Ograch caught up to the rest of the party, panicked at the loss of their strongest member and worried about the life of his friend. Liv turned toward him crashing through the forest about to urge him to be silent when she saw Lanek’s condition. She paled even as Lanek’s two animal companions rushed over to see him, Sanguineus whimpering at Lanek’s unresponsive state.
“What happened to him?” Liv whispered urgently.
“I don’t know, one second he was acting normally and the next his eyes had gone black and he passed out. I can’t see any injuries on him, but I haven’t had time to look.”
“Fuck. Okay, we need to find somewhere to hide until morning. Those things didn’t come out until the sun set.”
Sanguineus and Kazuma took off, fanning out to cover more ground in their search for shelter. Liv once more took the lead, Ograch having no choice but to trust in his new companions while he was carrying Lanek.
They ran well into the night, Kazuma and Sanguineus guiding them around the enemy. However, Liv was worried that they were simply being toyed with by the void shifters. Those creatures had proven quite capable of moving as fast or faster than the gaunts, who were in turn faster than anyone in their party aside from the animal companions.
Liv ran until she spotted an opening in the trees ahead of her. She burst into a clearing with a crumbling stone house surrounded by a low stone wall. That’ll have to do.
When Ograch caught up to her, he paused for only a moment to look at Liv before rushing into the building and setting Lanek down. “They’re still behind us. Pacing us.”
Liv nodded grimly. “The damn things are trying to make us afraid before they attack. We can’t outrun them.”
“Stand and fight it is. Let’s see about limiting their entry points while we can.” Ograch glanced around the single room and was delighted to see that the house only had two openings, the front door and a window on the same wall as that door. The rest of the walls were solid stone.
Ograch took position at the window and Liv took up position at the door, shield in hand. Meanwhile, Sanguineus positioned himself near Lanek’s unconscious form. Kazuma took his mist form and took to the roof, passing through a rather large hole in the ceiling.
They waited for what felt like an eternity before a wall of fog entered their field of view, stopping at the treeline. As they waited for the attack, they could see more silhouettes appearing in the fog, writhing sickeningly.
Ograch glanced away from the window at the sound of Sanguineus growling deeply while staring at the floor. He stepped closer to the wolf when he saw several floorboards begin to lift, followed by a gnarled hand.
“Get down here, you blasted fools.” A voice growled from underneath the floor, causing Liv to spin away from the door and aim her spear at the hatch and Ograch to jump in surprise.
Sanguineus looked to Ograch, before nudging Lanek’s body. The hobgoblin nodded, seeing little choice but to heed the voice. Staying up here to face the shifters was suicide, after all. Kazuma leapt down from the roof, descending through the hidden hatch. A moment later, Ograch and Sanguineus followed, leaving Liv shaking her head in disbelief before descending after them, locking the hatch behind her with a simple bar lock. Fucking basements.
Once they had descended the small flight of stairs, they found themselves in a rough cellar. However, the cellar’s walls and the hatch were covered in softly glowing glyphs. Even more surprising was the figure glaring at them from the center of the room. The individual was wearing worn travel clothing and was of a similar size and height to the humans in the room. Its features were distinctly human, aside from the short antlers growing from its head.
“What are you staring at, girl? Never seen a Lothenae before?” The creature asked in a soft, gravelly voice. Seeing the look of confusion on both Ograch and Liv’s faces, his face fell. “Truly? Where am I that you know nothing of my people?”
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“You are between the cities of Caelis and Laethon, near the Ashen Depths dungeon.” Liv replied. “I am Liv and this is Ograch. Our friend on the floor over there is Lanek. The wolf is Sanguineus and Kazuma is the cat, both of which are bonded to Lanek.”
“Ah, that explains why those two look so distrustful. Calm yourselves, I mean your friend no harm. My name is Ivan.” He sat on the ground and motioned for everyone to take a seat. “This is far worse than I thought. I’ve not heard of any of the places that you mentioned nor have I seen anything like you, Ograch.”
After a moment looking at Ograch, he sighed. “Well, [Identify] didn’t help. A hobgoblin? I’ve never read or heard of your kind.”
“Let me guess, you just woke up near here?” Liv asked.
“Yes, I awoke in a small village near here two weeks ago, but was forced out by those void shifters once night fell. I almost didn’t make it when I stumbled on this house and found the cellar.”
Ograch looked around. “How did you find the cellar? Are the glyphs your doing?”
“I am a Runeshaper, I could feel the dormant glyphs down here and that led me to the hatch. I was able to feed my mana into them to activate them. It was not hard to divine their purpose as defensive wards. It’s the only reason those things haven’t been able to get to me at night.” Ivan glanced at the two before asking, “What led to your guess that I woke up here?”
“Well, I woke up in the dungeon a few weeks ago and found out my homeland is many months of travel to the north. Lanek woke up in the city of Caelis and I have no idea where he’s from.”
Ograch chimed in, “And my people are not from the area either. Our people believe that we were driven out of the mountains to the north, but some of our shamans don’t believe that.”
“Interesting. It’s almost like something is dragging people here against their will. I’m glad to hear that there are cities nearby, however. I could do with some civilization.” Seeing Liv cringe, he asked, “What?”
“Caelis is empty, the people dead and gone for centuries. The city was assimilated by the dungeon. As for Laethon, we don’t know, but we aren’t hopeful. That’s why we are out here, to see what happened to Laethon and maybe find more people. At the moment, the only non-monster people that exist in any numbers around here are Ograch’s tribe, the Night Arrows.”
“That’s unfortunate. So, pretty much everyone is lost as to what is happening?”
“Pretty much. If Lanek is okay with it, you could join us in Caelis. There is a library in our home and I’m guessing there are more in the city, provided you can avoid the monsters. Frankly, you could probably find your own little corner of Caelis if you didn’t want to come with us. You’ll at least be more comfortable.” Ograch said.
“Anything would be better than this place. Why would you invite a stranger to join you?”
Liv and Ograch took turns explaining Lanek’s plan to create a secure stronghold. When Ivan asked why they would bother, they explained the widespread devastation of the gaunts and how the only survivors that they knew of were only surviving by hiding their presence as much as possible from the creatures.
“I see. Do you mind if I take a look at your friend? Maybe I can help.” After seeing nods from the Liv and Ograch, Ivan approached the unconscious man. Long moments passed as he stared at Lanek before turning to Lanek’s companions and saying shakily, “Why is your friend touched by the Void? His body is dying from a large influx of Void energy. I’m surprised that he isn’t already dead. It’s almost as if something inside of him is trying to fend off the energy but it is not capable of expelling it.”
“You can see all of that? How?” Ograch questioned.
“A Runeshaper must have extremely high perception to properly carve, identify, and imbue runes and glyphs. Add that high perception to my [Identify] skill and I can see a lot more information than most.”
“Oh, like the shamans of my tribe.”
“Most likely, every shaman and druid I have ever run into has had much higher perception than is normal for their race.”
Liv looked from one of them to the other before asking, “Is there anything you can do to help him?”
“I can’t heal him or expel the Void energy, but I can carve some runes around him that can stabilize him. Maybe that will buy enough time for whatever is trying to help him to figure out a solution. However, there will be a price. No matter the outcome, I want you to let me into that headquarters of yours.”
After getting Ograch and Liv’s agreement, Ivan got to work. After all, what else could the two do? If Lanek died then they would could make the decision to let Ivan in themselves and if Lanek survived his gratitude would probably secure a spot for Ivan.
Ivan drew a chisel from his belt and gestured for them to move Lanek away from the stairs. Once he had space to work, Ivan carved a series of symbols into the ground around Lanek’s body, connecting each glyph to one another to make an intricate pattern. Once the final connection was made, the pattern began softly glowing and Ivan slumped to the ground.
“That’s all I can do. I can recharge the pattern with more mana once I rest for a few hours, the rest is up to him.”