Scouting, of course, would be an easy enough task. There was no reason to wait, so I flung my spirit into the nearest harpy and set off for the cliffs, climbing higher into the sky as I flew. I expected to find the land above the cliffs empty, for there were no settlements, not even villages, anywhere nearby; the land in this area was dry and arid, and the plague of harpies had no doubt doubly convinced any peasants looking to set up a farm anywhere around here to look elsewhere.
The tops of the cliffs were shrouded in either fog or clouds, making it impossible to see what lay beyond them without getting really close. As I passed Castle Island and got closer to the Prandish shores, however, I saw the glint of what had to be steel on the clifftops. I flew higher to get a better look, getting to within a few hundred yards of the land on top of the cliffs … and that was when the ballista spear smashed through my harpy’s chest. I felt the impact as if the missile had punched into my own chest, but no pain accompanied the thump, seeing as my undead creatures were incapable of feeling this sensation.
Despite punching a skull-sized hole straight through the harpy’s torso, the ballista didn’t kill my undead creature, but it certainly would have put an immediate end to the life of a living one, and he force of the impact did send my harpy into a tailspin, plummeting toward the crashing waves below.
I recovered, pulling the harpy back into flight before it plunged into the waves, but before I could soar upward, another ballista spear smacked into the harpy. This one took my undead creature’s head off, and that was it. The undead harpy was officially dead, and the section of my spirit I’d had in it was jolted forcefully back into my body.
“Shit,” I muttered, staring at the distant cliffs. “We’ve got company up there.”
“What did you see, Cap’n Vance?” Percy asked.
“Someone’s up there,” I said, pointing at the fog-shrouded clifftops. “And they’re ready for harpies.”
“Church of Light bastards?”
“I don’t know, but most likely, yeah,” I answered. “This is going to make flying my party up onto the clifftops a little more of a challenge than I was hoping for.”
“Arr, those scurvy dogs really have got the whole bloody coast covered, don’t they?” Percy growled. “I suppose we could go another fifty miles up the coast, there’s another smuggler’s spot I know of where you may be able to sneak ashore.”
I shook my head. “No, that would just add further delay to my plans, and I can’t afford to lose any more time. I’m just gonna cut the fuckers down and fly my troops up there. With a mass harpy attack I can take out whatever troops are guarding those cliffs. I’ll lose a few dozen harpies, probably, but I’ll be able to get my party onto Prandish soil within an hour or two.”
“There may be a way to get into Prand without losing any of your harpies, Cap’n Vance,” Percy said. “If you dare to take the Black Passage.”
“I thought the Black Passage came out at the base of the cliffs, and you had to scale them?” I asked.
“Aye, it does,” Percy answered. “One part of it, anyway. The part that Cap’n Redbard took. But according to legend, there’s another section of the Black Passage, if you keep going past the exit by the bottom o’ the cliffs. One that goes deeper into the earth, into a series of ancient caverns. The caverns are supposed to be connected to an abandoned silver mine, where … arr, no, forget I even suggested this idea. Perhaps it’d be best to do what you first said, and sacrifice a few harpies to clear out whoever’s on top o’ those cliffs. Far less risky to the living members o’ your party, even if you lose forty or fifty harpies.”
I was intrigued; if there was a stealthy way to get my party into Prand, I wanted to hear more about it; the risky aspect only piqued my curiosity and stirred a sense of excitement and anticipation within me. “Tell me a little more about this, Percy,” I said.
“Arr, I shouldn’t have mentioned it,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I should have known you’d be chomping at the bit to tackle it at the slightest mention of risk. Cap’n Vance, I think you should just sacrifice a few harpies and take the clifftops from the Church troops. I’m a fool for even thinking of mentioning the Black Passage.”
“Tell me about the dangers involved, Percy,” I said, smiling. “Come on, whet an old crypt diver’s appetite.”
Percy sighed and rolled his eyes. “Sometimes it does as much good trying to talk some sense into you, Cap’n Vance, as it does to those goddesses o’ yours. All right, all right, I’ll tell you, but for the record, I think it’s a far too risky endeavor to even consider, let alone set off on.” As he said this a trace of real fear entered his voice, and I knew that if this battle-scarred old pirate was anxious about something, it had to be more than your garden variety of evil. This, of course, only made me more eager to discover what was in these ancient caverns.
“There’s a very good reason those mines were abandoned when the shafts broke through into the ancient caverns,” Percy said. “Arr, and only one o’ the miners actually made it out alive, to tell the truth o’ the matter. And he, mind you, was no milksop—he was a mine warrior, and he’d fought his fair share of goblins and cave trolls and all manner of evil subterranean things.”
“I’ve fought plenty of monsters too, Percy. If cave trolls are
