Rhionne BW XXXIV

BW XXXIV – Rhionne’s Vision

“Marin, what’s that noise?” Hintzu’s whisper shattered the silence.

“I don’t know, it sounds like a distant battle” answered the dwarf lord eventually, straining to hear anything through the solid oak door. The two of them faced one another with their ears pressed to the wood, either side of the portal. Their faces were lit from below by the Monk’s lantern that rested on the floor between them, distorting their appearance - weirdly shaping them into hideous gargoyles. Two other dwarves were all that were left of the raiding party that stole into the great dwarrowdelf through the ancient sewers and cellars beneath the Minas. So much for surprise – the enemy had known of their covert mission and had successfully blocked all progress, despite receiving heavy losses. The party too had taken serious punishment; the four that remained were now surrounded, bottled up in the darkness, running low on sustenance and becoming increasingly desperate.

Suddenly, a huge explosion battered the door and threw the listeners backwards, into the room. Ears ringing they shook to clear their heads, brushed themselves down and prepared for whatever might come at them through the shattered door. Despite being toppled onto its side, the lantern remained lit, illuminating the perfectly hewn corridor beyond the portal.

Marin had estimated that they were hundreds of feet below the lowest floor of the Minas and nearly half way into the mountain. They had been heading west and upwards when their progress was arrested by a series of well-timed ambushes and counter attacks, forcing them to take refuge in the dining hall of one of Rodrus’ ancient nobility. The corridor facing them led west, further into the mountain and seemed empty.

“Shall we?” asked Hintzu, picking up his lajatang and striding back toward the opening.

“Wait my friend…Look!” The dwarf clearly saw further into the gloaming than the monk and was inclined to wait, readying his axe, so Hintzu froze. The two other dwarves stepped up to Marin’s side weapons drawn; neither had escaped the enemy’s attention but both were ready to commit their lives to their King’s cause. Their unfailing loyalty never ceased to amaze...

“I can’t see a thing…” complained the monk, and not for the first time. However, he didn’t have to wait long before he saw a creature from one of lower planes of the Abyss limp slowly into the half-light. Clearly badly injured it halted before being consumed in a blast of ice-cold air, which howled into the corridor, freezing everything in its path. Frozen solid, the beast remained in its final position for some time before breaking apart and shattering on the stone floor. Neither the dwarves nor the monk dared move.

“Hail friends,” yelled Marin optimistically, “I am Marin, Lord of xxx and my companions are Grion and Bulgir of the House of Rodrus and this man is Hintzu Yung Li, trusted of the New White Council.”

No response came from the darkness. Hintzu moved forward cautiously, picked up his lantern and strained his eyes to see further down the corridor. What a shame he had run out of arrows, he felt quite exposed against wizards capable of hurling deadly blizzards around, with just his lajatang to offer protection.

Another huge explosion sounded further into the mountain and all hell broke out – literally. Three enormous demons charged wildly at the four companions, stooping as they sprinted, single file, down the corridor. Twice the height of a normal man, each had six arms at the ends of which were either pincers, great talons, or humanoid hands holding weapons. Their heads were giant rams complete with huge curled horns; their upper torso was humanoid and their lower half belonged to giant bi-pedal birds, complete with feathers, scaly legs and talons. Great belches of black gas emanated from their nostrils as they ran, hopped and jumped into battle with the startled companions. Only the monk maintained his composure; unsurprised by what horrors this dwarrrowdelf seemed capable of throwing at him, he ducked to his right to avoid the scything arc of a ferocious-looking blade, the jab of a spear, and the tearing of talons whilst simultaneously blocking both of the creature’s thrusting pincers which threatened to engulf him.

His companions were not so lithe, all of them suffered repeated hits from weapons, claws and pincers, though (thankfully) none were held. They were not idle, however, returning nearly as good as they got from hammer, axe and blade. Marin’s axe caused the most damage, discharging Thor’s lightning as it struck the diabolical beast. Hintzu’s lajatang whirled into motion cutting, thrusting and slashing the beast to great effect. Necessarily distracted, the companions failed to notice a second blast of freezing air strike the rear-most demon, but to their relief they did see it break apart and shatter. The two remaining foe succumbed quickly to the rapid succession of devastating blows, and were unceremoniously returned to their abyssal planes.

At that moment, Hintzu recognised a familiar, welcome, oriental voice emerging from the dark end of the corridor, “Friend, you seem to have got yourself in a bit of trouble here; good job we were in the neighbourhood...”

“Lanzi!” the monk yelled, never so relieved to hear a friendly voice, “Milai! Dafydd!” he continued as the New White Council emerged from the darkness, “am I glad to see you…This is Marin, Lord of XX and my other companions are Grion and Bulgir of the House of XXX”

“Well met indeed, we seem to have arrived just in time,” Milai observed, “perhaps you could show us the way out?”

“I guess you didn’t arrive by conventional means,” laughed Hintzu, “we entered via the cellars and sewers, so it will not be a pleasant journey back I’m afraid.” As ever Dafydd stated the obvious, “yes, but it will be possible…”

“And I dare say safer,” added Milai with a sideways glance a Lanzi who had the courtesy of looking sheepish.

Changing the subject, the Mage wrapped an arm over the monk’s shoulder and, leading him away from his companions into the room, said softly, “Come now my friend, tell me all that you have found in this dwarrowdelf.”

“Back?” asked Marin loudly enough to stop any chance of Hintzu replying, “We came here to rescue Grimbotoluk’s folk! I will not turn back until I know of their fate.”

“Then I have very bad news for you Lord, your friends are dead,” sympathised Dafydd. “They lay where they fell, apparently brought down defending the Portal in the lower halls of the Minas above.”

“All of them?” Asked the dwarf in desperation.

“We believe so; the current occupants of the Minas are not of the Prime and were too numerous to defeat – hence our need to leave,” Milai, said softly, placing a hand on the dwarf lord’s shoulder.

Shrugging off Lanzi, Hintzu placed an arm around the dwarf’s shoulders and took him away from Milai and the others, “My Lord Marin, you have done your best, we should depart now and look to take back these halls when we have utterly defeated and baniched the Demon Prince. We can do no more now.”

“No, you are right of course my friend,” the dwarf agreed, wiping a tear from his eye, “I had hoped to see my friends again, but I knew in my heart they must have perished. So, I will now revenge their deaths! No matter how long it might take…”

“We are with you friend,” said Hintsu picking up his lantern again and asking Milai, “My Lady, Dafydd, do you have water that you would share, we have been here a while now and our supplies ran out yesterday.”

“Of course,” they chorused handing around water skins. Lanzi, seemingly put off by the Dwarf’s outburst of emotion, judged the time to be right to repeat his question, “So, Hintzsu-san, have you discovered anything…mmm…worthy of note?”

Moving to a more discrete distance from the Dwarf Lord who was being comforted by the other Council members, Hintzu drew on the water skin heavily before answering conspiratorially, “There was this scrying mirror that a huge Demon was using to converse with, what Marin referred to as the – let me get this right – ‘the mockery of the Second Born’.”

“A scrying mirror you say, sounds fascinating…What did Lord Marin mean – ‘mockery’?”

“Well, after we had dispatched the Demon – did I mention how huge it was?” Hintzu asked distractedly, “Just like a Balrog – you know, the one we saw in that other dwarrowdelf?” Gulp, gulp.

“Yes, yes…” Lanzi said irritably, wanting to get to the point about the dweomer.

“Anyway, after we dispatched the Balrog-like creature, who killed most of our Party by the way, we noted that he had been looking into this mirror.”

“Hintzu, my friend, keep talking but please lead us to this device,” Lanzi said, clearly impatient to look at the mirror, “what did Marin mean?”

The monk began to move to the other side of the room, where the four of them had entered the day before yesterday (before being trapped), “Well, he told me that, just as the Drow had split from the Sylvan elves, these creatures – who looked like paler versions of dwarves – had been perverted to evil.”

“And what were they called, these evil dwarves?” asked Lanzi ushering the monk towards the spiked door to the east of the room.

“Derro, I think he said; anyway, they are clearly helping the Demon Prince. They have something that the Demon wants badly – or rather someone.”

“Oh?” said Lanzi, considering his options to break open the door…