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Chapter 36: Round Two
🕑 Added 2024-01-04 15:31:16 +0000 UTCThe origins of the Ice primals of the arctic circle is unknown. The tribes that developed the magic had lived there prior to the Flood, and had only oral histories for much of that time. If those histories are to be believed, they once had a tropical utopia on the ice, which was lost when the gods left the realm. Those same tales claim their Primal magic arose shortly thereafter, which would mean they have had primal magic for a thousand years.
Lidian’s Manual to Magical Fauna, 283rd ed
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The door opened to the same clearing it had the week before, but unlike last time, they immediately heard a rustle at the forest’s edge.
“Go!” Zale barked, and Rakin and her broke off into a sprint towards the sound.
Rakin’s small legs outpaced Zale’s, as the earth rose beneath his feet to propel him forward.
Kole drew his blasting rod, scanning the woods for the source of the sound, but couldn’t make it out. Whatever it was, it was running through the undergrowth away from them.
Doug took a moment to collect himself before following after Rakin. Rakin disappeared into the woods and a moment later came the sound of violence as he caught up to his quarry.
“Goblins!” he shouted. “Two more are getting away.”
Kole ran into the woods behind Zale futilely, knowing he’d never be unable to catch up. The goblins had taken a small game trail, and Zale ran ahead of him cutting the branches out of their way as they tried to catch up.
After nearly a minute of chase, they came across a gory scene. Two goblins lay face down in the dirt, one with an arrow through its neck, the wound still pumping blood.
“Who did—?” Zale began to asked, when Doug stepped out into the path, the branches parting silently around him as he walked.
“Sorry I let them get away,” he apologized. “I was just so surprise by the sudden return of Assuine’s bounty.”
Zale and Kole looked at each other, and then laughed, remembering their fumbled attempt to navigate the forest on our first attempt.
“No need to apologize,” Kole said. “You did great.”
Rakin joined them a moment later and they devised a new plan in light of their new companion’s skills.
Ten minutes later, Doug returned.
“The cave is where you said it would be. There’s five goblins guarding the mouth on top of those boulders, and they have another patrolling the forest’s edge with a dog. I asked around, and there are a few more goblins with dogs throughout the woods.”
“You asked around?” Kole asked. “Who’d you run into?”
“Birds, a squirrel, and a chipmunk,” Doug said as if it were an entirely reasonable answer.
“Can we take them out?” Zale asked, taking the source of the information in stride.
Doug shook his his head.
“That would be risky. They are patrolling very close to the cave. We’d risk them raising the alarm.”
In the end, they decided to skirt the perimeter, outside the range of the patrols. Once on the far side of the hill from the cave entrance they could close in with less risk.
Doug led the way, and Kole marveled at how the branches parted before him him as he walked. He walked almost casual and made no sound, the leaves above dodging out of the way of his antlers, and his feet always seeming to find spots to land free of leaves and sticks. The grace with which he traveled through the woods contrasted greatly with the clumsiness he’d shown back in the the Dahn. But, as Kole watched Doug’s tail swaying behind him, he noticed the plants parted before it as easily as they did around his antlers.
He doesn’t need to be careful out here. Kole realized. He must not be used to being away from nature.
While Doug’s passage was effortless, he was alone in that. The branches only parted for Doug, and returned to block the path in his wake. Rakin cursed the whole way, while Zale’s armor rattled and clanked the whole way, causing Kole to constantly scan the surroundings for ambush, thus making his own noise as he failed to watch his step—not that he needed the help to make noise.
Doug seemed unconcerned by their blundering, and after a ten minute trek, punctuated by brief chats with with birds, he said, “We’re here. The birds tell me the goblins seem to appear in this area as if by magic but they’ve never seen how.”
“Great,” Zale said, taking charge. “Rakin, can you detect the secret entrance anywhere?”
“Not yet. But if walk around I should be able to find it.”
Doug led them through the woods, seeking signs of the goblin’s passage.
“Stop,” Rakin said, closing his eyes. “There’s a cave below us.”
The group looked around, scanning the surroundings for any possible entrance.
“Someone’s coming,” Rakin added in an urgent whisper.
They all heard the hollow thud of a hatch being thrown open and turned to see a small goblin head sticking up from the undergrowth, facing away from them.
Doug drew his bow while Kole held out his rod, but Zale held her hand up, signaling them to wait.
Cursing in the goblin tongue, the small creature squeezed out of the tight hole. Once free, he reached his arm back in and pulled up a mangy mongrel of a dog behind him by the scruff of its neck.
Zale lowered he hand, and they all broke into motion.
Doug vanished, and Kole sent his Will into his rod. Before Kole registered Doug’s absence, Doug’s arrow came flying over Kole’s shoulder from behind where it flew off into the trees.
“Assuine’s mercy,” the demonkin cursed.
Kole’s purple bolt of force both struck the goblin in the chest, making a much messier hole than the neat coin holes of his magic missile. With the front of its chest missing, he died before he even knew they were under attack. The dog, who’d begun to sniff the air as soon as he’d surfaced, saw his companion fall and snarled at them, hackles raised. But, turned to flee as it saw Rakin and Zale charging after it.
“Wait,” Doug shouted to them from where he’d somehow appeared behind Kole, but they didn’t listen.
The pair made short work of the dog, and turned back to Doug.
“You didn’t need to do that,” Doug said, defeated.
“Yes we did,” Zale said, not without sympathy. “We killed his master. There was nothing you could have said to him to make him trust us.”
“We could have tried,” Doug defended.
“And we would have failed,” Zale finished for him. “Rakin, make that entrance wide enough for us. And Doug, what in the realms happened just now?”
Rakin moved to the hatch the goblin had come through, and listened with his primal senses while Doug stammered.
“I-uh… don’t have any control over my primal abilities,” Doug confessed.
“Bah!” Rakin shouted in frustration. “Now we got two! Its clear by the way. Gab later.”
Rakin threw the hatch open and jumped in.
He got stuck almost immediately, but the dirty seemed to fall away around him, as if it were ice and he were a hot iron. Slowly, he descended into the tunnel, widening it as he went.
“Clear!” came his shouted whisper once he’d disappeared out of sight.
Zale looked to Doug and asked, “You good?”
He nodded, though he still looked upset.
“Good, I’ll come last.”
Kole went down the hole, blind in the darkness.
He continued downward until Rakin whispered, “Stop.”
Kole, who’d thought himself to still be in the narrow tunnel, nearly screamed in surprise, but choked down the reflex. He felt the dwarves hands on him, guiding him out.
Below, he heard the running of water echoing through the cave and smelled the over whelming aroma of sewage.
"Gods, I thought their blood smelled bad." Kole said, holding his nose.
Zale came down next, and they were lucky for the sound of the water to drown out the sound of her armor.
Once Doug was down, Rakin took charge.
"Follow me, Zale guide the blind human. No talking."
They waded into the filthy water that rose to their knees. The subterranean river was only a few feet across, but the rough edges of the cavern and frequent large blocks resulted in a disproportionately loud flow.
As they traveled the riverbed rose upward, and widened out. As it did, it grew quieter and they began to hear Zale's armor over the rapids.
At Rakin's signal, the group came to a halt. Kole, being blind in the darkness, walked into Zale back. Only Zale's reflexes in catching him kept him from falling in the water.
"You're too loud," Rakin whispered to Zale. "You need to ditch the armor."
Zale shook her head, which Kole felt as her hair whipped his face.
"Let me try something I've been working on."
She closed her eyes in focus and when she opened them, she smiled triumphantly. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
"What're you doing?" Doug asked.
"What is she doing?" Kole echoed, unable to see.
"She's just flapping her gums," Rakin explained.
Seeing their confusion, Zale brought her metal clad hands together to call, only no sound was produced.
"Ye blocked the sound?" Rakin asked, only for Zale to point to her ear, while shaking her head.
"She can't hear us," Doug explained for Kole's benefit.
"Alright," Rakin said, satisfied with the solution. "let's go. Keep it quiet. We're close to the right elevation so we should be close."
The tunnel continued to widen as they waded upstream, the ceiling too raising higher. By the time the stream was only a few inches of running water, they came to a small subterranean beach of gravel.
Rakin motioned for a stop and crept ahead of the group, his Earth primal abilities making his steps on the loose rock silent. He return a few moments later.
“This is the right tunnel we didn’t take last time. If we keep going up stream we will be below the ridge we fought on. Theres at least a dozen goblins walking around up there.” Rakin whispered on his return.
“Lets keep going. Maybe there’s another way up,” a no longer silenced Zale decided.
Rakin lead the blind human, deaf voidling, and clumsy demonkin up river, and shortly they were in the crescent shaped chamber they’d fought in before. Torches were not lit up top, finally giving Kole some light. The light of the torches didn’t extend far enough down to illuminate them. Slowly, they crept upstream, all while goblins milled about above, joking in their cruel tongue.
Rakin stopped them silently and pointed up the ridge. Faintly, Kole could make out the silhouette of logs, back lit by the torches.
“Traps,” the dwarf whispered.
They slowed their pace then, scanning the riverbed for any trip wires, but whatever triggered the trap wasn’t down below. They made it through the large chamber without exposure, and continued on in the dark until Rakin cursed in a sharp whisper.
“Flood.”
“What?” Kole asked
“The river ends, it goes under the stone,” he explained.
“Can you widen in?”
“No, theres no cavity beyond. I can feel it.”
“What should we do?” Doug asked.
As if in answer to the question, the heard the light splash of drops hitting the water.
“Is there a path up?” Kole asked, looking up into the darkness.
Plop
Something struck Kole in the face.
Plop, Plop, shlop.
Three more projectiles—each progressively less solid—landed before he could react to the first, and with them came the overwhelming—and now familiar—odor of goblin shit.
Zale—who was not blind—threw her silence field up once more and broke out into a silent pantomime of laughter.
Before he could fully reaction, Rakin reacted and pulled him down into the water, shoving his head under.
Because of Rakin’s quick thinking, when Kole began to retch uncontrollably, the sound of was lost under the surface. The urge to vomit fought with the urge to scream in disgust, but the more physical of the two reactions one out and Kole expelled his breakfast into the already filthy stream. He fought back the urge to gasp for breath after, but failed, choking in some water before clamping his mouth shut. He fought to stand, but Rakin held him under until suddenly another hand grabbed his neck.
Zale pulled Kole up by the collar and hugged his face tight to her chest. He tried to hold it in, but couldn’t help coughing up the water he’d inhaled before desperately gasping for breath.
To his surprise, no sound came from his mouth as he fought for air. He could still hear the cave around him, but nothing came from him. Once he’d stopped coughing, struggling, and generally being a panicked animal, he felt Zale’s grasp loosen and she let him go.
When his mouth got more than an inch away from Zale’s chest, he heard the sound of his own ragged breathing return.
“Thanks,” he whispered to Rakin, who’s quick thinking likely saved them.
“Rakin’s gone,” Doug answered. “He started climbing up the poop shaft as soon as Zale had you.”
As if on queue, a small body fell into the water next to them, splashing them all with the filthy vomit strewn water.
Reacting quickly, Zale chopped at the figure with her sword, and the small of goblin blood joined with the rest.
“Come up!” Rakin’s voice echoed from above.
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