Chapter 86: Rope and Arrow

Before long, the area in front of the struggling companions widened, and they stopped, panting and looking around. Ahead were the upper reaches of the huge cavern which they knew had cave gremlins lurking lower down. Behind, they could hear distant yells; the goblins were on the move, but none were in sight yet.

“Do you think they’ll risk coming further this way?” asked Leppie to nobody in particular, glancing back.

“Urgh,” said Etienne.

Leppie stepped towards the halfling and began to gently wipe off the spider venom. Olynka had set another arrow to her bow and was on the lookout for both goblins and flying cave gremlins.

This left Alcar to look at Ubund.

“Sorry about the flames, man,” he said, pointing vaguely to the guide’s scorched face and head. “I didn’t know you were in that web. What happened?”

Ubund scowled, looking around at the group, and then shook his head. “Ugh. At least we escape.” As he spoke, Alcar noticed that the man was trying to slip the book he was holding into the back of his pants.

“Hey, dude,” said Alcar, reaching out with his staff. “What’s that?”

“Ugh, nothing...”

Leppie, finished with her treatment of Etienne, was now moving over, and she reached out and yanked the book from Ubund’s hands. “The codex!” she cried. “You found it.”

“Yeah... was aiming to come back, when the spider came.”

Etienne, still rubbing his face, now pointed to right side of the cavern wall nearby, and Alcar noticed that there was a set of stone steps cut into the rock. They led right down to where the companions had secured the rope earlier. “But this way leads out, Ubund,” said the halfling, eyebrows raised. “It doesn’t lead back to where the rest of us were waiting.”

“Mmm. Had to flee the goblins,” grunted Ubund with a shrug. He was still staring at the book that Leppie was now holding.

Brutus growled.

Alcar glanced at Olynka, and he was sure that his archer friend was thinking the same as he was – that Ubund had never intended to return to them.

That the guide had instead found the codex alone, and aimed to sneak off without them, before being snagged in the web before he could complete his treachery.

No doubt Ubund was motivated by whatever reward could be gained for the Viperstar Codex all to himself. Perhaps to sell it to the dwarves directly, or to Master Maluhk.

But Alcar didn’t want to say what he was thinking in front of Leppie.

Not yet.

“Right, then,” he said, raising his eyebrows meaningfully at Olynka and then looking around to the others. “Mission was a success. Well done, team! Now let’s get the hell out here.”

Before long, Alcar and his companions had traversed the roughly-carved stairs that led downwards across the face of the rock near the end of the tunnel. These brought them back to the platform where the rope was secured to the lower of the two wooden posts.

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As Olynka had mentioned, Alcar could see that there was now a bar tied to the rope, and some sacking below. He wasn’t entirely sure how Brutus would manage to cross in this contraption, but they would have to try.

And quickly.

“Good job on your knot tying,” said Etienne, nudging Alcar’s elbow as they approached.

Alcar nodded. “I see you’ve got a few hidden skills, too, man.”

“Yep. We rigged up a sort of carriage. As long as someone is available to turn the handle, we can travel up one at a time.”

“And in terms of the last person, would they...”

But at that moment, Olynka’s bow twanged, and Alcar fell silent; another cave gremlin had flown up towards them from the dark lower recesses of the cavern. Her first shot missed, but the second took the monstrous beast in the throat, and it fell towards the floor of the cave with a gargling screech, followed soon after by a thud.

“That should help to keep the rest quiet, I hope,” she murmured.

Leppie pointed out to where the rope hung across the cavern. “Alcar, you go first with the dog,” she said. “I’ll be the rear guard.”

“No, I’ll go last,” said Olynka, drawing another arrow. “Just in case some goblins decide they want to risk coming this way after all. Your warhammer isn’t what it used to be, Lepp.”

The healer nodded, bashing the near-useless weapon against her boot. “Right. On you go then, Alcar.”

The noise in Alcar’s head had subsided, but it felt like his brain was on fire after his recent efforts at sorcery. It was all he could do to nod, and soon, he and Brutus were standing in the makeshift carriage, their feet bunched up in the sacking, and Alcar clutching hard onto the metal handle.

“You’re sure you’re not going to faint on the way up?” asked Etienne as he put one hand on the winch.

Alcar looked down at Brutus. “I’ll hold on. I have to.”

In truth, Alcar didn’t pay much attention to his surroundings as they moved. He was too busy rubbing his burning eyes, and massaging the worst areas of his all-over headache. He also very much needed the toilet.

“Well, if the pain in my bladder helps to keep me awake and conscious,” he murmured to Brutus, “then I guess that’s a positive.”

Somehow, they got across without incident. At the other side, urinated from the far edge out over the rocks below, and then waited for the others to come up one by one.

Leppie came next, then Ubund, and then Etienne. As Olynka began to cross – with Etienne now turning the winch from the upper end of the rope – another pair of cave gremlins began to swoop around. Leppie flung the handle of her broken warhammer at them, but the weapon bounced uselessly off one of the pair, then fell to the rocks below. Olynka shot one of them, slowing it, but it remained on the wing.

Alcar knew that his magic was spent. Most likely it had now been drained well past the point of safety. He reached into his tattered robes and pulled out the dagger that he had taken from the slain lizard woman. But he knew that throwing such a weapon was not his forte.

Instead, he looked to the group. “Etienne, you know how to throw something like this?”

With a nod, Etienne took the dagger, weighed it in his hand for just a second, and then flung it as the second cave gremlin swooped back. It sank into the beast’s head just beside its ugly wide mouth, while Olynka fired one of her last arrows into its companion.

The cave gremlins were still alive, but were sufficiently cowed that they retreated to the lower platform, staring angrily up at the adventurers, as Etienne completed the work of moving the platform back to them. At last, Olynka stepped out, and they all hurried on together.

Together, the companions made their way back to the room with the furnace and chimney. There they took a moment to rest, Alcar slumping down agains the wall, though there was no food to eat this time.

“I think we are safe, at least from the things below,” said Olynka, looking back. “And just as well – I’m down to one arrow.”

“The sooner we get out of here, the better,” mused Leppie, crouching and leaning back against the side wall of the circular area beside Alcar.

Ubund just grunted. The guide had allowed Leppie to spread some of the healing salve onto his burned face and chest while they waited to cross the cavern, but had otherwise been almost totally silent.

And Leppie had not returned the codex to him.

Alcar closed his eyes, massaging his eyes and temples, and must have drifted off again, for he had no idea how much time had passed before Olynka was shaking his shoulders.

“Come on,” she said. “Time to go home.”