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Chapter 37: Rescue
🕑 Added 2024-01-05 18:17:16 +0000 UTCSecondary Fonts, such as Illusions, Understanding*, and Wind, are all recent developments with uncertain origins. As a naturalist, it is outside of my purview to speculate on their origin. Regardless of their origins, I have made some observations on the Secondary Fonts and their impact on the species of Kaltis.
Lidian’s Manual to Magical Fauna, 283rd ed
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Kole climbed up first, lighting his runic lamp at its lowest setting when Rakin gave him the okay. The lamp was surprisingly high quality, and the more he used it, the more he was sure he wasn't supposed to have kept it. Despite the low level of light, Kole had to squint after being in total darkness for so long.
The climb was simple if not necessarily easy. Rakin had molded steps and handholds into the wall as he climbed, and Kole tried to ignore the shaft’s intended purpose.
"Kill the light," Rakin whispered as he neared the top.
Kole complied and the dwarf helped him up into a circular room lot by a crude torch. The room was largely empty, save of course for the hole, and the two young girls tied up in the corner, passed out but still breathing. The entrance to the chamber was small, Kole would have to crouch to fit through and was covered by a filthy sheet.
"Are they okay?" Kole asked and saw Rakin's curt nod in reply.
Zale surfaced next, silent once more through some application of her primal magic or "voidy-ness" that Kole really wanted to ask about.
Doug surfaced last and scanned the room.
"No one's coming," Rakin told the group, hand to the ground.
"How long does it normally take a goblin to do his business?" Kole asked, in jest. "I think we have about that long before somebody comes in to see what happened to this room’s last occupant."
"No clue, there's not exactly reading material in here," Rakin answered, looking around.
"I can make one more silence aura," Zale told the group. "I think we should try sneaking out. I'll wake the girls with a silenced hand over their mouths, and you can explain the situation. Then we go down the hole and sneak out the back."
No one objected, and Zale walked over to the girls, gently placing her hand over their already gagged mouths.
As one would do when woken from an uncomfortable sleep by being muffled, they freaked out.
"Calm down ye idiots," Rakin scolded the girls.
Kole quickly stepped in, realizing maybe he was better suited for this task.
"We're here to rescue you. We're adventures sent by the..." he paused realizing the actual answer to the situation wouldn't make sense to the two girls who were possibly magical constructs.
"Mayor," he finished with the first thing that came to his mind.
They pair relaxed slightly at that and stopped squirming, allowing Zale to remove her hands from their mouths and cut their bonds.
"Can you climb down a ladder?" Kole asked them, realizing now that they were about his age.
"I think so," one said weakly.
"Take this," Kole said, handing the speaker his light. "My friend Rakin will descend before you. He can catch you if you slip. But try not to, he can be a grump."
Rakin grunted in response, eliciting a small smile from the girls.
Zale positioned herself to the edge of the door flap, while Doug stood at the far side of the room with his bow at the ready.
“I’ll stand watch outside,” Kole volunteered, turning invisible and ducking through the flap.
The opening beyond took a tight turn to the right before widening out into the large crescent chamber the river passed through. The chamber was dark, save for the torches that stood outside each of the entrances to the other two-chamber openings. He could see light emanating from the tunnel they’d used to enter on their first attempt. As he watched, he saw a goblin run out of the entrance tunnel squealing something in the goblin tongue. He ran past the first chamber where Zale died and into the second they’d never seen.
Kole ducked back into the prison latrine room and whispered, “I think someone found our victims outside. Hurry up.”
He moved back outside to see a group of goblins walking towards his location with purpose. The lead goblin stood a head taller than the rest, wearing an elaborate headdress of bone that marked him as a shaman or sorcerer.
“They’re coming!” Kole rasped as he jumped back in, just in time to see the second girl’s head dip beneath the surface.
“I’ll cover the door,” Zale said, keeping her position. “Don’t shoot me.”
“I’ll try,” Kole said as Doug said, “I won’t.”
Kole drew his blasting rod and held his breath as he heard the group of goblins approach. The first to enter was short even for a goblin, and Zale cut him in half from shoulder to hip before he even noticed her.
The next walked through the flap, tripping on his dead comrade’s body, and taking an arrow to the chest. The goblin gasped as he got struck and let out a wet scream, alerting the shaman to the ambush.
Kole heard the arcane mutterings of goblin magic from beyond the flap, and dove to the size shouting, “Spell!”
The room filled with thunder, and Kole felt a sharp pain in each ear as the sound ruptured his eardrums, leaving behind only a high-pitched whine. Struck by the full brunt of the attack, Zale was thrown back towards the hole in the center of the room, and Doug slammed into the rough cave wall he stood against. The dead and dying goblins on the floor were thrown toward the hole in a tangled heap.
Kole recovered first, and pointed his rod at the entry, expecting the shaman to enter at any moment. But, nothing came. He saw blood dripping down the ears of Zale and Doug as they regained their feet, and he felt the same on himself.
Then in the subjective silence, a pair of goblins charged into the room, crude short swords drawn, eyes casting about wildly. Kole struck one with a bolt, while Doug took down the other with an arrow. When a third didn’t come, Zale motioned for the boys to watch the door, as she picked up the small goblin bodies and pushed them to the entryway to form a barrier. Once that was done, Kole stuck his head down the hole, where he saw his light shining clearly from the bottom.
Waving wildly, Kole got Doug’s attention and pointed for him to go down the hole. The demonkin obliged and was halfway in when a thick smoke began to fill the chamber. Zale backed away from the entryway, holding a cut piece of her shirt to her mouth. She tried to push Kole toward the hole, but he shook his head, pushing her to it instead. Unsure of his plan, but trusting he had one, she sheathed her sword and began to descend.
The smoke grew thick rapidly, stinging Kole's eyes and driving him to a wracking cough. Between gasps, he focused his mind and used the remainder of his Will to cast the Air cantrip, creating a well of fresh air in his palm just as he had to survive the stench of the deep whale barrel. Compared to the burning in his lungs and stinging in his eyes, he hardly noticed the side effects of being Will drained. He fought through the pain of his existence, and pulled a clarity potion from his belt, downing it in one go.
Ugh, he thought, fighting back another bout of vomiting. These somehow taste worse than back home.
The spell had banished the smoke directly in front of his face, and he watched as Zale descended slowly, armor getting caught as she fumbled blindly for footholds below. The first goblin came through the smoke, just as her head disappeared beneath the surface, and Kole struck it in the head with his quarterstaff before it noticed his presence.
Before more could come from the smoke, Kole turned invisible.
Flood, he cursed inwardly, noticing that he looked like a human-shaped void in the smoke.
Luckily, the smoke was thick enough, that anyone who could see his outline would be within striking distance of his staff. No goblin followed after the first, and Kole watched the door nervously, waiting for what the crafty creatures would try next.
He moved to the side of the hole opposite the entrance and lay on the ground, blasting rod extended before him. He fought the urge to descend the hole. If he could keep the goblins focused on him up here, his friends had a chance to escape.
After what felt to Kole like days, but was, in reality, a few minutes, the smoke began to clear. When it did, Kole froze as a single scrawny goblin flew into the room as if thrown. The wretched creature landed inches from the hole, and immediately jumped to his feet, scanning the room.
Finding it apparently empty, he looked down the hole and then began to shout in the goblin tongue.
Deciding it was worth the risk, Kole reached across the hole, grabbed the goblin by the ankle, and pulled it in. His invisibility vanished as soon as he made contact with the enemy, and the goblin's eyes grew wide in recognition before it fell screaming to its death below.
Kole recast invisibility as soon as he was free of contact with the goblin and disappeared just as two more ran in, weapons drawn. They scanned the room, looking for their companion.
Kole held still as they searched the room, holding back the urge to shove them down the hole when they grew close. The pair quickly realized our escape path and ran out of the chamber shouting.
Kole followed, careful to stay back far enough to be unheard. Outside the latrine room, he saw the goblins gathering weapons while those who were already armed were running to the entrance and others descended the cliff face down to the stream below.
Kole couldn't see his friends but expected that they were trapped in the cavern that joined the beach to the larger chamber. He crept along the ridge, careful to keep his distance from the enemy. As he made his way towards the entrance, he thought he could hear the sounds of battle—though he knew it to be just a figment of his imagination. When a group of the crudely armed creatures ran past, he ducked into a side chamber. When he came out, the only foes remaining stood over the log traps Rakin had spotted below.
He ran down the incline towards the entrance, stumbling in the low torchlight. When he neared the bottom, by the entrance, the sound of battle grew louder below—though Kole couldn’t hear it, deaf as he was. The occasional spark lit the darkness as blades met, and somewhere in the blackness below, his friends held back a swarm of goblins as they fought to enter the cave.
Three crossbowmen stood above the logs, looking down the stocks of their weapons into the darkness below.
Should I? Kole asked himself, eyeing the crude ropes holding the logs up.
He weighed his options. If he was wrong, and they weren’t in the cave, they would die. But, if he did nothing, they would likely die anyway.
Making up his mind—comforted by the fact that they wouldn’t actually die, even if he was wrong—he drew his dagger and slashed at one of the ropes holding the logs.
