the fantastic adventures of PENG and friends

What do you mean, I'm the sacrifice?!

Ambrosia lay unmoving on the bed, her hair still damp under her scalp. She was staring up at the ceiling, which was decorated with a similar pattern of sparkling, shining eyes as the hallways. She wondered about this cult, and yes, she was sure it was a cult, and their beliefs. Why did they call her "your majesty"? What part in this did she play? In the back of her mind something nagged her to think harder, it was just at the edge of her mind, where she couldn't gather it...

The door swung open and a cultist, short and slender under his robes, from what she could tell, stepped in without so much as knocking. She was about to retort, when he began to speak.
"Your majesty, I have been chosen to bring you to the hall for dinner, before the ceremony."
His voice was powerful, yet not loud. Ambrosia got up, her rumbling stomach told her not to refuse, and she wanted to know what the whole ceremony thing was about. As they walked down the hall, she cringed when she remembered the dried blood on the altar... and her gut told her the worst was going to happen.

A confusing set of tunnels later she sat between the boy and the high priestess, silently eating among, from what she could see, hundreds of humanoids in the same robes under cloth masks that left only eye slits. Here and there she caught sight of a chin, when one or another lifted their veil to eat. There some green, the tusks of an orc, here the slender neck of an elf, another had grey skin and spikes on his chin... a tiefling? She didn't taste the food. It was a hodgepodge of potatoes, beans and meat chunks, but it filled her stomach, and that mattered right now.

Nobody spoke.

PENG was pulled to his knees rather roughly, though his feet thanked him. He had been standing on his toes for... hours at the very least. They had more trouble with Jenysse, however, dwarves were more made of fighting stuff than his halfling brethren, though when he thought back to his times aboard the "hunnerd lot", he reminded himself that he was wicked with a saber.
"Get yer hands offa me ye filthy..."
Jenysse was slammed to the ground even more uncomfortably than him. He tried to throw her a sympathetic look, but was kept in check by an axe blade. They waited there, while the cultists finally illuminated the room, letting PENG see clearly, the weapon racks on the walls and the torture equipment. Fun.

His brain was putting together a last, vain attempt at escape, when the door swung open once more, and there stood the elf who had been captured as well, he assumed, the priestess, another cultist and... Tael.
"Hi there!"
He grinned, but received only a smack on the back of the head.

The priestess started to explain.
"Tonight's ceremony will be a very special one. The eye shall receive sacrifices beyond what she has tasted in weeks."
Tael averted his vibrant eyes to the ground, started mumbling something... a prayer? The robed figure did the same.
"And to boot, it will be offered by a pair of unstained hands. The hands of the child she had sent to us!"
She walked to Ambrosia and handed her the intricate, curved dagger. She walked back to her previous position and, without further hesitation...

Grasped Tael by his short hair.
"I have raised this child for this day. He will awaken, you, oh great goddess."
Tael's eyes reflected fear, betrayal, pleading for his life, but he was yanked to the altar. He was pushed down and the top of his robe pulled up to reveal his back, smooth and unscarred. Ambrosia trembled, when a whimper escaped the young thing, and tears started rolling down his face. The priestess pulled him up to scold him...

She left a vulnerable opening between her chest plate and the padding of her stomach... the wizard looked at the shining blade... and dove for the patch of skin. The priestess shrieked terribly, and dropped the sobbing boy to the ground, clutching her bleeding wound. Ambrosia dropped the dagger and pulled Tael into her arms instead. PENG, who picked up on cues had already dove for the weapon racks and pulled an axe for Jenysse, and thrown a small mace at the shelf from earlier, sending the sword clattering to the ground. He booked it out, inbetween the legs of a cultist trying to block the way. On the way through he swiped at the inside of his knees, missing, but this distracted the man enough to be overrun by an angry dwarf the next moment.

The troupe ran down the halls, tael half taking the lead, trying his best to find them a way out. Oved her shoulder Ambrosia could make out the form of a black cat, staring intently at them. The priestess was gone, leaving behind only a puddle of blood. She couldn't think about it in depth though, they were rushing through hall after hall, until their frantic journey came to an abrupt halt.
"I... I don't know where to go..."
Tael admitted, clenching his hands together tightly.
Ambrosia spontaneously decided for him.
"Left."
They raced into the hall... dead end, but there were a few doors... Jenysse opened one and peeked inside.
"It's a storage room."
She opened it all the way and revealed a small storage area which held several sacs of potatoes, flour and onions.

The halfling, who hadn't eaten since... he didn't really know when, immediately started shoving potatoes into every pocket he had.
"Guys... they're on our heels!"
Ambrosia gestured back, her pointed ears having picked up on hurried, heavy steps steps closing in on them.
"Three of four of them."
"Well, get ready te fight, elf"
Jenysse cried, readying her axe with ease. Indeed, four figures rounded the corner, daggers drawn.
Ambrosia took care of the first two, by casting a spell and putting them to sleep, rather anticlimactically, but there were two left standing, who glared through their eyeslits.

PENG didn't take long to move into action, he slammed the hilt of his sword into the kneecap of one, sending him stumbling towards Jenysse's waiting axe, then leapt up with all his might, brought his blade around and decapitated the other, his head rolling to the ground under a spritz of blood.
"Still got it",
PENG mumbled triumphantly as he went to finish off the sleeping ones. The battle was over as quickly as it had begun, and a quick briefing of the dead cultists revealed nothing new, so they hurried on, the other way this time, until they found themselves in front of a split path again.

"Tael? Any leads?"
He shook his head but Ambrosia, who had spent considerable amounts of time exploring local cave systems in her youth, took one step forward and recognised the distant whistle of wind... and the direction it came from.
"This way, we're close to the exit.", she said, starting down the path to the left. The group had barely made the bend, however, when someone called out behind them.
"There they are!"
One last time, the unlikely troupe broke into a sprint, barely outrunning their pursuers, and breaking into a blood red sunset. Ambrosia looked back at the cave mouth. The cultists were just standing there, watching them leave. A sob brought her attention back to the sun's direction and she realized a truth about Tael, that hadn't been apparent in the dim torchlight of the cave.
The boy was sitting on the ground clutching his eyes, shielding them from the sun, yet giving in to his desire to look...

He was a drow.

                               ~◇~

DM:
Greetings dear readers, I swear, Tael isn't a drizzt ripoff. I made him because I wanted a character with purple eyes and later found out about do'urden, but eh, I don't know why I'm justifying myself anyway. Hope the chapter was halfway decent, starting with the next chapter I remember what happened more clearly so it'll stick to the overall narrative better.

Again, feedback is appreciated, thanks in advance... see y'all next chapter. All... three of you.