The corridor opened into a larger hallway. To his left, Joel could hear the murmur of low, indistinct voices.
The bard led his companions in the direction of the voices. The hallway emptied into a great room with rows of benches facing an altar covered with a red cloth and a rack of horns-an underground temple to Beshaba. The benches were packed with people praying, some silently and others mumbling their prayers with considerable fervor. Occasionally a worshiper approached one of the braziers that surrounded the altar and set fire to an offering.
A pretty young woman dressed in black from head to toe came up from behind them. "Beshaba provides," she whispered. "Bad things always happen. Only offerings and prayer to Lady Doom can save us."
"Mmmm," Joel responded noncommittally.
"Our goals are meaningless. Lady Doom can undermine them with but a thought," the woman insisted.
"Oh, yeah?" Jas replied with irritation. She didn't doubt Beshaba's power, but the other woman's fear of the goddess annoyed her.
The woman clutched Jas's arm. "Appease her so her wrath turns elsewhere-" the woman's eye's lit up-"perhaps even on your enemies," she concluded. Then she turned away from them to approach the altar.
"I feel a sudden urge to climb another few thousand stairs," Jas muttered to Joel.
"Me, too," Emilo agreed.
"Let's go," Joel said.
They hurried down the hallway, scurried down the narrow corridor, squeezed back through the secret door, and pushed it closed behind them. The finder's stone shone upward.
In unison, the adventurers sighed, then resumed their ascent. Every two hundred steps there was a landing, a secret door, which they ignored, and another flight of steps that turned ninety degrees.
On step 3, Joel slipped on the stairs, slid down twenty steps, and twisted his ankle. He had already used his healing spell on the wounds Jas suffered at the hand of the fetch. In order to continue the climb, the bard was forced to cast a healing spell from one of Winnie's scrolls. They rested at the next landing, ate some more food, and finished off the water.
"We don't really have to go any farther," Joel said. "We could just sit here while Finder and Selune sense what's going on above."
"I don't want to just sit here in the dark while Finder and Selune are the only ones who get to see what's going on," Jas argued. "What do you think, Emilo?"
"It would be a shame to come all this way and not see what's at the top," the kender said.
"Two to one. You're outvoted, Joel," Jas announced.
"So much for trying to break away from my image as a reckless fool," the bard muttered.
After Joel cast a spell to fill their empty water flasks, the adventurers continued on their way.
The landing at step 0 appeared to be a dead end, but Emilo had no trouble detecting the stone to push to open the landing's secret door.
They blinked in the sudden light that assaulted their eyes. In actuality, it wasn't particularly bright, but it was far brighter than they were used to. The light, coming from lanterns hanging from the ceiling, revealed a vast chamber or gathering hall. The floor was littered with human bodies, some moaning, some lying deathly still. A portion of the chamber's ceiling appeared to have collapsed recently. Some of the bodies lay beneath boulders and piles of rubble.
Other people stood around talking, apparently oblivious to the suffering and pain around them. One group of people squatted in a corner rolling dice and cursing loudly. Joel weaved a path through the fallen bodies. Jas and Emilo followed. They passed a group of men playing a bizarre game with a basket. As each man reached into the basket, the others chanted, "Beshaba, take him," over and over again. Each man drew out a snake, usually something harmless like a garter snake, but one man reached in, gave a hideous screech, and fell back, clutching his hand. A few moments later the man's body was wracked with a violent seizure. Joel forced himself to avert his eyes.
"Here's another player," a large bully of a man said, blocking Joel's path. "Have you done enough to appease the Maid of Misfortune, chum?" the man asked the bard. Jas stepped forward with her sword drawn, pointing the weapon at the man's throat. "Leave him alone," she growled.
The man paled and stepped back. "Sorry, ma'am. Didn't realize he was with you."
Jas took a position beside Joel, and when people saw her determined expression and her weapon, they backed away from the adventurers.
"Someone you know?" Joel asked.
"Never seen him before in my life," Jas whispered.
They crossed the room and followed the light from the finder's stone through a doorway that led to another corridor. Farther down the corridor, their progress was halted by a gaping chasm in the floor. It was at least fifteen feet to the other side. Emilo dropped a pebble into the pit, and it took nearly four seconds before it clinked on something below. Jas flew the two men and their gear across the chasm. After her exertions, the winged woman required several minutes rest before she could continue.
They proceeded far more cautiously along the corridor.
Somewhere up ahead, a soft red glow issued from a doorway. The three adventurers crept forward and peered into the room that lay beyond. The damage in this room was even worse than the last. Most of the ceiling had collapsed, as well as some of the floor. Moans arose from a pit approximately in the room's center. The red light shone out of a pool of water on one side of the room.
The people in this room were at least paying some attention to the fallen and injured. Two women in the mauve robes of Beshaban priestesses were tending to the injured, most of whom were other priestesses. Two beautiful winged women stood as armed guards beside another entrance across the room. Joel guessed they were alu-fiends, the half-human offspring of succubi. Now he realized why the men in the last hall had backed away from Jas. Her wings were the same size, shape, and color as the alu-fiends.
"Any sign of Beshaba?" Jas whispered.
Joel shook his head. "Something's not right here," he whispered.
"That's right. And you're it," a soft female voice said from behind them.
The adventurers spun around. In the hallway behind them stood another alu-fiend. She was lovely to behold, with long, black hair that glittered like silk in the light of the finder's stone and a small, lithe frame. Her beauty was matched only by her deadliness. She held a sword point to Joel's throat.
From the shadows behind the alu-fiend appeared a tall figure in a dark cloak. The figure held the edge of a curved sword to the alu-fiend's throat and ordered, "Lower your weapon, fiend, and don't make a sound, or we will have to kill you and all your friends."
The alu-fiend stiffened angrily, then complied sullenly.
Joel peered intently at his rescuer and the curved blade. There was something familiar about her and her sword. "Holly?" the bard whispered in disbelief.
The tall figure lowered her hood, revealing the face of the paladin Holly Harrowslough. Beneath the black cloak, she was dressed in full battle armor.
"Holly!" Jas growled softly. "What are you doing here?"
"Lathander sent me," the paladin said softly. "What are you doing here?"
"Finder sent us," Joel said as he took the alu-fiend's sword from her hand. "I wish Lathander had mentioned to Selune that you'd be here," he added. "We could have teamed up sooner."
"What does Selune have to do with this?" Holly asked.
"She's helping Tymora," Joel said.
"What's wrong with Tymora?" Holly asked with confusion.
"Someone is draining her power. We think it's the mistress of this realm. Isn't that why Lathander sent you? To discover how she's doing it?"
"Beshaba has nothing to do with Tymora's troubles," the alu-fiend spat.