AN: The world of Exile/Avernum belongs to Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb Software. In particular, the mysterious fort (found only in Exile), and the fort run by the nephilim, as well as the humans Anastasia and René. Persons and places belonging to the game will be put back unharmed when I'm done.
The passages through which the group now traveled twisted and split, and were it not for Brother Theo's careful mapping, Jynx was quite sure they would be lost before the first day had finished.
Finding one of the dead-end passages empty, Ansel called for the group to halt.
"We're getting tired," said Ansel, "and I think it better that we camp and continue looking for this fort sometime after we've all rested. What do you say?"
"Sounds a good idea to me," replied Duncan. "And this looks like a pretty easy spot to ward--right Jynx?"
"Yes, it does," replied Jynx. "I'll get to it."
"It does seem wise to stop," said Brother Theo, "for we don't know how far--only the general direction of this fort that we're looking for. At least I'm confident we can find our way back to Formello."
"Can be thankful for the small favors," said Brynja, sounding a little cross. "I'll make sure there's none of those illusionary walls around here."
"Good idea," said Jynx, who had just finished laying her alarm across the mouth of the side passage.
The next day's journey brought them past an abandoned campsite right in the main passage, but from the copious amounts of fur left, it was quite clear that those who had camped there were not human.
"Seems we're on the right track," said Ansel, sounding a little hopeful.
Three days after they had left Formello, the group had come to the end of a passage, with a fort visible at the end.
"Hey, look there," said Ansel softly, drawing the others up close.
"Let's go check it out," said Brynja.
No sooner had they approached the doors, however, than a troop of human soldiers, led by a priest, fanned out to attack them.
When the soldiers and priest lay dead upon the cave floor, Ansel said, "They didn't even ask why we were here. I say we've found a nest that needs cleaning out."
"Strange," said Jynx, "but we'd better hurry before they have time to prepare."
"Probably too late for that," said Duncan morosely, accepting Rudel's patching up efforts.
Across the water, they could see a worked stone building, and at the end of the docks the erstwhile men had been defending, a small boat.
"It's big enough to hold all of us," announced Ansel, stepping down into the boat, and putting up a hand to help Jynx into the boat, and then Brynja.
"The next question, then, would be which way to go," said Brother Theo.
"I don't know," said Ansel. "Let's try this way." With that, he began paddling the boat to the left. Soon, the water-filled passage became quite narrow--barely wide enough for them to continue, and then they heard the sound of squeaking and other telltale evidence of rats.
Finding a narrow ledge covered in mushrooms, Jynx quickly cast a short light spell, illuminating a ledge on the opposite side, which was occupied by two rats who were nearly the size of horses.
"Glad we're on this side, not that," muttered Jynx, as she prepared another spell.
With a couple explosions of flames, Jynx and Rudel slew the two giant rats, but then Rudel said, "So much for any chance of surprise."
"May as well go on," replied Jynx, as they got back into the boat.
Following the narrow waterway, their noses were assaulted by the odor of decaying garbage, and they came to the end of the waterway, where slimy garbage covered the cave floor. Seeing no hope for it, they pulled the boat well out of the water, then edged through the cave.
Green fungal light, just as outdoors, illuminated the area dimly, and they could see a fairly substantial cultivated mushroom farm. Three armored men and two robed men stood amidst the mushrooms, watching the dock which was at the far end of the expanse from where the group had come ashore.
Grinning at this bit of luck, Ansel gestured to the others, and they managed to avoid squelching too loudly, and joined in battle. The noise of battle brought more of the priests and more soldiers, but finally all was quiet and the group made their way into the building.
The room was clearly the main room for worship, an altar dominating the room with a rather sick-smelling incense burning, and twisted black candles burning upon the altar.
"Let's put that out," said Ansel, moving to do so.
"No," said Rudel, "it might ... shit!"
Rudel had not had time to get out the warning, but the thing he suspected had happened--three demons now stood in the room, apparently angered by the "desecration" of the vile altar.
By sheer dint of will, it seemed, the companions managed to survive the encounter, although very badly bloodied.
"OK, I've learned my lesson," said Ansel. "Don't got to say nothing more."
"Still," said Jynx, looking at the altar, which now had a large crack running through it, "it does seem like a good bit of work. I'm curious, though--they're plainly up to some sort of evil, but what?"
"Let's look around," said Brother Theo. "Maybe we'll find some answers around here."
Searching, they found large dormitories, a few storage rooms that actually seemed to be storage for undead--and a fair sum of gold, a kitchen and dining area, and finally the senior priests' room, with bookshelves lining the walls.
"Not much help," said Brother Theo, paging through their books. "Seems a fair bit of knowledge of arcane magic has been gathered, but I'm not sure if that's the only thing they were doing."
"I don't know," said Jynx, wearily. "Do you think we dare rest here?"
"Doesn't seem to be anyone else around," said Ansel. "Why not?"
"After that last fight," said Rudel, "I think some sleep is in order."
"Just in case, I'll set an alarm," said Jynx, her movements revealing just how tired she was.
Rudel and Brother Theo set about patching the others as best they could, and then the group went to sleep--keeping their watches, even though they were indoors. Nevertheless, the night had passed quietly enough, and after a breakfast in the now-eerily quiet dining room, they made their way back to the boat.
Paddling back to the entrance, Jynx caught sight of dim shadows moving near a fire by the docks, and they found themselves embroiled in a ferocious fight, the crazed defenders of the place fighting to the death, sacrificing a dozen soldiers and four priests. By the time the battle was over, the group was still as in the dark about the purposes of these people as ever.
Retracing their steps with the aid of Brother Theo's map, they came to another as-yet-unexplored passage, and soon thereafter found a wide stone bridge. Crossing this bridge, they were about to continue on the way when Rudel called them up short.
"Look," he whispered, pointing to the fires burning alongside a narrow pathway by the water. Furred creatures could be seen darting around the fire.
"Let's go that way, then," said Ansel. "This looks promising, you figure? If the cat heads took the necklace, well--here's a bunch of them."
Dim green fungal light reflecting off the slow-moving water combined with the swirling smoke of the fires to present an eerie field as the companions crept along the narrow path until quite suddenly, lithe figures emerged from the smoke swirls, throaty sounds clearly a call to battle just moments before the first thwpp! of an arrow released from its bow. Seven felinoid figures--the odds well-matched to the companions, who sliced through their opponents with such speed that Ansel grinned as he wiped his blade clean.
"What's to be happy about?" said Duncan.
"Figure it went so fast, they didn't get time to sound an alarm," replied Ansel.
"Must not have," said Jynx, looking ahead to the next fire.
"Good, then we ready?" said Ansel. "Let's see if we can't sneak our way right in, take that necklace back--if it's here--and get back before they even know what's up."
"Optimistic, aren't you?" said Rudel, with a mirthless chuckle.
"What's wrong with that?" said Ansel. "Prepared for if it don't work out that easy, ain't we?"
"Hope so," said Jynx, looking at the looming fortress to the right. "Big place. Probably a whole lot of them."
They moved on, finding a group of nephilim, which rose to their feet, the thick smoke swirling about, making it difficult to see. These nephilim stood, as though waiting for the others to make the first move. Having little patience for this, Ansel signaled his companions to move forward, and once more the battle was joined. A few minutes of fighting, clang on clang of weapon, and then the fight was over, eight more nephilim lay dead upon the cave floor. Beyond the last campfire, the pathway ended in a blank wall.
"This makes no sense," said Jynx. "They were clearly guarding, yet there seems nothing to guard."
"Must be a hidden entrance near," said Brynja. "Which is even better--sneak into the back of the place. They'll never see us coming."
"We can hope," said Brother Theo. "Is everyone well? We could take the time to mend any injuries."
"We're getting better at this," said Ansel, with a laugh. "Think everyone's just fine."
"Found it," said Brynja, her voice barely above a whisper. "Come on, let's go."
The battle over, the companions were now standing at the secret back entrance to the nephilim fortress, the center of the cruel cat peoples' activities in northeastern Avernum. The passage spilled out into a filthy trash pit, full of rats and probably other vermin. Inside, the sinister humanoids could be heard howling and carousing. The advantage of surprise was theirs--for the moment, but it could be lost all too easily in a moment.
"So far so good," said Ansel, and he pushed open the door at the end of this passage.
A goblin standing amidst the opened sacks of grain and emptied jugs looked up, startled. Barely pausing for thought, Ansel drew his sword and impaled the goblin before it had a chance to cry aloud. Torches lit the room, with doors leading off to the sides.
"Which way you figure we should go," said Ansel.
"Your guess would be as good as mine," said Jynx. "Why don't we try that way?" and she pointed to the right.
The room behind this door was a kitchen, goblin slaves working at preparing some sort of meal, and the six companions dispatched the four goblin slaves quickly.
"So far, so good," said Ansel. "Don't think anyone's had time to send up an alarm."
"What're we going to do with the bodies?" said Jynx. "That's bound to cause alarm."
Brynja opened a door in the corner, and said, "Here--looks like another trash pit. And there's a passage leading down. Let's take them in here, head down, and see what we can find."
Pulling the goblin corpses from the two rooms into this large room, they closed the kitchen door.
"All that blood, no one will know it isn't from meal preparation," said Rudel, sounding grimly satisfied. "Now, how about a little light?"
He cast a spell, holding a small ball of light in one hand, and then said, "Ready?"
"Yeah," said Ansel. "Even if they don't stumble over the bodies, the slaves might be missed when the meal's supposed to be eaten, and who knows when that is."
They made their way down the steeply sloping passage, finding a storeroom, and suddenly, face to face with two more goblins. These goblins barely had time to squeak in alarm before being slain, but this time, the companions figured that other than moving the dead off the main path, there was no need to conceal anything.
Continuing on, they came to a crudely shaped sign, with rough letters spelling out "lair of darkhaz, beware".
"What do you suppose a darkhaz is?" said Ansel.
Almost in answer, a jet of fire engulfed him.
Rudel threw the lightball into the room, illuminating a lizard that had oddly reddish coloring.
"Fire lizard," said Jynx, preparing a quick ice spell.
Ansel merely moaned with the discomfort, and Brother Theo moved closer to see him. A moment later, Duncan too was engulfed in the flames as Brynja threw darts, Jynx threw her ice spells, and Rudel dashed to the aid of Duncan. When at last they had slain the lizard, they found a nest, oddly devoid of the valuables usually acquired by these intelligent lizards that seemed to enjoy collecting things.
"Curious," said Jynx, as she followed the wall around behind the drake's nest, finding a door set into the stone there. "Locked," she said.
"Let me," said Brynja, who moved forward and after a moment of fiddling, opened the door.
The room inside was tiled--oddly well-kept, with four stone pillars and an empty brazier in the middle of the room. And opposite the door they had just entered, another door.
"It's locked, too," said Brynja, getting her picks out again. A moment later, this door stood open, and in the light of Rudel's spell, they saw two pillars behind which stood four chests.
"Maybe they kept that drake just as a guard for this," said Jynx. "Probably not that simple--look lively."
Ansel started into the room, saying, "For what?" but the words had barely passed his lips when there was a low stone-on-stone sound, and the walls of the room with the empty brazier fell away, revealing undead which started shambling toward them.
"For that," said Duncan, and the battle was joined.
Moments later, when the undead had been returned to a proper rest, Brynja went to the second door, and started examining the floor.
"Pressure plate," she said, "but that seems to be the end of it. Chests are probably trapped, too."
She moved over to one of the chests, and cried out as a poisoned needle barely missed her fingers.
"You all right?" asked Rudel.
"Yeah, fine," she said. "Almost got me." She opened the chest, revealing a very well-crafted chain mail.
"Why don't one of you guys take this," said Brynja, looking to Ansel and Duncan. "Should fit you."
She moved on to the next chest, finding and removing the trap without incident before unlocking it, revealing a fairly substantial sum of coins.
"Hey, here you go, Ansel. Don't got to worry so much about the money we been spending," said Brynja, giving him a rather saucy look.
"Someone's gotta worry about that kinda thing," mumbled Ansel, as he moved over to start collecting the coins while Brynja moved on to the next chest. Suddenly, the room filled with a cloud of green gas, leaving all of the companions teary-eyed and gasping for breath.
Jynx felt the room go dark for a moment, and then Rudel was standing over her, asking "Feeling better?"
"Yeah, thanks," said Jynx. "What happened?"
"Poison gas, I think," said Rudel. "Set the trap off, rather than disarming. But everyone's ok now."
Brynja gingerly managed to pass the last trap, sweat beading on her forehead as she worked, and finally she opened the chest to reveal a silver bottle that contained a honey-like potion.
"Let's move on, then," said Ansel.
"First, I think we ought to make use of this armor," said Duncan.
After Duncan had drawn on the new armor, the group decided it was time to move on, and they left the passageway, past a second sign warning of the lair of darkhaz, into passageways nearly blocked by massive spiderwebs.
"Watch out," said Ansel, as he moved to clear a few webs.
His action must have triggered whatever caused spiders to run to their prey, for moments later, four very large spiders--each about waist-high, came scuttling through the webs.
"Yeuch!" said Ansel, and he drew a torch and set the remaining webs ablaze.
"On the bright side," said Jynx, once the flames had burnt out, "that was much easier than I expected."
They continued through the now web-free passage, finding themselves in a room which contained a large rock upon which a knife sat, copious amounts of blood suggesting that this was an execution place--or at least a slaughtering point, as a gate just south of the group creaked open, and a lizard near the size of surface horses came out, hissing.
Moving through this chamber, they found and killed a number of lizards, as well as the corpse of a human who had evidently not fared as well as they had. Then, returning to the slaughter chamber, still amazed that no general alarm had been sounded, they made their way through the door.
Three nephilim had been enjoying a meal here, along with a couple of pampered-looking housecats. The battle was, once more quick, though the resting nephilim in the next chamber came out to join in the fray. Then, exploring further, they opened the door into a small torture chamber, occupied by four nephilim. Though the torture chamber was poorly equipped, Jynx was quite sure the nephilim would make up for the lack of materials with great enthusiasm, though the dust on the tools and dried bloodstains suggested that it had been some time since the room had been used for its true purpose.
Slaying these nephilim too, they found the two locked cells--one empty, and the other with a rather short and thin man, who somehow looked quite relaxed despite his situation.
"Uh, what are you doing here?" said Ansel, rather surprised.
"What's your name?" asked Jynx. "I'm Jynx--this is Ansel, Duncan, Rudel, Brynja, and Brother Theo," as she pointed to each in turn.
"Name is René Kneedler," he replied, grinning at them. "Well, I'm a prisoner of the nephilim, but what I spend most of my time doing is escaping."
"Escaping from this prison, yes?" said Ansel.
"Yep. I'm a master of escape. They throw me in here, I get out, and then they catch me and put me back in. It's kind of fun. They would have killed me long ago, but Anastasia likes me," he said, his grin broadening. "Heck, I've been around this fort a dozen times now. In fact, if you were looking for something, I bet I've seen it. Try me."
"As a matter of fact," said Ansel, "we're looking for a necklace which was stolen from the mayor of Formello. Is it here?"
He looked thoughtful, frowning, then said, "You know, I'm not sure. Anastasia said something about it once, something about being mad at the priests for putting it away and throwing away the key. But she didn't say much else. Most of the priests live on the top level of the fort, for what that's worth."
"What do you know about Anastasia?" said Jynx.
He gave another smile, and said, "Ah, yes--she's a fiery one. She's a human, but she practically runs this fort. Good mage, but pretty evil and twisted. I think she'd have killed me long ago, but she sort of misses human company."
"She sounds like a traitor," said Ansel.
"Oh, she is. Though a nice one. She lives on the highest level of the fort," replied the man. "If you kill her, please let me know. If she's dead, the nephilim will no longer have any reason to keep me alive."
"Uhhh..." said Brynja, "if you don't mind my asking, why don't you just escape for good?"
"Well, Anastasia really, really misses human company. If you know what I mean," replied René with a wink. "Really."
Brynja flushed, as she realized she knew exactly what the man was talking about.
"So, how long you been their prisoner?" asked Duncan.
"Got captured a few months ago. Band of them grabbed me while I was heading for one of the northern forts," he replied.
"Which fort?" asked Duncan.
"I was headed for Fort Draco. North of here. Pretty remote--called that because one of the dragons, the friendly one, lives near it. Well, anyhow, the nephilim grabbed me, and I ended up here instead," he replied.
"Guess we should be going," said Ansel.
"Oh, all right," he replied. "Nice to have met you all. And good luck."
They left the torture chamber area, and found another passageway leading to an upward slope. The slope turned into a stairway, and the stairway led into a hall, a short distance later, another hall crossed their path.
"Which way?" said Ansel.
"Go right," said Jynx. "When there's a choice, always go right. Easier to retrace your steps if you need to..
"Fine, that makes sense," said Ansel, as he led the way down the hall. There were two doors leading off to the left, and he looked back at the others.
Jynx shook her head, and whispered, "Get them on the way back."
Ansel nodded again, and the hall shortly thereafter took a right turn, with doors standing to the right and the left.
Moving to the right-hand one, Ansel tried the doorknob, then looked back at Brynja. "Locked," he whispered.
Brynja edged forward, then unlocked the door, revealing a room filled with crates and barrels--clearly a storeroom of some sort, though they did not have the time to search through everything yet. Leaving the storeroom, they made their way to the next door, finding a number of nephilim--this was a large room which was quite clearly a dormitory for some of the nephilim.
"That's probably done it," said Ansel, sounding rather unhappy as the fight drew to a close.
"Maybe not," said Jynx, pointing slyly to the door that she had closed as soon as the last of her friends had entered.
"Great," said Ansel, "hope you're right."
No such luck held, however, as they soon found themselves facing a number of nephilim--shamans and archers, warriors and even the occasional ogre whom had apparently aligned with the nephilim.
"New strategy," said Ansel, as the fight was joined, "kill 'em all, and make sure no one gets upstairs."
The floors were slick with blood by the time the companions had gone through all the rooms, but at last it was quiet. Wisely, Ansel stayed clear of the altar in one room, not wishing to have another eruption of demons after they had fought so long and hard.
In a cubbyhole behind the room with the altar stood a desk covered with papers, most in the nephilim tongue, but one written in the human tongue, reading:
Thinshadow
I want the necklace back, and I want it soon. It was my warriors that did the raid, and it will be my warriors that reap the rewards. I can break into your temple, if necessary.
Anastasia
"Guess we're definitely on the right track," said Ansel. "Let's go upstairs."
Upstairs, they found themselves deposited directly in an occupied dining room, and the alarm that they had been hoping to avoid for so long was finally raised--resulting in wave after wave of nephilim entering the room, and an ever thickening pool of blood.
Finally, they came to a room where a a human woman, dressed in brilliant red robes--or at least they had once been brilliant red, before months in Avernum caused the bright colors to fade, who had been arguing with a number of nephilim shamans. Whatever their argument--and Jynx was sure it was over this necklace--the differences were settled in deciding to fight off the band of companions.
Soon, though, Anastasia as well as the nephilim lay dead, and they began to quickly explore.
"Think we should go down and tell that guy in the dungeon?" said Brynja.
"We've got a little time," said Jynx. "Rather finish what we're doing up here, then head down."
"Sounds good to me," replied Ansel, as he began searching. Soon, they found the hidden door that led into the apartments occupied by Anastasia during her life with the nephilim. A large notebook was on a pedestal well concealed, revealing some of Anastasia's history with the nephilim. The companions knew well that most of the Empire had been exterminating the nephilim for a long time, while the more merciful governors rounded up the cat people and dumped them into Avernum. Anastasia had apparently been a bandit leader on the surface, leading a group of nephilim in raids on human settlements--though there was nothing here which revealed why she should have been so closely allied with them then. When she was captured, her entire band was sent down to Avernum, and she used her understanding of their ways and her existing band to work her way into a position of great influence with the chief of this tribe, aiding them with magic and advice in return for protection and wealth. She noted, too, that one of the shamans had taken a bronze key to the "new fort".
"Suppose that's that fort we were at a while back?" said Ansel, his voice sounding excited. "Found a bronze key there, remember?"
"I remember," said Jynx, "and I'm sure you're right--oh, my--look at this!"
"What?" said Ansel.
"New spell," said Jynx. "At least, a new one to me--I've heard of it before. It'll be most helpful in fights."
Leaving the room, another battle royal ensued--Anastasia's warrior faction had not taken her death well, and seemed determined that the companions would pay. However, the companions quickly put an end to the warrior faction, in the process destroying a cauldron that had been set up to deposit burning oil upon those who were unwelcome and approaching the front gate of the fortress. From here, they worked their way back to a large door set in a basalt wall, its bronze keyhole so far beyond Brynja's skill that she declared if they had not found the key, they would never enter.
Entering this temple, they found more priests readying a defense, but the companions overcame, taking the time to explore the four chambers leading away from the temple, and discovering two necklaces--not knowing which of these might be the stolen one, they took both.
"We can show the mayor both of them when we get there," said Ansel, "but I'd rather not have to come back because we took the wrong one."
"Agreed," said Jynx. "Now, we better go warn that fellow downstairs that it's time to skeedaddle."
Finding their way back downstairs, they quickly moved to the cells, and opened René Kneedler's cell door once more.
"Find what you were looking for?" he asked, with a grin.
"Yes," replied Ansel, "but you should know--we had to kill Anastasia."
"You did? Oh, dear," he replied, though he didn't sound particularly grieved to hear it. "The nephilim will have no reason to let me live then. Do you suppose I'd better escape now?"
"It'd be a good idea," replied Jynx. "The coast should be clear for you now."
"Thanks much," he said, "and good luck to you. Don't worry about me. I'll have no trouble getting away. Maybe I'll go visit Motrax--always wanted to, before I got taken prisoner."
With that, the man vanished quickly out of the cell, leaving the companions to look at each other, rather non-plussed.
"Well, that's that," said Ansel after a moment. "Let's get back to Formello."