Chapter 41: Schizmic Violence
The gong rang out again as we descended through the sloping tunnels, accompanied once more by the sounds of piping and the distant chanting of a few hundred of the creatures that had taken control of the underground world existing beneath our feet.
"You know I'm going to leave immediately if the Tainted one you call Karl is dead right? I won't help you rescue this zealot friend of yours." Merri tried to inspire a bit of back and forth amidst the grim mood that had overtaken us but no one took the bait. We didn't know how many slaves the Derro had to pick from for this particular feeding but it was entirely possible our friend Karl and our somewhat dubious, one time ally would have drawn the short straw, either due to the trouble of keeping them in line or as a show of dominance over the surface's champions. I tried to keep my thoughts positive though, surely the Derro would work my companions down to the bone before callously disposing of them right? You don't build a murder cult/empire by being wasteful after all.
The air changed subtly as we left the narrow tunnels and came out into a slightly less rocky and much more spacious cavern, this was similar to the chasm we'd journeyed along the bottom of earlier, the main difference however was the Mushrooms growing out of rocky soil that had been treated with all kinds of alchemical concoctions in order to make it sustain life. Some of the mushrooms were the size of shrubs with violet tops and striations that looked too veiny for my liking while normal sized shrooms grew in white and black around the shrubs base and giant fungi the size of trees towered overhead. I ignored the smaller samples in favour of these Treeshrooms and gave one an experimental poke with the tip of my knife, the blade found its target to be slightly spongy initially but with a hardness that rivalled your average tree once you actually applied a bit more force.
My circlet seemed to tighten around my forehead and flashes of knowledge ripped through my consciousness. I saw the process whereby green toxin, the essence of the caterpillar worms was applied to the mushroom stem and hardened it while simultaneously closing any pores, thus rendering it watertight. More images came and I saw the Grey Priests wage war with their own highly deleterious strain of venom, riding green-hardened mushroom boats down subterranean rivers and obliterating community's of gnomes, cave-people, bugmen and goblins that had survived off of the treacherous but life-giving waters. I forced down the stolen memories
"This is the best we're going to get, some of the guards will be at prayer, the mushrooms will keep us out of line of sight until we get close enough and if things go really bad for us and we need a way out then we can head for the Rotscale dungeon as a last resort." Well, Farrah certainly seemed game to attack in spite of overwhelming odds but I had a feeling that she would take any excuse to dive into combat, as long as she felt like she could trust the people at her side anyway.
Luna left the circle of darkness and scaled a massive mushroom with minimal aid from rope and pitons while we waited and listened for any patrols, we hadn't run across any yet but now that we were in amongst the enemy's resources we were bound to run into some sooner rather than later.
Mushrooms were the key to everything down here where the sun's rays could not penetrate. In the darkness of the caverns the Derro had learned to use hardened stems to build boats and tools, buildings and weapons while the soft flesh of the various fungi could be employed to make gruel and fodder for slaves, Derro and lesser worms alike while the spores could be harvested and used in the alchemy required to brew the divine elixirs needed to commune with the Greatest Worm and his mightiest children.
Above us Luna moved from mushroom to mushroom with bow in hand and seeing via some level of darkvision that was far beyond my class and it's current skills, didn't they say carrots let you see better in the dark? Maybe I could work with that to craft a candle of night-sight. For now, though my mundane eyes saw the cavern as nothing but blackness with the occasional pinprick of light reflecting out of the city ahead of us or from the slave plantation we were steadily advancing upon. Farrah and Merri took advantage of the cover provided by the giant mushrooms above us to abandon my darkness cloak and scout ahead on the ground while only myself and Victoria stayed within our little circle of hidden light so we could actually see our surroundings.
No special senses were required to locate the chain gang at work however. We moved in the direction of workers and overseers. The crack of whips and the bestial grunting of overworked men and women interspersed with the steady thunk, thunk, thunk of axes biting into mushroom stalks the size of oak trees. Flames flickered in ceremonial braziers as a Purple Strain Priestess prayed to the god below. I imagined the small flame was a cold comfort amidst the all encompassing blackness around us but no one warmed themselves by its light as none of the workers ahead of us had any time for breaks, they could only toil beneath the whips of their masters and hope the suffering would not be increased overmuch.
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To my surprise, not all of the slaves I saw were human, nor were they mostly subterranean bug-people, although a few of the insectoid races were present. No, it was to my surprise that most of the slaves were Derro with pallid, grey streaked flesh and body's that had been sinewy and underdeveloped even while they had been free citizens. My headband and intuition informed me these were the loyalists to the Grey Strain faction that had been defeated in this particular settlement, usurped by their purple brothers and now used to keep the cogs turning on the war machine.
Images continued to flow from the circlet and I considered tearing it from my head but part of me just didn't want to give it up, I rationalised it as a valuable source of information on my enemy even as it continued trying to worm its way into my mind and corrupt my own morality and goals.
I picked over the information, focusing on social interactions between the factions. Arguments between purple and grey leaders had been plentiful due to fundamental incompatibilities between their ideologies. Essentially the Grey believed that all life that did not venerate the Worm-Father should be disintegrated and returned to the soil they had wriggled out of while those Derro who had instead chosen to follow the teachings of the Purple Strain believed that the unbelievers should be captured, broken and turned to a life of hard toil. Both believed they had hit upon the correct way to worship the Worm-Father
These proponents of slavery argued that labour would serve as a far more valuable sacrifice to their otherworld patron than a creatures wasteful and all-too-speedy demise at the hands of the Grey Strain. Small disagreements at first, held in check by the desperation of their race, a clan unified by necessity for many decades, that had all changed when the clan had achieved dominance over their surrounding environs. Now the long-held tensions simmered and threatened to boil over, every day could have been the one to finally kick off the power struggle. I shrugged off the stored memories and surveyed what I could see of the slave labour in front of us, evidently that day of reckoning the priest had foreseen had come to pass and it was the Grey Strain who had been defeated, now they were slaves to the Green and Purple sects of their cult, toiling alongside surface slaves and feeling the kiss of the lash they had once gleefully wielded. Tough luck for them, a golden opportunity for us though.
The plan didn't change, not really anyway, we gave Merri and Luna about ten minutes to find the clearest ambush points they could and then Victoria and I did our best to creep into position while Farrah stayed between us and the enemy in case we were discovered early.
Things went off without a hitch, the taskmasters having grown too comfortable with abusing their thoroughly defeated countrymen and recently kidnapped farmers to truly remain alert. I wondered how long it had been since these Warmongers had faced an external threat or raiding party. Obviously the more recent conflicts had been one-sided enough that they had grown lax in their duties.
From up close I surveyed the scene and hoped Karl and the Umbani Cleric were amongst the workers, but if they were then they certainly weren't standing out. That wasn't what we'd been hoping to see, not with the temple bells still chiming in our ears anyway, it would certainly make our lives a lot easier if we didn't have to infiltrate a temple in the centre of enemy civilisation after all.
A Derro cried out as an arrow struck him in the chest and then it was on. The surprised Derro in question was standing just outside the light of a small lantern that had made him a prime target for Luna, perched above the Derro taskmasters and their captives.
The lantern had been used to provide illumination to a trio of malnourished humans in the midst of felling a decent sized Treeshroom, now they were turning as one to look with hollow eyes upon the dying bully who had been the source of their nightmares during weeks of suffering. One of the humans went back to chopping, another grabbed her shoulder and forced her to look around at the dead guard, another guard was coming closer, calling for the downed overseer but unable to see him clearly through the light of the lantern.
I took the attack as my cue to unleash our secret weapon on this society of nocturnal predators, above ground they might have been prepared via ritual and blessing to face the light of sun and spells but down here they would have no such preparations. That was why I'd prepared a series of Spell Candles infused with sunflower oil and the essence of spring vegetables, I struck a light to my candle, filled it with as much mana as the warmth evoking ingredients could handle and set the thing off like a flare before throwing it into the midst of the whip wielders.
Violence ensued, violence and liberation.