Awakening

The Carrion Crawler, in a burst of speed it hadn't shown before, slammed forward and bit into Tural's shoulder.

Tural inhaled sharply as the creature took a large bite of him. It took some of his flesh with it and a good chunk of his monk's robes. He stumbled, but managed to keep on his feet as the blood soaked through his clothes and splattered the stone and crystal floor.

It pulled back and hissed again at Tural, as if daring the others to try.

Tural's blood was all Faena needed to see. Images flashed across her memory, images of strewn body parts and blood everywhere, the very moment that had changed her life so drastically, so permanently, when she had been so young. She had begun her training at that point already and had sworn an oath that never, never in her presence, would any such thing ever happen again!

A scream of rage tore from her throat and fire burned within her. With all her might, she thrust her first sword into the throat of the creature as deep as she could and wrenched the blade upward, splitting the monster's maw in two and sending great rivulets of blood gushing in every direction. But that wasn't enough for her: without hesitation, she turned her body and plunged her second shortsword into the monster's face, twisting it in place with all her strength.

It was clear to anyone that the creature would not be moving again. Since the danger had passed, Patience put her mace away and focused on Tural's wounds. That had been a bad chunk of flesh that had been taken from him.

"Cure these wounds," she murmured in elvish and a soft glow came from hands that was golden in colour.

The flesh knitted itself back together, however she could see the discolouring of the area that had been healed, he would have a scar.

"I don't have a spell to mend your clothes I'm afraid," she apologized to Tural.

"Thank you," Tural said and smiled that sweet, placid smile. "My clothes are of no consequence," he told her and gestured slowly, as if to push the thought away. "Now that the creature has been put put out of it's misery, where shall I follow you next?" he asked.

He walked over to the creature and tried to find his dart. He managed to pull it out in one piece. "Ah, a lucky thing from the Dreamer, today," he said, quietly, and murmured something that sounded like a prayer.

Faena looked over towards the chamber she had tried to enter earlier.

"This way looks more navigable," she told the others, heading that direction. In the doorway, she looked ahead. It's a tunnel, like before, but instead of winding like the other tunnel, this one was straight - it didn't look so much like water had made it. So what had? She didn't know.

It was also lined with crystals. But now there was something new: bones. Skeletons. Some broken, some more or less whole, some against the walls, some strewn around as if something - the Carrion Crawler? - had gone through them. But all of them, each and every one of them, had crystallized, and had crystals growing out of them. Some seemed even to have become part of the floor ...

"But carrion crawlers are scavengers," she murmured, more to herself than to the others. "They might have scavenged this many bodies, but not killed them ..."

Which meant there was something else down here ... wherever here was.

Instead of following right after Faena, Patience carefully went over to the creature and poked it with her mace to get a better look. It was clear that the crystals were growing right through it, and from what she could tell the infection started in the stomach.

Though she didn't know anything about this monster and didn't over hear Faena's comment about it, Patience was pretty sure that it ate something that didn't agree with it. With her curiousity satisfied for the moment, she joined Faena at the other chamber.

"We might have done that creature a service," she commented aloud to Faena, "It would have died eventually, and it wouldn't have been pleasant."

Most likely from blood poisoning if the creature was capable of getting such an infection, actually she was surprised it was alive at all.

Tural stood up and walked towards the tunnel on the west side of the chamber. He stepped over the largest of the creatures and peered around the corner into a little alcove. He stared for several moments.

"Lady Cleric," he called over his shoulder, "I think you should see this,"

If Patience were to go over there, she would find a small alcove's who floor was covered in crystals. However, that was not the part that Tural wanted to show her.

Painted on the wall with black charcoal and cut through by the crystals growing out of the wall, was the symbol of the Raven Queen. Underneath the symbol lay a simple burial altar. It looked like the Carrion Crawler or some other creature had already been through and scattered the bones of the small humanoid that lay on a ragged and torn piece of cloth. It appeared that they had been covered with another piece of cloth, to serve as a makeshift burial. All around were pieces of funeral paraphernalia, many of different faiths.

"Ah, oh dear," Tural said and pointed towards a smashed humanoid skull that peeked out from under the burial shroud, "That's a goblin," he paused, "I was not aware that goblins buried their dead like this, I thought they believed that once dead, the body was just meat,"

"I think you're right, we did do it a service," Faena agreed with Patience. "But I think there may be something else down here ... these bodies may have been scavenged by the carrion crawler, but carrion crawlers don't usually kill their prey ... they're scavengers by nature ..."

Her attention was drawn by Tural, though he was calling Patience, and she made her way over to where he had gone. When she saw what had gotten his attention, she had to blink and look again to make sure of what she was seeing.

"What ... is this place?" she asked, a rhetorical question. Her eyes flickered from one thing to the next, moving constantly. "So many different funeral rituals ... all thrown together in one place ..."

Some she didn't even recognize!

There were a few things that got her attention, though ...

"The Raven Queen," she murmured, stepping closer. "An older version of it ... so there were religious people here ... elves. Or taught by elves. Unless someone ... somehow decided to take on elvish culture ..."

The incense added to that feeling.

Then she looked at the goblin Tural had found. It was unmistakable. But he was right, goblins either devoured their dead or left them to rot. So why was this one covered in a shroud?

"Something isn't right, here," she said aloud, decisively. "Tural is right, goblins don't care about their dead, unless as a meal."

Patience joined the group and looked over the items in the alcove. It was very strange there were so many rites in one place for a goblin. Though she couldn't decide if the person who did it was unusual for knowing so many. Then again, it was any one's guess who had done it.

She looked at the Raven Queen symbol on the wall and noted the height. It would take a goblin standing on the shoulders of another to draw that.

"If it was goblins who did it," Patience replied, "That symbol is too high, but it is possible if they were standing on another's shoulders."

Faena didn't like the look or feel of it, regardless.

"It seems to make as little sense as the rest of this place," she commented with a frown. "Might I suggest we continue on? We'll not find answers here, I don't think."

She gestured towards the path she had tried to take earlier. Crystallized bones or no, at least it was a path to follow.

"Right, let's go," Patience agreed.

As she went back the way she came, down the path they were originally going to take. It was strange that was for certain she couldn't help but think.

"This path right?" she pointed down the one that Faena had come from.

Faena nodded. "Keep alert, though," she cautioned Patience and Tural. "I'm pretty certain there's something else down here. Carrion Crawlers don't usually kill, they're scavengers by nature. And there are a lot of scavenged bodies in there."

An expression, at once thoughtful and puzzled, crossed her face.

"And the bones have been crystallized," she added slowly. "If the bones are growing crystals, and the Carrion Crawler was growing crystals ... I wonder if there's a connection ..."

The carrion crawlers crystals had glowed faintly, as did some of the bones ... the ones that had fused to the floor ... why did the loose ones not glow?

Pondering this, she led the way forward, down the straight tunnel.

The pathway strewn with crystallized bones was a straight shot almost a quarter of a mile long. As they neared the end of the tunnel, the scavenged bones thinned to nothing.

At the end of the tunnel, it opened up into an enormous natural chamber. The ceiling was raised, in some places, almost half a mile off the ground. Stalagmites and Stalactites stood all along the walls. There was evidence that stalactites had been knocked down at some point.

To the west on the far side of the room, there was a large flat formation created by millennia of water and a ramp had been carved into the stone so that it was reachable. On top of the flat domes was broken ruins of some kind of ancient fortification.

Behind the ramp, there appeared to be another alcove, deep-set into the rock.

To east, was a gigantic stalagmite that was as wide as a house. Beside it was another opening and possibly another alcove. All along the north and east walls, crystals had cracked and broken through the stone walls. Chips and bits of rock debris lay in piles under the largest of the crystals.

To the south was a large chasm and the sound of a great waterfall just out of sight. The water droplets and mist could be seen in the air. A great stone bridge crossed the chasm, or it once had. It was broken, only the two entrances to the stone bridge remained. Across the bridge was a great opening that had once housed two great dwarven doors. Only one of the doors remained upright, the other had fallen and cracked against the stone floor.

"The crystals originated from the Carrion Crawler's stomach," Patience offered up that observation.

She had suspicions now of what may have happened, but without any proof there was no way to tell. Still, this wasn't, as far as she knew, normal behaviour for crystals? It sounded so strange. Once they entered into the room, Patience took it all in.

"Dwarven style doors?" Patience questioned, now it was getting stranger, "I'm starting to wonder if this place was something else before."

That is, before whatever it was that brought them here, brought them here. Walking forward and curious, she checked out the ramp and noticed the alcove behind it.

Faena let out her breath.

"Just so that I can get it out of my system," she frowned. "We're underground. Dwarf territory. The architecture looks dwarfish. So this place, I'm guessing, was once the home of dwarfs. By the looks of things, they're long-gone. Something else has taken over. Whether they're still here or not is questionable, but obviously, someone has buried people using rites from various cultures. So far the only sign of life is the carrion crawler, which feeds on carrion, so it is quite possible that we're the only ones here. But of course, the only problem with that theory is that someone had to bring us here, because none of us brought ourselves."

But even as she said it, she wondered, had they brought themselves here and then mysteriously forgotten? Unlikely, but perhaps not impossible. It wasn't worth mentioning, she decided, and she turned back to the others.

"Have I left anything out?"

"I would add those glowing crystals, as we noted from the warning is infectious in nature," Patience added, "I am going to take a stab and say the Carrion Crawler probably fed on something that had been infected by the crystals, that would explain why it had crystals growing out of its stomach."

The cleric paused for a bit and then added wryly.

"I'm not a mineral expert, I am not a dwarven smith, but I don't think that's normal."

Faena nodded. It didn't seem normal to her, either.

"I'm going to take a look at the chasm, see if there's a way to get to those dwarf doors," she told the others. "I don't like these tunnels we've been following."

Maybe there would be far less crystals if they managed to cross the chasm. Who knew? But then, they might end up trapping themselves, too, for all she knew. Still, it was worth checking out.

She headed towards the chasm.

"I'll join you as soon as I take a look at the alcove," Patience promised.

She didn't know why, but she was curious to see if there was anything like the other alcove or if that was just by chance. The tiefling cleric rounded the corner behind the ramp to investigate.

Despite the fact she didn't expect to find anything, there in fact another grave, this one fresher than before, though that was relative seeing as the corpse was desiccated. Bending over, she hooked a claw under the shroud and lifted it up to see if she could tell how the person had died. The person, was an elf, not a goblin like the last one and they were clearly shattered from the waist down. So much so she couldn't tell the sex of the person.

Most curious was the fact there was a badly drawn symbol of Eldath, she knew this goddess due to her connection with Helm. Followers of hers were pacifists by nature. Someone must have cared deeply to try and simulate grass in this place by using dirt and rocks. There was only this deity though.

Also there were three potions of healing.

"Forgive me," Patience whispered in elvish as she took the potions, "But we may be needing this."

As she straighten up, and took a few steps towards Faena, something nagged at her. Instead she turned and went towards the giant stalagmite. There was another opening there, and she wondered if that area held another alcove.

The chasm, Faena discovered as she looked around her when she arrived at it, was going to be, as far as she knew, impassible. Two hundred and fifty feet across, too deep for her to even imagine how deep it was, she couldn't see how it would be possible. Out of curiosity, she scrounged around the remains of the old bridge, but there was nothing notable in the rubble.

The far side of the chasm didn't look any different from what she could tell, her Elven eyes allowing her to see over the distance. Perhaps it was for the best, as she couldn't get there. She was about to turn away from the chasm again when she noticed some letters in a form she didn't recognize scratched into some of the stone rail that was still there. She couldn't read it, but perhaps one of her companions would be able to.

She pulled out her journal and copied the scratchings carefully onto a fresh page so that she could show them, then returned her journal to her bag and started back towards the ruined fortress.

Perhaps there she would find something else of use.

But it was not to be. The only things of note that she found were a crack in the wall and the idea that this place might have once been a lookout point. Aside from that? Rocks. Rubble. Stones. And more rocks.

Patience finally made it to the alcove and as she suspected there was another grave at the site. This one seemed to be dwarven in nature, and appeared to have more offerings than the other graves. However it seemed that something had been at the body. It wasn't until she paid close attention to the crystals growing in the area did she see the rat.

The creature, like the Carrion Crawler had crystals growing out of it. She couldn't tell if it was in pain, but it was wheezing badly (perhaps the crystals was preventing the rat from breathing properly), so it was possible it was in pain. Instead of attacking, she carefully held her shield in front of her and walked towards the body, not taking her eye off the rat. The grave appeared to be that of a dwarven child, there were stones on top as if someone had tried to bury the body in a matter fitting of the customs of the child's origin. There was a small pouch beside the child. Checking under the shroud, Patience found she couldn't tell how the child had died, but the rat there was distracting her so it went without saying. Not wanting to check the pouch with the rat there, the tiefling swiped the pouch and backed away from the rat slowly. Once she is ten feet away, the rat begins to follow her, granted slowly and haltingly.

"Well, this isn't good," Patience wondered if it might be better to attack, but doesn't at the moment.

Tural clasped his hands behind his back and looked Faena, "Did you find anything?" he called after her. He pointed over to where Patience had disappeared into another alcove across the chamber, "I believe that the Lady Cleric has found another burial,"

He swayed slightly, back and forth, like grass in a soft wind.

Faena looked towards where he had pointed and nodded.

"Actually, I don't know if I've found anything," she said, approaching the thus-far useless monk. She pulled her journal out of her bag and opened it to the page where she had copied out the writings she had found. "This was scratched into the rail near the chasm. I can't read it, can you?"

She held the journal towards him so that he could see it, her fingers carefully covering the writing on the previous page so that he couldn't read her private entry, but making sure that he could clearly see what she had copied from the railing. She also kept her grip strong so that he couldn't take the book from her.

Patience continued to walk backwards, checking behind her to make sure she wasn't tripping over anything. She stopped part way to see what the rat would do.

She was uncertain, because it was just following along, but hadn't made a dash for her.

Tural hummed, "It is Undercommon," he said, quietly, "It says 'to safe place',," he said, quietly, "This is the first time I have seen Undercommon since we arrived and there were many other languages in the cells in which we awoke,"

He had watched her copy something into her journal, so he had assumed that this what she had written.


The rat continued to follow. When Patience stopped, so did the rat and it wheezed and coughed, bits of the crystals spewed from it's mouth. Some of the crystals had even started to push out the poor creature's teeth.

Patience grimaced, while she wasn't fond of giant rats she felt kind of sorry for it. It also seemed like such odd behaviour coming from it. It was almost like a dog really. She took a large step backwards watching it.

"Either you're hungry, or you're someone's pet," Patience had heard of stranger things.