Scales and Doubts
2 Years Before Albert's Exile
Slith Castle, Slithzerikai Lands near Avernum
Nathan looked at Sss-Thsss' throne room, full of the largest sliths he had ever seen, each with muscles that rippled under hardened scales. He wondered if he ought to come back with more people, try to insist that Avernum's army come with him somehow. But there was no way an army could sneak in like they'd been able to. And they'd heard the stories, and had already fought through the temple where these sliths' priests practiced horrifying sacrifices. The sliths in this throne room were decorated with vile trophies, some of which Nathan didn't want to guess what they were. Somebody had to put a stop to these horrors.
And they were going to get paid very well for this, too.
The fight became a rapid blur as they managed to take out many of the beasts in the first charge, but then it seemed to stretch into an eternity. At some point, both Derek and Nathan were facing Sss-Thsss, but it took both of them to parry his incredible strength. Warren was trying to plug him with arrows, but Sss-Thsss' armor, natural and artificial, meant they did less harm than one would've expected. Sss-Thsss issued punishing blows in quick succession, breathing heavily, but not as heavily as all of them.
Ribaldi's panting slowed after he downed a restoring potion. Finally he had strength to cast healing and shielding spells as he had at the start of the battle. The tide turned. Several minutes of desperate melee later, the slith king whose name cast a shadow of terror was himself cast onto the floor of his throne room, dead as its stones.
But his armor and weapons, and those of his guards, were of excellent quality, and generally intact, and there was plenty of other plunder around here.
They were going to be paid very, very well for this.
Nathan, Warren, Derek, and Ribaldi, looked at each other and laughed as they gathered the haul. On the way back to town, they traded healing potions and rude impersonations of Sss-Thsss' final moments.
15 Years after Albert's Exile
Northeast of Hectar, Isle of Bigail, Surface
"Do many of your clan want to live on the surface?" Albert asked Frruh, not sure what sort of answer he wanted to hear.
Frruh answered, "I can't be certain. There is not presently a great desire in my clan. But if we actually could live without being molested by the Empire - well. It could change things. How about you, Sschass? Would many of Gnass wish to live here instead?"
Sschass was lying on his back, head near the fire, looking up at the stars. "We haven't seriously considered it before. The surface was alien to us. It was possible we couldn't survive here, like the vahnati - quite a relief that turned out not to be true! It's very different from home - so much light, so much more life - but I am coming to love it. The abundant heat from the sun - it's just like - well."
Albert almost didn't want to ask. But he was curious. And this creature, so different from him, was a friend. And nobody was asking, though he could tell they all wanted to.
"Like what?" Albert finally said.
Sschass took so long to answer that Albert wondered if he was being ignored, but Sschass finally said, "How I imagine our homeland to be."
Albert blinked. "Your homeland? I thought you lived in Gnass." It was like the rest of Avernum - lightless. And the way that both friendly and unfriendly sliths stayed near fires, he thought they found it chilly in the caves.
Sschass made a thoughtful hiss. "Yes, I grew up there. I meant our ancestral homeland." He turned his head towards Albert and said quietly, "We are exiles, too."
Helen had been lying down, but abruptly pushed herself up on an elbow and exclaimed, "l never knew! How terrible!"
Sschass shook his head and made a chopping motion with his hand. "Appreciated, but we do not deserve your sympathy. Many of your number did not deserve exile. All of my ancestors did. The utter barbarity of the sliths who hate Avernum - they've been honing it ever since they were cast out. Sss-thsss, who aligned his clan with a demon in the hopes of gaining power, their rapacity - this was typical of our exiled selves." He took a shuddering, hissing breath. "This shame - it - please, do not speak of it."
Albert tried to peer out into the darkness, away from what had just been said, but couldn't help shuddering. If their positions were exchanged, not only would the shame keep him from talking, but fear would seal his lips. Enough Avernites were already sure the slithzerikai of Gnass were of one piece with the barbarians. This history would cement such thinking.
Helen sat up, turned to stir the fire, then said, "But you changed, didn't you? At least, the people of Gnass did."
Sschass agreed, "Yes, and for this repentance the other exiled slithzerikai hate us the more. And there is no way to be sure we can ever be received into our ancient homeland. So we built Gnass, and we try to live as slithzerikai should."
Frruh asked, "So, your people are from other caves originally?"
Sschass agreed, "Deeper ones. The stories say it's warmer there. More food. I never thought any land in this life could be better than what I heard in the stories. But the surface - the sun, the moon, the stars, such beauty I never heard of in those tales. There is warmth and food. Up here, we could also live as slithzerikai should. It would be a strange thought for many, but, perhaps."
Later that evening, Helen was praying while keeping watch. The others were asleep, except for Sschass, she noticed. He was pacing around the campfire, staring at the darkness around them or the stars overhead.
"It's not your watch," she reminded him.
He gave a short "ss" which she gathered was an acknowledgement. Then he looked more directly at her and asked, "Do you ever have doubts, Helen?"
"About God?" she asked.
He nodded, still deep in thought.
"I get that a lot," she explained. "I always want to say no. But I was just talking to God about my doubts - it'd be a bad idea to lie about them to you. I've wondered if God cares. If He's just. If He's even there."
"After the hospital?" he inquired softly.
"For a long time," Helen said with a catch. "The hospital is a rather," she paused, then, getting hold of herself, finished, "rather vivid reminder of the true state of the world. But I've wondered for much longer." Visibly putting her feelings aside, she asked, "Have you had doubts?"
Sschass was still for a bit, then said, "I thought I believed. But the wicked slithzerikai make me doubt God's justice. You mentioned that just now, didn't you?" She nodded. Sschass continued, "I heard rumors that there are some wicked ones who have infiltrated Upper Avernum somehow. Rumors that some adventurers will have to fight them. All of you have had to fight your own kind. I have for years, I can do it again. But lately, I've been wondering, why are there so few good slithzerikai to fight the wicked, if God is good? Why, here on the surface, are there so few left to stand and fight, and so many monsters devouring innocents?"
Helen smiled sadly at him. "Whenever I asked my mentor that sort of question, he always said that if there were a simple answer, we'd know it already." She looked off into the distance and said, "So annoying." She turned back to Sschass and said wryly, "The answer, not him. Most of the time! He was kind. I just don't like unsolvable problems."
"And this is one," Sschass said simply.
She nodded, not having anything left to say. It was time to wake Frruh for the next watch, anyhow.
Author's Note:
I may be misremembering whether Avernum 3's quest about fighting some wicked slithzerikai is supposed to occur in Upper Avernum or Avernum. I don't recall the exact nature of the quest, or whether it was in Exile 3 as well as Avernum 3, or whether it was a new quest that exists only in Avernum 3.
Much of this chapter is my interpretation of backstory to Exile 1 / Avernum 1 and Avernum 3, but especially based on backstory revealed in a bonus dungeon that exists only in Avernum 1, Lost Bahisskava.