Chapter Eighteen

The Thunderous Five

Four humanoids in long brown leather reinforced coats followed a narrow trail through the forest of Stagfang they each had a sword on their hip and carried a variety of firearms among them. One of them was a human female, two of them were male gnomes and the last one was a male elf. They elf took the lead as he scoured the ground following a two-month-old trail. If it were not for his years of adventuring and his expertise as a tracker after working as a sheriff, he would never have been able to do it.

“These tracks are old but if our information is correct this is the last place that Mecovali said he was going and he was always careful to make sure that someone could find him,” the elf said.

“He could just be taking extra time looting a large tomb or excavating some large treasure,” the human female pointed out.

“Faramel, you know Mecovali as well as I. That was not in his character he was always a cautious man with contingencies for everything. He would have headed back to town for supplies and left a message. We all keep in contact after our adventuring days and Mecovali tied us together the most, his disappearance is a dire sign,” the elf gunslinger said.

Faramel sighed fingering the revolver on her hip. “Your right, I was just hoping that our fears were not justified.”

“I understand your desire,” the dwarf said his base voice deep and rumbly. “But we could still arrive in time. It may be that Mecovali is only a prisoner and we can save him. And if he isn’t than we will avenge him.”

“There is something else we need to bring up. Mecovali was a sheriff and adventure of the highest caliber if something was able to capture or kill him without him having the chance to run away than the Empire must be warned. It could be an army of gremlins. We have all heard rumors that the Clan Raku have come across powerful magical artifacts and are amassing an army to sweep across the Empire,” one of the gnomes said. Standing next to each other it was obvious that the two gnomes were brothers.

“The senate has been raising the carcar riders to meet the new threat in the field, but it will take months to train a proper cavalry,” his twin agreed. “If this place proves a threat the empire will not leave one stone atop another.”

The team of adventures had been called the Thunderous Five, dispite havign six members the two twins had been so hard to tell apart and so similar that most people hadn't been aware that there were six members and the name had stuck.

Wraith

The dungeon felt the adventures enter his territory. He raised the alarm and the kobolds and undead took up their positions. Wraith took over his body and the massive dracolitch raised its head pale white fire burning in its blackened bones. The dragon’s soul took over the new creature Wraith had designed, and it skittered through the labyrinth of tunnels.

The adventurers spread out in a line and crept through the undergrowth to the castle walls. Wraith had purposely left several entrances into the castle. The ruined front gate the postern gate and a collapsed wall on the eastern side. The spot in the wall was purposely poorly hidden by vines. The goal of these entrances was to give the adventures the feeling that they could enter undetected and stealth through the dungeon.

Wraith’s hope went unfulfilled. The dwarf lifted a massive metal tube to his shoulder and there was a pop a metal cylinder struck the propped-up wood that served as the front gate blasting it and the kobolds behind it into pieces. The gunslingers ran forward and began blitzing through the first level of the dungeon kobolds stepped from behind corners with bows drawn only to be nailed with a bullet in the skull. In less than two minutes the four gunslingers stood in front of the oak-iron-bound door.

The Thunderous Five

“Tark, check for traps,” Faramel said as the rest of the gunslingers took up position to begin firing as soon as the door was open.

The dwarf inspected the door closely examining the lock, hinges and the door frame. “Clear of traps,” Tark announced. He took out two explosive charges set them on either side of the door and backed up with the others. He tossed a tinder stick and the flame ignited the fuse. There was a pause for a minute and then a massive explosion. The door was rendered to mulch. The gunslingers paused and slunk down the winding staircase they investigated the second level of the dungeon. The sound of water dripping, and the distant sound of the small waterfall were all that could be heard. The gunslingers moved in single file down the winding path through the swamp.

“This level looks abandoned, be on the lookout for traps,” the dwarf said and at that moment the elf ended their streak of luck and stepped on one of the bear traps, Ember had removed eighty-percent of the traps in the hope that adventurers would continue down the path instead of trying to avoid it.

The elf howled in pain and the dwarf quickly pried open the bear trap. One of the gnome brothers offered him a healing potion and the wound that had cut the elf’s leg to the bone stitched itself back together. At that moment the dungeon struck. Ghouls sprang out of the water on either side of them and at there front was a wendigo its presence bolstering the unholy powers of the ghouls. The gunslingers drew swords in one hand and fired from their other the close-range attacks putting them at a disadvantage.

The gnomes size let them slip in and out from the between their larger companion’s legs but Faramel was scratched across her thigh and was paralyzed by the ghoul’s touch. The frightful presence of the wendigo made the dwarf turn and run and he suffered three scratches from ghouls as he pushed through them. Tark halted as he gained control of himself and turned firing on the wendigo. The elf had managed to dodge most of the attacks and pulled a short-barreled scattergun from his back the blast knocking the ghouls back many of them tripping and sprawling backwards into the water. Faramel shook herself free from the paralyzing effect and pulled a small brass cylinder with a metal ring out of a pouch.

“Retreat,” she called, and the group hurriedly backed up.

Faramel pulled the ring on the brass cylinder and tossed it and the charging ghouls, there was a rumble as the ghouls and wendigo all halted and began moving at a snail’s pace as the time-bomb slowed down time in a ten-foot radius. The four gunslingers blasted their bullets into the time field the bullets slowing down as they entered the area. There was a pop and a whooshing sound and thunderous explosion as the bullets speed back up and shredded the ghouls and wendigos.

The gunslingers looked at the swamp with new eyes imagining the horrors that lay beneath the surface. They strode down the path guns at their sides ready to fire. They heard a scuttling behind them and turned, rats hundreds and hundreds of rats were appearing out of holes from under the water. The gunslingers turned and ran, the bane of their style of fighting was that apart from the scattergun all their weapons were single targets and hundreds of creatures would overwhelm them.

There was a roar and an otyugh with rotting flesh leapt in front of them. The two gnomes slid forward and tossed up a small metal disk. The disks exploded and blasted the otyugh apart and the party dashed through the rain of rotted flesh.

“This is disgusting!” Faramel shouted.

“Less talken, more runnen!” Tark shouted back shooting his scattergun over his shoulder. They pushed through the metal barred gate. The elf turned around and broke open a small egg over the lock. The goo settled in place and hardened immediately as the titan gum hardened. Titan gum could hold five-hundred pounds of force and would hold the gate for a while. They dashed into a tunnel and continued down after fifty yards and several turns they stopped.

“These are a lot of….” One of the gnomes began.

“corridors,” his twin finished. “It looks like some sort of…

“maze,” the other twin finished.

“I hate mazes,” Tark said.

“Can you retrace our steps,” Faramel asked the elf.

“No, and I’m not sure I’d want to if you’ll look around you’ll see that the floors and walls are obsidian. Not sure how this place was made but we will leave no tracks in this place the only marks are these scratches on the floor, walls and ceiling, I don’t know what caused them but its probably not good.”

“That’s why I hate mazes,” Tark said, “there is always a guardian in them. Super minotaur’s, hydras, nagas, it’s never good.”

“We can do nothing but press on, we must avenge Mecovali, the creatures here do not seem the kind that are inclined to take prisoners,” Faramel said.

Wraith

That’s where your wrong my dear, Wraith said. I have your friend right here, though I don’t know what you’d do with him even if you did somehow find him. He said looking at the raven that sat on a branch in a large black iron cage. Anyway Wyrm-heart, its time to play, the dungeon ordered and far away in the maze the scuttling of legs started and stopped.

The Thunderous Five

The four gunslingers continued in search of their friend. They continued along the tunnels marking the walls with chalk, but the smooth obsidian walls didn’t hold it well. They ran into dozens of dead ends and turning about retracing their steps. After doing this a dozen times they retraced their steps only to come to another dead end.

“We must have taken a wrong turn,” Tark said.

“No look, there’s the chalk mark we made on the wall,” the elf said.

“Than how did…” Faramel asked but her worlds trailed off as the black demon bone eyelids opened revealing Wyrm-heart’s six red eyes.

The gunslingers back peddled firing on the demon bone skull but their bullets ricocheted off barely causing and indent in the black infernal bone. Wyrm-heart’s hundreds of bone legs moved clicking against the floor, ceiling and walls of the tunnels as the mithril spiked legs scratched the obsidian. She hissed green poison pouring out as she bent her head the shield like skull tilting back revealing a massive maw with a pair on pinchers and rows of teeth.

Faramel tossed a timebomb but Wyrm-heart darted forward snatching the grenade and passing it down under her body the hundreds of legs kicking the device down the hall and kicking it into a side-passage. The time slowing explosion went off but the massive tunnel wyrm continued at the speed of a galloping horse. The gunslingers gave up their back peddling and willed about and ran. Faramel reached into a leather pouch and pulled out a stick of dynamite and a tinder twig striking it on the obsidian wall lighting the fuse. She waited her chest heaving with excursion of the extended sprint; she tossed the stick back at the last possible second and the explosion knocked her and the rest of her party off their feet. The obsidian ceiling although strong cracked and shattered massive blades of obsidian falling to the ground blocking Wyrm-heart’s path.

Wyrm-heart shrieked and bashed her head into the cave in. The gunslingers backed up firearms ready to open fire the moment she broke through. Wyrm-heart shrieked again but then she scuttled backwards, and the party sighed in relief. They caught their breath for a moment checking their firearms and reloading them.

“We need to run if that creature finds a way around we’re fucked,” Tark said.

“Agreed, speed is of the essence we need to get through this maze yesterday,” Gnome said.

The party broke into a jog separating at junction and looking down them spotting turns that would end in dead ends. They continued and halted when they heard the click-click of the monster’s claws. They split up to either side of a junction, so they wouldn’t all be stuck down a tunnel when the wyrm came for them. They heard the hiss and then the clicking stopped. They waited and waited and saw a green mist creeping down the tunnel.

“You wouldn’t happen to have another stick of dynamite, would you?” one of the gnome brothers asked.

“Last stick, Mecovali always kept more than me. What have you guys got?” Faramel asked.

“Just two more timebombs, a dragon-fire shell, a shrieker disk and five heavy armor piercing rounds,” Tark said.

“A couple or ethereal rounds and a shocking coin; I also haven’t used the enchantment on my riffle yet,” the elf said.

“We have a couple more…” the first gnome brother began.

“exploding disks, not powerful enough to….” The second continued.

“cave in the ceiling,” the first brother finished.

“Okay here’s the plan. Karn & Garn save your disks, Tark you use the armor piercing rounds try to get through its skull and weaken it for us. Sheik use your enchantment and your ethereal rounds and try to hit one of the creature’s vitals,” Faramel instructed.

The rest of the party nodded and Faramel held up three fingers silently counting down. Three, two, one, Sheik slid into the main tunnel on his belly his riffle trained on Wyrm-heart’s skull. The massive wyrm moved towards him and for an instant time seemed to be slowed and the elf breathed out slowly squeezing the trigger. The bullet speed forward towards the wyrm’s eye but even as it flashed forward the demon bone eyelid closed, just as the bullet was about to impact it faded out of site and appeared on the other side of the skull piercing through the vulnerable flesh.

Wyrm-heart screamed reeling back her head colliding with the obsidian ceiling at the same moment as all this was happening Tark swung into the tunnel with his massive shoulder mounted riffle; the riffle kicked the bullet roared the adamantine tipped shell leaving a trail of smoke through the air as it slammed into the wyrm’s skull sending a long crack along the demon bone. Faramel and the two gnomes opened fire targeting the wyrm’s eyes. Wyrm-heart closed her eyelids the shells bouncing off.

Wyrm-heart lunged forward moving her shield like head up and her two mandibles closed around Tark. The dwarf grabbed the mandibles holding them back away from his body. Green poisonous gas began to fill the tunnel and Tark began coughing and shaking with the excursion of fighting the poison and holding back the snapping mandibles. Faramel shoved her revolver past Tark’s head into the wyrm’s mouth and blasted off three shots at point blank range.

The bullets impacted the purple flesh and there was a splash as dark blue liquid spurted out splashing Tark and Faramel’s arm with burning acid. The two of them stumbled back and Wyrm-heart thrashed about and began to charge forward bowling over the adventures and their eyes widened and they began to roll to the side dodging the rows of mithril spiked legs on demon-bone carapace armor. One of the gnome brothers was stabbed through the abdomen and Tark took a spike to the leg. Wyrm heart darted down a side tunnel that looped around and came charging back. From his prone position Tark tilted his riffle into position and fired again cracking open Wyrm-heart’s skull. Wyrm-heart came to a shuddering halt. The adventures paused to catch their breath and then stiffened as they saw the wyrm’s body twitching.

“Is it still alive?” Sheik asked disbelievingly.

Thousands of skittering spiders and scorpions poured out of Wyrm-heats body and rushed toward the adventures climbing over each other until they were a wave of pinchers, stingers and scuttling legs. Tark moved in a blur reaching onto his belt retrieving a short-barreled firearm and from a pouch at his waist he removed a glowing red shell. He snapped open the scattergun and shoved the shell in place. He fired just as the wave of poisonous arachnids reached them; a blast of fire roared out of the gun. Ashes floated down as all that was left of the insect army was a pile of ashes and Wyrm-heart body which let out slow breaths revealing that it was indeed still alive. Not willing to risk getting close to the monster the adventures moved down a side passage and around it.

The party of weary adventures continued through the maze for another hour and emerged onto the top of a steep cliff with only a narrow staircase leading down. Down below them outlined by glowing fungus was a ruined city with a massive tower rising from the center. The adventurers stood in awe at the size of this massive dungeon. They slowly made their way down the path; the air was silent they came to a gap in the steps where they would have to jump. They leapt to the other side and Tark’s foot hit a large stone knocking it over the side it bounced five times clattering down the side of the cliff before coming to rest in level plane of earth.

The earth writhed, and hands pulled themselves out of the earth as hundreds of skeletons and zombies pulled themselves free. The gunslingers cursed and turned to retread only to see Wyrm-heats cracked skull face staring at them from the mouth of the tunnel.

“All right this is going to be a close one,” Sheik said grabbing Faramel and Tark around the waist, everyone hold onto me; I’m going to attempt to fly us over this mob of undead and onto a rooftop we can leap roof to roof after that if we have to,” he said and the two gnome grabbed ahold of him.

Sheik clicked his boots together and a pair of wings flapped on each of them, he pushed off jumping off the cliff. The extra weight put a strain on his boots and he sagged dangerously. Sheik strained with his mind willing the boots to lift them higher. They moved slowly but steadily and eventually reached the top of a tall building.

They breathed a sigh of relief and then looked up to see up nth underground wind, the rail thin frame of a wendigo. Its arms were stretched out gliding down towards them from the top of the cavern. They opened fire but noticed several other wendigo heading their way. They halted their attack ran to the opposite side of the roof and leapt to the next one darting to the next roof and the next moving towards the tower.

They blasted wendigo out of the sky and leapt from roof to roof avoiding the hordes of undead. They landed on the last roof and Sheik grabbed his friends but when he reached for Tark the dwarf brushed him off.

“Don’t worry I got this,” Tark said and leapt off drifting down and landing lightly on the ground his ring of feather falling protecting him from damage.

Sheik landed with the others and they rushed up the stairs of the tower. Tark barely stopped his friends from setting off a large trap and he quickly disabled it as his friends glanced behind them nervously. They entered the tower and entered the throne room. The skeleton of a dragon lay on the ground and all around it stood men in red cloaks chanting. The gunslingers raised their guns and Tark fired off a shot.

“All right people the party is over where is our friend,” Faramel said her voice cracking out.

“All who come to the Wraith Eminence are sacrificed to the god of death,” one of the cloaked red figures said turning to the gunslingers.

“So you admit to killing him,” Sheik seethed in rage his gun barking and the cultist crumpled.

Another red cloaked cultist laughed. “You are to late heroes. Your friend said you would come for him before he died, and we have waited. You may kill us, but you are already dead! Behold the god of death!” The cultist cackled and the dracolitch’s eyes came alight with white fire and it whirled on the gunslingers roaring blasting them with a wave of ethereal shards of stone.

The gunslingers ducked around blocks of fallen stone and supporting pillars only Tark was caught in the blast and flung against the wall his exposed skin covered in hundreds of cuts. The two gnome brothers rushed forward throwing two metal disks that exploded shredding bits of the dragon’s wing and knocking of chunks of scales that covered the dragon’s bones. Sheik darted around the tunnel in a crouch his riffle fitted to his shoulder and trained on the dragon’s skull.

“Find the phylactery!” Faramel shouted, “If we destroy it this thing will die! It looks like a glowing stone.”

The gunslingers spread firing on the dragon. The cultists rushed the gunslingers drawing long daggers, but the lightning fast reflexes of the former sheriffs were easily able to do dodge the cultist’s slashes. They put a quick bullet in each of the cultist’s skulls. Then they looked about them and on the top dais they saw a rotating black gem blocked by the dracolitch. Sheik tried to rush past the dracolitch, but a tail swipe landed him on his back. The dragon roared blasting Faramel and Tark with another blast of ethereal shrapnel. Tark was driven to his knees blacking out from the pain.

“Tark!” Faramel shouted and rushed to her friends age falling to her knees and her mouth fell open her eyes widening in horror as she saw past Tark in the open doorway of the tower hundreds of undead shambling up the steps of the tower and funneling through the doors. She fired her two-revolvers trying to cover her friend each of her five shots felling an undead, but it was not enough. The dracolitch pinned one of the gnome brothers to the ground and crushing him with weight. His brother placed his final disk on he dragon’s elbow joint freeing his brother only to see him snapped in half by the dragon’s jaws. He screamed as his brother died his screams blending in with that of Faramel’s as she was ripped apart. Sheik rolled to his feet aimed his riffle and shattered the gem stone. There was a rumbling all around them and the dracolitch shattered a blast wave knocking out from it and washing over the undead each one of them collapsing as soon as it reached them. The tower shook, and blocks of stone fell one of them crushed Sheik leaving only the remaining gnome twin.

The gnome fell to his knees clutching his brothers head in his lap his tears falling down his check. “We did it brother,” he whispered. “The Thunderous Five never leaves a member unavenged. We did it.”

Wraith

Wraith reeled from the physic damage he had inflicted on himself. He hadn’t used the mind blade since the last time he had used it. His inability to fully understand elvish had frustrated him so when the opportunity to steal the memories of how to read and speak it had come along he was unable to pass it up. The memories of the elf were powerful and old he looked at the book and growled realizing his problem.

“What’s wrong?” Ember asked. “I thought that went pretty well only one got away this time that might be a new record I think these were rank eight or ten adventurers.”

It’s the stupid book I still can’t read it, Wraith complained.

“Why not its elvish isn’t it?” Ember asked.

The script is, but the language itself if celestial I can read like five words of it, Wraith explained. It’s called something, something stars, something else I can’t read and then book. This book had better be worth all this trouble.

“Well don’t worry we’ll try to get some books on celestial and at least you can read and understand elvish now,” Ember said trying to cheer the dungeon up. “What are you going to do about the gnome he’s just crying there its sort of pathetic should we take him out too?”

No, he one fare and square. Besides I need to build up a legend around my dungeon to attract more treasure hunters and adventures, Wraith said. We need to do something even more spectacular though, I need something that no one can deny is significate, unique, amazing.

“Well, you’ve been studying magic a lot why don’t you try experimenting with that and make something that no one has seen before, your best bet will be time, space, and plane magic. Speaking of magic, you should probably chase off that adventurer, so you collect those magic items his party had.”

I’ll send Wyrm-heart after him, if he doesn’t run then so be it, Wraith agreed.

The gnome fled carrying only his brother’s body and Wraith let him take it. He then stripped the adventurers of their belongings. He found thee sets of enchanted leather armor, an enchanted riffle with one ethereal bullet. There was the ring of feather falling, the boots of flying and the woman had carried a dimensional bag, and a ring of telekinesis.

Wraith took the magic items absorbing their patterns and thinking of how he could create something that would inspire awe into the cores of the dungeons at the next conclave.