Journey into the Depths

Journey Into the Depths

After having exhausted the library and any privately owned collections in Helheim, I had to conclude there was nothing more for me to learn here about the history of Sincadere. It became clear to me that I had to search elsewhere. 

At first, I had no idea where to go. While there are certainly smaller towns and such in the world, there are no actual large city centers beyond Helheim and the capital of the Jade Lotus Empire. But then I was reminded of a talk I had with a slave girl, after purchasing her company for the night in the Silken Sheath. Mind you, I had no idea at the time that she was a slave.  I only learned this after she had used her considerable skill to take care of my needs and wants, and afterwards we had quite a lovely chat where she talked about how she wanted to escape the life she had now as she had no desire to be a slave. She spoke of a place she heard traders tell tales of, a city underground, deep in the bowels of the realm, where those who desire true freedom could seek refuge. I put no real value in second-hand information like that, to me it sounded like a tall tale. 

Since I had nowhere else to search for new information, I decided to go take a risk and venture into the dark, hiring a company of men with broad shoulders, strong steel, and even broader shields. We had perhaps traveled for a day before our party was ambushed by foul creatures, goblins and other miscreants. They smelled horrible and we couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying. The only two words that I could make any sense of were ‘Slave’ and ‘Great Red’. The attackers killed most of the company except for myself and two others. We were both clapped in irons and led deeper into the caverns.  

I awoke to the sound of my captors rattling my cage. Sleep had been my only solace. The food and drink was stale, moldy bread and murky brown water.  My companions and I did not drink or eat anything, or at least we tried not to. I ended up being the more stubborn one and that was what saved my life. What I had mistaken for being murky water was a vile potion, and to describe what happened after they drank from those cursed cups still keeps me awake at night, still haunting my dreams. 

The first one shriveled up like a dried prune, his skin like leather, eyes gaunt, cheeks caved in. It was like something was sucking all the life out of him. He couldn’t even scream. He just grasped his own throat, gasping for breath as he fell forward. A few twitches and then all life had left him. The second one just grew in size, some sort of pressure building up inside of him. His eyes literally popped out of his head as he screamed in agony until his throat closed up and all you could hear was the sound of him choking to death. He kept expanding, kept growing till the bars on his little cage started to buckle, then he just exploded...guts, blood and bone all over. 

I was mortified, but my blood froze as I heard a laughter coming from a shadow in the room. I know not how long that it, whatever it was, had been there. It then started to clap, like an excited child, as it stepped out in the light of the torches that were spread out across this dungeon. Five tails, fur as black as the night, and a crazed gaze where the eyes were like rubies, and the ears of a fox. There were markings all over her body, and there seemed to be some sort of scaled pattern partially covering her. I had never seen a creature like this; it had to be a demon or some monster. It showed genuine excitement as it stared at what remained of my companions. It then pushed its face against the bars of my cage, smiling, revealing a horrific set of teeth, “Looks like you are the lucky one.” That was all this beast uttered as it left the dungeon. 

For two days, I was left in that dungeon alone with only the rotting remains of my companions to keep me company. Then on the third day, I was taken out of my cage, stripped down, and washed.  My clothing, torn as it was and then mended, was returned to me. It was then that I was brought to what seemed like an old temple. This town, it was all underground ruins, perhaps ruins from the Golden Era. That alone got me excited. Despite all the tribulations I had suffered, that perhaps I had made the right decision in coming here. 

I was led into this old ruin of a temple - my captors called it The Keep - and it was there I met an Elf.  A very special Elf. She sat neatly at a dinner table, with the most delicious food spread out across it, along with wine and ale. She commanded me to sit and eat, then to listen. And so I did, like a ravenous dog that had not been fed by its master for days. 

As I sat there and tore into the different dishes that were laid out on the table, listening to what she had to say, she never gave me her name. Nor did I dare to ask. It was my research, that is to say, all of my notes that had secured my release. This Elf found the scope of my research interesting and wished to support it in her own way.

​While she said she had secured my release, I had merely traded one cage for a bigger one.