Underdark
Outskirts of Maerimydra
Uktar 7th, 1372, A few hours into the day’s travels…
They knew they were getting closer to Maerimydra. They had passed several wrecked and burned farms. Huge expanses of caverns had mushroom fields ravaged by mass harvesting. The few buildings this far out, mostly farm buildings, were destroyed, smashed in by some powerful force, probably giant boulders. Scorch marks marred most surfaces, and bodies littered the path. Most of the bodies were goblin, though a few were drow. All of the bodies were horribly disfigured, having suffered wounds that would make them mostly useless for raising as undead. At times there were even stacks of body parts, with no real identifiable number of dead goblins.
Delorian appeared amongst the group and spoke out softly. “There is a large patrol ahead, moving this way. A dozen goblins, half as many ogres, a cloaked figure with a small fiend on its shoulder, a pair of orc bodyguards, a fire giant, and something that looked like a red skinned troll.”
The group quickly put together an ambush plan and set it in motion. Will leapt from the ground, under the effects of flight, and looked to the others. Through the spell of telepathic bonding he asked if Taran and his mount were ready.
Taran reached down and patted the flank of the mighty lion that he sat upon. He looked up to Will and nodded. Will looked down at the huge lion, recalling the first time he saw it a couple of days earlier.
They had just teleported back to the Underdark. It was obvious that Lord Taran’s full plate armor was going to slow them down. It was foolish to expect him to give up his armor for their speed, so alternate methods of speeding him up were discussed before Lord Taran stated he could just ‘summon his friend Gundra’. Will had instantly assumed that Gundra would be the paladin’s mount. Most paladins he had ever heard of shared a special bound with a mystical horse of some stature and build. But what real use was a horse going to be here in the Underdark? Sure they are fairly surefooted, but not enough to clamber around in these caverns.
That was when Taran had gotten a far off look and whispered, “Gundra, I need your aid again my friend.” A soft glow had appeared before the paladin and the largest lion Will had ever seen had sprung from it. The lion’s coat seemed to be made from pur silken gold. From head to rump the thing had to be near fifteen feet long. It had a massive war saddle strapped to its back, and a special bridle that would slip over its head and allow it to still be able to talk. It had landed surely on the rocks and puffed up. Pulling its head back, it sucked in the moist cave air and seemed about to roar out when its eyes glanced to and fro. In a dire lion’s version of a whisper it growled, “Perhaps this is not the best place to roar.” With that it had bounded at Taran, knocking him to the ground and licking at his face with its massive tongue, easily pinning the large armor clad warrior to the cave floor.
Taran had laughed and pushed futilely at the paw, trying to free himself, “I’m happy to see you too my old friend. Its time for us to quest once again.”
Gundra let Taran up and bumped into the man’s chest with the top of his head, then slid its head lengthwise along the paladin’s protesting arms and chest. The massive celestial beast purred, “Then questing we shall go, my friend.” The lion sat with a mighty *fwump* and nodded back at the saddle. “Your lance awaits your grasp, m’lord.” As indicated, a long banner tipped lance was set into the saddle, awaiting Taran exactly as he had left it over a hundred and fifty years ago.
Now it was time to see just how dangerous Taran, Gundra, and even the archer YaDichi were in combat. Will floated down enough that Taran could touch his leg. Gundra also reached up with his head and nudged against Will’s foot. The mage cast a spell and in a flash the trio was in the middle of the giant led goblin patrol. The cloaked figure with the imp was right in front of them.
Before anyone could react, Gundra lashed out at the cloaked figure with his massive claws. The cloak shredded and tore away and the claws ripped into the flesh of the creature hidden beneath it. As the cloak tatters fell away, a beautiful, nearly naked female form was revealed beneath. If it were not for the fangs, glowing red eyes, and feathery wings sprouting from her back, the creature might be desirous. The horns that tipped her head and other minor features had Will stunned for a moment, this was no planetouched tiefling, but a true fiend, a Baatezu known as an Erinyes!
As if the celestial dire lion’s claws were not enough to get the fiend’s attention, Taran attacked right after his mount. He lifted his holy avenger high and cried out to Nabanion as he sliced downward with the holy blade. The blades normal glow seemed to grow even more intense as the paladin called on the energy of his god. The blade slammed deep into the fiend’s shoulder, nearly to where her heart should be.
Back down the corridor, just around the bend, YaDichi fingered the ring on her right hand, triggering a spell stored within.
The various members of the patrol started to try and counter the swift attack, but before they could even raise their weapons, Will was casting again.
He held his hands up and called down a massive series of fiery explosions. The fire brands blasted all around the patrol, flinging ogres and goblins around like rag-dolls. The fiend was unaffected, as was the fire giant, but the troll, and the fiend’s twin guards screamed in pain. The imp was incinerated with a tiny fiendish scream. When the flames cleared, of the goblins and ogres, only four goblins remained standing.
Gundra lashed out at the Erinyes again. This time he reared up a little and slashed with both his sets of claws, trying to push the fiend to the ground. Lastly he lunged forward, and with a mighty growl bit the head from the Erinyes’ body. The fiend’s form fizzled and disappeared in a foul smelling smoke, its ‘death’ having forced it back to its home plane.
Taran turned in the saddle to the fire giant, standing next to him. The giant was getting its bearings still, and Taran quickly lashed out. The entire group had a spell of haste cast upon them before they ambushed the patrol. As a result Taran’s blade bit into the giant’s flesh three of the four times he found opening in the giants defenses. Even as he fought, the paladin kept an eye on the two strange fiendish looking orcs in front of Gundra. Will had heard Delorian’s description of them and had called them Tanarukk, some sort of fiend blooded orc.
The two both lashed out at Gundra multiple times. They lashed out with their axes as well as with spiked shields on their off hands. Taran pushed with his knees to one side, and Gundra recognized the signal and twisted that direction. An axe swipe that would have surely sliced into the lion’s leg fell only open air because of the maneuver. The second Tanarukk did managed to connect once with his axe, but its nonmagical blade barely sliced into Gundra’s tough celestial hide.
Yadichi moved forward a bit more, finally seeing her intended targets. One of the tanarukks was behind the giant. YaDichi dropped three magical arrows onto her bow, pulled back the string and lifted the bow. Her eyes focused down the middle shaft, and the spell she had just triggered from the ring guided her arms and her sight. She let fly, and the bowstring propelled the three arrows forward at an intense speed. All three arrows punched through the giants midsection, passed through into the tanarukk’s head, then continued through to smash against the wall behind the tanarukk. Both creatures crumpled to the ground, dead.
Besides the second bodyguard and a few goblins the only thing left standing was the red skinned troll. Will could see that it had a fiery gaze in its eyes. Between that and the spines that jutted from its joints, the mage assumed it was some sort of planetouched troll. His firebrand had hurt it, but not nearly as much as it should. What was worse, he could see the burns he had inflicted already crusting over and flaking away. This troll could regenerate damage from fire! The beast turned away from them all, and seemed to gather energy from within itself. Will’s arcane sight recognizes the energies that surrounded it. It was hasting itself. The thing could not only regenerate fire damage, but it had innate spellcasting abilities! He was suddenly glad that there was only one of them.
The troll-thing spun and bounded down the passage toward Maerimydra, churning up the ground with massive hasted strides. Will smiled and used the telepathic bond. “Coming your way Delorian.”
“Already on it,” Delorian chimed back as he appeared ahead of the troll in mid leap. His foot slammed into the troll’s head. Between its forward momentum and his kick, the troll had no chance to keep its footing. It sprawled out on the ground, laid flat easily despite its massive size advantage over the monk.
As Delorian came down he twisted and landed with both knees slamming into the troll. He was really starting to like that move. Bone cracked beneath his knees and quickly rolled back of the troll, not wanting to get easily snatched up by it.
Meanwhile Will spun on the last bodyguard, muttering a quick few syllables of magic incantations. Small globes of energy appeared beside him and spiraled into the tanarukk, blasting it off its feet and removing large vital chunks of its chest. It was dead before it even hit the ground.
Gundra leapt forward as Taran leveled his sword and pointed at the back of the troll at the edge of his drakvision. He was glad for the magic rings that the Mystrans had provided him and YaDichi, allowing them to both see in the darkness of the Underdark. Gundra loped over the jagged cavern floor, easily closing the distance. In the end it was not really necessary.
Delorian was light on his feet, and waiting for the troll to try and get up. When it got halfway to its feet, he stepped up with a quick roundhouse kick. He followed that with a backhand from his left hand and a hook from his right hand, then continued to spin and connected with a second roundhouse kick. The troll’s head whipped back and forth, its nose breaking with a nasty crunch, finally its neck snapped under the continued pressure and it fell to the ground, dead.
Well. Mostly dead. Delorian could see that it was already starting to heal its wounds.
YaDichi moved toward the group, followed by Varick. YaDichi’s bow was still going. She quickly two goblins as she stalked forward, looking for the rest of them.
The two goblins left standing threw their weapons down and dropped to their knees with their hands up. In common one screamed, “Don’t kill us! Don’t kill us!”
The other one whimpered, “I soiled myself.”
Will frowned and flew to the troll body. He quickly launched a blast of his scorching rays into the creature, but when even that did not end the regeneration he growled out loud. “Fire doesn’t kill it…”
Taran dropped from the saddle and nodded toward the goblins. Gundra bounded over and stood over them growling deeply. One of the two fainted, the other just whimpered and covered its head, waiting to be eaten.
Taran turned back toward the troll. “Perhaps we could slice it up and send it through the bag?” He stabbed his avenger through the things head in an attempt to slow its regeneration. When the holy blade contacted the foul flesh it sizzled and burned away and did not regenerate back. “Or perhaps not.” He quickly laid the creature to rest with a few cuts of his holy blade.
Will floated down in front of the goblin, beside Gundra. The giant cat sat back on its haunches and began cleaning his claws. Will looked at Gundra a moment, one eyebrow cocked. Each claw was the size of his largest dagger. He tried to focus on the task at hand. Turning the goblin he thrust a finger at it, “Tell me what you know before I blast you on the spot.” Gundra looked at the mage and seemed to
an eyebrow.
“I tell you anything! Just don’t let it eat me!”
The other goblin began to come to. At least now it was moaning instead of just laying in its own puddle.
“Tell us what happened in the city.”
“We smashed it. Bash, bash… black elves no more. Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“There still the squishy bits in the center of the city, and the ones that don’t stay dead.”
“Won’t stay dead?”
The goblin thrust up his arms like a zombie and rolled its head to one side and rolled its eyes into the back of its head, “Yeah, you know… uhhhhh, brains.”
Will tried not to smile. “Who leads your army?”
The goblin got wide eyes and lowered its arms, “Kurgoth do.”
“And what or who is Kurgoth?”
The goblin shoved a finger at the dead fire giant corpse. “Like him. Only bigger. And has wings, and spikes, and fiery eyes. He Kurgoth. He smash elf city. He have fiend in him.”
Will nodded, “What do you know of the fiends?”
The goblin bit its lower lip then began prattling on about them too. “Kurgoth have many fiends with him. Some like her. Others bigger. Others nastier, much nastier. And the little ones. Lots of the little ones. They flitter all over the city, watching and spyings. They watches us and watch the black elf castle. Then they flit, flit, flit.” The goblin flapped its arm like little wings. “Or poof.” He spread his hands as if a little puff of smoke. “Poof. They gone. And poof they appears near Kurgoth, and whispers in his ear. Chitter, chitter, chitter, while he sits and pets his elephant.”
“Elephant?” Will blinked in surprise. “Whats the elephant look like?”
The goblin looked surprised this time, then shrugged. “Like an elephant? Its Kurgoth’s pet.”
Will nodded, “Who guards the north gate?”
The goblin hopped up and down, getting more and more excited. “Four of them!” He pointed at the giants.
Will frowned, “Four?”
The goblin nodded and held up his hand, showing one finger after another, “Yes, four. One, six, eight, four! Four giants. They have big thing they put in front of gate and watch from behind. Then when they need to get in and out they move the big thing. They watch from behind it, ready to smash anything that come near with their big rocks! Smash, smash!” The goblin fell back as if hit by a big boulder. His legs and arms went up in the air and he stuck his tongue out and closed his eyes as if dead. He whispered softly, “Smash…”
Will sighed, tiring of the goblin’s antics. “Alright, you and your friend. Get out of here, now. If I ever see you again, I’ll burn you on the spot before you even have time to say ‘oops’.”
The goblin went wide eyed again, “Oops?” He thought a moment then nodded quickly. “We go. No oops. Oops bad.” He grabbed and shook his moaning companion who woke up finally. “We go now. No oops.” He turned and started walking toward Maerimydra.
Will cleared his throat. The goblin looked back and Will was pointing the other direction.
The goblin smiled and chuckled nervously. “Oops.”
