Part 10 - The Dwarven Ruins

I take Briar aside, kicking my boot in the dirt, think of how to formulate my question, “Briar, when I asked you before you said you weren’t from the nine hells plane, but just a minute ago when I asked you said yes. So which is it? Are you or are you not from the nine hells?”

Briar just looks at me, “Both,” she says simply, “I’m not from the ninth hell, but I am from one of the levels of hell.”

“Do you remember which one?”

Briar pauses, “Not really…”

“Is this how Pendral brought you to our plane of existence?” I asked pointing at the gate.

“No, Pendral brought me through the Dreth Stones.”

“Have you seen a gate like this before? Do you know where it’s currently dialed into?”

“Yes,” Briar confirmed, “Right now it’s dialed into the first level of hell, a place of blood and viscera. It’s ruled by the damon Bel, after defeating its previous ruler. Devils fight for power, the strongest ones ruling over the weaker ones.” Suddenly I notice a cut on her cheek that quickly heals and fades away, “This is a small price I pay being away from hell.” Briar responds when she realized I noticed.

Suddenly we both look back as we see the glowing gate ripple. My hand goes to my weapon handle, unsure what we’re about to be confronted by. A strange, disfigured creature stumbles down the steps to the gate and comes to a rest on the floor, unmoving. Araja rushes toward it for some odd reason, but I keep my distance.

“What is that?” I ask Briar.

“Why it’s a unicorn,” Briar says knowingly, “Judging by the way those skins have been grafted onto the creature, a demon must by trying to corrupt it. Once corrupt, a unicorn’s horn will turn black.”

I look back at the creature and see that its horn is still white. I relax my grip on the weapon handle as Araja tries to calm the beast. Suddenly the portal ripples again and four ghastly looking creatures come forth.

“What in the nine hells is that?” I say arming myself. The weapon handle immediately turns into a bow.

“Those are Nupperibo,” Briar says, “They can’t hear or see, but they can smell their prey just fine.

Without thinking, I fire an alchemist’s arrow at the Nupperibo nearest me. It hits, but the fire seems to strengthen them. The creatures advance slowly, and our dwarven friends charge in to attack. Despite their weakened state they fight valiantly and score a hit. The Bar Wench plays a song, invigorating us. I charge forward, my weapon handle turning into a great ax, and slash one of the creatures in two. Araja lands a lethal blow as well. Briar jumps in, now in demon form, and stomps the Nupperibo into nothing. The sulfur cloud she emits, blocks their sense of smell, and the creatures begin attacking one another in confusion.

We take out our enemies without a hitch. Isaac scrambles at the console to try and set the portal to a different plane, but it isn’t long before two more creatures walk through the portal. Isaac tells us these new creatures are Legion Devils and that they’re stronger in groups. Once one dies though, they all die. The dwarves begin their valiant assault, but without much effect. Araja flies above and nearly knocks one senseless. I turn the weapon handle into a halberd and strike at the enemy from afar.

When the devils realize Isaac was trying to change the location on the gate, they turn to run back through the portal, but just as they do, one of the dwarves sinks his ax into one of the creatures back, and they both slump over dead. Finally Isaac is able to scramble the runes on the console and the portal now remains open to the celestial plane.

Araja has Gideon cast a healing spell on the unicorn, and the foul looking animal turns back into its former glory. I really wanted to continue exploring the cave, but we all decide to return top side. We bid the dwarves farewell as they depart to their home.

We continue our journey toward Duke Lupik’s city when we come upon a caravan. The leader of the hired hands greets us warmly and they tell us they are awaiting their master’s return. Their masters are great adventurers and they went into a nearby, ancient dwarven cave where there was tale of many treasures. Their masters were to be returning soon, and they invited us to stay, rest, and rejoice with them once they returned. Our own food stores were fairly low so we decide to stay the night. In the morning, the hired hands race about preparing a grand feast, but their masters don’t emerge from the cave. They wait for a few days, with no luck.

We decide to heroically go into the cave to see what’s gone a miss, and hopefully return their masters safely. The cave is expansive with many halls and rooms to explore. From the looks of things, it appears the dwarves left quickly, leaving much of their wealth and goods behind. We find foot prints and follow them as best we can through the winding halls and rooms. In one of the rooms, Briar and I were attacked by rats…I hate rats…and we killed them quickly. Briar, in human form, began gnawing on the rat she slew. I give her a disgusted look, but she continues to chow down.

Shortly after, Isaac yells something, disturbing some other creatures in the room. Dire bats fly out of a corner and begin attacking us. I light one of the bats on fire with analchemist’s arrow and it flies off, but the other bats circle me and attack. I was bit pretty badly by one of them. Briar goes to attack, but she misses, slips, and lets out a blood curdling scream that sends shivers down my spine.

Suddenly I’m back with the rest of the group and Isaac is now fighting off the bats. I call for Briar, worried sick, but she’s unable to move. I fire several arrows, but the bats out maneuver my shots. Isaac shouts a warning and shakes his fist at me as my arrows wiz by. I don’t understand why he’s so upset…oh yah…

The bats break off and one came flying at my face. I try to duck out of its way, but the next thing I know my vision went black. The next second, or so I thought, I was awake again, Araja touching my head. The bats were still flying about manically. I crawl backward, take aim, and fire an arrow at the bat nearest me. My arrow pierces the creature through the heart and it crashes to the ground dead. The Bar Wench finishes up the last bat, burning it with her staff until nothing but ash remains.

Araya checks Briar and to my dismay, she’s broken a leg. Fortunately Araja was able to heal her and Briar was good as new!

I’ve also noticed Briar and the unicorn can’t get too close together. I get this feeling the unicorn doesn’t like Briar. I guess that makes sense since Briar is a demon horse and the unicorn is, well the opposite. Hopefully no ill will is had between them…

Briar and I follow the Bar Wench down a corridor that leads into a cavern. There’s a door on the other side of the path and a body smashed up against the far wall. It looks like a barbarian woman. We hear a swishing sound coming from further down the path. Briar brightens her fire and we can faintly see a crystal pendulum swishing across the bath ahead. When the others rejoin us, Isaac flies over the chasm and collects the barbarian woman and her things. There’s a sledge hammer in the middle of the floor. The barbarian must have been trying to break through the door. The others were eager to leave, but I really wanted to see what was on the other side. Leave no door unopened right?

After trying to bash down the locked door, Rekka comes over and picks the lock. The door swings open to an ancient dwarven forge. To the left corner of the room is a mound of gold, sliver, jewels, and gems. To the right are a couple hammers and a bow.

My eyes turning to dollar signs, I collect as much silver coins as I can and load Briars saddle bags with some gold. Suddenly everyone hears a loud hiss coming from the forge…a large, red, dragon head pokes out and hisses at us threateningly. I nearly wet myself and my life flashes before my eyes when Isaac attacks the dragon. Suddenly the creature goes still and slips back down the hatch. We all gather round the forge, peering over the edge, as the dragon fell to its death. I wipe the sweat from my brow and heave a sigh of relief. Isaac goes over to inspect the weapons. They all appear to be dragon slaying, so I take the Dragon Doom Great Hammers just in case we confront another dragon.

We continues searching for the other adventurers. Isaac finds some magical rings of sustenance and I take one and put it on. My mouth has an odd taste of honey and meat. After a long while we find our way into a library. Under one of the fallen stone shelves we see a hand, and upon recovering the body, discover it was a woman clerik. Isaac hands me the clerik’s amulet of healing, which I hoped to put to good use.