Xavier stepped through the opening in the door and out into the expanse beyond. Ella and Valkra were standing just a few feet beyond the gap and Lianna soon joined them with Frostclaw bringing up the rear. The change in atmosphere was immediate and apparent. Not only did the air feel heavier around them, but it was also laced with a deep earthen scent reminiscent of freshly turned rich soil. There were no sounds beyond the soft flickering of their torches and the soft patter of their own footprints; even the ever-present sound of dripping water that had marked the previous passages was silent.

  Xavier raised his torch casting its shifting light in a larger area. The natural stone caverns from prior to the lair was gone. Here the walls, ground and what they could see of the ceiling was either unnaturally smooth or worked stone. It was clear that this was man-made, or the equivalent there of.

  “This must be a Grey Road,” Xavier insisted. “It is the only thing I can think to explain why the stone is worked the way it is.”

  Ella nodded slowly looking around with her own torch. “It certainly does not feel like natural caverns anymore.”

  Lianna moved over to the side, her hand tracing over the worn shaped stonework. “That is because it is not natural. This was carved and placed. There is also something more. I can feel a faint hum beneath.”

  Xavier moved next to her side and laid his hand on the stone as well. As before he could feel the slight hum and thrum of energy. Its cadence was a slow and steady beat, almost as if he could feel the heart of the world pulsing beneath his fingertips. “It is alive, just like when we found the other Ley Lines. I’m sure we are getting closer to the Earth one.” He whispered softly. “Be wary, there is no way to know what is defending or living around it.” With those words he unsheathed Vaeltheris once again and moved slowly down the path.

  As they continued deeper, the passageway revealed glimpses of its former purpose, its subtle changes spoke of an age long past. Ancient waystones, partially buried under centuries of dust and debris, stood like forgotten sentinels, their surfaces worn smooth by time. The inscriptions carved upon them had long since faded, leaving behind only faint, unreadable etchings, whispers of languages lost to the dark.

  Beyond the waystones, ruined archways stretched overhead, their once-proud forms now reduced to crumbling remnants. Some sagged dangerously, their supports cracked and eroded, while others had collapsed entirely, leaving only jagged edges to mark where they once stood. These structures gave the impression of places of rest, or maybe crossroads where merchants may have once gathered, now they were nothing more than hollow echoes swallowed by the depths and passage of time.

  Further along the path, the walls bore ancient murals, carved deep into the rock. Though worn and broken in places, their images were still discernible; figures leading carts, merchants guiding beasts of burden, caravans passing through vast open chambers that no longer existed. The details were intricate, their craftsmanship speaking of a people who had not merely carved a road but built a lifeline beneath the world. Yet now, only these silent images remained, the travelers they depicted reduced to dust. The images suggested more to the passages Xavier had read about the Grey Roads in the old lore tomes. The further they walked the more certain he was they now traversed one of those mythical pathways.

  Most disturbing though was at times, the road itself shifted beneath them, its once-stable foundation tilting and changing in unnatural ways. Some sections would suddenly dip sharply, as though unseen hands pulled them downward, while others rose abruptly, those same unseen hands shoving the pathway away from its foundation. It was not erosion alone that had twisted the passage, something deeper had altered the very stone itself. The thought unsettled Xavier, a gnawing unease settling in his chest. What had happened here? And what waited for them at the end of this path?

  They had been traversing the roadway for nearly an hour before they came to the first unexpected changes. Though they had slowly become accustomed to the unnatural twisting and warping of the road that did not explain the small pile of bones now laying in the middle of it.

  Unlike the skeletons they had found back in Nul’Zerak’s lair these bones were not ancient and faded with time, they were fresh. Lianna and Xavier knelt beside them while Ella stood watch. The two trackers examined the bones and noticed that the pile was not the only ones, scattered about in the distance were other pieces if not intact bones.

  “These are not ancient, something fed recently on these.” Lianna stated cautiously. She indicated the fresh crack marks showing where something had cracked the bones open to devour the marrow from within. “Those are to deliberate to be the work of time.”

  Xavier’s eyes narrowed as he looked about the area. “Seems we are not alone.” He motioned to several deep furrows in the stone, claw marks like what they had found from the ankheg’s on the first level but slightly different. “Any idea what might have caused those?”

  Lianna shook her head slowly and Ella knocked an arrow to her string.

  “Whatever it was it is clear we are in their hunting grounds now.” Ella whispered.

  Wary the group continues down the road, the walls slowly narrowing causing a natural chokepoint in the passage forcing them closer to one another. Beneath their feet the worked stone of the road shifts and grinds as if the very ground they walked was uncertain. This was further complicated by sudden gravity changes. First a moment of weightlessness, their steps light, almost unmoored with a long loping skip, then a sudden crushing heaviness, as though the very air itself has turned against them. Their muscles strained with each step, adjusting to the unnatural forces at play.

  It was while struggling through one of the oppressive sections that they heard a noise besides their own passage. Faint whispers of sound, not voices exactly, but something much deeper and older. Xavier felt it most keenly, his inherent link to the Ley Lines coming into play as the Earth Ley Line called him forward, deeper.

  Those whispers of power only grew the further they moved down the road, the passage opening back to the wide highway like passage then squeezing down to sections that they could only walk two abreast. The travel had allowed them to mostly recover from the trauma of the first level of the Deeps but it had its only psychological effect on the group.

  In one of the narrow sections, they heard a new noise. Skittering, a soft rapid clicking, nearly imperceptible, at first but it grew in volume spreading around them like a living thing along the walls. The sound surrounds them, above, behind, around. Before they have a chance to react to the sounds creatures spring from the darkness.

  From the shadows overhead, moving with an unnerving silence besides the sounds of their claws on the stone, came several carapace clad creatures. Their elongated frames belying the grace at which they moved. Glowing lidless eyes shifted, locking onto Xavier and his companions.

  Two of the monstrosities let go of the stone they were crawling across to drop into the center of the party. Long vicious hooked appendages lashing out at whatever was closest to them. A third remained on the wall, one of its long limbs striking downwards towards the group forcing them to remain defensive. The last one hung further up, away from Xavier’s group but watching, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

  The first of the two that dropped into the group lunged towards Xavier, its mandibles snapping over empty air with a loud clacking noise. The deadly hooks on its clawed arms swinging dangerously close to Xavier’s throat. He lunged back out of the way of its near decapitating strike and quickly triggered insight. As the magic took instantaneous effect, and he knew what they were facing.

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  Grimacing Xavier stepped forward to meet the creature’s second clawed attack. Vaeltheris came up in defense catching the middle of the Flesh Feeder’s forearm, as it did so the blade flared brighter while the edge of it first cut deep into the carapace and meat beneath before continuing through the appendage and sending it clattering to the ground behind him. The monster clattered its mandibles together clearly in agony from the wound but continued forward trying to snap its jaws around Xavier’s face.

  The second creature that had dropped in the middle of the group surged towards Lianna. This, however, turned out to be a mistake on its part. Lianna, working with a perfect sync with Frostclaw, something bred of long familiarity and practice. The great cat’s jaws closed on the back of the Feeders’ head crushing the chitin beneath the powerful bite. The monster immobilized and fading from Frostclaw’s attack turned out to be easy prey for the skilled ranger as her arrows found gaps and cracks in the natural armor quickly ending the beasts life.

  Ella contended with the third monster, the one still hanging nearby on the wall and taking swipes of advantage when anyone came within its range. As the creature swung a vicious hooked appendage at the woman, she brought her bow up catching and turning the strike into the stone beside her. Utilizing the brief opening she quickly drew and fired an arrow into one of the monster’s lidless eyes sending a spray of ichor across the wall and showering down on her. The creature clawed fiercely at the impaling shaft knocking it free and unleashing a new torrent of the sickly fluid. It lashed out angrily at Ella once again, she narrowly ducked under the hook on the end of the creature’s claw, rising behind it and loosing another arrow into the weak point in the back of the monster’s shoulder. Its mandibles parted in a noiseless howl of pain. The unnerving silence of the creatures evident even in the most critical of distress.

  Valkra growled and bounded back and forth. Her claws, stingers, and jaws harassing the legs of the two on the ground aiding both Lianna and Xavier in their struggles. Chuffing and growling in communication with Frostclaw the two cats both turned their attention from the dying monster, riddled with Lianna’s arrow shafts, to the one remaining a threat to Xavier. Valkra darted forward and one of her lashing tails sunk its stinger into a small gap between the chitin on the monster’s leg. Her paralytic poison coursing through the beast causing it to suddenly seize up immobile.

  Xavier had not noticed his new aid, his attention focused solely on remaining alive as he fought and countered the Feeder’s remaining claw and mandibles. When it suddenly froze still before him, he dropped his torch and wrapped both hands around Vaeltheris’ hilt. Three quick strikes followed that action first, divesting the beast of its remaining arm, then coming back suddenly through the thin but armored neck of the beast sending its threatening head soaring through the air. His final strike of the three came down hard on the beast. Vaeltheris split the armored chitin of the humanoid form, driving lower the blade bisected the creature and the two halves fell slowly away, collapsing to the ground on either side of where Xavier stood panting.

  In the time it had taken Xavier to finish off the monster opposing him, Ella had managed to avoid further attacks. Each time she blocked, parried or dodged the lethal edge of the creatures hooked claw she was able to loose another arrow into its form. Its movement slowed perceptibly with each new sprouting shaft until it lost its grip on the wall and collapsed to the ground. The hard clatter of its carapace on the stone was highlighted by another tzzt sound of an arrow flying through the air. This time it buried its length between the ruined and the remaining eye of the creature. It’s limbs twitching for several moments as if it was trying to rise before its body finally realized the actuality of its death and stopped moving.

  The final remaining Feeder, still hanging on the wall well out of reach of the party, clicked its mandibles together in consternation. It was torn between diving into the fight, hunger especially after seeing the deaths of its companions, was nearly driving it to a frenzy. Just as it was about to move, surge forward, attack, and feed; the earth shuddered. This was not a reaction to the burrowing monsters, nor the battle that was up until just a few moments ago, raging back and forth in the tunnel. No this was something far stronger, older, and deeper.

  Xavier could feel the ley line pulsing once again. Gravity around them started to fluctuate wildly. The sudden changes dragging the monster from the wall and slamming it with chitin cracking force into the ground between the party members. Vaeltheris and two arrows pierced the new openings quickly ending the monster before it could regain its feet.

  Ding!

  You have killed flesh feeders x 4. +4000 experience. (Bonus +250 experience for flawless teamwork & environmental adaptation) Total earned experience +4250.

  With combat over the experience prompt filled Xavier’s vision before he minimized it out of habit. His chest heaving with exertion he looked first to Ella, then Lianna before checking the two great cats that accompanied them. Heaving a sigh of relief that none of them appeared injured beyond a handful of small cuts, scratches and bruises, Xavier sheathed Vaeltheris once again.

  “That was too close, yet again,” Xavier stated. “These ambushes are getting more and more dangerous.”

  “I am more curious as to what is going on with the stone and earth around us. Gravity fluctuations are not normal, in fact, I have only really heard of them in the Blasted Lands and that area was destroyed by enormous magical means.” Lianna quipped. “Whatever is causing them here has to be of enormous potential as well.”

  “The Earth Ley Line?” Ella queried.

  “I think so,” replied Xavier, “And it knows we are close. I am not sure if it trying to help or hinder us however.”

  The power surged again, this time focused on Xavier, nearly pulling him rapidly down the hall into the darkness. Xavier was able to regain his footing and pull himself to a stop. Panting at the strain he dug his feet in to prevent himself from being dragged any further until, just as suddenly as it started. Xavier was allowed a moment of reprieve. The rest of the party ran down the passage to find him on his knees breathing deep and hard as he recovered his breath. Ella helped him to his feet, and he nodded his thanks to her.

  Lianna rested a hand on Xavier shoulder, checking that he had not been hurt by the power dragging him suddenly down the roadway. Xavier patted her hand to let her know he was fine as he reluctantly stood upright finally, he was bruised and abraded by the sudden pull which left him stiff and sore, but he was well beyond that. Opting to not go back and harvest the monsters for the time being the small party continued downwards.

  After a few more narrow passages and twists, luckily without the clattering of the feeders, the small party came to a massive, cavernous hall. On the opposite side, in the middle of the way directly across from them was another enormous archway, pristine and untouched by time. Unlike the gateway from above this one remained sealed and intact. Its surface retained its intricate engravings which spiraled into three distinct circular indentations. The deep emerald green of earthen magic glowed in veins through the surface of the doorway. It didn’t so much seem contained as much as controlled.

  Xavier slowly began to step towards the door, the second step he took caused the door to flare with power, the indentations glowing brightly with a golden glow that offset the emerald one. A deep tremor shook the cavern before the very stone around the party spoke. Its voice a deep base with undertones of grinding rock.

  "The weight of the earth is eternal. Do you seek its strength, or will you crumble beneath it? The trials of the Earth Ley Line has begun"

  Ella winced and raised her bow once again. “Why is it always trials? Can not one of these ley lines just say its happy to meet you and let you wake it? She glared at Xavier as if it was all his fault.

  “Power isn’t given its earned Ella,” Xavier replied once again stepping towards the doorway and placing his hand on the carved stone. The power surged and tingled beneath his hand, testing his resolve and magic, before just as suddenly it winked out and the door rumbled softly parting in the center as it opened to the continuation of the road beyond. The path forward had been revealed. Xavier sighed just knowing he was not going to enjoy this but then walked through the shimmering black of the gateway itself.