A Weapon Too Free

The Way to the Altar

Essendra had no enthusiasm for another battle so soon after the last one, but the soft snuffling noises from around the next bend suggested it was likely. Again it fell to Piktadarys to investigate. The rest waited in silence, clustered around Essendra's lantern, for her return. Bhishani wove a small cantrip to prevent their voices carrying down the passage once she had.

"The glow we see is from another spawn point. Quite a big one. I think it's being guarded by its monster. An ogre, but..." she shuddered, "it looks like a nasty one."

"Describe it," Bhishani demanded.

"It has hunched shoulders. You can't even see its head from behind. But when it turned towards me it had no eyes. It had extra mouths there, full of teeth. Little mouths snarling and chewing. I got out of there as quickly as I could."

They turned to Bhishani. She shrugged.

"It is not known to me."

"Well, it's alone and there are five of us," Essendra said. "We're about to ruin its day. But let's not go in ham-handed."

"Six of us," Ursa said, almost to herself.

The tunnel was too narrow for them to advance will a full battle line, so Essendra and Piktadarys stayed in front and let the others follow. If the creature had no eyes, it would probably not notice the LightRocks, but Essendra took no chances and kept hers hidden inside its lantern case.

The tunnel opened into a circular cave with a single natural pillar in the middle. The pillar was broad enough that the cave was really more of a circular passageway. There were deep grooves in the floor,  cut by dragging claws over who could say how many years. Piktadarys and Butterfly went one way, Essendra and Bhishani the other.

Essendra was not entirely comfortable with being so close to a monster with weapons drawn, even an erstwhile ally. She had to fight the urge to sneak glances out of the corner of her eye. Essendra had lots of practice at pretending to be blithely unconcerned while remaining wary.

The ogre was as Piktadarys had described. It held a long pole-arm with a backwards-pointing spike. A nasty weapon to get hit with, not least because you would get caught and pulled closer to the hulking brute. The ogre sniffed the air, sensing them even in the dark. Essendra slipped the shutter open on her lantern, only to find no light was coming from the rock. She grabbed it out of the case and gave it a quick whack against the wall. The LightRock remained stubbornly dark but the ogre turned to face the source of the noise with pinpoint precision. The mouths in its eyes were chewing the air.

Essendra stepped forward and swung the mace. It caught the ogre on the shoulder and gouged a small wound.

She backed away.

"Something's not right here," she said.

Bhishani lunged in with her swords, left a line of blood on one of the ogre's shins, then barely made it out of the reach of the pole-arm's swing.

"Magic is being suppressed," Essendra realised.

The ogre lunged for them both and Essendra turned the thrust aside with her shield.

"Hey! Get back here!"

Ursa was shouting after Smaragdina, who had beaten a hasty retreat after Bhishani had spoken.

"Leave her," Piktadarys called from the other side of the pillar, "she knows she can't help us. She just doesn't want to become a liability."

She fired a crossbow quarrel into the ogre's shoulder. With the spawn point the only light source, she had to be careful. If her aim was poor she might hit one of the others.