The Labyrinth, page 19
part #2 of The Gods' Game Series
The troll stood insolently silent, waiting. Their disobedience was never open, not something he could complain about without appearing childish. Irritated, he snapped, “Well, out with it. What is it?”
“The free player has been spotted.”
Lesh turned and gave the troll his full attention. “Where? Is he dead?” he asked eagerly.
Litalgyar shook his head. “No, he destroyed the advance force blockading the North Core. The main force is on its way there now but the player may have already escaped the labyrinth.”
Destroyed? How? None of this made sense. At the last report the player was only level ten. How did a level ten player manage to destroy an entire troop? And they had a trio of dominated jade bears with them as well. This was a catastrophe. He knew who the blame would fall upon if the player escaped. He licked his lips nervously. “But we have no confirmation, right? He may still be in the labyrinth?”
The troll shrugged in response. Lesh wiped the glistening sweat of his forehead. Suddenly it felt much warmer. He had to exhort the ferals to much greater efforts. Convince them to send out more of their forces in search of the player. Of course, what else. He glanced sideways at Litalgyar. He had the perfect excuse to get rid of them, he realised. The two troll hunters were expert trackers and scouts. If anyone could find and follow the player’s trail, it was Litalgyar and his companion.
Yes, that could work…
“Litalgyar, we cannot let the player escape. Xetil will be most displeased. Take your fellow, track down the player and kill him.”
Litalgyar hesitated. As tired as he was of this pompous ass, he had orders to protect him. Seeing the doubt on Litalgyar’s face, Lesh added sweetly, “Shall I inform Xetil that you refused to hunt down the player? That you let him get away?”
That decided Litalgyar. No one wanted to face Xetil’s wrath. Better to fail protecting Lesh, than to fail stopping the player. Lesh had neatly manoeuvred the trolls into place as scapegoats, if the mission failed. Understanding Lesh’s ploy but having no other choice, Litalgyar bowed low, granting Lesh for the first time the respect a champion deserved. “Your will, my lord.”
✽✽✽
Chapter 13
21 Augi 2603 AB
The entrance to the mushroom forest was unguarded, not that Kyran had expected it to be. The kobold slavers whom they hunted had displayed precious little caution thus far but it was always nice when the enemy continued to behave as expected.
Over the course of the last day’s journey the tunnel had widened substantially, so much so that it could no longer be rightly called one. Despite this, the boundary between the mushroom forest and the ‘tunnel’ was clearly demarcated by the thick growth of mushrooms. Mushrooms of all shapes, sizes and colour, normal ones no more than a few centimetres high, to tall monstrosities that stretched to the cavern ceiling which glowed with the same luminous lichen he had discovered in the lake cavern.
Of the party, only Aiken was unaffected by the bizarre mushrooms and its riotous colours. He quivered with eagerness, and sent a stream of images urging Kyran onwards. Turning away from the bewildering spectacle of the mushroom forest, Kyran halted the party a hundred metres away, what he judged to be a safe distance. His scrying senses screamed of danger. Show hostiles made clear that the forest ahead teemed with life—hostile life.
In the entirety of his journey in the labyrinth he had yet to encounter this density of life. Show hostiles reported that the crowd of hostiles began at the forest line and stretched the entirety of its expanse. “Adra, what do you see?”
Adra looked from Kyran to the forest. “Besides crazy mushrooms? Nothing.”
He pressed, “You don’t sense any hostiles?”
She sniffed the air, and flicked her ears lazily. “No… should I? I cannot see or smell any kobolds, although their path into the forest is clear as day,” she said, pointing at the wide swath of damaged and fallen mushrooms.
Kyran looked to where she pointed. The teeming mass of life was much reduced there. He nodded thoughtfully and then inspected one of the mushrooms at random.
Creature: Hypnotising Shroom
Type: Semi-Sentient (Plant)
Rarity: Rare
Level: 16
Health: 150 / 150
Attack: 10-50 (acid)
Defences (Physical/ Psi/ Spell): 4 / immune / 20
Special Effects:
Hypnotic aura: Melee attackers have a chance to be charmed.
Afraid of the light: +50% divine damage.
Description:
The hypnotising shroom is a dangerous vegetative lifeform that closely resembles true mushrooms. It has evolved into a form of sentience and can only be found in the depths of the earth far from sunlight.
“Ah,” he breathed. “None of those mushrooms are normal. Each one is alive, and in some sense, aware and hostile. Don’t step too close, lest it springs whatever snares they conceal.”
Imperceptibly, Gaesin and Adra edged away from the predatory forest. “How do we get through it then?” asked Gaesin. He scratched his head in confusion. “And if all of that is alive and hungry, how did the kobolds get through?”
Kyran shook his head, equally puzzled. “I don’t know.”
Adra meanwhile had padded closer to the damaged swath of the forest. She edged closer in a crouch, peering intently into it. “Adra, be careful,” warned Kyran.
Adra held her poise ten metres from the forest’s edge a while longer before edging back carefully. “Kyran, I tasted a whiff of something foul in the air around that destroyed region.” She wrinkled her nose in thought. “Bloodsbane? Or perhaps stinkwoth? I can’t be sure but I suspect, whatever it was, it allowed the kobolds to carve a safe path through the forest.”
Gaesin asked, “But why? This cavern is a dead-end, it’s not as if they could take a shortcut through it. What possible reason could there be for them to willingly enter?” Kyran was wondering exactly the same thing and was about to say so, when Aiken projected a single, vivid image to all three of them.
“What’s that?” asked Gaesin, staring in fascination at the image in his mind.
Adra said, “That’s an ophidian or a variant of one. I encountered their like in the southern marshes. Those had mud brown scales and a venomous bite. This one looks to be its distant cousin. The one I encountered was ten metres in length and took a party of six experienced hunters just to bring it down.”
Kyran studied the creature in his mind’s eye. It looked a formidable beast, reminding him of nothing so much as an anaconda covered in silvery scales. Urgh. He hated snakes. He nodded his thanks to Aiken for the image. “Now that we know the kobolds are here, and likely in search of yet more victims for their collars, the question is what do we do about it?”
Gaesin paled. “You’re not suggesting we go in there, are you?”
Aiken bumped his head into Gaesin, making it clear that was exactly what he wanted.
Kyran shook his head at Aiken. “Sorry, cub. Gaesin is right. The forest is too dangerous for us to attempt. I don’t like it but we have to hope your family can hold on for a few days yet.”
Aiken canted his head at Kyran, considering. Kyran held his gaze, baring his thoughts unflinchingly. Eventually, Aiken hung his head, conceding Kyran’s point and shuffled off.
It ached to see the cub in such misery but patience would serve them much better in this instance. Adra interrupted his thoughts. “What’s the plan, Kyran?”
Tearing his gaze away from the forlorn cub, Kyran answered her. “We wait and ambush them on their way out.”
✽✽✽
Two days later the kobold convoy rolled out of the mushroom forest. The convoy was large and noisy enough that the party had ample warning. The companions assumed their pre-arranged positions, waiting. They had come up with a number of contingencies, depending on the size and disposition of the convoy. Aiken was hidden beneath the tunnel floor using stone dive, the jade bears’ unique ability that allowed them to swim through stone. The ability was expensive though and Aiken could do it no more than a few times before his essence pool was exhausted. Kyran, Gaesin and Adra were concealed on the north side of the tunnel, outside the convoy’s direct line of march and in what they considered the least likely campsite, assuming the kobolds chose to do so.
Observing the kobolds, Kyran had reason to both curse and cheer. To the good, as they had hoped, the kobolds had chosen to set up camp at the cavern’s exit. On the other hand, the convoy’s strength was far greater than they anticipated, too strong for any of their plans to be workable.
“Kyran…” began Adra, the worry evident in her voice.
“I know,” replied Kyran grimly. “We will have to play it by ear. Let’s see how they set up their camp.”
The convoy exited the forest in one long line that headed for the southern end of the tunnel where it circled in on itself in preparation of their camp. At the head of the caravan were a dozen kobold shamans, commanded by a level twenty-two shaman elder.
This was the highest-level kobold that Kyran had yet seen. Marching in a disciplined line behind the shamans were some two hundred kobold hunters of the same level as the fighters they found in the North Core but not as well-equipped. The hunters were unarmoured and armed only with bone-tipped spears and slings. At the end of the convoy, slithered a triple handful of frost ophidians, each leashed and pulled submissively along by their kobold handlers.
And in the centre of the march were the captive jade bears. Some thirty of them, each squeezed into their own too-small cage balanced atop a rickety wagon. They ranged in size and shape, some midnight green and smaller than Aiken to a few full-grown beasts, three times Aiken’s size with silvered green coats. All were uniformly miserable, coats dull and torn, faces gouged and scratched, eyes bleak and defeated. One bear though, immediately drew the attention. Half again as large as the other adults and entirely silver in colouring, she maintained a regal disposition despite the ensorcelled collar subduing her will. The clan matriarch.
Creature: Jade Great Bear (Clan Matriarch)
Type: Elder Beast
Rarity: Mythic
Level: 60 (Adept)
Health: 1200/1200
Attack: 120-150 (blunt, slashing)
Defences (Physical/ Psi/ Spell): 80 / 120 / 60
Special Effects: Unknown (Your level is too low to perceive this).
Kyran felt Aiken surge through their now almost-constant mental link, anxious for sight of his family. He slammed shut his psionic walls, cutting Aiken off from sharing his sight. “Patience, boy, you will see them soon.” By now, he knew the cub’s nature well enough to realise that if Aiken saw his family in that condition he would likely fly into a rage and act precipitously. The cub railed against his walls but eventually subsided.
Kyran returned his attention to the kobolds as they made camp. The hunters set up a large tent in the centre of their formation, for the shamans presumably. The wagons were driven to the southern end of the camp where they were parked backed against the tunnel walls and a strong guard set. Nowhere else were guards deployed, not even over the shamans’ tent or around the frost ophidians who were left unattended on the western edge of the camp, apparently docile and fully bespelled by their collars. Evidently, the bears were troublesome.
Damn. It would make things more difficult. He had hoped that the bears would be left unguarded. Nonetheless, after studying the camp’s layout, a plan took shape. Yes… that could work. He would run it over a few more times in his mind and discuss it with the others, but the barebones were there.
Now, the party only had to wait a few more hours for as many of the kobolds as possible to fall asleep.
✽✽✽
Six hours later, the party was ready to act. Silence had fallen over the kobold camp except for the occasional whine of a dreaming bear, or the guttural whispers of their still-vigilant guards. Under the cover of blend, Kyran crept noiselessly into the kobold camp. With exaggerated care he made his way around the slumbering forms of the kobolds until, with sweat dripping, he reached the sleeping ophidians. He exhaled in a slow, controlled breath. Stage one completed.
The ophidians were entangled in one silvery heap of bodies that occasionally twitched and hissed. Studying the pile, he realised he would have to dig his hands into it to reach the collars. He repressed an involuntary shudder. Best not to think of it at all.
With a wary gaze at the snoring kobolds, he sank down into a cross-legged seated position and prepared to cast. He extended his will in an area just large enough to cover the slumbering reptiles and cast calm beast.
Kyran has cast calm beast (radius: 25m, chance to resist: 0%, duration: 3 hours), 30 ophidians calmed.
The spell rolled over the ophidians, forcing their minds to calm. At its success, he breathed out in relief. Stage two complete. He had not been sure it would work, concerned that the domination ensorcelled in the collars would block the additional spelled effect. But it had taken and it was time to proceed to stage three.
He crawled to the serpentine pile and tentatively tugged at a visible collar. In response, one reptilian eye opened, gazing sleepily at him. He froze, breath stilled. The eye closed. He set his other hand to the collar.
In preparation for this moment, he had unlocked freezing hands earlier, reasoning that it was as likely as flaming hands to deal magical damage to the collar. What he was counting on, what this whole plan hinged on, was the frost ophidians’ immunity to water damage. The spell should not harm the ophidians and calm beasts should keep the ophidians peaceful once free of the collar’s enchantments. Should. That was a lot of shoulds. But just in case the plan did not work and things went south, Aiken, Gaesin and Adra were in position to pull him out.
With a prayer to Lady Luck (just in case), Kyran cast freezing hands.
New ability used!
Ability: Freezing Hands
Skill: Water magic.
Description: Causes the caster’s hands to be enveloped in magical ice that inflict water damage. For the duration of this spell the caster’s hands are immune to water damage.
Rank: Base.
Cost: 80 Essence per hour.
Execution time: Instantaneous.
Range: Caster’s touch.
Damage: Inflicts a maximum of 1 x skill of water damage per second to the target touched.
Duration: Infinite (activated ability).
Kyran’s freezing hands have hit a collar of domination for 18 water damage.
Kyran’s freezing hands have hit a frost ophidian for 0 damage (18 water damage resisted).
It worked! Not that he had ever doubted that it would. He poured essence into the collar, turning it brittle and eventually it cracked, falling to pieces.
The collar of domination around a frost ophidian has been destroyed, freeing it from enslavement.
✽✽✽
Over the next forty minutes, Kyran worked feverishly, freeing the ophidians. Ignoring his own squeamishness, he reached time and again into the frost pile of snakes, manhandling them with more confidence to find and break their collars. Eventually he was done, the last ophidian freed. Stage three complete.
He renewed calm beasts and signalled the team, which repositioned as he moved onto stage four. Amidst the freed serpents—which, becalmed, quickly fell back into a sleepy torpor—he sat down cross-legged again, calmed his mind and travelled.
Five minutes later he was safely concealed in a sheltered nook of the south wall of the tunnel, hidden from the sight of the guards around the bears. Stage four complete. With Kyran in place, the final piece had been moved into position, and the party was now ready to execute the last step in their plan.
He reached across the mental link to Aiken. “Go, boy, it’s time.”
Unfettered at last, Aiken dove out of the stone floor beneath the shamans’ tent and burst through their sleeping forms, scattering them like leaves on the wind. Finally able to vent his fury, he shattered the camp’s silence with a terrifying roar. The great bears in their cages were startled awake, roused by the bear’s primal challenge and for the first time in ages, something other than bleakness filled their gaze. The matriarch fixed her gaze on Aiken, dropping her mouth open into a smile while the rest of the camp devolved into chaos.
Aiken has used terrifying roar (radius: 50m, chance to resist: 10%, duration: 2 minutes), 12 kobold shamans dazed, 30 kobolds terrified. Hostile action taken against 30 calmed ophidians; they are now hostile.
The hunters stumbled free of their beddings and groped for weapons and armour. The shamans, bleeding and dazed and scattered at Aiken’s feet, sat up and tried to take stock of their surroundings. And as intended, the calm beast spell over the ophidians snapped, broken by the hostile action of Aiken’s roar.
The ophidians, coiled up and hissing, gazed with unblinking milk-coloured eyes at the kobolds and remembered—remembered their persecutors. Without hesitation they attacked. With merciless gaze, frost breath, and freezing bite they unleashed their vengeance upon the still-befuddled kobolds. In a silver mass, the serpentine wave flowed towards the shamans, chief amongst their tormentors, dealing death in their wake.
Aiken, caught up in the mayhem of the moment, laid about the defenceless shamans around him. “Do not forget the plan, Aiken! Dive, cub, dive!” Remembering himself, Aiken leapt back into the earth, leaving the still-mystified kobolds to face the onrushing snakes.
The jade bear guards, the only armed and armoured kobolds in the camp, seeing their leaders’ peril, abandoned their post and rushed to their defence, leaving Kyran well-satisfied. The plan was progressing perfectly! He quickly calmed himself. The battle was not over yet. This could all still go sideways.
He counted down a slow ten seconds, then teleported himself to the matriarch’s cage. “Aiken, have you spoken to her?”
Aiken was once more safely wrapped in the earth’s embrace, this time below the jade bears’ cages, ready to assist in case the kobolds discovered Kyran and rallied. His images confirmed the matriarch understood what they were about.
