A/N: And here's the next chapter! Let's see what await our heroes at the top of the mountains!
Disclaimer: I don't own Dungeons and Dragons. I only own my original ideas
Chapter 64: A Starry Breach
The night passed without further incident, and we continued up the trail, reaching the valley Brykienth had mentioned before too long. A deep scar ran across the icy landscape, like a deep crevasse in a glacier. However, there was a strange energy in the air, something undefinable. Further ahead, we could see was looked like an outpost, but one that was in bad shape. We decided to begin our search there.
The outpost's edifices and low walls were made from a combination of wood and ice. The simple gate at the southern edge was intact and open slightly. Around and throughout the ruins were holes in the frozen ground. There were no bodies, though even from a distance supply crates and loaded sleds could be seen between the adandoned buildings. A thick layer of snow blanketed at outpost.
"Where is everyone?" asked Charles, "it's like everyone in the outpost just vanished".
"These holes," said Krisyra, "It looks like something burrowed in to the outpost… but there's no claw marks".
We continued out search until I picked up the scent of someone unfamiliar in one of the buildings, a humanoid.
"In there," I said, "someone's hiding in that cabin".
"I'll check," said Lydratir.
He headed into the building, only to emerge soon after with a thin, pale human man. He looked exhausted and malnourished, and had a strange look in his eyes.
"Ah, more explorers?" said the man, "excellent!"
"Are you Quil?" I asked.
"Indeed I am," he said, "I believe you can help me with a task".
"What exactly?" asked Charles.
"You must take me to see the Breach," said Quil, "It is what brought me here, what sang to me in the night!"
I began to realize that Quil's mind might be a bit addled from his time alone.
"Out past the Spires, in the tyrannical rays of the midnight sun, there are crack in the surface of the ice," said Quil, as if reciting from memory, "Those cold and lonely breaches— what stirs in their depths? What constellations twinkle on their rimy walls? The Nomades knew. Their stories passed from mouth to ear. Imagine what is lost in the transcription! These dead pages full of ink— so much earnest work, and to what end? As though the scribbling could capture all the facets of a voice telling a story! I am one myself. The breaches in the ice, to have before me that which I have loved as I would a child. Bah, save your judgement— what stirs in your heart to wander so far from comfort…"
"The people from your academy are looking for you," I said, "We need to bring you back to them safely".
"Not until I have seen the breach!" said Quil, "I have traveled too far to give up now!"
"Alright, we'll take you to see the Breach," said Narcrath, "honesty, I'm intrigued now as well".
Krisyra made sure Quil was well enough to travel, and se set off, heading in the direction of the crevasse I'd spotted earlier. Along the way our journey was intereppted by a trio of strage, slug-like creatures. They came sliding out of the ice, almost seeming to be formed from it, and moved towards us.
Narcrath was the fastest to react, lauching a two orbs of lightning to blast our foes. Krisyra summoned a flame and lauched it at one of the slugs, causing it to recoild from the heat. Charles went after the slug that Krisyra had burned, cutting it deeply with his first strike, and slicing it in half with his second. As the slug fell, its body melted into a pile of snow and ice. One of the remaining slugs slid up to Narcrath, bashing him with the tendrils around its mouth, but he dodged its second attack. I moved up to the slug no one had engaged yet, and attacked it with my claws and fangs. The 'slug' tasted like nothing more than a mouthful snow, one againrevealing its elemental nature. Lydratir moved up to Narcrath and finished off the remaining slug with a deft jab of his rapier.
We continued on, reach the area where the Breach awaited. The actual Breach itself was 15 feet deep, amd for icy spires surrounded the area. As I looked a thte se spires, and odd sesation came over my mind, but I shook it off. Something about this place was trying to compel me to do… something. The air here felt highly charged, there was definitely something strange up here. We descended towards the Breach, and there I saw them. they were hard to miss, their dark blue, almost black-scaled forms sitting in concentration. They were dragons, two of them. Their dark scales also had lighter spots, like stars in the night sky. They soon noticed our arrival.
"Ah, another group of explorers come to marvel at our great work, brother," said one of the dragons, "come, let us greet them properly".
"Yes, the must be show the proper hospitality," said the other dragon.
The weren't even trying to veil their threats, their true intentions were evident in their tone of voice. I recognized what these were, even thought he details about them were vague: there were Void Dragons, creatures from beyond the stars. That said, based off their size, they couldn't be that much older than me.
"Well, what do we have here?" asked the left Void Dragon, "one of the local dragons. You will find taking these lasd from us will not be easy".
"I have no interest in claiming these lands as my own," I said, "besides, they are already claimed by another".
"Your word matter not," said the right Void Dragon, "you and you followers will perish here, and your souls will fuel our gate to the Void!"
Lydratir was particularly quick on the draw this time, taking aim and firing a pair of arrows at the right Void Dragon. As the arrow approached, the air around the dragon seemed to twist as distort, but the arrow flew on regardless, sliding between the Void Dragon's scales near the shoulder. The void dragon snarled in pain, resulting in the second arrow to strike it on the roof of the mouth. I moved up to engage the left Void Dragon, keeping its attention on me and not my allies. I reacalled one rather important detail about this type of dragon: they're not fireproof. I inhaled deeply, and unleashed my flame, catching both of them fully. Both roared as the flames licked at them.
Narcrath ropositioned, and fired off a powerful spell, looking like the same spell he used against the half-ogres the previous day. The air buzzed with unseen energy, adding to the strange atmosphere. The spell blasted the Void Dragons, and the shrieked in Draconic about their heads hurting. The Void Dragon nearest to me snarled, inhaled deeply, and spat forth a blast of heat and light. It washed over Lydratir, Narcrath and I, but we evaded the worst of its effects. The other void dragon approached me, and attemped to bite and claw at me. The first attack resulted it it almost biting itself in the tail, while its claw attack either missed entirely or glanced off my scales. Krisyra morphed into a giant scorpion, and cuttled up to the more wounded of the Void Dragons. She struck out with her claws, grasping the Void Dragon firmly. She struck out with her other claw, and the followed up with the sting of her venomous tail, making this Void Dragon fall. Charles moved up beside me, and attacked the remaining Void Dragon. His first strike cut a deep wound in the Void Dragon's sholder, while the second low sweep caused it to stumble back and fall prone.
Lydratir took advantage of this, firing two more arrows into the Void Dragon. It was clear from the wounds it had sustained, both physical and mental, that this dragon was on its last legs. I looked it in the eye, and could see nothing but madness there. This dragon would not have the presence of mind to surrender. I looked at it sadly, and with one strong bite to the neck, ended its life.
We searched the area, fiding a cache of gold and silver coins the Void Dragons had been hoarding (likely acquired from others who'd found this place in the past). We also found a couple of potions, as well as a buckler shield radiating the same strange energy that the Void Dragons had been. Finally, in a small pit in the center of this Breach, we saw it: a small,l swirling vortex of energy, about 1 foot in diameter. Through it, I could see a vista of unfamiliar stars, a place far beyond our world. I looked away before I became entranced. Quil examined it excietly, and took some notes in a worn journal. A short time later, he completed his task.
"I've got what I needed," said Quil, "I'm ready to get back to the academy".
With that, we began making our way back down from the mountain, our task complete.
A/N: And there we go! The foes seen in this chapter, Rime Worm Grubs and Void Dragons, were from the Tome of Beasts by Kobold Press. Another link in the chain of evens has been revealed, with the appearance of Void Dragons, something not of this world. What might this mean? See you Next time.