The Bloody Eye

22

Krusk was disappointed as he watched Jozan rummage through the scroll cases. The cleric found two scrolls for curing wounds, but nothing else that could be helpful. Jozan explained that he only recognized the characters for curing wounds. He was sure there were useful scrolls in the pile, but he had no idea of their uses. Krusk debated grabbing some of the unidentified scrolls as back-up resources, but decided against playing with power he didn't understand.

The four retraced their steps past Qorrg's sentry post at the cavern mouth and into the shrieker's cavern. There, both Krusk and Yddith retrieved their knives. Krusk looked at the kitchen knife that Yddith had brought and shook his head. He had fought with mercenaries all over the known world, but he'd met few with the courage of this little tavern maid. He smiled with approval and gave his own dagger to her.

"If you're going to use a blade," the barbarian lectured, "you need the right kind. This one will fly truer than a tavern knife."

Both barbarian and barmaid laughed nervously as though sharing a private joke, and the group resumed its line of march.

Krusk took the point and Jozan backed him up. Yddith and Alhandra walked behind them, and Qorrg watched the rear. They edged by the pit trap once again and passed the shards of the gargoyle that had ambushed them. They were on their way to confront Calmet; they were confident; they fully expected to win.

As they reached the main tunnel, Jozan's sun symbol dimmed and darkened. Krusk quickly started to light a torch when he heard Yddith speaking. The cavern was bathed in a pale, green glow. The emerald faux eye was glowing and Yddith was smiling.

"Don't worry," she said, "I can't see out of that eye, anyway."

As amusing as Yddith's comment was, Krusk saw Jozan and Alhandra glance at each other with worried looks. Krusk was beginning to think the emerald necklace hadn't been such a fine gift, after all.

As Jozan studied the map of the tunnel system etched on the half-scroll, Krusk led the party toward the unholy shrine of Gruumsh. The map told them when to turn left instead of right and which side of the forked intersections they should take. Since it did not indicate any traps like the pit trap that had almost claimed Krusk, the half-orc kept prodding ahead of his step with the end of his bow.

As he turned the next corner, Krusk also discovered that the map didn't prepare them for the horrific creatures that awaited them.

Krusk faced one monstrosity with tentacles flailing from its head and another with claws like a gigantic crab. The monsters were waiting at the junction as though they expected the adventurers. Krusk didn't even pause, but nocked an arrow and released it at the tentacled monster before the others even rounded the corner. The arrow flew as true as Krusk had ever shot. He was certain that it would pierce one of the creature's eyes, but the arrow clattered against the wall on the far side of the creature as if the monstrosity had never been there.

As the barbarian fired the next arrow, Jozan stepped up beside him. The cleric's crossbow bolt and Krusk's arrow raced for the creature with the tentacles, and both missiles missed in exactly the same way. They were aimed precisely for the heart of the target one moment, then passed through it harmlessly the next.

"It has some sort of magical protection," suggested Jozan. "We'll have to move in."

No sooner had Jozan finished speaking than Alhandra rushed between them and closed on the smaller monster. Krusk followed her and reached the creature just as Alhandra parried its hammer blow and nicked it with a thrust of her sword. Not realizing that Alhandra's success had been a lucky shot, Krusk moved on to face the clawed monster. He didn't know that when the paladin hit the displacer construct, the sword didn't land where she aimed it.

Even when Jozan joined Krusk, the clawed monster showed no fear. The claws grabbed Jozan by the neck and squeezed until Jozan was bleeding and struggling to breathe. Seeing the danger, Krusk smashed his axe across the chitinous arms and cracked the thick, insectoid armor with the blow.

Krusk's blow weakened the creature, but it was Yddith's flare that saved Jozan. As Jozan pounded on the creature's torso and Krusk hacked off pieces of its armor, Yddith reached within herself and focused a flare of verdant light through her faux eye. The flash distracted the crablike creature, causing it to snarl and open its pincers reflexively in response. As Jozan sagged to the ground, Krusk splintered more chitin off the creature's arms.

Even blinded momentarily by the flare, the monster managed to grab Krusk and pinch the barbarian's left shoulder until blood rolled down the half-orc's arm. Desperately, Krusk sliced the blade of his greataxe into the thing's shoulder with enough force to rip the crablike appendage from the monster's torso. A moment later Jozan regained his feet and started hammering on the remaining arm, cracking open the exoskeleton and exposing the soft white flesh on the inside. The creature's fate was sealed when Krusk split open the chest of the monstrosity with a final, massive blow. The crablike creature wobbled and toppled under the barrage of blows before falling to the floor of the tunnel as a splintered, dismembered ruin.

With one atrocity down, Krusk glanced back up the tunnel toward Alhandra's battle. He saw Qorrg trying without luck to spear the monster. Alhandra's blade flashed unerringly toward the monster but, in a bizarre deja vu, what should have been a lethal blow to the creature's head barely nicked the monster's shoulder. Krusk shook his head to clear it. He was certain that Alhandra's swing was good, and he couldn't comprehend how it became a glancing blow. It was as if the beast wasn't entirely there, like one of Jozan's celestial summonings that was blinking back to its home plane.

Krusk charged Alhandra's foe just as she neatly sidestepped a blow and plunged her blade into the center of the monster's body. At least, Krusk expected the blade to slice through the monster's flesh. Instead, the sword slid past the hideous thing without touching it. One of the tentacles even managed to slice the paladin's face through her face mask, even as Alhandra slashed at her foe, and missed, once again.

Krusk stepped behind the creature and plunged his axe into its back. No satisfying shudder vibrated down the handle. There was no vibration because the half-orc, too, had missed the foe by several paces. The barbarian felt that what he was seeing was completely impossible. He heard Alhandra shout something about a displacer beast and realized that all he could do was keep fighting and hope that his axe blade and the monster's obscene body would eventually occupy the same place at the same time.

Krusk sensed Jozan at his side, but wasn't surprised that the cleric's mace only passed through empty air, even when it looked like it could not miss the atrocity. Barbarian, cleric, orc, and paladin all found that their efforts were ineffective. The target was rarely where it appeared to be.

Krusk felt his axe dig solidly into flesh. Wounding the monster won its attention, and the dark creation thrust both tentacles at the barbarian. They raked across his shoulders and chest so that he bled like a criminal at the whipping post. Yet, its attack against Krusk gave Alhandra the opportunity to slice neatly through one of the tentacles.

The dismemberment of the creature's tentacle changed the momentum of the fight. When the creature turned its attention back to Alhandra, both Krusk and Jozan began landing blows more often. Finally, Krusk's blade split the skull of the monster, and it fell forward onto the tip of Alhandra's sword. The monstrosity collapsed to the stone floor and lay still.

Seeing no other foes, both Krusk and Alhandra dropped to the ground in exhaustion. Krusk looked up and saw Jozan breathing heavily and rummaging swiftly through his pack. Yddith watched the tunnel in one direction and Qorrg stood sentinel over the other. The cleric removed two vials and offered one to each of his suffering comrades. Krusk quickly downed the potion and watched his wounds knit together. A moment later Alhandra was back on her feet and speaking.

"I don't suppose we need to wonder if they're expecting us," commented the paladin. "They wouldn't have left two vicious creatures like those in the main corridor if they were only expecting a slave train."

No one debated the issue. They merely readied their weapons and moved on.