Afternoon, Readying 20, 591

“My, but gnolls and minotaurs certainly are stirred up, aren’t they?” asks the major-domo Bitterbark as he steps into Drago’s cell several long tedious hours later. “Let us chat for a little bit. I am curious to hear your tale.”

Drago blinks, stretches, and asks, “How so, milord?”

“I am curious as to what could have led the Keolanders they say you traveled with back to Thracia. Did you find a map or did someone lead you back here? Was it one of your former comrades perhaps?”

Drago nods, then replies, “The Keolanders found an ancient manuscript in a Deathwalker shrine in the swamps. Their clerics were able to translate enough of it to lead us here.”

“Is that so? There wasn’t a young girl with you from Cypress Hill?”

Drago gasps softly. He pauses, cocks his head, looks Bitterbark in the eyes and says softly, “Are you both safe?”

Bitterbark’s eyes widen. He puts his paw to his snout to shush Drago. Then he whispers, “So you know. Thanks the gods, our little one is safe; but maybe not for long. The gnolls and the lizardfolk are hunting them down as we speak. We must both get out of here at once if we are to save your friends. Gather your gear and come with me. I am Ulmar, the father of Newt. Her mother Saeva is still being held by the Deathwalkers in their villa. We can talk later, for now we must get out and quietly.”

Drago silently smiles toothily as he quietly gathers his gear and follows Ulmar as instructed. Drago is giddy with happiness. He slobbers absentmindedly. Newt will be so happy!

Ulmoar leads Drago back out to the arena. Luckily for them, no one challenges them. The arena is as empty as it was before. Ulmar doesn’t lead Drago up into the stands, however, but straight across to the western perimeter. He touches a stone and a section of the wall slides aside revealing a secret passage running beneath the stands.

“This way,” says Ulmar. “We will be less likely to run into anyone, and I can also sense if anyone is near us. Also, hold onto my shoulder. It will be dark, but I know the way.”

He enters, Drago following, and entrance closes behind them. The passage is narrow but only 20’ long. At the end, Ulmar touches a stone and Drago can hear the sliding of stone.

“Right past this tunnel is a stairwell that lead back up to the palace. They are not used anymore for reasons that will soon be clear to you. Do not be alarmed. The ancient Thracians thrived on all manner of perversities, but the stone gropers are harmless unless you strike at them. Then we will both be in trouble. So be calm!”

With that warning, Ulmar leads Drago up the darkened stairwell. As soon as they start up, Drago feels cold stone hands reaching from the walls on either side. They are flexible, smooth, and oddly soft, like animated clay. They caress, pat, and grope Drago and Ulmar from all sides, sometimes pinching or smacking them, but never going so far as to cause any real injury.

“Be calm, just enjoy it if you can. Do not strike the hands whatever you do!” warns Ulmar again.

Finally, they reach the top of the stairwell. The hands recede back into the walls. Ulmar opens yet another secret door and pulls Drago into another darkened passage at a right angle to the stairs. This passage is 15’ wide and runs on for some 50’. It is lit by a pair of baleful, glowing, amber colored eyes set into the wall on the left. They eyes chill Drago’s soul as he looks upon them. Looking back at the secret door they just came through, Drago sees that it now appears to be just another part of the marble walls.

“Come, Drago, the eyes are unpleasant but harmless.” Ulmar suddenly changes himself from Bitterbark into a lizardfolk warrior. It is the same kind of transformation that Drago saw Newt perform. His flesh ripples and shifts in color, shape, and texture. He casts aside the robe he had been wearing as Bitterbark and in the shadows retrieves a shield, morningstar, and three javelins that he had earlier placed there. He leads Drago halfway down the hall and opens another secret door disguised as a marble panel.

As the door opens it lets in a blinding blaze of light. Drago can hear a sizzling sound and feels a heat far more intense than the heat of the chambers beneath the palace. Ulmar shouts, “Damn! The way is blocked!”

Drago instinctively raises his shield to protect himself and peers into the blazing heat. As his eyes adjust to the light, he sees that the secret door opens into a room that is a large dome 50’ in diameter and 40’ from floor to peak. On the other side of the dome is a 50’ long hall with a single door on the right, two on the left, and a single door at the end of the hall. If the secret door is on the north side of the dome, then to the left on the east side of the dome is a door. At the apex of the ceiling of the dome is a large crystal that casts a shaft of sunlight that pierces the darkness of the room. The shaft of light creates a 10’ diameter circle on the floor directly in front of the secret door. It is this beam of focused light that initially blinded Drago is emitting such intense heat. On the other side of the beam an Amedi clad in rags in chained to the center of the floor. He looks up at the two lizardfolk and sneers, defiance in his eyes.

Ulmar sighs and says in Draconic, “We must wait for the beam to cross towards the center of the room. Perhaps in five minutes we’ll have enough room to squeeze by it. Eventually it will reach the center and burn this human alive. It is one of many sadistic games these beast-men play. As the beam of light cook this unfortunate, his dying screams will let the gnolls cubs in the chambers beyond that door know that their dinner will soon be ready.”

The human begins cursing the two lizardfolk in Amedi. His eyes are filled with hate, and also a growing fear as the beam of light inches closer to him.

Drago ponders out loud, “Should we kill him to silence him, or try to set him free? What if we turned ourselves into Amedi to free him? Do you know the language? I don’t.”

“He’s already seen us, so it’s too late to change our appearance now though I do know Amedi. I assume you have a spell to alter your own appearance?”

Drago nods his assent and adds, “But it is only illusion and only lasts a little while.”

Ulmar nods. “We still have to figure out what to do about him. Just a moment.” Ulmar falls silent and gazes at the Deathwalker for a moment. “Yes, he is a Deathwalker, in fact he is one of priests of Thanatos. His name is Holoste. He knows me, or knows of me. When Saeva and I were brought back to their villa, their Patriarch Tavasmok forced me to become their spy among the ranks of the beast-men. Tavasmok kept my spouse Saeva imprisoned in the store room of the villa, trapped behind magical wards and guarded by his undead. He told me he would kill her if I did not infiltrate the beast-men and report back to them. I have primarily stayed with the Malarat for you lizardfolk are not the creatures of Chaos and Evil that the gnolls and minotaurs are, though I believe your Shaman G’ruk is indeed leading them down a very evil path. The Malarat know me as the warrior Kassmak. Anyway, the Deathwalkers know of me, so this one might cooperate if we free him. However, freeing him might alert King Stronghoen all the faster, and Holoste will try to betray us to the other Deathwalkers. It would be safer for us to leave him to die, but I am loath to allow even one such as him to be roasted alive and eaten by the gnolls. What are your thoughts?

Drago shrugs, “Well, I am not opposed to roasted Deathwalker, nor to slicing open his throat to silence his screams and ease his impending pain.” Drago’s stomach rumbles its agreement. “Thanatos priests are more dangerous than an average Deathwalker though. Even so, if you can use your relationship with them to ease our danger, that is fine with me. They probably should be alerted to Stronghoen’s gathering of Beast-men tribes bent upon their destruction after all. If we help him as their ally and spy, perhaps Saeva will not be harmed because of it. It sounds like they already know your true nature?”

“They do, unfortunately.” Then his eyes widen. “If the beast-men overwhelm the villa, they may kill Saeva as well. Yes, we must rescue Holoste and send him to the villa to warn them. Look, the beam has moved away from the door. We must act quickly!”

Drago and Ulmar are able to squeeze around the beam and into the chamber beyond. Ulmar says to Holoste in Amedi, “Holoste, olen Ulmar, vakooja lähetitte keskuudessa peto-miehiä. Tämä soturi minulle on ystävä. Sinun ei tarvitse huolehtia hänestä. Nyt aiomme vapaasti sinua niin kiltti ja lopeta meidän huutaen.”

Holoste calms and replies, “Ulmar? Jos olet vapaa minua hakemaan minut pois täältä tulen varmasti kiittää teitä patriarkan Tavasmok.”

Ulmar replies, “Kiitos, mutta teidän ihmisten pitää vaimoni panttivangeiksi ja pakotti minut vakoilemaan teitä vielä ystäväni ja olen sitä mieltä, että meidän ei anna sinun kuolla tällä tavalla. Myös sinun ihmiset ovat suuressa vaarassa. Sinun on varoitettava niistä. Mutta ensin meidän täytyy murtaa näitä ketjuja.”

Ulmar turns to Drago, “Help me, maybe together we can break these chains.”

“Hmm… maybe a big glob of acid on the chains will help us break it?” replies Drago.

“Give it a try then,” Ulmar responds.

Drago then hacks up a ball of acid and spits it onto the chain. It burns through one of the links and the Deathwalker is free.

“Quickly, there is no time to waste,” says Ulmar. They head out of the dome and down the hall, taking the door at the far end. It opens up into the temple hall of the palace. Before moving into the courtyard, Ulmar shifts into the form of a gnoll and grasps the end of the chain hanging from Holoste’s neck. “If you want to leave you will let me lead you as a slave.” Holoste nods his understanding but is clearly not happy about it. “Drago, if you can change into a gnoll do it now. The hydra will not bother two gnolls and a human slave, but its touchy about lizardfolk as you probably know.”

Drago responds softly, “Kašvestu selfn.” and makes it so. Drago is now a gnoll.

As Ulmar said, the hydra doesn’t threaten them, though its eyes can be seen watching them in its pool. Crossing the lawn the harpies hover over them but then resume their station on the palace walls. The lizardfolk and beast-men in the small temple with the well barely spare them a glance. They make their way through the grove, whereupon Drago hears the sound of gentle laughter, and furtive shapes seem to slip in and out of the trees. Every now and then he almost catches sight of something or someone out of the corner of his eyes, but when he turns to look there is nothing to see.

“They are dryads,” Ulmar explains in Draconian. “They will not bother us. Here we are.”

They arrive back at the ring of fruit trees and the circular slab of marble with the checkered square in the center. Ulmar leads them all to the square and within seconds they are back at the large temple to an unknown human goddess in the upper cavern.

Ulmar leads them out of the cavern and into the rat infested cavern. Again they go unchallenged by the guards. He takes them to the right towards the long stairs that lead back up to the surface. At this point, Drago’s illusion fades and he appears once more as himself. Ulmar retains his gnoll form and continues to lead Holoste by the chain linked to the collar around his throat.

Suddenly they hear someone shouting in Draconian. From the entrance to the tunnel that leads back to the Malarat encampment, Igusadon, Iguanosuth, and Kopusuth emerge.

“Drago!” shouts Igusadon. “We feared for you. We were just about to go to the surface to fight the humans, for they have been found and trapped within the caverns of the Deathwalkers. But that can wait. Shaman G’ruk must see you immediately. He was enraged when he found out you were accosted by King Stronghoen. You must come with us to see him.”

Igusadon then notices Ulmar and Holoste. “Who are these? What business do you have with the Malarat?”

Holoste wisely says nothing, but Ulmar looks to Drago and then to Igusadon. He seems like he is trying to figure out what to say.

“Igusadon!” Drago smiles disarmingly and says in Draconic, “Hello my friends! Oh, Stronghoen is a pussy cat. Please give my regards to Shaman G’ruk. No time to talk now, but I am alive and well! We’re off on a secret mission for His Majest. You will see me again though, if we all live to see another day. Death to the humans!”

Drago slaps the Deathwalker softly and says to Ulmar in Common without waiting for a response from the lizards, “Let’s go.”

“Wait!” cries Igusadon. “Your mission can wait! Shaman G’ruk will see you now!”

“Oh really?” says Ulmar in broken Common. “You forget who is king of Thracia. King Stronghoen has told me that it is urgent I bring Drago and this human slave to the surface to advise Hssdk, your war leader, in his fight against the humans. It is urgent they speak with him now. Your shaman can wait. Hssdk will send Drago back when the battle is won.”

Igusadon grips his morning-star and for a moment seems as though he is going to draw it, but then his hand falls away. With a snort he says with more than a hint of mockery, “Of course we are all beholden to the great King Stronghoen. I did not realize Drago was on such an important and sensitive mission for the king. I apologize. Drago, be sure to come back straight away to see Shaman G’ruk when you have helped win the battle.” He then curtly turns and beckons for Iguanosuth and Kopusuth to join him. They head off back to the lizardfolk encampment.

“Hurry now,” says Ulmar, “before there is more trouble. From the direction of the underground temple they hear a new commotion. It sounds like the excited chatter of gnolls. “I fear they have discovered that you two are missing. Run!”

They rush up the stairs and arrive breathless in the upper corridors. They easily pass the gnoll guard station, as the gnolls are not aware of any reason to hinder a lizardfolk, gnoll, and human slave. Just as they reach the entry hall, however, they do hear cries of alarm in the Gnoll tongue coming from the hall behind them. Apparently the gnolls from the palace reached the guard station. The three fugitives rush up the stairs back to the surface ruins, and again they pass the gnolls waiting in ambush in the trees. Those gnolls also let them by without a word. Only seconds after they round the corner of some nearby ruins they again hear the barking cries and excited chatter of the gnolls from the palace.

“We must find your friends soon,” says Ulmar in Draconic. They will be scouring the city for us now, and they already have many warriors out here.