Dragon Mage 3 Chapter 4: Uninvited Guests (Patreon)

369 days until the Arkon Shield falls

The trip across the bridge was nerve-wracking but not arduous. As slim as the line of rock extending across the chasm had appeared from a distance, it was wide enough for ten men to walk abreast.

It was not a short walk, though.

At my best estimate, the Abyss was over a mile long. Reaching the other end, we found Tara, Lance, Arneson, and Daryl waiting for us.

Seekers sense triggered. A dungeon has been detected within ten yards of you.

“Thursten, what are you doing here?” Daryl blurted before anyone could say anything.

Thursten scowled. “I could ask the same of you.”

His face reddening, the younger man looked away.

Daryl was Kara’s husband and Thursten’s sometimes lieutenant. Clearly, his presence here amongst Arneson’s men was leaving the older man feeling betrayed.

“Leave him alone, Sten,” Arneson interjected. “If you want to blame anyone, blame me. I invited him along.”

His eyes burning, Thursten swapped his scowl to the other man. “Oh, I do blame you, Arnie. What in god’s name were you thinking? Running off like that, and with some of us best men too!”

Arneson did not flinch from Thursten’s anger. “I was thinking we need to get stronger. I was thinking we are not nearly strong enough yet. And that if we didn’t grasp this opportunity, it would only—” He broke off then, his eyes darting in my direction.

I folded my arms across my chest, my own expression unyielding. “What? That’d we steal it from you?”

The other man had the grace to look away, but he didn’t shirk from the truth. “Yes,” he said bluntly.

“After all we’ve done for you,” Tara asked sadly, entering the conversation for the first time. “After all our people have done for Sanctuary, you really believe that?”

“Perhaps I wasn’t being entirely rational,” Arneson admitted, looking down.

“There’s no perhaps about it,” Thursten shot back scathingly. “You’re behaving like some jacked-up recruit. What’s gotten into you, Arnie? Has that new body of yours finally addled your brains?”

Arneson’s head jerked up. “As if you have any right to talk. What in hell possessed you to leave the settlement, old man?”

Thursten opened his mouth, a retort ready on his lips, but Tara had had enough.

“Stop it, both of you,” she snapped. “This has gone on long enough, and this bickering is not going to resolve anything. Nor is it going to help deal with the problem at hand.”

“What problem?“ I asked. Call it intuition, but I didn’t think she meant our presence in the Abyss by that.

Her face expressionless, Tara gestured me toward the tunnel mouth a few yards away. “Go on, see for yourself.”

Still puzzled, I did as she bade. Stepping off the bridge, I crossed into the tunnel with Thursten following on my heels.

The moment I did so, a Game message unfurled in my mind.

You have discovered a lair. 

Name: Shadowdeep. Age: young, less than ninety days old. Designation: Unclaimed. To claim this lair, defeat all its guardians.

Warning: You have entered Shadowdeep with a party of one. The maximum allowed party size for this lair is twenty. Increase your party size or risk being overrun. 

Warning: A party from an unknown faction is already present in Shadowdeep. If you wish to contest their claim on the lair, venture further into Shadowdeep. Note, that in the event you do so, the second party will be alerted to your party’s presence.

“Huh?” I exclaimed involuntarily. Someone was already in the lair? How could that be? And more importantly, who could it be? Whoever they were, they had to be human.

Stepping back hurriedly, I took a quick count of Arneson’s men.

“It’s not any of my people,” he said with a smirk, clearly realizing what I was about. “None of my men would enter a lair without permission.”

“How can you be sure?” I asked. Maybe one of them—”

“He’s right,” Thursten said from behind me.

Turning around, I saw the older man’s face creased in worry. 

“This can’t be anyone from Sanctuary. Our people know better.”

“Maybe it’s some of Gorkin’s people?” I countered.

Thursten shook his head. “They’re all accounted for. Believe me, we made sure.”

“Besides,” Lance said, chipping in, “the Trials described the other party as belonging to a ‘rival faction.’ Gorkin’s men didn’t belong to a faction.”

I frowned. The exact phrase the Trials had used in my own message had been ‘unknown faction,’ but then again, I wasn’t part of the Forerunner faction like Lance and the others so that stood to the reason. And in any event, it didn’t detract from what the other mage had said.

Someone—or many someones—from another faction had entered the lair. 

“Could it be that group you met down south?” Tara asked quietly. “The one from the Order of Humanity?”

I gave the question serious thought, then shook my head slowly. “I doubt it. The last I saw of Jain and his party, they were heading in the opposite direction—south—and the Order’s home base is too far from here for them to have sent anyone else. No, this has to be another faction—one we’ve not met before.”

“Then, they must be working with the orcs,” Thursten said grimly.

I glanced at him. “Why do you say that?”

“How else would they have found out about this lair?” Arneson asked before he could answer. 

“Or entered it without using the tunnels beneath the settlement, for that matter?” Thursten added.

I shook my head. “You said yourself the tunnels are a maze that runs the breadth of the valley. There could easily be other entrances besides those you know about. Hells, the lair itself may have another entrance—somewhere outside the valley.”

Both Arneson and Thursten looked perturbed by this idea.

“Ignoring the security implications of the tunnels having other entrances, the real question is: what do we do now?” Tara asked.

My gaze darted her way. “You think we should enter the lair?” I guessed, studying her expression.

She hesitated, then nodded. “Regardless of how the other party entered the lair, Arneson is correct. The most likely scenario is that the people inside are allied with the orcs. And if that is the case, we can’t let them claim the lair. Or worse yet, destroy it.”

She was right. I swung Lance’s way. “Did the wiki have anything to say about this scenario?”

“About two rival factions simultaneously trying to claim the same lair, you mean?”

I nodded.

“Not that I’ve ever read,” Lance said.

“Damn. Then, I guess we’ll have to play it by ear.” Inhaling deeply, I face Thursten and Arneson. “I agree with Tara. We can’t afford not to enter the lair.”

The two men exchanged glances. 

“Do you think claiming the lair is possible?” Thursten asked. “You said this lair will be older and larger than the one you’ve been in before. And whatever beasts Shadowdeep hides, none of my people have lived to describe them.”

I sighed. “It will be dangerous, no doubt about it. But can we afford not to try?”

“We can’t,” Arneson answered before anyone else could. “I’ll enter.” He glanced at his fellow leader. “You won’t.”

Thursten’s lips tightened, but he didn’t argue with Arneson’s decision. “So be it.” His gaze jumped from Tara to Lance to me. “I assume you three will be going as well?”

We nodded in unison.

“That makes four.” Swinging around, Thursten addressed the rest of the men. “Alright, I need sixteen volunteers. And before you put your name forward, you should know that…”

✵ ✵ ✵

In short order our lair party was assembled. Unsurprisingly, all of the Sanctuary soldiers had volunteered, and Thursten had picked the best sixteen to join us. While men readied up, I strode over to the two village leaders.

“You should head back,” Arneson was saying to Thursten.

The other man shook his head. “I'd rather wait.”

“That’s not a good idea,” I said. “We could be days in the lair.”

Both men turned to me with equally startled expressions. “Days?” Thursten asked, alarmed.

I nodded. “We have no idea how large the lair is, but Lance and I have talked it over, and we both believe it must be huge.”

“Why’s that?” Arneson asked.

“We don’t have anything to go on but conjecture,” I admitted. “But based on the party size recommended by the Trials, I can’t believe the lair is anything but big.” None of the other lairs or dungeons I had attempted had required a team anywhere near as big.

Arneson frowned. “I see.”

Thursten sighed. “In that case, I’ll head back. But I’ll leave behind a pair of scouts to keep watch for your return.”

Arneson nodded. “That’s a good idea.” He glanced past me. “Looks like everyone is ready. Well, no point delaying further, then. Let’s be about it.”

✵ ✵ ✵

You have opted to contest ownership of the liar. Your party has been designated Party X. The rival party has been designated Party Y.

Party Y has been notified of your entrance. Lair claiming parameters modified. To claim the Shadowdeep for your faction, defeat its guardians and all members of Party Y. 

The Trials message came as no surprise. I’d expected it, or something very much like it. As had Lance, and we paid it no mind as we headed deeper into the tunnel on the other side of the Abyss.

“Shadowdeep,” Tara muttered, striding next to me. “That’s cryptic. What sort of creatures do you think this lair holds?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea, but probably something involving shadows.”

She threw me a sour look. “That’s not helpful in the least.” Not waiting for my response, she turned to Arneson, who was on her other side. “Tell me about the attacks your men suffered in the tunnels.”

His gaze fixed intently down the tunnel, the other man did not respond.

“Arneson?” Tara prompted more loudly.

“What? Oh, you asked me something?”

Nodding, Tara patiently repeated the question.

The village leader’s gaze darted back down the tunnel. “Should we be talking?” he asked, appearing more on edge than I’d ever seen him. “What if—”

Tara laid a hand on his arm. “Relax. Lance and the scouts are up ahead. If any danger approaches, they’ll raise the alarm.”

Given the size of our party for this lair run, Tara and I had decided it made sense to split ourselves into three parts: a forward contingent, the main body, and a rearguard. For now, the rearguard was unnecessary. We’d not passed any forks in the main tunnel, and it was unlikely we’d be attacked from the back. But as we ventured deeper into the lair, protecting our rear would become more important.

“Alright,” Arneson agreed reluctantly. He did not shrug off Tara’s hand, I noted. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything,” Tara replied immediately.

He grunted. “There’s not much to tell. We’ve lost over a dozen men underground. And always, it has been in the deep tunnels. We could never conclude whether it was one beast or many that did the killings. No one ever lived to report what the beast looked like.”

“What makes you think it was a beast?” I asked curiously. “And not say, the orcs?”

He glanced at me, his face scrubbed free of emotion. “The state of the bodies. They were mangled and half-eaten, and say what you will of the orcs, they have never stooped to eating us.”

I shuddered. “Right. Got it.”

“Anyway, given the nature of the wounds on the corpses,” Arneson continued, “our scouts surmised that the beast—or beasts—are large, four-footed, and attack with both tooth and claw.”

I waited for him to go on, but when he didn’t, I asked, “That’s it? Your scouts haven’t figured out anything more of the beasts?”

Arneson shook his head grimly. “No. The creatures left no spoor behind nor anything else of their selves. No bits of fur, no blood. Nothing.”

I frowned, not liking the implications of that. The beasts were either smart enough to clean up after themselves or had struck so swiftly and surely that their victims had not been able to put up any resistance.

Tara was frowning, too. “You say the attacks only occurred in the deep tunnels. Why’s that?”

Arneson shrugged. “I don’t know.” He shot her a look. “You think it’s relevant?”

She bit her front lip. “Maybe. It could mean—”

She broke off as Lance and the three scouts with him came running back.

“What is it?” Tara asked at the same time as Arneson demanded, “Are we under attack?”

Lance glanced from one to the other before shaking his head. “No, we’re not. But we have reached the first fork in the tunnel.”