A lone human ran through the dark and gloomy underground. In his hands he clutched a letter from his Boss. It was a letter that had a powerful curse placed on it that, if opened by anyone other than the intended reader, would cause a massive explosion that could demolish a sizable village. He panted heavily as he stumbled over a rock and fell flat on his face. Despite the pain, he got back up and kept running.

He could feel the glare their beady red eyes burrowing into his back, their horrible breath on his neck and hear their maddening cackle in his ears. He needed to reach his destination, activate a specific device that he carried, put down the letter and then somehow get back to the surface.

“Why me?!” He yelled to himself inside his own mind, “Why would The Boss send me to this gods-forsaken place?! What the fuck were those things?! Oh, Gods, I think they are close!”

Thankfully, he reached his destination not a moment too soon and threw down a crystal ball infused with an unknown spell. The Boss had told him that it would end his mission and relieve him of duty. As the crystal orb smashed into the floor, he dropped the letter and waited for the teleportation spell to kick in.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Nothing. No teleportation, no escape, just the sound of something monstrous in front of him. Thankfully his eyes were closed, so he could not see the thing or things in front of him, and he wanted to keep it that way. He knew something or multiple somethings were standing tall before him, and he did not want to-.

“Why are we here, Man-thing? How and why did you bring us here?”

Oh, by the Gods! That voice nearly made him hurl!

“Hm? What is this? A letter?”

Oh fuck! Oh Shit! If the thing in front of him opened that letter he would certainly di-!

“Hm? Wait a minute. I know this seal! You sly dog, sending us a missive after all this silence, what do you have to say to me, or rather, us?”

Please don’t open that letter!

He heard the sound of the seal being broken and waited for the inevitable explosion, but it never came.

All that came was the sweet release of death.

…

Chuu opened the letter she had found on the ground with both hands while using her tail to smash open the head of the Man-thing in front of her. The letter bore a familiar mark, one from a Man-thing, or rather, a Human servant of her beloved Vaile. As the envelope popped open, a small disk-shaped object fell out and into her paws.

“Clever. No way of this kind of communication being intercepted. Add in the obvious curse on the letter and no one in their right mind would try and mess with this.”

Chuu placed the disk-like object on the ground and stepped back, the rest of the Five-Clawed Paw helping her form a semi-circle around the object. A cone of light shot out from the upwards-facing side and coalesced into the form of a very, very old human man. He looked to be in his late 120s by Modern Earth standards, old, wrinkly and obviously in poor health. He looked mere weeks away from death at best.

Still, the man addressed the Five-Clawed Paw as if they were old friends and with a smile on his ancient face.

“It has been quite a long time, has it not? You all certainly seem rather youthful, but I guess that is what happens when you suck the vitality out of hundreds of thousands of your own kind every day or so.”

“And you, you old fart, look quite well for your age. You are even older than we are and are our senior in service to our beloved Vaile, but you still have not surrendered to the reaper just yet. How goes the criminal underworld?”

“Ah, you know how it is. Same old, same old.”

Chuu had a smile on her twisted face and it was not one of sadism or malice. Rather it was one just like the human who was talking with them, one of friendship and comradery, something foreign to her kind.

“So, what is going on? You would not have sent this if you did not have something urgent to talk about.”

The old man chuckled.

“You know exactly what I am talking to you about. Lord Vaile was brought here to this world and Skwiik saved him from certain death. It took a lot of string pulling to get that man down there with this and even longer to get him in position without alerting any of your kind.”

“But he did alert them.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t matter. Where is He? Where is our master?”

Chuu and the rest looked downcast at the old man’s question.

“You can’t have gone and gotten him killed, can you? You are all more than capable of fighting off any threat to him.”

“He was kidnapped by the Beard-things.”

The jolly face of the old man fell and was replaced with one of anger.

“They. Did. WHAT?!”

“We had our Husband-King in our suite, but as we came to him one day a bright flash of light took him away. I traced his position with my magic and found he wound up in a Beard-thing Kingdom that currently is long since destroyed. We never found any other trace of his existence anywhere else in the underground, so we have no idea as to what happened to him afterwards.”

The old man growled and slammed his fist on his chair.

“So, he could be dead for all you know?!”

“If he is dead, he had to have been reduced to ash and vapor down to the last bit of clothing, but such a thing is unlikely at worst. As such, we have reason to believe that he is still alive somewhere out in the world, but we do not believe that he is still in the underground. If he is down here, then he is in one of the remaining Beard-thing nest-lairs. But that is quite an improbable situation.”

The old man calmed down at Chuu’s words.

“Then you should know that the Dwarven Merchants and Bankers have posted an Urgent Quest and hired a great many mercenaries to try and either beat you back or hold the line until the rest of their kind can evacuate. Based on what you have told me, it seems that I need to act.”

“So, Seivalt Rodrick Trelawny, the Crusty, Old and Exiled Tyrant who rules Red Mountain is finally moving? I thought you were too busy playing the long game to take over the Trelawny Kingdom?”

“I am!” the old man said with a laugh, “But I can spare a decent number of bodies. Trustworthy and elite bodies, but bodies nonetheless. I do believe we here at Red Mountain need to repay the ‘kindness’ that the Under-Kingdoms showed our Lord. Expect some of my people to be among the masses that will be trying to fight you.”

Chuu was confused, as were the other four who were listening in.

“Don’t get me wrong, old friends!” The old man said with a wink, “You should know all too well that when facing an enemy, one of the worst things you can get from your allies is a stab in the back.”

The old man began to laugh, followed by the hideous laughter of the Rattan ruling council.

“Just try and keep from killing my boys, alright?”

“Then we will expect your ‘boys’ to be smart enough to know whose side they are really on.”

The old man’s face contorted into a sinister-looking grin.

“Oh, don’t you worry, I will only send the best and most loyal; those who know who their allies are and what they look like. They know how to play the game and which side their toast is buttered on; they also have been taught about our Lord and his Chosen. They are as devoted to our Lord as you and I are; after all, to a Red Mountain Bandit loyalty to the Tyrant and our Savior supersedes all other loyalties. More specifically, loyalty to the Savior, our Lord, supersedes all else. I will arrange for everyone in my little ‘family’ to be on the lookout for our Lord; if he is up here, we will find him. But as for the Under-Kingdom Dwarves…Well, these midget bastards did something unforgivable, and we will pay them back a thousand-fold. Red Mountain never forgets, and Red Mountain never forgives…”