Entering the Game

Chapter Eight

"Flat Notes and Evil Schemes"

The moment she hit the first note, Linda could sense something strange was happening. She could feel a weird tingling at the back of her neck and at her fingertips. Whatever this big old thing was, it was no ordinary organ. Something deep down inside of her told her she shouldn't be playing it, shouldn't even be touching it. But she couldn't very well stop and refuse to play. It would seem rude and probably get her laughed at by the guys.

"I am not familiar with that song you play," the old priest said.

"Uh…it's a…um…love story…" Linda admitted. She looked away as she spoke, and to her embarrassment found herself looking right at Andy when she said "love story." She looked back at the organ, feeling her face grow warm. Andy had always been a buddy to her, kind of like a brother. It was weird thinking he liked her. Suddenly she found herself wondering how she felt about him. She realized her mouth was dry and wet it nervously with her tongue.

"Perhaps you might try another type of song?" the priest suggested. Love songs wouldn't have the sort of results he hoped her.

"Um…sure…" Linda said quickly, struggling to think of something else she knew. Playing a love song was making her very uncomfortable anyway for some reason. Maybe because she was in a world of monsters and had seen dead things walking, she suddenly found herself playing "The Monster Mash."

Andy suddenly started singing along. He did a pretty good Boris Karloff imitation. Linda suddenly remembered the time she'd been sick and he'd made her laugh by acting silly.

Linda shook her head. She'd hit a couple of flat notes. Maybe something else. What else did she know? She started playing Popeye the Sailor Man. Andy sang along with that, sounding like Popeye.

Why was it so warm in the room? Because it was dedicated to a sun god? But it hadn't been warm a minute ago.

Linda would have thought it was her imagination, but Penny suddenly said, "Hey! How come it's so hot in here?"

"Yeah, who turned up the heat?" Greg complained.

"I'm getting out of here!" Tom said, heading towards the door.

"Wait," the old priest said. "I am certain it will pass soon."

"Has this happened before?" David asked him.

"Why…yes, of course," the priest said. "It is caused by…er…hot water springs deep underground."

"I didn't notice it until you started playing that organ," Penny told Linda. "Did you?"

"No…no, I didn't," Linda admitted, looking at the huge old device. She'd noticed while playing that some of the keys didn't work. She'd also felt…strange. Like something wasn't right about the organ. She got up and stepped away from it. "I-I think we should go now," she said.

"So soon?" the priest demanded, staring at her. "Are you all right? Do you feel at all…strange, young girl?"

Linda struggled to explain exactly what she'd felt. She realized she'd been kind of thirsty before coming here, and now she wasn't. She also felt sort of stiff. Her fingers bent kind of funny. And something deep down inside of her felt like she was somehow…unclean. Like she'd rolled around in something disgusting or something.

"I don't know," she admitted at last. "I just know I don't like this organ. It sounds…depressing." She'd started to say "creepy" but didn't want to insult the old guy.

"Come on," Penny said, grabbing her arm. "Let's see if we can find a place that's cooler!" She looked at Linda's arm strangely. Linda suddenly noticed she couldn't feel Penny's hand. Then she realized she was numb all over!

She sniffed the air and realized she couldn't smell anything either. She sniffed again. Nothing!

"Let's get out of here!" she said, her voice breaking with fear. She'd been fine when she'd sat down to play! It had to be the organ. Was it magical? Cursed? Had playing it down something to her? She didn't know, and didn't want to stay to find out! Ignoring the priest telling her to come back and stop being silly, she followed Penny and the others out of the now stiflingly hot room.

It was just as hot outside of the room, although the heat suddenly faded after they'd walked down the corridor a bit. Not gradually dropped off. It was burning hot and then suddenly the temperature seemed like it had been before.

The priest looked very annoyed. Did he expect her to keep playing until she got sick or passed out or…or maybe something worse?! Well, she wasn't going to risk her health…or her life…or even her very soul just to make him happy.

"Sorry," she said, not feeling at all sorry. "I-I don't feel well. I need to lie down."

"I see," the priest said. "Perhaps later…"

"No-no, I…I don't think so," she said, hurrying back to the room she and Penny were sharing. She laid down on the cot, noticing it no longer felt hard to her. In fact, she could barely feel it. She looked at her fingers. Bent them, then straightened them, then bent them again. They moved, but they didn't feel quite right. She wriggled her toes, and noticed the same feeling. It was like her entire body had fallen asleep or something. What could do something like that? An electric shock? She had felt something like that, but had assumed it was just like when you touched something metal and got a shock. It hurt for a second, then went away. But this wasn't going away! Had she had a stroke? She was only fourteen!

"Linda?" Penny asked, and the older girl noticed the younger was kneeling beside her, looking at her. "Are you okay? You look funny. Not funny ha-ha, funny weird."

"I feel funny weird," Linda admitted, suddenly very afraid. What if whatever it was didn't go away? What if she always felt like this? What if she got worse?!

"Maybe you'd feel better if you took a bath," Penny suggested. Then she wrinkled her nose. "Only the tub probably really stinks after the boys washed the pooh and other gross stuff they washed off themselves."

"The last thing I want I want to do right now is scrub a filthy bathtub," Linda said. She sniffed the air again. Still nothing! "Actually, maybe some manual labor will help me get my mind off of what happened," she decided, getting up. She didn't feel numb anymore, but she still felt kind of stiff. Maybe she could "walk it off?"

"What happened?" Penny asked, following her back to the room with the tub and the water. "You mean when it got hot? Did it make you sick? I once got so sick from being in a hot room I threw up."

"I can't smell anything," Linda admitted, sniffing again. "If the tub's filthy and I still can't smell anything, then I'll be worried."

"I can still smell," Penny said, sniffing herself. "Yuck! I need a bath!"

"You weren't the one playing that organ," Linda told her as they reached the room and went inside. The guys had left the tub a mess. Penny wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out, but Linda realized she still couldn't smell anything.

"You think playing it put a curse on you?" Penny asked, giving the tub a raspberry. "Pbbbt! Boys don't know what getting clean means, do they? You can't smell that stink? You're lucky! It smells like they pooped in the tub!"

Linda sighed. "Just help me try to clean this place up a little," she begged. If her sense of smell didn't come back soon, she'd have to ask the priest for a cure spell, even if it meant doing another "favor" for him.

…

Russet the dwarf girl sighed as she followed her brothers. The rain kept getting in her eyes, and she was sure rubbing it away was smearing dirt on her face. She'd asked her brothers if she had anything on her face, but the eldest had just grunted something about females being touched in the head, and the other had only grinned at her, convincing her that she must look a sight. At least, now that they were away from the human village, she no longer had to wear that beard. Made of goat hair, it stunk horribly. Russet vowed that if she ever married, it would be to a man that did not keep any sort of animals! No goats, no sheep, no horses, no pigs! Perhaps a cat or a canary, but nothing larger or smellier!

"Quit your woolgathering and keep up!" her eldest brother called to her. They'd both gotten quite some distance ahead of her. She hurried to catch up.

She'd only stopped to wipe her face yet again, and smell a pretty yellow flower. She wished she'd had a sister instead of only brothers. They had no appreciation for anything but gems and gold.

"The rain's stopping," her other brother said.

"Good!" Russet said. "I know I look a mess but you two won't tell me!"

"Nothing wrong with a little good, clean dirt, baby sister," her oldest brother said.

"So I do have dirt on my face!" she said, wishing he'd stop calling her a baby. She was almost marrying age, after all. She rubbed her face on her sleeve. "Is it off yet?"

"Are ye painting yourself?" the younger male asked with a grin. "Ye missed a spot right…there!" He tossed some mud at her.

Russet squealed and threw mud back at him. The two were soon covered in mud, which wasn't a good idea, since the rain picked just than time to stop.

"Enough with this foolishness!" the eldest yelled. "Are ye dwarves or orcs?"

"Don't call me an orc!" his brother said.

"I'll call ye what ye look like, and ye look like a pair of pigs rooting in the mud for slops," the eldest said. "Now cease this nonsense!" He glared at them. "And do not even think of thinking it at me or I'll tan your rumps!"

"My clothes are filthy now!" Russet complained.

"If ye worked in the mines like a man, ye'd come to appreciate good clean dirt," the younger of the brother said.

"This isn't good clean dirt," Russet pointed out. "It's wet, dirty mud! And I could work in the mines as well as you if I had a mind to it! It takes no brains to hit rocks, which makes it the perfect job for you!" She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Put that back in your mouth like a lady or you'll be standing to eat for a week!" the elder warned her. Russet put her tongue back in her mouth and placed her hands against her rump protectively.

They began walking again. Once more it started to rain. Russet sighed again. Well, at least it should wash off most of the mud.

…

"Ugh!" Penny said, lifting a bucket of water and carrying it to the tub. She was using her uninjured arm as much as possible. The other one might have been healed, but she was going to take it easy on it for awhile, just in case. "This is so heavy! I can't believe people had to do this every day!"

"And we only have a few feet to walk," Linda pointed out, dumping the other bucket into the tub then walking back to the fountain. "I'm going to be sore tomorrow." Well, at least she was getting feeling back. Her shoulders were definitely hurting from the exercise.

"The tub still smells kind of stinky," Penny said, dumping her bucket.

"We should have used it before the guys did," Linda agreed, even though she couldn't smell anything. "But you couldn't help then. I'm not even sure if you could have gotten in the tub. I don't think you should have gotten your broken arm wet."

"Isn't it embarrassing, showering in school in front of everybody?" Penny asked.

"You get used to just hurrying in and out and ignoring everybody," Linda said.

"If you say so," Penny said, starting to undress. Well, maybe she would get used to it. She wasn't embarrassed around Linda. But then, she'd known her since she was a baby, and the other girl was practically a big sister to her.

There was a knock on the door. "Hey, you guys!" came Andy's voice. "You almost finished in there? We want to get out of here and look for a way home already!"

"No!" Penny yelled. "We're not almost finished! We're just starting! Go way or I'll shocking grasp your face!"

"Whatever," Andy said.

"I told Greptog to guard the door," Penny said to Linda. "I hope he didn't wander away and get lost."

"I'm sure familiars don't get lost," Linda assured her. "Sorry, but the way it looked at me, I didn't want it in here."

Knowing that the creature could speak, Penny hadn't argued when the other girl had insisted on the "toad" staying outside. There was something creepy about the way it kept telling her not to let the others know it could speak. But it was her familiar, right? And familiars were always loyal to their masters, weren't they?

…

Greptog hopped into a dark corner in one room and took on his true shape. He hated being here, inside of a temple consecrated to good. It made his skin crawl. Hopefully the fools he was forced to watch would leave soon. Already they seemed very unhappy and uncomfortable there. Perhaps, since he didn't feel exactly ill, the priests weren't as good and kind as they liked to pretend, but he didn't want to stay long enough to be certain. Let someone else take that assignment. He muttered, waving his skinny little green arms, and a portal opened.

"Why do you bother me?!" the six-armed snake demoness demanded. "I didn't send for you!"

"A thousand pardons, Mistress!" Greptog said, bowing. "But I thought you should know, the high priest in the temple of Pelor has gotten one of the humans I am observing for you to play a most strange musical instrument!"

The snake creature shrieked at him. "A musical instrument?! You dare disturb me to tell me about a musical instrument?!"

Greptog threw himself onto the floor. "Mercy, Master! Mercy!" he cried. "When she played, the room became warm and then hotter than a summer's day in the desert! And she walked away rubbing her hands and snorting the air and rubbing her nose as if it had done something strange to her. I saw for I had hopped in unnoticed when the old priest let them in. He seemed most anxious for no one to know he had it in his possession."

"Indeed?" the demoness said, rubbing her chin with one hand and her belly with two others. She told him to describe the instrument to her. Hewards's Mystical Organ, she wondered, although she did not speak out loud. No need to share what might or might not be important information with one so lowly as a quasit!

"Continue to observe the young fools," she said at last. "I shall have someone of reasonable skill and intelligence to look into the object of which you speak."

"Of course…Mistress," Greptog said, hiding his hatred of the creature he feared to run away from. Quasits where small and weak and helpless against most demons, let alone the more powerful ones like the snake woman. But he would continue to wait and watch, and perhaps in time he would find a way to turn against her and maker himself the master!

Rehnaremme told him not to disturb her again, when she wanted updates she would ask for them, then cut off the spell, causing the portal to close and fade away. The serpent woman slithered down the hallway of her castle. It was of decent enough size, quiet huge to humans, but insignificant compared to the domains of other, more powerful demons. Rehnaremme vowed such power would be hers, and perhaps Hewards' Mystical Organ, if that really was what her slave had seen, would bring it to her. She'd need someone to watch them that could actually influence more than just the stupid little elf girl. She saw one of her serving maids and shouted, "Come here, fool!" The girl hurried towards her. Except for pointed canine teeth, small horns on her head, and little bat-like wings, she looked like a normal human girl with flaming red hair and piercing green eyes. She wore a wide leather collar, gold cups for a top, and a golden belt with blood red silk hanging from it in front and behind. The girl held up a crystal goblet. Oh yes, she brought Rehnaremme wine, and, when it was available, which it never seemed to be often enough, blood.

Rehnaremme took the goblet and drank. Wine. Not what she really wanted. She raised one hand and slapped the girl's face. She didn't respond. Demons were taught not to complain. Those that didn't learn ended up food for those that did. It wasn't her fault, of course, that Rehnaremme's favorite drink wasn't available to her. But teaching those beneath you to know their place was the way things were done in the Abyss. Besides, for what she wanted, it might work better if the girl were a little beaten up. Not too much. Such creatures depended on their beauty to get souls for their masters, and that required beatings that wouldn't leave easily noticed scars.

"I have a special assignment for you, girl," Rehnaremme said, placing a sharply nailed finger under the girl's chin and forcing her to look up at her.

"I look forward to serving you, my mistress," the girl said.

"You are but a half demon, yes?" the snake woman demanded. "An alu-demon."

"I am," the girl agreed.

"Then shut your pretty mouth before I close it for you," Rehnaremme said. "And listen!"

Back on the world of Oerth, Greptog took on his toad form and hopped back to wait for Penny. He hated pretending to be a creature even lowlier than he already was, but he hoped to improve his lot soon. He didn't know what the organ was, but perhaps he could use its power for himself.

…

Prudence stopped and sat down on a rock to rest. The trail to Midnight Mountain was rougher and more uphill than she'd expected. She was glad she'd found those shoes. She was sure her feet would have been cut to ribbons by now if she'd been barefoot. Still, she took the shoes off and rubbed her sore feet. The rain had turned the ground to mud, and the pretty shoes she'd found weren't so pretty anymore. She hoped she wasn't wasting her time. She wouldn't want to make the long trip back. Especially since she had no place to go back to.

She looked up at Midnight Mountain, which finally seemed a lot closer. She'd walked for such a long time, only to see it seemed no nearer, that she'd started to wonder if it was somehow magically moving away from her, or perhaps nothing more than an illusion.

"Wish I had some food to take with me," she said to herself as her skinny stomach rumbled. Well, maybe Old Hepzibah would feed her if she did some chores for her. Surely an old woman living alone needed someone to carry things about and pick herbs and whatever else she grew. Prudence knew the woman had to grow vegetables, for she'd never seen her buy any at the marketplace.

The rain had stopped awhile ago, although the black clouds over Midnight Mountain told her she was heading right into a storm. She shivered as she saw a flashing light in one cloud. Lightning. Prudence had once seen someone, not that far from her, struck by lightning. She had smelled something burning, and realized it was human flesh, and hurried away, seeking shelter. She hoped she'd be able to find Old Hepzibah's home, whether a tumbledown old shack or a cave in the mountain itself, before the storm broke. She shivered again as a cold breeze blew across her legs. She put the shoes back on, and, with a sigh, started walking again.

Suddenly she tripped over a rock and fell face first into a big mud puddle with a loud splash. She sat up and tried to rub the mud off her face. She couldn't tell, but she actually smeared it all over her face. She stood up and gasped, dropping down to one knee. Her ankle hurt! Had she twisted it? She looked up at Midnight Mountain. Still such a long way to go, and now she couldn't walk! She looked about her. It was getting very dark. Soon she wouldn't be able to see. And then…then the wild animals would come out! She whimpered, placing her chin on her knee. She had a mental image of someone passing through and finding a little pile of bones in a threadbare dress and muddy shoes.

Prudence thought she couldn't possibly feel any more miserable than she did. Then it started to rain again.

…

The priest had written down every note Linda had played, although the "music," if it could be called that, was the strangest racket he'd ever heard . He hadn't seen any results, except for the room growing hot. Could he have been wrong? Could the organ be a fraud? He should have watched her carefully. Seen if anything else happened to her. Wait. Hadn't she been flexing her hands when she left? As if they were sore or numb. And she'd kept sniffing the air. As if she smelled something odd. But what did that mean? He had hoped she would cause it to manifest its powers, but all it seemed to do was cause annoying effects, most of them directed towards her. He'd have to be careful about that. Well, at least he knew what keys she had touched and which she had not. Surely whatever curses were in the machine, she had brought them down upon herself, and he should be relatively safe if he carefully avoided repeating her errors.

The priest walked through his private quarters. Once it had been richly furnished, but they'd have to give up so much to taxes and upkeep. The worship of Pelor had truly fallen upon hard times. He had hoped the organ's power would help bring them back to their old greatness. If they could impress the upstarts and rogues with the strength of the sun, surely more would turn towards his brightness, and away from that Cuthbert and Fharlanghn and Istus. And Pholtus, whose worshippers called him the light, when the light of the sun was greater than any light they could call upon!

The old man shook his head. He hated to use children to test the organ, the risks were great, but someone had to do it, and he couldn't risk the lesser priests that lived here. After all, they were believers in Pelor's might, while the strangers were heathens!

It seemed quite unlikely he could persuade the girl to play again. She had seemed on the verge of hysteria. Silly things, females. He had never understood them. They complained about interesting and whined incessantly about their feelings and how men did not understand them. Because they made no sense!

Wait. Hadn't the loud mouthed boy said he could play an instrument? What was it? A bassoon? Well, a wood instrument was scarcely the same thing, but perhaps he could come up with something. Yes. He called a lesser priest and instructed him to fetch the rude one. There was no need in being more specific. Everyone in the temple had heard his complaints by now.

...

Penny didn't use a second wind because that rule was made for Fourth Edition, and this is mostly a First and Second Edition story. So none of the characters get a second wind. If they make a mistake they'll pay for it.

The magic item Linda was playing was Heward's Mystical Organ, a major artifact of great power. Playing it causes strange effects, some good, some bad, and some very very bad. What effects happened to Linda? Well, the room became 60 degrees hotter for an hour, and it took away her sense of smell for awhile. What else? Wait and see! ;D