Location: Attica (AEIOU)
Before we get to the main heroes, we still need to tell the tale of the first trip through the portal. Shakaar and Nerina Meadowleaf took the lead for the mission. Knowing that Ireth Elensar, the ship's galley chef, was also a diviner, they asked for her wisdom in regards to a trek through the portal.
Her answer came back cryptic, as it does from all diviners. She said, "There will be great success and great tragedy from this device. We will gain our independence through it, but the price of independence will be high."
When asked about the scope of her prediction, she said, "As long as the gods want to give for a time is how long it is. A thousand years are like a day. A day is like a thousand years."
"Cryptic as usual," Shakaar mumbled to Nerina. "I think we should go anyway. Maybe this 'great tragedy' and 'great price' will be many years down the road. Let's see what the others say."
Shakaar and Nerina went to the rest of the camp. Standing in the courtyard of the recently finished colony hall, Nerina made a persuasive and impassioned speech about the usefulness of the portal. The crops had just finished being planted and the ship's rations were all but depleted. This portal might be able to bring about trade and new food sources.
After her plea, six others, including Ireth the diviner, were prepared to use the portal. The group of eight adventurers tried to anticipate every possible situation they might encounter.
With no progress having been made on deciphering the other Drow markings, great debate arose over the combination to be used first. Everything from economics to ancient Drow religion was used to come up with reasons to use individual codes. Finally, Shakaar and Nerina's daughter Analos came up with an idea that seemed fair and rational to all.
"While not an expert on Drow language or culture," she said, "I think maybe the most prudent course of action would be to take the combinations in order." She looked at the older Elvish sages, who nodded back to her. "We've discovered that each symbol is at most used one time in each combination. We've also established the order in which these symbols appear in the Drow alphabet. The only course of action that seems fair and logical is to visit each place in the alphabetical order the combination would have in a Drow dictionary."
Almost everyone agreed with the idea. The only major dissenter was Shakaar himself. He still advanced his idea of using the combinations that actually spelled Drow words. He was quickly overruled and outvoted. The first sequence had been chosen: AEIOU. Whatever they would find on the other side of the portal, they knew, would change the colony forever.
They dialed up the portal with the chosen combination. The group of eight stood bravely before the portal, ready for whatever waited. Ready for any possibility.
Except what they found. They appeared on the edge of a scorched, dented battlefield with two armies engaged in fierce combat. Noticing the activiation of the portal, both commanders sent troops to fight the new enemy.
Nerina and Analos were the first to be wounded in the attack. Ireth and Shakaar both tried to convince the attackers that they posed no threat, but they were killed by the sword.
The other four in the group were captured by the rival armies. The armies began fighting each other again over proper possession of the prisoners. The four escaped, but not without Talia being shot as she ran.
They made it to a nearby cave. Outside of the major battlefield, they could figure out what to do next. Talia had been shot in the leg. Without an herbalist or a healer, Talia's wound was crudely dressed. The dressing didn't stop the blood flow. Talia grew weaker and weaker as the blood left her body. Arianna, Linwe and Elrohir tried to keep Talia calm.
Talia and Arianna bonded through the entire ordeal. Arianna kept her talking. Talia talked on and on about Marcus and Dale. "Dale's not even a year old and he's going to lose his mother," Talia said over and over. Arianna did her best to keep Talia's spirits up, but there was little hop of help from the colony. There were no backup rescuers coming through the portal any time soon.
When things looked their absolute bleakest, Talia made Arianna promise to take care of Marcus and Dale. She said with her dying breath, "Hey, he might even learn to like Elves."
Talia passed into the afterlife peacefully enough. Arianna was shaken by her final words. Could Marcus truly be racist against Elves? He had always seemed to get along just find with Shakaar on many points. Talia was near death, though. She could have been completely out of her mind.
For another hour, nobody said anything. Elrohir broke the silence. "We can't just stay here and die of starvation. We have to warn the colony about the dangers here. We don't need the entire colony coming here to be slaughtered little by little. Let's see if there is another way out."
The three Elves, who typically didn't like to be underground, followed the inset of the cave until they found what they thought to be an old mine shaft descending many feet below them. Without torches and the sun going down behind them, they could just barely make out the bottom and the bucket that could be used to lower them into another adventure.
Elrohir turned to the ladies, "Anyone want to see what's down there?" Arianna was hesitant, but Linwe was more than ready for a change of scenery. She pulled her dagger from its scabbard on her shin and said, "I'll go down as long as you can keep it steady and don't drop me like the clumsy ogre you are at sea!"
Linwe climbed into the bucket. Elrohir lowered her slowly into the darkness. After a couple of minutes, the bucket hit the bottom. Linwe could see lights off in the distance in at least five directions.
Linwe was about to shout up to Elrohir and Arianna when a large pawlike hand closed over her mouth. Stunned by the quick movements, Linwe couldn't even scream when the paw left her mouth.
She found herself in a small cavern surrounded by dwarves. Their axes were in their hands, sensing a threat to their homes.
"What are you doing here?" a grizzled old dwarf asked gruffly. He looked closely at the points of her ears. "Shaoctin?" he asked. The rest of the dwarves drew in closer with their axes.
"I don't know what you mean," Linwe said. "Who are the Shaoctin?"
"You are Shaoctin," the dwarf said. "The scourge of many lands has returned. How many of you are there?"
After Linwe climbed out of the bucket, Elrohir pulled it back up and let Arianna down. When Arianna hit bottom, she saw a large, dark shadow walking away from her. She yanked on the rope and Elrohir pulled the bucket back to the surface.
Elrohir let the rope feet through the hold as he pulled it back up. He climbed into the bucket. He lowered himself down the hole. The bucket jerked unevenly as his bulk kept sending him into the side of the shaft. Noisily he made it to the bottom.
Arianna told him about the large shadow. Seeing no sign of Linwe, they decided to follow the shadow. Maybe it would take them to her. They found her, surrounded by dwarves in a large cavern. It didn't look like she had been invited to this particular tea party.
Elrohir heard the last statement of the head dwarf, "You are Shaoctin." Shaoctin. The word echoed in his brain. He had heard it before. He knew it wasn't a good thing, but couldn't remember why. "The scourge of many lands" could be any empire's tyrant. But there was something about the name. How he wished he'd listened to Ireth's ramblings.
The dwarves were getting restless and edgy with Linwe's lack of cooperation. Elrohir and Arianna were far too outnumbered to put up a fight against the dwarves. He looked to Arianna for advice.
"I don't think we can fight them," she said.
"We're outnumbered eight to one," Elrohir said. "With your lack of training in the dagger, it might as well be fifteen to one."
"Then let's try talking," Arianna said. She emerged from the shadow of the cavern's entrance. "Excuse me," she started, "I was hoping we might be able to talk."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
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