Dungeons & Dragons/Saltmarsh
Episode 19
Rev looked up with the blast still ringing in her ears. She had to squint at the sudden brightness as half of the chamber was on fire. The blast had missed the two creatures in the corner battling Borassos and Elgoth, but it hit the other two on the far side, while two more had been burnt to a crisp. The ones that managed to survive the blast screeched and shook the fire from their beetle-like backs. Smoke curled up to the chamber ceiling from their charred hooks.
Merantha ran forward into the chamber. The light of the small fires burning on the columns of rock dramatically illuminated her as she pulled the fiery air around her. She blasted the hooked beast deepest in the chamber sending it flying backward as Elgoth fought with the two nearest the entrance.
The creature Merantha blasted used one of its long hooks to flip back over, then scrambled across the chamber, up the wall, and onto the ceiling. Rev moved into position between Elgoth and Borassos to try to help, but her swords did little against the hard, black shells of the beasts. The smoke burned her eyes and she fought not to cough. She had to focus, or death would find her on this god-forsaken island.
Triton entered the room and hit the one on the ceiling with one of his fiery bolts. Just then, the creature in the corner managed to shake the lingering flames from his back and rushed forward, brutally slashing Triton in the back.
Elgoth stabbed one through the neck and turned to the other near Borassos. It swung a barbed hook at him, but he ducked beneath the claw.
The creature that hit Triton turned on Merantha and struck her with one of its hooks. Merantha's face deformed, turning into a horrific visage as she hissed at the creature. It immediately caught on fire that burned with a hellish heat.
Rev backed away, even as Merantha returned to normal and held a hand over her slashed stomach. Maybe she was right to fear the nature of her powers. Borassos ran to her as she collapsed. As he gathered her in his arms, he glowed, and Merantha's torn abdomen healed.
Ruanea finally followed them serenely into the chamber, took one look at the burning remains of her blast, then casually iced the one on the ceiling, freezing it to the rocks.
Rev turned and as she did so, she found a vulnerable spot beneath one of the hook creature's armor as it raised a hook to slash at Elgoth. She stabbed it, then twisted and ducked behind a stalagmite.
Rev heard the sound of ice cracking and shattering as the hook creature on the ceiling broke free of the ice holding it in place and crawled along the roof of the cave toward the center of the chamber. Merantha pulled away from Borassos and let out a furious shout as she blasted it twice. It fell dead to the floor. At the same moment, Fitzmina flew straight at the face of the final creature. It reared up, and Elgoth stabbed its exposed underbelly. It made a pathetic whimpering noise as it fell dead.
Rev let out a sigh of relief and joined the others in the center of the room. "Is everyone alright?" Merantha seemed steady on her feet as she nodded, but Rev turned and saw the blood flowing down Triton's back like a red cape.
"Triton!" she placed a hand on his shoulder, and he winced. He turned to her and smiled.
"Don't worry, I've been worse. I'm still standing. So, it's best we continue on." He shuddered, then straightened and walked proudly toward the back of the chamber. Again, Rev wondered about the sea elf. He seemed pale, and so out of place in these dark caverns, and he hadn't been in water in a long time. Surely the fire had taken its toll on him.
Soldiers baffled her. She understood loyalty to a captain and a crew. That part of it she could respect, but there was something about soldiers' loyalty to a cause that she never quite understood, and every soldier that she knew seemed willing to die for it. Rev could never willingly sacrifice her life for anything except perhaps to save her crew.
She had watched her mother go down with a ship, and she knew no matter how much pride she had as a captain, she couldn't do that either, not without reason. She had to live. If she were dead, she could not be the force of retribution she needed to be to bring justice to a world soaking in greed and betrayal.
"Elgoth," she said, turning away from the stalwart sea elf, and his wounded back. "We should send Fitzmina ahead."
At first Elgoth bristled, but then he looked thoughtful. "You're right. Better the witch dies than us." He motioned to the floating skull with his hand, and she morosely floated into the next room. His eyes turned white as he openly stared without seeing. "The room is empty, but for a single thread of spider silk stretching across the chamber."
Feeling confident, they entered the next room. Borassos lifted his shield, and the light caught on the thin thread of silk stretched at about chest level across the chamber. It thickened from a hair's breadth in the center, to a cord the thickness of a good sailing rope on either side as it disappeared into two small holes bored into the rock.
"I don't like the look of this," Merantha said. Rev agreed. It definitely looked like a trap. On the far side of the chamber, a small opening looked partially blocked by a round rock.
"I will go inspect it," Elgoth said as he ducked low and crept forward. He had ducked low enough, but a small tuft of hair stuck up from the short ponytail holding his hair from his eyes.
"Elgoth, look out!" Merantha called. He froze, but it was too late. His ponytail touched the thread and it broke.
Something rumbled, and Rev jumped back and bracing for falling rocks or some other disaster, but the two sides of the spider-silk rope fluttered harmlessly to the floor. It felt like everyone held their breath. Slowly Elgoth rose. "That wasn't much of a trap."
Borassos came forward. "But the way is shut, unless we can move that rock." He crossed the room and pushed against it. "It won't budge."
Ruanea gave him an annoyed look and rolled up her sleeves. She pushed against the rock and managed to move it a few inches to the side. Rev, still on high alert, noticed something in the corner of her eye. The strand coming from the wall, moved. Ruanea pushed the rock out of the way enough that one of them might slip through the hole, but as soon as she let go, it rolled back into place.
"It's no use," she declared.
Borassos puffed his chest up. "I loosened it for you."
Rev walked over to the strand and touched it, then peered into the small hole in the wall. "I wonder where it goes."
"I could find out," Triton declared. "I could turn into a spider and see what is down the tunnel."
"No," Elgoth protested. "You will be too easily killed in that form." Everyone looked at him in shock, including Triton.
"He's right, and there will be no way for us to help you," Rev added.
"But there is no other way forward. I promise, I will take care," Triton insisted. "I will be so small, hopefully nothing will notice my presence." Everyone looked uneasy as Triton transformed into a tiny blue spider with green markings and crawled into the hole.
Rev held her breath, not daring to let it go until the tiny blue and green spider emerged from the hole once more. Triton resumed his natural form. "The rope leads down several feet to a pulley. Then it turns and leads to a mechanism with more pulleys."
Rev furrowed her brow. When Ruanea moved the rock, the rope moved. The two were connected. "I'm going to pull it."
"It could still be a trap," Merantha cautioned. "Or an alarm."
Rev shrugged as she picked up the rope. If it was an alarm, Rev had the feeling that whatever spun it already knew they were there. "I want to pull it."
Borassos threw up his hands and backed up to the wall. The others also cleared the center of the room. Rev gripped the rope, hauled it over her shoulder like a heavy coil, and marched toward the center of the room using her weight to lean into her shoulder and tug on the cord. The rock shifted. As she turned to look, the rope slipped over her shoulder, and the rock fell back into place. That's it!
Rev quickly crossed the room and picked up the other cord. "I'm going to pull on this one. I'm in the mood to tug on things."
Elgoth coughed suddenly, and Rev turned around, surprised by the sound. Was he blushing? He looked away from her and rubbed the back of his tattooed neck. Rev raised one eyebrow, baffled by his reaction. Enough nonsense, she had work to do. Rev hauled the other rope over her shoulder and walked forward. The rock moved again. "Borassos, get the other one!"
Seeming determined to make up for his pathetic attempt to move the stone, Borassos heaved the rope and pulled it toward Rev. As they came together in the center of the room, the rock completely cleared the small opening. "Someone, tie it, quick!" Rev called. Only then did she realize that the two sailors were the ones holding the ropes. Damn. No one else could tie a decent knot.
Elgoth hurried forward and made an attempt at the knot that reminded her of his struggle to lash the young trees together. They wouldn't have long to get through the hole before his tie came loose and the rock rolled shut again. Elgoth hesitantly let go of his knot, and Rev and Borassos released the ropes.
"Everyone, get through quickly," Triton said as he motioned for the others to follow. He disappeared through the hole, and one by one each member of the party slipped through. Rev ducked through right before Elgoth. Fitzmina flew by her shoulder as he emerged from the hole just before the rock rolled shut, trapping a corner of his leather coat.
"And you claim I cannot tie a knot," he muttered, pulling his coat free.
Something growled in the corner and they looked up to see three hunched creatures with shaggy white fur huddled around a bloody corpse that also seemed to have a chunk of matted and bloody white fur. Blood stained their hands and faces. Great, more unknown cannibalistic creatures, and this time they had disturbed supper.
All of the monsters' eyes seemed fixed on either Ruanea or Elgoth, and they sniffed through noses both human and wolf-like. Whatever they smelled enraged them, because they gnashed their teeth at the elves.
Triton leapt forward and pushed a wave of punishing thunder ahead of him. It rolled over the monsters but didn't kill them. Rev held her hands over her ears at the sound filled the cave. The monsters howled in pain, shaking their heads, then fixed murderous eyes on Triton.
One leapt forward on large canine legs and tore into Triton who cried out in agony. The air around Ruanea charged with power as she spoke a spell, and the unmistakable sound of breaking bones filled the chamber. Rev couldn't tell if it was from the spell or Triton as he buckled under the weight of the attacking beast who let out a yelp of pain, but the sound triggered the second to attack.
The third one leapt at Borassos, but its claws and teeth scratched harmlessly against Borassos' plate mail.
Triton fell to the floor with a glassy, dead look in his eyes, his face slack and lifeless. Rev swung her cloak over her and scrambled flat on the ground, hoping the cloak would make her blend into the floor. She pushed as close as she could to Triton, and reached out, splaying her hand over his still heart. His hot blood coated her palm. She closed her eyes and sang the healing song of her father, hoping it wasn't too late for the sea elf so far from his home.
His chest swelled under her palm, and Rev felt his heart beat once, and again, and again. She pulled her hand back and hid beneath her cloak. Elgoth shouted and something hit the ground behind her, then she saw the moon elf's boots standing over Triton's prone body. She backed further away, coming to her feet. From beneath the hood of the cloak, she watched Elgoth fighting the beast, his scimitar cutting through the darkness with a glowing blue light.
Triton's gaze met hers, and he nodded before pulling himself painfully to his feet. Suddenly his feet grew and turned scaly with two enormous claws curving from reptilian feet. He let out a squealing roar displaying a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, as his pupils lengthened into reptilian slits, turning into a dinosaur before their eyes.
Ruanea shot one of the monsters with frost, undisturbed by the sudden appearance of a man-sized dinosaur in the room. Borassos ran forward and smashed his hammer into the skull of one of the creatures with a mighty shout. As he did, Rev leapt forward from under her cloak and stabbed it, the monster crumpling to the cave floor between them.
Borassos looked up at her hurt, as if his pride couldn't take Ruanea moving the rock, then Rev stealing his kill. "You loosened him for me," she insisted, and Borassos smiled.
Elgoth continued to slash at the last two, one clearly weakened by broken legs. He gutted the one, then just as the last turned to run from the fearsome elf, Triton bit his head off.
Elgoth wiped his blade off on the back of one of the creatures, then pointed it at Triton. "Of all the things you could choose to be, you chose this?"
The dinosaur, waved his puny arms and made a guttural noise in the back of his throat, then blinked in response.
"How do you even know what a dinosaur looks like? I don't imagine there are many swimming around in the ocean." Elgoth sheathed his blade. "Not ones with legs anyway."
Triton crossed his little arms.
Transforming seemed to have healed him, but Rev didn't think he could change back without taking on his former injuries.
"At least now he can do the eating, instead of being eaten." Elgoth kicked the decapitated head.
Rev sheathed her own blade. "Do you think sea elves taste like fish?" she teased, sharing a glance with Elgoth. Triton lashed his tail toward her, smacking her across the thigh. "Ow!"
"I would ask these creatures, but they are dead." Elgoth found Fitzmina inspecting one of the dead bodies. "Go on ahead, witch."
Fitzmina floated into the next chamber but came out again almost as quickly as Elgoth paled. "There's a drider."
Rev cursed. "Anything else?" she asked him.
"Fitzmina did not stay for long, but the chamber ahead looks to be some sort of residence. She saw a bed, and a fire, and the cursed one is standing at a table drinking something." Elgoth immediately pulled his blade.
Rev shuddered. While the sailors aboard the Blackwind would scare each other on dark nights with tales of monsters from the deep, every once in a while, her elf father would spin a tale about the driders, dark elves that had failed their spider queen, and been turned into monsters, walking around on arachnid legs. Rev looked down at the hairy bodies on the floor. If there was a drider here, they had to be quaggoths, the cannibalistic guard dogs of the underdark. Rev wanted out of this cave, now. "What do we do?"
"He knows we're here. We haven't exactly been quiet," Ruanea said, crossing her arms as she looked at the pile of bodies.
"But he doesn't know what we are. For all he knows, the quaggoths could have gotten into a fight. After all, they were eating one of their own," Rev argued. "How do we trick him? We could skin the quaggoths and wear their pelts as a disguise."
Triton cocked his dinosaur head to the side staring at her with one eye.
Elgoth also turned in her with an incredulous look on his face. "You can be quite brutal."
"Thanks," Rev said.
"It would take too long to skin these creatures, and driders are very intelligent. I don't think we can deceive him. That thunderclap was hardly subtle." Elgoth sent Triton a withering look. Then puffed himself up. "When you live hundreds of years, it is difficult to be tricked," his gaze traced up and down Rev. "I guess you wouldn't live to see hundreds of years so it doesn't matter for you."
"Considering you are bound to the life of a baby kraken that lives in a cave full of hungry, murderous, and cannibalistic monsters," she said, passing near Elgoth. "I'll take my odds at outliving you."
Borassos laughed behind his hand.
Triton made a noise and waved his hands, clearly trying to tell them something.
Elgoth shook his head. "Will you stop. We can't understand you when you talk to us that way." Triton hung his large head.
"I could try to charm him," Merantha suggested.
"I don't think that will work," Rev said. "He's mostly drow, and anyone with elf blood can't be charmed. At least I can't, and I assume it's the same for those with full blood, Ruanea, Elgoth?"
Ruanea looked confused, and Elgoth shrugged. "Only lesser beings succumb to charm."
Rev shook her head then looked at the narrow passage. She didn't want to be the first to go through it. It would be better if they could bring the drider here. Then they could set up an ambush. "I could play my flute and see if we can lure him to us."
"That's worth a try," Borassos said.
Rev took out her tin pipe and played a song, trying to make it as intriguing and captivating as possible. She played for several minutes, then waited, stashing her tin pipe, and drawing her swords, ready for the ambush with the others. The drider didn't take the bait.
"Now what?" Borassos mumbled.
Ruanea turned her hand over in a motion like catching a wave of water, and three balls of light appeared. She made them dance into the corridor.
Again they waited, ready for an attack.
Rev kept her grip loose on her swords, her heart pounding in anticipation. Something shuffled in the corridor. She brought the tip of her sword up.
A white muzzle appeared followed by a shaggy white face.
Everyone sprung an attack at once, and the quaggoth fell the second it came through the opening.
But there were two more behind it.