I took refuge several streets away, after I and one of the gurragal had sized each other up.\u00a0 I gave serious consideration to trying to tame the beast, but given I had no experience with such a creature (or any animal to speak of beyond a horse), decided it was more likely one of us would end up dead.\u00a0 Probably it.\u00a0 I let it eat in peace.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I proceeded to satisfy myself that I had left no body unsearched, and had gleaned off what I could of the bulette \u2013 including several large metallic scales from its hide and a handful of teeth (if nothing else, they\u2019d look good on the wall of the inn or make good serving trays).\u00a0 Following this, locating shelter was my next goal.\u00a0 It was already well past noon and I had no intention of wandering the streets alone at night in this place.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I looked the map over, and gave it my full attention for a short while.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It was genuine \u2013 I could see portions of Vor Kragal down to the ruined buildings that our (Fellbane\u2019s, that is) fight with the Morvreyans had left behind.\u00a0 Thorough bastards, they were.\u00a0 Locating a relatively intact building not far from where I was, I made my way over a few blocks and into what looked like a residential area that was still choked with ashes.\u00a0 Like grey snow it had drifted up a few feet on the sides of the stone buildings that served as homes here.\u00a0 Most even still had intact windows.\u00a0 I had to walk through three of them before I found what I wanted \u2013 a dining room with only two doors, central in the house so as not to show any light through errant windows.\u00a0 One of the doors was shut, and jammed hard, while the other door had rotted away ages ago.\u00a0 I hung a light blanket up over that one as insurance against any sort of emanation from my room.\u00a0 I also strung a small thread with tiny pin-nails at ankle-, waist-, and neck-height, tying a tiny silver bell to the end of the string.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If I was going to die here, at least I would die well-warned.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The last hours of daylight I spent in the room, becoming accustomed to its sounds, and laying out the gear and treasure I\u2019d recovered earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Morgan had had a small crossbow, and a pack of bolts, which I was sure to find useful.\u00a0 I cocked and loaded it and laid it beside me.\u00a0 As well, I had found a broach in the form of a stylized ruby rod made of silver and painted red on its ends\u2026obviously her true worship was of a familiar nature to me, the symbol of Erathis on her armor only so much fluff in disguise.\u00a0 A sack of coins and gems had spilled around her body, which I had recovered as well.\u00a0 Her hammer had been nowhere to be seen, probably tossed when she was struck by the fast-moving gurragal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I also had Sheng\u2019s wand and other equipment, and an assortment of other gear I was able to salvage from the corpses of the rest.\u00a0 Little use to me now, all this, so I wrapped it as best I was able and stuffed it all into the haversack \u2013 its enchantment such that it accepted even Stephan\u2019s bow without a problem.\u00a0 All that into a small bag, I wondered how I\u2019d gone on without such a thing before.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The night was surprisingly uneventful, though I did hear quite a bit of disturbance outside.\u00a0 I slept lightly, a sunrod wrapped in a sock beside me to provide a very low lighting in the room.\u00a0 Resting without armor is surprisingly difficult when traveling alone and in hostile country, I have discovered.\u00a0 Almost would be better to simply leave it on and suffer the chafing and constriction.\u00a0 Almost.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The noises outside were definitely sourced from inhabitants of the city, my fallen and restless ancestors, no doubt.\u00a0 I could hear them out in the streets, over the wind.\u00a0 Little that was natural stirs in this remnant of a city, and I did wonder what sort of existence these creatures might have.\u00a0 If ever Vor Kragal was to be resurrected, I am certain it would take an effort of monumental proportions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Assuming it wished a re-life granted to it.\u00a0 If it resisted actively \u2013 and it might, if the Charspire was any indication \u2013 then perhaps it would be best to simply be buried forever, lost to the ages.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But I shall burn that bridge after I have crossed it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In my remaining waking time, I ate sparingly of some bread and cheese I had in my pack, drank a little water, and investigated the map a little more.\u00a0 It seemed that when I focused on specific places, it would enlarge them, providing me a more detailed view \u2013 definitely some form of enchantment was used in its creation, perhaps a modified scribing ritual.\u00a0 It would make sense if that were the case, make sense of why the wizards of Morvrey had to walk the streets instead of simply float over them in their bladder-ship.\u00a0 It probably only showed where they had walked, as my room was not visible.\u00a0 I tried looking in on crushed buildings, and found that the details seemed to fray, to soften, when I took a squinting view of spots that might be difficult to see from the street.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Other areas, such as around the Charspire, were considerably less detailed \u2013 as though the wandering wizards chose not to approach it too closely, or perhaps if they had, somehow the enchantments protecting the spire and providing for its apparent random changes of location clouded their ritual\u2019s ability to scribe this map.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There was a path to the Pool.\u00a0 I saw it clearly, they had apparently visited it while they were here.\u00a0 Whether they found anything, that I cannot say.\u00a0 And the Hellforge was also visible here.\u00a0 My journey would at least be well-marked, if not easy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When I had had sufficient rest, and I observed a lightening of the outside through a peek along the blanket, I stowed the gear I had and retrieved my blanket and line from the door.\u00a0 The little haversack was wonderfully helpful in lightening the load.\u00a0 Given that I had not been assaulted during the night, I took hope that perhaps Kurrian had kept his word, and departed rather than pursue me in an attempt to fulfill his contract.\u00a0 Still, I kept a close watch on my steps as I made my way out of the house, looking for signs that were in excess of my own footprints and testing for tripwires up and down along my height.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Outside, I did find tracks, though not of any humanoid I\u2019d known.\u00a0 At least, none living.\u00a0 Some kind of three-toed creature with bony feet (perhaps a three-toed skeleton?) had wandered the yard here, stopping several times to scratch at the earth in the garden out front.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Probably not something I wished to waste my resources dealing with.\u00a0 Still, I had to keep an eye out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Walking down the road a ways, I left the map in my side pouch and referred to my memory of it, to keep my hands free.\u00a0 This turned out to work fine, as the crevasse in question was particularly large and to a large degree fairly obvious.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see the vultures this day, probably on top of a roof or ridge somewhere, digesting.\u00a0 I kept Crownfire<\/em> in my hand as I walked, bumping time against my leg to a tune I had going in my head.\u00a0 The closer I approached the crevasse the clearer I could make out the smoke and ash of the Hellforge \u2013 still smoking, still vomiting its sulphurous mix of gas into the air.\u00a0 It smelled terrible, but I was going to have to pay it a visit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I reached the crevasse after only about two hours of walking \u2013 it was a pretty simple walk, and nothing accosted me while I strolled cautiously along.\u00a0 It was really less than a mile total to reach it from the camp, but given the torn-up nature of the city and the caution I was putting into my movement, my pace was a mere fraction of what it should have been on clear ground.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The gash itself was perhaps a half-mile long, and about 700 feet across at its widest, with the entrance to the tunnel leading to the pool practically directly below me when I reached the edge.\u00a0 Getting down took some effort in climbing, but since I was no longer burdened with such a heavy backpack, it almost seemed a simple matter.\u00a0 I fastened the holed end of a sunrod to my belt, letting it hang free, and drew Riftspar<\/em> in my off-hand before entering the massive cave.\u00a0 The entrance was probably three times my height, and easily ten to fifteen feet wide, so who knows what might have lived in it\u2026our could still.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Travel in the tunnel was not difficult, but it was long \u2013 the tunnel turned left a good ways in, and took a steep dive shortly after.\u00a0 Bats in small numbers nested inside the place, small piles of guano set beneath their nesting places, usually easier to smell than to spot.\u00a0 Tiny mushrooms sprouted upon them, like little fungus gardens.\u00a0 After my first befouled boot, I made sure to keep a closer watch on where I stepped.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While I wiped the\u2026poop, okay?\u00a0 It was poop.\u00a0 Everything deals with it.\u00a0 Even some gods poop.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019m pretty sure there is a god of poop.\u00a0 Alright, so I was wiping\u2026it\u2026off my boot, and I realized what a strange life this was.\u00a0 Here I was, refugee from a long-dead empire, searching for a pool of dead cursed souls, hoping to retrieve the best of them to put into my service.\u00a0 Life was so much simpler when I was just an officer in the Cairn Jale.\u00a0 On the other hand, no one was giving me orders, I made my own way.\u00a0 I much prefer that, even if my life is screwed beyond belief and my entire world is upturned.\u00a0 It was a lot simpler, though, before \u2013 getting direction from above and just pursuing things per orders.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s the hallmark of independence though, wanting direction, but knowing that it isn\u2019t going to be any better than what I decide for myself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I resheathed Riftspar, <\/em>and finished cleaning the best I could.<\/em> Kept going, slowly walking into the dark.\u00a0 Nothing for it, really, other than to keep going.\u00a0 I felt the absence of my old talent for healing most acutely, realizing that being alone was simply a stupid position to be in, in a place like this.\u00a0 I really hoped that the path was relatively clear.\u00a0 Given that at least two heavy-hitting groups had passed this way in only a few months, I had high hopes that they\u2019d done the job to empty the way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I kept going, dodging bat-crap deposits and listening for\u2026well, for anything, really.\u00a0 The place was dead quiet, except for the occasional rustle of insect or other life.\u00a0 I really hated the thought of getting ambushed in a place like this.\u00a0 Screw it, I hate getting ambushed in any place.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I moved down the tunnel further, and opened into a broad, wide chamber. The walls here were lined with crystals, all faintly glowing in a light phosphor luminescence.\u00a0 I could see what might have once been a fungus forest, but now was more a sculpture gallery.\u00a0 It looked like the molten pool below had let off enough bronze in its steam that the various great boletes had become coated in it as it condensed on them.\u00a0 They glinted in the light of my sunrod, shining bright with their golden glow.\u00a0 The metallic crystals on the huge mushrooms was reflected by a similar shine on the walls, as well as silicate crystals of various sorts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was more surprised by the beauty of it all than I would have been had I been mobbed by shambling amanitas. With the soft lighting \u2013 provided by tiny worms, I could see now, each fishing for insects with nearly invisible threads of silk draping down into the air.\u00a0 The smell was horrible, that much is true, all sulphur and bat poop, but there is no god above or below the real that could conceive of something quite so lovely.\u00a0 Only raw chance could produce something so lovely.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Around the edge to my left was another tunnel, perhaps thirty yards and downslope.\u00a0 I headed across the chamber slowly, trying not to crunch too many crystals beneath my feet.\u00a0 Making my way across, I marveled at the strange fungal shapes, preserved for who knows how long in this thin layer of bronze.\u00a0 I wondered if there was any remnant of the original mushrooms beneath the coatings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While I was wondering, the creature struck.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I hadn\u2019t even noticed it, it looked like another bronzed fungus stem among the grove.\u00a0 A column, seven or eight feet tall, covered in metallic and silicate crystals, cracked open a single eye high up on its body.\u00a0 A maw, vertically centered as opposed to horizontally, has also split down its height \u2013 filled with hundreds of triangular teeth.\u00a0 Each one serrated, sharp as knives, gnawing and gnashing at the air.\u00a0 It extruded tentacles from its sides like glossy worms, they\u2019d been laying on the floor.\u00a0 If I\u2019d not been watching the floor for bat poop, I\u2019d not have seen it.\u00a0 What looked like a ridge or a submerged root, was really the thing\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first one wrapped itself around my waist and constricted so hard I thought it might sever my spine.\u00a0 The surprise of it was half the pain, though it didn\u2019t take long for me to get my balance back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The second one lashed past my right ear, snaking by like a metal-encrusted whip.\u00a0 Had it wrapped around my neck, things might have been a bit more bloody.\u00a0 As soon as the grasping tentacle wrapped tight, it started to pull me towards that toothy gash in the side of the column.\u00a0 Crystals broke and shattered around my feet, and I left long dragging footsteps behind me in them, like running footprints in bronze snow.\u00a0 The sense of snowfall was accentuated further, as the tentacle around my waist was rapidly shedding its exterior coating in tiny flakes and slivers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Without a thought, Riftspar <\/em>was in my hand, and I ripped a narrow hole in reality directly between myself and this strange creature.\u00a0 Diving through, the frost I left in my wake shattered the tentacle that was gripping me, tinkling to the ground like so much mutated glass.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I emerged nearer to the cavern exit, gripped it with a curse, and slung a fey eye-bite across the column itself, seeing tiny tendrils of vapor erupt from its face as the charm took hold.\u00a0 The thing flailed its tentacles around the room and howled in frustration, but this didn\u2019t help its cause at all.\u00a0 I kept pummeling it with repeated attacks on it this way, until it figured out a tactic that would work \u2013 it held its arms motionless on the floor, waiting for my charm of invisibility to wear off.\u00a0 Eye-bite charms are extremely useful, in that they both harm the enemy as well as shield you from their sight, but they are very short-lived.\u00a0 It\u2019s rare for the invisibility to last long enough to get off a second attack. I was fortunate in that the Winter Lady to whom I had originally pledged had taught me to lace my charm with chill of her domain, and that Shan Doresh was also willing to lend his realm\u2019s frozen aspect to my strength as well, for this made my strikes considerably more harmful.\u00a0 I had even found ways to enhance it slightly with frosts from the endless plains of Levistus, which made the power of the spell undeniable.\u00a0 Most practitioners are not so lucky, and while it does cause a little damage for them, the advantage of the attack is primarily one of becoming hidden.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I rippled my way across the room, collecting shadows to me as I did, and eyebiting the bronze-encrusted cavern dweller every few steps.\u00a0 But as I said, it eventually figured a tactic that would work \u2013 when its vision cleared enough to see me, it struck and once again grasped me with frightening strength to drag me towards it.\u00a0 It could only manage to get one arm close enough at any one time to strike at me this way, but it still did manage to tag me.\u00a0 I got angry this time, and my old heritage shone through as I responded by blasting it with brimstone-smelling flames while it dragged me closer.\u00a0 I ported again, frost covering the face of the thing and generating another enormously loud howl, and this time set the creature\u2019s mind \u2013 if it had one \u2013 alight with witchfire<\/em>.\u00a0 The flames danced about its form, racing as though chasing pockets of napthia, and once again the arms flailed aimlessly as the fires clouded its one eye.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I backed away, hammering at it time and again with various attacks this time \u2013 I focused on chill effects, since it did not seem to particularly like them, and I have a tendency to generate a heightened sensitivity to frost when I strike with those forms.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I approached the exit to the chamber, backing my way downwards while continuing to fling spells back at my attacker.\u00a0 I noticed then as I did, that there were two other of these columnar horrors here, who sat with their arms retracted, mouths closed, and eyelids open only a slit.\u00a0 Perhaps these were waiting to see how this more aggressive member of their kind fared.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to think they were at least a little bit intimidated by my performance, but more likely they were considering which of the two of us would be easier to eat at the end of this fight. \u00a0Thinking this through, I decided it best to finish this thing off and leave it behind for the other two to scavenge up.\u00a0 A creature with a full belly is much easier to convince to back away than one starving for its next meal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That in mind, I positioned myself near the exit and simply jostled between two positions, keeping my movement up to maintain my cloak of shadows.\u00a0 It still managed to pummel me a few more times, and it did close the distance at its own slow pace, but my strikes were obviously having the desired effect \u2013 and eventually I took it down.\u00a0 The arms didn\u2019t retract, they simply fell, limp and twitching, when I finally struck home directly enough to freeze through the rocky column.\u00a0 Apparently I\u2019d frozen something vital, because it went into a shivering fit just before its arms fell lifelessly to the floor.\u00a0 I sent the chunk of spirit I harvested from its fall on to Taer Lian Doresh, and vanished from the room with a flash of frost.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The other two had begun moving closer across the great chamber, but they had not yet reached a place where they could get hold of me.\u00a0 When their cousin or comrade died though, I observed my suspicion was right \u2013 their own bronzed arms snaked around the column, gripping tightly and pulling it towards them.\u00a0 It toppled shortly after they grabbed it, and its lifeless form was dragged back to the other two.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Whether they fought over the carcass, I didn\u2019t stay to find out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There was no bat excrement in the tunnel beyond that chamber.\u00a0 Just a hot breeze coming up from below, tainted with the smell of eggs and coal.\u00a0 I guessed that the strange ambushers back there were responsible for that, grabbing anything they could stuff in their craw.\u00a0 In any case, I still kept watch on the floor \u2013 for although there might not be bats, other things might leave traces of their passage and give me some clue as to what I might face down here.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There was a side passage on the way down, which contained a desk at its entrance \u2013 an ancient, stone thing with drawer-holes that sported no sliding drawers.\u00a0 I guessed those had rotted away a long while back.\u00a0 This desk did appear carved straight out of the rock, which to me meant it had probably been a monitoring station for access to the pool when Vor Kragal was a living (okay, well, perhaps not the best choice of words) city.\u00a0 This passage led into a large room, with several bunks carved into the walls, and assorted flotsam and wreckage within it.\u00a0 Nothing truly of interest, but it was important to me to leave nothing unknown at my back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking of which, when I returned my attention to the main tunnel, I discovered a form in the mouth of the passage.\u00a0 Humanoid, certainly, but made entirely of bronze.\u00a0 It stood with its legs apart, and where its hands rested on its waist they seemed to blend back into it, as though they\u2019d been sculpted that way.\u00a0 Its face had little feature, though I could make out enough at this distance to represent the general curvature of a face rather than a simple bland orb.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cUmm, hello,\u201d I offered.\u00a0 Master of diplomacy, me.\u00a0 \u201cWho\u2019re you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGreetings.\u00a0 Who are you, and what are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I considered lying for a minute, then considered this thing probably wasn\u2019t interested in the play of factions on the surface.\u00a0 \u201cI am Azrael Ille Macreane, of Ichaer, citizen of the Empire and third son of my house.\u00a0 Rightful heir to it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour purpose?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTo visit the pool.\u201d How it was managing to form words without a place to pass air through baffled me for a while, until I decided to ignore that aspect of this conversation.\u00a0 I also wondered whether this might be some kind of automated guardian golem.\u00a0 \u201cYour turn.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It paused for a moment.\u00a0 \u201cI have no name, I am the voice.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhose voice?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOur voice.\u00a0 We decide who may and may not visit us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, the pool itself perhaps.\u00a0 \u201cDo you possess a memory?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOnly insofar as this form exists outside of us.\u00a0 When I rejoin, I resume and we gain the knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo, what next?\u00a0 Do I ask for permission?\u00a0 Do you escort me?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo, you simply go.\u00a0 I do not guard, I only watch.\u00a0 I am how we see, hear, feel things outside of us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bad assumption on my part.\u00a0 I thought this was some kind of gatekeeper.\u00a0 Turns out more of a remote sensing thing.\u00a0 Interesting, that there was enough power to generate and control something like this in there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I unslung my pack.\u00a0 \u201cYou had a visitor recently.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe have had many visitors.\u00a0 I do not remember any in specific.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While I dug around in my pack, I kept an eye on the thing in case it turned hostile.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI will accompany you to us.\u201d\u00a0 It volunteered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I just eyed it for a moment.\u00a0 \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am recalled.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou speak with\u2026you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am independent, but I am able to receive instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCan you speak for you all?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo, that is not an option for me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I found what I was looking for, and reslung my pack.\u00a0 \u201cWell, if you\u2019re coming along, you can show me the way.\u00a0 Is there anything between us and there that will be hostile to me?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo, though many things watch.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That didn\u2019t make a lot of sense to me, but I figured I\u2019d find out as we went.\u00a0 The hot breath from below still passed by, and still stank horribly.\u00a0 The tunnel did not have the condensed crystals that were prevalent in the chamber before, but there was a sense of heat, oven-dry, that permeated the place.\u00a0 The stone down here was a deep charcoal gray, and when I scratched at it, it appeared darker under the immediate surface.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The simulacrum led the way, not looking back.\u00a0 Its motion was semi-fluid, pieces did seem to fold after a fashion, but largely it seemed to flow in this form.\u00a0 It did move slowly, as though contemplating each move before making it.\u00a0 I followed a few paces back, Crownfire<\/em> held ready in case it \u2013 or something \u2013 decided to make this a less-than-peaceful descent.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We continued downward for another fifteen or twenty minutes, before the path leveled out.\u00a0 As we did, I noticed small veins of bronze and crystal lacing the walls, like capillaries in a large eye.\u00a0 Some even seemed to pulse with a kind of light if I looked at them long enough.\u00a0 Then again, that could just be my eyes deceiving me, pulsing with the blood in my veins.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For a little while as we walked levelly, I could hear a noise, a breeze reminiscent of breath.\u00a0 It rose above the heated wind that we walked in, but passed quickly.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t really give it much thought at the time, though in hindsight I should have expected something to emulate the living in that fashion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We emerged into a chamber almost as great as that which housed the outpost of Cozule \u2013 it vanished into darkness far from me, beyond my vision.\u00a0 The walls curved up to a great height that also defied my view, roughly hewn from the deep grey stone around me.\u00a0 The floor upon which we traveled was relatively smooth, and tilted in a very slight \u2013 but slightly alarming \u2013 angle towards the main feature of the cavern.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A veritable sea of bronze lay before me, lit by everburning torches in the walls behind me.\u00a0 It rippled with cats-paw waves, as if breezes played upon it chaotically, instead of the steady slow wind that came forward to meet me.\u00a0 Larger waves stirred the surface, intimating objects or patterns moving in the fluid metal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Three patterns on the floor ahead of me caught my attention \u2013 reminiscent of summoning circles, they had symbols of binding all around them, and arcane sigils dominated their features.\u00a0 Each was inlaid into the floor, set in what appeared to be carved patterns filled with silver, one inside the other inside the other.\u00a0 The outer layer had grooves like a butcher\u2019s block, leading towards the great lake, the middle was smooth as glass, and the center was perforated like a drain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The strange model walked into the center circle, over the outer two, and stopped.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis is where we were rendered,\u201d it said calmly, then it simply dissolved and poured through the drain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The sea stirred.\u00a0 It seemed several of the larger disturbances headed my way, like the wake of great fish approaching the shore.\u00a0 They merged, combined in size, and halted before me.\u00a0 A blob of metal rose up, tenuously connected to the rest by a ropy strand of glowing fluid.\u00a0 It turned on this stalk, a misshapen dandelion.\u00a0 I was reminded of the face of Zog, the beholder of the Jessil Kerith\u2019s library.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou say, that you come to visit us, why?\u201d\u00a0 The voice had no source, but the blob seemed to vibrate while it spoke.\u00a0 Perhaps it was using this as a resonator, like the skin of a drum.\u00a0 It was deep, deliberate, and resonant.\u00a0 Even the walls seemed to be part of it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTo seek your aid.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour kind condemned us to this lifeless monotony.\u00a0 You deserve our wrath, not aid.\u00a0 Why should we not drown you, crush you beneath our weight here?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am of Ichaer, not Vor Kragal.\u00a0 Though my people did this, I did not.\u00a0 My family did not.\u00a0 I seek to offer you a way to visit vengeance against he who condemned you here.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMany and varied were our persecutors, Shadrim.\u00a0 There was no one singular responsibility.\u00a0 We owe your kind vengeance in the collective.\u201d\u00a0 Two of the humanoid simulacra had formed behind me, covering the hole through which I had entered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now I was a little nervous.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou recently were visited by the Horn Prince Kaenig, traveling in the company of the Malebranche and others.\u00a0 You aided him,\u201d I reasoned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe gave to us, and we gave to him.\u00a0 He serves the Lord,\u201d the voice whispered back to me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs you create these bodies to extend your grasp into the world,\u201d I gestured at the figures guarding my exit, \u201cI offer another way to extend yourself.\u00a0 A body of sorts, though not like these.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It gave no indication that it heard me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cKaenig is a tool of your lord, as you were ages past.\u00a0 He will be discarded in short order, for your lord intends vengeance upon his family for their turning away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIrrelevant. \u00a0He serves.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou were each one of you proud and strong, were you not?\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps not the best thing to remind them of this, but I saw no other way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt is as you say,\u201d came the response.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd your lord ordered your service to my people, did he not?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Silence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou considered us inferior beings, didn\u2019t you?\u00a0 That drove each of you to rebel.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOur reasons were as many and varied as our persecutors, Shadrim.\u00a0 Why do you state this?\u00a0 You only draw our anger further, ensure your demise to be more painful.\u201d\u00a0 Alright, now I knew where I stood, even if it wasn\u2019t comfortable ground.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYet my people were powerful \u2013 enough to send each of you here, to condemn you for eternity to be punished for your disobedience.\u201d\u00a0 I paced a bit, trying to logic this properly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Silence again greeted me.\u00a0 My tail itched.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour lord, the master that slew He Who Was, promised you to my people.\u00a0 He did not raise his hand to cease this \u2013 did not care that they did this to you.\u00a0 In fact, he probably approved of this, for your rebellion would have been a threat to him \u2013 an inconvenience.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou blaspheme now, Shadrim.\u00a0 Our lord would do no such thing.\u00a0 The Master of the Rod did not do this to us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd yet, here you are, so many centuries passed before you.\u00a0 My empire has long since fallen, the city above reduced to so much ruin.\u00a0 You lay here, forgotten.\u00a0 If your lord had the desire, he would restore you to bodies with him in the Hells.\u00a0 But he does not.\u00a0 I submit to you, he is happy to have you here, and prefers you to remain trapped, where you are no threat to him.\u00a0 Did not a single one of you possess ambition beyond your station?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou LIE!\u201d\u00a0 A large wave slapped against the rock before me, spraying me with molten droplets.\u00a0 My clothes and my armor smoked where it touched, and although it stung, it did me no permanent harm.\u00a0 Unlike water, waves in this lake died out quickly, the fluid being too heavy for a lengthy pattern to develop.\u00a0 It made the surface eerily familiar, but alien enough to be disorienting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI come to ask your aid.\u00a0 By aiding me, I am also offering you a chance at vengeance.\u00a0 Not upon my people, though they in their cruelty do deserve your anger.\u00a0 Vengeance upon he who engineered your imprisonment.\u00a0 Surely, you don\u2019t believe that my people would invent such a punishment as this for you, when they could simply have dismissed you to the hells?\u00a0 Do you not see that it was he who taught my people how to construct this place?\u00a0 That it was he who taught them the rituals, the symbols of power, the incantations necessary to deprive you of form and condemn you to this existence?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour people were cruel.\u00a0 Such devices are not beyond them.\u201d\u00a0 The two golem-figures had approached a bit closer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I finished with what I hoped was the best capper:\u00a0 \u201cDo you not recognize that my people acted on His instruction to imprison you here, far away and powerless to cast influence upon his realm?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Silence again.\u00a0 It stretched on for a terribly long time.\u00a0 Then the globule stirred.\u00a0 \u201cWe have railed in anger against the lord ourselves for his oversight in trusting our service to your kind.\u00a0 We have developed a fondness for our anger.\u00a0 With him.\u00a0 With your people.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI offer you vengeance upon him who has done this to you.\u00a0 As the sword is not guilty of the murder the man commits, I swear to you my people were only the instruments of the treachery of Asmodeus against you.\u201d\u00a0 I took a step back from the shore.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now it was my turn to be silent.\u00a0 The quiet seemed to stretch on forever, here in the dark.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eventually, the globule stirred.\u00a0 \u201cWhy do you seek us?\u00a0 It cannot be only to offer us this.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u00a0 He that betrayed you also betrayed my people.\u00a0 As cruel as we were, we were made so by him, and we were abandoned by him.\u00a0 He ruined my people, and destroyed us by casting us against an implacable foe.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat is no answer.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen know this \u2013 I seek your aid, and your service.\u00a0 I seek the strongest among you to accompany me.\u00a0 Your power and mine together to carve out my destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLeave us.\u00a0 You have no place here.\u00a0 We have no further part in destiny beyond what you see before you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLEAVE US.\u201d\u00a0 This last came with the volume of a trumpet blast, and the hot wind off the surface blew doubly hard upon me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought it over, and stepped back further.\u00a0 I did not bow, but turned toward the entry I had come through and walked to the exit.\u00a0 I took one look back as the two bronze figures parted slowly before me.\u00a0 Returned my attention to the tunnel ahead and stepped up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A voice stopped me.\u00a0 One of the simulacra laid a hand on my shoulder, painful through the leather, but it did not char my clothes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe are not all of one mind here, Shadrim.\u00a0 Wait above, in the room you first encountered ourself.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I paused, nodded, and left in silence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I walked up the tunnel to the side passage I\u2019d seen before, and settled myself in that room.\u00a0 Unslinging my pack, I made a meal of cheese and bread again, with a healthy serving of water to go along with it.\u00a0 Heat such as that below drains far more out of you simply by your breathing than you might realize, and I was parched.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After a while, I sat back against the wall and tried to get a little rest.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I dozed for some time, it must have been.\u00a0 I am embarrassed to say I was awakened by a simulacrum, kneeling before me.\u00a0 I should have been more alert, but I suppose I was more exhausted than I had guessed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou will come,\u201d was all it said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I fetched what I\u2019d brought with me, and followed it down to the Pool.\u00a0 Nothing had changed, and the globule that had formed either had never dissipated, or an identical one had formed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cStand in the circle, Shadrim,\u201d it intoned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sensed no threat from it, though I certainly wasn\u2019t comfortable standing where countless devils had been reduced to so much molten slag.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIchaer is known to us.\u00a0 Ille Macreane is known to us.\u00a0 You are known to us, Azrael.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was not sure how to respond, and so refrained from doing so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour cause is questionable,\u201d it hummed this at me.\u00a0 \u201cYour kind are questionable.\u201d\u00a0 It seemed conflicted about this, somehow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am nothing but honest with you.\u00a0 We share common cause, and I have need of you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs with others who have come before you, we make the same offer.\u00a0 You leave with us that which you take, and take only that which you leave with us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I pondered this enigmatic statement for a moment, then decided.\u00a0 Drawing Riftspar<\/em> out, I set the jug upon the ground, the metal-encased glass making a strangely crystalline sound on the stone floor.\u00a0 I unhinged the ceramic top, and opened it.\u00a0 Using the tip of the dagger, I slit open one of the veins on the inside of my arm, then directed the flow with the blade of the dagger to spill into the bottle, draining off the tip of the long knife.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It took several minutes before the bottle filled, probably ten or fifteen, and I was certainly a little light-headed by the time I had completed it.\u00a0 I wrapped a bandage around the injury, wiping my dagger off on my trouser leg before sheathing it.\u00a0 I grasped the jug by its handle and reached out over the Pool, upending it and pouring my blood into the molten bronze.\u00a0 Where it hit, it dove below the surface with a burst of steam.\u00a0 Tiny droplets sputtered about on the surface, dancing as if they had a will of their own, much like water in a hot frying pan.\u00a0 The smell almost gagged me, but I contained myself and tried to keep my face out of the smoke.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAn interesting choice, Shadrim.\u00a0 Others have chosen limbs.\u00a0 Some simply have dived in, but they always remain here with us.\u00a0 You would take us, have us in your veins?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat is not my intent, no.\u00a0 I wish to carry you in equal volume to the Hellforge.\u201d I gestured with the jug as I explained.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou believe the Smith will be of use to you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat is my hope.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDip your bottle then, Shadrim, and take a part of us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I knelt beside the pool, and using one hand lowered the jug by its handle into the molten bronze.\u00a0 A small stream of the metal actually rose up and found the mouth of the jug, pouring itself into the container.\u00a0 The last remnants of blood in it steamed and hissed, but in short order I was re-sealing the container on a full load.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stood up again, straightening my clothes.\u00a0 \u201cI thank you for this.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDo not thank us, not yet.\u00a0 You are not done.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYour exchange has given you a part of us, but you cannot hear it.\u00a0 Cannot feel it.\u00a0 Even if the Smith does provide you with his services, you will not be able to wield us.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow may I do so, then?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNone have come and left us without putting themselves into contact with us.\u00a0 The first had lost his arm, we replaced it.\u00a0 The Horn Prince had his arm taken and given to us.\u00a0 We replaced it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I didn\u2019t much like the direction this was going.\u00a0 \u201cI am missing no limb, and have no intent to arrange for such loss.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFear not, Shadrim.\u00a0 We have considered and decided for you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before I could even turn, the lights went out, and I knew no more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I woke, I suppose some hours later, laying on the floor beside the Pool.\u00a0 The jug still sat beside me, sealed and quiet.\u00a0 Remembering, I quickly looked at my hands.\u00a0 Both appeared normal.\u00a0 As did my tail.\u00a0 As did my legs.\u00a0 I looked normal, at least as far as I could see.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you do?\u201d\u00a0 I flipped my hands over, back and forth.\u00a0 The lake of metal was silent.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But in my mind, a quiet voice whispered, Take your bottle as our gift.\u00a0 We have returned to you that which you gave us.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My blood.\u00a0 It was inside me, in my veins.\u00a0 Indeed, Shadrim.\u00a0 We are closer now than any before you. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n That<\/em> was interesting.\u00a0 I could almost see the voice, see it as a figure in my mind.\u00a0 Most curious.\u00a0 How is it that I wasn\u2019t being incinerated?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Your death would be the death of me.<\/em> First time it had referred to itself singularly, too.\u00a0 Now this was<\/em> very interesting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAre you joined with what is in the jug?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That is a part of me, just as the lake is part of me, just as I am part of you.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Curious.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Best get moving.\u00a0 Dawn will come soon, and with it your safest travel to the Hellforge.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Can\u2019t fault that logic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stood and regathered my things.\u00a0 My shoulders were stiff, and my left waist chafed badly from sitting unconscious in the armor for so long, but I hoped that a good bit of walking would unclench my muscles.\u00a0 Not much I could do about the chafing, so I bit my lip and moved on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I could have spent more time being cautious in the room where the bronzed fungus forest was, but I wanted to get out into light.\u00a0 I rippled my way across, teleporting as rapidly as possible.\u00a0 I caught sight of one of the remaining creatures watching me as I moved, its large eye sluggishly tracing my passage.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t pause at all, just kept echoing by, shadows draping out behind me like a dark gossamer robe.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I did reach the surface without incident, and took a breath of clear air for a change.\u00a0 It was remarkably refreshing to be out of the brimstone-and-batshit odor of those tunnels.\u00a0 I had to wonder what Kaenig must be experiencing throughout all of this, what his trip below had been like.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was nowhere near as pleasant as yours,<\/em> came the voice.\u00a0 His attendant devil gave him no time to wait or decide.\u00a0 When he showed hesitation, it ripped his arm free in an instant to remind him that he served at the convenience of the Lord of the Ruby Rod.\u00a0 He had no choice but to lower the bleeding stump into the Pool.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ouch.\u00a0 Unfortunate, that.\u00a0 I was beginning to wonder whether Kaenig truly deserved the full damnation I\u2019d wished upon him all those centuries ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Enough of that.\u00a0 Mercy for him would be a clean death.\u00a0 Let his soul find its way to where it belonged.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I took a bearing on where I was in the grey light, and scanned around the area into which I\u2019d emerged.\u00a0 Nothing appeared untoward, though I maintained a certain level of paranoia about Kurrian.\u00a0 I spotted the rising smoke that emerged from the forge, and began making my way in that direction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Charspire, always present, seemed to dominate my attention as I walked.\u00a0 I felt as though it watched me \u2013 very likely my paranoia getting the best of me, but in this eldritch ruin where spells themselves occasionally took on a vicarious life, perhaps paranoia was simply a good survival instinct.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Hellforge was actually an easier walk, as two broad avenues led directly to it, and one of them passed within a block or two of the crevasse I had climbed up out of.\u00a0 I took the left side of the street, and stayed close to the buildings there.\u00a0 A slight fall of ash was drifting down, looking for all the world like a quiet winter morning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t far down that road when I met\u2026it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what to call it, it seemed formless and never really gave me a name to call it.\u00a0 The ashes on the ground and drifting through the air formed in a kind of slow-moving dust devil (ironic, that term, no?) in the center of the street, and it drifted slowly in my direction.\u00a0 I held Crownfire<\/em> ready, while unsheathing Riftspar<\/em>.\u00a0 I held both pointed straight at the thing as it approached, and prepared to escape should it prove wise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLower your weapons, Shadrim, you are in no danger from me,\u201d the things voice was that of wind in the branches, but very clear.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo you would say if you wanted an easy meal, I think,\u201d I responded with a smirk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It stopped and drew itself up taller, perhaps eight or nine feet tall and a third that width.\u00a0 It rotated slowly before me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWho are you, Shadrim?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhy does everyone ask me that here?\u00a0 What does it matter?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWho one is, is often more important than what one is.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFine, you first.\u00a0 Who are you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI watch.\u00a0 I watched you climb down, and then climb up.\u00a0 Did you visit the Pool?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps.\u00a0 Why?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou are not the first to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI know that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOne recently did, as well.\u00a0 Know you him?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI did, once upon a time.\u00a0 Now, I cannot say.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you visited the Pool, did it grant you a boon?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a little personal.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI see no metal upon you.\u00a0 Perhaps it refused you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps.\u00a0 Why?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou seek after the one who came before, do you not?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn a way I do, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen you may find him again.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI really fail to see why this is important.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe is important to me,\u201d it actually sounded wistful now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe is\u2026family, of a sort, though long since has his line to me been broken.\u00a0 Ages of eking out an existence in the darkness has ruined his soul.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd you are?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis is but a tool of vision.\u00a0 I use it to come to you, for I recall your earlier visit, many months past.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo if you recognize me, why is it important who I am?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBecause of who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOkay, who am I?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOnly you can know that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis is beginning to tire me.\u00a0 Answer directly, or do not answer at all.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWill you perform a service for me?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDepends on the nature of the service.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI wish you to carry a message.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s all?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou couldn\u2019t tell him this yourself when he was here?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat is in it for me?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI offer a trade of information.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat kind of information?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cInformation that you will find very useful, if what I believe is true.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRemember that part about answering directly?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat was as direct as I wish to be.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGreat.\u00a0 Okay, what\u2019s the message?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCome home.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s all?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOkay, fine.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou have my gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYeah, great.\u00a0 Now what information are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe one you seek now, he values unique materials upon which to work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBoy, is he ever going to love me then.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou may find some such at the foot of the spire.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat narrows it down.\u00a0 Which spire?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy home.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With that, the thing collapsed in upon itself, falling to the street in a small cloud of dust.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m beginning to really not like this place.\u201d\u00a0 I sheathed my weapons and straightened up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Come home, <\/em>it had said.\u00a0 Its home.\u00a0 Suddenly it was clear.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Charspire.\u00a0 It had withstood the entire fall of Bael Turath.\u00a0 It stood today, and even was said to move on its own accord.\u00a0 The Barikdrals are in there, still.<\/em> The last bastion of those who defied Asmodeus and brokered their own agreement with the denizens of the Abyss.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Perhaps in there, they were safe from the reach of the Lord of Hell.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Like nothing you can imagine, <\/em>the voice within me said.\u00a0 Why do you think he goes out of his way to retrieve a soul of theirs from the home of his greatest enemy at such expense to him, simply to raise it up and dash it upon the rocks?\u00a0 Parading it in front of them as his little puppet?\u00a0 He cannot reach them, no, but he can still reward them for their treachery.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n All the more reason to destroy him, I thought.\u00a0 Not that the opposition was any better.\u00a0 But I had no personal stake against them \u2013 yet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I struck out in the direction of the Charspire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I\u2019d been in the Cairn Jale, shortly before I left the ranks, we\u2019d had false reports saying that it had fallen.\u00a0 When I learned more about the situation, it hadn\u2019t fallen at all \u2013 it had been attacked, indeed, but fallen?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 In response to the attack, or perhaps precipitating it, it had bolted its doors and never opened again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The pillar on which the Charspire is built, and the spire itself, is all of bone.\u00a0 True to its name, it is blackened as though it passed through a blast furnace \u2013 which, for all intents and purposes, I\u2019m sure it has.\u00a0 The bones are purportedly all from a single dragon, though given the size of the tower, I find that claim somewhat dubious.\u00a0 Beneath it, dead gardens sprawl their lifeless walkways in a twisted parody of a royal palace, like the dead leaves of last year\u2019s autumn revealed when the snow melts away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It points to the sky, in reality perhaps half a mile in height (another reason to suspect bone isn\u2019t its only construction, though with the proper enchantments I suppose bone would do), like a single finger reaching to touch the clouds.\u00a0 Whether that is a gesture at the heavens themselves or simply an outcome of its architecture I don\u2019t think anyone but the original builders will ever know.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I found it easily enough \u2013 it isn\u2019t as if it gets blocked from view by anything in this city\u2019s ruins.\u00a0 The morning was early yet, and though my progress was slow, I did reach the courtyard around the base of the tower before the sun passed its apex.\u00a0 Standing there, it was hard not to be a little in awe of the thing.\u00a0 It really is big<\/em>.\u00a0 Seeing it in the distance just doesn\u2019t give you the sense of perspective you get from being at the base of it.\u00a0 Having it tower over you gives you a remarkable sense of vertigo, particularly when clouds are racing past it \u2013 or are parting around it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I didn\u2019t immediately see what the strange messenger was referring to while I walked around.\u00a0 The tower is held to its pillar, and that anchored to the ground, by great sinewy-looking columns that rise from the earth all around it.\u00a0 I wondered passively how deep underground they went, and what form of under-caverns might be connected to the tower.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The spire itself had no doors that were visible, only blank areas between the supporting columns that were glossy-smooth and black as the rest of the spire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I finished my circuit of the base of it, and moved in to have a closer look.\u00a0 No tracks marred the ground near the spire, and I could see very little to indicate that it had ever suffered real weathering or damage of any kind.\u00a0 Strangely, it almost appeared grown, like some mutant weed reaching up from the earth.\u00a0 Against my better judgment, I reached out and touched fingertips to the smooth surface.\u00a0 They came away black.\u00a0 I wiped them off on my trouser leg, though the stain proved difficult to remove. Greasy, like the drip-pan of a cooking grill that hasn\u2019t been touched in an age.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A thudding impact reached me through the ground \u2013 I heard it as well, though it was hard to place the source.\u00a0 Turning around, I saw three rods embedded in the ground some yards behind me, each about two inches in diameter and perhaps four feet in length.\u00a0 A forth object, a charred but otherwise intact bone, lay lengthwise on the ground a little ways further out.\u00a0 The bone was some three or four feet in length, and at its narrowest about three inches in diameter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unsubtle, that.\u00a0 I gripped one of the bars and pulled \u2013 to no avail.\u00a0 After a great deal of wrenching side-to-side, I did manage to get it free, and discovered that a good two feet in length had been submerged where it met the ground.\u00a0 I looked up, trying to determine where it had been dropped from.\u00a0 Nothing was immediately apparent.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I retrieved the other materials from the ground as well, and slung them over my shoulder.\u00a0 One of the bars was unmistakably mitrhil, its light weight and silvery surface easily spotted.\u00a0 The others were more difficult.\u00a0 I suspected one was adamantium, but I\u2019ve never worked with exotic metals before and couldn\u2019t be certain. The third I had no idea\u2026it was coppery, but with a sheen beneath it, as though copper water had washed over a white metal of some kind.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I suppose this was fair payment for my proposed courier duty.\u00a0 Hefting them experimentally, I decided to rig a harness for them so as to sling them horizontally across my back.\u00a0 Tight alleys might prove problematic, but where I was going I didn\u2019t think that would be a problem.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With a nod, I started back towards the plume of smoke, and made my way to the Hellforge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Though the afternoon, I trudged through the streets, lugging the long rods of metal over my shoulders.\u00a0 They became surprisingly bulky and difficult after only a short while, and eventually I jokingly considered it might have been simpler just to build a wagon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As with coming to the Charspire, making my way back towards the large avenue that led to the Hellforge was not much of a challenge \u2013 more a logistical event than a suspenseful one.\u00a0 I\u2019ll spare you the details of navigating through the one small alley and the point where I tripped and face-planted on the cobblestones.\u00a0 Not my most graceful moment.\u00a0 I\u2019ve looked cleaner in my life, I can safely say.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eventually, though, in the midafternoon I found myself staring up at a mound of brick, carved stone, and ash, whose form was that of a stylized caldera.\u00a0 Even small channels (presumably for magma) ran down the sides, and smoke billowed up from beneath it.\u00a0 To the right, behind this conical structure, I could see a large pyramidal monument \u2013 I vaguely remembered it to be a storehouse for a great library.\u00a0 To the left the crater walls of the city arced down, almost meeting the forge\u2019s base.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Where the road met the forge-house, a great gated entry stood, black iron chained and locked.\u00a0 House Zolfura\u2019s emblems and sigils were carved into the iron practically anywhere they would fit.\u00a0 I could see through the gate to the other side, and rather than screw with the gate, I tried to rift my way through. I was rebuffed hard, bouncing off some form of repulsion and landing on my side.\u00a0 I sat for a moment, hands on my knees.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t come all this way to be turned back by just a gate.\u00a0 I looked at the chains and the huge locking mechanism sealing the iron.\u00a0 No keyhole was evident, though it was obvious that the locks did move \u2013 they weren\u2019t simply solid barriers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After a moment of contemplation, a thought occurred to me \u2013 this structure was of Zolfura make, and they had been masters of the elements.\u00a0 It seemed worth a try, so I first tried a dose of fey-lined fire, and followed it up with a shower of ice shards.\u00a0 To my surprise, the gate responded, its iron bindings emitting a shower of black and brown dust as they shook free ancient rust and ash.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stood for a moment with my hands out, reveling in having made at least one right call here on the first try.\u00a0 The gates swung wide before me, showing a dark maw leading deep into the large mound of the forge.\u00a0 I struggled my burden back onto my shoulders, and walked in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the dark it was particularly difficult for me to work my way around, and eventually I had to draw out my only magical torch (having used my remaining sunrod the night before) in order to see properly.\u00a0 The hall before me \u2013 for it did take on the look of artifice after a short distance \u2013 was magnificently worked.\u00a0 The stonework was glass-smooth granite, with statues every fifteen feet or so.\u00a0 Each was dressed in a ceremonial armor and held weapons of various sorts, from many-headed flails to wickedly-curved swords.\u00a0 They were all quite lovely, really.\u00a0 Quite a shame that they did not sit in view for more people to appreciate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As I ranged deeper into the structure, I could begin to hear the sounds of a furnace ahead, and some form of yellow-red light ahead became evident.\u00a0 Once I had covered a bit of the distance the hallway opened out onto a broad balcony, overlooking a deep pit, inside of which were walkways and work areas that threaded themselves among several glowing channels of glowing fluid.\u00a0 Whether rock or metal I could not tell.\u00a0 Probably metal, given that this region was not prone to volcanism, but it was entirely possible that it could be anything.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stairs led down into the pit, broad and elaborate, more like something one would find in a ballroom than a smithy.\u00a0 I descended them, each a lengthy step, but shallow.\u00a0 My feet made little noise, my boots being of soft leather, but I felt it best not to try to sound as though I did not belong.\u00a0 To appear to be sneaking in could be dangerously misconstrued if observed at the wrong moment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once at the bottom, I made my way to the center of the room, where a smithy of truly monstrous scale rested.\u00a0 An extremely large set of tools rested on a clean bench \u2013 the primary hammer probably weighed as much as I did, and its grip was at least as long as my leg.\u00a0 I truly felt dwarfed by these, and I wondered at the sort of talent that could churn out weapons balanced for the use of a man-sized creature using tools of that magnitude.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I laid down my burden, and stretched, hands at the small of my back.\u00a0 I heard the vertebra crack a few times, and sighed with satisfaction.\u00a0 Turning around, I surveyed the room.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And saw the smith, seated, on a large throne-like edifice carved into the wall beneath the balcony I\u2019d arrived on.\u00a0 He was eyeing me, leaning forward with both hands on the handle of a mace as tall as I was, chin resting on his hands.\u00a0 The fire behind his eyes \u2013 and I mean fire, not just some figure of speech \u2013 lit up the knuckles of his fingers.\u00a0 He had horns of jet, probably four feet long each.\u00a0 He could be a minotaur with those features, though a magnificently huge one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He stared at me levelly for at least five minutes while I regarded him.\u00a0 Somehow, running didn\u2019t seem advisable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat is your name, Shadrim?\u201d\u00a0 Again with the names.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am Azrael.\u00a0 You are the smith, I believe?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He nodded, not lifting his head from his hands.\u00a0 Flicked a thumb at himself.\u00a0 \u201cRithzalgor.\u00a0 You are Ille Zolfura?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I shook my head.\u00a0 \u201cIlle Macreane.\u00a0 I am not Zolfura.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI suppose that is fortunate.\u201d\u00a0 He still made no move.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI do not understand, Rithzalgor.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWere you Zolfura, I would have to chain you to the walls, take your hands and feet, and feed them to you while trying to keep you alive for another year or three.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen that is fortunate, for me, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He nodded again, still not raising his head.\u00a0 \u201cThey say I am insane, that these walls and the endless years have driven me beyond the realm of sanity with the boredom.\u00a0 Tell me, why are you here?\u00a0 Why risk coming to a place inhabited by an insane master smith?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am convinced I can escape you if necessary, defeat you in time, and that insanity means very little where a superior devil is concerned.\u00a0 Above all, I wish your assistance, Rithzalgor.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTreading close to insult there, short-tail.\u00a0 Why would I give it?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOnly respect is intended, Master Smith.\u00a0 In answer to your question: boredom, vengeance, challenge of skill, the kindness of your heart.\u201d\u00a0 I grinned as I said this last.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The infernal finally stirred, and what I thought at first was a roar of anger turned into enormous, echoing laughter that filled the chamber, almost deafening me. \u00a0This went on for a few minutes, which I deemed unwise to interrupt.\u00a0 \u201cYou talk a good game, Azrael Ille Macreane.\u00a0 I have not laughed since, oh, long before you were born.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d be surprised,\u201d I offered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs might you.\u00a0 Tell me, what assistance do you seek?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI would like a weapon, Rithzalgor.\u00a0 I respectfully defer to your superior skill and knowledge, and wish to commission you a weapon the likes of which has been rarely made before.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWho do you wish to slay with this weapon, Shadrim?\u00a0 One does not commission Rithzalgor without great and specific need.\u201d\u00a0 He set the mace aside and stood, his great tail unraveling behind him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am hopeful that this will bear no insult, for none is intended, Master Smith, but I wish this weapon to be used against infernals of great caliber.\u201d\u00a0 I braced myself to run.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n His wings stretched out, their breadth was \u2013 dramatic.\u00a0 I was reminded of seeing Vargan Lightweaver, the magnitude of the creature was quite amazing, though amplified in these close quarters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSo, a young rebel, are you?\u00a0 Wanting to take on the empire all by yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRebel is probably not the correct word, Master Smith, for the empire is no more.\u00a0 You have seen others such as me?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He looked down.\u00a0 \u201cOnce in a while an upstart would seek me out, oft times simply to overthrow his house\u2019s lord, now and then to take on the empire itself.\u00a0 Most I simply turned away, an occasional few I ate, and a rare one or two got what they wished for.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHow are you kept aware of the goings-on outside?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am not as isolated as the scions of Zolfura would believe.\u00a0 Though I am bound here, I do have\u2026visitors.\u201d\u00a0 He snapped his fingers, and a group of five devils appeared around him in bursts of spark, flame, and smoke.\u00a0 The tallest of them, a misshapen Malebranche, knelt before the Smith and rose to face me.\u00a0 \u201cThey bring me news of the outside, occasionally fetch me things I desire.\u00a0 They assist me here in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI see.\u00a0 So if my choices are to be turned away, eaten, or receive my request, I would choose the last of them.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rithzalgor chuckled.\u00a0 \u201cLet me see what you have brought.\u00a0 Then we shall see what my decision will be.\u201d\u00a0 He walked forward and reached down to take up the bars and bone I\u2019d brought with me.\u00a0 \u201cThese are finely smelted, very pure,\u201d he said this last as he held one close to his ear, tapping it with a claw.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhere did you get these?\u201d\u00a0 He looked down at me sharply.\u00a0 \u201cYour kind hasn\u2019t smelted this material in an age.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey were gifted to me,\u201d I answered.\u00a0 \u201cA messenger from Barikdral sent me to collect them from the Charspire.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He turned to his retinue and waved in dismissal.\u00a0 They each vanished with a bow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He turned back to me.\u00a0 \u201cWho are you, Azrael Ille Macreane?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI am who I say, if that is your question.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it is, but I don\u2019t quite understand your question, in truth.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe mistress of the Charspire gives nothing unless it benefits her.\u00a0 And since they locked themselves away, there are few things that can benefit her.\u00a0 And here you are, asking for a weapon with which to strike at my kind, to be made from materials given you by her, or a member of her family.\u00a0 This leaves me few conclusions, fewer still of a convenient nature.\u201d\u00a0 He set the bar down, leaning it against the anvil with a gentleness that belied his enormous bulk.\u00a0 Picked up the bone and tested its weight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Without looking at me, he said:\u00a0 \u201cYou are a harvester of souls, are you not?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI have made bargains of that sort, yes, and serve the exchanges thus established.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cA tactful response, Shadrim.\u00a0 You understand that the one with whom you wish to tangle is also a bargainer of sorts?\u00a0 That He also channels soulstuff to his own ends?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cI know little at this point.\u00a0 Only that I must see to it that my people have a free future.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAre these the only materials?\u00a0 The forge does run on souls, much as your own power does, you know.\u00a0 What have you brought with you to satisfy that?\u00a0 I cannot very well take yours, nothing would remain to wield the thing you ask of me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I drew the jug from my pack and offered it up to the great infernal.\u00a0 \u201cI had hoped that this would prove useful in the construction.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rithzalgor unclasped the latch and held the jug up to his nose, sniffing.\u00a0 His eyes widened, the yellow light dancing across me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNow THAT is unique.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think anyone has ever thought along these lines before.\u00a0 I\u2019d been meaning to ask what happened to your eyes, but this explains it.\u201d\u00a0 He picked up the rods in one hand, and gently laid the bone among them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He set the jug down on the anvil.\u00a0 \u201cI will do as you ask, Shadrim.\u00a0 Return to me in a month\u2019s time.\u00a0 I should have your piece done by then.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I bowed before him, and stepped back.\u00a0 \u201cMy thanks, Master Smith.\u00a0 I look forward to our next meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I turned and walked to the stairs.\u00a0 As my hand came to rest on the banister, his voice echoed out behind me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cShadrim,\u201d he intoned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I turned back to look.\u00a0 He was eyeing me over his shoulder.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBring me a barrel of your whiskey when you return.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I nodded, and took my leave.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What had he been talking about?\u00a0 What was wrong with my eyes?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I took refuge several streets away, after I and one of the gurragal had sized each other up.\u00a0 I gave serious consideration to trying to tame the beast, but given I had no experience with such a creature (or any … Continue reading