After a recent foray onto the ice sheets of Frost Gale Ray found the warm desert sun to be refreshing. He had little experience in the Zeinav, even during his years as a bandit they'd avoided the place in favor of woodlands and swamps where it was easier to hide from retribution. As he crested a dune and looked at the expanse before him, a long and wide horizon of dunes under a cloudless sky, he was glad to have made his way here. He raised a prayer to the Wanderer aloud as he continued to walk along in no particular direction. 

After cresting another dune while still praying aloud he barely noticed the massive crater in time to pull his foot back from over the edge as his eyes widened in surprise. A trickle of sand, disturbed by his steps, fell over into the quiet darkness. Ray could only make out some stone walls below the earth from above the hole.

"What in the hells is this?" He muttered under his breath, glancing about to see if it was the only landmark around him. 

"Seeker, our path continues below. Enter." Qil commanded Ray to move forward, but jumping into a random hole in the desert was a bit of an ask even from a celestial.

Ray sighed. Feeling comfortable in the isolation of the sands he responded to Qil aloud. 

"What about jumpin into'a hole in the desert is supposed to cause me personal growth? Soon enough you'll be having me hop into the mouth of some rampaging beast as it's the 'next step of our journey'"He made finger quotations in the air as he said the last part.

Ray chuckled as Qil stammered in frustration. He stopped in surprise as a sound of movement came from nearby...

Ak’ka did not like the heat. If she could have her way of things she wouldn’t have even come so far down south to the desert at all, if it weren’t for the fact that she’d heard that Zeinav had no shortage of powerful mages. The chances that she would find the man who had ruined her clan’s reputation were little, but Ak’ka would leave no stone unturned in her search. That meant enduring the scorching heat as she combed every inch of the desert, searching for any sign of the face that had been burned into her memory.

However, the sands held no more answers for her than any other place she had searched so far.

What she found instead was another person, standing in the middle of the vast expanse of stand, muttering to himself. At first, Ak’ka wondered if she’d run into some sort of bandit. She heard Zeinav had a bunch of them that liked to rob unsuspecting travelers, but hadn’t really cared. Any thug in these lands would have a hell of a time dealing with the hulking half-orc of a woman. She carried no visible weapon, but only an idiot would think that made her any less dangerous.

At second glance, though, he didn’t look like he was waiting to attack Ak’ka and steal her money. In fact, he didn’t look like he was doing much of anything at all… except for staring into a gaping hole at his feet.

Well, that was interesting.

Ak’ka took a step forward, aiming to get a look down the hole, when the man suddenly noticed she was there. Ak’ka kept moving, body language casual to show the stranger she had no intention of attacking, strolling up to the side of the hole. It was too dark for her to make anything out, so she turned back to the one-armed stranger.

“So what do you think is down there?” She asked with a toothy grin that showed off her tusks. “Maybe some buried treasure?” Even if there wasn’t, it sure as hell beat anything else this shithole had to offer so far.

Ahh, as fate would have it, the moment he felt comfortable enough to have a normal conversation with Qil was also the one where a stranger happened upon him. Ray awkwardly shifted his stance, standing up straighter and blinking a few times as he looked the newcomer over to assess if they were a threat. Despite his best attempts his cheeks were still reddened by embarrassment as he tried to put on a serious face. This was made all the more difficult as Qil's giggling filled Ray's head...

The stranger gave off a larger than life aura as she strolled casually down next to the hole. She was a hulking, muscular, and enormously tall half-orc with as many scars as Ray. He was certain she meant him no harm as she seemed far from the type to bluff, if she wanted to fight she'd probably have thrown him down the hole already. As she asked about the hole Ray was relieved she had decided to ignore his mumblings, breathing out a relieved breath and relaxing slightly.

"Dunno... Maybe a buncha meaningful experiences that will help us grow as people." He spoke with obvious sarcasm and chuckled to himself afterwards. 

"Either way, I've got a gut instinct that tells me I should hop down there and find out."

Ray rolled his shoulders and neck, loosening himself up. Taking two steps back he looked to the half-orc with a slight smile. 

"Name's Ray, by the way." He said as he stepped forward and hopped down into the darkness below. 

The drop was further than he'd expected, the light of sun faded as he fell and was replaced by eery silence and darkness all around. Instead of the pile of soft sand that Ray had expected to find below he landed with a loud splash in a body of water. Water went up his nose and the force of impact stung his face and sent pain through his body, worse yet was the chill. The water was almost glacial and felt like fire on his skin it was so opposite from the burning sun above. He swam to the surface and took a breath, coughing out the water he'd inhaled and wiping his face clean. From where he swam, even as his eyes adjusted, he could see no dry land. The room was shaped like a dome with the top missing where the hole was and walls of black stone. Four tunnels, or at least darker spaces, were visible along the walls. The evenly spaced tunnels in the circular room reminded him of a compass and its points.

“Meaningful experiences are pretty, but they ain’t worth shit.” Ak’ka said, laughing along with the guy, who introduced himself as Ray before hopping down into the abyss without any more fanfare. There was the sound of a loud splash and coughing as Ray reemerged- Ak’ka gave him a few seconds to move out of the way before jumping in herself, her larger form causing a considerably larger splash upon impact that sent large ripples through the ice-cold water.

She was greeted by the same sight as Ray when she swam back up, though without being able to see in the dark it was hard to make out more than a couple of blurry tunnels leading in all directions from the light of the tunnel they’d come in through. She looked around, only mildly surprised to see that Ray was on his own. "Name's Ak'ka, by the way."

“So, your other guy go ahead, or…” Maybe he really was talking to himself out there all alone. Ak’ka wouldn’t judge if he was. She heard the desert heat gave you visions or something like that.

“Looks like some underground sewer system to me.” She said as she looked around. There was no ground in sight, which was just fine with Ak’ka. “Means we got a hell of a swim ahead of us. So do we pick a tunnel at random, or do you have another one of those instincts telling you which direction to go?” She was starting to get excited about this adventure. This Ray guy had accidentally found something big- maybe an entire hidden city. She had only been half-joking about treasure but now that thought didn’t seem so impossible.

Ray swam a short distance, the missing arm always made it difficult, before hearing another enormous splash and being hit by a small wave. He turned, half expecting some monster to snap him up, to find Ak'ka peddling over to him seemingly unfazed by the freezing water. Then she asked about the other guy... what other... Ah.

So she had heard him.

"I was just... ah, praying, yeah..." He stammered slightly as he struggled through the lie. 

"Anyways... Best just choose one and swim, my instincts must have been too scared to jump along with us."  

He then simply began to swim, slowly and with some difficulty, using a modified butterfly stroke. He chose the tunnel to the north of them for no particular reason. If the gods would favor them with a spot of dry land soon he would be grateful. As they swam paranoia set in as he imagined all the creatures that could survive in this underwater sewer system, he'd heard tales of terrifying things lurking below such dark waters and their forms now appeared below him as he swam.

He tried to convince himself it was his mind playing tricks on him. A time or two he could have swore something brushed against his leg as he swam. It was only when a sound of water splashing off in the distance echoed through the tunnels that he stopped and turned to his companion.

"Did you hear that, or am I just paranoid?" His voice was low and fear lined it as he spoke.

“Oh. Praying. Cool. You one of those religious guys?” Ak’ka asked as she swam after Ray. What she’d heard sure as hell didn’t sound like prayer, but she didn’t meet enough men of the cloth to dispute that. Apparently, Ray decided to pick one of the tunnels at random. What was just fine with her- taking time to think things through was for people who were too scared to take action.

“Sounds good to me.”

She paddled a bit awkwardly after Ray, making big splashes in the water that weren’t especially stealthy or silent. She had to admit, she was impressed by Ray’s ability to swim and keep up despite being down an arm. She had a hell of a lot of respect for folks that didn’t let setbacks like that impede them. She kept a slow pace behind the one-armed priest at a slow pace, keeping an eye out for monsters for an entirely different reason. Things had been quiet so far, almost too eerily silent in her opinion. Ruins and history were cool and all, she guessed, but she longed for the thrill of battle, a chance to fight whatever might be hiding down here.

Undead things maybe? If this hold had just opened in the ground then maybe they’d run into zombies that had been down here for thousands of years. That would make a hell of a fight if they did. She wondered how good Ray would be in a fight, though. If he was out here alone in the desert, where there were plenty of bandits, she figured he was probably confident enough to handle himself.

Just as she was about to ask him if he was any good at fighting, she heard a splash somewhere in front of them, too far away to make out what it was, but definitely something that had come from deeper in the tunnel and not from behind. Ak’ka grinned in anticipation in stark contrast to Ray’s fear, picking up her pace as she swam through the dimly lit tunne.

“I dunno what it is, but we’re gonna have to confront it if we wanna get any further. You comin' or not?" She laughed. "Don't worry. If you're afraid, I'll protect ya."

As Ak'ka spoke her confidence sounded more like bravado in the moment. How could someone not be afraid of drowning in the jaws of some underground Goliath? He saw no gills on the woman which only reinforced his guess that she was either foolhardy, crazy, or both. He gladly allowed her to take the lead and tried his best to keep up with her. He muttered a prayer between strokes as they swam, distracting himself and pleading for help all at once. 

Unbeknownst to either swimmer; behind and around Ray multiple slimy tentacles, tipped with pads of sharp hooklike claws, slowly rose from the water.

"I am a healer from a religious order, not a merman. I'll come because I have to, if I'd known this was down here I'd have walked off and--" A sound of water slushing and a slight gurgle replaced Ray's voice in the tunnel behind Ak'ka. All at once the tentacles had gripped and submerged him, a scream escaped only as bubbles that blurbed to the surface. 

Below the water Ray found himself bound in a mess of clawed tentacles that hooked into his flesh and pulled him deeper into the frigid water. Qil's power flooded out of his eyes illuminating the dark water below and showing a horrific site. A creature resembling an octopus with a shell and scaly skin. He was being tugged towards an open circular mouth lined with rows of messy teeth.

If not for Qil's presence he would have died of fright in that moment.

Instead he summoned his blades, one rising from the scabbard at his waist and the other appearing out of thin air. Each moved through the water without his needing to touch them and took a swipe at the tentacles dragging him into the depths. As the first blade struck into a tentacle it was clear that they had no momentum in the water, he instead tried to saw into the flesh as he was pulled closer and closer to a very painful bite. 

Ray was actually starting to sound a bit annoyed at this whole ordeal- at least, he was, until his rant was suddenly cut off, and Ak’ka turned around just in time to spot the bubbles rising from the spot Ray had been swimming only seconds ago.

“Oh, hell.” Ak’ka’s eyes widened as she stared into the dark waters, trying to get a good look at where Ray had gone. “Is this some kind of prank?”

A few seconds passed with no response, and no priest jumping out from the waters to scare her. Did priests even pull pranks or was that against their religion? She’d have to remember to ask Ray later, once this was all said and done.

Whether she could actually handle a water monster or not wasn’t even a question on her mind as Ak’ka took a deep breath, trying to hold as much air as she could for what she was about to do.

She dove underwater, powerful limbs able to propel her a bit faster than a normal person might be able to swim, when she caught sight of a blurry figure- Ray- being dragged deeper down, unable to break free despite his thrashing.

And then she saw the octopus.

Whoa.

Well, Ak’ka hadn’t fought anything that big before, but there was a first time for everything, and considering that beast was about to take a bite out of her new one armed priest friend, she figured now was as good a time to start as any rather than sitting around with her thumb up her ass.

It was then that another hooked tentacle, unbeknownst to her, attempted to snake its way around the hulking half-orc and wrap itself around her leg. Ak’ka grunted as she was suddenly yanked in the same direction as Ray, but she didn’t exactly have a sword to deal with the problem. All she had was her fists, which she managed to wrap around the tentacle currently holding her, and yank until she managed to rip the tentacle in half.^[1]

One down… many more to go.

Ak’ka could worry about the little guys later. Right now, she had to focus on making it to Ray and free him before that thing tried to eat him. She propelled herself forward through the water, attempting to reach out and grab Ray.

---

1. Bull's Strength

The dark water was filled with a frenzy of activity now as the octopus writhed in pain due to its missing tentacle. Ray saw only a cloud of blood with no known source amid the frigid waters, his focus was on freeing himself and nothing more. As the tentacles drug him closer and closer to an untimely demise he kicked and pulled against the monster. Something seemed to change with the beasts activity as it pushed itself away in the water, further towards the entrance of the underwater tunnels. 

"Seeker, panic is clouding your judgement!" Qil took over, forcing himself into control. As he did so a pair of pale golden antlers grew atop his head, and a new arm burst into being where one had been missing covered in pale gold scales. 

With Qil in charge Ray's body relaxed in the grip of the octopus despite his lack of air. The blades also slowed, no longer did they frantically saw at the tentacles holding Ray. Instead they drove down in the water, each one jamming itself into the monster's mouth. The octopus bit down forcefully, finding its mouth pierced and sliced by two swords burning with holy energy. The tentacles released Ray and the octopus shot away into the dark waters with a trail of blood flowing from its jaws. As the beast receded Qil relinquished control to Ray once more, the arm and horns remained though. 

The ordeal was far from over, Ray had been drug deep into the water and now had no breath left in his lungs. As he found himself in control once more the pain of lacking oxygen greeted him alongside the burning cold of the waters. He looked about himself, spotting Ak'ka heading towards him and stretched an arm out towards her as his vision slowly faded. He kicked with his legs but the fight had left him tired and with little air he could produce only enough force to keep himself from sinking deeper. 

Dark red clouds of blood pooling in the water made it hard for Ak’ka to see much of what was happening. Underwater, noise didn’t exactly reach you the same way- she thought she mighta’ heard the sounds of struggle and clashing steel, which was probably a figment of her imagination since she was pretty sure Ray didn’t even have a sword. That didn’t matter though, not when she’d broken through the cloud and saw two things.

The first, much to her endless disappointment, was that Ray somehow beat her to the punch in fighting the monster. In the dark waters she could barely make out it’s form as it retreated further into the depths, clearly having decided that this prey wasn’t worth it.

The second was Ray himself, desperately kicking in an attempt to make it to the surface but fighting a losing battle.

Aw, man, I wanted a piece of that thing…

More important than her unquenched bloodlust, though, was making sure that Ray got to the surface okay. Ak’ka propelled herself downward, getting close enough to wrap her arms around Ray’s torso. All she needed for this was her legs, powerful enough to pull the two of them back to the top, where both land dwellers were greeted with the sweet sensation of being able to draw air back into their lungs once more.

Ak’ka’s breathing was haggard as she kept a tight grip on Ray, making sure the guy wouldn’t slip back into the water while his consciousness was still slipping away. She coughed, spitting up a wad of cold water and gunk into the pool beside her before finally managing to speak.

“You alright there, Priesty? That was a hell of a monster you just took on.” There was no unease in her voice as she spoke- mostly concerned. Ak’ka herself wasn’t scared of what might be ahead in this place. As a matter of fact, she welcomed the challenge. But not everyone was as foolhardy as her, and if Ray didn’t wanna press forward, she needed to find a way to get him back to the surface. “You good to keep going? We can always turn back if you need. It’s not like we’re getting paid for this or anything.”

A sensation of great relief met Ray as he caught sight of Ak'ka swimming down towards him. The powerful arms that hugged his torso were no less strong than they looked. In any other situation he'd be embarrassed and uncomfortable yet at this moment if he could have turned to hug her he would have. She'd just saved him from dying the worst death he could imagine, drowning. As he surfaced and drew a rasping breath for air, coughing up water all the while, his vision returned and he felt his consciousness steadying once more. 

Once he had recovered more he listened to his savior as she questioned his resolve. He had no thoughts of returning to the surface just yet but he also wanted nothing more to do with swimming.

"I can't go back, but I know a better way to continue."

Ray closed his eyes and allowed some of Qil's presence to manifest about him. A pair of golden scaled wings burst into existence from his back. Water ran off of them as they stretched above the cold surface. The wings lifted Ray out of the waters and with rhythmic flaps kept him hovering amid the tunnel. He reach his arm out towards Ak'ka, offering to remove her from the cold water as well. He hoped they would find dry land before the effect wore off.

"Please, allow me to repay you for saving my life. This is the least I can do." He smiled down at her, gratefulness obvious on his face.

Huh. The last thing she’d expected was for Ray to suddenly sprout gilded wings like he was some kinda draconic angel savior here to sweep Ak’ka off her feet. “Whoa!” She cheered, honestly impressed as he hovered in the air for a minute to dry off before extending a hand to her, all gallant and chivalrous and shit. Almost reminded Ak’ka of a prince from one of Ein’s storybooks, if one-armed, winged priests even made proper princes. She guessed she didn’t exactly make for a proper princess, so they were even.

“You sure you can support my weight?” She teased, but honestly, she didn’t mind getting outta the cold for a bit, if he was offering. Ak’ka grabbed his outstretched arm with her own calloused, scarred palm. “You ain’t gotta pay me back for anything. It’s what any decent person would do.” Though she was happy to get the hell out of this freezing water.

Somehow, Ray actually managed to lift her up out of the water - Ak’ka let out a startled laugh as the two made their way through the air, her glee bouncing off the walls and sending an eerie echo through the silent tunnel. Beneath them, the water churned with more dangerous fellows that would easily take a chunk out of them. Every once in a while, a big fish jumped out at them, hungry for blood, but Ak’ka kicked them back into the water with her boot, protecting both her and Ray. God, were they ever gonna find solid ground?

Eventually, the tunnel started to widen. Ak’ka didn’t have the best eyes for seein’ in the dark, but she could just barely make out some kinda rounded room at the very end, where the water finally gave away to gravelly ground.

“Over there!” She pointed out in case Ray hadn’t spotted it. “Solid ground. Damn, I never thought I’d miss it so much.”

Lifting Ak'ka proved to be more of a challenge than he'd expected. The weight of the warrior was just barely below the limits of his strength and the longer the flight went on the more exhausted he felt. She impressed him with her ability to, even while suspended awkwardly in the air, combat the creatures of the deep with brutality and efficiency. The amount of times Ray prepared himself to be drug into the water by some strange creature just to have Ak'ka kick it back into the depths would leave him with a nervous tick, he was sure. 

The amount of relief he felt as Ak'ka pointed out the approaching dry land urged him on and with a final burst of energy he flew in for a landing. Dropping Ak'ka down first he then allowed the wings to dissipate into light, recovering some of the energy used in the process. As the wings faded he plopped onto the ground gently and surveyed the room.

It was still dark here, but Ray saw no end to the tunnel in sight. The gravel shore they had landed upon seemed to be meant for small boats or something similar as a moss covered wooden dinghy of some ancient and foreign design lay rotting on the shore. Perhaps it was another set of explorers who'd wandered in the last time the entrance revealed itself... 

"I never could have imagined this below a desert, how could they even build something down here?" He walked a bit further into the opening, amazed at the cool, clean air that flowed through the structure. 

"Perhaps, Seeker, you should think on a different time scale..." Qil asked as a teacher would a pupil, urging further thought.

"May as well keep going, I can handle anything but more water..." Ray said in exasperation

After a short stroll off the beach a small pulsing light could be seen along the center of the path. It glowed dimly with a white light and seemed to be emitted by a strip of odd stone running down the center of the path. A short while further and more pulsing light could be seen appearing from the dark.

They walked out onto a ledge, with stairs leading down into a massive open area of the cave. Before the two of them arose the outline of a city as buildings, temples, gates, walls, statues, and all other sorts of structures appeared. Each one seemed to be outlined in the same glowing stone that lie down the walkway's center. As the pulse of light dimmed and grew the buildings seemed to take turns lighting the depths of the cavern, the whole display felt as if it followed some deliberate rhythm. The buildings were still too far to make out details but the whole complex was massive, spanning more cave than they had crossed so far. It would take months to fully explore this place...

"By The Wanderer... This is a work of the gods, surely..." Ray stood dumbfounded, looking out over the light show of a skyline in front of him. 

“Ain’t it built the same way they build the pyramids, but just kinda below ground instead of above ground?” Ak’ka wasn’t really sure how in the hell they built things in the desert. She assumed that they just kinda built the thing and it got buried over time. What she was really confused about was how they got so much water in a dry land. There was even the remains of some boat around here, probably left behind by weaker adventurers, who’d tried the same thing down here, but didn’t fare as well as Ak’ka and Ray.

Secretly Ak’ka shared Ray’s distaste at the prospect of finding yet more water. Even though she was just fine at it, she wasn’t much for swimming. “Same here.” She agreed, following Ray down the path. With no way to go but forward, they were left to keep wandering until something happened, or the environment changed around them. It just felt like endless gravel-sand, until they spotted a light in the distance. In the dark, the beacon was like a lighthouse.

“… Huh. What’s up there?” She muttered to herself, kicking a piece of gravel with her boot, following Ray to the side of the ledge. Honestly, at this point, she wasn’t expecting much from the venture.

What she saw blew her expectations out of the water entirely.

“Damn.” Her exclamation was a lot less elegant than Ray’s own. She’d never seen anything like this before, something so purposeful… and larger than any city she’d ever seen. Ak’ka had maybe expected a lair with some treasure. But this? Ak’ka wasn’t one for words, but there was something beautiful about this place.

And creepy as hell, considerin’ there didn’t seem to be anything alive down here but the two of them.

“You think a god made this?” Ak’ka asked, wrinkling her nose. She wasn’t sure why but something about that felt wrong. “But if they were gonna make something so nice, why would they bury it underground?” Even if the place was empty, the entire city felt… alive, somehow. If the gods had carved something like this, then she had a feeling they’d wanna show off their work of art, not hide it away where no one could find it.

Yeah, creepy wasn’t a good enough word to describe this place.

She clapped her hands together, the sound echoing in the vast emptiness of the chamber. “Well, no better time to find out what this place is than the present.” It was way too big for the two of them to search on their own. But they could take a look. Maybe there was some godly treasure down here or something like that. She shot a backwards glance at Ray before making her way down the stairs.

Her footsteps echoed all the way down.

Ray was taken aback by Ak'ka's comment as to why the gods built the complex underground. He chuckled at her before he could catch himself, the sight before him had caused him to lower his guard somewhat. 

"The gods are strange. Why do they do half the things they do?" Ray responded simply, shaking his head and walking forward along with Ak'ka stopping at the stair's edge as she continued on.

"Seeker, the magnitude of this discovery is lost on you..." Qil said condescendingly. Whatever that meant, he decided to prove his soul's ride-a-long wrong, and discover the importance of this place.

As he watched Ak'ka descend a feeling of imminent danger edged into his mind before fading, like an itch that ends before it can be scratched. He pushed any worry away and followed along behind her, glancing about himself wearily. 

"Might want'a slow down, never know what's lying asleep in places like this..." Ray spoke in a hushed voice, even still his voice echoed through the massive cave. 

They closed on the city and it's details grew more apparent. The buildings were diverse, each looked different from the others and of them all one stood apart in its grandeur. At the center of a small raised area in the middle of the town stood an enormous inverted triangle. It was magnificent in its defiance of traditional architecture, looking unalike any building he'd seen in his lifetime. The base of the building was less than a third of the top's width and the structure rose a solid 75 feet from the ground, dwarfing all surrounding structures and appearing as a crown jewel atop the city.

Ray pointed towards the structure. "If there's anything important left, I imagine that's a good place to start looking."

His mouth was open in awe as they walked, still trying to take in the scale of the underground city and it's alien design.