Back in the saddle

I'm free. I have our gear and there is chaos on the upper levels. I should be happy, but I can't find my friends.

I have some time to explain what happened, but I can only explain so much. I need to find my friends in the nodes.

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

The next morning we checked our traps. All clear. We went back the way we went before, past where we "talked" with the hill giant, and past the troll room. We snuck past a sleeping ettin and down a hall, up stairs...well, did I mention this place is a maze?

Marc cast his illusion of invisibility over us and on we went. We snuck past these...well, I'm not sure what they were. They looked like hyena-wolf-badger things. They stood about seven feet tall at the shoulder, both of them. And, my god, did they stink! Later on Marc told me they were called Leucrotta. Well, whatever they were, they ugly. They also smelled us and danced all around the room trying to find us. Fortunately, by that point we had gone down the stairs.

See, according to the map we had found in that little barracks area designed for Mr. Wizard and the Ugly Duckling, we knew there were stairs around here, we just didn't know if they went up or down. Fortunately for us, they went down.

At last!

Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of our troubles.

The stairs turned and entered into a large hall. Two trolls stood near the stairs. I nearly gasped. They grunted and growled at each other in their guttural language as we passed. About fifty feet down the hall we came across a set of stairs. They went down for a short ways to a landing. The stairs continued down, but there were two side passages that led to large rooms.

The hall was well lit, which meant there were humans here (humanoids can see in the dark ala heat vision). A good thing for us at that very moment.

"Look," Anna whispered.

"Yes, I see," Marc said. "Shh."

At first I didn't notice. Then I heard the foot steps. At the bottom of the stairs marched two columns of troops. They looked human. They marched up the stairs toward us.

I felt Marc move under my hand and I went with him. Saul followed me, his hand on my shoulder. It was the only way we could stay together. I reached out and found Audry's shoulder, at least it was a woman's shoulder who was about as tall as Audry. She patted my hand. I doubt she knew which one of our group I was.

We followed Marc into one of the triangular side rooms. Four trolls lay on piles of rotting blankets, lounging, and completely oblivious to our presence. A single side passage snaked away. We inched for it, hugging the wall, one hand on Marc's and one on Audry's. From the entrance into this room we heard the footfalls of heavy boots and the rattling of armor as they troops marched by. The trolls stood at this, standing to their full nine feet in height. They looked at each other and mumbled in their guttural tongue. Whatever they thought, they ignored us and any noise we made.

Things looked okay for a moment, and then we heard a shout. I heard Anna start behind me. I started to reach for my weapon before remembering I need to keep a hand on Marc and Audry. If any of us happened to step out of the small field of invisibility it would be over.

Fortunately, no one else heard her over the shouting. A big ogre--and ogres are big by nature, so when I say big I mean BIG--came out of the side passage leading into the room. He shouted something to the trolls. They cringed as he yelled at them in their tongue. The trolls nodded and hurried to their piles of junk against the other wall.

Trolls paying attention to an ogre--that meant he was a tough ogre.

Behind the ogre came more than a dozen ogres and bugbears. They followed in formation, carrying about them a military presence you didn't normally see in humanoids. Once the trolls had their weapons they left the area. The hall way was clear.

I didn't know how much time was left before Marc's spell ran out, but I suspected it there wasn't much time left. He began to hurry down the hall. The rest of us had no choice but to follow. Someone stepped on my heel, but I ignored it and kept running.

The passage opened into a large living area that stunk of ogre and bugbear. Rotting rags that no doubt served as bedding material lay everywhere. Against the wall I saw several doors, all open and all leading to small little ten by twenty rooms. I imagined the room was ringed with them, but I couldn't be sure. The place was not nearly as well lit. No doubt humanoids did not care for the light very much. There didn't appear to be anyone else here.

"Which way," Marc whispered.

"There's a hall in front of us," Saul said. Thank god for elven heat vision.

Marc moved forward. I didn't see it at first, but after about twenty feet I saw another hall. We followed it. It angled away from the last room and into another large room. Again, it looked like the home of humanoids, but maybe high status humanoids. There were actual beds here, though with rotting mattresses. Humanoids don't really care about hygiene.

Marc appeared in front of me. He just blinked into existence. He turned and looked me. "Well, that's that."

I heard Anna swear behind me, followed by a quick reprimand from Audry.

"Now what?" Saul said.

"Did you guys understand anything they said?" I asked.

Saul shook his head. "Just bits and pieces. Something about trouble, get your butts in gear, that sort of thing."

"I think it's safe to say we are the trouble they are referring to," Audry said. She took a quick look around. Dim light shined from lanterns about the room, but it was enough to see the entire area. "I don't see any exits."

"We go back, then," Marc said, "but I don't recall any other passages leading out of the rooms we entered, and I would advise not going back the way they came if they are on alert status, as it seems."

"Wait," Anna said. She stepped toward the wall and ran her fingers along it. She turned to us with a big smile on her face. "Guess what I found?"

"Secret door," Marc and I said together.

Man, she was good at finding those things.

She had it open by the time we reached her. Behind was a hall that seemed to head back the way we came. Right across from us was a regular door. We stepped through and shut the secret door behind us.

Anna took a quick look at the door and shook her head. "I don't see any traps. Let me try it."

She pulled at it. It didn't budge. "Locked." Anna took a look. "I don't see a lock anywhere. It didn't feel like it was barred from the other side or anything."

Marc reached for the door. He grasped the handle, but he didn't pull on it. "Wizard locked," he said. "I can try and--"

He didn't have to. The door swung open on its own.

A human man stood before us, dressed in fine regal robes. On his wrists he wore bracers and he carried an assortment of jewels and rings. He stared at us in shock.

"What in baator--"

I punched him in the nose. I heard Audry call out my name but I ignored her. I pushed him further into the room. He stumbled, and then righted himself. He began to speak. The words rolled off his tongue and echoed about the room. He was what I suspected him to be--a wizard.

I sweep kicked him. My sweep kicks were always pretty good. His legs went out from under him and he cried out, disrupting his spell. He landed on his shoulder. He started to right himself but was caught be Saul. Saul put him into a perfect armlock, just like I showed him.

"Not bad," I said.

"I must admit," Marc said, shutting the door behind him, it is effective. "I suggest we tie him up. And gag him."

I went to the door and grabbed an overstuffed couch. I dragged it in front of the door. Audry and Anna tied up the wizard while Sauls held him steady. He looked furious.

In moments we had the wizard tied up and in a corner. Saul started to gag him, but Marc stopped him.

"Wait," he said. "I wish to try something."

Marc cast a spell. Immediately, the wizard started to struggle. He must have known what the spell was, though I certainly didn't. It couldn't have been anything terribly bad. Embarrassing at the most, but--

The wizard suddenly cried out. His eyes rolled up into his skull, and then he went limp. Audry went to him and checked him.

"Gods," she said. "He's dead."

"What did you do?" Saul asked.

Marc shook his head. "I cast a spell that looked into his mind. It was harmless. I was merely trying to extract information from him."

"Looks like someone didn't like that," Anna said.

"Only a god would have the power to do something like this," Audry said.

"A god such as Iuz," Marc said.

"Iuz?" I asked. The name was familiar.

Marc merely nodded. "Via my spell, I was only able to withdraw one piece of information. He seems to be working against the Scarlet Brotherhood."

"Iuz?" Audry said. "Gods, what have we gotten into."

"And the Scarlet Brotherhood too," Anna said. She was fishing around the room, looking for anything valuable. "Those guys are ten kinds of awful. Even assassins fear them."

"It only gets better," Marc said. "Iuz is seeking the help of Zuggtmoy and his mother, Iggwilv."

"Iggwilv, Zuggtmoy," Saul said. "Great gods, what have we gotten ourselves into?"

"Did our friend know where they are?" Anna asked. She was holding a piece of circular cloth that was about six feet in diameter. She frowned and tossed it on the floor. It landed completely flat.

"Iuz has no idea where Zuggtmoy or Iggwilv are," Marc said, "though he believes Zuggtmoy is trapped within the temple complex somewhere." He gestured at the body of the wizard on the floor. "He died before I could retrieve any more information."

"So who killed him?" Saul said. "We've got three gods. Well, two gods and one who's damn near one."

"Any are bad news," Anna said. She walked toward us. "So, if all three are interested in this place, how--?"

Anna stepped on the edge of the cloth she tossed on the floor. Her foot passed through the floor, as if the cloth had turned into a big hole. On a bad day, Anna is about as agile as an Olympic gymnast on a good day. She caught herself just before she fell all the way into the hole in the floor that was not there a moment before.

"How'd that get there?" she asked.

"A portable hole," Marc said. "That could come in handy."

Anna got a devilish look on her face. She went to the shelves in the room and began tossing things into the hole by the armload. "We have to go to the other levels."

"What for?" Saul asked.

"To get all the stuff we left behind," she said. She knocked a stack of books into the hole. Marc flinched as he heard the books hit the bottom of the hole. "There's got to be tons."

"Is that all you can think about?" Audry asked. "We have a situation that threatens to destabilize the Flanaess that involves gods, and you want to go back for treasure?"

"Uh huh," she said. "Hey, did we check all of that tower?"

"I think Audry is suggesting that your priorities are out of order," Marc said.

"No, no, my priorities are fine," Anna said. She picked up a couple of strange wooden eggs. They looked like 3-D puzzles. "We gotta save the world and all. But hey, we gotta eat too, right?"

"Perhaps she is right," Saul said. We looked at him. "We can give these valuables to those who have suffered in the war."

Anna stopped her looting and looked at Saul. "Well, there's that, but--"

"An excellent idea," Audry said. She looked at Anna. "Maybe we should go to the other levels. The people of Hommlet would be most grateful. As would people in Nulb, the elves...anyone else I've forgotten."

"I think you forgot how we're going to get out of here," I said.

"What?" Anna said. She had finished looting the room and started rolling up the portable hole. "We just got here."

"And what of Burne and Rufus," Audry asked. "We cannot abandon them here."

"I'm not saying that," I said. "Look, we can't handle these guys. There's too many of them. We can't stay here, we'll get caught. We need to juice up on invisibility spells and do some recon until the fresh prince of Veluna gets back...what's his name?"

"Prince Thrommel," Audry said, and to my amusement she sounded irritated. "I agree with you to a point, but--"

That's when all nine hells broke loose.

The door flew open. Human men in chain mail poured into the room. My sword was in hand instantly, but a quarrel from a crossbow pierced my bicep. God, you have no idea how much that hurts. I couldn't even hold my sword in my other hand.

They overwhelmed us instantly. We had no chance. They separated us immediately. My arm screamed in agony, but all I could think about was what would happen to my friends.

I later learned from Hedrack (while he tortured me) that they found out about me from Iuz. When the wizard died, Iuz knew immediately where we were. In short, we had done so well up until that point we got cocky. And we paid the price.

My friends are still paying the price, in the elemental nodes.

The nodes? Those are little slices of the elemental planes, places where the raw elements--fire, water, air, and earth--thrive in their pure forms. Imagine a world of living fire, an ocean with no surface, a sky with no land, a cave with no exit...these are the elemental planes.

The nodes are only copies of such places, but they are still terrible places. I know because I am in the air node right now. One of my friends is here somewhere. I won't rest until I find them.

The things that Hedrack did to me you can't imagine. Heh. "Imagine." I can't believe I used that word.

I've been recovering from my escape. There is nothing but chaos in the temple, now that their leaders are dead. It looks like their reign is just about over. There's just one more thing to do, to make sure it ends here, now, and forever.

But first, I have to find my friends.