Descent into the Depths of the Earth

“What?” Escalla eyed the man suspiciously. “Polk, have youbeen reading those stories about dryads again?”

“Discipline!” Polk sniffed, never to be swayed from hispurpose once he had begun. “That’s what you need. Rewards never come byaccident. Since the fall of evil is a reward to the good, the good need discipline, application, a sense of responsibility!”

The faerie made a face and simply stopped listening. “Yeahyeah. Blah-blah-blah. The faerie fell asleep, so it’s her fault Jus’sword got eaten!”

Walking just ahead of her, Jus raised one finger without bothering to look around. “Escalla.”

“Yes?”

“Order number one. For the next hour, listen very closely toeverything Polk has to say.”

Escalla shot Jus a look that could kill, glowered, then sat herself atop Polk’s backpack, propping her chin in her hands. Swelling grandly,Polk marched doggedly along behind the Justicar and tucked his thumbs into his braces.

“Well now! You see, back when I was a lad, schoolin’ wasdifferent. Focus, that’s what they gave us-focus and a sense of worth.Why, once I remember I gave my lunch to another little boy because his family was poor. Day after day I helped him out. No credit wanted! No fuss! In those days you spoke when you were spoken to! Kept your thoughts to yourself. Lesson I learned to heart!”

Escalla sighed, propped her elbows on her knees, and endured.

* * *

The locator needle pointed northwest. Ignoring side tunnelsand slimy caves, the group moved northwards in skill and silence, watching carefully for sign of ambush. Their path continued sloping downward, descending in occasional steps and terraces where waterfalls of slime trickled slowly in the shadows.

Jus knelt to examine strange footprints he found gleaming wetly on the fungi here and there. None of the marks were fresh, but they gave a horrible feeling of presence, of a hidden life lurking always just out of sight.

Miles passed. It was a weird limbo in which time scarcely seemed to exist. One patch of fungi-smothered tunnel could have been any other, and the underdark was sealed away from the rhythms of night and day. Drifting from his peaceful haze, Cinders’ eyes finally gleamed bright again. He wriggledhimself into place across the Justicar’s warm back and said, Hi!

“Hello.” Jus carefully examined a hanging curtain of mold fordanger, then led the party well away from the obstruction. “Nice rest?”

Nice! The hell hound wagged his tail, his grin gleaminglike a nightmare. Cinders better!

“Well, wake up and keep your ears open.” Jus cautiouslysteered Escalla away from an innocent looking covey of screamer fungi. “We’re introuble. I lost my sword.”

Cinders help! His long black tail went wag-wag-wag.Fun!

The main pathway dissolved into a maze of interlocking caverns-some large, some small. Jus squatted down and had Escalla consult thelocator needle, choosing a route that seemed to lead in the required direction. The team ducked one by one beneath a low ceiling and walked uncomfortably crab-wise between shallow pools of slime. They emerged into a new cave, where the lost tunnel reappeared.

Escalla heaved a sigh of relief at having found the right path again, waved the others to follow her, only to freeze, turn invisible, and dart madly back down amongst the mounds of bat dung.

“Down!”

Three shapes hovered in the gloom, bobbing malevolently up and down. They were huge, grim spheres, each one topped with a cluster of eye stalks and with one huge eye glaring off into the dark. Gaping mouths slashed across the arc of the spheres, mouths crammed with fangs that seemed to thirst for blood.

In a mad panic, Escalla grabbed Polk and Jus by the ears, trying to tow them back into the caves.

“Come on! Gotta go!” Her whisper hissed above the whirof busy little wings. “Beholders! Run like hell!”

The monsters moved, drifting slowly up and down. Hovering silently and lost in their own thoughts, the three beings stared off into the caves, having failed to catch sight of the tiny faerie. With her friends hidden safely in cover two dozen yards back in the caves, Escalla reappeared, plastered flat against the rocks and looking in fright toward the tunnel mouth. The girl worked the slide of her battle wand.

“Oh man, oh man! Paranoid xenophobic homicidal maniacs thatshoot killer spells from every eye!” The girl looked left and right, trying tosee a route past the lurking terrors up ahead. “We are dead!”

Jus stood up, tugged his armor straight, and settled his dagger in his belt. He strode straight down the passageway with his usual irresistible tread. Escalla could only gape in horror for a moment, then flew off madly in pursuit.

“Jus, get down!”

The three monsters were still there in the cave, circling and maneuvering slowly in the still air. Jus levered himself down a terrace and walked into the tunnel, marching over to the monsters and standing directly beneath the nearest one. He scratched the stubble of his chin, betraying amusement by shooting a sly look sideways to make sure Escalla was watching him. Intensely annoyed, Escalla emerged from behind the cover of a rock outcrop.

“Why aren’t you dead, you shaven-headed git!”

Unconcerned, Jus stood beneath one of the monsters and cut himself a piece of spider meat, which he crammed into his mouth. He motioned to the monsters with his dagger, supremely unconcerned.

“Beholders are solitary psychopaths. Did you think theremight be something weird about seeing three beholders together all at once?” The man spat a piece of spider chitin toward a nearby slug. “They’re gasspores.”

“What?”

“A type of fungus. Dead ringers for beholders, exceptbeholders are waaay too paranoid to ever be this close to one another.”

Wings whirring and a disgusted scowl on her face, Escalla came out of the caves to glare at the floating gas spores. From a few inches away, she could clearly see that they were fakes-just blobs of fungi. Escallaaimed a kick at the nearest one, only to have Jus snatch her foot and tug her hastily away.

“Leave ’em be!”

“Why?”

“Poisonous. Touch it, and die young.” The big man tuggedEscalla’s makeshift dress straight as he released her into the air. “They’re atrap. Puncture the skin, and they explode.”

“Oooh.” Escalla instantly perked up her ears. “Really?”

“Really.” Jus forcibly propelled the curious girl away fromthe spores. “The explosion of each individual spore is enough to turn you into ashadow on the wall. Three of them would be apocalyptic!”

“Wow. Can I have one?”

“No.”

“But-”

“No, Escalla.”

“Ju-uuus…”

“No, Escalla. Absolutely not! End of discussion.”

Jus gave a courtly bow, inviting Escalla to lead the way. “This is where the passage turns. It heads toward the troglodytes.”

The faerie hmphed and acquiesced, but still remained obviously unconvinced.

As the party pressed on, they saw that the spores were growing from the body of a big lizard lying around the corner. The cadaver stretched almost twenty feet from nose to tail and wore a harness and a brand. Growing out of the damaged tarpaulins, packs, and rotten flesh were yet more floating spores-perhaps half a dozen bobbing booby traps, still tethered to therotting corpse.