"Well, that's done it," Deft said. "Do we go back or do we go forward?"
"Forward," the cleric snarled. "The bard is right. If we are outnumbered, we can retreat. Hopefully, if we have to fight these lizards, they will flee once we cut a few of them down."
The party prepared for a fight, and hurried downstream, stepping out into the cavern. They couldn't see further than forty feet into the darkness. Somewhere further on, they heard the yipping of many kobolds.
"This might not be good," Deft muttered.
"Just keep moving," Ganth snarled.
They marched forward, Deft and Ganth in the lead, Twix and Gareth behind, and Runt and Bloom in the rear. The cave ran for ten yards south, and two tunnels branched off it to the right and the left. The yipping was coming from the right.
"Should we try to move around them? Take the left tunnel?" Bloom asked.
"Not yet," said Ganth. "If there are not too many to fight, we may be able to take a kobold prisoner and get him to show us the way out."
"If there is one," Bloom said.
The yipping of the kobolds suddenly stopped.
"Are they gone?" Deft wondered.
The dwarf snorted. "Not likely. They are waiting to ambush us. Be wary."
They took the right-hand passage, watching the walls and ceilings. Bloom and Ganth took the lead, checking for traps. The going was slow, but after twenty yards, they saw another tunnel opening into the passage from the left. Further ahead, about thirty yards away, they noticed dull red light flickering ahead of them. They also felt the temperature rise inside the corridor.
The passage widened out, and they found themselves in a large cavern that was split by a twenty foot wide crevasse, with three crude stone bridges spanning it. The light and the heat were coming from the crevasse.
They approached cautiously. On the far side of the cave, they could see that a tunnel led out of its southwestern edge.
They glanced down into the crevasse. A hundred yards below, a river of molten lava flowed sluggishly across the floor of the chasm, from east to west. The temperature in the cave was nearly unbearable.
"That explains the steam vents topside," said Ganth. "The Hill is an active volcano."
They all eyed the crude bridges. They were only three feet wide at the most.
"Wow!" Twix cried. "That lava is amazing! Look at it glow! I'll bet if I threw something down there, the heat would vaporize it! Watch! I'll throw some iron rations..."
The dwarf cut him off. "We do not have time for shenanigans. Let us cross this chasm and continue on our way."
"I was hoping you wouldn't say that," Deft grinned weakly. The dwarf noticed he was shaking.
"What is the matter, Bladehaft? Are you afraid of heights?"
"Not so much the height, but the fall from the height is what worries me."
"The bridges seem wide and sturdy enough. The lava below seems stable. There is nothing to fear."
The fighter waved the dwarf on. "Then by all means, you can go first."
They decided to cross using all three bridges, two people per bridge, just in case they weren't as stable as the dwarf thought. Twix and Deft took the one in the middle, Ganth and Gareth the one on the right, and Bloom and Runt the one to the left.
The going was slow. No one wanted to make a misstep and fall. The heat from below blasted up at them like a dwarfish furnace. They all started sweating profusely.
Even though it was only a twenty foot journey, Deft shook the entire way, trying to keep his eyes on his footing and ignore the three hundred foot drop into the searing lava below. They had all just neared the edge of the bridges, when a hidden door suddenly popped open in the rock face near the left-hand bridge. Kobolds poured out, yipping and brandishing their spears and swords.
Here was the ambush, Deft thought. He also thought how convenient it was for the kobolds that they were still standing on the bridges.
By the time the last kobold darted out of the secret door, there were more than two dozen of them. They ran to the edge of the crevasse, and let loose with a volley of spears.
"Duck!" Ganth yelled, and they all dropped to the ground, clutching their heads. Spears whistled overhead, some striking the bridge, most of them missing their marks completely and falling down into the crevasse. Twix and Bloom cried out in pain, they had both been grazed.
"Run!" The cleric yelled, and they all got to their feet and ran for their lives. Those few seconds were the most terrifying seconds Deft had ever experienced. Here he was, running across a narrow stone bridge over a river of lava, with spears flying at his back from behind.
He reached the end of the bridge, and would have blown a sigh of relief. But the kobolds weren't content with merely chasing the intruders away. Yipping in their native tongue, they came charging across the bridges after them.
Deft, Bloom, and Runt soon outdistanced the dwarfs and the bard, who lagged behind due to their short legs. They came out into the river cavern, and Deft continued running straight, parallel to the rear wall of the cave. They entered the other passage, their legs pumping, even though none of them had any idea where this tunnel led.
Twix glanced behind to see the kobolds surging behind them. Kobolds were swift runners, despite their small stature. They were slowly gaining, and would soon overtake the bard and the dwarfs.
"Help us!" Twix cried. "They're overtaking us!"
Deft glanced back. He knew if he stopped to pick one of them up, he would never escape the kobolds, as the weight of bard or dwarf would weigh him down.
The fighter realized then that they couldn't all escape. If the kobolds caught any of them, they would most likely take them prisoner and torture them for a few days before killing them. That would give the free members of the party time to plan a rescue. Deft hated to do it, but he kept on running, hoping that he was right in assuming the lizards would take the dwarfs and the halfling prisoner, and not kill them outright.
The kobolds surged over the dwarfs and the bard, leaping onto their backs and taking them down by sheer numbers. This gave the other three members of the party a little extra time, as the kobolds began tripping and falling all over each other. Most of them continued the pursuit, leaving enough of their tribe behind to deal with the prisoners.
The tunnel suddenly branched up ahead.
"Go right!" Deft cried, picking a direction at random. He hoped and prayed this passage didn't stop at a dead end.
They ran into a large network of caverns, then passed into a narrow tunnel that split ahead of them. Deft chose the right-hand way again. He glanced back to see if the kobolds were gaining on them.
When he turned back around, his heart sank. Before them, loomed a craggy cliff, towering fifty feet in the air. It was over. But Deft wasn't going down without a fight.
They reached the cliff, and Bloom started to climb up its jagged face.
"Wait!" Runt cried. "I'm going to make you invisible!"
The goblin pulled out a hunk of acacia gum from a pouch and chanted a spell. He touched Bloom's leg, and the thief suddenly disappeared. As the kobolds closed in, their yipping grew to a frenzied pitch. They slowed their pace, waving their spears and swords, knowing their prey was trapped and had nowhere to go.
Deft glanced at the goblin, who had a potion in his hand. He gulped it down, and he disappeared as well, leaving in his wake a yellowish cloud of vapor that drifted up the cliff face.
The fighter turned to face the kobolds. So this was it. The thief and the goblin had escaped, saving their own hides with no regard for his. He realized he shouldn't have expected anything different.
"Well, come on, you scaly little bastards!" the fighter yelled, wildly waving his flaming sword. The kobolds began to growl, and they suddenly surged forward, trying to overcome the fighter and pin him to the ground. Deft struck out, slashing one kobold's head clean off, but the others crashed into him, the sheer weight of their bodies pinning him up against the cliff. His sword fell from his hand, and he began fighting with fists and teeth, doing anything to get away. Clawed, scaly hands grabbed his arms and legs and pulled him down. And then something smashed down onto his head, and he sank down into darkness.
Bloom continued to climb up the cliff face, even though the goblin's spell had rendered her invisible. She saw Runt dissipate into a yellow cloud, and watched with an ache in her heart as the kobolds swarmed over Deft.
A rock suddenly came sailing down from the top of the cliff, striking the fighter on the head. The kobolds bore him down, then lifted his inert body and carried him away, taking his flaming sword with them. The yipping and the light slowly faded away, until the thief was left in total darkness. Goblins, dwarfs, and kobolds could all see in the dark, but not humans. But even though her sight was gone, the thief relied on her other senses. She could hear kobolds above her, and the top of the cliff, two distinct voices. She only knew the Dwarf and Goblin tongues, not that of the kobolds, so she had no idea what they were saying.
Climbing a wall in the dark was nothing to the thief, who had grown up doing just the same. Runt had cast his invisibility spell on her before, so she knew that it would remain in effect until she physically attacked someone or something. She knew that Runt would stick around. They'd never abandoned each other, and they weren't about to start now.
She climbed slowly and carefully, trying to stay quiet, using her hands and feet to find the best way up the craggy face. The kobolds continued talking, which further masked any noise she made. Slowly she made her way upwards, until she finally reached the top. She pulled herself over onto solid ground, moving carefully. The kobolds were only five or so feet away. She couldn't see them, and they couldn't see her, but they could probably smell her. She had no time to waste.
She slowly got to her feet. Her Boots of Elvenkind would make her footsteps silent. She moved around behind the kobolds, and suddenly rushed forward, arms wide out. She struck two scaly bodies and hurled them forward with all her strength. She heard their shrieks all the way down that ended in the sound of their bodies smashing down on the rocky floor.
All was quiet now. She lay against the tunnel wall, taking out her water skin and drinking her fill. She sat still, her short sword in hand, wondering what in the world she should do now. Runt was bound to show up any minute. The two could continue on their way, find a way out of this nightmare, and leave the Hill and Fort Gaston far behind. She didn't owe any allegiance to Sir Ganth, the weird halfling, or Deft. Life wasn't fair. You won some, and you lost some. Although, she'd started to become a little fond of the group. Quickly she put the thought out of her mind. Sentimentality was a weakness. Caring for others was a weakness. It wasn't her problem. They had been stupid enough to get themselves caught. They could get themselves out of the situation.
But then the thief thought about the reward that she would never get from the cleric, and she frowned.
"I suppose I'm going to have to try to rescue those idiots, then," she whispered softly. "They are going to owe me, that's for sure."
She lay her head back against the cool stone, trying to think of a plan. Nothing would come to her. She couldn't possibly fight thirty kobolds by herself. Runt was out of spells. He could rememorize them, but first he would need to get a good night's sleep. They didn't have any time to waste.
As she sat there wracking her brain, she suddenly caught a hint of a sound coming further down the tunnel. She froze. It sounded like someone or something trying to sneak up on her. She knew by now that the invisibility spell had dissipated once she'd thrown the two kobolds off the cliff. If it was a kobold, it had a distinct advantage over her.
She raised her sword, and called out boldly. "Who goes there?"
"Bloom?" The voice was squeaky and whiny at the same time. The thief grinned.
"Runt?"
She heard the goblin run towards her, and he enveloped her in a hug.
"Shh!" she cautioned. "Sit down with me. Are you okay?"
"Fine," the goblin whispered. "I drank that Potion of Gaseous Form the old women gave us."
"I'm glad you escaped, you rascal!"
"As am I. The question before us is do we rescue our companions, or leave them to their fate?"
The thief chuckled. "Well, I was going to just leave them, but then I remembered that we won't get our reward if Glintspear is dead. So we're going to have to try to rescue them, although I have no idea why. But don't tell them it's because of the reward. Let them think we're doing it out of the goodness of our hearts."
The goblin took her hand. "Come with me. A little further down is a side tunnel leading into a cave. We can hide there, out of sight of the kobolds, and plan the rescue."
Runt led her through the darkness and into the cave. They huddled against a wall, out of sight of the cavern entrance. The thief ate one of her healing raspberries, figuring she needed to be at the top of her game for this rescue attempt.
"I found something," the goblin whispered. "Or rather, it found me. For some reason, my darkvision doesn't work in this cave. It works everywhere else. The reasons for this are unknown to me. All I can think of is that someone has cast a permanent spell of darkness inside the cavern. Why someone would do that, I don't know."
"As long as it's not a danger, who cares?"
"My sentiments exactly. What I found is a corpse, most likely human. There is also a backpack, and inside it are three potions and two rolled-up pieces of parchment, most likely spells. Hopefully they are magic-user spells, otherwise they won't be any use to me."
"They won't be any use anyway," Bloom laughed. "Unless you can read magic scrolls using your darkvision!"
"Regrettably, I cannot. But if we returned to the stream, where the glowing fungus grows, I could read them there. I used my wand on these items. They are all magical. They may aid us in rescuing our friends. I sampled the potions. By taste, I determined that one of a Potion of Healing, and another a Potion of Invisibility. The third is something I have never tasted before, so I cannot identify it. These bottles are twice the normal size, also, so we may be able to get two uses out of each."
"Being invisible would help in the rescue for sure. All right. Since you need light to read those scrolls, let's go back to the stream. The only problem is how do we get you down that cliff face?"
"I certainly don't want to try to climb down! And we have no rope!"
"I know. You're probably going to have to just climb on my back and hang on. You don't weigh all that much."
The goblin wasn't happy about that arrangement, but he knew that if he tried to climb down the cliff by himself, he would fall.
They made their way cautiously back to the cliff. Bloom gave Runt her healing berries, then tossed her pack off the edge of the cliff. The only thing she had in there was a water skin and some rations, so she wasn't worried about the fall damaging them. The goblin climbed onto her back and held on for dear life, as the thief lowered herself over the edge of the cliff and began the climb down, in total darkness.
They made their way down slowly, but they made it without incident. They both drank half of the contents of the Potion of Invisibility, which tasted like cranberries, for some reason.
Runt led Bloom down the passageway, and after a minute or two, they found themselves back in the cavern they had entered when they left the stream.
Bloom felt the goblin grab her arm, and she stopped. She could barely hear the magic-user's whisper.
"There are five guards there now. You can sneak by them, but you can't read the scrolls. I can read the scrolls, but I don't have your magic boots and I am not trained in the art of moving silently."
"Then forget about the stream," the thief whispered back. "We'll head down to that lava crevasse. You should have enough light to be able to read those scrolls."
"I certainly hope these have had a Read Magic incantation cast upon them. Otherwise I won't be able to read them or invoke their magic. I don't have that spell memorized."
"Let's go and find out, then we can take it from there."
They made their way down the tunnel leading to the crevasse, and they could hear the sounds of the kobolds yipping as they got closer. They reached the crevasse, and stopped dead.
Most of the tribe, thirty strong, were clustered on the far side of the crevasse, close to the edge. In the center of the bridges stood their friends, the dwarfs on one and Deft and Twix on the other two. They were bereft of all their armor and weapons. Their hands were tied, and they stood in postures of defeat and fear. Six kobolds, armed with spears, stood at the ends of each bridge.
Bloom wondered frantically if they were too late.