CHAPTER VIII:
Robin was starting to wonder if she qualified as a nomad now. She had elected to stay at Steve's overnight instead of dealing with the redundancy of needing Steve to pick him up from her house only to have her return here. Robin spent the last five minutes watching Steve toss various breakfast items on the counter and near the stove. She motioned not to include her in whatever he planned to make with the odd assortment of jams.
"I'll just take a bowl of cereal, thanks."
"Really? You're missing out. You've got your protein." Steve placed a fried egg onto a piece of lightly burnt toast covered in butter. He put a piece of cheese on top of the egg. "You've got your dairy." Another fried egg, this time with salt and pepper. "And to top it all off, you have a little something sweet." Steve then ran a knife covered in grape jam atop the other piece of lightly burnt toast. He laid it on top, creating a sandwich.
Robin simply shook her head. A smile grew along her face attention shifted to the backyard. There was an eerie calm surrounding the Harrington pool. Robin finally sees it. Steve mentioned it's not a space he likes to spend time in. It brings back bad memories.
"I kinda see it now. What do you mean about that pool? It is creepy out there."
"Right? I would avoid mentioning that space to Nance when they get here. She'll probably avoid any rooms these rooms anyway."
"Really, why?"
"Not my place to say, but you're both crazy to admit you're like friends now. So, I'm sure she'll tell you when she's ready."
Robin bobbed her head in agreement.
Nancy agreed to pick up Dustin on their way to Steve's. Her focus is on the road. "I told you, Mike, if you're going to sit in the back seat, you need to be by the door. If you're in the middle, you're just as bad as the trees. I can't see."
Mike grumbled while Dustin laughed at the expense of his friend.
Nancy turned at the light and waved softly in the rearview mirror. Conveniently behind them was Jonathan sitting in the front passenger seat, Will and Eleven, and Argyle driving a truck loaned out by Hopper at the request of Joyce so they would not have to use a bright yellow van every day.
She pulls into the Harrington driveway, then shuts off the car. "Don't forget it." Mike and Dustin nod. Nancy exits her vehicle, and she watches the others exit the truck. Her eyes did not leave Jonathan. There's no way around it. They have to talk, and now is no better than later. " We should talk."
Jonathan paused "yeah." he motioned to Will. "You can play with my guy if you want."
Will only nodded.
Jonathan motioned Nancy back to the truck. He flipped open the truck bed, and Nancy took a seat.
-.-.-.-
The retrieval team returns early into the afternoon. The horses meant for wealthy children were now covered in wrapped swords, a discarded shield, and multiple quivers stuffed with arrows and bolts. Potions and empty vials clank inside a burlap bag. Three discarded leather breastplates. The majority of their supplies are back in the company's possessions.
The Elf, Dwarf, and the Barbarian agree to secure the ledge. The Ranger, Half-Elf Monk, and Half-Elf Rogue agree to maintain the site at the top. Secure multiple ropes, and make sure the horses are well-kept.
This would leave our Paladin, the Rogue, the Sorcerer, the Fighter, and a Gnome, to their own devices. It was their turn to explore the depths.
"I was not expecting this," spoke Will. The Sorcerer was astounded by the vast space that juts two-hundred and fifty feet out and plummeted eighty feet deep.
"Wow," gasps Eleven. The Rogue observes the surroundings. She notices footprints, fresh prints belonging to something, maybe someone humanoid, these prints leading in the direction of the stairs. The Rogue motions to the Paladin. "You said they were all gone," states Eleven.
The Paladin rubs the back of his head, crouching to look at the footprints.
The Gnome shuffles to the Rogue and Paladin, his sleeves covered with sandy dust. The Gnome lifts a broken spear tip from the ground. "Mites," says Argyle. The Gnome tosses it back to the ground, and he shivers. He shifts to the side of the set torches allowing him a more illuminated view of the chasm below.
The Sorcerer, Rogue, Paladin, and Fighter stand behind the Gnome. The stairs descend from the cliffside. Our adventures will need to travel back-to-back, these stairs are not wide, but even if they do not look it, they are safe. Our heroes regroup at a landing deciding it best to work in a strategy of descent. Closer to the bottom. More stagnant silhouettes of a long-forgotten fortress emerge from the shadowy depths.
This subterranean citadel is covered in leaning towers, lightless windows, and cracked crenellations. All is silent, apart from a cold breeze from below atop a courtyard's floor. There is a scent of dust. A faint trace of rot.
"I smell death," states Eleven. The Rogue is the first to exit the stairs.
Roll me Perception El. Let's see if you can tell how long that scent has been down here.
Nine.
The Rogue inhales deep. The odor of rot is recent. How recent? Is anyone's guess? The Rogue shifts to the side, still close to her new acquaintances but no longer blocking the way.
Together the Rogue, Sorcerer, Fighter, Paladin, and Gnome flank the stairs. Now standing atop the small courtyard, the top of which once was a crenelated battlement. Long buried deep underneath the earth, the stronghold's battlement now levels with the surrounding floor. This new foundation layer stretches north and south, and a layer of hard-to-maneuver crumbled masonry scatters the floor's dusty top. Reaching an unknown depth. Far to the west looms the surviving structure of The Stronghold.
Our adventurers cautiously step to the west in the direction of The Stronghold. A tower standing to the west side of the courtyard begins to appear from the surrounding shadowy depths. What looks like a wooden slab starts to reveal itself as a trap, challenging to reach, surrounded by the fallen masonry.
-.-.-.-
Robin took a deep breath. How to get through this section quickly? "Alright, here might get a little difficult. I see it. You have two options: we go turn by turn, and everyone takes a roll, and so on and so on. Or, and this option has the best pacing, we take the rolls now."
She rose from her seat and walked toward the uncovered portion of the gaming map which sat atop the dining room table. She placed her finger atop a square and began walking her hand along the grid, counting aloud to herself. "Five, ten, twenty-five … five, ten, fifteen, thirty." She shimmied her way back to her spot at the end of the table. "Each of you will need to take at least two rolls."
Too absorbed in Robin's explanation, none at the table noticed when Jonathan sat next to Will, and Nancy returned to the empty seat next to Robin. She quietly watched as Robin continued to calculate the unknown numbers.
"Do you want to join in, or just wait till we reach the next area," asked Will Jonathan. Both his and his brother's character sheets sitting in front of him.
Jonathan looked in the direction of Nancy and Robin.
Nancy shrugged her shoulder. "Pretty sure. That's up to you and the person running the game." She looked at Robin.
Robin shrugged, "Fine with me. We haven't actually started any combat yet."
"Which makes me nervous," states Mike.
"Agreed," say both Will and Eleven together. Will slid Jonathan his sheet of paper.
Robin eyed her friends, then looked down at her notes. Again, none noticed as the rest of their friends joined their group. Steve and Dustin appeared from the kitchen doorway, holding chip bags and a box of doughnuts. Dustin took the spare seat from the corner wall sitting between Steven, who now sat at the other table end opposite Robin, and next to Argyle.
Pen in mouth, Robin pulled it from the top. She placed her pen-filled hand on an empty notecard. She spoke, pen top flipping between her teeth at each word. "Alright, let's start rolling."
Dice hit the table. Argyle, Eleven, Jonathan, Will, and Mike began to recite, "Sixteen, seventeen, dirty twenty, eleven, twelve, five, ten, one, sixteen, four."
-.-.-.-
Very few spaces of flat ground can be seen around the fallen chunks of masonry. The decision was made to cover the ground one at a time.
The Rogue offers to walk the challenging terrain first. She steps lightly along the debris with soft feet just missing the edge of that trap door but gains back her footing as she steadies herself at the broken but closed door of the revealed tower.
The Gnome is next, not nearly as graceful as the Rogue. He clambers across the debris, climbing the taller pieces of rubble, jumping from every open space he can find. He, too, misses the trap door. "Easy pie, my brochachos, easy pie!"
The Paladin, the Fighter, and the Sorcerer decide, no time to waste and climb the rubble in search of open spaces on the floor amongst the debris. Clambering to their feet, not one of them graceful on their dismounts have made it past the first layer of wreckage.
"Ready," asks Will. The Paladin and Fighter nod to the Sorcerer. They pull themselves to the top of the rubble. And leap toward the Rogue and Gnome to join the rest of their party.
Roll me Strength.
Nine, four, nineteen.
The Fighter looks at the slab of the floor below him, then at the Sorcerer and Paladin. The slab crumbles below him, and the Fighter is out of view in seconds.
"Brayton," Yells Will. No time for a response. The Sorcerer shifts his foot to the trap door with too much focus on his brother. With a deep creek, the trapdoor flips open, sending the Sorcerer in the same direction as the Fighter.
Okay, Will, you technically pass your throw, but do you want to go in after them?
Yes, no questions, yes.
The Paladin steadied himself atop the floor, ready to move to the others, but as the Fighter and Sorcerer fell. He looks to the Rogue and the Gnome. They nod, leaping inside the trapdoor before it slaps shut, a mechanical mechanism shifting a lock back into place.
Rogue, Paladin, and the Gnome land on their feet. The space they are in is the side of a ten-foot by ten-foot cube.
The Paladin is at the feet of his fallen companions, pulling each to their feet. "It could be a lot worse…," Mike's voice trails once he hears the Gnome.
"Shhh," the Gnome points to the open piece of floor. The sound of scurrying feet echoes along the once floor, now the ceiling. The hole releases a ghostly dim spotlight on a pair of mite skeletons and another mite, only dead for at least a day.
A Giant Rat looks in the direction of our Adventurers, no longer feasting on the fresh mite. Three other Giant Rats appear from above, falling through the hole in the floor. The rat is next to the corpse, wasting no time lunging in the direction of the Rogue, Paladin, Fighter, Sorcerer, and Gnome.
It swipes its teeth in the direction of the Fighter, his bite taking hold of the Fighter's outstretched arm. Pulling a large chuck of flesh and swallowing it whole, the Fighter's blood drips from his arm and the Giant Rat's mouth.
Another Rat, slightly disoriented from the slight ten-foot fall into the hidden pit, plunges for the Rogue only to miss sliding into the adjacent wall. The Rogue looks at the monster for only an instant, her attention back on the Fighter like everyone else.
"Don't worry about me. Stay focused on the task at hand," shouts Jonathan. The Fighter removes a small vial from his belt. He pours a portion of it on his bleeding arm. The thick viscous dark red blood begins to slowly backtrack towards the large wound on his forearm that exposes his boney elbow. He lets the rest of the potion slide down his throat. Causing an after-effect as his wound heals from the inside out.
Urg… was that really necessary
You said you wanted a detailed experience
A third of the four Giant Rats lunges toward the Paladin, his chainmail armor woven tight enough to block the rat's attempt to bight at his chest. The final right leaps in the direction of the Gnome, eyes wide, ducks causing the large rat to fly over him and skid into the wall.
Hand gripping at the scruff of the Giant Rat that lunged for him. The Paladin takes hold of the javelin. He jabs it directly through the monster's ribcage piercing through its heart. The rat slides slowly down the weapon leaving a trail of red along the wood handle and metal point. It falls to the ground in a lifeless heap.
The Gnome rests the tips of his fingers on the cool stone. "Out of the way, my dudes," he yells to his party members. Each shifting ever so slightly to allow a grasping weed of vines to travel along the ground floor in the direction of the rats resituating themselves against the wall. The vines entangling around their feet.
With quick, delicate motions, the Rogue is flanked by the Giant Rat that attacked the Fighter. She pulls a dagger from its sheath, plunging it into the Rat's neck, and with a sneak attack, she takes her other dragger dragging it against the under-flesh of the rat's giant neck. The Rogue flings both daggers back into their holsters. A few droplets of the monster's blood land along her cheeks. She wipes it clean off her face watching as the rat drops into a puddle of its own blood.
A flash of white-hot anger crosses the Sorcerer's eyes. He holds his hands toward the entangled monsters, his thumbs touching and fingers spread. "Out of the way," he yells to his colleagues. The Fighter, Rogue, Paladin, and Gnome back close to the opposite wall, behind the Sorcerer. Bright blinding flames shoot forth from the Sorcerer's fingertips. His eyes shine with white-blue magic. Suddenly the rats ignite like dried grass. The flames engulf the monsters creating a vacuum for all the sound. Both monsters die in silence.
The flames light the entire space. The adventures blink attempts to acclimate to the searing heat. As the bright light reveals a short catwalk to the west corner leading to a shut door, the group's way out.
"What now," asks Eleven.
"We should secure the area," answers Jonathan. "Get rid of all the bodies, make sure we can come and go, same as the others."
"How? You saw the trapdoor," says Mike. The Paladin points up in the direction of where they fell from.
The Sorcerer flexes his fingers, his attention on the Rogue. "Tools. You should have some thieves tools, right?" The Rogue flips at a flap of her belt, revealing a set of pristine thieves tools. "Perfect! Now, just need you to stand on Reed's shoulders," exclaimed Will. The Sorcerer motioned in the direction of the Paladin.
The Paladin crouched to the floor allowing the Rogue to climb onto his shoulders.
Next to the scorched wall, with the help of the Gnome, the Fighter tosses the remains of the two Giant Rats. The mite's body, one of the rats, had been snacking together. "Burning them is our best bet for now."
"Sure," agrees Will. The Sorcerer hurls a bolt of fire in the direction of the bodies setting them ablaze.
The Gnome untethers a pouch from the mite's belt and then grabs his weapon and shield. "These will do nicely," Argle says to himself as he quickly maneuvers out of the way of the fire, his attention in the direction of the Rogue and Paladin. "Need Sharky Finn's help?"
The Paladin sways slightly, not far enough to cause an issue, but the Rogue looks down at the Paladin, glare on her face. "Stand. Still," says Eleven.
"I'm trying. Hurry up," returns Mike.
Give me two Dexterity checks. One to see if the tools work, another to see if the trapdoor stays permanently open.
Sixteen, Crit Roll
Nice!
The Rogue, Paladin, Fighter, Sorcerer, and Gnome are now accompanied by the Elf, Barbarian, and Dwarf. Stand in awe at The Stronghold. "You're sure this is the only way in," asks the Dwarf. Hands-on his hips, he looks at the massive structure up and down.
"Trust me. This is the only way in. We would have found it by now if there was any other way," states Will.
The Barbarian pats the Dwarf's shoulders. "You heard the Magic-Man. No way to go but down," states Steve. He grips tight the rope, secured to a more stable and large rock of rubble. He jumped in. The Sorcerer, Fighter, Dwarf, and Paladin follow closely behind. The Elf and Rogue simply jump down, effortlessly landing on their feet. "Now what," asks Steve.
The Elf eyes the Barbarian curiously. "We go through the door, obviously," says Nancy. The Elf pulls herself and offers a hand to the Rogue, motioning for her to open the door.
The Rogue presses her fingers to the door, and it swings open to reveal a circular area patched with cracked granite. This room is larger than the courtyard above and three times as big as the pit trap. Four slain mite bodies reside atop the granite, each in a similar state to the last mite found in the pit. One corpse stands, its body resting against the westernmost wall. The body is upright, skewered by the spear that killed it. A hallowed tower of loose stonework is thirty feet in the air. However, the intervening floors and stairs are gone, aside from the varied crumbled ledge.
Everyone roll me Perception.
Nineteen, seventeen, seventeen, dirty twenty, fifteen, twelve, eleven, dirty twenty.
The Barbarian walks without cause into the room, over to the mite body attached to the spear. Hand around the spear, he pulls, "Sweet, new spear," grins Steve.
The group now crowds around the door, entering the room in a rush, all shouting various takes of "No, stop, what are you doing!"
Nothing happens.
Tossing it in the air, the Barbarian retakes hold of the spear, assessing its sturdiness. He attaches it to his back next to his set of javelins. "What," asks Steve.
The Elf walks over, punching him in the belly. "You could have killed yourself! Please be careful the next time you decide to just walk into a room and pull something from the floor," chastises Nancy. She begins observing the wooden doors. She runs her hands along the stone wall to the south.
The Sorcerer creeps cautiously towards the now exposed wall. Runes line the wall perfectly carved. He hovers his hand over only to jolt it back as he feels a static shock of magic radiate around the runes. Magic is in place to simply make sure the carving never fades. "Khisanth…," reads Will.
"Gesundheit," says the Dwarf and Gnome together.
The Sorcerer looks in their direction, confusion on his face, "what? Oh no, Khisanth is the name of a Dragon. Maybe this was where she hibernated."
"I thought you said the dragon was called Onix," asked Dustin. The Dwarf eyed the stone with caution. He, too, could feel the magic.
"Sure, would you want to say 'Khisanth' all the time? She was one hundred feet long, with a snakelike body covered in sleek black scales. With red eyes, ivory white claws and horns, and a mud-yellow belly," remembered Will. The Sorcerer turned back to the middle of the room, joining the others. The Dwarf follows.
The Fighter eyes the Elf with wearied caution. "Is she all right," asks Jonathan.
The Elf continues to run her hands delicately across the stone, her index and middle finger along the grout crevice between the stone. She strokes the stone gently, then with a harsh press to the stone, and a quick sidestep away from the wall, a series of sharp three-inch needles expose themselves as a small opening shows.
"Well, one of you go take a look, yeah," ushers Nancy.
The Gnome waves his hand, holding up his new shield, just in case, and walks into the small room. He shivers. "Chilly," declares Argyle. "This Khisanth, you think she was around a long time ago, my other magic dude," says Argyle.
"Yes, why do you ask," asks Will.
The Gnome reappears, holding two quivers stuffed with arrows. "Just old skeletons inside a lost hole," states Argyle. He hands one quiver to the Fighter and the other to the Elf.
The dwarf motions to the Sorcerer and Paladin. The three create a huddle. "Do we continue on or wait for the rest of the party," asks Dustin.
"I say we send for the others. We can't just continue without the others," states Mike. The Paladin looks in the direction of their comrades.
The Sorcerer eyes his two friends, and he gestures. "Agreed. We get the others, we regroup, and continue on."
-.-.-.-
"You had something you wanted to show us," asked Robin suddenly once she noticed the time. It was eleven past four in the afternoon.
"Who me," asked Dustin, his mind still engrossed in the game.
"Yeah, earlier when you walked, you said you had something to show the group, and we needed to loop Lucas and Erica in," continued Robin. She rose from her seat and began to stretch.
"Shit! Right, you're right!" Dustin leaped from his seat and rushed to the living room for his backpack. He walked over to the table tossing his bag at the end of the table not covered by the game.
Steve jolted forward. He lifted the backpack running his hand along the wood of the table. "Be careful, Henderson! My mom will kill me if the smallest ding is on this table!" He moved the backpack to the chair Dustin once occupied.
Dustin looked at Steve, confused. Why would his mother's table be more critical than he had to show? Dustin shook his head. He opened the bag tossing a handful of loose sheets of paper on the table. Then pulled out a walky-talky. He twirled at the dial and began calling for Lucas.
Confused. Nancy motioned for the papers, Will sliding a few in her direction. They were in multiple colors white, pale green, yellow, and blue. She took hold of them, passing one to Robin, another to Mike, and lastly to Jonathan.
...
HAWKINS NATIONAL LABORATORY
reopening under new management
ERAOI
(Electric Reliability Assembly of Indiana)
Job Opportunities TBA (to be announced)
Suspected Reopening May 25th
...
Will released a deep breath he was not aware he was holding. Jonathan's stillness spoke volumes as he crumpled the paper in his fist, tossing it back onto the table. Robin pinched the bridge of her nose, passing her paper over to Steve. Mike did the same for Eleven. Nancy simply stayed silent.
Eleven looked to Dustin. His fingers continued to fettle with the frequencies to get the most precise signals. "Where did you find these?"
Dustin paused. He gingerly set the walky-talky on the table. "They are all over downtown. These are just the ones my mom brought home because they were under her windshield wipers. "What the fuck are we going to do?"