Part XVII:The Last Stretch
3rd of Granite, 371A swift, silent stab from behind to the neck was all it took.
The troglodyte lay on the cave floor unmoving, its head now severed from the body. Suwu looked around as her companions crept to the scene.
“There's probably more deeper down,” Suwu whispered.
While a single troglodyte wasn't much of a threat, Suwu knew these were aggressive creatures and often moved in groups. She did not have much of experience of them personally, but when she and Edu lived in the far south, in the Unspeakable Pits, among the group of bandits, these creatures sometimes ascended from the depths to steal food and all manner of trinkets. It was more than in a few cases where they had assaulted any who came across them and tried to chase them away.
'Foul brutes,' she thought as she headed further down, the others trailing close behind.
Suwu did not get far down when she was almost caught off-guard.
In front of her stood a gigantic creature. A muscular humanoid with straight, long hair the color of charcoal falling down his shoulders all the way down to the waist. It -- he -- looked down upon the capybara woman with short sword in hand with its wide-set bulging eyes, drool running down the side of its left head's mouth.
“WHO DARES ENTER MY DEN?”, the right head boomed in a loud voice, the left one continuing, “I AM ZAPAS LARGEFLEW THE LESSONS OF GLOSS.”
A fist came down at Suwu, but missed.
Immediately Suwu swung her sword, striking the left foot deeply. Blood began to gush from the wound as the ankle twisted from the force and the ettin came falling down with a ear-shattering yell.
Suwu's previous encounters with giant-kin had taught her well how to even the odds.
And she did not stop there, proceeding immediately to hack and slash at the enormous monster on the ground before it could recover and retaliate.
Panic took hold of Ova when he saw and heard the beast. He was not expecting anything else than more troglodytes.
“I must withdraw!”, he blurted out as he begun to take a few fumbling steps backwards.
“This is our fight too!”, Rin screamed as he ran towards the ettin, “Ova, follow me!”
Hearing Rin's words and seeing Suwu slash the monster in its right head gave Ova courage and he too leapt into the fray. Without thought he brought down his silver war hammer he had acquired from Finderblunts, hitting the ettin hard in the chest.
“AAAHHHH!”, the ettin yelled in fear, gasping for air, as Rin's blade struck him in the leg.
“HELP!”, the ettin roared as it desperately tried to crawl away from the flurry of blades cutting deeply and hammers crushing bones, “SAVE ME! NOO!”
Ova puckered his lips and averted gaze for a moment as he saw Rin and Suwu strike the giant monster in its lower body, hitting it in the groin, the ettin howling with a surprisingly high-pitched voice.
'That has got to hurt,' the mandrill man thought.
If this ettin survived, it wouldn't be having offspring anymore.
The ettin was surprisingly resilient, but it finally lay dead.
Its right head was badly crushed, brain matter oozing from a crack in the skull. Its guts were trailing behind it after Rin had sliced its stomach open and disemboweled the monster. Yet, neither of those had felled it.
No, it was the numerous amounts of gaping wounds that caused it to bleed to death in the end. It was hard to say who exactly was the one to kill it. But it was Rin who the last to strike him, so it was decided that the goblin should be the one to be counted as its slayer.
“One less of giant-kind roams these lands,” Cañar said as he wiped ettin blood off his tusk, “Minbazkar is a slightly safer place now.”
The cave had not much else to offer: only a couple of troglodytes, which were dealt with easily. They wouldn't be bothering any cave explorers anymore.
Further down the cave had once again led into the deep caverns, but the companions ventured there not.
They returned to the surface and continued their journey towards Fencereined.
They walked across the Scarlet Prairies and eventually the grassland gave way to the wind-swept sands of the Static Dunes.
There an unfortunate honey badger tried to attack Rin, but found out soon enough that its rage was no match to the fury of the goblin.
As they approached the northern border of the desert they saw what appeared to be a village of some kind in the horizon.
And there was something on top of a sand dune to their west. It looked as if there were some movement there.
They decided to investigate it.
They walked up the sandy slope and, indeed, there was something there: a tent.
This was some kind of a camp.
Next to the tent was a fire and next to it sat a creature and on the other side was a two-humped camel. The creature sitting at the fire was a small humanoid, yet it was not of a normal kind. No, this seemed to be one of the abominations, one of the twisted forms created by evil sorcerers.
Dressed in a toga made of fish scales and draped in a woolen cloak was a three-eyed creature looking at them from the fire. As it rose up one could clearly see its wrinkled charcoal skin and the three long, hanging tails trailing behind it.
The incredibly skinny creature walked towards the four who approached it.
Suwu prepared to greet the creature and introduce herself as 'Ker Virtuesilences'. But as she was about to open her mouth, she noticed that the abomination looked rather hostile and was not walking to meet them with good intentions!
“There is no need for aggression!”, Suwu said with as firm a voice as she could muster, “We are but mere travelers.”
“Hah!”, the creature yelled, “We'll see about that!”
Suwu drew her sword.
The creature drew a wicked looking bronze knife and suddenly spewed a glob of some foul substance from its mouth, spitting it towards Suwu.
She dodged it and returned with a slash from her sword at the monster's abdomen.
Rin jumped in, but the creature managed to slash at the goblin, hitting him in his left hand. The blow was deflected be Rin's gauntlet, but the force was enough to twist the wrist. Rin could feel it strain his tendons as a sharp pain hit him.
It was enough for him to loose hold of his buckler.
Yet, it was not enough to hinder the retaliation of the four. No, the monster was immediately rushed on by Cañar who bit and battered him, with Rin lashing out angrily and in pain.
But it was Ova who killed the mockery of a humanoid: a crushing blow from his hammer smashed the head of it with a loud crack.
The three-eyed creature's limp body fell to the ground.
“That one was different,” Suwu said as she examined the body on the ground.
“Another creation of the evil we seek to stop,” Ova replied, “Will this never end?”
After the encounter with the abomination, they made their way towards the village.
At first they thought this was another abandoned one. Many of the houses were in bad shape and some were in complete ruins. The melon vines around the buildings were growing wild, untouched by civilized hand for Ôsed know's how long.
But they then heard muffled voices from inside a house.
As they approached, a human opened the door, and behing him they could see the whole small house full of people.
“Greetings,” Suwu said to the fat man with raw umber skin wearing a turban around his somewhat narrow head, “My name is Ker Virtuesilences and these are my traveling companions.”
“Hello there, capybara woman,” the human replied, continuing, “I am ÿemeni Growlold, praised be Rákfil the Stability of Vising.”
Sitting between two date palms on the bank of a stream, Suwu and the others filled their empty stomachs. The wind rustled in the tall grama grass around them and the sun was high in the western sky.
They were but a short distance to the north from the village, Elderspirals, they had just visited and were thinking of what they had learned from the humans living there.
“Welcome to Elderspirals then,” the human had said and after a small exchange of pleasantries, ÿemeni had explained quite a bit of the curious history of the village.
“Ah, in its former days -- or so I've been told -- Elderspirals was part of the Cobalt Empire. Founded centuries ago only to fall prey of the onslaught of the vile forces of the Prestigious Glazes early on. Those foul sorcerers have plagued these lands for such a long time!”, the human had told them.
“Taking over this village was not enough for them. No, they were far from done. For you see, legends tell that one of the sorcerers, a necromancer going by the name Sigun Gildjump, did foul deeds with the enslaved denizens of Elderspirals. Sigun, a dwarf of the ancient kingdom of the Mighty Ships -- cursed be their name! --, he was said to be an apprentice under the master necromancer Kadol himself. He was infamous for his cruelty, for his sick experiments... The stories tell not the details, but within his alchemical laboratory prisoners were subjected to the worst kind of torture: experiments that twisted and malformed their bodies, making them into terrible creatures of the Night!”
“But in that bygone age, the power of the sorcerers was not yet so strong and their forces were stretched thin. The Cobalt Empires managed to free this place from their yoke, make it a place for the living once again. Most of the people of Elderspirals were fortunate: the enemy did not hold the place for many a month. But for some, the harm was already done and their bodies were mutated... Permanently.”
“I know not why the Cobalt Empires eventually abandoned Elderspirals nearly half a century ago... But our glorious kingdom, the Relieved Realms, then under rule of our beloved Begu Lightplaited -- may Rákfil bless her soul! -- reclaimed this site as our own. And that is when I, too, settled here... Perhaps the Cobalt Empires felt its power weaken, perhaps they realized they could not hold to such a vast territory... Maybe that is why they left?”
“The fate of Elderspirals has yet to be decided, I fear. You see, capybara woman, the Cobalt Empires seems to have seen the abandonment of this place as an error. I believe they would very much like to call my home once again their own. But, I trust that my superiors are even now making plans to keep us safe and negotiate with our rival's leadership... Alas, if it were only the Cobalt Empires that desires this place! But no, I have heard worrying rumors that the foul sorcerers of the Prestigious Glazes seek to enslave us and bring darkness upon these beautiful lands once more!”
Cañar stood next to Suwu scratching his trunk as he thought.
“It is horrible,” he spoke, “Horrible what those people have had to endure. What hardships they have gone through, what trials still lay ahead of them... This quest, whether for Lòr, Mestthos or our own sake, is far more important than I would have thought not but a week ago.”
He walked to the stream, looked at its waters.
“It is utterly repellent,” the elephant man turned to address his companions, “The very idea of these wars: death, destruction, chaos -- all the very essence of the Prince. It must be ended. We must have peace. No matter what the cost. We
must have peace.”
Suwu stood up, crossing her hands in front of her chest, “And how do you expect us to go on making 'peace'? What is your proposal?”
Cañar turned his eyes to Suwu and took few steps closer, “That is the question, isn't it?”
“You who would have us not raise arms for the sake of 'peace',” Suwu said, “How do you think we could ever put an end to the evil without the spectacle of war? You have had no qualms in putting down the foes we have faced on this journey, nor the ones we faced in Waterlures. Why then hesitate now? Why not do battle to ensure we are victorious and peace prevails?”
“I do not know what to say, Suwu...”, the elephant man averted his eyes, turning once again to look at the stream.
He felt in his heart that what Suwu said would not bring peace, but merely more suffering into this world. Yet somehow, he was unsure.
“Answer me, Cañar,” Suwu continued with a slightly agitated tone, “I require a substantive reply.”
“Suwu, stop,” Cañar sighed, “Stop and reflect. What do think is the driving force behind wars? It is fear. Not understanding others, their intentions. And their fear leads to anger... That anger turns into hate, until it consumes them, and that burning hate... It leads to strife. To war. To suffering.”
“Do you really think that is the case?”, Suwu scoffed, bitterness in her voice, “No, these
monsters they do not do this out of fear. What led you to believe in such nonsense? 'Not understanding' -- what rubbish! Do you really think these followers of the Prince, worshippers of death and chaos, are some poor misguided souls who did not intend to do harm?”
Suwu clenched her fists. She was visibly furious. It was unlike of her.
“These sorcerers and their minions, they want the living dead!”, she began to yell at the elephant man, “And how do you think we stopped them in Finderblunts? How do you think we acquired that accursed relic of Evil?”
She pointed at Cañar's backpack, “Why, we stormed their stronghold! We confronted them. We fought them. We slew them.
That is the spectacle of war... We waged
war upon them, Cañar... And without it, they would have not be weakened.”
She paused to catch her breath before continuing, “And the war we started has only begun. They may have lost one battle, but even now they must be licking their wounds, recovering, waiting for the right moment to lash back... No, this is just the beginning. We
have to take this war to the end. To the end where all the sorcerers lie dead, hung from their entrails to the spires of their twisted towers... And only then we may have peace.”
Cañar looked at Suwu silently.
”You know,” the elephant man finally opened his mouth, “I think you are right.”
Maybe peace could only be achieved through war, no matter how abhorrent it was.
Maybe it was the only way.
After the heated exchange the journey towards Fencereined continued. The companions passed another hamlet just north of Elderspirals. They followed the snaking stream running through the Contained Field.
Rin and Ova were a bit unsure what to think of Suwu's and Cañar's argument. But the situation seemed to have calmed now, though Suwu was clearly bitter. Cañar, on the other hand, seemed content and walked silently next to the capybara woman, clearly deep in thought.
As the four walked along the banks of the stream, heavy rain began to fall. It slowed them down somewhat.
Ova looked to the west, shuddering his shoulders, and pointed in the direction, “We best steer clear of that direction.”
“How so?”, Rin asked as he wiped rain water off his forehead.
“There lies Goldoutrage. A shrine from a distant past,” the mandrill man said with a quivering voice, “It is said that when the forces of nature still held sway over these lands, before the rule of the gods was secured, and Icemì Apedives was still strong, a terrible unliving titan composed of bronze erected the shrine... Emepe Scorchedgrand the Superior, a bronze colossus, an undefeatable behemoth bent on destruction and at one with war, strength and the very metals of our world.”
Rin felt a shudder. He had heard the legends. When such a monstrosity went on a rampage, even the strongest of walls were laid to dust and entire armies were obliterated.
He did not feel so curious any longer.
Night began to fall when they passed a monastery and saw a town in the horizon.
They were fairly certain that they would find it too in ruins, like so many of the towns they had encountered. Yet, perhaps they might find shelter there for the night. They did not feel so keen of sleeping under the open sky when there was a heavy downpour.
And sure enough, the town appeared to be abandoned.
Walking past prickle berry fields on a weeded cobbled road they peeked into the empty buildings. Dust and cobwebs was that mostly saw, but in one house they found some clothing. They were just the right size for Suwu, so she put on a cape made from the pelt of a cheetah and a skirt made of the skin of jaguar.
But when they entered a house with a sign reading 'The Safe Sourness' and an image of a tankard they were almost caught off-guard.
The tavern was certainly not 'safe', but it could very well turn to be sour: a human, or what remained of him, lumbered towards them. His limbs were all twisted unnaturally, as if the bones had been broken; his body was full of gaping open wounds that bled not no more, and his
tattered clothing was caked with dried blood.
And in his hand he wielded a wicked-looking scourge with copper barbs.
Suwu braced herself.
Before Suwu could open her mouth, the plague thrall was upon her: it moved with unimaginable speed!
It lashed with the scourge, narrowly missing Suwu, who retaliated with a slash, cutting the monster in the neck.
...But to little effect.
The others were still rushing in as Suwu did fierce battle with the thrall. It was nimble and fast, easily parrying Suwu's blows, but so was Suwu, too, and she managed to dodge the barbs of the scourge.
Ova rushed in yelling, charging at the ferocious abomination, colliding with it and making them both fall down.
It may have bought the others time to reach the fight...
...But before it, the thrall lashed at the mandrill man, the scourge's barbs tearing through his trousers, cutting into the muscle viciously.
Ova fell over.
It was, however, enough to turn the tide, giving Suwu an opening to severe the thrall's leg and Cañar to bash it with a heavy blow, which in turn made it possible for Rin to cut off one of its hands.
And then it only took a precise strike from Suwu's blade to decapitate the twisted being that once was a living human.
“We best leave this place!”, Suwu looked at the others, “If there are more, the four of us can not take on them alone!”
Cañar nodded, extending a hand to Ova, “Can you walk, dear friend?”
“I think I can,” Ova replied, dazed.
He tried to stand up and fell to the ground.
His leg was in no condition for standing nor walking.
The sky had cleared and the stars were out when they made camp. They were unsure where they were exactly -- they had lost sight of the stream in the darkness.
At first Cañar had helped Ova retreat from the town, but soon the pain in the mandrill man's leg eased and he managed to walk on his own. Fortunately, it was not as bad a wound as they first had thought.
But now they were in the wild. They were uncertain what they saw moving between the buildings as they left town, and the same could be said of the villages next to it, but they had not dared to investigate.
For if it was more of those
things, those thralls, they would have been in serious trouble.
If taking even one down took all the might of the four and nearly incapacitated one of them, what would've happened if they faced a whole group?
Their confidence was shaken, but it was not necessarily such a bad thing.
4th of Granite, 371In the morning the final stretch of their journey to Fencereined began -- or so they hoped.
Leaving the possibly overrun hamlets behind, they saw the peaks of the Mountain of Combat in the western horizon: they were close now.
They only had to get over the mountains and they would be there.
At their destination, at Fencereined.
Where they believed all would be made clear and the final leg of their quest could begin.
A valley with a brook going through the mountain range eased their way. They did not have to face the full danger of the mountains: the cliffs, deep chasms and landslides, nor what manner of foul beasts might lurk in caves and nooks.
All they saw in the valley were small herds of ponies grazing on the fescue grass, and groups of hoary marmots going about their burrowing business -- industrious creatures, not unlike dwarves.
Tailing behind the rest of the party was Rin.
He was feeling nervous and anxious. He was still a bit shaken and afraid after the encounter with the plague thrall. The others had not noticed it, but before the abomination attacked them, it was crouched upon a body. A body of an elf -- or at least what remained of it looked like one. And it was feeding. Eating. The flesh of the dead elf.
And in his gut Rin felt this monster, this thrall, it was something either created by the sinister magicks of the necromancers
or the doings of the Dark Gods...
'RIN,' Rin felt his heart pounce as the voice spoke once again in his mind. Bazsa. Bazsa the Sinful.
'What do you want?', Rin closed his eyes as walked slowly forward,
'Why don't you leave me be? Leave me alone.''RIN. YOU ARE CLOSE. I AM WATCHING,' Bazsa's voice reverbated in his head,
'YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. WHO TO FIND. WE ARE WAITING.''But... How do you suppose I can do what you require?', Rin asked,
'I can not just take the slabs from Cañar without him noticing... They'll stop me. Question me. And if need be... Kill me.''WHATEVER IT TAKES, RIN. WHATEVER IT TAKES,' the voice said in such a tone that there was no arguing,
'I AM WATCHING AND YOU WILL NOT FAIL ME, SLAVE.'Rin straightened his composure, swallowed and replied in his mind,
'Yes, I will not fail you... My Master.'
As they neared Fencereined and the mountains turned into foothills, they encountered many a flock of kea.
“Despicable thief-parrots!”, Rin yelled as he rushed to make short work of one such group.
From the amount of these green-feathered parrot-kin in the area, it was evident they were close to dwarf lands. It was one of the more curious workings of Ôsed -- though some said it was rather the work of the Prince herself -- that these creatures tended to flock where the bearded ones lived, causing all manner of havoc, disrupting important work and stealing priceless artifacts. Even the youngest of the stone-dwellers knew to be wary when they heard the fluttering of wings -- for it could very well mean that one of the demon-birds was close by with depraved, sinister intentions in its twisted, demonic mind!
Some distance away from the encounters with the kea, the party saw signs of civilization: a sand road leading towards what they presumed to be Fencereined.
They walked along the road, crossing a bridge that went over the shallow brook and stepped onto a road of smooth shale. Clearly, it had been shapen by dwarven hands centuries ago. Despite its apparent age, there was not much sign of weathering.
The companions felt a sense of relief and excitement in their souls, and all sorts of thoughts and questions raced in their minds with each step they took closer to the fortress of old.
But as they climbed up the last of the slopes awaiting to see the walls of a mighty fortress, they were surprised:
On top of the hill was only a town of tents and a group of elves strolling about, many with books in hand, apparently caught in heated debates of the academic kind.
They had arrived at Fencereined.
A mighty tent village occupied by elven scholars.
=====
A slighty longer update.
Wanted to get all the way to Fencereined and there happened some stuff on the way, which I didn't want to cut out (also felt like there was need for some discussions between the group before arrival).
Also, I guess I'll need to do quite some Legends digging for the next update, so I'm uncertain if I'll get an update up tomorrow.
Anyways, I think we're nearing some kind of "conclusion" or closing chapter of the quest. (There's of course lots of stuff still ahead of our heroes if they want to put an end to the necromancers and bring "peace".)
Getting more and more excited of this world. Still don't have any clear picture of what the hell is going on, but I think that's better for the adventure so I don't go all meta-gaming subconsciously...
Yeah, that's it for now.
(There is actually more to Fencereined than just a tent camp on a hill... But that'll be for next update.)
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Topic: Waterlures - A Capybara Man Fortress & Adventure [DF 0.47.05] (Read 80139 times)