"Magadon," Cale prodded, "we need to move!"
The guide, standing with Nestor atop a low rise about half a spearcast ahead, hissed for silence and sank to the ground. He lowered himself to his stomach and waved everyone down. Cale, Jak, and Riven hit the earth and crawled forward.
When he reached the top of the rise, Cale saw what had given the guide alarm: torchlight in the distance, and a strange, pulsing ochre glow. With each pulse of the light, Cale felt a pressure on his ears.
"Do you feel that?" he asked Jak.
"I feel it."
Due to distance and intervening stands of cypress and undergrowth, Cale could make out no more.
"The Moonmere is just beyond the tree line," Magadon said. "Those torches burn near its shore. Your enemies are on guard, it appears."
"Where is the temple?" Cale asked Magadon.
Magadon looked at him strangely and said, "There is no temple here, Cale."
Cale didn't even pause. "Yes there is. Jak?"
"I'll scout it," the halfling said as he took out his holy symbol.
Cale gripped him by the shoulder and warned, "As fast as possible, little man. Midnight is past. Find Vraggen. If not, find the temple and find us a way in."
"Not more than a quarter hour," Jak said, and he vanished into the forest.
As promised, the halfling returned in less than a quarter hour.
"It's me," he said, and stepped from the shadows.
Already, he had his pipe in hand. Shielding the flame with his palm, he lit it with a tindertwig.
"Well?" Riven asked.
Jak blew out a smoke ring and said, "About thirty bullywugs, arranged in a line about forty paces from the lakeshore. They've got a priest with them. They appear to be waiting for something."
"Did you find the Fane?" Cale asked.
"Yes," Jak answered, and his brow furrowed. "But that's the problem. It's in the lake."
"There's nothing in that lake," Magadon said. "It's a pit."
"It's there," Jak said, and he took another pull on his pipe.
"So we'll swim to it," Riven said.
"No," Jak replied. "I mean it's in the Lake. Underwater. Deep underwater. That green glow is coming from it. You can see the Fane down there if you look from the shore right in front of the bullywugs. It's like it's just. .. hanging there, surrounded by a giant bubble."
"Even if we could swim to it," Nestor grumbled, "and even if it's got a bubble of air around it, how can we hold our air long enough to swim down there? The halfling said it's a long way down." The big human looked to Magadon. "Mags, this cannot be done. Let's take our payment and go."
Cale said nothing. He couldn't blame the big man but would welcome Magadon's presence. Riven stared contempt at Nestor.
Magadon considered. He looked to Cale and Riven.
"Why not wait?" the guide asked. "If you seek someone who is within, he'll come out sooner or later. You can move on him then."
Cale replied, "No. The mage we're after must be stopped before he gets what he seeks. Besides, this quarry does not need to exit through doors. If we don't stop him now, we may never see him again."
Magadon still looked uncertain.
"They got in," Cale said to him. "And they need to breathe. So there's a way. We'll find it." He paused before adding, "With or without you."
Magadon looked up sharply, but his hard look quickly gave way to a smile.
"With us, then," he said. "Come, Nestor. You need to bathe anyway."
Cale couldn't help but smile at that. Jak chuckled. Nestor looked angry.
Of Jak, Cale asked, "You scout a way past the bullywugs?"
Jak took another pull on his pipe then answered, "Easy. All we need to be is quiet and I'll get us right to the shore."
"Good," Cale said. "Let's move."
Crouched at the edge of the tree line, Cale eyed the bullywugs. At least thirty strong, they stood in a ragged line about a spearcast from the Lightless Lake. The green skin of the froglike humanoids glistened in the light of their torches. Except for an occasional croak, they stood in near silence, watching the lake, watching the glow from the Fane. Their shaman, adorned about his neck with a brace of humanoid skulls and wearing a shirt of reptilian scales, swayed to music that only he could hear.
"A distraction?" Riven asked.
Cale shook his head and answered, "Not going to pull enough of them away. They're worshiping. No, we go one at a time, at a belly crawl, as Jak suggested. We make for that." He pointed to a large cypress at the edge of the lake, near the point from which the green glow lit the waters.
"A lot of space," Riven observed.
Cale couldn't deny it. If he'd still had his holy symbol, or if the halfling hadn't exhausted all of his spells, they would have had more options. As it was ...
"It's all we've got," he said. "The undergrowth will give us some cover. Me first. Then Jak, then you." He looked to Magadon and Nestor. He felt obliged to give them one more chance at an out. "You can remain—"
Magadon grinned and shook his head. Cale was struck again with how incongruous that smile looked under his knucklebone eyes.
"I said we were in, Erevis," the guide said, "so we're in. Right, Nestor?"
The big human only grunted.
"Well enough," Cale said. "You follow after Riven, then Nestor. Let's do it."
Wasting no time, Cale mentally prayed to the Lord of Shadows to shield him from the bullywug's goggle eyes and crawled out of the tree line. He moved as rapidly as he could while staying flat to the ground. While the soft earth muffled the sound of his movements, his breath and heartbeat sounded as loud as a warhorn in his ears. With every croak from the bullywugs, he felt certain they had spotted him. But they did not. Covered in mud and sweat, he reached the cypress and sank into the shadows near its bole.
Unable to resist, he spared a glance into the lake. There, deep beneath the otherwise pitch waters, he saw the Fane of Shadows suspended in a hemispherical bubble. Viewed through the water, it looked like a picture drawn deliberately vague. He made out statues, arches, columns, but somehow it still looked insubstantial, surreal. He drew his sword and felt it being pulled toward the water, as though the lake was a lodestone. The shadows bleeding from the blade swirled off the metal and into the Lightless Lake. He knew it wanted to go there. Intuitively, he knew it would take him.
He turned away, determined to see to the safety of his comrades first.
The halfling came next. With skill, he crawled through the muddy undergrowth toward Cale. When he reached the cypress, Cale put a hand on his shoulder.
"Your sword," Jak said right away. "It's worse."
"I know," he said, and signaled Riven.
The assassin moved rapidly across the clearing, a shadow among shadows. When he reached the safety of the cypress, he looked into the lake and his good eye went wide.
"Dark," he oathed. "That is deep."
Cale signaled Magadon. With surprising grace, the guide made his way across the clearing to the cypress. He too looked upon the lake wide-eyed.
"I trust you have some ideas," he said to Cale.
Cale did, but made no reply. Instead, he signaled Nestor.
The big human rolled from the tree line and began to make his way across the clearing. Slowly. He didn't share Magadon's grace or skill.
"How long have you worked with this oaf?" Riven hissed at Magadon.
The guide hesitated a moment before answering, "Not long."
He left it at that.
Nestor stopped about halfway to the cypress.
"What is he doing?" Jak hissed.