Book 2: Chapter 36:
 Ogre and Out (Bren)

Day 16 of Midwinter, Sunset

Shadowlands, Tech Duinn

Annwn

After hiking through the night and the following morning, we were finally nearing Tech Duinn. When we began walking again after a brief lunch, I realized I could smell brimstone. Though I knew it must be leaking from the top of the volcano, I could have sworn that the smell of molten rock and fire leaked out of the ground itself.

When I caught Garbánach staring longingly at the sulfur pools dotting our route, the ogre explained that he and his people used the more “bubbly” of the pools to cook their prey before eating. I noticed that he didn’t mention using any of the other pools for bathing. That was not a surprise.

Though we went out of our way to avoid them, on one occasion, we were stopped by a pack of giants. Manny managed to successfully negotiate with them, explaining why we traveled with an ogre. It seemed you could differentiate the good giants from the Boggles (or “bad” giants) based on whether they lived in the highlands or the lowlands. Those that lived in the shade of the mountain, namely the fachan, trow, and ettins, were to be avoided. Ogres were technically not giants, mainly due to their smaller size, though they lived in the same places.

After a long day of travel, we found ourselves in the shadowlands, where Garbánach and his people apparently called home. After the sun set behind us, the temperature dropped rapidly, what felt like at least 20 degrees. Even worse than the cold was the menacing presence of the Tech Duinn looming over us.

Manny told us the volcano hadn’t erupted since the Sages disappeared from Annwn, and the previous eruption had been 2,000 years before that one. Garbánach had frowned before talking of recent tremors that shook the ground near the mountain. When we pressed him for details, he had simply said, “Sometimes, the mother gets hungry.”

Strange that his people referred to the mountain as feminine, when the rest of Annwn treated it as the House of Donn (the male god of death). Still, it was not the strangest thing I'd come across in Annwn and not the kind of mystery that was going to keep me awake after a long night and day of travel.

As Manny and I settled down to rest for the night, I realized Garbánach, seated across the fire, seemed ill at ease. He shifted constantly, peering into the darkness around the fire, as if he heard something we couldn't. Occasionally, his hands drifted toward his ears as if he wanted to cover them.

Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer. “What is it, Garbánach? Do you hear something?”

“Garbánach hear angry sound, like buzzing in ears.”

I exchanged glances with Manny. I was suddenly worried. Extremely worried.

“Have you ever heard it before?” I asked him casually, trying not to manifest my fears into reality like the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man.

The ogre nodded. “Garbánach leave home because of buzzing. Now it come back. Brother had it. Sister had it.”

“Did you talk to them about it, Garbánach?” Manny asked.

“Couldn’t,” the ogre responded flatly, continuing to stare into the darkness.

“Why not?”

“Because Garbánach killed them.”

I gulped. The buzzing that Garbánach was describing sounded like a rudimentary way to describe the collective hum of the Bodach’s hive mind. I activated my Advanced Identification boon and skipped directly to the section of Garbánach’s Power Rank information that pertained to curses. Nothing. No curses listed.

“Garbánach, do you know if there are any other ogres in your tribe… um… family that also heard the buzzing?”

“All.” I felt a chill run up my spine. Did he mean all ogres were infected by the Bodach, or did he mean all of them were predisposed to hearing the hive mind? Or worse… Did he mean ALL creatures in the Southlands, not just ogres? I hadn’t ever considered that before. But now, while I camped in the middle of giant and ogre-infested lands, I supposed it might be possible to be a minion of the Boogeyman without being subject to his curse.

“No go to sleep,” Garbánach warned, affirming what I was afraid of. “The buzz make you crazy. Make you attack your brothers.” He turned to face me, the tears in his eyes glistening in the firelight.

Manny looked at me, seeming confused. What he saw on my face must have been enough to spook the Child of the Sea, because his next words were sharp. “Douse the fire. Let's keep moving.”

No one argued. We quickly put out the fire and packed our bags before setting off toward the mountain. I clutched my shillelagh as we walked. We had only hiked a few minutes before we heard the sound of drums coming from lower down the mountain. They were met by a second set of drums coming from somewhere off to the right. Then a third set joined in.

“Three hunting parties,” Garbánach said.

“Sounds like they found our fire.” Manny appeared to be judging the distance from where the first set of drums originated. “Garbánach, can you tell who is following us?”

“Trow drums. Fachan drums.” He paused, continuing to listen. Then he sighed. “Searbhán drums.”

Using my new Imbas boon, I understood his meaning. "Searbhán" was the term ogres used when referring to themselves. I also knew that trow were what Gary Gygax called “trolls,” and fachan were one-eyed giants… So ogres, trolls, and cyclops. Oh my!

Manny stopped on the trail, so Garbánach and I did the same. The son of the sea god turned to face us, his face serious. “There is no chance that we can fight off all three hunting parties, but I may be able to lead some of them away.”

“I don’t even know where we're going, and you want to split the party?” Manny shrugged and reached for the Swan-bag hanging off my belt.

“Duinnite only forms near Uffern,” Manny said, riffling through the bag. “There will be a cave or a fissure…”

“Garbánach knows cave. We not go there.” The ogre looked to be weighing which option was more frightening, battling an army of giants or getting closer to the land of the dead.

Manny smiled as he seemed to find what he was looking for. He withdrew a fully intact violin from the gray bag, before reaching back in to pull out a bow. The thing was nearly as long as his arm. I looked down at the bag on my belt. How...?

“I will lead as many of them away as I can." Manny held up the violin and bow. "They love string music.”

“They like taste of string player more,” Garbánach grumbled. “Will only work on trow.”

“So that leaves us with the ogres and the fachan,” I said, looking into Manny’s eyes. “Thank you for your help. Get home safely.”

“I will use the portals if I need to. Find my uncle and bring him back to Father.” He clasped my forearm and shook it before turning to run into the darkness. From the distance, I heard the sounds of his violin playing Kashmir, a Led Zeppelin song I loved.

“It’s you and me now, Garbánach,” I announced. I turned back to face the ogre, but there was no ogre. Garbánach was gone. I sighed. I couldn’t really blame him. But I suddenly didn't feel as good about my odds.

Something clicked inside me. I knew that, like Manny, I could find my way back to the portal room. Unfortunately, I would be no closer to finding Goibhniu and no closer to acquiring allies for Cai and the Fomorians. I knew what I needed to do. My eyes flicked uphill to the path that would take me higher onto Tech Duinn.

I let my Control Energy boon take over my visual senses. The energy in this place was strange. It appeared that the ambient energy in the area was being sucked into the volcano. It was just as I suspected. There were holes in the ground at random intervals that appeared to vent fumes and pull in energy. I looked farther up on the mountain and saw what I was looking for. There was a hidden entrance into the mountain that had been obscured from my current position until I used my boon.

Unfortunately, the entrance wasn’t close. I estimated that even running at full speed, it would take me a few hours to get to it. The sound of the drums grew louder, pulling me back to my current predicament.

I immediately started sprinting up the path, using my newfound physical stats to push the limits of what a human body was capable of. I leaped over small rocks and used the large ones as launching pads. I was practically flying up the mountain, spending more time in the air than I was on the ground.

Behind me, I could hear only one war party. But while the drums of the other parties were silent from my new position on the mountain, the drums behind me sounded louder, like they were gaining ground. I thought about the longer stride of the much larger beings trailing me. Were they the fachan or the ogres? I supposed I would find out soon enough. I knew I wouldn’t make it to the cave in time, so I did the only thing I could do. I turned and prepared myself for battle.