_

The three began the slow and long descent into the dark; even with the aid of torchlight, the group was forced to go rather slowly, as cracks and crevices pitted the slick floor. One could turn easily turn an ankle, or worse.  The air was cold, and growing more damp. The air in their nostrils was of ancient stone, patient water, and a faint hint of organic rot. 

After about an hour of careful descent, the main passage branched into three diverging paths.  The first was a hard right turn into another wide tunnel. The second was more narrow, but still traversable fissure continuing in the same direction, and the third a downward sloping tunnel on their left.

At Nima’s insistence, the others fell silent, so that they could listen at the mouth of each path, but heard nothing.

“Perhaps we ought to split up and each take a tunnel. Venture in a ways, then meet back and report any findings.”

“Breaking the line is how people get themselves killed. I say we stick together and begin with the leftmost tunnel.”

Nima nodded.

They entered the left-hand tunnel. For several hundred yards it was more of the same: cold stone on all sides, with only the steady drip of water from the hanging stalactites to break the monotony.  After about 15 minutes of this, Nima became aware of a set of entirely different sound ahead. Soon Tadalac and Bruckner could hear them too. A wide wide and melancholic melody played, as plaintive and lovely as a gravestone, and infringing upon those sonorous notes here and there, invaded a wild, inane gibbering. They came to a fork: the song was emerging from the left hand passage, and the wild voice from the right.

"Left hand passage. But we need to proceed cautiously. Nothing singing in the bowels of the earth is holy or fine."

They pressed forward with great care, noticing after a few moments a cold blue light suffusing through the tunnel.  The song—and oh, what dark dirge, or mournful requiem it was—grew louder with each step, though the singer sang but softly. They saw him, alone in a small terminal cavern. He sat against the far wall, a small figure propped against a sack, a luminous blue sphere hanging in the air a few feet above him, giving off the eerie light they had followed. He fell silent, and watched them; he was old and wizened, and not human. The hair of his beard sprouted thick, like tree roots, winnowing down to narrow tendrils. His eyes were like pumice stones. They glimmered and crackled as he shifted his gaze, and they steamed in the cold.

"Tadalac, what is this man?" 

'Tis an ur-gnome, an ancient cousin to my kind. I don't know what he's doing here, though.'

The creature calls out in a feeble voice, wavering much like the eerie blue light, flickering against the cavern walls, 

"have you come to kill me too?  Have done with it, then."  

He bowed his head and begins what sounds like a soft prayer.

Bruckner called out: 

"Stop your muttering and tell us who you are and how you came to be here."

He looks up with milky eyes, and focuses on Bruckner's face.  "How I came to be here?  My kin and I have lived under these mountains for a hundred generations.  In the past year, almost all of us have been killed or driven away."  He rocks back and forth slightly, shuddering.  "But no doubt you already know this--there are none here but the devils and those who summon them.  Doubtless you are one of them...come to finish the job."

Tadalac case a severe eye on Bruckner. 

"Quiet Ox!  This old fellow has suffered a great deal, can't you tell?  You let me and Nima speak with him. Come on, little sister. He needs friends right now."  

He looked to Nima and held out a hand. Nima waited, studying the hunched figure. After a moment’s consideration, she took Tadalac’s hand and they approached.

“I don't really make a very good friend," 

She muttered, but followed along all the same, glancing back surreptitiously, and a bit sheepishly, at Bruckner.

Tadalac sat down next to the ancient creature.  

"Hello old fellow," he said in a very kind and soft voice. "Won't you tell us what happened here?  We're here on the orders of General Aleksander, the bravest and best man in these parts, to hunt down and stop the demons from their wicked doings.  We will help you to get out."

The old gnome looks at Tadalac and smiles a wan smile.  

"Hello young one," he says.  "It warms this old heart to see a happy young gnome like yourself.  There has been too little heartwarming for me of late, I'm afraid...  We have lived here a very long time, in the under-mountain.  Times are always changing of course, but normally the change is of the sort to be expected.  But then," he shudders, "they started coming up.  The devils.  Horrible terrifying beings, wrapped in spiked chains, leading fire-hounds, and riding stallions of flame and shadow.  They started to kill my folk, and the dark humans who summoned them have been no better.  They are taking over all of the under-places in this region, and if my ears haven't lied as I've heard them speaking their horrible tongue, they plan to invade your surface world as well.  I was away when the attack on my village came, peddling wares to some distant corners in Aleriam or Izzin-Fess, and other, less savory places one might meet along the pitch roads as they run south of here; I had heard the rumors of trouble with devils prior to this, of course, but there are always rumors down here.  I never imagined..." he stifled a small sob.  Tadalac pats him on the hand.  

“If you would help me to leave this terrible place, I would be most grateful.  I have nothing left here but painful memories.  I have wares to sell," he looks up hopefully, "if that would aid you brave travelers.  I returned from my journey with much left unsold."  He gestures to several bags sitting beside him.  "I have remained undetected thanks to my illusion magic for several months, but," his chin drops onto his chest, "I am so tired now, and saw no reason to continue on, so I let the illusions drop.  I am grateful though, that you found me, and not those monsters."

What is that blue sphere hanging above you?" 

Bruckner asked the gnome. 

"Oh, that?" he says, looking up as though he'd forgotten about it.  "Just a little enchanted lantern.  I make and sell them, or... I did.  I think I have a few left, if you're interested", he says very sadly.

"It looks useful. How much do you want for it?"

The ghost of a smile appears on his face and he looks gratefully at Bruckner.  "Oh, well, I suppose that a price reduction is called for...circumstances and all," (he appears to be barely able to focus through his weariness and grief).  "100 gold pieces?" he says, more as a question than a statement.  

Bruckner looked at Tadalac with an expression of puzzlement and disgust. Nima dropped Tadalac's hand and moved to intervene.  

"Look," she said to the deep gnome.  

"We've some business that you can help us with, by sharing both supplies and information.  In return for your assistance, we would be willing to promise to aid your escape when we are finished with our business.  That should be worth anything we need, don't you think?"  

She paused, looking at Tadalac.  

"And...anything we don't strictly need, we will pay you a fair price for."

Tadalac said, 

"I'll buy one!" and handed over 100 gold coins.

The gnome smiled and said, 

"I will gladly aid you in any way I can... I will tell you what I know, and gladly offer you supplies.  I have some potions and weapons, and other sundries that might aid you.  Feel free to have a look."

"I might buy one. What else do you have for sale?" He said, 

"I have healing potions, which you may take for free, given the danger of your quest, and your bravery in facing it.  I also have some enchanted items that may be of aid to you.

The wizened gnome seemed to be perking up a bit. "If you brave souls will really take me out of here, I will be most grateful.  And I will give you gifts, aside from the potions to aid you.  He stands slowly, and walked toward Bruckner, saying, "You are obviously a warrior of great strength.  I hope you will use this; my son wore it in battle...he was a mighty warrior too..."  He handed the youth a small, pale purple stone that pulsed with magical energy. It was little larger than a marble. Bruckner hesitated, then accepted it. As it touched his skin, the stone seemed to dissolve in a flurry of light, and Bruckner turned his arm to find the stone set within the bracer he wore over his shield arm, as if placed there by a master jeweler. Bruckner’s shield felt slightly lighter in his arm. The gnome winked at Bruckner’s astonished expression.

He turned to Nima and said: "You look as though you are keen and able with that crossbow of yours.  Here, I think this one will be even more to your liking.  From a bag, he pulled an a light crossbow carved with Emmenulenite glyphs, and handed it gingerly to her; it was meticulously crafted of a deep red wood.  

To Tadalac he says, "And you my kind young friend; I offer you three of my scrolls, of your choosing.  I can tell you are a powerful wizard, and perhaps some additional magic will aid you."  Tadalac claps his hands together and begins rummaging through the scrolls like an excited child.

"Thank you for this," Bruckner said, quite moved by the gesture. "I hope to bear it well." 

Nima was studying the mechanism of her new crossbow with satisfaction.

Anything else you wish to purchase? It seems unlikely we’ll happen upon another merchant down here. Do you need more gold?

She smiled. 

“Thank you, but no; I’m fine.” She selected from among the mage’s wares an ensorcelled amulet that helped the shadows cling more closely to the wearer. "I believe I will take that amulet.  It will clean me out, but I think it might become useful."

The elderly gnome carried out the transaction, his demeanor growing less sorrowful as he takes comfort in the presence of the three youths.  

"You are venturing into the lair of the beasts?"  

He asks.  

"You must be warned that there are devils awaiting you.  I know not how many, or of what variety, but I have told you of the sorts I have seen.  There is a fat well-dressed human lord as well, traveling in the company of a devilish woman and two harsh looking figures cloaked in crimson robes.  Methinks I heard another scampering down this way several hours ago as well, but I cannot be sure.  I beg you all to use the utmost caution."

Tadalac looked up, having selected three scrolls, and said,

"Thanks old fellow.  We are brave and strong.  Nothing can stop us!"  

He paused as though thinking about what he's just said, then nodded affirmatively.  He looks to Bruckner and Nima.  

"Shall we press on?"

"Yes. We should go back to the fork and take the right hand passage, toward that wailing sound."

The group took their leave of the ur-gnome, and head back down the other branch, towards the sounds of frenzied wailing. The tunnel they moved through narrowed until Nima and Bruckner had to stoop—the walls were covered with blooming fungi that pulsed with a nebulous light, so faint as to make one question their eyes.

After a few hundred feet, the wet and narrow gullet of stone opened onto a room of medium size; all three spied at once what was making the terrible noises. In the middle of the room lay a twisting, ulcerous, blubbering mass of violent blue and yellow flesh, large, straining eyeballs, and orifices containing sharp teeth, all emitting an endless stream of crazed screaming interspersed with violent muttering and the chittering of a thousand slivered teeth. From time to time it belched forth trumpeting gales of noise, and jetting into the air from the unholy sphincters, a latticework of rigid blue energy, creasing patterns through the air, then crackling into mephitic oblivion.  The thing was uncertain in form, like a beast whose bones had turned to jelly within it, or had been turned inverse on itself.

 It saw the group, and began a horrible dragging shuffle towards them, on tentacle-like arms that form out of the viscous mass of its body. Nima was the first to react, drawing her new bow up to her shoulder and firing a bolt towards the wild creature. It sailed through the air with a green crackling light, and sank deep into the flesh.

 As the creature begins babbling in wild, incomprehensible tones, green spittle flying from its multitudinous mouths, and crazed grids of unknown energy suffusing through the night air of the interior cavern, Bruckner and Tadalac, were overcome by intense confusion; the sound echoing throughout the cavern which obviously had some magical or mind-affecting quality, combined with the terrible nature of the creature's appearance, renders the two of you incoherent with wild mania and confusion.  

“What is that thing!?” Tadalac called out in incoherent fear. He turned and began to run wildly, his eyes full of madness. Bruckner was at his side, sprinting as well, as fast as his feet could carry him.

In Bruckner’s mind, all was chaos and disorder. Never had he felt such a lack of structure. Order was the way of things for Bruckner, and for all things there was a time, a place, a season, and a virtue. But now there was only flooding light that seared green and purple and lonely infinite white, like a hateful alien sun, and the screaming inane and wild and tearing at his heart until he thought he must die or tear his eyes out and plunge nails in his ears to stop the shrieking visions and scorching sounds.

And Tadalac too was enveloped in a wild, permeating madness of color and noise and powerful emotion straining and pushing at his little body, and tearing at the curls atop his head, and they taunted him and laughed and said FOOL! and IDIOT! and he tried to call fire but his hands melted like wax and dripped noiselessly onto the naked stone of the cavern floor, and he screamed.

Nima, you remain unaffected by the wild noise, though it is decidedly unpleasant to you. You drop to a knee and send a bolt into one of the blob's many eyes, dealing 4 damage.

Tadalac and Bruckner both began to flee, sprinting at top speed back down the tunnel, and the alien lunged at Nima with a charge and bites [it hits with a 19 against Nima], biting down on her left arm, dealing 3 damage.  As it hits with its teeth, a second mouth shoots a forceful stream of acid directly at Nima, though she was able to dodge beneath the stream.

Racing back towards the narrow throat of stone, Tadalac tripped on a stalagmite, crashing heavily to the ground, and cracking his cheekbone hard against the stone. The impact caused him to black out a moment, dissipating the madness that had overcome him. Bruckner tripped over the gnome’s flailing arm, and went down with a loud series of clangs. 

“Get a hold of yourself, Ox!” Tadalac bellowed, pointing a finger, and sending an arc of electricity to jolt through the swordsman. His teeth rattled in his skull, and his vision went white, then the shock was past, and his mind was his own again. He picked himself up, giving the wizard a grimacing nod of thanks, then raced back towards Nima as Tadalac began weaving fire into reality from the empty air.

Meanwhile, Nima had done some dagger work, and her arm was free, albeit bleeding. She disengaged, turning to flee the tendrils of snaking flesh that followed after her, slashing backwards with her blade to sever the tips of a few such appendages. She whirled and fired a bolt, but the blob shifted to form a hole where the bolt is heading, thus letting it pass through harmlessly.  

Nima fired her crossbow blindly, through acid-bleeding eyes, and hear a gibbering roar as the bolt strikes home.  

Then a scorching ray of concentrated fire seared through the air five feet before Nima’s face. It was meant for the awful foe, but the thing leapt back with preternatural quickness, and fire tore at rock.

A line of flame remained on the bare stone, lapping with a sort of sullen orange glow at the ancient lichens that had never seen the sun.

Then Bruckner tore out from the narrow passage of stone, the black blade in his hand. The formless foe began to spiral in on itself in undulating ribbons of flesh, like fountains of ghoulish water, flecked through with teeth and eyes and viscera.

Bruckner leapt at the thing, bringing his sword high. The creature formed a spear of itself, and struck Bruckner through the thigh. He gasped, and nearly dropped his sword as the tendril of twisting, rigid flesh burst out the back of his leg and pinned him to the wall. He roared in agony, his sword wavering.

Nima wiped acid from bleeding eyes, and managed to fumblingly load a bolt into her crossbow. Though she could barely see, the foe stood out, a smeared neon streak of unnatural being across her hazy horizon. She fired a crackling bolt into it, and laughed wildly to hear it scream.

Tadalac, huffing, appeared from the tunnel behind him. He ran carefully, avoiding the line of now-failing fire. As Bruckner faltered,Tadalac shouted,

“Oy!” and stomped his foot. As the little foot struck the rock, a square-foot block of flame shot upward, engulfing the freakish foe. It screamed wildly as it burned, its cries merging with Bruckner’s in a symphony of agony. 

“Now, Bruckner!” Tadalac cried.

And Bruckner gripped his sword tight, and saw the many eyes and mouths of his foe, burning now, but still wanting, and looking and taking, and whispering close, and it would have him, but he took a half step back and its jaws snapped on air, and then he swung his sword through the thing’s body, and it lay now on the stone in two miserable burning piles.

The thing sputtered and hissed and pooled and puddled and popped and heaved and wriggled and sloughed and cackled and dissolved away onto the rock as Bruckner and Nima and Tadalac fell to the ground, 

"I am sorry," 

Bruckner said, somehow keeping the wild thrill of pain out of his voice. The spear of flesh had been pulled clean out when the creature died, and blood trickled into his boot. He unstoppered a potion and took half of it in three swift gulps.

"My actions were shameful. I won't let it happen again. I have a potion of healing that either of you may take."

Trying to hide a smirk, the half-elf said, 

"No problem.  That was an odd creature.  I'll take that potion.  Er--" 

she realized belatedly that she may not be the only person wounded.  

"That is, if Tadalac doesn't need it more."

Tadalac looked up wearily from his inspection of the ulcerous remains of the unholy creature, and said, “Tadalac is fine.”

As his wound began to knit, Bruckner made a swift sweep of the room, which was largely nothing but rock pocked and eaten away by acid—presumably courtesy of its erstwhile tenant. At the rear of the small space he discovered a pile of human bones. Remnants of a face clung to a shrunken skull, and he turned away.

They made their way hastily back to the ur-gnome’s cave. "what brings you back so soon?  Have you encountered trouble?"  Tadalac says, "we met a filthy formless creature—some sort of terrible abomination, old fellow, and he bit Nima here!  Also, I need to prepare some magics, and we could all use some rest.  Do you mind if we sleep a spell in your little cave?"  The gnome breaks out into a wide smile, and says, "I would be most grateful for the company!"  You all settle in as the old gnome pulls a small dark wooden lute from a bag and begins to strum a slow and very melancholy song.  His voice blends with the notes, somber tones in gnomish.  Tadalac listens with a sad small smile, and begins going over his spellbook.  

Bruckner began setting up to keep watch, but Tadalac piped up, saying, "You can get some sleep Ox, if you need.  Tadalac has to prepare spells, so I will be up anyway.  I will wake you in a few hours."

Bruckner slept, with sword and shield handy.

Tadalac gently shook Bruckner awake after a few hours.  "You ready for your watch, Ox?" he asked. Nodding, Bruckner roused himself and began his watch.

Bruckner kept a silent vigil for three hours, his head resting against the cold stone wall, and all was silent save for the soft murmur of cave wind creeping in at the edges of this small and somber place.  The blue floating lights gave off its soft glow, and everyone else, including the old gnome, lay fast asleep on the cave floor.

Upon waking the group made a quick repast, bade farewell to the old gnome, and began to make their way back down through the winding tunnel that lead back to the original three-fork path that they had found after releasing the trolls.  

They encountered no hostiles along the way, and the soft blue glow of their new enchanted lanterns made the going easier then before; unlike the harsh and leaping light of torches, the ensorcelled orbs provided consistent lighting that crept into the crevices and cracks, bathing all in a deep blue glow.

The group arrived back at the forking path, and began to make their way through the narrower central passageway.  It was perhaps only five feet wide and ten feet tall, sloping downward in a type of vertical oval fashion from the ceiling.  The passage was drier than the others the trio had been through thus far, and as they made their way through it, Nima’s sharp eyes became gradually aware of a distinct light source ahead. Soon the group was turning a corner, and then, roughly 300 feet ahead, the tunnel appeared to widen out into an open area. The adventurers could hear voices, and what sounded like the roar of a very large fire.  

Bruckner drew his sword from its sheath slowly. It emerged with a long slow rasp, announcing its intentions. Tadalac hooded his lantern, and Bruckner did the same, dimming the radiance so that only a narrow cone of indigo light shone before them.

Nima crept down the tunnel, silently snuffing the torches as she passed them.  She navigated a few twists and turns, then turned a sharp corner only to gasp as she nearly stepped into open air.  

The path she walked dead-ended at her toes, a small series of switchbacks leading down to the cavern floor.  The room was filled with firelight from a roaring bonfire in its center.  Three red hooded figures stood around it, their arms raised.  A group of small, hellish creatures scampered about squealing horribly as they ran to and fro.  

A fourth, medium sized humanoid was dragging a thick wooden pole affixed with a mop of horse hair dripping in red liquid in a sinuous, symmetrical pattern around the floor of the room, streaking a crimson tapestry of ghoulish symbology.  A slab of rock lay beyond the fire, and beyond it, a fat man wearing lordly garb, emptying a large golden goblet into his mouth, a seductive and evil looking woman with blazing red eyes draped in thin silks laying by his side, twisting his hair between her long, bone-white fingers.

Nima sensed no traps, and no one seemed to have noticed her.  The figures around the fire were chanting, and the fourth continued his frightening floor painting.

Nima recognized the fat lord from paintings she had seen of him in Emmenia; it was King Hector Janessin.  The others are hooded and cloaked, and you are unable to see their faces.  Canary has not yet returned.

Nima made her way quietly back to her companions and reported.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"Nima, you and Tadalac hit them from a distance and then retreat all the way back into the cave. If they run up, we can kill them as they come. If not, we hit them again. Don't shoot at that woman; we mustn't risk killing the King, if we can avoid it."

Nima unslung her crossbow and loaded it with a bolt. She took aim at the humanoid painting the floor, and loosed the bolt, which flew through the air, the firelight glinting off the iron tip before it lodged in his neck; he dropped dead to the ground before he could make a sound.  As he fell, Tadalac whispered a word, and with an artful flick, sent a fireball raging into the center of the group chanting. The twenty-foot radius spread easily, catching all three figures in its blast.  None of them were able to escape the ravaging fire, which poured down so unexpectedly.  

One drops to the ground, wailing; another rolls frantically on the ground, screaming in pain, but appears to be alive.  The third remains on its feet, its clothing singing and burning off of its body.  It appears to be unhurt, and looking up at the direction where the bolt and fireball came from, begins laughing horribly, interlacing its foul noises with deep guttural words, in a language that sounds both ancient and horrific (knowledge arcana check to see if you recognize it).  The creature has thick dark, scaled skin, and a foul spiked beard.  Slung across his back is a long and terrifying saw-toothed glaive.

The succubus leaps off of the pile of furs she occupies with King Janessin, and running forward, points a finger in your direction, and suddenly a wall of stone seemingly forms from nothing, blocking your view into the chamber.  You can still hear the guttural cries of the terrifying creature beyond, but can see no way past the barricade.

"Not bad. Can we dispel this wall, Tadalac?"

Tadalac rubbed his chin a moment, thinking.  He said, "Tadalac doesn't have any spells that can break through it directly..." he brightens suddenly, and says, "But I know what may work!  I prepared this spell specially for you, Ox—Strength of the Fathers!!"  He murmurs, pulling what looks like a thin strand of coarse brown hair out of his haversack, and touched Bruckner on the bicep.  Bruckner felt suffused with power and strength, as though the spell has unlocked all of the innate power hidden in his arms and back; he felt as strong as an actual Ox.  

Tadalac says, "I know this spell; the walls it makes are only about an inch thick.  With your great strength, you should be able to break through for us!"  As he finishes speaking, you hear a new sound through the thin stone; a man wailing in a fearful, almost pathetic, warbling voice.  It is not the screams of any of the creatures you heard before.  It sounds like it is speaking words, begging, pleading, confused words.

Bruckner, slammed his shoulder solidly against the stone, meeting with a jarring impact.  The wall did not give.  Tadalac looked perplexed, and said, 

"Hmmm.  Well, that didn't work."  He turns to Nima and says, "This wall is tougher than I thought.  Maybe we should give our friend a hand!"

The three of them put their shoulders together against the wall, and with a mighty roar, Bruckner powered through, cracking through the inch-thick stone, the rock grinding to dust under his armor.  Tadalac and Nima helped extend the size of the crack, opening up a hole wide enough for them all to fit through.  As they emerged on the other side, they saw a horrific sight; King Janessin was screaming, his clothes half ripped off, several long claw marks running down his chest and large stomach.  The bearded creature and the Succubus were tying him down on the stone altar that sits beyond the fire, seemingly in a great hurry.  At the sound of the wall breaking, and the three adventurers appearing above, the Succubus screamed, and the imps and the bearded devil turned and began running towards you.  The other figure who was badly burned in Tadalac's attack stays by the altar, barely standing, but managing to hold a sword and shield.