A Record of Ash & Ruin: The Grieving Lands

Chapter 27: A Bid for True Freedom

So incensed by the refusal of what he thought was a reasonable offer of amnesty, the High King of the Elves begged once more with the Dragon Queen for aid, offering a dragon’s egg weight in precious silvery mithril. Greed sinking its claws into her reptilian heart, she commanded that flights of dragons launch into the sky and rain death and destruction on the Republic.

- On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Scholar circa 103 AC

We trudged silently down the long tunnels for perhaps an hour or two, small Zajasite stones in our hands casting strange blue shadows in the gloom. Looking to the bottom left of my vision, my Mana had mysteriously risen to three points, and I also received a new notification.

You have learned Mana Regeneration (lvl.1)

I was grateful for the new skill, and its effects were self-explanatory. The mystery to me, however, was how it had been triggered. Was it due to my constant draining of Mana and then resting? Did it stack with my Rest skill? I pondered these questions futilely before I almost bumped into Durhit, who had raised a hand signaling a stop.

Up ahead in the semi-darkness there was an offshoot tunnel. It was almost perfectly circular, and smaller in diameter than the tunnel we were currently in. The dwarf raised a finger to his mouth gesturing for silence, as he looked down into the gloom. Slowly now, we understood the need for caution as we strained our ears, catching the impression of an insectile clicking noise. As stealthily as possible, I ventured to the lip of the new tunnel and gazed down, holding my piece of glowing Zajasite close to my chest.

What I saw could only be described as other. A pair of dark, four-armed creatures just over a meter high stood on two reverse-jointed legs. Their feet had sharp-looking claws. A bony cranium sat on a squat, almost non-existent neck. Large hairy antennae protruded from their cranium where eyes would normally be, which twitched as if tasting the air. Instead of a mouth, four deadly mandibles formed a cross shape, clicking together as they communicated with one another. Two long double-jointed arms extruded from their shoulders, which ended in sharp-looking bone spurs that resembled scythe blades. From their chests, smaller, yet more dexterous arms, ended with three clawed fingers and an opposable digit for possible manipulation. Over their bodies the creatures were armored with pale ridged chitinous scales. These were thicker along their backs and trunks, and finer along their joints. The whole ensemble resembled terrifying albino insectile alien creatures in the blue surreal light.

The creatures chittered to each other in their unknowable alien language, moth-like heads and antennae moved around as if searching. I noticed a bead of sweat formed on Durhit’s brow as he moved closer, and I could see that he was tensed like a drawn bow. Everyone gripped their worn mining tools, ready for a potential fight. My heart beat like a war drum. An unknown part of me almost welcomed this potentially cathartic conflict, an alien counterpoint to the fear that I felt in equal measure in that cold dark.

“Echo-Stalkers...” the Dwarf muttered under his breath, which caused Elwin the Rogue to visibly flinch and take back a step, inadvertently kicking a small pebble. Almost instantly the pair of insectile creatures turned in our direction, antennae swishing almost spasmodically. Their chittering grew in volume, loud in the silence of the tunnel as they stalked closer in our direction, their arm scythe blades menacing the air.

Adrenaline began pumping through my system as I cast Identify at the rightmost Echo-Stalker to try and gauge the scope of the incoming threat.

Echo-Stalker - Drone (lvl.6) Health 45/45 Stamina 23/24

Mana 4/4

Suddenly without warning, their antennae stiffened and the chittering stopped as they charged us, their leaping gait bounding through the distance between us. Almost mesmerized by their speed, I saw the right Echo-Stalker run across the wall of the tunnel as it sprung straight at me, dual scythe blades raised to stab through my chest. It was met suddenly by a rock thrown with lightning speed by our Rogue, landing smack into the center of its mandibles, half stunning it as it missed its fatal strike. Snapping out of my fugue, I raised my own weapon in a deadly ark to smash into its cranium with a Power Strike. The force of the blow was so powerful that the chains at my wrists hit the creature before rebounding and striking me lightly across my own forearms. Feebly, as it tried to rise on unsteady limbs, I finished its suffering with a blow to its mangled head, ending its life.

You have slain an Echo-Stalker 30 experience gained

Its death notification filled me with savage joy. Looking around for the remaining threat, I saw that Kidu and Durhit had surrounded the remaining Drone. Its own speed and overeagerness to reach us had been its downfall, as Kidu had been able to flank it as it leaped. A scythe-blade arm hung limply, clearly broken, as dark ichor flowed from the wound. Like a bear at bay, it turned this way and that as the pair made their probing strikes. They were silent in their fight, no doubt unwilling to bring more of the monstrosities down upon us, with Kidu showing surprising restraint. Elwin held another stone in his hand, throwing it up and down a small distance repeatedly, testing its weight while he waited for an opening. Sensing my approach it chittered wildly, mandibles clacking as it raised its head in threat. That was all the opening Elwin needed, promptly throwing his projectile and hitting antennae square on, causing it to nearly snap off.

We all charged it then, even Elwin picked up a shovel to join the fray. My group struck it with everything we had, making it crash to the ground in a bundle of mangled, flailing limbs. Our group didn’t stop hitting it until it finally stilled. I was given another death notification.

You have slain an Echo-Stalker 15 experience gained You have gained 1 Dexterity

The fight could not have lasted for more than a minute, but my hands were shaking from the adrenaline and the aftershock of spent battle lust. We were all breathing deeply, taking great gulps of air, our hands on our knees as we tried to recover.

“Well that was refreshing,” the Rogue said, trying to make light of his earlier fear.

“Those two were only a scout pair, there’ll be more of them further down…a lot more,” the bearded dwarf spoke dourly.

“They will make for fine trophies then,” the wildman rumbled matter-of-factly, as he ripped off a Drones’ scythe blades in a gory display of raw strength, before placing them in his wicker basket. He made a move to tear off their insect heads, but at the last moment thought better of it, shaking his head.

Looking into the gloom, now that the immediate threat was neutralized, we saw that the tunnel connected to a large wide circular room. Within was a vast concave floor, almost like a pit. Without a word we silently filed into the room, scanning the darkness for any new threats. Casting our weak blue lights at the edges, we walked along the circumference to find the room filled with bones, loose rock, and a miscellany of detritus. The whole area resembled a great garbage pit for the refuse of the creatures that we had encountered.

Seeing that no further tunnels branched from the room, the dwarf decided to explore further toward the middle. Skidding down, followed by loose pebbles, Durhit made his way to the center of the room. As we followed the dwarf, at our feet we found a plethora of animal bones from unknown species both large and small. Among them, more horrifyingly, was the occasional cracked human skull.

“So this is where the lost miners ended up…” Durhit said, diverted in thought as he held up a humanoid skull for closer inspection. “Some of us even thought that they had managed to find a way out. No matter, let us have a look to see if we can find anything useful.”

We quickly followed his orders, searching through the rubbish pile for items. What surprised us were the sporadic remains of once colorful torn clothes which were scattered among the remains, very different to our own slave linens. Looking at a particularly large femur that drew my attention, I noticed the remnants of a crude doll next to it. Small horn buttons for its mouth and eyes, no doubt once an innocent child’s toy. Elwin sifting through the rubbish was able to unearth a plain rusty iron dagger, which he quickly pocketed up his sleeve. Kidu found a rotten bow that almost crumbled as he picked it up.

Searching around for a while longer, Durhit came upon something which he threw my way as he said, “Should be about your size, manling!”

Such was my surprise, I was barely able to catch it, passing clumsily from hand to hand in an almost comic fashion. Once I was in no danger of dropping it, I realized I was holding a conical, open-faced tarnished bronze helmet. There were no special markings or patterns, and it simply looked like an antiquated, if not functional, helm. The dwarf gestured for me to put it on, with which I complied.

No doubt I must have looked a little foolish, in slave linens with just a bronze helmet for protection, but my little knowledge of warfare told me that it was absolutely vital to protect the head. The first piece of armor that the ancient soldier would always be sure to invest in was, to my recollection, the helmet. The leather straps had long since rotted away, and the helm felt loose about my head, but it was certainly better than nothing.

Rooting around in the rubble some more, I found an iron spear next to an almost intact skeleton. The spear had likely seen better days, its diamond-shaped spearhead pitted with rust and corrosion. Kidu, however, eyed the equipment longingly. I had wanted a more serious weapon than my pickaxe which, although powerful, was hard to control in combat. Nevertheless I relented at Kidu’s clear fixation with the spear, and passed it to him. Besides, he was probably more proficient in its use than I was, and with his massive frame, his reach would be deadly. In knowing appreciation, he handed me a pair of leather gloves that were in surprisingly good condition. I donned the gloves, feeling a little loss of Dexterity, but decided that it would have little effect on my combat style. The pickaxe was not a subtle weapon.

The Rogue found a purse filled with small copper coins. Although there was nowhere to spend the money, we decided to divide them among us, much to Elwin’s reluctance, totaling ten copper pieces each. The dwarf dexterously made simple cloth money pouches from torn, once colorful, fabric that was scattered here and there on the floor. He handed the money-filled pouches to each of us, silencing Elwin’s protestations.

Deciding that any further time searching through the rubbish den would be a waste, we clambered out and cautiously made our way back to the main shaft. As stealthily as we could, we proceeded down the tunnel. Kidu was at the van, iron spear held with both hands as a ward against any potential dangers. Slipping further down, we came across the broken bodies of Drones. More disturbingly, among the corpses we saw a larger, more deadly-looking version of the Echo-Stalkers. These mangled corpses had thicker, more heavily armored chitin carapaces, with extra vicious-looking scythe blades for their weapon arms. Some of the bodies were almost torn in two, others had their craniums completely pulped by what must have been extreme blunt-force trauma.

“What sort of creature could have done this?” Elwin uttered in the gloom as he visibly gulped.