MURDARK

 

At last Tordek pried open his scorched eyelids and blinked away the gummy residue of his eyelashes. The ceiling of the mineshaft sped by at incredible speed as they plunged down the steep slope. Despite his pain, he recognized immediately that they were piled onto a flat, wheelless ore sledge plummeting down an inclined tunnel.

"Who is steering this thing?" he shouted.

"There's steering?" cried Lidda, straddling his armored chest. She kept enough of her wits to strike another sunrod, which she waved to and fro in her search for a brake, a wheel, a lever, anything to guide or slow their descent.

Tordek wriggled and shoved, but not so hard as to send Vadania or Devis over the side of the sledge. At last he managed to turn over on his stomach and look forward instead of straight up. They were sliding so fast that the new vantage was no more reassuring. He barely glimpsed side passages and rotten wooden braces to either side as they sped past.

"This is going to hurt when we stop," suggested Devis. "A lot."

"You can be the first to jump off!" snapped Tordek.

The bard shut his mouth and concentrated, thinking of a spell that might help them, Tordek hoped. At last he shrugged and quickly sang the cat's grace spell that he had cast on Lidda earlier, but this time on himself.

Vadania craned her neck to peer at the ceiling.

"What are you looking for?" yelled Tordek.

"Roots!" she shouted back. "Do you see any roots?"

At her words, all four of them scanned the walls for any sign of roots, but Tordek knew it was a vain hope.

"We're too deep!" he cried.

"I'm out of ideas," she replied.

At that, the walls and ceiling disappeared.

"What does that mean?" yelled Devis. "We're in a bigger area! Is that good?"

The sledge slowed. The hissing of its passage gradually declined to a deep, grating sound. Soon it was quiet enough that they could hear their own sighs of relief.

"Thank Fharlaghn!" said Devis.

"Thank Moradin," insisted Tordek. He rose to his knees and peered ahead as the sledge ground forward over the gravel slope. He opened his mouth to shout a warning, but it was too late.

"Thank Yondaaaaahhhh!" screamed Lidda as they plunged over the edge and fell into a black abyss.

 

 

They sat upon the bank of the sunless lake and wrung out their cloaks. Devis sneezed and shivered in the cold, but they had no time to light a fire. The icy water that saved them from crushing death now threatened to kill them more slowly with pneumonia.

At the edge of the sunrod's light, the ore sledge bobbed gently in the water. Devis suggested they use it as a raft, but the thing could barely float unladen. Their brief experiment proved that even with just Lidda's weight, it would quickly sink below the surface.

They paused only for a few curing spells from Vadania and Devis before collecting their gear. Remarkably, nothing was lost except for Tordek's shield, which he imagined Hargrimm was already mounting as a trophy in his bedchamber. The furious demon was sure to send pursuit, and it wouldn't be long before goblins found this flooded chamber.

Tordek led the way, favoring the northerly path whenever presented with a choice. By his dwarven reckoning, which acted as an unerring compass underground, their plummet had carried them far beneath the "prow" of Jorgund Peak so they were now below the wrong side of the tainted river.

"We must find a way out of these mines," he said. "If those tunnels lead only back to the foundry, then we have a problem."

"On the other hand," said Lidda, "we also have that big, blue fellow's hammer. From the way he was howling about it, I bet he needs it real bad, probably to summon his demon pals."

"You heard all that?" asked Tordek.

"Most of it," said Lidda. "Vadania filled us in on the rest of the story."

Tordek turned an accusatory glare upon the druid.

"I thought you were about to die," she argued.

"Don't worry," said Devis. "She only gave us the outline. I know you were waiting for the right moment to tell us the story yourself. Weren't you?"

"No," said Tordek, unmoved by the half-elf's ploy.

"Don't you think we have a right to know?" said Lidda. "Especially me. How many times have I saved your life already?"

"None."

"That's not fair! How about that time with the minotaur?"

"I could have beaten him," said Tordek.

"Not without my distraction. That wasn't easy, you know. You try jumping off a roof with a rope tied around your waist. It hurts."

"I don't owe you anything," said Tordek.

"You're wrong," said Lidda crossly, "and your face is burned and you have no eyebrows. If not for us, you'd be dead and this conversation wouldn't be happening!"

"Enough!" said Tordek, halting their march and turning to face the others. They returned his gaze with earnest expressions.

"We have all helped each other," said Vadania gently. "We are comrades in this quest."

Tordek's shoulders slumped. He gave Devis one last, dirty glance before sighing. "Very well, but we keep moving while I tell it."

 

 

"Holten was my older brother by exactly ten years," said Tordek. "To the day."

"You were twins!" said Devis.

"Don't be stupid," snapped Lidda. "After all that effort to get him to tell the story."

"No," said Tordek. "He's right. My people consider brothers or sisters born on the same day any count of years apart to be twins. Holten and I were brothers in arms as well, even as children. When we played at war, we were always on the same side, he the captain, I his lieutenant. We never quarreled. I was always happy to follow his lead.

"Except once."

They marched along in silence for a while, climbing over a steep incline to reach a rocky plateau. All around them were deep holes where dwarven miners once drilled samples in their search for ore. Judging from the predominantly natural rock walls, they had found none.

The others refrained from prompting him for so long that Tordek felt an unwanted smile curling on his lips. The telling of this particular tale was proving much less painful than he feared, though he suspected he would feel differently when he came to the point of the matter.

"Holten heard the tale of the Arms of Andaron from a human bard in a tavern. We all heard some version of it as children, but dwarf storytellers present it as a terse, cautionary tale. The humans tell it differently, with hints of great power and glory to those who recover the lost weapons. They have no idea what harm they were causing."

Tordek could almost hear Devis swallow guiltily behind him, but he did not turn to see his expression.

"He bought a treasure map and believed the rumors that Andaron's hammer was buried in a crypt at the foot of the Thunderstone Mountains. He begged me to go with him, and I begged him not to go. In the end, I let him go by himself.

"Holten returned six years later, boasting of a great battle with a vicious worg that could transform into an enormous, blue goblin. He and his allies routed Hargrimm and his followers from the crypt, only to learn that both groups had been tricked with false clues. Hargrimm came away with nothing. Holten returned with these finger bones around his neck and a score of brave scars upon his body."

Tordek paused again as the group came to a sheer decline. Lidda heard the distant sound of plunging water toward the east. After a brief discussion, they chose to follow it. Lidda clambered down the wall to anchor a knotted rope on which the others could follow, then she climbed back up to retrieve it and came nimbly down again.

"I believe we have come far enough to spare a little rest," said Vadania. "With the echoes in this place, we will hear anyone who approaches long before they arrive."

Tordek agreed, and they made a tiny fire with a few torches from their packs. Tordek made a simple frame with his bow and hung his cloak to dry beside the fire, hoping it would also hide their light from distant eyes. The others imitated his arrangement with bows and shields, forming a makeshift wall around their camp. The resulting enclosure trapped the heat and soon returned the warmth to their bones.

Tordek waited until Lidda proffered him a tin cup of warm tea before continuing his story.

"There was no preventing Holten from striking out again. By that time I was ranging out on quests of my own. It was then that I realized how hypocritical I had been, refusing to join his venture when fortune and glory were my goal as well."

"There was a difference," Vadania gently corrected him. "You understood the danger of the Arms of Andaron. Holten was brave, but he was reckless."

Tordek waved away her argument. "No matter," he said. "I was young and foolish, not yet fifty. I wanted to be wrong so that one of us could apologize and we could join forces once more. Moradin knows he was never going to be the one to make the gesture. So I gathered allies of my own, including a rather green druid, and set out to join him. We searched for three and a half years before finding the lone survivor.

"We found him sweeping the floors in a temple to St. Cuthbert. The clerics tolerated his presence because he had once been of their order, though he received no more grace from the god. He was drunk the day we found him, and he liked to stay that way, so we got the story from him for the cost of a few bottles of cheap wine.

"Holten and his fellows found the Hammer of Andaron, all right. They even escaped its trap-filled tomb with minimal casualties. Only this time it was Hargrimm waiting outside for him, and this time the worg-demon brought an army.

"They were slaughtered, all of them but the cleric, who was bound and forced to watch as Hargrimm devoured the others alive. It took days. When it was done, the demon simply let the cleric go, knowing his mind and spirit were broken."

"Is that why you were able to catch the hammer?" asked Devis. "Because Holten once had it, and it cannot harm his twin?"

Tordek grunted an affirmative. He had surmised as much ever since he felt the hammer tug away then surrender to his grasp.

Tordek searched his imagination for some important way to conclude his story, but none came to mind. For a moment, he worried that Devis would come up with something dramatic to add to his tale when the bard repeated it in taverns across the land. The thought did not please him, but it felt good finally to have told the story aloud to others who faced the wrath of the fiend that swallowed his brother's soul. It made Tordek feel as though he were one step closer to laying his brother to rest.

There was only one more step to take.

 

 

The waterfall whose voice they followed led them to another buried lake. Their aches from their falls, battles, and exertions were finally so tender that they could not press on without rest. They lit another small fire with a few fresh torches and the charred remains of their previous fire before setting watches. It felt like only minutes had passed since Tordek laid his head down on his rolled cloak before Lidda was urgently shaking his shoulder.

Tordek rolled up to a crouch. The Hammer of Andaron lay nearby, but he ignored it in favor of his trusty axe. Devis was already alert with his crossbow cocked and held neat against his shoulder. Lidda moved to shake Vadania out of her meditation.

Tordek followed the bard's gaze and saw the wake of a huge creature swimming toward them across the underground lake.

"What the devil is that?" said Devis.

"Murdark..."Tordek remembered how much he disliked that name the first time he had heard it. "Karnoth warned us of a beast that roamed these lower caverns."

"Let's hope it's allergic to crossbow bolts," said Devis. His aim followed the creature's dark head as it emerged from the water and its body lumbered up in the shallows.

Tordek tensed to leap forward as soon as he heard the crossbow's twang. Instead, he heard an urgent "No!" and the sound of Vadania's hand slapping the bard's crossbow out of line. The bolt cracked against the distant, unseen ceiling before splashing into the lake.

From the dark water rose a colossal beast, its dark pelt black and smooth from its watery passage.

"Gulo!" cried Lidda.

Vadania said nothing, but she rushed forward to stroke her mammoth friend's face. "You foolish, foolish boy," she crooned at him.

"Say," said Devis. "If Gulo found himself a way in..."

"... then he found us a way out," finished Tordek.

"Why don't we just get out of here?" suggested the bard. "Hargrimm can't do his ritual without the hammer, and we can't fight that legion of monsters assembled up there. I say we run far, far away from here and hide this thing under somebody's army."

"That won't solve the problem of the poison river," said Vadania.

"It won't do anything about Hargrimm's army, either," added lidda.

"And it won't do anything about Hargrimm," said Tordek. "I am not running away."

"Me neither," said Lidda. "Sorry, Bunny. I'm with the dwarf."

Vadania said nothing, but she stepped beside Tordek even while she kept a hand on Gulo's soggy shoulder.

Devis looked back at them with disbelief all over his weary face. "But we'll lose," he said. "That makes a terrible story."

"How can we lose now?" said Tordek. "We've got Gulo with us."

Devis made a little choking sound.

"We don't have to face Hargrimm's assembled army," said Vadania. "If we can lure him out and kill just him, maybe his army will break apart. You know how fractious such creatures can be."

"Besides," said Lidda, "there are captives to rescue, more evil weapons to steal...and at least the way up is drier than the way out."

Devis looked unconvinced, but he shrugged at last. "All right," he said, "but only because I don't want to go swimming again."

As if he had been waiting for someone to say exactly that, Gulo violently shook his pelt and soaked them all to the skin. Sheets of water quenched the fire, so they stood there amid gales of laughter in the darkness until Tordek brought out his everburning torch and saw that, for once, Devis was the only one not laughing.

 

 

Hours later, they climbed up through a rent that could only have been caused by an earthquake and emerged into a vast and pillared hall. Four different prayers of thanks were muttered to four different gods. Even Gulo rumbled a grateful sound as he clambered up onto the fitted stones, his great claws clicking on the floor.

"Feast hall," said Tordek. His everburning torch illuminated bare poles that once held clan banners on the walls. Vadania struck a sun rod and walked in the opposite direction. Even the two bright lights could not illuminate the entire room at once.

They saw broken chairs and graying tables scattered around the room or stacked in careless heaps. In one wall was set a great fireplace choked with half-burned detritus, while four lesser and two grand arches yawned open to shadows beyond, their doors long since torn away. Whatever lay beyond them remained black in the gloom.

"Now which way, O fearless..." Lidda stilled her tongue and listened to Gulo. The dire wolverine put his head low to the ground and growled.

"Something's coming," translated Vadania needlessly. The others drew their weapons, and Devis sang himself a shimmering suit of mage armor.

Scale is too heavy and chain gives me rashes,

Give me some armor that spares me from slashes!

"That's a very silly spell!" whispered Lidda.

"You're the one who insists on perfect rhyme," he hissed back. They ceased their banter as they heard the beast approach.

The sound was a scraping, like someone dragging a box of arrows down the hall: slow at first, then followed by a brief rattling as of a rack of spears bumped by a careless soldier. The same sound came again, slowly and confidently, followed by a deep snuffling and a low, purring growl.

Gulo roared back, filling the great hall with his voice to warn off any challenger that would trespass on his ground.

"So much for our chances of parlay," grumbled Devis.

A great shadow slouched into the frame of one of the grand arches, even blacker than the gloom behind it. At its shoulder it stood taller than Tordek. Its long body crouched low, and its bushy-tipped tail switched back and forth on the floor with a sound of rushes.

"Fire!" cried Tordek. His bow sang in chorus with his companions', and four missiles flew at the intruder.

The monster shrugged and coughed like a leopard. Two great dark wings rose up from its back then folded down again as its tail flicked scorpionlike over its back, flinging its own barrage back at its foes.

A needle-sharp spike shot through Tordek's chest, punching through his armor as if it were foil. It lodged deep in his body, just below his heart. Beside him, Vadania shouted in surprise as another spike slammed through her shield and into her shoulder, spinning her around. Devis cursed and clutched his thigh, but luckily for him the wound was only a graze.

Gulo rushed forward. He reared up to fall upon the foe, but the enemy beast also rose up on its hind legs and locked the wolverine in a vicious embrace. Claws cut deep as both animals twisted their heads to bite at an unprotected flank while simultaneously turning away to avoid the other's fangs.

Tordek dropped his bow and unslung his war axe. The motion was agony as it tugged at the long spike imbedded in his lung. He coughed painfully and tasted blood in his mouth, but still he lumbered forward to help Gulo against the monster.

Vadania's sweet voice rose in an elvish hymn to Obad-Hai. A flickering, purple aura appeared around the foe.

It had the body of a gigantic cat, spotted like a leopard but with the powerful haunches of a desert lion. Great umber wings spread from behind its shoulders to beat furiously at Gulo's face. A ragged line of thick, black spines ran down its sinuous back. The spines tapered away at the base of its long, twitching tail to reappear in a thick cluster at its clublike tip. The thing's face was round and manlike, with a huge maw far out of proportion with the flat-faced head. A beard of black spikes bristled from its chin, reinforcing the monstrous resemblance to a man.

"Manticore!" shouted Devis, running up with his longsword in hand. "It's a manticore!"

Another spike seemed to spring suddenly from the monster's chin, but it was a dagger, not a spike. Lidda whooped in triumph. The creature screamed in annoyance and jerked back its head. The involuntary gesture gave Gulo the opening he needed to sink his fangs into the beast's shoulder.

Tordek swung his axe at the manticore's haunch. The beast shifted backward in Gulo's deadly embrace just before the blow fell, sparing it a crippling wound.

Devis lunged in to thrust at the thing's side, now high above his head. The point of his blade sank a few inches between the manticore's ribs, earning him a furious roar and the beast's full attention. He muttered an unintelligible oath while ducking to avoid a wing buffet.

Gulo continued pushing hard against the manticore, but the foe had the advantage of greater mass. It was cunning, too. When Gulo released his grip and hunched low to bite the manticore's exposed belly, the monster leaped upward, pushed off against the wolverine's broad back, and took to the air with a harsh snap of its leathery wings.

"Look out for its tail!" cried Devis, running for cover. The others scattered in four directions, wary of being caught together in a barrage of spikes.

While its flightless foes fumbled to change weapons yet again, the manticore wheeled around in the relative confines of the great hall, searching for a high perch. Spotting none, it dived straight toward Devis.

The bard's face paled as he hurriedly sang another spell. Wheezing, struggling to breathe, Tordek stumbled to help him. He released his bow and reached for the axe that he realized too late wasn't there—he had dropped it only a moment before in favor of the bow. There was no time to turn back for it. His hand touched Andaron's Hammer, and a furious surge of power pulsed up through his arm and across his chest. Filled with its hot strength, he ripped the manticore's spike from his ribs and kept running with renewed strength.

Lidda's bow twanged. The arrow disappeared into the flapping wings of the manticore as the monster flicked its tail. A black hail of spikes fell around Devis just as he vanished from sight. A moment later, the manticore landed directly on the spot where Devis had stood. Blindingly fast paws slapped the area until the creature felt something and scooped it toward snapping fangs. Daggerlike teeth slashed and tore blindly, and blood splashed across the horrible jaws.

The unseen victim's screams were hideous.

Lidda sent arrow after green-fletched arrow slapping into the monster's flank.

Tordek ran hard. The surge from the hammer gave him strength even though it did nothing to quench his agony. He covered the last six feet in a flying leap. The mallet head crashed down like a landslide. The massive impact severed the manticore's spine just above its haunches.

The monster wailed its ear-splitting anguish and twitched spasmodically. The tail, decked with deadly spikes, lashed to and fro reflexively but there was no control behind it. The manticore's legs collapsed and dropped it to the floor in a heap.

Gulo was upon the crippled beast in a flash, and his sharp fangs found its soft throat. With three wicked shakes of the wide-eyed head, the manticore's screams were silenced forever.

Lidda raced around the monster's body, shouting Devis's name and feeling along the blood-slicked floor for the invisible bard. Vadania did the same, circling the other way. Tordek pushed against the manticore's body, trying to roll it over to see whether it might have fallen on its last prey.

"Answer us, Devis!" called Vadania urgently. "We can't see you."

"No no no," muttered Lidda quietly as her hands brushed against a body. She drew one away. It was covered in blood.

The druid joined her, and together they gently rolled him onto his back and felt for his throat and his chest.

"Is he alive?" demanded Tordek.

"I can't feel a pulse," sobbed Lidda. "His face is all...torn up."

"Get back," said Vadania. She filled her hands with mistletoe and called on the powers of the world. Pale, green luminescence flared, then faded on her fingers, and she called again. By the third time, she had only an orison to offer, and then her powers of curing were depleted.

"Is that it?" shouted Lidda. "Is that all you can do?"

Vadania whipped her head around to face the angry halfling. "Shut your mouth, you stupid little clown!"

Lidda's face turned red, and her lean body quivered in rage. For a long, long second, Tordek feared she would stab the elf in the throat. The tensions was broken by a sound from the floor.

Devis gurgled weakly. An instant later, he reappeared. Neither the elf nor the halfling could disguise their shock at the terrible wounds on his face and neck, as well as his bare and bloody arm.

With his other hand, he groped weakly for his pack.

Sensing his desire, Lidda and Vadania peeled the pack from Devis's back and plucked out everything they could lay hands on: torches, a waterskin, what was left of his trail rations, a scroll, a potion, and finally a wand which he grasped and held to his chest. Bubbles formed on his mouth as he gagged out a few words in a thick, unmusical voice and touched the wand to his throat. It emitted a milky light that soothed and knit the torn flesh it illuminated.

Tordek watched as the women competed with each other to fuss over the wounded half-elf. Vadania held up his head while Lidda washed away the blood on his face with her own waterskin. The elf snatched away the waterskin to bathe his arm, then Lidda took to stroking his uninjured hand and telling him that everything would be all right.

Tordek shook his head and turned to Gulo, his only remaining ally who had not become crippled or insane.

"How does he do that?" he asked the wolverine. Tordek was about to complain that Devis was not the only one in need of curing, but then he felt a warm and healthful glow where his lung had been pierced. Reaching awkwardly under his damaged breastplate, Tordek probed for the wound but felt only a hard knot where the hole should have been. It felt rough as sandstone and oddly cool against his warm skin.

He looked at the hammer still clenched in his grasp and quickly replaced it on his belt. A new question troubled his mind as he walked away from the women cooing over Devis and went to retrieve his dropped axe.