Under A Darksun: PART I SEGMENTS 1-124

[megamania]

UNDER A DARKSUN
SEGMENT 067
“Singing Sticks”

After tying up the surviving Rogue, Cosa and Mania go into the vault. It is a 25x25-ft room with a low ceiling of about 6 feet. “I found this place entirely by accident last year. I was hiding from a templar force in here and found this opening. I believe someone made it before filling it with water back when there was water.”

“…When there was water? Isn’t that a myth?” Replies Mania looking for more Shadows within the shadows in the room.

“No. Athas, our world, once had more water and forests. This I know. It was suggested by a Wandering traveler that is once was very lush and had large quantities of water and food.”

Mania smirks and looks at her with uncertainty. He has never known anything but desert except for his brief visit by the Creasant Forest near Nibenay. How would anyone find their way around in a world covered by forests. It was ludicrous. But then again he thought that of the noble creature and the winged small people.

Cosa waves a jewel on her necklace before several cases and chests. A hum can just be heard then it dies out. She pulls out a ring of rings and begins to unlock all of the chests. “This one should interest you.” She opens it and pulls out three bundles. Feeling each, she puts two aside and hands him one. “I remember you mentioning you used small clubs before finding that monster- try these.”

Mania nods to her and sits on a chest then jumps up forgetting if she warded this one. Since he has no holes in his breeches, he feels it is safe and sits down again. “You can be so funny Mania.” Cosa says smiling then resuming looking for something specific again.

Mania finds within the bundle two Singing Sticks. His preferred weapon of choice. The slender batons are fast and hard. The materials they are constructed from have small holes. When swung quickly, they whistle through the air. Thus the name. Mania stares at them in awe. They are possibly the best looking and best made Singing Sticks he has ever seen. He gets up and goes through a short routine of spins and swings. When repeated quickly it looks absolutely stunning. Cosa is certain they were meant for him. Mania thanks her and gives her a kiss.

“I’m certain those are enhanced also. The place I took them from had several sets of magical weapons. Those I could take in my..your pouch. The others were too big and sharp to take.”

She finds the book she was searching for. Mania looks over her shoulder as she thumbs through it. “Hey- the pages are blank!”

“Yes, I hope to fill it someday. But what is important are these- “ She stops the pages and wedged between two pages is a folded piece of paper. “I have two more pages from the book.”

“Hummm. Looks like that bald guy gets killed by a short guy." What’s with the mountains?”

Mania is looking at one page that has an image of a large eyed tall figure being stabbed by a short person. A large winged representation of this guy seems to hold everyone and everything.

“This one makes me worry. I know this place, I just can’t place it.” She hands him another page. This one has skeletal figures attacking a city.

“Still not sure if I believe this stuff Cosa. Destiny…future telling.. I believe I make my own destiny and future.”

She smirks at him again. “Maybe by making your own destiny- you create this one.”

Mania is uncertain if she means he controls his destiny or is referring to the drawing she insists is him.

 

[megamania]

UNDER A DARKSUN
SEGMENT 068
“Uncle Grind”

Reaching the surface, Cosa and Mania leave the underground. She carefully replaces the wood panels as she looks around one last time. With a deep sigh, she turns her back on the only home she has known for 4 years now.

“We need to go to the cliff walls. There we can escape the city walls and take cover in the forest. I know someone there that can help us.”

Mania nods and follows her. They leave the abandoned area into the Freeman area. They walk as quickly and directly as possible without drawing attention to themselves. They enter the Merchant area and bypass the Temple of the Sun. They become more cautious in the area of the West Gate. As expected, the templars are thick. Instead of 5 or 6 at the gates, there are a dozen. A dozen in templar outfits anyway.

“Would we do better trying to sneak out on a caravan?”

“No. They know you too well. We can’t risk it.”

They pass that area and enter the Tradesmen Area. They are now close to the great earthen wall. Mania looks up at the earthen cliff that rises above the city. A few guards can be seen above. Just out of sight are the true noble homes. He has never seen them but knows they will make the Country Home of Keela’s family look small. Keela. He hasn’t thought of her for days now. He determinedly blocks her out of his head.

“Whoa…look at that…,” Mania says in astonishment. Built near the earthen wall is a large coiled stone-carved snake. A bridge connects the top of the cliff to the coiled body. Nobles walk freely over the bridge.

“Don’t look at it. It’ll draw attention to us. That is the Snake Tower. It is how the richest nobles go from their mansions to the main city. At the base of it are more noble homes. We are going further down towards the Temple of Earth.” She says this with never lifting her head or directing her gaze to anywhere but the ground about ten feet before her.

The temple of Earth is a large block of stone carved out to be a multi-layered building. The outside has various earthen elemental creatures depicted along with the standard elemental lords. “Impressive” comments Mania.

They enter the temple grounds and give a few coins to the worship box. Mania mimics Cosa as she bows to a rough stone column towering over them by 15ft. A dirty looking Dwarven priest walks up behind them. “It is said this stone fell from a Spirit of the Land in battle. It is a holy item and very sacred to us.”

“Yes Uncle. I know.” Cosa stands up and bows to him. “Perhaps we should go inside now.” Mania shakes his head in amusement. When will the surprises end he thinks to himself.

The three of them enter the temple and go down deep into the earth. Here, surrounded by their element of worship, the priests worship. Mania can not help himself at looking and staring about the rooms. Gems and diamonds are visible on the ceilings with magical enchantments to give a soft light to see by. One room has stone caldrons of impressive size. Then he sees one person sitting in a caldron being buried with earth. Strange.

They reach his private room where she takes off her cowl and give him a big hug. “Oh Uncle Grind- I haven’t seen you in about three years! It has been too long.”

“Yes, well that is not my fault girl. You knew where I was. It was not my fault you joined the rebellion. You wanted girl? I mean more than usual? I heard there was a cleansing done. “ Then he sees Mania again. “Who this be? A rebel? A friend? Something more?”

“Uncle- this is Mania. He is a hero from the recent Gith attacks on the city. Say hello to my Uncle.”

“Hello. Nice place you got here.” Mania holds out his hand. Staring hard at his eyes, Uncle Grind takes his hand and shakes it squeezing it hard. Mania returns the grip.

“Strong boy,” Uncle Grind replies, “What are doing with the girl?”

“We are leaving the city sir.” Mania replies. Cosa is trying to get his attention as he says this. She squints her eyes shut very tight as he says this.

“Leaving? Planning on using our tunnels girl? You know only the priests know about them. How did you learn?” He gives her a stern look and turns away. After a few steps he turns around again. “Always were a snoop and found things you were not meant to know or have. Tell anyone?

“No uncle. You know me better than that.”

“You bet I do. After my no good brother deserted your mother an’ you. I been bringing you up as best as I could. Then your mom passed away giving birth to your ½ sister Brucia. It’s a shame what happened to her too.” Uncle Grind seems to wander off mentally but snaps out of it with a loud cracking sound.

“Intruders!”

 

[megamania]

UNDER A DARKSUN
SEGMENT 069
“Confrontations”

The three of them were running as best as they could under the conditions. The ground was shaking and the tunnels were threatening to collapse. It had been a rough 10 minutes of flight and didn’t look to be becoming any better. Templars and their thugs had swarmed into the building. The alarms allowed clerics to seal off sections of the temple they wanted hidden (gem rooms and healing pits) while setting up defenses.

Somehow, the templars were still able to follow the three of them however. Even when Uncle Grind opened and closed earthen walls the templar force followed. It was becoming obvious that this was going to end in direct confrontation.

“Just a bit further- it opens up and we can take them down as they remain bottlenecked in the tunnel.”

And as suggested, the tunnel then opened up into an underground lake. Mania takes on side and Uncle Grind the other. Cosa hides behind a rock cropping near the tunnel exit.

A few tense moments go by before they hear the first dull thud of large feet. Then they can hear them -1/2 Giants!

They rush through the opening into the underground lake. Mania batters one with his Singing Sticks across the knee and thigh. Uncle Grind produces a battle hammer out of thin air and strikes another ½ Giant across the knees. If the pain did not get to them then the sudden appearance of six red heads with blurred images will.

Mania hits low then as the large creature reaches down, he hits it high. The ½ Giant can not seem to get a good shot off on Mania.
“Raaaargh! Hold Still!”

The templar and several human guards try to reach the battle but the four ½ Giants block the way. “Move it!”, yells the templar in frustration and anger.

Several more strikes knock the ½ Giant down before Mania. Uncle Grind has not been as lucky. With Cosa’s help, his remains standing. The dwarven earth cleric is battered, bruised and bloody from several hits.

As Cosa brings down the ½ Giant her Uncle steps back and prepares to heal himself. Mania continues to smack his new ½ Giant. He has received a single but damaging blow thus far. “We can’t hold them back much longer Cosa yells stabbing for all she is worth against the kneeling ½ Giant.

An elemental creature erupts out of the earthen wall and attacks the guards and one templar. The templar was powering up ½ Giants from behind.

Uncle Grind yells for the two fugitives to move behind him. The Mirror images confuse the remaining ½ Giant. “Raargh! Magic too great! Can’t kill!”

Then the templar gets a brief glimpse of Mania as he runs across the exit opening. “Mania…?”

Keela is beside herself. “You bastard! I left you for dead! You should be dead! I’ll kill you for real this time!” She rushes through the mirrors, some breaking apart as Cosa moves out of range. “I’ll kill you!”

The three run along the lake edge. “Hewh! Hewh! You really….Hewh! Ticked her off!” pants the running cleric. Mania and Cosa get ahead of him.

“Remember to take the right tunnel kids!” Uncle Grind yells as he slows down. He looks at them running further away. With a tear in his eye, he turns while touching the wall. “I love you Cosa. I wish you knew that.” He says softly. Keela finds herself recovering from being dazed by Cosa and begins to run.

“Goodbye” the dwarf says as he pushes on a rock that conceals a lever. Keela looks up to see the ceiling begin to crack and shiver.

Cosa and Mania slow down and turn. They hear the rumble then the world goes black with a crash.

 

[megamania]

bad timing but I currently am having problems at work and am looking for a job to suppliment my now part time job. I will continue to post here but it will be a weekend here and a weekend there. Sorry folks.

 

[megamania]

Freedom eludes me like a hidden oasis in the desert. This weekend I should be updating (one way or another).

 

[Corwyn]

Well even without an update it deserves to be on page one.

So up we go!!

 

[megamania]

Thankyou for that comment Corwyn. It's the first complament I have recieved from anyone (here or in the real world) in about two weeks about anything. I have been working on Mania's tale but ran into a time issue with it.

I hope to get back on track soon. Andy aka megamania

 

[megamania]

UNDER A DARKSUN
SEGMENT 070
“Buried”

“Are you alright Mania?”

He tries to see the source of the voice but can not. It is dark and dusty. His body hurts. “What happened?”

“Uncle made sure we could escape the templars. He triggered a cave-in trap the clerics once built just in case of something like this. I do not know if he yet lives or not.”

“Was…was that Keela chasing us?”

“I fear so. She has a love/hate thing for you. We better get moving.” Cosa begins to climb around the loose rocks until she clears the area of the fall in. Mania is battered; he was struck by a few smaller rocks and breathed in much dust and dirt. Her staff continued to give light though the thick unsettled dust cut their visibility down by half.

“I have never gone this far before. I fear we may become lost. I have heard these tunnels branch out for miles and miles. Some are natural and others created during a war thousands of years ago to move secretly large numbers of people and equipment.”

The twosome walks for the remainder of the day (or at least what they figure to be a day). They talk quietly and in short episodes. Secretly, each are scared that they are trapped underground or worse- Keela is following them.

Mania stops and puts his hand up to the air. “What are you doing?” Cosa asks.

“Dutch used to do this when we were trapped in the tomb. He would feel for air currents or temperature differences.”

“Does it work?”

“Don’t know…but it looks like I know what I’m doing.” Mania replies with a wide grin. “I’m sure we’ll get out. Patience. It’s all about patience.”

Cosa puts out her hand now also. “You know, I would swear I do feel something…” She turns and looks at the ceiling area. A hole can be seen. “Great. Now what?”

 

[megamania]

UNDER A DARKSUN
SEGMENT 071
“The Color of the Sky”

The creature was rare. It was nearly extinct. It would look beautiful on her wall. The Nibenese hunter moved closer to the forest animal. It was a rare white-spotted Antelope. They are prized trophies to hunters. The animals had a near magical or psionic sense of its environment. Anicalla Pollace had spent two days tracking it and now had only advanced a mere 300ft in the past four hours as she inched onto it. She slowly and silently drew back the bowstring and aimed. The animal flicked it’s tail twice and froze. It cocked its head then suddenly bolted deep into the thicker brush.

Anicalla cursed. Cursed hard.

She knew she could not outrun it so she carefully put her weapons back and began to track the legendary myth once more. She was unsure how the creature detected her and pondered this for the remainder of her hunting trip.

Ten minutes later the very ground the creature was standing on jumped. A muffled sound came from somewhere nearby. A short stillness and quiet then it jumped again. This time raw earth split and tore free from the grass. A few more moments then a third and fourth jump of the earth occurred. On the fifth an audible thump and sputter was heard then a hand in a black glove burst free from the underworld. It retracted quickly and the sounds of spitting and sputtering were easily heard.

With a loud grunt, Mania forced his dirty body up through the earth. His eyes wild as he feared becoming pinned he tore to earth and climbed out. He rolled onto his back and took many deep breaths.

“Don’t forget me!” came from the hole.

He crawled to hole and felt for his magical bag. He thought about a rope he had placed within it a few days earlier and pulled it out. “Catch”

Cosa was not a good climber and even with the rope had a hard time getting out. “I can’t believe it. Only you could stumble onto a trapdoor that is buried under ten feet of earth and only you would dig up through it to the surface. If I didn’t know better, I would think you are becoming overly concerned with being entombed.” She now thumps herself down on the grass next to her lover.

“I think I love the sick putrid color of the sky after all.” Replies Mania with a smile.

They lay there quiet looking at the sky through the trees resting for another 10 minutes before getting up and leaving.

 

[megamania]

UNDER A DARKSUN
SEGMENT 072
“Standing Stones In a Circle”

There were eight of them. Big, strong and tough looking. Each stood at least ten feet tall even with leaning over the smaller one.

Mania walked right up to the closest one and touched it. The stone was rough and seemed cooler than it should be. “What are they Cosa?”

“Ritualistic structures. Old ones from the look of them.” Cosa now came up to them also. “Some say these circles were used to call on spirits and elemental forces. Doesn’t look like anyone has used one in awhile.” She tentatively enters the circle to look at the other side of the large stone monolith. “I expect the forest has several of these hidden. They are also said to draw druid attention. There could be one, maybe several, watching us now.” She looks over her shoulder knowing this will make Mania watch and stare in paranoia at the surrounding forest.

“What do they do? Especially the little guy in the center?” asks Mania. He has come to have an interest in ancient history he never knew he had until meeting Cosa.

“I’m just guessing but the larger stones either act as conduits or protection for the smaller one. The smaller in the center could have been anything from a place of power to a place to sacrifice living creatures.”

“You’re kidding right? I thought only Drajjian folk did that.”

“Did what?”

“Sacrifice living things…people even to appease a non-existing god.”

“Are you sure gods don’t exist or didn’t once exist? The beliefs are strong with many. Some scholars feel divine magic is really psionic in nature. I can’t say I agree. I would like to think there is someone or something out there.”

= I would like to think this also = comes a voice from no where.

Mania glows as he powers up psionically and Cosa grasps her staff with both hands ready to lash out. They see no one.

= I mean no harm. I sense no malice in either of you. Please…continue. I enjoy hearing you talk =

“Where are you?!? Show yourself.” Exclaims Cosa expecting a druid to step out of no where. Mania just hopes it is not an undead spirit.

= hahahahaha…undead spirit. You think funny thoughts young warrior =

Mania glances at Cosa pleading for support. Cosa is too busy backing away from the center of the circle to notice him. “I ask again…show yourself.”

The very ground outside of the circle begins to mass up. It resembles a humanoid shape but with stones, grasses and mushrooms protruding from it. Deep shaded areas look like possible twin eyes and a mouth.

= I am Dassassavern =

Mania is speechless.

Cosa is in shock and awe. “You…you…you’re a…”

= Spirit of the Earth =

“oh god” she whispers to herself

Mania, being he, looks at her then at him. Seeing no threat but sensing the tension he replies “Come here much?”

= hahahahahahahah =