After we dropped off our passenger, I oriented the fortress toward the coast and the dwarven stronghold. It was time to collect the property that had been stolen from us.

I had plenty of time to reflect on the information Michael had coughed up during the journey. One bit had become of interest to me and that was about this so-called Stygian Order. Apparently, that was the actual name of the shadow faction. The assholes that had stranded me in the south, left to die in the desert.

He didn't know much about them, other than the fact they had been hampering the Black Dragon efforts in New York as well as Chicago. According to Michael, other than the one kid they captured and killed in Chicago, there hadn’t been any sign of the group. Even when Randy Cotton had arrived and used his force to eliminate the Triad. I didn’t know why the man bothered until I learned that all survivors were forced to offer a System oath to Randy.

I tried to understand Randy’s goals but even Michael had been unsure of what they were. Something about purifying the country, blah, blah, blah. The guy sounded a lot like how the Nazis did and it gave me a bad feeling. Thanks to Michael being so forthcoming with his information, I learned that Randy had managed to take control of New York. Not the state but the city. That was bad enough. What he had the people doing I didn't know. Michael had been sent out just as they finished their campaign of subjugation.

It would bear looking into. We had time now that Michael was dead and Randy had no real way to further track my movements we were essentially off his radar. I didn't think for a minute that that made us safe though. Randy sounded like a resourceful man. If he wanted to locate me again he could and would do so.

Eventually, we would have to come head to head but none of us were ready for that altercation yet. Perhaps if I could safely utilize my Aura of Rage things would be more even. Then again I had no clue what the man’s class even was, let alone his skills. Even Michael didn't have that information as it seemed Randy had an item that allowed him to detect people that used Identification skills on him. And those people were quickly killed for the transgression.

***

We hovered well away from the beach. The same one we had been attacked at and had retaliated in turn. Fiona was checking to see if anyone had survived the attack or returned while we were away. It took her an hour to verify everything was clear before I brought the fortress in for a landing.

"Martin and Ska you stay here," I stopped Ska from arguing with me, "Unless you have a hazmat suit, it's too dangerous for you to come with. Fiona will watch my back while I locate our stuff."

That reminded me, I went upstairs and emptied my backup ring, setting everything in one of the storage rooms. My main ring only held my armor and weapon. If I was forced to fight that would be a bad thing.

The dual doors acted as an airlock. While they weren’t designed for that purpose, it worked out well. The rest of the house had been put in lockdown mode. Nothing in or out, all vents sealed by the runic magic. Once I closed the outer door the stealth field would drop and the shield would spring up. If we did miss a dwarf or two, they wouldn't be able to breach the defenses before Martin could maneuver out past their range.

I closed the inner door and donned the hazmat suit. I replaced the oxygen tank with one of the spares I had taken from the underground facility. Then I activated the exterior door, watching it swing open on silent hinges.

The ramp extended, a similar mechanism to the landing struts I had designed. Not that I needed it. I could clear the eight-foot drop with a jump.

Like our previous time here, the place was quiet, with no sign of habitation at all. The difference this time was the boreholes where the bombs had landed. I shined the makeshift flashlight down the hole. It was a glow-rock set into an old flashlight body. It worked, just not well.

The beach was dark, only illuminated by the overcast moon. I could hear the waves lap against the shore in the distance as I made my way over to the repaired rock face. The only difference I noted this time around was that all of the plant life was gone. Other than that you wouldn't be able to tell I had caused the entire face to come crashing down.

I used Earth Fist to open a hole into the mountain. It took forty minutes to create an opening large enough for me to comfortably walk through. I didn't want to risk crawling through a smaller opening and tearing open my suit.

That was probably a good thing as a haze of smoke wafted out when I breached the dwarven tunnel. I hoped that wasn't residual poison.

I waited for the smoke to clear before I stepped inside. I swung my flashlight back and forth, the light passing over a few corpses.

"This way," Fiona said, motioning towards me.

I nodded, stepping over the bloated corpse of a particularly girthy dwarf. We made our way farther into the tunnels, eventually, we found ourselves in the same chamber that we had been tried in. Only this time it was empty. Fiona led me down one of the side tunnels, the same ones the judges had used. I had to stop to clear out one tunnel, a dead dwarf had blocked the passage. I simply moved him into my ring and ejected him when we got to a wider tunnel. Down the final tunnel, we came to our goal.

In front of me stood two massive doors. Unlike the doors to the judgment hall, as I liked to call it, these were not ornately carved. I could see a haze of power emanating from the protective enchantments on the doors though.

"This is the armory or treasury. I couldn't get any closer to find out for sure.”

"Yeah, I can see why. This may be a problem. I don't think I want to risk getting any closer. That leaves trying to disrupt the enchantments a no-go."

I tried rubbing my face in thought, only to be brought up short by the plastic of my suit.

"There has to be a key or something that allows the dwarves past. I'm going to start searching the guards. Do you think you could locate the judges?"

"Yeah, I recall where their rooms were located, I can start there."

As Fiona flew off I walked over to one of the guards. I was glad they were outside of the enchantment range. If they weren't we might have been hosed if one of them had the key on them.

The first guard had nothing but his weapon and armor. I took both because he wasn't going to need them anymore. "Stupid assholes should have left us alone," I mumbled.

The second guard was the same, a weapon and armor. None of which was enchanted, same as the first one. Everything went into my storage rings. I went back the way we came, then headed down to the cells. There were a few more guards down there. I searched all of them. All of their gear went into my ring. I didn't find anything that resembled a key or item that might bypass the enchantment though.

Fiona found me as I was finishing up my search.

"There you are. I found the judges. They weren't in their rooms, that was why it took so long."

"Alright, lead me to them."

"About that," Fiona said with a grimace.

"What?"

"Well, let's just say I don't ever want to learn more about dwarven mating practices."

I shuttered, "ew, that bad huh. Alright, well I still have to go check... what's one more nightmare," I replied, following her down the winding corridors.

***

There wasn't enough bleach to wash the image out of my mind. Our bombs had caught the three judges mid orgy with what I assumed were dwarven women but it was hard to tell with the beards. Heck even if they were men that would have been better than what I saw.

I almost vomited into my suit. I would never look at another dwarf the same way after this. For all that was holy, I hoped that this clan was a clan of deviants. If not I might have to just turn the world against the entire species to save everyone else from this debauchery.

I was glad I was wearing a hazmat suit. If not I would have been forced to burn my skin off after searching the bodies. I did come up with a key of sorts. The necklace had an intricate pattern inscribed on it that radiated powerful magic.

My Identify was what told me I had found what I was looking for.

Vault Key

The key worked. As we neared the vault, the enchantments deactivated and the doors opened. The inside was filled with piles of gear.

"Well, it looks like we weren't the only people they stole from."

I know Fiona told me they attacked others but the realization hit me just now. It made me feel a little better about gassing them to death.

This was not going to be a quick task, I realized. I filled both of my rings and still hadn't located a single item of ours. Just as I was leaving I saw something I recognized. It was Bella's storage item. Tears threatened to escape as I hurried over and picked up the item. I was shocked to realize Bella was still alive inside.

I couldn't tell what her condition was though and couldn't risk taking her out until we were safely away from this area. What I could do is add some food and water I had stored inside my ring. a transfer between the devices never came into contact with the environment so it would be safe for her to consume. She would have to tear the water bottles open, but she was smart. The food was probably not to her preference but if she were starving that should keep her going.

"Sick fucks couldn't even give her a quick death, instead they just left her to rot in her cage," I growled.

"You found Bella!"

"Yeah, let's get back to the fortress and unload this shit. I'll give Martin the hazmat suit and send him in to collect more."

The process of switching out was time-consuming. Once back we took off with the door open so the wind could blow any residual trace of gas away. Then I had to remove the suit and hope we were successful. I waited an hour, keeping a close eye on my health and status bars. When nothing popped up I figured it was safe enough. The inner door was unsealed and I emptied the loot. I gave Martin both my rings and set the house down again.

It took the rest of the night to empty the vault of everything. The fortress was jam-packed with shit. Luckily transferring items to storage rings removed any contamination. Still, I told Fiona to keep Martin away from the horror room. He had enough mental shocks lately, he didn't need another.

Bella was in bad condition. Her feathers had mostly fallen out and she was weak from starvation and lack of water. I fed her in my room, losing a few fingers in the exchange. The pain was my price for being a shitty owner. After she ate and drank, she fell asleep. I cast Rejuvenate on her and some of her feathers did grow back. She would need a few days to recover fully though.

As for our gear, it was all recovered. We also found letters about what the dwarves were doing here. They had been transported over, with most of their clan and tunnels. Once they realized this they set about grabbing up any wealth they could get their hands on. They had managed to contact their old world and the rest of their clan, including their king. It wasn't specifically stated in any of the documents I found but I got the feeling that this was a rather poor clan. And they wanted a fresh start in a rich new world.

This was all done in preparation for when their king arrived. Now I did hope there was lingering poisonous gas in the tunnels. I couldn’t imagine their king was a paragon of virtue if he allowed his subjects to perform depravities like this. It would serve the prick right.

I also learned why they let us live. There were two factions of dwarves. One of the groups was adamantly opposed to the killing but not theft, they were a small minority amongst the clan here. Still, the dwarves had some weird laws and without a unanimous vote amongst the kin in the mountain, they couldn’t take action against us. At least that was what I gathered from the documents I found.

As for why they tossed us back in the house instead of leaving us to rot in the prison, I couldn’t piece together. Perhaps us dying of starvation while outside of their stronghold was acceptable to both parties. I don’t think they expected us to be able to escape, once they took everything. My attack on their stronghold caused the minority group to lose members and standing. The rest were killed or imprisoned as traitors, leading to the changing tactics of the remainder of the clan.

I felt a little bad about that. But not enough for me to mourn their loss.

We left the dead lying where we found them. Let anyone that came after puzzle out what happened. Even if the lingering gas didn't kill them perhaps they would feel threatened enough to return to their own world. If I heard rumors of others being attacked in this area I would return.