In The Cards

An adventurer should always expect the unexpected. If a kindly old wizard offers to do you a favor he could well be a demon lord out to trick you into bargaining your soul away. On the contrary, a hideous giant may turn out to be friendly and peace-loving. Take all rumors with a large pinch of salt. If there's any truth to them it's usually been twisted into an entirely knew shape, repainted and fitted with a new name. Of course, if you always expect the unexpected that means the unexpected become expected, and so the point is moot anyway. One way or another, you're going to get screwed by the Powers That Be. Get used to it.

Excerpt from 'Ruminations Of A Master Bard'

The air down here had a peculiar smell to it, Zaerini thought. It wasn't dusty, exactly, but it carried the smell of dust, and yet it was damp at the same time. Passageways and mineshafts spiraled out in every direction from the central area where the miners kept their equipment. It was a good thing Jaheira had a good sense of inborn direction or they would probably all have been hopelessly lost. To Rini just about every dark corridor looked the same. Wooden beams propping the roof up, mine-carts carrying ore, stone walls pressing in on her heavily. The air wasn't all that bad, but it still felt difficult to breathe.

"Oooh", I don't like this, Imoen whispered, echoing Rini's own thoughts. "It's creepy."

"More importantly, it's damp", Edwin said. He shivered and pulled his robes closer around him. "If I catch my death down here somebody is going to pay for it. (With their lives, most likely, and serve them right too.)

The wizard is right, Softpaws said as she skirted a trickle of water on the floor with a disgusted flick of her tail. The darkness is nice, but cats and wet-cold don't mix well.

It was rather cold, Zaerini agreed. She didn't know how the miners could stand it. Probably they didn't have much choice if they wanted to keep supporting their families. The men she'd talked to so far all carried a sense of suppressed dread about them, an ever-present fear. It was in the way their eyes constantly darted around to the deep shadows in the corners, as if they expected something to leap out at them. It was in the sour smell of their sweat and in the way they would sometimes start and shudder at the sound of a pebble being knocked across the floor or of a boot scraping against a rock. Whatever was down these mines had them badly demoralized.

From what Rini had managed to learn so far the miners didn't know very much, except that many of their comrades had disappeared down the lower levels of the mines, disappeared without a trace. There were guards posted down there now, but still the danger was great. What it consisted of they did not know. Demons were mentioned, as were dragons, but it was all speculation. As for the iron ore it had become contaminated some time ago, and now everything brought up of the mines was brittle, and would break easily. It was a curse for which the miners had no explanation. Zaerini had picked up some iron off a cart. It was black and fragile, and it crumbled to fine dust between her fingers. Suddenly she was very glad that Varscona was hanging at her side rather than some ordinary sword made from iron out of this place.

Another miner approached, his head moving nervously from side to side as he tried to pick out sudden movements within the shadows. "A visitor!", he exclaimed. "Oh glorious day. We don't get many down here as you can imagine. Are you going to be going down into the mines? If so could you return this dagger to Kylee? He dropped it when he went into the mine the other day and I haven't seen him since."

"Sure", Rini said, thinking to herself that she wouldn't be surprised if this 'Kylee' was already wormfood. "If I see him, I'll return his dagger." She put the simple weapon in her pack. "Say, have you been down to the lower levels yourself lately? Do you know anything about what's down there?"

The man shuddered. "Don't know", he said. "Don't want to know. I've heard strange noises in the dark, inhuman noises if you catch my drift. Could well be demons if you ask me." He got a haunted look in his eyes. "The other day, I was down there with my mate Dalak. He just went back a little ways up a passage to check a support beam. Then I heard…I heard him screaming. Terrible, terrible screams, and laughter mixed with them. Yipping laughter, like a pack of small dogs would make."

"Go on", Zaerini said, listening intently. She had a feeling she knew what was coming.

"I…I ran to get the guards. It couldn't have taken more than five minutes. But when we got back to Dalak he was…he was…" The man was grey in the face by now, consumed with horror as he relived the terrible memory. "He'd been torn to pieces. You…you couldn't even tell that he was human anymore, his face was…was…"

"Yes, I get the picture", Rini said hurriedly. Imoen was looking rather pale herself and the half-elf had no particular wish to let her friend get exposed to the more gruesome details. "Can you tell us the way to the next level of the mine?"

"That way", the miner said, pointing. "Just…just be careful, you hear me? You don't want to wind up like poor Dalak. Watch out for the demons." He shuddered again and walked off.

"Well", Zaerini said to her companions. "What do you think of that?"

"The man was genuinely frightened", Jaheira said. "He was telling the truth."

"As he saw it, perhaps", Edwin said. "Why would demons want to move in here?" He gestured in the direction of the dripping walls. "Or dragons, for that matter. It isn't as if it's a mithril mine. (Pity, that. With the miners so easily frightened, picking up a few loose pieces would have been child's play.)

"I j-j-just want t-to get this o-o-over with", Khalid stuttered, looking almost as nervous as the miner had.

"Me too", Imoen agreed.

"Well, I suppose we'll just have to be careful", Zaerini said, nodding her head towards the dark passage leading downwards. "Shall we?"

The passage sloped downwards, ever downwards. Zaerini wondered whether she might wind up on the other side on the world eventually. She could almost feel the massive weight of all the rocks above her, pressing down on her head, threatening to crush her. "I don't think I like caves and tunnels very much", she whispered. "It's not as if I'm a dwarf, after all."

"Yes", Edwin said. "Unfortunately very few adventurers get to have adventures situated in pleasant meadows or on the beach. It's always tunnels, caves, dungeons or cellars, it seems."

"Pity", Imoen said. "I wouldn't mind a sunny beach adventure myself right now. I think I'm gonna catch a c…c…cold." Then she sneezed, a loud and trumpeting sound that echoed through the semi-lit hallways. The party had reached the bottom of the passage now and stood in a small hall with tunnels leading off in different directions. After the echoing sneeze had died out there came responding sounds from all directions. Laughter. Yipping, barking laughter, from a multitude of small throats. "Ooops…", Imoen said, looking embarrassed.

"Fool girl!" Edwin snapped. "Why don't you go ring the doorbell while you're at it?"

Imoen didn't have the time to respond. An entirely human scream came from one of the passages now, a scream of mortal terror. Then a man emerged, another miner. He was torn and bleeding from many wounds, and his eyes were wild and crazed. As he saw the adventurers he frantically headed towards them. "They're coming-- The yipping demons, they're everywhere! Save me!"

"P-please, just c-calm down", Khalid said. "Everything's g-going to b-be okay." His voice didn't sound very calm and collected however, and the miner couldn't help but notice this.

"But I-- There they are! There they--" Then he screamed again, a low and gurgling moan, and crumbled to the ground, resembling a child's doll thrown away after the play is done. Several arrows pierced his body. Jaheira swore and hurried to the man's side, but almost immediately shook her head, indicating that nothing could be done. And then the 'yipping demons' themselves emerged from the darkness, an entire swarm of them.

The creatures were small, barely three feet high, dark in color and dressed mostly in dirty red or orange. Tiny red eyes glittered in the darkness like a swarm of malevolent fireflies, and they had horns on their heads, sharp white horns, as well as hairless tails resembling those of a rat. They yipped furiously as they rushed the party, some of them firing more arrows, others wielding short swords or spiked clubs.

"K-kobolds!" Khalid cried out, drawing his sword. Jaheira hurriedly chanted a spell and pale moss and lichen shot out of the walls and floor, enlarged to a size far exceeding their normal one. The suddenly thick vegetation trapped a great part of the kobold horde, leaving them vulnerable to Imoen's arrows. Edwin was busy casting a spell of his own, one that Rini hadn't heard before. Suddenly a large ball of flame shot from his open palm, neatly immolating the trapped kobolds. Unfortunately the spreading ring of fire was close enough that the half-elf felt it singe her skin. "Will you watch it?" she screamed before letting fly a spell of her own, a magic missile that instantly killed a particularly large and ugly kobold that had been trying to bite her in the legs. Edwin didn't answer. He was too busy casting, more magic missiles to take out the kobold archers. Meanwhile Khalid and Jaheira dealt with the kobolds that had managed to get past the trap of entangling plants. In a few more moments most of the kobolds lay dead, and the rest had fled, their yipping cries now plaintive as they ran off into the dark tunnels once more.

"Well, that was a new strategy", Rini said once Jaheira had finished healing the small scorch mark on her cheek. She felt extremely lucky it hadn't been worse. That didn't mean she was going to let Edwin off easily however. "Tell me Eddie, what exactly were you trying to prove by almost burning me to a crisp? Was that some new and wonderful tactic known only in Thay? I'm dying to know. In fact, I almost did."

For a brief moment the Red Wizard looked rather defensive, almost guilty. Then the expression was quickly replaced by his customary air of extreme arrogance. "I would have expected anybody daring to call themselves a spellcaster to be familiar with the words and gestures of the Fireball spell", he said with a haughty look. "If you are too ignorant to know when to take a step backwards that is hardly my fault. (In fact, it may be considered evolution at work. The clever survive, the fools get roasted.)"

"Oh, really? Well, I think you're just making excuses for having a bad aim. You probably couldn't hit the broad side of a barn even in full daylight."

"Yes, I could!" Edwin sounded highly indignant. "I happen to have excellent aim and I'll prove it to you. Just tell me who or what to hit and you'll see."

"Really?"

"Really!"

"Fine", Rini said, pointing at a small rock outcropping a goodly distance away. It was so small that it was almost invisible, even to her enhanced sight. It might not be fair to pick a target that difficult, but she was furious enough not to care. "Prove it!"

"Fine!" Edwin sneered. "A task almost insultingly easy for my prowess. (A live target would have been much more challenging.)" He flexed his hands, preparing to launch the spell.

"H-hold on a m-m-minute", Khalid protested. "I t-think you ought to b-be more careful…"

It was already too late. Edwin cast the spell, a small blue ball of pure force that slammed into the rock he had aimed for, hitting it square on the base. There was a rumbling, groaning sound from above. "Oh no…", the Red Wizard whispered. Then the roof came crashing down on top of them.