Persepera

The 25th of Elaphebolion

The Year 4631 in the Era of Mortals

The morning came without incident, or as close to morning as they could guess in the gloom of the underground network. None of them had heard anything more than the sound of rummaging rodents and insects, all of which had stayed thankfully far away from them. Arche had spent his portion of the watch casually pinching himself to stay awake. He was bone-tired from the day’s events and would have liked nothing more than a full night of uninterrupted sleep like Abraxios. Still, there was a certain comfort to be taken from the solitude of a lone vigil.

When he woke the next morning, he felt as though he’d barely slept at all. He even went as far as to check his status page to make sure he wasn’t afflicted with an exhaustion debuff. Sure enough, tier one. Arche stretched, blinked as hard as he could to wake his eyes, and did his best to suck it up.

“You look terrible,” Tess commented.

“Oh, great, it’s on the outside, too.”

“You all right? Didn’t get an infection from all the blood yesterday, did you?”

“If he did, it’s because he didn’t tell me about it,” Odelia interjected. “I can disinfect wounds for a pittance of the Mana it takes to heal them, you know.”

“I’m uninjured, just… just tired. What I wouldn’t give for a cup of coffee.”

Arche was rubbing his eyes as he said it and still felt the weight of everyone frowning at him.

“Bitter drink. Helps you stay awake.”

“Sounds unpleasant,” Lyssa said.

“Actually, it’s pretty fucking divine, and I really wish I—” Arche stopped midsentence, realizing this was the first time he had had some feeling held over from before his memory started that hadn’t faded away as soon as he tried to recall more.

“Arche?”

“I… I remember. Coffee. Of all the things that might have come through, fucking coffee stays with me.”

Lyssa smiled. “That’s good news. If one thing has stayed with you, maybe more isn’t far away.”

It also proved he wasn’t crazy, at least about this aspect of his life, but Arche kept that fact to himself.

“Maybe,” Arche hedged. “I just wish I remembered something a little more… meaningful, I guess.”

“Not to interrupt a touching moment,” Abraxios cut in. “But are we all ready to go?”

Arche stowed his bedroll and blanket, then grabbed the Tridory. The rest were already packed and waiting as he took his position at the head of the group.

They had spent a full day inside the dungeon, as far as anyone could tell. The darkness made it impossible to determine time by conventional means, but Arche wasn’t as interested in the day already past as he was in the day still ahead of him. If everything went well, they might make it out before nightfall, assuming that their bodies still operated off normal, solar time.

“We should probably go over the plan,” Arche said.

“There’s a plan? I thought we were just stumbling around in the dark trying not to get killed,” Abraxios quipped, turning to Odelia. “Did you know there was a plan?”

“Hush,” the halfling said gently. “Let’s hear him out.”

“The bigger chambers are probably going to have more beastmar than we’ve encountered in these individual patrols. It’ll also be harder to engage them in the open as they can surround and overwhelm us. Furthermore, whoever’s leading them is probably in these larger chambers as well. Tunnel fighting has proven to be pretty effective in limiting what they can do but it’s not without its risks to us as well.”

No one disagreed, so he continued.

“As we get close, we should scout the chambers to get an idea of what we’re dealing with, then set traps along the passageways and lure them back to us. The traps should injure or kill enough of them that the rest have a difficult time getting through.”

“I’m all in favor of setting traps, but how? We don’t exactly have the materials to do so,” Tess pointed out.

“Odelia, can your gaiamancy be used to shape the stone in these passages? Stone spikes, pitfalls, that sort of thing?”

The halfling cocked her head, considering it.

“It’s doable, but it’ll be time- and Mana-intensive. I don’t know a specific spell to path traps in stonework, so I’ll have to rely on Nature Meld. The more intricate you want the traps, the longer and the more it’ll cost, but basic features should be reasonably doable.”

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“I can help her,” Lyssa said, stepping forward. “I’ve trapped many a beast in the forest, I can help her pick locations where traps will be most effective.”

The wood elf moved over to stand next to the halfling, catching Tess’s eye and giving the other woman an inscrutable expression. Arche glanced back and forth but whatever was passing between them was lost to him.

“I suppose that leaves me to go scouting ahead,” Tess said, breaking eye contact to look at Arche.

“Yes, but not alone. I’ll go with you. My cloak should give me the stealth bonus I need to hold my own, and if either of us gets caught then the other can still report back to the rest.”

“What about me?” Abraxios asked.

“You can watch the passages we came from and ensure no patrols sneak up behind us. If any do, warn Lyssa and Odelia and hide yourselves. Tess and I will think of something. Are we all clear?”

Everyone nodded their assent.

Leadership has increased to Level 6.

+1% Persuasion Chance (+6%)

+1% Reputation Gain (+6%)

-0.5% Reputation Loss (-3%)

Arche felt a spark of vindication at the message, as though he was being rewarded for the plan. He couldn’t trust it to mean that his plan would work, though the increases the skill brought were more than welcome. It was yet another oddity of this strange world: you could still be rewarded even if what you were trying to do failed. It was an oddly optimistic feature, starkly contrasted against the harsh life that Tartarus had promised thus far.

Tess nudged him with her elbow, bringing him back to the present.

“You ready?” she asked.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They set off at a loping run. Tess led the way as her Perception and trap finding skills were higher than his, so he focused all his efforts on making as little noise as possible and stepping exactly where she stepped to avoid any traps.

They made much better time alone than when the whole group traveled. In less than half an hour of running they reached the opening to the first large chamber. Arche tracked their progress mentally; the map he extracted from the beastmar still etched into his head. He wasn’t entirely certain how long that knowledge would last, but he was glad he still had it. On more than one occasion during their run he’d had to correct Tess’s course or give directions. Without that map, they would have been hopelessly lost in the underground complex. It was undeniably useful but the fear in the beastmar’s face still ran through Arche’s head. Psychic Link was easily his scariest skill yet and he wasn’t sure he liked all the implications that came with it.

The opening guided them toward was not actually set into the ground floor of the cavern. Instead, it was a small, balcony-style ledge set about four spear-lengths above the ground. The distance was not insurmountable from either direction but would give them plenty of cover to peer out into the room. Both Tess and Arche fell to their stomachs and crawled toward the edge, careful to make as little noise as possible. They needn’t have worried, as the sounds coming from the cavern were more than enough to mask any scrapings of leather against dirt.

Inside the cavern, the beastmar were feasting. Howls and jeers split the air and the room was illuminated by a bonfire in the very center and glowing green crystals that littered the walls and floor. Near the fire, stakes had been placed with impaled animals and people, set to roast over the flames. The beastmar themselves stood well away from the fire, clearly not wanting to set themselves alight with an errant spark.

The sheer noise the creatures made should have traveled back through the passageways, given all the stone, but it didn’t. There must have been sound-dampening magic or runes at play that gave the chamber some semblance of privacy, preventing sounds from traveling too far.

Three-score beastmar filled the space below.

That alone would have been bad enough and certainly gave both of them pause, but it wasn’t all. In addition to the large piles of food—the majority of which was bloodied meat—there was a huge, bone cage with a dozen humanoids inside it, huddled near the middle. Several beastmar stood around the cage, harassing the occupants with spears or long, clawed hands. One of the prisoners shifted a little too close to one side, trying to avoid the prodding tip of a spear, and was snatched by a beastmar they didn’t notice. The creature yanked the prisoner through a gap in the cage while the rest of the beastmar howled and cheered. Tess turned her head aside but Arche couldn’t tear his eyes away, staring in grim horror as they pulled the prisoner apart, limb by bloody limb.

Arche watched as a beastmar tossed a leg to one of its fellows and took a bite out of the quartered prisoner’s severed arm, making sure that the victim, somehow still alive, could see. Arche’s throat closed and he struggled to keep from running down into the fray and tearing them all to pieces. The power inside of him, the so-called Divinity, was screaming for him to use it, to vanquish these abominations who made a mockery of life. What was the point of power if not to stop things like this? With Divine Body, he would tear the hearts out of his enemies and feed it back to them. The skill practically begged to bathe in their blood.

A hand grabbed his arm and Arche shifted to strike. He stopped a moment later. Tess had buried her face against her shoulder, holding onto his arm as though she would be wrenched away at any moment. Memories of the tunnel fight flooded his mind. The desire to face the beastmar openly, to kill every last one. How that decision had led to Tess very nearly losing her life.

The rage in Arche’s throat sputtered and died, but the disgust was still there, making Arche’s stomach feel like it had settled somewhere near his clavicle. He was about to begin crawling back when a flash of light caught his attention. Unlike the glowing green crystals or the bonfire, this light was crimson. Arche nudged Tess and she lifted her head up and opened her eyes. He nodded toward the far wall, too distracted to give a clearer indication. Luckily, another flash of crimson showed both of them exactly where to look: the passage into the other huge cavern they hadn’t yet managed to scout. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a good angle and the distance was too great to make out any details.

A third flash came but Arche’s attention was snared by two beastmar pulling a makeshift cart piled high with bloody meat and body parts. They neared the opening to the next cavern and were clearly uncomfortable getting any closer, exchanging looks and proceeding rather slowly. As they reached the opening, one of the beastmar dropped his load and sprinted to the side. The weight of the cart momentarily pinned the remaining beastmar, who struggled to free himself.

As the beastmar struggled, an enormous wolf-like head lunged from the tunnel, grabbed the beastmar and the cart together, and pulled them both into the tunnel. The beastmar screamed, the sound echoing back over the din, then violently stopped.

The hairs on Arche’s arms tickled as they stood. If the head was analogous to the creature’s entire size, which wasn’t a certainty anywhere beastmar were involved, then it was the size of a building, maybe even a small warehouse. Arche didn’t know how they were going to fight that behemoth, but he was certain of one thing.

This was how the beastmar were going to destroy the village.