Chapter 49: They Will Sing of Horrors, Darkly
One foot in front of the other, all the way down, down into the cold, black earth, down into darkness, down to your friends, you hope.
It has been several hours at least, that much you are sure of, several hours since you left the light behind you and once more pushed on into the dark. Thankfully though these have not been wasted hours.
Your mercenaries have made little progress mapping the tunnels by themselves but the addition of your rodent trackers have sped things up significantly.
Three hours ago they found your friends' scents.
Two hours ago they led you past five ruined thralls. One of which had a knife lodged in its jaw that was clearly Bari's.
Ten minutes ago they found a large crack in the side of a tunnel that they are convinced your people fled down.
Five minutes ago you assembled your captains and sent your rodent scouts in.
Now you merely await their return.
"They are certainly taking their time," you remark, leaning on your glowing staff.
"Well these things take time," Lyssa replies as she peers into the hole before you.
Myora grimaces, "Would they really flee through such a small hole?"
"We shall have to wait and see," Thaïs answers, leaning next to you against the wall.
"They have been awhile, maybe I should go check," Astrid mutters more to herself than anyone else. She eyes the crack and for a moment you think she will dive into it.
You lower your staff to block the entrance, "We wait. Once we know what is down there we can send a team in."
You do not have to wait long as your mice return shortly thereafter.
It seems that they were right, the trail of your missing people picks up right on the other side of the fissure.
Myora speaks first, "We should find another way around," it is not terribly surprising that she does not want you to follow this path. There is no chance that she or the other mauls will fit through a passage that tight and you do not doubt that she would loathe to be left behind.
You can not think of another way that is sure to find your allies though, so you give the order, "We are going in. Myora, you will stay with the other mauls and guard the entrance, everyone else will follow-"
"Will follow me," Hámundr steps forward and without so much as a glance at you plunges into the hole.
His dedication to his job is touching but infuriating, you grit your teeth as you repeat your order, "Right, everyone in," you motion for them to follow as you join the dwarf in the crevice.
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The little grey mouse races up Lyssa's leg, through her robes and out her collar. Deftly it swings onto her shoulder and sits at her ear as your two mouse mages shift over to make room. It grabs hold of her ear to steady itself and begins to squeak rapidly while the witch fights the urge to nod.
"What is he saying?" Kaf enquires with a grin, the man is still quite amused at the way you have conducted your search. You suspect he will have a lot of questions for Myora when he finally gets a moment alone with your remaining officer.
"He says that there was a fight in the tunnels up ahead," she pauses as the mouse continues his tale, "There are a number of dead thralls but no 'regular' bodies," she frowns, "There is also an odd smell, it is not like anything he has encountered before he-"
She stops short as a strange melody wafts down the tunnel toward your group.
Twenty hands reach for their weapons as your group instantly falls into complete silence.
"Oh, they punish the strong and raise up the weak..." a feminine voice cuts neatly through the silence and darkness in front of you.
"They reward the cowardly in all that they seek..." a child calls in response, giggling merrily as she sings.
"But someday, somehow we will be complete..." the rich tenor of a young man takes up the tune.
"And then, oh yes then, we shall devour the meek." a great booming baritone brings the simple rhythm to its conclusion.
Uttu squeaks slightly as her sister lays a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"What the hell was that?" Lyssa whispers from your right.
"No doubt something we should attempt to avoid," your friend quietly answers from your left.
"Maybe we should go back," Kaf suggests, "Widen the tunnel and bring in a larger force?"
You, Thaïs and Astrid answers as one, "We are not going back."
"Just a suggestion," he shrugs defensively.
You dim the light on your staff as a precaution while you begin to question your scouts through your mage, "Lyssa, do our scouts have a good grasp on what is ahead?"
She asks your question of her subordinate and he squeaks in reply, "They are working on it, the tunnels ahead all seem to converge on a single great chamber and they think that is where are people are."
Ori, largely silent till now speaks up, "I could try to sneak in and see what I can find."
You are not sure that is a good idea, splitting up on unfamiliar territory may well allow whatever is down here with you to pick you off one by one, "I think for the time being we should stay together and let the mice and rats do the scouting."
As you finish your sentence a small pack of mice come racing back to your position. They are led by Martin, your 'champion' amongst the mice of the fort, and he clings to his 'sword' as he runs on three paws.
The group race up to you and begin to climb you and your colleagues. Martin takes a place on your right shoulder and is joined by three of his fellows while four more come to rest on Thaïs' shoulders.
They all squeak at once, trying to get out their story but succeeding only in jumbling it. Lyssa raises a hand to silence them, "One of you speak for the rest, I can not understand you when you all talk at once."
The rodents fall silent as Martin speaks up. Lyssa's eyes flash with excitement as she translates, "They think they found our people, at the end of the tunnel, in the large chamber, there are a number of slabs. They did not get close but they did see that four were occupied."
"Any guards," your friend quickly asks as she checks her crossbow.
Lyssa translates for the mice and Martin replies with an proud series of squeaks, "None that they could see though there were a number of tunnels leading into and out of the room."
Ori, at the edge of your group, stares into the darkness as he speaks, "What about those voices?"
Lyssa swiftly asks and answers, "He says the singing is coming from chambers further into the cave system. He could not smell anything nearby so he is fairly certain that it is just an echo we are hearing."
"Good enough for me," you reply, as you take a step toward the darkness, "Everyone stay close together and move quietly. Hopefully we can get to our people without a fight."
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"Wyrd..." you are at a loss for words.
Bari, Neel, the charioteer, they are all alive but they are not in good shape.
Each of them rests on a large slab within the massive chamber. They are chained to the wall behind them by their necks and each has been stripped naked. They... they have had pieces cut off of them. The charioteer is missing his nose, an arm and a leg. Neel is missing both of his legs and an arm. Bari... Bari is just a torso and a head...
They have been cut and they have been sealed, along each wound is an odd yellow sap that seems to have been used to prevent blood loss and death.
Your people are soldiers, they are professionals, but many of them have never seen something like this. Your head spins and you damn near throw up in your mouth. Thaïs reaches for you and on instinct you grab hold of her hand and squeeze, you mutter together, "We, we can fix this... we can... we can fix this..."
You can hear Lyssa retching behind you and Uttu whimpers quietly as her sister tries to lead her from the scene.
Astrid, Ori and Hámundr race forward.
"Oh Bari! What happened to you!" Astrid cradles the dwarf's head in her arms as Ori feverishly works on his chains.
"Stigr! Come on boy! Wake up!" Hámundr shakes his soldier by the shoulders.
"Derryth," Kaf hisses in your ear, "If they keep yelling..."
His words snap you out of your trance, "Right, Astrid, Hámundr!" you call to them but they pay you no mind.
"We need to calm them," you friend whispers, "Compulsion?"
You nod, "Our best bet, yes."
You each seize on a target and launch your spells. Astrid and Hámundr each fall into silence and look back at you in confusion.
Together you mouth the words 'sorry' and 'be quiet'.
They nod but sadly it is too late.
A low rumbling echoes in the distance followed by a high pitched giggle and a seductive moan.
"That does not sound good," your friend groans.
"We will just have to be quick," you add as the two of you race toward Neel with Kaf close behind.
When you reach the old man it becomes clear that he too is unconscious, "Kaf, get to work on those locks. If we have to I will melt the damn things out of the wall-"
You catch a slight movement out of the corner of your eye. The fourth prisoner in the room stirs slightly and for the first time your attention is drawn to him.
He is small, child-like, and shifts restlessly on his grey stone slab. As bad as your friends look, this child seems to have had it far worse. His limbs are gone, his nose and ears are gone and to make matters worse a great open wound sits in the middle of his chest. A mass of yellow sap holds it closed but it is clear that someone could reach inside if they so chose to.
As you watch him his eyes flicker open, "Help..." he mutters.
You approach the boy, "What happened down here?"
"Pursuing... enemies..." his eyes close as he takes a laboured breath, "Attacked... horror... kept... alive... fresh... food... " his eyes bolt open, "Help me!"
"Racked and bound to uncaring stone!" a voice calls out from behind you, your hair stands on end at the sound. It drifts toward you, light, graceful, and terrifying.
You turn as a second voice answers, it giggles and murmurs to the first, "Here in pain they shall find a home!"
Your eyes light upon it, this thing. Slowly you trace its form. It rolls into the doorway on a thousand tiny, hexagonal talons. They tap out a strange rhythm, the foundation of the song you heard earlier. Each of these tiny multi-jointed limbs feed into a bulging, twisting larval torso and tail that slaps wetly behind the beast. Dozens of ribbed tendrils extend from its torso in every direction and emit a variety of pleasing tones while they whistle through the air. From the other end of the creature four bobbing heads extend along plant-like stalks. They twist and spin around one another surveying the room as they sing.
"Cries unheard, mediocrity undone," the grinning young tenor sings as he stares into you, through you.
"Find your purpose, far from the sun!" the baritone exclaims in triumph, its chins waging, sending tiny ripples back down its stalk to the rumbling, bulbous body below.
Yes, purpose. Here in the dark.
This thing's song whispers to you, tempting you, but you have received far better offers from far more alluring beings than this... abomination.
"Um, Derryth? You aren't going to fall for this are you?" Caoilainn chimes in, snapping you out of your thoughts.
"Oh course not," you quietly reply, "Have a little faith."
"Oh, I do, I do," she replies laughing nervously, "But that thing... what is that thing?"
"Our enemy," your friend replies from your side, surprising you slightly. Thankfully, it seems that all the battles your group has fought together over the last month has done wonder for unit cohesion. Discretely Thaïs, Lyssa and the girls have moved to your side and readied their weapons, at the very least you won't have to worry about this thing picking them off one by one.
"What do you want!" you call out to the beast, perhaps, just perhaps it will let you go without a fight.
Its heads all focus on you, they laugh and it begins to roll into the room, humming as it goes.
Some of your people begin to hum as well.
Well, best to put a stop to this. You launch a single firebolt at the beast and it skitters backward and hisses at you. A shame you did not hit it but you were not really tying to either. You were just sending it a message.
Your men snap out of their trance and begin to back toward your position, forming rank against this new foe.
"How long till out people are loose?" you whisper under your breath, afraid to break eye contact with this thing.
"A few minutes at most," your friend quietly replies.
"What if we do not have a few minutes?" Biliku mutters.
"Then we stall," you answer as, once more, you address the beast, "I said, what do you want! Answer or I will strike you down where you stand."
"Strong it is, but strong enough?" the woman muses.
"Perhaps, perhaps we call its bluff!" the child merrily suggests.
"I would not do that!" you shout, "We have killed much stronger devils than you in our time!" though you are not quite sure that, that is in fact true, "If we fight, I guarantee you that you will die! Now I will ask one more time, what do you want!"
"Awakened, empowered by devouring will," the young tenor answers playfully.
"We desire but only to kill, kill, kill, kill!" the older head bellow as the four begin the laugh.
"You will not kill today!" your friend answers with a bolt of magic that strikes mere millimetres from the beast.
It skitters backward into the entryway and for a moment you sense indecision.
You try to capitalize on its hesitation, "We merely want these three. Give them to us and we will let you live."
"Such a trade is hardly fair!" the woman protests.
"Show us how much you really care!" the child nods in agreement.
"What do you mean?" you ask, dreading the answer.
"This meat we have tried and found to be lacking," the young man begins.
The oldest head grins, "New flesh to be tasted, new bones to be cracking?"
"You, you want a sacrifice? You want us to leave a person for each one we take?" the very thought of it disgusts you.
The four 'heads' nod as they roll and tumble together.
You try one final time to drive home your point, "There are many of us but you are alone! If we fight you we may lose a few but you will die!"
"Alone they say, so sure of their vision!" the woman cackles.
"Perhaps they be wrong, a dire omission!" the child spins as it screams.
The four heads laugh together and far above you, in the darkness, an entire choir begins to sing.
"What are we going to do?" Uttu looks up at you and asks.
That is a good question...
What are you going to do?
1. Seriously, what are you going to do? (All votes for a particular option will be counted together with the most popular variant chosen from the winning choice.)
A) You accept the creatures deal: As much as it kills you to admit this, you do not believe you can win this fight but you will not leave your allies. You will give them three people and hopefully you or your people will be able to return to save these new captives before it is too late. (Name the three people you are going to leave behind, Derryth can be among them if you are feeling particularly suicidal.)
B) The same as A only you will also free the child as well. (Name the four people you will leave behind, Derryth can be among them if you are feeling particularly suicidal.)
C) You will leave now. If you are quick enough you might be able to make it back to the fissure before your enemy can trap you. You will have to leave Bari, Neel and Stigr behind though.
D) Fight of course! You are not going to lose this and you are not going to abandon your people! You just need to come up with a plan... (What I will do here is lay out a few very general plans then include a freeform option, which will allow you to come up with a nice through plan. I will include a full force list and a map in the next post so that you know where everyone is and what kinds of resources you have at your disposal.)
i. Pitched Battle: you will free your friends and withdraw to the far side of the room. You will then try to break the enemy by hitting them with everything you have. Hopefully they run out of bodies before you run out of things to throw at them.
ii. Running Retreat: you will free your friends and then withdraw in a rolling retreat toward the fissure. Hopefully you will be able to reach the passage and slip through it without being trapped.
iii. Rearguard Action: you will free your friends and cover their retreat. Once you are fairly certain they have escaped you will then try to flee back through the tunnels and the fissure. If you can not make it back you will have to look for another way out. The risks of such an action to the delaying party should be fairly obvious... (Feel free to stipulate whatever team you want, Derryth does not have to be part of the rearguard but she would be inclined to be, if you want to split up specific characters that will also require rolls, some characters will be very much against splitting up and I will provide a full list in the next post..)
iv. Demonic Negotiation "- Send the child into the Dreaming. Morpheus (I'll just call him that, since Lyssa thinks that's his name) said that if we send him living beings, he'll send back his elves and fairies. He promised us power and information. As far as the gifts go, this one is quite generous, so he might even come in person. He might know how to fight these creatures, or he might provide us with direct support. We don't know what he can do, but if he ever wants to receive more 'gifts', he'll have to do something to get us out of here.
- Scatter our people just a little bit so that we don't bunch up and get trapped in the yellow substance as a group, but not too far tha one would not be able to help the other if something happens.
- Hit the creature with everything we've got. Have our archers, and even spell-casting mice (why the hell not, if the range permits?), aim for the heads or the eyes. Hopefully, it does feel pain just as we humans do, and it might overwhelm it and make it unable to react. Or maybe we can one-shot it with the Greater Energy Bolt which, apparently, is still stored in Thais' ring.
- Astrid's flash grenades might come in handy if the creatures rely on sight. We might want to check that.
- Break the locks with the Warrior's Mask. Or just rip the chains out of the wall. We don't have minutes to pick them, we must hurry and flee before the other creatures pour through. We must do it fast, and it is the next fastest thing after C.
- Redistribute the energon cubes, if necessary.
- Have the dwarves drop the satchel charges as they retreat. If the creatures do get through, we'll have to detonate those to cover our flight. Try to blow up the creatures, not the tunnels.
- If anyone gets caught in the sap, try to break them out with the Warrior's Mask. Either apply it to them directly, or to the one trying to dig them out, depending on who is stronger.
- The mages can help in a variety of ways, but that would depend on what kind of support we'll get from Morpheus. It's hard to theorize beforehand.
- Send our people through the fissure. A scout should go first, the kids and the wounded go right after them. The mages should not go last, but they should not evacuate quickly, either, as they are the ones who can hope to keep the creatures at bay. Hopefully, Morpheus can cover those who will go last, as he does not belong to the material world and thus isn't risking much."
v. freeform: if you want to do something clever or complicated then this is the choice for you. (I will attach a force list/equipment list and a map to the next post, it might take a few minutes to appear depending on how much trouble I have formatting things.)
2. The child/'child': If you choose to fight you need to decide if you want to spend time to free the child or only your own people. This question only applies if an option C wins.
A) You will free the child as well.
B) You will leave the child, he will only further slow you down.
C) You will kill the child, it is the only mercy you can offer him but it is certain to provoke an attack.
3. "These creatures apparently can affect one's will through their movement and singing. If that becomes a problem for your forces, you think you may want to try to snap them out of it and protect them by having your people sing a different song of their own.
A) You try it. It might save lives.
B) You do not try it. It sounds silly."