Gim Gim had been angry, an emotion which he rarely felt any more. His possessions in the Krarsht temple had been looted by a party of adventurers, and, if they had chosen, they could have identified his dealings to his enemies. Luckily, since they were Sartarites, they had not notified the Lunar administration, and since they were cautious, they had not told anyone else what they had found or where they had found it.
And since their leader was ambitious and a touch greedy, Gim Gim had arranged for the party to get a commission to carry out an expedition against the Yelornan Temple being set up in the Rubble. All had developed better than he could have hoped -- they had trashed the temple, killed its leader Morganeth, and disappeared out of Pavis to avoid the danger of the pursuing unicorn women. Those women would never give up, so that group, or, rather, its survivors, would have to spend the rest of their lives fleeing.
Meanwhile, given the danger of discovery, Gim Gim had had to issue orders to close down a few Krarsht enterprises being set up down the Zola Fel valley. That interrupted plans to get the hazia networks in more efficient operation. Those networks put some powerful figures back in the Empire under obligation to him, and the delays resulting from the temple closures would cut back his influence at a crucial moment.
But it was an ill Wind that blew no one good (although it was no doubt heretical for a follower of the Goddess to think such thoughts). Upon tracing the path that led the adventurers into the temple, he had come upon the story of the Yelmalio priest Taleo Lumine and the illuminated beggar Oakley Gauntest. While the priest was no doubt back in Sun County staring at the Sun with his useless blind eyes, Gauntest was now residing in the Chalana Arroy temple, thanks to a large subvention from these same adventurers.
Gauntest was mad, of course, but also illuminated, and the words he had to say when Gim Gim had risked visiting the temple and questioning him directly were
"Where lies the flesh of the Devil,
the foulest part of all,
That sees through the flesh of every evil,
and watches through the parting pall?"
Although the poetry was bad enough to be Orlanthi, Gim Gim had put these words together with those of the Thanatari head, and began to realize what was going on.
He thought he knew what the ogres were up to -- but there was only one way to find out for sure, and that was to visit them in their own place and time. His agents, naturally, included an ogre, and he reported that the annual event on Ogre Island was taking place tonight. So, when dark came, Gim Gim was going to be on Ogre Island itself, trying to get there before the Cacodemon came.
Gim Gim traveled the streets alone, to the small rented house where people
thought he kept his mistress. In fact, the woman there was of no interest to
him, for he had given up sex together with humor and fear and so many other
things long years ago. The woman and her mute guard both knew how to maintain
the appearance that Gim Gim spent the night there,
and he kept full changes of
clothes and other personal items there.
After the guard admitted him, he ascended the stairs to her room, nodded to her to show that he was supposed to be there, and then retraced his steps and went down to the cellar. He pushed the panel on the stone wall in the proper fashion, murmured the code words, a brief Nysalor Riddle, and passed through the door, shutting it behind him.
The trip down the tunnel to the passing stream did not take too long. When he got there, he saw that Fineman was awaiting him with his promised followers.
With an escort like this, even the Cacodemon cultists would hesitate before
attacking. It was an impressive lot of broos that Fineman was leading -- one was
a sort of scorpion-like creature with four legs and copper plates on its skin,
another had giant horns of brass, the third had the largest sex organ that Gim
Gim had ever seen, even on that notoriously lecherous race. Fineman nodded at
this one, murmuring in Pelorian "acid urine spray". The other two were large,
but less superficially impressive. In the same tongue, Fineman said
"regenerator" of one, and "a huge soul" of the other. He concluded these
introductions, if they could be called that, by murmuring "this is the Mutation
Gang."
It was at moments like this that Gim Gim was glad he knew Fineman. With this bunch as escorts, anything short of Storm Bull Khans or berserk Zorak Zorani great trolls would be unlikely to come anywhere near him.
This time, they walked straight up the path towards the Devil's Playground. >From there it was a matter of only a few minutes to reach the shore of the River. Signalling for the Gang to stay behind, Gim Gim approached the shore to see if the promised two boats were there. He emerged, nodded to the Black Fang members in the boats, and waited while all of them piled into the smaller boat and paddled away. After they had left, Gim Gim whistled softly, and the crew of broos piled into the large boat left. Gim Gim stood in the prow, with Fineman betwen him and the others. Rather to his surprise, two of them proved capable of rowing, and the passage to Ogre Island went quickly and smoothly.
Dragging the boat up onto the shore took but a moment longer. Gim Gim paused to communicate briefly with his other allies, and then to give them a minute to go where they needed to go.
The great monsters behind him shuffled, but Fineman's ability to control them seemed unimpaired. After all, if he could keep Chaos monsters from devouring those he wanted to illuminate, there probably wasn't much that Fineman couldn't do.
There was enough light, apparently, to travel without torches, but there were torches ahead in any event. As they began walking towards the light source, dark figures emerged from the forest.
Only three of them were visible -- two appeared normal, slightly husky men, the third was larger and uglier. Half-a-dozen more lurked in the Darkness behind them. The expressions of the first two "men" he could see seemed friendly, even jovial. Judging by the appearance of the third, he was just as glad that he could not see the faces of the half-dozen others outside the circle of torchlight. These "people" would eat him as soon as look at him, but the presence of Fineman's gang obviously restrained them.
"Our ceremonies are closed, stranger" said the leader sternly.
"I have no interest in your ceremonies" replied Gim Gim with equal vigor. "I
have already attended such ceremonies elsewhere, and have seen the fiend and the
severed Hand of your God."
The ogre stepped back in astonishment. "You are saying dangerous things, and treading on dangerous ground, friend. And we would trust you more could we but see your face."
"You see as much of my real face as I see now of yours; I know this well! And I
can trade food -- of the kind you like -- for information," said Gim Gim "but I
must speak with your leader."
"Leaders, more like," scowled the second of the human-appearing ogres. "But
only one is free; the other is calling upon the God tonight in just a few hours.
You picked an odd time to come."
"It was the only time when I could be sure of meeting you." replied the Black
Mask. "But I know enough of your habits that I brought a few friends along." He
gestured to the half-a-dozen broo behind him.
"Fitting, if strange company for a food-man" snarled one of the creatures in the
back. "And that lot could not save you against all of us, and our God."
"That's a matter for argument," said Gim Gim. "Observe this." He nodded to
Fineman, who in turn gestured to the broo with the giant sex organ, saying
"Thobute." The broo responded by a stream of urine accurately placed across
the toes of the ogre who had spoken. Although the ogre immediately jumped back,
he let out a scream of pain as the powerful acid burned his toes.
"And this" said Gim Gim almost cheerfully, as his mental commands went out.
Suddenly a hole opened in the ground behind the ogre, and a wad of spit from the
Krarshtkid there hit him. The pratzim tangled it up, and the ogre fell to the
ground, still screaming from the pain in his toes.
This was the key moment. Gim Gim raised his hands palm outwards and said
"Hold!" The ogres paused for a key moment. "We can deal, or we can fight. You
may make your own choice as to which course is better for you."
The first ogre responded with the same motion, while snarling to the whimpering and entangled ogre on the ground,"Shut up, Vestrol, there may be trolls about!"
"I will take care of him as soon as you take me to your leader, or bring him to
me." said Gim Gim.
"I can't take THAT to see the Talon," snarled the lead ogre, pointing to the
broo that Fineman had called Thobute, "or THOSE," more generally indicating the
party behind Gim Gim. "Well," replied Gim Gim, "I know enough of your habits,
especially on this night, that I'm not going to see the Talon by myself."
"How about THOSE?" said the ogre, pointing to the six-legged beast gazing out of
the hole in the ground, "Aren't they enough security for you?"
"they do sort of even the odds, don't they," Gim Gim replied. "I'll tell you
how it goes."
"My 'people,' including our little friends 'below,' will stay here -- your
'people' back off a hundred paces or so. When your Talon is here, he and I will
meet at the fifty pace mark."
"C'mon, food-man, we know that -- whatever you say -- some of those creatures
behind you might be able to jump -- or piss -- fifty paces, and who knows where
the six-legged eaters are?"
"Well, my friends, that is just a chance your Talon will have to take. We are
not trolls -- we are not here to fight you, and if the trolls come out tonight,
you will be weaker if you fight us."
The ogre considered his statement -- then gestured to his companions, who moved away, except for the entangled one. Gim Gim moved over to him, pulled out a vial, and emptied it over the goo, which rapidly dissolved. He touched the creature's toes, and cast a minor healing spell -- it would not remove the scar, but would reduce the pain. The ogre got up and limped away, cursing under its breath.
Within a few minutes, a large ogre, undisguised, appeared in front of the others. He was wearing heavy armor with no apperance of effort. His face looked about as savage as that of his God.
Gim Gim walked out to the two-way meeting.
Undisguised both in appearance and manner, the Talon snarled, "What do you want, food-man?"
"I want to know what you know about the flesh of the Devil."
"Wakboth lies beneath the Block, you fool!"
"Not all of Him does, I know, some of Him is beneath this Rubble."
"Well, if you know, why are you asking me?"
"I can use confirmation that what I think is there is there."
"And WHY should I tell YOU?"
"Well, I can be of use, and I can provide food -- of the kind you like."
"We eat in secret."
"There are no secrets here that I do not know. Else why am I here on THIS night
of all Nights?"
"To provide enjoyment for the Fiend, perhaps?"
"No, because I knew YOU would be here. And if I were to turn what I know
against your kind, I could crush you all AND your project."
"Not MY project. Only some of us are fools enough to believe that we can get
there."
Gim Gim raised an eyebrow. "To the Eye of the Father?"
The ogre eyed Gim Gim with a bit of respect. "You DO know!" Gim Gim nodded.
"The fools are trying to get to the Eye of Wakboth. Their divinations told them
that, far below, near a pool surrounded by ghostly trees thriving on Darkness,
lies the Eye of Wakboth himself. As you said, not all of Him is under the
Block."
"It is not yet time for Wakboth to come forth, is it?"
"That's what I told them, the fools, not to mention that the Eye is many
kilometers deep."
Gim Gim was glad that he was the only one hearing this story. He wouldn't be telling this even to Fineman. Once such a story got around, it might well be too hard to "control" the Chaos beneath the Big Rubble. Not to mention that, sooner or later, the Storm Bulls and Orlanthi would hear it, and thousands of Chaos-fighting cultists would swarm into the Rubble.
Gim Gim could handle -- barely -- what was going on so far, but he did not feel that he was ready for the start of the Hero Wars, just yet. Not that he was likely to have too much choice in the matter, of course.
He had been working on making himself strong enough to be a Hero, but maybe in the end, he would be, after all, just another victim. Well, tomorrow could take care of tomorrow. The mighty Talon facing him said "The ceremony is about to start -- if what I hear of your earlier remarks is true, you may come."
"No, thank you," said Gim Gim, "once is definitely enough for THAT ceremony."
"Remember your promise to us, then," replied the Talon.
Gim Gim nodded to what appeared to be the Talon's back. He travelled back to his own party as quickly as he could, but by the time they got back into their boat, he knew that the fiend had arrived. He could SENSE the sickening presence just a few hundred meters away, and hear the triumphant shouts of the religiously frenzied ogres, as well as the horrid screams of those prospective initiates who had proved unacceptable to Cacodemon, for whatever reason.
More important, the presence of so much Chaos so near to them was agitating the Mutation Gang. Even Fineman was having trouble controlling them. Gim Gim was wondering if they could make it across the River before one of the broos attacked him. At the best, it appeared that he was going to have to make his own way back across the Rubble.
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #214
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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