Monster Party Book 6: Only mortal trust or faerie dust….
Chapter Seven: Bricks and mortar will not stay, will not stay, will not stay,
"Well here we are, once we walk through this portal we can begin our long journey into the Shadow Rift. If any of you start to feel like you're fading away let me know!" Alexander Diamondclaw insisted before he took one slow careful step toward the cave's mouth that Maeve's map had indicated.
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"Boss, I don't feel like I'm fading away, but afraid, very, very, afraid, can we go home…? Or baring that, at least back to Tepest?" Cal Wright whimpered.
He wasn't the only one from whom whimpering sounds were emerging at the moment either.
It was as if they had just awakened from a dream. One moment they'd been in Tepest, and now the group suddenly found themselves somewhere else completely.
At their back a sheer cliff rose high into the sky before vanishing into a boiling see of dark black clouds with no sign of a moon.
Devi was holding a lit lantern but she couldn't ever remember getting one out, let alone igniting it.
Nor was that the only change that had come across the group.
Alexander's blond hair was now a glistening silver color and cascaded down his back, now far longer and more unkempt.
Florence Bastien's skin was no longer a normal pinkish hue, instead it had a strange green tint. She was no longer bald either, instead she had blond hair of a strangely straw like texture.
Mirri Catwarrior's own hair now sported a white streak running down the middle, while her skin had become unnaturally pale and two long pointed ears jutted out from under her hair.
James Firecat had somehow misplaced his hat entirely and two distinctly feline ears grew from the top of his head. Tied to his belt by knots made of their own tales were half a dozen squealing rats.
Devi Skye's hair had become blue and her ears much like Mirri's were now pointed.
Callan Wright alone was unchanged… mostly.
"Why am I wearing a purple tie?" The alchemist couldn't help but reflect as he examined his neck-wear more closely.
This particular question fell upon deaf ears as the group considered their more dramatic changes.
"These aren't right!" Mirri huffed as she felt out the size and shape of her ears.
As she did so, she pulled a little too hard on her right ear and it slid off, or at least a portion of it did. She was left holding a what seemed to be a prosthetic ear attachment designed to make it look more elfin in nature.
"Well that's a relief." She sighed upon the discovery.
"They were probably my idea and Cal's handiwork. If he could create fake ears to help make Devi look human, he could probably do the same to help you look more like an Arak." The now silver haired man reflected.
"She's got the right skin tone for it, and her hair is just about long enough to pass for a dancing woman." Devi admitted as Mirri's strangely pale skin was more or less a perfect match for that of the muryan who had attacked Briggdarrow.
"If anyone tries to strike up a conversation with you, just keep talking about how much you like to fight and or dance." Florence advised.
"Can't imagine how I'll pull that off..." Mirri falsely demurred, before flashing a smile that showed very sharp incisor teeth.
"Did you manage to keep a map of wherever we just came from?" James inquired, sliding up close to Devi.
"Maps win more wars than generals. If we don't have one already I always make a new one." Devi insisted as she reached into her bag of holding and thought about what she needed.
A moment later she pulled out a map of "fracture" that they had just spent… some unknown amount of time passing through, even if they had no memory of the fact.
She was able to give it only a solitary glance before the ink started to twist and writhe like a serpent. Soon the black lines bore no resemblance at all to geographic features and instead became a series of letters.
"B-E-T-T-E-R-L-U-C-K-N-E-X-T-T-I-M-E." James read aloud, before even that semblance of order vanished and the ink slid off the page completely, spilling upon the ground creating a small onyx puddle.
"The only thing worse than unbeatable magic is magic that knows its unbeatable." Cal moaned.
"So it seems that our next journey through the fracture is likely to an equally unforgettable experience, except for the part where we all magically forget it. How is our map of the Shadow Rift doing?" Alexander pressed.
Devi produced another map and luckily the ink that had gone into producing this one behaved properly. Oriented with the knowledge of which way lead to Tepest it was not terribly hard to figure out roughly where they had emerged into the Shadow Rift.
"We're here, and ahead of us if we go west is the North Ford over something called Loch Lenore. A short way further west seems to be some kind of road, and if we follow its curving path southish we'll wind up at the South Ford. Straight south west of that ford is the Malachite Palace." Devi explained to the group.
"That sounds simple enough, and here I thought this was going to be a challenge." Mirri huffed crossing her arms.
"If we can infiltrate the palace and find the Crown of Arak, then we need to go south east along the Falling River, which doesn't seem to have any fords across it. Hopefully we can avoid something called the "Biting Tarn" and "Grimfey Flow" though we have to cross the Night Rush and make it into the Stowdowns.
That done, we'll have to deal with the Darkenheights to reach the Obsidian Gate, dispose of the crown, and probably repeat the entire process all over again in reverse to get back to Tepest." Devi added.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and after we dispose of the crown, the mists will manage to sweep us up and take us somewhere else entirely." Cal grumbled, having a distinct impression that anywhere else would inevitably be better than here.
"Don't forget, while we can be relatively sure that east is behind us at the moment, with no sun to go by telling directions might get a little tricky." Alexander worried.
"That problem I do have a solution to Boss!" Cal chimed in with unexpected optomisim.
The Lamordian reached into Devi's bag of holding and produced a small cup, a canteen, a wooden cork, and a piece of rock about the size of standard boot nail. He filled up the cup, jammed the rock into the cork, and dropped both into the water.
A few moments later the rock began to slowly but steadily swing about until it pointed quite firmly to the group's right. Cal then plucked it out, twisted it around, and dropped it back in so they could be certain. Sure enough, just as before the stone turned until it yet again pointed to the group's right.
"Lamordian sailors came up with these things, a piece loadstone floating in any liquid will always point north. You're welcome." He declared with no small amount of pride.
"Well, if we can at least be relatively sure of our bearings then lets march. We don't accomplish anything just standing around." Alexander insisted.
"Yes, the sooner we're done with this place the better." Florence reflected casting a wearily glance upwards.
There was no trace a sun in that dark sky, and somehow she already knew that it would not matter how long they spent n the Shadow Rift, the sun's rays would never find them here.
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The lack of any sort of visible astrological features in the Shadow Rift's sky meant that it was impossible to tell time time by most of the more traditional means.
You could in theory count out the seconds, but such a process would surely drive a man to madness even quicker than the land's strange nature.
Callan Wright's timepiece had been wound down completely when they'd first arrived, but a few quick turns had started it up again. After giving it a thorough and complete servicing, the alchemist had used some string to affix it around his throat where it would serve as a makeshift necklace.
Though Callan Wright had no great love for or belief in any particular god or pantheon, he found something almost supernaturally comforting about its constant ticking. It meant that even here, in a land where magic seemed to pervade the very air, the power of science and mechanisms could still prevail.
The terrain they traveled across was a mostly flat plain at first, not too dissimilar from many other places they had journeyed across in other realms. In the Shadow Rift however nothing was quite how it looked: blades of grass seemed to wave back and forth at the behest of some sort of unseen force, the branches of every single tree they saw danced in a wind that wasn't present.
At one point James' keen eyes managed to pick up the sight (though the sound carried well enough for everyone's ears) of a group of rocks that appeared to be "avalanching" across perfectly level ground. Luckily group was already clear of their path and the stones showed no inclination to change course.
By some strange luck the group managed to make it all the way to the North Ford without encountering any sentient residents of the Shadow Rift.
From somewhere in the dimly lit area ahead it was possible to hear the musical sound of fast-moving water dancing over stones. Not long after came the fresh, cool smell of a rolling stream washed over them, and the air began to carry drifting particles of spray.
In short order they came upon the sight of a stout stone bridge stretching across a wide expanse of water. Coils of ivy like plants with large bulbs entwined the bridges supports. The beautiful flowers glowed with a delicate green light, throwing a steady radiance upon the scene and gave the entire area an entrancing if eerier appearance.
Over the loudly rushing water they could also hear the sounds of hammering. From even further off came the strains of lilting, cheerful tune.
"Arak?" Alexander asked Mirri, referring to both the Shadow Rift's occupants and the language that they spoke.
"Got it in one." The dark haired woman agreed.
"Lets keeps moving before they summon more muyran, assuming they aren't dancing men themselves. Whatever they are, there isn't any sunlight down here, so we can't truly deal with any of the Arak who attack us." The dryad warned him.
Alexander shook his head slowly glancing at the gemstone ring he was still wearing over the black glove on his right hand.
"We're strangers in a strange land Florence, more so than usual. If we can find some of Maeve's supporters they might be able to warn us about exactly how Loht runs things down here." He pointed out, before starting to walk down the embankment towards the sounds' source.
The other five followed him warily, hands tight on weapons and Cal starting to ponder what sort of bullet might be best suited for killing an Arak.
Underneath the bridge they discovered several short stout figures working on its supports. The albino-white skin of these small engineers deeply contrasted with their deep black eyes and hair. Each one sported a long ponytail that hung down their backs and swished like a tail as they worked.
They continued to talk amongst themselves in a language only Mirri could follow, their voices sounding like a combination of nickering and snorting. Still, even before she translated it was obvious from their body language alone that they were extremely frustrated with the stonework they were attending to.
"Do you speak Mordentish?" Mirri called out to them in Arak, though her version the tongue was noticeably more of a whispered hiss than their own loud exclamations.
One of the workers turned in Mirri's direction and tilted his head to the side slightly, clearly having trouble believing what he was seeing. Then he shrugged his shoulders and swung his head back to the bridge grumbling a response in Arak.
"That was 'I don't even know what the name of that mortal tongue means' I believe." Mirri translated.
Undeterred she made a second attempt at reaching out to the miniscule builders.
"What mortal tongues are you familiar with?" She pressed.
"This one." Grunted one of the black haired Arak in accented but understandable Balook.
"What's wrong with the bridge?" Cal called out in that language.
"What's wrong with it? What's right with it at this point! A group of Muryan leading a party of newly transcended to the Malachite Palace decided that it wasn't enough to simply cross a bridge like it was meant to be crossed! No, they had to dance across it, and get all their charges to dance also! They all kept perfect time, which meant they did a perfectly good job wrecking a bridge that shouldn't have needed serious repairs for another few decades at least!" One of the builders grumbled.
The workmen seemed strangely at ease with being questioned by someone who was clearly mortal.
"Oh you mean because their dancing created a mechanical resonance effect?" Cal eagerly pointed out.
One of the black haired pale skinned fey shook his head mournfully.
"Well, yes! You know about mechanical resonance?" The black haired builder asked eagerly.
"Of course I know about mechanical resonance, you wouldn't believe how many of my homelands mechanical golems have been undone by it." Cal declared proudly.
"Look right now I could care less about the hows and whys where you came by that knowledge. What matters right now is that they nearly wrecked the bridge, if any more serious weight gets put on it the entire thing will come down! We're trying to replace the keystone but when the thing was originally built we had plenty of transcended on hand to work with. They're not as good at bridge building as we are, but they are, well… tall." He eventually admitted.
As if to drive the point home, a trio of workers began to try and stack themselves one on top of the other in an attempt to reach the bridge's keystone which was positioned slightly over six feet off the ground. The living tower ended up toppling over almost as soon as it was erected, suggesting the black haired builders worked better with stone than flesh.
"If you need someone tall and strong to hold onto something then Boss can handle it." Cal offered.
"Beta are you telling me what to do?" Alexander sarcastically asked.
"If we want any chance of getting… where we're going we need to cross this bridge. Not having the bridge collapse under us is an important part of crossing it. You're taller and stronger than me, so you're the best choice to help hold their keystone." Callan Wright insisted, laying out his train of logic one step at a time.
The workman who seemed to be in charge took a step back and raised his hands so as to frame Alexander and estimate his height.
"Well if he was any taller he'd probably bump his head on the keystone. Think he'll be strong enough?" The workman inquired cheerily.
"No one is stronger than him." Mirri declared proudly.
Seeing the pale skinned workers' imploring looks Alexander sighed and came forward to help.
As he approached them, he took a moment to surreptitiously flash Maeve's ring in their direction, but none of the black haired Arak reacted to it in the slightest.
For roughly four full minutes he held a new keystone in place as the black haired workmen lashed still more ropes, inserted other stones and applied adhesive chemicals of some sort or another.
"That should do it!" Their leader eventually cried out happily.
Beads of sweat were swept from damp brows and Alexander Diamondclaw finally allowed himself to relax.
"Good job standing still tall one!" One of the workmen 'congratulated' Alexander before turning their attention to a collection of nearby barrels.
At first glance one might have assumed these barrels to have been filled with pitch or other building materials, but given how the workmen began to eagerly pour their contents into stone mugs and start quaffing, such was clearly not the case.
"Help yourself." Their leader declared jovially as he pressed an entire keg of the stuff into Alexander's hands.
The silver haired man took a very long look at the keg, his nostrils flaring, and judging by the smell coming from the other newly opened kegs, he knew in his heart of hearts that it was unquestionably be a superb vintage.
It would be so superb that he'd never be able to drink another human made vintage, and possibly not even eat human food again either.
If his recent experience with Queen Maeve had done only one thing, it was to prove just how correct the stories were about the wisdom of not accepting food offered to you by the Arak.
"I don't drink." Alexander insisted, passing the keg back with a pained look on his face.
"No time like the present to start!" One of the workmen encouraged him.
"I don't drink." Alexander repeated stoically, with a look in his one eye that suggested he was heavily tempted to start bashing his head against the newly strengthened bridge's supports.
"If you want to thank us, just don't tell anybody we passed this way." The green eyed man insisted.
"Oh like we'd want you to talk to muryan after the mess they made of our bridge!" The worker's leader scoffed.
With the bridge properly repaired the group was able to pass over it and press further into the Shadow Rift.
Well most members of the group.
"Running water… I really hate running water..." Mirri Catwarrior moaned as she sunk to her knees, unable to force her body across the bridge.
No sooner had she fallen victim to the traditional vampiric weakness however than did James Firecat step in.
With one smooth motion he bent down and swept Mirri's limp body onto his shoulders.
This done, he proceeded to carry her across the bridge with a look of considerable satisfaction on his face.
"Well they weren't so bad." Cal reflected.
"Apart for how they used us for manual labor and wanted to enslave Alexander for good..." Florence countered.
End Chapter.
AN: Sorry for the delay of this chapter got caught up in playing Blood Bowl 2, but my Chaos team is coming along well!
Mechanical resonance is a real thing, and It is hwy in real life soldiers are supposed to stop marching in formation when they cross a bridge for fear of causing it collapse with their perfectly matching footfalls.
Alex is completely correct in that if you take the beer offered to you by the Brag (the dwarf like Arak working on the bridge) then it will prove to be faerie food, and once you've eaten faerie food it is the only kind of food you can possibly ever draw sustenance from, dooming you to a life of either subservience to or directly stealing from the Arak, probably inevitably leading to you being turned into a changeling.
There really is a lot of that going around in this adventure so Alex is lucky that he's very keen on the subject of not eating food offered to you by magical creatures.
The fracture works more or less as depicted in the story. It will take you from Tepest to the Shadow Rift, but it will also erase your memory of journey there, and any maps you try to make of it will effectively self destruct.
Stuff will happen to you, and you'll survive… but even Arak don't know exactly what going through it is like.
Also feel free to celebrate because our protagonists are now finally back to looking "normal" and James was evidently lucky enough to pick up a collection of rats in the fracture, thus I won't ever need to comment on what he's eating down here (not that the Shadow Rift doesn't have rodents to hunt, it's just a fair number of them may turn out to be Arak of the Fir Breed who will be understandably upset over the matter and promptly start calling down muryan on the mortal who attacked them.
Finally, Cal's makeshift process for generating a compass is entirely correct. At least as "correct" as any compass can be in Ravenloft when there's no actual magnetic north pole, and the world is by all rights flat rather than a proper sphere, but the Dark Powers make arrangements so that compasses work normally and reliably.