Enter Stone Bear

Stone Bear opens the door into the shop, and what he sees surprises him. He can sense that the room is filled with normal people, but his spirit sight sees something different. A bundle of wriggling tentacles pulses and keens. A firebird turns towards him, wings beating flame as they batter the ether. Two forms of human-shaped sunlight stand up, one reddish gold and one purplish-blue; the reddish-gold ones holding a ball of brilliant sunlight and the purplish one weilding a sword that is somehow also a man. A silver unicorn points its horn at him, and a tall man turns towards him, his form covered in a shining suit of armor that resonates into the spirit world. Near them, a floating dwarf turns to look at him with interest.

They have come, whispers Elder in his ear. These are the ones you must follow if you wish to save your people. Behind the shadowy spirit, he hears his martial advisor clattering to attention.

You can not defeat them all at once! the armor-clad skeleton advises, looking over the newcomers with a critical and experienced eye. Ambush will be the key. For instance, take the man in crystal plate. He looks slow and clumsy. When you fight him, you should...

"I don't wish to defeat them."

Fehh! You should be prepared. Anyone could become an enemy. Stone Bear's vision of his ancestor is replaced by the sound of his old friend Bear rumbling in his other ear.

These are good people, growls Bear with certainty. The woman-who-is-unicorn especially. Trust her.

"Quiet," says Stone Bear, shaking his head slightly. The spirits still themselves even as the strangers in Mirjik's shop stare at him in confusion. "My apologies," Stone Bear says louder. "I wasn't speaking to you. I am Stone Bear." He feels Raven twist and peck inside of his empty eyesocket, and senses the hastily hidden revulsion on the part of the onlookers. "He's just hungry," says Stone Bear dismissively, and brushes away the questing raven as he walks forward to greet the newcomers.

"Why are you here?" asks Nolin, after initial pleasantries have been done away with.

"I am considered a.. a holy man amongst the People. My ancestors have led me here," says Stone Bear. "I am waiting for something. A guide. I believe you are it."

"Wait, who has led you here?" asks Nolin in confusion. Damn, I wish that raven would stop trying to eat bits of his eye socket, he thinks to himself. That's really disturbing. Stone Bear shrugs in response to the question.

"My ancestors."

Nolin looks around, confirming with Mara and Malachite that Stone Bear is neither evil nor undead. "Well, we are on a quest to destroy the ghouls which plague the underdark. If you think you can help, tell us." Stone Bear nods.

"I think I can. I have some familiarity with the tunnels in this area."

"Well, that's good. I still don't understand how you got to Akin's Throat."

"I was led. I passed the gate from the land of the living to the land of the dead, and I have spent months getting here. I have dodged foes, and fought when I had to. I have been lucky."

"I guess. We haven't had an easy time of it, ourselves." Hey, guys? Nolin asks through the mindlink. He IS alive, right?

He's alive, confirms Malachite silently.

Huh. Then maybe he's just confused about this alive/dead thing.

He could be talking in metaphor, you know, says Mara, as she rubs her shoulder.

Yeah, but he looks like a savage, answers Nolin. I mean, look at that dead bear he's wearing as a cloak! And those damn eyes. We probably shouldn't underestimate him.

"...was thinking," Mirjik is saying, his unnaturally long fingers drumming together. "You were saying that you were short of money. If what you said earlier is true, you could make a substantial amount by fighting each other in the arena. Say..." He raises his eyebrows in emphasis, "Stone Bear and Galthia? That way you'll have an idea of each other's abilities in combat, and you have the chance to make some coin." Everyone looks at one another.

"I think it's a fine idea!" says Galthia, eyeing the blind newcomer. "We fight to unconsciousness." Stone Bear nods in agreement.

"Excellent! Then I will arrange it. Let's say three days hence. In the mean time, Stone Bear can prepare, and I'll have a chance to fetch some of the goods you've requested." His brows narrow. "Agar, Galthia, may I speak to you privately for a moment? I think I have an idea."

Akin's Throat is as hot and humid as ever, and everyone begins sweating as they emerge from the cool shop a few minutes later. "What'd he want?" asks Splinder. Galthia says nothing, and Agar shrugs.

"He offered to exchange favors and spell-casting for goods," the alienist explains. "I told him Proty and I would be happy to help. I like that guy." Agar strokes his tentacled familiar. "What's that, Proty? You're hungry? Okay, go feed on a flumph – but be careful!" The pseudonatural stirge takes to the air, and Agar smiles indulgently. "He's so cute when he feeds," he confides. Mara rolls her eyes.

With Stone Bear accompanying them to act as guide, the group tours Akin's Throat. They gaze up at the Butcher's meat shop dangling between stalactites. Galthia purchases real troll juice from a "troll-inna-box" - "Sour," he announces - and the group dines on fairly exotic food in Dambril's Festhall. "I'll have to play here," remarks Nolin as he turns away a fried beetle in exchange for roast rat and mushrooms. They pass a booth supposedly selling cloning for a mere 2000 gold pieces – "That girl is evil as they come, whether she detects of it or not!" grumbles Mara about the booth's sleazy proprietress – and stroll past a 70' tall sculpture of Mog the Beetle God that sends Agar into conniptions. They gaze into bubbling steam pools, walk beneath giant toadstools, look over rag-tag mercenaries, and pass a pit of squirming vermin controlled by a skaven bard. They pass booths selling animated undead armor, disturbing liquids, and essentials of every imaginable kind. It's clear that Akin's Throat is a place that stays standing only because it's so useful to everyone who passes through.

In Mercenary Hall the group eyes dozens of soldiers, including kobolds with spiked sticks, goblin sharpshooters, an ogre with a battered old stone golem, armored trolls, and a drunken skaven. From the shadows at the back of the cave, a human woman emerges. Her hair is pulled back roughly from her face, and her movements seems odd, almost insectile. She is heavily armored. She approaches Nolin and stares up into his face.

"We remember you," she says in a monotone, speaking in a Gauntian accent. "You were there when we were formed. You were part of the reason we were formed."

Nolin blinks as memory snaps into place – the hivemind! Almost eight years ago, the Defender's wizard Arcade had inadvertently joined a religious cult secretly run by Nolin's no-good half-brother. Unfortunately, the cult had been centered around a psionic item known as the helm of the hive. When things got out of control, the helm bonded together hundreds of people into a massive and hostile hivemind, all of whom wanted the Defenders dead, and who were willing to chase them to make sure it happened.

When the Defenders were finally successful at neutralizing the helm, its absence played havoc with the people who had been most affected by it. The majority of them were fine, but it was soon obvious that several dozen people of varying ages had become permanently linked. The linkage was inextricable, and soon any trace of their former personalities had dissolved into one massive hivemind. Nolin hadn't heard from them in years, but he remembered that they had become a phenomenally effective fighting force who hired itself out as mercenaries.

Nolin recovers and forces a smile. "Greetings! It's nice to see a familiar face down here. I trust you are well?"

She replies flatly. "We are fighting ghouls for an aquaintence of yours." Nolin looks around in surprise at his friends.

"An acquaintance? Whom?"

"A woman named Claris. We fight to preserve a hive of formians from a ghoulish army. She has hired us to do so."

"Formians are bug-creatures, right?" She looks at him expressionlessly. "Wow! That's wonderful. Far from here? Tell Claris that Nolin says hi." There is a slight pause.

"Yes, more than a week's travel. And we have done so. She now returns the greeting." She's creeping me out, thinks Nolin.

"Well, thank you. I wish you luck. We're trying to destroy the undead once and for all." The Hivemind mercenary curtly nods her head, and Nolin rubs his chin. "What are you doing here, though, away from the others?"

"We are gathering information. What one of us know, all of us know, for we are One." So Nolin shares some lore about ghouls before continuing his tour of the town.

Eventually, Stone Bear goes his own way and the Defenders leave Akin's Throat by the southern exit. They find an empty side passage and erect the Flickering Needle, a Daern's Instant fortress. Inside of it, they enter a Calphas' Comfortable Castle and prepare to train using the newly-purchased potions. Three days until Galthia and Stone Bear square off in the Arena. With luck, the group will make that time count.