Continuing from The High Priest
Aftermath
Bearrach and Kol arrived just in time to see their friends making their exit. Being much fresher for their respite, these two helped carry the most severely injured, Kol allowing Buck to lean more heavily on him while Bearrach lent an arm to Del in aiding the prostrate Dalivune.
"What is ailing him, comrade?" Bearrach wanted to know.
"Am not knowing for sure. Am thinking he hurt himself with too much magic. Is feeling I know better than am liking."
"What we do then?"
"For now, we wait. Am hoping he will awaken soon. Is everyone all right?"
"Am worried, brother Del," Morphran piped up. "Kell is having many hurts. Will need help."
"Da, am understanding. Having some poultice in pack... let me be seeing. Is little I can do for crystal smith now."
"Did we win?"
"For now, comrade. For now."
***
Ferryll shook his head slowly; it was pounding heavily, though whether from bloodlust hangover or from injury, he wasn't sure. He had a dim recollection of something heavy slamming into him from behind, knocking him away from his quarry. Every muscle in his substantial frame was protesting, yet he managed to stagger to his feet, mouth twisted into a grimace. The temple itself was shaking, and more debris was falling - the others were retreating in a disorderly fashion, by twos and threes as they could.
"You will foul this land no more!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Ferryll saw the Count run the high priest through, which only exacerbated the horrendous shaking of the temple. Dust was rapidly clogging his sensitive nostrils, forcing him to breathe through his mouth - his tongue lolled from the side, giving him a wild appearance. Moving as if drunk, the gnoll joined the retreat and stumbled out, managing to evade further contact with the debris.
As the emerged, they were met with the smell of smoke and flame. The fireballs unleashed from the earlier melee had spread further, leaving nearly a quarter of the forest ablaze... though considering the foulness that had been here all too recently, Ferryll cared not whether the entire area was turned to ash.
Once more, the group was reunited, a dozen figures of man and gnoll in a loose array. Those who were conscious were either tending to the injuries of those who were not, or staring at the imploding temple or the inferno. For his own part, there was only one man that the gnoll concerned himself with.
"Hauk," he said respectfully. "You have proven yourself to be a fine warrior. I have seen few who can fight with your strength and skill." Then he grinned. "But I still beat you. Fifty-three."
Hauk bowed to Ferryl. "I must admit, you have won the day." He grinned. "I dare say that you are the best warrior I've yet seen." He pulled a small flask out of his pocket and sat down in a patch of ferns. "Have a drink with me." The two of them proceeded to retell the battle to each other.
* * *
The fire smoldered around them. The driest parts had burned quickly. The wind carried the flames up the mountain slope, which soon grew sparse of trees, and naturally contained the flames. The party caught their breath outside while they watched the temple crumble.
The less wounded of them gathered up the dead on the field and piled them up. They finished off any who were suffering from mortal wounds and made a pile of them to burn. They made a thicket of sticks and wood, and began piling on the bodies. With each one, they looked for anything valuable to keep. They found little, and what things they did find were foul effects and dark trinkets, that they thought best destroyed in a fire.
Before lighting the pile, Kol spoke. "Though they found wickedness in life, perhaps they will find salvation through labor in the underworld in death. May our enemies of today find a better place."
Morphran and Kell were sitting nearby. Morphran said quietly to Kell, "It seems odd to honor our mortal enemies."
Kell shrugged. "It's an old tradition. Some believe that an evil life can be cleansed through a penance of toil in the underworld." Meanwhile, Ferryl walked by with the skull of one of the heavies around his belt.
Morphran shook his head. "What do you believe?"
Kell shrugged again. "... I am hungry and tired, and I believe it's time to eat and rest."
* * *
After some time the temple seemed to grow quiet. Most of the roof had caved in, though the walls remained. Dali had regained his senses, though he moved slowly and complained of a pounding headache. While the bodies burned, and their shadows grew long, Del, Dali, and Rowe talked near the entrance.
"I think we should go back inside - gather up anything important, and seal up those tunnels for good before nightfall."
"Da, comrade. Am agreeing that one more check is good idea, and am not wanting to be too close when night is falling." Del cast a searching eye over the ruins. "Raff was saying that he found all underground paths, but with collapse, am thinking some may have been unsealed. Or maybe new ones are being made." He touched his crystal absently; though it still pulsed with pale light, the heated fury that had helped him fend off the nightmares was greatly subdued. "Either way, am thinking is safe enough for us to be exploring."
"That's easy for you to say," Dalivune grumbled.
"Nyet, comrade - you are looking not much different from how I am feeling." Del managed a tired grin. "Though should be congratulating you - was your idea that ultimately helped us win the day. Am feeling bad that I did not see what you did, but was busy being distraction."
"If you really wanted to keep his attention, you should have kept talking. That accent would distract anyone."
Del arched an eyebrow, but Dali was chuckling - clearly, this was an effort at jest, which was an improvement over his usual complaining. Letting it pass without further remark, he began to pick his way through the fallen masonry, scanning intently for obvious points of egress.
The trio moved slowly, both out of an abundance of caution and out of sheer exhaustion. By and large, Raff had done his work exceedingly well, and the roof falling in on itself had reinforced the closure of the tunnel exits. They found only one possible mouth, wherein one of the columns shattering had shifted several boulders away from a heavy trap door. Fortunately, while it took no small effort on their part, the adjacent column was close enough that it could be rolled over.
After shifting the massive chunks of rock, all three were panting against it, catching their breath, when a dark shape caught Del's attention. He had happened to look in the direction of the altar (by now, already stripped of the bodies that fed the outdoor pyre) and moved closer, intrigued. A black shape appeared to be at the heart of the altar, one that looked as as black as night but nonetheless reflected the late afternoon sun as if it were glass.
"What in the goddess' name...?"
Picking it up, there were two pieces to what had once been a full figurine - one that was vaguely mannish in shape. It appeared that the upper half had been split off from the lower, and while it appeared easy enough to fit the two bits back together, Del was loathe to rejoin such an unusual artifact.
"Comrades," he said, holding out the peculiar relic. "Was spotting this in the remnants of that altar. Not knowing for sure what it is."
"Let me see." Dalivune held the upper piece close to his eye. "Well, I'll be damned! No wonder my spell didn't work the first time... they had one powerful heirloom in there. You realize what this is, don't you?"
"Nyet."
"This is - or was - a figurine in the shape of the god that they worshiped. It's what gave the altar its power, allowed the god to focus his energy here. No wonder we kept having all those other bizarre effects."
"Is it still dangerous?"
"Not like this, although I wouldn't try to repair it. Count, you probably want to take this back to Headwaters. Something like this will go a long way toward proving to others what we accomplished here today."
Rowe said to Dell, "I cannot bring both of these back to Headwaters. I'll not bring such a vile artifact home. How about I take the top half and you keep the bottom half. We'll head up to Headwaters via the Lyson pass, and stop in the capital on the way home. The road should be easy once we get to the pass, and we should be able to get horses."
"uh... guys...", Dali's voice called ahead. "...come see this."
Rowe glanced at Dell quizzically, before moving into the chamber ahead. A beam had fallen, broken glass and splinters of what once was a decorative table covered the ground. The beam had come to rest on top of an iron chest, which was cracked open off its hinges. Rowe looked into the chest, and saw a ledger of some kind, a vials of liquid, and a scattering of coins.
"There's got to be a hundred coins in here, I'd guess. Mostly silver, but some gold. Dali - can you read the book?"
He took the thin leather bound book. "It appears to be some record keeping. I believe this might be the personal vault of the high priest."
"Del, I say we divide the coins up equally between our three groups. It's not going to make any of us rich, but it's more than most see. I think the gnolls earned their share. Dali - what do you make of those vials?"
He scratched his head. "Hard to say. I'm not sure I want to find out. These may be best destroyed."
Rowe nodded. "Let's take this stuff, and that orc armor, and then burn this scar to the ground. I don't think anything else here is going to be of much value."
After handing the top half of the artifact to Rowe, Del glanced curiously at the bottom half of the figurine. It seemed harmless enough, but considering everything else he'd witnessed this day, he was loathe to underestimate the power of any mystical relic. His body protested with exhaustion, as if to underscore the point that magic was anything but his strength. Placing the obsidian in his pocket without further thought, he followed Dali's voice and excited explanation of what lay within.
"Del, I say we divide the coins up equally between our three groups. I think the gnolls earned their share."
"Da, comrade. Am thinking that several of us would not be standing if not for Ferryll and Raff. None of us, maybe." He shook off the chilling thought. "Am agreeing with you, Count. Sooner we are making place ash, I am being much happier."
The trio carried out what valuables they had accumulated and made their exit. The sun was beginning its descent, casting a bloody hue that was uncomfortably familiar - the men hurried to gather what firewood was readily available, and after some convincing and a bit of grumbling, the gnolls were persuaded to set their axes to a few trees.
"Blades don't stay sharp when you hit trees with them," Ferryll growled.
"Am to be sharpening your blade myself if needing to; besides, are you wanting to be here at night when those ruins are still about?"
That shut Ferryll up, and the group worked quickly to set up a pyre over the imploded temple. The flaming oranges and reds had subdued themselves to a deep, bruised purple on the horizon by the time the fire blazed in earnest, though they breathed a collective sigh of relief when wholesome, natural wood-smoke hung in the air instead of the noxious filth they had grown accustomed to breathing. Still better, the sky had cleared noticeably since earlier that day, and distant stars began to peek out as the night wore on. It was at that time that Del and Rowe divided the temple's spoils of silver and gold among the collected party. Any residual annoyance that the gnolls might have felt was swiftly extinguished by the prospect of shiny treasure.
"Ten days," Del murmured. "That was how long you were saying until we are rejoining the rest of your men. How many days was this being? Is feeling like weeks, but knowing that is not being correct."
"Three or four days at the most," Dalivune observed. "Though it's going to be slower going back... uphill rather than down, and we're not as fresh as we were before."
"Aye - you can say that again." Hauk waved his hand over his nose. "Let's hope for rain on the way back; I can smell you all the way over here!" That brought chuckles from several of the men, while Dali glared back and muttered something under his breath.
"You make good point, comrade. Maybe we take tomorrow for resting; am thinking I might find some herbs for poultice, help Kell get back to feet faster. Then we move to meet with - Reg? Was that name?" Del shrugged. "Or so is seeming. All of us are having long way to return to where we go next. What say you?"
Rowe cursed his earlier plan to meet up with Reg and the rest of his force. "The way things are now, I don't think Kell should rejoin the army, say nothing of what artifacts and treasure we've found. These are not things to take back towards enemy lands. Tomorrow we will all head down into the valley between here and Mount Ea. It should not take us long before we find a river village that will sell us a few horses, though we may have to pay more than we like. Once mounted, Kol and I will meet up with Reg. Kell and Hauk will head for the Kynem pass that leads home. You'll beat us back to Headwaters by a month going that way. The rest of you can head wherever you like."
Later Rowe took Del aside. "I have no intention of bringing this effigy back to Headwaters. I'll not have such a vile thing cursing my lands. I suggest we part ways for a time, and keep these things far apart. I will show my half to the guildmasters in Ardent, and tell them the other half was turned to dust in the battle. You should keep your half secret. Never tell me what you do with it."
---
The next morning the sun shined into a clear sky and the party broke camp from the cool mountain slopes down into the muggy valley below. Thick forests and raging streams impeded their way, but by the middle of the second day they came across a small stone walled village on a hill by the river. Whether it was their heavy purses, Eamite accents, or the fresh orcish skulls, they were able to gain entrance and restock supplies.
It was with a heavy heart that Rowe and Kol split up to meet Reg, and the rest of Rowe's command. He carried the skull of the high priest and one of the orcs as a visible trophy. Tucked away from view, he carried the top half of the effigy of Azkladash.
....more to come.... For now, you can read other stories of the Adventuring Guild