Eldritch Quest part.02 (Gem of Sirius)

    Far and wide the scouts of Prince Dorkaring searched, seeking information about the mysterious witch called Rhulan or the one called Xin. While they could find nothing regarding Rhulan they did find the legend of the Timeless door that is deep in the forest of Goldonia, stating that Xin resides beyond it. However the legend also states that nine magical gems are required to open it; as luck would have it however the magical item that can locate such gems belongs to the royal family.

 

   A quick search, thanks to the aid of over fifteen royal advisors and researchers looking through records and helping in the search in the castle’s archives uncovers the medallion compass that points in the direction of the nearest gem. With the compass in hand Dorkaring begins his quest.

 

     ******

 

    *crack!*

 

  And another goblin falls before Dorkaring’s mighty club, a pile of them litter the marshy forest floor. He checks the golden compass again, it aims ahead towards the Blue Mountain pass. A mountain well known as being a home for demons, the forests around it home to evil things attracted to their dark power, goblins, trolls, orcs, and things mankind has no names for that lurk in the murky waters that feed upon these other beasts, including the demons. Legend says the stones of the Blue Mountains, crystals that were buried deep inside till dwarfen miners dug them held these things prisoner inside the mountain. The Blue Mountain hall of the Dwarf race is long abandoned, and its great gate is where the compass is leading the muscle bound prince.

 

  As he walks clear of the forest up to the mighty gates the first thing he notices is that the gates are open slightly, and the second thing he notices is a small shape running towards him. He reaches for his club strapped to his side, stopping only as he notices the small shape is actually a small boy, a small boy deep in the forbidden marshy forest filled with man eating monsters and monsters that even eat man eating monsters and men.

 

   “Please help me mister,” says the boy who can’t be any older than perhaps six years old, “I was playing with my dog in the old ruin and he fell was taken away by a monster!”

 

   “What…” says Dorkaring, “are you even doing out here kid?”

 

  “I live here, but please mister my dog was taken by a monster while we were playing in the old run, please help me!”

 

   “Sure,” says Dorkaring scratching his head on confusion, “I…I’ll save your dog kid…if its still…”

 

  The child looks about ready to tear up. Dorkaring forces a smile, “don’t worry kid, I’m the great hero Dorkaring. I slay monsters all the time, I’ll either save your dog or avenge him so just…stay…”

 

   He looks around remembering all the monsters he fought and wandering how this kid avoids them all if what he says is true that he lives out here, “just stay where ever you stay to not, you know, be seen by the monsters. I fought a whole bunch of goblins…no match for my mightiness of course, but you’re a little kid, so stay out of the way and I’ll be right back kid.”

 

   With that the hero ventures through the tight, especially for his broad chest and fat head, opening. The inside is not what he had expected, high blue stone walls made of such massive stones he can’t imagine anything short of giants built this place. The murals on the wall depict men and women bowing down before creatures that look like squids on sticks or men with the heads of such creatures. The walls shimmer with an unnatural light being emitted by the streams of water running along the passages and pooling in the corners of chambers in this deep place. As he walks through the chambers, things leap forth from the water to attack him. Things with the bodies of Octopi except that their tentacles are replaced by spider legs, the squishy headed monsters leap through the air at him trying to get to the tender fragile flesh of a man’s face. He swats them with his club smashing them against the floor and walls. They burst into black smoke when defeated, a smoke that sinks back into the water. It is strange to him this thing, as the monsters he would be sent to fight in the mystical labyrinths would normally burst into blue flames when killed, or else were physical creatures leaving behind a corpse.

 

    After battles against octopi with spider legs, floating squids made of stone, floating jellyfish with weird round bug eyes and electric tendrils, and dragonflies with tentacles on their tails and breathe fire, he finally arrives where the compass is leading him. A deep chamber, a mighty door with a strange mural on it, looking like an octopus with a spider behind it, its face hidden by the octopus. As he pushes the giant double door open he pauses as he suddenly hears a dog barking.

 

   Inside the chamber is fairly large and filled with thick white webs despite the very damp environment, the room lit by glowing moss and crystals along the wall and ceiling. On the other side of this room he can see movement, a small brown dog trapped in the web. As he walks across the floor, club drawn he steps on something sticky, web all over the floor. It’s not so sticky that he can’t move, just bothersome. He leaps back halfway into the room as a monstrous form the size of a horse drawn carriage, complete with horses, leaps from the murky depths beyond the web just missing him. This demon beast is a wide eyed thing to see, the body of gargantuan black spider with legs that would be suited better to a very small spider or else a crab, and with an octopus for a head. The tentacles wave about forward reaching for its next victim.

 

     Dorkaring lunges at the beast and is bounced back as his club hits the soft and elastic head.

 

  “Damn,” says Dorkaring only now regretting trading his sword for a club as he set out on his mission.

 

   He beast rears up and charges him, with his impossible strength he leaps over the monster and strikes its backside leaving a crack.

 

   “soft head, hard shell,” says Dorkaring.

 

   While a sword may have cut the beast’s head his club may smash its shell yet, however in this closed space that is not certain as it whips about slashing with its claws and spitting out a stream of green fluid from its beak of a mouth, he is able to block one such stream with his club only to watch if fizzle and dissolve before his eyes. White eyed blood shot rage, with a  mighty roar of anger Dorkaring charges the beast head on. In an act that should have been pure suicide he grabs the tentacles of its head and leaps up, placing his boots upon what passes for the beast’s shoulders or neck. He bends his knees, nearly bringing his scrotum into biting range of this monster and then leaps back, pulling and kicking off with all his worth. The body is sent flying, a trail of green blood behind it as the head travels through the air with him. He tosses it aside as it dissolves into black smoke, the body too vanishing in this manner.

 

   He reaches for his compass, but stops when he hears the dog whimpering. With a shake of his head he goes to where the poor beast is trapped and grabs the sticky webs to pull the animal free. As he rips the steel like webbing with his bare hands the dog suddenly vanishes. A light appears behind the large prince, the small boy from the opening, only now he is glowing, and just as quickly fades out and becomes the dog.

 

     “Brave hero,” says the dog as it floats into the air in its bubble of light, “I am the dog spirit Sirius, keeper of the Gem that you seek. The monsters in this long forgotten ruin were summoned by me to test thy bravery and hero’s heart. You have shown me thy true noble spirit, and I bestow upon thee the Gem of Sirius as your reward hero.”

 

     The ghostly being floats to the ceiling and vanishes just as the blue crystal, the Gem of Sirius appears and floats down into his hands.