Jekkoe and The Tunnel King

[SniptheShadow]

***Parental Warning -- slightly gruesome***




Jekkoe and The Tunnel King




A Tale of DDO

by

SniptheShadow





There was so much treasure in the chest that Jekkoe, with the help of Brother Danoc, heaved the thing over on its side and let the contents spill out across the messy floor. Gold coins slid out and mixed with blood and body parts, and the six adventurers portioned out the spoils with grunts of contentment and giggles of delight.

Sireanna Starfire took two wands, a Ring of Protection and seven scrolls.

Hickory the Warforged picked out a Bastard Sword that crawled with electricity.

Brother Danoc took Gauntlets of Strength and a holy broach that Jekkoe did not recognize.

The Fighter that had joined them back in Stormreach, a Human named Keltoss, hefted a Scimitar and tested its weight. The blade was covered in runes and symbols that Jekkoe recognized as that of a Vorpal blade.

The Human female stepped forward to take her pick of the loot. Her name was Unicorn. She was a Barbarian and her weapon of choice was a long spear. She picked up a Hammer from the pile that had a spiral design and a blazing flame embedded in the head. She laughed and tossed the thing across the room. It struck an urn, shattered it in a burst of fire and spun backwards and slapped into her palm.

Her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Mine," she said.

Jekkoe found two daggers in the pile of bloody gold coins. Both were poison but of two different varieties. He hid them away in secret pockets.

"We make six piles of the rest," said Keltoss.

"Agreed," said the Dwarven Cleric, Brother Danoc.


******


They moved on.

The battle behind them had been bad.

Drow and Scorrow had filled the room. Arcane magics turned the dark chamber into day as fire and lightning erupted from both sides.

Unicorn worked her spear like a dancer, and Drow died in twos and threes.

Hickory shot Scorrow after Scorrow with arrows dripping acid, and the beasts squirmed and cried as the green liquid killed them inside out.

Keltoss, laughing like a madman, swung a blade in each hand. He yelled out each strike like he wanted it known or appreciated by the group: "Left arm severed! Head caved in! Leg wound! Got the heart on that one!"

Danoc, Jekkoe and Sireanna Starfire fought together in a tight circle. Any foe that neared them, Jekkoe darted out and stabbed. One Drow warrior got close, grabbed Sireanna by her white hair. Jekkoe ran up the Drow's legs and back and rammed his dagger into first an eye and then punctured the Drow's throat twice quickly -- sploot, sploot, sploot. Blood gushed out as Jekkoe and the Drow tumbled down to the floor.

And so it went until all that remained was the aftermath of slaughter.

Jekkoe followed the others out, stepping over a severed arm, its fingers twitching and clenching as the nerve endings slowly died.

They exited down a dark hallway.


******


A black water that smelled like sulfur dripped from the stone blocks overhead. The hallway snaked left. It was a narrow fit and the six walked single file.

"This is not a good place for battle," complained Hickory from behind Jekkoe.

"I'm not happy with tight places either," said Keltoss the Fighter.

Jekkoe's heart sank. "It gets worse up ahead. We're going to need to crawl."

"Is it wide enough for my bulk, Rogue Jekkoe?" asked Hickory the Warforged.

The hallway shrank down and down its length as it went. From an upright walking space down to a tunnel barely four feet in height. "Just barely, "said Jekkoe. "I'll go first and we can take it slow."

Keltoss reached up and patted Hickory on the shoulder. "I'll protect you, Tree Trunk," he said, and stepped ahead of the Arcane Archer.

"And who will protect you?" asked the Barbarian, Unicorn.

Keltoss laughed.

"My name is Hickory and it is not fear that hinders me. It is merely a question of space."

"Quite a lot of space with you, my friend," said Sireanna Starfire. She stood on her toes and kissed the Warforged on his wood and metal cheek.

Jekkoe stooped down and began to crawl.

And crawl and crawl.

Over a mile down he said, "Trap!"

The group bunched up behind him. The others breathed in and out in exhaustion. Dust puffed out around Jekkoe as he worked the trap mechanism, his own exhalation working his lungs.

"Is it me or have we been moving down hill the entirety of this tunnel?" asked Keltoss.

"Indeed we have," said the dwarf.

*clack*

"Got it," said Jekkoe.

They crawled on.


******


Six adventurers slithered out of a hole in the wall one by one. It was a drop of seven feet, and each person plopped down ungainly and without grace.

"Ooof! Gods!" said Danoc. "Quite a drop there coming out, eh." He dusted himself out, took a deep breath. "That's better. I've had more than enough of the foul air in that tight space."

The room was massive.

They had spilled out into what looked to Jekkoe like an ancient and forgotten amphitheatre of sorts. Stone seating circled them completely and a throne was perched higher than the rest of the seats. It stood empty. Tapestries of a black and shadowy figure were draped here and there, and an altar was placed at the very center of the space.

"Necromancers?" asked Keltoss.

"Likely," said Sireanna.

Keltoss and Unicorn stepped forward quickly, headed for the altar.

"Wait!" said Jekkoe.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The floor exploded.

The six fell downwards.

Jekkoe fell twenty feet and then began to glide, his feather falling necklace activating, saving him. His companions floated down around him as well.

All save Unicorn.

She fell like a stone and quickly vanished from sight. How deep was the hole? wondered Jekkoe.

The Barbarian rubberbanded, and soon was at a height with the others.

"Thank the Gods I had my ring in my pocket. I almost did not bring it along," she said, the wind from the fall flipping her blond braid around like the tail of a childs kite.

They fell and fell and fell some more.

Finally, the group touched down on a cavern floor. Stalagtites and stalagmites were everywhere. They looked like hungry limestone teeth. Water dripped softly and holes all around the room branched off in dozens of directions and in various heights. Holes pocked the inside of the curving wall everywhere.

"So many tunnels. It looks like the inside of a giant hornets nest," said Sireanna Starfire.

"Which passage do we take?" asked Keltoss.

"I suggest a large one this time," said Hickory.

Jekkoe picked the biggest passage across from them and led the way.


******


Twenty minutes later, Jekkoe halted the group.

Three massive figures stood in the cavern tunnel down the way. They were taller than Hickory and almost half again as heavy. They were tan in color and matched the limestone walls of the cave behind them perfectly. If they hadn't been standing at the center of the passageway, he would not have noticed them at all.

"What are they?" whispered Unicorn.

They looked humaniod but something about their heads was wrong. It was hard to tell in the dark tunnel. One of the three shifted and turned, and Danoc inhaled in fear. Jekkoe made out their heads and the shape of them. Perched atop the massive bulk of the bodies were heads out of a nightmare. Giant mandibles and antennae wiggled and tested the air. The three creatures had insectile heads.

"Umber Hulks," whispered Brother Danoc.

"What are they?" asked Keltoss. "I've never heard of the like."

"No more talking," hissed Danoc. "And remain completely still. They are blind and use movement and sound as sight."

"But we can take them. There's only three," said Keltoss with a smirk.

"You fool! Look around you," said Danoc. "They made this place. These tunnels. That large domed cave we fell into -- all made by them, the tunnellers. We are in their realm now."

Keltoss opened his mouth to reply but hushed. A clicking sound made its way to them down the cavern tunnel from the Umber Hulks. The noise made was a series of clicking and clacking and the three massive figures turned in unison in their direction.

"Too late," said Unicorn.

Jekkoe stumbled backwards. The Umber Hulks rushed the group, and their speed was unlike anything Jekkoe had witnessed in the world's dark places before. So fast!

Unicorn was suddenly surrounded by the three. She swung her spear in a circle and sliced two of the beasts. The one she missed jumped back and then raked her back in five lightning fast swipes. She screamed and spun around. Jekkoe could see both her leather armor and pale skin hanging in shreads on her back.

Sireanna Starfire killed one of the three.

Her lightning bolt filled the tunnel with white light and the electricity zapped into the head of the Umber Hulk. A part of its insectoid head vanished in a black splash of burning flesh, and electricity danced and crackled between its two mandibles as it fell.

Keltoss screamed a battle cry and ran forward.

He batted away raking claws and snapping mandibles as both remaining Umber Hulks engaged him. One head-butted him and Keltoss bounced off the cavern wall with a grunt. He stuck his sword into the Umber Hulk's multi-faceted bug eye with a disgusted shout.

"Gods! Die, you ugly thing!"

The other Umber Hulk got its mandibles around his middle and started to chomp down, but Unicorn jumped high in the air and rammed her spear into the Umber Hulk's back. It struggled like a worm, pinned to the floor of the tunnel. Jekkoe ran up and stabbed it repeatedly until it quit moving.

The last Umber Hulk spun in place, alone in the center of the room. Its antennae wiggled, its mandibles snapped, and its muscled, taloned hands flexed in anticipation. The clicking noises it made sounded like a dare.

Hickory pelted it with arrows. Three, six, nine, twelve, and acid bubbled out of the Umber Hulk in a fizzy foam.

It fell with a heavy thud and died.


******


Keltoss stepped up to a dead Umber Hulk. He flipped it over on its back with his boot. "So ugly," he said.

Sireanna Starfire moved up beside him. She looked down and studied the corpse. "I've never seen any creature quite like them."

"Pray you see no others, lass," said Danoc. "Everyone, we need to go!"

"Soon, dwarf. Let us have our look," said Keltoss.

Keltoss and Sireanna walked ahead to the other dead Umber Hulk. They walked near the cavern wall as they went. Keltoss hovered over the fallen foe. He looked up at the group with a smile. Sireanna tucked her white hair behind an ear as she looked at Keltoss and waited for him to speak.

"You see, we can take these things. They die by my blade like any other creature."

The cave wall exploded beside Keltoss. Massive taloned arms reached out of the hole and yanked the Fighter back into the open space in a rush of monstrous arms, flashing armor and falling rock debris.

Sireanna, almost as if in slow-motion, turned to look at the new chaos that had burst from the cavern wall. She looked with mild curiosity at the new threat. Her expression looked like she was waiting for the punchline of a joke, expectant and a little excited at the surprise; it happened so fast.

Keltoss screamed. The noise he made started in his rich baritone in sound and then went up the scale to that of a shrieking little girl.

Blood sprayed out in a wide verticle swath into Sireanna Starfire's face. It coated her from head to toe in one hissing rush of gore. Her beautiful white hair was suddenly pink, the black skin of her Drow chin dripping red. In shock, her arms went rigid, the fingers splayed out.

"It...I...he..." she tried to say.

The floor erupted around her.

Two Umber Hulks sprang up beside her. One slammed its claws into her. She fell forward with a jerk, her face a rictus of pain. The other Umber Hulk grabbed her around the throat and twisted. There was a loud crack and then Sireanna's blank, dead eyes looked back at the group as the Umber Hulks vanished with her lifeless body back underground.

"LASS!!!" cried the Cleric, Brother Danoc.

He ran to her.

BOOM BOOM

BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM

Umber Hulks crashed out of the cavern walls everywhere.

Brother Danoc was instantly surrounded.

Jekkeo yelled a battle cry and tried to run to his side. An Umber Hulk grabbed Jekkoe and tossed him ten feet away. Jekkoe turned and rolled and came to his feet, blades out. The Umber Hulk clicked its mandibles, seemingly laughing at Jekkoe as he readied to fight.

Down the way, Jekkoe watched Danoc's ending. The dwarf was surrounded on all sides. He swung his mace in a wide swath. He bashed away snapping heads and raking arms with his shield. He shouted prayers and turned three Umber Hulks to mulch, but five replaced the three. And then seven, nine. So many. Brother Danoc was torn to pieces. The Umber Hulks went into a frenzy as they fed on the old dwarf.

"No," cried Jekkoe.

"RUN!" yelled Unicorn.

BOOMBOOMBOOM

More Umber Hulks.

From the walls.

From the floor.

Dropping down from the jagged limestone ceiling, they crowded the tunnel.

Danoc's words rang out in Jekkoe's ears: "We are in their realm now."

Jekkoe ran.

The Barbarian, Unicorn, and the Warforged Arcane Archer, Hickory, were right behind the fast Halfling Rogue as they moved left and right down the snaking cavern way.

Mandibles clicked madly behind them. The floor reverberated with the stomping, running legs of Umber Hulks.

"No, no, no, no, no!" pleaded Unicorn in her flight.

Jekkoe thought it was truly dire if a Barbarian acted like that.

A metal grinding noise caused Jekkoe to turn around.

The Umber Hulks had caught Hickory the Warforged, dug their claws in deep.

Hickory swung two massive hammers in each hand. Where his hammers struck, an Umber Hulk head shattered with a crunch. One of the growing corpses at his feet tripped him and he stumbled as he fought.

Unicorn came back and danced by Jekkoe with her spear, trying to pick which Umber Hulk to strike, but with so many, she hesitated.

An Umber Hulk tore away a part of the Warforged.

Hickory, like all Warforged, was made of metal and wood. The wood was a type of living wood that gave the 'forged life, and this wood is what the Umber Hulk bit into. It chewed on the flesh of Hickory, and then it did an odd thing.

The Umber Hulk fell back trembling.

Its insectoid eyes glowed a bright blue in the black tunnel and it fell over and let out a tiny squeal. Its antennae spun around and around, its mandibles wiggled with pleasure.

The other Umber Hulks paused.

"What is wrong with that one?" asked Unicorn.

Another Umber Hulk bit into Hickory and tore free a piece of him.

It also fell over with pleasure and ceased battle.

Then another did the same. And another.

The Umber Hulks bit and tore at Hickory and then collapsed where they stood, falling back like a human would in a dreamlily den.

"Move Halfling. MOVE!"

Jekkoe and Unicorn fled.



******


All dead.

Sireanna Starfire, Brother Danoc, Hickory...even Keltoss - gone.

Jekkoe moved like a man walking in his sleep.

He lost track of how many turns, which tunnel, up or down -- he merely kept moving. Unicorn pulled him along like a child. And the Umber Hulks harried them, always close.

Was it hours or days that passed? Jekkoe could not tell, but they finally found a tunnel shaft up that ended in light.

The two crawled out of the darkness and collapsed on wet grass.

High in the sky Jekkoe watched an airship glide by. He laughed at the sight of it, at the normalcy of it, and his laughter turned to sobbing.

Unicorn said, "Up now, little one. The city is not far."


******


AFTERWARD


The Umber Hulks carried the body of Hickory through the tunnels.

They moved to a deeper place, a place that did not know light.

Their King sat on a throne made of Drow skulls. Four female Umber Hulks clung to his legs. They massaged and petted their King, picking off the cave mites that clung to every Umber Hulk and bothered; the little things bit and itched incessantly.

The King's antennae wiggled happily as his females tended him.

Ten Umber Hulks entered his throne room. They set down Hickory's body before him. They clicked in their language, telling him of the pleasure in devouring Warforged flesh. How the wood tasted. How the flesh pleased.

Their King, the Surpreme Shadow Hulk, listened.

Finally he stood and his females shrank back. He moved over and tasted Hickory.

The King fell over on his back in euphoria. His mandibles vibrated, his antennae swirled. His females ran up and ate as well. All around the dark chamber dozens upon dozens of Umber Hulks crowding the throne room silently watched their King and his Concubines, waiting.

Finally the Shadow Hulk recovered. He asked his underlings about the Warforged.

Where was he from? What was he? Where did his fellow warriors go? Was there many more like him?

The King of the Umber Hulks wanted more of the wooden flesh.

And he ordered his people to go get him more.

Mandibles clacked in acquiescence. They bowed to their King.

And they moved out and began to burrow and dig.

Upwards and upwards. Dozen heard the call. Soon their number grew to hundreds.

Digging.

Burrowing.

Up. Up. Up.

Digging toward Stormreach.

Meanwhile, their King sat alone in his chamber, his multi-faceted insect eyes glowing bright blue in the darkness, Hickory the Warforged dead at his feet.

The End



______

[krissonofpark]

Thank you, yet again very good.

And different, did not expect a massacre, did expect you to knock someone off each time, but not almost everyone, at one point thought everyone would die. Also I can't be the only person who reads this and thinks that it went slightly strange during and after the massacre (can't tell if you really like or dislike Warforged, with what happens).

Thanks again, yet Umber Hulks make a strange choice for new threat to the City, the introduction of them as a new Monster has been called for on the Forums before and they would fit in quite well, but never thought of them on mass, always as single ones.

[sigtrent]

NICE!!

I've a soft spot for Umbers, nice to see them get a good meal. Awesome story though, and the lesson is, always listen to the dwarf! I was shocked when the body count started to mount none the less, rarely are mistakes so costly in stories of adventurers but it really ups the drama on a short tale.

Thanks!

[Amaile]

Very nice as always Snip! I like that you never know who is going to die. Actual dramatic tension *gasp!*. Very bizarre on the hulk's taste for warforged, but so amusing.

So that's what those rumbles in the Phoenix are! Eeeep.

[Nuralanya]

The Fighter that had joined them back in Stormreach, a Human named Keltoss, hefted a Scimitar and tested its weight.

I smell Ensign Expendable!

Great tale as always, Snip - I didn't expect that many deaths, and like someone else said I was starting to think the whole group was doomed this time. I also didn't expect Unicorn to survive at the expense of some of the more established characters, so that was a nice twist.

Keep 'em coming!

[SniptheShadow]

Thank you, yet again very good.

And different, did not expect a massacre, did expect you to knock someone off each time, but not almost everyone, at one point thought everyone would die. Also I can't be the only person who reads this and thinks that it went slightly strange during and after the massacre (can't tell if you really like or dislike Warforged, with what happens).

Thanks again, yet Umber Hulks make a strange choice for new threat to the City, the introduction of them as a new Monster has been called for on the Forums before and they would fit in quite well, but never thought of them on mass, always as single ones.

What!?

No, no, please don't misunderstand me. As a matter of fact, we as Umber Hulks (notice the guild I'm in) love all Warforged.

We think they're very yummy!!!



Snip