The Chronicles of the Oddlot I: 4. Cave of Blood

The flight through the forest eventually regained a sense of normalcy, though I was so shaken, I jumped at every broken twig sound.

“I don’t like spiders. Or bats,” I said when a concerned Mordo placed a hand on my shoulder in comfort.

“Much worse than those in the world, bard,” he said. “You see. Mordo bring you great glory to sing about.”

“Wonderful.”

The return journey was even slower than the leaving, as we had to sort the underbrush at night. Though Dalvin and I could see relatively well, finding the trail markers still slowed us down. Eventually, though, we made it back to Ellry. I had no intentions of camping in the forest that night.

Dalvin couldn’t rouse Carla, the old healer having fallen into a deep sleep from her exhaustion two days before. He checked on Leffe and, assured that he was stabilized, caught some sleep of his own so that he’d be fresh and reloaded with spell power the next day, to make Leffe’s cure. I fell into my bed, my armor off this time, and slept deeply, my dreams blessedly free of spiders and bats.

I awoke to Leffe staring at me. He looked a little more gaunt than usual, having sweated out a good deal of water weight as the poison had fevered him. The color had returned to his skin and the dark circles had left his eyes. Still, waking up under the considerable weight of a dwarf’s stare caused me to utter a noise a lot like “eep!”

“Just me, halfie,” Leffe said. While I wasn’t accustomed to dwarven bedfellows, I had grown use to their casual racism via exposure. Most dwarves didn’t mean anything by it. “No need to get your knickers in a knot.”

“That’s nicely alliterative for so early in the morning, if a bit presumptive. Can I do something for you, Leffe?”

The lithe dwarf, so unusual from his kin in many ways, still had prodigious eyebrows of his people. He lowered them into a scowl. I tried to imagine what I’d done to earn his ire.

“You saved me, you and the walking land mass in armor. I’d expect Dalvin to help, but you and Mordo don’t know me from Dumathoin.”

“Well, I…”

“Let me finish. You had no reason to risk your pretty little head for me, yet you did.” His face softened. “I came to ask why. Not many have showed this sea dog and rogue much kindness over the years.”

I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. A quick stroke of my hair revealed that it was in pretty decent shape, for having just awoken. I used the motion to gather my thoughts. From what I could tell about Leffe, he’d feel obligated in a way that would make him feel uncomfortable if I told him I helped just out of the kindness of my heart.

“Well, first of all, I prefer dashingly handsome to ‘pretty’. Second, you needed help and no one else could help you. What should I have done, left you to your agony? I can’t make up a properly heroic tale with that backstory. Thirdly, I reckon we’re going to need whatever you can give us, if we’re walking into that kobold den.”

Leffe rocked back on the stool he was sitting on and thought about it for a minute. He gave two nods of his head, having accepted that my motives weren’t overly kind.

“Thanks, then, I guess.”

“You’re welcome. Now, are you ready to throw away the gift of life I’ve bought you, and head into the monsters’ lair?”

“If I had my way, no. Seeing as you’re all counting on me, what can I say?”

“Say you’ll give me a minute to bathe and dress, and meet me in the inn for breakfast.”

He chuckled softly and stood.

“Leffe,” I said as he turned to go. “Tell me one thing. Are we going to have to look over our shoulders for more assassins?”

The dwarf’s eyes rolled back and forth as he did some mental calculations. “Nay. I highly doubt it, anyway. What they were after me for wasn’t worth the high priced assassin you fellows killed. They’ll have trouble hiring another group of assassins to come this far after me, and it would just add to the overall cost. Nay, I can put this behind me.”

I wanted to ask him who “they” were, but felt it was a tale for a different time. He had a right to his secrets, as I had a right to mine.

After he’d left, I rang a chime and order up warm water for a bath. It had been two days and despite my best cantrips, I desperately needed a freshening. So did my armor, so I set a cantrip upon it, to knock off the mud, blood and any pests that may have gained purchase in the leather. I doubted I’d need to look my very best to walk into the filthy home of some kobolds, but one never knew.

Breakfast was on the table and a bit cold by the time I got there. Leffe, Dalvin and Mordo looked impatient. I shrugged and gobbled down the cold food anyway.

“Trying to smell nice for the filthy kobolds?” Leffe said.

“I wouldn’t wish to offend my companions with the three days of sweat that had built up on me,” I said. “I wish others were as considerate.”

Leffe and Mordo gave their pits a good sniff. Dalvin seemed to have missed the cue.

“So while you all were waiting for me so patiently,” I said. “Did you hatch a plan for dispatching the kobolds?”

“There’s a passage through a mountain north of here,” Dalvin said. “The lizardy little bastards and their undead minions are thought to have laired in the area.”

“So close to a travel route?”

“Aye. Not good sign,” Mordo said. “Means they not fear being found.”

“The worse news is that many people in town have expected travelers to arrive in town, coming from that passage,” Dalvin said. He’d helped himself to one of the hardboiled eggs on the table, though his own plate showed the remnants of his breakfast. He shook the egg for emphasis and spoke before taking a hardy bite. “I fear that they’ve run afoul of the kobolds.”

I straightened in my seat. “That complicates things. Do we rescue them, or kill the kobolds? We probably can’t do both.”

“Hells, we can’t probably do either,” Leffe said.

“Mordo crush.”

“I’ll take that as one vote for killing the kobolds, and not the missing people.”

Mordo nodded to me. “Mordo sense undead foulness. Raven Queen demand undead be cleansed.”

“Silvanus does too,” Dalvin said. “In fact, as a druid I’m sworn to rid the land of the unnatural, the perversion of death.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’.”

“We can cleanse later if we need to. I’d vote for rescuing any people first, as I did when I saved that town from the flood. Did I ever tell you about that? I’m told I’m a bit of a folk hero.”

“So that’s a vote for rescuing. Leffe?”

The dwarf stroked his short beard. “Might be more in the way of reward if we save the people first, then come back and loot the kobolds after we kill them.”

“That’s two for rescuing. Actually, three. I agree, we should save people over killing the monsters.” I drummed my fingers on the table. “The problem is, we won’t catch them off-guard a second time. If we focus on getting any hostages free, we aren’t likely to catch the kobolds with their pants down a second time.”

“Kobolds not wear pants,” Mordo said. “More like armored skirts.”

“I—yes, Mordo. Thanks for pointing that out.”

The twinkle in Mordo’s eye let me know I’d fallen for his dumb act again.

“Mordo relent. Must save people first,” he said rising. “After, Mordo crush!” he said, banging his fist down on the table. The two remaining hardboiled eggs went flying. I caught one but the other smashed on the ground.

“Aw, I would have eaten that,” Dalvin said.



* * *

Our trip northward was uneventful, though in the shadow of the mountain, it grew colder as we ascended the pathway. Dalvin confirmed our fears as he inspected the road. Footprints and some wagon ruts indicated travelers moving north, but no one had been southbound on the road.

That was not say we saw no signs of southern travel. In the overgrowth on either side of the path, we saw many signs of panicked retreat. Bits of clothing snagged on bramble; snapped twigs and branches as if someone had crashed recklessly through the vegetation; discarded personal effects…and blood. A not so subtle trail of it led toward the mountain passage.

“Ye gods!” Leffe said. “This blood is not that fresh, but it’s still so obvious. It could mean only that a great deal had been spilled here.”

“Those poor people,” I uttered. The enormity of the evil started to sink in then. Silently, our tone shifted and we resolved our vengeance like a shot of iron to our will.

“Mordo. Crush,” the warrior said very quietly. It had more weight than any of his boasts.

I nodded. Any reservations I had held about being sent here on an extermination mission evaporated.

Reservations about our survival persisted, however. It wasn’t long before we’d followed the path of blood off the road and to its awful terminus. A sinkhole had opened in the ground, dirt having given away to be ringed by the mountain stone underneath. At least that’s what I assumed. It was hard to tell. Dismembered bodies scattered the area around the opening, so many that not even the carrion eaters of the wilds had had time to clean the bones. Gore and bones, rendered clothing, and terrible viscera assaulted our eyes. Then, the wind came down off the mountain and blew the awful air into our noses. I am not ashamed to say I wretched. Perhaps we all did except for stout Mordo, who alone had seen the horrors of the battlefield.

This had been no battle, though. The kobolds must have set upon travelers in a swarm, or sent their zombies and skeletons on their prey. Judging by the turned earth, they had had sufficient numbers to swarm a small town, as we well knew from Ellry.

“What is that?” cried Leffe. I hesitated to look where he pointed. What new horror could he have spied?

I did look, though. One side of the pit sloped down, the only one gentle enough for us to descend unaided by climbing gear. It had been coated with fresh blood.

My senses revolted as I realized the obvious way down, and that Mordo was already attempting the descent. Leffe, to my surprise, followed him, leaving Dalvin and I to stare at them and then each other.

“This is awful,” I said.

“Aye. But—and I mean no offense to you, Ander—if we’re going to be hanging around here, I’d rather keep close to Mordo.”

He had a point. We moved toward the opening.

“Want me to lower you down a bit?” I asked him.

“No, I can manage it,” Dalvin said. A moment later, his small foot could not find the same hold of the larger men, and it slipped on the blood slide. He slid and tumbled down the ramp, bowling over Leffe before smacking wetly to a halt against Mordo’s thick legs.

I could see the scream of disgust welling up from within the gnome even from where I stood at the rim. Before he could let it loose, though, Mordo clamped a hand over Dalvin’s mouth. His eyes held fast on a space in front of him. I could not tell what he saw from my angle, but I could see Leffe dart to his feet and into the shadows, drawing his daggers. Mordo snapped his hand from Dalvin’s face and clasped his maul in two hands.

“Crawler!” Mordo bellowed. I had no idea what he meant, but I could tell by his tone that it concerned him. The next moment he swung his hammer at the foe I could not see, and Dalvin rolled to his feet and made for the edge of the pit.

With nothing for it, I balanced myself as well as I could, setting my feet to slide down the bloody ramp. I’d seen an elf do something similar in a staged play of an epic poem once, and I was pretty sure I could manage it. My foot caught a rock halfway down, and my arms swung crazily as I tried to keep my footing. Tyr be praised, I made it down without falling, but immediately wished I’d stayed at the top.

I could see why Mordo had called it a crawler. It’s long, segmented body had many legs, a centipede grown enormous. The mouth of the thing bristled with pointed teeth, but perhaps worse was the ring of tentacles around its face.

Having recoiled from Mordo’s attack, it started to launch its mouth right at him. From Dalvin’s corner, though, came a fist-sized rock that caught the crawler in one soulless black eye. The crawler missed its lunge at Mordo, and the warrior countered with a blow hard enough to crack the creature’s exoskeleton. It made no noise, aside from the clatter of its many feet as it recoiled again, but clearly Mordo’s attack had pained it. It turned to bite him again, but this time a bolt from Leffe’s crossbow found a gap exposed between its segments. The crawler thrashed again, this time flailing wildly with its tentacles. One smacked Dalvin, and the gnome went rigid instantly, dropping like a felled sapling. Another caught Mordo square in the chest, but his armored cuirass repelled the venom of the slap.

I leapt over the tendril that came at me. I directed my flight, my sense of self-preservation screaming at me, headlong at the crawler. My rapier sank into it, but I couldn’t maintain my footing on the rocks and corpse pieces on the ground. I fell but manage to clutch my rapier handle.

Mordo saw my predicament and kept the crawler’s attention on himself, slamming it again with the maul. Another hit, and another crack, but the crawler’s mass made it hard to judge how badly it had been hurt. The thwap of Leffe’s crossbow sounded. This time the bolt hit exoskeleton, but still penetrated. I wished I’d thought to use my own, as I scrambled to my feet. I jabbed my rapier forward, but it skittered harmlessly against the thing’s hard outer layer. A tentacle flailed my way and caught me hard enough to knock me next to Dalvin, but the paralyzing venom ran harmlessly off my leather armor.

I shook the gnome. We’d need some magical assistance, and I didn’t think my sleep spell would work on it.

“Dalvin! Come on, man! Fight it!”

At first the gnome remained rigid. I heard the thwap of Leffe’s crossbow again, and crackling as Mordo scored another hit. I shook Dalvin harder. He blinked, but his body remained rigid. He’d have to recover on his own. I ducked under a tentacle and drove back in at the crawler. This time, my rapier found a space between the segments of exoskeleton.

The strike’s timing landed perfectly, the crawler had just tripped up Mordo. I could see the burly man fight to stand, so at least the venom hadn’t gotten him, but without my stab, the crawler’s bite would have sunk into his shoulder. Unfortunately, the crawler’s attention fell squarely on me. It reared up as high as it could in the cavern, its jagged teeth glistening with drool.

Then, tentacles sprung up around it, and not its own. Roots from the earth shot up and wrapped themselves around the long body of the crawler. Dumbfounded, I looked around for the source. Dalvin, head raised and hands outstretched, seemed to be controlling the roots. Perhaps controlling it claimed too much. He had summoned them forth, but the roots sought to ensnare anyone near them, including me. This time, the blessings of my mother’s side of the family failed me, and I couldn’t quite dodge away. Locked next to a writhing crawler seemed like a poor way to go, so I slashed at the roots to release me.

Leffe scored a hit to the crawler’s eye. It jerked its head up in pain. Mordo smashed it with a vicious uppercut from his maul, cracking away the protective plating. I saw a chance. Hoping that I could strike before the roots caught me complete, I lunged up. The crawler brought its head down at the same time, and my rapier pierced all the way through the top of its head.

The crawler’s body continued to quiver for some time after that, so Dalvin kept the spell of entanglement going until Mordo had thoroughly smashed the monster dead. Finally freed of the roots, I dropped to my knees and sucked in big gulps of air that I normally would have found beyond foul. Leffe appeared from the shadow of the pit and Mordo came over to help me up.

“See? Much worse things in world than bats and spiders. This make epic tale, yes!”

“Aye, epic.” I thought about telling the story next to a crackling fire in a clean tavern with a tankard on one side anything but dead monster and gore on the other. The thought calmed me a bit.

“Tunnel’s this way,” Leffe said, having helped Dalvin up. The dwarf looked surprisingly eager to get going, and the gnome looked no worse the wear from the venom. I looked down the tunnel Leffe had discovered, one where the crawler’s body still lay.

“These things don’t run in packs, right?” I asked.

“No, they are quite solitary,” Dalvin said. “Usually.”

“Usually?”

“It is fine,” Mordo said. “Mordo—”

“Mordo crush,” the rest of us said in unison. “We know.”

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