Over three hundred men, women, and elves had gone into the mines at the base of the Black Spire, located at the heart of the lands belonging to the enigmatic Shapers, a race that were perhaps old as time itself.
The Shapers had sent out a call for warriors, fighters, champions, heroes. The Seventh Seal had taken up the call and had marched through occupied territory, achieving a degree of success the Shapers couldn’t have hoped to have dreamed of.
The factories were the first to fall. The Shapers were all but certain that the mercenaries would have died within heartbeats upon entering them, but they were conquered in several days. The foundries, widely considered an impossible front, had melted to the ground as if by magic.
There was no way possible that a ragtag band of mercenaries could have hoped to achieve such impossible objectives, and yet they had.
The mines, and what might lay beyond the mines, nothing could stand against. Yet, the Seventh Seal, without a thought of stopping, reinforcing, or resting, had marched into the great pit of the mines, into places where daylight vanished.
They left their camp followers and their horses at the base of the mountain before proceeding into the mine on foot.
Two days later, less than a hundred of them stumbled out, spitting ash, nursing wounds, coughing and choking.
*****
Aldric felt numb inside. Whatever that lava-demon was, it’d decimated the Seventh Seal. He’d held the cavalry back in the corridor that had opened up into the cavern because without their horses they were glorified infantry. Despite their disadvantage, Daveth and Aldric had trained them to attack on foot, to push forward in a bristling wedge of death.
When the lava-beast had vomited its spray of boiling rock, they’d been boxed in and liquified, nearly to a man.
The infantry had tried to rally and harry the flanks, but the immense heat baking off the monster had cooked them in their armor, had melted their shields to slag, their swords to candle-stubs.
The archers fared no better, though more of them survived than any of the other squadrons. Their arrows had flashed to ash before they could reach the intended target.
Moore and his gunnery crews were heroes, sending hundreds of rounds of ammunition into the thing’s lava-filled maw, into its eyes with no effect. A cannon blast had torn apart one of its cheeks, and Aldric had a brief fierce thought- we can win this!- and then they were overwhelmed, snatched up with obsidian teeth and swallowed down that infernal gullet.
The mages hit it with ice, over and over again. Tsubame the pirate had even gotten in a few licks with that lightning sword of hers. Aldric saw Daveth, straining and heaving with his massive, inhuman strength to topple what looked to be a water tower against the thing.
The mages, driven past the brink of working their arcane powers exploded like garish fireworks, but finally the monster lay dead.
Morden called the rally; through the smoke and steam, Aldric couldn’t see Daveth anymore.
Dimply glimpsed, he could see the bubbling pool of magma at the city’s heart swell and balloon again. They couldn’t hope to stand against another assault, and so he’d called a retreat.
Under the circumstances, there was no hope in recovering the bodies of the fallen dead. The one man that Aldric had thought nigh-invincible was dead and buried beneath that lava-monster. As for the Seventh Seal, it was another Bel-Arib- A battle so devastatingly crippling that there was no more fight left in them.
Orelia immediately planted herself in front of him, followed shortly by her silver sisters. “Permission to search for the missing and wounded, Lord Captain.” she asked crisply. She wasn’t happy with the results either.
He nodded wearily, expecting nothing, and the four women strode back into the mouth of the mines without looking back.
They’d have to return to their old stomping grounds; the heart of the continent of Hesperia, to the mercenary capital of the known world, the city of Tannit. There they’d resupply, replenish their soldiers as best they could and then-
And then what?
“... go back to hunting bandits for pocket change.” He spat. He knew the risks, he accepted the danger, he provided the best equipment that he could, and when he couldn’t, he allowed looting better when it was necessary.
“There’s just too much weird in the world for us to fight.” He muttered. Not once but several times they’d come up against horrible things, terrible things, that none of them were equipped to deal with. Abominations. Liches. Unbound demonhosts. Aldric’s ideals had somehow become subsumed in a quest for glory, and his men had paid the price- again- for his folly.
The Anglish Empire touted itself as a force for good, imposing its order into everything. What it thought was good and right, but they couldn’t be bothered with clearing bandits, slaughtering beastmen, and fortifying villages so that they had a decent chance of survival in the wilderness.
Too often as an Admiral in the Anglish Arm of the Sword he’d had to pass by cities tearing themselves apart in pursuit of a “greater good”. It had taken him some hard thinking to realize that in pursuit of a greater good, lesser evils might be permitted. The trick, he’d thought then, was to perform lesser goods in avoidance of crafting a greater evil. Though from time to time, despite his loyalties, he’d begun to wonder if the Anglish Empire was one of the greater evils.
He liked to think he’d done some good. Did the men and women that had died under his command tip the scales into crafting a greater evil than what he’d waged his pithy wars against? To what could he point his sword with conviction?
The ground beneath his feet started rumbling, quaking; Aldric moved the tattered remnants of a dream gone wrong down past the Crucible to be safe. Morden didn’t say anything, he just glanced at Aldric’s face, ordered what was left of the Seal into a semblance of rank and file. Daveth’s horse dashed off; with no rider to calm it and guide it in the right direction it dashed off into the short forest that surrounded part of the Spire.
The Wolf sisters come out of the mine just ahead of a lava swell that spilled out over the edge of the mine entrance, waving ash and smoke from their faces, empty-handed.
*****
They make it back to the Shaper’s city after several days of a quiet, somber march. They limped through that ominously impressive city of steel and glass towers, the eyes of the Shapers on them the entire way.
Aldric didn’t stop the Seal until they arrived at the docks.
“Job’s done.” Aldric announced to Syna, who eyed the battered remains of the Seventh Seal with an inscrutable look.
“You’re certain?” She asked, and Aldric nodded. “It cost us dear.”
“A ship is being prepared for your return trip to Matzcal. It isn’t as... impressive... as the Greatship, but it will take you there without fail. I suspect that you should be able to arrange further transport yourself.” Syna offered by way of explanation; and then in a voice that was reserved for the very young or perhaps very stupid, she added, “The ship itself is automated, please try your very best not to break it.”
Aldric made a face at her patronizing tone, and then prodded her about remuneration.
Syna laughed at Aldric’s offer to take a couple of the machine-weapons with him. “They wouldn’t work for you.”
“Why not?” He asked, tucking tobacco into his pipe with a practiced thumb.
“They run off of a fuel we’ve only been able to find here. You’d have to keep coming back every couple of months to resupply.” He frowned at that, but negotiated for salvage rights. He was able to get an amount of steel that would have set him up nicely in the Anglish lands, twenty rifles with a thousand rounds of ammunition each, and the promised boat back to Metzcal.
The boat looked surprisingly normal, though lacking sails of any kind. Aldric couldn’t help himself; he had to leave one last cutting remark before he boarded the strange craft.
“The next time you get into a family dispute, you should handle it yourselves.”
She gave the human captain a puzzled look.
“Their clothes, their architecture... the easy way they took over your tech-” He trailed off. “Distant cousins?” he offered, and then waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Doesn’t matter. Next time, you’re on your own.”
She frowned at him. “You said you took care of it.”
Aldric barked a laugh. “Three hundred soldiers against a nation? You’ve gotta be fuckin’ joking.” He shook his head. “From the rumblings of yon mountain they could be dead, buried under all that lava, along with two hundred of my best men and the best fuckin’ second-in-command a man could ask for. I’m not going back in there to find out.” He spat as he walked up the gangplank. “We’re finished here.”
*****
He woke up facedown in the dirt.
Blinking ash and dust from his eyes, he froze as someone stepped over him. The familiar sound of a bow being drawn over his head drew his attention, and as he turned his head he spotted one of the midgets near the corpse of the lava-beast.
An arrow caught the thing in the throat and it went down with a choking gasp.
“Feel like hammered shit.” He muttered, and Audra sat down next to him.
“You kinda look like it.” she observed. “Can you move? We need to get out of here.”
Daveth struggled to push himself up from the ground and bit off a grunt of pain. “Think I broke some ribs.”
“I can’t carry you.” Audra began worriedly, and then added, “and I don’t think you can crawl fast enough.”
“Fast enough for what?” He asked, and twisted around to look at her with a grimace of pain.
“Lava’s rising in the city. Whatever they did in getting that beast out of there, it’s-” She cut off as she spun, and once again Daveth heard the slap of a bowstring against her bracer and the squealing thud of a body.
Daveth dragged himself out of the chunks of rubble from the collapsed building. “Got any water?” He asked, awkwardly hawking and spitting at the dirt in his mouth.
“A little.” She offered him her canteen. “Don’t know if there’s any drinkable water down here, but you’d better have it. You’re bigger, you need it more than me.”
Daveth forced himself to take a sip, swished the water around in his mouth to cut the dirt and forced himself to swallow anyway. It didn’t matter what she said; he’d make sure she got the lion’s share of it.
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He took a breath through the mask on his face. That, at least, seemed to be working.
“How do we get out?” He asked. “Same way we came in?” He pulled himself over to the lava-dog and began jerking out its obsidian teeth.
She shook her head. “What’re you doing?”
“Souvenir.” He cracked wryly, and then looked at her.
She had a couple of cuts on her face and half her hair was burned away, an angry, blistered swatch of skin where part of her scalp should have been.
“Look at you.” He offered a pained grin. “Here I am all fucked up and you look like you’re ready to go dancing in the ballrooms of Nauders.”
“Don’t crack jokes like that, Daveth.” She grimaced at him. “I know what I look like.”
He put his hand on the nearby wall and forced himself to stand. “Fuck you talking about? You’re fine.” He winced and clutched at his side. “Go back to my earlier question: how the fuck we gonna get out of here?”
She trotted up the ruined rooftop that was tipped over at an angle and fired down at something.
“Don’t know yet.” She complained. “I don’t have a rope. You got something in that bag of tricks that’ll get us up there?” She gestured up at where the Seventh Seal had gone to war against the demon beast.
“Only weapons.” He replied.
“Arrows?” She asked, and he nodded and pulled out a handful and handed them over.
“Well, that’ll buy us some time against them, I think.” She offered. “But it won’t do much for the lava.”
“How much time we got?” He asked, and she shrugged.
“It’s coming out in gushes. Don't’ think we’ve got much time at all.”
He eased his way up the collapsed roof and had to agree with her. The molten magma was jetting out of the center of the city like a geyser, pooling and filling the streets.
“We gotta get outta here.” He agreed, and glanced around, looking for a way out. “Any other way out of here?” He asked, and Audra shrugged.
“I don’t know. Been a bit busy while you were sleeping.”
He nodded. “If we can get up there, we can get out through the mines.”
The ground heaved and buckled then, and a more violent spray of molten rock jetted into the air. Buildings cracked and crumbled around them; the avenue the Seventh Seal had launched their assault from sagged and crumpled. There’d be no getting out that way.
“Shit.” He cursed, sitting his ass down.
“What’re we gonna do, Commander?” Audra asked him. He wanted to snap at her, but it was a valid question.
Daveth tugged on his beard as he thought, and reached for his pipe absentmindedly, but couldn’t find it.
“What we need... is a rat.” He muttered.
She gave him a baffled look. “A rat? What are you talking about?”
He glanced at her, and then back at the center of the city, which was rapidly filling with molten lava.
“When a ship is sinking, you follow the rats, since they’re trying to get to safety.”
Audra pointed. “Over there.”
One of the dwarves was riding what looked to be a giant lizard. It scaled the rubble, scurried up the foundations of buildings, and vanished into a hole in the wall.
“Like that?” She asked.
“That’ll do. Let’s go.” He paused, and patted her on the head. “I might lean on you from time to time.”
“Hopefully not too much.” She complained. “You rolled over on top of me once in our cabin on the way here, and that wasn’t fun at all.”
He barked a laugh, and they set out together to follow the crack in the wall that the lizard had vanished into.
*****
They crawled, walked, stumbled, and struggled through the narrow crevice for what seemed like forever. It could have been hours, it could have been days, it could have been a thousand years. They didn’t say anything; the rising heat baking them from behind forced them to focus wholly on putting one foot in front of the other.
They stumbled out of the cleft in the mountain and into fresh air so quickly they didn’t realize it; the volcanic ash sifting out from behind them didn’t help, or the scattering of low boulders and short, sharp cliffsides.
As they struggled to find their way, they came across the lizard-riding dwarf; something had caused them to slip off one of the cliff faces and plunge to their deaths.
“Object lesson” Daveth muttered to himself and forced himself to move faster.
A gushing jet of volcanic fury; a hot splash of liquid rock belching out behind them forced them to move faster downslope. Daveth scooped up Audra as an errant spray passed through where she would have been if he hadn’t moved.
As they stumbled into a forested area that was already catching fire, Daveth stripped off his facemask and took a long breath.
“Fuck, I think for a while I forgot what fresh air tasted like.” He sighed gratefully.
Audra peered over his massive shoulder. “I think it’s safe to put me down now. The lava seems to be heading in a different direction.”
Daveth set her down and jolted as Growler trotted over, reins trailing behind.
“How the fuck?” Daveth asked, but shook his head and boosted Audra into the saddle and struggled to pull himself into the saddle behind her.
They rode around aimlessly for a bit, unable to get their bearings, until Daveth happened upon a game trail that led them out of the woods. He led them back to the entrance to the mines which was belching out thick oozing streamers of lava. “Lucky we weren’t caught up in that.” Daveth muttered, following the Seventh Seal’s backtrail until they made it to the paved and claustrophobic streets of the Shaper’s city.
“No hospitality. No water, no food, not even a respectable hello.” Daveth grumbled as the Shapers avoided eye contact and crossed the street to avoid them.
“You think we’ll catch up the Seventh Seal?” Audra asked curiously.
“Of course we will.” Daveth replied simply. “Just gotta find Syna... assuming she hasn’t up and fucked off somewhere.”
He rode Growler into one of the buildings, warily eyeing the impossible heights; there was no way he could spot the top.
A Shaper gabbled at him in their incomprehensible tongue and urged them out of the building.
“Prick.” Daveth muttered. “I swear to fuck if someone doesn’t come along all helpful-like I’ll topple their fucking building over. That’ll get some attention.”
“It probably would, Marauder.” A wizened Shaper acknowledged from the street. “But do you think you’ve really got the strength to do something like that?”
Daveth turned his horse to face him. “It doesn’t look too sturdy to me. Like a stiff breeze could knock it down.”
The old Shaper cackled. “It’s stronger than you think.” He paused thoughtfully while leaning on his cane. “Though I imagine that wouldn’t stop you at all from trying.”
Daveth shrugged, and grimaced at the pain in his chest.
“We finished your job.” Daveth offered, jerking his thumb at the volcano that was now belching thick smoke and ash from its caldera.
“I think it could be argued that the volcano did your job for you.” the Shaper replied.
“Fuck you if you think it did. Who the fuck you think pulled the cork on it and made it pop its top?” Daveth asked acidly.
The old Shaper eyed him speculatively. “If there were anyone in the world that could have done such a thing, I think it’d be you, Marauder.”
“You keep calling me that.” Daveth prompted.
The old man shook his head. “Nevermind me. You want to rejoin your companions, yes?”
Audra and Daveth nodded together.
The Shaper snorted. “Were I you, I’d ask for a bath first.” He offered as a joke.
“Water’d be nice.” Daveth agreed. “Where’s the rest of the Seventh Seal? They had to have gotten out before we did.”
The old man nodded. They’re already on their way out of the harbor.”
Daveth swore bitterly. First he started at the blasphemous, then worked his way into the scandalous before the old man cut him off.
“Where do you suppose they’re going?”
Daveth shot him a glare; he was just getting into the physically impossible scatological vulgarities when he was interrupted.
Daveth sighed and took a long moment of thought as he fiddled with the reins of his horse.
“Tannit. I don’t know how badly we took a hurt, but if Aldric or Morden’s still kicking, they’d’ve gone to Tannit to rebuild.”
The old man rubbed his chin. “I have no knowledge of this place. Where is it? What land?”
Daveth blinked. Tannit was Tannit.
“Tannit’s a city in Hesperia.” Audra volunteered.
The old Shaper’s eyebrows quirked. “Ah. I can send you to the Tower of Cumorah, which is in those lands. No doubt you’ll be able to find your city from there.”
“Where’d the Seventh Seal go?” Audra asked, and the old man shrugged. “It was Syna that sent them off. You’d have to ask her.” He gestured with his cane. “If you come with me though, I’ll get you some food, water, a bath, and then send you on your way.”
“Fuck yes.” Daveth and Audra agreed simultaneously, and the old man chuckled and nodded.
After a meal and a hot bath where Audra and Daveth playfully splashed water at each other, they were led to a familiar pyramid-topped ziggurat that looked to be built from glass. The light warped through the layers, turning the interior a sea-green.
“Long ago, when we tried to explore the lands around us, we would build one of these, and in them we’d install a Rune of Translation linking them back to the homeland.” The old man explained as he led them inside. “We lost our colonies though, one by one. Through our alliance with you Anglish though, the Tower of Cumorah still stands, though we rarely use it, anymore.”
“Why?” Daveth asked.
“You Anglish are too fickle and inconsistent.”
Daveth shrugged. “If it’s all the same to you, I’m Urthan, not Anglish.” Daveth offered, and Audra twisted back to look up at him with wide-eyed surprise.
The old man gestured to the magic circle; Daveth, Growler, Audra, and their supplies took up the majority of the circle.
“May you torment the lands of the Anglish as you once tormented us, Marauder.” The old man waved, and the magic circle opened up and the world swallowed them in shimmers of light.
*****
“Wake up you big lummox.” Audra urged Daveth, who groaned and rolled over, putting one of his arms over his face.
“Just as soon as the world stops spinning.” He complained.
“I’d heard of great magics, but I’d never thought I’d get to experience something like that!” Audra replied eagerly.
“I’d just as rather not experience that again.” Daveth complained. “Not once, not ever again.” He frowned.
“It smells different. Like... a forest.” He muttered.
“I think we were sent where he said we’d go to.” Audra offered and peered out of the building, which looked to be abandoned, covered in vines and roots.
“Where the fuck is ‘here’, though?” Daveth complained, not getting up.
“I’ve seen Captain Aldric’s maps. If we really are at the Tower of Cumorah, all we have to do is head straight south until we reach a highway, then head east. That’ll take us straight to Einsamkeit.” Audra chirped.
“You’re awfully excited.” Daveth observed drily.
“It’s not every day you get to experience something like that!” Audra exclaimed, waving her arms over her head.
“Like I said, I hope that I never experience it again.” Daveth retorted, and she pouted at him.
“You’d rather be back in the lava?” She asked, and Daveth made a face.
“Almost. That trip was horrific. The things I saw... No way. Never again.”
She blinked at him curiously. To her it had been instantaneous; an eyeblink and they were no longer in a glass pyramid, but one of ancient stone.
“Come on, hurry up, get up, I wanna gooo.” She urged him.
He pushed himself to his feet and rubbed his side with a muttered complaint.
As they rode south through the forest in search of Audra’s supposed highway, Audra asked Daveth something.
“How long do you think it’ll take for us to meet up with the Seal?”
Daveth was a little cranky; he'd lost his pipe, a little tobacco would probably help clear the pounding in his head a bit.
“Well, it took us three months to go from Metzcal to the Shaper’s lands. There’s a few possible routes they could have taken.” He offered, thinking deeply. “First, The Shapers send them back to Metzcal. That’s a three month trip, some time to drop off the Wolf sisters that’d signed on for the contract with those bastards, plus...” he gestured meaninglessly, “however long it’ll take them to get back to Tannit.” She nodded to show she understood. “Second, the Shapers could bring them right to Einsamkeit, though I don’t think that’s likely. That ship of theirs is fuckin huge, and I ... dunno if they could sail it through the Mirras.” She nodded again.
Daveth scratched his chin. “On our side, we’ve got a trip to Einsamkeit that could take weeks, and then the choice of taking a boat or riding up the Mother River to Tannit, which’ll take another few weeks.”
She nodded at that, and then pointed ahead. “That’s our highway.”