The remaining journey to Gelunith was uneventful, as far as encounters with other creatures of Baator was concerned. The different sheets of ice that made up the ground of Cania shifted and crashed into each other, making progress slow. All the while, the constant screams of the wind were ever present as an ever constant snow fall filled the air.
The tide of these icebergs culminated at the base of the mountain. Stretching well up into the skies above, lost behind the clouds that made up the constant overcast of Cania, Gelunith was like a pillar in a frozen ocean. It's based stretch for miles in either direction. There was little in the way of rock on the mountain's surface. The tides of ice crashed against the side of the mountain, hiding and revealing different parts along it's base with each impact.
The chill of Cania was seeping into the party but the group steeled itself against the cold. The group began to look around to see if there were any entrances into Gelunith. A cave perhaps, or some other form of entrance. Anything that might offer reprieve from Cania's environment.
After suggesting they start to walk counter clockwise around Gelunith's base, Dido took the lead scouting for any indication they were heading in the right path. The party began to fan out into a loose line as they followed Dido's lead. Tidal brought up the rear, while Caravaggio stayed only a few paces behind Dido. Rachel was in the middle.
It was hard to tell how long they had been circumnavigating the base of the mountain. The sun, or what ever the source of light was that lay hidden behind the clouds, never seemed to move or change intensity. Finally however, Dido spotted something different along their path. About 100ft ahead, the ice sheet crashing into Gelunith's base was moving more vertical than the others. All the sheets they'd see so far had a fairly horizontal movement to them, like waves crashing against a rocky cliff. This sheet however, bobbed more than how the others collided. Dido, feeling hope swell inside of her, began to move forwards with a little more haste. Rachel and Caravaggio began to keep pace seeing her pick up speed.
Tidal, seeing the group move faster started to pick up his pace. However, just as he started to move faster, a low rumble began under his feet. That was followed by a wall of ice jutting up form the ground with a large crackling noise. The rest of the group, several paces ahead, stopped and looked when they heard the sound. The new wall of ice cut of Tidal form the rest of the group. But the wall was not natural. At least, not compared to how the ice sheets had been moving during their voyage. There was an intelligence behind this new wall.
Quickly looking around, Caravaggio spotted what he had suspected. Two Gelugons where now descending the side of Gelunith like spiders on a wall. Each held a spear that was trained on the main group.
"Two enemies up high!" was all Caravaggio said as he pulled out his weapon and turned to face their new foes.
Rachel spun around to face the new threat. Taking quick aim with an open palm, a soft glowing light balled up at the center of her hand. With a quick spoken word, the ball launched from her hand and streaked like an arrow to one of the Gelugons. Finding it's target, the guiding bolt hit the Gelugon in the chest and left it with a visible glow as the energy began to seep across it's body.
As the bolt was speeding along it's trajectory, Rachel noticed something beyond her line of fire. Her eye caught a glimpse of what could be a cave. Right at the base of the mountain, almost directly in the path of the descending Gelugons, was an opening into the wall of ice. It was only visible for a moment as the bobbing sheet of ice soon covered it up again. After her bolt landed, she began to race over to where the opening had been.
Caravaggio noticed that Rachel was moving towards the mountain's base and started to follow. Up above her, a Gelugon was glowing and was about 10ft away from Rachel. It swung with it's spear but Rachel was a small target and the Gelugon had a hard time aiming for her. Caravaggio began to move to provide some cover for her. He only made it a few steps before he was struck by something hard and cold. He looked up to see the other Gelugon that had not been hit by Rachel's bolt. Before he could react, the Gelugon's tail struck him across the face.
Meanwhile, Tidal was cutoff from the rest of the party. He could hear the sound of combat coming from past the wall. He felt enraged that a foe had been so cowardly as to not engage them as a full group. Tidal began to feel a warmth swell-up inside of him and his body began to glow. The glow quickly grew like a flash and as it reached it's brightest point, and Tidal let out a loud war cry. As the flash dissipated from his body, he found himself surrounded by lichen at his feet. It was springing up from under the ice all around him. The growth was as frenzied as the rage he felt inside of him. Taking his hammer, he swung with all the might he could put behind it at the ice wall in front of him. The crash of his hammer against the ice was deafening, but it only produced some minor cracks along it's surface.
Rachel dodge to her left as the glowing Gelugon repeatedly stabbed at her from it's position up on the ice wall of the mountain. She rolled to the right as another lung came towards her from the spear's pointed tip. Ducking to the ground, Rachel made some motions with her hands as she called forth her holy energy. Casting a starry veil around her, she began to heal her wounds caused by the creature. The reprieve didn't last long however, as she rolled again out of the way of the Gelugon's questing spear.
Caravaggio was now enraged at being struck by the Gelugon. With a battle cry of his own, Caravaggio swung his rapier upwards at his foe. With two quick blows, he connected with his target. The Gelugon's attention was now fully aimed at the raging hobgoblin before it. With a shattering noise, the ice wall separating Tidal form the group came crashing down. The focus keeping it up was no longer there.
Dido took the opportunity to capitalized on this shift in focus from their assailant by coming in with a swing of her longsword in a sweeping arc, connecting with the armor of the Gelugon fighting Caravaggio. The creature turned it's bug like face towards Dido and it's mandibles moved rapidly, while something that sounded like a shriek came from what was presumably it's mouth.
Before it could raise it's spear towards Dido, Tidal came charging in and struck it with his hammer in an upwards motion. A crunching noise could be heard as the hammer hit the Gelugon's carapace. The distraction gave Caravaggio enough time to swing his rapier with surgical precision, landing a blow against one of the Gelugon's legs. Dido then followed it up with two more swings, each connecting with their mark.
The trio were beginning to overwhelm their adversary with their flurry of blows. Just as Tidal began to take another swing, the ice sheet underneath them heaved. A larger sheet of ice had crashed into the one they were standing on and it was beginning to sink. Quickly reacting, Dido and Tidal jumped to their right, as Caravaggio rolled to his left and landed hard on the next ice sheet. Dido slipped as she landed, falling on her back and spinning across the ice towards Rachel.
The Gelugon took the moment of confusion from the ice flow and retreated back up the wall of Gelunith. It's one leg staggered as it moved. Tidal quickly recovered and began to prepare a swing of his hammer. As he approached his target, he could hear it speak in a foul sounding language. He chuckled inwardly thinking that it must be cursing him for how the fight was going now that he had joined the fray. However, Tidal soon realized that the creature had been in fact casting a spell, as a new wall of ice came jutting out from the side of the mountain. His amusement quickly turned to anger as he hollered at the beast. Lowering his head, Tidal made a charge at the base of the mountain. Perhaps he'd be able to knock the foe from it's perch and finish it off.
Running at full speed, Tidal crashed into the side of the mountain with his horns. There was a little shake, some snow falling off the side of the ice wall, but there was not enough force in the impact to knock the Gelugon off the side of the mountain.
Rachel was continuing to dodge blows from her attacker. While preparing to weave past another thrust, she heard some clicking noises from higher up the mountain. The next thrust she was expecting never came. Rachel watched as the Gelugon in front of her started to head back up the side of the mountain to rendezvous with it's companion.
Having recovered from his fall, Caravaggio pulled out his longbow and trained a shot towards the retreating foes. In quick succession, he let two arrows fly, each hitting their mark. They were little more than irritating to the Gelugons as they retreated. The Gelugon that had been fighting Caravaggio, Dido, and Tidal had stopped a moment as if it was going to reengage the group, but a short clicking noise from his companion seemed to dissuade him from pursuing that course of action.
As the pair of foes retreated further up the hill and out of range, Rachel rejoined the group and used some of her healing energy on Caravaggio and the others.
Taking this moment's reprieve, Dido motioned the group over to the entrance they had found. The entrance seemed rather small. For Tidal and Caravaggio's hulking forms, they might have trouble moving into and through this passage.
"Stand aside. I'll proceed and you all can follow" Tidal said in a gruff tone as he bent down and started to force his way into the opening.
The group watched in amazement as the entrance to the cave seemed to adjust in size to accommodate Tidal's large physique. It was still a tight fit, like pushing a rock through a sock, but the tunnel made space for him to pass. Rachel followed next, with Dido after her and Caravaggio bringing up the rear.
The walls of the tunnel looked like pure ice. The surface was not one smooth piece however, it was made up of different sized pieces all pushing into each other. Caravaggio noticed that the path behind him did not keep his size, but contracted back to it's original size as he passes by. This space was very claustrophobic as the party pressed forwards.
As the group continued to move onwards, the tunnel also seems to be pushing them forward as they moved. It felt as though they were being swallowed by the mountain. It was hard for the party to keep track of how long they had been moving through this claustrophobic space. Had it been half an hour? Maybe longer? And there was a foreboding feeling that seemed to weight on the group. At times, each of the party members felt as though their deepest fears were at risk of breaking to the surface and leaving them in a state of panic. Then they would just shake the feeling off and keep pressing forwards.
This went on for some time before one of these moments broke Rachel. She felt the feeling again, just as the other times before. But this time it was different. She had a flash back to a time from her youth, when she had stayed out beyond her parents curfew. She could vividly recall the smell of the city streets, the brisk dusk air across her face. The setting of the autumn sun.
She also remembered how quickly night set in. The darkness that surrounded her. The way the shadows bounced off everything. The scream.
Rachel remembered the sight of the lifeless corps in the alley way, and the villainous scoundrel standing above it. The knife he was holding and the blood dropping off it onto the cold stone pathway.
She remembered running as fast as she could, trying to out run what she had seen. But this time, it was different to how she remembered it. She remembered not being seen and getting back to her house and hiding. But this time, it felt as though the killer had seen her. That he had caught up to her. That he was swinging his blade towards her.
Rachel reacted and swung her morning star back at her assailant, but it doesn't seem to be blocking the blade. She then channeled her holy energy and summoned her spiritual weapon. A floating blade in the shape of a crescent moon formed in the air. With a thought, she willed it to intercede and bloke the blade then strike her foe.
From out of nowhere, Tidal was struck in the back. He turned around and saw Rachel, her eyes distant and lost. It was a look he'd seen before in some of his fellow comrades from when he lead armies. The look of a mind trapped in old thoughts. Still irritated by having been struck, Tidal grabbed Rachel by her breastplate and lifted her up. He then pinned her to the wall of the cave and barked "HOLD!"
Dido, roused from her thoughts by the commotion looked ahead to see the pair grappled together.
""Please! Stop fighting each other! Save your strength for our travel through Cania!" Dido chided, not seeing from her position Rachels glossy eyes.
Rachel was struggling against he assailant. She was pinned down and couldn't break free. But then she heard a voice that didn't belong. It was coming from her attacker. Her assailant sounded like Tidal. But that didn't make sense. She had only just met him recently. And not in her home town. Then she heard another voice. It was Dido. As her memory started to piece together her recent travels, the illusion of her attack started to melt away. Soon, she found herself looking eye to eye with Tidal. And she wasn't pinned to the ground, but rather, she was being held up against the wall of the cave.
Tidal could see the distant look disappear in Rachel's eyes, replaced with more situational awareness. She shook her head and locked eyes with him.
"I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me." Rachel said. "One moment I was walking in this cave, then next, I... I was... in a memory from my past."
Rachel looked up and saw her spiritual weapon floating in the air near Tidal's head. With a tilt of her head to the side, she made it vanish. She looked back at Tidal.
"I'm fine. I'm in control again." Rachel said reassuringly.
"See that it stays that way little one." snorted Tidal as he dropped her back onto her feet and continued to proceed forward.
Everyone began to move forward again. After awhile longer, the walls started to look different. The blue and white hues of the ice were replaced by the red and earthy tones of rock. No one noticed when it had happened, or if there had been a distinct point where the change occurred. It had just happened. The group also struggled to orient themselves. Had they been moving along a level straight line into the mountain, or had they been moving up or down a slope?
As the group continued to pressed forwards, a glint of something caught Rachel's eye. It started as a pin prick of red light in the distance, but soon became larger and larger as the moved forwards. It was the other end of the tunnel.
"Hey! The end is in sight!" Rachel announced to the party.
The group stopped for a moment at Dido's request.
"We don't know what's beyond that entrance. It might be guarded. Someone should scout ahead." Dido told the group.
"I'll scout ahead." Rachel offered.
The group nodded and Rachel shimmied her way under Tidal and out in front of the group. Slowly, she crept up to the entrance. Not leaving the cave, Rachel peered out beyond to survey what lay before them. She was greeted by a vast red wasteland. The skies were still overcast, but the grey hues of Cania's overcast were replaced with the red hues of this place. There was no rain or snow which was a welcome change from Cania's constant snow fall. There was also no vegetation to speak of. At least nothing alive. There were the odd dead tree that dotted the landscape. Their dried bark and gnarled branches made them look like lost travelers in the desert praying to the sky for rain.
There was no sign of movement beyond the entrance. There was no sign of life at all. Rachel made her way back to the group to relay her findings. Satisfied that the area was clear, the group made the rest of the trek to the end of the Tunnel and out into the next layer of Baator.
Comments
Post a Comment