Their travel had carried them for several days, no clear destination in mind, and would have continued to do so had not supplies, or lack thereof, forced otherwise. As such, the trio decided to rest and restock in a nearby town, Lunas, before continuing their journey across a torn countryside again.
When their eyes finally came to view the town of Lunas, it was a detestable sight indeed. Wherever the eye searched not even the slightest inkling of activity could be seen, nor wherever the ear strained could the noise of work be heard. Moving through the odd ghost town, the three moved together, cautiously, their previous proud gaits replaced by furtive progress. However, Aduro's bulky armor made such movement difficult if not impossible, and each step of progress warranted unwanted attention. It was the complete of absence of noise of any kind, save for Aduro's constant clamor, that unnerved them most of all, not even rats stirred amongst the refuse. When a door burst open, it had taken all the restraint they possessed not to instantly kill the man that had emerged and so easily unnerved the three.
The man was unarmed and appeared harmless, if not overly so. He ran out to meet the three of them and the last iota of strength departing from him, he collapsed at their feet, reminiscent of the respect a servant would show his master upon greeting. From his ignoble position, he meekly raised his head to greet them, as a child would look up uncertain at a stranger. His eyes were sunken and sleep depraved, his body showed signs of once being strong and able, now only the paragon of weakness and inability. It did not take much for any of three to a perform anything more than a cursory examination to reveal that he was ridden with plague, and one that had taken its toll on his body. Still, through what appeared to be monumental strain, he urged his voice to emerge, a weak noise though it seemed laced with all his effort.
"Please, help us. The people of this town are dying from plague."
"Evidently," Airion added, garnering a hard stare from his companion, Kael. Kael refocused his attention on the suffering man,
"How can we help?" he emphasized the initial word in his sentence, himself having already agreed to aiding the townsfolk.
"Nearby," the man ceased as a series of haggard coughs overtook him, the noise of it consumed in a sordid crescendo culminating as the man vomited on the ground in front of the three. He visibly strained as he attempted to look up at his potential rescuers, but failing he resigned to speaking into the ground. Aduro and Kael knelt down to hear him, "there is an abandoned mine that was inhabited by kobolds recently," a cough shook him, "the same time the plague came."
He raised his hand weakly in the direction of the cave, easily spotted by the group. The man shivered in front of them and collapsed completely, his face meeting with his midday meal. Airion shook his head with disdain, and scowled when Aduro moved to pick him up and return him to his home. Emerging, he addressed Airion,
"There is a monetary reward," he spat out the word monetary like poison. Eagerly, Airion nodded with approval, making himself the first to traverse in the direction of the nearby mine, his two companions trailing quickly behind.
Upon reaching its entrance, they noted that even the entrance was in extreme disarray, abandoned carts overturned and empty, torches within unlit, and various support beams appeared unstable, as if threatening to collapse the cave upon any who dared to trespass. Tentatively, Airion and Aduro lit torches of their own and the three started their progress into the mines.
Luckily, the mine itself was straightforward enough, bearing little chance in becoming lost, though the unstable nature of their environment prompted both extreme caution and increasing trepidation as the support beams appeared less and less maintained. Their progress was slow and fickle, the odd displacement of stones by their feet caused them to freeze entirely several times, they themselves looking up and praying that their ceiling did not collapse. The dim lights from their torches beat back the darkness, and unaided inside the dismal cavern, it was the only reassuring thought.
It was when their fading lights were accompanied by others glowing in the distance did the two elves extinguish their own mundane source of comfort. The dim light was not enough for Kael, prompting Airion to lead him through the oppressive darkness that now nearly engulfed him. The three knelt down, in an attempt to limit the chances of them being detected and they waited, and they listened. Ahead, sounds of conversation were blatantly evident, undisguised by those speaking, though it seemed distant. For a time, they were still out of anxiety and when the conversation faded away did Airion address his companion in the quietest voice the vociferous elf could manage.
"It does not appear that these creatures are the culprits for the spate that currently ails the people of Lunas."
"Wait you can speak kobold?" Aduro queried. Airion nodded, and Aduro gave a mocking smile as if the knowledge of such was a blow against his intelligence. Ignoring it, though Kael allowed himself a mental chuckle, Airion continued,
"They were talking about how they want to be free of the plague themselves," Airion's eyes strained into the illumination, his mind finally willing to realize that their supposed opponents were bed-ridden at best.
"Apparently, these mines go even deeper, and that's the source of the plague. Whoever has been orchestrating this operates there," Airion paused, unsettled, "and whoever is doing this has taken routine trips and it takes one of the kobolds, and within the hour, the agonized death-screams fill the cavern like the darkness."
Kael shuddered, both at the thought of that and that whoever was performing these vile deeds had waited until the kobolds had come, depending on the hatred between the humans and the kobolds to prevent either side from rationalizing with each other why they were both diseased, "So, we're just going to stroll right on in now?"
Aduro did not even grace him with a nod and he walked into the accepting light. Airion calmly followed, and with the darkness beckoning him at his back, he found it hard not to follow suit. Now fully within the haven of light did the three realize the state of those within the cavern. Without even simple lodging, the diseased were forced to rest and sleep upon cold hard stone or whatever they can find amongst the rubble, though at its peak, that was not much. In the center of the room, Airion spoke in their detestable language, and he received weak whimpers in reply. Kael asked Airion of what he had said.
"I told them we meant them no harm, and that we were going to cure the plague. Those whimpers you heard was all they could manage as a resounding cheer."
The three moved past the makeshift housing created by the kobolds readying themselves to descend deeper into the darkness that led to their goal.
Aduro observed the wretched state of the creatures and commented, "And I thought they couldn't get any uglier."
Kael laughed in an unsuccessful attempt to reassure himself. The wide mine opening once again receded to a small narrow walkway, and Kael could not help but notice that they were descending, as if willingly entering the maw of hell itself. He voiced the thought to his companions in an attempt to comfort himself, proving only to further unsettle them all.
The darkness in this section of the mine was overwhelming, even the torchlight put up a futile struggle in keeping the consuming darkness at bay, with every second it appeared as if the darkness crept closer, ready to engulf them entirely. As they crept along the dimly lit cavern passage, a sound, weak and distant at first, slowly grew into an unsettling rhythmic replacement for the silence that had been with them in this section of the mine. As they progressed further, Kael could identify it as a chant, allowing him the thought that their goal was near, both calming and frightening him at the same time.
The passage of time was unknown as the setting around them was eerily similar. When an interruption to the interminable monotony appeared it was welcome, despite the interruption's distressing state. A long, makeshift drape impeded their progress, the rags lined with bells assuring that any daring enough to disrupt its rest would alert those further within. The chanting had become disturbingly loud, and the three knew that the source lie just beyond the drapes. Airion moved to part the haggard cloth he quickly jerked back his hand at the touch. It was made of skin, but it felt strangely human. Aduro sensed his companion's distress, and he brought up an armored glove to move the drapes aside, the bells cheerfully ringing a warning to whom had set it up.
The chanting abruptly ceased as the three entered the room, the skin curtains falling back into place, tolling a final warning to the one who had set it up. The room they entered was disquieting; its contents were horrendous. The cavern room had been set up as a makeshift shrine to a deity that Kael recognized immediately, Avum. Holy symbols and the like were lined across the cavern faces in blood like paint across a canvas. Kobold remains littered the cavern as common as rock debris. Their bodies had been visibly feasted upon some so horrendously thorough that what was left was meager rotting flesh and cracked bone. A lacquer stone slab was at the epicenter of the shrine, a long steel blade resting neatly atop its surface. Detached kobold arms held up the stone, and four kobold legs mimicked their positions on a humane counterpart. Several skeletons fully cleaned of flesh were positioned in worship towards the altar, a mocking semblance of an actual congregation.
A lone figure was in worship at the altar, but, the bells having alerted him to the presence of intruders, he rose and grasped the steel blade firmly in his hands before turning to face those who had interrupted his veneration. Their foe was clad fully from head to toe in an encasement of steel, thick plate mail preventing the three from issuing him immediate harm. At a loss, their foe initiated the fight for them, surging forward with blade raised prompting his foes to react.
Airion danced away, his hands making practiced reactions, reaching for his bow. Grasped steadily in his hands, he let loose an arrow, which deflected off his opponent's pauldron. Kael eased away from their armored adversary abandoning the notion of his magic as soon as he saw Aduro drawing his two-handed sword. Instead, he reached for his crossbow, clumsily loading a bolt and firing it, missing his foe.
With sword in hand, Aduro rushed out to meet his coming foe. His adversary's blade came down in a mighty arc, but Aduro, freer in movement, narrowly moved aside and delivered his own attack. The force caught the man head on in his cuirass, stopping his momentous charge. The blade embedded itself deeply inside the thick metal armor, but produced no immediate result. Aduro pulled his blade free and created distance between him and his opponent, unable to note any kind of wound on his enemy. Again the man charged as futile arrows and bolts deflected off the thick metal casing. Aduro aimed a slice across the man's chest and his blade found purchase in the man's thick armor. Unable to remove his blade, his foe took that millisecond advantage and caught Aduro in the thigh, a deep red gash left in the blade's wake.
Aduro pulled his blade free, but knew now that he would have to continually face his opponent's relentless onslaught now that his movement was severely impaired and painful. In a rage, he launched a furious attack, blow after blow resounding off heavy armor. Several of the attacks cut deep into his foe's shell, but produced no result. Aduro realized why when he took note of his opponent's wounds, the flesh was rotten and dead, no blood poured from the various cuts caused by Aduro's mighty swings. His foe stabbed, vicious point punching a hole in his good leg. Aduro dropped to one knee, and desperately parried his opponent's flurry of overhead blows, each attack drawing steadily closer to him.
The onslaught suddenly ceased as Airion punched through his foe's armor with an arrow, the force of such a close ranged shot stopping the creature's advance. Taking advantage of both the new impetus and the fresh vulnerabilities in armor the Aduro had caused, Airion steadily advanced, a stream of arrows flowing onto the armored warrior. A shot found its way past the bevor, another attack penetrating the left couter, a well-placed shot found its way through the poleyn. Airion kept up his momentum and continued to let a hail of steel surround his foe, and though most of his deadly attacks reflected off the heavy armor, the select few that passed would produce fruitful result, whether or not their opponent actually felt it. He shot another arrow through the man's remaining poleyn and dropped their foe to his knees, pinning his blade to the ground by shooting an arrow through his right vambrace. An arrow deflected off his helmet, the sheer force of the blow shooting his head backwards, allowing Airion another shot at his neck. Suddenly, a maelstrom of fire accompanied the steel storm, and the metal armor quickly superheated and cooked the man alive even as arrow after arrow found the weak points in his armor.
As the raging blaze died away, Airion lowered his arms, aching from the effort of such a prolonged and intense exchange. Aduro remained on the ground, his wounds preventing him from rising over his defeated foe. Kael allowed himself a soft cheer in their victory, and he soon recalled the arcane flames to set the shrine ablaze before their departure, Aduro supported both by Kael and Airion.
Upon reacquainting themselves with the town, a pleasant site greeted them; the inhabitants of the town were up and about again, the bustling movement of activity filling the settlement with life once more. Aduro smiled despite his injuries, as did Kael, who was the only one of the three to then realize that the plague had been magical, lifted by the death of its issuer. The man that had initially greeted them, apparently the mayor, rushed out to greet them for a second time that day and he showered them with praise, as did the entire town of Lunas. The three companions celebrated that day, being granted free supply and lodging, Airion himself content with the pay they had received. The celebration of their valor continued long into the night and well into the morning, finding the three sleeping on the tavern floor until well past midday.