The Diary of Mikola Ludmilova

The Jewel of the Wildëa, part 4

In which we see off the nochniks and enter the cavern…

Claynight, Harmonyweek, Seaseason, 611 – before midnight and mid-fight

We continue the fight, which none of us doubt is for our lives. I enjoy the look of dismay on both my opponents’ faces as they realise I’ve come back from the dead.

Tatiana trades parries with her vrag (Trollish for enemy). Nadya parries her man then quite splendidly takes his leg off with a massive blow from her mace, despite all his nochnik magics. (Nochnik literally means ‘nightlight’, a slang term for Selenite.) Zod parries both his vrags then casts Dullblade on one, quite literally blunting his prowess.

Najinski parries his opponent and then hammers his shield but the vrag Anya cast Invisibility on runs behind her, trying to take Najinski from behind (which is what I’d do if I were fighting Najinski) but Najinski sees him coming. Splitz misses his vrag but wards off the return while Anya parries her man after taking out a fake.

Realising I can’t deal with two opponents, I parry both vrags (rather well, if I say so myself) and cast Harmonise on the Mithrat, freezing him in place. I didn’t want to do that, since it means the vrag I’d Harmonised before is free to attack, but I know I’m outclassed and I don’t want Nadya’s sacrifice to be wasted. I can see the freed man off to my right, suddenly look round, blinking. Which way will he go? He might come to me but then I’ll be no worse off than I was before.

Tatiana parries her vrag and casts Strength on herself. Nadya hits her downed man, which would have killed him but he manages to swig a Healing potion first so she merely batters him unconscious.

Najinski manoeuvres backwards, trying to ease the pressure on Zod but somehow winds up making things worse by giving him yet another vrag to fight. Zod takes out a Foxtroll fake, while parrying one opponent. His armour saves him from another but a vrag leaves Najinski to hit Zod in the arm, which must hurt.

Meanwhile, Najinski parries his own man before executing a superb textbook attack with his mace, only to be met by a textbook parry from his opponent. Splitz hits his man in the leg but he’s still going, parrying the riposte.

I feel some guilt when the vrag freed from my Harmonise assaults Anya but he and her other opponent both miss her. Meanwhile, I parry my nochnik opponent before taking out one of his fakes.

Tatiana’s vrag commits a monumental blunder and hacks his own leg off but manages to execute a perfect parry as he goes down, which saves him from death.

Nadya, with her opponent down, goes to help Zod. (Who manoeuvres away from the man she engages but is still fighting two of his own.) Nadya’s vrag still hits Najinski but fails to beat his armour. Nadya then hits the new opponent in his sword arm and he drops his sword. (I am rapidly developing a very high opinion of our healer indeed.)

Najinski parries his man but somehow contrives to miss him when it’s his turn. (I think this individual must own the record for surviving Najinski.)

Zod parries one vrag but misses his own strike. His other vrag hits Zod but his Dullbladed sword can’t get through Zod’s armour.

Meanwhile, Splitz hits his man again and at last he falls over. Anya executes a beautiful parry of one vrag; the other clangs off her helmet.

Facing just the one vrag, I miss my parry but thankfully he misses his thrust. Biding my time, seeking to make my blow count, I execute a perfect over-the-head roundhouse, a crushing blow that I’m sure will reduce his brains to mush, only to find I’ve taken down his last Foxtroll fake. Damn the Nochniks and damn their illusions! But at least now I’m sure where the real man is…

Najinksi misses his parry so two vrags hit but once more his armour saves him. Nadya smashes a leg and one of the two goes down – is he dead? Najinksi hits his own man, destroying his shield and smashing him unconscious.

Suddenly it feels like we’re winning!

One of Zod’s vrags stares hard at him, using some sort of gaze weapon (Chaos – Ukh!) but Zod’s spirit is strong. Zod parries his other man, relying on his armour to save him from the gazer, which it does. Tatiana moves over to help Zod, taking on the gazer but can’t get a blow in just yet.

Splitz switches attention to the nearest of Anya’s vrags, while she backs off, taking the other with her. (The one I released from Harmonise.) Splitz hits a Foxtroll fake and parries his man’s sword. Anya trades parries with her vrag.

I call for my man to surrender but in the heat of the moment I garble the word. I parry his thrust while my blow damages his shield.

Then, just as I’m trying to get my tongue round the Lunatic, all our opponents vanish! All the fallen bodies go with them, which means a) none of them were dead and b) we get no loot. Except Tatiana hears something fall and finds a crystal with her Detect Magic. A couple of the others hear shouts and horse hooves from several hundred yards away – evidently they didn’t want to leave their mounts behind but it might be worth checking, just in case, since so many vrags were unconscious.

I wait for Nadya to finish healing the many injuries but, when she has a moment, I thank her warmly for healing my one, lethal injury with her prayer to Xenoire. She asks if she can call on my service should the Healer community need me in future and I reply that it will be my privilege. Tatiana suggests the healer have the crystal and I emphatically agree.

So we turn our attention back to that stone. Tatiana and Anya find it’s trapped with loose boulders lodged behind it, waiting to fall when the stone is moved. But we pull the stone aside using ropes so we’re well out of the way and it isn’t an issue.

Inside, my Darksense reveals a cavern going in twenty yards before turning right as it narrows at the back. We form into a column with Zod and Tatiana leading, Anya and me next, then Nadya in the middle, Najinski behind her and Splitz bringing up the rear. Najinski has to be by himself because he’s so huge.

So in we go – that turn is about 60º, but further up our Darksense is baffled by something that seems to absorb sound. The others think it might be very large and dense spider webs! We think the passage opens out beyond them and we can dimly make out a pale light, like moonlight!

Not more moonlight?

I have some knowledge of doroba (insect kine), and I suggest silk webs readily burn (unless protected by Arachna runemagics, of course). Tatiana lights a torch but finds, while it melts a little, it doesn’t flash in to flame, as expected. It’s also much stickier than anything I’ve seen before.

Someone says they can hear clicking noises up ahead, as of giant mandibles…

After a brief discussion, we realise there’s no option but to burn the stuff as we go and deal with whatever we find. Anya lights her own torch and joins Tatiana; it’s slow going but we clear the webs over three yards. Anya’s left covered in gooey strands of web that sticks her to herself and anything she touches. Tatiana, however, remains clean – a difference in technique, perhaps? But the two of them have cleared the way for all of us.

We break through to find ourselves at the entrance of a large cavern, lit by glowing patches on the walls that look like something luminous has been mixed with cement or mortar. The patches glow with what looks like moonlight.

The cavern slants from near-right to far-left but the far end is dominated by a massive web in which sits an enormous spider! Bigger than Klyka, even bigger than Najinski! Of course, I’ve seen big spiders before but this looks like no other I’ve ever seen – they can come in a whole range of colours from black, brown through to pale cream, but this one has a silvery carapace. We all note its massive fangs drip with a venom that glows malevolently.

I’m about to suggest I try to use my droving skills on it (spiders are trickier than Beetles, which are bred to be docile, but I’ve had little trouble riding Klyka…) when Najinski tells us it’s an illusion – it’s not real!

For a moment we’re all doubtful – it certainly looks real – but then Anya points out that, when the spider moves, the strands of web beneath stay still. She tries to dispel it but the illusion is too powerful for her spell. Najinski throws a rock, which passes straight through the spider’s head and we all relax – it is an illusion, with both vision and sound, but it lacks any physical dimension so it cannot hurt us at all.

Moving out into the cavern, we find tracks – booted feet of humans and dwarves, all very ancient and leading out of the cavern.

But something still bothers me, “OK, the spider is illusory, but something made the webs…” Zod believes the sticky webs were made by some vile Dwarven alchemy – Ukh! Damned Karliks (Trollish for Dwarves)!

We reform the original order and head through the cavern, under the clicking illusory spider in its web to where the cavern narrows into another tunnel. After fifty feet we come to another cavern, roughly oval, about twenty to thirty feet across.

As we approach, my Darksense picks out a series of openings at ground level. A couple at the far end open in our direction and they seem to be human-sized, a yard wide and two tall, going back a few yards before turning abruptly at right angles. We advance to the entrance: there are nine of these openings – I get the feeling that each has something hiding round the bend!

We all seek traps but find none. Then Tatiana detects a magical line across the floor at the mouth of the cave but she and Anya agree we have no choice but to cross the line…

Najinski volunteers to go first – I admire his brave stupidity! As soon as he steps over the line, we hear things stirring in the alcoves…

Out come nine skeletons! They are armoured strangely – three are Dwarves with metal armour on their head and legs; three more Dwarves have metal armour on their bodies, heads and arms with only leathers on their legs; and three are humans in plate torso armour, mail coifs and rather decayed cuir boulli on their legs.

Najinski moves out and we form up on him. I find myself at the far left of a crescent with Tatiana between me and Najinski. Beyond him Zod, Anya and Splitz complete the crescent with Nadya behind us, ready to heal anyone who needs it. We all cast spells, I start with Parry on my shield. Anya Disrupts one but it has no obvious effect – what are these things?

I find myself facing a Dwarf in a closed helm and legs in leather armour – it’s wielding a spear, a very odd weapon for a Dwarf. Close up, it looks a little strange – its chest is the wrong shape, like it’s hunchbacked, but at the front. Then Tatiana to my right says she thinks they’re mechanical!

I parry my karlik skelet and cast Bludgeon on my mace. Tatiana is missed by her karlik’s broadsword and she smacks it in the pelvis. It falls to the floor and keeps fighting but now it seems like it’s a proper skelet.

Najinski, facing two, a Dwarf and a very large human skelet with a mace: he parries the Dwarf with his maul and then middles it, demolishing its pelvis, like Tatiana did with hers. The human skelet hits him but it rattles off his armour.

Zod also faces two big human skelety: he parries one, which deftly parries him in return. The other hits Zod in the guts, which has to hurt.

Anya has just the one Dwarf, similar to mine, which hits her a feeble blow that fails to beat her armour; her own blow punishes its shield.

Splitz also has two opponents, both Dwarves in heavy torso armour wielding longspear and sword. Splitz parries the spear but the sword slashes his leg – he’s in obvious pain but he’s still walking. Splitz hits the spear-wielder in the chest but it doesn’t go down.

While I’m fighting, I notice my opponent looks like a karlik skelet but it has fine metal wires holding the bones together and others to make them move. The chest armour also has two weird indentations that look like eye-holes – is there something inside these things, making them move?