72ndth Day of Ash, 122th Year of the Age of Steel
“You know you can speak to us.” Sabrione said conversationally to Arthur from behind.
He grunted in response.
The two of them carried the thin, long crate of goods they were to be delivering. Arthur glowered at the damp sewer ahead of him with the resolute imperturbability Masagh had come to know and admire over the years working as an apprentice to the man. The decayed skin of his shoulders flexed across the occasionally exposed muscles there as he hefted the Runeforge crate.
Behind him, Sabrione walked with both hands clutching the crate’s handle. Her armor was dark and the cloak she wore over it flowed behind her. The massive hilt of her claymore poked out from its place at her hip, a silent reminder of the death she was ready to deal at any moment. Her pale, skeletal face was contorted, the flesh left to her made into a wry look.
“He knows.” Masagh said over his shoulder, smirking. “Not much for it though.”
He peered down the sewer tunnel, splitting his attention between looking out for their contacts and not stepping in the trail of liquid that ran down the middle of the sewer. Masagh stood at the lead, claymore naked in his hand. They did not expect any foul play from the goblins, but as Cynfael used to say, it was the unexpected blade that got you.
The Goblin King was their oldest ally. Only Emerande and the other elders remembered a time before their strong alliance. This meeting and others like it were why that alliance was so strong. As a Knight of the house, Masagh was responsible for delivering their end of the bargain on occasion. Arthur was here because usually there was a Bonecaster present to show the goblins how to work the devices they delivered.
It was not long before they came to the intersection of tunnels that was the traditional meeting place. Arthur and Sabrione hauled the crate over to the thick pipe that protruded from the cement stone wall. Setting it down there, Sabrione sighed and strolled over to her usual perch atop a jagged stone that had dropped from the ceiling above to serve as a sort of stool. Arthur rubbed his hands together and leaned against the wall next to the crate.
They didn’t have to wait long until they heard footsteps approaching. Masagh tightened his grip on the claymore in his hands. It was not the measured steps of a bored group of goblins come to make a familiar exchange. They were rushed.
“Sabrione.” Masagh muttered, turning to face the sound. She glanced up and saw something in his face. Standing, she too drew her blade. Arthur’s eyes quickly glanced between them.
The goblins appeared out of the gloom, jogging set to the cart that drew the bodies they were to deliver. There would be another cart every day for the next week to pay for the magical wands and necromantic items they exchanged for. Six in total, two pulling the cart and four flanking it with hooked swords and spears. What’s more, Masagh noticed glimmers of gold and silver in their clutching free hands.
Masagh invoked the Reaving Rune and let his grip slacken on the claymore in his hand. But the magic did not work and the blade fell away to the ground. Stunned, he quickly retrieved it. Sabrione cursed at him but he ignored her. What power had the goblins brought to negate their magics? He raised the blade to the ready.
“What’s that in your hands, goblin?” Masagh asked, keeping his voice neutral. “You bring Dawnstone to a meeting with ghouls?” Why had they betrayed their covenant? Furthermore, why had they brought the bodies if they planned to. It was a sloppy ambush if that’s what it was.
Sabrione cursed behind him and Masagh thought he knew why. They had both attempted a Dance incantation and it had not worked.
The goblins looked shocked, slowing to a halt. “What?” The lead one said, Masagh recognized her. She had yellow skin and an unkempt bun of hair atop her head. Leather and chain patchwork armor covered her and she carried a hooked blade in one hand. Some officer of the Goblin King’s forces. She did not heft the blade. “You undead really don’t get out much, eh?” She asked.
Sabrione took a step forward, turning her body sideways in the movement as well. “What do you mean?”
“Haven’t been above?” The goblin stared at them. “Shadows and eclipses across the sky. There’s some sort of curse on our city. Tried any Rune magic?” She asked. He blinked at her and flashed a glance at Sabrione quickly.
“Sun’s in shadow, Runes have lost all power. Shadows come alive.” An older goblin said. “These aren’t for you, for the shadows.” He continued.
“Shadows coming alive?” Sabrione repeated. “What do you mean by that?”
“What he said.” The officer confirmed. “Monsters made of shadow, coming for the living. These,” she hefted the Dawnstone in her hand. “Are the only thing we find that kills them. Moonstone can weaken or hold them off.”
Masagh opened his mouth to reply, but couldn’t find something to say. It sounded fanciful. It sounded like a ploy, but the Reaving Rune had failed him for the first time ever. That would take some sort of powerful magic. What’s more, there was no reason for the goblins to betray them, no reason for them to lie.
“Quiet!” Sabrione said, her blade lowering in her hand. She was peering down the passage behind the goblins. Masagh peered into the darkness of the sewer where she was looking. There was no sound, but a faint swirling of smoke.
“What is…” His question trailed off as a pair of dark eyes peered out at him. The huge form of some shadowy beast stepped into the light of their torches and dragon shards and it was like the darkness had stepped with it. A rictus of fangs spread as it began to growl at them.
Then a second voice joined in. Another pair of eyes opened and a second beast stepped into the glow. Then a third.
“Spirits help us.” He heard one goblin mutter. The claymore rose in his hand as the nearest goblin raised its Dawnstone.
“Don’t. Only Moonstones around us, fool.” Masagh’s low growl was biting with menace. The goblin glanced from him to the beasts, then turned and ran down the nearest tunnel.
That seemed to initiate a swirl of movement in the sewers. The shadow beasts lunged forward, Sabrione rushed to join him, yelling some war cry. Masagh raised his blade for the first blow. The goblins abandoned their cart and began to run in the opposite direction or stand and fight.
The shadow beasts rushed past him and Masagh swiped down hard with the claymore. The blade cut through their bodies as if they were smoke. He watched the one he had attacked reform and then bound off the wall of the sewer. It took a goblin’s head off before the thing could even raise its small shard of Moonstone.
Shadow twisted around Sabrione as she too swung at the beasts. They moved past her like shadow and smoke, her blade ineffectual. Another goblin fell in a grisly splash of blood. The Dawnstone in its hand sinking below the muck of the sewer. The shadow beasts skidded to a halt and turned to face them once more. They moved like huge canines, but their forms remained untouched by cold iron or steel.
“How do we kill them?” Masagh yelled to the goblins.
“Already told you!” The officer yelled back as she started pulled her people back. “The stones.” The beasts crouched for the attack again. They had ignored the ghouls on the first pass, but seemed to not take kindly to their attacks, ineffectual as they were. One was eyeing Arthur.
“This way, all of you!” Sabrione said, pulling a goblin back towards her.
Masagh bent and gathered the small Moonstone in his free hand just as the shadow beasts made another charge. Light from the Moonstone warmed the cold palm of his undead hand as he raised it before himself. Then a storm of shadow and fangs descended on them. Another goblin spun about, toppling over. Sabrione was screaming, the officer was snarling and stabbing at the shadows. Masagh lunged his blade into the shadows blindly, holding the dragon shard aloft. It caught at the ethereal form of one of the beasts for a moment.
When he spun around to face them again though, the gauge he had caused seemed to be healing in the sanctuary of the darkness. He stared at it. Behind him Arthur bent and picked up the wounded goblin easily in his arms. The goblin was still holding his spear and clutching the moonstone to his chest. Masagh took a step back.
“We run.” He said in an even voice.
“The shipments!” The officer barked. “We can’t leave them.”
“You can come back for your damn wands.” Sabrione spat, her voice like a snake across stone. “We go, or we die here and now.”
The shadow beasts crouched.
“Run!” Masagh yelled and turned. He bolted and the others followed suit. They splashed along the sewer tunnel, leaving their dead and their goods behind. Though shorter, the goblins were agile. They kept pace and followed when the ghouls turned their feet towards the sewer river that they used to ferry back to the compound.
The shadow beasts followed, padding along silently. It was an eerie sort of horror that filled his heart. He could not help but think of them as insubstantial. But one had ripped the head off a goblin warrior. This was not the kind of magic you fought, at least not without your own. Without his magic he felt more like the walking corpse he was than he had in many many years.
On they ran, goblin and ghoul fleeing the shadows together. Despite carrying the goblin, Arthur was able to keep pace easily. They were able to make it to the wider channel of the sewers that the ghouls called the Sewer River. As the ragged party stumbled out onto the ledge where their boat was tied off Masagh spun about and raised the moonstone again. A flash of teeth and the nearest shadow beast emerged from the darkness.
Fresh and ready, the chase had not tired them. When the light from the Moonstone touched it the goblin officer did not hesitate. She thrust her blade through the thing’s shoulder and pulled down viciously. Shadows spilled forth from the wound like blood and the beast stumbled back out of reach. Masagh stabbed at it also, urging it back. The thing bit at him and Masagh put his blade in its mouth, blocking the blow clumsily.
“The boat!” He yelled over his shoulder. Sabrione was hastily untying their boat while he and the goblin officer beat back their assailants.
“Come on!” She said. Sabrione was already aboard with the two goblin warriors. Arthur still held the wounded one where he sat in the back of the boat.
The officer ran and leapt into the boat and the second shadow beast spilled from the mouth of the tunnel to fill the space she had left.
“Come on, Masagh!” Sabrione shouted again. They had pushed off into the murky water.
He made one last swipe at the shadow beasts before turning and leaping into the boat. He landed badly, his foot slipping into the water. The rest of his body slammed down onto one of the benches and his sword went clattering out of his grip. But they were away. Small clawed goblin hands helped him sit up. They all watched in silence as the beasts disappeared into the darkness.
He hoped silently that they could not swim.
