Adventure Log, Session 17 The Cult of the Cannibal Goblins, Part 3
General Summary
“C’mon!” Taid said. “They are getting away!” The Dwarf started running up the tunnel, Almë following, limping a bit.
It wasn’t far before they reached a room. The floor was fairly flat, but uneven, like most of the caverns. Again like most of the caverns, the stalagmites had been cleared out in the center of the room, leaving some along the edges of the room. The ceiling was 16’ high, with many of the stalactites broken off. There were three that had glowing tips, likely more uses of the Continual Light spell. In the room was a pile of straw, with some furs heaped upon it.
Kalshebba’s sleeping chamber
The room smelled of blood, strong body odor, and a musk neither recognized. It was strong enough to make their eyes water.
Decorating the room were bone sculptures, of similar style to the bone throne chair. They were surreal representations of animals, formed out of bones tied together with sinew. Blood and bits of flesh still clung to most of them, signs that they had been inexpertly cleaned prior to being used as a sculpture material. Some of the sculptures were recognizable: and elk, a monkey, a crocodile or lizard, and a bird. The others were unrecognizable, and were either abstracts or depictions of something so horrific that it’s shape couldn’t be discerned.
Elk made out of bones
Bird made of bones
On the walls were murals, done with crude but skilled hands. They depicted nature scenes with animals (deer, antelope, predators), pastoral scenes (pastures filled with cows, goats, and sheep), and what must be self portraits of an immense, strong green-colored female lording over all of it.
Mural
Another mural
Set against the southwest wall was a large table, sized for someone a dozen feet tall. Colorful pots of paint sat upon it, as well as several brushes of various sizes. A large barrel of slightly murky water sat next to the table. In the southeast section of the room, where it narrowed down, was set a wooden bench, with an oval wooden lid. Taid and Almë could hear rushing water, and they suspected that it was the goddess’ privy. Below it was the underground river.
Hanging on the wall near the pile of hay and furs were a pair of hanging tapestries. Each showed a scene of mounted hunters, chasing after a deer in one, and a giant lizard or drake in the other.
Taid didn’t trust the room. He snapped off a fist-sized chunk of stalactite, and tossed it across the room. There might be another pit trap. Or maybe an illusory screen, hiding the Goblins they were following. The chunk of rock sailed across the room, glanced off of the far wall, and bounced heavily to a stop near the privy bench. A second rock was tossed onto the pile of furs, in case they were hiding under them. That rock sunk into the furs with a faint thump. There was no cry of pain or surprise from the pile of hay.
Taid strode over to the first tapestry. “They could be hiding behind these! Check that other one!” Almë hurried over to the second tapestry, staff ready.
“Aha!” Taid cried as he noticed a tunnel behind the tapestry. He could hear running footsteps in the distance, echoing down the tube of rock. It twisted like an intestine, which was odd, because it was artificially dug, rather than being a natural tunnel. What miner makes crooked tunnels? he thought. Amateurs. And if Kalshebba was supposed to use this, she’d have to crawl.
The tunnel was about four feet in diameter. There was no way he was getting his halberd through that. “Dammit!” he said, exasperated. “I don’t want to leave Magdalene!”
Almë looked confused. “Magdalene? Who’s that?”
Taid shook his polearm in front of Almë’s face. “This,” he replied, “is Magdalene! Big Maggie! And she won’t fit down that tunnel! And it pisses me off!”
“Well, they are getting away, so we’d better do something!” Almë asserted.
Taid sighed heavily. He grimaced, then reluctantly leaned the halberd against the wall by the opening. He patted the haft a few times, drew his shortsword, then crouched down in order to fit into the tunnel. Almë had to get on his hands and knees. He had his staff slung below him, lengthwise between his legs. He hoped he would be able to get its six foot length around the corners. If it had been eight feet long, like Taid’s polearm, it never would have fit. As it was, it was difficult maneuvering it around some of the corners.
The pair moved up the corridor, around the twists and turns. Almë teasingly kept poking Taid in the ass with his staff.
Almë’s view of Taid in the tunnels
“Cut it out, Elf, or I’ll make you swallow that thing!” If Taid’s glare could maim, Almë would have had to be carried in a basket. Suitably chastised, he ceased annoying Taid.
They continued onward. They got to an area where the end of the tunnel was covered by a canvas drape. Taid realized that, in general, they had traveled upward, and had turned in a long arc that turned them almost a full one hundred and eighty degrees. The room, or whatever, was lit, for the light filtered through the weave of the drape. They stopped moving, quietly listening. Hearing nothing, Taid carefully pulled part of the drapery aside, so he could see past.
Jakkora’s sleeping chamber
He looked into another bedroom. The ceiling varied from seven to thirteen feet high. He saw a good sized bed, with nightstands on either side, and a chest at the foot of the bed. The bed was big enough to let eight Goblins sleep in it at once. A dresser sat against a wall. Dominating the room was a large round table, with eight chairs around it. Cards and gambling chips lay scattered on its surface. At the north and south ends of the room the stalagmites and stalactites formed almost a forest of stone.
The room was empty, or at least it appeared so. Taid and Almë exited the tunnel. Looking back, the tapestry was painted in such a way as to be almost completely and realistically blended into the background. A cursory examination of the room would likely have missed it. It had been painted so well that even though he knew it was there, he had trouble finding the edges of the drapery.
While Almë and Taid were exploring Kalshebba’s room and the escape tunnel, Elitheris slumped against the rock wall, taking the weight off of her wounded foot. She looked down, and could see that blood was leaking out of a two inch gash on the top of her boot. She was also leaving bloody footprints. The spearpoint had gone through the top of the boot, her foot, and had punched a hole through the sole as well. She was going to need new boots.
She slid down the wall, until her butt hit the floor, her damaged foot sticking out in front of her. She winced in pain as she bent the leg so she could reach her foot and peel off her boot. It was an agonizing effort, but she eventually managed to get it off without letting out too much of a cry of pain.
The spearpoint had plunged between her tarsals, glancing off of one and bruising it severely in addition to the through and through puncture wound. She opened her pack, getting out some bandages. She cut a more-or-less clean chunk of shirt off of one of the dead Goblins to use as a cleaning rag. She wet it with water from her canteen, then did what she could to cleanse the wound. Then she bandaged it up tight, to hopefully stop the bleeding.
She looked around. Eykit was off rifling through the bodies and slitting the throats of those who weren’t just bodies. He was also claiming ears, for the proof they would need for Eykit’s boss, so that all of this effort would actually be worth something. She saw, not too far away, what she needed. A spear, to use as a crutch. She stretched, clutched at it with grasping fingers, and, with some effort and a full extension, was able to grab it. Pulling it over to herself, she used it to stand up, leaning her weight upon it. She still wasn’t really able to put weight on her foot yet. She put her boot, which wouldn’t fit on her foot as long as the bandages were there, in her pack.
Eykit wasn’t finding much loot on these cannibals. He was disappointed. What did they do? he thought. Eat only poor people? Where is their treasure?
The smoke still hung in the still air where that priest guy had summoned it. He walked around it, his passage barely disturbing it, making the dark smoke create curlicues in the air.
He saw the cages, and the naked man in the center cage.
“Hey, I’m here to rescue you,” he said to the man as he approached.
The bruised Human screamed. “Get away from me! Get away!” He crouched pitifully on the far side of the cage, trying to get away from the approaching sharp-toothed, smiling Goblin.
“Oh, don’t be afraid,” Eykit soothed. “I’m one of the good guys! Lemme just pick this lock—Oh, that was too easy,” he said to himself, as the lock practically sprung open of its own accord.
“Ta-da!” he said, opening the cage door and stepping back with a flourish.
His eyes flicked nervously back and forth, scanning the room. He took in the dead cannibals, the Elf sitting at the mouth of the tunnel, wrapping her foot in gauze, and the roasted meat on the spit hanging above the fire. He gagged, mumbling, “Oh Jaine, I’m so sorry!” Tears flowed down his cheeks.
Eykit turned to the huge body of the goddess Kalshebba, laying on her back, Elitheris’ arrow still sticking out of her forehead like a flag planted on a hilltop.
She didn’t seem as big as she used to be. Her belly, which had been huge and distended, with her food still moving in it, lay much flatter now, and nothing moved. And he also realized that her skin wasn’t the rich olive it had been. It was a tannish grey, almost a stony color. And her teeth were large, flat, and tusked, rather than the row of sharp, pointed teeth Goblins had. He could have sworn that when she opened her mouth, they had been sharp.
“Elitheris! I think you should see this!” he called.
“Coming,” she replied, as she made her way slowly and carefully to where Eykit stood, looking down at the body of the goddess.
As Elitheris came around the cloud of smoke, and could see Kalshebba, she was brought up short. “What the hell? That looks like an ogre!”
“She’s definitely not a Goblin. I think that this was some kind of scam!”
“You think it was that priest?”
“Well, how smart are ogres?”
“They aren’t stupid, but they don’t usually win any contests of wit.”
“It’s either the priest, or someone we haven’t seen yet. That could be worrisome.”
Elitheris nodded. She didn’t like the idea that this cult could be much larger than they knew, either.
Eykit checked Kalshebba’s robes and headdress. The feather headdress that she had been wearing was still glowing with that soft golden light. It looked similar to the lights on the stalactites that lit the rooms. He shrugged, and set it aside. She didn’t have much in her robes, although they were very fine, decorated robes. Almost pretty, if a little smudged with blood and smoke stains. On her hands she wore lacy, fingerless gloves that went up to her elbows. Looking at the long, claw-like fingernails, any gloves with fingers on them would have been shredded. On her feet were sparkling ruby shoes. He pulled them off her huge feet, looking at them closely.
He was disappointed yet again; the gems on the shoes were only colored crystal. Worth maybe $100 if he could find someone with size 36 feet. Extra extra wide, size 36 feet. He set them aside. They weren’t worth it. He’d never find a fence for them who’d pay him more than maybe $10. And that would be simply for the novelty of “giantess ballroom shoes”.
“You got any food?” a voice said.
“What?” Eykit said, confused for a moment. He had put the Human out of his mind as he focused on things that were actually important.
“Food. Do you have any food?” the former prisoner repeated. He had grabbed a cloak off of a dead Goblin and had wrapped it around him. “I haven’t eaten in days. The only food they offered me was…” he paused, swallowing, trying to keep his gorge from rising, “my friends. I wasn’t going to eat them.”
Elitheris spoke up. “I’ve got some here in my pack. She unslung it, laboriously rummaged through it, all the while balancing on one foot and the spear. She pulled out a little cloth bag filled with hard cheese, dried fruit, and nuts.
He gobbled it up quickly, thanking her while chewing.
Taid and Almë moved through the room that seemed to be Jakkora’s. There was another tunnel on the opposite side, which led, through a short upward sloping hall, to another chamber.
Jakkora’s drafting studio
It was similar to the others in that the center of the space had been cleared of obstructions. Because the ceiling sloped down, it felt smaller than it actually was. The hanging stalactites made the ceiling appear even lower. In the center of the room was a round table, with three chairs and an oversized, solidly built stool. Off to one side of the room was a drafting table, the charcoal drawing of a gryphon, half done, pinned to it. Along the edges of the paper were labels and detailed drawings of specific body parts. It looked like an anatomical study. Words in Mekiitagi were all over it. There were several desks around the room, each one covered in papers, also mostly drawings. Some were pages of text, written in the tongue of the Goblins, and some were mixed. The images seemed to be about various things: people, of various races, animals, of various species and mostly domesticated types, a couple of different wagons and coaches, some buildings, and a bunch of trees of various species. Many were done in earth tone conte crayon, several in charcoal, and many in pencil. There were a few done in pen and ink. There was a cabinet with a bookcase on it off to the side, near the tunnel entrance that led to Jakkora’s sleeping chambers.
Charcoal drawing of a gryphon
Almë looked through the books. Written in Mekiitagi, he couldn’t really tell any specifics, but he could tell that they were about illustration, painting, and one about light and shadow. Another was a series of essays about how light, shadow, and tone are used in illustration. There were also several sketchbooks, all full except for one, which was about one third filled. Images included city scenes, buildings, the wharves of Port Karn, Featherstone manor, several recognizable buildings, such as the courthouse, hall of records, several shrines, etc. There were also pastoral scenes of workers in the fields, herds of sheep cows, antelope; a whole bunch of nature studies of plants and animals; many portraits of various people.
Their examination was necessarily short; that high priest was getting away. They listened, but couldn’t hear any footsteps. When had that noise disappeared? Taid couldn’t remember exactly…the last time he had heard it was in the hidden tunnel.
Odd…he’d expect a bolt hole to lead to an exit, not to another bedroom….
“We missed it,” he said, softly. “They went down a tunnel we missed.”
“How’d we miss it?” Almë asked. “There is no way we would have missed a hidden opening.”
“More pit bullshit!” Taid answered. “Some illusions fool more than sight.”
He quickly turned and went back through the tunnel. “I’m coming for you, Maggie!” he said under his breath. Almë was too far behind him to hear. As he went, he felt along the wall, searching for an opening, just in case they had missed it somehow.
But no, he was absolutely sure that there was no opening hidden by a simple visual screen.
He emerged in Kalshebba’s bedroom, his halberd leaning right where he left it. Almë came out after him.
“What now?” he asked the Dwarf.
“It’s in there, somewhere.” He scratched his bearded chin, running his fingers through the hairs, as if combing them. “Tapping and feeling for an opening didn’t work. We’ll have to concentrate on reality and see if we can somehow see past or through it. But this time, I want my halberd.”
“I might be able to use magic to carve out space for you to get that oversized toothpick through. I’ll need to go first.”
Taid nodded, then waggled his hand to tell Almë to hurry up and start moving. He crawled into the hole and made his way down the passageway.
The escape tunnel
It wasn’t long before the eight foot long rigid pole got hung up in a curve. It didn’t flex much, necessary for a useful pole weapon, but difficult in small, tight spaces like the one he was in. Almë cast the spell of Earth Shaping. The walls of the passageway were worked stone, so it was costly in mana, but by moving as little stone as possible, Taid was able to carefully move his halberd through the narrow slots Almë carved for him.
Along the way, they tried to disbelieve any illusion in the area. It wasn’t as easy as people might think. There was nothing that looked out of place, nothing that had a different stone texture, nothing that made the shadows fall unnaturally. There was literally no reason to think that there were any illusions here at all.
And, so far, all of the illusions they had seen so far had been made by a very competent artist.
As such, Taid came up empty. The entire tunnel, to him, looked exactly like a tunnel such as this should look.
Almë, perhaps because he was unfamiliar with most tunnels and their construction, and thus had no reference points to give him any preconceived notions, did manage to see through the illusion. The spell casting and the shuffling along on his hands and knees were getting him tired, and almost fell through the opening when the illusion disappeared for him. One moment he had felt the rough tunnel walls, the next, nothing.
The illusion had fooled the sense of touch, as well.
“Taid! I found it!” he called, then backed into the old tunnel to give Taid the opportunity to go first and lead with his beloved halberd. He followed, again getting a view of Taid’s backside all the way to the end of the tunnel. Near the end was a hairpin turn, but by this time the tunnel had widened out a bit and gotten a higher clearance, and Taid was able to get his halberd around the corner without needing magical digging.
The opening at this end of the tunnel was covered by a screen of vegetation. Almë could tell at a glance that some of it was living plants, and some was dying plant material cut and placed over gaps to help screen the opening. It was easy enough to squeeze out of the tunnel, into the open air.
He and Taid stood on the side of a hill covered in jungle. The high priest was nowhere to be seen.
“We’ll need Elitheris to track him,” Taid said.
“She’s a good woodswoman?” Almë replied.
“Yeah. She is. She’ll be able to show us where this bastard went.” He turned, looking this way and that, trying to get his bearings based upon the tunnels and the hillside. “Come on,” he said, “let’s find that other entrance.”
Inside, Elitheris and Eykit explored the caverns. They saw where a few of the Goblins had escaped to; there was a short tunnel that ended in a rope that led up into a shaft that connected to another tunnel. Climbing it, they emerged between what was likely a lounge, and an art studio.
Eykit was the only one who could read the spines on the books in the bookshelf. He flipped open some of the books, seeing that they were books about illustration and art. Perspective, shading, line weight, tone, and composition. There were sketchbooks. Several of them, all filled with drawings of people, places, and things. Lots of trees, animals, and rock formations. One of the sketchbooks had pages and pages of lines of text, all set up like “If this…then that” in form. He went back to the illustrations.
Whoever had drawn these was excellent. Highly skilled, both technically and artistically. Moreover, they were extremely precise. “As befits an illusionist, I suppose,” he said, more to himself than Elitheris, although she heard him and nodded in agreement. He put the books back on the shelf. Leaning on the spear, Elitheris looked around the room at the drawings.
At that moment, Taid and Almë came in.
“Bad news,” Almë started.
“Yeah,” Taid continued, “the high priest ran off into the jungle. We need to go after him.” He looked at Elitheris. “Since when did you use a spear?”
“Ever since a cannibal stuck this particular spear through my foot.” She lifted her foot, bootless, and wrapped in bandages.
Taid knelt down by Elitheris, chanting softly and manipulating his fingers into the forms required to focus the mana into a spell of Major Healing. Almost subliminal magenta motes flowed from his fingers into her foot, mending the torn muscles and tendons, filling in the chipped bone.
“Feels better already. Thanks, Taid.” Elitheris tentatively put weight on her foot, and found that it could support her weight. She unwound the bandages, pulled her boot out of her pack, and put it on her foot. It had a slice on the top, and a hole in the sole. It was no longer waterproof, and traipsing through the jungle with it was going to suck. She needed new boots, and would get them as soon as she got back to town. But for now, it would have to do. She’d just have to live with the squelching if they got wet.
“All right, let’s go,” Eykit said. “I’ve collected the ears of the dead goblins and the dead ogress. Let’s get that priest’s ear and be done with this.”
“Ogress?” Almë asked.
“Yeah. Kalshebba was really just an ogre,” Elitheris said.
“Apparently the priest was running some kind of scam. You know, illusionist?” Eykit said, as if it were obvious.
“Well,” Almë replied. “Interesting.”
Elitheris whistled, and Mr. Wiggles came running up to her, tongue lolling. She knelt, scratching between his ears. “Come on, boy,” she told him.
They made their way to the main entrance, then to where they left Wilbur, their horse. He had been tethered some distance from the opening. But he wasn’t there. There was a fresh cut pathway through the jungle, however, made recently, and not by them. There were a lot of people making that path. Elitheris crouched, examining the ground. She saw a lot of small footprints. Goblin-sized. And a few horseshoe prints as well.
“Those bastards took my horse!” Taid exclaimed angrily.
“And they took my plant!” Almë shouted, even more angrily. Fists clenched at his sides, he seethed for a few moments, took some measured, deep breaths, and started down the trail. He was pissed, struggling to not lose control over himself. He stumbled a little, as his vision was seemingly clouded by a red haze.
“Okay. We go after the group who took my horse. The priest can wait. We’ll get him later.” Taid followed Almë. Elitheris and Eykit looked at each other, shrugged, and followed, Mr. Wiggles running up along the track, sniffing.
They came to a gurgling brook, but the Goblins must not have used it to throw off any pursuit, as Mr. Wiggles easily found their trail on the other side.
About an hour later, they reached a ridgeline. Ahead of them, about a hundred yards ahead, they could hear the noises made by a lot of people moving through a dense jungle. Eykit’s ears quivered, the delicate muscles controlling their shape twitching as he focused his hearing down into the valley where the fleeing Goblins were. It was at the limits of his range, but he could hear, faintly, the susurration of soft voices, and the clumping of a horse.
“I think we’ve found our horse,” he said.
“And my plant!” Almë stated.
“And your plant,” Eykit agreed.
Elitheris had been watching the ground as they had traveled, and noted that based on the tracks, there were twenty three Goblins in the group ahead of them.
“There are a lot of them down there somewhere,” Elitheris mentioned. “How do we want to tackle this?”
“I say we sneak up on them and ambush them,” Eykit suggested.
“Well, yeah,” Elitheris agreed, “any specifics on that? Tactics? An overall strategy to get them without them getting us?”
Taid’s brow furrowed as he thought. “Elitheris, you seem to like traveling by tree. Take that high road of yours. You’ll shoot them from above. The rest of us will sneak up on them, and await your first arrow, at which point we can charge in. With luck, it will be a while before they identify where you are. We can close the distance and take them out.”
“High road?” Almë asked. “What’s that?”
“Elitheris likes to run along the tree branches instead of slogging through the mud and bushes,” Eykit added helpfully.
Almë thought about that. “High road, huh? Good name. I’ll do that too.”
Taid looked up at him, nodded, and added, “Fine.”
Elitheris attached a leash to Mr. Wiggles, who looked up at her with what seemed to be a hurt expression. She could almost hear him asking “But why? I’m a good boy!” She handed the leash to Taid, petted the dog on the head, scratching under his little dog helm, and told him to stay quiet.
She climbed up into the nearest tree, followed by Almë. They both started moving quickly along the branches, jumping from tree to tree. Almë did it a bit clumsily. While he had the typical Elven extraordinary balance and sure-footedness, he didn’t look like he was used to moving quickly this way. Elitheris looked entirely at home up in the trees.
Taid and Eykit, and the leashed borderbull, made their way through the jungle at ground level, following the trail, and trying to make as good of time as they could. They could move faster than the group of Goblins, but not too much faster, not if they were trying for any kind of stealth. And every now and then Taid would have to untangle his halberd from the interlocking branches above his head.
Elitheris leapt from one tree to the next, then stepped to the trunk, using it as cover. She could see the end of the line of Goblins ahead of her. Towards the middle of the group was Wilbur, carrying two of the cannibals. She could see two Goblins in armor, the gambeson used by the other soldiers in the caves, one at the rear of the column, one leading the horse. A glint farther up the trail could have been light reflecting off of another spearpoint, but she couldn’t be sure. The others seemed to be civilians, unarmored, soft-looking, and apparently unused to combat or military actions. Just normal people, swept up in their desire to eat other people.
Almë caught up to her. The Goblins were making enough noise to hide Taid’s and Eykit’s approach. He could see them about a dozen yards behind his own position in the tree.
Elitheris drew several arrows, placing them in her bow hand. Then one more, which she nocked, drew, and aimed at the rearmost Goblin. Being one of the few warriors, he made a good initial target.
She let fly the arrow, and it sped through the air until it blew through the chest of the target. He toppled with a soft grunt.
The Goblin just ahead of him started to turn, wondering what the guard had said. “What was that?” he inquired.
Elitheris’ second arrow, nocked, drawn, and shot in one smooth motion, took him under the arm, going through both lungs. His breath went out of him and he collapsed to his knees, then fell to one side, trying desperately to breathe, but failing.
As Elitheris loosed her first arrow, Almë took off across the branch. It was time to get his pet plant. Taid unclipped the leash, letting Mr. Wiggles do his thing. “Git ‘em!” Taid told the dog, and the canine took off through the undergrowth. Then he and Eykit charged into combat.
The dog leapt out of the foliage and slammed into the Goblin before the little greenish man realized that he was under attack. Fifty pounds of canine hit the short man in the upper chest with enough force to knock him over, the dog’s toothy mouth closing over the Goblin’s arm. He wailed as he was mauled by the bordercollie-pitbull mix.
The Goblin next to the fallen one yelped in surprise and fear, panicked, and started to run into the jungle. In the dense jungle, it would take a second or two for the news of the attack to travel to the front of the line. People could only react so fast.
Elitheris sighted along the arrow at the running cannibal, loosed, and hit a tree trunk as the running, panicky Goblin stumbled on a tree root just as the arrow was about to hit him in the chest. Instead, it had sailed over his shoulders as he just barely managed to keep his feet.
Eykit plunged both daggers into the chest of the Goblin that Mr. Wiggles had knocked over, killing him quickly by puncturing both lungs and slicing into his heart as the rondel daggers thunked into the inside faces of poor Goblin’s shoulder blades. Mr. Wiggles, feeling the body go limp beneath him, released the arm he was bearing down on and looked up, seeing Eykit smiling at him. He barked once in reply.
The soldier who had been leading the horse stabbed at Eykit with his spear, but Eykit evaded it with a quick shift to the side.
By now, the Goblins were reacting. Most of that was panic, and they were running, mostly into the jungle. They were being attacked; visibility was bad due to the vegetation, so they weren’t sure who was doing it, only that there were screams coming from the rear of the column. The soldier in front shouted for everyone to follow quickly as he shouldered his way through the brush, cutting it where necessary with his short sword. It made a pretty fair machete.
The pair of Goblins on the horse pulled the reins, and the horse turned and started off into the jungle undergrowth. It couldn’t move quickly, as the vegetation had to be trampled or forced through in order to make forward progress. It felt way, way too slow to the two riders. Three of their companions were down in as many seconds, another was fleeing, and only the soldier who had been leading the horse was in any shape at all to be fighting. Everyone ahead of them in the column were in a panicked rush to get away as fast as they could.
Elitheris had no easy targets, and the horse was starting to get away. She ran across the branch, leaping off of it as it started to sink beneath her weight over to the next tree, getting a better vantage point. She didn’t want the two on the horse to get away with Wilbur.
Mr. Wiggles leapt onto the back of the Goblin fleeing on foot, bowling him over and clamping down on the back of his neck. The Goblin shrieked in fear as he lay face down in the mud.
Almë had finally managed to get in jumping range of the Goblin warrior who faced off with Eykit. He hurled himself out of the tree and down onto the Goblin, swinging his staff down onto his target’s head as he did so. The helmet did its job; much of the force of the blow glanced off, but it was still enough to ring his bell and knock him to the ground, his spear flying out of his hand. Almë landed hard, rolling, and ended up on his feet. It wasn’t elegant, but it worked. Ow, he thought. Elitheris makes this kind of thing look easy. She never said it was going to hurt. He was also covered in mud, but he didn’t worry about that.
Taid and Eykit ran toward Wilbur, who was moving off into the jungle. “Wilbur!” Taid called. “Wilbur!” The horse either didn’t hear, or didn’t respond. Dammit, horse, Taid thought, I’m the one who feeds you, grooms you, and takes care of you! Listen to me when I talk at you!
Shaking his head, his ears ringing and his head hurting, the Goblin Almë had clubbed fumbled for his fighting knife.
Elitheris had a bead on the Goblins riding Wilbur. She nocked, drew, and loosed, the arrow launching with a thwang. It sailed between a pair of trees, through some branches, and impacted the rear rider’s back. It went through the small, Goblish body, and into the Goblin in front. The rear Goblin’s eyes widened in shock as the rider in front of her toppled off of the horse, unconscious, pulling her off with him. They landed heavily on the jungle floor, jarring the long wooden shaft that transfixed her and locked her to her companion. She screamed in agony.
Mr. Wiggles bit down into the neck of the Goblin he stood upon, wrenching his head from side to side. Blood flowed, and the Goblin squealed in terror, feeling like the dog was chewing his head off.
Almë, seeing the soldier going for his knife, said, “Nope!” and struck the Goblin’s face with an underhand blow with his staff. The Goblin’s neck snapped back, then forward again, the man’s face hitting the moist dirt in a daze.
Eykit and Taid both sprinted forward to Wilbur. “Wilbur!” Taid called again. “Stop!”
And Wilbur stopped. No one was riding him, overriding Taid’s commands. He stood, his head turned towards Taid expectantly.
The Goblin being ridden by Mr. Wiggles in a disturbing version of piggy back reached back and grabbed the edge of Mr. Wiggles’ armor. The straps gave the cannibal a good place to hold on to. And he pulled…or at least tried to. The angle was bad, and the borderbull’s strong jaws had a death grip on the poor man’s neck.
The warrior Almë had squared off against stabbed at the pesky Elf with a stick, but Almë blocked the strike easily with his staff. “Nah-ah!” Almë cautioned with a smirk.
It had been his one chance at striking a blow for his side, but now it was too late. Elitheris put an arrow into his chest. He coughed once, then toppled over onto his side, his chest heaving as he tried to breathe with a collapsed lung. He didn’t have much luck.
Mr. Wiggles, sensing that he might get pulled off, doubled down on his bite strength, and clamped down even harder. Blood filled his mouth, a taste he didn’t seem to mind, and the Goblin beneath him began whimpering.
Almë sped toward his pet plant, in his pack that he had hung over Wilbur’s saddlebag. If those little greenies have hurt it, he thought, I am totally going to lose my shit.
The rear arrow-pierced Goblin pushed her companion off of the point of the arrow, separating the two of them. She started to stand, getting to her knees. She didn’t get any farther than that, as Taid swung his halberd down upon her. It bit deep, cleaving into her back, chopping through three ribs and breaking her spine. She collapsed under the force of the blow, and blood drained into the thirsty jungle loam.
Lacking any immediate targets besides the one that her dog was mangling, Elitheris strode across the tree branch towards her dog and his opponent. She couldn’t get a good shot off without hitting Mr. Wiggles, so she drew her dagger. The dog and the Goblin still struggled beneath her.
Taid grabbed Wilbur’s reins, putting his foot in the stirrup. Almë rushed to the horse, grabbing his pack. Turning it around so he could check his plant, he could see that the tiny mantrap plant was not the worse for wear. He petted it, one of the little bivalve mouths clamping onto the end of his finger. It stung, and he pulled it out as Taid swung a leg over the saddle and seated himself on Wilbur.
Elitheris dropped onto the ground next to the Goblin, sliding Maica Melehtë, “Piercing Might,” into his throat. It went through it like a hot knife through butter on a summer’s day, and she pushed the knife’s edge downward, opening the Goblin’s throat. His whimpering screams suddenly cut off.
She looked up the trail. The Goblins had fled, disappeared into the jungle. She could track them, and kill them, if she wanted. They wouldn’t get away unless she let them. But the High Priest was the higher priority. Those guys were just grunts. Believers in a twisted religious idea. They didn’t matter.
Eykit harvested the ears as he looted the bodies. They, like the rest, didn’t have much. Some pocket change, some knives, a few spears, and short swords. Nothing of any real value.
They made their way back to the cavern. Taid and Almë lead them around the hill to the bolt hole exit.
“This is where the High Priest and his friend ran off,” Taid mentioned. From this side, the vegetation screen did a very good job of hiding the tunnel entrance. In a day or so, that would no longer be the case, as the cut vegetation that filled in the gaps withered, wilted, and died. That kind of thing took almost daily maintenance to keep up.
Elitheris looked at the ground, her practiced eye picking out anomalies in the ground features. Tracks: two people, small feet, running. She pointed. “They went that way.”
It was afternoon, and Jakkora had a lengthy head start. It was hot, and humid, and they had been fighting and running all day. But they set out anyway, determined to not let the illusionist escape. It wasn’t too long before they found an artesian spring, emerging from the hillside.
Almë crouched down beside it, thirsty. But as he got his face close to the water, he noticed a smell. Unpleasant and organic, it reminded him of sewage. Then he realized what this must be.
“Eww,” said Eykit, as he realized the same thing. “I wouldn’t drink that, if I were you.”
“Now we know where that underground river comes out,” Elitheris stated.
Almë sighed, then scooped some of the water into his plant’s little pot. “At least it will nurture my plant.” He stood. “Anyone have a canteen with water I can drink?”
Elitheris silently held out her canteen to him. He took it, drank some water, and handed it back. “Thanks,” he said.
They moved on, until the sun was beginning to set. “It’s Lúmë Morivaiyië,” Elitheris said, “the Hour of Enfolding Dark. We should make camp. Or are we planning on moving through this jungle in the night?”
“We’d better camp,” Taid suggested. There were nods from the others. “You can pick up his trail tomorrow?” he asked Elitheris. She nodded in reply.
She and Eykit prepped the campsite, the outdoorswoman giving instructions to the willing but relatively inexperienced city kid. “Hey, Elitheris,” he asked, “what’s Loomie Morey-whatever?”
“Lúmë Morivaiyië. It means the time from sunset to late evening.”
“You Elves ever hear of clocks?”
“Yes. They are meaningless. One moment is like any other. They don’t need to be counted like coins in a merchant’s safe.”
“Not all of us are immortal. I like counting my minutes. I don’t have as many as you do, so each one is special.”
Elitheris nodded, conceding his point. For him, it was likely true. He was an ephemeral. They weren’t here for very long before death took them.
Taid, meanwhile, was concentrating on casting Mystic Mist, in order to protect the campsite. Almë thought about adding a Forest Warning spell to it, to wake him up if anything crossed into their camp, but Taid mentioned that most things would avoid the impenetrable mist they saw, fearing it.
The Mystic Mist made everything in the area opalescent to their eyes, since they were inside the affected radius. To anyone outside of that area, it would appear as a dense fog, most likely filled with predators or other dangers.
Even so, they set a watch. Elitheris took first watch, and Eykit the second. It was during Eykit’s watch that Almë started screaming, thrashing about in his sleeping furs. He woke everyone in camp, and startled some birds and other small animals which fled the area in a rush of feathers and fur.
Taid and Elitheris jumped up, hands going to the daggers at their waists, ready to attack. They looked around, trying to see the threat. There was nothing there, and anything there would be wandering around randomly, confused in the fog.
“By the gods what was that all about?” Elitheris asked angrily, glaring at Almë. She was tired, and didn’t appreciate being woken up for no reason.
Almë hesitated, not sure of how much he wanted to tell these people. But they were helping him, so he felt he owed them something. Besides, he had just woken them all up. “My wife was killed by some mages. They tried to kill me too, but they didn’t quite succeed. That night still haunts me.” He rubbed his face. “I still see her empty eyes staring at me in death.”
“Who are these mages?” Taid asked.
“I don’t know. I was heading to Port Karn to see if any of the mages there might be the ones. And even if they weren’t, I was hoping that they might be able to point me in the right direction.”
“Why’d they kill your wife?” Elitheris asked.
“I don’t know. I suspect it has something to do with a mages’ guild, as opposed to something personal with those mages, but I have no real idea. It’s why I need money…to fund my search for answers.”
“And you don’t know who these mages are?”
“Not a clue.”
“Taid, what about you? What’s your story?” Elitheris asked.
“I was raised in a monastery, taught to fight and to use magic, in the name of Aheru-Mazda. Joined the Tondene Imperial Army for a while, then got out. Now I am a mercenary.”
Before anyone asked about his own background, Eykit said, “Almë, since you’re up, it’s your watch. I’m hitting the sack. I don’t see how you folks can sleep on the uncomfortable ground.”
“We manage,” Elitheris countered. “You just need more practice. We’ll have to make you sleep in the jungle more often!”
“Uh, no. I’d rather not, thankyouverymuch.” He crawled into his bedroll, curled up on his side, and did his best to pretend to be asleep. Maybe if he pretended well enough, it might even become true. As it turned out, he was tired enough to be snoring within minutes.
Almë took the watch. Elitheris and Taid laid back down, and slept until the sun was lightening the sky with its rosy fingers. They still had an escaping high priest to catch.
It wasn’t far before they reached a room. The floor was fairly flat, but uneven, like most of the caverns. Again like most of the caverns, the stalagmites had been cleared out in the center of the room, leaving some along the edges of the room. The ceiling was 16’ high, with many of the stalactites broken off. There were three that had glowing tips, likely more uses of the Continual Light spell. In the room was a pile of straw, with some furs heaped upon it.
The room smelled of blood, strong body odor, and a musk neither recognized. It was strong enough to make their eyes water.
Decorating the room were bone sculptures, of similar style to the bone throne chair. They were surreal representations of animals, formed out of bones tied together with sinew. Blood and bits of flesh still clung to most of them, signs that they had been inexpertly cleaned prior to being used as a sculpture material. Some of the sculptures were recognizable: and elk, a monkey, a crocodile or lizard, and a bird. The others were unrecognizable, and were either abstracts or depictions of something so horrific that it’s shape couldn’t be discerned.
On the walls were murals, done with crude but skilled hands. They depicted nature scenes with animals (deer, antelope, predators), pastoral scenes (pastures filled with cows, goats, and sheep), and what must be self portraits of an immense, strong green-colored female lording over all of it.
Set against the southwest wall was a large table, sized for someone a dozen feet tall. Colorful pots of paint sat upon it, as well as several brushes of various sizes. A large barrel of slightly murky water sat next to the table. In the southeast section of the room, where it narrowed down, was set a wooden bench, with an oval wooden lid. Taid and Almë could hear rushing water, and they suspected that it was the goddess’ privy. Below it was the underground river.
Hanging on the wall near the pile of hay and furs were a pair of hanging tapestries. Each showed a scene of mounted hunters, chasing after a deer in one, and a giant lizard or drake in the other.
Taid didn’t trust the room. He snapped off a fist-sized chunk of stalactite, and tossed it across the room. There might be another pit trap. Or maybe an illusory screen, hiding the Goblins they were following. The chunk of rock sailed across the room, glanced off of the far wall, and bounced heavily to a stop near the privy bench. A second rock was tossed onto the pile of furs, in case they were hiding under them. That rock sunk into the furs with a faint thump. There was no cry of pain or surprise from the pile of hay.
Taid strode over to the first tapestry. “They could be hiding behind these! Check that other one!” Almë hurried over to the second tapestry, staff ready.
“Aha!” Taid cried as he noticed a tunnel behind the tapestry. He could hear running footsteps in the distance, echoing down the tube of rock. It twisted like an intestine, which was odd, because it was artificially dug, rather than being a natural tunnel. What miner makes crooked tunnels? he thought. Amateurs. And if Kalshebba was supposed to use this, she’d have to crawl.
The tunnel was about four feet in diameter. There was no way he was getting his halberd through that. “Dammit!” he said, exasperated. “I don’t want to leave Magdalene!”
Almë looked confused. “Magdalene? Who’s that?”
Taid shook his polearm in front of Almë’s face. “This,” he replied, “is Magdalene! Big Maggie! And she won’t fit down that tunnel! And it pisses me off!”
“Well, they are getting away, so we’d better do something!” Almë asserted.
Taid sighed heavily. He grimaced, then reluctantly leaned the halberd against the wall by the opening. He patted the haft a few times, drew his shortsword, then crouched down in order to fit into the tunnel. Almë had to get on his hands and knees. He had his staff slung below him, lengthwise between his legs. He hoped he would be able to get its six foot length around the corners. If it had been eight feet long, like Taid’s polearm, it never would have fit. As it was, it was difficult maneuvering it around some of the corners.
The pair moved up the corridor, around the twists and turns. Almë teasingly kept poking Taid in the ass with his staff.
“Cut it out, Elf, or I’ll make you swallow that thing!” If Taid’s glare could maim, Almë would have had to be carried in a basket. Suitably chastised, he ceased annoying Taid.
They continued onward. They got to an area where the end of the tunnel was covered by a canvas drape. Taid realized that, in general, they had traveled upward, and had turned in a long arc that turned them almost a full one hundred and eighty degrees. The room, or whatever, was lit, for the light filtered through the weave of the drape. They stopped moving, quietly listening. Hearing nothing, Taid carefully pulled part of the drapery aside, so he could see past.
He looked into another bedroom. The ceiling varied from seven to thirteen feet high. He saw a good sized bed, with nightstands on either side, and a chest at the foot of the bed. The bed was big enough to let eight Goblins sleep in it at once. A dresser sat against a wall. Dominating the room was a large round table, with eight chairs around it. Cards and gambling chips lay scattered on its surface. At the north and south ends of the room the stalagmites and stalactites formed almost a forest of stone.
The room was empty, or at least it appeared so. Taid and Almë exited the tunnel. Looking back, the tapestry was painted in such a way as to be almost completely and realistically blended into the background. A cursory examination of the room would likely have missed it. It had been painted so well that even though he knew it was there, he had trouble finding the edges of the drapery.
While Almë and Taid were exploring Kalshebba’s room and the escape tunnel, Elitheris slumped against the rock wall, taking the weight off of her wounded foot. She looked down, and could see that blood was leaking out of a two inch gash on the top of her boot. She was also leaving bloody footprints. The spearpoint had gone through the top of the boot, her foot, and had punched a hole through the sole as well. She was going to need new boots.
She slid down the wall, until her butt hit the floor, her damaged foot sticking out in front of her. She winced in pain as she bent the leg so she could reach her foot and peel off her boot. It was an agonizing effort, but she eventually managed to get it off without letting out too much of a cry of pain.
The spearpoint had plunged between her tarsals, glancing off of one and bruising it severely in addition to the through and through puncture wound. She opened her pack, getting out some bandages. She cut a more-or-less clean chunk of shirt off of one of the dead Goblins to use as a cleaning rag. She wet it with water from her canteen, then did what she could to cleanse the wound. Then she bandaged it up tight, to hopefully stop the bleeding.
She looked around. Eykit was off rifling through the bodies and slitting the throats of those who weren’t just bodies. He was also claiming ears, for the proof they would need for Eykit’s boss, so that all of this effort would actually be worth something. She saw, not too far away, what she needed. A spear, to use as a crutch. She stretched, clutched at it with grasping fingers, and, with some effort and a full extension, was able to grab it. Pulling it over to herself, she used it to stand up, leaning her weight upon it. She still wasn’t really able to put weight on her foot yet. She put her boot, which wouldn’t fit on her foot as long as the bandages were there, in her pack.
Eykit wasn’t finding much loot on these cannibals. He was disappointed. What did they do? he thought. Eat only poor people? Where is their treasure?
The smoke still hung in the still air where that priest guy had summoned it. He walked around it, his passage barely disturbing it, making the dark smoke create curlicues in the air.
He saw the cages, and the naked man in the center cage.
“Hey, I’m here to rescue you,” he said to the man as he approached.
The bruised Human screamed. “Get away from me! Get away!” He crouched pitifully on the far side of the cage, trying to get away from the approaching sharp-toothed, smiling Goblin.
“Oh, don’t be afraid,” Eykit soothed. “I’m one of the good guys! Lemme just pick this lock—Oh, that was too easy,” he said to himself, as the lock practically sprung open of its own accord.
“Ta-da!” he said, opening the cage door and stepping back with a flourish.
His eyes flicked nervously back and forth, scanning the room. He took in the dead cannibals, the Elf sitting at the mouth of the tunnel, wrapping her foot in gauze, and the roasted meat on the spit hanging above the fire. He gagged, mumbling, “Oh Jaine, I’m so sorry!” Tears flowed down his cheeks.
Eykit turned to the huge body of the goddess Kalshebba, laying on her back, Elitheris’ arrow still sticking out of her forehead like a flag planted on a hilltop.
She didn’t seem as big as she used to be. Her belly, which had been huge and distended, with her food still moving in it, lay much flatter now, and nothing moved. And he also realized that her skin wasn’t the rich olive it had been. It was a tannish grey, almost a stony color. And her teeth were large, flat, and tusked, rather than the row of sharp, pointed teeth Goblins had. He could have sworn that when she opened her mouth, they had been sharp.
“Elitheris! I think you should see this!” he called.
“Coming,” she replied, as she made her way slowly and carefully to where Eykit stood, looking down at the body of the goddess.
As Elitheris came around the cloud of smoke, and could see Kalshebba, she was brought up short. “What the hell? That looks like an ogre!”
“She’s definitely not a Goblin. I think that this was some kind of scam!”
“You think it was that priest?”
“Well, how smart are ogres?”
“They aren’t stupid, but they don’t usually win any contests of wit.”
“It’s either the priest, or someone we haven’t seen yet. That could be worrisome.”
Elitheris nodded. She didn’t like the idea that this cult could be much larger than they knew, either.
Eykit checked Kalshebba’s robes and headdress. The feather headdress that she had been wearing was still glowing with that soft golden light. It looked similar to the lights on the stalactites that lit the rooms. He shrugged, and set it aside. She didn’t have much in her robes, although they were very fine, decorated robes. Almost pretty, if a little smudged with blood and smoke stains. On her hands she wore lacy, fingerless gloves that went up to her elbows. Looking at the long, claw-like fingernails, any gloves with fingers on them would have been shredded. On her feet were sparkling ruby shoes. He pulled them off her huge feet, looking at them closely.
He was disappointed yet again; the gems on the shoes were only colored crystal. Worth maybe $100 if he could find someone with size 36 feet. Extra extra wide, size 36 feet. He set them aside. They weren’t worth it. He’d never find a fence for them who’d pay him more than maybe $10. And that would be simply for the novelty of “giantess ballroom shoes”.
“You got any food?” a voice said.
“What?” Eykit said, confused for a moment. He had put the Human out of his mind as he focused on things that were actually important.
“Food. Do you have any food?” the former prisoner repeated. He had grabbed a cloak off of a dead Goblin and had wrapped it around him. “I haven’t eaten in days. The only food they offered me was…” he paused, swallowing, trying to keep his gorge from rising, “my friends. I wasn’t going to eat them.”
Elitheris spoke up. “I’ve got some here in my pack. She unslung it, laboriously rummaged through it, all the while balancing on one foot and the spear. She pulled out a little cloth bag filled with hard cheese, dried fruit, and nuts.
He gobbled it up quickly, thanking her while chewing.
Taid and Almë moved through the room that seemed to be Jakkora’s. There was another tunnel on the opposite side, which led, through a short upward sloping hall, to another chamber.
It was similar to the others in that the center of the space had been cleared of obstructions. Because the ceiling sloped down, it felt smaller than it actually was. The hanging stalactites made the ceiling appear even lower. In the center of the room was a round table, with three chairs and an oversized, solidly built stool. Off to one side of the room was a drafting table, the charcoal drawing of a gryphon, half done, pinned to it. Along the edges of the paper were labels and detailed drawings of specific body parts. It looked like an anatomical study. Words in Mekiitagi were all over it. There were several desks around the room, each one covered in papers, also mostly drawings. Some were pages of text, written in the tongue of the Goblins, and some were mixed. The images seemed to be about various things: people, of various races, animals, of various species and mostly domesticated types, a couple of different wagons and coaches, some buildings, and a bunch of trees of various species. Many were done in earth tone conte crayon, several in charcoal, and many in pencil. There were a few done in pen and ink. There was a cabinet with a bookcase on it off to the side, near the tunnel entrance that led to Jakkora’s sleeping chambers.
Almë looked through the books. Written in Mekiitagi, he couldn’t really tell any specifics, but he could tell that they were about illustration, painting, and one about light and shadow. Another was a series of essays about how light, shadow, and tone are used in illustration. There were also several sketchbooks, all full except for one, which was about one third filled. Images included city scenes, buildings, the wharves of Port Karn, Featherstone manor, several recognizable buildings, such as the courthouse, hall of records, several shrines, etc. There were also pastoral scenes of workers in the fields, herds of sheep cows, antelope; a whole bunch of nature studies of plants and animals; many portraits of various people.
Their examination was necessarily short; that high priest was getting away. They listened, but couldn’t hear any footsteps. When had that noise disappeared? Taid couldn’t remember exactly…the last time he had heard it was in the hidden tunnel.
Odd…he’d expect a bolt hole to lead to an exit, not to another bedroom….
“We missed it,” he said, softly. “They went down a tunnel we missed.”
“How’d we miss it?” Almë asked. “There is no way we would have missed a hidden opening.”
“More pit bullshit!” Taid answered. “Some illusions fool more than sight.”
He quickly turned and went back through the tunnel. “I’m coming for you, Maggie!” he said under his breath. Almë was too far behind him to hear. As he went, he felt along the wall, searching for an opening, just in case they had missed it somehow.
But no, he was absolutely sure that there was no opening hidden by a simple visual screen.
He emerged in Kalshebba’s bedroom, his halberd leaning right where he left it. Almë came out after him.
“What now?” he asked the Dwarf.
“It’s in there, somewhere.” He scratched his bearded chin, running his fingers through the hairs, as if combing them. “Tapping and feeling for an opening didn’t work. We’ll have to concentrate on reality and see if we can somehow see past or through it. But this time, I want my halberd.”
“I might be able to use magic to carve out space for you to get that oversized toothpick through. I’ll need to go first.”
Taid nodded, then waggled his hand to tell Almë to hurry up and start moving. He crawled into the hole and made his way down the passageway.
It wasn’t long before the eight foot long rigid pole got hung up in a curve. It didn’t flex much, necessary for a useful pole weapon, but difficult in small, tight spaces like the one he was in. Almë cast the spell of Earth Shaping. The walls of the passageway were worked stone, so it was costly in mana, but by moving as little stone as possible, Taid was able to carefully move his halberd through the narrow slots Almë carved for him.
Along the way, they tried to disbelieve any illusion in the area. It wasn’t as easy as people might think. There was nothing that looked out of place, nothing that had a different stone texture, nothing that made the shadows fall unnaturally. There was literally no reason to think that there were any illusions here at all.
And, so far, all of the illusions they had seen so far had been made by a very competent artist.
As such, Taid came up empty. The entire tunnel, to him, looked exactly like a tunnel such as this should look.
Almë, perhaps because he was unfamiliar with most tunnels and their construction, and thus had no reference points to give him any preconceived notions, did manage to see through the illusion. The spell casting and the shuffling along on his hands and knees were getting him tired, and almost fell through the opening when the illusion disappeared for him. One moment he had felt the rough tunnel walls, the next, nothing.
The illusion had fooled the sense of touch, as well.
“Taid! I found it!” he called, then backed into the old tunnel to give Taid the opportunity to go first and lead with his beloved halberd. He followed, again getting a view of Taid’s backside all the way to the end of the tunnel. Near the end was a hairpin turn, but by this time the tunnel had widened out a bit and gotten a higher clearance, and Taid was able to get his halberd around the corner without needing magical digging.
The opening at this end of the tunnel was covered by a screen of vegetation. Almë could tell at a glance that some of it was living plants, and some was dying plant material cut and placed over gaps to help screen the opening. It was easy enough to squeeze out of the tunnel, into the open air.
“We’ll need Elitheris to track him,” Taid said.
“She’s a good woodswoman?” Almë replied.
“Yeah. She is. She’ll be able to show us where this bastard went.” He turned, looking this way and that, trying to get his bearings based upon the tunnels and the hillside. “Come on,” he said, “let’s find that other entrance.”
Inside, Elitheris and Eykit explored the caverns. They saw where a few of the Goblins had escaped to; there was a short tunnel that ended in a rope that led up into a shaft that connected to another tunnel. Climbing it, they emerged between what was likely a lounge, and an art studio.
Eykit was the only one who could read the spines on the books in the bookshelf. He flipped open some of the books, seeing that they were books about illustration and art. Perspective, shading, line weight, tone, and composition. There were sketchbooks. Several of them, all filled with drawings of people, places, and things. Lots of trees, animals, and rock formations. One of the sketchbooks had pages and pages of lines of text, all set up like “If this…then that” in form. He went back to the illustrations.
Whoever had drawn these was excellent. Highly skilled, both technically and artistically. Moreover, they were extremely precise. “As befits an illusionist, I suppose,” he said, more to himself than Elitheris, although she heard him and nodded in agreement. He put the books back on the shelf. Leaning on the spear, Elitheris looked around the room at the drawings.
At that moment, Taid and Almë came in.
“Bad news,” Almë started.
“Yeah,” Taid continued, “the high priest ran off into the jungle. We need to go after him.” He looked at Elitheris. “Since when did you use a spear?”
“Ever since a cannibal stuck this particular spear through my foot.” She lifted her foot, bootless, and wrapped in bandages.
Taid knelt down by Elitheris, chanting softly and manipulating his fingers into the forms required to focus the mana into a spell of Major Healing. Almost subliminal magenta motes flowed from his fingers into her foot, mending the torn muscles and tendons, filling in the chipped bone.
“Feels better already. Thanks, Taid.” Elitheris tentatively put weight on her foot, and found that it could support her weight. She unwound the bandages, pulled her boot out of her pack, and put it on her foot. It had a slice on the top, and a hole in the sole. It was no longer waterproof, and traipsing through the jungle with it was going to suck. She needed new boots, and would get them as soon as she got back to town. But for now, it would have to do. She’d just have to live with the squelching if they got wet.
“All right, let’s go,” Eykit said. “I’ve collected the ears of the dead goblins and the dead ogress. Let’s get that priest’s ear and be done with this.”
“Ogress?” Almë asked.
“Yeah. Kalshebba was really just an ogre,” Elitheris said.
“Apparently the priest was running some kind of scam. You know, illusionist?” Eykit said, as if it were obvious.
“Well,” Almë replied. “Interesting.”
Elitheris whistled, and Mr. Wiggles came running up to her, tongue lolling. She knelt, scratching between his ears. “Come on, boy,” she told him.
They made their way to the main entrance, then to where they left Wilbur, their horse. He had been tethered some distance from the opening. But he wasn’t there. There was a fresh cut pathway through the jungle, however, made recently, and not by them. There were a lot of people making that path. Elitheris crouched, examining the ground. She saw a lot of small footprints. Goblin-sized. And a few horseshoe prints as well.
“Those bastards took my horse!” Taid exclaimed angrily.
“And they took my plant!” Almë shouted, even more angrily. Fists clenched at his sides, he seethed for a few moments, took some measured, deep breaths, and started down the trail. He was pissed, struggling to not lose control over himself. He stumbled a little, as his vision was seemingly clouded by a red haze.
“Okay. We go after the group who took my horse. The priest can wait. We’ll get him later.” Taid followed Almë. Elitheris and Eykit looked at each other, shrugged, and followed, Mr. Wiggles running up along the track, sniffing.
They came to a gurgling brook, but the Goblins must not have used it to throw off any pursuit, as Mr. Wiggles easily found their trail on the other side.
About an hour later, they reached a ridgeline. Ahead of them, about a hundred yards ahead, they could hear the noises made by a lot of people moving through a dense jungle. Eykit’s ears quivered, the delicate muscles controlling their shape twitching as he focused his hearing down into the valley where the fleeing Goblins were. It was at the limits of his range, but he could hear, faintly, the susurration of soft voices, and the clumping of a horse.
“And my plant!” Almë stated.
“And your plant,” Eykit agreed.
Elitheris had been watching the ground as they had traveled, and noted that based on the tracks, there were twenty three Goblins in the group ahead of them.
“There are a lot of them down there somewhere,” Elitheris mentioned. “How do we want to tackle this?”
“I say we sneak up on them and ambush them,” Eykit suggested.
“Well, yeah,” Elitheris agreed, “any specifics on that? Tactics? An overall strategy to get them without them getting us?”
Taid’s brow furrowed as he thought. “Elitheris, you seem to like traveling by tree. Take that high road of yours. You’ll shoot them from above. The rest of us will sneak up on them, and await your first arrow, at which point we can charge in. With luck, it will be a while before they identify where you are. We can close the distance and take them out.”
“High road?” Almë asked. “What’s that?”
“Elitheris likes to run along the tree branches instead of slogging through the mud and bushes,” Eykit added helpfully.
Almë thought about that. “High road, huh? Good name. I’ll do that too.”
Taid looked up at him, nodded, and added, “Fine.”
Elitheris attached a leash to Mr. Wiggles, who looked up at her with what seemed to be a hurt expression. She could almost hear him asking “But why? I’m a good boy!” She handed the leash to Taid, petted the dog on the head, scratching under his little dog helm, and told him to stay quiet.
She climbed up into the nearest tree, followed by Almë. They both started moving quickly along the branches, jumping from tree to tree. Almë did it a bit clumsily. While he had the typical Elven extraordinary balance and sure-footedness, he didn’t look like he was used to moving quickly this way. Elitheris looked entirely at home up in the trees.
Taid and Eykit, and the leashed borderbull, made their way through the jungle at ground level, following the trail, and trying to make as good of time as they could. They could move faster than the group of Goblins, but not too much faster, not if they were trying for any kind of stealth. And every now and then Taid would have to untangle his halberd from the interlocking branches above his head.
Elitheris leapt from one tree to the next, then stepped to the trunk, using it as cover. She could see the end of the line of Goblins ahead of her. Towards the middle of the group was Wilbur, carrying two of the cannibals. She could see two Goblins in armor, the gambeson used by the other soldiers in the caves, one at the rear of the column, one leading the horse. A glint farther up the trail could have been light reflecting off of another spearpoint, but she couldn’t be sure. The others seemed to be civilians, unarmored, soft-looking, and apparently unused to combat or military actions. Just normal people, swept up in their desire to eat other people.
Almë caught up to her. The Goblins were making enough noise to hide Taid’s and Eykit’s approach. He could see them about a dozen yards behind his own position in the tree.
Elitheris drew several arrows, placing them in her bow hand. Then one more, which she nocked, drew, and aimed at the rearmost Goblin. Being one of the few warriors, he made a good initial target.
She let fly the arrow, and it sped through the air until it blew through the chest of the target. He toppled with a soft grunt.
The Goblin just ahead of him started to turn, wondering what the guard had said. “What was that?” he inquired.
Elitheris’ second arrow, nocked, drawn, and shot in one smooth motion, took him under the arm, going through both lungs. His breath went out of him and he collapsed to his knees, then fell to one side, trying desperately to breathe, but failing.
As Elitheris loosed her first arrow, Almë took off across the branch. It was time to get his pet plant. Taid unclipped the leash, letting Mr. Wiggles do his thing. “Git ‘em!” Taid told the dog, and the canine took off through the undergrowth. Then he and Eykit charged into combat.
The dog leapt out of the foliage and slammed into the Goblin before the little greenish man realized that he was under attack. Fifty pounds of canine hit the short man in the upper chest with enough force to knock him over, the dog’s toothy mouth closing over the Goblin’s arm. He wailed as he was mauled by the bordercollie-pitbull mix.
The Goblin next to the fallen one yelped in surprise and fear, panicked, and started to run into the jungle. In the dense jungle, it would take a second or two for the news of the attack to travel to the front of the line. People could only react so fast.
Elitheris sighted along the arrow at the running cannibal, loosed, and hit a tree trunk as the running, panicky Goblin stumbled on a tree root just as the arrow was about to hit him in the chest. Instead, it had sailed over his shoulders as he just barely managed to keep his feet.
Eykit plunged both daggers into the chest of the Goblin that Mr. Wiggles had knocked over, killing him quickly by puncturing both lungs and slicing into his heart as the rondel daggers thunked into the inside faces of poor Goblin’s shoulder blades. Mr. Wiggles, feeling the body go limp beneath him, released the arm he was bearing down on and looked up, seeing Eykit smiling at him. He barked once in reply.
The soldier who had been leading the horse stabbed at Eykit with his spear, but Eykit evaded it with a quick shift to the side.
By now, the Goblins were reacting. Most of that was panic, and they were running, mostly into the jungle. They were being attacked; visibility was bad due to the vegetation, so they weren’t sure who was doing it, only that there were screams coming from the rear of the column. The soldier in front shouted for everyone to follow quickly as he shouldered his way through the brush, cutting it where necessary with his short sword. It made a pretty fair machete.
The pair of Goblins on the horse pulled the reins, and the horse turned and started off into the jungle undergrowth. It couldn’t move quickly, as the vegetation had to be trampled or forced through in order to make forward progress. It felt way, way too slow to the two riders. Three of their companions were down in as many seconds, another was fleeing, and only the soldier who had been leading the horse was in any shape at all to be fighting. Everyone ahead of them in the column were in a panicked rush to get away as fast as they could.
Elitheris had no easy targets, and the horse was starting to get away. She ran across the branch, leaping off of it as it started to sink beneath her weight over to the next tree, getting a better vantage point. She didn’t want the two on the horse to get away with Wilbur.
Mr. Wiggles leapt onto the back of the Goblin fleeing on foot, bowling him over and clamping down on the back of his neck. The Goblin shrieked in fear as he lay face down in the mud.
Almë had finally managed to get in jumping range of the Goblin warrior who faced off with Eykit. He hurled himself out of the tree and down onto the Goblin, swinging his staff down onto his target’s head as he did so. The helmet did its job; much of the force of the blow glanced off, but it was still enough to ring his bell and knock him to the ground, his spear flying out of his hand. Almë landed hard, rolling, and ended up on his feet. It wasn’t elegant, but it worked. Ow, he thought. Elitheris makes this kind of thing look easy. She never said it was going to hurt. He was also covered in mud, but he didn’t worry about that.
Taid and Eykit ran toward Wilbur, who was moving off into the jungle. “Wilbur!” Taid called. “Wilbur!” The horse either didn’t hear, or didn’t respond. Dammit, horse, Taid thought, I’m the one who feeds you, grooms you, and takes care of you! Listen to me when I talk at you!
Shaking his head, his ears ringing and his head hurting, the Goblin Almë had clubbed fumbled for his fighting knife.
Elitheris had a bead on the Goblins riding Wilbur. She nocked, drew, and loosed, the arrow launching with a thwang. It sailed between a pair of trees, through some branches, and impacted the rear rider’s back. It went through the small, Goblish body, and into the Goblin in front. The rear Goblin’s eyes widened in shock as the rider in front of her toppled off of the horse, unconscious, pulling her off with him. They landed heavily on the jungle floor, jarring the long wooden shaft that transfixed her and locked her to her companion. She screamed in agony.
Mr. Wiggles bit down into the neck of the Goblin he stood upon, wrenching his head from side to side. Blood flowed, and the Goblin squealed in terror, feeling like the dog was chewing his head off.
Almë, seeing the soldier going for his knife, said, “Nope!” and struck the Goblin’s face with an underhand blow with his staff. The Goblin’s neck snapped back, then forward again, the man’s face hitting the moist dirt in a daze.
Eykit and Taid both sprinted forward to Wilbur. “Wilbur!” Taid called again. “Stop!”
And Wilbur stopped. No one was riding him, overriding Taid’s commands. He stood, his head turned towards Taid expectantly.
The Goblin being ridden by Mr. Wiggles in a disturbing version of piggy back reached back and grabbed the edge of Mr. Wiggles’ armor. The straps gave the cannibal a good place to hold on to. And he pulled…or at least tried to. The angle was bad, and the borderbull’s strong jaws had a death grip on the poor man’s neck.
The warrior Almë had squared off against stabbed at the pesky Elf with a stick, but Almë blocked the strike easily with his staff. “Nah-ah!” Almë cautioned with a smirk.
It had been his one chance at striking a blow for his side, but now it was too late. Elitheris put an arrow into his chest. He coughed once, then toppled over onto his side, his chest heaving as he tried to breathe with a collapsed lung. He didn’t have much luck.
Mr. Wiggles, sensing that he might get pulled off, doubled down on his bite strength, and clamped down even harder. Blood filled his mouth, a taste he didn’t seem to mind, and the Goblin beneath him began whimpering.
Almë sped toward his pet plant, in his pack that he had hung over Wilbur’s saddlebag. If those little greenies have hurt it, he thought, I am totally going to lose my shit.
The rear arrow-pierced Goblin pushed her companion off of the point of the arrow, separating the two of them. She started to stand, getting to her knees. She didn’t get any farther than that, as Taid swung his halberd down upon her. It bit deep, cleaving into her back, chopping through three ribs and breaking her spine. She collapsed under the force of the blow, and blood drained into the thirsty jungle loam.
Lacking any immediate targets besides the one that her dog was mangling, Elitheris strode across the tree branch towards her dog and his opponent. She couldn’t get a good shot off without hitting Mr. Wiggles, so she drew her dagger. The dog and the Goblin still struggled beneath her.
Taid grabbed Wilbur’s reins, putting his foot in the stirrup. Almë rushed to the horse, grabbing his pack. Turning it around so he could check his plant, he could see that the tiny mantrap plant was not the worse for wear. He petted it, one of the little bivalve mouths clamping onto the end of his finger. It stung, and he pulled it out as Taid swung a leg over the saddle and seated himself on Wilbur.
Elitheris dropped onto the ground next to the Goblin, sliding Maica Melehtë, “Piercing Might,” into his throat. It went through it like a hot knife through butter on a summer’s day, and she pushed the knife’s edge downward, opening the Goblin’s throat. His whimpering screams suddenly cut off.
She looked up the trail. The Goblins had fled, disappeared into the jungle. She could track them, and kill them, if she wanted. They wouldn’t get away unless she let them. But the High Priest was the higher priority. Those guys were just grunts. Believers in a twisted religious idea. They didn’t matter.
Eykit harvested the ears as he looted the bodies. They, like the rest, didn’t have much. Some pocket change, some knives, a few spears, and short swords. Nothing of any real value.
They made their way back to the cavern. Taid and Almë lead them around the hill to the bolt hole exit.
“This is where the High Priest and his friend ran off,” Taid mentioned. From this side, the vegetation screen did a very good job of hiding the tunnel entrance. In a day or so, that would no longer be the case, as the cut vegetation that filled in the gaps withered, wilted, and died. That kind of thing took almost daily maintenance to keep up.
Elitheris looked at the ground, her practiced eye picking out anomalies in the ground features. Tracks: two people, small feet, running. She pointed. “They went that way.”
Almë crouched down beside it, thirsty. But as he got his face close to the water, he noticed a smell. Unpleasant and organic, it reminded him of sewage. Then he realized what this must be.
“Eww,” said Eykit, as he realized the same thing. “I wouldn’t drink that, if I were you.”
“Now we know where that underground river comes out,” Elitheris stated.
Almë sighed, then scooped some of the water into his plant’s little pot. “At least it will nurture my plant.” He stood. “Anyone have a canteen with water I can drink?”
Elitheris silently held out her canteen to him. He took it, drank some water, and handed it back. “Thanks,” he said.
They moved on, until the sun was beginning to set. “It’s Lúmë Morivaiyië,” Elitheris said, “the Hour of Enfolding Dark. We should make camp. Or are we planning on moving through this jungle in the night?”
She and Eykit prepped the campsite, the outdoorswoman giving instructions to the willing but relatively inexperienced city kid. “Hey, Elitheris,” he asked, “what’s Loomie Morey-whatever?”
“Lúmë Morivaiyië. It means the time from sunset to late evening.”
“You Elves ever hear of clocks?”
“Yes. They are meaningless. One moment is like any other. They don’t need to be counted like coins in a merchant’s safe.”
“Not all of us are immortal. I like counting my minutes. I don’t have as many as you do, so each one is special.”
Elitheris nodded, conceding his point. For him, it was likely true. He was an ephemeral. They weren’t here for very long before death took them.
Taid, meanwhile, was concentrating on casting Mystic Mist, in order to protect the campsite. Almë thought about adding a Forest Warning spell to it, to wake him up if anything crossed into their camp, but Taid mentioned that most things would avoid the impenetrable mist they saw, fearing it.
The Mystic Mist made everything in the area opalescent to their eyes, since they were inside the affected radius. To anyone outside of that area, it would appear as a dense fog, most likely filled with predators or other dangers.
Even so, they set a watch. Elitheris took first watch, and Eykit the second. It was during Eykit’s watch that Almë started screaming, thrashing about in his sleeping furs. He woke everyone in camp, and startled some birds and other small animals which fled the area in a rush of feathers and fur.
Taid and Elitheris jumped up, hands going to the daggers at their waists, ready to attack. They looked around, trying to see the threat. There was nothing there, and anything there would be wandering around randomly, confused in the fog.
“By the gods what was that all about?” Elitheris asked angrily, glaring at Almë. She was tired, and didn’t appreciate being woken up for no reason.
Almë hesitated, not sure of how much he wanted to tell these people. But they were helping him, so he felt he owed them something. Besides, he had just woken them all up. “My wife was killed by some mages. They tried to kill me too, but they didn’t quite succeed. That night still haunts me.” He rubbed his face. “I still see her empty eyes staring at me in death.”
“Who are these mages?” Taid asked.
“I don’t know. I was heading to Port Karn to see if any of the mages there might be the ones. And even if they weren’t, I was hoping that they might be able to point me in the right direction.”
“Why’d they kill your wife?” Elitheris asked.
“I don’t know. I suspect it has something to do with a mages’ guild, as opposed to something personal with those mages, but I have no real idea. It’s why I need money…to fund my search for answers.”
“And you don’t know who these mages are?”
“Not a clue.”
“Taid, what about you? What’s your story?” Elitheris asked.
“I was raised in a monastery, taught to fight and to use magic, in the name of Aheru-Mazda. Joined the Tondene Imperial Army for a while, then got out. Now I am a mercenary.”
Before anyone asked about his own background, Eykit said, “Almë, since you’re up, it’s your watch. I’m hitting the sack. I don’t see how you folks can sleep on the uncomfortable ground.”
“We manage,” Elitheris countered. “You just need more practice. We’ll have to make you sleep in the jungle more often!”
“Uh, no. I’d rather not, thankyouverymuch.” He crawled into his bedroll, curled up on his side, and did his best to pretend to be asleep. Maybe if he pretended well enough, it might even become true. As it turned out, he was tired enough to be snoring within minutes.
Almë took the watch. Elitheris and Taid laid back down, and slept until the sun was lightening the sky with its rosy fingers. They still had an escaping high priest to catch.
Rewards Granted
Some pocket change
2 CPs
Report Date
27 Aug 2022
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