Chương 249: AF Chapter 248 – Not so Deathly Lair, and to Arwic!

At one time, there was a well-known Portal from the valley with the Mite Maze to and from Arwic. At the top end of the valley, nearer the mountain, was a well-known olthoi Dungeon called the 'Lair of Death'. It had been an introduction to the olthoi for a great number of low-Level adventurers from Ispar who had never fought them before, who had died under the grace of the Deathstones many times figuring out how to fight them, cementing the hatred of olthoi for a whole new generation of people.

There was nothing but to go investigate the place, which represented the oldest olthoi expansion outside the Olthoi North. This was the place the incursions of the olthoi into the Mite Maze came from, territorial instincts fueling the constant conflicts, the infinite Summons in the Maze winning in the end, and Harlune's reinforcement of the place defying the olthoi's desire to change the ecology inside it.

The wild tribes killing off wandering olthoi if they could, and instinctively destroying the mushrooms and fungi the olthoi spread, had basically kept the bugs mostly contained to the North in force, or at least to the territory of their hives. They had still expanded without adventurers constantly cutting them down, but the low magic had definitely hampered their efforts, and the Hea were at least smart enough to mow them down whenever they saw them.

Thus, we went into the place and emptied it out of the living and the Summoned. There was a Matron at the bottom of the place, where once the most powerful olthoi was a Noble, and she had an acid pit there raising a few grubs. Everything died, but it wasn't all vivified. The place was there to train low Levels, a Dungeon that was a resource, and if it attracted living olthoi to be wiped out as well, that was a bonus, not a detraction.

We charted it out in its rings and circles to the bottom, and posted it to the Map for the careful and determined to test themselves against, once we expanded up here. In the meantime, squads of adventurous and eager sorts could venture up here to clear it out on a regular basis, as surely the living olthoi would be restocking it. From there, it was south overland, wiping out any olthoi landspawns and Sealing those points as we passed by, headed for the ruins of Arwic.

Arwic had an up and down history that the Mick had been eager to relate. Early in his career, it had rivaled and then surpassed Mayoi and Zaikhal as the city of adventurers on Dereth, the place to see and be seen. The biggest claim to fame for the city was an abandoned mine Dungeon near the city, occupied by lesser undead confined to the place. Down at the very bottom of the Abandoned Mine had been the Subway, the largest collection of Portals to the settlements of Osteth.

If you wanted to get to almost any of the cities of eastern Dereth quickly, then Arwic was where you settled in and based yourself, heading off to the Subway to get to those places. Arwic had eventually been attacked and destroyed in one of the regular island-shattering events or invasions by the virindi or shades or whatever, but the Subway was too important, and so Arwic had been rebuilt, this time with high walls, grander buildings, wards, and became even more important.

The one detractor had been the establishment of the Town Portal Network. Harlune and Asheron had both been involved in that effort, massively bending the naturally existing Portals and placing them in a new extra-dimensional space. They removed the Portals from their locations around Osteth and beyond and placed them in one location with over twice as many Portals as the Subway, one far more conveniently accessed from ALL the cities so linked.

That move had removed the biggest reasons to remain in Arwic, but it had remained an important base of operations, used by many factions as their primary point of contact, instead of Dereth's nominal capital of Cragstone. That had likely saved a lot of the civilians here when the Fall came. Not only were there some high-level 'retired' people here who'd survived the Fall, they had managed to band up and withdraw, while the initial attacks had been fended off by the walls of the city…

and there was no Killer Drudge nearby coming into the city and killing everyone. Arwic had probably had the highest number of paramount survivors of any of the towns, as plenty of semi-retired adventurers NOT wearing all their Gear had lived in the area. They had formed the core of the force that had headed south, linking up with King Borelean and eventually making it to the Vesayans. The walls were still standing, as the olthoi hadn't massed in numbers enough to overcome the ley line link for the walls.

It was easy to see that they regularly swept in and cleared the place, given the tracks and scarring from acid and stone-cleaving pedipalps on the buildings, and the utter lack of things living there larger than rats. The olthoi had marked the place with acidic spoor, letting everyone know that this place was off-limits. The wild tribes who had thought to shelter here had paid time and again for trying to do so, keeping the blood rivalry with them fresh and powerful.

A reason the olthoi had not moved in permanently existed to the northwest of the city, a crater where one of the Shadow Spires that had attacked and destroyed the city had been brought down and destroyed. The corrupted energies had wrought Summons of powerful shades and mukkir about the crater that were a convenient enemy to fight for local adventurers. The residents had eventually managed to clear the Summons points…

but it was quite simple to observe from afar that the reports from the Hea were absolutely true, and the black figures of powerful shades and the spidery forms of the twisted mukkir were once again residing in the crater there. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Entrances to the city were located on the west and south sides.

The movable gates had been chopped down and cast aside by olthoi and other intruders, while the great rows of Empyrean Columns, their true purpose unknown but famous for being used as jumping tests for the competent and athletic, lined both roads coming into the city. There were many farms and small homes in the vicinity, outside the walls, all of them now abandoned to the rats, shreth, dillos, and reedsharks. Kris pointed out the entry to the famous Arwic Mines, another key reason for the early growth of Arwic.

It had led to a mine overrun by banderling spawns, yet still worked by the natives for its iron, copper, and pyreal, which never seemed to really run out. At the bottom of it was a link to another mine, this one claimed by the Gotrok clans. It was the ultimate cause of the rivalry with the Gotrok, due to the constant intrusion by Isparians eager for combat. The Lugian Mines had in turn led to another Portal to a Dungeon dominated by the undead.

Conquering all the Dungeons connected to Arwic was basically the litmus test for calling yourself an adventurer among the roustabouts of Dereth. We made one circuit inside Arwic on foot, enough to Map the place, attract a dozen nests of over-aggressive rats led by the wicked fire-breathing Mountain Rats, and even observed the remains of the Legendary Chests that had appeared in one of the buildings there. They had coughed up the finest loot to the Legendary Keys awarded by the powers that be in Dereth at the time…

Keys that said powers had no idea how to make, or how they had made them back then, just like the Chest themselves, the Mana Forges in other cities, and so much more. Briggs regarded everything we painted into the Map solemnly, and began making plans. We wiped the rats out, and when we left, the entrances to the city were completely sealed behind by walls of stone ten feet thick. Arwic would be retaken and re-manned, as soon as enough soldiers Leveled enough to fight for it and hold it.

Our goal was on the road going south out of town. There was a small village down there, about a mile outside of the walls of the city, well past the columns lining the way into the place. When Arwic was first destroyed, the residents had relocated to those peripheral villages. Most of them had resettled back into the city when it was rebuilt, but a number, led by Magus Guthima the Wise and her good friend Laqisha the scribe, had remained outside of the city.

The town's major supplier of magical components, Guthima had remained outside of the city itself right up through the Fall, and had been the leaders of the civilian survivors heading south to the Sho lands afterwards. They were now fixtures in Freehold and the royal court there. The other famous inhabitant of the area had resided in a farm near Laqisha's two-story home further south from Guthima's shop at the end of the columns, usually to be found in the barn there, day or night.

She was an NPC, nobody actually knew her name, and her Level didn't seem to indicate the prowess needed to hold such a title. However, if you brought trophies from the olthoi to her, she had endless supplies of armor and weapons and other rewards, especially Karma, to give to you for them. As a result, every single adventurer who killed olthoi knew of her and had profited from her.

Like the Collectors, she had refused to leave when it was time to go, meaning she was the only living Isparian in the environs of Arwic. The Hea had reported that dead olthoi south of Arwic were a common sight, especially around this village. Their scouts and hunters had also reported that the Olthoi Hunter was still at her post, and her barn was maintained and the animals about it cared for.

She was no longer there at night, and the Hea had wondered if she was living in Laqisha's old house, which seemed to have endured the time and elements as long as her barn had. They had never actually seen her hunting the olthoi there, but who else could it be? She was people's first contact with the forces who had organized themselves to face the olthoi, a legacy of hatred and revenge against the creatures that had killed and enslaved them after their arrivals from Ispar.

There was no doubt that group had been well-funded and well-connected among the older folks of Dereth, a network of contacts that included bandit leaders and former High Queen Elysa Strathelar herself, ensuring that deathly intent against the olthoi was never going to be forgotten or die.

It was dawn as we walked down the road to the south, leaving the columns outside the city behind, the crumbling remains of the village ahead of us dominated by one barn and one two-story home worthy of a wealthy person's abode. Guthima's old shop at the end of the columns and by the southern Welcome to Arwic sign was in ruins, chopped apart by infuriated olthoi at some point in time.

Likewise, the stone pole from which had hung the proud banner of Arwic was fallen and broken, and the Town Crier doomed to remain there was also now absent, likely another victim of the olthoi and their ability to eventually crack the System's settings. There were a lot of rabbits and chickens in the area, which was a good sign as far as predators were involved, but that meant something was killing off said predators.

There were known to be subtle Wards around all the settlements which discouraged wandering real wild creatures from getting close to them, efficacy varying dependent on how many actual living residents of such areas there were. For instance, wild phyntos wasps rarely intruded into Freehold in the Vesayans at all, despite tons of potential prey in the form of humans being there. The more people were in such areas, the more powerful the Wards were.

Only the weakest creatures could intrude, expanding to wider areas as more people settled an area. Even the residual elements of them had kept anything stronger than a Mountain Rat away from Arwic, and the Summons of creatures I'd seen had been even less powerful in the area, with the largest being a powerful Hunter Shreth sitting there waiting to kill something in the distance.