Allen MacIssac

The stone stairs on closer inspection were less humanly designed as they were humanly worn into being. Steady stones had been shifted for a safer step, but mostly it was a path made by time. It was another one of those signs that The Pit had history. Nailing home that the Sixty were just the latest people to pass through.

Up the party went, finding the path smoothly etched out for them. Each foot landing on firm ground. A pleasant climb. Without danger of an avalanche, just some stray gravel bouncing down the ragged slope.

On top, the forest stretched out around them, divided by the canyon behind and to the left. The trees were thick enough to block any long-distance sight. Visibility was restricted, but still wider than walking in narrow canyons. Peering up through the foliage was the only way to see the boundary wall. Still, it was enough to tell that the second floor appeared to be a large hollow space roughly spherical.

Tracing the ceiling gave Allen enough information for an estimated size. This level appeared to be several times bigger than the Hall of Perdition. Overall smaller than the Ratsin’s domain, but likely a single chamber. The fire acolyte acknowledged it was early to assume, but that felt like a safe bet to make.

Back home, he had farmed a large variety of things. Beyond a few fields of cash crops, the fire acolyte had a true passion for experimental growing. Seeing how and if something would flourish under various influences. This even extended to trees. His orchards had the standard product producers, but there were areas designated for new trees. Working with them brought a childhood love for forests to a place of higher familiarity. Allen did not recognize any of what grew around him.

Everything green was rightfully green, from the grasses to the leaves to the bushes, but that’s where any familiarity ended. The trees reflected the shape of gnarled oaks while having the smooth bark of beeches. Their leaves were asymmetrical triangles that appeared to change shape at different angles. Picking one off a low limb proved it wasn’t some trick of the light. Tracing the shape hurt the eye. The worst was the feel of the tree. He placed a once calloused hand against the trunk and it resisted like a thick gelatin. A sensation that was disturbingly close to laying a hand upon muscular flesh.

Curiosity had him think of the leathermen on his belt. Images of breaking the tree’s skin to learn why passed through Allen’s mind. A nightmare tree ripping itself out of the ground to retaliate made him hesitate. There was another tool at hand that might offer a less destructive route to knowledge. The fire acolyte still largely thought of his Mana as a weapon against monsters, but Damien had been showing another side of it. Offense was just one easy use for fire. A strong will and practiced hand could turn burning destruction into a practical tool.

He reached out for his Mana and thought of warmth flowing softly towards the tree. Energy and awareness passed from his hand through the bark. Everything else dimmed as Allen focused very carefully on the feedback from the magical created sense. The bark felt very grainy under his palm, beneath that layer was thick, malleable. Below and within was liquid around a steely core. Several impressions came from what the fire acolyte assumed must be a massive reservoir of sap. Sweet, corrosive, and power.

“Huh, why does it need so much sap?” wondered Allen aloud. “What purpose or benefit does it serve?” Theories and concepts bubbled by, but each was more worthless than the last. He could not think of a reasonable mundane reason that a tree would need so much sap as to basically be a holding tank. It had to be a Mana-related reason. His thinking came to a stop there. Mana’s effect on ecology wasn’t something he had any knowledge of.

“Shit, this is all artificial anyways,” he noted, stepping back from the tree. Still very tempted to take a knife to the tree, but that aspect of corrosion in the tree sap held him back. “Studying this place wouldn’t give me any insight. None of its real world.”

“I hear you mumbling to yourself over here,” called out Kai. “Are you freaked out by the near familiarity of these messed-up trees too?”

The fire acolyte looked around to see the prideful acolyte making his way over from the stairs. Thinking perhaps it was time to move out, he searched for everyone. Vivian stood vigil over Amiyah and Analia still making their way up. Phelian and Hector stood guard against any threats from the forest. It would be dangerous to be caught by monsters while on those rough stairs.

“The trees are pretty weird,” agreed Allen, gesturing for the other man to touch the tree. “They’re like water cacti, but with sap instead.”

Kai grimaced at the feel. “That is wrong. Sturdy as a tree apparently doesn’t apply to whatever species this is.”

“Not sure that’s true. Seems plenty stable. What I can’t wrap my head around is the reason any tree would need to store that much sap at one time.”

“Maybe it’s like maple syrup?” shrugged Kai.

Allen frowned and raised an eyebrow. “We don’t tap maple for sap because they have extra, or anything like that. That’s all about taste. This is… I don’t know. Makes no sense.”

“Well, likely just a weird magic thing. At least the tree doesn’t appear to be a monster since it didn’t respond to our prodding. Odd, but harmless.”

“Harmless except the poison,” offered Allen.

“Poison?”

“Uh feels weird to say this… but I used my “Mana senses” and that’s the impression I got from the sap?”

“Hmm maybe it's just a defensive adaptation?” considered Kai. “To keep monsters from tearing them up?”

“Reasonable thought, though the poison could be for discouraging anything from eating the sap,” the fire acolyte argued. “Neither really answers why that has so much sap though.”

Kai grinned, “A mystery for the ages! Imagine the sap could be a delicious syrup that can never be tasted because of slow, agonizing death! … Well, this is boring. I’m ready for some monsters.”

The prideful acolyte strode away to meet up with Vivian who was scowling towards the forest. Allen barely noticed having lost himself to the memories of fresh maple syrup boiled to perfect. He lifted up the knife from the leatherman and used his senses to make a small piercing just deep enough to breach the sap. A dribble flowed around the blade before the bark seemed to flex. His knife was pushed away and the sap pinched off.

The fire acolyte blinked and muttered, “Weird magic shit.” Eyeing the tree for a moment, he turned down to the slather of sap on the knife blade. It was watery as expected, but there was a blue tinge to the substance rather than golden brown. Not quite the same shade from the Ratsin tunnels, but Allen thought it would be similar if concentrated. It made his desire to taste the sap much less.

Still, curiosity moved him to enact his plan. He reached out with his Mana, remembering how the corrosion aspect had felt like a separate part. Warmth synced with the sap and then highlighted the poison. Carefully Allen thought of purification, calling upon memories to call up the concept in pure thought. The toxic was pulled free and disappeared in a trail of blue smoke.

He tasted the cleaned sap and was lost. Sweet, but not unbearably. Electrifying with a mild undertaste of ozone. It came with a rush of energy that drove him into a brief state of jitters. The small amount of Mana that Allen had used today was back and then some.

Laughing, the fire acolyte said, “Shit, that's exactly what I thought a Mana potion would really taste like!”

His mind was working a mile a minute, churning because of the energy high. New theories unfolded one after another. With a new angle of thought, Allen observed the forest. At first, the placement of trees had been unremarkably natural. Picturesque even. Now it looked very different in the details. Too natural in the spacing to allow each tree to grow without competing with each other. You wouldn’t find yourself looking down a row of trees here, but it was clear to him that this was a style of agriculture. Using the natural order to create a perfect growing environment.

“All of this is an orchard…” summed up Allen. “Are Mana potion trees a thing in this world? Or is this place… proof of some kind of biosculpting? Why here? Isn’t this all about fighting monsters?”

The fire acolyte thought on it. While he was fairly sure of several things, there was a deluge of new questions and all he had at hand were speculations, not facts.

“Damn, I can’t wait to bring Damian in on this,” he said, finally shelving that line of thought. Not for long of course, a mystery was something Allen liked to puzzle out. Especially when that something dealt with anything tangibly related to farming.

The party called out, ready to head out. Allen put on his game face on while twirling his rod. He took his place in the middle of their formation, shield bearers in front and the mace-wielding healers in the back. Analia and Amiyah were to either side of him, keeping an eye on the flanks. There was a freedom to moving in a small group. Enjoying it more than getting the security of a larger one. That meant caution was important, but this party had already learned that harsh lesson.

Following the plan, they backtracked along the entrance canyon. Scoping out what had been above them the whole time. As Allen had suspected a good jump would take you to the other side, but it was wide enough for one’s nerves to play havoc at the idea. Slipping would lead to a thirty-foot drop and the gap posed a threat in battle. Leaping across mid-fight would be dangerous. It was effectively a barrier to their movement with the possibility that it wasn’t one to monsters at all.

Their eyes were peeled for anything, but it was starting to feel like a lackadaisical walk through the woods. That made everything tenser, the desire to relax in the fake sunlight was very tempting. No one wanted to be seduced and miss something. The Ratsins had taught them that sometimes silence was a death rattle.

Laboring under their paranoia, they made it to the dividing wall of the floor. Coming to a stop near where the door back to the empty tunnels was below. Nothing had jumped out during their brief walk. Proving that this forest was safer than the tunnels or monsters were sparse near the cliffs. They used the break to study the edge of the floor. A task that Malachi had asked them to look into. Useful to know if there was anything of note about the rock that made up the floor barrier.

Analia and Allen checked with their Mana sense, but there was nothing remarkable. It looked like your average brownish rock. A little overly smooth, but natural enough. Kai tried a few empower wacks of his mace and was able to break off pieces. It appeared to be made of strong stone, though just ordinary stone. Digging out could be an option. Russel would likely be a better judge of that, so Phelian made notes from their investigation in a Molly-provided notebook. The fire acolyte was happy to pass this task back up to the Council. Those Mana trees were still filling him with fun questions. With nothing more to do, the party turned right and vaguely followed the barrier wall as they entered the forest proper. Heading parallel to the distantly flowing river.

The sound of birds grew stronger the deeper they went. Their songs and twitters echoed through the woods. The flutter of wings was just on the edge of hearing. Despite the wide spacing between trees being maintained, the party couldn’t catch sight of the birds themselves. Their movement and play seemed to be limited to the tree tops. Thick foliage prevented more than small glimpses of blurs. There was only the sound of feathers and an unknown crackling sound.

Allen found the more he saw of this place, the more he believed it to be a farm of sorts. At least it had been at some point. He had already noted the pattern of the trees, but the rest of the vegetation followed the same patterns. Bushes that seemed random in their growth were now an apparent pattern. Small crystal flowers that crackled under their feet dotted the grasses. The color of the petal may have been in a sequence too. Though that was likely just his mind running wild with what he had already seen.

What it came down to was nothing was overgrown, everything was placed in a semi-order. A replication of nature. Not just visual, but reflecting growth. It was an ancient style of agriculture to plant groupings of vegetation that liked to grow together in the wild. They each supported the other and also relied more heavily on different nutrients. This style wasn’t as efficient in quantity, though there was a quality to it. Many pairings were much friendlier to the land and natural ecosystem.

A flash of color broke him out of contemplation on the new angle. This new line of questions of why in The Pit was filed away for later. A bird with the vibrant coloring of a jay blue dropped from the foliage. With the wicked claws of a hawk, it landed securely upon the trunk of a tree. Those pointed tips rattled on the bark as it tapped a beak resembling a stiletto. Tap, tap, tappity tap. Shifting laterally or horizontally before doing it all over again.

They had come to a stop to admire the monster. A distinction it earned by the eagle size and crystalline feathers. The bird found a spot that it liked and the long neck bent backward like a snake ready to strike. With one clean and powerful thrust, the beak slid straight through the bark. A slurping sound followed as a bluish glow was emitted by the creature in waves, starting from the beak and ending at the tail feathers. Allen took a step forward to observe it closer, but his foot found a stick that cracked loudly.

The bird whipped around so quickly that there was sap dripping from its beak. Iridescent eyes ringed with blue locked onto the party. A cry like a shrill alarm stung their ears. It warbled and seemed to echo among the trees. Blue forms descended from the branches to latch onto the trunks to stare at them. Phelian gestured for everyone to back up and use the wall of the floor to guard their rear. Dozens of birds were now staring at them, but the cry of the original monster continued.

“The ground!” called out Hector.

The soil around several trees began to swell upwards. Undulating as if the earth between the roots had gained a liquidity state. Like an egg cracking open from the inside, the dirt bubbled into a dome and broke apart. Several scaled mammalian-looking monsters breached the surface. Fangs gleaming blue and veins of energy thrumming between the plates. The beasts looked upwards to the crying bird before being drawn to the humans in a snap.

These newcomers looked like a cross between badgers and pangolins. Seeing defensive scales on such an aggressive animal was definitely intimidating. A strong jaw clanged thick blue fangs. Black talons tore the earth at a brush. The ground beneath the monsters shifted like water lapping in a pond. Cooperation was a scary sight to be seen used against you.

The two groups stared each other down as the alarm died out. First came the shrill screams from the birds and roars from the scaled monsters. Allen and his party roared back, Mana surging from each of them as the battle began. Sharp wings rose into the air and the bulky beasts charged.

In the tunnels worrying about the terrain had been pointless. Damp stone would dry for his flames and azure flora never truly caught fire, only spurted. Due to that, Allen’s first instinct was to chant and blast everything before them. This immediately led to the reflection that starting a forest fire while in the woods was a terrible idea. He was quite glad that Damien had pressed learning to manually control Mana. Not every fight needed large gestures.

His first action was to call flames and create a wall to guard the flank. This pure fire would burn without fuel as long as he funneled Mana into the construct. Damien preferred to “battery power” such spells, but the fire acolyte wanted to keep an open connection just in case. You never knew when it would be useful to have a construct on hand that could be quickly modified.

Seeing the firewall, Analia copied the defensive spell with her own. A gray filmy field appeared to cover that flank. Phelian and Hector stepped forward with shields a glow. Barriers were ready to be summoned at a moment’s notice. Amiyah loosed tracking arrows to harass flying monsters that tried to use the vertical against them. Kai was crouched to launch forward to break the charge while Vivian cast protections on them all.

Allen aimed his rod and began to launch bolts of fire at the birds. Compacted flames that he ignited into explosions to disrupt flyers if a hit couldn’t be landed. He hadn’t quite got a handle on adding tracking to his spells. Contact proved less effective than expected. An aura of power surrounded the birds that resisted his magical flames. Often the best result was knocking one off course and singeing some feathers.

Kai exploded in the middle of the scaled badgers. Their charge was ruined by the brilliant radiance that scoured them. One took the impact head-on, there was the sound of broken plates as that beast was tossed away. The other monsters were left in a daze and the prideful acolyte took full advantage. His empower mace shattered scales. He couldn’t stay in place long. Doing quick zips across the battlefield to bring his might to bear. Orbs of disintegrating darkness appeared in his wake as Analia guarded her teammate against being overwhelmed.

The shield barriers proved to be extremely useful against the flying monsters. Slightly invisible, the birds diving in would knock themselves out. It was quick work for Phelian’s and Hector’s swords to take out the dazed menaces. The scaled badgers were the greater threat. Their tough scales had multiple layers and their earth powers proved very disrupting. One even tunneled in an instant inside their protected ground. Analia was quick on the draw and mercilessly blasted the monster in the face. A quick if gross solution.

His and Amiyah's efforts depleted the sky of threats. It might have taken several shots, but eventually, the birds fell from the sky. That allowed everyone to concentrate on the scaled badgers. Even then it took time to cook, bash, and shoot the monsters into turning to dust. The party was gasping for breath once the last mangled one finally gave up and laid down.

A sickeningly familiar beeping sound broke the post-battle silence.

Sheepishly Phelian pulled out the watch after they all had looked around in confusion. Looking at the digital device he said, “Haha, forgot about that. Looks like we’ve been out an hour. Let’s collect the loot and turn around. We got plenty to report.”

Thinking of the trees and everything else, Allen agreed.