Quest What remains

[Kjaran Mak Aodha]

Shoulders slumped and chest heaving, Kjaran took a moment to get his breath back. He didn't begin to relax until the behemoth's final struggles ceased. For now at least, the golem was at peace. He backstepped, a little unnerved as its head came up again to regard them. They hadn't destroyed it, just immobilised it for the moment.

The bell sound made him cringe but the worst part of it was the answering sound. He didn't need any more encouragement to get moving. One of those monstrosities had been bad enough. He moved with swiftness more suited for someone half his age. "I think we should avoid any more of those" he said, forcing the words out between breaths. The symbols inside were as unfamiliar to him as most scripts in Arethil, though he wondered if there was magic in them.

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn closed the doors behind them. At least some visual cover might delay any more of the golems that were looking for trouble. It still nagged at him that it hadn't used lethal force. Perhaps the enlightened residents during the Age of Wonders had used them more as a police force. Then why the axe? He asked himself.

"Another door!" he called, pointing to the far side of the room. "And viewing...mirror?" he said, swinging his arm to point at the long mirror and looking towards Belduhr Brighthand

Having more curiosity than fear of dark places he immediately walked to the edge of the pit.

"Well fuck me," he muttered. "That's a portal stone."

It wasn't just a portal stone. It was set neatly at the base of the circular pit, perhaps twelve feet below them. It was surrounded in what seemed line vines. Except that these vines were made of metal. The rusted lengths almost seemed to be holding the portal stone in place. These lengths connected to the metal strips laid into the floor.

"What..."

Interfering with portal stones was something that everyone agreed was a bad idea. Their magic was ancient, older than the Age of Wonders by most accounts. How accurate could those accounts be after this many years? Could this have been where the portal stones had been invented? Or was this where the downfall of the age had started...

---

• The second door is barred. From the outside.
• Several cabinets have been locked but can be broken into. They contain rusted tools and and strange crystals.
• If anyone touches the table with the mirror it will be illuminated (from within the mirror) A thick grey mist will be visible.

 

[Belduhr Brighthand]

The objects around them made little sense to the scholar. If he had been a mage from the college, he might have a better idea of what all this jumbled mess pertained to. As it were, it seemed to him as if someone was needing to check something? The mention of a portal stone made the dwarf turn sharply.

"A portal stone!? Here?" The little man shuffled towards the edge, carefully peering over before making a troubled sound. "Why would that be here? Isn't it a terrible idea to mess with those things as they are!?" He looked around the room once more, examining the cabinets and giving one a brief tug.

"There may be something to explain all this in one of those cabinets. Someone get them open please. This makes no sense at all. A portal stone in the floor and fighting constructs that are immune to magic. What next? Magic poultry that excretes gold?" Belduhr huffed, patting himself down as he found his clay pipe once more. He kept mumbling about the portal stone in the room, and how idiotic it was to even mess with the ones that hadn't been moved. The flint striker caught as he inhaled, stopping his mumbling for a brief second as he thought.

His gaze fell onto the pit once more, and then back to the mirror.

"Why would someone need a mirror so near to the stone? And why place that damned thing in a pit?" He grumbled, stepping to the table. They had nothing information wise about the Age of Wonders, and doubted any texts had survived the fight against time if the books outside were of any indication. His thoughts kept him from thinking if approaching something down here was a good idea, as one hand touched the table without reservation. A startled hiss of surprise coming from the dwarf as he flinched and watched the mirror illuminate and spied a grey mist.

"By the gods." Belduhr mumbled, the small burn of pipe smoke filling the air around him.

 

[Kjaran Mak Aodha]

A portal stone. There were only a handful of them remaining in all of Arethil. Ancient relics left behind from a golden age of progress, prosperity, and power. And yet here was one they had stumbled across, one hidden away for gods knew how long. He would have savoured the moment a bit more if he didn't know there were more golems out there in the tunnels.

He let out an appreciative whistle. "Fuck. That is old" he pronounced, a voice of authority as if he were a professor at Elbion. He took the moment to have a swig from his flask, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "How long has this place been empty?"

He was startled by the mirror sparking up, hand going for his sword. His eyes narrowed suspiciously and he took a half step forward as if to break it.

 

[Faelin K'Abveirin]

Faelin walked up to the pit, looking around the room before his eyes set gate upon the portal stone everyone seemed to give their attention to. If anything said something about teleportation, this here sure did, and so the elf momentarily spoke quietly. »The age of wonders was supposedly a marvel to live in. And even they had not harnessed power that would obsolete these stones.« Well, why else would a lump of primitive stone line this neatly arranged in a well elaborate place like this?
He then moved away from Belduhr and his smoke. He was as sensitive as a canary to fumes.

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"There is magic at work here. Not just dwarven engineering. He could sense the ether of magic shifting. It was similar to a portal stone activating, but not quite the same. It almost seemed as if the metal strips between the stone and mirror vibrated.

Raigryn shot Fife a wink and strode around the pit towards the mirror. "A scrying spell perhaps?" he said. He had seen a conjurer using a still bowl of water to create one. The surface had seemed murky until the spell had been completed.

Raigryn felt on edge, but he didn't want Fife to see that. So far they'd met a rather advanced golum and some experiments. No worse than they might have expected.

"The stones are normally thought of as older than the Age of Wonders by a long way." History was quite murky on anything going back that far.

Raigryn peered at the mirror. The mists didn't look like a veil. Wherever it was showing them was covered in a thick blanket of fog. Shapes moved in the mist.

Something peered back at them.

 

[Fife]

Keeping to Raigryn's side meant wandering closer to the pit, and Fife let out a reluctant hiss as she allowed some distance to form between them. When he mentioned a portal stone, however, she blinked in shock before skittering as close to the edge as she dared and peered downward. Sure enough, one of the giant rocks was settled at the bottom of the pit in the midst of a tangle of metal.

Fife frowned deeply, giving Raigryn a concerned look. He'd told her about the portal stones and she knew that they were great sources of ancient magic, and that toying with them was ill-advised and dangerous. Stepping back from the pit, her eyes followed the metal bands inlaid in the floor. The closer she got to them, the more uncomfortable they made her.

But Fife was curious by nature, and if everything that made her uncomfortable succeeded in driving her away then she wouldn't have been in this blasted subterranean city in the first place. While everyone else seemed taken by the enigmas that were the portal stone and bronze mirror, she stepped closer to the bands in the floor. Crouching beside them, she didn't hesitate to reach out and touch it with a slim finger.

It was similar to how the friction in her clothes created static in the winter months. Her skin prickled, the fine hair on her arms and shoulders standing on end, and some of the hair around her face rose up. Fife immediately withdrew, unsettled by the tingling feeling, but after a moment she touched it again, this time with two fingers. A little arc of color jumped between the points where she touched it and once more her body tingled.

Withdrawing her hand, she turned to see what the commotion was with the mirror. She couldn't see much of it, obscured by the people between it and herself, but at its edges, she could see a fog was visible from within the glass, strangely illuminated in the dark room. Standing to get a better vantage, she stepped closer.

 

[Belduhr Brighthand]

Belduhr would have missed what stared back at him if he had taken note of those standing around him or what was spoken. Instead, he tried to make sense of what was peering through the mirror back at them.

"I...I don't suppose any of you have the faintest idea as to what that is?" the dwarf spoke quietly, as if to makes himself less apparent to the thing in the mirror. He suddenly regretted touching the table, but he was well into the thick of it now and not entirely sure of how to proceed.

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn gave a shake of his head. Realising that no one was paying any attention he said: "no."

He stepped from side to side on instinct, perhaps to test if those eyes would follow him. They didn't, but he was overwhelmed by the sense of a presence watching them back. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. It was like a great weight placed upon his chest with he looked back at those red orbs.

---

MENTHOCLASS, TAKE YOUR SECT. BRING THEM TO ME.

As you wish it, Great G'thallan, overlord of the metruvian mires and...

Now

Menthoclass shuddered at the weight of the interruption. It wasn't often that a higher being would stop a lesser form from completing their full title and showing the proper respect through body language and scent markers. It was hard for Menthoclass, a lowly third order, to comprehend the thoughts of a seventh. But it did seem to him that G'thallan was disturbed by what it perceived in the Beyond. The land of their ancestors. Their rightful home.

---

There was a snap that rang out around the small room. Raigryn's hand went for his sword. Three sparks appeared on the floor before starting to move. Rather than closing on their group they started to etch a trail of fire on the floor.

"That looks almost like a summoning cir.. "

A flash of fire. Raigryn shielded his eyes. When he moved his arm aside something was in the room with them. It stood several heads above him. Almost humanoid, with a leathery black skin.

It looked down at Raigryn with three red eyes. The thing on the other side of the mirror kept watch. Raigryn dropped his weight and raised the tip of his sword. There was a strange, acrid smell in the room. A hiss came from the creature, but he did not see its chest move to breath. All its limbs - and it had many that ended in wicked claws - were raised high.

Raigryn braced. Another loud crash came from behind. A flash of bronze on the periphery and suddenly the creature was underneath the mass of the golem. Metal screeched as it met flesh. Black ichor was spread across the floor and metal parts of the golem were torn from its form. More sparks appeared on the floor.

"Run," Raigryn said, his voice barely above a whisper.

 

[Belduhr Brighthand]

The weight of something watching them was not at all comforting. In fact it was quite the opposite. He heard someone step a few times behind him but he was more concerned about what stared at them.

The sudden sound did have the scholar whirling though, finally peeling his gaze away from the mirror as Master Vayd began to speak, cut off by the wall of fire that appeared after the trailing lines had completed their task.

He stared in abject horror, now entirely unsure about any chance of them returning to the surface to report their findings. Vayd prepared himself as he spied the things many arms raised as if to strike before another crash ripped through the room.

The dwarf stumbled away and was sent to the floor as the golem came hurtling into view for a brief moment. Belduhr stood as quickly as he could before rounding the table in hopes of putting something between him and whatever savagery was happening around him.

The cacophony of violence that was so terrifyingly close made the little man scramble away, and while he had not heard the man say run, he was already looking for a way out. Discoveries be damned. He wasn't about to be killed in a place like this.

"I very well believe that is our sign to leave!" Belduhr shouted while sparing a glance back, unsure if anyone was truly paying attention. If fear of imminent death at the hands of that thing didn't shake the lot of them into a flight response, he very much doubted little else in the world would.

His path was obstructed, and only the sparse second of rational thought spared Vayd's apprentice from becoming a tangled mess with the dwarf on the floor.

"I suggest you and I run quickly!" The scholar declared, an arm tucking neatly around the lads waist as he was hauled along suddenly and without warning. The boy's feet never truly left the floor, but it most likely felt similar to what walking on air probably was like.

 

[Faelin K'Abveirin]

The elf slowly approached as more attention had been given to the mirror. He was not quite interested in it to be fair. Ya know with the whole deal of mirrors stealing your soul and whatnot. Faelin very much liked his soul in his own body, yup, yup.

Though honestly, he wished he had stayed behind elsewhere, all these sudden sounds and snaps are torture to his sensitive hearing. -Thus Faelin approached the pit...only to hear the sounds and commands of retreat. He was not even fully able to catch the glimpse of the abomination that formed...

Though as he was instinctively about to get back to the corridor...you know that corridor with the armoured golems? Yeah...bad idea. Faelin stopped and considered any other rooms and locations... There was another door on the other end that little gave attention to, but who would know where that would lead? More death traps? More golems? A dead end and certain death?

 

[Kjaran Mak Aodha]

A nightmare made flesh. Kjaran had seen many things in his time, including those that had made his blood run cold. This was the worst yet. Fight or flight, his body stood frozen in debate before instinct took over. There was no battle here, only death. The crash of the golem snapped him into action. He darted back to let the two behemoths duel while the mortals fled.

He wasn't going to die in dark halls deep below the earth, not where nightmares stalked their prey. He'd be delighted to feel cool wind and fresh air under a blue sky. He didn't bother to draw his sword, it'd be no good against such a monstrosity.

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

He didn't bother to draw his sword, it'd be no good against such a monstrosity.

The same thought ran through Raigryn's mind was he ran, but his sword had already been drawn. He called out to Fife, altering the angle of his run to put himself between the boy and the demons.

He had thought this would be an interest journey to see the ruins of the past. The centre of a civilisation where technology and magic had apparently been brought together to create wonders. It had been slightly selfish on his part, he reflected now. It brought him such joy to see the world through Fife's eyes.

One of the dark shapes bounded across the wall to his left, easily keeping pace with them. He drew on his Avarice and launched several small magical darts at it. The jade streaks vanished as they touched its flesh. It dropped down and ran towards them. Raigryn stood his ground, putting himself between the demon and the boy.

Drawing on his Fury he swung his bastard sword with both hands. Magic hadn't worked so he expected little.

Steel worked. Steel worked just fine.

He cut through one arm and the tip of the blade split the creature from belly to neck. It fell away, writhing and screeching.

 

[Fife]

Fife sidestepped, trying her best to see what was making everyone so uncomfortable about the mirror, but she was just too short to see around some of their companions. Frowning sharply, she had just begun to wade through the group when there was a loud spark behind them. It wasn't too far behind her -- three sparks of light in the floor making a circle.

She'd been staring right at them when they flashed, and she was momentarily blinded from the light. She blinked repeatedly and thought there was a dark smear in her vision at first. But as her eyes focused again, it wasn't a spot in her eyes from the flash at all, but something. It raised its dark claws high, and Fife was a bit too stunned to do anything but watch as it squared up with Raigryn. Raigryn? Raigryn!

Not the only one to be stunned and frozen, the crash of the metal soldier into the monstrosity was enough to knock some sense back into her. She stumbled backwards, reluctant to pry her eyes off of her mentor. In her carelessness, she'd backed into someone, her thin arms wheeling to restore her balance. But short, stout arms grabbed her about the middle, steering her around. Fife looked down at the dwarf under her arm -- the scholarly one.

Too out of sorts to even remember his name, she took heed. Not that she had much choice. Someone had opened the far doors and the other explorers were running through it, and Fife wasn't going to object to the fact that they were moving deeper into this labyrinth of stone and metal halls. There were more circles forming, more of the oily black things, and she would rather be lost in the underground city and alive than closer to the surface and dead. The dwarf put her feet back on the ground and she made to follow to spare herself from being dragged.

Raigryn called for her and she whipped her head around, but her gaze slipped past him toward one of the things on the wall. Her eyes widened and she sucked in a sharp breath, but he turned to face it. Too preoccupied looking back at him, she misstepped and her balance threw forward. She stumbled, but Belduhr's strong arms caught her and steadied her.

There was a wild screech from behind her, and Fife desperately shoved her hands between herself and Belduhr as she looked back toward Raigryn. One of the black creatures was writhing on the floor beneath him, and she tried to plant her feet. It earned her nothing more than her arm nearly being yanked out of its socket as the dwarf's hands clamped down on her wrist and she was pulled along.

 

[Belduhr Brighthand]

Belduhr had not regretted grabbing the lad. Stumbling now would have meant sure death at the claws of one of those demented things. The lad had turned at the sound of his name and nearly toppled, saved by the arms that had worked the cranks and levers of the press back home. One crossed the boys chest and he was thrown for a moment in confusion at what he felt. Blinking he righted...her?

Thankful for the bit of exercise the machine gave him, he loosened his hold thinking the lass was following the example before them.

It was strange at first how lithe the lad had seemed, reminding him of handling his own sister once before. Now with that revelation, it made a lot more sense. He waved the thought away, not wanting to draw conclusions about what life the lass had before Master Vayd had taken her on. Also being particularly concerned with the attempt at remaining among the living currently a much higher priority than sorting out the details of his companions life story.

He felt her resist his pull, his hand clamping down on the wrist and nearly toppling Fife as he pulled them along.

"Keep out of the fight. He knows how to handle himself I'm sure or he wouldn't be so old. You being in the blunder will only draw his attention from the enemy." The dwarf scolded as he continued to pull Fife along.

 

[Kjaran Mak Aodha]

Another dark shape checked Kjaran's flight. He drew his sword with only a second to spare, the creature flitting past. Once, twice, thrice, his blade flashed but the monster seemed to flow around the steel, avoiding it by mere fractions of an inch. He let a roar out of him and cut upward, catching the thing in the midsection. Ichor spewed out but there was still plenty of fight in it.

It struck him a blow that was enough to send him staggering. He could feel the bruise through the chainmail. Blooded now, the demon stalked him like prey.

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Keep running!" he shouted. He imagined it was one of the last breaths he would be able to waste on words. He wasn't as fit as he once was and there was a long path winding back towards the surface.

He turned and ran, the sound of more creatures flooding from the room with the modified portal stones following him. With his head down he ran, trying not to imagine one of them launching onto his back. Given their ferocity he wouldn't get to harbour those regrets for very long.

Another creation of bronze limped out of a side street. Half its form was missing, its axe tarnished to a dull brown. Whatever magic kept them working had been reawoken. It ignored Raigryn as he rushed past, trying to keep up with Belfuhr and Fife.

One of the dwarves turned to make a stoic last stand. His axe swung over and over as a golem joined him. Dark ichor flew in all directions. He didn't even cry out when he was overwhelmed and torn apart. The golem kept thrashing and swinging its decrepit arms.

 

[Belduhr Brighthand]

Belduhr drew up short when the next golem appeared, surprised that it seemed to ignore them. He drug Fife when he needed to, unwilling to let the lass run back to the fight. Not seeing any melee weapons on her person meant it was likely the only thing she could accomplish was to be a distraction and ultimately a living shield rather than a fighter like the others that were with them.

The sounds of battle did not seem to end as they made their way down the street. This place was going to become disorienting very quickly if he didn't find some sort of landmark to separate the streets with. A small sign with strange symbols hung on the corner of another street. If it were words, they were lost on the scholar. He put the marks to memory as he strode through the passage.

 

[Kjaran Mak Aodha]

The surface was bright. It wasn't dark and full of horrors like the nightmare chamber they fled from. Kjaran ran with steady determined steps. He wasn't young anymore but he still felt like he was in his prime. He regretted every extra pound of weight now when every second lost counted.

More of the golems were awakening and blundering into the shadow horrors being vomited out of the portal. Kjaran screamed and hacked down one small one that barred his path. Steaming ichor hit the wall. He barely slowed his stride, not bothering to staying hacking at it with an army of hell at his heels.

 

[Faelin K'Abveirin]

Simply brilliant. What an eventful day.

Faelin got bashed to the side by a golem that suddenly exited from his wall cove.

Thankfully nothing too severe and the iron thing with only one arm seemed more surprised than the elf.

Good the elf was so short and avoided coliding with the bulk of the golem's mass and was able to quickly hurry onward after Belduhr and Fife. Just keep running. You'll be okay once you find civer. So thought the elf to himself.

The golem gazed after the running three before turning around to Raigryn and Kjaran with full intent to stop them. He rose his arms wide apart, but something didn't seem too right with it.

..he began to crumble on his left side and seemed woefully slow.


Faelin could hardly catch up with the dwarf and kid, the golem they passed seemed to be interested in Faelin. Taking a swing at the elf, he woefully missed as Faelin simply slid under the arm.

It was not easy catching up on Beldhur and Fife. Yet thanfully all the locomotion had the corridors echo in various sounds and footsteps of various weights, mapping out places of high activity in his internal compass. Easy it was for him to follow those that belonged to the pair.

As more corridors began to appear, the elf began to drop his crossbow bolts with the point aiming the way the trio went.

Eventually the elf regrouped with the two. »Hey, hey...Left ... left seems - - quiet!«

It seemed quiet for now...at least untill the oozing shadow abominations wouldn't catch up with them again.

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

He had never felt a fear like this. Not during the route at Nandeck Field, nor during the burning of Chai'tan. He had seen conjured horrors before, but never felt such a malevolent presence on his heels. His sword felt heavy in his hand, but he dared not drop it.

A glimmer of hope came when he saw the door that led to the lost library and the broken clock. He didn't dare waste air on calling out.

Faelin called out a direction. The noise of metal and flesh colliding and tearing each other apart seemed to fall into the distance.

They might have been the last working relics of the Age of Wonders and their destruction was all that was keeping them alive. He was a relic of a fading order. At the rear of the pack he knew he might also be lost for the others to escape.

They made it through the doors, standing beneath the old clock that had stopped turning a thousand years ago. For a moment he dared to think they were all safe.

The doors burst open, the largest of the creatures he had seen skidding across the smooth floor. It's limbs scratched the surface to find purchase. Many eyes turned to regard the group.

 

[Belduhr Brighthand]

The moment of peace that followed them had the dwarf looking at Fife sternly. Free from the hold of the dwarf now that a pair of doors blocked whatever was behind them, the brotherly instincts lessened enough to let her go. He did not speak to her, as he knew the merit of time and place for questions. Whatever the reason for the charade, he wasn't about to call her on it.

The moment of peace broke as doors burst open behind them, and the eyes that watched them along with the skittering legs had the scholar falling forward onto all fours. Damned things didn't give up readily it seemed. It felt like time moved slowly as the dwarf pulled his camp tool out, the hammer side ready as he placed himself between Fife and the creature. He was cowardly at times sure, but the lass seemed to have spurned something in him that shoved away that cowardice.

"Stay back, lad!" The dwarf bellowed while he swung and struck an outstretched leg to ward it off. The two of them were the smallest and likely the easiest targets. But a rat in a corner could prove to be as vicious as the mightiest of beasts.

 

[Fife]

With no other choice than to be dragged along, Fife set her attention to the task at hand. If she faltered again, she could very likely drag the scholar down with her, as he seemed determined to haul her away from trouble. Relenting to his better senses, they skittered out of harm's way, managing to keep to the fore of the group. When the elf yelled for them to take the passage to the left, the dwarf planted his sturdy feet and swung her wide, and it was apparently her momentum that carried them into the door. Her arm was throbbing from how firmly he'd held her and had nearly been pulled out of its socket twice, but a bit of an ache was better than being entirely dead.

Yet as they all filtered into the room and the doors were closed, her dark eyes scanned expectantly for her mentor. He was still at the back of the group, looking at the doors, and, as she stood heaving for breath beside Belduhr, she had a moment to feel relieved. She was breathing a bit harder than usual, having apparently bound her chest too tightly for so much running in one day.

When she looked back to the dwarf, he was giving her a critical look and, in spite of the red color of her face from exertion, she blanched. He knew. She shook her head faintly at him, her eyes pleading.

Whatever response he might have given her was lost as the doors burst open. Fife wheezed, unable to make any other real sounds even in her terrified surprise and she stumbled. Belduhr, as it would seem, had taken up the mantle as her defender in Raigryn's absence, and withdrew a hammer to strike out at one of the creature's limbs. Shaken and breathless, she unwittingly heeded the dwarf's command as she struggled to gather her wits and catch her breath.

 

[Kjaran Mak Aodha]

Run when you can't fight. Fight if you can't run. It wasn't the best option available but it seemed like the only one. The skittering creature regarded them with dark soulless eyes. His lungs burned and he knew this was a race they weren't going to win. The thing moved all wrong. It hurt his eyes to look at it, at times indistinct, somehow managing to be and yet not at the same time.

The dwarf and boy showed hidden steel, going for the monster despite their terror. It shamed Kjaran into action "Lámh láidir abú!" he screamed, hacking down at a leg. He was rewarded with an unnatural screech. Emboldened, he swung his blade again.

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

The beast leapt away, shaken by the ferocity with which they had attacked it. A string of black ichor was thrown across the marble. It bounced off the floor, launching itself towards the clock face. There it clung tight with its many limbs.

It clung there, looking down at the group with beady red eyes. Raigryn regrouped with the other, holding his sword in a defensive posture. He could feel its presence studying them as they studied it in return. It was not a mindless beast. And then he heard its words. Not words. Notions pushed right into their heads.

Thieves. We will take back what is ours. We will return to our home.

"The doors back there, get to the surface," Raigryn called. He didn't take his eyes from the creature. Slowly he stepped back keeping his sword pointed towards the dark thing.