The Bounty Hunter's Bargain

The Bounty Hunter Cressan Maw and his dwarf thief friend Fen travel to the underbelly of Andiron, Bastion of Order, to see about a contract to track those charges with unearthing the Chaos Keys.

Cressan Maw entered the torch lit gloom of the Tower of Inquisition after descending almost a thousand stairs.  Maw was a ranger, used to using his legs, but a thousand stairs was a test for any man.  He was not a member of any of Andiron’s people that normally frequented the tower (for which he counted himself fortunate), so he was denied use of the dwarf-designed clockwork elevator system.  Finished his descent, he rested for a moment against a bare wall.  He took chokleaf from his pouch and began chewing, partly for the ache, partly for the addiction.  The chamber he emerged into was only as wide as the stairs’ entryway, about twelve span wide, twelve span high, twelve span long.  Only two magic bluefire torches lit the chamber, which ended in a single barred door.  It was a simple fact that no one who didn’t have business in the Tower of Inquisition even knew about it, let alone tried to penetrate it.  The only ways in or out were the stairs Maw had just descended, a twin set on the other side of the tower, and the elevator system. 

People who saw the Tower of Justice above, even those who frequented it, marveled at its majesty.  Five hundred span tall, and three times that at its base, it was a massive structure.  Dwarven architects took five years to create it.  The best human and dwarven architects and created it for a very specific purpose; not to be destroyed by seismic activity.  The Tower of Justice in Old Andiron, the Ruined City, fell when some as-yet unexplained quake tore the city asunder.  Only about half the population of the city escaped alive.  Reconstruction on the old site was out of the question, and the construction of New Andiron took many years on a site that the dwarves, experts in all things seismic, determined to be at least risk.  In the mean time, the Andiron people took refuge in Karran Keep, the Andiron stronghold in the nearby mountains. 

The Tower of Justice, the legal center and temple to Andiron, Lord-god of the Truth of the Law, was created as the linchpin of the entire city.  The city of New Andiron spoked out from the Tower for many span, and was surrounded by a multi-layer ring wall designed to be impregnable.  The Tower was the glory of New Andiron, and people from all over the continent, save those who reserved their wonder for the 700 span Obelisk of Novelov, came to the New City to behold it within and without, spending time and coin for weeks at a time while doing so.

No one guessed that the massive structure was but the brighter side of a coin, a distraction from what was constructed below it.

The Tower of Inquisition was the true face of law in Andiron, and it was here where the uglier side of Andiron’s law was practiced.  Public execution was prohibited, so any criminal found guilty of a terminable crime was disposed of below, in the Tower of Inquisition.  When the initial surveying of the underpinnings of New Andiron were performed by the dwarf surveyors’ guild, they had found, to their surprise, a hole in a cavernous space precisely below where the Tower of Justice was planned.  The hole turned out to be a void; a geological phenomenon the dwarves had encountered before, but still hadn’t a solid scientific explanation for.  The void was extensively researched, spelunker specialists mapping its every feature.  It was slightly conical, but reached an interminable distance underground.  There was an old dwarven saying, “Every hole has a purpose.”  Voids seemed to have none.  There was no heat nor glow coming from below, so it wasn’t a volcanic vent, no cold air indicating an underground glacial area, no air movement at all.  It was just there.  

The dwarfs consulted with the architects and planners, and with the priesthood of the Lord-god Andiron, about the void.  There didn’t seem to be any geological problem posed by the void, and it actually added a certain symmetry that the priesthood found to be an omen handed down by Andiron himself (the Andiir, the worshippers of Andiron, felt that natural symmetry was an extension of the natural order in the world, which Andiron was responsible for maintaining). It was then determined, after extensive counsel, how the Towers would be constructed; as reflections of each other.  Between the two would be the living quarters for the regular staff, then the extensive dungeons and jailing areas (the larger jail was located outside the city), then the architectural necessities of preventing the actual tower from collapsing into the lower reaches of the complex, and then the Tower of Inquisition itself, whose center was named the Void of Judgment.  The universal manner of execution for any terminable transgressors was to simply be thrown into the Void.  As far down as the dwarves dared (were contracted) to go into the void, its walls were ground smooth as glass using oxyacetylene torches.  No criminal had ever returned from the void, even though no one had any idea where they ended up.  The Chamber of Judgment, the center of which the void dominated, was surrounded by the traditional thirteen lecterns, attended above by the Justices, below by hooded statues, whose left hands all pointed at a direct angle to the void.  Judgment served above, justice served below.

Maw was growing bored of waiting. Maw’s saliva had dissolved the chokleaf enough so that he could feel its sweet burn in his blood.  He rubbed some of the saliva on the gruesome scar that ran the length of his neck, a scar he wore open and proudly as a badge of honor in battle.  To have suffered such and injury and not only lived, but thrived, spoke volumes for the will of the man who bore it.  He wanted to move on, as he saw a silent helm behind the barred window in the entry door, waiting.  He knew he was expected, but so was his companion, who was yet to arrive.  The silent helm behind the door stared unwavering, and it started making Maw nervous.  It was the helm of one of the dwarves’ semi-sentient constructs, made to look like a man in armor but was all clockwork and dwarf magic.  Finally Maw heard the huffing breath of his companion, who exited the stairway moments later.  The dwarf Fendral Clanless leaned planted himself on the last stair and caught his breath.  As surly and barrel-like as any dwarf, his whiskers were cut short to show that he had disavowed his clan, or they had disavowed him.  Whatever the case, he was lucky no dwarf was about to mock him, either for his whiskers or for the simple fact that he was winded from coming down stairs, thousand-fold though they may be.

Maw turned to him, “Sucking enough wind there?  I didn’t even sound like that when my throat got slashed open.”

“A moment s’all,” Fen said through clenched teeth, struggling to his feet.  He then patted his myriad pockets, which contained all the odds and ends a master thief needed.  Maw rolled his eyes and handed him a bit of chokleaf, as he knew Fen was looking for his.

“Much ‘bliged,” Fen said as he stabbed the chokleaf into the side of his mouth.

“Ready?”

“Ya.  Le’s geddis over wit.”

Maw turned, finally, to the door, where the silent, still helm wateched from the window.  At their approach, a hollow, deep voice emanated from the helm. “PHRASE?”

“Andiron’s Law is the Iron Law, which binds the World of Men and the Realm of Gods.”

After a brief whirring, the voice from the helm affirmed, “PRHASE CORRECT.  STANDBY FOR PASSAGE. ANY ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE WITHOUT EXIT PHRASE WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION.”  The helm stepped away from the door, bolts were thrown, locks undone, and the door opened on silent, oiled hinges.  The guardian stood in their path, eight span tall, with a halberd as tall as Maw.  It resembled a man, a very large man, in armor, but both knew that it was an almost indestructible dwarven construct, programmed through dwarf enchantment magic with very specific orders and very specific tasks.  There would be more (Maw had been here before to accept other contracts, this was Fen’s first visit, and didn’t seem impressed), but there would be human guards as well.  Unlike above, where the guards wore full plate or splint, polished to an almost reflective sheen, the guards down below wore leather armor and stuck to shadows, of which there were plenty.  Should a prisoner somehow manage to attempt an escape, the wardens of this inescapable hole didn’t want the criminal to have any idea where the guards were, a wise move Maw thought.  He told Fen such and he concurred.  Fen, however, could tell where every nook and cranny, every moving, and every solid object were.  Using the infrasonic membranes dwarves were gifted with, he sent out low-frequency sound waves, too low for any sentient ear to hear, and the return vibrations were interpreted by those same membranes to give him almost omniscient impressions of his entire surroundings.  Although dwarves still relied on their eyes and ears, these membranes were extremely useful adaptations that could sometimes see through walls.  In the underground dwarf communities, this ability was invaluable (especially a master thief), but was practically useless in the open air.  

Fen had no designs on stealing any of the artifacts rumored to be housed in the Tower of Inquisition, because there were other dwarves down here too, guards and clerics alike.  Although dwarves had their own pantheon of gods they worshipped, many took the vows of the Iron Law of Andiron and the Royal Rule of Korath, the lawful brothers of the human pantheon.  However, many also followed the Chaos Triad, the Nommessederu, the three b*****d gods that represented the greed, ambition and arrogance present in the sentient races in the world.  Fen himself avowed himself to no god but gold, and he enjoyed plenty of it in Maw’s service.