Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

As the trio waited for their remaining two team members Hambel admired the well made stone and metal front gates of the city of Dom Badaher. The craftsmanship that blended the yellow of the magic steel to the stone that made up the majority of the doors reminded him of his own home, though unlike these second era dwarves the gate to his own home city just had regular iron to reinforce its stability.

Eventually his thoughts drifted towards the state of his home city and how it might be in the next era, would it still be standing like these impressive dwarves had built, or would it be a long forgotten chapter of history that had no significant impact. The possibilities of what might happen in a thousand plus years were quickly taken from his mind when the two other members of their team finally arrived looking half awake.

“Sorry we took so long, we lost track of time last night and didn’t wake up until recently.” The human male team member said as he fixed his bag to be more comfortable. The other didn’t have the courage to say anything and she chose to just stay silent.

“Doesn’t matter, we have been here long enough and I have no intention of spending any more of my time yelling at the two of you. We are going to the ninth floor and if this happens again tomorrow I will be leaving the two of you behind, that also applies to you two as well.” Aelia said without turning around yet perfectly explaining to Hambel and Cassia what she meant, the two even though she could see them both nodded and started walking after her.

Passing through the first major hallway that was lined with old and nonfunctional traps that ranged from falling rocks to serrated metal disks that could slice someone's limbs clean off was for Hambel an interesting experience he was happy to repeat every day. Most of the others were however far less interested in things that could very easily cut them in two.

The walk down the flight of stairs was slow and somber, the dim glow of the blue crystals that partly lined the walls provided just enough light for everyone to see where they were going as well as traverse the stairs. Slowly they reached their destination at the eleventh floor which was signaled by a wooden barricade and a few people taking turns standing guard and resting. The person currently resting being Citro himself who was still donning his steel plate armor and had his short sword and shield within reach.

The two people standing guard were both old friends of Citro and were wearing similar armor but instead carried a spear rather than a sword. When they noticed the group of five walking down the stairs they gave a quick nod and allowed them to pass without issue.

Now on the open space of the eleventh floor there were two large looking rooms that were basically large blocks that directly stood out to each of the five. They looked identical so the group chose to flip a coin and use the result to decide what side they should choose.

“On face we go to the left, on smooth we go to the right.” Hambel said while looking around at his teammates to be certain they were fine with what he was suggesting, when they all nodded together he flipped the coin upwards and it flew straight up spinning quickly. The coin then came falling back down and landed right on the back of his hand where he read the result. “Smooth, we are going to the right this time.”

Hambel offered to show the result but no one really cared all that much and quickly began walking towards the right identical building. Looking down both sides the team found that there were several doors all along the side, this likely meant that this wasn’t just one room but likely several interconnect or separate rooms. But there was only one way to find out, so the team opened the first door and looked inside.

Inside was a large open room that was lined with the dining blue crystals that were just enough to make out the size of the room. In the distance in the room were several small silhouettes of various toys and other objects that might catch a child's interest. While everyone else just thought it was a little weird looking room Hambel felt a rush of memories as he looked into the room. “This is a play room.” Hambel blurted out.

Everyone looked to him with confusion as he stepped forward towards a wooden toy that was shaped like a horse and looked to something a child would ride. “In most dwarven cities we have large rooms like this where we take our children during the day where we allow them to play and have fun under the supervision of people working here. I remember my parents dropping me off in the morning when they went to work and then coming back when they were done to have dinner and spend time with them…” Hambel started to trail off as he looked into the cold and empty room, the children that had their fun in this room likely didn’t get an opportunity to leave when the goblins arrived. The only solace to Hambel was that there wasn’t any blood in the entire room, everything just looked abandoned.

To help ease Hambel somewhat the group decided to stay for a while and take a proper look around the room just in case there was something. This gave Hambel some time to look around and calm down. Like a small child he stumped around the room looking at all the toys left strewn around the room abandoned for an entire era, eventually he did calm down and they left the play room to look at the second similarly sized room.

Making sure to close the doors behind himself Hambel let out a soft sigh as his hands were shaking and the thoughts of his home bounced around in his mind.

Quickly he turned and quickened his pace to catch up with the other four who were already several meters away on their way to the second building. Even though the walk wasn’t that long the feeling of something impending was digging into Hambel’s mind, he had a feeling that whatever they were going to find wouldn’t be very nice.

Arriving at the leftmost building the group quickly noticed that there were only three doors with one on each face. The first was directly across from the rightmost building and the other two were on the left and right sides right next to the wall. “I am not an expert on second era dwarven architecture, but I think this building room thing is a lot larger than we can see from the outside.” Cassia said as the group was preparing to enter.

“Good point, can any of you read this sign next to the door?” Aelia asked, pointing to a sign directly carved into the stone that made up the wall. Everyone shook their heads, Hambel included. “I am sorry but there isn’t one singular dwarven language, the more obscure and isolated dialects become more and more unfamiliar as time goes by. As far as I know even the common comprehend language spell wouldn’t work on something like this, it might catch names or a few words, but we have no way of knowing unless we open it up.” Hambel said as he raised his mace and shield to charge in well protected.

Using her shoulder Aelia slammed against the door and forced it open which was followed by everyone charging inside with their weapons drawn. But as they stepped inside they quickly noticed this wasn’t just any room they found themselves in. “This is a cemetery.” Aelia said as she lowered her two handed axe.

The room was full of stone coffins in rows upon rows stretching long and wide. The only thing stopping the group from seeing each and every coffin was the several walls with metal gates that acted as rooms of a sort. The place they were currently standing easily had one hundred coffins, each one labelled with a name in the second era dwarven of this city.

“Gods, this must be the entire first generation of those who lived here. I would bet my own mace that each of these blocked off areas contains an entire generation that lived here. I can only imagine how large this crypt must be if this is just the first generation.” Hambel commented as he walked around several of the coffins inspecting the inscriptions on each.

“Unless any of you are fools I have no intention of taking part in any grave robbing, so I suggest that we turn back and make our way back to the surface.” Aelia said as she turned to the rest of her group who looked rather unhappy with the lack of fighting goblins and the lack of valuables to take. While no one was particularly religious they weren't exactly interested in trying their luck by bothering the god these dwarves followed.

“Don’t worry about not having your fill of violence and valuables, I will speak with Lyra about what we found and perhaps she will be willing to allow us to explore a second floor. Though I must point out I make no promises, I do not speak for Lyra.” At the mention of speaking with Lyra everyone's expressions changed quickly and they looked more uplifted than before.

The walk back however was still long and Aelia informed the two guards standing on duty of their findings which would be relayed to Citro when he woke.

*********

By the end of the day I managed to reach and clear out the seventeenth floor of all the goblins residing there. Still I found no sign of this goblin blacksmith that I was absolutely certain had to be hiding somewhere, how else would these goblins have weapons and tools like what I found. ‘There might be more than one now that I think about it. To outfit all of these goblins and all the ones that are below myself and within the cavern would require a whole team working to do. They might also have some sort of independence from the warlord and their demon warlock since I have found some of their works on the goblins on this floor and several others, the goblins in the prison probably exchanged a lot of the metal they found in the armory for the spears they had on them.’

Looking at the bodies strewn across the floor I took note of the slightly higher quality of the weapons they were carrying before I changed their state of being. The goblins on the previous floor had large amounts of impurities in the iron weapons they had, while there were still several impurities in these weapons they were significantly reduced.

‘Either the weapon makers are quickly improving in skill, or those who are better at making weapons are charging a lot for what they make so these goblins choose the cheaper and thus lower quality weapon makers. I guess that does align with what I found on this level as well.’ Turning to look at the stockpile of old wooden and stone furniture that filled the open floor space I could see some of the drag marks of where they were taken to the stairs and carried down very slowly with several at a time.

Making a second sweep of the floor to be certain I didn’t miss any goblins hiding somewhere for me to leave, I then left and went back upstairs with my bag and arms full of the iron weapons while leaving the cheap and pitiful leather armor they wore. I took the opportunity while walking to relax and clear my mind of the thoughts and my experiences in the war against the empire. The memory of the darkest mage killing me with that red mist spell was a terrible and painful memory drilled into my mind.

When I dropped off all the iron weapons in my bedroom I returned for the remained because there was just so much that I couldn’t take all in one trip, it did make me miss the dimensional bag I received from Lyra the last time I was in Dom Badaher but I dealt with it the best way I could. But when I arrived back on the seventeenth floor I found something different from when I was last here, a second group of goblins had arrived and they didn’t look very happy with what I left behind.

The group consisted of six goblins wearing cheaply made iron armor that was basically just metal plates covering their body without any sort of padding underneath. The only good thing I had to say about it was the armor had very few visible impurities on the surface, but that didn’t mean it was well made. The weapons they wielded on the other hand were quite unique compared to everything I had seen so far outside of the cavern, they were carrying curved swords and actual shields, though they were worn and old they were a step above everything else I had seen the city dwelling goblins have.

The leader of this group wearing the only helmet of the six was the first to notice me and pointed towards me while shouting something in its own language. The others quickly turned to face me as well and began to snarl like animals before two started running towards me with their curved swords raised high above their heads.

With the distance of twenty meters between us I was able to quickly cast the tri earth bolt spell and sent two bolts towards the one on the left with one for the right expecting them both to fall dead. But to my surprise only the goblin on the right reacted to the two bolts that struck him in his arm making him drop his shield. The left goblin just blocked the bolt with his shield and continued running ignoring the fact that there was now a hole in his shield.

I was shocked by the sudden change in power levels between the goblins. I thought that like the ones on this floor one or two earth bolts would be enough to kill them, but I was definitely wrong and needed to do something else.