Chapter 70: Champion, Chapter 4: Emerald Woodlands

Aidan

The Realms

Firstday, 1st week of the 9th month, Age of the Chosen 1

Early Morning

Caer Macht, Mistvale Highlands

The party reconvened in the Labyrinth Hall the next morning. Each wore their complete kit; even Ailis had a suit of leather armor and light barding. "Okay, we're only going to do some scouting today; I have no intention of trying to clear the stratum today, tomorrow, or next week. I want to get an idea of what we'll be facing, learn the Labyrinth's basic rules, and start work on a map, nothing more. If we face stiff opposition, we'll retreat and regroup. When any of us starts feeling even a little tired or takes an injury that takes more than a few seconds to heal, we'll retreat and regroup. This isn't like taking out the Taig; we have time to do it right. Clear?" Aidan laid out his objectives.

Everyone nodded except Riama, who sent <assent>. "Cai, Llwyd, you two are our front line; Brighid and I will be the hammers to your anvil. Riama will harass from the shadows, and Ailis..." he trailed off. "Well, I've seen what you can do with a circle of mages backing you up, but why don't you tell us what role you see for yourself here?"

The silver-haired centaur nodded. "Of course, Lord Aidan. My two magical schools are Beast Magic and Wood Magic; I am more skilled with the former. I can provide healing for external Wounds and some internal ones, although my spells leave scars, unlike yours. I can use an advanced form of the Shift spell I taught you to enhance physical Attributes. Both Beast and Wood Magic give me some ability to immobilize or hinder enemies. Finally, I have access to a few summons, although they are generally either weak or expensive. For this group, the Crimson-thorned Lasher would be my choice. It is a Wood Magic summon that can envelop enemies in vines covered in blood-draining thorns."

Brighid and Llwyd shuddered; Aidan blanched and said, "We'll do without it for now."

Ailis tilted her head and looked at him in confusion for a moment, then her eyes widened and a pale hand flew up to cover her mouth. "Oh! I was not thinking! Please forgive me. Yes, you are right, my Lord."

Aidan waved her apology away. "I understand. You were thinking of the strategic situation, trying to make yourself fit best to what the group needs. It's fine."

"No, my Lord, it is not." Ailis shook her head, then reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "This is what I always do, failing to think of the people involved in my plans. I can do better; I will do better." Then she poked him in the chest. "And you, Lord Aidan, are being a hypocrite. If I had proposed something like that before swearing my Oath to you, you would have been angry with me. You have gotten upset for less, so do not deny it."

Aidan caught her hand as she tried to poke him again. "You're right, kind of. I would indeed have gotten angry at you before, but that doesn't make me a hypocrite. The circumstances changed; before, I had to wonder how much of it was thoughtlessness and how much was some ruthless plan leaking through. Now, you are, if not incapable of acting against me, then at least strongly discouraged by the world itself from doing so. I'm about as sure as I can be that you mean well, even if you screw up from time to time. To put it succinctly, I have a reason to trust you now, and that makes a difference." Ailis stared at him, a rosy glow suffusing her cheeks. She did not withdraw her hand from his.

Riama rubbed against Aidan's shins and sent him <exasperation> "If you want to add her to your mates, you should just take her. She will not resist. There is no need to court her like this."

Aidan coughed and blushed bright red, dropping Ailis's hand. "Alright, let's get moving; time's a-wasting. Everyone, finish whatever preparations you need to make." To Riama, he sent, <flustered embarassment> "It's not like that! Besides, she wouldn't resist because of the Oath; she's not interested in me that way. Using her Oath against her like that would be wrong. And Brighid's the only mate I want, anyway."

<weary acceptance, a hint of wry amusement> "Whatever you say, Master."

Aidan busied himself with his spells, casting Kindle the Hearth-Flame on himself, and Brighid—the magic didn't accept Ailis as a valid target, or he would have included her as well—preparing a Burning Barrage, and summoning his Obsidian Salamander and Golden Fawn. The Fawn was Bambi-sized deer with fur that was a vibrant, light brown at the base and a coppery gold at the tips. Its legs were too long for its body, but the overall effect was to make it cuter. It looked around, curiosity in its bright eyes. When it spotted Riama, its ears perked up and it gamboled over to her. The astral jaguar lowered herself and made a sound of displeasure deep in her belly, but that didn't dissuade the little summon from rubbing up against her and licking her fur. "Aww, look, you made a friend!" Aidan teased his familiar. "I'll trust you to look after the fawn, then."

<resigned to fate> "My revenge will be slow and painful. You will rue this day," she promised in return.

Once everyone was prepared, Aidan gave his two Passion Elemental escorts their orders; he had one precede them into the portal, and one follow them. The first elemental stepped through the portal and vanished. Cai and Llwyd stepped through next, followed by Aidan and Riama, Ailis, Brighid, and, finally, the second elemental.

Aidan emerged to a scene similar to, but not quite the same as, the image beneath the arch. The party—sans Passion Elementals—stood inside a wooden room about ten feet wide by twenty long. No, not a room, Aidan realized. There aren't any planks, and the wood is unfinished. We're inside a tree. Indeed, one of the 'walls' was open to the air and led to one of the flat-topped branches they saw before. The limb extended off into the distance, splitting around a towering tree trunk that he could barely make out in the gloom. Behind them was a shimmering gateway showing a view of a pillared hallway.

After confirming that the entire party received the quest, Aidan said, "Well, at least it looks like the Labyrinth isn't going to make it hard for us to return yet. I confess that I was a little worried about that. Alright, let's get this party started. Cai, Llwyd, lead the way, please. Brighid, you bring up the rear until we get into a fight, just in case something attacks us from behind."

The two tanks' first steps out onto the branch were tentative, but when it failed to so much as shift under their weight, they proceeded with more confidence. Aidan followed, craning his neck to take in the environment around him. The canopy was far above them and as thick as he'd ever seen; other than the occasional ray of sunlight spilling down to the lower levels, there wasn't much light to see with. When he looked over the edge of the branch, there was no evidence of any ground. Aidan could make out towering shapes, black against the darkness, that he assumed were other trees. Any details, however, were lost to the gloom.

"Light, please, Brighid? I know it'll make us easier to spot for whatever's out there, but we're a human and a bunch of centaurs in a tree; we stick out anyway." Aidan asked.

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"Speak for yourself," retorted Riama. Aidan ignored her.

Pulsing, flickering light spread out from the Paladin. "Thanks, love. Given the quest, it looks like we're going to be spending a lot of time on this floor. Let's go straight and see what we find."

They advanced with caution, keeping to the left as the branch split. It curved close to the bark of a tree large enough to fit four of the one containing the portal; Aidan could make out insects the size of housecats climbing up and down the trunk. None of them looked threatening, and they all seemed to ignore the group, but their presence made him uneasy. Ahead of them, a sunbeam illuminated a thick batch of leaves spreading out from the branch. Each was about as big as he was, and the lot of them covered an area at least six hundred square feet in volume.

"Look, Lord Aidan; there's an entrance to the tree here, and I think I can see branching passages inside." Llwyd drew his attention. Indeed, the branch they were on connected to the new tree just like it had to the previous one.

It really is like a dungeon in here when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, Aidan mused. It looks like a forest, but only on the surface. Trees might share roots, but not branches. "Well, I don't fancy stepping out onto those leaves, and I don't see anything past them anyway, so let's step inside."

Where the portal-tree had smooth, featureless walls and floors, this one did not. The surfaces were rough, full of ridges and pits, and moss draped from the ceiling. The passage was wide enough for two centaurs to fight side-by-side, but smaller holes were bored through every available surface. The air inside was warm and moist, with the earthy scent of decaying vegetable matter. Aidan wrinkled his nose, but it wasn't as bad as the Fetid Lair had been.

The tunnel through the tree went more or less straight for around fifty feet before emerging as another branch. There were two side passages, one around ten feet ahead of them leading to the left, and another thirty feet down the line that split to the right. By unspoken consensus, the party took them as they came, turning to the left when the opportunity presented itself. The path continued for another ten feet before making a sharp turn back to the right, then continued for thirty feet before coming to a dead end. Floating in the air at the end was a grey orb.

"A treasure orb! I did not expect to see one so soon," exclaimed Brighid. "Go on, open it!"

"Hold on," Aidan cautioned, "is it possible that it's trapped? Where I come from, treasure in dungeons is rarely free for the taking."

"If this was a chest or a pile of coins, that might be possible," Ailis agreed, "but a treasure orb like this is not possible to trap in that way. I suppose there could be a pitfall or the like around it? Caution will not hurt, although none of us have the expertise to disarm a trap if we found one."

<reproach> "I can reach it without touching the floor," came Riama's mental voice. <eagerness to prove one's worth> "Please allow me to handle this."

Aidan blinked, then smiled at his familiar and sent her <warm approval>. "Riama can teleport through shadows, which there are plenty of here. There's no risk of her triggering any trap. Go ahead," he nodded to her.

The astral jaguar sauntered over to Aidan's shadow, stepping into it and vanishing. She appeared a split second later wrapped around the back of the sphere. It popped, sending Riama tumbling towards the floor with a slim book in her maw. She vanished again and reappeared to Ailis's left, all four paws planted on the ground. She dropped her prize at Aidan's feet and began to wash her face with a forepaw.

Outwardly, Riama gave an appearance of being nonchalant about it, but Aidan could feel the <pride and satisfaction in a job executed perfectly despite internal doubts> bubbling up from his link to her. He squatted down and ran his hands through her fur, scratching behind her ears and stroking her neck and back. Immediately, a loud, rumbling, buzzing purr filled the room, and she leaned into his touch. "Well done!" Aidan told her, sending his own <pride and love> back to her. He continued to pet her for a moment longer, then scooped up the tome.

Blueprint: Escape Token: A manual describing how to create Escape Tokens, which can instantly bring an entire party out of the Labyrinth.

Rarity: Unique/Labyrinth. Quality: Average.

Effects: Reading this blueprint will teach any crafter how to make an Escape Token. Time to read: 15 minutes. Chance to learn: 100%. Special: This blueprint modifies itself to suit the highest-level Skill of the reader from the following possibilities: Calligraphy, Carving, Gemcutting, Leatherworking, Pottery, Sculpting, Scrimshaw, Smithing, Weaving.

Aidan's eyebrows climbed towards his hairline. He never expected to be handed a get-out-of-jail-free card right at the start of the Labyrinth. I wonder what the catch is? Shaking his head and standing up, he tossed the book to Brighid. "What do you make of that?"

"Oh!" Brighid fumbled the book but managed to catch it between one forearm and her breastplate. She examined it for a moment, then her eyebrows shot up as well. "Oh! This is ... surprisingly generous of the Labyrinth." She explained it to the others, then turned back to Aidan. "Do you think we should leave now and make some before we return? We are very close to the entrance, but it is better to be safe than sorry, as you say."

"If I may?" Cai interjected, and Aidan gestured for her to continue. "We are in a defensible position now, and it will not take long for Lady Brighid to read the book. If the Tokens can be made in a reasonable timeframe with materials we have access to, we can retreat. If they require Labyrinth materials or other special accommodations, there is no sense in leaving now."

"Good idea, thank you, Cai." Catching Brighid's expression, Aidan grinned at her. "If I have to put up with being 'Lord Aidan,' you have to put up with being 'Lady Brighid.' You are my love, my lady, and the light of my life, but that doesn't get you out of the consequences of your questionable decisions—like falling in love with me."

The others laughed, and Brighid blushed scarlet for a moment before burying her nose in the manual.

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