//------------------------------// // Portal Hunters // Story: Pathfinder Ponies // by terrycloth //------------------------------// After healing their wounds and making sure that the remaining kobolds were still locked in their little section of the dungeon, the party left to report to the orcish garrison nearby, and then head on to Rally to look for more work. The air mephits were amazed at the sight of the mountains and prairie and, in general, of so much solid ground, stretching out in all directions, and rushed off to explore it before the party even got to the fort. That was the last they saw of them. The orc in charge of the garrison thought that it might be worthwhile to contact the breakaway kobold tribe in case they were willing to be reasonable neighbors. The kobolds had once been trading partners and allies, after all. The adventurers decided to leave him to that, and pushed on. They reached Rally around sundown, and found an inn near the gate where they could spend the night before heading back to the guild to report. There was a curfew in the city, now, with the military not considering it safe for anypony to be out on the streets at night. According to an uncomfirmed rumor from the other people at their inn, anyone caught violating curfew was considered to have ‘volunteered’ to join the army. After all, they wouldn’t risk getting caught by the smoke monsters rumored to be stalking the streets if they weren’t willing to fight. “So all we need to do is –“ Rainbow Dash started. “No,” Twilight said. “We’re not going out to get caught in the hopes they’ll let us into the military district after we’re conscripted.” “Yeah. Being an Adventurer pays way better for the same work. It was posted, remember?” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “It barely paid anything,” Rainbow Dash said. “Which is better than the literal nothing they’re giving to ‘volunteers’,” Twilight said. “We’d also have to use standardized equipment and tactics, which would be a complete waste of our talents. Let’s wait until morning, and see if we can use our success against the kobold portal to negotiate for better pay.” In the morning, they visited the Pathfinder Guild, and while the guild wasn’t paying out for closing random portals, they did pay a small amount for the information on kobold activity, and gave the party a certified copy of their report, verified under Truth Candle, for them to show the military. The military was paying a set fee per portal closed, and they might be able to argue that the kobolds’ portal counted since it had been contributing to dimensional instability. They were disappointed to hear that the military officer they were told to contact was not stationed inside the closely guarded military district. Instead, they were sent to a small keep built into the western wall, overlooking the barren plains that the orcs had originally called home. Captain Skyflash, a brightly colored young Pegasus, was available to field their request. “Yeah, no,” he said. “It’s outside the city, so we can’t pay you. The funds were approved for hiring mercenaries to close portals inside the city. I’d get yelled at if anyone found out. If you’re so hot on closing portals, though, we’ve got a bunch.” He waved a hoof at his map of the city, where a dozen red Xs were scattered throughout the outer section. “How about this one,” he said, pointing to one near one of the larger marketplaces. “There’s smoke, there were mephits until we rolled in and wiped them out, but we couldn’t find the portal. It’s probably underground somewhere. We don’t like sending soldiers underground. Pisses off the Sewer Lords.” “The who?” Twilight asked. “Some of the more exclusive establishments set up for business in the city’s original sewer system,” Rarity explained. “Of course it’s been expanded several times since then, so there isn’t any actual sewage.” “Black Market types,” Applejack added. “Can’t imagine what Rarity would have gone looking for in a place like that.” “Maybe expensive dragon bones?” Pinkie Pie suggested. “Presumably nothing illegal,” Twilight said. “At any rate, you want us to search the sewers for a portal you can’t find, Captain?” Skyflash nodded. “It’s one of the small ones, so it only pays the listed fee, but if you can prove you can handle yourselves, we’ve got a bigger one we’ve been looking for a specialist team for. That’ll pay a bit more.” “How much are we talking?” Applejack asked. “Five hundred.” As the party stared at him, unimpressed. “For one day’s work,” he said, throwing up his hooves. “That’s more than I make in a year!” “Remind me never to join the army,” Rainbow Dash said. The marketplace near the suspected portal was shrouded in smoke, and looked mostly deserted when the party arrived. After a few minutes of walking around, they spotted where the merchants and customers had gotten off to – one of the nearby blocks had waxed tarps draped over the buildings and alleyways to create a pocket of clear air, maintained by a combination of air elementals and weather-working pegasi at the entrances. While that allowed the common folk to shop in relatively breathable air, it left several city blocks shrouded in smoke and deserted. Somewhere in the cloud – or underneath it – was the portal that the party had been assigned to close. “I say I clear away this smoke, and then we’ll be able to see where it’s coming from,” Pinkie Pie said. “Easy as pie.” “Think you can move the whole thing?” Twilight asked. “It’s huge.” The pink pegasus shrugged. “Still one cloud, right?” It took a bit of effort – the massive cloud of smoke kept wanting to break apart into smaller puffs, and ooze around Pinkie Pie and choke her with its fumes – but as a practiced flyer and weatherpony, she was able to keep it in one piece as she lifted it up into the sky. It helped that the smoke wanted to rise, as it was slightly warmer than the surrounding air. After a minute or so, even the edges of the cloud were twenty feet off the ground, which was enough clearance for the rest of the party to search for the source. Rainbow Dash was the first to spot the smoke rising from a series of tiny cracks in a large glass mosaic set into the middle of a major intersection, which depicted the Emperor as a massive orc, smiting shadowy foes with a flaming spear. “We’re going to have to pay for this if we break it, I reckon,” Applejack said. “There’s no reason to break it,” Twilight replied. “We know the portal is underneath the street, here, and that there’s a network of tunnels and sewers. We can find an actual entrance and work our way around.” Applejack was the one to spot the suspicious markings near a small sunken doorway beneath a building nearby, which reminded her of the symbols she and her friends had used to mark hidden areas back in her days on the streets. Sure enough, the door was unlocked, and opened to a staircase leading further down, into the underground. There were further markings at the next intersection, but to reach the source of the smoke the party had to head in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the tunnel quickly dead ended at a cave-in, choked with loose bricks and dirt. As Rarity moved up to see if she could burrow her way through the dirt and see how far the cave-in extended, Pinkie Pie peered curiously at one of the bricks off to the side, and pressed it firmly with a hoof. There was a ‘click’ and a scraping nose, as the entire ‘cave in’ shifted slightly. Rarity and Twilight gave it a good shove, and it scraped open like a particularly thick and heavy door. A nauseating stench, a mixture of smoke and sewage, washed out over the party from the room beyond. It was a small chamber, about ten feet by twenty, with massive round vault doors set into the left and opposite walls. A more ordinary looking door was directly across from them, and dim light filtered in from a window next to it. They could all hear the sound of running water. After a few seconds, it was joined by a haunting melody in a high-pitched voice, sung in what Rarity recognized as Ignan. The words encouraged the warriors of justice to push back the forces of evil. Applejack darted silently across the room to peek through the window, then ducked to the side and flattened herself against the ground as the creatures waiting out there spotted her. Rainbow Dash stepped up and opened the door, looking for what had spooked the rogue. Behind the door was a large chamber overlooking a pool of murky water, well-lit by sunlight filtering through the glass mosaic of the Emperor, set into the ceiling above. The water was twenty feet below, with the just-opened door opening onto a cast iron staircase that led down into the water. On the far wall, four large pipes spewed foul liquid that splashed off a slippery slope and then ran into the pool. In the far corner of the room, at the top of the slope, two of the smoke naga guarded a dark doorway, and two smoke mephits hovered in midair near a rickety catwalk that crossed over the center of the pool, from left to right, on the same level as the door just opened. While Fluttershy stayed near the secret door and started to cast a summoning spell, Macintosh ran out onto the balcony and tossed a tanglefoot bag at one of the mephits, but his throw went wide. Pinkie Pie was a bit too far back for her bombs, so she drank one of her Shield infusions and moved up behind him. Rarity motioned her skeletal dragons to squeeze past the party and push out into the room, since it was a large open space. As they lunged at the mephits, she unleashed her swarm of skulls to assist. Garble and Crackle managed to double-team one of the mephits, biting down on either wing and pulling – but while it was somewhat injured by the blows, its wings slipped through their teeth like smoke and it was not torn in two, like it should have been. The floating skulls’ attempt to assist the other two dragons in pinning down their own mephit were completely futile – they couldn’t get any purchase with their teeth. They did have one effective attack, however – as they swarmed through the air, the changeling heads shot off a few poorly aimed bolts of green energy, and one of them slammed into the far mephit, nearly taking off one of its legs. Twilight looked around, and didn’t see any way to get into the fight – the stairs led down into the water, which was probably not somewhere she wanted to go. “I don’t suppose you can open one of the big doors?” she asked Applejack, pushing on the large door to the right experimentally. With a rumble, it rolled to the side, revealing a pair of waiting smoke naga, who immediately attacked with bare fists. “I didn’t do it!” Applejack said, dodging a punch from one of the monks, only to dodge right into his other fist. While she was reeling – and feeling sick to her stomach from some nauseous substance that passed through her skin as the creature hit her – its smoky tail whipped around to slam into her side, feeling quite solid despite its vaporous appearance. It tried to wrap around her and trap her in its coils, but she slipped free. Then the creature’s eyes glowed, and fast as a blur, a fourth attack took Applejack on the chin, nearly breaking her jaw. Twilight faced off with the other naga monk, taking three heavy blows in quick succession that dented her armor and left her reeling in pain. She managed to block the tail with her shield, at least. She shook her head to shake off the sickeness. “It’s an ambush! They must have heard us opening the door.” The other large door had also opened at the same time, and another pair of monks stepped into the room, one of them mauling Rainbow Dash with a flurry of blows while the other slithered past to strike at Rarity, still standing in the doorway the party had entered through. Out in the room, the mephits fearlessly ignored the undead, focusing on Macintosh with a barrage of screamed curses that slammed into him like solid blows. A third mephit flew into view from around the corner of a large structure that jutted out into the room near the ceiling, and unleashed a barrage of magic missiles at Macintosh, finishing him off. After seeing the mephits instantly drop the heavily armored warrior, Applejack slammed the door shut with a quick kick from her hind leg, to keep them from joining the fight, and then seemed to flash out of existence. She reappeared behind one of the monks, flanking with Twilight. Her rapier impaled him right through the back, poking out the front of his chest, while her claws tore at his kidneys. Rainbow Dash attacked the other pair of monks, shouting ‘Stunning Fist!’ as her first swing impacted the creature’s solar plexus. He didn’t seem stunned, not even after her follow-up swing crackled with lightning, and her beak tore into his shoulder. Fluttershy finished her spell, and a large tiger appeared behind Rainbow’s target, leaping on it with claws and fangs. But the monk easily dodged the large cat, almost as if he had been expecting it to appear. Fluttershy screamed, “You monster!” and glowered at him, but while he recoiled as if he had been struck by her gaze, he didn’t fall. Rarity kept up her defenses against the naga menacing her, and swept her hoof, unleashing a wave of energy to speed the party’s movement. “This would be going a lot better if we’d all cast our defensive spells,” she said. “Sorry, I was saving them for the big portal!” Pinkie Pie said, as she pulled out a potion and drank it. And then nopony said anything else, as silence filled the area, stopping just short of Fluttershy, who continued her spell. In total silence, Twilight’s hammer rapidly beat a series of rapid blows into both of the monks facing her, and the one Applejack had mauled collapsed, bleeding heavily from his wounds. He took a last halfhearted swing at Twilight, then stopped moving. His friend focused a flurry of punches on the armored unicorn, but with the mephits’ bard song cut off his attacks were much less accurate. One still hit her fairly solidly, but she remained standing. Another monk attacked Rainbow Dash with similar results, while the last focused on Rarity. Even without magical assistance, he knocked the ghoulish wizard around like a training dummy, undead ichor spraying everywhere. Rainbow Dash’s claws crackled with lightning as she dueled her naga, and she laid him out on the ground. The tiger roared silently as it leapt over the corpse, onto the naga attacking Rarity, sinking its fangs into the snake-man’s skull while its claws raked the smoky body, pulling him off the wizard and pinning him to the ground beneath it. Fluttershy finished summoning an elemental, which struck at the pinned naga, then summoned a dark energy to her hoof and touched Rarity with it, healing her wounds a bit. Rarity stepped back behind Fluttershy, out of the silence, and cast a mirror image spell. Pinkie Pie had been holding a bomb to throw at the pinned naga, but it was impossible to hit it without also hitting Fluttershy’s summons, so she turned and detonated it against the naga fighting Twilight and Applejack, knocking him off his feet. As he fell, Twilight’s hammer came down and splattered his skull, then she took a step back, turned around, and repeated the process on the naga under the tiger, finishing him off as well. Applejack had been waiting for her to move in position so that she could flank, but now had no one to fight. Twilight pointed down the hallway, and Applejack followed her hoof with her eyes and spotted another small door in the side wall, halfway to where the hallway ended in another large door. She shook her head, and instead of running to check it out, slipped past Twilight and the others and with an exaggerated limping motion, stopped in front of Fluttershy, who grimaced at Applejack’s state and healed her a bit. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and flew down the hallway, throwing open the door. “Singing mephit!” she shouted, although nopony in the party could hear her, thanks to Pinkie’s silence. Regardless, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight followed. Rarity and Pinkie stopped next to the doorway to fire magic missiles and a force bomb at the mephit in the room, while Twilight ran in and splattered the creature against the control panel it had been operating, cutting off its song. The control panel had six levers, the fourth and fifth from the left pulled down while the others were in the ‘up’ position. It also had four large dials, which were all set to ‘10’. Above it was an arc of transparent glass, through which Twilight and the others could see out into the pool room. The mephits were all down – one of them splayed out atop the catwalk, the others nowhere to be seen. Two of Rarity’s skeletal dragons remained in the air, the others missing and presumably sitting at the bottom of the murky pool, waiting to regenerate. Macintosh was on the landing at the top of the staircase, unconscious but still breathing. There was no sign of the monks they’d spotted on the slope earlier – the doorway they’d vanished into was now shut, however. “Those guys hit pretty hard, but if we got all the mephits I think we can take them,” Twilight said. “Let’s take a minute to heal, then we can use these levers to open the doors and go find the portal.” Between the spells that Fluttershy was willing to use to heal, and many many charges from the wands of cure light wounds, it took about two minutes to heal everypony, including Sergeant Macintosh. Rarity was going to send her remaining dragons into the water to retrieve her downed undead, but Applejack and Rainbow Dash spotted things moving in the water –a huge horde of zombies, nearly filling the bottom of the pool. Anything that went into the water was going to have a very hard time getting back out without being dragged down by the undead. “If you can tell me where the bones are, I think I can drag them out with my magic,” Twilight said. “I can use it without entering the pool, and hopefully the zombies will ignore the moving bones. Since they aren’t alive. Or undead.” “I have a cantrip for purifying water,” Fluttershy said. “Maybe I could clear it enough that we could see them?” “This pool is awful large for a cantrip,” Rarity said. “But perhaps if we could shut off the inflow, and cast it repeatedly.” Twilight turned the four dials on the control panel down to zero, and sure enough the flowing sewage from the pipes reduced to a trickle. “Maybe we should take care of the portal first?” Applejack suggested. “I get that Rarity wants to keep her dragons, but they won’t do squat for another hour, regardless of where they’re sittin’.” Twilight nodded. “Right. Let’s try these levers…” Quick experimentation confirmed that the levers worked exactly like Twilight expected – each lever controlled one of the large doors, arranged in order. Unfortunately, the first lever was jammed, which kept her from opening the final door that would have given them a quick route to the chamber that they suspected contained the portal. Instead, she was able to open a route that went back past where they’d come in, and around to the other end of the slippery slope, where there was another small door. With the sewage no longer flowing, they could cross the slope and get to the spot where they’d spotted the monks. Or of course they could fly. Twilight sighed. “Rarity, I’ll need you to clean off that surface so that we can walk on it safely. Stay behind me. The rest of you can wait on the catwalk until we’re ready, or hover in midair or whatever you think is best.” Cautiously, the party made its way around the perimeter of the room, with no sign of enemy action. Ready for anything, Twilight threw open the door. Behind the door were four more of the naga monks, and another mephit, which instantly burst into song. The two that could reach through the door attacked Twilight, one of them slipping an attack past her guard. Pinkie Pie drank a potion of silence, and hovered over Twilight’s head so that anyone standing in the doorway would be cut off from the mephit’s bard song. Twilight stepped back so as to be able to use her weapon’s reach, and smashed the naga standing in the doorway with a pair of powerful blows. Rainbow Dash took Twilight’s place in the doorway, ducking under her hammer, and punched the nearest naga in the stomach. It collapsed at her feet. The mephit scowled at the silence, and flung a volley of magic missiles at Twilight, which stung, but were hardly enough to take her down. Another monk stepped into place in the doorway, and he and his companion unleashed their attacks on the interposing griffon. Most of the attacks missed, but there were a lot of attacks, and the ones that slipped through hit hard. Rainbow might have been in trouble if Fluttershy hadn’t aimed her rod of reach, from where she was hovering back beyond the silence, and healed most of her wounds. Rarity flung a burst of Glitterdust into the room, blinding the monks, which let Applejack toss her returning dagger for deadly effect, slicing a thin line across one naga’s throat, which started spraying copious amounts of blood against the door. Pinkie Pie threw a bomb at the mephit, which exploded with a wave of force – the mephit was tossed around in the air, but managed to remain flying. However, the splash from the explosion knocked over all the candles on the portal the mephit was flying over, and it started to flicker, about to close. After watching Twilight slaughter another of his companions – the naga flailed around blindly, unable to dodge her blows – and having little to do that was helpful, with the silence negating his song and his sound-strike, the half-dead mephit fled back through the portal before it could close. Rainbow Dash advanced into the room, crackling with electricity as she pummeled one of the blinded monks. Both tried to attack her, despite their inability to see, and between them got one hit in. She wasn’t nearly as badly hurt this time, but Fluttershy healed her anyway, since one of the monks managed to blink the sparkles out of his eyes. But then Applejack lodged her dagger briefly in the throat of the one that was still blind, and between Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and another bomb from Pinkie Pie, the last two naga fell before they could do any more damage. The portal was closed, and the party was victorious. Retrieving Rarity’s skeletal dragons from the lake took some doing. Even with the inflow valves shut, Fluttershy’s purify food and drink spell had almost no effect on a body of water the size of the pool. A small section of water near where she cast would become instantly pure and clear, but it would dissolve into the rest in seconds. Pinkie Pie and Twilight did some math based on what they knew of the spell and their estimate of the depth of the pool, and guessed that it would take several hours until it was clear enough to notice any difference. Pinkie Pie tried using her alchemical weapons to destroy the horde of zombies, but her alchemist’s fire and acid had little effect underwater. Her frost vials worked, however, and she was able to drive them back from the center of the pool, where they suspected the bones were sitting. Twilight was able to use her horn’s magic to drag the resulting icebergs to the side of the pool, but to her surprise, was not able to effectively dredge the bottom of the lake with it – when she tried to project force at a distance, it stopped at the surface of the water. Eventually, Fluttershy summoned a water elemental, and with the zombies driven back it was able to retrieve the bones without incident. “I’m sorry you had to use a spell for that,” Twilight said. “I didn’t realize the ‘unseen servant’ couldn’t swim. It’s not even a real creature – it’s just a mental construct that I use to project my magic over long distances.” “Sparky II and Opal were saved, and that’s all that matters,” Rarity said. “Now, let’s go collect our 50 gold and try not to take the extra resources we spent on this fiasco out of poor Skyflash’s hide. He’s not the one who decided to rip off the adventurers who are willing to clean up his mess.” “Actually, I think we’re safely in the black on this one,” Applejack said. “Take a look at what all those monks were wearing.” She tossed Rarity an amulet. “Looks awful fancy. Like, magic fancy.” Rarity cast detect magic, and smiled. “Oh. It’s a basic enchantment, but yes, I’m sure these are quite valuable.”