Pools of Darkness

4

Dark Castings

Impenetrable darkness filled the casting chamber at the top of the magical tower. In the cool blackness, a horrid pit fiend basked in the silence. It flapped about the chamber with its twenty-foot bat wings, drooling and slobbering. The room's stale air held the salty-sweet smell of blood that the fiend savored. It inhaled through flared nostrils, drinking in the foul scent. The heinous killer, summoned from the Nine Hells, was thrilled with his new assignment and accommodations. In all his soulless existence, he couldn't remember a better opportunity or one that promised more fun.

Marcus, a Red Wizard from Thay, had foolishly summoned the fiend to the Prime Material Plane to help do the bidding of the god Bane. The fiend and the wizard were to add their personal touches to their god's plan, and if all worked out right, in a few years two new evil demigods would be loose on Toril.

'Aaargh,' the fiend groaned in pleasure. 'It's good to be back on this plane, regardless of the outcome of the battle. Ah, better wars will come. Latenat!' Green sticky goo dripped from the fiend's foot-long fangs. The acidic slime oozed to the ground and sizzled, making coin-sized pits in the black granite. Similar indentations covered the entire floor.

The massive bulk of the twelve-foot fiend zipped quickly around the room as it cast powerful spells. Its black bat wings glowed red as the beast conjured several unique protection spells. Giant taloned hands evoked detection and communication spells simultaneously, and as the spells activated, each talon became red-hot, the color of molten metal. The creature barely noticed the heat.

The fiend circled the chamber repeatedly, in exactly the same loop every time, but followed no markings a human eye could detect. The creature's bare feet, humanlike despite their three foot length, emitted streams of hot, jet-black sparks. A single spark would have burned right through the flesh of a normal creature, but each fist-sized flare bounced off its crusty, ebony skin.

'Power, that's what it's all about! Now that Marcus the fool has summoned me to this plane, I can accomplish what I have been planning for a thousand years. Latenat!'

The fiend's wings blazed with magic. It summoned more inky darkness and wrapped the blackness around its flesh like a coating of soot. Again the creature savored the scent of blood in the air, inhaling deeply.

'I'll use the power Bane has given me and give him some of the souls he wants. But I will keep the souls I need to grow even more powerful. Nothing can stop me. Nothing! Latenat!'

The horrible creature swung its talons against the nearest wall, punching huge holes into six-foot-thick marble. The stone crumbled to the floor with no effect on its harder-than-steel talons. The fiend sneered at the rubble as it continued gesturing. Suddenly twin spheres of blue energy surrounded each talon-studded fist.

A strain was evident in the fiend's voice as it completed the incantation, but no one was present to hear. No one with the slightest intelligence would have wanted to be near while such a pit fiend tried to communicate with its god. Few people could walk away with their sanity intact after viewing such a spectacle. The spheres of energy on the fiend's fists spread with every magical urging.

'Kazaranthan!' the monster hissed. The blue-white energy spread from its taloned hands to the tops of its thick, corded arms. 'Kallendurm ankerath!' it spit. The spheres spread from its arms to the muscled chest that made the girth of a bull look puny. 'Gorgathen tellenl aunduen!' A gasp of pain spewed from the creature with the last of the magical words. The spheres expanded over the rest of the fiend's body, covering its massive tree-stump legs and heavy, black-veined wings.

The final effort sent the creature to its knees in pain.

'I hate that spell. Latenat!' it mumbled. The blue spheres touched without combining, and the fiend became completely engulfed in a protective ward. The enchanted being planned to cast one more spell of protection before summoning the attention of its god. Worshipers of Bane offered sacrifices so they would avoid the attention of their god, and the fiend knew how dangerous it was to ask for direct contact.

The creature gestured at the floor. Only magical vision would have noticed the golden lines rising up from the granite surface. The pattern made by the shimmering enchantments forced more energy into the fiend.

'Aaaahh, surely there is nothing able to stop me now. Latenat!' Gasping, the creature reveled in the massive power and pain it felt. Mystical energies coursed through its unholy veins, swelling them to the bursting point. The gigantic creature grinned a fangy grin.

More gestures and magical words started the process of summoning another creature, this one from the Elemental Plane of Earth. The wall in front of the fiend pulsed with malevolent energy. Ominous fractures crept over a steadily growing bulge in the marble surface. The jet blackness soon outlined a nineteen-foot humanoid form. Rocky protrusions exploded out of the black marble. 'Come forth to your master! Latenat!' the fiend commanded. A nearly indestructible earth elemental fractured itself from the wall with a loud crash and stood before the fiend that commanded it.

A voice like stone grinding on stone boomed in the chamber. 'I'm not pleased to be here.' Few creatures had the nerve to speak in such a manner to a fiend.

Elementals summoned by ordinary wizards were ten-foot piles of rock able to crush walls and a wizard's enemies. This elemental was a prince of its kind, and its massive rocky protrusions were diamond-hard. A keen intelligence dwelled in the creature-an intelligence and a rebellious spirit lacking in its smaller brethren. 'What is your desire?' demanded the grating voice.

'You are my shield and voice, creature. You will cast my spells and speak as I speak. Latenat!' The fiend left no chance for error in voicing its command. It directed the elemental to turn toward another wall. Every gesture, movement, and breath of the fiend was instantly copied by the elemental.

With this last precaution, the fiend felt truly safe. It checked its many layers of mystical defensive energy and discovered them to be sound. It checked the enchanted controls over the elemental and found these as solid as the diamondlike materials from which the elemental was made. The fiend reinforced the protections on the single magical entrance to the chamber in which it dwelled; it would not be disturbed. Slobbering at its success, the fiend was now ready to commune with its god.

The fiend's lips moved to call forth its master, but the sound issued from the elemental. 'Bane, my master, I beg you, hear me.'

'Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!'

An abominable howl filled the chamber, swirling in and out and around the two figures. A tiny, dazzling dot of light blinked on the wall in front of the earth elemental. The dot cut through the numerous layers of magical darkness in the room, denying any concealment. The blazing energy grew in size and bathed the elemental in a blast of light as intense as the sun. The pit fiend ducked behind the girth of its guardian, grateful that its own skin wasn't exposed to the blistering, hot light. The fiend's control of the elemental allowed it to see through the elemental's eyes; luckily, the dazzling light didn't harm the rocky servant.

'Tanetal, my diabolical child, I am so glad you called me.' A booming, sugary voice grew in volume as the light grew in size. Soon the entire wall in front of the elemental was blasting forth a beam of energy so intense that the moisture in the air began steaming away in a mist.

'Lord Bane, you are all,' the elemental spoke in the voice of the pit fiend. 'I have carried out all your instructions. Phlan is in your power, and the pool of darkness is ready to give you many souls. What more can I do to answer your bidding?' The fiend raged silently at the groveling supplications that hid its true feelings. Its god had spoken its real name. If any other creature heard the name Tanetal, it would be able to control the pit fiend. Among all fiends, true names were never used. The elemental would now have to die, for it had heard the name- but, not until after this conversation was over.

'Fool! Dead thing! You think you have carried out my plan! You worm, you are less than the slime of worms! Where is my city?' The blast of anger from the god snuffed out all the protections that the fiend had spent hours creating in the chamber. Fortunately, its personal wards were not eliminated. The chamber and the huge magical tower shook with the wrath of the god. The earth elemental didn't even twitch. The fiend still cowered behind its massive body.

Now an enormous ball of light formed in the chamber. It writhed and took the shape of a seven-foot-tall,