Right okay!
Chapter 3 - Bonds of Fire (Part 2)
—
"Tell me, Zero," began Hawkian. "How'd you like to help us rescue a friend?"
The ranger laughed. "Well, that was a bit of fun. I suppose I could tag along. Trouble would appear to follow you lot like a wayward hound."
"That's all very well, and thank you enormously, Zero, but could we take a minute and discuss why those things could see us if we were supposed to be cloaked?!" H. Pro asked agitatedly.
"My spell was meant to protect us from the Gei Ming defense forces. It only works on humans," said Beef, abashed. "I didn't know we'd be running into anthropomorphic sand."
“You didn’t, huh? You’re just leading us through dangerous territory to help us out out of the goodness of your heart, is that it?”
“Look, if you can’t trust a mage who was locked up in a prison and all of a sudden tells you where to go next, then I just don’t even know anymore,” replied the professor.
“H. Pro, let it go. There’s no reason to think he knew about the wraiths. And this journey will be as dangerous for him as it will for us. If his cloak really works on humans, then we stand a much better chance of making it with him than without. Don’t let the facial hair get to you,” said Clearacell. “Besides, we take any shot at getting Alberto back we can. Now let’s get it together and hurry. Lissar’s already going to be wondering what’s taking so long.”
Wallach hesitated for a moment and shrugged dramatically. A dozen spring-loaded contraptions on various parts of his clothing popped open. Exposed gears, pistons and steam valves jutted out at odd angles, seeming to double his mass as he held his arms in a large circle in front of him. He looked like a mechanical pufferfish. He jostled and shook, and a few piles of loose sand fell from the joints of his extended contraptions to the ground. He shrugged again and the machinery instantly collapsed back into his coat. He titled his head and a final bit of sand fell out of his helm from the right horn-tube. He blinked at his comrades a few times, then marched onward without saying anything.
“Right,” said Hawkian. “Off we go.”
The group advanced under Professor Beef’s cloak, racing the sun. They tested the spell’s effectiveness against the occasional pack of roving bandits, who indeed couldn’t detect them until blades were inches from their eyes. Sumo got to practice his hunting every so often on a Gemini squirrel or two, and La1n was able to flash-fry a couple of feral Whitespines for dinner. Lizard meat was a little tough for some of the more refined palettes in the group, but nutritious all the same. A couple of well-placed skyward shots from ZeroRay and Davedough was able to sling a few Stargulls to his pack for later meals.
It was just past twilight when the party crossed onto the Gei Ming side of Gaftopia proper. Despite the cloak’s effectiveness on the roving patrols of the Empire’s army, the group grew tense and walked more briskly. The scampered over bare fields now, outside of the protection of the forest treeline.
“We’re looking for a passage that cuts through that mountain,” said Beef, indicating a blackened peak a few miles in the distance.
As the party drew nearer to it, the air grew still and cracks in the earth became visible. Trees became few and far between. Finally the ones that did remain were bare, not a single leaf could grow from anything rooted in this shattered soil.
“This is unholy ground,” said ZeroRay. “We are deep within Gei Ming lands now. Many have been banished upon these plains. Lives have been broken.”
“True to form, we’re headed in the direction of all those bad vibes you’re describing. Actually, if you could use your ranger skills and point us toward the concentration of greatest evil, that’d be fantastic,” said Professor Beef.
ZeroRay considered this seriously, then pointed.
Soon the party reached the rocky face of the mountainside, which was in fact a deep, dark, soulless blue—the color of the abyssal ocean.
“There,” said Beef, gesturing toward a barely-visible crevice.
The group had to arrange single-file to squeeze into the passage. It began to widen as they got deeper into the mountain, and the jagged stone walls on either side seemed to grow smoother, more polished.
When the crevice had widened enough for the companions to spread out a bit, a wisp of white suddenly escaped from the walls in front of them on either side. The white smoke combined in the air in the center of the corridor, and began to morph into an imposing figure. Arms, legs, shoulders, and flowing white robes came into view. Long, dazzling blonde hair and a jeweled tiara adorned the now-obviously female form. Three pairs of wings unfolded from her back: one feathered like those of an angel, one resembling a butterfly’s and the third like the bony wings of a bat. In her hands she clutched a gleaming scepter.
She remained hovering in the air wearing a stern expression. She spoke with a voice like a cannon. “I am Nabanu, Waykeeper of the Forbidden Rock! My might is unparalleled, my fury unrelenting! If you wish to pass, you must answer my riddle and prove your worth before me!”
Her eyes narrowed. “What ages but does not die, grows older but never larger, spins but never topples, holds life but never lives?”
The adventurers looked at each other blankly.
Suddenly Wallach reached into his pocket, pulled out the the mechanical spider and threw it at the white-cloaked enigma before him.
It landed on her shoulder, readied its fangs (they seemed to spark for a moment), and bit into Nabanu. A massive arc of electricity erupted from the spot of the bite, enveloping the hovering figure in blue-white lightning.
“What are—what obscene magic is—AAAUUUUUUUGGGGH!” Nabanu’s body wavered unsteadily in the air, wrapped in a cocoon of electrical energy. She fell from the air onto her knees and began to convulse ingloriously on the ground. Various looks of discomfort worked their way over the faces of the companions as they watched the once-imposing figure writhe, screaming in pain; every once in a while she tried defiantly to stand up, but her scepter and tiara seemed to act as conductors, producing further and further shocks that drove her back to the floor. Perhaps upset by the proceedings, the pair of butterfly wings popped off of her back, attached to one another at the edge, and flew away on their own. Eventually the convulsions began to die down and the lightning subsided. The Waykeeper slowly rolled onto her side, curled involuntarily into the fetal position and drooled slightly onto the ground.
Wallach began humming something off-key and stepped over her, continuing down the passage. The little clockwork spider skittered after him and jumped back into his pocket.
The remaining members of the party closed their jaws and attempted to shake off what they had just seen. Dave and Hawkian looked at one another and rolled their eyes.
They continued.
Next, a mechanical grinding noise stopped the group in its cracks.
A dozen hidden vertical panels slid open on both sides of the stone walls. An array of razor-sharp axeheads, maces, and guillotine-blades swung out from either wall and began to oscillate rapidly, threatening to lacerate anything in the way. Pulleys, gears, and ropes arranged in a complex system kept the traps in perpetual motion.
La1n raised his arms. Swaths of fire engulfed a handful of the ropes, but when the fire subsided they remained unchanged. “That’s Dagmari rope. Magic won’t get us anywhere.”
Pau crouched down and seemed to check that her shoes were strapped sufficiently to her feet.
ZeroRay readied his bow and squinted intently. “If I target each pulley individually with a precise shot, I should be able to take the whole network down piece by-”
Pau leapt abruptly and gracefully over the heads of her companions toward the right wall. She planted her feet against it and began to run forward; inhumanly, she clung to the wall well above the network of swinging blades. As she sped over the first pulley, she drew her blade and twisted her torso downward, extending her arm. The sharpened knife sliced through the black rope methodically; then the next one, and the next, and so on until she reached the end of the row of traps. She bounded off the wall, flipped forward, and landed on her feet with one leg extended. A few seconds later, the last of the oscillating traps crashed to the ground. The pulleys and gears continued churning pathetically with nothing to swing.
“Yeah, that works,” said RawPower.
ZeroRay looked bemused and put his bow back across his shoulder.
The group walked over the wrecked and dismantled traps and pressed deeper on into the mountain.
“Up there! I think I see something!” said Hawkian.
The passage had grown darker as they made their way inside, but there did seem to be something a few meters ahead.
“It’s... him! It’s Alberto!”
In the center of the corridor was a noble statesman, standing very still, looking worried. He did not seem to be bound or encumbered in any way.
“My friends,” he called out, “it was lovely of you to come. But I would advise that you not come any closer.”
Hawkian took one more step and the air around Alberto distorted and crackled. Suddenly, interlocking rings of flame surrounded made themselves visible all around the prisoner. Alberto winced as the fire licked at his skin. His clothes were tattered and he was visibly sweating.
“Cage... of fire!” yelled Wallach. He was grinning uncontrollably.
“There’s no lock, and it never lets up.”
Hawkian grimaced. Then he, and one by one every other member of the group, turned to look at La1n.
“What? Oh come on!”
“We all know you can do it,” said H. Pro, smacking him on top of his head. “Get it over with.”
La1n sighed and held his hands out in front of him. A bright orange spark lit in each of his eyes. Fire began to radiate from his arms and legs, then his shoulders and feet, then the total surface area of his skin...
“Stand back, please.”
He clenched his fists, and a great blanket of fire engulfed his entire form. The flames wrapped tightly around his head and limbs, constricting into a white-hot armor around him. He stepped forward toward the cage heavily, deliberately, as if burdened by a great weight. Reaching his arms out far in front of him, the flames around Alberto began to siphon into his palms. More and more rapidly, the bars of fire leapt and curled onto La1n’s body, adding mass to his armor of flame. In a matter of minutes, the cage was gone and Alberto was free.
La1n resembled a hulking, glowing orange golem. The party started at him in horror. Clearacell bit his lip nervously. “Come on, man...”
Suddenly the black mage punched one flame-drenched fist into his other, open palm. The group jumped back, but there was no explosion. La1n focused his breathing, and the fire receded, slowly at first, back into his body. When the last flame had disappeared within him, he collapsed to his knees, wheezing. Steam rose from his face and shoulders, but his clothes remained perfectly intact, merely having the appearance of being freshly ironed.
“Ugh, that’s going to hurt for hours.”
Alberto gasped for air.
After a moment, he composed himself and began to speak. “Comrades, thank you for freeing me. These weeks I spent in confinement were not enjoyable in the least- but now we can return to the task at hand.”
He straightened up. Despite his tattered and exhausted appearance, he was well-dressed, and carried himself with an air of confidence and authority. He seemed poised, almost regal.
“I trust that you by now have acquired the stone... we must return to the scholar at once. The state of affairs in our noble land is a grave one. ”
A lithe figure leapt down from high above and slid along the stone wall as he neared the ground, slowing his decent. He landed between Alberto and the rest of the group and stood up tall. He held a bo-staff in one hand.
“Hail, travelers! I am LazyBones of the Village of the Seventeen Elders. Perhaps I can be of some assistance!”
----
Welcome back ShockingAlberto! Place wasn't the same without you. Also congrats on the new shirts.
NOTES:
-This will be the last chapter posted directly in this thread, and I'll be editing out these posts too just for safesies. Tomorrow I'm going to finish up coding a way to display them on the RPG RPG site. Don't worry, I'll make it easy to access.
-If you want to know where something is going or what's in store for your character and we haven't discussed it yet, please still feel free to PM me!
-I'm thrilled RealGAF's enjoying this so far! Thanks for all the words of support and encouragement. This is a ton of fun.
(and to draw everything... sigh...)
