From: ANDOVER@delphi.com
Date: Sun 29 Sep 1996 - 03:22:02 EEST
It's Not Easy Being Grim -- Chapter I -- Part IV The Pool of Gorpgod
It had taken three weeks for Gim Gim to get the right party together for this
expedition. Only four members of the Krarsht temple -- very few indeed -- knew
of his special passage into Pavis. None of the Black Fang cult members -- even
his closest aides in the gang, knew of it -- but he needed their members and
their special climbing skills to take the path past the dragonsnail chamber that
supposedly led to the "pool of Gorpgod."
Of course, there were others in Pavis who would have even better ways of doing
the same thing, but this was not exactly an expedition for anti-chaos fighters.
The Black Fang members, as dangerous as they were, would not work with or
tolerate open chaos, and that in turn meant that he could not get past the
dragonsnail, let alone anything else that might require such powers, with a
Priest of Primal Chaos. (Even assuming cooperation with such a creature might be
possible -- on the basis of his limited experience it would not have been easy.)
And the Black Fang members were generally city people. Even their murderers
were people more used to backstabbing than to fighting monsters in the Rubble.
So it took a fair amount of work and thought to put together a party of five
people, besides Gim Gim himself, including two of the few Krarsht temple members
who were presentable humans with no chaos features, and three members of the
Black Fang cult who combined fighting skills and climbing skills. At that, this
expedition would cost him an arm and a leg, Gim Gim thought, hoping the
expression was figurative and not literal.
It was also necessary to get down into the tunnels by some method that did not
reveal the presence of the various Chaotic temples, and, finally, to take some
potential food with them. He solved the second problem by getting the temple to
"donate" two of its potential trollkin sacrifices, and the first by getting the
krarshtkids to dig an angled tunnel alongside the underground stream that ran
across the main path between Trolltown and the Krarsht temple.
Then "all" that remained was to get Gim Gim, and his three Black Fang associates
safely to the entrance near Devil's Playground. They could meet the two Krarshti
and their trollkin prisoners at the bottom of the tunnel.
Gim Gim pondered whether it was better to go most of the way under the escort of
a Lunar patrol, but finally decided against it, on the grounds that the fewer
that knew of their progress, the better. As it was, the guards at the gate
would know that agents wre going out. Ironically, as they traveled out into the
Devil's Playground, heavily cloaked, all that they met was a small band of
newtlings, who immediately ran to the River, and then a Lunar patrol. Gim Gim
flashed the proper identification, sighing to himself that, for all the
difference it had made, they might as well have taken the Patrol with them.
The passage down the tunnel and the meeting with the Krarshti and their
hand-tied prisoners went well -- Gim Gim's fears of a troll raid
notwithstanding. The climbing gear they needed was in a pile next to the
trollkin -- that at least had been brought by creatures whose appearance would
have disturbed the Black Fangs, had they seen them. The whining of the trolkin,
apparently instinctive rather than controllable, was so irritating that Gim Gim
finally ordered their mouths to be gagged. As an afterthought, he ordered them
blindfolded, too. Best they not see where they were going!
Once again, Gim Gim followed the course of the map into the dragonsnail's
chamber (*Author's note -- most of the passageways here are filled with water at
the time of the adventure in River of Cradles -- but that adventure happens
later, after the tunnel to the Zola Fel River near Ogre Island is broken open,
and the main tunnel between the Krarsht temple and Trolltown is closed off by a
sinkhole: RoC, p. 133). The dragonsnail still blocked the way to the passage
above its head. This time, however, the problem was easy to solve -- the two
Krarshti picked up one of the trollkin and pitched it to the back of the
chamber. Sensing motion, and smelling food, the dragonsnail slithered there
and began to feed.
The Black Fangs, less accustomed to these practices than the Krarshti, looked a
bit disgusted, but realized that trollkin were trollkin, and would most likely
have been eaten by their relatives if not by a the dragonsnail. Besides, they
were too busy taking advantage of the dragonsnail's movement to spend much time
watching the trollkin's end.
With rapid and skillful use of acrobatics, ropes, and Glue spells, the climbers
arranged a rope pulley sufficient to bring along the less skilled members of the
party, including the other trollkin. Gim Gim himself, of course, was no mean
climber, given his long experience, but he was impressed with the skill of these
"second story men" in this quite different environment.
The tunnel was quite difficult to climb, even with all the skill of the party
members, especially given the cave slime that coated the walls. The climbing
became even more difficult as they got close to the top of the shaft.
Two of their senses began to be overwhelmed -- hearing, and smell. A horrible
smell of living rot began to be obvious, and a continuous wailing noise like
that of a nursery began to be heard. But the infants in this nursery never
paused for breath or stopped.
They entered upon a chamber, apparently empty except for a pool at the far end.
Once again, the exit from this chamber was over the pool. The smell and the
noise were even worse, and got worse the closer they came to the pool.
One of the Krarshti stepped in the pool, and tentacles suddenly emerged from the
far side. The Krarshti jumped back, as a walktapus began to emerge! "Well,"
said Gim Gim calmly, "give it what it wants." This time throwing the trollkin
went even better than the last time. The trollkin landed in the far side of the
pool with a splash, and floated for a few seconds until the tentacles of the
walktapus pulled it down.
Gim Gim cast his life detection, held his breath (sincerely hoping the water
wasn't too poisoned), and stuck his face in the pool long enough to see that
there was nothing in there except the walktapus and the rapidly dying trollkin.
He waved the party forward, and with equal precision, they formed a pyramid, and
set up the rope pulley as before. There was only one problem: several of the
party was retching, and one of the Black Fangs vomited, luckily not hitting Gim
Gim, who was just below him.
The climb up this chimney wasn't any more difficult than the one before, and
this time they weren't carrying a trollkin like a wiggling lump of baggage, but
the smell and the noise made it all seem much more difficult. At times like
this, Gim Gim was glad he had the reputation that he did -- for it was obvious
that both the Krarshti and the Black Fangs feared to show fear in his presence.
"The greatest fear of all," Gim Gim thought, "the fear of being made afraid."
As they reached the end of the climb, it was obvious that the source of the
by-now overwhelming smell of corruption and the horrible wailing was coming from
a place beneath the tunnel. Peering down, they saw a set of ledges, further
apart than a man's height, running down to a scum-filled pool.
By now, everyone in the party, even Gim Gim, was retching and vomiting every few
minutes. The smells and the noise were too much to bear. They could see what
was causing the noise -- weird distorted manlike creatures -- about two dozen of
them. The wailing creatures milled around, biting each other and occasionally
falling into the scum-covered pool below. Everytime they fell, a great
distorted hand and arm rose from the pool and pushed them back onto the ledge.
Cautiously, the party descended the slippery slopes, using spears and their
ropes to prevent a long fall into the horrible-looking pool. Then, several
gorps slithered out of the pool onto the ledge. It soon became obvious that the
gorp were looking for the party, but, upon experiment, it became equally obvious
that, if they kept a long distance from the gorp, the gorp could not detect
them and wandered back into the pool.
It was obvious where the name "the pool of Gorpgod" had come. It was less
obvious what manner of creature was in the pool. The noise made it impossible
to think, as did the smell. Gim Gim tried to reduce both by stuffing some
material in his ears and tying something over his nose. The first expedient
worked better than the second.
Gim Gim pondered whether it was worth the risk to try to establish communication
with the pool monster. Finally, he shrugged, and threw a Mindspeech spell at
the great limb the next time it rose above the water.
The mighty blast of volume and emotion in response knocked Gim Gim off his feet,
literally. Luckily, his climbers managed to keep him from sliding down the
slippery ledges into the gorp-filled pool. At first, he had no idea of what he
was hearing. But he realized soon that it was Seshnegi, a language which he had
not heard for many years, and had never particularly expected to hear again.
Listening more closely, it appeared to be a form of Seshnegi that he had never
heard before. Many of the words and the phrasing were utterly incomprehensible.
He tried to sort something from what he heard: "Love ... creation . . . birth
...chaos .. the chaos in me truly makes . .give birth to . . .the Primal Chaos.
. .joy . . .oh wonderful . . .agape. . .transcend the limits ... overwhelm the
world . . . all is Life."
Gim Gim was not sure what was down there. He guessed it was some sort of Priest
of Primal Chaos, although he had heard that there might be some other GorpGod.
The creature down there was undoubtedly quite old (it had been long centuries
since any Seshnegi speakers had been in Prax), but it had done nothing with its
Age other than to live. It was probably barely distinguishable from the gorp
that it created with such ectasy. On the other hand, it was obviously one of
the few happy Chaos creatures that Gim Gim had ever encountered: it was in a
perpetual state of theopathy.
It occurred to him that the the question of separation was the key between Law
and Chaos. Law separated things, distinguished one from another -- two sexes,
male and female; two philosophies, good and evil, and so on. Chaos blurred all
distinctions, including those between Life and Death -- for broos even
Love-making was an act of Death, for vampires Death was an act of Love-making.
Viewed that way, it was quite probable that the Orlanthi view of the Lunar
Empire as ultimately Chaotic held a strong element of Truth -- for nothing so
engaged in dissimulation and blurring distinctions could in the end be anything
else. So, it was possible that Chaos was using him and the Empire as much as
they were using Chaos.
On the other hand, was this creature's immortality so different from that of the
Gods? Wheezing Orlanth, as much as this creature, was tied into a circle of
repetition by the Great Compromise. And, although the Red Goddess claimed to
have transcended the Compromise, she had not so much conquered the problem of
Being as denied it.
Well, he thought, enough ontology, time to leave. What he had learned really
hadn't helped him much: although information of any sort had value, and maybe he
could trade this information to some Chaos worshipper who could make better use
of this than he could.
The first priority, however, was to get out. They had used up their trollkin,
so he wondered if they should take a couple of these strange wailing creatures
with them. A little experimentation soon convinced the party that the
creature's bite contained some form of weak acid. It might be a form of justice
to feed these to the walktapus and the dragonsnail, but getting them out of here
safely was more trouble than it was worth. And the entire party was weak and
distraught from what could only be called the illness of their immediate
environment.
In fact, the trip back proved easier than the trip in. The walktapus and the
dragonsnail were still munching on the last of their respective trollkins, and
no one fell this time. Since all of them had emptied their stomachs, there was
little left to vomit. Of course, they all smelled horrible, and they would
probably have to burn everything they were wearing.
Even worse than the stain on their clothes was the putative stain on their
souls. They were weary, and appalled, especially the Black Fangs, who had never
seen naked Chaos before. Gim Gim would not be surprised if one or more of them
would soon undergo a religious conversion of some sort.
He would have to figure out what to do with the Black Fangs after they got home.
It would be a shame to waste such talents as they had displayed tonight, but now
they knew too much.
For them, as for him, knowledge could be as much a disadvantage as an advantage.
He would have to decide soon, very soon, just how much a disadvantage it would
be for them.
- -- to be continued --
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