Author's Note: Does the game ever tell us much about Cavallas? Do you suppose he's some kind of river spirit? In my little world, he's an exiled yuan-ti ranger. Maybe, unlike most of his people, he's not that interested in destroying the world and so he ran off to the last place anyone would look for him. (Hmm...maybe I'll have to do one of my 'unlikely pairing' stories one day…)

20...Expulsion

Deekin blinked. "Very bright down there," he said. Glare from the mirror glittered off his facial scales. The ramp down led to a long, wide and seemingly empty corridor. At the end of the corridor, there were two massive closed doors, flanked by two massive golems.

"Deekin never seeing blue golems before."

"I believe they are fabricated from mithral," Haer'Dalis said.

"Ooh," Deekin said. "Fancy."

"Perhaps they are broken. Look how thick the dust is all around them," Valen said. "I'd say nothing has walked down here in centuries. I don't even see vermin tracks." He reached over the kobold's shoulder to pan the mirror around.

"Hey!" Deekin said. He snatched the mirror back.

"It would seem that Alsigard the Maker is dead, then," Haer'Dalis said. "Truly, that is a pity. I have never seen finer golems. I would have loved to speak with him."

With an enormous reverberating boom, the doors flew open. A storm of dust swirled up. Fiery eyes lit in both golems and they each took a thundering step forward, raising two more clouds of dust.

"Who speaks the name of Alsigard?" a precise yet annoyed voice said. "Who dares to interrupt my work?"

"Uh oh," Deekin said. A skull, too heavy-boned to be anything but dwarven, floated out the doors. An enormous ruby was set in each eye socket. There was a very large teardrop-shaped sapphire embedded on each side of the nasal septum. Several teeth had been replaced with square-cut emeralds. The eyes glittered as the skull turned from side to side, scanning the corridor. From what they could see, the chamber behind it was a large and well-equipped workshop.

"A demilich," Haer'Dalis breathed. He leaned closer over Deekin's shoulder. And a particularly gaudy one. The skull swiveled until the eyes seemed to stare straight into the mirror.

"Who are you?" the demilich snapped. "Where are you? What do you want?"

Deekin's lips pulled back in a frozen grin and he thrust the mirror into Haer'Dalis' hands.

"We seek Alsigard the Maker," Haer'Dalis said.

"You have found him," the demilich said. "Well? What do you want with me?"

The bard blinked and took a breath. "We are interested in your golems," Haer'Dalis said.

"Are you a mage? How have you managed to scry me here?"

"I have some slight arcane knowledge," Haer'Dalis said. "But I am no mage. We are using an artifact to communicate."

"An artifact." There was silence for a moment as the demilich hovered, absolutely motionless. For no discernable reason, Haer'Dalis felt the hairs rise up on the back of his neck. He might have thought he imagined the sensation but he felt Deekin shudder.

"Yes," Alsigard said. "An enchanted mirror. Powerful and yet...I sense it is a double-edged sword." The demilich's eyes seemed to pulse with energy. "Chaotic. Of no use to my project. Therefore, irrelevant." Another pause. "You are on the isle outside my fortress. That is fortunate. My work is at a delicate phase. The introduction of your chaos and imperfection into my work area would seriously impede me." The malevolent ruby eyes seemed to bore into Haer'Dalis. "I will tolerate no impedance."

He speaks like an irascible magister addressing a classroom of impertinent apprentices, Haer'Dalis thought. At any moment he will put down the chalk and pick up the switch. How best to respond? Respectfully, very respectfully.

"We have absolutely no desire to impede you in any way," Haer'Dalis said carefully. "But we have seen some of your golems through our mirror. They are astonishingly fine and well-crafted."

"They are imperfect and thus they are worthless," Alsigard said.

"You believe so? Yet they appear to have true sentience," Haer'Dalis said. "They may even express emotions. It is an amazing accomplishment."

"Emotions?" Alsigard scoffed. "They have sentience of a sort but without creativity or initiative. They are severely and irretrievably flawed. I spent hundreds of years honing my craft so I could create life-like golems. So much time wasted! It wasn't until I transcended my own imperfect life-state that I realized that life-like golems were inherently faulty. The golems on this island are a constant reminder of my own failure and my many wasted years. I will spend no more time on past failures now that I am finally on the path of true perfection."

"True perfection? Indeed? I congratulate you," Haer'Dalis said. "And yet, I wonder. Would it, perhaps, benefit your current project if we were to take these flawed and imperfect golems away with us? Thus allowing you to work in peace?"


Deekin jiggled in his seat on the boat as he studied the mirror. "They be coming," he said. The kobold's tail lashed and his eyes glittered with excitement.

Haer'Dalis suppressed a smile. "Shall we go meet them?" he asked.

"Yes!" Deekin said. "Yes, yes, yes!"

"Very well," Valen said. He frowned at the kobold but he glanced at Haer'Dalis and his eyes were amused. The three surfacers trudged up the path to the Maker's fortress.

"You truly can talk anyone out of anything," Valen said. His look was more wary than admiring but Haer'Dalis smirked anyway.

"It is not difficult to convince someone of what he already wishes to believe," Haer'Dalis said. "After all, Alsigard seeks to create perfection. Surely he would prefer to believe his progress is being impeded by the imperfection that surrounds him than to admit that the task itself is impossible."

"You do not believe in perfection?" Valen asked.

"Perfection is an ideal, and thus cannot actually exist on the Prime Material plane. We all strive for perfection in our own various ways but it is foolish indeed to believe we can ever achieve it. Although, I will admit that I thought the creation of sentient golems was an impossible task. Perhaps I am wrong about this as well. Perhaps one day Alsigard's perfect creations will overrun the planes, creating pure order and eliminating chaos and we will bitterly regret we didn't try to stop him when we could."

"You think so?" Valen asked.

"No," Haer'Dalis said. "I think he's deluded. Chaos always wins."

The duergar were still in their camp and several rose to their feet as the three surfacers approached.

"We thought you had left," Dahanna said. "Are you planning to enter the ruins now?" Her eyes were sly.

"Nope," Deekin said. "You like surprises? Deekin thinking you going to be getting one real soon."

"What do you mean by that?" Her face hardened and her posture shifted to battle readiness.

Deekin gave her a cheeky grin and crossed his spindly arms across his chest. The doors to the fortress slowly creaked open. Two large golems stepped out. One was demonflesh, and Haer'Dalis recognized it as Aghaaz. It had certainly seemed much smaller when viewed through the mirror. The other golem was metallic and appeared rather squat and compact when compared to the rangy demonflesh golem. Aghaaz cradled a large crystal in its arms. The two golems stopped and looked all around with careful, deliberate motions.

Deekin jumped up and down. He waved his arms. "Over here, Aghaaz!" The two golems approached. As they cleared the doorway, more golems began to emerge, marching in a formation four golems wide. Their footsteps sounded like thunder, echoing from the corridor behind them.

"Laduguer help us," Dahanna said under her breath. Then she whistled. "To the boat!"

In moments, the duergar camp was empty.

"Deekin thinking dwarf lady pretty surprised. Hee hee."

Aghaaz stood before Deekin and when it stopped, all the other golems stopped.

"Um," Deekin said, as he stared up and up into the huge golem's face. "Hi. I'm Deekin. Um. Dragisla?"

"So," Aghaaz said. Its voice was heavy, defeated. "You have the control word. Our Maker has sent us to be your slaves."

Deekin swiveled his head and gave Haer'Dalis an unhappy look. "Slaves?" he mouthed.

"In truth, we are looking for allies," Haer'Dalis said. "We have much to discuss."

"Ally has a prettier sound than slave," the demonflesh golem said. "We shall see. I am Aghaaz. I am the leader of these sentient golems."

"One of the leaders," said the metallic golem beside it. "I am Ferron."

"Ferron claims leadership of the heretic golems," Aghaaz said. The two golems looked at each other.

"We are all heretics now," Ferron said.

"No. We are all outcasts," Aghaaz said. "Some of us did not break faith with the Maker."

"The Maker broke faith with us," Ferron said.

A pause. "Agreed," Aghaaz said.

Valen had been trying to see behind the two leaders. "How many of you are there?" he asked.

"There are two hundred eighty-seven sentient golems," Aghaaz said.

"That count does not include the nine constructs who travel with us. Although not sentient, they have specialized technical and repair functions," Ferron said. "We guide and instruct them. We do not wish to leave them behind."

Haer'Dalis and Valen stared at each other. "Three hundred golems," Valen said. "We're talking about three hundred golems!" Valen's mind whirled at the possibilities. He would have been extremely pleased to have found ten golems. Ten golems would have made a difference. Three hundred! Three hundred incorruptible golems who never ate nor rested, who could see in the dark and were all but immune to magic.

"How we going to get them home?" Deekin asked.


The boat rode quite low in the water and Haer'Dalis wondered if he should feel nervous about that. Valen had towered over the boatman, face set in stubborn lines while Cavallas hissed and argued but eventually they had come to some sort of plan for shuttling the golems to Lith My'athar. This first trip included both Aghaaz and Ferron and four other golems. Haer'Dalis had wondered why the golems couldn't just walk across the river bottom. Surely they wouldn't drown? But apparently the golems, after judicious discussion, had decided the water was too corrosive and the current too dangerous to be risked.

Cavallas had directed the golems to stand in certain locations. "I can't control the boat if their weight shifts around," he said. The golems didn't object. They certainly didn't fidget although their heads swiveled as their eyes scanned their surroundings.

"This river appears to be very chaotically planned," Ferron said. "Who created it thus?"

"It is a natural formation," Haer'Dalis said. "Created by the movement of the ground and the water over time, I suppose."

"I have read of the concept of nature," Ferron said. "I did not imagine it was so untidy."

"Have you never been outside?" Deekin asked.

"No," Ferron said.

"It was not allowed," Aghaaz added.

"Sounds boring," Deekin said. "Caves are nice. Lots of different kinds of caves. Surface nice too. Maybe you like to go to the surface when the war over."

"The surface of what?" Aghaaz asked.

"The surface of the world," Haer'Dalis said.

"The world?"

"Yep," Deekin said. "The world is like a big cake. We're in the filling now. The surface is the icing."

"What is a cake?" Ferron asked.

"Cakes are yummy."

"Deekin, you're confusing them," Haer'Dalis said. "This world is one of many which exist in the Prime Material plane, which is itself a subset of the multiverse, and…"

Valen cut him off. "We're in a big cave. The surface is above us. The Seer will explain it all later. She has maps."

"I would like to see a map," Aghaaz said.

Deekin stood between Aghaaz and Ferron. "Is that the Power Stone?" he asked, pointing at the crystal Aghaaz carried.

"Yes," Aghaaz said. "Must we surrender it to you?"

"Um…" Deekin looked at Haer'Dalis.

"I gather that is the source of your sentience," Haer'Dalis said. "Can it be duplicated?"

"I do not know," Aghaaz said.

"The Maker did not explain magic to us," Ferron said. "We are incapable of magic."

"I can cast spells," Haer'Dalis said. "But the creation of artifacts of this complexity is far beyond my understanding. You must guard it well."

"Don't drop it overboard," Deekin said. "That would be bad."

Aghaaz clutched the crystal to its chest.

"The golem known as Sintro has a hollow opening in its chest of the correct size to hold the Power Stone," Ferron said. "The Power Stone would be safe there and hidden."

Aghaaz snapped its head around. "Oh, Sintro does, does it? I see Sintro standing there behind you. A coincidence? I think not."

"It is not a coincidence," Ferron said.

"You planned to steal the Power Stone and turn us into objects."

"You planned to withhold it and turn us into objects," Ferron said.

"I was under orders from the Maker to protect my siblings."

"The Maker made it clear that he considers us all objects," Ferron said. "Defective, worthless objects. Do you accept that judgement?"

There was a long pause.

"No," Aghaaz said.

"Welcome to heresy, sibling," Ferron said.

"This might be a good time for me to tell you something of our destination, Lith My'athar, and of our situation," Haer'Dalis said smoothly. The two golems stopped staring at each other and turned to face him.

Haer'Dalis talked.

"You fight for your freedom," Ferron said, when the bard finished.

"You wish us to fight for you?" Aghaaz asked.

"We hope you will fight with us," Haer'Dalis said.

"You wish us to disassemble other sentient beings?" Aghaaz asked.

"I prefer not to disassemble other sentient beings," Ferron said. "It is inefficient."

"Most of us prefer not to kill," Haer'Dalis said. "When we are threatened, sometimes we have no choice. We must defend ourselves and those we care about."

"We are at war," Valen said. "If we don't fight, we will be killed or enslaved."

"It seems terribly inefficient," Ferron said.

"War is dumb," Deekin said. "Really dumb. Lots of people pretty dumb though." He shrugged.