked, without a hint of offense. This Shuuthian was clearly a man of equal poise to Lilian.     “I am Her Servant, Her Answer to the Terrible Workings of Man and Fiend!” Shallahai said, turning back to the man, eyes black as pitch.     “You are the Heroes of Goldfire Glen.” Fier’inj said with sudden realization. “Forgive me for not recognizing you sooner. The journey I am on has been quite taxing. I am honored to meet you. I am your eternal servant.” He bowed deeply.     “If the stories I heard of your exploits be true, then we have a common enemy. The man you speak of, the shopkeeper, was a dear friend of my order, before he vanished without a trace. Word crept back to Shuuth that he had appeared in the Turgosian town of Goldfire Glen. That is why I was sent there to meet one who was once amongst your number. A one legged man named…”        “Gabriel.” Lilian said, emotion creeping into her. “He is my brother.”     “Yes. He spoke of you, fondly enough, as he did with the rest of you, though he was entangled by the vine as we say in my homeland.”         Lilian nodded. I lowered my eyes. Gabriel had fallen again to libations.     “He told me of the succubus and how it used my friend’s countenance to immure itself into the provinciality of your fair town, and how, after he was arrested for suspicious behavior in the wake of the massacre of Goldfire Glen, and rightfully incarcerated, it revealed its true likeness and vanished. He could tell me no more, but pointed me to Balian’s tower, saying the sage was a man of great knowledge, if questionable morals, and thus I went.” He continued. “I did enjoy an audience with this master, when it was suddenly cut short by his demand that I be sent here."  The stranger shuddered, "Before I could respond I was whisked into that abominable tunnel, of which I dare not speak.”     “The succubus…” Lilian said. “… was vanquished from Turgos, by our hand.”     The Shuuthian’s face lowered.     “That is good. It was necessary.” He said, oddly sad. “It means that the mystery of the fate of our friend remains so, and as Goldfire Glen was the only clue I had, the dismissal of the fiend means that the trail has come to an end. I fear I will never learn the truth.  I will return to my order and report my findings.”         Just then we heard the lift behind us let out a whine. It loudly squeaked and began to rise. Someone or something would soon be coming down.    “Everyone.” Lilian ordered in a stern whisper. “Find a place to hide.”     We obeyed by scattering to the proverbial four winds. I found myself in a shadow drowned corridor on the Eastern side, which began on the outer lip of the braziers’ dancing red glow. The others vanished from my view. I prayed to Canaan for patience and strength. All fell silent, save for the creaking of the lift.     At last it ended its ascent. I could hear the pulley being locked into place. A moment later, I perceived the soft footfalls of several unseen creatures gathering on the planks of the lift. Then, as with we, the lift slowly creaked downward. In the crimson glow of the brazier fires I could see several men, all in black, tight-fitting robes. One in their number was garbed in a uniform identical in every detail as the others, save for its hue. This figure’s robe was blood red.  A device, similar in appearance to a narrow, unadorned wooden scroll tube, hung from a cloth belt around his midsection.     The red-robed figure was the first off the lift. The others seemed to treat him as their master or leader and waited for him to take a few strides before them, and then fell into two perfectly positioned lines behind him. They then silently marched off down the Western corridor. As they approached the door, it opened for them. As the last of their ranks cleared the doorway, it silently closed behind him.  I waited, my body squashed up against the cold stone wall, trying to stay within the protective blanket of shadow. Several minutes passed, none of us too keen on leaving the protective cover of darkness.  Then from the Western corridor, beyond the closed door, I heard the sound of a second heavy door being opened and then, again, closed.     I let out a sigh of relief, but it proved to be premature. The Western doorway suddenly burst open, revealing a massive brown bear, larger than anything I had ever seen. Its features were almost demonic. It bore painful looking ridges of bone that grew out of either side of its forehead and down its back. Its claws and teeth were much more pronounced and drizzled with saliva. It breathed in and its head swayed to and fro, as if searching.  I heard Hu Li’s panicked, soprano squeal. “What in name of the Eyeless Hallow Ones is that?!” Shallahai and Fier’inj simultaneously answered the wizard. “A dire bear!”     A roar erupted out of the monstrous animal. I pushed myself from the wall and lowered my mace, praying to Canaan to infuse His might into it, transforming it into a magic weapon. The head of my mace glowed with divine power.     The roars intensified. I saw Lilian bound across the chamber racing for the bear. She was closely followed by the Shuuthian, who had drawn his saber.     I gathered up my courage and readied to leap forth when I heard a scratching on the stone walls behind and above me.     I turned to see the silhouettes of two horned creatures clinging to the walls nearly on top of me. They were almost human in likeness, but for the small pointed horns atop their brows and the bestial talons that curled from their elongated fingers and toes. Their feet clung to the walls as if on solid horizontal ground.     “Look, brother.” One said to the other, revealing gleaming, pearly teeth that were as sharp as newborn icicles. “A lightsider.”     The other giggled.     “Yes, fiends!” I answered. “I am a servant of Canaan, the Almighty! I come to enact justice upon you!”     “Canaan?” One of them grimaced. “He has no power here! Begone from this place before something unfortunate befalls you.”     The battle behind me raged on. I dare not look and allow these creatures to take advantage of my foible. I was thus committed to eradicating these beasts from the face of Turgos and I knew that the others, so engaged with the roaring aberration, would not know of this struggle. I would be forced to deal with these two alone.     I began to pray, summoning up Canaan’s will to smite these creatures with his righteousness.     The two unholy beasts laughed as I prayed, but I paid them no mind, so filled with Canaan’s blessed power that their guffaws were but wind to me.     Then, I was struck. My eyes wrenched open from the pain. Dark magics the likes of which I had never experienced coursed through me, tearing under my flesh, as if it were the pith of an orange being wrenched from its rind. I ignored the agony enough to finish my prayer and summon forth Canaan’s spiritual weapon. I instantly sent it hurtling at the creatures and it slashed at the shadows above me.     A cry of pain erupted from one of the creatures. I saw the other wave his hand in the direction of the gleaming sword I had just evoked. A blast of arcane energy shot forth from the fiend’s fingers. The blade was struck, and it shattered.     The other fiend fired down a purple and black beam at me. I was thrown to the floor, crippled by the searing blast of corrupted energy. The pain subsided enough for me to gather my wits. I began to pray, calling upon Canaan’s goodness to surround me with a protection from evil, but before I could enact it, I was struck with a third blast of pure evil, held as it was by the first beast, waiting for me to act, and then destroying all chance I had to shield me from further harm.     The pain proved too much and I let out a cry, thus disrupting my prayer and the divine power trickled away.     A fourth blast slammed into my chest. I felt no pain, as an all-consuming numbness enveloped me. All turned to black. The sounds of battle subsided. The cackles of the brothers faded.         I was lost to the world, brought to the brink of death by these warlock’s infernal eldritch blasts.</blockquote>

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