A/N: The wonderful world of Exile (Avernum) remains the property of Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb Software, not me. Some information has also been drawn from the Encyclopedia Ermariana, particularly dates and timing of events. Don't worry if you don't recognize any of the names here—Micah, the Five, and the other more famous NPCs have yet to be exiled.
Bringing the dead giant lizard into the vicinity of the portal was enough to cause quite a stir.
"What is that?" said Ubaldo, who had regained consciousness while the others were gone on their hunts.
"It's a lizard," said Talib.
Ctibor made the first cut with the dagger he had retrieved from the strange purple figure, and set about cleaning the lizard.
"Will you be able to create fire and cook that?" said Talib as Aakil came near.
"I can do that," said Aakil. "I am glad that you have returned."
"Safety in numbers," said Talib. "There is something else living down here, so I think that's a good sign."
"What's that?" said Aakil.
"Strange little purple men," said Talib, gesturing the height. "Got some wine off them, too."
"Don't drink that!" said Aakil, sounding alarmed.
"Why not?" said Talib.
"Did their voices sound high pitched, with a lot of giggling?" said Aakil.
"Yeah," said Pravin. "Is that a problem?"
"They're gremlins," said Aakil. "Extinct on the surface, but ... maybe they came here by choice, or else the Empire threw them down as an early experiment."
"The good thing is that they do seem able to live down here," said Firmin. "Why can't we drink the wine?"
"It will cause you to fall unconscious," said Aakil. "That's what the legends say. Drink it, fall into a sleep from which you cannot be wakened until it is over ... and in the meantime you will have been skinned alive."
"Good thing we didn't drink it there, then," said Firmin. "Still, the skins should be useful—we can collect water from the river south of here."
"So how long does it last if you're not in the middle of them?" said Ubaldo taking one of the skins. "What? I'm thirsty!" He took a long pull from the wineskin. "This is great!" he said.
"You shouldn't have done that!" said Aakil, appalled.
"I feel fine!" said Ubaldo. "Maybe it's in something they give to people, not the stuff they mean to drink themselves. Or maybe you're just full of it."
Talib said, "Maybe you feel fine now, but it probably won't last. Now, we're going to need new spears and get some water."
Ctibor said, "I'll keep a watch out."
Loosening the dead lizard, they tied the skins to the pole, and set off for the river, as Firmin took the dagger and continued the work of cleaning the lizard.
Passage of time was something difficult to judge, as the fungal light did not vary. Slowly, some of the hunting parties that had gone in other directions returned—some had been successful, others had failed but remained unwounded. Still others returned with grievous wounds from lizard claws and teeth. And others did not return at all.
Using the longer bones of the giant lizards, the Exiles started creating tanning racks, doing their best to treat the lizard skin so that it might be useful. No one had gone very far from the portal, except in the hunting parties, and it seemed that the first burst of exiles would be alone for some time.
It was therefore with no small surprise that the men stared at the portal as a mooing cow emerged, and then another, until they had a full herd of twenty cows.
"What is going on!" said Talib. "What have the cows done to deserve this fate?"
"Who knows?" said Ctibor with a shrug. "Question is, what are we going to feed them?"
"Feed them?" said Ubaldo. "I thought we'd just eat them!"
"We could do that," said Firmin, "and then we'd be back to trying to capture lizards. We could get milk from them, maybe even find a way to make cheese ... and eat them in the end."
"You sound like you're getting ready to settle in down here," said Ubaldo scornfully.
"Considering what happened to you when you tried to go back through?" said Firmin. "We've got enough troubles as it is, without putting all our energy into trying to escape from here."
"Besides," said Aakil, "you weren't all that anxious to attempt escape when we were in the prison up there."
"That was different," said Ubaldo. "At least up there, I wasn't always hungry."
"The other very practical question," said Talib, "is how are we going to keep the cows from just wandering off."
"That would be a very good question," said Aakil. "Sure, there's the river south of here, but I don't know that there are too many other natural barriers."
"So let's just kill 'em and have a feast," said Ubaldo.
"Yeah," said another man, "that sounds good. Get a belly full for a change, instead of a meager ration."
"That's fine if you plan to only live another day," said Talib. "But what do you intend to eat tomorrow and the day after that and however long it does take us to get out of this pit?"
"Look, I'm tired of you throwing your weight around," said Ubaldo. "What makes you think you're going to be in charge?"
"Ubaldo," said Talib, "you can help or go. I don't give a damn which you want to do. Take a couple cows with you. And anyone else who thinks that your way's better."
"If you would like," said Aakil, acidly, "we could vote for who would lead us, and see what the results are, and then plan what to do with the cows."
"And there's the problem of that demon coming back," said Talib. "We're nowhere near ready for that."
"Demons," snorted Ubaldo. "You're making that up, just so you can keep telling everyone what to do."
"I wish I were," said Talib. "Believe me, I wish it was just a ploy."
"Gods, what is that smell?" said Ctibor.
There was a definite increase in the sulfuric odor, and a chuckle that was downright malevolent.
"It takes great faith," said the voice, and then the flapping of humongous leathery wings could be heard, "great faith indeed, to think that I am naught but a story. So, you are here ... Delicious."
Grabbing one of the spears, Ubaldo, emboldened by the wine he had drunk, started running toward the demon, and he gave out a loud wordless yell.
"Ah, a worm with spirit," said the demon, casually grabbing Ubaldo in one clawed hand, casting the spear down, and it splintered against the cave floor. "Delicious."
Ubaldo was struggling within the grasp of the demon, screaming now for help.
"Grovel," said the demon, "plead with me ... and perhaps this will be the only one I will take ... for now."
No longer doubting Talib, the first exiles flattened themselves, face down upon the cave floor, prostrate before the mighty demon. The cows, lowing in a panic, began running away in all directions from the site.
"Excellent, my worms," said the demon, as ice began creeping up as though boots upon Ubaldo. "Excellent. I shall return when I am tired of my sport," said the demon, holding Ubaldo tightly in one talon, while caressing him with a claw, breathing fetid breath upon the whimpering once-bold man.
With the flapping of leathery wings, the demon flew away, carrying Ubaldo, and soon but for the distant dripping, and the slight hum of the portal, there was silence amongst the remaining exiles.
Aakil said, "We must work together, so that we may defend ourselves."
"Are you mad?" said another man. "What defense do we have against that thing?"
Talib said, "We need to build walls, and a chapel where we might stay when the demon returns."
"Not to mention," said Ctibor, "we're going to have to go find the cows before the lizards get them."
"Just how are we going to put up walls?" said Brailey.
"Stone is about in abundance," said Talib. "We just need to find a way to cut it, and to mortar it together. The mortar, we can grind stone very small, and mix with water."
"Specifically, the stalagmites," said Firmin. "The stones, we will need to cut from the cave walls."
"And just what are we using to cut?" said one of the men who had been the closest thing Ubaldo had had to a friend.
"We could move away from here," said Talib, "though I suspect that demon would find us wherever we go."
"Not to mention," said Aakil, "that anyone else they send down here would be as vulnerable as all of us were."
"All right," said Firmin, "what we need to do is divide up ... some of us need to find material to work stone, unless there's some spell to do it." He gave Aakil a hopeful look.
"Sorry, no," said Aakil, "nothing for the sort of scale we're talking about. I can use spellcraft to refine the stones ... put protective runes on them, but not carve them out of the wall."
"Then what are we going to do?" said Brailey, who sounded near despair.
"We're not giving up," said Ctibor.
Talib put his hands on his forehead, and said, "All right, we need ... gods, what I wouldn't give for something to write this down ..."
"Fresh outta parchment," said one of the men.
"I know," said Talib, with a sigh. "All right ... We need to build walls to defend ourselves ... we need stones and mortar ... We can use straps from lizard skins and some of the long bones from the lizards to haul stones once we've made them ... should make a pit in here to mix the mortar ... maybe that would be the first stones carved?"
"Sounds good," said Firmin.
"We need to find some metal to work the stone, and we need to find the cows, and to get some lizards to eat," said Talib. "Not to mention more water. All right, we'll divide into four groups ... those who stay here, man our camp ... another group to chase lizards, another to hunt for metal, and another to round up cows."
"That is a good plan," said Aakil. "I will remain here."
Firmin said, "For now, I will go looking for metal ... I suppose those will be the stonecutters later?"
"We'll work out a new division as the tasks change," said Talib. "Of course, no one should be unarmed—those giant lizards won't care much if your job is herding cattle."
"Pretty cold you are, just forgetting about Ubaldo like that," grumbled one of the men.
"Look, if I thought there was even a slight chance we could rescue him, to stand against that demon," said Talib, "I'd be organizing a rescue ... but we don't know where the demon took him, we don't know how to defeat the thing, and ... we can put a memorial to him, but we've got to protect the rest of us."
"And lamenting the situation isn't going to do anything for the rest of us," said Ctibor. "Except ensure every one of us ends up the same way, if we don't end up in the maw of a lizard."
"Death by demon, death by lizard," said Brailey. "Bet none of us will die of old age down here."
"Probably not," said Talib. "But that doesn't mean we can't try to make it so."
Firmin selected five other companions, each man taking a spear, and they left, traveling away from the river, toward what they had determined to be north, though position relative to the world above them was entirely uncertain.
"You're not sorry Ubaldo's gone, are ya?" said Qadir.
"Look, I know you were closer than I was," said Firmin, "but that doesn't make me not sorry—we need every one of us, working together, if we're going to survive down here, even a brash man who acts before he thinks."
"You really think we can win?" said Fuad.
"I'm hoping," said Firmin. "I know enough about building, but getting the materials is a whole different problem. I've never had to work from such a beginning."
Milos said, "We will succeed. Then we'll get back at them, putting us down here to rot like they did."
"I guess Hawthorne's really worried that people would've started listening to us," said Tzadik, "even from prison."
"What does it matter," said Firmin. "We're here, and why they put us down here doesn't matter so much, but I do want to live to see the light of the sun again."
"Dream on," said Fuad, "that'll never happen."
"Never say never," said Firmin. "But our chances hinge on getting some sort of defense against the dangers of this place."
"Like that?" said Zuberi, pointing at a giant lizard that was now approaching at a far more rapid pace than the usual mushroom grazing.
"Yeah, just like that," said Firmin, leveling his spear. "All right, let's make a good half-circle here, let it come to us ..."
The lizard seemed to be galloping now across the stone floor of the caves, a fleeting thought that they might somehow be tamed crossing Firmin's mind, but such things were not his line of work. The lizard came closer, and Tzadik drew the first blood, his spear shattering as the tip moved between ribs, and the beast began to thrash in a vain effort to remove the source of pain.
Finally the beast was still, and Tzadik retrieved the spear tip.
"What do you mean to do with that?" said Qadir.
"I figure I can use it still," said Tzadik. "Up closer than I want to be, but ... better than unarmed."
Firmin, Fuad, and Milos meanwhile began cleaning and preparing the lizard, gutting innards and spreading bones to begin working the skins.
As they started hanging meat to dry, Qadir said, "What are we going to do—wait here?"
"No, we'll come back," said Firmin.
"And what if a bunch of lizards come to check it out while we're gone?" said Qadir.
"Then that's a bunch of lizards what won't be attacking us," said Firmin. "Come on, we gotta job to do, and we're not getting anywhere yet."
"What exactly are we looking for?" said Fuad.
"Any harder rock, or metal," said Firmin. "Wood would be great, but I don't see how there'd be any around here. Any little things we can get that will help us cut rock from rock."
"The best I think we can hope for is some already made smaller cave we can hole up in," said Faud.
"Sure, but I haven't seen anything like that around the portal," said Firmin.
"Who cares?" said Qadir. "We need to worry about ourselves, not everyone else that Empire might decide to dump down here ... if they decide to put anyone else down here."
"Oh, don't worry about that," said Firmin. "I'm sure one of these days, there'll be thousands of people living here ... but only if we figure out how to survive. Or else, people will be sent here, and they can make their fort out of the bones of everyone who came down here first."
"Well, that's sure a cheerful image," said Milos.
"And I don't intend it to become the reality," said Firmin. "Now, let's get looking ..."
