Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 6

Chapter 6

Camrad_RIP 12.05.23 в 14:54

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Camrad_RIP 12.05.23 в 14:54

What Tavimark had enough of was sources of information about the catacombs and what lived in their depths. It would have been strange if the city hadn't had detailed summaries on the subject. Even if you take the sealed essence itself out of the equation, there are still the usual monsters and untold miles of tangled passages, tunnels, and shafts that have been used by many enterprising people of varying degrees of dishonesty. If I so wished, I would have been able to gather all the necessary data long before I decided to go and play Hero by all the rules.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 08:06

But I'm Kostenka. I don't know how to do it in a normal way. But seriously, I had to deliberately not know about everything related to this topic because I was naturally afraid that I would not be able to hold back and go to do good and inflict justice! These precautions did not help me much. I just wasted my time. And we have an obscenely short time - a couple of weeks for such an operation is not a period of preparation but laughter and tears. On the other hand, one legendary creature, weakened by the sealing, is not Stone, with all its protection and garrison.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 08:11

Don't think I'm belittling the Legends' abilities, but all of them, despite being legendary, are far from being all-powerful. With the right approach, an average Legend can be brought down with proper teamwork, proper stimulants, and a well-prepared battlefield. It all depends, of course, on how intelligent the creature opposing you is and how much time it has spent preparing itself. One of the reasons I never went to see the old Spectre is because of that preparation - he'd turned his lair into a veritable death maze (or, rather, a Death Maze). He could have given me a shit in spite of the divine chains restraining him.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 08:14

So, about preparation - even if my current target were as smart as Lobachevsky himself, she has been sealed up for a long, long time. And even though I'm almost a hundred percent sure that to destroy it, it would have to be released first. But no one would give it time to analyze the situation. Anyway, if it were another Specter, I wouldn't worry at all, and I might even go off on my own. What good is all your wit and evil imagination if you're being flooded with shadows and thrown into that Shadow to feed, pardon the pun, Shadows?

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 08:16

Alas, our task is not as easy as it seems at first glance. At the very least, no one would bother with an extremely tricky sealing that requires very specific conditions and sacrifices if the creature could just be killed. Sealing is a priori only used when it is more difficult or impossible to kill the target. Alternatively, in cases where the slain creature's demise could have unpleasant consequences for the surrounding victors. All sorts of postmortem curses and other talents sharpened in this branch of development. It's not that common, but it's far from unique. There are a lot of stories about the owners of such dishonorable tricks, a lot of it.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 08:22

The arguments are strong enough to accept the need for proper preparation. Yes, and clairvoyance managed to involuntarily convey to me enough understanding so that the desire to shove with a gunz blazing under the onslaught of cold logic. A hasty decision could bring a lot of trouble, even if not to me, but to the surrounding residents of Tavimark.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 09:44

This creature was not a realm creature in the usual sense. Unlike, say, the High Shadow, she didn't have a clear body or a vulnerable point that could hurt her by hitting her. She had no body at all, no claws, no especially dangerous attacks capable of smearing impudent mortals on the walls. Even her mind was so alien that to understand the motives of this creature was an almost impossible task, even for such tough guys as I considered myself.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 09:48

Ironically, but the most adapted to the battle with our target was not me, and not even Losius, but Hans. Because this target was revived - as far as this definition is generally applicable to this entity - the concept of the World Path, or Path of the World, I'm not sure about the accuracy of the translation of that old document. It's the explosion of the brain, but this did not reduce the danger, rather added and strengthened it.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 09:51

The creature couldn't attack directly, that's true, but it didn't need such crude methods. The creature, disembodied and invisible, invulnerable to anything attempted against it, literally fused with the tunnels of the dungeons, with the aqueducts and alcoves, the arches and passages, the old mines and halls of the underground vaults. And, having finished merging, she became part of them just as they became part of it.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 09:52

Roads leading nowhere. Space, distorting in agony, and even the almighty Time. Madness and mounting terror, gradually eroding even the strongest will, were what awaited those who ventured into the creature's domain and challenged it. They probably wouldn't have touched it at all, it was such an inconvenient and invulnerable foe, but it wasn't sitting still. The center of distortion shifted constantly, moving in every direction, sometimes even rising too close to the surface. After the seventh thousand victims, when the dungeon took not only the poor but also part of the urban elite, making them eternal prisoners of endless ways, it was decided to start a forceful confrontation. There were two options here - either to somehow pacify the abomination or to abandon a very conveniently located and already-built city for the amusement of the dungeon overlord.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 10:06

It is in the nature of the creature the poor men of the Forty-third Armored Corps were actually sacrificed. They were as lost as anyone before them, but at the same time, their souls became anchors holding the creature in one place, in the heart of the underground catacombs, as far away from the surface as possible. The creature cannot move its presence to another part of reality, and the enchanted soldiers cannot leave the confines of the closed field created by the creature. Everyone is pulled in their direction, which makes it impossible to take even a small step. Such a system, for all its cannibalistic nature, was surprisingly reliable - it lasted almost a thousand years (or even more, since documents do not indicate the exact date, and clairvoyance fails too much when trying to analyze such an unnatural entity) and will last twice as long until the prisoners' souls finally burn out.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 10:09

Even the rare seal breaks, changing the maps of the catacombs most radically and allowing the Call to enlist the occasional townsfolk to hear it, simply serves as another element of support. In this obnoxious way, the Seal, which has become part of the creature itself, replenishes the drain on its batteries. The astonishing efficiency of this creation of an unknown ritualist is so beautiful in its inhumanity and ruthlessness that I sincerely wanted to meet the creators and developers of this marvel to test their designs on them. For purely scientific purposes, of course.

Camrad_RIP 15.05.23 в 10:12

"No wonder you have such a clear sense of our target, Hans." Hestia, in her moments of total focus, becomes so still that she could really be mistaken for a statue. "It, whatever it is, is essentially the quintessence of your class skills, having gained autonomy. I've heard of such creatures only in passing, but I've never encountered even a relatively complete description. And I certainly had no idea that one such creature had been captured in the Empire."

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:15

"Don't be silly, Hestia." The pathfinder grumbles, nervously twirling his slim shiv in his hands, calming his nerves. "What kind of language is that?"

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:18

"You are incorrigible..." The creature of the mist in the most beautiful wrapping possible only shook its head, refusing to continue the pointless argument about the rules of polite address. "Somehow, it seems to me that our enemy is one of the legendary Trail users of the past who has not kept control of his powers."

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:22

"Nah, nah, pretty lady, you got the wrong idea." The man contradicted her immediately. "I'm no legendary fucking Hero, but I smell a mistake. If I don't hold my Trail, I'll either die or disappear somewhere. But I won't get fucked up in the kind of shit Tin found on our heads."

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:26

"Weren't you the first one of us to agree to give Evil a fight?" Losius listens intently to the dialogue, even though he's in the farthest corner of the room we rented, scribbling something on a map of the dungeons. "If my memory does not fail me, did your words say this creature disturbs your sleep?"

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:28

"I'm not arguing, but Tin found it anyway!" He answered and then laughed at my exaggeratedly offended face.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:28

"Actually, Hestia's words are not so wrong." I intervene before the conflict escalates. "Hans is right in that a human being, like any endowed one, cannot turn into that thing. Except you're not counting the possibility that a Pathfinder, who's fallen forever into his Paths... Well, it's like a stone thrown against the ice - the ice is broken, the stone has dropped to the bottom, and ice water has flowed out of the breach, some of which has not gone back. Only this water is in no hurry to freeze itself, continuing to crap on its own to the world around it."

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:31

"I've never, I confess, heard of such a thing." Losius drawls thoughtfully, putting the map aside. "For a long time, I was not at all aware of the fact that Trailblazers have their own special Realm. That in itself is also an incredibly interesting question, which we can now..."

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:33

"Okay, attention, gang!" Taria, as usual, interjects with the grace of an armadillo of steel. "I brought some food, or you'll be starving to death at this rate without taking a break from your discussion!"

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:36

"Taria, you're a miracle!" Which of us all said this truth first I did not understand even with the help of clairvoyance.
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Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:37

Talmosh Htygydynski was an honorary citizen of the Empire of Ages who gained this citizenship through long and fruitful work for the Guild of Adventurers. Many times he was offered to work on the Intelligence or the Secret Guard, both imperial and foreign, but he firmly stay out of politics, trading the most valuable that he had - encyclopedic knowledge of several ancient civilizations, with the relics of which he worked at the level of a great master. Literally, a great master in the areas of Archaeology and Knowledge of history. It's a very rare set of skills and abilities that is incredibly difficult to pump.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:41

For the sake of such a consultant, evil people turned a blind eye to a certain irreverence toward superiors and even to the three-quarters of the halfling blood that ran in his veins. Typical-looking hobbit with hairy heels lived not in a hole, but in a two-story manor, under the heavy guard of his loyal servants. And also under powerful magical protection, secured by many relics of rare or even epic grades, which he had managed to accumulate during his long life.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:42

Uncharacteristic of the prolific and amorous halfling, the bachelor's existence had not given the old man any heirs or even any bastards. There was a sordid and bloody story of sincere love in his life, back in his youth, that turned out to be a hired rival Seductress (have you ever seen a hobbit Seductress?). The story ended with the death of Talmosh's already few relatives, the very bad death of the Seductress herself, and the extremely lousy death of her employers, but he could not regain his former trust and ability to love. Not to say that he cared all that much about it.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:43

My interest in such an extraordinary person lay, oddly enough, in his collection of miscellaneous items, among which was the diary of one of the senior ritualist's assistants (apparently a type not inferior to the late Ferer in skill), who had never survived the procedure of sealing the creature under the city. Much later, one of the raids into that dungeon, which were occasionally conducted and even more rarely returned, managed to get hold of that diary and bring it to the enterprising Quatreon.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 16:47

The diary had no special secrets or great power, so it was gathering dust on a shelf in one of the far corners of the mansion, forgotten as soon as it was read. It might be useful to a good, but not too high-level ritualist, who wanted to grow from a simple master to a great master - there were enough very specific notes and schemes that only holders of similar classes could understand. I was only interested in the last ten pages of the book, where the calculations of the Seal Ritual were made.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 19:03

There was much that mage did not know, much that he did not understand, for the legendary master was only a prop in the scheme of the ritual, but even what I had was enough. I am not a ritualist myself, that's true, and anyway: the only one with ritualistic skills in our company is Ygra, and she can't read. It's just that such a personal thing, imbued with experiences and aspirations, would be a pretty good clue to the events of those days for me. About the same as in the case of Grandpa Losius's diary, which gave me a lead on the Stone.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 19:05

There were only two barriers around the house - not a problem for me - but it was more complicated inside. Talmosh had lived in his mansion for almost a century and a half, having paid for three rejuvenation procedures with healers in the capital, and had managed to build a very good segmental defense in that time. Usually, patchwork protections are bullshit. The trick is that too many protection and signaling charms are simply layered on top of each other, creating a lot of fake flares and interference.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 19:06

But Talmosh did have a lot of free time, even more resources, and rare amulets, and the size of the entire mansion was not so large that he could not personally set up and debug his brainchild. While the exterior and living quarters, not counting the bedroom, were fairly easy to access, the artifact storage and library in Shadow Gaze resembled a mosaic, so much magic of all kinds was there. A major collector of Tavimark, and even in the capital quite famous, by the way. And he also managed to get his hands on part of the collection of rarities of the recently deceased old man Pervert. A very enterprising man... ...well, a quarter.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 19:09

For me, stealing this diary wasn't difficult, but it was fucking boring - one by one to cheat fields and enchantments, gradually advancing to the right point and trying not to step on one of the traps, and not always magical. As said before, most of the signals and shields were created by rare-grade items, and a few epics didn't play much of a role. It didn't stop me, or at least it didn't exhaust me, but it pissed me off.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 19:10

I could have dived deeper into the realm, walked through the deep Shadow to the desired point, and then surfaced and worked directly with the desired container, but I didn't want to risk even the smallest thing, and diving this deep into the Shadow was an a priori risk. In the case of Stone, such a risk was justified, but now I could handle the Steps, Theft, and Shadow Creation. There was no need to rush; I could make it through the night without a problem.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 19:13

Actually, I did, even replacing the worn-out book with an identical-looking book (identity was assured through essentialism), only with blank pages. Well, almost blank because on the title page, there was an obscene image with a caption in a mixture of goblin and hobbit dialects of the common language. I even moved the signal threads with the nasty trap from the original to the fake, though it was a thousand times easier to turn it off unnoticed.

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:20

By the way, I plan to return the original, if possible, after I've worked with it. Or after I finish the story about the creature in the dungeons. I doubt he's even picked up that diary in the last couple of years.

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:21

Okay.

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:18

I already have a set of not-too-toxic clairvoyance-enhancing potions waiting for me in my room, and there's not much time for a deep dive into the past. Ideally, I want to avoid exhaustion and headaches and just find out everything I need to know quickly. Unlike in Stone's case, I have a lot more clues and knowledge, so the search won't be too hard. The creature itself, like any legend, is pretty hard to read, but then again, I have enough vectors to pump it through circumstantial events and the fates of those who encountered it. The task is difficult, but I'm not so simple myself.

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:25

I think so.

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:25

"I want to kill." My words are so sincere that no one even smiled at my "joke".

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:26

It seems I'm hiding my appearance, and I'm not letting any background into the surrounding reality, and I'm not even trying to turn to the planar power, but there was something about me that made even the unbreakable Taria shudder. And all I had to do was watch an interesting interactive movie about an old adventure that did not end.

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:28

"That bad?" Losius seemed to understand the background of my mood, sitting down at the table and holding out a bottle of wine to me without even offering a glass. "Or worse?"

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:29

"Worse is worse, my friend." I emptied the bottle at once, not feeling the taste or the intoxication. "If that freak were still alive, I wouldn't be too lazy to go visit him and personally feed him to the scariest fearbeast I could summon."

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:32

"What did the dead mage hurt you, anyway?" Taria came to her senses quickly, plopping down on my lap and taking the second bottle, already half-full. "You've got a face that if I met you in an alley, I'd give you my wallet.

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:35

"Not the mage who wrote the diary, no." I'm silent, choosing my words, and the others don't hurry to confuse me. "I'm talking about his teacher, that good grandfather who created and closed the Seal of the Wandering. He didn't die that long ago, by the way, just last century. Alishan's diversion on the grounds of some secret military unit and all that. Kind of embarrassing to approve of the Alishan action, but still glad the bitch is dead."

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:36

"Exhaustive characterization, I'll say." The aristocrat is also drinking wine, but with much less greed because he doesn't have my dryness after using clairvoyance. "Can you elaborate on that?"

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:38

"A ritualist, a sacrificial ritualist of the legendary class, to be exact," I answer, setting aside the bottle that never managed to overpower the taste of decayed blood on my lips. "The kind that dabbles not in dark planes but pure blackness. No, no, he wasn't flirting with Hells, but his rituals, for all their startling effectiveness, required very specific components and almost certainly living and preferably endowed. There, in those dungeons, are not only soldiers left. There is a whole hecatomb hidden and so reliable that it does not exist. Or rather, not here. I think I'll put this ritual in the top ten of the nastiest things I've ever seen. Well, in the second ten at most, but closer to the top."

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:41

"Did you understand the principle of the hecatomb?" Hestia doesn't let me savor my own disgust at being conscious, getting right to the point.

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 15:27

Once you understand the workings of the sacrificial figure, you can understand how the figure shackled the creature. And already from this, you will need to dance when creating a plan of counteraction. The classic school, thanks to Hestia for enlightening us in her time. The most disgusting thing is that there are no good ritualists among us, and direct attacks on our beast are unimpressive.

Camrad_RIP 17.05.23 в 03:42

"What if you just drop a piece of the dungeon into The Shadow?" Taria makes a suggestion. "And there, let it flounder around for as long as it wants and as long as it can! Even if you're right that the shadow energy itself doesn't give a fuck about this thing, the realm itself, one way or another, will wreck any foreign object!"

Camrad_RIP 16.05.23 в 15:26