10 Uktar, the Year of the Banner (1368 DR)
The dwarf, Wulfgar, lead Amra and her party through the field of rubble to the entrance where Hadarlas and the other dwarves were last seen. As evening approached, the blue-grey mists that cloaked parts of the ruins earlier continue to obscured the enormity of the site....
Finally, Wulfgar picked his way up to a door on one side of a great stone building, perhaps once a palace or temple. The building was partially collapsed; the doorway, for what it’s worth, appeared to be intact, and of a size large enough to admit Auravahinue....
“This is it,” Wulfgar said simply. “Ignore my warning. Go in. Get yourselves killed.”
“We’ll settle for two of the three,” Amra said. “Many thanks for all your help.” She peers into the doorway, then steps through with her blade drawn, the steel catching the last fading rays of light from the west.
“Suit yourself,” the dwarf said, turning his back and marching off back toward his hold.
“It’s my lot in life,” Amra murmured in Elven.
The doorway lead into a large hall with a high ceiling. A section of the ceiling had collapsed, and a handful of windows admited the failing light of the late day. Imoen and Firnous stepped in with her. Auravahinue sputtered in dislike at being indoors, but stepped in himself, hooves clopping on the stone pavement.
“So, um... how do we find the dwarves?” Imoen asked. “And Hadarlas? If he’s here.”
Amra turned to Auravahinue with a hint of a smile. “You could stay here, on guard... with the dwarf,” she told him in Elven. Over his reaction to that, she took the lead and studied the hall for any doors leading further in.
Auravahinue pressed forward, his face saying “Not likely.”
“I’m sure they left tracks,” Amra noted, glancing at Firnous.
“Tracks. Right.” Firnous looked around at the dusty stone floor. “Could I have a little light?”
Imoen nodded and activated a sunrod from her pack.
Amra smiled at Auravahinue, then stepped back to give Firnous the room he needs.
Firnous wandered back and forth through the area around the doorway. “Several sets of tracks here,” he finally announced.
Amra joined him there. “Can you make out what made them?”
“Well... the ones on top... here and here... are probably the dwarves. Two or three, I think. But beneath those -- see this different shape? no dwarf boots, those -- I think this must have been Hadarlas.”
“Well spotted.” Amra studied the tracks without making much out of them, then pointed with her sword. “They went that way?”
“Looks that way,” Firnous agreed. All the footprints seem to lead in the same general direction, deeper into the massive building.
Amra nodded and headed along the trail.
Amra and Firnous stepped forward, with Imoen and Auravahinue following close behind. The building itself showed many signs of the destruction that the city’s siege must have brought on. The walls were blackened in places, devoid of any tapestries or artwork...
Piles of rubble of varying sizes dotted the floor, where parts of the ceiling had collapsed -- or were still collapsing. As the party proceeded, there was suddenly the sound of falling masonry.
Amra looked up and around sharply, trying to spot the falling stones.
A shower of bricks tumbled down from some precarious perch overhead, plummeting towards both her and Firnous.
Amra tried to tumble out of harm’s way, but she still got clipped by one of the rocks, hard enough to turn her leap into a fall. She got back up and rubbed a sore, bruised shoulder. “Firnous, are you okay?”
Firnous was wincing as he, too, picked himself up after having been struck in the back by a falling piece of stonework. “I think I got the flat of it,” he said tentatively, rubbing between his shoulder blades.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Imoen said. “I didn’t see the weak section. Our movement must have dislodged the stones somehow.”
Stepping forward, Amra looked at Firnous’ wound. “It’s all right, Imoen. None of us spotted it... let’s just be on double guard from here on. Whatever lurks here must have heard that.”
“Wulfgar’s monsters, you mean.”
“Whatever it – or they – may be.”
“If there even are any,” Firnous said derisively. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the other dwarves just couldn’t stand Wulfgar’s company.”
Amra sort of stifleda grin. “Perhaps. But keep one hand near your blade, all the same.”
Amra continued deeper in, stepping more carefully now.
Firnous nodded and did his best to keep following the trail. The group moved farther into the complex...
It wasn’t too difficult to follow the trail, even though it is more than a tenday old. But as Firnous and Imoen concentrated on the path ahead, Amra’s ears registered faint movement coming from behind.
Amra made a discreet motion with her hand and turned, as if to study something on the floor, to get a look at the hallway behind them.
At the edges of her vision, beyond the glow of Imoen’s sunrod, Amra could make out a humanoid silhouette, her size or a little smaller, trailing behind the them.
“Does he smell nice?” Amra asked Auravahinue in Elven.
The horse turned his attention the space behind. The sense she got from him through their emotional bond was not one of threat or fear.
Amra nodded and took a step towards the ill-seen shape. “Step forward,” she called out.
For a moment, there was no response. Imoen and Firnous stopped and turned back. Finally, a girl’s voice answered. “I’m friendly,” the girl said with some trepidation.
“So are we.” Amra smiled into the gloom. “Please, come closer.”
A blonde human girl presented herself, looking dusty and bedraggled after long travel. As she came closer, Firnous was the first to recognize her. “You have to be kidding me,” he muttered. It’s Melly, from Firnous’ village.
“This is not what I expected,” Amra said, just as incredulous. “Melly! What in the name of the gods of wood and Weave are you doing here?”
Melly bit her lip, shying before Amra’s questioning. “I was worried about Firnous,” she said in a low voice.
Amra nodded as things make more sense. “He’s a capable young man. Would I be amiss in suspecting you came here without telling your parents?”
“They’ve probably figured it out by now,” Melly admitted.
“Mm. Well – you’ve found Firnous, and that took no shortage of bravery. But this may not be the place for you.”
“You won’t be rid of me now! You’re hard to follow,” Melly complained. “On the road wasn’t so bad, but in these ruins, you kept vanishing under rocks, and I almost lost you in the mists. I barely found the door here. I’m staying!”
Amra raised an eyebrow. “There might be a dragon in here,” she said after a second or two.
Firnous put a hand to his forehead, as Amra and Melly debated. Imoen smirked prominently.
“Then you’ll need my help!” Melly insisted to Amra. Despite her bravado, though, Amra can see that the girl’s pack, of copious size, was now a shapeless sack of cloth slung over her back, nearly devoid of provisions.
Amra sighed. “I mean it, this is deadly serious. But I know a way you can help us.”
Melly was eager to prove herself. “How?”
“Your stores seem as depleted as our own,” Amra said, gesturing at Melly’s nearly empty pack. “Can you hunt? Perhaps you and yon’ beast,” she nodded at Auravahinue, “can remedy it.”
“I can! I will! I love your horse!”
Auravahinue rolled big horse eyes.
Amra smiled. “I believe I saw a rabbit or two not far from the entrance.”
Melly began to catch on. “But it’s going to be dark. We’ll do whatever you’re doing here, and in the morning, I’ll catch you whatever you want!”
Amra studied the determination in her eyes. It was quite clear that Melly didn’t want to be separated from Firnous, not after following him for days.
Firnous, meanwhile, was finding the elf and dwarf tracks *very* interesting.
“Very well,” Amra said, setting aside her many misgivings. “But you must be careful and listen to us.”
“I promise!”
“Very well,” Amra said again. She gestured Melly closer into the center of their group, ignored Imoen’s grin and Firnous’ discomfort somehow, and carried on as before.
Auravahinue stepped forward into position behind Melly, keeping her in the middle of the group where presumably harm will come last.
It wasn’t long before the last rays of sunlight no longer glimmered through cracks and holes in the ceiling, whether obscured by the mists or simply from the sun’s setting. Imoen’s sunrod provided the only light...
Firnous applied himself to following the trails. The dwarf footprints didn’t deviate from the other course, presumably Hadarlas’. They lead through shattered, pillaged rooms, until Amra and Imoen both spotted something ahead: a humanoid form sprawled on the stone floor.
Amra gestured for the others to hold their ground, then she hastened to the body’s side, looking at it and the room around just in case.
The slumped shape appeared to be that of a dwarf, although identification is complicated by the thorough wrapping of web strands covering the prone form.
“Who is it?” Imoen called out.
Amra scowled and tried to tear the webs clear. If that failed, she’d cut them carefully, but that was far less desirable. “I can’t tell!” Amra calls back. “Stay on guard.”
The webs proved to be extremely sticky. As Amra touched the web strands, her hands were caught fast.
Amra scowled some more and tried to pull free.
“Amra? Are you okay?”
“I’m stuck,” Amra confessed in a mutter.
As Amra tried to free herself, she could also feel an odd rippling movement from the body.
Amra looked down warily.
“I’ll cut you loose,” Firnous offered. He stepped forward, baring his shortsword.
“Wait!”
Beneath the covering of strands, the stout body rippled with a motion almost Like waves. One of the hands began to slowly clench and unclench.
“Master dwarf?” Amra said with faint hope.
There was no spoken response from the dwarf, although a strange murmuring whisper (or whispers?) was emitted by the body.
Firnous stood, sword ready, ten feet away. “Amra?”
“Cut me free now,” Amra quickly told Firnous. She peered down at the body, murmuring herself...
He moved forward quickly, carefully setting to work on the strands, anxious not to have his own blade caught.
“Imoen, be careful!” Amra called out as she glared at the fallen dwarf and whatever lay within him.
Firnous continued to saw at the tough web strands binding Amra’s hands (while carefully avoiding her stuck fingers). As he worked, the faint signature of evil emanating from the body increasingly registered on Amra’s mind.
The body’s movements increased. The creature lurched to a sitting posture just as Firnous cut the final strands.
Amra sprang to her feet, putting herself between the creature and the others. “Back,” she cautioned it, her sword ready to strike.
The web-shrouded body drew itself up to a standing pose, somehow homing in on the presence of Amra and the others. it moved forward menacingly.
Still holding her sword before her, Amra reached up with her free hand and clutched the golden talisman hanging from her neck. She chanted an ancient and powerful prayer in Elven.
Suddenly, the mummy-like creature recoiled from Amra and her pendant. It turned its head from side to side as if trying to evade the Elven words, then it turned and moved off with surprising speed down a side hallway.
Amra breathed again as the abomination retreats. “Poor thing... we should pursue. There may be some left alive.”
“What... was... that?” Melly asked in a subdued voice.
Imoen, meanwhile, had her rapier in one hand and a wand in the other.
“Some form of walking dead,” Amra replied.
Melly turned pale.
“I’m sorry. It will get worse – can you face that?” Amra asked, not unsympathetically.
Firnous stepped over and took Melly’s hand. “I’ll take care of her.”
Melly nodded soundlessly.
Amra considered it a moment before nodding back. “Then onward.” Amra moved to follow the mummy-dwarf.
“Hold this,” Imoen told Melly, pressing the sunrod into her hand. “You’ll give us light. We’ll protect you.”
The group moved forward in pursuit down the side corridor. They moved faster than the mummified dwarf, and it wasn’t hard to outmaneuver the creature. It’s fear of Amra’s holy symbol began to diminish as the group pressed in on it.
Amra eyed the creature for a moment, then nodded to Imoen and Firnous. “Take your shots, and I’ll finish the business.”
The two nod. Auravahinue stepped forward, ready to protect mage, archer, and Melly, as well as Amra, if needed....
Firnous placed a well-aimed arrow right in the creature’s head. The shaft jutted out from one eye socket, although the creature failed to slow appreciably...
Imoen discharged her wand, and a trio of sparkling magical projectiles impacted the mummy. Some of the web strands smoldered and unraveled. The creature hissed and lurched forward toward Amra.
Amra was waiting for him. So was Iralenmaska. Enchanted steel met cursed flesh, and the flesh yielded. The elf sword sliced deep, but failed to halt the beast.
And angry murmuring chitter erupted from the web mummy, which rushed bodily toward Amra, slamming into her with surprising force. Web strands plucked and pulled at her armor.
Auravahinue, seeing Amra hard pressed by the mummy, ran forward and lashed out with his forelegs. One hoof swung down, smashing the web mummy’s skull before it could further menace Amra. The web-shrouded body collapsed to the ground, its head rent open.
Amra picked at the webs clinging to her silvery armor, then smiled at Auravahinue. “Thank you, friend. That was well-aimed and well-timed.”
The horse nodded.
Firnous lowered his bow and tends to the wide-eyed, ghost-pale Melly... who then screamed uncontrollably as a flood of spiders began pouring out of the mummy’s torn form.
The spiders skittered forward across the floor toward Amra and Auravahinue.
The swarm of spiders moved to climb up Amra’s and Auravahinue’s legs, tiny mouth-parts clicking angrily.
Amra eyed the oncoming flood for a moment, then took a step back and flung her shield down on the spider-swarm, then jumped on it.
Not all the spiders were swift enough to escape her novel attack, and the bottom face of Amra’s shield was now stained with arachnid goo that splattered all over the floor.
Auravahinue, however, seemed to be having less luck. The horse was at a disadvantage against the tiny spiders that swarmed over his legs. He tried to smash some with his hooves in imitation of Amra, but had difficulty targeting such small foes.
“Leave him be!” Amra snarled.
Firnous cast around for a way to help before simply wading forward and stomping on some spiders himself.
Imoen still had her hand over her mouth, shocked by the eruption of the spider’s from the mummified dwarf’s body.
Amra spun and plucked the sack off Melly’s shoulders, then used it as a sort of net to sweep the spiders off Auravahinue’s legs.
Melly didn’t object, and in fact, seeing Firnous gritting his teeth and the nice horse fighting down something approaching panic, she actually waded in to try stomping herself. The majority of spiders got swept clear of Auravahinue’s legs.
The spiders were momentarily overwhelmed by the mass of fabric, unable to see or target their prey. Imoen rushed forward, too, for maximum stomping effect, and Amra did her part to finish the grisly business.
With some quick group effort following Amra’s lead, the spider swarm was mashed into a sickening pulpy mass on the floor.
Once it was done, Amra stared down at the wreckage for a moment, lips pursed. Then she turned to Auravahinue and Firnous. “Let me see your wounds.”
Firnous complained of some tingling from the numerous bites he sustained, and Auravahinue was skittish, too, but no one seemed gravely injured despite the dual confrontations.
Melly swallowed awkwardly. “You do this all the time?” she asked Amra.
“Often enough,” Amra admitted as she placed her palm against Firnous’ leg and softly chanted a verse in Elven.
Firnous’ eyes widened as the burning sensation in his leg diminished. “Thank you.”
“Thank you for cutting me loose in time,” Amra repliee. She turned to Auravahinue and did the same.
Amra’s horse calmed as she tended to his injuries. She could sense the easing of his spirit as the divine power mended the spider bites.
“I’m sorry I froze, Amra,” Imoen said, chagrined. “It was just so... gross.”
“You’ve nothing to apologize for,” Amra said. “It was gross.” She looked over at the dwarf’s body to make sure nothing else is stirring within.
There was no sign of the rippling motion evidently caused by the spiders in motion beneath the dwarf’s skin, and this time -- hideously -- it was actually possible to see into the corpse. The sad body presented no further threat.
“That wasn’t a dragon,” Melly pointed out.
Amra knelt down next to it and, hesitating for a moment, offered a prayer that the dwarf’s gods would see him home. Then she looked over at Melly. “No, it’s not. But we haven’t found our missing elf yet, either.”
“He should pay you for this,” Melly stated firmly.
“Some answers will be payment enough, I suspect.”
Melly nodded and looked over to the floor. “I don’t think I want my pack back.”
“I don’t blame you.” Amra gingerly picked up her shield. She looked at it, then at the pack. “May I?”
“If you want it, it’s all yours.”
“Just for a moment.” Amra used the pack to clean off her shield. Spider guts, mercifully, turned out to be less sticky than web strands.
Amra breathed a sigh of relief as arachnid ichor wiped away and her house heraldry gleamed up at her again. “We should be on our way now.”
The others rose from sitting positions on the non-spider-strewn portion of the floor. “Back to the tracks?” Firnous asked.
“Back to the tracks.”
Firnous had little trouble retracing the group’s steps back to the main hall where the elf and dwarf tracks progressed. The dwarf footprints dropped in number from this point forward (not surprisingly) and took on a more rapid gait (so Firnous said, and also not surprisingly)...
About thirty minutes further into the great ruin, Imoen whispered “Wait!” And she pointed to another prone humanoid form on the floor in an alcove ahead, almost lost in the shadows cast by her sunrod.
Amra winced and once again concentrated to sense any unholy presences nearby before approaching.
This time, she didn’t get the sense of foreboding generated by the mummy in the earlier chamber. Relieved, Amra hurried to the body’s side.
The others came along after with varying rates of eagerness and curiosity. The body proved to be another dwarf. Web strands were obvious on his clothing, but not to the level of total swathing as seen before.
Amra plucked idly at one of the strands, then checked the dwarf for any visible injuries.
The strand was drier and less sticky (although still annoyingly adhesive) than those that swathed the mummy. The dwarf showed signs of angry bite marks, as well as bruising. Although unconscious and pale, he still breathed shallowly.
Amra wet his mouth with water from her waterskin to try and rouse him.
The dwarf sputtered to life as he felt the water. He woke with a start, flailing madly in self-defense.
“Easy, friend! The danger is gone,” Amra said soothingly.
The dwarf tried to calm his breathing as he realized the strangers leaning over him weren’t attacking. “Who are you?”
“Amra Amariya, and my companions Auravahinue, Imoen, Firnous, and Melly. We’ve come in search of you, and one of my people.”
“It’s not safe here,” the dwarf said, and his breathing once more grew rapid with fear.
“I know. Tell us more of what befell you,” Amra said, again in a calming tone.
“Wulfgar – you know Wulfgar? -- sent us here to watch the elf. He’d made some sort of deal with the gnomes, against our treaties. We snuck in here on his trail. And then the spiders attacked!”
“How many were you?”
“Four of us.” (Firnous shrugged, as if to say “Close enough.”) “Rindol, Agamm, and Beldas. My name is Dobyn.”
“I wish I could say we were well met, Dobyn,” Amra replied. “But one of your friends has fallen. I’m sorry. We may yet find the others, though, and Hadarlas as well.”
Dobyn’s face, already drawn and pale, turned grim. “You don’t know who, do you? I saw Agamm die. I’m not sure what happened to Rindol and Beldas. The elf--“ Dobyn winced and shuts his eyes.
“... What of him?”
“I think he tried to draw the spider off. It was all a blur. We were hard pressed to defend ourselves, and failing. I thought I got a glimpse of him. And afterwards, the spider was gone, and I was separated from the others. I’ve been in and out of consciousness since.”
Imoen nodded to a couple of empty water skins and an abandoned pack shoved deeper into the alcove -- Dobyn’s exhausted supplies.
Amra eyed them, then nodded. She handed Dobyn a small vial of antivenom, a gift from Baldur’s Gate. “Drink this, it may ease your pain.”
“Thank you.” Dobyn trieds to swallow the liquid in the vial through parched lips. He coughed as he downed it. It was clear he was very weak, both from his injuries and deprivation over the past tenday or more.
As Dobyn drank, Amra laid a hand on his brow and once more called upon the healing powers of the Seldarine.
“I don’t know what you said,” Dobyn said weakly, “but I thank you for it.” He eased back against the wall, his face not quite so pained.
Imoen motioned Amra a few paces back from the resting dwarf. “What are we going to do with him?” she asked. “I’m not sure he’s up to travelling on with us.”
“I know... but we can’t leave him alone here. He’s in no condition to fend off more spiders.”
Imoen nodded. “I wouldn’t abandon him. Maybe we should take him back to Wulfgar. We can always come back into the ruins ourselves. We know the way now.”
“True enough.” Amra glanced briefly at Melly, then back at Imoen. “It will be all for the best.”
Imoen smiled, sensing Amra’s intent. “Say the word, and we can help Dobyn onto Auravahinue.”
“The word is said.” Amra leaned down to ease the dwarf onto her steed.
Dobyn didn’t resist, but he was too weak to do much to help, either. Auravahinue faithfully knelt, doing his best to ease the dwarf’s passage onto his back.
Mercifully, the group was spared any more encounters with mummies or spiders on their return journey. It must have been close to midnight by the time they reach the doorway through which they entered...
As they approached, Amra, in the lead, could see through the doorway. The mists seen so frequently at a distance, hiding portions of the ruins from view, were visible through the opening.
Amra frowned a little and stepped forward. She peered around for Wulfgar.
Nothing was visible but the blue-grey mist, and as Amra stepped into it, her skin was suddenly assaulted by a painful chill. She was able to pull herself back, but it felt as if she narrowly avoided an icy burn of some sort.
Amra recoiledstill further and brushes at her face, then stared at the malevolent fog. “This may be a problem.”
Great chapter! And a cliffhanger...excellent...