Cannibals and Caverns, short story

Kormatin and his allies had been trekking through dark tunnels in the dangerous underground caverns of Scarnoctis for days chasing a pack of cannibal mutants in the vain hope of saving a young dwarf girl.
Kormatin was a holy warrior for the goddess Khemra. He was a skilled swordsman and had a knack for Protection and Divination theurgy. He was trained by the Order of the Lantern to find and slay the worst dangerous and malefic arcane mages Scarterra had to offer.
While it was largely by chance that he was in dwarven lands, Kormatin now found himself with the dubious honor of serving Khemra and pursuing an evil mage in a more serious matter than he had ever done before.
Cannibalism is a powerful taboo in Scarterra because eating mortal flesh warps the body, mind, and soul, but it also grants power. Those willing (or forced) to take on the supernatural curse that is known as Cannibal Sickness grow in strength and resilience, picking up unholy gifts and curses in equal measure.
The worst of the lot were skin changer witches. Skin changer witches are mages that became cannibals or cannibals who became mages. In addition to all the normal mutations of Cannibal Sickness, skin changer witches gain great arcane power very quickly though their bodies and minds weren’t even faster than other cannibals.
Skin changers commonly seek to eat specific rare vintages of mortals at specific times. Now a skin changer morlock named Dhorgolun was planning to eat Krogresli on the first day of the Scarterran new year.
Kormatin had only briefly met Krogresli in passing. Krogresli was an adolescent dwarf girl and she was one of the rare eclipse-touched. She was a favored soul destined for greatness by Khemra. As rare as eclipse-touched were in general, it had been many decades since a dwarf was born eclipse-touched making her rarer still. A blasphemously delicious meal for a skin changer witch like Dhorgolun.
Kormatin was traveling with his normal traveling companions: Brigid, Ragani, and Bendek.
His half-sister Brigid was a so-called “double dabbler” with minor arcane magic and minor divine magic. Kormatin only found out he had a sister nine months prior. Kormatin practically grew up as orphan. While hesitant at first to accept this estranged family member, now he couldn’t imagine life without her.
Ragani was not his sister by blood but she was his sister-in-arms. Ragani was a gnome theurgist. Ragani was a warrior priestess of Hallisan and Kormatin was a holy warrior of Khemra. But Khemra and Hallisan usually worked together well, but their personal relationship went beyond the fact their godly patrons got along. Ragani was a good fighter by gnome standards, but not necessarily by human standards. She relied on her theurgy to do the heavy lifting in combat and was an especially gifted summoners. It was fairly taxing but she could summon lion or eagle spirits dedicated to the god Hallisan.
Together Kormatin and Brigid had faced and defeated many powerful foes and of challenges. They had even lost a dear friend to another skin changer witch, an ogress named Huelwen. They were not going to sit idly and let any skin changer harm another person they knew, even a casual acquaintance.
Lord Bendek Deorac was Kormatin's newest brother-in-arms. Originally he joined Kormatin’s company out of convenience because Bendek had useful abilities and Bendek and Kormatin had shared many enemies in common, but the two had worked together well over the past few months had established great mutual respect. Though he had not yet taken a knightly oath, the young Lord Bendek had a knight’s training and he was a modestly talented wizard able to cast a few Abjuration and Transmuation spells reliably.
Kormatin was traveling with two temporary companions acting as guides. One whome Kormatin liked and respected and one whom he did not.
Kormatin respected the skills and courage of Creigor Redshaft. Criegor was a skilled dwarf ranger who had lots of experience in the dark and dangerous caverns of Scarnoctis. Kormatin and company had won the respect and friendship of the Redshaft clan of dwarves by returning a lost heirloom to the clan. Creigor had no prior relationship to Krogresli or the goddess Khemra, but he wasn't going to let an innocent girl be eaten and, he was the only nearby dwarf ranger available for Kormatin to call upon.
Kormatin did not like or respect anything about Collme. Collme was an ollum, a gnome twisted by Cannibal Sickness. As loathsome as cannibal mutants were, Collme was a on parole and was helping Kormatin and the others find and stop the skin changer Dhorgorlun. Once captured, Collme snitched on her former companions almost immediately. It was thanks to Collme that they knew Dhorgorlun’s name and how they knew that he planned to slay and eat Krogresli on the first day of the new year. She also knew approximately where Dhorgolun and his morlock minions were lairing.
Kormatin was not happy about relying on such a loathsome creature as a guide, but this was not the first time he paroled an ordinary cannibal in order to stop a skin changer witch. Kormatin fully planned to keep his word and let her go if she kept her end of the deal, though he didn’t trust her.
Brigid could make magical disguises that last about two hours per casting, and she constantly kept forcing Collme to take on a magical disguise to make her look like a normal untainted gnome. Ostensibly Kormatin had told Brigid “I don’t like looking at her”, but in reality this was done as a security precaution.
Kormatin was well-trained in following magical auras, and he knew the aura from his sister’s spells very well. If Collme managed to give them the slip and run away, Kormatin could track her down again by the magical aura, or so he hoped.
Collme hated her magical makeover. and was muttering curses at Brigid and Kormatin constantly for the indignity, but two siblings took the insluts in stride. Both Brigid and Kormatin had very rough childhoods giving them thick skins against verbal insults.
Kormatin and company had to navigate dark tunnels based on Collme’s vague directions and Creigor’s general underground know-how. They had to deal with pits, cliffs, raging underground rivers, poisonous gases, insidious morlock traps, freezing cold temperatures, and horrific giant spiders.
Their worst obstacle was time itself. The new year of Scarterra wly a few days away, and their opponents’ had a strong head start so Kormatin and his allies could hardly stop to rest. Facing almost any obstacle, they had to choose the fast way and hard way through as opposed to the slow and easy way around.
They could use magic spells to mitigate some of the underground hazards, but since they couldn’t stop to rest and properly recover their energy. Any magic they used in their journey would be magic they couldn’t use in their upcoming battle.
To make things worse, the last five days of the year in Scarterra are nicknamed “the time of Turoch” or the “week of the Nike.” Turoch was an evil primordial god who crafted Scarterra simply as a giant soul farm to feed his bottomless hunger, until the gods and goddesses known as the Nine overthrew Turoch and established a somewhat more benevolent world for mortals to live on. The last five days of the year mark the anniversary of the five days when the Nine battled Turoch.
The moon stops changing its face for five days, freezing in whatever phase it was left in last. The sun only shines for a few cold hours a day, and the whole world is said to be awash in bad luck for all mortalkind during those five days.
Peasants and scholars alike debate whether the supposed bad luck is real or is simply born of superstitious imaginings. Whether a tangible metaphysical force was agaist them or merely something psychosomatic, the effect was real. Kormatin and his allies did have a lot of minor accidents on their journey though said accidents could easily be the result of fatigue.
Underground, they had no sunlight, moonlight, or even starlght. They had relied entirely on artificial light sources. They mostly used regular torches but they used magical sources of illuminations when torches were not practical (because of limited space or limited air). Now they noticed that the walls of the tunnel they were in were glowing faintly, seemingly of their own accord.
The temperature gradually began increasing as well. Moss and small vines became visible. After days of seeing barren stone walls, even a little bit of plant life was a welcome sight.
Creigor paused to examine a blue mossy growth.
“There is a life stone nearby acting as a miniature sun. It’s got to be a pretty powerful life stone to support blue moss this far away.”
“Dhorgulun has his lair near a life stone.” Collme said quietly.
Kormatin turned towards her and unlocked her manacles.
“Go. Now.”
He pointed in the direction they came and nodded to Brigid who dismissed the illusion spell she put on the ollum.
Collme paused in disbelief for a brief moment before turning around and scuttling out, running on all fours like a startled beast. Kormatin turned to Creigor.
“About how far away from the life stone chamber?” he asked the dwarf
“...quarter mile maybe.”
“No reason try anything fancy. We’ll keep checking for traps as we go, when we are closer we need to prepare for battle and charge in, hopefully catching the morlocks by surprise. We still have an invocation crossbow bolt, right?”
Ragani nodded and pulled it out of the magic bag she was carrying.
“Only the one though”
She handed it to Creigor, who was the only one in the party who regularly used crossbows.
Creigor was ahead temporarily imbued with “dark vision” by Deorac’s magic. Dark vision allows one to see in the dark but only in black and white.
He whispered.
“The baddies must have wanted a clear exit, the traps is on the left, but if we enter single file on the right, we can ignore the snapping trap entirely.”
As they neared the chamber, Kormatin put Khemra’s mystic mantle of protection on himself and each of his party members. This would only make them slightly harder to hit with weapons but in battle, even a slight edge could be the difficulty between victory and death. Brigid used her divine crafts magic to temporarily enchant her sword, and Deorac used his Transmutation magic to finish giving the rest of the party dark vision.
Kormatin entered the chamber first and saw a bright white blur as his normal vision, dark vision, and magical aura meshed together poorly. This chamber was far more brightly lit than he expected, especially for a morlocks’ lair. The chamber didn’t smell like you’d expect an underground cannibal hideout to be either. A pleasant earthy smell filled his nostrils, akin toa flowery field after a spring rain.
“Deorac, Dismiss my dark vision,” he said as he scanned the blurry chamber and tried to blink away the blurriness and focus on the ugly blob with the largest ambient magical aura. As his dark vision cleared up he saw a surprisingly warmly lit cavern full of green viny plants.
If he ignored the corner full of serrated knives, humanoid bones and haunches of mystery meat that served as the cannibals’ larder, this cavern would have been almost idyllically beautiful.
Kormatin raised his magic long sword, Peacekeeper, and charged. He wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline carrying him but Kormatin had felt surprisingly light. He half ran, half hopped across the chamber. Then his foot caught a vine on the floor and he face planted into the stony floor.
Not a very heroic start. There is the famous bad luck of the Month of Nike, and I lost the element of surprise. Usually falling like this hurts more.
Kormatin got up as quickly as he could and via his peripheral vision he saw Creigor fire his magic-laden crossbow bolt at the nearest morlock. The bolt exploded against the morlock’s black armor in a colorful burst. Most of the blast was absorbed by the morlocks’ armor but he went flying back several yards nonetheless.
Criegor dropped his crossbow which seemed to bounce off the vine covered stone ground as he readied his battle axe and shield. He bounded forward giving a loud but barely articulate dwarven battle cry. Kormatin was somewhat confused by what he saw.
Invocations don’t usually send targets reeling that far. It’s as if he’s lighter. I’m lighter, everything is lighter.
Dhorgulun and his morlocks were taken by surprise a bit. No one opportunistically attacked Kormatin while he was briefly finding out what the ground tasted like.
The warmly lit cave threw an unflattering light on their enemies. Even with all the morlocks several yards away, Dhorgulun was very easy to identify due to his skin changer mutations. He was larger and hairier than the rank-and-file morlocks. He was covered in patchy fur and had horns and was somehow even uglier than the other morlocks.
Dhorgulun held a large falchion sword in his left hand and with his right hand he traced a rune in the air and a wave of black shadow rolled out from him washing over Kormatin and his companions.
Kormatin briefly felt a tinge of headache that came and went very fast. The magic spell dissipated against the combination of Kormatin’s iron will and his magical protection spell. Kormatin studied spellcraft enoguh to guess that this was “Waves of Pain”, a fourth circle spell by favored by powerful necromancers for crowd control.
Kormatin hoped his friends could resist the spell too, but there was nothing further he could to help them with it at that point. He heard Brigid cry out in pain, but he had to trust she could take care of herself. The best way to protect his sister and his friends was to take out the strongest enemy threat. The strongest threat was obviously the hulking skin changer witch.
Kormatin continued his charge and awkwardly stumbled over the uneven viny ground nearly falling over again.
STUPID TIME OF NIKE!
Besides Dhorgulun, four other morlocks were scattered about the wide cavern. They were armed and armored but they clearly were not expecting attackers to burst in.
One was tending a cooking pot containing Nine know’s what kind of horrific stew and another got up from the ground and if woken from a nap. Two others were more rapidly alert but they were some distance away. Whether because of the unusually light gravity or because the bad luck from the Month of Turoch, one of the Morlocks tripped and dropped his blade while trying to join the battle.
There were three humanoid rat zombies roaming the cavern, presumably they were igundans. Kormatin and his companion heard rumors about the rat-like igundans dwelling in the cavern of Scarnoctis, but they had never seen igundans alive but now they saw undead versions of them.
The closest morlock was staggering from the magical crossbow bolt he was hit by. Ignoring the magical pain writing though her body, Brigid threw a blast of magical flame at the slower moving target. Brigid liked to joke that she was Swynfaredia’s weakest invoker but her aim was quite good and her blast had more than enough power to down the already wounded morlock.
A second morlock charged Brigid. Against invokers, closing the distance is usually a good idea but Brigid was a far better swordswoman than she was an mage. With her blade magically enhanced, the morlock stood little chance even with the slight handicap from the magical pain effect on her. Brigid half grimaced, half smiled as she faced her new foe.
Bendek was fighting one-on-one with a sword wielding ghoul that seemed to be a former morlock. It was not too surprising a skin changer necromancer would reanimate a dead companion in this matter but it was mildly surprising that the other morlocks tolerated this.
Adrenaline helped Bendek fight through his tiredness from before he and he seemed to adjust to the light gravity a lot more readily than Kormatin and the two opponents struck and parried while leaping about the room.
Krogresli, the dwarf girl they had come to save, had her arms tied to her torso and her ankles tired together. Krogresli clearly understood how the lighter gravity worked. She bounced off the ground like a hopping caterpillar towards her would be rescuers. It must have been painfully slamming into the ground like that, but a little temporary pain was far preferably to being killed and eaten.
The morlocks were not guarding Krogresli closely and didn't seem to consider using her as a shield or hostage. Either they had grown accostomed to thinking of her anything other than helpless or the concept of compassion was so alien to the morlocks that they wouldn't even think to try to use a hostage to protect themselves.
Ragani was the last of party to enter the cavern, she had summoned a pair of crimson lion spirits and moved in Korgresli’s direction once she saw her.
Spirit animals can barely move for the first half a minute when they are first summoned but even in their vulnerability, they are useful. The closest morlock charged the lions and slew it while it was still vulnerable. Ragani knew the lion was banished back to the Aetherial Realm and not truly slain. It would be able to come back again and any strike on the lion was a strike not against Ragani or her allies. The lion knew this too and took the attack willingly.
Both Creigor and Kormatin were charging the skin changer. Dhorgolun must have assumed that the grizzled one-eyed dwarf with the large battle axe was a greater threat the human who just fell on his face.
Dhorgolun ordered the rat zombies to kill the dwarf while raising his sword to fend off Kormatin’s next swing of his sword while attempting to throw a bolt of black magical energy at Creigor. Creigor ignored the igundan zombies and focused completely on dodging the magical attack. He left himself open to the claws of the zombies, but only one found a gap in the armor and drew a small amount of blood. Bendek was still fighting the ghoul. Most of the blows were paried. Bendek had only managed to wound the ghoul slightly but the ghoul hadn’t struck flesh at all. With the lower gravity, even a parried blow had a strong staggering knock back effect disconnecting the warriors before they leapt at each other again.. Bendek and the ghoul were criss-crossing the chamber in a macabre dance of sorts. Ragani had lost one of her summoned lions, but the other was fully alert and able to fend off the morlock threatening her. The Silverwood wand of divine plant magic that Ragani carried had been useless for days as they trekked through mostly barren tunnels but now that they were in a magically fertile cavern of viny plants, this was exactly what the wand was crafted for. She pointed at Dhorgorlun and shouted the command word. Vines wrapped around the mutant cannibal’s ankles. The hulking morlock was too strong to be constrained for long, but a few seconds was more than enough of a distraction to let Kormatin and Creigor flank him. Striking near simultaneously, Creigor knocked the morlock’s blade aside and Kromatin took the opening and thrust with Peacekeeper into the morlock’s chest. With their primary antagonist down. Cregor turned to the zombies still assailing him. Whether their master was dead or unconscious didn’t matter, zombies will carry out their last order infinitum and the the zombies’ last order was “kill the dwarf!”. Kormatin wasn’t sure if he slew Dhorgulun or not, but you should never take chances with skin changer witches or necromancers and Dhorgulun was both. He ran through the skinchanger again for good measure, then turned the body to get a good angle to chop off the monster’s head. Kormatin knew his allies could take care of themselves without him for a minute or two. Take care of themselves was whs companions friends did. Brigid had slain the morlock she was fighting and awkwardly half ran, half hopped to get behind the ghoul that Bendek was fighting. Then both of them were able to get to Ragani’s aid and take out the last morlock just went it was on the verge of defeating Ragani’s lion. Creigor had taken out two of the three zombies before Kormatin rejoined the melee and helped him take out the third.
Kormatin scanned the cavern for more threats as Ragani drew a knife and cut Krogresli free of her bonds. Brigid broke the silence and clutched her forehead.
“AAGH! Bendek, cast 'dispel magic' on me and get rid of the damn pain effect!”
After Bendek dispelled the hex and a lot of “are you okay”s, the Kormatin and company set down for a good rest. They all had barely slept in days and now that Krogresli was safe, they certainly weren’t going traipsing through spider infested caverns until the month of Turoch was over.
Krogresli had met Kormatin and company before, but they didn’t have much to say before besides a few awkward hellos. Now Krogresli was just happy to be alive and was eager to chat with friendly people. The glowing life stone was actually allowing for plants to grow in many adjacent caverns. Krogresli’s parents were herbalists, so she was happy to tell Kormatin and his companions the names of all the plants in the chamber and which plants were delicious, which plants were merely edible, and which plants were poisonous. She knew which plants could be used for medicines and perfumes. She speculated that with the lighter gravity in the caverns some of the plants could be converted into reagents for mobility or flying potions but admitted she had no idea how to go about doing that.
While keeping a weary eye out for more morlocks or spiders, the six ad hoc companions told stories to pass the time, as was the custom for the Month of the Nike.
It was very common for Brigid to compose a song or poem of the group's adventurers. They collectively agreed that when they retold the story, they would leave out all the tripping and stumbling during the fight.
Now that they were well-rested and not racing against time, Kormatin and company were able to retrace their steps more carefully and very thoroughly eliminate obstacles or threats in their path rather than racing through them. During the journey home, Krogresli lamented about how her handlers kept her sheltered and isolated for her protection, but she figured that if she came this close to being ritually eaten by cannibals while “safe and protected” she might as well go out and see the wider world. She bombarded Kormatin with lots of questions about the Khemra temple he was from and gradually became more and more convinced that that was where she wanted to go.
Eventually, Kormatin and company got Krogresli safely to her home temple. Even though Kormatin technically did a favor for Khemra, he prayed thanks to her anyway and a solid stone wall of the temple glowed and a small cabinet door appeared. Kormatin opened it and found five armor buckles. They were plain one side but on the other side had a beautiful painted icon.
One had the symbol of the Order of the Torch which was the organization Kormatin had dedicated his life to.
One had the symbol of Hallisan in Fumayan colors. Obviously intended for Ragani who was a Fumayan priestess of Hallisan.
Another had an icon in the style of the Swynfaredian Lanterns of Zarthus, obviously meant for Brigid.
One had the family crest of the Deorac family, obviously meant for Bendek Deorac.
The last armor buckle had a broken red axe icon, obviously meant for Creigor Redshaft.
The buckles would provide a modicum of additional magical protection to any armor it was attached to and was a thankyou from the goddess Khemra for saving her favored priestess in training. Not Kormatin or any of his companions every needed a thank you or asked for one.
Kormatin thanked the Lady of Light profusely for this divine gift but he also knew the gift was partially a burden. Kormatin knew that his patron goddess wouldn’t deem magical protection as necessary if Khemra hadn’t planned for them to go on more dangerous quests in the future.

This is a narrative story version of the RPG adventure Cannibals and Caverns