Missteps V.2

Chapter 35 – Rat Hunt

"You do realize you've probably just jinxed us." Iados sighed heavily as Ander frowned and looked back over his fiery handiwork. Elaine gave an eye-roll and stepped forward towards the crisped remains. Carric went with and used his sword to sweep rat bodies away from the humanoid corpse. She pulled out a small ceramic jar from her bag, and quickly dabbed some of the salve within it under her nose. Before she knelt down to inspect it, she offered some of it to the rest of the group. The salve blocked the wretched stench, and instead filled their nostrils with the sharp scent of jasmine. While Elaine examined the corpse, Kerri and Ander used their daggers to cut away what rat tails remained. Unfortunately it turned out that rat tails are actually rather fragile, and more than half of them crumbled away in their hands. Only four tails made it into their sack.

"Got anything?" Jun's question was aimed at Elaine, but his gaze was on their surroundings. On their left the cave wall had been carved into a large mural that stretched past their light. On the right, a metal guardrail separated the path from the lake that was ten or so feet below them. The air inside was cool, no doubt thanks to the water.

With a shake of her head, the cleric stood up. Honestly, she couldn't even tell if the body in front of her was male or female. The rats had eaten quite a lot of the soft tissue, and what they hadn't eaten had decomposed. She couldn't tell what the color of their skin had been.

"Then let's move on." Lia announced. She and Iados were already standing about ten feet away from the group. They'd been following the mural as it continued. The rest of the group followed.

The mural seemed to tell a story. It started with an image of a kind of tent city. Tables and market stalls were set up between wagons and large tents, almost like a fair that could disappear into the night. Behind the tents, was a river with boats on it.

In the next scene, small stone and wooden building had been erected in place of some of the tents. The populace of the scene was larger in number, and the image held the same kind of market activity that the first had had. The river now held a proper dock.

The third mural, was disaster. This one was smaller than the previous two. The buildings were in ruins, scattered across the torn up ground. Tents were on fire as people fled. Huge holes littered the ground. People were shown being swallowed in large earthen maws. The river in the background emptied into a large pit in its center.

Iados tapped the mural. "What do you want to bet, that this was part of the disaster that created The Divide?"

"It might be more than just an earthquake." Elaine ran her hand over the image of a terrified woman as she fell into a pit. "I think it's an attack."

That made everyone pause.

"What do you mean, an attack?" Kerri scanned her eyes over the image again. All she saw was destruction.

Elaine's gaze moved from one sinkhole to another. "I've seen a mural like this before. It depicted the ground as it opened and swallowed everything in its path. The artist gave the piece a title."

"What was it?" Iados's asked.

"'The Waking of Adayang'," Elaine finally turned away from the mural. "I've no idea who 'Adayang' is."

"They're a god, one of the original primordial gods." Kerri informed her friend as she took another look at the mural. "According to the stories, they shaped the landscape of every world in the universe. When they were finished, they left a piece of themselves behind, asleep. Most of the time Adayang is referred to as 'World Shaper', 'Mountain Majesty', or 'Earth Shaker'."

"If this is what happens when they wake up, then I vote to keep them asleep." Lia piped up. "I wonder why Adayang woke up?"

Carric's mind flashed back to his discussion with Glendaia. He shook his head. It was just a dream, and this wasn't proof to think otherwise. "It's probably just the artist taking liberties with how it went down." He shrugged. "You have to admit, giant pits swallowing up the countryside looks a lot more imposing than just a lot of stuff shaking."

Elaine nodded her head and smiled. "You've a point. I'm probably just reading too much into it."

Iados clapped his hands. "If we're all done discussing fine art, I think I can see something just up ahead." He pointed over his shoulder to an area outside the globe's light range.

In the shadows ahead, the crumpled form a tent stuck out, and became clearer as the group approached. It turned out to be three tents that had collapsed in on themselves around a small rock-ringed fire pit. Gear such as hammers, pitons, and rope were strewn about the site, or spilling out of the remains of three packs.

Before they could spread out and search the area, a now familiar sound hit their ears. Iados crept forward and peered into the darkness. Just around the next bend was another cluster of rats. He stealthed back and reported.

"I could just hit them again with the same spell." Ander grinned.

"How big is the cluster?" Jun turned to Iados.

"Pretty much the same size as the first one." The akudaem replied.

"I don't see any issues with letting Ander barbecue them." Lia looked down at a grinning Ander. "You ready?" The halfling nodded.

"Alright then, lead the way." Jun gestured forward and followed along behind him. The rest of the group hung back.

The nest was easy enough to see with the light from the globe shining down upon it. Jun glanced down into the mess and saw a booted foot that peeked out from the mass of furry bodies. The duo were given only cursory glances by the rodents, but none ran away as they were intent on their meal.

Thankfully this time Ander and Jun couldn't smell the decay, but the sound of a dozen giant rats as they dined on flesh was not one they'd forget anytime soon.

With a word and gesture, fire flashed out from Ander's hands once again. The whole area lit up as the rats were flash-burned. In the fire light, Jun saw a second nest a few feet back from the first. This time there were survivors.

The fire died down and it took Ander's eyes a few moments to readjust. In those moments, he felt sharp teeth latch onto his arm. He screamed, more in surprise than pain, and hastily punched out with his other hand towards the dark shape. The shape gave a high-pitched squeak and backed off.

"Shit!" Jun reached down, grabbed Ander's collar, and pitched him back towards the camp behind them.

As Ander flew past, Iados rushed forward, sword drawn, ready to fight pretty pissed off rats. Jun pulled his warhammer off his back as Iados skirted around him. As he did, his foot landed on a pretty charred rat body and sank with a sickening squelch. His hand shot out and steadied himself on the metal guardrail.

Kerri saw his wipe out and winced in sympathy as she watched him pull his now juice-covered foot out of the rat body. She cupped her hands together and for him his own shanty of the sea.

"From monks then the sea waves,

Quite a character you see,

Will take your life and silver,

With grace and silence, he!

His kick will take your breath away

As to the ground you fall,

Best not to meet in battle,

This pirate monk at all."

Just as the song ended, a rat bit Iados in the leg. He let out a pirate curse and skewered the roasted rodent on the end of his sword. He kicked the rodent off and turned to face the next opponent, the shanty stilling ringing in his ears. This was the kind of inspiring music he could get behind.

Next to him, Jun swung at anything that moved. While he'd gotten Ander out of harm's way, he'd also gotten rid of the light. The light was dim around him, and the damn rats kept squirming out of the way. He felt something take a bite of his leg. Jun twisted his grasp on the warhammer and swung down low, then smirked in satisfaction as the blow made contact with something and sent it flying into the wall. In the corner of his eye he saw movement and swung towards it.

Iados barely ducked the warhammer that whistled overhead as it flew past. "I'm not a rat!"

Jun didn't answer as he felt more nibbles on his legs. He swung the warhammer with two hands and launched two more rats into the watery depths.

Iados skipped a couple of feet away and went back on the offensive with the rats. Thanks to their efforts, there were only a few left, and Jun had two of them on the run. Iados slashed another rat, and noticed this one already had a familiar arrow lodged in its butt. With a grin he reached down to retrieve Carric's arrow.

A smaller rat launched itself out of a mound of dead bodies next to Iados. It bit down on the akudaem's forearm and clamped down. Iados grunted in pain. He fell to the ground and attempted to bash the rat's head in, but it held firm. Warm blood gushed out of the wound and it pulsated with pain.

Jun knelt down next to him and used both hands to pry the rat's mouth open. With a heavy sigh of relief Iados's arm was released. He unceremoniously threw the rat over the guardrail. It only took a few moments for them all to hear the satisfying splash of its landing.

"How bad is it?" Jun tried to assess the bite in the dim light, but he couldn't even see the blood next to the akudaem's violet skin.

"Bad enough that my arm's going numb." Iados winced as Jun hauled him to his feet. Shakily he headed back to the campsite.

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Elaine didn't say anything as Iados and Jun came into view. She pointed at the ground next to her as she dug in her pack. Iados sat down gracefully, but heavily. Jun sat down next to him.

She thrust a healing potion into Iados's hands as she examined and cleaned the deep bite. As Iados drank, he felt the pain from his injury subside, and the wound begin to close in on itself. Elaine rubbed an ointment on everyone's bite marks to stave off any possible infections from the rodents.

While she worked, Carric and Lia scouted the remains of the rat pile from afar. They watched as a couple more scampered out from under the dead ones, but they didn't make it far thanks to Carric's bow. After a few minutes Lia's attention wandered over towards the water. She leaned over the guardrail and stared deep into its dark depths, curious as to whether the rats could swim.

Ander and Kerri amused themselves by exploring the camp. They'd tried to go off and collect the rat tails, but Elaine had barked a warning at them when it was clear that her light was leaving.

Kerri saw that Elaine was hard at work, so she bit her lip and stopped herself from reminding the cleric that she could make her own light. So the two of them picked through the remains of the camp. They found the moldy remains of several packs of rations, some gnawed-on coils of rope, changes of clothes, and a few other odds and ends such as torches and lamp oil.

Ander sat back and studied the remains. His lips were pursed and his eyebrows furrowed as he cataloged what was there.

Kerri looked over. "What's wrong?"

"Something's missing." As Ander looked over the small collection, and the collapsed tents, he was reminded of something he'd read. He just wasn't sure what. Behind him Elaine finished up with Jun and Iados. She left them with some jerky to gnaw on, then her and Carric headed towards the new bodies.

Kerri picked up one of the torches. "Why didn't they light these?"

"Maybe they couldn't." Ander pointed towards the items they'd found. "There are no tinderboxes or fire starters here."

"Well Carric carries his in a belt pouch, maybe they did too."

Ander frowned. "Maybe. You know, for people who were sent underground to fight rats, I'm not seeing any weapons."

"You're right." Kerri looked around. "I don't see anything with an edge on it." She stood up and looked inside one of the tents. "Do you think they were trying to capture the rats, and not kill them?" Ander shrugged.

Kerri went over to another tent and rummaged around it. "I found something." She said as she crawled towards a corner of the tent. She emerged with a dagger, its blade corroded badly. She touched it and bits of rust flaked off. "Woah."

Ander took the dagger. The little nudge in the back of his head grew bigger as his mind recalled one of the many hazards that lurked underground. He'd need more proof than just a rusted dagger however.

Over with the new dead bodies, Elaine had just as much luck identifying them as she'd had with the first one. The area around was lit up by a newly spelled rock on the ground near her. Between the rats feast and Ander's barbecue there wasn't much left. One of them she thought might be male, but without genitals it was hard to be sure.

She got lucky on the second body. It'd been protected by the first body from the brunt of Ander's flame. When she turned it over, she discovered a back full of rat bites.

"Got a prognosis?" Carric glanced down at Elaine as she examined the wounds.

"I'm betting they were killed by the rats." Elaine sighed and stood up. "They probably got jumped and swarmed. We're lucky that Ander can just blast them. En masse, these guys are deadly."

"The old guy probably knew that and that's why he hired a whole adventuring party this time." Carric looked down at the bodies. "Anyway to tell who they might be?"

Elaine shook her head. "Not that I can see."

Carric pulled out his hunting knife. "As long as we're here." He grinned.

Elaine took the knife from him. "I'll cut, you keep watch." She knelt down and went after the tails. Carric took out his bow and got ready, just in case any of the rats decided to come back.

Over by the water, Lia could just make out strange shapes in the water that seemed to move and twist. She wondered if they were statues that'd been discarded, or rats that could indeed swim. She leaned down further over the guardrail, trying to peer into the darkness below with her superior vision.

Then, she saw one headed for the surface.

"Hey!" Lia leaned back and turned to look over at where the remains of the group lounged amidst the ruined camp. "I think I found another rat." Everyone turned to look at her. She was in the dim light radius from the globe, so Ander and Jun saw more of her vague outline.

Iados got to his feet. He'd just taken his first step towards her when a dark shape floated up out of the water. "Get down!" He yelled.

Lia turned her head just enough to see the shape charge at her from the corner of her eye. She let go of the guardrail and fell back on the ground. The shadow glided towards her and she rolled to the side before she got to her feet.

At the campsite, another shadow dropped down from the ceiling. It fell onto Ander. Immediately the halfling felt his strength leave his body as his body burned with pain.

The verta-kochen overcame Jun a he stomped forward and kicked the shadow off the wizard. Before he could even process that he'd kicked a shadow, Jun had his warhammer up and aimed where it's vaguely humanoid shaped head was. As soon as the weapon connected with the shadow, the radiant light that burst forth dissolved the shadow into nothingness.

Lia saw this out of the corner of her eye as she dodged another of the shadow's attempts to touch her. "Makes sense that light is your weakness." She whispered to herself as she dug out her yew wand from a small sheath on her belt. She stood up and pointed the wand at her opponent. Her eyes flashed green as silvery mist erupted out the end of the wand. The mist flowed in and around the shadow. With a flash of light it solidified into a beam of pale light that stretched up towards the vaulted ceiling.

Kerri grinned as she saw the magic wielded by the elf. She clapped out a steady rhythm to accompany a song.

"Animal Forms and Whips of Thorn

Barely scratch the surface

Up in a tree or Bitey's feed

Are your only choices

Better beware cause Lia's here

Offering her service

She'll take you on and beat you down

And leave you for the rodents."

Lia flashed a smile over at the bard as the song washed over her in an energizing wave. The bulky humanoid shadow screamed in a low and echoed voice as the light it was drenched in bored holes in its figure.

To add insult to misery, Iados ran up attacked. The akudaem was so shocked that he'd actually hit it, that he missed his chance to stop it as the shadow suddenly darted forward towards Lia.

Lia grunted as she felt the pain burn through her body as the shadow brushed against her. As the strength was drained out of her, she dropped the wand and the column of moonlight disappeared.

The shadow curved back towards her, and Lia tried to use her staff to hold it off, but it merely glided out of the way. A shadowy hand shot out and grabbed her wrist in a cold grasp. She gasped in pain and fell to her knees as she was once again wracked with pain.

The shadow dropped her wrist as it dodged out of the way of Iados's sword. Lia tried to hit it with her staff, but no avail as it smoothly dodged. Just as the shadow made to descend upon the couple again, a bright light flared up on its back. The shadow gave another unearthly scream as it reared back in pain and dissolved. Behind it stood Ander, his finger still pointed towards them. Sweat beaded on his brow.

As Lia's magical beam of light had solidified into existence, Elaine had stood up. "What is going on?" She looked at the creature who screamed in the light.

Carric let loose an arrow into the darkness beyond them. "We're under attack." His back was to the commotion behind him. He saw something flitter in the darkness. He assumed it was a brave rat.

He was shocked when a tall, thin shadow walked nonchalantly out of the shadows towards him. The ranger barely had time to register what was happening before the creature charged him. As a reflex he brought his bow up to stop it, and was pleasantly surprised that it did.

"Good to know you're corporeal, at least a bit." Carric gritted his teeth and pushed the shadow back.

"Body drop!" Elaine yelled out one of the new code words as she stretched out her hand. Her holy symbol glowed softly in a white light. The same white light gathered in her hand and with a word streaked out towards the shadow.

Unfortunately, Carric had been in the process of trying to stab it with an arrow. As the words hit his ears, he was momentarily confused for 'body drop' had not been one of the code words Jun had established.

The pause left him in the way of the spell for a second too long as suddenly he was hit with the bright light, instead of his opponent. Carric felt a wave of pain wash over him as the light burned through him. Spots formed in his eyes. He still reached out and tried to hit the shadow, but missed his target by a mile.

"Wow, you must have one ugly mug if you have to hide it." Kerri yelled towards the shadow as she ran towards her fellow half-elf.

The shadow showed no signs that Kerri's words had any effect on it. It reached out and wrapped a cold, shadowy hand around Carric's neck. The pain caused by the shadow was very different from Elaine's bolt spell. This pain burned as it pulled the strength out of him. Weakly, Carric jammed the arrow into the shadow's side. His opponent made no move he even felt it as the arrow slid out of his form and clattered to the ground. He could have sworn he saw the shadowy face grin as it pitched the half-elf to the ground. It turned and swept towards Elaine.

The shadow reached out to touch her instead, but she held up her holy symbol. The symbol glowed and kept the shadow at bay.

Which was a good thing when the blood-boiling berserker thundered around the small bend, warhammer held high. With a roar Jun slammed his weapon into the shadowy figure and it dissolved into nothingness.

"Back to the tunnel!" Jun roared. His breath came in heavy gasps as his eyes attempted to pierce the darkness around him. Jun reached down and helped Carric to his feet. He handed the ranger off to Elaine and Kerri as they scrambled over, and together the trio stumbled towards the tunnel.

Iados had Lia hoisted on his back as he and a stumbling Ander made their way, the halfling's finger poised for another attack should it be needed.

No one spoke as they hurried back down the path, around the first charred body, and back up the slanted tunnel. They stopped about ten feet in.

"I'm fine." Lia said as Iados dropped her gently on the ground. Her voice was tired.

Iados shook his head. "If you could see yourself, you wouldn't believe it." He quickly pulled out her bedroll and laid her down on it. The same was done for Carric and Ander. All three of them had dark circles under their eyes, and their skin was pale. Elaine did cursory examinations on them, but all she found were rat bites.

"We should take a break, give you guys a chance to recover from whatever those shadows did to you." Jun announced. He sat crouched down on the edge of the light's reach. His breathing had evened out, but the small note of weariness was evident. He had his waterskin out and took a deep drink from it.

Kerri sat on her pack between Lia and Carric. She brought out her lute, and began to sing. She sang a song from home, one she'd heard her father sing often at the end of a long performance. She sang it softly so as to be more background noise than main attraction. The song itself was a simple one. It was about a dog who chased a cat, who chased a mouse, who chased some cheese. It was a simple song, as was the magic that she weaved in. All she wanted was to heal her friends and take their pain away, and she did.

Well, she added to what Elaine did. Elaine went from one patient to the next, her hand alight with multiple healing spells as she tried to heal what she could not see. Carric had needed a stronger dose of the spell than the other two, but eventually all three had color back in their cheeks.

Ander laid on his stomach with his spellbook splayed out in front of him as he did a quick study session.

"Who wants to bet that those three shadows were related to the three bodies we found?" Iados sat next to Lia, her head in his lap.

Lia gave a small chuckle as she rested her eyes. "How come you like to bet over everything?"

Iados shrugged. "It's a good way to make money." Lia reached up and lightly slapped his cheek. No one saw the momentary stiffening of Ander's shoulders.

Iados grabbed Lia's wayward hand and moved it away from his face. "Anyway, are we done now? We got the rat tails, we killed a bunch of them. I think we're good."

"Elaine and I didn't get a chance to collect all the tails before we got jumped." Carric propped himself up on his elbows and looked towards the cleric. "Elaine, where did those tails you collected go?"

She grimaced. "I dropped them."

The ranger sighed and laid back down. "Before or after you hit me with your spell?"

Elaine scowled. "Before, and I did tell you the code word."

Carric wagged a finger in her general direction. "No, you said 'Body Drop'."

Her eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Isn't that the code for 'I'm casting a spell get out of the way'?"

Lia chuckled, while Jun rubbed his eyes in frustration. "You got them mixed up." The berserker explained. "'Body Check' is about to set off a spell, whereas 'Cart Drop' is a general run the hell away. Good job remembering to use the code words though." He sent a thumbs-up at the cleric. He turned to look at Iados. "I don't want to leave and go back to the client until we do a thorough examination of the caverns. We were hired to clear it out, so let's actually try to clear it out."

"There's also the matter of the missing person." Lia sat up as she got everyone's attention. "Loiwin told me that he sent a party of four down here. We only found three bodies."

Kerri stopped playing. "We only found three packs in the camp."

Lia shrugged. "It could be that the fourth was able to run away and Loiwin didn't know. Either way, Jun's right, we have to go back in."