TR: 13

Chapter Thirteen: Grombler’s Goad

The serenade of crickets and the gentle kiss of night dew against his cheek welcomed him out of unconsciousness. Blinking away the ebbing ache in his head, he raised himself up from his stomach and plopped onto his rear with a groan. Somehow, he had fallen into the middle of a field basking in the light of two half-lit moons surrounded by a sea of a million tiny stars. Brian had no idea where he was. The moons cast an eerie glow over the grassland, illuminating it with an ivory tinge. The air smelled like blood, the memory of a battle hanging heavy in the air. As he walked across the moonlit plains, he stumbled across the first dead body. Somehow, he didn’t find it shocking; it was if it belonged there. He bent over the corpse and examined it, surprising himself with the level of apathy that he felt toward it. Looking down at the lifeless, monochromatic form, it could have been a lump of clay for all that he felt for it. It was almost a pitiful thing, an annoyance even, that he should have to look upon it in that way. He pulled himself away, finding himself not recognizing the thoughts and feelings running through him. Moving on, it wasn’t long until he came upon the next corpse laid to rest in the grass. Like the last, they lay positioned somewhere between a peaceful embrace and eternal struggle. Perhaps both, somehow. Both bodies were adorned in similar garb; scale armour as black as the ether itself, all features of their true form concealed under the battle-worn suits. His eyes trailed off into the distance and a glint caught his eye in the moonlight. Brian gasped as he took in the swathe of plains before him, armoured bodies littering the field as far as the eye could see, glittering gems strewn about by a careless hand. Brian had never seen so much death in his life. The death toll was uncountable, the effect of it indescribable. It was like being caught somewhere between awe and horror. Mostly horror.

From somewhere off in the distance, but not so far that it was negligible, the howl of a wolf could be heard. Brian swivelled around, taking in his surroundings. Along one edge of the plateau a dark forest limned the perimeter. There, unspeakable things lived beyond, like the nightmare creatures that walked the boundaries on the outskirts of the darkest part of one’s imagination. But they were there, waiting. He could feel them, feel their eyes on him–the last one standing. The last one alive.

Brian ran. He didn’t know exactly why or where he was going, but it was what he needed to do to stay alive. He wend his way around the corpses as if they were mere obstacles in his path. He passed by a pile of stacked bodies so high it could have been a monument, though Brian couldn’t name any god that would accept such a perverse offering. Not all of the bodies that he saw were cren; some were strange creatures that he had never seen before, though all of them were armoured and armed, indicating this had once been an army. It then occurred to him that he had no weapon to call his own, though he dare not stop to retrieve one of the corpse’s. Whatever was pursuing him grew closer with every step. He needed to find shelter and fast.  As if sensing his growing need, a structure emerged out of the shadows ahead. At first a nondescript cylinder, the closing distance and angular light revealed it to be the ruins of a castle; a single eyrie still stood erect, if not tilted slightly to one side as it sank slowly into the earth, refusing to go down with the rest. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps emerged from behind him, growing into the thunderous rumblings as if each were its own aftershock. The rhythm belied a four-footed creature, and Brian knew that the wolf had tracked him. As he approached the eyrie, he glanced over his shoulder to see a massive black shape emerge out of the darkness. A lupine form but no mere wolf; this creature was perhaps the size of a modest house and it moved impossibly fast. It’s eyes, thirsty and unrelenting, were themselves two yellow moons inset into a fierce visage of fur and snarling teeth. There was only one thing that the creature could have wanted. Brian ran as fast as he could, coming upon the structure. Thankfully, the door was still in tact and unlocked. He lunged through the opening and slammed the door behind him, catching a fleeting glimpse of the monstrous creature as it came upon him, fast on his heels. He flipped the door bar into place in its brackets and backed away from the door, his back hitting the cool stone of the eyrie’s inner wall.

Outside, the creature howled and growled and made other sounds that a wolf should not be able to. A strange light emanated from around the seam of the door, as if hellfire was on the other side trying to get in. The door rebounded against a fierce strike, the bar visibly straining against the impact. There was scratching against wood and the gnashing of teeth, every strike threatening to test the door’s limits, but it held. Brian looked to his side and found nothing of help, only a dusty table covered in cobwebs and a single wrought-iron candle holder older than time itself. After a time, perhaps seconds, perhaps minutes, the assault on the door ended and the light dissipated, leaving nothing but the soft glow of moonlight sifting in through the seam of the door. Brian’s heart beat furiously and he slowly let himself off the wall, taking a step toward the door. As he did, in the space between the bottom of the door and eyrie floor, the silhouette of a man formed in the white light cast across the flagstones at his feet. The stones began to smoke, the simmering heat rippling the air across their surface. The door too began to glow as solid wood began to change phase, looking more and more like the embers found in a fire. The once-soft light limning the door turned to a violent orange and the shadow of the other was lost to an incinerating light, so overwhelming the Brian had to shield his eyes. One last sound, like the snapping of bone and the door exploded inwards, strewing pieces of molten wood in every direction. Brian yelped as a stray piece of shrapnel scored his forearm and he stared in disbelief as a flaming figure surrounded in nothing but fire and light stood before him, framed by the doorway. It raised a hand at him, a flaming sword, and opened its mouth to speak.

***

Brian gasped and pushed himself up on to his rear. Looking around him, the strange feeling of the slipping of the shade of a dream and the resetting of reality came over him. Though he still had no idea where he was, his memory and his proprioception told him that he was back in the real world. Or some version of it. His first thought took him to the question of how he had survived the fall. The answer made itself immediately apparent when he pushed against the floor with his hand. An imprint of it remained for some time before the material slowly rest back to its resting position. It seemed organic, sponge maybe, though it was more like a memory foam mattress than a sponge. That explained the cushioning of his fall. The next question then: where was he?

His gaze wandered around the room which he was now in and he marveled at the strange electrical glows that emanated from behind the nearly sheer, membranous walls. Soft blues and purples warmed the room, coming from nondescript shapes from somewhere within the walls. He wasn’t sure what was making all the light but he knew that there were certain types of bacteria and fungi that could create light like that. Some animals as well. Brian stood up and made his way over to one wall, running his hand over it.

‘Photo…no, that’s not it. Phospho…something.’ He thought, trying to remember the term.

It looked like he was in some kind of chamber of some sort where everything seemed to be throbbing slowly, as if it had a pulse. The cavern itself was made of some kind of material that Brian had never seen; it had organic qualities to it, as if almost tissue, but intermittent roots and swaths of shrubbery were intermixed in juxtaposition, as if someone had intended it so. Overall, it gave the very bizarre effect of being trapped in a piece of abstract art. As if that wasn’t confusing enough, Brian couldn’t make out any discernible paths around him. Just one…great open…cavern.

He made his way over to a large puddle on the floor, glowing an iridescent green in the garish light. He dipped the toe of his shoe in it and almost immediately the leather began to sizzle, indicating acidity. Brian quickly withdrew his foot.

“Yikes!”

He looked around to see that more puddles had collected on the floor. He looked up and, as serendipity had it, a small drop plopped itself on his cheek, singeing the skin there.

He hollered and wiped his face on the shoulder of his shirt. Another drop soon followed, striking him on his arm, having the same burning effect. Brian yelped and began to stumble backward, dodging little drips that, for whatever reason, had begun to precipitate around him. Another struck him on the head, like a hornet sting that kept going. He grabbed his head in pain and, distracted by his acid rain-dodging dance, slammed up against a wall. He felt the wall resist him at first but then a very strange thing happened: it separated, as if parting against the force, and conformed against his body. Brian passed through the passage and fell backwards into another area. He watched, stunned, as the fissure in the wall sealed back in place before him.

“What is going on here?” He managed.

For the first time, Brian noticed a heavy humidity in the air. He got back to his feet and examined the new room. Before him lay the most bizarre sight he had ever seen: he found himself on a skirt of land surrounding a great pool of molten yellow liquid, as one would find in an active volcano. Except…it was not like any volcano he had ever seen. Above, large striations as thick around as tree trunks ebbed multi-hued lights, like veins made of rock, together with their branches, spanning nearly the whole surface of the ceiling. Where the veins collected, like capillaries, strange oblong structures hung, like stalactites that had turned to tumors. And still the flora interspersed, though desiccated and charred in places from the overwhelming heat. Brian made his way to the ledge and squatted down, staring down into the roiling golden liquid far below. Was it some kind of…acid? It really did look like magma, at least the stuff he had seen on the holo. Just underneath the crackling and popping of liquid, like a sotto voce, Brian could hear a faint hissing sound. He cocked his head to the side, listening, and as he did so a small tendril of smoke wafted up past his face. His eyes widened as he traced the smoke to his burning shoe. The whole ground was acidified in this place!

“Oh, this is not good!”

He began to hop frantically from foot to foot, trying to avoid being dissolved by whatever the floor was made of. He ran over to a random wall and began to beat on it with his fists, testing for hollow spots, hoping that the weird doors were a two-way system. A loud rumbling sound came from behind the wall and the room began to shake. Brian’s feet began to smoke and he beat harder on the wall.

“Let me out, damn you!”

He reared back and went to strike the wall with his fist but the wall suddenly split apart and opened as if it were some kind of valve and Brian’s fist flew between the part, throwing his balance off as his momentum carried him forward. He was flung forward onto his stomach onto what appeared to be a slide where he sped downwards in a winding tunnel. He coughed and spat out the various liquids which flew into his mouth. He wound downward and downward, wondering if he had just discovered the slide into Endabarron itself, and then he was rolling along a flat surface once more. He righted himself and scanned his foot for damage. Luckily, the acid hadn’t gotten all the way through and his shoe remained mostly in tact. His attention diverted back to the room, wondering what new horrors were in store on this level.

Horrors indeed.

He had rolled out into some kind of…hatchery. Here, the room was much more narrow–a corridor even–with low ceilings barely higher than his height. Littered around the hall were clutches of what appeared to be eggs, about the size of an Up ball. One such beet-sized creature container not two blades from his position began to wriggle about, as if sensing his presence. The shell cracked a small, singular claw protruded through the shell, knocking a shard loose. Brian back away apprehensively, unsure of what to expect. The creature emerged from the egg, something between a crab and a spider, its newborn crustacean jaws clacking together as if it were silently announcing itself to the world. It plopped onto the ground ungracefully, its little legs not yet having received the programming for coordinated balance. But it didn’t take the creature long to figure out, arranging its umpteen legs beneath it and righting itself to face the new world. Its multiple, glistening eyes settled on Brian and he thought to himself then that creature could have almost been cute if it weren’t for all those legs. Too many legs. It waddled towards him and, despite their size difference, something in the way it moved unsettled him. Brian guessed that the thing hadn’t eaten since…well, ever, so it was a safe bet to assume food was on its mind. He backed away, bumping against the passage from whence he had came. A quick glance behind him revealed that the passage had sealed, as if it were some kind of portal.

Too many legs, too many self-sealing walls.

He groaned as he watched the creature scuttle towards him, unsure of how to proceed. The hallway between them was too narrow for him to evade so his only option would be a swift kick to the face.

He had never kicked a baby before.

Even so, the thing’s carapace was considerable and Brian didn’t need a broken foot on top of the mess he had already gotten himself into. His heart began to pound as his options grew thinner and thinner.

Before he could surmise an exit strategy, the spi-rab made its way through a small pool of green liquid and immediately it began to sizzle. A horrifying shriek emanated from the thing and it began to bounce about frantically in the throes of a death dance. At that moment, any presuppositions that Brian previously held about the thing being cute went out the window. Not three seconds later it fell over onto its side, dead, small tufts of gas fuming around the carcass as the acid picked away at its organic matter.

Brian made his way slowly around the puddle, eyeing the corpse cautiously. He pushed aside a small pang of sympathy for the creature, reminding himself that anything that tried to eat him deserved no less. As he turned back to the corridor, he nearly ran into the knee-high man striding past him, as if Brian were mere foot traffic.

“What the…”

“What’s this?” The small man chattered to himself as he whisked past Brian and bent over the puddle, holding ragged old pail in one hand as he eyed the dead spi-rab.

“Ooh! A fresh one! Not everyday that that happens, now does it?”

He chuckled, happily. Brian stared at the little man, wide-eyed and in wonder. As he did, he smelled burning from beneath him and looked down to find that, in the shuffle past the small man, he himself had stepped into a small green pool and his shoe had begun to dissolve. Brian lunged out of the puddle and began to stamp his shoe on the ground but the residual acid continued to eat its way through the material. The small man turned to him and gawped at him.

“Hmm…A free meal and a human in one sitting. This is a strange day. How did you even get in…I say, what are you doing there? Is this some kind of cren greeting?”

Brian grabbed at his shoe to take it off but the acid immediately burned his hand and he yelped, pulling away. He kicked his leg frantically, attempting to dislodge the shoe but it was tied tight to his foot.

“I stepped in that acid crap and I can’t get it off! It’s eating through the material. I need to stop it before it…ah!”

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the gnome nodded and promptly scooped up the creature into a metal bucket, taking care not to spill any acid on himself. He hustled over to Brian and grabbed him by the hand as he passed, hauling him along.

“Wait…where are you…”

“No time. Quickly now!”

The man led Brian down a winding series of corridors, all of which had ceilings with heights better suited to the smaller man. Hunkered over and constantly glancing at his steaming shoe, Brian barely had the wherewithal to take in his surroundings, though he did notice there weren’t any more clutches of those disgusting eggs around. The same strange glowing cords emanated faintly behind the translucent mauve-coloured walls, pulsing slowly in counterpoint to the fast patter of their footsteps. Not paying attention, Brian almost ran straight into an oblong appendage dangling in their path, too high for the small man but aptly-placed for Brian’s face. Brian made a sound and dodge aside just in time to avoid a face-full of strangeness. Feeling the sudden jerk on his hand, the gnome looked over his shoulder as they ran.

“Watch where you’re going, will you? We can’t afford any delays! Not unless you don’t care too much for that foot there. And whatever you do, don’t step in the pink liquid.”

“Pink liquid? What pink…”

The man veered around a large puddle in front of them but Brian didn’t catch the motion in time and forged right through it, dousing himself in the viscous substance. The acid residue on his shoe ignited and his entire foot went aflame. Brian yelped and jerked his hand out of the other’s grasp, leaping out of the puddle and stomping his foot vigorously as he attempted to douse the fire.

The little man blinked several times as he sat on his rear, watching the flaming human dance about him.

“That would be the one.”

He hopped to his feet and looked around frantically. He spied something on the far wall and hopped up and down, waving his hand.

“In here, now, before everything burns down!”

Brian ran over to the spot to which he motioned but saw only wall. He batted his leg back and forth and yelped in pain.

“What are you talking about? There’s nothing…”

“No time!” The small man said and pushed Brian at the wall.

As Brian made contact with the wall, a fissure opened and two halves parted, letting Brian into the small chamber on the other side. He tumbled forward and over a small ledge, plopping into a small waist-deep pool of clear liquid. The flames extinguished and smoke sizzled into the air where it diffused across the short ceiling and dissipated into the air. Brian pushed himself off his face, spitting out the liquid as it dripped from clothes and hair. He turned himself over onto his rear and swiped the hair out of his face. The gnome stood above him, illuminated by the doorway as he held his pot with the dead creature in it, looking somewhat unsure of himself.

“How’s the foot?”

Brian stuck his leg out of the water, revealing a half-melted shoe and little leg hair left.

“Looks like I got lucky. Though I think I’m going to need to buy a new pair of kicks when I get out of…well, whatever this is.”

The small man frowned. “You mean you don’t know…” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I forget myself. I’ve been in here too long; decorum isn’t exactly a prerequisite in these parts. I’m Tobay, of…”

The word that came out of his mouth next was incomprehensible to Brian, like a long slurring of words together, perhaps as a drunk or a seasoned linguist. Or a drunken linguist.

Brian raised his eyebrow. “Uh…Brian. Pleased to meet you Tobay from unpronounceable.”

Tobay looked taken aback for a moment then collected himself. “Ah, yes. I forget the human tongue doesn’t so easily wrap itself around gnomish. Forgive me, I don’t encounter your kind all that often.”

“Gnomish? Huh. I should have realized that I guess. Makes sense now. Though I find that a pretty crazy coincidence that you’re here and…” Brian trailed off, lost in thought.

“What?” Asked the gnome.

Brian got up and took the small man’s hand. He sat down on the edge of the pool and looked around the room, as if searching for the rest of his thoughts.

“Well, it’s probably not related at all but my friend and I, we uh…chased a gnome into the Deepwoods before we got separated. That’s how I got here. More or less.”

Tobay looked almost insulted.

“Chase a gnome? Why on Rynn would you ever do such a thing? Do you realize how terrifying that must have been for the poor bloke? We aren’t leprechauns for Drossk’s sake!”

Brian held up a hand. “Easy. It’s not like that, I swear. The little bug…the gnome stole something from us. From my friend, actually. I think he was out foraging or something. It was important to my friend so we decided to go after him. We got lost in the woods though. My friend was able to pursue him underground but I don’t know how far he got. We were separated shortly after that.”

Tobay tapped his chin in thought. “Yes, this makes more sense. Or so you say. Though I can see one of the scouts in Acquisitions venturing that far out. They’re always looking to outdo each other, that lot. Though that’s a risky venture coming so close to humans. If he were to have touched you…”

“Oh that’s a given. We ambushed him. Had him even, until he slipped away.”

Tobay looked astonished.

“Are you saying that…you actually caught one of the gnomenfolken? That is…unprecedented! The implications…gnomification….I can’t even imagine…”

A moment of awkward silence between them and a questioning look from Brian cued Tobay away from his soliloquy.

“Ay, ahem. Yes, but I digress. A feat that–to catch a gnome. I’m not sure if I should be offended or amazed. Regardless, I’m sure you would like to find a place to dry off. That doesn’t look to comfortable.”

Tobay gestured at Brian’s sopping clothes.

Brian looked down at himself and then around the room.

“I can’t imagine that exists in here. This whole place is a like a friggin’ sauna.”

Tobay shuffled his feet. “Yes, about that… I think it best if we settle in before I, uh…help you gather your bearings.”

Brian raised an eyebrow at the gnome. “What are you saying? Do you know where we are? Out with it then!”

Tobay’s face flushed and a look of consternation came over him. “Really, I have an encampment not too far off from here. If you’d just come with me…”

Brian stood up, fists clenched. “If you have something to say, you can say it here. I need to get back to the woods. Back to Kade. The only way I’m going to do that is if I can find this Grombler person and…”

Tobay’s eyes widened. “Wait…you know of Grombler? Why would you seek him? What could a human possibly want with the Warden of the Woods?”

Brian crossed his arms. “Does it matter? Point is, he’s the only lead I’ve got to find the gnome city and help Kade. Well, come to think of it, I’m guessing you could help me. If you won’t tell me where Grombler is…”

Tobay laughed. “I would have no issue helping you, but I’m afraid neither of us will be making it to any gnome cities in the near future.”

“And why is that?”

“Ironically enough, because of Grombler.”

Brian unfolded his arms, looking all the more confused. “What are you saying? What does he have to do with this place?”

Tobay shook his head. “Ah, you humans. So blinded to what lies right in front of your face. Don’t you see–you can’t use Grombler for help because you’ve already found him. He is what’s stopping you from getting to your friend.”

“What? I don’t under…”

“You’re in Grombler, Brian!”

Brian digested the information as it percolated through his brain and then, suddenly, it all came crashing down on him like a thunderstorm. The warm, humid air of the ‘cave’; the ‘moss’ and the ‘pit’; those strange creatures that had cocooned themselves all over him; the strange pools of liquid and those horrid crablike creatures. He was inside Grombler. 

Brian’s legs became weak and he stumbled backwards, resting against the warm, translucent wall that he now knew was no wall. He slid down until he was seated, looking around as if someone had just shone a too-bright light directly in his eyes. Tobay approached him, leaning over him concernedly.

“Brian…are you okay?”

Brian looked blankly at the gnome before slowly nodding. “I’m…just processing it all. I…how did I…get here?”

Tobay sat down next to him, placing his bucket down between them. “Well that’s the million centi question, isn’t it? A better one would be how did he get here, to begin with.”

Tobay motioned around them, signing at Grombler.

“He…it, appears in several Gnomish legends, and there’s even some cross-play between Elvish and Dwarven lore, so it’s possible references to the Warden go back to the First Era, even.”

“You keep calling him that. Why ‘Warden of the Woods?'”

“The moniker comes from an Elven legend, actually, though somehow it stuck in our culture, despite our…differences. Regardless, a famous Yan chronicler known only as Enthra’as the Wise recorded an encounter with “a creature as large as a village and comprised not quite entirely of that what which one would find naturally in the wild.” It is a long tome, to be sure, but it summarizes Enthra’as time spent as a guest in Grombler’s woods. It is philosophy mostly–the kind of schmaltz one would expect from Elvish writing–but it does form an important baseline as Grombler as a guardian of sorts. The Deepwoods have a long history of being threatened–for logging, development, even turf wars among the Fey–so it is no surprise this interpretation evolved. Among my people, Grombler is seen as one of several who hold vigil over this area, though I always saw him as a kind of…metaphor more than anything. Until now, of course…”

Brian nodded. “Well that makes senses. Who knew that this…that something like this could exist? What is he, anyhow?”

Tobay shook his head. “No one knows, really. As you can imagine, we’re no better afforded a guess from this angle, either. I have only been able to figure out so much from the inside, though I have ascertained what I think to be some valuable information.”

“Like what?” Brian asked, curiously.

“Well, for starters, Grombler is huge. When Enthra’as said ‘as large as a village’ he wasn’t joking. Grombler’s internal anatomy isn’t like anything I’m familiar with but I have found many analogous structures to our own. For example, Grombler does have what appears to be a stomach of sorts. It follows from there that he should have some form of digestive tract leading to an…”

Brian waved his hands. “Okay, I get the point. But I’m not going out that way, if you get what I mean. There has to be another way.”

Tobay sighed. “Even if you were to stoop to such an exit, it wouldn’t work I’m afraid. That same acid you encountered previously, it lines nearly any channel or orifice I’ve come across. If there is a way out, I haven’t been able to find it.”

Brian swallowed. “And how long have you been here? Such a huge place, there’s got to be something, somewhere. If we search together, we can double-up our efforts and…”

“Brian, if you had just come to the camp as I asked, you would have seen that I have made a map. There are at least three levels in this general area that are accessible and I’ve charted them extensively. I was lucky to have the paper and markers with me when I was…consumed, otherwise, I wouldn’t have even gotten a tenth as far as I did. I’ve been able to discover some valuable sources of potable water, and the food sources are actually abundant. You’d be surprised how easy it is to make a living down here.”

Brian grit his teeth. “How…long…have you been down here?”

Tobay leaned away, swallowing. “I can’t be sure, exactly, as there’s no sun to judge the hours but…if my cataloguing system is anywhere near accurate… my best guess would be at least six months to the date.”

Brian bolted upright to his feet. “Six months? I can’t wait that long! I have to save Kade. Not to mention my sister would have a heart attack if she didn’t hear from me for that long. And the gym… Mik would fire my ass after missing even a day. I need that gig if I’m ever going to get back at…” Brian paused, carefully considering his next words.

“I need that job. We have to find a way out of here.”

Tobay sighed, picking up his pot and getting to his feet. He came perhaps waist-high on Brian when fully upright.

“I wish I had an answer for you Brian. All I know is I won’t give up. I too have those who wait for me on the other side. I was engaged to be married, in fact, right before…all of this.”

Brian caught himself and shared a sympathetic look with the gnome.

“I’m sorry. I had no right…”

Tobay waved the apology away. “No need. It is understandable that you should feel as you do. Don’t forget, I’ve been here for some time. I can empathize.”

Brian nodded. “You’re right. We’re not enemies here. But I refuse to believe that we’re stuck. This can’t be how it all ends…”

Tobay smiled. “Your tenacity reminds me of her, you know. She is such a lovely woman, I really hope you get to meet her some day.”

As hard as it was, Brian shared a private smile with the gnome. “Well then, it’s happening. So where do we start?”

Tobay hefted the pot up at him. “To start, let’s get some grub. I’m starving! No sense planning on an empty stomach.”

Brian stared down at the pot with the disgusting creature crumpled in on itself, its many legs dangling hideously and its multiple eyes beginning to congeal.

It was then that Brian truly realized he was probably not going to to enjoy his stay in Grombler’s gut.