The Marraketh Connection - "Druids of the Catacombs"

by Technician Brynhild, VRDET R&D

Segment 6 of ?

	o/~ Take me down / Six underground / The ground beneath 
my feet... o/~
			- Sneaker Pimps, Six Underground

	"Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? 
Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he 
got, and trotted along... "
			- J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Hobbit_

	Despite my doubts about landing, I did... of course. As 
usual for me, it was with a bit of a *thud*, and my luggage went 
flying.
	I opened my eyes to a blurry brownish world. *Oh 
Bugger... * I groped around in the considerable darkness for my 
glasses. *I really need to get a strap for these things. I'm like 
Velma from Scooby Doo or something.* With the world returned to 
focus, and all my stuff picked up, I started looking for Red 
Paladin.
	I found him, staring at something. "How nice of you to 
join me, Bryn," he said almost without emotion. He looked back at 
me, making sure I was all right, then turned his attention back 
to his object of wonder.
	No longer disoriented, I examined my surroundings. We 
were in an earthen corridor, obviously hollowed out. The walls of 
dirt were lined with unlit torches, until the point where the 
hallway turned to the left. *Someone must live down here!* The 
object that was holding Red's attention turned out to be an 
intricately made lantern woven of vines and leaves. *What kind of 
culture could create such a beautiful thing? Perhaps this is some 
remnant of whatever was originally in that city...*
	Red turned to me. "Do you know where we are?²
	"Why do you think I'd know?"
	"OK, then what do we do now?"
	"Hmm... how bout we get back to the surface, rejoin the 
group, and rescue Katze?" At this point, I was mildly annoyed. 
Red relit the torch, and we wandered down the immaculately clean, 
oddly pleasant hallway. *I'd like to meet the people who live 
here...*
	As we went down the hall, we found the place where people 
obviously lived. There were doors to various rooms, as well as a 
stairway to more dwelling areas. "Someone obviously lives here," 
Red said, although both of us knew it by this time.
	He opened the door to one of the rooms.
	"Looking around, eh?" I yelled to him. "I doubt Katze is 
here - this doesn't look like a place of B'harne. Oh, well... it 
seems safe. I have a good feeling about this."
	He came back out of the room. "Empty. Iım gonna go 
Shadowslip and do some exploring, k?"
	"All right. Just don't ditch me again." I stuck out my 
tongue at him, and he grinned. He then pulled his red cloak over 
his head and disappeared into the shadows.
	While he was gone, I tried more doors. Nobody seemed to 
be around in any of them, which was all right; who knows what 
might have happened if I'd been caught? There were several 
bedrooms, a library, and what looked like a game and meeting room 
on this floor. Just as I finished examining the games they had 
set up, Red suddenly reappeared.
	"Find anything?" he asked.
	"Nothing much, except for these good folks' social lives. 
Anything for you?"
	"The people who live here are having dinner upstairs."
	There were sounds from upstairs... *They must have 
finished dinner, and now theyıre heading for the staircase! Here 
comes the big confrontation...* Red motioned for me to hide, and 
started to draw a weapon, but I tried to stop him. "Don't 
threaten them yet... they may be friendly, you know," I whispered 
at him, but he barely seemed to notice. He clicked his drop-sword 
out just as the first few came down the hall...
	They seemed pretty simple people, dressed in long and 
rather plain robes. They weren't carrying any weapons, but it 
seemed rather too late to tell Red that they didn't seem to be a 
threat at all. I was waiting for them to notice his sword and do 
something about it... but they never did.
	Instead, they stared only at me. I felt uneasy, being 
examined as one of the first Earth visitors to the newly explored 
dimension. Finally, one began speaking, in no language I had ever 
heard before.
	Red gestured to me. "You know what they're speaking?"
	"Nope, but it sounds a little like Russian... which I 
took about a week of in school." *Oh crud.*
	One of them, carrying himself with the demeanor of a 
leader, stepped toward us and began to say what sounded like a 
question. *Does he notice we have no idea what he's saying?*
	Red finally spoke. "I don't understand," he said, using 
frequent hand gestures to communicate. "Do any of you speak 
English?" He cocked his head sideways, as confused as we were. 
The communication problem was evidently dawning on him.
	Red continued with his hand gestures and attempts at 
communication. "How can we get out of here?" The man seemed to 
understand, at least vaguely, what he meant, and pointed up. *Up? 
You mean we're underground? That would explain a lot.* Still, we 
needed clearer instructions.
	But before I could begin... "Red, do you know what 
they're staring at me for?"
	"I think it's your crystal." It did seem to be sparkling 
brighter than usual... I picked up the chain and pointed to the 
Crystal on it. "This?"
	Some of the crowd nodded, and some moved closer. Red 
showed his weapon... or tried to. In what could have been my 
brightest move all day, to keep him from hurting himself or 
others, I'd put him in a very temporary forcefield. *Sorry, Red, 
but we need to be pleasant to these people for a while.*
	*Now that Red is settled for a while, I can start 
translation.* The magic wasn't very complicated. Some had 
theorized that all possible languages in the universe sprung from 
a common root of some sort, and it may have been true, which 
helped the spell immensely. Whatever it was, I soon began 
speaking in the peopleıs native language.
	"<Hello,>" I said. "<Please, don't be threatened. We're 
merely visitors, on a mission of peace. Don't mind my friend 
here... he is a bit brash.>"
	"<We've noticed that,>" the man replied. "<Just what sort 
of peace mission are you on? And how did you get here?>"
	"<Well, we're really on a rescue mission. I can get into 
details later... and how we got here is even odder. My friend 
here leaned against a pillar and disappeared... and I followed.>"
	"<I see. You must have found an ancient portal tablet by 
mistake. We don't use them much anymore... that is odd. One last 
question for you... where did you get that Crystal you wear?>"
	"<The Crystal? Let's just say itıs a long story. I got it 
from a friend, though.>"
	"<What did this friend look like?>"
	"<Oh, about yea tall, brown hair, gray eyes...a pretty 
nice guy... I don't suppose you'd know him.>"
	The one speaking to me turned to his fellows, surprise 
and sudden interest in his eyes. "<We... we... know someone like 
that, on the surface. He is a good friend of our people. And he 
would recognize you as the Crystal-bearer?>"
	"<Well, he should.>"
	The man sighed. "<Your friend there,>" he gestured 
towards Red, "<seemed to be telling us you need to get out, back 
Up. I am sorry to tell you so, but the ritual for travel cannot 
be performed for three days. You see, the magic is very delicate, 
and the time is not right now...>"
	"<That's all right. I'd like to talk to you about the 
Crystal more anyway. Meanwhile... who are you people, and why do 
you live here? What happened on the surface?>"
	"<It is a long and ancient story. Long ago, the culture 
there was great, perhaps the greatest in all Marraketh. Then a 
wave of proportions never seen before swept over the land. Many 
died, and Marraketh was never the same. Some of our people's 
ancestors were those who managed to escape the flood, and came 
here; the rest were the ones who had lived here for centuries, 
known as - >" The word didn't translate well, but I could roughly 
get the meaning: Druids. "<The two cultures blended together, and 
now we are very different from the rest of Marraketh. We still 
speak the language, and have sea-fear like the rest, but it do 
not bother us much. All for the best, since the Master will not 
bother with us either.>"
	"<You are against the Master?>"
	"<Of course! The Master enslaves the land; all Marraketh 
is under his evil thrall, except for us. Why do you ask?>"
	I laughed. *Allies! And Red almost scared them off.* 
"<Good to hear! We come to fight him as well. He has our friend 
held captive somewhere.>"
	"<Perhaps we can help... and there is a resistance in 
most cities in Marraketh, as well. Small, but it will help you.>"
	I remembered Red was still in the force field, and I 
released it. "<Well, since we can't leave for a while and weıre 
allies, might you be able to give us shelter for a few days?>"
	"<Of course! Those who fight the Master deserve shelter! 
Come with us... >"
	Red turned to me. "What have you been talking about, 
Bryn?"
	"<Well, they're...>"
	"In English."
	"Oh. Sorry. Anyway, these people are roughly what we'd 
call Druids. We're underground right now. We got here by using 
their old portal tablets or something like that."
	"Anyway, the city we just passed through was from an old 
part of Marraketh. A freak flash-flood or something destroyed 
most of it; some of these people are descendants of survivors. 
They're all pretty scared of the sea."
	"Luckily for us, they're friendly; they don't like 
B'harne any more than we do. They can help us get out of here in 
a few days... until that, they'll offer us shelter."
	The Druid coughed loudly and shot me a look. "Red, put 
the bloody sword away. You're not making a good impression." He 
nodded and returned the sword to its compact form.
	The Druid nodded. "<Thank you. Now, food?>"
	I smiled. "<Sure.>" I gestured to Red. "Follow me... 
they've got food."
	Dinner - soup and bread - was surprisingly good for being 
vegetarian. Much better than standard Jihaddi field rations, 
which were a bit lacking, even with Good Food[tm]. Somehow, I'd 
managed to forget my customary bag of sour gummi worms... *Doh! 
All I have with me is gum!*
	After dinner, we were given rooms on the main level for 
the duration of our stay. I wasn't sure on the exact time, even 
with my watch, mostly because of the difference in dimensional 
circadian cycles. Nonetheless, it had been a long day, and I was 
tired enough.
	Falling asleep, however, was hard enough. I couldn't 
shake the feeling that something was very wrong ... and I would 
soon know why.