“Let’s not start counting notches, Harold,” I admonished him.
“We can’t do anything until tomorrow at least, no matter what we decide,” James said, drawing us back to the proper reason for our discussion. “It will take the rest of the day just to collect all of the bodies.”
“They need to be burned,” I added.
“I agree,” he said, “but that will take even more time. Collecting the wood necessary to burn that mountain of flesh will take a lot of men and labor.”
“I’m not entirely certain how useful an army will be once we get past the entrance to those caverns,” I said at last.
“It isn’t as if we can starve them out,” James answered bitterly.
That set me to thinking and I put my hand out to forestall further discussion for a moment. “We don’t actually know that. In fact we know next to nothing about them. Those bodies may decay and become useless after a certain period of time, or they may require some form of sustenance.”
Harold snorted, “You mean us.”
“That might be true, or not. We don’t really know,” I clarified. “James I’d like you to keep one of the cut up shiggreth bodies quarantined, rather than burning it with the others. We can take it back to Lancaster when we’re done. I’d be very curious to know if it will eventually lose its animation, or whether it will decay.”
James looked thoughtful. “We need one that hasn’t been cut to pieces as well then. They might last longer if they haven’t been cut up, if indeed they can starve at all.”
Sir Harold spoke up, “This might be beside the point, but how do you plan on capturing a creature whose very touch is anathema to us?”
James smiled, “Ha! We use nets. Once we have one trapped we bind it carefully with ropes. After that we can put it on a litter and drag it back to Lancaster, the dungeon and a couple of guards should be sufficient then.”
“Actually I’d like to construct a special holding cell for it James, but we can keep it in your dungeon for a while at least,” I added.
“So back to the point, what are we going to do today?” asked Harold.
We all fell silent for a moment, and even the normally decisive duke looked to me first to see what I might say. “Keep most of the men at clean up and burn duty. I’ll take Harold and a small contingent into the entrance. If we can clear out whatever defenses they have in there we’ll scout a bit further in. If we can’t we’ll pull back and wait until the clean-up is finished.”
Surprisingly they both agreed with me. “How many men?” asked Harold.
“About fifty I think. Make sure they are among the better armored of our men. No one in anything less than full chain, the less exposed skin the better,” I told him.
Two hours later we were ready and we were staring into the yawning mouth of the cavern. The entrance was fully fifteen feet in height and more than twice that in width. The morning sun illuminated the first twenty feet or so, but beyond that it was shadowed in darkness. From outside it was impossible to see more than that, if you were relying on normal eyesight.
Thankfully I was not. The contingent assigned with guarding the entrance had pulled back to allow us to enter. They would resume their duty after we were inside. I made note that James had supplied them with onagers and barrels of oil. If the shiggreth tried to break free of the caverns again they were prepared to set fire to the entire cave entrance. I just hoped they didn’t panic when we made our exit later.
Harold nudged me, “What do you see?”
I glared at him, “I see a lot more when I’m left undisturbed. Let me finish.” Closing my eyes again I resumed my search of the caves. I had already discovered that the main tunnel went back for over a hundred yards, and it was mostly straight from that point. I had difficulty locating the shiggreth along the way, but I could tell that there were quite a few about fifty yards back. They were standing next to some wooden contraptions that looked suspiciously like…
“Ballistae!” I exclaimed.
“They are called ‘onagers’ your Lordship,” Harold corrected me, thinking I was referring to the Duke’s catapults.
Harold really got on my nerves sometimes, though he did mean well. “I know that, I’m talking about in the caves.”
“What?”
Walter nodded in agreement, “You’re right. The shiggreth have ballistae back there. It looks like they are ready to give anyone that enters a greeting with four foot of wood and steel.”
I was surprised for a moment. I had never had another wizard around before, but it was nice to have someone else that could share my unique perspective. “I count two of them,” I replied.
“I agree,” said Walter, “and at least twenty of them hiding in the recesses behind the ballistae.”
I could tell there were quite a few back there, but I wasn’t quite sure how many there were. It surprised me that he seemed to be able to pick them out more easily. “How far away can you see things with your magesight?” I asked him.
He glanced at me in surprise but he answered readily, “About six hundred yards or so.”
That was significantly less than my own range, and yet he was able to perceive the shiggreth more easily. “Interesting,” I replied. “I can see further than that, but I can’t pick them out well enough to count them in there.”
He laughed easily, “It’s probably because I’m a Prathion. We’re known for being a little different than the other families.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Well you have already seen me use my invisibility,” he answered. “Or rather you have ‘not’ seen me while using it.”
“I was planning to get you to teach me that,” I said.
He shook his head negatively, “I can try, but the odds are you won’t be able to manage it. Very few wizards have been able to do it outside of the Prathion family.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, the Prathions were famous for their ability to pass unseen, or so I was taught. It’s kind of like how the Illeniels were known for their devilish enchanting skills,” he explained, “that and their freakish strength.”
His off-hand comments were providing me with a window onto a world of lore and common knowledge I had never been fortunate enough to witness. Not for the first time I lamented the fact that I had never known my birth father. I pushed those thoughts aside and returned to the present. “How does your ability to become invisible relate to sensing the shiggreth?”
“Their magic drain ability renders them essentially ‘black’ to mage-sight, if you think of magic as a sort of ‘color’. My invisibility is different in that it redirects light, and sometimes even magic around me but still I can relate to what they are doing. I suppose I could use my ability to emulate what they are doing, or at least how they appear,” he replied.
I was enthralled by his idea. “Show me,” I said.
“Alright,” he said. “Here, this is what I look like when I become invisible.” His visible form vanished but I could still ‘see’ him in my magesight.
“Shit!” Harold exclaimed. “Warn a fellow before you do that!” I had to laugh at Harold’s discomfiture.
Walter’s disembodied voice answered, “We’ve been talking about it all this time. I thought you expected it.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him, “please continue.”
“This is what it looks like when I become invisible to magesight,” he added and his body vanished even to my arcane vision.
“That is why I could not find you when you were spying on me at my home. Why don’t you use it all the time?” I asked.
“Because I am currently blind,” he said. “When I am invisible I cannot see, but I can still use my magesight. When I do this I can no longer see in any capacity. I am left stumbling along in the darkness with only my sense of touch and my hearing to guide me.”
