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Peril in Mynadar
by Tumaros Treesoar
Part 1
Gondric wiped his forehead and rested his pickaxe on his shoulder, staring at the rich vein before him. He wiped his beard and turned to a dwarf that stood next to him-Urungt, his mining partner for decades-and sighed.
Urungt stopped his mining as well and looked at Gondric. "Whatsamatter, Mithrilfist? Mining too much for ye?" He smiled teasingly, using "Mithrilfist," Gondric's imposing last name. The dwarf had yet to live up to that name though, and every time someone used it the stout dwarf was humbled greatly.
Gondric sighed again and shook his head. "No," he muttered. "I could mine all day if need be..."
Urungt let out a hearty laugh. "All day? A'course ye could, Mithrilfist, a'course..." He noticed the look of pure concern on his partner's face, though, and immediately shifted his tone. "Is there something troubling ye?"
Gondric looked around, and then turned back to Urungt. "Well, I can't shake th' feeling that there be trouble about, in these parts. I mean, we're at the furthest edge of th' new tunnel, not a soul but us has been out this far..."
"Aye," grumbled Urungt. "I'll admit, it troubles me a bit as well. But don't let it bother ye, ye be in safe company." The dwarf winked and set back to swinging at the gold ore.
Gondric chuckled, looked around once more, and then followed suit without another sound.
Later that night, the two dwarf friends were given a break, and they both sat on the opposite wall of where they were mining (they had yet to leave the same posts, the gold was so rich!). Enjoying a hearty round of ale, and another round of the dwarven mining song, the two didn't worry at all about the looming darkness of the unexplored tunnel. That is, until they heard a scream from down that way.
Both Gondric and Urungt immediately dropped their picks and ales and held their sturdy and elaborate axes in front of them.
"Did ye hear that? Sounded like a goblin," muttered Gondric.
"Ah, we can take a goblin. Do ye want to go see what that was?" asked Urungt, holding his axe straight out in front of him.
Gondric nodded, and the two dwarves began to walk slowly and steadily toward the pitch-black darkness of the tunnel in front of them.
Minutes passed without a sound, and the dwarves (their eyes glowing red from dwarfish infravision) finally came across the limp, crumpled body of a goblin. Urungt bent low to examine the creature, Gondric keeping watch from above. The deformed creature was cut in several places with what seemed to be a double edged sword of some sort.
"He's hurt bad...can't be a dwarf's kill by the looks of those cuts," he murmured.
Gondric nodded, shivering at the sight of the goblin, and began to examine some odd markings on the walls.
"What is it?" asked Urungt, following Gondric over to the wall.
The markings appeared to be made from some wild animal's claws, probably a cat by the dwarves' guessing.
"Odd," whispered Urungt.
"C'mon, let's keep going," said Gondric, rather reluctantly. He spun around, and his eyes opened in fear.
Urungt noticed his companions distress and opened his mouth as if to say something, and then shut it immediately.
The mutilated goblin corpse was gone!
"How...how can..." stammered Gondric.
Urungt shrugged. "It's not often that goblin corpses just pick up and walk away...there might be a creature down here with us."
A shiver went up Gondric's spine. His eyes darted from the claw markings on the wall to the still-stained spot on the floor where the goblin laid just a few moments ago.
Urungt started to head onward into the tunnel, beckoning for Gondric to follow. The two dwarves continued their trek through the silent tunnel, every now and then breaking the stillness with a comment about the veins of gold lining the entire path.
Suddenly, Urungt cried out. Gondric spun towards his friend, axe ready, his eyes wide. From what it seemed, a goblin had snuck up behind them and was now strangling Urungt. Letting loose a great shout, Gondric sprinted forward (as fast as dwarfishly possible) and drove his axe home, splitting the goblin skull clean in half. The small creature shivered and fell to the floor in a heap.
Urungt clutched his throat and growled fiercely. "Another one...with a fierce grip too!" He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the attacker. "Seems like there's more of these little nuisances than we thought."
"Aye," nodded Gondric, wiping his axe on the dead goblin's chest. "We'd best be more careful."
Urungt nodded, and holding their axes with firmer grips, the two dwarves set off once more down the tunnel. This time, they passed for many minutes without any disturbances.
After a while the dwarven friends sat down to rest, and attempt to get their bearings.
Urungt pulled out a map of the mines from his pack, superimposed over a map of the area, and laid it out on the floor. He knelt over it and began tracing their approximate route with his finger.
"From what I can see, which isn't much in this blasted darkness..." began Urungt, "we've travelled nearly twice the length of the existing mine. Our path has been fairly straightforward, so..." here he moved his finger across the map of the surface towards a spot in the mid-east of Mynadar. "We must be somewheres 'round here."
Gondric nodded and then scratched his chin in thought. "Where do ye think this tunnel leads?"
Urungt shrugged. "Many places...'could double back, run below Mynadar and Kilaran Field all the way to that mine in...Desert Pines." He grimaced at the name of the dwarves' mining competitor...Desert Pines held the largest mine in all of the continent, with such diverse ores as silver, sulphur, and quartz. The dwarves made it their life's goal to show up the miners from Desert Pines once and for all, thus another reason for the excitement over this new addition to the mines.
Gondric nodded again, and imitated Urungt's grimace at the mention of Desert Pines. He held up a stubby finger and rose abruptly.
"What is it?" asked Urungt.
"Listen..." whispered Gondric, holding up his finger again.
The two dwarves fell silent, and they both listened hard. They could hear, off not to far away, the sounds of many screeches...feminine screeches...and yet, unnatural to the dwarves' ears.
Gondric and Urungt looked at each other seriously, and within a moment they were both off down the tunnel again, at a frantic pace, axes armed, following the unusual sounds before them. The dwarves found the tunnel begin to widen, and finally they came to the entrance of a large cavern, adorned in white stones and elaborate architecture. In the middle of the cavern there was a throne, which appeared to be made of solid gold straight out of the mines themselves.
The throne did not remain unoccupied though...there was a man seated at the throne. He appeared to be made of the blackest night, if night could be made into a solid. His cape, which was continuously moving (even though not a single breeze passed through the mines), seemed to be made simply of shadows banded together. Even his skin was enough to make a drow seem pale.
However, it was not the throne, or the throne's occupant, or the intricate architecture of the cave, that surprised the two dwarves. It was simply the source of the wild female screeches that left them frozen still.
Nearly a hundred female orcs were running around the seated man, whooping and screeching like the wild and deranged creatures that they were.
Gondric immediately ducked down and attempted to blend in with the darkness as much as possible. However, Urungt simply stood still, as if paralyzed.
"C'mon Urungt!" whispered Gondric, poking his frozen friend. Urungt simply dropped his axe with a loud clang and began to march steadily forward, towards the spinning circle of orcs. Gondric watched in amazement as his friend continued forward, finally stopping a few feet in front of the man seated at the temple. Just looking at this evil creature made Gondric begin to feel clammy. He sat down to keep from passing out by the overbearing fear the seated man held, and he watched helplessly as Urungt bowed low and muttered incoherently.
The man in the throne smiled and snapped his fingers. A group of ten or so orcs broke away from the unusual dance and approached the seated man. He gave them a command in the stiff orcish language and they began to whoop excitedly, staring greedily at the dwarf. The man in the throne snapped his fingers again, and the following carnage was too much for Gondric to bear. As soon as the first orc twisted Urungt's head off with a sickening crack, Gondric rose, abandoned all hopes of stealth, and sprinted down the tunnel faster than any dwarf could ever imagine.
*
"Urungt...dead?" asked a dwarf incredulously.
"Female orcs?" questioned another.
Gondric held his hands up, panting wildly in an attempt to catch his breath. He slumped along the wide entrance to the mines. The large group of dwarves surrounding him grumbled and shifted their picks around uncomfortably, anxiously waiting for more information about Gondric's experience.
Finally, Gondric was breathing easily again, and he described the trek with Urungt down the tunnel. When he got to the part about the orcs, he choked a bit, and continued softly. "An' then...when those...those things...got a hold of Urungt...I made for here faster'n I'd ever run before."
The dwarves fell silent. Not only had they lost one of their strongest miners, but they also had some fears about the new tunnel they had discovered.
"Mebbe we should close off th' new tunnel..." came a quiet suggestion.
"An' lose all that gold? This new tunnel could change the future o' Mynadar!" shouted one of the miners.
"That's not always a good thing..." muttered Gondric, and again the group fell silent.
After a few minutes, the same dwarf that had suggested to close off the new tunnel spoke again. "We should be takin' this to Bargak." The other dwarves nodded, muttering in agreement, and soon Gondric and four other dwarves (two of them the dwarves that had argued over closing the tunnel) had set off towards the elaborate structure in the centre of Mynadar that housed Bargak, the ruler of the entire Valley of the Dwarves region.
*
Within a few minutes, Gondric and his group were headed down the great hall of the king of the dwarven valley. As they reached Bargak, a large and surly dwarf with a demeanour that could frighten off a bear with one look, the royal guards spun to the sides of their leader, and the dwarven group bowed low.
"Me lord," began Gondric, rising from his bow. "We be here representing the miners of the gold mine to the south, and we bring urgent news."
"What is it now?" grumbled Bargak, his head resting tiredly on his right hand. "Another tunnel has been discovered?" he asked hopefully, his eyes brightening.
"Nay," muttered Gondric, and Bargak shook his head in dismay. "However," Gondric continued, "this does concern th' new tunnel."
"Well, on with it then!" growled the dwarven king, the fingers of his left hand tapping impatiently on the arm of his throne.
"Er..." Gondric stammered, "we seem to have run into a slight problem." He proceeded to describe his experience with Urungt.
When he finished, the dwarven king's actions mirrored those of the miners. "Wh...what? Urungt...goblins...female orcs..." Bargak trailed off, Gondric nodding solemnly, and slumped back wearily in his throne.
"I would suggest that we either close that new tunnel off..." started Gondric, but he was interrupted by Bargak.
"What? Close off th' tunnel? But...but we need this, for the future o' Mynadar! Think o' th' trade!"
"Exactly what I said, me king," muttered the miner who had originally said the same thing back when Gondric had first told them.
"OR..." shouted Gondric, "we could fight them."
Bargak shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Me men have never faced any o' their kind before," he murmured, referring to the female orcs. "Male orcs, yes, and they've taken their toll on our forces indeed." He closed his eyes, recalling a past battle with an invading orc tribe from the western mountains. That day he had lost nearly his entire military force, even though his men outnumbered the orcs. "An' from what I hear, the female orcs are worse than the males." A shudder crept up his spine, and he looked around uneasily.
"We could send for allies," suggested Gondric.
"Allies, eh?" grumbled the stout ruler. "An' where d'you suppose we would get them, miner? Kilaran Field? All they ever do is fight among themselves. Tarsengaard? Nordcarn? Both competitors. No, this be a dwarven fight." He held his head in his hands.
"Ask the miners, there be some strong men in there..." began Gondric, and the dwarves that had accompanied him all nodded in agreement.
"But they would have t' be trained!" shouted Bargak, standing up from his seat and shaking a fist. He began to pace around, every once in a while looking off to the west, to the setting sun. "Tell me again about the cavern."
Gondric sighed. "Well, it was elaborate. Amazing architecture, none I've ever seen before. There were lots o' female orcs, all circling around this...one man. Dark guy, seemed t' be death himself, made of nothing but wispy shadow."
Suddenly, a dwarf in a deep purple cloak, seated near Bargak's throne, rose. He tapped Bargak on the shoulder, and the dwarf stopped his pacing.
"Yes?" asked Bargak. "Is there something you wish to say, Ekwin?"
Ekwin nodded. "Yes...to him." He pointed at Gondric and spoke directly to him. "This man, you speak of...you said he was dark, shadowy, seemed to be the essence of death himself?"
Gondric nodded.
"Did he have magical powers?"
Gondric nodded again, and described the situation with Urungt and the orcs.
Ekwin gulped loudly, and began to shiver. "Unusual architecture..." He pulled out a parchment and a feather and began scrawling something on it. When he finished, he showed it to Gondric. "Did it look like this?"
Gondric examined it. "Exactly."
Ekwin nearly collapsed. He steadied himself on his seat, and looked around, pure fear on his face.
"Something wrong, Ekwin?" asked Bargak.
"C-close that tunnel...immediately..." stuttered the shivering Ekwin.
"But why?" asked Bargak, starting to sweat in nervousness.
"That cavern that he found...he found the home of the dark god of death...he found the place where Mortos resides."
Ekwin fell silent, his eyes rolled up into his head, and he fell in a dead faint.
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