A loud, sharp rap on the metal surface drew Ace and Gerrod's attention to the door. It opened up immediately without the familiar jingling of keys they had come to associate with the lock on the other side. Three quick figures rushed in and shut the door behind them. Squinting in the dim light of the purple torch, Gerrod's suspicions were confirmed when Ace greeted the three warmly. "Corinna, Amanda, Allison! What a pleasure to see you again!" He cried out in hushed whispers.
Without saying a word, Corinna and Amanda came to tend to them, as Allison stood as a burly watch by the door. Corinna held a silencing finger to her lips as she reached out and rapped on the stone pillar with a magical wand. As the metal wand struck the solid stone, the snake-shaped shackles released their bite and recoiled too realistically into the holes from which they hung.
All three bodies hit the floor together, no longer shackled and not used to the luxury of supporting their own weight. As they crumpled to the ground, Amanda came upon them with her healing touch. Gerrod felt the warmth of her healing hands spread through him, and life flowed back into tired and sore muscles. Groans of relief from Ace's direction let him know he gained the same strengthening treatment.
Corinna was clearly startled when she recognized the third, unexpected body drop on the other side of Gerrod. She was further alarmed to see the writhing black skinned form of a drow. She immediately drew her dagger and held the weak, unarmed man at bay.
Both the female mage in black robes with a wild look in her eyes and the distressed, pained black-skinned man standing helplessly on his knees almost simultaneously asked Gerrod, "Is this a friend of yours?"
"It's all right, Corinna," he called to her. She looked at him again as if for verification. Gerrod nodded his head. "This is Dak'gnu. He's also a prisoner here." He looked at Dak'gnu, who's worried expression hadn't eased yet. "He's okay."
This opinion was greeted with pessimism from Corinna, and a large, pleased smile from the dark elf. He obviously approved of Gerrod's willing acceptance much more than Corinna did. But Corinna knew there was no time for explanations. "Let's get out of here," she said, heading for the door.
"Wait!" Dak'gnu cried out in his thickly accented elvish. Corinna spun around, but almost kept going until she saw Gerrod stop.
"We don't have all day," she explained impatiently, but Gerrod stayed his ground. He was the only one willing to hear what the dark friend had to say.
Without further explanation, Dak'gnu moved to the wall above the single table. Between the two wall sconces, he activated a secret panel. A hidden opening slid aside in the otherwise solid block wall, and he pulled out piles of equipment. Their equipment! He dragged everything out, and it heaped over the table. Flicker fell off the table and skittered across the floor until it stopped at Gerrod's feet. He picked up the trusted blade, almost as glad to see it as he was his friends.
Ace and Gerrod grabbed their stuff and suited up as quickly as they could. They were ready in a minute. They felt much better about their chances of escaping now that they brandished their favored weapons. By their side, Dak'gnu joined them as he slipped into the remaining equipment. A loose, chainmail robe fitted about him, along with an entire arsenal of swords, daggers, hand-held crossbows. All were secreted away beneath the open robe. He also buckled on a black-metal chestplate, which protected where the opening in the heavy metal robe did not.
"He's not coming with us!" Corinna protested, but Gerrod reminded her they had little time to debate the matter.
"Let's just get out of here, fast!" he requested.
Ace swung his heavy axe around to gather the feel for the weight of the massive blade. "Dak'gnu says it can't be done," he said as the handle spun into his solid grip. "Let's show him how we do it."
Unwilling to take either the time or the effort to argue what was obviously a moot point, Corinna set about casting spells. Ace didn't care for the idea, but knew better than to resist. A shiver ran down his spine like a cold chill. "Don't worry, Ace," Corinna assured him. This will just keep those nasty crossbows from hitting us."
Amanda, who blessed them both with spells of protection and fire resistance, efficiently followed Corinna. "What do we need fire resistance for?" Ace complained.
"You'll see!" Corinna responded with a smile that Ace had learned not to like at all.
When Amanda got done with her holy signs over Gerrod, she turned to the strange drow warrior. "Sorry, but we don't have enough spells for you too. We weren't expecting company."
Dak'gnu had been content to watch them prepare for the task at hand. He even started to believe that this may not be as impossible as he had once thought. "That okay. Wait long for today. I take my chances beside you, if can." Another warm smile spread across him.
"The more the merrier!" Amanda welcomed him.
"As long as you stay out of the way and stay quiet," Corinna warned. "The first sign that you're betraying us, and you'll hit the ground only wishing you knew what killed you."
"I'll try not 'get in your way,'" Dak'gnu agreed, still with that irrepressible smile. That grin disarmed Corinna. Her brow wrinkled as she tried to tell whether he was mocking her or not. Deciding it wasn't worth the bother, she cued Amanda that they were ready.
As Amanda wove another priestly spell, Corinna gave one last word of advise, "Whenever any of us yells, 'Shield!' close your eyes for a second or two. Especially you, Dark One." It was her turn to smile and Dak'gnu's turn to be worried. He decided to do as she said.
Amanda indicated that she was ready. "Everyone stay together. We'll be following my lead, since I've a spell to tell us the quickest way out of here."
"Are we all clear, Allison?" Corinna asked. When she indicated that no one was coming, the door opened up and they were on their way.
Allison led first, paving the way for her sister who directed her from behind. Next followed Ace and then Dak'gnu, who slunk along the dark corridors as if he knew them by heart. From his accurate description of them from the cell, Gerrod didn't doubt that he did.
Gerrod followed their new friend, and behind him, Corinna insisted on taking up the rear. They all traveled as stealthily as possible, but they knew it would only be a matter of time before they ran into a patrol of guards.
The attack came as silently as the darkness that fell over them. When their infravision didn't help, it was easy to guess the unnatural origins of the shadows. A rain of small crossbow bolts quickly followed the darkness that fell. They knew they were tipped with poison.
Corinna's spell worked great, as the foul darts were kept from their targets. "Keep moving" was the key to their escape, and so they didn't slow down for either the darkness or the bolts. Allison boldly ran to meet the small patrol. Both swords drawn, she lit into the first two who stood to face them, still brandishing their crossbows. She mowed through them, but there were at least ten more males behind.
"Shield!" Amanda warned. As if instinctively, Gerrod's eyes slammed shut, even though they continued to run through the darkness.
When he opened his eyes, Gerrod could see the formation of male drow had broken up, as most fought to regain their eyesight. The center soldier glowed with a brilliant light, and the drow standing near had been caught unaware and blinded. Their sightless orbs struggled to shift into an infravision focus, but by then it was too late.
Like an unstoppable orcan war machine, Wefpub pounded onward down the hallway. By the time each of them blasted a defenseless drow or two on their way by, there was little left standing of the patrol party. The body of the effected guard, laying dead in the middle of the hallway, continued to shine with an impossibly bright light.
Dak'gnu had to hide his head deep in the folds of the black hood of his chain mail robe. He could not bear to look into the light any more than his kin could. Still, blinded as he was, he managed to deliver lethal sword blows to two of the guards as he passed by. As he looked back at the decimated group, he began to rethink thei
r odds of survival. He almost seemed to enjoy this game.
It wasn't long before they met up with more groups of guards as the word of their escape inevitably started to spread through the drow complex. The corridors twisted and turned, and there were always cross halls connecting up with this wider route. Crossbow bolts flooded out of every opening, but all were turned away by the power of the spells.
Still, they kept running. Behind them, the soldiers, eager to prove themselves with their capture or death, gave chase. Bright balls of light from Corinna blocked the paths behind. With Corinna's careful planning, they clogged the hallway with piles of soldiers who stumbled over each other in the blinding light. But as they continued to run, they had the sense that the clever drow were closing in on them at every turn.
As they made their way through the turns of the maze that was the complex, more and larger patrols and reinforcements were called down upon them. They managed to escape many of them by turning down different corridors, but they continued to move in from the sides. As they ran through one intersection, a quick male soldier managed to blindly strike out and land a solid blow into Amanda's side. She was thrown against the far wall by the impact. When Allison turned around, she left nothing of the guard recognizable. Still, when she was done, her sister laid against the far wall, clutching her side to stay the flow of blood there.
Ace covered for the powerful female warrior, and started swinging with his axe. In the center of their party, he had had little chance for the action he longed for. He made up for that now with a vengeance. But in the crowded intersection, with another line of men coming up from the other way, even Ace was hard pressed to protect them from both directions.
To the shock of those he met, Dak'gnu stepped up and started slicing into the advancing drow warriors. Dak'gnu knew his presence would give the patrols pause, and he used their hesitation to his advantage. He wasted no time in laying his two fine swords against them. Years of skilled training were evident in the smooth ease he wielded both a powerful long sword and a small but equally deadly dagger.
Seeing that Ace was in good company, Gerrod helped Allison attend to Amanda. While the wound was not large, he could tell that it ran deep. Try as she might, the brave priestess couldn't stem the flow, as her life's essence drained into puddles on the floor. Allison laid her hands on her for healing, and while the wound closed up immediately, there was already too much damage done and blood lost. Amanda would not be able to show them the way out. She struggled to remain conscious, and even joining them at the pace they needed to travel would be testimony enough for her fortitude.
"We've got to do something," Ace urged between battles. "They're coming in quicker all the time."
"But we don't know which way to go," Corinna defended her indecision.
"I do," Dak'gnu volunteered.
"Can you get us out of here?" Gerrod asked, convinced he was their best bet.
"Just follow me," he said with that nasty grin of his. "This been long time coming!"
With a blur, his two deadly swords sped up, clearing enough gap to give him some extra time before the next round of drow closed in. Without even sheathing his weapons and drawing out magical components, Dak'gnu simply pointed his dagger down the corridor and uttered a command. Those in the front ranks caught the blast of the spell full-force, and were soundly thrown twenty feet down the stone corridor. They were skewered on the swords of those behind them, and in turn, pushed them onto others. When the dust finally settled, there were none left to challenge the united members of Wefpub.
Gerrod only smiled as he heard Corinna's eyes pop out of their sockets. She was definitely impressed.
But they knew the opening wouldn't last for long, and as Dak'gnu dove down the open hallway, they were quick to follow. Allison pulled Amanda up, and helped support her weight as she struggled along. Allison didn't prove very graceful as she tried to assist her sister. Amanda insisted on trying to make it on her own. The two of them looked like an awkward four-legged bird. Gerrod knew this union wouldn't last long, and soon the frustrated Amanda was pounding on Allison's plate armor. Much to Allison's chagrin, Amanda peeled her protective sister off of her, and felt much lighter for it.
They followed Ace and Dak'gnu, and Corinna and Gerrod brought up the rear. Through many quick ducks into dark side alleys, Dak'gnu managed to get past many of the guards that were searching the area for them. They took pride in the fact that the patrols seemed to be getting bigger. Now there were females edging them on; females, which Dak'gnu pointed out, were far more dangerous.
As they went on, tactics started changing as the warriors got better organized. Once they were surprised after rushing into a room they figured to be empty, when a line of fighters stepped out behind them from a curtain of magical darkness. With quick, cat-like reflexes, Corinna spun around and laid out a wall of fire the width of the room. As the wall of impenetrable heat struck, the entire line of men melted before their eyes.
Another band of drow that tried to follow them were met with cobwebs coating the walls, ceiling and floor. Laughing at the stupid trick to use against the drow, worshippers of the Spider Goddess, Lolth, they pushed right on. They easily shook off the webs, reveling in their victory. That was, of course, until Allison turned around and ignited the volatile webs with flames. Drow screams rang through the complex and echoed in their ears. If anything, Dak'gnu enjoyed the carnage, laughing almost maniacally at the sickening sight.
Behind them was an endless trail of devastation. They left other wide corridors blocked by large clouds of poisonous gas and caved-in rockwork turned to mud. The mudslides buried drow bodies. There were balls of blinding light that would have to be magically dispelled before they could be easily crossed. Above all, were the piled remains of drow, slain in their desperate struggle to climb over comrades to gain victory for their Dark Queen.
Even Amanda, who bit down hard against the pain, managed a forceful prayer that brought her own wall of fire to bear down on their captors. Even though it drained more of her precious strength, Gerrod could tell by her satisfied grin that it was worth it.
Just when they thought the complex would never end, and Corinna announced she was out of tricks, (and spells), Dak'gnu came to a halt in a large room. The whites of his eyes glowed against his black skin. For the brave drow, who had proven himself by mowing down dozens of his evil kin, this was not a comforting reaction to what ever it was they faced next.
The room was an ambush, lined by great numbers of the best warriors the drow had to offer. A half dozen females were scattered among their ranks, all higher priestesses of Lolth. They waved terrible whips with long fanged snakes for tails. The heads of the snakes lashed out on their own power, hungry for the taste of flesh. Now it was Gerrod's turn to be paralyzed by fear.
"What a shame that it had to come down to this, male," an evil seductress of Lolth purred. She relished in the victory that her planning would bring her and the glory of the Dark Queen. "But then, against a male without a family, against a dreg, what could one expect?"
Through his fear, Dak'gnu forced out a response. His hatred boiled beyond that fear. "You are wrong, Fa'Sol. I am Dai'Myn of the House of --" he began proudly.
The female was incensed. "How dare you!" she came hard with the whip. It streaked across the room. Snap! Snap! The two snake heads lit into him, seeking out his exposed flesh. One nasty fanged bite landed on a hand, while the other stretched out for his face, grabbing into the fleshy meat of his cheek. After a bite that lasted just long enough to inject its poison, the heads recoiled leaving large, fresh wounds. "How dare you speak the name of that family to me!"
The terrible wounds suddenly healed over, and even though they inflicted much pain, his smile revealed little damage. He would not relent. "I am Dai'Myn of the House of Myn'Gotha."
"Blasphemer!" came the charge and two more terrible lashes with the demon whip. These too healed over too q
uickly, and the only reaction they gained was a pain-filled smile. "That family is a defilement to Lolth, and you shall pay with her wrath!" Two more strikes of the snake-headed whip came in and Gerrod started to feel faint for Dak'gnu.
"Myn'Gotha!" he shouted.
Two more strikes of the whip. Snap! Snap!
"First family!" he shouted again.
Two more terrible strikes. Snap! Snap!
"No family!" the woman cried in protest.
As this struggle continued for far too long, Gerrod's instincts were to use the time to scout out the room for a possible escape from this madness. Besides, it kept his mind off that terrible snake-headed weapon.
There were three doors to the room, the one they came in, and two others. The two remaining doors stood tauntingly behind a wall of those drow warriors. By their more elaborate armor and weapons, he guessed that these were a more elite guard. They were far from the fodder they had faced in the corridors. Besides, there were still several females, each with a terrible whip. Something told Gerrod that if those foul weapons struck them, the vicious wounds would not instantly heal, and that a single dose of that venom would render them unconscious, if not worse.
The only other visible exit from the room was out a large window. Extending from about a foot from the floor to near the ceiling above, it provided a superb view of the dreg city far below them. Even though the distance was hard to gauge, based on what few dim lights there were, it was obvious that there was little hope that the ground was anywhere near.
In the center of the room, attention was pulled to the stubborn battle of wills being played out there still. Racked with pain, Dak'gnu was forced to his knees after an untold number of strikes from those demon whips. Still, he proudly refused to lower his eyes as was demanded of him by the rules of drow society. Gerrod finally realized that all of those healed over wounds he had noticed in the dungeon were whip strikes such as he suffered now. They revealed years of meticulous torture. Now, it was all those years of pain and torture that numbed him to the biting cruelty of those whips. Still, his terrible beating was severe, and there was no denying the cumulative effects of the well-placed blows.
It was only a matter of time before Dak'gnu would die, but never in shame as Fa'Sol would have him.
Slowly and secretively, Corinna edged her way across the room, using Dak'gnu's distraction, until she could look down over the edge of the window. She swallowed hard, seeing the dizzying height they were at, but then signaled them with her eyes. She had at least one last trick up her sleeve. Corinna always did.
They knew that any escape this time would require split second timing. Fortunately, their years of adventuring together gave them that edge. It was on that fine line that they walked that day.
They were all ready for what ever happened next, the moment that Corinna gave the signal. Allison scooped Amanda up, who did little to protest the handling. Gerrod leapt across the room, grabbing the waning Dak'gnu. Fascinated by the display of enduring torture they had seen, the warriors gathered there had little chance to react to their sudden movement.
As the drow priestesses drew their whips back for a strike at them, the room was suddenly filled with a spread of lightning bolts. The brilliant array blinded the drow, as it sliced its way right through their armored bodies. All of the fine metal mesh they wore did little to protect them as death's fingers crackled over them or shot right through their bodies. The skewering left large smoldering holes where vital organs used to be.
The bolts streaked across the room in all directions, but didn't stop when they hit the stone walls. Most of the powerful energy was reflected off the smooth, hard surfaces, and shot through many of the same drow it killed the first time through. The air was filled with the explosion and the screams.
This noise and confusion quickly died away, and then became theirs, as the members of Wefpub found themselves falling helplessly to the ground, many thousands of feet somewhere below.
Lightning bolts ricocheted off the walls and poured out the open window behind them flooding the space above. The rush of air screamed in their ears. Gerrod reached out desperately to grab onto his friends, praying to find some comfort there. He found little, as they showed no signs of slowing. He wasn't sure whom he grabbed onto. He thought it was Ace, but at the moment it didn't matter. He knew it was one of his friends, and that alone was better than dying at the hands of the drow.
When the rush of air suddenly stopped, Gerrod thought they were all dead. When he opened his eyes and saw the face of the rocky cliff speeding dangerously close by his head, he knew that the terror would not be over so easily. He noticed moments later the resistance of a sphere beneath him, and realized that it moved with them, and was what blocked the wind. Judging by the forms of his friends, pressed against the walls, the area encompassed all of them.
Then, under Corinna's insistent chanting, the entire sphere started to slow down. Their descent was softened by the security of the sphere. By the time they hit the ground, they had slowed significantly, and the great sphere of magical energy absorbed most of the shock.
They were met by the crackle of magical energy, and for a moment, Gerrod wondered whether some stray bolts of lightning struck them, but it seemed to be coming up from the ground. As they all piled into the bottom of the sphere with the jerking impact, they started to roll uncontrollably.
Ace, who protested being encapsulated within the magical shell despite the obvious alternatives, was tossed around as their barrier rolled like a ball. Being much smaller, Ace was unable to maintain his footing even as well as everyone else.
It was all that they could do to brace themselves against the opposite walls of the invisible shield and roll with the globe. As Gerrod rolled around upside down one revolution, he couldn't help but notice that they were still several feet off the ground. They were rolling along some other invisible force field below them.
They rolled the only direction they could, away from the large stone cliff, and were rudely dropped another ten feet off the top of the magical force field, and deposited on the outside of a large fence. Their momentum their guide, they continued to roll unheeded across the ground and away from the fence. It didn't matter where they were rolling. They all knew they had escaped certain death in the face of the drow.
Seconds later, they were treated to a soft splash as their cocoon landing neatly in a body of water. The buoyancy afforded them by the magical sphere offered its own challenges. Once they settled into the bottom of their small craft, they found some stability there.
Then there was darkness. It wasn't the darkness of the Underworld as they knew it. Whatever light there was in the drow city suddenly blinked away. Even scanning with his infravision left Gerrod clueless. He could see the other members of their party, but nothing at all beyond the sphere. "Oh great!" he thought, "After all of this, now we die!" But the pained misery of his friends and the groans they managed to let out let him know that somehow they had survived. Gerrod feared it was another attack by the drow, but no attack came.
They sat a while in the security of that sphere. It kept them dry as they bobbed along with the sensation of movement. The darkness was unceasing, but they were able to assess their situation.
"This sphere won't last much longer," Corinna informed them. "so I suggest we make the most of it. Amanda, are you still with us?"
A groan that sounded vaguely like the cleric responded. "Yeah, she's all right," Allison interpreted, as much to convince herself as it was others. "She has to be."
"Ace, you still here?" Gerrod asked, recognizing his infrared outline against the blackness around them.
"I'm here, lad," he grumbled. "This magic ain't killed me yet, though I'll be happier once we get out of this tub and back onto dry land."
"What about Dak'gnu?" Corinna asked, unable even to see an infrared vision of the man.
"I here," he moaned. Gerrod didn't care for the amount
of effort it took him to say that. His body glowed softer than he thought it should, but the sphere was not compatible with moving around a whole lot.
"Let's try to tie ourselves together," Corinna suggested. "When this bubble breaks, who knows where we'll be. It may be the only way to get us out of here alive.
Pressing their luck and moving as little as possible, they passed ropes along, each tying themselves into the line the best they could. Gerrod tugged on the tether, and wasn't encouraged by the prospect that this might be the only thing that bound them together.
Without warning, the sphere burst and like the cracking of an egg, they were suddenly deposited into the freezing cold water. There was a strong current, and as each of them got carried away down stream, the tether pulled taunt.
Chapter 22
Festival of To'Mak