“That woman gives me the creeps.”
“Yes.” The ranger watched her go. “Cinders says he smells badmagic in the party, but the priests won’t let me close enough to try any scryingspells.”
Escalla flew up to the hell hound and scratched him between the ears. “Cinders, you keep right on sniffing.”
Polk wandered over, sniffed whiskey on the breeze, and reclaimed the last sad remnants of his whiskey store. The man glared at Jus, then wrinkled his moustache, and finally let his criticisms out into the open air.
“Son, you’re just an uphill climb for me. I try, but I justcan’t reach you!” The man swirled his jug, decided to hoard his last few swigs,and slung the jug across his shoulders. “Backstabbing? It’s just notheroic, son, a bad habit. A hero can’t have bad habits.”
Polk irritably pulled a strip of sticky spider web away from his heel and announced, “Now, come on. I have to get you into White PlumeMountain before you foul up again.”
15
Over two more long days, the group moved from a landscape ofwithered grass into a folded desolation of lava plains. Molten rock had rippled as it cooled, and little jets of steam made the rock slippery with algae-laden slime. The cancerous stone gleamed a dull gray-black while the algae shimmered a slick, foul green. The only brightness came from streaks of rust and sulphur salts that crusted the edges of thermal pools.
The only life in this foul place seemed to be skittering gray rats that licked the algae from the pools. Most of the party distastefully passed the animals by, but Jus quietly and reverently went searching through the rocks. The Justicar carefully examined the boiling waters of a geyser and found tiny transparent shrimp sidling through the shallows. He showed Escalla, gently reaching down to lift a crustacean into view. For once, Escalla knew enough to still her tongue and simply enjoy the moment.
High overhead, White Plume Mountain loomed. The volcano’scone seemed stark and bare. Vast geysers shot steam thousands of feet into the sky above the peak, thundering upward with a sound that echoed across the entire wilderness. When the wind changed, condensed spray came drifting down across the rocks, and Cinders sniffed happily at the stench of sulphur in the air.
The Justicar kept himself and Escalla directly in the midst of the group. Cold calculation insisted that the other party members could never be trusted. By keeping close, Jus reduced the chance of collecting a dagger in the back.
There now seemed to be small point in stealth. The owner of White Plume Mountain certainly knew that they were coming.
In the evenings, the group made a huddled camp about an oil stove. The party bedded down on hard, warm rock in the lee of sulphur-coated stones.
Keen to recruit secret converts to their cause, each of the two priests tried sounding out their companions one by one. Their hissed whispers carried hints of fantastic promises to nearby ears.
Ignoring the conspirators, Polk ostentatiously began to polish Sir Olthwaite’s equipment He sat deliberately close to the Justicar,holding up each piece of armor so that the ranger could see just what a proper adventurer carried into peril.
The Justicar had provided himself with an oilskin sheet that he spread over himself and the faerie. Escalla had made herself a bed inside the Justicar’s backpack, and both slept safe and sound amidst the random spatter ofcondensation from on high. Cinders sat propped upon a pile of rocks, his eyes gleaming on unwinking watch. When anyone inside the camp made the slightest move toward the ranger or the faerie, a ghostly, half-heard canine growl would ripple through the air.
Of the entire party, only Escalla and the Justicar slept well.
On the final day of approach, the Justicar once again took the lead. A pathway of sorts existed-a rough-cut road flanked with moss-furredstatues of Keraptis himself. The sorcerer’s bifold mask was weathered intosenile imbecility and pockmarked with fungi. Jus used the statues as stepping stones to climb up and avoid bends in the switchback trail, guarding the party from ambushes as they trudged and struggled along the slippery stone road.
By evening, they had reached a flat plateau upon a shoulder of the mountain. The sun had begun to set, shining wine-red through the mists of sulphurous spray. With fat, stinking droplets raining down upon their necks, the party trudged upward through a darkening maze of rocks, dark pools, and shadow.
The road ended in a pile of moss-slimed ruins that might once have been a villa or a vast, impressive gate. A cave stood fifty yards away-anarrow cleft that hissed out a long blast of steam. Shuddering like a giant’sbreath, the steam suddenly halted. There was an indrawn sigh as air sucked slowly back into the cave-a minutes pause-and then the outrush of steam slowlybegan again.
Breathing slowly, with its mouth fanged by slime, the cavern lay in wait for its visitors. The whole mountain seemed plotting and aware, as though unseen shapes flickered through the distant rocks.
The mountain was waiting….
Moving almost invisibly through the rocks, the Justicar approached the cave mouth from one side and carefully searched for enemies. He slithered to the ground only when the steam blasts proved themselves to be cool and the molds and slimes harmless. With Escalla at his side, he stooped and ran gloveless hands over the thin mud outside of the breathing cave, rubbing the muck thoughtfully between his fingertips.
“Mud. Boots have broken the soil crust and let the steamintermix. Probably yesterday.” The man carefully wiped his hands clean upon histhighs. “This cave has had someone walk in but not walk out.”
“How do you know they didn’t walk out?” The faerie blinked.“The depth of the mud? Marks in the soil?”
“There’s only one way down the mountain. We would have foundthem walking down the road.”
“Yeah! Hey, you’re pretty good at this.”
The Justicar helped Escalla to her feet and said, “It’s aranger thing. It’s what we do instead of parties.” He turned and signalled therest of the party, shouting to be heard above the hiss and roar of steam. “It’ssafe! This is our way in!”
The explorers gathered. Dripping fangs of algae framed the tunnel mouth. Wincing, Escalla stared at the entrance as it slowly breathed a dragon’s breath of steam. She took one little pace away from the cave, nervouslyfluttering her wings.
“It doesn’t look… so bad.” She gave a fragile littlesmile, then made a ladylike curtsy to the paladin. “Hey, after you!”
Steam! Heat! Smell! Only Cinders seemed truly happy.Good place!
The faerie fluttered upward and swatted Cinders on the skull.
“Cinders, you suck in much more of this sulphur and you’llstart to worry me!”
Tickles!
“Yeah, whatever.” The girl took another look at the cave,watching the steam now slowly breathe back into the sinister mouth.
“Why does it keep doing that?” The girl backed away, thendelved into the Justicar’s backpack and pulled out a tiny little book. “Um,does anyone else feel like brushing up on a few spells?”
The Bleredd priest threw Escalla a sneer. “You’re afraid ofgoing in?”
“Hell, no! I just feel like cranking up a few spells.” Thegirl preened herself, drawing proudly erect. “Some of us like to do thesethings properly!”
The Justicar remained standing beside the edge of the tunnel. He brushed at a strangely shiny patch of the rock. Sir Olthwaite strolled over beside him, his hands clasped regally behind his back. The man peered at the strange carvings uncovered by Jus’ glove.
“What have you found, sir?”
“A welcome mat.” Jus wiped clean an inscription burned intothe stone. He sniffed in annoyance as he read the words aloud.