Beloved Child 31
The round door Gorder had unlocked hissed and swung outwards revealing darkness and a brightly lit walkway of stone. The door next to it opened as well revealing a circular room. Before the group could do anything, the dwarf that had attacked them earlier came walking into the room from the corridor that led to the outside. He looked displeased to say the least.
“Filthy goblinshaggers… I’ll bury them all…” He muttered then he saw the party and got into a fighting stance. “What ever ye daft longlimbs did, ye locked us in here!”
“We can safely assume that this is bad then.” Yoshimo said and drew his blade.
“You have got that right.” Groder muttered and then addressed the dwarf.
“I think, master… Bloodaxe was it?” Groder began.
“Asch… call me Korgan.” The dwarf replied not lowering his axe.
“I don’t think fighting would be a very good idea, what would you say about joining us and plundering this place?” Groder asked, smiling. “After we kill Lavok of course.” He added hastily as Valygar glowered at him.
“There is little else fer me to do, I got locked in with ye.” Korgan nodded. “And me band made damn sure I would be caught in here.” The dwarf’s scarred face twisted in a grimace. “I’ll help ye kill yon mage fer a bit of the loot”
“Good, now let’s figure out what to do.” Groder turned to the party, all but Haer`Dalis and Viconia seemed somewhat dismayed that the thought that the dwarf would be joining them.
“I can’t exactly say that I relish the thought of travelling with this dwarf.” Jaheira told Groder.
“Since we are all locked in together, it is better that he is with us no?” The youth asked. “Now let’s take a look around.”
The small circular room next to the locked door held a large array of smooth glass disks attacked to metal arms that jutted out from the walls. There were different images in every one of the disks. One showed a room with large liquid filled glass tubes and before them stood a dark man in a grey cloak. The party watched as the man waved his hands and the liquid in the tubes began to boil.
“Lavok…” Valygar growled.
“He looks healthy for being over a hundred.” Haer`Dalis mused.
Behind them Korgan cleared his throat.
“So that’s the mage the needs killing?” He grumbled. “Maybe we should spend less time gawking at the lenses and find him?”
“In time Dwarf.” Jaheira was the one to reply. “These lenses may show something important.”
Unfortunately Jaheira was wrong, while the lenses did show what almost certainly parts of the sphere but in no manner were they arranged so that one could connect them in any useful way. One showed a lush garden with green grass, bushes and hanging trees, another showed great pistons working up and down, spewing steam meshed to something that looked disturbingly like flesh.
They left the lens room and carefully ventured out onto the stone bridge, great gears spun beneath it. In its other end were a large metal sphere and a wooden door that led into it. The group made it over the bridge and pushed the wooden door that awaited them open. The room they gazed into looked bizarre, while the outside of the sphere was metal; the inside walls were light coloured brick Groder could see a fireplace that had a fire going and sofa in front of it. The room had a red thick carpet covering it centre and on it sat a table with a bowl of fruit and a few chairs. When the group entered the room a woman rose from the sofa and faced them, sword and shield in hand.
The woman was clad in heavy armour; on its front a picture of a crown was emblazoned. She had short red hair framing her worry worn face. When she fist saw the party her eyes blazed but then she settled down.
“I had not thought I would see others here, at fist I thought you were more of the feral ones.” She said. “I am Renya, A knight of Solamnia. There where two others with me but…” Renya trailed off.
“So are you trapped here as well?” Groder asked.
The knight looked surprised for a minute.
“Are you their leader?” She asked Groder.
“More or less.” Jaheira said. “Why don’t we sit down and talk?”
Despite Groders and Korgans grumblings that they should move on, they did just that.
“I do not know where my comrades are, when we first entered this sphere and later found ourselves trapped; we explored a bit and were attacked by feral children.” Renya paused. “They were eating each other…” Revulsion showed in her face.
“I… see.” Jaheira said and was interrupted by Korgan.
“Where are these kiddies now?” The dwarf asked. “Sounds like they could use some neck breaking.”
“It would indeed be a mercy to end their lives, master dwarf but I honestly do not know where to find them.” Renya replied. “We met them on the earth bridge outside.” She motioned towards another door in the western wall. “Although I have not seen them lately. I think the sphere may have moved and picked up others as well because at one point my companions and I returned here from those rooms.” Again she pointed to another door, this one in the northern wall. “They are empty by the way. We saw evidence that several people had passed through this room. It is possible that they met with the flesh eaters and defeated them.” She sighed and then looked at the party. “I have to ask, are you trapped here as well?”
“Not as such.” Valygar cut in. “We seek to kill the master of this infernal device.”
“Truly? The master of this place must be a great sorcerer indeed.” Renya bit her lip. “I dishonour myself for I would like to lend you my sword arm but without my comrades and…” She trailed off again, eyes downcast. The woman was obviously scarred from her being trapped in the sphere.
“If…” Haer`Dalis stopped himself and spread his tattooed face in a smile. “When we manage to get back to the prime, we could always drop you of at the Flagons. It seems to have become a hotbed for planar travellers these days.”
“Will you be alright here by yourself?” Nalia asked the knight.
“Yes, if you could bring me word of the fate of my comrades I would appreciate it.” Renya replied.
**
The party left the woman and headed for the door. It opened to a great darkness; a dusty, cracked earth road lined with non-human bones like a railing ran out into it. The road seemed to float along in space. Far away, domes and large metal globes could be seen seemingly hovering in the air moving inwards towards the spheres centre in a spiral like shape. An eerie howling wing blew through the darkness. The group moved carefully out and found that the wind was not hard. Valygar muttered in the back:
“Foul, foul magic…”
Things hung in the darkness, large pieces of buildings and great chunks of land. One such chunk floated close to the road. It was not very large and they could see that it was partially covered by a strange black stone with white lines painted on it. In the dirt next to the dark stone sat a green metal sign. Things were written on it.
“It is in common!” Groder exclaimed. The sign read in white: Las Vegas and 21. Below that over more of the white text and numbers was painted: “The walking dude is coming” with big black letters, below that there was red paint that said: “R.F was here.”
“What is a du…de?” Nalia asked.
“These things are undoubtedly from many planes.” Haer`Dalis said. “It would not be strange if we did not know certain words or slang.”
“While this is all very fascinating, I suggest we move on.” Groder interjected. “I am sure we can look at things after Lavok is dead no?”
“Does that include any artefacts we can carry, my raven?” The actor smiled.
“Eh… no.” Groder responded.
Despite his words Groder found it hard not to stop and stare at the things that floated in the darkness. A row of stone pillars floated in the air, an odd pylon shaped tent was passed and on one slab of stone that hovered in air above the road there squatted a horrid carved idol that seemed part man, part insect. They walked on down the road and soon dirty tents rose up as the floating earth road became broader and turned slowly into a sort of plateau. Remains of fires were scattered about the broader space. When the group, weapons drawn and in a tight formation neared the first of the tents, they made a grisly discovery. Small bodies, hacked to pieces littered the ground.
“Halflings?” Groder questioned when he looked closer at a body. The small woman was dirty and clad in rags. The grimy face which had old dried blood around its mouth held the terror the creature had felt in its last moments.
They soon found a small mound of the corpses; the Halflings had tried making a last stand against whatever foe that had butchered them. Here and there where corpses lay scattered there were dark craters in the ground. The Halflings near these dark patches were even more mutilated then the others. Some of the corpses had also been chewed on after they were dead.
“Are these the cannibals Renya spoke of?” Nalia wondered. “All of their faces look stricken with terror. If they were as horrible as she described then what could possibly scare them.”
“That!” Jaheira shouted and pointed. “Get ready.”
It sat on the other side of the camp, just on the edge were the plateau again turned to road that dropped downwards almost out of sight. A metal dome rose not far behind it. The creature did not move nor make any sound at all. It was a large, ape like thing, long and thin yet its body and limbs were thick with muscle. The skin drawn taut over its body was almost snow white but flecked with dried blood. Dark eyes sat deep in the things jutting skull, the flesh around it mouth seemed non existent and revealed a row of large teeth. The effect of this made the being seem to have a persistent leer. It squatted, its dark gaze examining the party. The thing rested on a broad curved blade that had been designed for one thing: butchering whatever it came into contact with.
“What the hell is that?” Groder exclaimed and realized that he was closest to the being.
“Just another thing that needs killin” Korgan grumbled, raised his axe and ventured forward a few feet. Groder took Azure Edge off his back and fingered it. When the creature got its first good look at Korgan, it howled. It rose up to its full height and growled, brandishing its blade, beating the ground with it. Every movement it made now spoke of an unbridled rage.
“What did you do to antagonize it, dwarf!” Viconia shouted and began chanting.
“I did nothin, drow!” Korgan yelled back.
“It reacted to him being a dwarf.” Jaheira shouted. “Groder was closer to it and it didn’t seem to care!”
The thing threw back its head and howled: the sound expanding and dying in the vast expanse of darkness. Other howls came in response and from down the continuing road a group of the beings ran towards them. They looked much like the white one, the same grisly bodies although theirs went in red and brown resting similar blades on their muscular shoulders. When the beings just about had reached their leader, Groder backed away and yelled:
“Let’s keep a tight formation!”
One of the creatures that came up just alongside the white one drew an arm back. It held a small bag that it tossed.
“Scatter!” Jaheira yelled, remembering the craters. “I think they have some kind of explosives.”
The group obeyed Jaheiras command and quickly spread out. The bag hit the ground and a roar filled everyone’s ears. Dirt sprayed in all directions and the creatures charged, howling and swinging their blades in the air.
