Sons of the Earth

Northeast Maine, August 17, 1968

     The Wizard swallowed his pride and admitted that the Swordsman had found the perfect place. Beneath the ruins of what was once a large hill that had been dynamited, a nearly invisible, rusted door led into a series of rooms carved into the living rock.

     It was clear that the location had, at one point, been the site of a massive battle. Numerous bullets were found in the piles of rubbish and leaf litter gathered in the corners. The remnants of electrical outlets were also visible, some with wiring deep inside, too deep for scavengers to remove for scrap metal. While the pipes had also been scavenged, the remnants of plumbing were present too, along with a deep shaft filled with rubble and missing the doors and machinery that had, at one point, likely been an elevator. There was no way to know how deep the original installation had gone into the earth. When the hill covering it was dynamited, the resulting rock and dirt avalanche had filled most of it. Still, enough remained of the bunker that the Wizard knew it could be made livable and more importantly, defendable with little effort.

     The Wizard had pen and paper in hand, jotting down ideas for how they would build their bunker. He glowered in annoyance when the Swordsman suddenly brought the winds, blowing the scattered debris from the corners and showering the Wizard as he stood too close to the door. "What?" the Swordsman asked, the picture of blinking innocence. "I'm just cleaning up!"

     "You'd do better to go exploring," the Wizard retorted, kicking an old, flattened bullet toward his snickering companion and brushing the debris from his hair and beard. "Go into the plane of air and see if there's any way we can safely clear some of this rock. There are surely more rooms here than we can see."

     The Swordsman gave him a salute and disappeared, incidentally kicking up more dust that peppered the Wizard. Laughter was carried on the wind as the Wizard cursed.

     After a few moments, the winds returned, thankfully not stirring any more dust, and coalesced into the Swordsman. "Good news and bad," he reported. "The bad news is, there's likely not much to be done for most of the rooms. You'll likely be able to travel farther as shadow than I could as air, but it seems as though the very walls and ceilings have collapsed. There's one area, a long, natural cave, that we could likely clear. It leads to another opening around the back." He pointed with his finger. "I'm not sure we could do much with it, but it could provide an alternate entrance."

     "And another one we'll have to defend," the Wizard mused. "What's the good news?"

     "The good news is, what remains is quite solid," the Swordsman explained. "There's no easy way for anyone to get in through the rubble, which makes this bunker highly defensible. I've found cracks leading completely through the hill above," he said, pointing. "I could use them as a secret entrance and exit easily. And for you and our missing brother?" He pointed downward, an excited grin on his face. "There's another crack that leads to an underground river. Not only was that, apparently, the water source for this bunker, but it provides a means of entry and egress nearly as secretive and safe for the two of you as the one I've found for myself."

     "Well done!" the Wizard praised, giving the beaming Swordsman a pat on the arm. "Keep exploring. We should learn as much as we can about this place from what's left, before we head into town and research what it was. I'd very much like to know."

     "I know what you mean," the Swordsman agreed. "It's clearly modern, but what disaster could have happened to destroy it so, especially when it was built beneath a hill the size of this one?"

     "It would have taken some modern weapons or magic to do the damage we're seeing," the Wizard agreed. "I can sense no lingering traces of magic, though, and that's disturbing." He frowned at his map and looked around, turning a slow circle as he moved. "There's something familiar about this layout," he mused. "I feel as if I've visited a place like this before. Does it seem at all familiar to you?"

     "I'm afraid not."

     The Wizard hummed. "We need more information."

     The Swordsman nodded and vanished once more into the wind. "I'll keep looking."

     The Wizard nodded and kept up his own work, mapping out the cavernous rooms and making plans. He was startled when the Swordsman suddenly cried out in fear. With a snarl, the Wizard vanished into the shadow plane and raced towards the sound of his friend's voice, only to encounter a brick wall. "Story!" he roared.

     "Merlin!"

     To the Wizard's great relief, the wind was racing through a narrow crack he hadn't even noticed high up on the solid stone wall. He reformed when the Swordsman did, pulling the pale-faced, shaking Son of the Wind into his arms. "What happened?"

     "It's a tomb," the Swordsman replied through chattering teeth. He still had his sword clutched in his hands. Now he turned to fork the sign of the evil eye back at the wall. "Back there, through another bunch of rock and down nearly to the river, I found a room. But it's a tomb, Wizard! Bodies in glass coffins!"

     The Wizard's hair stood on end. He clutched his staff and nodded to his friend. "Show me."

     The Swordsman did, and suddenly, the Wizard had some answers to his questions.