Even the earth is against us

We made our way down the smaller hall that connected with the larger, twenty foot wide hall (not the one with bones in it, another one--man, this place is huge). We could still hear the cries of the woman.

"What is she saying?" I asked.

"I can guess," Audry said. I didn't press further for a translation.

We waited until the procession had rounded the corner before entering the larger hall. We hugged the far wall and ran toward the end. The hall looped around completely before connecting with the larger worshipping area. A curtain covered the entrance. I opened up the edge of it with my sword and peered in.

The room must have been a hundred feet on a side. Dirt covered much of the floor. Guards surrounded the edge of the room while two men dressed in brown robes knelt in the dirt. They filled their hands with the dirt, lifted them in the air, and let if fall back to the ground. Repeat. They mumbled something, but we could not tell what. Torches lined the wall at regular intervals, and lamps hung from the ceiling throughout the middle of the room. We could see everything easily.

All faced the center of the room at a perfectly shaped pyramid of dirt. A single column of stone rose out of that pyramid, and chained to that column was a young elvish girl. She screamed at them in elvish, but they ignored her.

"Oh hell," I said. "What exactly are they going to do."

"We're not waiting to find out," Audry said. She edged passed me into the chamber. Anna followed her.

"Wait," Saul hissed. They ignored her. I guess I can't blame them. You should have seen this girl. She wore rags for clothing. She'd obviously been beaten repeatedly...among other things. Hey, a bunch of evil men and a beautiful blonde elf girl. You do the math.

Well, I did do the math, right then and there. And then I followed them. Marc swore and came in behind me, along with Saul.

Strangely, no one noticed us right away. Everyone stared at the girl on the dirt pyramid. I counted. Sixteen guards surrounded the area. Two more stood before the pyramid, and two knelt before the pyramid, doing the dirt thing with their hands. It was another few seconds before one of them noticed us.

Marc's spell flew through the air like a lazy softball. It looked like a giant ball of snakes. It landed on the far side near the other entrance. It exploded in a mass of webs. It stretched from floor to ceiling, entangling everyone in its wake. Some ten people got tangled up in it. They struggled with the strands, but the more they struggled, the more tangled they got.

The remaining guards turned to face us. We stared, our weapons ready.

"Hi boys," Anna said. She let an arrow fly. It planted itself in the left eye of one guard. She was the last thing that man ever saw. He fell with a shocked look on his face.

"Get them!" The priests had stopped their praying and hand-dirt thing. One of them wore robes more decorative than anyone else's. The leader, I presumed. I wondered which of us would get to kill him.

The two guards nearest the priest shouted orders to the remaining guards, who rushed toward us. Anna planted another arrow in the chest of another guard. It didn't stop them.

We readied ourselves, all except Saul. He had a torch in hand. He hurled it toward the mass of webs. Funny thing about the pseudo-spider webs created by a web spell. They are flammable like gasoline.

The webs erupted immediately. Fire traveled quickly down individual strands, catching fire to tapestries on the wall and to the men entangled in the webs.

What a way to go. But I didn't have time to think about it.

The remaining guards charged. They held their weapons like someone might hold a TV remote. They outnumbered us two to one. We had the advantage. They didn't even come close to hitting us. Even Marc got in on the action, avoiding his spells. We finished them off in about a minute.

Too easy.

The lieutenant and the priests stood their ground. The played it well. They counted on adventurers being cocky. Well, they were right. We moved toward them. If we could take out sixteen of their guys, certainly we could take these imbeciles.

When we got about twenty feet into the room it happened.

The dirt floor shifted under our feet. Four mounds of dirt rose up in four corners of the room. They rose easily twelve feet above the floor. The columns of earth took shape. The base divided in two, while the midsection remained whole. Two columns of dirt jutted out from the top of the trunk along with a smaller mound on top. Knees formed, then shoulders, then elbows. And then a face.

One in a brown robe stepped forward. His robe was set with four triangles with gems. He laughed loudly.

"Kill the intruders!"

The earth elementals shambled toward us. Their feet never actually left the ground. They remained connected, as if the earth worked with them to help them move. They kicked up dirt as they went, making the entire area smell like a freshly dug grave. Convenient.

The four elementals converged on us. Half-trained men, gnolls, and bugbears are one thing. How the hell do you hurt a pile of dirt?

"It's him!" the girl shouted. "His robe! It lets him control them!"

"Quiet wench," the priest said. He moved toward her. Wench. They actually say that around here.

We had a better chance of taking the priests than the elementals. If we could get to them.

The last two guards, the former leaders of the now deceased guards, stepped forward. They each wore plate armor. One had a sword and the other had a very large and menacing battle axe.

Guess which one I got to play with?

Mr. Battle Axe moved quick, even in his heavy armor. He feinted high and then came low. My light chainmail saved me, but only barely. I parried his next blow and managed to get behind him. He anticipated the move and back kicked me in the ribs.

I wasn't off to a great start.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Audry taking on Mr. B.A.'s sidekick. I heard Marc call out incantations followed by light displays as he and Saul tried to keep the earth elementals at bay. Anna had her short sword in hand, taking on the priests.

I ducked another swing from that big axe. I never liked using a shield, it always felt like my movement was limited. I was starting to see the wisdom of Aura's own desire to maintain a shield.

I heard more incantations, but not from Marc. A shimmering passed between me and Mr. Axe. It headed straight for Marc. He dropped to the floor and the shimmering hit a nearby wall. I thrust my sword at a distracted Mr. Axe. He caught me at the last minute, but I managed to carve him in the thigh.

Cool.

I heard a shout next to me. I risked a glance. Audry had sliced through the weapon hand of the sidekick. He dropped his weapon. Aura spun and smacked sidekick across the jaw with her shield. His jaw dislocated in a shower of blood and teeth. He spun around once and hit the ground.

I looked back at Mr. Axe just in time. He came in with a vicious side cut. I blocked it just in time. The force of the blow knocked be back almost a foot, but I managed to keep my balance by some miracle. I brought my sword up over my head, flinging the axe aside. In a perfect world I would have disarmed him. He managed to hold on to his weapon, but not his balance. He could not block my next attack.

I leveled the sword and thrust at his throat. The blade buried itself in his neck a good two inches. He tried to scream, but his voice box was ruined. I withdrew the sword as he tried to swing his battle axe again. I caught his weapon hand in my hand and spun him around completely. When he was off balance, I reversed the direction of the spin, twisting his wrist. His feet came out from under him and he landed on his back. I brought my sword high with both hands and rammed it home. It sunk through his chest and into the dirt beneath him.

I had no time celebrate my victory. Something slammed me in the side. I flew through the air. Thank God the dirt was soft. I managed to roll with it and get to my feet in one motion. Part of me wanted to shout "and John saves for half damage!" Then I saw the elemental move toward me, stepping over the body that still held my sword. Next to it was another.

"John, a little help here!"

I turned to Anna. That girl can fire arrows like an AK-47 fires bullets, but she's only so-so with a short sword. And I didn't have my sword at all. Oh well.

I charged for one of the priests. He charged me with his mace held high. I moved in close and caught his weapon arm. I put my hip under him and flipped him over my shoulder. He sailed a good five feet--right into the path of the approaching earth elementals.

The next priest swung his own mace at me. He swung high, and I went low. My sweep kicks were always pretty good. I swept his legs out from under him and he went forward. He did a face plant into the dirt.

The earth elementals kept coming. The priest I just threw had just regained his senses. Too bad for him. The elementals were slow, but they kept a steady pace. The priest didn't have time to get out of the way, and they didn't have any particular instructions about not squashing their own. The dirt that connected their feet to the floor separated just briefly...enough to cover the priest. The massive foot of earth cut off the priest's scream as it crushed his ribcage. Blood erupted from his mouth. The elementals kept coming toward us, ignoring the dying priest.

Anna stood on the back of the other priests head, yanking at his cloak. "C'mon, help me!"

I reached over and pulled at the cloak. The elementals kept coming. I managed to get an arm free while Anna worked on the other arm. The priest kept struggling. I put his arm into a lock and kept him still as the elementals pressed on. They were nearly on top of us when Anna finally freed the cloak. They raised their massive fists in the air.

I pushed her aside. The fists crashed inches from me. The soft ground shook.

"Put it on!" I shouted at her. "Hurry!" She stood and struggled with the oversized cloak.

I picked up the priest's mace and swung at one of the elementals. It connected with its ankle, or at least where its ankle should be. It didn't react at all. It reached for me. I rolled away and took off in the opposite direction of Anna. I hoped they would both follow me.

The priest finally rose up. He spit dirt out of his beloved dirt out of his mouth and gasped for air. He stared at the elementals and then scrambled out of the way as they came for me.

I backed away from them. They shambled for me, their arms reaching for me. I turned to run, and promptly tripped over the corner of the pyramid.

Oh God, of all the clumsy--

I looked up. Both elementals stood over me, their fists held high. It was clobbering time.

"Stop!"

Their fists stopped in mid-strike, about a foot and a half above me. Off to the side Anna stood. The priest's cloak hung about her shoulders. She walked forward with the bottom of the cloak dragging behind her.

I looked behind the creatures. The other two had ganged up on everyone else. Marc stood, his staff of striking in hand. One of the elementals looked like he had taken a good solid hit from the powerful weapon. The Saul lay on the ground some feet away. His arm looked broken. Audry hung in their air. The other two elementals had grabbed one of her legs. Another few seconds and they would have made a wish.

"Set her down gently," Anna said. The elementals set Audry down. All four turned and faced Anna, awaiting further instructions from their new master...I mean, their mistress.

She looked up at them and smiled brightly. "That's better boys. Now, I want you to...." She scratched her head. "Uh, I'm not sure."

Audry ran to Saul. She helped him up and did that lay on hands trick that paladins do. His arm audibly cracked as the healing process began. He winced, but the pain went away as his arm returned to normal.

"Kill them!" the priest shouted. He rushed toward the elementals but they didn't acknowledge them. "I am your high priest and I order you to destroy these intruders!"

"Do you have to yell?" Anna asked.

"I would suggest," Audry said, "that you order them back into the ground where they came from."

"What?" Anna said. "That's no fun."

The priest kicked at one of the elementals. It did nothing. He continued to yell obscenities at them.

"Well for starters," Anna said, "it'd be nice if they shut this guy up."

The elementals went into action. The closest reached for the priest. They caught him before he could get away. He continued to shout useless orders at them as they picked him. He stopped suddenly as the elemental squeezed him. I heard his ribs crack. He tried to scream, but there was no air in his lungs. Another elemental walked forward and covered the priest's head with his hand. The priest flailed his legs and his one arm that wasn't pinned. The elemental squeezed, and the priest's body went limp as his skull was crushed. The elementals dropped the lifeless corpse and faced Anna, ready for their next orders.

Anna stared at the broken body. "Uh, that's some good work guys." She thought for a moment. "Ah, I know." She cleared her throat. "Great elemental...stone guys. Or whatever. I order you to proceed through this whole place and destroy every priest of the elemental temple and their followers."

Without even a "yes ma'am" the elementals turned and left the room. Two left via each exit from the room, proceeding down both ends of the large twenty foot wide hall that surrounded the room. They were dirt men on a mission to do some nasty things to nasty people.

Marc proceeded to the temple pyramid. He climbed it and reached for the manacles that chained the elven girl. He uttered an incantation and the manacles came open. The girl would have fallen if Marc had not been their to catch her. He brought her back to the bottom of the pyramid.

"Thank you," she said. "Oh thank you so much. But we must leave. Before others arrive."

From down the hall I heard shouts of surprise, followed by screaming. "You know," I said. "I think they're busy right now.

---------------------

We managed to sneak back to the surface. We encountered a few groups of men and humanoids, but they were too busy running. Along the way, we found broken corpses. It looks like the earth elementals followed their orders thoroughly.

We headed back to the guard tower. We showed the young elfin girl the tunnel and told her where it opened up (at least, what the leader of the guards here told us...charming fellow, heh heh). She thanked us and left quickly. She said very little. If I had to guess, I'd say she was a wood elf. I wondered if it would embarrass her to tell the other elves she had been rescued by mere humans.

Once she was gone we gulped some healing potions and headed back into the temple. The excitement had died down, and we encountered no one during our searching. Had the elementals been that thorough, or did the rest just run?

We found the main quarters for the head priest, along with a diary and some other odds and ends. We collected what we could and retreated to the guard tower once more. We're looking over what we've found, and you know what? I think we found a way to defeat these guys once and for all.

More later.