Part 3
The party left, and stayed for a few days in an abandoned wooden fort nearby, and waited for their curses to blow over. With Estre restored to herself, they ventured south again to the next dwarven fortress. It was identical again to the last at first. However, inside was a smaller "building" which seemed to have served as a tavern or inn, with many barrels and tables. Below ground, there were no shrines interrupting the ramp-way spiraling down. The only interruptions in the narrow passage were where it passed through a cavern level, and then finally opened onto a road heading off into the darkness again. Below that was the living level of the fortress, where smooth tunnels meandered into the darkness punctuated by empty rooms and narrower halls. Deeper below still was a three-story hollow, the entry to the nobles' level, and, worryingly, below that was another hollow filled with magma. The ramps descended into it unabated, but the travelers had no choice but to turn back, and decided to investigate the nobles' quarters. Down the hall and to the left was a door, and inside was the fortress' hoard, and pedestals displaying a few items. While most of the party was investigating the hoard for anything useful, Horros became intrigued by the item displayed on one of the pedestals. "Hey Eri, there's a book here." She held up the unlabelled rock-bound tome, "Would you read it to us later?"
"Sure, bring it here, ill check it out." Horros strode over and handed the book to her, and Eri opened it up to find the title. 'My Thoughts on Sleep,' authored by Desli Wanedhummed the Beautiful Intricacies. Eri became enthralled, and found herself unable to put the tome down until she had skimmed every page. "Eri! Eri!" At the end of the book, she found herself surrounded by the wolf-people, staring at her with some concern. Horros' cries echoed in her head alongside the 'words' written on the parchment inside the tome. "I can't read this to you," she stammered. "It's a necromancers' tome. I'm sorry, it took me, I couldn't stop."
"What does that mean? You're not a necromancer." Estres' voice cracked, as much frustration and anger as worry.
"I'm afraid I might be, now. I'm not reading this to you, it doesn't make sense in words anyway, its all magic you can't understand if you don't read it yourself." She walked over and put the book back on its pedestal. "I need to go outside." Eri walked out the door and began the climb to the surface, and the rest followed. Even outside, the fear followed her, and so did the idea. She could raise the dead now, she knew she could even though she hadn't tried. Wouldn't, she decided. There was a hillocks in the valley just south of them, so Eri decided to lead them there, to see the rural edges of dwarven society. They found the site completely deserted. Inside the mound where the seat of the government would be were the corpses of two animals, long dead, and nothing much else. A few overgrown gardens grew atop the abandoned hillocks. Across the rest of the valley to the south was another dwarven fortress, so they made the trek across the desert to see it. This one was inhabited, apparently chiefly by humans. Entering the fortress, several of the inhabitants immediately drew their knives and shouted that they were being attacked. By wolves. Eri turned to the trio and told them to run, and they did followed closely by Horros' beast that half-galloped behind them. Eri stood and confronted their attackers. "We're not attacking you, those are my traveling companions." She explained.
"You can't bring animal men here!" one of the men shouted, "We don't want the molemarian here either. They're all dangerous. Leave and don't come back!"
None of them were soldiers, just peasants with knives. They might not even represent the will of the local ruler. But if Eri started a fight, that didn't matter. The guards would certainly take their side.
"Fine." She growled. She turned and left the peasants to congratulate each other on their "victory." Meeting up with the others, Eri guided them south and west, roughly following the mountains.
Eventually they came upon the towers of Largetempest, abandoned now. Eri explained to them how, centuries ago, the necromancers had built these tower complexes and from them, nearly conquered the world. They knew about some of it. How the dead walked foreign lands and ate the living. In their stories, it was all the fault of the great civilizations. "Hubris is what you call it," Estre said. "The humans and the goblins war brought about the evils of the dead, through destroying the land and making it unlivable, so that only dead things could dwell in it."
"How did you learn about the outside world anyway?" Eri asked.
"The bird people bring news to us, usually. They can fly across the channel at will. Sometimes other peoples from across the channel come too, some of them stay, like my grandfather, he was an outsider." Estre explained. "We didn't always live on the island either. The old stories say we came from the mainland before there were any human or goblin cities."
"Are we going into the towers?" Geth asked, almost excitedly.
"No," Eri said flatly. After a pregnant pause she continued "I don't want to risk it. Sometimes the undead and creations still shelter in them, even though the necromancers are gone now. I heard the adventurers took all the important books to the museum anyways, so there wouldn't be anything left." Boltspumpkin, their tentative destination, was still two weeks travel away.
Eri didn't bother to try to sleep that night. She had realized she never felt the need physically, though she had still tried. She also hadn't been eating or drinking regularly. And had to rely on the others to decide when enough travel was enough, though they rarely complained and enjoyed the trip. But they did seem to notice her. They noticed she wasn't hungry when they were. They stopped asking if she would take shifts watching the camp and just kept their own shifts, assuming she would stay up too. Sometimes they would travel at night and sleep through midday instead. That got them into trouble, though. Other predators stalked the nights, too.
Further south of Largetempest they came to another dwarven fortress they couldn't resist exploring, though this one was marked on the surface not by a huge box, but a small tower extending far above the ground. This was a newer fortress, Crownhall the City of Stone. It was built far up the mountainside away from the deserts and wooded hills where most settlements were built. Once they reached the site, they found a road leading to the base of the tower, and there at the base of it was a tunnel leading down into the earth. As they approached, a figure emerged, and immediately charged at them. The dwarf was unarmed, but freakishly strong. She left bruises through the armor of the party, and didn't yield to their strongest blows, and dodged many of them.
Eventually, Eri managed to lodge her pike in the dwarf's face, and it fell to the ground. Exhausted, the group waited there on the road for a while before continuing. The dwarf was definitely undead. None of the wounds they dealt drew blood. After they rested for a few minutes, they went inside the fort entrance. Inside the expansive entryway were three bridges, the center straight and on either side narrow paths that crossed back and forth over a pit filled with upright spikes. They crossed the left one, and proceeded deeper, into a tall hall that both left and right, each direction leading deeper still. Below was the trade depot in a pit at the center of an immense room. Around it were more passages leading into equally gargantuan spaces, all several stories tall. Ahead of the depot was a huge dining hall with a single well at its center. Fortifications were dug into the walls higher up, and these connected to living quarters accessible from doorways in the walls of the immense space. One section of the tall corridors contained workshops, others canalworks.
After wandering the halls for at least a few hours, the group stumbled upon a goblin in the darkness. She was not undead, perfectly alive in fact. Unfortunately, she knew little of this place that she was willing to share save that it was , and skulked off into the darkness, leaving the group behind. Deeper in the dark was a single bronze doorway, behind which lay an immense chamber, with a bronze-lined bridge across a deep pool. Around it were arranged brass statues of shining suns. At the opposite end of the chamber was a single marble throne. On it were bronze and gold images of the Earthen Kin, which ruled the site, and the Walled Dye, the dwarven civilization. In front of it were more images of blueberry bushes arranged in a circle. This must have been the capitol of the Walled Dye at some time. To the right of the throne was a huge bedroom, and to the left an equally large dining room, both lined with statues. The bedrooms', however, were not more images of the sun but stone statues of historical figures, dwarves and animals.
Back out in the main hall and to the left was another large chamber that apparently served as a hospital. Eventually the group found a passage leading upwards, and found an overgrown 'farm' of sorts, covered in mud, mushrooms and moss, and mushroom trees which had grown in around the irrigation canal in the center. Around the farms were engraved chambers, and a stockpile with barrels. Below was a stockpile room containing kitchens and distilleries. many of the sealed casks still contained fine booze.
After having spent the entire day wandering the halls and encountering no other living beings, the group decided to leave. However, on their ascent and upon reaching the bridge spanning the spike pits, they encountered another dwarf. Again, the figure that stood before them held no life. It charged, unarmed and unarmored, and began wailing on Horros. Luckily the group had taken Eri's advice and worn their armor and shields, and found new weapons. The undead's fists and teeth found no purchase, and after a brief scuffle they managed to put it down, Horros landing the 'killing' blow. Exhausted, they hauled themselves down the slopes westward again, and made camp among the mountains for the night.
In the morning, they finished their descent, and began the journey south again. For a week they traveled almost nonstop, until they passed the last of the mountains between them and the museum. Only the rolling hills and a volcano stood in their way. Naturally, they chose to summit the volcano. When they reached the base the mountain near it, however, they found a great ashen scar rolling down the valley west of it. The smell of brimstone and burning filled the air. At the head of the valley they found the source of the fire; a wide channel had been dug into the earth spilling lava from the volcano across the landscape. At the head of this channel was an iron bridge, leading into a horizontal wedge cut into the mountainside. Corpses and old clothing lay strewn about. Inside the hollowed layer was an area of sand and ashes. This abandoned fortress apparently defended itself with lava from the volcano. Inside the gates though, lay titanic corpses of hideous monsters - possibly demons? Eri had heard tales of them overrunning dwarven fortresses before. They explored only a small part of the fortress, some uninteresting bedrooms and stockpiles, before leaving to avoid a similar fate.
At the summit of the volcano, all was as usual. Filled to the brim, barely reduced by the dwarves' meddling. The flow of lava from the channel was apparently halted, then. With nothing more they felt brave enough to do here, the gang left to the south on their final trek to the museum. It wasn't a particularly long trek, and was entirely uneventful. Once they arrived they were greeted by a strange menagerie of beings, some seemingly employed as guards and others as caretakers. The warriors directed them to the keep at the back of the fortress, where they were greeted by goblins, and the seemingly infinite hoards of artifacts, treasures and written volumes on display. "This certainly beats all of our stashes combined," Geth blurted out.
"Yes," the goblin curator chuckled, "And there is more outside the gates on the hill. But that hoard is cursed, and will return to the hill if taken away. We can't curate it any longer. Feel free to read the journals and books, and please provide anything of interest from your adventures."
"I didn't think to bring anything." Estre panicked, "Do you have anything?"
The other two shook their heads. "Would our journey's tale interest you at all?" Horros asked the curator.
"Of course, the longer the better."
"I have a book we picked up, let me see here," Eri said. She produced a stone-bound text from her bag. One place in the corner of the museum was empty, so she left it there, along with a figurine of The Invisible.
"You should settle in if you're going to write your story, feel free to make use of the towers around the walls for living space while you're here. We don't provide any services, unfortunately, so you'll have to provide for yourselves." The curator began walking up the staircase, calling back, "I'll find you a quire."
Silence fell on them for a few moments before Eri piped up, "I didn't know you had any 'stashes.'"
The wolf women glared at their companion before Estre answered, "Yeah, because they're meant to be kept secret. What we make and acquire we save for 'rainy days,' outsiders aren't meant to know about them. Since we don't need clothing and tools like humans do we just don't bring them with us on our casual walks."
"It's a small island though," Horros continued for her. "We're never that far from a weapon."
"Mother was just testing you, to see if you were a thief or murderer, honestly." Estre answered Eri's confused looks. "We already knew everything you 'showed' us, except the poetry and songs. She just wanted you to pay for our game."
"And give us your lunch." Horros giggled.
"I like your crossbow trigger mechanism though. It doesn't get stuck. The ones we copied off the dwarves' crossbows were never quite right." Geth fumbled with the butt of the bone weapon on his shoulder.
"I suppose I should be glad you didn't just attack me like the cougar woman did." Eri sighed. Before they could continue, the curator returned with a parchment quire in hand. "This will do you, I think."
"We're glad to have met you, honestly," Geth said.
"We really were looking for an excuse to get off the island," Horros agreed. "The elders were all annoying."
Eri asked one of the gremlins to lead them to a tower that wasn't occupied, and there she started taking dictation for the group, and time passed.
More than a year and a half later, Eri and the trio set out again for a new objective. Reading up on the uses of necromancy hadn't put Eri at ease about her newfound state, so she sought out a new avenue; apprenticeship. In the north it was known that a fort had been founded some decades before, and was still occupied. Part of it by necromancers and the undead, and part by the living, among whom were several wolverine people. After a long trek up the eastern valley, encountering some goblin patrols and undead along the way, the group crossed the mountains and came to the valley where the fort was built, its low, thin walls surrounding a seemingly empty plot of land. The entrance was thoroughly sealed, and only a tower surrounded by fortifications overlooked it. Eventually, a voice came from below. "What do you want?"
Eri replied, "I am a necromancer, seeking apprenticeship and training. My companions are seeking a safe place to live and study metalworking."
"We have what you seek. But what do you offer in return?"
"Armor and weapons of divine metal, and many books."
"Wait here."
After a several hours, the gate finally opened, and a burly little dwarven man beckoned them inside. "The mayor has agreed to permit you residence. Welcome to Livingdead the Depths of Despair. Don't mind the name. It's mostly to scare off unwanted visitors."
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Topic: Museum III, adventure succession game (DF 0.47.05) (Read 409271 times)