Tordek waited until Lidda proffered him a tin cup of warm tea before continuing his story.
"There was no preventing Holten from striking out again. By that time I was ranging out on quests of my own. It was then that I realized how hypocritical I had been, refusing to join his venture when fortune and glory were my goal as well."
"There was a difference," Vadania gently corrected him. "You understood the danger of the Arms of Andaron. Holten was brave, but he was reckless."
Tordek waved away her argument. "No matter," he said. "I was young and foolish, not yet fifty. I wanted to be wrong so that one of us could apologize and we could join forces once more. Moradin knows he was never going to be the one to make the gesture. So I gathered allies of my own, including a rather green druid, and set out to join him. We searched for three and a half years before finding the lone survivor.
"We found him sweeping the floors in a temple to St. Cuthbert. The clerics tolerated his presence because he had once been of their order, though he received no more grace from the god. He was drunk the day we found him, and he liked to stay that way, so we got the story from him for the cost of a few bottles of cheap wine.
"Holten and his fellows found the Hammer of Andaron, all right. They even escaped its trap-filled tomb with minimal casualties. Only this time it was Hargrimm waiting outside for him, and this time the worg-demon brought an army.
"They were slaughtered, all of them but the cleric, who was bound and forced to watch as Hargrimm devoured the others alive. It took days. When it was done, the demon simply let the cleric go, knowing his mind and spirit were broken."
"Is that why you were able to catch the hammer?" asked Devis. "Because Holten once had it, and it cannot harm his twin?"
Tordek grunted an affirmative. He had surmised as much ever since he felt the hammer tug away then surrender to his grasp.
Tordek searched his imagination for some important way to conclude his story, but none came to mind. For a moment, he worried that Devis would come up with something dramatic to add to his tale when the bard repeated it in taverns across the land. The thought did not please him, but it felt good finally to have told the story aloud to others who faced the wrath of the fiend that swallowed his brother's soul. It made Tordek feel as though he were one step closer to laying his brother to rest.
There was only one more step to take.
The waterfall whose voice they followed led them to another buried lake. Their aches from their falls, battles, and exertions were finally so tender that they could not press on without rest. They lit another small fire with a few fresh torches and the charred remains of their previous fire before setting watches. It felt like only minutes had passed since Tordek laid his head down on his rolled cloak before Lidda was urgently shaking his shoulder.
Tordek rolled up to a crouch. The Hammer of Andaron lay nearby, but he ignored it in favor of his trusty axe. Devis was already alert with his crossbow cocked and held neat against his shoulder. Lidda moved to shake Vadania out of her meditation.
Tordek followed the bard's gaze and saw the wake of a huge creature swimming toward them across the underground lake.
"What the devil is that?" said Devis.
"Murdark…"Tordek remembered how much he disliked that name the first time he had heard it. "Karnoth warned us of a beast that roamed these lower caverns."
"Let's hope it's allergic to crossbow bolts," said Devis. His aim followed the creature's dark head as it emerged from the water and its body lumbered up in the shallows.
Tordek tensed to leap forward as soon as he heard the crossbow's twang. Instead, he heard an urgent "No!" and the sound of Vadania's hand slapping the bard's crossbow out of line. The bolt cracked against the distant, unseen ceiling before splashing into the lake.
From the dark water rose a colossal beast, its dark pelt black and smooth from its watery passage.
"Gulo!" cried Lidda.
Vadania said nothing, but she rushed forward to stroke her mammoth friend's face. "You foolish, foolish boy," she crooned at him.
"Say," said Devis. "If Gulo found himself a way in…"
"… then he found us a way out," finished Tordek.
"Why don't we just get out of here?" suggested the bard. "Hargrimm can't do his ritual without the hammer, and we can't fight that legion of monsters assembled up there. I say we run far, far away from here and hide this thing under somebody's army."
"That won't solve the problem of the poison river," said Vadania.
"It won't do anything about Hargrimm's army, either," added lidda.
"And it won't do anything about Hargrimm," said Tordek. "I am not running away."
"Me neither," said Lidda. "Sorry, Bunny. I'm with the dwarf."
Vadania said nothing, but she stepped beside Tordek even while she kept a hand on Gulo's soggy shoulder.
Devis looked back at them with disbelief all over his weary face. "But we'll lose," he said. "That makes a terrible story."
"How can we lose now?" said Tordek. "We've got Gulo with us."
Devis made a little choking sound.
"We don't have to face Hargrimm's assembled army," said Vadania. "If we can lure him out and kill just him, maybe his army will break apart. You know how fractious such creatures can be."
"Besides," said Lidda, "there are captives to rescue, more evil weapons to steal…and at least the way up is drier than the way out."
Devis looked unconvinced, but he shrugged at last. "All right," he said, "but only because I don't want to go swimming again."
As if he had been waiting for someone to say exactly that, Gulo violently shook his pelt and soaked them all to the skin. Sheets of water quenched the fire, so they stood there amid gales of laughter in the darkness until Tordek brought out his everburning torch and saw that, for once, Devis was the only one not laughing.
Hours later, they climbed up through a rent that could only have been caused by an earthquake and emerged into a vast and pillared hall. Four different prayers of thanks were muttered to four different gods. Even Gulo rumbled a grateful sound as he clambered up onto the fitted stones, his great claws clicking on the floor.
"Feast hall," said Tordek. His everburning torch illuminated bare poles that once held clan banners on the walls. Vadania struck a sun rod and walked in the opposite direction. Even the two bright lights could not illuminate the entire room at once.
They saw broken chairs and graying tables scattered around the room or stacked in careless heaps. In one wall was set a great fireplace choked with half-burned detritus, while four lesser and two grand arches yawned open to shadows beyond, their doors long since torn away. Whatever lay beyond them remained black in the gloom.
"Now which way, O fearless…" Lidda stilled her tongue and listened to Gulo. The dire wolverine put his head low to the ground and growled.
"Something's coming," translated Vadania needlessly. The others drew their weapons, and Devis sang himself a shimmering suit of mage armor.
Scale is too heavy and chain gives me rashes,
Give me some armor that spares me from slashes!
"That's a very silly spell!" whispered Lidda.
"You're the one who insists on perfect rhyme," he hissed back. They ceased their banter as they heard the beast approach.
The sound was a scraping, like someone dragging a box of arrows down the halclass="underline" slow at first, then followed by a brief rattling as of a rack of spears bumped by a careless soldier. The same sound came again, slowly and confidently, followed by a deep snuffling and a low, purring growl.