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-- 9/2/6526 --
Aristobulus had been lost in depression and had no idea how much time
had elapsed since he had fought with the dopplegangers. The scroll
carried by the doppleganger calling himself Xenocles had proved to be
nothing more than a spell scroll, and contained none of the wisdom Aristo
had so eagerly expected to find within it.
In hindsight, Aristobulus realized that he should have recognized
that the scroll had only magic spells inscribed on it because there was
only magical writing on it. Spells were the only thing ever written in
magical writing. But Ari had been so eager to gain a measure of the
knowledge Xenocles had implied to be contained in the scroll that his
reason had fled him before his lust for that wisdom the scroll had falsely
promised him.
However, the two spells inscribed on the scroll had forced Aristo to
concede that the scroll was not utterly worthless. He had copied the two
spells into his spellbook. One spell conveyed the ability to understand
languages, whilst the other created a giant web of spider silk.
Eventually his depression wore off and Aristo set about resuming his
explorations. He wandered around several passages, heading in the general
direction of the stairs down to the next level of caverns. At one point,
Aristo observed more than ten orcs coming towards him down one passage.
Being in a mood to avoid any possible fights, wanting to avoid any more
occurrences such as with the dopplegangers, Ari tried to hide himself from
the revolting humanoids.
But he was not quick enough, and the pack of orcs saw him slipping
into the shadows. One of the orcs pointed a grubby claw in Aristo's
direction, exclaiming something vague about elves. The orcs started to
charge Aristo, but never made it, instead running into his spell of sleep
whereupon they slowed down, dropped to the floor in an undignified manner,
and slipped into oblivious unconsciousness.
Aristobulus continued on his way, leaving the orcs for someone else
to tend to. Later on, he was more successful in concealing himself from a
group of humanoids similar to gnolls in appearance, being somewhat smaller
yet no less unpleasant seeming.
Once the gnoll-like humanoids were gone, Aristobulus continued on to
nose about in some empty rooms near the halfling lair, where he found an
alternate route to the stairs leading downwards that did not come close to
the halfling's guardpost, which he noticed was still manned.
After descending those stairs for the second time, Aristo found that
the remains of the two dopplegangers were long gone. He was not certain
exactly how that made him feel.
Ari skulked down several more passages until he noticed torchlight
streaming from one. Closer inspection showed that there were five humans
clustered together in one chamber where they appeared busy consulting some
sheet of parchment -- a map, maybe. They seemed to be arguing about which
direction to go in, so it probably was a map.
Perchance Aristo could lend a bit of his own brand of assistance,
demonstrate to them just how useless maps really were. Turning the
corner, Aristo strolled leisurely into the room, sounding out a casual,
"Hail and well met, fellow travellers."
"Hold!" bellowed one of the men. He turned on Aristobulus, his sword
in hand. Ari saw that besides this armor-plated bore, there was also a
woman who was clad in plate mail, her gender only determinable by certain
adjustments to the shape of the front of her armor, which appeared to have
been made for someone a bit less... robust?
Aside from those two, there was also a man and a woman dressed in
travel garb, both leaning on simple quarterstaves -- mages? thought Aristo
to himself. Spell-casters never did know how to use any decent weaponry.
There was also another woman who was wearing leather armor, and who was
definitely the most attractive member of the group, especially considering
she was just a human.
"Who are you?" demanded the woman in plate mail. Her tones were a
good deal more civil than those of her armored companion.
"I am known as Aristobulus the Dark. And yourself?" As long as at
least a few of them were civil, Aristo figured that this might last long
enough to become interesting. The woman introduced herself as Epiyutex,
and rattled off the names of her companions.
"You look mighty pale, elf. How long have you been down in these
dungeons?" prompted one of the men, Egamus, a paranoid squint in one eye.
Egamus looked at least a decade older than the rest of his companions, who
all looked to be in their early twenties, except for O'oti, the woman with
the quarterstaff, who looked to be at least as old as Egamus. With his
extra age, Egamus seemed to have developed an acute mistrust of strangers.
Maybe he was smarter than he looked, but then for a human, that left a
great deal of room for improvement.
Aristo started to open his mouth to respond, closed it, and thought
for a second before replying, "I couldn't say, actually. I have succeeded
in losing track of the date." But then, down here, what meaning did the
date have to Aristobulus?
Before Aristo could forestall her, O'oti belted out the current date.
Ari scowled in her direction as he stated, "That means I've been
travelling these tunnels for almost two months." Odd, in a way, it did
not seem like he had been down here that long, yet in a different way it
seemed as if it had been a great deal longer. But whatever the case, it
would never be long enough.
"Really?" considered Egamus aloud. "I always thought all elves hated
confining spaces, especially when they were underground... All elves,
that is, except for dark elves..." The human let that mistrustful
accusation linger in the air, much to the consternation of his companions,
who were not interested in getting into any unnecessary battles.
Rather than being insulted, Aristo considered to himself what it
would be like being a dark elf. The drow were said to have some weird
magical powers. From all he had heard about that evil race of elves,
Aristo wondered if he would enjoy being one of them. Probably not. They
were likely to be just as bad as all other races of elvenkind.
But to set matters straight, Aristo observed to Egamus, "I assume
that you have never seen a dark elf. Because if you had," he added,
holding up one pale hand, "you would know that they are known as `dark'
elves for more than one reason, and that their skin is as black as my
sense of humor."
"An elf with a dark sense of humor?" remarked Xar'la, the woman in
the leather armor. "I didn't think there was such a thing."
"If I'm the only one, all the better." Aristo fingered his whip a
moment, trying the think of a good way of demonstrating it, but gave up,
deciding that it might be better to wait until after these humans had
proved themselves to be otherwise useless.
When Aristo had touched his whip, the man in plate armor, Axon,
grunted a warning, shifting his grip on his sword as if waiting for an
excuse to run Ari through. Typical warrior-type, living only to kill and
be killed. No wonder they were a copper piece a dozen. Of course if it
were otherwise, then their kind would have died out long ago. But would
that be so very bad?
"I take it that you don't get along with other elves?" ascertained
Xar'la from Ari's comment.
"Does anyone?" quipped Ari. When he saw that she was about to probe
further into the matter, Ari said, "Sorry, but I've had this conversation
several times before. It only gets more boring. But what of yourselves?
How long have you been seeking your fortune down here?"
"What makes you think that we are fortune hunters?" bandied Egamus,
trying to appear enigmatic, and failing in Aristo's experienced eyes.
"You do not bear any resemblance to any of the regular denizens. You
look like you are relatively less incompetent that anyone else I've seen
down here. Still, I have been known to be wrong before, though I can't
for the life of me recall when."
Axon grunted in a rather joyful tone as he advanced on Aristo,
raising his sword. However, Epiyutex slammed her mace into his breast
plate, slowing the warrior enough for her to whisper something to him.
Although she pitched to whisper so only Axon would be able to hear it,
Aristo with his elven ears still made it out as being, "Back off, he might
be useful alive, not dead."
I could actually get to tolerate her, Aristo thought to himself. But
then, he did not care to waste the time it would take. So perhaps it
would be they who might prove to be useful to him. Alive, that is. Not
that that could entice Aristo to restrain himself from his normal attitude
towards others.
"Useful in what way?" Ari prompted Epiyutex, grinning inwardly when
she looked alarmed that he had heard her whisper.
"No doubt she means that you might be able to give us some
information about these dungeons," said O'oti, trying to smooth things
over, not wanting to offend a potential source of information. "After
all, since you've been down here for so long, you should be familiar with
many of these passageways."
"And what guidance would you seek from me?" inquired Aristo somewhat
contemptuously and sarcastically. "The location of some great treasure
hoard? Some feeble beasties to hack to bits? Or maybe you are looking
for a quick route to the surface? Maybe you irritated the wrong critters
and need an easy escape route?"
Catching Egamus's paranoid reaction -- which consisted of rapidly
checking all of the exits from the room -- at the last suggestion, Aristo
added, "Ah, you did bother the wrong chaps. Tsk, tsk."
"They were just lizard men," grunted Axon as if referring to
something not really worth his limited attention. O'oti just covered her
face and shook her head disconsolately, as if Axon were beyond all help.
"Lizard men, eh? Can't say I've ever had the pleasure. What did you
do, assassinate their leader?"
"Actually we raided their compound and appropriated a good deal of
their treasure," boasted Xar'la. "For some reason, it seems to have
gotten on their nerves and they have been following us ever since."
"I can't see why," sympathized Aristo, enjoying the sarcasm and the
fact that there was at least one other person about with a decent
attitude. "Why not just let them catch up and they give them a few
pointers on personal combat, as your companion seems so eager to do," Ari
added with a gesture towards the belligerent Axon.
"Are you mad? They outnumber us by at least two or three to one,"
shuddered Egamus.
"Probably. But anyway, I've been in fights where I've been
outnumbered by ten or fifteen to one, and I'm still up and about. Surely
you've not gotten this deep into these caverns without being at least
passably competent at defending yourselves, have you? So a few little
lizard men shouldn't be much of a threat to you."
"Little?" exclaimed Egamus, "Little!?! Lizard men are more than a
foot taller than I am!"
And no doubt braver, considered Aristobulus. Egamus was the tallest
of these humans, standing around an even six feet tall. But all of them
were taller than Ari's own five feet five, except for Xar'la, who was a
couple of inches shorter.
"Have you no imagination? I thought paranoiacs had highly active
imaginations." Aristo shook his head, instructing, "Then what you do is
get a nice big sword and cut them off at the knees. That way they won't
be so tall. In fact, they might have some trouble standing up without any
feet, but then people tend to die when you cut off their legs anyway, so
it won't much matter to them, now will it?"
Axon's dimwitted eyes brightened at this idea. Why hadn't he thought
of doing that?
"We are not cold and heartless killers," proclaimed Epiyutex
haughtily, obviously disgusted by so casual talk of such sadistic actions.
"Oh really?" observed Aristo. "Then tell me, how did you get the
treasure from the lizard men in the first place? Just waltz in and pick
it up? I should think that you would have had to do some killing then to
get to their treasure. Or is that some sort of double standard? Only
kill when there is a profit to be made?" Ari frowned deeply, adding, "It
was people like you who drove me to descend into these tunnels and lose
any desire of returning to the surface. I had hoped that none of your
kind would have infested this place."
Epiyutex seemed discomfited at the logic of Ari's statement, not
quite certain of her reasoning any more.
"What I think she was trying to say was..." started O'oti, trying to
smooth things over again, only to be cut off by Xar'la, who interjected,
"Never mind," waving her companion to be silent.
"You are an odd person," commented Egamus. "One moment you are
spouting ideas for torturing others, then you are arguing against a little
killing."
"I argue for nothing," Ari pointed out to the quarrelsome human. "I
merely cannot stand people who say one thing and then do another. They
are just like other elves, who claim to hold all life in great regard, and
then proceed to gleefully slaughter their enemies.
"Me, I prefer the simple expedient of casting away all false
etiquettes and pretentious appearances and accept existence as it is:
cold, cruel, and heartless. So it gets on my nerves when people act as
you do, saying a little killing is bad, right after you've killed a
number of creatures to steal their loot."
"That is not what I said," Epiyutex started to protest. But Aristo
waved her off, muttering, "Save it. I've heard it all before."
"I can see why you say you now live in these evil tunnels: Others
obviously cannot stand your attitude," uttered Epiyutex, growing angered.
"True. I have never met another person who liked to hear a truthful
perspective on life and existence. Everyone loathes hearing the truth,
preferring to live in their little fantasy worlds where everything is good
and perfect. I see that you are no different."
"Now wait just one bloody minute," Epiyutex protested angrily,
continuing on to argue some point of what she no doubt considered logic.
However, Aristo ignored her, cocking his head slightly, distracted at
hearing a faint sound from one of the passages. Almost immediately
another noise came from down a different passage. To Ari it sounded as if
someone where getting ready to spring an ambush on this chamber.
Observing Aristo's instinctive glance towards one of the passages,
Egamus became edgy, asking, "What is it?" His fellows seemed to be thrown
off their train of thought and confused by Egamus's question, since they
lacked his paranoid perception.
Ari was somewhat surprised. Had not these humans heard those sounds?
No, of course not -- they were just humans: deaf, dumb, and terminally
stupid. He started to turn towards one of the exits, planning on voiding
this surprise little party which no doubt was for the sole benefit of
these humans.
However, before Aristo could do so, lizard-like humanoids began
streaming into the huge chamber from all exits, hurling javelins into the
midst of the group of humans, spreading out to encircle their prey.
Aristo avowed to keep his explorations a solitary endeavor, that this
might never happen to him again.
Ari drew his weapons, noticing that O'oti had started waving her
hands flamboyantly, as if casting a spell in the gesticulating fashion
favored by humans. However, a hurled javelin creased her arm, causing her
to abandon her efforts, clutching at the minor wound and gasping as if
struck a mortal blow.
Then Aristo was distracted when a javelin bounced off of his
protective wards. Several of the other humans were hit and wounded by
the barrage of javelins, and then they closed ranks with the lizard men.
Aristo noticed Epiyutex being bashed in the head by a club, and would have
cheered had he not been busy carving a lizard man out of his path.
A burst of fire lit up the room momentarily, confirming Ari's
suspicion that either O'oti, Egamus, or both of them were mages. Epiyutex
was brained again and clattered noisily to the floor in her heavy metal
armor. Another lizard man dropped beneath Ari's flashing blades as Egamus
was felled by a large, spiked club. Then O'oti was flattened as well, and
still over half of the lizard men up and coming. Ari had not had the
opportunity to count the number of their assailants, but guessed that
there were well over a dozen.
A club smashed through Aristobulus's fading protective wards,
bruising his leg. Only he and Axon still were on their feet, facing off
against the remaining lizard men.
Aristo cut down another of the saurian humanoids as a different one
attacked him from behind, smashing its club against his shoulder, numbing
his arm. Ari spun around, slaying the offender then hitting another with
his dagger, surprised that it remained in his unfeeling grasp.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ari caught sight of Axon falling
beneath the onslaught of a large lizard man. Ari spitted another. But
the large lizard man trundled over and clubbed Aristo, momentarily
stunning him, following up with a glancing blow to Ari's already bruised
shoulder. Angered as his dagger fell from numb fingers, Aristo gutted the
bastard with his sword. Intestines spilled over the floor, causing the
lizard man to slip on his own insides and land face down in them.
Aristo spun around, expecting to be hit from behind by someone.
However, no one in the room was up or even moving, except for Xar'la, who
was weakly digging through her pack. Aristo stepped around the remains of
Epiyutex, whose head was turned around at a most unappealing and abnormal
angle. A spiked club was embedded in Egamus's forehead, prompting Aristo
to recall the axiom that even paranoid people have real enemies.
"Are you going to help, or are just going to stand there admiring
your handiwork?"
Ari faced Xar'la, who was now on her feet and appeared to be bothered
by no wounds whatsoever, despite the blood on her clothes. She tossed a
large metal vial to the floor where it rattled tinnily on the stone. It
took Ari a moment to realize that she must had quaffed a magic potion of
healing. He could use a few of them himself.
"You wouldn't happen to have any more healing potions, would you
now?" he asked of the woman.
"That was my last one," she pointed out as she looked over Epiyutex.
"She's dead."
"So I noticed," observed Aristo. He had to give her credit,
surprisingly few people of his acquaintance were able to recognize the
blatantly obvious.
"She was our healer," snarled Xar'la angrily. "Without her, we have
no means of healing ourselves." She seemed more peeved that she had no
other way of quick healing than by the fact that one of her companions
was dead.