Chapter #1205
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+ THE ADVENTURERS +
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+ Epic VI +
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+ Many of the locations, non-player characters, spells, and other +
+ terms used in these stories are the property of Wizards of the Coast +
+ which has in no way endorsed or authorized their use. Any such +
+ property contained within these stories are not representative of +
+ Wizards of the Coast in any fashion. +
+ The player characters depicted in these stories are copyright +
+ 1991-2026 by Thomas A. Miller. Any resemblance to any persons +
+ or characters either real or fictional is utterly coincidental. +
+ Copying and/or distribution of these stories is permissible under +
+ the sole condition that no money is made in the process. In that +
+ case, I hope you enjoy them! +
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+ Kronos 22nd level lich wizard +
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+ Belphanior 18th/18th/18th level elven fighter/wizard/thief +
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+ Hope 16th level female human wizard +
+ Poulos 8th level human warrior +
+ Irina 14th/7th level female human priestess/warrior +
+ Otto 12th/14th level dwarven fighter/thief +
+ Paige 13th level human female warrior +
+ Razor Charlie 12th level human fighter +
+ Skektek 14th level human wizard +
+ Ys 14th level reptilian fighter +
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+ Date: 4/3/587 C.Y. (Common Year) +
+ Time: midday +
+ Place: the Pits of Azak-Kil, within the Abbor-Alz hills +
+ Climate: warm and dry +
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+ "You would say I have done evil, but you cannot judge me. You think +
+ as men think, and what I am is beyond the comprehension of man." +
+ - Hecate, from _Hellboy: Darkness Calls_ +
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MCCV. The Pits of Azak-Kil
After using the skyship to venture to the colossal undead-infested
crater known as the Pits of Azak-Kil, the party has teleported down to
the hilly ground near the fell site.
Otto: (gazes up to the sky) You were right. By not getting too close
and then conjuring up magical cloud cover, the skyship is completely
hidden from the view of anyone down here.
Belphanior: Yep. It's best if those on the ground aren't aware of its
presence.
Irina: Speaking of presences...(she shakes her head, as if to clear it,
then sets her jaw) The aura of undead - and evil - here is damn near
overwhelming.
Skektek: I don't like this. Why don't we just stay up in the air and
fight them without any danger of being overrun?
Paige: Yeah, really. (to Belphanior) I have to agree with him there...
we're making it a whole lot tougher on ourselves by meeting the enemy
at ground level.
Belphanior: Maybe. (to Kronos) But he has a plan, and a powerful item
against undead, too. (he regards the lich, who has already left them
and begun walking toward the immense pit and the mines within)
Otto: Sure, everyone has a plan...until it goes wrong.
Belphanior: I know. (to his team, quietly) Be ready for battle at any
moment. I don't care what he thinks that book can do - if the undead
make any move, cut loose with everything you have and destroy or push
back the ones nearest us, and then we'll retreat to the skyship.
Skektek: (having done the same thing as Razor Charlie, and requisitioned
a useful item from the communal hoard recovered from Rary, he checks the
wand that rests securely in one deep pocket) Yes...cut loose.
Belphanior: (sternly) Only if we have to. I'll let you know.
Skektek: (frowns)
Paige: Don't pout. You'll get to destroy something eventually.
Skektek: Hmph.
Belphanior: If we can deal with these pits without a fight, so much the
better.
Hope: Understood.
Belphanior: (heads after Kronos, and the others make to follow)
Irina: A good contingency plan. I lack the holy strength to deal with
this many undead, much less whatever vast power drives them from within
the crater.
Otto: I hear you. We have to trust in both Kronos and Belphanior to get
us through the worst of this. Hopefully we won't have to confront any
impossible odds here today.
Irina: (resolutely) I am a high priestess of Istus, Our Lady of Fate.
If that is my destiny today, so be it. (she hefts her mace, a steely
resolve in her eye)
Razor Charlie: (draws the magic longsword he borrowed, checking its edge
yet again, and grimaces)
Ys: I know.
The adventurers followed Kronos, who was striding along the rocky ground
at a surprisingly rapid pace, the large black tome grasped in his hands.
The intruders soon reached the outer edge of the enormous crater, finding
that they had to move along that lip until they could reach one of the
several crude stairways that had long ago been cut into the rock. Overall
the mining-pit resembled a gigantic amphitheater, with horizontal pathways
leading around its edge, those levels randomly connected by perpendicular
stairs and and ramps that intersected the curved sections. There was no
symmetry or structure to it all; no single pathway of any type continued
for more than a hundred feet. The pit was like a giant maze for anyone
who had to walk within it and across its levels. Everything gradually led
ever-lower toward the crater's center at the bottom far below. That area
wasn't flat, either, but rather a rough dome of rock thirty feet high - a
blister aimed upward at the sky, from the bottom and center of the huge
pit.
Hope: My guess? That's where the falling star lies, beneath the great
quantity of rock and earth that it displaced when it originally hit.
Kronos: (nods) Agreed.
Belphanior: (to Irina) Is that the source of the power and the evil you
sense here?
Irina: I...cannot be sure. Not from up here. We'll need to get a lot
closer.
Otto: Looks like someone aims to prevent that. (he checks his crossbow)
Numerous undead now approached them, from the round walkways at the top
reaches of the pit as well as from the lower levels via the stairways that
crossed those walkways. These were lesser species of undead - ghouls and
ghasts - and all had once been dwarves in life. As they moved closer, the
creatures clutched hammers, picks, shovels, and similar mining implements;
some had small packs or pouches attached to their persons to hold whatever
precious metals they liberated from the mines. Their steady approach was
accompanied by a constant moaning, that terrible sound even worse down
here on the ground closer to the source.
Otto: (as Kronos and Belphanior are at the front of the party, he turns
to the others) We're not far enough into this pit that they can get
behind us and cut off our retreat...but let's not go down any farther.
(he watches the lich and the elf) Until we see what happens next.
If Kronos was concerned about the large numbers of undead dwarves that
would soon overwhelm him, he did not show it; instead, he held the Book
of the Dead in his pale hands and waited calmly, as if nothing was amiss
here. For Belphanior's part, he was fairly certain that the pale lich
would either stop or destroy at least these initial waves of undead, but
he was taking no chances. The elf had already used his sword's power to
speed up his movements and reaction speed, and if battle broke out here,
he would have time to summon a powerful acid storm right over the most
densely-massed group of undead. A lot of attacks might not affect such
foes, but fire and acid were pretty much sure things when it came to the
majority of the living dead.
Kronos: (with the nearest of the encroaching dwarven ghouls and ghasts
just thirty feet away, he opens the black-bound tome to a particular
bookmarked point...and begins reading from those pages, speaking arcane
words and phrases in a long-lost language)
The effect was as immediate as it was impressive: dozens of decayed
forms abruptly stopped in their tracks, unable to advance further. The
book and its bearer were now surrounded by a faint nimbus of dark energy
that slowly moved and shifted. Even the living could feel..._something_
in the air, a vague magical shiver that brought with it a slight sense of
uneasiness.
Belphanior: (studying this aura with his crystal eye, he senses powerful
magic of a necromantic variety) Well, no great surprise there.
While the nearest of the undead miners couldn't get any closer, that
didn't prevent the ones behind them from joining their fellows, and soon
a dense mass of the creatures were stacked up as if pressing against some
unseen barrier. Kronos stopped his chanting, turning back to Belphanior
and the others.
Kronos: They cannot reach us. (he pauses) But stay close - the ward is
centered on the book. Any who wander too far from it will be vulnerable
to attack.
Paige: (muttering) No worries there.
Otto: (checks the path of retreat, but there are still no undead at the
upper and outer rim of the pit just above them)
Hope: (helpfully) Don't worry about the area behind us - if we have to
leave in a hurry, we'll teleport.
Razor Charlie: (thinking about what would happen if such teleportation
was somehow blocked, he grimaces, sword ready)
Skektek: (eyeing the gradually-massing undead, he thinks about how such
a retreat could be preceded by a massive lightning bolt into the foes)
Paige: You really want to blast them, don't you?
Skektek: Oh, do I ever. (he sighs) I sure hope the lich knows what he's
doing.
Paige: I heard that.
Irina: (visibly uneasy, she holds her holy symbol in one hand and her
mace in the other, ready for whatever comes next)
Ys: (places a hand on her shoulder) Take heart, sister. We are a mighty
and capable group.
Irina: (sensing both the sheer number of undead and the vast power of
Kronos' book in a way that the others simply cannot) I know...but I
still don't like this.
Poulos: (tightens his grip on his scimitar, his knuckles white) One way
or another, something needs to happen soon.
Belphanior: (to Kronos) What now?
Kronos: Now we parley. But not with these lackeys. (he flips through
the book, to another page that he had previously marked, and resumes
his mystical chanting in the strange, lost tongue)
Otto: I wonder what he's saying.
Belphanior: Probably telling them to bring a commander or leader. That's
what I'd do in this situation. Let's sit tight and wait. (he continues
to mentally review the formula for the acid storm, in case it comes to
that)
It appeared possible that Kronos' intention matched what the undead had
already been doing. A small knot of dwarves had emerged from somewhere
in the bottom and center of the pit, far below...and was quickly ascending
in their direction. The adventurers stood ready, planning the possible
uses of spells, magical items, or weapons; Kronos simply waited, his dark
tome opened to yet another marked point in its ancient, worn pages. The
tension in the air was palpable, the result of a combination of the weird
dark energy around the lich, the stench of the hundreds of living dead in
the vicinity, and the blood pumping in the visitors' veins as their stress
levels remained near the breaking point.
Finally, the group from below arrived, the other undead parting to let
them through to approach the lich. The dozen undead dwarves flanked one
who was clearly the leader - of them and all these others. While those
guards were simply sturdy-looking, armored skeletons or zombies - it was
unclear, as they had aspects of both - the leader was garbed in tattered
robes over a dusty suit of chain mail. He bore no conventional weapon or
shield, but walked with the aid of a crooked staff of decayed black wood,
atop which was set a fist-sized ellipsoid of bluish metal. Both Kronos
and Belphanior, by different means, detected powerful magical auras from
not only the undead dwarven high priest but also his armor, his robes, and
especially that staff.
Kronos: (turns to team of the adventurers behind him) I will now parley
with this lich. Take no action, remain silent, and do not interfere.
Otto: (surprised, he frowns to himself)
None of Belphanior's team were used to taking commands from anyone other
than the elf, but the look the elf gave them now ensured that they would
comply...while of course being ready for a fight in case anything went
wrong during the conversation that was about to take place.
As it turned out, that conversation would be one that only the pair of
powerful liches - similar beings who were yet different, and were perhaps
adversaries or perhaps allies (or perhaps neither) - could understand and
speak. The dwarven lich-priest used a long-forgotten language, one that
Kronos could comprehend due to possessing the Book of the Dead. While
one of the magic-using adventurers might have gained similar insight with
the aid of a spell, none dared begin any spellcasting per Belphanior's
confirmation of Kronos' directive. The ensuing discussion was well and
truly between only Kronos and the undead dwarf.
Kronos: Forgive our intrusion here, but this meeting was necessary. I
am Kronos, formerly of-
dwarven lich-priest: (speaks slowly and deliberately in a dry, raspy
voice) I am Gunguti Highforge, ruler of Azak-Kil. You are clearly
not...the same as I. (his yellow eyes glow from deep within their dim
sockets) And your power is not to be ignored, given your ability to
hold my forces back.
Kronos: (drily) I would note that it also holds you back.
Gunguti: (wheezes, as if his lungs are full of holes which impair his
ability to draw breath) Ah, the book you carry.
Kronos: I also have allies.
Gunguti: Pfeh. I have no regard for any mortals...not any longer. The
dwarves of Azak-Kil exist, living on forever...and they dig, and they
unearth precious metals...and that is all they need, and all I require
from them. (he wheezes again, a dry hissing sound) We have no use for
outsiders, except as food, and to grow our populace here.
Kronos: Indeed, the tales tell of none returning from these pits.
Gunguti: Not since...well. (he regards the other) We seem to be at an
impasse here. Why have you come to Azak-Kil?
Kronos: I have come seeking a truce.
Gunguti: (draws a ragged breath, then coughs) How so?
Kronos: Simply put...a new power has risen in the Bright Lands to the
south of these hills.
Gunguti: I have heard whispers of such things. The Traitor vanquished.
Sulm's curse broken. (he wheezes again, a long dry rattle) While all
of that may mean changes for the wasteland...no ruler of the desert
holds sway over we of Azak-Kil.
Kronos: Rulers. Several more, all of them powerful. But we do not wish
to rule Azak-Kil, merely to make peace with it.
Gunguti: We have peace now, as we did before you ventured here.
Kronos: Perhaps, but something in this place exudes power and evil, draws
in the unwary, and fuels living death - which means that without some
form of truce or agreement, these mines are a hazard to all those of the
surrounding hills. As a direct conflict will benefit neither of us, I
am simply attempting to prevent that...head it off via diplomacy.
Gunguti: (coughs and hacks again, the sound either a random breath or a
laugh) No.
Kronos: No?
Gunguti: No truces. No treaties. Azak-Kil is its own entity and needs
nothing from any others.
Kronos: We would ask nothing of you - no taxes or tribute. Simply the
assurance that those of Azak-Kil will remain in Azak-Kil and trouble
the hills no more. Perhaps a neutral zone-
Gunguti: (emits a particularly long and drawn-out series of wheezing
coughs) You overplay your hand. We were here long before anyone alive
in the hills today, mining the riches that came from the stars. We are
thousands, filling the chambers and passages of this crater, and every
dwarf here was - is - a veteran warrior as well as a miner. (he gasps
and wheezes again, his breath rattling) The horde I could bring to bear
is the match of any army that might come to face it, and each of your
fallen will join our ranks.
Kronos: As I said, a fight would be pointless for both of us.
Gunguti: Pointless for Azak-Kil...fatal to any who march on it. (he
clutches his withered staff, the bluish ellipsoid on its end pulsing
with a life of its own) This mine and the hills around it are ours,
and ours alone. Leave this place now, while you still can...and do
not return.
Kronos: (sighs) Very well. (he slowly steps backwards, the book still
open) It is unfortunate that we could not successfully negotiate here
today. Perhaps in the future, we can try further negotiations.
Gunguti: (watches Kronos as the other gradually moves away to rejoin his
allies who wait behind him)
Kronos said nothing to Belphanior and the others, but instead continued
chanting as he retreated, presumably to keep the denizens of Azak-Kil at
bay. The adventurers weren't sure exactly what was going on, but they got
the general idea; they remained on high alert and ready for anything as
they quickly but carefully marched up and out of the pit - and then moved
away from it as fast as they could.
Otto: What the hell happened?
Belphanior: Kronos will tell us when he's ready, but first let's put some
distance between us and...them.
Surprisingly, none of the undead dwarves emerged from the top of the
vast mining-pit to pursue them. They walked away for a while, until the
lip of the crater was barely visible in the distance, and soon afterward
they used teleportation to return to the skyship that waited far above.
Back in the Pits of Azak-Kil, the powerful dwarven lich-priest remained
in place, considering all that had just transpired.
Gunguti: (looking around) That lich has departed - I cannot sense him
anywhere nearby. he pauses) Good.
undead dwarven warrior-lord: What shall we do, Your Eminence?
Gunguti: (he wheezes for a few moments before continuing to talk) This
cannot stand. And it is not over. If wizards now rule the desert to
the south, they will covet the surrounding lands...including these hills
and this mine. That means they will be back, likely with an army, and
attempt to take our treasure. (he leans on his staff as he draws some
more wheezing breaths) That will not happen. (he surveys the pits,
with their dozens of walkways, stairways, and passages leading into the
sides of the crater) We will marshal our forces...the thousands who
collectively make up the might of Azak-Kil...and we will scour all the
reaches of the Abbor-Alz, slaying its people and absorbing them into
our numbers using the power of this stone from beyond the stars. (he
gazes at the egg-like object of bluish metal that tops his staff, which
is now pulsing and glowing with some eldritch light) Yes. (he wheezes
again, loudly) And then we will turn our horde southward to the desert,
and eradicate every living thing therein.
next: the next move
map: http://www.peldor.com/world/atlas/Bright-Desert_1203.jpg
www: http://www.peldor.com/download.html
homepage: http://www.peldor.com/
email: tmiller@peldor.com
released: 4/17/2026
notes: I have a confession to make: I misread the true name of this
meteor-crater-turned-mine from the very beginning. Published TSR canon
refers to it as the Pits of Azak-ZIL but I've been calling it Azak-KIL
this whole time. Oops! For simplicity, I'm just going to keep it as
Azak-Kil in my stories. Sorry about that.
Random trivia: I play Scrabble online with various family members,
and sometimes random sequences of seven newly-dealt tiles form a word
that I like the sound of, and so I note those and keep them handy in a
file for when I need names. And this is where the name of Azak-Kil's
dwarven lich-priest Gunguti came from.
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