Day 16 of Midwinter, Sunset
Shadowlands, Tech Duinn
Annwn
We had hiked all night and all day to get closer to Tech Duinn. When we began walking again after lunch, I could smell the brimstone leaking from the top of the volcano. But I could swear that in several places, the smell of molten rock and fire leaked out of the ground itself.
We passed sulfur pools that Garbánach looked at longingly. He explained that he and his people used the more “bubbly” pools to cook their prey before eating. I noticed that he didn’t mention using the pools for bathing. That was not a surprise.
There were several instances that we either went out of our way to avoid giants or on one occasion, were stopped by a pack of giants. Manny negotiated with them and seemed to be trying to explain why we traveled with an ogre. Apparently, you could differentiate the good giants from the Boggles (or “bad” giants) based on whether they lived in the highlands or whether they lived in the lowlands. Those that lived in the shade of the mountain, namely the fachan, trow, and ettins were giants to avoid. Ogres were technically not giants, mainly due to their smaller size, but they lived in the same places.
When the day's travel was at an end we found ourselves in the shadowlands. These were where Garbánach and his people called home. When the sun set behind us, the temperature dropped 20 degrees, and I could feel the menacing presence of the Tech Duinn looming over us.
Manny informed us that the volcano hadn’t erupted since the Sages disappeared from Annwn, and before that, it had been another 2,000 years since the previous eruption. Garbánach tried to explain how, lately, the mountain had let forth tremors that shook the ground or as he put it, “Sometimes, the mother gets hungry.” Strange that his people refer to the mountain as feminine, when the rest of Annwn treated it as the House of Donn (the male god of death).
When it was time to rest, Garbánach settled across the fire from us. He seemed ill at ease, and it was something that both Manny and I noticed. He kept looking into the darkness surrounding the fire like he heard something. Occasionally we would catch him trying to cover his ears.
Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer. “What is it Garbánach? What do you hear.”
“Garbánach not hear music. Sound like buzzing in ears.”
I exchanged confused glances with Manny. What he was describing got me worried. Extremely worried.
“Have you ever heard it before?” I asked him casually, trying not to will my fears into reality like the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man.
“Garbánach leave home because of buzzing. Now it come back. Brother had it. Sister had it.”
“Did you ask them about it, Garbánach?” Manny asked.
“Couldn’t,” he responded flatly.
“Why not?”
“Because Garbánach killed them.”
I swallowed hard enough that it was audible to Manny. The buzzing that Garbánach was describing sounded like a rudimentary way to describe the collective hum of the Bodach’s hive mind. I couldn’t wait any longer. I activated my Advanced Identification boon and skipped directly to the section of Garbánach’s Power Rank information that pertained to curses. Nothing. No curses listed.
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“Garbánach, do you know if there are any other ogres in your tribe… um… family that also heard the buzzing?”
“All.” That was all he said, and I got chills up my spine. Did he mean all ogres were infected by the Bodach, or did he mean all of them were predisposed to hearing the hive mind? Or worse… Did he mean ALL creatures in the Southlands, not just ogres? I hadn’t ever considered that before. But now, while I camped in the middle of giant and ogre-infested lands, I supposed it would be possible to be a minion of the Boogeyman without being subject to his curse.
“No sleep.” Garbánach said, affirming what I was afraid of. “The buzz make you crazy. Make you attack your brothers.” He had tears in his eyes that I could see glisten in the firelight.
I didn’t realize it, but the look on my face must have been enough to spook the Child of the Sea. “Put out the fire. We should keep moving.”
No one argued. Instead, we dosed the fire and continued toward the mountain. I reached into the Crane Bag and pulled out my shillelagh. We had only hiked for a few minutes before we heard the drums lower down the mountain. They were met by another set of drums somewhere off to the right. Then a third.
“Three hunting parties,” Garbánach said.
“Sounds like they found our fire.” Manny appeared to be judging the distance from where the first set of drums originated. “Garbánach, can you tell who is following us?”
“Trow drums. Fachan drums.” He paused continuing to listen. Then he sighed. “Searbhán drums.”
Using my new Imbas boon, I understood his meaning. The term searbhán is how ogres referred to themselves. I now knew that trow were what Gary Gygax called “trolls,” and fachan are one-eyed giants… So ogres, trolls, and cyclops. Oh my!
Manny stopped on the trail, so Garbánach and I did the same. “There is no chance that we can fight off three hunting parties, but I may be able to lead some of them away.”
“I don’t even know where we are going, and you want to split the party?” I couldn’t believe I was in another life-threatening situation here in Annwn.
“Duinnite only forms near Uffern,” Manny said riffling through the Swan-Bag hanging off my belt. “There will be a cave or a fissure…”
“Garbánach knows a cave. We do not go there.” The ogre looked to be weighing which one was more frightening, battling an army of giants or getting closer to the land of the dead.
Manny found what he was looking for. He pulled out a fully intact violin from the gray bag and reached back in to pull out the bow. The thing was nearly as long as his arm. “I will lead as many of them away as I can. They love string music.”
“They like string player more,” Garbánach said. “Will only work on trow.”
“So that leaves us with the ogres and the fachan,” I said looking deeply into Manny’s eyes. “Thank you for your help. Get home safely.”
“I will use the portals if I need to.” He grabbed my forearm and shook it. “Find my uncle and bring him back to father.” He ran off then, into the dark playing the theme to a Led Zeppelin song I loved, called Kashmir.“
“It’s you and me now, Garbánach,” I said looking back for the ogre, but there was no ogre. Garbánach was gone. I couldn’t really blame him. Suddenly, my odds weren’t looking nearly as good.
Something clicked inside of me. I knew that I could also find my way back to the portal room, but I would be no closer to finding Goibhniu and no closer to getting allies for Cai and the Fomorians. I knew what I needed to do. My eyes flicked uphill to the path that would take me up higher onto Tech Duinn and I let my Control Energy boon take over my visual senses.
The energy in this place was strange. It appeared that all of the ambient energy in the area was being pulled into the volcano. It was just as I suspected. There were holes in the ground at random intervals that appeared to vent fumes and pull in energy. I looked farther up on the mountain and saw what I was looking for.
There was a hidden entrance into the mountain that appeared obscured from my current position. It wasn’t close. I estimated that it would take me a few hours to get there running at full speed. I heard the drums again then, and I was pulled back to my current predicament.
I immediately started sprinting up the path. I used my newfound physical stats to push the limits of what a humanoid body could do. I jumped dodged the small rocks, and used the large ones as a launching pad. I was practically flying up the mountain, as I was spending more time in the air than I was on the ground.
Behind me, I could hear only one war party. The drums of the other parties were silent from my new position on the mountain. But the drums that were still behind me were gaining ground. I thought about the longer stride of the much larger beings that were trailing me. Were they the fachan or the ogres? I supposed I would find out soon enough. I knew I wouldn’t make it to the cave in time, so I did the only thing I could do at the moment. I prepared myself for a battle.