Over the Sunken Realm – Part 4
Having narrowly escaped the jaws of a hideous Creature of the underworld, your strange new companion Bazkior the Druegan offers you food and rest with his people…
You accept to follow Bazkior.
CHECK OUT PART 3 HERE:
“Come this way, Elmorlèm! I will light the way!”
Bazkior produces a big, round gem from his satchel, and presses it with both hands while muttering cryptic syllables. An instant later, the orb lets out a warm orange glow that soon bathes a perimeter of about 50 feet all around you. No shadowy corner is left out of its light. Not even the stark, blood-curling abdomen of the monster dangling above you… You repress a shudder.
“Oh – I had forgotten, you will need to be clothed. My brothers judge at the first sight, it is best you make a good impression.”
For the first time since the beginning of the day, you realize you are still as naked as you were when you first exited the sea this morning, with no memory of who you were. For some reason, you feel blood rushing to your face.
Rising to the top of his toes and raising his hand as high as possible, your dwarfish friend taps you on the back of the shoulder and smiles.
“It will be all-right, friend! We have tall-ones down here too, and there are clothings here to replace!”
» Catch up on the previous chapter here:
Bazkior motions you forward, and you follow in his footsteps. As you progress deeper and deeper into the earth, the glowing orb reveals four different tunnels before you: as far as the light goes, you notice one is going further up, two others straight down, while the fourth one is level with the tunnel you are coming from.
The Druegan points to that tunnel: “this is where we go. There are many other galleries that cross here, and in other places. It is good luck you met with Bazkior, or else you could not have found your way out!”
Your mind buzzes with questions, but since the subject of tunnels just came around, you decide to ask more information. Bazkior is only too happy to oblige:
“There is a lot you do not know, so I will only speak of that which you need to learn to understand. Us Druegans, we were here before you tall-ones – we saw the Twin Suns, when the days were endless. Since then, there have been three great Falls, big catastrophes which have wounded, impoverished or broken our world. First, Môlgh the Accursed separated the Aether-Realm and the Sun-Realm; second, he covered the World in darkness; and on the Third Fall, he broke the continents asunder, driving them into the Ocean, and even shattering that which we thought unbreakable: our mountains.
“Ah! The Dreamer once told me of them: how they shone in the light of the sun and stars! How their spires pierced even the clouds! And we grew them, and lived in them, pouring our art into them, and finding all gems and metals we could hope for. All you see here are crude galleries and dark tunnels; but there were banquet halls with high ceilings once, and great houses like castles, and entire forests of stone-trees with leaves that shine in darkness! And –”
As Bazkior goes on, his rugged face beams with unrestrained passion. And as he describes the wonders of the Druegan mountains in their heyday, the orb’s light reflects in the tears that well up in his round brown eyes. He glances furtively at you, and immediately changes his countenance, wiping his eyes with a swift hand before continuing:
“And it is also where we discovered ethralda. The last pieces of the World before the First Fall. You have seen it used to heal, but it can do many more things, for the ones who know how to use it! See this orb that lights us? It is bound by old arcane runes to give light in the dark places, and warmth in the cold places. We Druegans all have one, and only I know the words to activate it – wait, there is our next stop!”
As he was talking, you come out of the darkness: this new gallery is much wider, and far sleeker. The walls and ceiling are plated with metal, and lit by great orange lamps hanging from each side. The same orange glow that comes from your friend’s orb…
You are surprised to see it go dim, and quickly become completely opaque. Bazkior winks: “as I say, it only gives light in the dark places!”
And warmth in the cold places, you repeat to yourself as you realize you are starting to shiver. It seems the orb gave you more than just light while you were walking along that tunnel…
Bazkior notices your distress, and directs you to a bench where you sit, while he quickly opens an odd-looking metal chest right beside you. After a few seconds of rummaging around in it, he produces a pair of black pantaloons and a black jacket.
“Put these on, friend! They will make you warmer, and, well, more presentable.“
You are only too happy to oblige. These clothes do not fit very well, but the fabric is thin and stretchy enough to adjust to you. Warmth quickly washes all over your body, and you bask in it with delight.
Bazkior then produces something else from the metal chest: brownish bars of some kind of cereal. He bites into one, and gives you the other, which you quickly eat. With all that has happened, you have not had time to think about eating, but now you can sense how desperately you needed this! And although you do not remember the taste of any food from your time Down Below, you feel certain this humble meal outclasses all you have ever eaten before in your entire existence.
You eat a second bar, then a third, and you would have eaten a fourth one had you not noticed a strange noise in the background.
At first you figure it is your imagination playing tricks on you; but with every passing second, you become more and more sure of it: there is a dim wub echoing in the distance to your right, and reverberating across the entire tunnel.
“Here is our ride!” says Bazkior.
As the sound grows louder, you feel the bench, and the entire platform you are sitting on, vibrating under you. It sounds like the entire tunnel is vibrating as well. What sort of thing is coming out of there?
It takes little more to awaken your doubts about Bazkior: are you truly sure of his intentions? He saved you, there is no denying that. But did Andhal not save you too? And if Bazkior is to be believed, Andhal only saved you to keep you as a slave of some kind. Could not the same happen here, while you remain entirely dependent upon this Druegan you know nothing about?
Your thoughts are brutally cut short: with a zoom, a flash of silver and a deafeningly deep vibrating noise, a gigantic metallic tube bursts out of the tunnel, and stops as abruptly as it arrived.
Out of the sheer side of the tube, turning on hidden hinges, a gate slides open, revealing a luminous interior, and right in the middle of it, a small Druegan, very similar to Bazkior yet with entirely dark clothes, and a foam-white beard. He motions Bazkior to approach, and they begin to discuss in their own tongue. You stand there, awkwardly, hoping in spite of all your doubts that you will get to enter this strange mode of transportation. After all, there is little hope for you to make it out of there alone. And if another creature lurked in the shadows? How would you defend yourself?
You remember the odd way Bazkior killed the beast: a ray of light bursting out of his hand (or was it his hand?) was enough to do it in. With such a weapon – if it was a weapon – you could certainly be more at ease.
A few seconds pass, and Bazkior turns to you: “come here, Elmorlèm! Zvakar has accepted to lead us!”
Zvakar grunts out a few words in your tongue, with a gruff, rocky accent, quite different from Bazkior’s: “You, no touch anythingk. I commandt. Yes?”
You nod, for lack of a better answer.
“Gkood,” he eructs, and turns back into the odd vessel.
As you follow Bazkior in, you suddenly cannot believe your eyes: you just noticed the entire structure is not mounted on wheels, or tracks of any kind: it simply floats over the ground, as if it weighed nothing!
Bazkior laughs at your dismay: “Ah! Ah! Yes, ethralda holds many secrets!”
You enter the strange ship, and just as you take a look around – seeing several rows of small chairs, about one-third of which are occupied by dozens of Druegans of all colours staring at you with astonished eyes – you realize this is the first time in this entire day you might actually find some rest.
But right as you are about to crash into the nearest chair, you hear it.
A swift, sizzling venomous sound you quickly identify: it is the same as Bazkior’s weapon.
Blinding rays of blue, green and red shoot towards you. Most crash into the vessel’s silver walls, doing no harm. But a few blare past you, missing you by an inch, and blasting the wall behind you.
In a flash, the Druegans react to the assault. Zvakar bellows orders, other Druegans in black (crew-members, you assume) mass around the gate, strange guns in hand, and begin to shoot back at the unseen enemy.
Bazkior pulls you back to safety: “kobolds,” he shouts, “they never attack our trains, but we stopped for too long. Get to safety, we will hold them off as long as we can!”
Do you accept and seek safety in flight, or do you refuse and fight a war that may not be your own?
The votes are in! Check out Part 5 here:
Or go back and read Part 1 here :