Tales from Dar E Lan: The Earthquake Beetle (Over the Waves Interlude 1)

Bangqiu’s ship arrived in Dar E Lan, and while he attended to the business of securing payment and compensating the local monastery for the unexpected arrival of foreign sohei, his companions found other ways to occupy themselves.

In the days after docking, a traveling merchant returned from the remote mountain villages with a troubling account. While descending from a journey into the high valleys, he had stopped to rest. When he awoke, his mule was gone. Its tracks led down into a marsh at the base of the mountains and across to a cave beneath a sheer cliff. Inside, he found the mule half-eaten. The cave walls were lined with oversized insect eggs. Terrified, he fled and brought word back to Dar E Lan, hoping someone braver would investigate.

Bo Jing, Bayan, and Shoji agreed to take on the task. Two of Kafka’s promising students, Sang and Han Bee, insisted on accompanying them as bodyguards for Shoji and spiritual aides to Bo Jing. The party set out early the next morning, following the valley trail into the mountains above the monastery.

The first day passed without incident. They reached a half-ruined watchtower and spent the night there alongside a small garrison of monks of the Two-Fold Path.

On the second day, they climbed higher into the hills, losing sight of the valley below. After several hours, they realized they had overshot a landmark described by the monks and retraced their steps. By late afternoon they found themselves once again in the marshy valley floor, uncertain of their bearings and searching for signs of the creature described by the merchant.

The answer came suddenly.

The ground trembled with violent, rhythmic shocks that threw Sang and Han Bee to the earth. A flash of blue-green light cut through the air overhead, and an enormous beetle dropped from the cliffs. Its mandibles snapped like forged blades as it struck Sang.

Bo Jing reacted first, loosing arrows into the creature’s armored body. Bayan charged from the flank with her sword drawn. Shoji pulled Sang back from the creature’s reach as it clawed forward, relentless despite its wounds. The beetle turned on Sang again, only to be kicked aside by Shoji and struck by Sang himself in desperation. Bo Jing leapt onto its back and drove his blade into a seam in its carapace. Bayan’s repeated strikes finally forced it to collapse and roll onto its back, dead.

Bo Jing collected several samples—mandibles and a strange glowing blue-green fluid—before the party followed the tremors back toward their source.

They soon found the cave.

The entrance was a narrow opening beneath chalky cliffs, oozing with sticky luminous residue. As Bayan stepped inside, she slipped into a shallow chamber filled with the same blue-green slime. Smaller beetles emerged immediately, and the party fought them off as they helped her free herself.

Deeper inside, the cave widened into a vast egg chamber. The walls were covered in oily sacs the size of a man’s head, each pulsing faintly with blue-green light. Bones and broken metal fragments littered the floor, including scraps of silver. The trader’s mule lay half-consumed in the outer tunnels.

After gathering what valuables they could carry, the party set fire to the chamber. Torches and oil spread quickly among the sacs, and soon the nest was engulfed in flame, the eggs hatching into nothing.