Quatha Vellar
Elnamerrna, docked
Midsummer 14th, 2461
Tyfelian toured the lively reunion party that he had allowed his crew in the cargo bay. He accepted praise and congratulations on recovering even two out of four, and he explained the situation about Melanerra to prevent the wrong rumors from spreading. Regarding Tash, he had no answers, so he just told them all that she had not been where he had expected, and that the issue was under investigation.
As the celebration went into full swing, Tyfelian edged through the crew toward Jalaysa.
Jalaysa had already been seeking him out, as well.
"We need to find out what happened to Tash," Tyfelian said to her, his voice as low as he could make it and still be heard over the boisterous revelry. "We're going to need her badly when we go after Bri'kerzz."
"If she did what I think she did, we're out of luck," Jalaysa replied, "at least anytime soon, and I'm not sure we want to put this off."
Tyfelian grimaced at those words.
"Without her, our chances for victory are slim," he noted.
"I know," Jalaysa said unhappily. "I think I know how to find out, but we'll have to go to Tash's quarters."
"Watch for me at the portside entrance," he told her. "When we can slip away without anyone missing us, we'll check on whatever you have in mind."
Jalaysa nodded and went back to the bash. Tyfelian did, too, and he shared hugs and tears with Trula and Fing, laughter with everyone, and reveled with his crew. He bade Kiran to do the same, but the first officer seemed uncomfortable.
Tyfelian ignored it. He was determined to do away with military procedure and style altogether, and he thought that this party was doing that quite well. Kiran would adapt, he felt sure.
Tyfelian kept on the move, talking to every crewmember. He paid special attention to Fing, Trula, and those who had been incarcerated at Sanction on Krynn, but he neglected no one. He smiled as he saw the crew truly reuniting, becoming a unit again. Not in the military sense, but in the sailor's sense.
In time, he slipped away, letting the crew continue their party. He made sure that the casks containing alcohol were secure—a reunion party was one thing, but it would not do to have his crew suffering hangovers when they were supposed to be gearing up for an attack on a demon lord—and stood at the portside entrance to the cargo bay.
Jalaysa noticed him and likewise detangled herself from the crew. She joined him there and they left, but they did not linger to allow the shrinking magic of the cargo bay to reverse. They hurried along the corridor, which was deserted except for the omnipresent watchdogs.
They swiftly walked the six feet—sixty feet at the size they were when they left the bay—to the side corridor that led to an access to the ship's lower deck. Here, they did wait for the size alteration magic to go away, out of sight of the party.
Back at their normal sizes, the half-drow and the elf went to the access. It was a five-feet diameter hole in the floor at the end of the corridor, with ladder rungs bolted into the inner hull.
They climbed down, then up again. Neither of them, by appearances, paid any mind to the identical but reversed steel triangles that gave the mirror-frame its name. Neither did they give more than a passing thought to the glittering steel chain links of the magical gravity stabilization belt that kept the gravity two-directional regardless of larger gravity planes coming too close.
Such wonders were old news to them now, but Tyfelian reminded himself to credit the Rada, who had designed the triops with two identical, mating frames, and the Mercane, who had made that gravity stabilizer, and sold it to him for less money than they should have, in return for a favor.
Here, the matching upper and lower frames joined, held together by big bolts, braces, and heavy latches that were weaker, but more numerous, than in any other area. A small fraction of the gravity stabilization belt was visible at this spot, appearing as a steel chain mesh a yard wide, running parallel to the ship's gravity line. The inner hull hid the rest of the belt, except at the other access.
Tyfelian thought of the Mercane and the Rada when they came to the middle, where the hard work of both races was clearly visible. He tried to spare them a thought whenever he used the accesses, to keep him mindful of his own limitations. He could not build or even design a structure such as the Elnamerrna, and likewise, he could not create magical devices. He was essentially skilled only at leading others and killing, not creating, though he had turned to adventuring to make moral use of his talents.
They left the access shaft on the Elnamerrna's lower deck. Like the hull and the two halves of the frame, the lower deck was virtually identical in layout to the upper one, merely upside down. However, Barolcot had made some skillful changes.
They rounded the corner and faced a multi-partitioned wall. It and its door were sheathed in adamantite. The lab was behind that, sealed. That way, if Alzja blew herself to kingdom come tinkering with fluids, it wouldn't destroy the entire deck.
Tyfelian opened a different door, the one immediately to his right. This led to a short hallway. To the left, along its length, it led to a door. That one was a second entrance to the lab and was sheathed for that reason. Two other doors stood closed on the opposite wall from Tyfelian and Jalaysa.
The one on the right was Alzja's door. Tyfelian walked right past it to the other one, closer to the lab door. This was Tash's door, now sealed almost as well as the lab. Tyfelian had secured it a few days after the ship had left Krynn, in the hope that Tash might use it again. It was trapped, but Tyfelian had painted a notice to that effect on the door, beside warnings to keep out.
He jammed a tiny breaker bar into the pivot of the nasty pendulum trap he had set, and drew a key from his belt pouch to unlock the bolt.
"I hope Tash isn't sitting in there, mad as hell and ready to blow us to Krynnspace," Tyfelian said, not joking.
Jalaysa nodded. Tash had never been angry with her, nor with Tyfelian, as far as she knew, and both she and Tyfelian were glad of it.
They stepped into Tash's quarters hesitantly, but she wasn't there. Tyfelian didn't know whether to feel relief or disappointment at that, but the tiny room was just as he remembered it—it contained little more than Tash's luxurious oval bed and a small nightstand. Subdued magical lights glowed from the walls, near the floor, reflected in a large wall mirror, but that was all. The only decoration was a magically duplicated copy of one of Tyfelian's paintings, a view of Erilonia from orbit. This sat in a glassteel frame on the right-hand wall.
"Not much here," Jalaysa said, frowning. She had never been in her teacher's room before.
Tyfelian smiled.
"Tash's life was on the bridge."
Jalaysa drew forth her scrying mirror and began to check the area. She found what she was looking for very fast, for she was literally standing right beside it.
"There," she said. "Under the bed."
Tyfelian did not hesitate. He moved to the left side of the bed, standing right in front of the nightstand, and turned the bed on its side. He spotted what Jalaysa was talking about right away—a large rectangle cut in the plush carpet. There, Tash had cut out a rectangle, but had then put the carpet material back where it was supposed to be.
Tyfelian's fingers slid under the carpet patch and he lifted it.
He frowned at what he saw there, not understanding it. Tash had hidden a strange glassteel object under the floor. It strongly resembled a coffin, but the crafter had made it entirely of glassteel. A black-skinned humanoid figure with blond hair lay in the thing, submerged in a light blue liquid.
"Tash?" he called to the figure, reaching out to open the lid and pull her out.
Jalaysa grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"No, don't," she said. "That's Tash... or a clone of her, I should say," she explained.
At Tyfelian's quizzical glance, she shook her head.
"I'll explain, but..." she trailed off, and then sighed.
"There goes our chance to have her with us," she said regretfully.
Quatha Vellar
Elnamerrna, docked
Midsummer 14th, 2461
"That's it," Jalaysa told them sadly, but firmly, folding her hands on the conference table on the bridge. "Tash will be back, but it'll be at least two months, maybe five."
"Can we wait that long?" Sildara asked. She and Menlina were not seated; they leaned against the banister on the portside of the bridge. "Tyfelian was right when he said that we need our archmage to attack a demon lord."
A pause ensued.
At length, Tyfelian himself answered.
"Unfortunately, the answer to that is no. If we wait, Bri'kerzz might send an attack at any time. Oh, maybe he's running scared right now, but in a month or so, I'd wager, he'll get his spine back and start in again. He knows we're on to him up here in space, but what if he sends forces to Embimura? Or Itreya? Millions of innocent people would die... exactly what he wants."
"I can't speak for the rest of you, but I don't want something like that on my conscience," Fing stated, her lips trembling at the thought of the staggering loss of life in Hearthspace that would happen when Bri'kerzz tried again. "We can go to him and try."
Sildara couldn't hold back a smile at her words. She had learned about the kender race's lack of fear, and only someone who did not feel that emotion would have phrased such a statement exactly like that.
"But we could be killed trying," the Svart Alfar captain pointed out.
"Better that than to sit here and let Bri'kerzz kill," Fing said. "Let's do it. We can take him."
"I can't even imagine how dangerous it is," the Elnamerrna commented, "but I do not fancy the thought of flying forever through skies over the lands of an Abyssal Lord."
Tyfelian clenched his fist, torn. He wanted to go, but without Tash, such an attack might very well be suicidal. Even with her, the risk would have been substantial; the casualties would have been heavy even with success.
At length, he made his decision.
"We go," he told them. "Kiran, write up a full report for the crew. No need to take them outside again, but advise them that we're trying this without Tash's help, and Melanerra won't be with us, either. Any of them can disembark before we leave for Vinespace.
"All wizards, get to your quarters and load yourselves up on battle scrolls. Alzja, make as many healing potions in that lab as you can in the next week."
He dismissed them with a nod.
"And lastly," he called to them before the first out—Sildara—had left, "hope to the gods that Fing is right."
They filed out of the bridge.
"May Vesgar's spirit watch over us, wherever he is," Kiran prayed to the historical figure that was something of a patron saint to him—even more so now, since Kiran carried the legendary paladin's battle gear.
"We need Tash," Tyfelian murmured, "but Melanerra is just as important. I hope we can do without them for this one."
"Taronin willing," Kiran said, and left to help the crew prepare.
Yalthra'teyka
Lord Bri'kerzz
Midsummer 14th, 2461
Bri'kerzz swept into his throne room.
Dretch already stood there quietly. It looked up as The Master charged into the room, expecting punishment or at least a stern questioning, but Bri'kerzz just breezed up to his throne and sat.
Bri'kerzz clenched his reptilian jaw and stared at nothing for a few moments, brooding, muttering obscenities at Tyfelian and the Elnamerrna.
"Why haven't they done anything?" he snarled. "I wish they'd just come to me and get it over with."
"Master?"
"We'll never get Hearthspace with them in our way," Bri'kerzz spat. "They'll stop every plan I come up with... I knew they were trouble the second they set me free."
Bri'kerzz resumed his musing, his narrow pupils locked on the door, feeling caged and frustrated. Finally, he roused himself.
"Dretch, increase the watch upon the walls and call reinforcements for the palace guard. Post guards at every entrance to the palace."
"Yes, Master."
"Advise them to expect an enemy who can appear from nowhere and kill quickly."
"What 'bout in here?"
"Never mind inside. If they make it this close to me, I'll handle them myself. Bring Flal-ta, Ladthiac, and Hlack to me."
"Master," Dretch bowed.
Bri'kerzz watched him go, determined to explore the mystery of what Dretch really was as soon as Tyfelian and his miserable sailors had been exterminated. Even in his moment of worry, he wondered about Dretch—a real dretch with unusual powers, or something else entirely? He really couldn't tell without a more lengthy and thorough examination than he could perform on short notice.
His evil mind then turned back to the matter at hand.
"Come to me, Tyfelian."
Quatha Vellar
Elnamerrna, docked
Midsummer 22nd, 2461
Tyfelian toured the ship.
He watched with satisfaction at his crew's preparations to march off to war. Every wizard except Alzja was secluded away in their quarters, penning scrolls, loading up on attack and defense magic. Alzja worked hard in the lab, brewing healing potions. Jaclyn fused mental power into her strange psionic rods, storing it up for use later on, in battle. The bulk of the crew used the ship's supplies of whetstones, hammers, and cleaning implements to sharpen their blades and check their armor. Clasto carefully prepared backpacks for everyone containing large amounts of rations for an overland, extraplanar journey.
None of the crew had bowed out of the attack on Bri'kerzz. Tyfelian and Kiran had assembled a crew of forty that could not resist challenge. Moreover, there was little to lose from trying, in the end, especially for those crewmen native to Hearthspace.
Kiran had left the ship, saying vaguely that he needed to check into something. Tyfelian did not really believe that Kiran had given the real reason, but he knew the paladin well enough to be sure that, whatever he was doing, he was not wasting time.
Tyfelian watched the crewmembers work with pride. They would march into battle against Bri'kerzz's legions with power.
He finally ended up at the stern, where he entered the same weapon bay that "Autumn" had sneaked through once before to deliver her message. There, he found the aft weapon abandoned, but the guards stood post still. One watched out the opening. It would have been a common sight for the others to be playing cards, but not now; they worked on their weapons and armor.
Not wishing to disturb them, Tyfelian moved away and went to the bridge.
Guards stood watch there, but otherwise the bridge was deserted. One guard surrendered Tyfelian's seat to him.
Tyfelian waved away any report from the guard; he expected nothing important. He glanced up with more than a passing interest at the new tapestry adorning the ceiling of the bridge. Tyfelian was delighted with the fact that the tapestry allowed anyone on the bridge to talk with the ship. He did not know for a fact where the tapestry had come from... though he had his own ideas. Only a god could have made a magical device that fast.
"Elnamerrna?"
"Yes?" the tinkling, pleasant voice replied.
"We're about to leave for an attack on that demon prince in the Abyss," Tyfelian told the vessel. "No one will be on board during our quest, and there is most definitely a chance that we won't come back."
"Take me with you," the Elnamerrna urged. "I can help."
"Oh, we will," the half-drow explained. "We have no idea what kind of terrain we'll have to cross to get to Bri'kerzz. We don't know that the helm will work in his domain, but we might have to try it. I think it might be up to him."
"I see," the Elnamerrna replied. "In the unlikely event that Bri'kerzz defeats all of you, what will become of me? I really do not want to end up in his clutches."
Tyfelian laughed very softly at the ship's choice of words. She had obviously meant the words to be encouraging, even if they were just as obviously wrong. He leaned back in his seat, thinking, then his gaze flickered up to the ceiling.
"If you like, I can have Alzja or Jalaysa set a trap that will destroy you thoroughly, if someone who doesn't know what they're doing plays with the deadbox."
Tyfelian winced, for his words had sounded rather cold-blooded, but the Elnamerrna replied, "That will do nicely. I'd rather be nothing than to have an Abyssal Lord in your chair."
Tyfelian looked unseeing at the outeye for a moment, but then Kiran stepped into the bridge.
The half-drow flashed a smile at his friend, but Kiran was all seriousness as he took his seat.
"What's our plan of attack?"
"We'll try finding Bri'kerzz's portal in Vinespace if it's still there," Tyfelian explained. "If that comes to nothing, we'll go home, to Nacla, and do it the hard way."
"That portal leads to the top of the Abyss," Kiran noted, "but if we must... " he nodded, agreeing with Tyfelian's plan.
"Fifty of us, against so many demons," Kiran said grimly, changing the subject a little. "I know that the crew is good, but still... I think it'd be much better to have more forces."
"I thought of that, too, but hiring mercenaries to go to the Abyss wouldn't be easy. It took months for me to round up enough to go to Tatissadane and sack one district there, back in the day."
"I can double our numbers," Kiran said as he stood and crossed to the portside door, though his tone indicated that he was not thrilled about something. "Today," he added.
"How?" Tyfelian asked, intrigued.
"Please come in, Captain Wrackblood," Kiran said by way of answer, opening the door.
Tyfelian stared at his first officer, and then at the scro, stunned.
Wrackblood entered, ducking his head slightly, and looked around at the bridge with interest. His own ship Harbinger had fought against and beside the Elnamerrna, but he had never been on board.
Tyfelian recovered from his surprise and stood courteously.
"Captain?"
"I understand that you would like some help from me, my old enemy," Wrackblood stated. "I have nothing better to do, nor do my men. We'll accompany you."
"Even to the very Abyss itself?" Tyfelian queried with disbelief.
"Even there," Wrackblood said evenly.
"Has the defeat of your home world given you a death wish?" Tyfelian demanded.
"Do you have one?" Wrackblood returned.
"No," Tyfelian replied slowly. "I just have to try."
The half-drow paused, looking at Wrackblood with puzzlement.
"Why do you choose to help me?" Tyfelian asked curiously.
"I've been offered employment by the Lady Mayor of this station," the scro replied. "As my first assignment in protecting Quatha Vellar, it is fitting that I go on campaign against a threat to the crystal shell itself."
"Ah," Tyfelian smiled, now understanding. "Kiran told you, I take it? So, you feel it won't do you much good to accept that job if the crystal shell winds up in Yalthra'teyka?"
"That is exactly right."
"We can't just ignore out of hand the assistance of fifty trained scro marines, and the captain and Morkitar themselves," Kiran pointed out, though he still didn't sound... extremely happy about the idea. Forming an alliance with an evildoer did not settle well with the paladin, Tyfelian saw.
"Even you can't argue the wisdom?" Tyfelian marveled under his breath, but Kiran heard him and nodded, just once.
"Very well, Captain," Tyfelian said with uncertain awe as he reached for the scro's hand. "I accept your allegiance."
"This is essentially your quest, so you will be in overall command for the duration of our military operation," Wrackblood told him, grasping wrists. "Be warned... it will be a dire matter for you, in the Afterlife, if you lead us to our deaths and it is all for nothing."
"I have no such intentions," Tyfelian stated. "I mean to destroy Bri'kerzz and come back here."
"Agreed," Wrackblood said. "When do we leave?"
"We're preparing for the journey—I'd say tomorrow afternoon sometime, but it may be later, since Clasto will have to prepare more backpacks now."
"Rations?"
"Right," Tyfelian nodded once. "There are too many unknowns to just go there equipped for a short expedition. We can come back at will, but it's not so easy."
"I understand," Wrackblood said. "I will return tomorrow in the mid-afternoon."
The scro bowed slightly and left in the company of a crewman.
"You amaze me, Kiran," Tyfelian said to the human. "How'd you convince him to help us?"
"I told him everything," Kiran said simply. "The truth can be terrifying, but it works."
Tyfelian looked at his friend with a widening smile, and then waved him to follow.
"Let's get them ready."
Hearthspace
Elnamerrna and Harbinger, leaving Itreyan Gateway 854
Midsummer 23rd, 2461
The two triops came through at 854 and soared for the crystal shell wall, the Elnamerrna leading. They left Hearthspace, made swift progress to the flowriver heading for Vinespace, and reached that crystal shell almost as quickly as the Elnamerrna had done the first time. Faprol, at the helm, had to hold back on the speed, for the Harbinger could not match the Silver Triop's velocity.
They opened a portal, and the ships entered Vinespace.
"Spiral course again, helm," Tyfelian ordered the second that he saw the endless vines. "Find the shaft."
He clicked the voice horn to Crow's Nest.
"Lygalliz, we need to find that shaft again," he called.
"I'll find it," the hurwaet replied.
They waited out the moments of searching until Lygalliz called his sighting.
"I've found it. Starboard thirty degrees and forward... but it doesn't look the same."
As Faprol turned the ship, Tyfelian asked Lygalliz, "Let me guess—it's collapsing?"
"Not too bad, but yes, it's saggy."
"Keep a sharp watch as we go in," Tyfelian told him. "Signal the Harbinger as to the dangers in there."
Lygalliz did.
Tyfelian kept his eyes sharply upon the outeye as the Silver Triop and her Dukagsh Imperial Navy counterpart dove into it nose-first.
"Halfway down," Alzja reported from navigation.
"Narrow spot ahead," Lygalliz called from the crow's nest.
Tyfelian stood tensely. "Reduce speed."
"Too narrow ahead to proceed," Lygalliz called as they neared the severely crumpled area of the vine-shaft.
"Full stop, helm."
Tyfelian sized up their problem as they got close enough to see it with the outeye. It appeared that, without maintenance from the enormous spiders of Vinespace, the vine-web had sagged to a degree. Tyfelian guessed that a wreckboat or similar small craft might be able to pass, but nothing approaching the size of a triop-class starship could hope to go through there.
"Can we push our way through?" he asked Faprol.
"I'm sure we can, but you'd better evacuate every opening and seal them off, and get Lygalliz out of the nest," the young drow replied.
"Lygalliz, flash the Harbinger to follow us through the folds closely, then come to the bridge immediately," Tyfelian called through the horn. "Do not call for a relief."
"All right," the hurwaet replied uncertainly.
Tyfelian switched the horn to Shipwide.
"All hands, evacuate all openings to space and seal them off," Tyfelian ordered the crew. He then shut the horn off and sat down once more.
Abt entered the bridge a moment later.
"The ship is secure," the minotaur advised.
"Helm, take us straight through. Slowly."
Faprol nosed the Silver Triop down through the drooping folds of the vine-shaft. The sound of the vines sliding over the hull seemed alarming compared the quiet movement of a ship in space. Faprol felt the crow's nest pushing through the vegetation and knew he had been wise in advising Tyfelian to get the lookout out of it. The vines might very well have crushed Lygalliz, or pulled him out of the nest to be left behind.
Presently, though, Faprol felt something else, as he'd expected. The Elnamerrna entered a gravity envelope—that of Yelthontrel, of course. Faprol felt the vines ease back from the hull as the ship slipped into the vine-cavern. He slowed the ship, so that he could have a look around with the helm's wraparound view. He saw nothing, so he reoriented the ship, bottom down, to land.
Behind the Elnamerrna, the Harbinger mirrored the movement and both ships landed a slight distance from each other.
"All hands, prepare to disembark," Tyfelian called to the crew with the voice horn. "Alzja, get that shrink bag of yours and stuff it full of everything—including cold weather gear."
"Already done," she replied with a smirk.
A slight smile touched Tyfelian's lips, too, but he said nothing, just waved the command crew and Faprol out of the bridge.
He turned to face the bridge when he reached the doorway himself.
His large eyes scanned the bridge. The unwavering gaze took in the mechanical clock and calendar, his chair and Kiran's, the conference table, the stairs from the command platform, the spelljammer helm, the unseen crew member device, the outeye...
Hoping that he could remember the sight after death, he closed his eyes and committed the appearance of the bridge to memory. He knew that he might never see the Elnamerrna again, for it was possible that they would not need her, or would be unable to use the helm, on Yalthra'teyka.
"Farewell, Elnamerrna," he said to the vessel.
"Good luck, Tyfelian," the Silver Triop replied. "Expand me later if you need me... and fight him hard."
"Every effort," the half-drow replied, and then he swiftly closed the door to get to work.
Yelthontrel
Elnamerrna crew and Harbinger crew
Midsummer 23rd, 2461
Tyfelian led the crews through the vine-maze and down the spiral vine-web. Their progress was slow, because the vine structures, now abandoned, had started to deteriorate. It was easy to see the decline. The fall-shafts no longer worked, so they had to do quite a bit of climbing.
"Nothin' lasts forever without maintenance," Barolcot commented when a crewman asked about the poor condition of the woven stronghold. "The spider's've likely all went wild, so they ain't doin' the work anymore."
"Watch your step," Tyfelian warned the dwarf of a rip in the weave. Barolcot carefully climbed down around it.
After what felt like an interminable journey, they found the bottom of the vine-web and climbed down to Yelthontrel.
Wrackblood looked around with interest. He wondered what the tiny planetoid might be composed of, but he held the question. To his mind, it wasn't important.
"This way," Tyfelian noted for him. The Elnamerrna crew began probing the softly glowing surface to find the hidden entryway again. When Abt found it with a swing of his enormous axe, Tyfelian checked it for guards, and then he and Wrackblood boldly stepped right into it.
The two crews encountered no resistance—indeed, nothing at all—during their walk down the immense stairway to the place that had been Mazarixopellin's lair. Tyfelian and Wrackblood walked down the outer hallway, past the husks of three dead giant spiders, still attached to dusty draglines suspended from the ceiling.
"Kreg and Abt," Tyfelian credited the kills, glancing approvingly at the ogre and the minotaur, responding to Wrackblood's questioning look.
Wrackblood and Morkitar raised their eyebrows at each other when they beheld the carnage in that throne room. The debris, the dried pools of blood, and the skeletons stood out in mute testimony to the wrath of the Elnamerrna crew.
Wrackblood walked up to the throne. His feet flicked wreckage and vermin aside with every step.
"Whose was this, originally?"
"Don't know," Tyfelian replied briefly. "I think Krynderyl commanded this place, but I'm not sure. We met the red wyrm first—the demon lieutenant came later."
Wrackblood nodded, then turned away from the throne.
"Where might this portal be?"
"No idea," Tyfelian shrugged, "but there has to be one somewhere, or at least there was one."
"Lead on, then," the scro captain said with a spread of his hands.
Tyfelian thought, then moved off to the right of the throne. The half-drow shoved a partially destroyed door aside and walked down the side passage revealed there, Wrackblood at his side.
His eyes combed the short connecting hall and the chamber beyond that. It appeared to Tyfelian's eyes that this place might have been a tiny chapel at one time, though to what god, he had no idea. Only dust remained of the tapestries; naught but small snarls of rust marked where braziers and other metal items had stood.
He saw nothing that could have been a portal, though, so he and Wrackblood backtracked to the throne room and tried the opposite door, which hung askew on its hinges.
"A chapel," the half-drow told the crews.
Wrackblood kicked the opposite door out of the way and looked into the corridor.
"Ah," Tyfelian said with relish.
He waved the crews to follow for this one. A much longer hallway led off into cobwebby darkness.
One hundred marched down the tunnel. Wrackblood took point behind scouting Trula, but about fifty feet later he slowed his pace.
"I smell heat," the scro noted.
"What?" Tyfelian hissed quietly.
"Something's burning down there. Not food."
Tyfelian's eyebrow arched, and he heard the reassuring sounds of the wizards preparing spells. He and Wrackblood resumed their march. The connecting tunnel opened into another chamber a short distance farther. Trula stood at the entrance, waiting for them.
"Guard post," she whispered.
Wrackblood's eyes scanned the place. Sure enough, rigged barricades filled the place. The barricades looked like modified versions of the shields used by very tall giants—wood, reinforced with metal. They had clearly been abandoned by whatever sentinels had stood post behind them.
The crews slowly filled the large place and examined it. The room looked too angular, as though carved out of the native kerteoite by magic—disintegration spells cast by a being with no artistry, just competence.
Tyfelian was more interested in the barricades, though. Fairly well-constructed, they had not suffered any damage.
"Hmm," Tyfelian muttered thoughtfully. "We never got this far when we were here before. The sentries didn't flee. They just... left."
Wrackblood stared at the abandoned barricades, then flicked a glance at the huge door on the opposite wall.
"C'mon."
Wrackblood pushed on the door, but it did not budge. Tyfelian called for Jalaysa, and she cast a spell upon the door to open it, but there was no effect; when Wrackblood tried again, the door still would not open.
"Proofed against spells of opening," Jalaysa snarled softly.
Tyfelian called for Kreg and Abt, and they lunged at it with their shoulders with Wrackblood.
Under the weight of a thousand pounds of ogre, minotaur, and scro, the door blew open into the place beyond. The bar that had held it dangled, still in a hook on the hinge side of the door but not the latch side. The hook for the latch side clattered on the floor. Kreg kicked it aside as he walked into the place.
"Umph," the ogre snorted. "Hot in here."
"Yeah," Abt agreed.
Tyfelian followed them in curiously. The heat and mugginess enveloped him, but he had adventured in jungles on planets that had felt worse. However, the hall they'd entered looked more interesting.
The soft, greenish-white glow of Yelthontrel's kerteoite was gone here. A hellish crimson light illuminated the hall. Giant statues of demons lined the entire wall length of the area, including some that none of them, even Tyfelian, familiar with demons from his youth, had ever seen before. A lava pit sat, bubbling sullenly, in the center of the hall.
The half-drow made a disgusted face at the images, then glanced around for a way to continue. He had no wish to linger, despite the possible additions to his notes about tanar'ri.
The only way out that he could see was another giant door to his left. It occurred to him to look for secret doors, but he decided not to do that—his intuition called to him that the portal to Yalthra'teyka, however heavily guarded, would not be found lying behind hidden entryways.
He pushed on the door. He noted with no surprise that he could not open it, so he waved to his larger allies, who bashed it open readily enough. The holding bar flew off this time and smashed into a barricade.
Beyond, they found another guard post. Just as strongly barricaded as the outer post, this inner one also stood abandoned.
"There," Jalaysa pointed to their left.
A large hole gaped in that wall. By the looks of it, Tyfelian guessed that it led to a cave passage, a naturally occurring cyst in Yelthontrel.
"Natural passage... " he said, but cut himself off in mid-sentence. "Or as natural as it gets in this place."
Wrackblood gave out a growl that might have been agreement, and then he and Tyfelian led their crews toward it, weaving among the barricades.
"The smell of heat is getting stronger. It wasn't that pool of lava back there," the scro told Tyfelian.
Tyfelian glanced at Wrackblood to acknowledge the statement, but then he appraised the opening in the wall curiously. It looked strange even to his eyes, so he called down the line for Barolcot.
"Barol, what do you make of that opening?"
Barolcot walked an indirect path in front of the hole, looking at it askance. Tyfelian and Wrackblood both noted a stirring of the dwarf's hair, indicating a light breeze from the hole.
"Ain't no openin'," Barolcot said after a moment. "It's a burrow, kinda. Lookee how the walls o' this room's busted into. Weren't no pick 'n shovel broke through that wall. I'd say a dragon done it," he added, pointing at a deep scratch in the burrow's wall just at the room's wall.
"Dragon talon?" Morkitar asked.
"Bet on it," Barolcot replied. "Mazar, I'd wager."
"Then that's where we go," Tyfelian stated. He slipped into the burrow. The break in the wall was large—over ten feet wide—but the burrow itself was not. Less than five feet wide, the round tunnel arched at a fairly sharp up angle. Tyfelian quickly found that it twisted and turned, too.
"This place reminds me of a worm's earth tunnel," Jaclyn commented.
"Or a dragon's rock tunnel," Morkitar suggested.
The heat increased as the crews went along the way. The humid heat of the lava hall gave way to the dry heat of a real magma tube. Tyfelian noted with alarm that the kerteoite glow was giving way to the orange-crimson of molten lava. The light breeze of the burrow had picked up rapidly and now a strong, hot wind flowed through the tube, whipping clothing and hair. The wind steadily got noisier, as well.
Tyfelian ignored the discomfort, merely wiping his face with a handkerchief, and soon enough they stood at the entrance to a cave. Tyfelian and some of the others felt the increase of the wind and that slight tingle to the hairs of the back of the neck caused by some planar gateways.
"It's in here!" Tyfelian shouted over the din, even as his sharp eyes roved the place and its hellish light.
The one hundred of them pushed forward into the hot wind to explore the cave. It was not a large cavern and the lot of them explored and filled its front portion very quickly. Tyfelian peered around a bend in its right-hand wall and beckoned the others to follow.
"I found it!" he called over the wind.
He had indeed found Bri'kerzz's portal. It looked like nothing Tyfelian had ever seen, a reddish-orange energy vortex embedded in the wall's very stone.
In response to Tyfelian's questioning look, Jalaysa nodded after looking at it for only a moment.
"I've heard of portals like this. They're usually ones made by a natural ability, not a spell, really."
Jaclyn stared at the whirling vortex intently. Her awareness worked through the planar tunnel.
Tyfelian skipped over to her.
"It leads to the Abyss," she advised him. "The 474th layer... Yalthra'teyka, I presume, but I don't know that for a fact, of course."
"Captain Wrackblood and I will go first," Tyfelian said, pulling a coil of fine rope from his backpack. He tied one end around his waist and handed the other to Kiran.
"Give the captain your rope," the half-drow said to Kiran.
When Wrackblood also had a lifeline tied on, he and Tyfelian faced the portal and strode into the hot, gale-force wind that blew out from it.
The half-drow and the scro walked out into a vision from a hellish nightmare. The cavern on the other side of the portal looked more like the inside of some insanely huge creature's stomach than a stonewalled underground cave. The walls glowed a sickly red and appeared to be pulsating, just very slowly. And the heat! Tyfelian cursed softly at the feel of the humid warmth. The air was so muggy that he could literally see it, as a very faint mist, swirling around in the blast furnace wind.
Tyfelian saw no creatures nearby, but he knew that that situation wouldn't last, so he tugged on his rope to call Kiran through to his side. The others followed quickly, and they filled the cavern. Tyfelian saw only one exit, on the far side. Happy to be away from the portal, he led the small army out of the portal cave.
Tyfelian did not feel happy about what his feet walked upon, however.
"Is this alive, Jaclyn?" the half-drow asked her.
"No, but it sure looks like it."
"What kind of rock is this, Barolcot?" he hissed back to the engineer.
"I've nooo idea," the dwarf told him, looking at the red walls with disgust. "Ain't never seen a thing like it."
Tyfelian grimaced with revulsion as his boots trod upon the strange rock. It felt unpleasantly soft upon the first contact of his step, but only with his weight pressing down on his heel did it strangely firm up to let him walk. Tyfelian tried to ignore this and to just keep going, making a map in his head.
The half-drow led them around a bend in the tunnel and stopped short. Someone with lesser reflexes would have tripped over the object that had caught his attention, but Tyfelian easily avoided that.
He could not, however, avoid the horror that filled his mind at the sight—and the strong pity and sorrow.
A human lay slumped against the left wall, his or her entire body covered with the strange flesh-like stone. The unfortunate person twitched uncontrollably, and the muffled sounds from behind the stony casing were clearly screams.
Alzja looked, went white under her black skin, and muttered, "Dear gods."
Tyfelian, overcome with horrified compassion, reached down and tentatively tried to move the person, but he discovered, to his dismay, that the poor human was attached to the wall and the floor, seemingly part of the stone.
The half-drow let a soft yelp of sympathetic agony, then pulled out his dagger and stabbed it hard through the stone over the human's eye. The powerful magic of the blade smashed through the rock and killed the human, but Tyfelian just looked sad.
"You did the proper thing," Wrackblood said to him. "No one deserves that," he spat.
"There was nothing we could have done," Kiran told him. "Look—the whole body is nothing but that fleshy material."
With a final mourning glance at the stony corpse, now still, Tyfelian stood and led them on through the red tunnel.
Yalthra'teyka
Braskrakel
Midsummer 23rd, 2461 EY
Bri'kerzz toured the outer wall of his fortress.
He had poured on the defenses, calling up every creature in his lair to stand guard, and now the walls swarmed with demons and other Abyssal creatures. He did not know the exact location of the Elnamerrna crew, but he felt certain that they had enough boldness to face him in this, his place, and the intelligence to find and use the Great Portal, which he could not close, only move.
Its new location, the Caves of the Deep Red Ones, was miles away, but that would be meaningless to Tyfelian and his friends. The other end was immovable as far as Bri'kerzz knew, itself some leftover artifact from whoever had built Yelthontrel in Vinespace. He could not send the near end to another Abyssal layer without destroying its usefulness to him, perhaps forever.
His boiling energy had to have an outlet, and he used it to survey his defenses. Braskrakel's walls looked impregnable to his eye, but he knew better. Likely, if Tyfelian and his crew attacked, those walls and their defenders would crumble like tissue paper—assuming that the dangerous man and his crew even bothered with a military attack. Bri'kerzz figured that it was just as likely that Tyfelian would go right past his city's defenses, straight to looking the dragon in the eye.
He was ready for that if it happened.
He had called all of his lieutenants to his side, and they waited for him in his throne room by now. Dretch, lightning-fast Hlack, graceful Flal-ta, and Ladthiac, the most accomplished in magic among them...
... all of his lieutenants except Krynderyl. Krynderyl was still missing, and Bri'kerzz suspected desertion out of that one.
"If you've deserted me, I'll make you sorry, very sorry," Bri'kerzz muttered quietly at Krynderyl, "sorry enough to beg me for destruction. If I could replace you fast, I'd kill you instead."
Bri'kerzz could not help smiling at the thought of tormenting his errant lieutenant, but he did not intend to kill him. As it had been with his protective actions with Dretch, Bri'kerzz could not, if called upon for an answer, have explained that. Most demon lords would simply slay a deserter out of hand, even one as powerful and useful as Krynderyl.
This had been Bri'kerzz's first thought, as well, but some gut reaction held Bri'kerzz back from the death command. He did have search teams scouring Yalthra'teyka and other likely layers of the Abyss, but those teams had orders to merely find Krynderyl and bring him home, not to destroy him.
Krynderyl would have been difficult or impossible to replace, especially on short notice.
Bri'kerzz had not been paying much attention to where his slithering had been taking him, and he now looked up to see Ladthiac's place, the Tower of Transformation, which formed part of Braskrakel's wall nearest to the Caves of the Deep Red Ones.
If Tyfelian came to visit, it would most likely be from that direction.
Bri'kerzz climbed the wall and looked out across Yalthra'teyka's endless crimson jungles.
Seeing only the usual—uncountable miles of scarlet vegetation—the tanar'ri lord jumped back down, kicked a quasit out of his way, and slithered toward his castle's main building.
He was as ready as he could be.
The demon lord climbed back down to the ground. Dretch walked up to him as he did.
"Master, we have captured Krynderyl."
"Excellent, my servant," Bri'kerzz replied. "Take him to my throne and chain him securely."
Caves of the Deep Red Ones
Elnamerrna crew and Harbinger crew
Midsummer 23rd, 2461
Tyfelian and Wrackblood sniffed the air.
"Different," Tyfelian noted.
"I wouldn't exactly call it 'fresh air'," Wrackblood said wryly, "but I'd say that the exit isn't far away."
Tyfelian raised his eyebrows by way of agreement, then walked around what he hoped would be the last bend.
It was, but up ahead, he saw more of the entrapped people—a lot more.
"How many can there be?" Alzja asked. "We passed enough o' them on the way here."
Tyfelian swallowed his horror and pity, and said, "Destroy them."
The one hundred of them made short but unpleasant work of the trapped victims.
"I hate to kill them without even talking to them, but I see no way to do that," Tyfelian said to those nearest him.
"We could've figured out how to talk to them... but it would take time," Jalaysa said softly.
"Too much time," Wrackblood rumbled. "Let's go."
As they walked out of the living caves, Jaclyn stepped up to Tyfelian.
"I tried mind-reading on one of them. He or she was hopelessly insane."
Tyfelian's lips curled with outrage.
"Bri'kerzz has a lot to answer for, when we find him."
A short time later, they found the exit.
"Jungle," Sildara said, stating the obvious.
"But that's no normal jungle," Kiran cried. "Look at the color of that plant!" he added, pointing at a nearby vine growing upon the rocks.
The two crews looked out upon endless jungle growth, all of it red of some shade. The trees towered over them like suspended waterfalls of flame, and the undergrowth looked more like a banked campfire of endless size than a jungle floor. They could not tell where the bizarre light of this Abyssal layer came from, for the forest canopy blocked all view of the sky. No brighter spot marked where an infernal sun might have been shining.
Tyfelian, swords drawn, looked around nervously.
"Divination?" he asked Jalaysa.
Jalaysa cast two spells.
"There's a city in that direction," Jalaysa replied, pointing to their right, "but there's a more immediate problem. We're surrounded by a few hundred demons, getting ready to jump us."
"Then let's just go right by them," Tyfelian said severely. "Jalaysa, get us out of here."
She did as her leader had instructed. She cast the dimension door and hustled everyone through it.
The moment Tyfelian emerged from the other side of the door, he smiled. Jalaysa had placed them on the other side of the Abyssal army encamped around the cave mouth, bypassing them entirely. He thought he could make out a few movements in the direction he presumed was back to where they had just left.
"Which way to that city again?"
Jalaysa, whose divination spells had not yet expired, concentrated on them once more for a moment, then pointed the appropriate way.
"Two miles," she added to her action of pointing the way. "I'd suggest that we walk it. If I try to put a dimension door much closer, the city sentries might see it, or Bri'kerzz might feel it. If we try to fly there, we'll be spotted."
"Then that's what we have to do," the half-drow said steadily, leading them on through the heavy jungle.
"Bri'kerzz is in that city, but I can't get his exact location," Alzja advised him, also using magic for reconnaissance. "Not without casting another spell... and that would tip him off we're here. There are five other beings o' power with him," she went on, "though one o' them isn't really very powerful... it just has a strange feel on its life force, as I get it from the divination."
"When we get there, can you give me a direction?" Tyfelian asked.
"Yes," Alzja said, pushing a rusty-orange branch out of her way. "I'm sure we can find him and them—if they don't come right after us straight away."
Tyfelian gave her a grateful nod, then set to the task of helping Wrackblood, Morkitar, and the other larger crewmen from both crews in hacking a path through the red jungle. Tyfelian let his mind slip into a sort of meditative state, to keep it from getting numb from repetitious activity. He realized that it might; two miles could be a long way through jungle. Fortunately, the wizards knew spells that would help.
They trudged on and on, slashing at undergrowth and kicking Abyssal vermin out of the way. Time blurred as they blazed a path through the brush. When they finally neared the artificial line that marked the edge of the uncleared jungle near Bri'kerzz's city, Tyfelian called a halt.
"Alzja, try your spell of sanctuary and see if it works," he said to her.
Alzja did, and she led them into the magically created area
"Thank you, Mordenkainen," she murmured, and they spread out through it.
The spell had worked, but when they found the magically created area to be very odd-looking. Everything in it appeared reddish and slightly distorted—that is, twisted and angular. It reminded them of the jungles of Yalthra'teyka, in a strange sort of way.
"Don't eat any of the food, just in case. Rest only," Tyfelian commanded.
"Tyfelian?" Chalizon called to get the half-drow's attention.
"Yes?"
"I just have to ask, since I might never get another chance..." the Svart Alfar warrior-wizard glanced around at the magically created safe haven. "Who's Mordenkainen?"
Tyfelian shrugged as he started to lie down for a brief rest.
"I'm sorry, I don't know," he replied gently, but Alzja jumped in to answer the question.
"He is, or probably was, an archmage on the planet Oerth. Some o' that man's spells are known throughout the universe."
"He's not alone," Jalaysa commented. "Several very powerful wizards from Oerth created spells that are known across the Flow. But their spells have been around for a long time... surely they must be dead by now."
Chalizon smiled and turned away, curiosity satisfied.
They took a partial rest period, then left the spell's created space to enter the intense heat of Yalthra'teyka once more. When they hacked through what little was left of the growth blocking the way, they stood before Bri'kerzz's city.
Tyfelian leaned back against the crimson bark of a tree, aghast, as he beheld Braskrakel.
It loomed over him as a giant might intimidate a jackrabbit. The massively strong curtain wall, the heavy tower fortifications, the crenellations shaped like Abyssal horrors... the place looked as impregnable as the greatest defensive fortifications ever built in Embimura, and the tops of the walls swarmed with demons.
"There is no way we can attack that place," Wrackblood commented. "There are thousands of demons on those walls... one hundred of us would never have a chance. It could even withstand a starship attack."
Tyfelian agreed with a soft murmur. He did not entirely concur with the assessment; his experienced eye identified the city wall's main defense points and he thought that the Elnamerrna and the Harbinger could probably attack and destroy the place. He knew without a doubt, however, that both ships would suffer heavy damage in such an attack, and they would burn up magical resources at a horrifying rate to get through.
"The whole battle plan would be different with Tash around," he muttered, "but we can't just romp over there and blow the city away without her."
His eyes roved the outer wall of the city, studying the problem.
"Mass teleport?" Wrackblood suggested.
"Too risky," Alzja replied. "Bri'kerzz might have teleport diversions there, and I don't want to end up in his larder."
Wrackblood wasn't finished, though. His piggish eyes took in the Abyssal glory of the city, and his brain's gears started turning.
"Tyfelian?"
"Yes?"
"Is there a way that your wizards can make us all incorporeal, so that we can pass through the ground itself and under that wall, to a spot that Jalaysa picks out for us?"
"That is so crazy it might work," Tyfelian said lightly, "with variations. Alzja? Jalaysa?"
Jalaysa thought, then cast a spell. Evidently, it was a divination, Tyfelian and Kiran realized, for she stared at objects and places that only she could see for several minutes.
"I have the spot picked out for us... now, how to get there?"
Kiran took a step forward.
"In Nacla, King Kalsten once saved us from a Tatissadane attack by using dwarven clerical spells to send his soldiers to a location right under our feet. Then they stepped up into our midst to help us defend against the drow," the paladin said slowly, offering a lead.
"I doubt that you have any magic that could do that, but that spell you call 'dimension door could'," Morkitar noted. He glanced at the arrayed wizards. "Maybe a few dimension doors, all aimed at about the same place."
"Right!" Tyfelian said, pointing at Morkitar.
"But not from here," Jalaysa shook her head. "The only way to get a dimension door through that wall is to cast one right up against it... and even then, the range will be shortened. Badly. We can't extend them very far or he'll know."
"But it will get us inside?" Wrackblood questioned.
"Yes, that it will," Jalaysa replied slowly. "Bri'kerzz won't sense it... he's looking for us out here."
Tyfelian nodded, all the prompting Jalaysa needed.
"Find the location I've picked out," Jalaysa said to the other wizards.
Tyfelian and the others waited out the tense moments that it took for all of the wizards, including Morkitar, to find the spot. When they were ready, he called, "Get us to the walls without them seeing us, and then through the dimension doors, Jalaysa."
"I'd prefer two sets of what you call dimension doors," Wrackblood commented, "one to get us to the walls, then to the strategic location. However, I realize that even with all of our wizards, that many doors at once would be impossible."
"No one could cast that many that fast," Tyfelian agreed, "except maybe a god."
He turned to Alzja.
"Alzja, some demons can see through invisibility," he reminded her. "Make sure that nothing can see us."
She nodded.
"I know a spell or two that will do it for us," she said confidently.
"Make sure that we are not spotted," Tyfelian warned, though he couldn't keep an edge of genuine fear out of his voice. "If those spells, for any reason, don't keep us hidden, we're dead."
"The crew performed admirably against demons in Vinespace," Alzja pointed out with pride.
"Yes, on the Prime Material. Here, if we're spotted, we'll be hit with an attack we can't possibly defend against. In Vinespace, Krynderyl had a small army of demons to throw at us. It's different with Bri'kerzz. The numbers might as well be infinite. We'd be overwhelmed, eventually."
So saying, Tyfelian waited until everyone had disappeared under the concealing magic. Then he sent word down the lines to march straight for the city's walls.
