Haven's Addiction

We quickly scrambled down the hallway with our lumbering pursuers tailing behind, trying not to trip over each other. This probably wasn’t the smartest of ideas. If a trap waited for us up ahead, we would run right into it and get nailed by poison spikes or a spell that would turn us into a toad before we knew what happened.

Vincent passed back a small pouch that felt like it contained marbles to Gerald. I didn’t know what they were, and at the moment didn’t really care. I was told they wouldn’t stop the progression of the skeletons, but would slow them down enough that we could possibly escape. Although, Vincent didn’t sound all that confident that it would be enough.

Part of our flight came from fear, but another aspect of it was concern over what we would do next. If we got to the end of the tunnel to find it sealed, we would need to figure out a way to make it back through the skeletons. This was a very real possibility because further bypassing of the passage might require magical means that we did not currently have at our disposal. Since the labyrinth was designed for prisoners wearing collars, the best security would be to place a magical ‘employees only’ sign on the door.

I wished that I had some sort of additional weapon, any one of the guns, really. The rifle was powerful, but a little too powerful. The kickback was strong and my arms were relatively weak from fatigue. I hadn’t eaten much, hadn’t slept, and the effects of the drugs they used to knock us out still put a drain on my system. Without a secondary weapon I would be defenseless if something happened to the rifle. At least with a weapon as simple as a pistol I would have something else to work with.

At that point I looked down in my left hand and was amazed to see a pistol there. I brought it out from the bracelet without even realizing it, and without an electric shock from the collar. Edic said that the collar activated when a specific part of the brain was accessed to use abilities, but some abilities, like my sense for danger, were still intact. If I could use an ability purely on reflex without putting any thought into it, then maybe I could circumvent the collar entirely and bring out a shotgun that would take out the skeletons with little difficulty. I tucked the pistol in my waistband and decided to wait until later to test that theory. If I was wrong, I would end up crippled by the collar and get ripped apart by skeletons.

If we had to face them I would give it a try. If we got enough distance from them I could probably take my time and fire off precise shots, but would have to climb over Edic, Boregard, and Gerald to get to a position I could even fire from. Using grenades or the exploding buttons in such confined quarters would likely backlash and injure us. My only viable plan thus far was in praying that the tunnel didn’t lead into a dead end.

Hallelujah my prayers were answered. The tunnel cleared into an opening, a large cavernous room. Well, not all that large, about twelve foot square of floor space. Compared to the tunnel before it, the opening seemed enormous. At the other end was a tunnel that carried on for about twenty feet with a large wooden door at the end.

“All right, let’s go,” I shouted as I headed for the door.

“Wait,” Gerald objected loudly. “Something is not right.”

“Of course something isn’t right, we’re stuck in this tunnel.”

“He is right,”Vincent added, putting his hand on my shoulder to stay me.

“The skeletons,” Edic said.

“Precisely,” Gerald concluded, rubbing it in my face. “The skeletons were enchanted to be activated after we passed them going down the tunnel. They could have been activated when we were in the middle of them and we probably wouldn’t have been able to fend them off.”

“They aren’t an attack force. They’re meant to deter us from going back,” Boregard said.

“Ok, they’re herding us forward,” I went with their logic. “What are they herding us towards?”

“I can’t sense any traps, but since I can’t read any magical signatures, it’s impossible for me to tell,” Vincent said.

“Since they are herding us forward like stock animals, it is safe to assume that there is a trap,” Gerald said.

“I have methods that will detect traps, but it will take time to find them and disarm them,” Vincent said, glumly. I could see in his eyes that he was frightened. “I am sorry, but you will need to hold them off in the meantime.” I took it to mean that he would be shocked by his collar multiple times in order to do the job, and he wasn’t looking forward to the pain int would cause. Yet, being a trooper, he was ready to take it on so that we all stood a chance of surviving.

I could deal with that. The very least we could do was take care of a few skeletons while he did. We all nodded in agreement and readied ourselves with whatever weapons and items we felt would do the job. We didn’t have the chance to do any more. As soon as Vincent neared the far passageway the floor fell out from beneath us like a trap door and we plummeted down a long tube, screaming as we went.

The tube we went down for a few hundred feet like a water slide, but without the water. The walls were smooth with nothing to hold onto and were lined with a greasy substance so that we slid down like an express elevator. It sounds like fun, but was actually quite terrifying. We all fell together and kept bumping into each other. Gerald let out the loudest scream of all. I liked to think that he was behaving like a scared little girl, but in all reality it sounded more like a scream of pain from getting shocked by the collar in a last ditch effort spell to slow our descent.

There was no way to tell where it led, and there was no way to stop our descent. For all I knew we were headed into a giant meat grinder. I tried to stay positive and pretend I was one of the Goonies out on another wacky adventure. It didn’t work. In truth, the only reason I didn’t scream out loud during our rapid descent was because I was so scared that I hyperventilated and forgot to breath, so I didn’t have enough air in my lungs to let out a scream. That and the fact that I almost lost consciousness because, amid our writhing mass of sliding limbs, someone’s boot connected right in my temple.

Finally we came to a room with solid floor, but we kept sliding and skittered across the floor, still slick, slamming into a wall as a mass of bodies. It all happened so fast with so much speed gained down the incline that there was no way to avoid running into each other.

At least in here we didn’t have to turn on the lights to see where we were. The cavern we found ourselves in was like an indoor arena, a smaller version of the Danger Room that was a little bigger than a basketball court. A balcony circled the entire arena twenty feet in the air with sheer walls that were impossible to climb. About half a dozen other openings could be seen circling the arena, much like the one we exited. There was no mistaking this for a pit, and not one that anything good happened in. The stench of death and rotten meat was overpowering. Stains of blood and other various bodily fluids, both dried and fresh, littered the floors and walls with such abundance that I couldn’t tell what the original color of the room may have been. Most ominous of all were the multiple cages dangling from chains far above the arena. The cages were durable metal with two inch thick bars that were large enough to hold a very large man. These weren’t lion cages. These were upright cages for humanoids, very large, strong, and vicious ones. At the end of the arena were large doors with barred gates to them that were wide open. Whatever the cages were meant for, we were in their den.

“What is this place?” I whispered when I finally caught my breath.

“Holding cells,” Gerald responded with a similar hushed tone. “Cells for large vicious creatures.”

“Test subjects,” Edic added. “The cages are used to pull them out to be experimented on.”

I looked up and, sure enough, the chains were on tracks. The cages could be raised and lowered into the arena, then swung over to the balcony. A similar cage with wheels could be seen that would transport the ‘animals’ to whatever they would be used for. This could be anything from mad scientist experimentation to using parts of them for spell components. Considering Placidious’s penchant for gathering components, the latter seemed the most likely. Dangerous magical creatures are farmed for their body parts just like the plants in Placid. A few dozen potential candidates popped into my head from reading in the library or encountered personally in the Danger Room. None of them were pleasant. Since the room around us looked like the staging ground for a Hellraiser movie, it’s a sure bet that they weren’t harvesting unicorn farts.

At the side of the balcony, at about the middle of the arena, I could see a large double doorway. Next to it was a series of levers.

“Those,” I pointed out to the levers. “I bet they control the cages.”

“If one of us could get up there, the cages could be lowered to lift us out,” Vincent agreed.

“I’ve got it,” Edic said. He took out a potion from his pouch and drank it. He cautiously walked over to the wall and took a flying leap straight up, landing on the edge at the top with ease. I couldn’t help but hum the sound effects to the six million dollar man as he jumped.

“Trolls,” Boregard whispered. Everyone’s eyes went wide with fear.

I only ever faced a troll in the Danger Room during that first encounter with Drognaus. Granted I was completely inexperienced then, but didn’t relish doing again. That was with a full arsenal of weapons at my disposal, and even then I didn’t fully stop it before Drognaus ended the scenario.

“Are you certain?” Gerald asked, with an edge to his voice.

“It’s hard to tell with all the mess in here,” he sniffed. He looked green like he was going to lose his lunch. “But it is either trolls, or something that feeds on trolls.”

As horrible as the trolls were, I couldn’t possibly imagine having to face something that preys on them. From the looks on everyone else’s faces, neither did they. With the mess that went into feeding whatever lurked back in the locker room end of the Rancor pit, it was indeed either something very large, or a whole family of trolls.

“I hate to say it,” I mumbled, “but let’s hope for the former.”

“Let’s avoid them completely,” Gerald objected. I couldn’t help but notice that he referred to ‘them’ in the plural form, which made me grateful that I already emptied the contents of my stomach not long before. “They are not roused yet. Let’s keep it that way.”

Edic reached the series of levers, pondered them for a moment, then pulled one down. One of the cages swung out away from the platform and then hung in the air. He pulled the lever next to it and one of the other cages suspended above the pit suddenly plummeted to the ground. We all gasped in terror as it fell, knowing that the noise would undoubtedly awaken the trolls, or worse, from their slumber. Edic quickly caught himself and righted the lever back up with a jerk. The cage dangled mere inches from the floor. The only sound emanating being the jangle of the chains, like satan’s wind chimes.

We all let out a sigh of relief. Edic shuddered at the close call too. He clutched at his chest, breathing deeply as he leaned back against the wall. That was a mistake. He accidentally leaned on one of the other levers. One of the other cages came crashing down to the ground. The crunch of metal rang so loudly that it was more like an entire structure of scaffolding falling apart. The impact shook the ground so hard that we could feel it.

Unfortunately the ringing it left in our ears didn’t drown out the feral growls and screams that came from the dens at the end of the arena. Dinner was served, and we were the main course.

The trolls came barreling out of their hidey holes like the dogs in the Gravy Train commercials, only more rabid. The trap door deposited us in the pit just in time for breakfast, and they were anxious to eat. With the other tubes that led to the pit there were apparently other chutes used to dump food down. If there was any garbage, other prisoners, or ex girlfriends you wanted to get rid of, this would be the perfect place for it. Trolls ate everything, including the bone, until there was nothing left. The fact that their bodies could metabolize anything was part of how they could regenerate so quickly.

As soon as the first troll cleared the entryway, Gerald launched a ball of fire from his wand, doubling over in pain as he did so. By the time the fireball reached them, the other six trolls already exited, becoming completely engulfed in flames.

“Climb,” Vincent yelled as he helped Gerald to his feet. Boregard was already to the chain of the cage that dangled a few feet off the ground. I turned back to help with Gerald, but was mesmerized by the flames. Not just the flames, but the trolls who continued their onslaught unscathed. It was like they passed through a wall of water. Edic was right. These things were being experimented on all right. They were immune to fire. That made them completely fearless, and probably impossible to kill.

“Fucking mad scientists,” I screamed as I raised the rifle. I took my time with each shot, every one needed to count. I plugged a couple rounds into the nearest one, then moved to the next. It was like the werewolves all over again, but with a lot more pressure, and the overwhelming fear that I was about to die. I had no way to reload quickly enough and I no magical backup, so I couldn’t screw up. The trolls were coming so fast that by the time I took another clip from my bag they would be gnawing on me.

As soon as the rifle raised I could hear Vincent drop Gerald, and Boregard jump down from the cage. I got a brief glimpse of Vincent drinking a potion. He quickly sprinted to the cage that crashed to the ground. He grabbed the chain and yanked it from the ceiling, pulling it down from the hoists that held it in one motion. He picked up the chain and started swinging it around with the cage on the end like it was nothing more than a tennis ball on a string. I had to back away quickly to get clear of it. I maintained enough distance to be ready to take a few shots, but I didn’t need to fire a single one. Vincent took care of it all on his own. He swung the cage, that had to weigh at least five hundred pounds, not to mention the chain, like it weighed nothing at all.

The first troll he hit went flying and smacked into the wall with a sickening thud. With his next swing he aimed for one of the trolls towards the back, knocking it to the ground, but at the same time the chain snagged all the rest in front, knocking them down. After a few more swings the cage started to fall apart, but half the trolls were down and out. That didn’t stop him from laying a beat down on them with the gnarled hunk of metal. When he got down to only a couple left I finished them off with a few well placed bullets. The strength potion he took was wearing off and he could barely lift the chain. I knew it wasn’t permanent, but that’s all we would hopefully need to climb up and make our escape. By then Gerald was back on his feet and most of the way up the chain with Boregard close behind. I slung the rifle over my shoulder by the strap and climbed up.

Well, I attempted to climb up. Climbing a chain isn’t all that easy. Granted I was in better shape than I had ever been in my life, but links were hard to hold on to and my fingers kept slipping. The greasy substance from the fun slide into the feeding trough was still on me, making the climb more difficult. The thought of the trolls getting back up, and the fact that they may not have any trouble climbing up, was like finding new limits to speed when being chased by a barking dog. It was a struggle, but every bit of focus went into getting up.

Before I knew it, Boregard was helping me over the ledge. I expected Vincent to be right on my tail, but he struggled even more than me to get up. Apparently the after effects of the strength potion left him feeling drained. Finally, he made it to the top. The trolls down in the pit were slowly starting to get back up.

Edic examined the levers to determine which one opened the massive doors. So far he was having no luck.

Gerald screamed, “It’s a security feature. As long as any of the cages are down the doors will remain sealed to insure the trolls can’t climb up.”

“Do you think you can figure out the doors once the cage is gone?” Vincent asked, clearly winded.

“Yes, but the mechanism for that cage broke when I brought it to a sudden stop. The chains are Adamant and will be nearly impossible to break.”

“If we break the chain, will that be enough?” I asked frantically. “I don’t want to become tomorrows troll poop.”

Edic scrunched his brow a bit. “It should. The levers are mechanical, but there are obviously enchantments involved as well. Whoever designed it didn’t want the trolls escaping. Yet they would need some safeguard in case of a malfunction.”

Gerald nodded, “the reinforced metal is to keep the trolls from breaking free. They are strong enough to break normal chains. Since these trolls are now fire resistant it’s likely something may have been done to enhance their strength as well.”

“I have an idea,” I called out. “I can probably break the chain, but I will need time. Can you keep the trolls off it until then?”

All of them looked at me, uncertain. None of them knew if they could, but they were definitely willing to give it a try.

“Once the chain is broken we will have all the time we need to figure out how to open the doors,” Edic said before turning back to the pit. “I don’t have much I can use.”

“Then stick with me,” I said. “I’ve got some things for you to do.”

Vincent, Gerald, and Boregard all prepared for the potential onslaught. Keeping them from climbing up the chain would be easy. All they had to do was take out the topmost one and he would fall on the others, knocking them off. Keeping them off of it completely so that I could cut it would be a challenge. Since the cage wasn’t touching the ground, the slightest bump would send it swinging out of my grasp.

Already three of the trolls were on the chain climbing with amazing speed, even though only minutes before they were injured enough to be down for the count. Gerald held out his hand to grab the chain, waiting until they almost reached the top. Vincent grabbed hold of Gerald’s coat as he leaned forward. The ring on his hand brilliantly lit up blue with sparks shooting out. He got shocked from the collar, but didn’t let his grasp go. Vincent held him up so that he wouldn’t fall. The shock that the trolls touching the chain got was significantly more intense than Gerald’s. They jittered and twitched, unable to let go, continuing to get zapped by a high voltage current. Eventually they fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, not moving. Of course we all knew that this was only temporary.

While they were out for a while, a few more were getting back up, and making their way towards our direction. Nothing was stopping them. These were monsters like nothing I had ever seen before. Once they zeroed in on prey they did not let up for anything until they killed it. These trolls took mindless vicious killing machines to a whole new level. Not to mention that they were unstoppable. If it was possible for Gerald to zap them every time they climbed, I had a strong feeling they still would have kept trying when they regained consciousness even after a hundred attempts. At the rate they were healing, by the time we took down the last one in line, the first one would be back on its feet again ready for a fight. Vincent pulled Gerald away from the ledge and set him on the ground, unconscious. Then he turned back to the pit took turns with Boregard using ranged weapons against the trolls.

I pulled a pair of teargas canisters from my bag and handed them to Edic. “Pull the pins and drop them down,” I said as I reached in my bag for something else. We were holding our own against the trolls, but couldn’t keep it up forever. Edic didn’t hesitate. He pulled the pins and dropped the canisters. I didn’t know how effective the teargas would be, but it was better than nothing. If there is any valuable lesson Drognaus taught me, it was that there is more than one way to take down an opponent. Brute force isn’t always the right answer.

I could already smell the noxious gas from down below as I readied the hand held Bernzomatic torch from my bag of treats, sparked it, slipped the welding goggles on, and readied the flame. I took off my freezing ring and handed it to Edic, telling him of the proper command phrase, and what exactly I needed him to do. Again, he nodded readily without protest, which was good. With everything he had been through he wasn’t about to die either.

I could hear the twang of Vincent’s bow, but it was infrequent. Boregard threw something down in the pit as well, but through the haze of the teargas I couldn’t tell what. Maybe the teargas combined with their efforts kept the trolls at bay. So far there wasn’t any sign of movement on the chain since Gerald used it as a lightning rod.

I held on to the chain with one hand and pointed the torch at it right where two of the links intersected. It took a while, but the metal finally started to glow. I didn’t know how long it would take, or if a troll would start climbing, throwing me off balance. All I could do was focus on the metal until I felt that it was as hot as it could possibly get. As soon as it looked ready, I told Edic to let it rip. I dropped the torch and jumped back behind him. He reached out to the chain and activated the ring. The metal went from superheated to frozen in an instant. The drastic changes in extreme temperatures made the metal buckle and crack. It was so loud that I could hear the metal cracking over the sound of the trolls feral screams as Vincent threw something into the pit.

I didn’t know if this was going to be enough to break the chain, and wasn’t about to take any chances. As soon as Edic activated the ring I stood behind him and dismissed the rifle, then brought out the shotgun. I did it automatically without putting any thought into it. The whole time I was heating up the chain with the torch I didn’t even think about getting the shotgun. I figured that if I put any sort of forethought into the action I wouldn’t be able to do it without getting zapped into a stammering infant.

Boregard grabbed Edic and pulled him away from the ledge as he spasmed from the shock of the collar. By then I already had the shotgun at the ready. I put the barrel right up against the now frozen chunk of chain and squeezed the trigger. It was very anticlimactic without the glorifying boom of a shotgun blast, but the effects worked just as well. The drastic temperature change weakened the metal enough that the blast shattered part of the links clean off. The cage still dangled by a thread on what remained of the chain. I saw the chain lurch as one of the trolls leaped on to the cage and began climbing. I steadied my aim to take another shot, but the weight of the troll and the jostling of the chain as it tried to climb took care of it for me. The remainder of the chain broke, and it all went plummeting down.

Relieved we all regained our composure while Edic got back to his senses. The trolls were still clawing and leaping up the walls of the pit in an attempt to get at us. Their efforts were in vain as they coughed and wheezed from the remainder of the teargas. Their eyes were watering so badly from the gas that they couldn’t even see what they were attacking. We all chuckled a little, watching them struggle. I’m pretty sure Boregard peed on them from above, later while I examined the levers. I couldn’t say I blamed him. The idea seemed pretty tempting to me, but I’m clumsy enough that I would probably fall in the pit, and didn’t want to tempt fate any more than I already had.

Now that there was no way for the trolls to get to us, we took our time in examining how to open the double doors. Partly because we wanted to be absolutely certain that none of the other cages dropped down, but also because we were exhausted. The events of the last day had literally been from the last day. Just over a day ago I was fighting off a horde of werewolves. Since then I had run through the forest, been drugged, been imprisoned, navigated a series of catacombs, and thwarted a horde of trolls. I was ready to just go to bed, I didn’t want to play any more. From the looks of the others, they were about ready to call it a day too.

After a few tries with the right combination, Edic got the doors to open. It’s hard to believe, but what lay behind them was even more horrifying than the trolls in the pit. Edic had called it spot on, Placidious was experimenting on the trolls. Inside was a lab that would make Doctor Frankenstein qualify for the nobel piece prize. Severed limbs of various trolls were hooked up to a multitude of contraptions for analysis. Some were still made to work even though they were detached. In one of the following rooms were giant tanks of fluid that other creatures dipped in like a giant jar of pickles. It looked like parts of the trolls had been grafted to their bodies.

Obviously these were the failed experiments, but what was he trying to accomplish? To give other people the ability to regenerate quickly? It would definitely explain why the wolves in the forest were so difficult to kill. Was that how he gave the trolls the immunity to fire? What possible cause would that serve? Sure you had a powerful pair of weapons, but with no hope of controlling them. Was he really that arrogant and delusional to think that that he could overcome their carnal nature? From what we encountered so far about him, that seemed very likely.

Room after room contained laboratory equipment with cabinets full of samples and experiments. We didn’t find any staff throughout our search. Placidious apparently liked to work on his experiments alone, or else everyone was busy elsewhere.

Most disturbing of all was the silence as we moved through the expansive lab. Nobody in our group said a word. I can’t speak for everyone else, but the lab was disturbing enough that no words came to mind. Out of everything we went through in the last couple days, I wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. My fear of death wasn’t nearly as strong as the possibility of being one of his next test subjects.

Finally we came to what might be an exit, and it couldn’t have come a moment too soon. We pushed open the door and barged in like we owned the place, the possibility of stealth long gone. All we really wanted was to get the hell out of there. I nearly forgot all about the Grimoire at that point.

Inside was another giant cavernous room more like the enormity of the Danger Room than any place I encountered so far. It was so huge that I couldn’t make out the details of anything on the other end. To our left stood a pile of treasure that would make Blackbeard keel over in envy. It was easily a full story high of coins, jewels, gems, and various gold and silver trinkets. On the top nestled a glowing red ball the size of a crystal ball resting on a pedestal. Along the opposite wall were racks and racks of swords, shields, bows, and arrows that were newly minted. They were displayed on the racks like a retail store having a grand opening. There were hundreds of each of them, all down a line.

Beyond that was obviously the manufacturing facility that created the weapons. Multiple forges burned brightly, adorned with blacksmith tools. Bins the size of rail cars sat nearby with raw metal ready to smelt, piles of raw trees awaited carving, and a multitude of employees hard at work making more. While the experimental lab contained a creepy lack of people, this room was the polar opposite with an overabundance toiling over the weapon factory.

As awe inspiring as the arsenal was, it paled in comparison to what lay in the middle of it all. There stood Placidious. At long last we finally set our sights on him. There was no mistaking him. A well dressed man in a suit of regal armor engaged in a heated argument with him. Placidious stopped and turned to us. His yellow eyes stared us down directly with an evil I never knew existed, a malicious toothy grin on his face. I had seen something like him before, but it had been only a statue. This was alive and infinitely more terrifying. Placidious towered over the man by at least twenty feet, his giant red scaly body shimmering in the light of the forges like a fire of his own.

Then the great red dragon Placidious turned and advanced towards us.