Chapter Forty-two

Otherworldly Surroundings


The tunnel at last leveled out and opened into a huge cavern. This cavern was at least twice, if not three times as large as the first one we'd entered with the chasm. The ceiling was higher than any I'd ever seen before, I couldn't see parts of it directly above me.

In front of us was a stone bridge crossing a large, dark lake to an island. There was a glowing forest on the island, glowing a bluish-green. The shore around the lake was made of black sand and seemed to wrap around the entire cavern. The water lapped ever so gently on the shore.

Sephra pointed into the distance. She told us she could see a flat-topped pyramid beyond the forest. Her Drow eyes could see farther than even mine in the dark.

Keothi walked up to Kima. "Should we walk up the shore to see where it ends, and if there are any other paths?"

"I suppose we could do that. What do all the rest of you think? It looks like we're going to have to go across the bridge at some point, or at least cross the water somehow. This forest is part of what I saw," Kima said.

"Well, I like water," Naidaroe said.

"Yes, I imagine you'd be very comfortable around water," Kima said. I looked at the surface of the water. It was calm, but not completely still. There was a chance something lived in the lake.

Naidaroe took out a candle and approached the water. I asked her to look into the water away from the bridge. We didn't need to attract attention to the bridge from anything in the water. She went away towards the right.

She lit the candle, which burned with an eerie blue tint. I was surprised when she plunged it into the water. The light didn't go out, but dimly illuminated the water around her hand.

She came back and reported that the lake was pretty deep, dropping off sharply soon after the shore. She also saw some type of creature swimming in the water. I suggested we cross the bridge quickly.

Naidaroe encouraged that we check the bridge for traces of magic. Melima approached the bridge, but didn't sense any magic or notice anything that would indicate a glyph. Kutsool reported the bridge was ancient, not showing any design of a particular race.

Naidaroe nodded. "Then I just suggest that nobody falls into the water, and it seems fine to me."

I let Kima lead us, while I kept to the back, watching our rear with Naidaroe. Keothi went with Kima, protecting the front. Kima's armor was noisy, clanking on itself as we walked.

I kept an eye on the water as we crossed. Something darted under the bridge, under the main arch that supported the bridge in the water. Nothing else came around that I noticed, and we made it across without incident.

The glowing forest began almost as soon as we made ground. It was all mushrooms, glowing from the bottom of the cap. I knew that there were several things that glowed naturally in the wild, so I knew this would be natural, and not magical.

It was pretty damp, but it was also cool. It was not like the warm cavern the Emberhold was in. There was an odd smell, something like moss or mildew, but I couldn't quite make it out. Sindus asked if the mushrooms were poisonous, which I didn't know, but I suggested not eating them.

Sindus got two vials from potions we had used, cut a chunk out of the stalk of the mushroom and put it in a vial, then pushed off the cut to reach some of the glowing part of the mushroom with gloves, putting it in a vial.

Ari'yasa took a small bit of each and tested it with an herbalism kit she had. She didn't think it was poisonous, but said the only way to be sure was to taste it.

There was a path leading through the forest, which looked well-traveled. Kima suggested we not travel directly on the path, but follow it off to the side. I had been thinking the same thing. Ari'yasa cast our cloaking spell, and we went off to the left, keeping the path just in sight.

We traveled for several minutes. Sephra told us the temple she saw looked to be about a mile away. Eventually we heard movement on the path, but whoever it was seemed to be going towards the bridge. We turned a little more to the left and slowed down to a more stealthy pace.

I was pleased with everyone's stealth, I was having a hard time seeing a few of them, and Sindus completely disappeared. He popped his head out from behind a mushroom and waved at us before disappearing out of sight again.

We came to a clearing that seemed to have been dug out in a dish shape. In the center were skins that looked like a bed of a creature. A large fire pit was off to the side. There was no fire, but it looked like there had been one recently.

We found footprints in the area, longer than Keothi was tall. Whatever made them was huge, and not something I wanted to fight. Creatures in the underdark could be strange.

Ari'yasa tried to determine where the creature went, but couldn't quite tell. She said most of the tracks went further to the left. I considered connecting myself to the area around me to determine what might be in the area, a skill I had learned as a ranger, but decided it wouldn't be worth it to use my arcane reserves. I couldn't get enough useful information beyond what we already knew.

Melima went into the dish to investigate the skins, which made me cringe. Going into the bed of a huge creature was not the wisest course of action. Once she started moving them she slowed down, even from where I was standing they didn't look tanned.

She didn't find anything and soon came out of the dish. I suggested we leave, going around the clearing to the right. We were still in the forest, and went parallel to the path once we were away from the clearing.

After about an hour, the forest started to clear. There was a rudimentary city beyond. The buildings were made of wood this time, not stone. The forest continued around both sides of the city, but there were no mushrooms in the city itself.

I could hear people moving, but couldn't yet see anyone. I straddled my broom and flew just above the tops of the mushrooms to look over the city.

The forest went all the way around the city. The city itself was built haphazardly, there were no main roads. There were a few spots that were more open, which looked like a market area, but that was the most order there was to the city.

There were a number of creatures in the city. Quite a few duergar, but most of the inhabitants that I saw were what Naidaroe had told us were called illithids. The creatures with squidlike heads that reportedly could control minds.

It was an eerie sight. They were all dressed in dark robes, seemingly floating around the city. Their purplish skin and tentacles coming from their faces added to their otherworldly appearance. There was no way I was leading us all into the city itself if I didn't have to.

Another type of creature that caught my eye was reptilian and stood on six legs. They looked vicious, and were chained up as if they were guards. I thought I'd heard of these before, basilisks.

I landed and reported what I saw. I suggested we go to the left, around the city. Kima readily agreed with that plan. She was especially alarmed at my mention of the basilisks. "Let's avoid those. Those are dangerous. I can deal with any humanoid, but those are dangerous, they can turn you to stone."

We made it about halfway around the city without a sound. Ari'yasa had cast her cloaking spell again, and I was pleased with our stealth as we moved.

I lost track of Melima for a moment, her footfalls were indiscernible and she was sticking to the shadows incredibly well. I turned to find her as I walked.

Somehow, I didn't notice my trajectory and walked into a mushroom at full force. It snapped at the base and fell over. It wasn't noisy as it fell, but it did make an audible thud as it hit the ground. I was sure something would have heard that.

We all glanced around quickly, looking for any sign of something having heard or seen the mushroom fall. We were close enough to the city that I could still see into it. An illithid stopped and looked around, then floated in our direction.

I signaled us to move, heading a little farther into the forest while still going towards the temple. Kima got tripped up on the uneven ground and fell flat on her face right next to me. I stooped over to help her to her feet.

The illithid was upon us, it had been moving much faster than our brisk pace. Ari'yasa cast a spell, calling entangling vines from the ground and stopping him in his tracks.

Once Kima was up, I turned towards our pursuer. I positioned myself for a clear shot, but Naidaroe was just in the way. "Naida, duck!"

She moved just enough for me to make a clear shot with Gûdtirith, striking just below a metal plate he had on his chest. My arrow broke into tiny shards before striking him. My second arrow flew into his cloak and stopped. I must have hit his arm.

Sindus landed a couple of bolts in his side and disappeared behind a mushroom. Kima's morningstar began to glow as she, Keothi, and Kutsool rushed towards the creature.

Melima threw a bolt of fire, striking the illithid in the chest. He didn't look like he could last much longer, but I was hoping we wouldn't have to use spells that would draw attention to ourselves.

A voice spoke in my head, much like when I'd heard Bahamut speak to me, but this voice seemed to try to pierce me as it spoke. "You will all die!"

The illithid broke through the vines and stepped back. Keothi and Sephra bent over, and Sephra screamed out in pain. Evidently they had heard the same voice, but that piercing feeling had actually harmed them.

Ari'yasa stepped forward and threw out a thorny whip towards him, trying to pull him back into the vines. He dodged just out of the way and the whip returned harmlessly back.

I straddled my broom and flew just under the canopy. I didn't know how this creature had harmed my friends, but I intended to put as much space as possible between he and I.

I let off a couple more arrows, but my aim was shaky. My first arrow flew harmlessly to the side, and my second only shattered in the skirt of his robe, where a leg would be, if he had any. I was glad I'd put more of my arcane reserves into that arrow to cause more damage than my spell normally did.

Bolts flew out from where Sindus had disappeared. One hit the illithid right above the breastplate, but it dodged enough that the second one only hit his shoulder.

Kima stepped closer to Keothi, placing her now glowing hand on his hip. He stood a little straighter. Kima looked at both the goliath and the dwarf. "Go get him."

Kutsool charged forward, throwing handaxes at our foe. One flew just over his shoulder, but the other stuck in a shoulder. Another bolt of fire from Melima struck him straight in the chest.

Keothi shook his head and charged. He took one swing at the illithid, hitting him in the side. The illithid crumpled over the hammer and stopped moving.

I returned to the ground, and we all came back together. Most of us were pretty shaken. Kima looked at our fallen foe. "These things speak telepathically, which means there may be more on the way. We need to go."

We all agreed, though Keothi quickly searched the body. We ran in the direction we had been going, away from the city. I asked Sindus to use the dust of tracelessness to erase our tracks as we went, as Ari'yasa had dropped her cloaking spell in the fight. He smirked at me. "You mean those black pearls?"

I laughed despite myself. "No! Not those! We want to lose them, not attract them to us!"

Melima paused. "Wait, that's an idea. If we can chuck them or use arrows to get them far away and distract them..."

I liked the sound of that idea. "I could take some on my broom and drop them randomly."

Melima liked that idea as well. We continued running, and she gave me a handful of the pearls. We'd gotten a fair distance away from where we'd fought before I left on my broom.

I went straight up before working my way back. Three, seven, ten storeys into the air. I was quickly approaching stalactites from the ceiling, and stopped before I got too close. They were two to three storeys long, and I didn't want an especially low one to take me by surprise.

I looked in the stalactites for creatures. I saw something aways off, towards the temple, though I couldn't tell if it was flying, or somehow crawling between stalactites.

I flew back the way we'd walked, around the city, about a stone's throw into the forest. I threw one pearl at a time as I flew around, leaving a good amount of space between throws. Two pearls on one side, one more at the point of the city by the main path, and two more on the other side.

The first one exploded on top of a mushroom a few seconds after I threw it. The second went between mushrooms and hit the ground. It alternated whether it hit the tops or in between. The explosions seemed small, but noticeable from the height I was at, which was exactly what I wanted.

I felt like I was high enough I wasn't going to be seen, but I still didn't want to fly over the city and potentially bring attention back to where we actually were again. I started moving faster after dropping the last pearl.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something large drop out of the stalactites at my right and come straight towards me. It had huge wings and was hard to see. I was lucky I'd even noticed it.