Chapter 8 – Splitting Up
The group took a small break while Selth tended to Rogar's wounds. The priest knelt by the paladin's side and called out prayers of healing. Rogar gained enough strength to walk out of the arena under his own power. He sat down on a piece of a crumbled column and tried to regain the rest of his strength and mana.
"We really need to keep moving" Shiner looked nervously around the courtyard. "Another ogre patrol could come by at any minute."
"I'm fine." Rogar stood up slowly, "We can move on." He whispered another prayer and healed the rest of his wounds.
The adventurers gathered up their gear and made their way to the north end of the courtyard. An enormous door stood in front of them, and two smaller normal sized doors were to the left and right of it. They tried to open the smaller doors but they were locked.
"Nobody's home. Anyone have a key?" Rose asked sarcastically.
"I do." Shiner pulled her lock picking tools from her belt and went to work on the smaller door to the right. She unlocked the door and pushed it open. Inside was a small hallway with a shimmering blue portal at the end. Thru the portal they could see what appeared to be another large courtyard.
"Ladies first." Jaye held his hand out, inviting the party to step through the portal. Rosefire walked up and put her hand on the flickering light. Slowly the glow of the portal crawled up her arm and began to wash over her body. The portal swallowed her like a wave and she disappeared. Instantly the portal returned to its previous calm state.
Shauna walked through the portal next, followed by Shiner. Loderr walked up to the portal, but Ivan cowered behind him unsure whether he wanted to touch the strange light. "Come on ye worthless pile of fur!" Loderr yelled back at the animal. "What a sissy! He'll charge a whole gang of ogres, but he shies away from a silly light!" The Dwarf just shook his head and stepped into the portal. His bear reluctantly followed.
"Selth, you next." Rogar motioned for him to enter. The priest approached the portal and placed his hand in. The elf disappeared into the portal the same as the others before him but something different happened this time. After Selth went through, the energy of the portal faded and seemed to burn out. The adventurers couldn't see through the portal anymore into the courtyard beyond.
"What the Hell?" Jaye stuck his hand into the portal but nothing happened. He jumped into it, throwing his whole body through the portal, but he only found himself standing on the other side. "What do we do now?"
"I have no idea." Rogar looked around, at a loss for what to do next.
"Perhaps there is another portal through the other door." Sildor suggested.
"Good thinking." Rogar led the remaining adventurers to the smaller door to the left of the giant door. This door was locked as well. "Great, it's locked. And our Rogue is on the other side of that damn portal. Any ideas?"
"Step aside!" Ulfgar drew his axe from his back and took a huge swing at the door. The massive blade struck the door and bounced off, knocking the dwarf off his feet. The door wasn't even scratched.
"You can forget about that." Lien helped Ulfgar to his feet. "These doors are magically protected. Our only option is too look for another way in."
"She's probably right." Rogar agreed. "Let's check the other sides of the courtyard." The adventurers made their way to the western side of the courtyard, making sure not to cross paths with any of the Ogres or wild dogs patrolling the area. They found the same set of doors on the west side. There was a huge door in the middle, with two locked doors to the left and right of it.
"Let me try something." Lien said as she reached into her robes and pulled out an ivory colored key.
"A key?" Jaye cried. "You've had a key this whole time? When did you plan on sharing that bit of information?"
"Well, I'm not entirely sure it's going to work." Lien explained. "I found it the last time I was here with another party, but I've never tried to use it. I can't say for sure what door it belongs to."
The group held their breath as Lien slipped the key into the lock and turned it. They all breathed a sigh of relief as they heard the familiar click of a lock opening. Behind the door they found another portal like the one to the north – this one still appeared to have it's energy.
"Looks like we've found our way in!" said Rogar. "Let's go find the others."
* * * * *
Buckalter watched from the shadows as his brother led the remaining adventurers into the west wing of Dire Maul. It had to be fate that brought them all together at this place and this point in time. Buck knew he would soon taste revenge, and it would be sweet.
It hadn't taken Buck long to extract the information he needed from Scholar Runethorn back in Feathermoon Stronghold. The night elf had been reluctant to share any information regarding the adventurers she hired to complete her quest. But a succubus minion can sometimes be very persuading.
Buck managed to catch up with the group and follow behind as they ventured into the ruins. He watched as they fought with the guards at the entrance. And he watched with some amusement as his brother took a thorough beating at the hands of the orc chieftain. He especially enjoyed the look of confusion on their faces as the portal to the north wing flickered out, leaving half the party stranded outside. Apparently they weren't familiar with the magic that controlled this place. Fortunately for Buck, he was. And he knew exactly where they would eventually find one another – in the Eldre'Thalas library. That was surely where Lien would be taking the Libram - right back to Lydros.
How foolish was this mage? Did she honestly believe that Lydros intended to share the power of the Libram with her? Was she blind? Of course Buck knew Lydros had no such intentions. As soon as Lien turned over the Libram to Lydros, he would kill her. Of that much Buckalter was certain. Of course Rogar and the rest of his noble band of mercenaries would avenge the poor woman's death. And after Lydros finished killing the lot of them Buckalter would be able to overtake the weakened night elf and claim the Libram for himself.
But Buckalter would have to insure that Lydros did not kill Rogar. No, that honor would belong to Buckalter himself. He wanted to see the fear and panic in his brother's eyes as he drained the last essence of his soul from his body.
But for now Buck would watch and wait.
* * * * *
"Where are the others?" Shauna asked.
"I'm not sure. They should have made it through by now." Shiner seemed worried as well. "I'll go back through and look for them." She touched the portal, expecting to be taken back to the main courtyard, but nothing happened. "What's going on?"
"That's not good." Rosefire walked up to the portal and touched it herself, but the outcome was no different. The portal stood motionless. "Well, I guess we can assume that if we can't get out the others can't get in."
"So much for strength in numbers." Shiner grumbled under her breath. She had hoped they would be able to overpower whatever they encountered here with brute strength. But with the loss of half their party they would have to be much more careful. "Well, Lien mentioned a library. Let's see if we can't find that."
The tiny gnome led the party forward toward a large courtyard. Groups of ogres patrolled the perimeter with packs of dogs. A large ramp led down to the middle of a sunken courtyard about twenty feet lower than the perimeter. Old, broken columns lined the edges between the perimeter and the sunken area. To the west of this courtyard were three large arches which seemed to lead to yet another courtyard.
"What was this city?" Loderr wondered out loud. "I can't imagine why anyone would want so much wide open space!"
"The ancient elves used this city for epic battles." Selth explained. "They would summon horrible creatures from other dimensions and fight using spells and magic."
"Bah!" Loderr grumbled. "Give me a fine dwarven axe and a shotgun over all that spell casting mumbo-jumbo any day 'o the week!"
"Quiet!" Shiner whispered as she watched the ogres milling about the area. She noticed an ogre with two dogs patrolling in their direction. "Stand back. I'm going to draw this guy in so we have some room to pass." As the ogre drew closer Shiner pulled three tiny daggers from a pouch on her belt. She waited for the ogre to wander past the group and then threw one of the daggers at him. Spinning end over end the dagger found its mark with deadly accuracy, digging deep into the ogre's leg. The ogre howled in pain and turned to find his attacker. He spotted Shiner standing at the entrance to the courtyard and began to run for her. Shiner quickly threw the other two daggers into the ogre's legs, slowing his charge.
The wild dogs patrolling with the ogre also ran to join the attack. Shauna called out a spell and blasted the dogs with a wave of cold, freezing them in their tracks. She followed up with a deadly fireball, and engulfed the dogs in flame.
The rest of the group joined the fight and overpowered the ogre. Rosefire kept the ogre's attention with jabs and thrusts from her sword while Shauna blasted him with magic. Loderr pelted the ogre with shots from his rifle, and Ivan finished off the charred and wounded dogs.
The group continued around the perimeter of the courtyard, sneaking past whatever ogres they could, and fighting the ones they couldn't. Finally they had cleared enough of a path to make their way to the ramp leading down into the center of the courtyard. As they descended into the inner courtyard they could see it was filled with packs of wild dogs. A large group of four ogres sat around a bonfire, cooking meat and drinking beer. Occasionally a dog would wander up to the ogres, trying to steal a morsel of the meat, only to be swatted away. Patrolling on the opposite side of the sunken area was an unusually large ogre. He was wearing more armor than the other ogres, and Shiner noticed a key ring hanging from his belt.
"That one." Shiner pointed at him. "That's the ogre we've got to take down."
"You sure about that Shiner?" Rose questioned. "I don't even think we need to mess with this stuff down here. We can go back up the ramp and head to the courtyard to the west."
"No, look at the key ring on his belt. Those might come in handy later if we find a door I can't unlock."
"I thought there wasn't a door in Azeroth ye couldn't unlock!" Loderr shot the gnome a sarcastic smile.
"There's not." Shiner smiled back, "As long as I've got the key! We need to clear a path to that guard." The group moved against the wall of the inner courtyard and crept around toward the first pack of dogs. Carefully they killed as many of the dogs as they could until nothing stood between them and the guard.
"Okay," Shiner whispered, "here's the plan. I'll sneak behind him and wait for Loderr's signal. Loderr once I'm in place and everyone's ready you send Ivan after him and fire a couple shots. The rest of you know what to do." The group nodded in agreement.
Shiner slipped into the shadows and began to creep behind the ogre. Loderr squinted to try to keep sight of the tiny gnome. "Damned if she doesn't just disappear into thin air!" the dwarf complained, "Rose, can you see where she is?"
"Yeah, give her a minute, she's not quite in position yet." Rose watched as Shiner darted behind a chunk of stone that had fallen from one of the columns lining the courtyard.
Without warning the ogre turned and stared right in Shiner's direction. Focused on where her next move would be, Shiner didn't even notice that the ogre had spotted her. "Loderr! Quick! Fire!" Rose shouted the one word commands at the dwarf in a panic and rushed toward the Ogre.
"Aww Blazes!" Loderr fumbled to pull back the hammer of his shotgun and fired off two quick blasts from the hip without even aiming. "Go get him, ye worthless pile 'o fur!" he yelled at his bear.
The ogre lifted an enormous club over his head and brought it crashing down toward Shiner. She didn't see the swing coming until it was too late. Shiner attempted to dodge away from the powerful blow, but the club struck her on top of the head with crushing force. Shiner dropped to the ground stunned and near death.
Rose drew her sword as she charged the ogre and swung for his side. Her blow glanced off the ogre's chain mail armor but managed to divert his attention from Shiner for a brief moment. The ogre turned toward Rose and with a sweeping motion slammed his club into the paladin, catching her off balance and throwing her against the wall of the courtyard. Turning back to Shiner the ogre drew back for one final swing that would end the poor gnome. Just as the ogre's weapon came down on Shiner for the killing blow, a halo of light formed around her body absorbing all the damage of the attack.
Confused, the ogre stared at his club wondering how he had managed to miss squashing this annoying little pest. Where was all the blood and guts? He was clearly disappointed.
"Nice save." Shauna glanced at Selth. The priest nodded and began chanting the words to a healing prayer for Shiner. Shauna began casting a spell of her own and unleashed a flurry of magical blasts at the ogre. By now Ivan had reached the ogre and sunk his massive jaws deep into the tough flesh of one of the ogre's legs.
The tide of the fight turned and the party now had the upper hand on its opponent. Rose rejoined the fight and swung again at the ogre, this time landing a blow between the seems of the chain mail armor and burying her blade deep into the ogre's back. He roared in pain as Loderr finished the kill with a well aimed shot between the eyes. The courtyard shook as the gigantic ogre crashed to the ground.
Rose helped Shiner to her feet, her head still swimming from the after effects of Selth's healing spell. "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind." Shiner said.
"Well, somehow that ogre spotted you. You must be losing your touch in your old age!" Rose replied.
"I think this is what ye wanted?" Loderr reached out his hand and held up a key ring covered in blood.
"Thanks." Shiner took the key ring with a look of disgust. She pulled a flask of water from a pouch on her belt and rinsed the blood off the keys. "Well, we should get moving before someone notices our handy work."
"I think I'm gonna take this club." Loderr pried the Ogre's weapon from his dead hand and inspected it closer.
"Ha! You'll barely be able to lift that…" Rose began to tease the dwarf then realized not only was he lifting it, but he was taking practice swings! Granted, they were sloppy practice swings - the dwarf practically took Selth's head off - but Rose was amazed Loderr even had the strength to pick up the weapon. "Let me see that!"
"Here, you can have it." Loderr tossed the club to Rose. "Never was good with those things anyway."
Rose was shocked at how light the enormous club felt in her hand. "This has to have magical properties. This club is light as a feather."
"Here." Selth held out his hand and Rose gave him the weapon. Selth could immediately feel the magic of the weapon. "Indeed, it does contain a magical essence. If no one intends to keep this weapon I can destroy it and salvage the essence used to enchant it."
"Sounds good to me." Shiner said. Selth gabbed the club and began to chant as he slid both hands up and down the weapon. The club began to glow until it was a nothing but an oblong ball of light. With a flash the club disappeared and Selth opened his fist revealing a large yellow shard in his palm.
"The weapon contained quite a bit of magic." He replied. "I can use this to enchant one of your weapons if you like."
"Later." Shiner said. "We need to keep moving."
"Very well." Selth slipped the shard into his pack. The group gathered the rest of their belongings and continued to the west.