The Beast Within

Chapter Three- Offerings

This chamber was different from what they had come across so far: crisp icicle crunched under their boots, sheer ice wall climbed up on both side of the entrance tunnel, between the columns and stalactite; the chambers floor were covered with thick layer of ice sheet.

Leela blinked her eyes, tried to get used to the suddenly excess brightness in the ice chamber. There was a large stalagmite in the center of the room, with several piles of bones; trinkets, beads and baubles were neatly placed around it.

"Kaji can see his own reflection here, Mistress!" Safiya's familiar was all excited.

Wind blew and swirled past their ears, gently brushed the stones and ice within the cavern. Something slowly shifted around the column and spun towards them. Upon close, Leela realized it was a whirlwind mass, carrying large quantities of snows, hails and ice. There were two fainted gray spots the air genasi suspected were its eyes. Frowning, the creature stared at the intruding party with immense curiosity.

"Blimey!" Safiya was in awe: "An Orglash? In the Barrow, down here? Gods, you don't see those everyday…."

"Orglash?" Leela inspected the creature curiously: "Isn't that a ice spirit of sort?"

"You've heard of them, huh?"

"Been read about them. Daeghun has pile of books about those in his study." Said Leela.

"Daeghun?"

"Oh, my foster father. Tales for some other times." The druid's hand on the sword hilt tightens.

"Humph…" The Red Wizard nodded and turned her attention back to the icicle mass: "…those things in the cave…they are the offerings. Rashemi worships spirits. They usually left the offerings for spirits of all kinds in certain places. And these are for river spirits. Must been washed down here….but that doesn't explain— "

"This one must tell you," Hissing sound echoed out of its swirling body, the ice spirit suddenly spoke: "that you are not welcome here."

"Wow, it talks." Safiya startled. Her eyes widen in surprise: "They usually just charged and attacked you on sight!"

"This one must also tell you to disturb nothing or this one must kill you. This one is sorry." Said Orglash apologetically.

"O—kay. No treasure looting or you got freezed. Got it." Leela held her breath: "…No means to offend you or anything, but what exactly are you doing here?"

"This one is guarding the sacred Rashemi offerings." Orglash explained: "This one must let no one disturb them. Such are terms of this one's punishments."

"Pun—what?" Leela's snowy eyebrows frowned: "Why are you being punished?"

"Good question." Safiya's head tilted: "Punishments? Who dare to punish an ice spirit?"

"For mischief." Orglash murmured: "This one is bound to this place for one hundred years. This one's freedom will come in fifty-seven years, when this one is destroyed, or when this is made to serve a master."

"Now you really confuse me." Leela raised her hand: "I need to get around the way you're you are talking. Let's start this again. Who punished you?"

"Okku."

"Okku?" Safiya nearby gushed: "Okku the great bear? Oh gods…"

"Ahem, non-Rashemi people here? Who's Okku?" Leela glared dart between the ice spirit and the Red Wizard.

"The lord of this place. This one woke Okku from his slumber and Okku's rage was most terrible." The ice spirit seemed shuddered.

"He's a…deity of the land." Safiya carefully inspected the cavern: "This is why you were punished. So this Barrow is actually his. He's the 'beast god' Nakata was talking about….arh… that sort of explains everything."

"So he is your master, Orglash?" Queried the druid.

"This one shall be bound to its master." Orglash nodded: "Go where he goes, for the remainder of this ones sentence. This one finds such servitude preferable to this place."

"In another word, you don't mind to be here?" Now this was interesting.

"No, this one does not have much choice."

"Humph…"Leela's fingers drummed her sword hilt: "Let's say if I am your master. What will happen?"

"That is most unwise, Leela" Safiya lowered her voice: "You cannot trust spirits. They will use you for reasons of its own."

"Isn't that like all of us?" The air genasi whispered back: "Besides, I would really prefer us saving some energy to deal with this….Okku thingy. Look at this chamber. Who has more advantage?"

Safiya scanned the ice cavern and grunted: "Orglash."

Leela shrugged, and turned her attention back to the ice spirit: "Orglash."

"Yes."

"If I said I am not your master, and you will come with me?" Asked the druid.

The ice whirlwind seemed hesitated. For a while it just remained there and all Leela heard was the sound of snow blowing through the tunnel. Finally, the hiss blurted out of twister again: "….Command this one to serve and it shall be so."

"Good." Leela relaxed: "So be it. I command you to serve me."

The ice spirit made what sounds like a sigh of relief. The whirlwind slowly vanished, leaving only the snow and ice behind.

Something chill leaned against her back. The air genasi reached her hands around to feel it. Her fingertips found it was her backpack. Curious, she lowered the pack and opened it. It was right there, under the crossbow and several spell scrolls, a largest crystal she had ever seen.

Leela left it up and held it closer against the light. Two faint dark spots floated among the swirls and glitters, as if it was winking.

They pressed on their long ascend towards the surface. They came across another cavern, which Safiya believed was the ruins of ancient Imaskari Empire. Much to Safiya's delight, it has quite a collection of spell scrolls. Later they stumbled upon another what seemed like an ancient Imaskari armory chamber, which contained the most unbelievable collections of armor and weapon they had seem so far. Between the dribbling water and mildew, they found a hidden small workshop filled with Imaskari Golems.

"We used to have a Illefarn Golem in Crossroad Keep…" Leela commented.

"So you are familiar with how Golem worked." The corner of Safiya's mouth curved: "It's similar concept, really. Golems are constructs created by magic. These ones…most of them are no longer useful, even though they seems to be…hey." She stopped in front of a dormant golem: "This one….perhaps…humph…"

"It could be a rather useful tank shield. Do you think we can activate this one?" Leela knelt down to inspect the golem.

"We could try." Safiya wrapped her arms around herself: "Let's see….try tabbing it, Leela."

The air genasi reached out her left hand and touched the construct. It wobbled a little bit made a few squeaking sound and suddenly stood up.

"Oh, lovely!" Safiya clapped her hand enthusiastically: "I think we can do something to enhance your….strength. Make you last longer during confrontation battle." She quickly scanned around: "There is the workbench—"

"What are you doing?" Leela watched as the Red Wizard approached the bench and began to rummage her pack.

:"Just give me a moment, I will need to make something." Answered Safiya half-heartily: "Arh…here is the Hellfire Powder we just found…."

She placed the powder in a bowl, hovered her right hand over it, and muttered some syllables under her breath. Her hand immediately glowed with faint blue light.

"So tell me, Leela" She grabbed a stirring stick from the table: "This Crossroad Keep you mentioned, is that where you came from?".

"….Kind of." Leela toyed with a rusty goblet from the nearby shelf: "I….the Keep was mine… It was given to me by Lord Nasher, of Neverwinter."

"You used to own a keep?" Safiya caste the druid an impressed glance: "Wow. What happened to that keep now?"

"I don't know." Leela remembered the old stone fortress: the waving fields of hay; the windmill's gentle spin; shepherds' little boy, singing on the carriage in the sunset; the clang when chisel hitting onto stone; the cheers and roar from the Phoenix Tail Inn; the cooling night breeze, mixed with slight flowery scent in the courtyard; the cobble steps; the sound of soldiers' boots on the wall…

Neeshka's cheeky grin when her mind was brewing something wicked; Casavir's stern profile when he was looking over some battle plan; Qara's defiant smirk when she was about to caste a catastrophic fire spell; Ammon Jerro paced around the floor when trying to remember some summoning charm; Khelgar's low roaring laughter; Sand's absent-minded glare when buried himself in the books; Zhjaeve's scale fingers ran through the spell scrolls; Bevil's warm, sunny smiles; Elanee's ebony silhouette as she mumbled something to the tree; Grobnar's singing duel with Deekin, about tales of hero defeating hordes of the Underdark; and Bishop….

Bishop…

"I haven't had a chance to go back." She heard herself saying in some needless loud voice.

"I see…" The Red Wizard didn't notice. Her attention was once again back to the alchemy: "Miss it?"

"Hells, yeah."

Safiya's lips curled up: " Bet it's a lot better than down here."

"Anywhere is a lot better down here." Leela grinned.

Safiya chuckled: "Well…there, now it's done. Let's see if it worked."

"What's that?" Followed her back to the golem, Leela pointed at the bowl in her hand.

" Rejuvenation Salve, extra strength." Safiya explained: "I figured if we put some of those over its Essence core," She opened up golem's chest: " It should give this construct some more strength. Or else it is too weak to fight the spirit in this Barrow, especially Okku."

She tipped the bowl and poured the salve over the Essence. Almost immediately, bright blue light emitted from the core. Follow by a low humming sound, a protective shield rose around the golem.

"Ahah, it worked!" Safiya was ecstatic: "Wonderful! Now we have this little toy to play with until we reached the surface!"

The Imaskari Golem had proven to be incredibly quiet and swift, given that it was actually made of heavy materials. Most of the times as they moved along the dark cavern tunnels, all they heard was the light thuds. Its marble-made eyes constantly glared at you, waiting for your next orders. And upon facing up coming enemies, its attack was astonishingly effective.

"Arh, the wonders of ancient empire!" Enthused Safiya.

They continued to progress until they reached another chamber, the large bones piled on an stone altar suggested it was one of those many spirit resting places they had came across so far. Safiya came to a halt. Appeared to be stressed, she paced around the cavern, brushed her hands against the stonewalls, and mumbled something inaudible.

"What's wrong?" Leela arched an eyebrow.

"…This is not right." Said the Red Wizard of Thay out loud.

"What's not right?" Leela inspected the stone basin in front of the altar. There was some sticky residue at the bottom. She carefully scratched some off and sniffed them—something burnt.

"This chamber wasn't here…wasn't here the last time I passed" Safiya continued to circle around the cavern, checking every crack she came across, or chipped small piece of stone occasionally: "Someone, or something, I suspected spirits, sealed it. Gods, they really went through a great length to stop us getting out of here, did they? This thing…turned the earth itself against us. This is not good."

"'Course not," Leela sank to the floor, exhausted: "That means we can't get out."

Safiya stopped at one particular spot and knelt down: "There's certain magic remain in the earth here. It could be a powerful spirit, or many spirits, reshaped the soil" Her hand gently touched the floor surface.

"So we pissed the spirits off. Big deal."

"If you want to get out of here, it is a big deal."

"There must be another way out." Said the druid stubbornly: "Don't have to pass through here."

"Don't you think I've thought of that?" Safiya sighed. She began once again pacing around the chamber: "All the tunnels…all the tunnels we've came across so far ran down, not up. Those Imaskari ruins we saw, they were dead ends. There is no other way. We've got to find a way to—" Her voice trailed off. The stone basin next to the altar seemed to catch her attention. She rushed over and started examined the strange feature.

"Don't they get tired? We can always wait." Leela rubbed her eyes.

"You speak of them like they are living things. They are spirit, Leela. Spirits don't get tired, at least not as easily as we do." Answered the Red Wizard half-heartily.

"So what do you—what are you doing?" Leela frowned. Safiya's interest on the stone basin suddenly seemed very unusual.

"This." Safiya pointed at the basin: "Do you remembered I told you Rashemi worships spirits? And they usually leave offerings in exchange for something they are after?"

"….Yeah?" Leela wasn't sure where this was leading.

"Okay. This is what I think. The Rashemi…they have rituals to appease angry spirits—burning offerings to placate them. They usually are things that appeal to animals, like food, or twigs, or trinkets coveted by scavengers" Safiya explained.

"You mean we need to burn something to please whoever, or whatever it is, to let us pass?" Leela got the idea: "I don't think we have any food with us…humph…what about something we've just looted or salvaged from other offering caves?"

They began to rummage their backpacks. Soon there was a small piles of goods stacked up between where they were sitting.

"Such a habit we have, aye?" Safiya mused: "Let's see….I think this will do." She picked up a small pouch from the pile.

"Didn't we get that one from the ice spirit chamber?"

"Yep." The Red Wizard gingerly placed the pouch in the stone basin: "This is ideal. Usually in the ritual they burnt offerings in some sort of circle that form naturally, like a rotted tree stumps or…. Well, there is only one way to find out."

Her fingers crackled with sparks. She caste a simple fire spells to set the pouch alight. Soon the offerings were engulfed with flames.

They waited patiently. Almost as soon as the last bits of the offerings were gone, some small fracturing noise began to break out within the cavern. The wall on the far end of the chamber crumbled and revealed a rather large tunnel entrance.

"Oh, well. This must means the spirits like the bags." Leela quickly stood up and rushed towards the cave: "Common, let's go!"

"Look," Safiya elbowed the air genasi as they were half way through the narrow tunnel: "The ceilings…those are tree roots. We are not far from the surface, I reckon."

"Finally," Leela sighed: "I really need some decent, clean air! I feel my lung had gone moldy after all this time in the Barrow!"

Suddenly the cavern no longer seemed grim. Leela even found fighting those Barrow Guardians were actually quite entertaining. The surface was near, which means they can go to that Mulsantir to meet that Lieanna person. Then she could explain to her everything, like the strange hunger in her, where her sword was, how she got here, or perhaps how to get back…

And then what was she gonna do?

Bishop was dead.

She held him in her arms and watched his life slipping away. He was dead. His body was now among the cobbles in the Vale of Merdelain, hundreds of miles away.

How would she live, that he was no longer walked on the same Plane she was on? How could she breathe, that he was now no longer share the same air she breathed? How could she laugh, when all the laughter had gone with him? How could she eat, when everything was tasteless without him? How could she even sleep, when knowing full well waking up would be such a torture?

Did she really want to go back, go back to the world she once shared with the ranger? It would tear her into pieces when she set her foot on the soils full of those memories again. Did she really want to go back to the Sword Coast, to Neverwinter, to Crossroad Keep?

Safiya's sudden unusual high pitch voice pulled Leela back to the present state: "Oh, please not now, STOP IT! STOP!"