The Gateway (Harbinger of Doom Volume 1) (5 page)

“
Tanch. Put the coin on that large
stone,” said Gabriel. “That way we can examine it without having to
hold it up.” Tanch did so.

“
It’s got many strange markings on
its surface,” said Dolan, still digging.

“
They are mystical glyphs and
symbols,” said Tanch. He turned the coin over to view its obverse
side.

“
Mortach,” said Theta.

“
Indeed,” said Tanch. “This symbol
embossed on the surface is the mark of Mortach,” said Tanch. “And
the glyphs on the other side are used by Mortach’s priests and
followers for their vile rituals.”

“
Who’s this Mortach fella?” said
Dolan.

“
He’s a Chaos Lord,” said
Claradon.

“
A who?” said Dolan.

“
They are vile, maleficent,
completely inhuman, otherworldly creatures,” said
Gabriel.

“
Once they were men,” said
Theta.

“
No longer,” said Gabriel. “Now
they are patrons of death, destruction, and all that is unholy and
corrupt.”

“
Sorry I asked,” said
Dolan.

Gabriel continued, “They are few in number,
but said to have lived since the dawn of time. They possess
superhuman powers and wield incredible magics beyond the ken of
even the greatest mortal wizards. They are the sworn enemies of our
lord Odin, and the rest of the beneficent gods of Asgard,” the
Aesir. “They reside on another world entirely, the very hell of
myth and legend. There they command vast armies of lesser fiends,
devils, demons, call them what you will.”

“
Legend has it,” said Claradon,
“that long ago these beings walked freely on our world,” Midgaard,
“but were driven off - back to their Courts of Chaos, by the great
heroes of yore.”

“
Oh, now I get it,” said Dolan.
“We call them fellas ‘Old Ones’ back at home. Lord Angle and I
don’t get on well with them. You’ve a lot of them folks around
here?”

“
No, of course not,” said
Claradon. “If they were ever truly here, they are long since
gone.”

“
But they’re not forgotten on
Midgaard,” said Gabriel. “Even now, they’re worshipped as gods by
practitioners of the black arts— those schooled in the necromancy,
demonology, chaos sorcery and the like, and by other base
individuals. These followers are murderers and lunatics all. They
sacrifice innocents on unholy altars dedicated to the foul lords,
in return for promised power, wealth, or more base desires. Cults
of their followers are scattered here and there throughout all the
known lands.”

“
They say that even in Lomion
there’s a secret temple dedicated to one of their number, Hecate,
somewhere in the southeast section of the city,” said Tanch.
“Also—“

“
Here’s another one!” said Dolan,
lifting a second golden coin out of the dense soil a few feet from
where he had found the first. He passed it over to Tanch who placed
it on the stone beside the first. Soon Dolan and the others had
unearthed several more golden coins. They’d been uniformly spaced
around the perimeter of the circle, buried some six inches down.
Some bore the symbols of Mortach, as did the first, while others
bore the symbols of Hecate. They recognized still other markings on
some of the coins as symbols used by the priests of Bhaal, yet
another chaos lord.

“
It seems likely that these coins
were enchanted by the followers of the chaos lords, and placed here
by them for some as yet undetermined purpose,” said Claradon, as
they stood about the rock, studying the coins.

“
I cannot explain it otherwise,”
said Gabriel. “So it seems we’ll be going up against the followers
of chaos, or some fell sorcery or some fiend or beast that they’ve
conjured up.” He paused for a few moments, and then turned to the
rest of the group before continuing, “I will tell you that although
it’s not widely known, the followers of chaos have caused much
suffering throughout Lomion over the years. The Crown and the
Churches don’t want such news causing panic so they’ve suppressed
it. Few even know of the existence of these nefarious cults. But
various covert military groups in Lomion, such as the Rangers’
Guild and the Church Knights, have battled against the cults a
number of times. Ob and I have even had our troubles with them over
the years. They’re not to be trifled with. I’m afraid that unless
they’ve taken our men prisoner in hopes of extorting a ransom,
their involvement does not bode well for Lord Eotrus’s safe
return.”

“
Oh my. Oh dear,” cried Par Tanch.
“We in the Order of the Arcane know of these fearsome cults as
well. Going up against the followers of Bhaal or Mortach or Hecate
is a serious thing. Going up against the cults of all three is
tantamount to suicide. Their assassins have slaughtered many in
their beds; still others have gone missing, never to be seen or
heard from again. Perhaps we should reconsider this venture. Yes,
perhaps we should go back to the Dor and get more men or better yet
send for help from Lomion. Yes, clearly this is a job for the
Lomerian army or the rangers of Doriath Hall. Clearly, this is much
too dangerous for our small band. My delicate back just can’t take
the stress and exertion and --”

A wave of Gabriel’s hand cut Tanch off. “Have
you forgotten the nature of this mission, wizard?! We’re here to
help Lord Eotrus if we can, or to avenge his death if he has
fallen. There’s no reconsidering, we will do this
thing.”

Tanch’s face reddened. “Of course, of course,
we must press on and help Lord Eotrus,” he recanted.

“
Yes, we must,” said
Claradon.

“
Please forgive me, I just meant
to say that if there’s fighting to be done I might not be able to
help because of my delicate back.” He put his arm behind his back
and winced in pain to demonstrate his plight. “But we must press
on. Indeed, indeed, we must, we must.”

IX

MISTER KNOW IT ALL

After a time, having found nothing else of
note within the circle, the men returned to the stone where they
had placed the coins. Ob was already there, having completed his
initial reconnaissance of the woods, and was examining the
coins.

“
Gabe,” Ob called out, “we found
tracks of Aradon’s patrol.”

Claradon’s heart leapt to his throat at the
gnome’s words. Perhaps, there was some hope. He was anxious but
fearful to hear what his gruff friend had to report.

“
We found the patrol’s tracks
leading in from the east,” from the direction of the Dor. “The
tracks end at the rim of the circle, about fifty yards east of
where we’re standing.”

They hurried over to where Ob had indicated,
to see what there was to see. “You see, these tracks,” said Ob.
“They get cut off right at the rim of the circle. No evidence they
stopped or turned about. Someone must’ve blotted out the
tracks.”

“
Or some thing,” said
Dolan.

“
Oh my, I’m feeling faint,” said
Tanch. He leaned against Dolan for support.

Theta squatted down near the rim and studied
the soil for some time.

“
The number and age of the tracks
makes them likely from Aradon’s patrol,” said Ob. “And here’s the
clincher, these shoeprints here are from Aradon’s horse. It’s a
distinctive shoe; no other horse in the Dor has it.”

Claradon knelt down to examine the print. “So,
father was here. Now there’s no doubt.”

“
The other patrols reported that
the circle grew in size each night,” said Gabriel. “That means that
when Aradon’s patrol was here, the circle was smaller. Since then,
it must’ve grown and blotted out the tracks.”

“
But we still don’t know how and
why it’s expanding,” said Claradon.

“
I found tracks from each of the
other patrols too,” said Ob. “Their tracks also end at the edge of
the circle. But I found tracks from them patrols leading away from
the area, returning back toward the Dor, which makes sense, since
they made it home. There’s no evidence of Aradon’s patrol ever
leaving, though. I couldn’t find any tracks from his horses or his
men leading away from the circle in any direction.”

“
But where could they have gone?
How could they just vanish?”

“
Maybe they got blotted, same as
the tracks,” said Dolan.

Theta cuffed him lightly on the back of the
neck.

“
Yow! Sorry boss.”

“
I don’t rightly know, boy,” said
Ob. “I ain’t ever seen the like of it. Glimador is doing another
sweep of the area, but I think we founded all that we’re going to
find. There’s more to tell, though.”

“
We founded us a couple of black
pillars a ways out over that way,” pointing off to the west.
“They’re part of them ruins you talked of earlier,
Gabe.”

“
I knew we had to be close to the
fell place,” said Gabriel.

“
I remembers two pillars being
about a quarter mile west from the old temple. Them pillars we
founded are the same two pillars. I’m sure about it.”

“
I remember those pillars,” said
Gabriel, “But that would put the main ruins –”

“
- Right smack in the middle of
that damn circle of nothing,” said Ob.

“
So the cult must’ve been using
that old temple for some unholy rite of blackest magery,” said
Claradon. “But that still doesn’t explain what happened to the
temple ruins, or what this strange circle is about. Stone temples,
even ruined ones don’t just disappear into thin air. Even masters
of the arcane arts cannot easily accomplish such feats, I
think.”

“
Perhaps their magic went awry,
and the temple was somehow destroyed,” said Tanch.

“
Could the circle of coins be used
to conjure up something, wizard?” said Theta. “Something from
another world; something from the very Courts of Chaos
themselves?”

“
Perhaps, perhaps, but I cannot be
sure,” said Tanch. “Powerful chaos sorcerers have been known to
possess the skills required to summon fiends from the beyond to do
their bidding. But this circle, it’s so vast, so enormous - far
larger than you’d need for calling up some fiend or familiar. It
must have some other purpose.”

“
Maybe they were conjuring
something really big,” said Dolan. He glanced sidelong at Theta,
preparing to duck.

“
I shudder to think of what such a
thing could be,” said Tanch. “No, I’m quite sure that their magic
must have gone awry and caused the destruction of the temple and
the formation of the circle.”

“
What if they were trying to
conjure up one of them chaos fellas you told of Brother Claradon?”
said Dolan as he edged farther from his master.

“
It’s hard to imagine such a thing
being possible. Even if it were, the cultists would have to be mad
to even attempt such a thing.”

“
Nevertheless, the circle is
here,” said Theta.

“
Respectfully, sir, I don’t think
such a thing is possible,” said Par Tanch. “You see, despite the
colorful myths, these Chaos Lords aren’t really men at all, they’re
more akin to forces of nature. The scholarly texts imply that
they’re beings of energy and thought, not mortal flesh. They
couldn’t really walk our world. No, the circle must be here for
some other purpose.”

“
I wonder,” said Claradon, “if
perhaps they could change their form, taking on a form akin to a
mortal body, becoming some type of avatar. Perhaps, in such a guise
they could enter Midgaard, through some mystical portal or
gateway.”

“
Such a theory would reconcile the
ancient texts with the folk stories we’ve all heard,
but”—

“
Those are nothing but fairy
stories, told to scare children,” said Ob. “There’s no truth to
them. These chaos bozos are nothing but figments.”

“
Let’s pray that’s the case,” said
Par Tanch. “For if a Chaos Lord did cross over to Midgaard, the
entire world would be at utmost peril. Such a fiend would rampage
across the land, leaving nothing but death and destruction in its
wake. No mortal man, be he arch-wizard or knight champion could
defeat such a beast.”

“
I would defeat it,” said Theta in
an even tone, almost but not quite under his breath.

“
Bah!” spouted Ob. “You pompous
tin can.”

Theta glared at the gnome, but did not
respond.

“
Did you find anything else, Ob?”
said Claradon.

“
Yep, we did. We founded some
other tracks outside the circle. Wagon tracks, and horse spoor they
was. The wagon was a big one, heavily laden with something or
other, cause it sunk deep into the sod. Eight to ten horses rode
with the wagon. All the tracks head south.”

“
Toward Lomion,” said
Tanch.

“
Whoever they were, they’d set a
camp out there by them two big pillars. But the signs point to them
having left three or four days ago.”

“
So they would’ve been gone long
before father’s patrol arrived,” said Claradon.

“
That’s right. So whoever they
were they weren’t the ones that fought with the patrol,” said Ob.
“I checked the tracks; the horses’ shoes didn’t have no markings,
so they didn’t belong to any of the noble houses, the temples, or
the guilds. So we don’t know who they are.”