Banding Together
Remembrance 3, 832 I. E.
15 Years after Albert's Exile
Albert's Family's Farm in Avernum
Albert gesticulated with his cup, "But Mother, it's the Avernum Adventurer Corps, not the regular army."
"You needn't slosh all over the table," she said, just as she had all his childhood, on the surface and in Avernum, and produced a cloth to dry the rough cavewood.
Rupert, Albert's younger brother, teasingly agreed, "Yeah, not the regular army - so you won't get the regular meals. Just have to scrounge around a bit."
Albert grimaced at him, but he knew that the teasing was partly intended to distract their mother from her worry. He came back with, "I'll get to eat what I want when I want, yes - and better, I get some freedom to choose which missions I want to accept. And it's even less bureaucracy than usual around here. Plus, we get to keep whatever treasure and equipment we're given or find."
Mother protested, "Not the regular army, but it's still dangerous."
Emma finished the last bite of her mushroom meal bread and asked, "Yes, Mother, but how many bats did you have to have to kill in the north field just this morning?"
"Only two, and they were the little ones," she said with a sigh. "I feel bad doing it."
Rupert held up a needle, four fingers, and a smile to Albert - one of the little bats had inflicted on their mother wounds requiring four stitches this time. Rupert whisked the fingers and needle out of sight quickly, but Mother still frowned between them.
Father said, "Albert, I'm sure you'll do us all proud. All right, everyone, time for the last hug and prayer. We don't want him late for the caravan into town!"
After the last hug and prayer, just before heading out the door, Albert whispered to his mother, "I miss Carl too, Mother. He defended us all in the war. I'm not him - I need to do something different. I can't tell you I'll be safe, but I'll be doing something worthwhile, too."
She gave him a sad smile and said, "Albert, we all believe in you. I wanted to tell you to be safe, but your father said I shouldn't since you're going to be an adventurer. So I'll tell you to bring back a nice girl."
"Mother!" Albert exclaimed.
"Oh, and cute grandchildren, too," she added.
Father broke in, "The neighbors will never let us hear the end of it if we keep the caravan waiting."
And thus Albert began his greatest adventure.
Contested Caves North of Avernum
There was no wind on the surface of the dark, subterranean lake. A small finger of this lake reached out, stopping just short of silently caressing the cold stone walls of a hushed outpost. The air by the small side door of the outpost was cool, still, and clear, offering a good view of the dark lake to the guard standing outside a small side door. No ripples broke the surface of the water in the small channel, until two lizard men charged out of it, two-tined spears already transferred from the harnesses on their backs into their hands, and quickly slew the guard.
The lizard-men, properly known, of course, as members of the slithzerikai race, swiftly searched the guard's body. Breaking the surface of the water had made some noise, and the guard had been alert and had his own spear in hand, parrying the first attacker before being finished off by the second, so there would probably be a group coming to investigate soon. Finding the key, the slithzerikai opened the door of the outpost and rushed inside.
The first one stopped their charge down the hall with an uplifted hand, then gestured at a seemingly innocuous spot on the floor. The second slithzerikai quickly fished a small pair of wire-cutters out of his belt and cut the nearly invisible tripwire, disarming the trap, and the two rushed ahead.
A group of guards was inside the front gate, apparently just finished checking that the commotion hadn't come from there, and the guards stared for a moment at the silhouettes charging at them, wondering whether they were friend or foe. In the next moment, they had their spears at the ready, but the slithzerikai overpowered them with brute strength and momentum. They unbarred the front gate and tried to swing it open, but the guards outside the gate were pushing against it, keeping it shut. Both slithzerikai could hear the rest of the outpost beginning to stir, and another group of guards running down a corridor, just moments away.
From outside came two whirs, and the pressure against the doors changed from active resistance to deadweight. The slithzerikai inside pushed the gates open. The two guards outside had been slain by arrows, and had fallen against the gate.
A small company of humans, clad in armor bearing a symbol of the sun, rushed towards the now-open gate. They aimed bows for a moment at the slithzerikai, before sighing in relief. They ran past them, into the fortress, over the bodies of the guards.
More of the outpost's guards came into the entryway then, from two different directions. An enormous guard, evidently the commander, snarled at the slithzerikai who had infiltrated the outpost, "Fillthy traitorsss!"
"Throw down your weapons," the first of the slithzerikai infiltrators replied.
The guards' commander motioned ahead with his two-tined spear, and battle was joined.
At first, the guards tried to surround both the first slithzerikai infiltrator, Thass, and his student, Sschass. However, the humans with the emblem of the sun were just behind them, and so those guards were quickly cut down.
Sschass worried for a moment that the Avernite army detachment he and Thass were working with would kill them along with the wicked slithzerikai guarding this outpost, but the disciplined team checked their targets carefully, as they always had, so the irrational fear didn't last long. Sschass was free to focus on the fight.
For a few seconds, or minutes, there was desperate stabbing, parrying, and feinting in the perpetual half-light of Avernum. Sschass suddenly became aware that the front ranks of guards had fallen, but this left the guards' commander free to fight. The guards' commander stabbed forward with his two-tined spear, and one of the humans intercepted the blow with his shield. There was a loud crash as the spear stuck in the cavewood. The guards' commander yanked back on the spear, pulling the soldier off-balance. As the soldier stumbled toward him, the guards' commander pulled his spear back further, switching to a one-handed grip as the shield came within reach, and with his now-free hand grabbed the edge of the shield. The soldier tried to raise the sword in his other hand, but his stumbling feet weren't giving him the leverage he needed for a proper blow. Thass, Sschass, and the other soldiers tried to press forward to his aid, but the wicked slithzerikai guards were rallying and cutting them off.
The guards' commander lunged forward, his great height giving his head great reach, as he opened his mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth, and made for the soldier's neck.
An Avernite bowman took a quick, risky shot in the short, crowded entryway. He didn't get the guards' commander in the torso as he'd hoped, but he did score on the arm imprisoning his comrade's shield. There was a roar as the slithzerikai flinched, drawing back his clawed hand from the shield. Thass and Sschass slew their opponents, and rushed forward as the endangered soldier regained his footing. The three of them attacked the guards' commander, at head, heart, and gullet, and the guards' commander fell.
"And that's how it's done!" the formerly endangered soldier cried, and the Avernites roared, and moments later, the last wicked slithzerikai fell, and the battle was won.
After an Avernite flag was hoisted over the outpost, yellow sun emblem displayed in the windless air with the aid of small supports keeping the flag extended, the human captain shook Thass and Sschass' hands. "Excellent working with you as usual, Thass, Sschass. I always say, you're the finest in the Adventurer Corps!"
Sschass had known the captain professionally from several battles, and thought the captain's emphasis was odd, as was the way that Thass gestured with his head at Sschass before replying, "Captain Martin, we are pleased to earn honor with you. I'm only sorry we have to stop our advance here."
The captain shrugged with a smile. "Don't I know it! But, now we can intercept more slith raids into our lands, and if we ever get the soldiers and money, use this place to push further into their territory. Anyway, come on down to the fire. Mushroom merlot for our victory!"
Everyone cheered.
Three days later, Sschass and Thass walked along the road back to Gnass, their hometown, in the Great Cave of Avernum. Thass looked over quickly and said to Sschass, "It's been good fighting by your side, Sschass. You've made me proud. I'm sad to do it, but I'm going to have to leave the Adventurer Corps. Time for you to find a new team, begin new missions together. Keep making me proud."
Sschass was shocked into silence, then finally said, "You're not too old, Thass."
Thass chuckled heavily and said, "If you have to say it like that, I am."
Sschass insisted, "That was only one dull scale, and you shed it."
Thass pointed out, "We both know it was replaced by another dull scale, and I have many more dull scales still on my body. I'm still fit enough for night watch at Gnass. I can tussle with the odd monster here and there. But I can't do the long missions anymore. I'm slowing down. I'm a danger to my friends, not my enemies. Let me keep my honor. Let our last quest and victory be how I am remembered. You still have things to do."
Sschass looked into the distance, where their fellow slithzerikai were coming to meet them with welcoming shouts. "I'll remember what you've taught me."
"See that you do!" Thass said, playfully poking at his arm with a claw.
It was hard for Sschass to think about reporting back to the Adventurer Corps to get a new assignment. But on the night of their homecoming, everyone had been excitedly talking about the progress of Avernum's construction in Upper Avernum, a series of caves only a few miles below the surface, recently accessed by a new portal constructed with the help of the vahnati race. An old friend had asked Sschass if he was going to be the first Avernite on the surface - after all, he did have some seniority in the Corps!
Really, it was only a few years experience in the Corps, and Sschass was sure everyone wanted that assignment. But, if he could get that - well. And it was reminding him of other adventures he could have, which, though only half as interesting - half of an immense amount was still quite a lot.
Avernum
In a dimly lit barracks of the Avernum Adventuring Corps, a woman in simple clerical robes sat at a small rough desk.
"Mother, Father, Ron," Helen wrote carefully, after removing excess ink from her quill. Parchment was expensive, and she didn't want to waste any. "I've just been assigned to a squad, the first one I've ever been in. My squadmates and I are getting along well-"
She gasped in surprise as she realized Sschass had appeared over her shoulder. "My apologies, Helen," he said. "I was just going to ask which watch you wanted to take."
"Of course, Sschass, thank you," she said, trying to return to normal breathing. "If it's still open, the second watch is what I would prefer."
Sschass rumbled admiringly, "Ah, you don't mind being awakened at that time of night?"
Helen admitted, "In the midnight hours, I think better, and pray better."
"If you actually enjoy it, I'm sure we can make it work. I'll go talk to the others." Sschass told her. He slipped soundlessly out of the room.
Helen returned to writing, "They all have been very kind and considerate to-"
Albert's bag thumped onto his bed after being flung out of his hands at the door, at about the same time he called out, "Helen? Hey there! You haven't seen Frruh, have you? Sschass wants to get the watches sorted out. I wanted to see if he'd trade for first watch."
Helen prayed soundlessly, and tried to look away from the jagged line she'd made through a few of the words in her startlement. "No, Albert, I haven't seen Frruh lately," she replied tightly.
"Are you writing to your family?" Albert asked, coming closer.
"As a matter of fact, I am," Helen told him. Probably they'd still be able to read the words through the line - it wasn't a very big line.
"Who are you sending it with?" he inquired. "I only ask because I sent a letter to my family with Matthias - big mistake. He completely forgot it - went and said he lost it! The idea! Send it with a proper caravan, not a fellow adventurer, that's what I learned."
"People do make mistakes," Helen noted, "but I'll keep it in mind, thank you."
"No problem," he said cheerfully, "I mean, he told me later it was a joke, but is that funny? Still don't know if he really got it to them. Anyway, send it with a caravan." He walked to his bunk and began to sort through the pack he'd just tossed onto it. Helen gazed at her parchment and wondered if he were perhaps trying to make as much noise as possible.
Frruh came in at that moment, and Albert made yet more noise enthusiastically greeting him, then trying to persuade him to change watches with him. Helen stared at her quill as she rotated it idly in her hand. The Corps had said they could ask to be assigned to different teams.
She considered it a bit longer, then shook her head. There was really quite a lot of wisdom in this team assignment, she could tell. Just before she went back to finishing her letter, Frruh began making a sound in the back of his throat, but after a moment she realized it was a purr. Apparently Albert had convinced him. She assumed a nephilim made a sound like that for the same sort of reasons ordinary cats did.
Anyway, it was time she finished this letter. She had to tell her family about their mission.
Albert and Helen were talking about something as they walked through the fort after their latest round of training. Frruh was walking behind them, watching them. Sschass sidled up to him and asked, "So, how long do you think it'll be before they'll court?"
Frruh stared at him, slightly taken aback. "This isn't courting?"
Sschass continued, "Yes, but neither of them realize it yet."
"Ah," Frruh said. "Of course, it's obvious they will be in love. It's still a little hard for me to read the finer emotions on human faces. I didn't know it wasn't obvious to them." He frowned. "Are you sure they can't tell?"
Sschass laughed quietly, "I'm sure. I mean, I can't read their faces perfectly either, but the voices I can."
"How can it be so obvious to everyone else, but not to them?" Frruh objected.
Sschass suggested, "They just don't consciously see each other as potential mates, not yet. No idea why." He sighed. "I was going to bet with you on whether they'd fall in love, but it's too obvious."
Frruh considered and suggested, "We could bet on how long it will take."
"Two coins says three weeks," Sschass said quickly.
"Five weeks," Frruh stated, "they must have serious problems to not be taking an interest in each other yet. It'll take a while to break through that."
"I wouldn't go that far," Sschass demurred, amused. "But this should be entertaining."
Albert glanced back at them and asked, "What are you two doing all the way back there? Hurry up!"
"Maybe you could slow down so the rest of us could catch up?" Helen suggested pointedly.
"I want to get to the mess hall! All the good food will be gone at this rate!" Albert waved at Sschass and Frruh urgently.
"When is there ever good food in the mess hall?" Sschass inquired jocularly.
Albert gestured helplessly and returned, "Not-as-bad food, then!"
Some way into their meal and conversation that evening, Sschass finally inquired, "Albert, you do realize we're just the backup team?"
"'Just the backup team'," Albert fired back jovially, "is an incredible honor. 'Only' the second group of people who get to explore the surface we're breaking through to! I get it, we don't deserve it, we're just greenhorns except for you - but we've got it, and OK, I'm excited about it."
Frruh observed acerbically, "The first team is not composed of fools - this mission is too important. They'll finish the job, and we'll be reassigned without ever beginning."
Albert, finally peeved, argued, "You know, this is a pretty big mission. Big enough that they may need a second team to help. The surface is a big place, you know. There's always a chance."
Helen exclaimed, "Always a chance? Albert, the only way we could get a chance is if something happened to the first team! Weren't you listening to the briefing?"
He put the bite he'd been about to eat back on his plate, turned fierce eyes on her, and insisted vehemently, "That wasn't what I meant!"
"I know that!" she declared irritatedly, gesturing with empty hands. "That's why I said it!"
"Are you serious?" he asked shrilly.
Sschass broke in, "My intention-"
Albert held up a hand. "Hold on, Sschass. I get what you mean, I really do, but," and he turned to Helen, "I really think that deserves an explanation."
Her frown deepened as she told them all, "No, I'm not saying you want anything to happen to the first team. But who else will believe that when you keep being careless with words that way?"
"Are people really listening to and caring about us that much?" Albert wondered aloud.
Sschass, feeling each furtive glance of other dining adventurers like a javelin, rubbed his crest and muttered, "Many are now."
The walk to their barracks was ordinarily very short, but tonight it felt like an eternity. Sschass and Frruh lingered behind, Albert pushed ahead, and Helen tried to catch up to him, but a taut silence was the only thing connecting all four of them. Frruh muttered to Sschass, "They'd have to be fools to pick us."
Ignoring Sschass' silence, Frruh continued, "Even apart from all this, Albert's the only one of us who's even seen the sun."
Sschass said sadly, "Isn't that why we should have some pity for him? I'm frustrated with him, but…" He hissed and rubbed his crest, at a loss for words.
Albert's pace slowed, then stopped, and the others approached him cautiously. He finally said, "I get it, OK? I'm lousy at it, but I'll try keeping my mouth shut - on one condition."
Helen said in astonishment, "On a condition?"
"Yes," he insisted, then took a deep breath and continued, "I know, you know- I know none of you have ever been on the surface. I don't know what it's like to be born here, you don't know what it's like to be born there. I mean, why would you believe it's worth all this trouble to get there? All the risk of meeting the Empire again? But it is worth it. I'm getting there, someday, somehow. OK, maybe I won't go on this mission. I'll wait years if I hafta, stretch my coins till they scream, and be a settler on the surface when they finally open it up. And whenever I go, if any of you is able to come with me, I will show you how great it is there. I'll show you the sky - I'll show you weather - none of you even know what weather is! It's wrong, I tell you! Neat stuff here? OK, but the surface is way better."
"That is a long condition," Helen spoke, unimpressed.
He turned to face her.
"But I'll take it," she added. "I believe you, and I want to see what you and my parents keep talking about with my own eyes. I am happy for you, really, and for all of us, really, I am. Being on a team with someone who's been there - it's one of the best things that could happen. And I don't believe it's a coincidence. Just please, try and keep a lid on it, please?"
"OK," he told her, "if you insist, I'll be sad about it." And with a smirk, he set off.
"I don't want you to be sad about it!" she called as she set out after him, shaking her hands imploringly, and with faint annoyance.
"I'll be perfectly contained-" he assured her with a grin over his shoulder, as she protested, "That's not what I want!"
"No one will ever know I'm happy about this assignment again," his mock-solemn voice carried back, and her aggrieved voice replied, "I didn't say that! Nobody said that!" But despite her "Hmph!" and head-shaking, there was finally a peace around them all.
"That's a relief," Sschass said to Frruh.
"Definitely," Frruh told him. "But apparently it'll be four weeks - we'll both lose our bet."
"That's not how it works," Sschass insisted, but Frruh shook his head and smiled slyly.
"We'll be revisiting this in three weeks when I win," Sschass insisted.
They all returned to the barracks together.
Leafloss 21, 815 I. E.
2 Years before Albert's Exile
Fort Avernum
Nathan and Warren entered the inn on the evening after their exile into Avernum. It was a rough joint. There were rough-hewn wooden tables, rough wooden chairs, several rough planks constituting a bar, and rough wooden barstools. All in all, a rough joint, but there were rougher in Avernum - Nathan and Warren just hadn't been in them yet.
Most of the tables in the dining area were taken by groups of soldiers, or by fellow exiles they didn't know, so Nathan and Warren hoisted themselves onto the barstools. One of the others was already holding a large man, who was already holding a large drink. Nathan recognized him as one of those who had gone through the portal with them that day. Nathan grunted at the man as he sat beside him, "'llo. I'm Nathan."
"Derek," the big man returned, making eye contact after setting down his cup. Nathan noted that Warren had sat next to him, away from Derek, and doubted any introductions would be forthcoming, and added, "And he's Warren."
"I can speak for myself," Warren groused.
"Don't I know it," Nathan agreed.
Fortuitously, the innkeeper finished serving other customers and approached them at that moment, and they made arrangements for the evening's room and board, and what the innkeeper gleefully announced as "your first drink in Avernum." Nathan could see Warren was even more wary than he was of how all the attention was fixed on them, but he gestured to Warren to drink at the same time he did. Warren pouted a moment, but seeing Nathan's stare, did so.
Nathan and Warren were well acquainted with poor wine, but that didn't stop the coughing and sputtering from either of them. The bar erupted in cheers and scattered applause.
"Mushroom merlot, gents!" the innkeeper chuckled.
"There are better drinks than this, right?" Warren asked hopefully.
"If you pay more, sure!" The innkeeper shrugged. He left for one of his many trips to wait on other customers.
"It doesn't get a lot better, I'll bet," Warren sighed, and tried to down more of his drink.
Derek commented, "Probably took a few years off our lives. 'Course, the portal probably did, too. I didn't think I'd survive that."
Nathan agreed, "It was a near thing. I wasn't sure I'd survive down here - but now it turns out they've got cities and a place to get a drink. Could be worse."
"You still might not survive down here," Warren told them cheerfully. Nathan wondered darkly if this were his idea of a joke, and shot back, "What happened to your big plans to find a way back to the surface, Warren?"
"I'll have to die to give them up," Warren said wryly. "But brigands and monsters here will be happy to oblige!"
Derek asked, "So, just how do you know there is an exit to the surface?"
Warren pointed out, "We haven't all suffocated. There must be passages to the surface, enough for us all to get fresh air."
"And yet no-one's ever found them," Derek said with the finality of skepticism.
"Oh, I'm not saying that they're big enough to fit through, or that they aren't unclimbable shafts," Warren allowed. "But they must still exist. Besides, even if it seems impossible at first, we'll be able to solve the problems, if we can just go about it the right way. For example, even if it was a vertical shaft, maybe we could find magic that would let us fly."
Nathan gave Warren a skeptical look, Derek gave him a skeptical snort, but the returning innkeeper gave him, "I've heard of the Orb of Thralni. A small group of people can fly if they hold it."
"There, exactly," Warren said, slapping his own thigh. "It wouldn't let us fly forever, but long enough to carve out handholds, or even find some magic to make or find an alcove to rest in, until we can make another flight up."
Nathan wondered aloud, "How do you know it can't make you fly forever?"
Warren peered back at him, noting, "Logic. A finite item can't contain infinite power."
"If you say so," Nathan acquiesced. "You are a mage."
Warren swiveled his head around a moment and then said, "Wait, were you addressing me with that last remark?"
Nathan stared at him. "I thought you were a mage."
Warren squinted at him in confusion, asking, "Why would you think that?"
"You knew Erika was banished here, and she's a mage," Nathan pointed out.
Nathan, Derek, and the innkeeper, not quite in unison, protested that everyone knew about Erika.
"Oh," Nathan said, then fixed a dark gaze on his glass as he drank it. Sure, he had known she was famous back on the surface, but he hadn't realized that she had that sort of fame among civilians.
"And the whole Triad, the lot of them got banished with her," the innkeeper went on. "Patrick, Rone, Solberg. Oh, and Aimee and Linda. They're the only reason we can survive down here, mind you. They locked up ol' Grah-Hoth - gave those lousy sliths what-for - and they magically changed the trees and mushrooms and fungi so they'd feed us proper! Almost proper. Can't do everything right!"
One of the soldiers nearby called out, "King Micah did his bit!"
"And still doing it," the innkeeper agreed, "keeping bandits off our backs and the bureaucrats off our (expletive deleted)."
There were general cheers and laughter, and most people took a swig in an unsynchronized manner. Nathan joined in, and Warren finally did, too.
Derek pointed at Nathan and guessed, "You were in the army, weren't you?"
Warren pointed out quickly, "I would've bet on it, if there was anyone who'd take the other side of it. In the army, and had at least a few men under you."
"I was, and I did," Nathan admitted, nettled that he could not guess correctly about others' lives, while his own was transparent. "How did you know?"
"Something about you," shrugged Derek.
Warren put in, "Bearing, mostly."
Nathan took a sip of his drink.
Derek and Warren looked at him expectantly.
Nathan took another sip of his drink.
A crowd was gathering to watch some soldiers arm wrestle. Warren cast a disappointed glance at Nathan before getting up and taking his drink to watch them. Derek remained sitting, finishing his drink. Nathan cast a glance over at the crowd and saw Warren gambling on the contestants. Nathan shrugged and polished off his drink.
Warren finished that evening richer than he had started. Nathan didn't inquire into exactly how, partly because he retired early to the common sleeping area of the inn, trying to slumber instead of staring at the ceiling. Eventually he succeeded.
Author's Note: I don't quite remember whether Avernum has a perpetual pale light from the mushrooms, or whether the mushrooms have a rough day-night cycle. I also don't know whether or not slithzerikai have multiple rows of teeth, but it was a neat detail for that scene, if I may say so myself.
Captain Martin isn't actually in any game, as far as I know - I just made him up since it was more natural for him to be addressed by name.
Sschass' exploits before joining this team are canonical only in the sense that Avernum often has to fight off wicked slithzerikai, and good slithzerikai live in Gnass.
I may be incorrectly remembering there being an inn or bar in Fort Avernum, but it seems likely there'd be one.