Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 64 Kahtesh? Come Out And Play.

On day fourteen of the duo’s adventuring life Isaac sighed at the entrance to the spider infested tunnels. “I have had enough of spiders. I’m tempted to just have Kahtesh clear them out.”

Lenna nodded absently. “Agreed.”

“How much of the tunnel system is even left to clear out?” Isaac asked. “We’ve killed like two hundred of them.”

Lenna opened the map and looked around. Most of the tunnels ended up at the main path eventually so they hadn’t really need it. “We’ve cleared about a third.” She told him.

“A third of the entire tunnel system?” Isaac asked skeptically.

“Yes.” Lenna replied and put the map away.

Isaac leaned against the wall. “Something interesting is gonna show up to eat those corpses right?”

Lenna shook her head. “Maybe. Might be different spiders.”

“Ugh.” Isaac grumbled. “How different? And why?”

“Who knows.” Lenna replied with a shug. “There are a lot of spider variants.”

“How many is a lot?” Isaac asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lenna tried to count them in her head for a moment before she gave up and shook her head. “Too many to count.”

Isaac pushed off the wall and started down the tunnel. “Today is the last spider hunt we are taking for at least a week. I need a break from eight legs and weird chittering.”

“Thank you.” Lenna responded with a sigh. Spiders had felt like a waste of time for the past thirteen days for her.

—

Day fifteen of their adventuring carrier found the pair staring at the bounty board. “Tired of spiders?” Alice asked from a dozen feet away behind her counter.

“Yes.” The pair replied with equally weary sighs.

Alice giggled. “You two will never level that way anyway. Look for something that at least pays better.” She told them. She had gotten more and more comfortable around the pair after having seen them everyday for over two weeks.

Isaac’s eyes settled on a job. “This would be so easy.”

Lenna followed his gaze. “Indeed.” She replied.

“Working in town is a bad idea.” Isaac countered.

Lenna was getting tired of the only options being wraiths or spiders and decided to play devil’s advocate. “It is just information gathering.”

“On a gang.” Isaac replied.

Lenna shrugged. “Anything else?” She asked as she gave up. She really didn’t want him to take that job but she also really didn’t want to hunt spiders… a thought came screaming into her mind. With wide eyes and a little excitement in her voice she grabbed the wraith contract. Eyes flying over the page. “Good.” She said aloud.

“What?” Isaac asked and looked at the bounty. “I thought you didn’t want that one?”

“Dragon’s breath.” She whispered.

Isaac thought about it. Lenna had told him that they were immune to physical damage. A smile spread across his face. ‘Good thing Kahtesh can breathe lightning.’ He thought. “Two hundred and fifty gold on completion isn’t bad. There is the risk of running into a drow patrol… How close are we to a drow city?” Isaac asked.

“About a hundred miles by tunnel.” Lenna replied.

Isaac was surprised and it showed. “You think that’s a good idea?” He asked her.

Lenna looked at him and raised an eyebrow under her helmet even though he couldn’t see it. “Why wouldn’t it be?” She asked.

“I mean wouldn’t they attack us basically on sight?” Isaac replied.

Lenna thought for a moment. “Probably. But a patrol is normally four men. None over level seven nor under level three.”

“So we just fight them if we run into them?” Isaac asked.

Lenna was growing more and more confused. “Yes? Why wouldn’t we?”

Alice had been watching and listening to the entire conversation with deep interest as were a few others in the Guild Hall. Isaac’s face went through a few expressions like confusion, bewilderment, and finally acceptance. “I mean if you don’t have a problem with…” He dropped his voice. “blowing up soldiers previously under your command I don’t have a problem stabbing them.” He said with a shrug.

Lenna pulled another bounty off the wall and handed them both to Isaac. “Just in case.” She told him.

Isaac read the new bounty. “Two hundred and fifty gold for taking out a drow patrol. I mean I probably won’t go looking for them. It sounds like a waste of time. You don’t happen to know their patrol patterns do you?” He asked. Lenna shook her head. Isaac shrugged. “Fair enough.” He walked over to Alice. “What happens if we don’t really want to take this job but stumble across them in our travels again?”

“You’ll get paid but it won’t count for your record.” Alice reminded him.

Isaac nodded. “We’ll just leave that one here then. I don’t feel like camping out in the tunnels any more than I have to.”

Alice nodded and marked them down as having taken the bounty to hunt the wraiths. “This will actually be your first official bounty. The spiders are an open contract with the guild so that won’t count on your record unless you somehow manage to clear out the entire caverns.” She chuckled. “But that would just be silly. There has to be at least a thousand spiders in there.”

Isaac thought about it. “What would happen if I cleared out the whole cavern but there wasn’t anything left of the spiders to bring in for proof?” He asked. “Hypothetically.”

Alice was stunned into silence and then answered slowly and slightly concerned. “Well, hypothetically, you would get paid based on an estimate of how many spiders there were. If there were stronger variants, that you had the proof of you killing, then the payout would go up, but if there wasn’t anything left…” She shrugged apologetically. “It would be assumed they were all just cave spiders.”

Isaac sighed. “There goes that plan.” He grumbled. “Thanks for the info.” He turned to leave.

“Of course. That’s what I’m here for.” Alice replied.

—

The pair’s target was a dead end tunnel about fifteen miles away. The hike was long but they were determined to not have to sleep on the ground. The wraiths were made by a group of adventurers dying incredibly gruesome deaths at the hands of a dryder. The dryder still had a bounty on its head but Lenna didn’t think they were quite ready for that.

The hike was completely uneventful. Isaac had taken to using his new method of making shadow constructs to making a pair of hiking sticks. As they approached Isaac heard something. He stopped Lenna and put his hand on her shoulder. He dismissed his shadow sticks and focused shadows into her armor to mask her sound as well.

“What is it?” Lenna asked as she reached for a sword that wasn’t there.

Isaac pulled her original sword out of his Inventory and handed it to her. “I thought I heard screaming.” He whispered. “Let’s hurry. Quietly.”

Lenna nodded once. “Agreed.”

It only took them two minutes to find what Isaac had heard. As they rounded a corner they came across a scene of chaos and panic. A small group of drow were fighting off the wraiths the duo had come to kill.

“That’s not a patrol.” Lenna whispered. There was a clear mage of some kind throwing bolts of fire and sometimes compressed marbles of magic that seemed to track the wraiths as they tried to dodge. Two guards were dead on the ground with pain on their faces and no visible injuries.

It looked as though the group had been escorting a merchant of some kind who had been using a pair of pecurke to pull a topless wagon with some crates in it. The merchant was hiding behind the cart and one of the two remaining swordsmen was trying to keep the pecurke from ripping free of the wagon. The other guard was trying to distract the two remaining wraiths so the mage could finish them.

“They look like they might kill each other off.” Isaac whispered.

Lenna glanced at him. “Lightning.” She whispered back.

Isaac grinned. “Let’s crash this little party. Kahtesh? Come out and play.” He said almost maniacally while a void of pure shadow opened up in front of him and a bone paw with three, three inch long, claws reached out and grabbed the stone.