Dungeons & Dragons/Saltmarsh
Episode 18
They made it back through the swamp to the place where they had camped the night before. Ruanea went back to the rock she was sitting on when she initially cast her little purple dome and motioned to the rest of them to come closer. Elgoth stood by his bent over trees, looking miserable.
"Maybe you should let Elgoth in this time," Borassos suggested. Ruanea looked confused.
"But he has his own shelter," she responded. "Why would he need to come inside this one?"
"Do you really want him to be exhausted again?" Merantha asked. "He got lost, and then we had to deal with baboons."
"If he wants to join us, all he has to do is ask," Ruanea said with a bored shrug.
Rev walked over to Elgoth. "Do you want a good night sleep?" she asked the surly elf.
"I told you, I don't sleep like lesser creatures," he growled, glaring at the rest of the party gathered around Ruanea.
Rev let out a heavy sigh. "Put your pride away for a moment and ask. She'll let you in," Rev told him, even though she was half-tempted to leave him out there with his sad little bent trees. She walked back to Ruanea and was surprised to see Elgoth follow her.
She looked over her shoulder at him.
He addressed Ruanea. "I would like a night free from the distraction of mosquitoes," he said to her.
Ruanea clapped her hands together and the little purple dome sprang up around them. The air immediately felt comfortably cool and dry, and the party began settling down for the night.
With everyone inside the small dome, it felt a bit crowded. Triton sat next to her as Rev pulled out her sewing, but he didn't say anything. Rev wondered what the sea elf was thinking. He had just been through quite an ordeal. Was he just being a good soldier for his king? Or did he feel any sense of loyalty to the motley group huddled under a tiny purple dome on a deserted island in the middle of the Sea of Steam.
Rev let her mind wander as she sewed the silk in her hands.
Once again, she heard Callie's voice in the depths of her mind. "At the heart, you are kind, Rev."
"Why don't you go and haunt your backstabbing husband, because he's the one who should feel guilty for what he did!" Rev said out loud.
As soon as the words left her mouth, she remembered where she was and looked into Triton's shocked face.
"I'm sorry, I was just thinking to myself." She hunched back over her sewing.
Triton carefully folded his legs and pulled his hair over his shoulder. "This place has a way of making everyone a little mad. I hope we find a way to leave here soon."
"Me too," Rev admitted, stabbing the silk with her needle. She had plans.
The next morning, Elgoth seemed like a new person, and easily remembered the way to his old cave. It didn't take them long to reach the entrance. Rev watched Elgoth carefully to see if the island and his returning memories would change him from the person she knew, although that was an absurd way of thinking. No one really knew Elgoth well, even Elgoth it seemed. It made him a blank canvas, but one that had only been made so, because the creator painted over a former image. How could he remake himself into something new, if the traces of what came before were literally imprinted on his skin?
It didn't seem likely that he could paint a new portrait of himself, even if he wanted to. However, today he seemed slightly kinder toward Fitzmina, threatening her and insulting her a bit less as they found their way through the jungle. Rev hoped it was a good sign.
"Here it is," Elgoth announced, gesturing toward a large slanted crack between two boulders that created a dark opening about the size of a large door. Near the entrance they spotted another note, the writing, faded brown.
Triton pulled the note down and read,
"M.E.,
"My adversary, if you are reading this you have followed me into the caverns. This is to your doom. I warn you now I have retreated to spare you, my only friend, from the gutting you so richly deserve.
"Return to the surface, live in the sun. I shall take the underdark, and in this fashion, we can divide this island appropriately. You in the open where you hide so elegantly, and me in the caverns where my black soul can plot your gutting.
"This is your last warning, my friend. I will gut you when I find you. Return to the surface!
E.M."
Everyone turned to Elgoth. He let out a heavy breath. "It was not easy surviving this island," he said simply. "Do not judge. We are trapped here together this time. Should we survive twenty years, I will laugh at your madness."
"I'm fine with that as long as you don't try to gut us," Rev muttered as she took a step forward. Elgoth walked confidently toward the mouth of the cave, as if he had a thousand times before.
Just as he reached the entrance, a chorus of high-pitched squeaking followed by the furious beat of wings exploded out of the cave. Rev ducked as Bastard flew off into the tree and squawked at the bats. Rev could feel the bats' wings slapping against her head and shoulders. When they finally moved on, she stood up, only to see Ruanea hiking with purpose back up the trail.
"Ruanea!" Rev jogged to catch up with her.
"That's it," she declared. "I'm done."
"Come on," Rev encouraged, catching her arm. "We're in this together."
Ruanea glared at her but turned around and reluctantly headed back.
As Rev passed Bastard, she called to him. "Better stay here, buddy. A cave is no place for a parrot. Guard the entrance for us."
"He's dead!" Bastard sang, then climbed higher up the tree and found some sort of nut to chew on.
"I hope he's not talking about me." Elgoth gave Bastard a backward glance before walking into the cave. They all followed him into a small chamber. The light from the entrance slanted in, cutting through the darkness, and landing on an agitated owlbear. He raised his tufts and let out a screech that deepened into a roar. Slowly the creature rose up on his hind legs, the disk around his face flaring out as he swiped a talon-spiked paw at them.
Elgoth and Rev dove into action with their blades while Triton used his wand to shoot magic missiles at the owlbear, and Ruanea hit it with frost. It slumped over with a hooting groan and fell dead on the floor.
"That was not there when I left!" Elgoth declared, stashing his new icy scimitar. "Or maybe it was. I can't be sure. I never noticed him. It might have been nice to have company."
"You also didn't notice a walking and talking tree," Merantha said as she inspected the owlbear's nest. She pulled out another note that the owlbear had used as lining. She shook the feathers off it and moved closer to the light to read.
"M.E.,
"I found your camp! You have still not returned to the surface, my friend. Why have you not shown yourself? Why will you not fight me like the warrior you surely are?
"Perhaps we should unite. The enemies are legion in the underdark. Come to me and I will hold your gutting in abeyance until we have vanquished our common enemy.
"Surely you see the reason in my logic. Come to me, my friend. We shall make our enemies blood run on the rocks in the dark.
E.M."
"This is a reasonable parlay," Elgoth declared. "I wonder why he did not accept it."
They all stared at him, but he didn't seem bothered by what he said in the slightest.
"Well, at least we know your evil past-self valued friendship," Borassos said as he cast a glowing light on his shield and peered into the darkness. "That's a good sign."
They ducked into a small opening and packed into a fairly tight tunnel.
"My cave is just beyon–" Elgoth stopped mid-word and stared at the small door in front of him. It looked as if it were made from old ship planks, but the knob shone bright brass in the light of Borassos' shield. It hadn't tarnished at all. "That definitely was not here when I left. Who has dared to move into my cave?"
Elgoth reached out. Rev felt a chill slide down her neck. This wasn't right. There was no one here to build a door, so the door shouldn't exist. And the knob should look worn, not new. "Elgoth, wait!" she called but it was too late.
Elgoth touched the knob, and several red eyes blinked open from the knots in the wood. The planks bowed forward and opened like the jaws of a shark, displaying dripping teeth. A long red tongue snaked out of the door's mouth and slapped Elgoth across the face, then wrapped around his hand, lashing him to the knob.
Borassos prayed and the planks of the door caught on fire, but Elgoth shouted as the flames moved closer to his hand. Merantha stepped up and blasted the door, knocking it into the chamber beyond, glowing with a strange green light. The blast pulled Elgoth too, and he crashed onto the chamber floor. He stabbed at the door while Fitzmina headbutted it, creating a convincing knocking sound. They faintly heard Bastard's voice from the cave entrance call, "Who's there?"
Triton threw his thorn whip, wrapped it around the door-creature, then pulled it back toward the party, freeing Elgoth. The thing turned into a pathetic pink mass and it flattened out on the floor, dead. "About this safe house, Elgoth," Triton said as the thorns retracted back into his hand.
"I assure you it was safe when I left." Elgoth wiped the mimic's drool off his hand. With the threat gone, they all cautiously stepped into the chamber. The strange green light glowed from lichen clinging to the walls. On the other side of the chamber, a small trickle of water flowed down over rocks into a clear pool that shimmered a pretty turquoise in the phosphorescent light. The effect was both strange and beautiful. A passage had been walled off with loose stones on the other side of the pool. Elgoth smiled as he looked around. "You must taste the lichen," he insisted, licking one of the glowing rocks. "It's delicious. It tastes like berries."
Rev wondered if the lichen did more than taste good. If it caused hallucinations, that would explain a few things. Ruanea produced her magic hand and had it pick off a bit of the lichen as she inspected it, then she noticed another note tucked in the rocks of the wall. She had the ghost hand pluck it out and bring it over. She cleared her throat. Triton moved over to the pool and splashed some water on his chest before scooping up a bit in his hands to drink as Ruanea read.
"Elf,
"I have not seen a camp in quite some time. Have you returned to the surface? Is this your game? You win my heart and make me your friend, only to leave me without ever showing your face to me?
"You have been my enemy for nearly two decades. You have won my respect, then my appreciation, and finally my affection, and throughout this time you taunt me from afar. Are you mocking me?
"I no longer have the stomach for gutting you.
"Instead I will poison you and keep you prisoner and slowly torment you in the same fashion you have tormented me!
"When I catch you, my revenge will be slow and torturous, you foul bastard elf of the island!
"E."
Triton spit out the water he had been drinking in a spray that created a prismatic rainbow in the glowing light.
"I assure you I didn't poison this water." Elgoth looked at him like he was stupid. "That would have poisoned me."
Rev raised one eyebrow as she took the note from Ruanea's magic hand and read it over again. "I will not say anything for your madness, Elgoth, but I approve of your plot for vengeance. The pain of it would have lingered."
He tilted his head and his dark hair fell over one of his glittering eyes. "Thank you, Revenge."
Triton came out of the pool and found another note under a rock. "Shall I?" he said, holding it up.
They all motioned for him to continue. He held it out and read.
"E,
"Still no camp! Clearly you fear my wrath. Clearly you understand that I have won our little war! Why else have you fled? I would fear me too!
"Well, I wouldn't fear me, because I fear nothing! But if I were a coward (such as yourself) I would fear me!
"Are you truly gone from me?
"Good riddance.
"E.
"P.S. I am leaving my last blood-pulp ink shell and my writing stick if you want to write on the back of this last sheet of paper.
"P.P.S. You are truly gone?
"P.P.P.S. Come back.
"P.P.P.P.S. Fine! I'll come find you myself. Two decades you have evaded me, I shall return to the surface where you will finally be mine!"
Rev could swear that she saw Elgoth blushing as he tried to look away from them. She chuckled to herself. "A love story for the ages. I should write a song."
He spun around and glared at her. "Don't you dare."
Rev hummed sweetly as she moved closer to the pool to refill her water skein. As she bent down, a ripple flowed over the surface of the water, then another. She backed up and drew her swords. "Elgoth?"
He looked at the water, then immediately shielded his eyes. "Do not look! It can mesmerize you with its gaze!"
Just then the solid stone wall next to them collapsed in a heap of rubble. Rev did as Elgoth said and turned away from whatever had just broken through the stone. She could hear an insect-like hissing and the clacking of armored jaws. Elgoth shouted and his swords clanged against something. He had to be fighting blind.
Ruanea lifted her hands and a cloud of fog engulfed the far side of the room. Rev looked around. She could see Triton, Borassos, and Ruanea, but Elgoth and Merantha were engulfed by the mist.
Merantha let out a bloodcurdling scream of pain. Rev wasn't sure what to do. She couldn't fight something she couldn't see. She moved next to Borassos and sang a song of courage that she remembered from her father in battle. He straightened, as Triton pulled out his wand and sent the blue shards of magic flying into the cloud.
They heard Merantha curse and a blast that sent rocks clattering down from the wall somewhere within the cloud of fog. Elgoth's swords still clanged against the shell of whatever horror lingered in the fog. "I've got him," Merantha shouted.
Ruanea let go of her spell and the mist around the creature disappeared. Rev saw Merantha on the ground, holding an intense stare with an enormous beetle looking creature with long arms ending in clawed hands. A set of curving mandibles branched out from either side of its jaw as the slanted pupils in its glowing eyes stared blankly at Merantha.
"What is that thing?!" Rev shouted, completely repulsed.
"It's an umber hulk!" Elgoth shouted back, still holding his arm over his eyes as he wildly swung his sword. Ruanea cast a spell that cracked through the carapace of the umber hulk's body. The beast shuddered, then broke it's gaze away from Merantha.
Rev let out a sharp curse and lowered her eyes. Now knowing the size and location of the creature, she pictured it in her mind, took hold of her swords, and with her eyes down on the ground ran forward until she saw the beast's large feet in front of her. Once below it, she stabbed up into the exposed lower part of the creature's body, then dashed back out.
Triton's whip flew from the other side of the room as Borassos stood staring at a rock with a blank look on his face, clearly mesmerized. Elgoth continued slashing away, his sword bouncing off the umber hulk's armor. A ferocious icy wind blew past Rev, and ice spread over the umber hulk's cracked shell. It fell dead on the floor.
Rev blew out a breath. "Bugs," she muttered to herself, thinking back on the day that they had explored the old Halborn estate and the worst they had to deal with were some spiders. She wouldn't mind going back there now.
Elgoth continued to swing his sword, occasionally connecting with the umber hulk's carapace and shouting taunts at the dead creature. Triton reached him and put a hand on his shoulder, ducking a swing, before he gently pulled Elgoth's free arm down so the elf could see.
"Oh, good," Elgoth announced. "He's dead. I hate those things."
Rev remembered how he had frenetically chopped the giant centipede in the kitchen of the Halborn estate to pieces, and now she finally understood why he hated bugs so much. She had a feeling more horrors awaited through the tunnel the umber hulk had broken through the wall. Rev sighed and waved her hand in invitation as she peered into the deep black of the tunnel.
Merantha shook Borassos out of his stupor as Elgoth ducked into the tunnel and Rev followed. Ruanea and Triton fell in behind her. It didn't take long before they came to an enormous cavern chamber. Scattered throughout the chamber were the remnants of insect-like and grizzly chunks of thick pelt of creatures unknown. They could hear a wet sucking sound, and Rev looked through the darkness to the left. A giant white worm with tentacles reaching out of its head feasted on the rotting carcass of some sort of monster.
"Not another maggot," Rev muttered.
"What maggot?" Borassos asked.
Elgoth drew his sword. "I will describe it for those of you with inferior senses," he said. "It is a maggot the size of a pregnant cow with tentacles on its face. It's that way." He pointed as Borassos recoiled at his description.
Ruanea let out another blast of cold toward the worm, while Triton lit his crossbow bolts with magical fire. Elgoth followed Ruanea's lead and froze the creature as well, allowing Rev to run up to the giant maggot, stab it in an eye, and then retreat back to her friends. Merantha sent a blast out in the right direction, hitting the creature, then Ruanea froze it to death.
The light from Borassos's shield glowed around them, making the light feel like a safe harbor, or Ruanea's little purple dome, but Rev knew it couldn't keep the horrors within these caves at bay. To their left, what little light there was disappeared into another chamber. To the right, the same, light bled into deep black.
"I will send Fitzmina ahead," Elgoth said, moving closer to the dark entrance to the other chambers on the left. He went still as the small floating skull disappeared into the shadows.
"This first chamber appears empty," Elgoth said. "Continuing on. In the next chamber, there are at least three hairy things hunched over."
"Well, that doesn't sound good," Borassos said, holding his lit shield closer.
"I will check the other side," Elgoth said, crossing the dark chamber to the tunnel on the right. He went still again and Fitzmina bobbed slowly into the darkness. "Fitzmina is having difficulty seeing," Elgoth said. He furrowed his brow. "But I hear tapping. There's something in there. They are talking to one another. Yes, now I see them. Hard-shelled black creatures. They are tapping hooks on the rocks. I don't know how many."
"They know we're here," Borassos said as Fitzmina flew back out. "They're setting up an ambush."
"Then best we get them, before they get us," Rev said. Ruanea nodded.
Borassos lifted his hands and closed his eyes. The chambers around them began to rumble as stalactites fell from the ceiling of the cavern. Rev peered into the chamber. Three strange creatures with vulture-like faces and giant hooks where wings should have been scrambled on their backs, struggling like overturned turtles.
"They're on the ceiling," Rev called.
Merantha blasted the horrors as they righted themselves. One of them scrambled forward and slashed a hook at Borassos, but he ducked beneath it. Fitzmina flew by as Elgoth attacked with his swords.
Three more of these hooked horrors dropped down from the ceiling and clacked bony beaks at them. They gathered at the narrow entrance to the chamber, with one of the horrors blocking the way to the others. As Elgoth lifted his arm to slash, Rev slunk around him close enough to feel his warmth before stabbing the creature in the leg.
Borassos barged into the room and swung his hammer, whacking away at the strange beast. A flaming bolt flew past Rev's ear. She felt the heat of it touch her cheek before it hit one of the horrors in the neck.
Elgoth ran up next to Borassos, furious in his attacks. The beast screeched and swung his hooks. Elgoth threw up a magical shield, but Borassos got caught in the side. The rumbling started again, and more rocks fell down from the ceiling as another fiery bolt flew from Triton's crossbow.
"Everyone get down," Ruanea said as her hands glowed so bright, for a moment the entire cavern was illuminated.
Rev realized what she was about to do, and ducked.
A ball of fire erupted from her and barreled through the opening. Rev felt the wave of heat so intense, it heated the blades in her hands to a degree that she felt it through the leather wrapping the grip.
Everything in the cavern exploded.