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-- 9/19/6526 --
Aristo was bored of these confines, even if his wounds were not fully
healed. He had to get up and move; he could no longer stand this place.
There was nothing for him to do. He had honed his sword to a very fine
edge, he had mended every rip, tear, and sword-slash in his clothes, he
had talked to himself, he had even blasted numerous craters in one wall
with a magic spell.
He was bored, absolutely and truly bored. So bored, in fact, that he
had ended up crawling up the walls. Literally. With nothing else to do,
he had experimented with the spell of wall crawling that he had obtained
from that pair of warped mages upon whom he had unloaded Jimar's
spellbook.
He needed out of here. Besides, he was about out of food and it was
all he could do to keep himself from quaffing his potion of flying and see
what fun that would grant him, however briefly.
Thinking of potions, Aristo knew that he was going to have to lay his
hands on some of those healing potions like Xar'la had had -- or at least
something that would help to heal him faster. This waiting around for
nature to attend to it was interminable. Since it seemed that as long as
he remained in these tunnels -- and since he had no desire to ever leave
them as he had nothing on the surface of the world -- he would continue to
be attacked and wounded, he needed some means of healing himself. He
recalled something about magical rings that almost instantly regenerated
any damage inflicted upon their wears. Now that would be nice.
But so much for dreaming. As nice as it was, dreaming gained him
nothing but peace of mind, and that was not the goal of his quest.
Dreaming would not bring him any of the eldritch lore hidden somewhere
deep beneath the world. He would have to go and find it, since it would
not come to him. That would have been too easy.
Aristo exited through the secret door into the room where he had
found the three adventurers. This time, he found himself facing five dog-
headed humanoids. For an instant, Aristo thought that they were gnolls.
Yet there seemed to be something different about them. But never mind,
the five had been surprised by Aristo's unexpected entrance, so he figured
he might as well take advantage of it.
Ari cast a short spell of induced sleep upon them, watching as four
of their number dropped to the floor, snoring noisily. That left one of
them up and about. "Doesn't that just bloody well figure," he muttered to
himself. Lady Chance had always despised Aristo.
The last of the five swung its club at Aristo, almost hitting him but
for the protective wards he intelligently maintained. Ari nicked the
gnoll with his dagger, then ducked under another ill-aimed swing of its
club, pressing sword and dagger to their hilts into the gnoll's stomach,
detesting the feel of warm blood on his hands. It always took him days to
get all of the blood out from under his nails when that happened.
Aristo graciously slit the gnoll's throat, putting it out of its
misery -- besides, its canine whimpering was getting on his nerves -- and
then proceeded to do the same to the four others, as he had no wish for
them to live if they knew there was a secret door here. After all, then
it wouldn't be a secret, now would it?
Aristo considered the door leading from the room while he cleaned the
gore from his blades. Deciding that it would lead back into the room
where he had first met that strange trash-collecting cube, he instead
strolled down the passage in the opposite wall.
The passage twisted and turned, passing a couple of side passages.
Eventually it led to a dead-end, where a couple of ogres were pounding on
the walls, grunting something in their brutish language, no doubt cursing
dead-ends as Aristo generally did when they yielded no secret doors. But
then, Ari doubted that ogres would be bright enough to figure out how to
open a secret door short of using a battering ram.
He ducked back around the corner before the ten-foot tall humanoids
noticed his presence, not caring for a test of arms with a pair of them at
the moment. Nor was he in the mood to try his magicks on them, since he
doubted his spells were powerful enough to affect them. Instead, he
retreated back down the passage, deciding that the ogres would do the same
in time once their dull wits perceived that they could not continue
forwards.
Some time later the pair did come stumping down the passage, passing
by the smaller side passage where Ari was hiding without having even
noticed him. He followed the brutes, curious about where they were going.
He had never actually met an ogre in person before, not that it was
something he aspired to do. However, he had run into a half-ogre before,
a tavern keeper in the city of Drashain. A foul tempered cretin, he had
been. Aristo had tried to put out the crossbreed's one good eye as an
object lesson in manners, but had ended up sailing out the front of the
tavern. However, he had no intention of getting caught while giving these
ogres a few pointers on manners.
He followed them to see what they are about, noting that full-blooded
ogres were even more repugnant than he expected -- though not by much.
They definitely looked the part of thick-skulled clods, with sloping
foreheads and stooped shoulders, reminding Ari of tales he had heard about
certain tribes of primitive humans... Neanderthals, he believed they were
called.
These ogres might not be bright, and they might not learn very
easily, but that was all right, since Aristo hated teaching anyway, so his
techniques were very straight-forward and often cut right to the point, as
it were.
Aristo spied on them from around the corner as they made their way
into the room where the remains of the dead gnolls were laying. The pair
examined Ari's handiwork, prodding the corpses with their clubs to make
certain that they were indeed dead. The ogres grumbled something Aristo
could not understand, having never bothered to learn how to speak their
language. Nevertheless, since the ogres gathered up the fresh corpses and
stuffed them into a huge sack, Aristo assumed that they were muttering
something about lunch.
The pair continued onwards, passing though the room where Aristo had
long ago left that cleaning cube thing. The room was a lot cleaner -- for
shame -- but at least there was some new debris scattered around the room.
The ogres pressed onwards until they reached another room where they met
up with another pair of their kind.
The four humanoids conversed gruffly for a short while. Aristo
almost wished he could speak their language, though he could not imagine
how they could possibly have anything useful for him to eavesdrop on.
Besides, the one ogre patted the sack full of dead gnolls, indicating that
they were probably discussing their menu plans for the evening.
Aristo followed the ogres onwards as they headed along a passage
until they reached a stairway heading downwards. Aristo's mood
brightened. Now things were starting to look up. Or was that down? What
did it matter. He was heading deeper into these tunnels, and that is what
mattered to him, for the deeper he went, the closer he would be to finding
the lost wisdom said to reside down here.
The stairway opened up into a corridor that brought them into a huge
chamber, larger than any other Aristo had yet passed through. There were
a few other passages leading off from this chamber, but what caught
Aristo's attention were the massive double doors set in the opposite wall,
which were guarded by a pair of particularly dull-looking ogres: guards,
obviously. Set some ways up the wall over doorway there were a pair of
balconies, which would provide a clear view of the huge chamber.
Aristo spied upon the ogres for a bit, but after the four had gone
through the doorway, there remained only the two guards, who looked more
interested in following their food-bearing comrades, rather than staying
at their posts. But stay they did, and Aristobulus quickly grew bored of
watching them.
Trying to figure out how to get past the guards, Aristo decided not
to go for a simple frontal assault, since there would be no real finesse
in it. Instead, he opted to try his new spell which allowed him to crawl
along walls and ceilings. Thus far, he had only used it to while away the
time after Targ and company had thankfully departed, leaving Aristo to his
own amusements.
Waiting until the guards were not looking in his direction, Aristo
cast the spell and started scurrying up the wall like a spider. He
remained unnoticed by the none-too-vigilant ogres, easily making his way
to one of the balconies.
Peering over the balcony at the ogres below, he had to resist the
urge to drop something heavy on their heads. There was even a large pile
of heavy rocks at each side of the balcony, presumably for precisely that
purpose. Well, maybe not precisely that, since the rocks where likely to
be used for caving in the skulls of anyone who attacked the ogres, rather
than the ogres' own guards. But still, you could never be certain.
Aristo knew that he himself would have used the stones to make certain
that the guards remained more vigilant than they currently were, but then
not everyone has his own taste in such matters.
Easing through the unlocked door to the balcony, Aristo found himself
in a large room appointed with oversized furniture. The trappings of the
room were in remarkably good condition, especially for ogres, whom Aristo
had always assumed were at least as bad as orcs.
Then Ari's eyes alit upon an ogre-sized chest, and he was immediately
curious about what might be contained within. He was surprised that it
was this unguarded and accessible, and instantly became paranoid. Not
even ogres could possibly be that stupid. Considering the quality of the
furnishings in this room, Aristo assumed it was the private chamber of the
ogre's chieftain. As such, the chest was likely filled with treasure, or
at least whatever the ogre's considered to be treasure.
Yet Aristo could see no obvious protections on the chest, something
that truly surprised him. He had never found valuables to be unguarded
before. Even orcs guarded their treasure, such as it was. Making a quick
check of the chest, he found no traps, obvious or not. This only served
to increase the paranoid feeling Aristobulus had.
Deciding to leave the chest be for the moment, Aristo snuck over to
the only other door in the room. Listening, he heard nothing from the
other side. But still, this particular door was very heavy, made from
hardwood with plenty of metal reinforcement, and was probably at least a
foot thick. Even ogres would likely have a hard time getting through it,
so Aristo assumed it would block out all but the loudest of sounds as
well.
Easing open the heavy door took a bit of effort, even from Aristo,
who was quite strong, particularly for being an elf. Beyond the door was
another well-furnished chamber. Aristo was now certain that these were
the living chambers of the ogre chieftain. These ogres definitely lived
better than he had ever expected. They must be doing quite well for
themselves down here, Aristo considered to himself.
But still finding no forms of protection, Aristo became even more
paranoid about the chest. Something about this was totally wrong. Where
were the guards, the traps, the defenses, the fun stuff? If the ogres
lived this good, they could not possibly be this stupid.
He did so want to have a look in the chest, but his paranoia urged
him to hold off for the moment. There might be magic in the chest, and he
would love to get his grubby hands on some magic. Looking at his hands,
Aristobulus saw that they were indeed grubby. He could use a bath, and
wondered if the ogres had any such facilities, but immediately doubted it,
after recalling how bad those he had been following had smelled. Too bad,
for it is only when you are well and truly dirty that you need a good
bath, Aristo thought to himself. Only when he was this dirty were baths
worth it, rather than taking one or more every day, whether they were
needed or not, as was the case with his kin.
But Aristo pushed such thoughts aside, as thoughts of his family
always put him in a foul mood. Now was the time for good cheer and joyful
thoughts, for he was hidden in the abode of some ogres, and all manner of
entertaining things could be done here.
Aristo turned his attention to the other door in the living chamber,
examining it and finding it to be well-made, though not as much so as the
other one. Easing this door open as well, Aristo immediately felt better,
for there was an ogre outside, standing guard over these rooms. But only
one? That kind of depressed Aristo, for he would rather have had
something more challenging than a single ogre.
Deciding to have a look around this place, Aristo put off his
thoughts about the chest that was just sitting there. It simply was not
right. But how to get past this ogre? That would be a challenge to do
with flair, for the hallway was well lit and there was nothing to hide
behind. The chap who decorated it ought to be drawn and quartered for
that, Aristo told himself.
This depressed Aristobulus even further, for he much preferred to do
things with a bit of flair, which would be exceedingly difficult to do at
the moment. He considered blasting the ogre, or just putting the numskull
to sleep, unfortunately he did not think that such a spell would work on
an ogre.
The ogre was too tall for Aristo to strangle. Ari could encase him
in webs, but than the webs would block his path. Of course he could then
set the webs on fire, but the smoke might alert the other ogres, not to
mention that thick smoke always made Aristo choke and cough. Decisions,
decisions.
Aristo finally just shrugged and plunged his sword into the ogre's
back, hoping that the buffoon would have the good graces to die quietly.
In that the ogre did show some degree of refinement, for he expired with a
low moan, leaning against the wall and sliding down onto the floor with a
muted crash.
Aristo's eyebrows shot up in shock, never having expected that from a
member of a normally uncouth race. But never one to forget his own
manners -- even if he did frequently ignore them -- Aristo nodded towards
the corpse, saying "Thank you" in the proper elven form. Elven manners
could be useful at times, though still quite rarely.
Considering whether or not to hide the remains in the room, Aristo
chose not to, for he was not about to push his miserable luck and risk
throwing out his back. He did not care for a repeat performance of the
time he had tried to toss a fat acolyte down a stairwell and had only
managed to throw out his back and drop the obese bastard down the stairs.
Of course, the cretin broke his neck in the fall, which had had to suffice
for Aristo, who would have preferred the affect of seeing the fat fool
landing on top of the priest who had been standing at the bottom of the
stairs, rather than just bowling him over. Having a wrenched back was not
pleasant, especially when being chased by a troop of obese acolytes.
'Humiliating' was one word that came to mind.
Aristo stepped over the spreading pool of blood, making his way along
the passage. Not too far down the passage were a pair of doors, one on
either side of the passage. Aristo could hear a course, unpleasant sound
grating its way through one of the doors. Opening the door immediately
filled the hallway with the snores of a sleeping ogre that hurt Aristo's
sensitive elven ears. How he hated discordant noise. Ari darted over to
the sleeping form and quickly slit its throat so he could have a little
silence. The ogre fell silent instantly, and Aristo enjoyed the silence
as he cleaned off the blade of his dagger -- or at least the relative
silence, for he could still make out the distant muffed sounds of what he
assumed were partying ogres which filtered its way up the passage.
After checking that there was nothing of interest through the other
door, Ari headed down the corridor, which brought him to a fair-sized
room -- though on the small side by ogrish standards. Peeking around the
corner into the room, Aristo found another ogre lounging upon a beat-up
old sofa that looked as if it only just barely supported the ogre's bulk.
There was a passage exiting this room, but no way Aristo could reach it
without being seen by the ogre. Now, what to do with this annoying
fellow?
This was presumably another guard. The point of these guards was
entirely wasted on Aristo, since they were obviously stationed to keep
people from getting into the rooms that Aristo had just visited, and here
Aristo was trying to sneak past in the opposite direction. He knew just
striding past with a wave of his hand would not even work on an ogre, and
he doubted the ogre would be able to deduce any of the irony present in
this situation.
So Aristo needed a way to get past this bloody guard. Ah, but for a
nice ring of invisibility. Settling on a version of one of the oldest
tricks he knew, Aristo dug in his pouch for a gold coin which he flicked
through the room and into the other passage. The guard immediately
bounded to his feet in an amazing display of agility for an ogre and an
even more amazing groan of protest from the sofa, for it did not break in
the process.
When no one appeared from the passage, the ogre trod forward,
grunting something in his native tongue. Not giving the brute any further
opportunity for thought, Aristo skulked up behind him and planted his
sword to the hilt in the ogre's back. The life fled from the ogre's
body and it hit the floor with the heavy impact of a dead weight.
Aristo froze at the noise, waiting for any signs of having been
heard. After a few minutes, there was no change in the sounds coming from
the other passage. So Aristo headed down that passage, pausing only long
enough to recover his coin, for all it was worth. He was not sure if he
had really expected the ogre to fall for that old trick, but then, the old
tricks always seemed to be the ones that worked the best. Perhaps that is
why they had been around for so long.
This passageway ended at a stairway leading down to a door.
Descending and pausing before he opened the door, Aristo could hear the
gruff sounds of ogrish revelry beyond. Pushing it open, he found a heavy
tapestry hanging in front of the doorway. Slipping through the door,
Aristo hid behind the tapestry, peeking around it to spy upon the scene
before him.
In this huge chamber there were at least fifteen ogres clustered
around a massive table, enjoying a meal of something that was difficult to
identify, but which was presumably made from the gnoll-things Aristo had
slain and which that one pair of ogres had gathered up while Aristo had
been following them.
He would have liked to have a look around down here to see if the
ogres had anything noteworthy. However, although there were a few pillars
supporting the high ceiling of this chamber, they were insufficient for
cover, and there was not really all that much in the chamber to easily
hide behind. If he tried to slip out from behind this tapestry, Ari would
be taking a big chance of getting caught, not that that bothered him, but
then he would not be able to snoop around to see what the ogres had down
here. Still, there was that nice big chest upstairs.
Then Aristobulus noticed the huge ogre seated on the throne at the
back of the chamber. This ogre was massive and even more ugly that a
typical ogre, with blue skin instead of the normal dead yellow and a horn
sprouting from his forehead. A horn? Yes, it did look like it was real
and not just some decorative thing. Aristo had never heard of anything of
the sort.
Was this another half-ogre? If so, Aristo wondered what it's mother
looked like. It would take something truly repulsive to breed with an
ogre and produce a crossbreed like that. Perchance something demonic?
That brought a few thoughts to Aristo's mind. Perhaps things were
starting to look up. A demon -- even a half-demon -- would likely prove a
useful source of information.
While Aristo was trying to come up with an elegant plan, the horned
ogre on the throne grunted something in the ogres' language. It did not
take Ari long to figure out what it might have been, since one of ogres
reluctantly got up from the table and headed towards the main exit on the
opposite side of the chamber. Another got up and headed towards the
tapestry Aristo was hiding behind. It must have been time for a change of
the guard. That could be inconvenient, thought Aristo.
Ari silently cursed his bad luck and ill-timing in general. So much
for having fun with these ogres. He slipped back through the door and
closed it just as the ogre started to pull back the tapestry. Darting up
the stairs, Aristo hid around the corner, sword and dagger at the ready.
Granted, he could have tried to hide, but even dim-witted ogres should
have been able to figure out that they had a visitor when they found three
of their number dead. But Aristo decided that if he could take out this
guard in silence, he would be able to snoop around for a while longer.
As soon as the ogre rounded the corner, Aristo ran him through the
gut. The ogre bellowed in pain and Ari slashed him on the leg. Pissed
off, the ogre raised his club over his head, preparing to pile-drive this
puny elf before him. However, the ogre was not fast enough, and Aristo's
sword slashed upwards squarely between the ogre's massive legs. The
ogre's bellow became a sharp intake of air as he dropped his club and
doubled over, taking a half-step backwards. Unfortunately for the brute,
the stairs were there and not the floor, and the ogre tumbled backwards
down the stairs and fell silent after smashing into the door.