The subterranean depths are not to be trifled with, for they are home to a multitude of creatures that would make even the bravest of men tremble. The darkness down there is eternal, and those that dwell within it have evolved to navigate it with senses beyond our understanding. Some are pallid and sightless, while others possess an array of heightened senses that make them deadly predators.
There are whispers of a creature that surpasses all others in its power and ferocity - the Great Crawler. Though its existence is little more than rumor, its supposed presence has been felt through the quakes it causes as it tunnels through the rock and earth. It is said that the monster is the stuff of nightmares, a beast so terrifying that even the hardiest of adventurers dare not venture into its domain.
Many believe that the tales of Earth Dragons are nothing more than the ramblings of ignorant peasants, but perhaps there is some truth to their words. For who can say what beasts lie in the depths of the earth, waiting to unleash their fury upon the surface world?
- Monsters of the Mortal Realms by K. D. Fidditch.
I was awoken by the rough shaking of my shoulders.
"It's alright, lad," I heard a familiar gravelly voice say as a solid hand shook my shoulders, pulling me from the depths of my bad dream.
Groggily, I rubbed my face awake and saw Durhit's ash-gray eyes looking intently at me, cold in the Zajasite's blue light. Turning to my left and right, I could see Kidu standing with his arms crossed, hulking and taciturn in the gloom. Elwin Tucker, the rogue, practically jumped up when he saw that I was awake.
"Can you do it?" he asked, almost childishly, his desire glowing in his eyes and written in the dark lines of his face.
I checked the bottom left of my vision, confirming that my Mana had risen, but not to full.
Health: 147/147
Stamina: 49/49
Mana: 9/12
Answering Elwin's question with one of my own, I croaked, my voice dry, "How long did I rest for?"
"About an hour, I would say," Durhit answered. "Even for us, it's hard to keep track of time when you're in the earth's embrace."
"Hrmm... nothing related, but I always wondered, why do they call you little dwarves stone-eaters?" Elwin asked offhandedly.
Even in the gloom, Durhit's scowl could be clearly seen. "Because you manlings believe that such is a dwarf's greed that he would rather eat stone than pay for food!" he harrumphed at the Rogue's question, clearly a little annoyed.
"Your collar, I can… I can… do something to it. Break its mechanisms, I think," I all but blurted to change the subject, unwilling to let the situation escalate.
All attention suddenly turned to me, and I felt the full onslaught of their gazes. Kidu uncrossed his arms and tried to speak quietly but his voice ended up booming and echoing in the darkness. "You have a way? This is the truth of it?"
I nodded in response and replied placatingly, "Try touching your collar, please trust me. Not you, Elwin!" I quickly snapped as Elwin made to touch his collar, stopping just before making contact. Gingerly, Kidu touched his own collar. I knew for a fact that I had cast Rust on his collar once before, albeit at level one. Hiding my panic as best I could, I realized that I should have cast Identify on his collar before urging him to touch it. I breathed a mental sigh of relief when he suffered no ill effects.
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"Now, many of the Tides will die, thanks to you Gilgamesh the god-touched. I swear it to be so. For this gift of freedom, I do also swear from this day forth we are brothers. My spear and bow will be yours, always," he vowed solemnly, looking me steadily in the eyes.
"Alright, now how about me?" Elwin chimed in, raw eagerness lacing his voice.
"This might hurt a little... well, actually, to be honest with you, this may hurt a lot. You will want to be seated for this," I cautioned, worry echoing in my voice.
Elwin acknowledged my instructions and sat down on the rocky floor. Anticipating the potential pain, he ripped some fabric from the short sleeve of his tunic, rolled it up, and bit on it before nodding to me. Looking to Kidu to restrain him, I looked at the Rogue once more in the eyes.
"You sure of this?" I asked, knowing his answer before I had even finished. He nodded emphatically, his eyes steady with resolve. Casting my magic, I heard the familiar dark whispers as an oily feeling of wrongness pervaded my body. The energy felt almost gleeful now, as if wishing to be released. Holding my dominant left hand forward, I unleashed the pent-up energy into Elwin's slave collar.
Black energy, visible only to me, danced across the metal and swirled ever faster in a crescendo of movement. At first, Elwin looked as if nothing was wrong, until his eyes opened in what must have been great pain. A muffled scream reached his lips as he bit down. He closed his mouth tight against the rising heat of the collar as energy was released by the oxidation.
A slight tinge of ozone laced the air as esoteric energies devoured the metal, releasing stored energies within. This continued for long moments. The energy released from weeks of oxidation, compressed into such a short time frame, was hurting Elwin.
Eventually, the roiling energies subsided to a soft thrumming, and the Rogue’s head lolled, his mental and physical endurance at its limits. The smell of lightly charred flesh filled the small space. Durhit, in his wisdom, splashed some precious water from a scavenged canteen where metal met the skin of the man. It hissed as it hit the hot, now inert metal and caused Elwin to wake up with a resounding scream that could be heard even through his gag.
I moved quickly to his side, placing both hands around his neck to cast Heal. At first, it seemed reluctant to follow my will. Nonetheless, after a tense few moments, I was ultimately able to channel the positive energies into the struggling man. The warm power ameliorated his pain and suffering, and the cuts and bruises along his face visibly healed before our very eyes, even in the dark gloom.
Finally, as the spell ended, he spat out the wad of cloth and took deep breaths, like a man who had come too close to dying on a distant shore. The hulking Kidu looked at me and nodded, affirming his own wisdom.
"By the ancestor spirits, you truly are god-touched. Now I know that I was right to join my spear to yours," the proud wildman Kidu proclaimed.
Durhit looked confused, conflicting emotions warring across his features, before he spoke a single word with the impact of a gunshot.
"Gunne," he whispered.
"Gunne, son of Gudlaug, swore a blood feud against my spear brother. Under what obligation was he to help that brat? Better to die free than to die as a slave," snarled Kidu, fierce in his protectiveness like a mother bear.
"He was just a child who had fallen in with a..." Durhit stammered, surprised at Kidu's sudden unequivocal defense.
"Healing... like this... is expensive," wheezed Elwin, slowly recovering from my ministrations. He touched his collar for confirmation and breathed a sigh of relief when no lightning pain paralyzed him. "Gil here was under no responsibility to help the boy. You know that the good brothers at the temples charge a fortune for his kind of healing!"
"Just... we could have saved him," the dwarf said somberly, looking sad as his shoulders sagged in surrender.
Seeking to clear up the situation, I decided to speak up and say my piece.
"Durhit, I truly believed the boy was beyond saving. The healing you think could have saved him, I simply could not do," I said, looking to Elwin for support. "I could not have done it with the energies I had at the time," I added, lying with ease.
"I have known many liars, and I would stake my life and immortal soul on it that Gil here speaks the truth," Elwin said before taking a breath, which seemed to come a little easier now. "As Kidu says, it's better he died quick and clean than the slow, tortured life of a slave. Besides, what else was he to do?"
I looked at Durhit, challenging him to disagree, but he said nothing. It must have been some sort of test because I received a notification that I had gained another point in Charisma.
You have gained 1 Charisma.