“Lord Desentes! There are reports of another slave-soldier contingent heading south. If we do not intercept them, they will overrun the villages on our northern borders. What are your orders, sir?” asked the scout clad in medium armor.

It has been two weeks of fighting on the western reaches of the Griffin Kingdom. Armand Desentes was deployed here after his work for the king at the Crystal Cascade. Once he lead the clean up teams at the coliseum, he and Elle headed west to assist in the war efforts against the Vasilly Empire. The battlefield was the largest mass grave Armand had ever seen. Wave after wave of slave troops were cut down. Their masters having no care for their lives. It only took a few days before the morale of the Griffin Kingdom’s men started to flag. Knights, warriors, and conscripted adventures all began to complain about killing an enemy that had no choice. The blank looks in their eyes as they ran themselves up pikes and spears. Some even dying with looks of contentment on their faces. Priests and Mages were too busy countering magic from the opposition to concern themselves breaking enchantments on slave collars. Although, some went rogue and tried only to have the collars explode, losing the slave and their own lives. Worse than any of that, the pureblood Vasilly troops hadn’t even taken the field.

Several times the generals enacted the Farmageddon working to give their fighting forces a break. It created vast areas of no man’s land that needed to be reclaimed by either side. It was madness but war normally is. All of this came crashing into Armand’s mind as he contemplated what to do about the issue to the north.

“My lord, what are your orders?” asked the scout again.

“I will go. The generals can hold the line here without me. I’ll take my troops and secure the northern reaches. Find me a messenger. I have to inform his majesty of the change in tactics,” Armand barked out, as the command tent he was standing in erupted in activity. He looked down at the map on the table and moved the knight figurine that represented his unit to the north.

Deacon just stared at the small rock that kept repeating the message from Sophie. What did she mean warrant for his arrest? He’d never been to the Shattered Sky and nothing he’d done in the last couple of months would have blown back this far east. Deacon was shaken from his thoughts by a twitching Hani. He was lying prone on the ground. Amanda was checking this stairwell for traps and any other nasty surprises. The walls were solid granite, illuminated by glowing stones on every landing.

“Typhus, what is she talking about?” Deacon asked.

“A problem for later. We need to get Hani out of here. Whatever the trap did to him is not wearing off. Tantus, stop holding that rock and help me,” barked Typhus from Hani’s side.

“It looks like a good twenty story walk straight up. I think it exits into another section of the graveyard,” Amanda yelled down from the fifth switchback.

“I’m out of mana. I can’t heal him. We either have to wait for him to wake up or for me to regenerate more mana. Thank goodness Deacon’s perk is passively healing the rest of us or we’d be in terrible shape,” Tantus commented as he tried making Hani more comfortable.

That sparked a thought in Deacon’s mind. He drove his right hand into his bag and retrieved the bowl he took from the cabinet.

Mana Bowl- This item refills five percent of the users mana per sip. Note: You can not fill your mana bar over maximum so don’t try it.- First Engineer.

“You guys ever get an item whose description contains notes?” Deacon asked confused.

“That can only occur when the creator imbues an item with a portion of his own soul. Very frowned upon in the enchanting community. Guaranteed to make a restless spirit upon death if pieces of your soul are scattered around the world. Why?” Tantus asked as he turned toward Deacon.

“Well I think I found something that might help but it came with a warning,” responded Deacon.

Tantus walked over and looked at the bowl. He took it from Deacon’s hand and his eyes almost popped out of his skull. He grabbed a water skin off his backpack and poured water into the bowl. Then he began to vigorously sip from it. Water sloshed around as he practically danced in a circle. Then he ran over to Tantus’s body and began casting his healing spell.

“I guess it works?” Deacon asked not expecting a response.

“What else did you find?” asked a scowling Typhus who had just snuck up on Deacon.

“A bandana, a hammer, and this stone tablet,” Deacon answered before handing the tablet to Typhus.

“This is a record of the First Engineer’s work. It contains lists of resources, hidden caches, and additional site locations. This is a valuable find. We might be able to discover more of this ancient gnomish history. House Jinkbon would kill for this information. You may have just solved our getting into the city problem. Tantus, does that stone go both ways? I need to send a message to the Vice Guild master,” Typhus said.

Ten minutes later they were all climbing the stairs. Hani hadn’t said much but he did manage to accept Deacon’s party request. They were all almost healed to full with the exception of their stamina. That had not recovered since the end of the fight. The stairs seemed to be keeping their stamina from recovering. Once they reached the fifteenth floor, they noticed water running down the granite walls and they could distantly hear the sound of thunder.

“Did you get the door open?” Deacon called up.

“Yes, it’s pouring outside. I suggest we rest in here before heading back to town. Maybe the rain will let up,” Amanda answered from above them.

“Not a bad idea. Give us a chance to eat something too. No point in racing to town when we’d just get picked up by the guards,” Typhus said stroking his beard in contemplation.

“What’s this about the guards now?” asked Hani.

“Apparently the noble house in charge has a warrant out for my arrest. No idea why. I’ll need to find an alternative means of entering the city,” answered Deacon as they all stopped on the eighteenth floor.

“What about the ports? They couldn’t possibly be guarding the entirety of those docks,” speculated Hani.

“That would be House Bloodbeard territory,” added Typhus.

“Wouldn’t we need a boat?” asked Deacon.

“Well the warrant is just for you, right? The rest of us could still go into the city,” Hani clarified.

“Way ahead of you chuckles. That’s what my message to Sophie was about. My shadow self is still protecting Daskus, and it looks like the Smitehammers are trying to cure him. The good news is Ralph’s curse has been broken and he’s resting quietly in the bed next to Daskus,” Typhus relayed.

“What’s wrong with Daskus?” Deacon asked with guilt written all over his face.

“He… I don’t really know how to explain it. The potions you gave him had a side effect. I know you didn’t mean for this to happen—” Typhus said before Deacon interrupted him.

“Out with it man. What have I done?” Deacon asked, looking even more concerned.

“Daskus has awaked an ancient Dweller bloodline. His race has changed to an Avernal Deep Dweller. There were old stories about Deep Dwellers that could move magma with their minds, even bathe in it. Whatever your potion did awakened that in my brothers blood. It’s not as terrible as you think, but we haven’t had a Dweller with that racial ability in hundreds of years,” Typhus explained while trying to reassure Deacon he did nothing wrong.

Ralph’s eyes popped open. He was laying on a clean cot in a room with vaulted ceilings. His scabbard lay next to his cot, sword sheathed. There was small table next to his head. Atop it a bowl filled with water and towel hanging over the side. He looked around to see the section of the room he was in was blocked off by a sheet. There were whispered words being spoken all around him. Ralph sat up straight opening and closing his fist. He strength was back. He could no longer feel the curse from that Orc pressing against his spirit. Above where his pillow was, high upon the wall was the symbol of Mantarok. Ralph spoke a silent prayer to his god in thanks.

Now he needed to find the others. Amanda’s vendetta had less time on it than before and they needed to finish what they all started. He reached into the pouch at his side groping around for the communication stone Tantus had given him. Nothing there. He then remembered Sophie taking it from him during one of his episodes. The hard way it is.

Ralph strapped on his sword and pushed the sheet away that was separating him from the rest of the room. There were beds lined up against walls on either side of this large space. He could see priests and clerics touching the sick and injured with glowing hands. Apparently Mantarok liked his troops whole.

“Close the curtain and sit back down,” came a familiar voice from the bed next to him. It had it’s curtain drawn but Ralph noticed a shadowy hand waving at from the floor.

Once he was back behind the curtain Typhus’s shadow-self slid under the curtain and took the familiar form of Typhus. Sans any definition of course.

“The others are currently safe outside of town. Typhus needs you to do something…” it began.