Chapter 2-7: The Magi Quarters and the Race for the Key
General Summary
Unable to progress beyond the shimmering brass door, the party decided to explore the branching corridor. The passage was fairly short, with doors were set into the walls at regular intervals, plus one additional door at the far end. Closer inspection confirmed each door was carved with a name; most in common, but a few in elven script and one with dwarven runes. The party made their way to the far end of the passage, and carefully pushed open the far door, inscribed with the name Arun.
The door swung open and clattered against an old stone bed. The remains of an ancient mattress moldered atop the bed base. In the far corner of the room, a polished obsidian desk stood smothered by clutter. Scattered across the desk surface were pages of loose sheaf, covered in hastily scrawled notes; and a pinboard with the remains of a large horned beetle spread across it. Perched on the edge of the desk nearest the wall stood an intricate bronze tree model. Hanging from each branch were dozens of desiccated chrysalis. Mounted on the wall behind the desk the party noticed a shelf full of jars, each containing insects frozen in amber. Amongst the clutter on the desk lay two large leather bound volumes. Aetilius idly picked them up and glanced at the spines: 'Medical Entomology' and 'Fabre's Book of Insects'.
Meanwhile, Clootie and Ryoko decided to investigate the room to the left, apparently which belonged to somebody called Ruza. Inside, this room had a similar layout to the other; but beyond the general arrangement of furniture, could not have been more different. This room was wreathed by beautiful garlands of spring flowers which ran across the ceiling in all directions. Trailing ivy climbed up the walls, blooming with dozens of tiny white flowers, which seemed to almost sparkle against the stone. The room smelled fresh and clean, like a meadow. Clootie noticed that the bed in this room was around half the size of the one in Arun's room. The desk in this room was almost immaculate. On the side stood an aquamarine glass vase, filled with delicate silver lillies. Stacked in the middle of the desk were two books. Ryoko read out the titles to Clootie: 'Properties of Herbs of the Eastern Coast of the Sundered Sea, and of the Rahkeen Plains' and 'The Ballad of the Golden Knight'. As she looked around at the room, it occurred to Ryoko that this room had not been inhabited in centuries, and if so, how were the flowers still alive. As they examined the room, Clootie discreetly mentioned to Ryoko that she was feeling strangely on edge.
Aetilius and Ramas made their way into the room on the right. The door to this this room was carved with Dwarven runes, which Aetilius read as Kildrak. The desk in this room was strewn with clutter; piles of tools, lengths of wire and tiny brass or bronze mechanisms. Sitting in the middle of a small clearing among the debris, Aetilius spotted two objects: a small brass and wood puzzle box, carved with similar symbols to the brass key fragments; and a small circular bronze device, about three inches across.
Suddenly the silence was split by a low register rattling groan. The sound built in pitch and intensity as tendrils of smoky blackness began to swirl around the room, reaching a fevered pitch as the darkness coalesced into the tenebrous figure of a dwarf. His head swivelled to fix Aetilius with two glaring baleful red eyes, and his jaw lolled open revealing a mouth full of needle sharp curved canines, "Who dares trespass?" he says, his voice a deep wheezy rattle, "Do you know what your presence has wrought?"
"What do you mean?" Aetilius responded,
"Living creatures should not be here. Your presence has awakened something which should have remained asleep. Why are you here?"
"We were sent here to cleanse the evil from the mine" Aetilius responded, cautiously,
"Ha! You? No offense tielfing, but you haven't a hope against the power inside this place."
"We might surprise you. And either way, we don't have much choice"
The wraith listened for a moment to the pounding of the goblins on the door, "I suppose that might be true" he admitted,
"What can you tell us about the evil in the mine"
"My name is, was, Kildrak Toledun. I was a member of the Magi here. I specialized in mechanical devices and arcane mechanisms. For a time, things were good. We lived here, studying the capabilities of the Forge. Until the Verani sent a force of orcs to lay siege to the mine. The Magi and the dwarves all agreed that the Forge could not be allowed to fall into their hands. If the Verani were to gain control of that power, Lathandar help us all.
Arun had developed a powerful ward. He was preparing the ritual which would seal the mine entrance until reinforcements from Rakheen could arrive. I was tinkering with my latest creation, a Lens of True Sight. I accidentally caught a glimpse of Arun's ritual circle through the lens. It stripped away Arun's glamour and I could see the dark magic below. Before I could warn the rest of the Magi, I was grabbed from behind and my throat was slit.
From what I can tell, Arun's ritual created a powerful binding magic; a side effect being that my soul was unable to move on. I've been trapped here ever since. I watched him murder my friends and bind their souls into those foul orbs. Arun himself volunteered to take the place they had planned for me in the ritual. It didn't kill him, but it did something else with his soul.
After the deed was done, Arun's lackeys took the three orbs and fled with them. When they collapsed the mine entrance behind them, I though that was it over. But after a while I noticed a darkness spreading from the ritual site. That was when I first manifested. I managed to lock the door to the Forge. The wards on the door seem to have kept the worst of it at bay. To be safe, I disassembled the key and scattered the pieces around the mine.
But now you're here. You, and your friends out there. Arun's shade is stirring behind the door, and I fear that the wards will not hold forever. If you truly want to cleanse the mine, I'd advise looking through Arun's belongings. The ritual he created was a complex one, there must be notes or details of it somewhere. It might give some clue how to undo the binding."
Aetilius thanked the dwarven wraith, and the party started to ransack Arun's room looking for clues. Aetilius started to leaf idly through the books on Arun's desk. As he skimmed through 'Fabre's Book of Insects', he noticed that the last page had been scrawled over with arcane script and symbols. The detail of the script was beyond Aetilius's understanding, but he did note some diagrams, showing lines extending from five points and meeting at a central point, before splitting outwards into the three other points. Aetilius was just about to take the book to Kildrak to seek his assistance when Clootie let out a sharp scream, clutching her head and falling to the floor. Her body began to stiffen and her limbs spasmed uncontrollably. The rest of the party clustered around her. Her eyes snapped open and stared blankly up at the ceiling. Ryoko noticed that her irises had turned completely black, and black tendrils had begun to spread out across the whites of her eyes. With a rush of air, Kildrak appeared behind them, looking down at the gnome,
"I have seen this before. She is affected by the same darkness which has warped those goblins. It is part of Arun's influence. She doesn't have long, if the progress of the infection isn't stopped in the next thirty minutes, she will be lost to the darkness forever. She needs sunlight, that should be enough to burn out the darkness"
"We'll never get her out of the mines in time" Ryoko pointed out
"There might be another option," Kildrak mused, "The last artifact we created in the Forge was a mace for the Champions, named Lightbringer. Among other things, it can be made to burn with some small reflection of the sun. It might be enough."
He sighs and looks hopeless, "But to find that, you'd need to get into the Forge. You would need the fragments of the key. I hid some of them out in the mine tunnels, you'd never find them in time"
"Do you mean these?" Aetilius showed him the brass fragments they had collected,
"Yes! Where did you find those?"
"We found some in the mine tunnels, and some in the smelter" Ryoko responded
"That means the last pieces are in the Wave Echo Cave, in the rock pool" the wraith sounded excited
"How do we get there?" Aetilius asked, seriously
"There's a passage in Arun's room. Come, I'll show you"
The wraith led Aetilius, Ryoko and Miaug into Arun's room, while Ramas waited with Clootie. The wraith muttered an incantation and a section of wall seemed to warp briefly, like a ripple across a pond, before disappearing to reveal a small tunnel carved into the wall,
"This way. Follow the tunnel into Wave Echo Cave. I hid the final fragments in the bottom of the pool. You must be swift"
The party agreed to send Aetilius and Ryoko, Miaug and Ramas would keep an eye on Clootie and continue searching the mages quarters for any information which might aid them against Arun. Aetilius and Ryoko both crouched down and began to crawl into the tunnel. It was a tight fit. Aetilius's armour scraped against the wall whenever the tunnel tightened, and he fought back the mounting claustrophobia. Ryoko's broad shoulders almost filled the opening, and she had to keep her back arched to prevent it catching on the tunnel ceiling. Both adventurers focused on the task at hand and their dying friend, and continued to crawl forward.
Miaug and Ramas each took turns examining the other rooms. The next rooms down the corridor belonged to Eleanor and Macer. Eleanor's room was dominated by an elaborate alchemical setup running across the desk, surrounded by various ingredients and reagents, notes and alchemical textbooks. As Miaug opened the door to Macer's room, she were struck by the overwhelming smell of rancid fish, so strong as to be almost tangible. Miaug didn't understand how the smell had lingered for all these centuries, but the mystery did little to distract her from her own retching. Clustered in the corner of the desk she saw a number of small jars each containing different hideous fishlike creatures immersed in viscous liquid: eels, jagged mawed angler fish and bulbous, sightless creatures. In the centre of the desk sat two massive serrated lobster-like claws, and on the other side of desk sat two books, underneath a lump of solid amber. Miaug picked up the amber and peered inside curiously. She could just make out a bulbous grey organ inside the resin.
Eventually, after what felt like an eternity in the claustrophobic darkness, Aetilius and Ryoko emerged from the tunnel onto a small ledge high in the wall of a vast cavern. On the opposite side of the cave, the floor rose sharply to form a large pool, above which water poured in through a crack in the ceiling, crashing into the pool below with a thunderous roar. A faint eerie blue glow emanated from the pool, bathing the cave in an unearthly light which did little to relieve the deep shadows. Summoning all his strength, Aetilius grabbed Ryoko under the arms and flew across to the pool with her, straining to keep the hold of the dragonborn and keep them both in the air. Once they were above the water, Ryoko saw the source of the glow. Hundreds of tiny blue glowing specks floated in the water, sparkling like stars in the night sky. As Aetilius's strength began to run out, Ryoko twisted out of his hands, shifting to her Dragon Eel form as she fell and slipping into the water like a javelin, barely creating a ripple on the surface. Desperately she cast about the bottom of the pool, using her enhanced sonar senses to identify anything small, solid and out of place. Within moments she spotted something! Three small metallic objects nestled against the side of the pool. She immediately swam down, scooping all three segments into her mouth. The, with a powerful thrust of her fins she shot upward. She broke the surface like a dolphin, and as she caught sight of the tunnel entrance she focused her energies through the Blink Totem she wore around her neck. The Dragon Eel disappeared, water suddenly rushing in to fill the void created a sound like a crashing wave. Ryoko reappeared on the ledge, her eel form almost slipping off before Aetilius swooped in and grabbed her. She dropped the brass fragments from her mouth, and then shifted back into her Iskathi form with a grin.
Miaug and Ramas started to explore the next two rooms in the quarters: Evendur and Bogdan. On Evendur's desk they noticed two massive leather bound tomes: 'Elven Anatomy' and 'The Malediction Codex'. Leafing through, both appeared to be medical textbooks of some form. In the middle of the desk rested a rust covered serrated blade. Ramas went to pick it up, but the blade snapped off as he touched the handle. Finally something in this place seemed to be affected by the passage of time. Behind the blade, at the back of desk, rested a gleaming white human skull. Etched into the cranium were a number of crisscrossed marks. Beside the skull sat three sealed jars, of differing heights, each filled with a dark green liquid. The smallest jar contained what looked to be a brain. The mid-sized jar contained what Miaug believed to be a two-headed cow fetus. The largest jar contained a severed hand, the long delicate fingers appeared female and most likely elven. The other room, belonging to Bogdan, was unusually empty. One a single book rested on the desk: 'Goodnight Sweet Prince: A Book of Bedtime Tales'. On the bed sat three moldering stuffed unicorns: one pink, one green and one blue. Miaug couldn't resist, and picked up the blue one. The ancient fabric began to come apart in her hand. Desiccated stuffing fell out onto the floor, along with something small and shiny, which let out a bring ringing sound as it hit the stone floor. Miaug knelt down and retrieved the fallen object, a small silver ring engraved with the now familiar trangular symbol of the Nethonris.
Ryoko and Aetilius emerged from the tunnel, grimy, sweating but triumphant. They showed the segments to Kildrak, who grinned at them. The dwarven wraith then began to instruct them how to reassemble the key.
As Ramas checked on Clootie, who lay in front of the shimmering door, groaning and sweating; Miaug took a last look in the final two rooms. The left hand room belonged to Milos. Taking pride of place on the desk sat a polished glass plate, on top of white sat a bright red heart. As she looked at it, she noticed the heart was still beating. To the side of the plate lay two curved black horns. They appeared demonic, but when she picked them up to examine them, she noticed the black paint flaking off the ridges. She guessed they were just painted goat horns. At the edge of the desk was a small stack of books, relating to demonology and the Nine Hells. On top of the stack was a shallow stone bowl filled with a dusty grey powder. On a hunch, Miaug ran her hand around the underside of the desk. To her surprise, she found a tiny recessed button. When she pressed it, a small compartment on the side of the desk fell open. Inside she found a black smoky gem, another silver Nethonris ring, and a tightly rolled map. She examined the map, which illustrated the Shattered Isles and the Golden Coast, and was marked with a circuitous route to Southmarch. The final room, Amara's, lay on the right of the corridor. Laying across the desk was a partially dismantled bronze telescope and a series of books on astronomy and constellations.
Meanwhile, Ryoko was desperately trying to follow Kildrak's instructions and reassemble the key, but the intricate task was complicated by her long talons. She had the outer surface of the key assembled, and was about to slip in the final segment, when her knuckle caught the side and knocked the key out of her grasp. It hit the floor, falling to pieces. Frustrated, Aetilius gathered up the segments and began to reassemble them. The sound of Clootie's moaning grew louder, beginning to sound more like snarling; reminding them both of the imminent danger. With a firm click the final piece slipped home, and a brief silvery light rippled over the surface of the key. Aetilius threw it to Ryoko as the pair raced down the corridor to Clootie, whistling to Miaug. Aetilius knelt down and picked up the shaking little gnome, as Ryoko raced over to the door. She placed the orb in the centre of the depression, and a pulse of silver light raced across the surface of the door. With a quiet whirring sound, the brass mechanism on either side began to whirl, and the doors swung smoothly inwards.
The portal opened into a small antechamber, where a huge stone archway led off to the right. Miaug and Ryoko formed up on either side of Aetilius. Ramas darted across the chamber to the far side of the arch, peering around the corner and waving the rest of party in. Through the archway the room opened out into a massive hall, at least two storeys high. Ornate stone columns supported a vast vaulted ceiling. Dominating the far wall stood the Forge of Spells, an immense construction of bronze and crystal. At the base lay a huge bronze pool, twin staircases spiraled up from the side of the pool to a platform running across the top of the forge. Behind the platform sat a beautifully carved bronze arch, set into the structure; in the centre of which stood a hemispherical bronze plate supporting a huge crystal sphere.
The party split up, searching the room for Lightbringer. Ramas raced towards the forge. As he drew closer, in the darkness in front of the forge he could make out five burned corpses. Their skin was blackened and crusted; with scorched tufts of hair clinging to their charred scalps. Miaug moved around the room to the left, peering along the wall and behind the pillars. Ryoko moved right. The Iskathi struggled to see in the darkness as well as her allies, and she let out a sharp curse as she stubbed her toe against something solid and metallic. Reaching down she felt for the object. It was around four feet long, covered rust. It tapered from a narrow cylindrical haft up to a large spiked head. A mace! This must be it. Ryoko grasped the mace by the handle and lifted it into the air. As she lifted it above her head, the mace began to vibrate in her grip. Flakes of rust began to fall from the surface like snow, and bright light seeped through cracks in the corrosion. The mace pulsed with energy, and a brilliant flash of blinding light filled the room. As the light faded, Ryoko noticed that the rust had completely disappeared from the surface of the weapon. In Aetilius's arms, Clootie groaned and opened her eyes.
The group immediately clustered around the gnome. Aetilius gently set her down, and after a few shaky seconds she stood up confidently, reassuring her friends that she was OK. With a collective sigh of relief, the party relaxed. Aetilius suggested that they check back through the Mages quarters for clues, he still hadn't spoken to Kildrak about the diagrams he'd found in Arun's room. As he started back towards the door, the group heard a faint whistling sound, like wind through a crack. The sound rapidly built in intensity, and the party could feel the hairs on their arms standing on end. With a thunderous sound the door to the chamber slammed shut just as the sound reached a fever pitch, howling like a storm around the party.
Then nothing. A dry, raspy chuckle cuts through the silence. The five charred corpses lifted off the ground with jerky, unnatural movements, like marionettes pulled by invisible strings. As the corpses came to a stop, hovering about a foot above the ground, the closest one fixed malicious green eyes on Ryoko and uttered a single word, which seemed to hang heavy in the bloated air,
"Finally..."
The door swung open and clattered against an old stone bed. The remains of an ancient mattress moldered atop the bed base. In the far corner of the room, a polished obsidian desk stood smothered by clutter. Scattered across the desk surface were pages of loose sheaf, covered in hastily scrawled notes; and a pinboard with the remains of a large horned beetle spread across it. Perched on the edge of the desk nearest the wall stood an intricate bronze tree model. Hanging from each branch were dozens of desiccated chrysalis. Mounted on the wall behind the desk the party noticed a shelf full of jars, each containing insects frozen in amber. Amongst the clutter on the desk lay two large leather bound volumes. Aetilius idly picked them up and glanced at the spines: 'Medical Entomology' and 'Fabre's Book of Insects'.
Meanwhile, Clootie and Ryoko decided to investigate the room to the left, apparently which belonged to somebody called Ruza. Inside, this room had a similar layout to the other; but beyond the general arrangement of furniture, could not have been more different. This room was wreathed by beautiful garlands of spring flowers which ran across the ceiling in all directions. Trailing ivy climbed up the walls, blooming with dozens of tiny white flowers, which seemed to almost sparkle against the stone. The room smelled fresh and clean, like a meadow. Clootie noticed that the bed in this room was around half the size of the one in Arun's room. The desk in this room was almost immaculate. On the side stood an aquamarine glass vase, filled with delicate silver lillies. Stacked in the middle of the desk were two books. Ryoko read out the titles to Clootie: 'Properties of Herbs of the Eastern Coast of the Sundered Sea, and of the Rahkeen Plains' and 'The Ballad of the Golden Knight'. As she looked around at the room, it occurred to Ryoko that this room had not been inhabited in centuries, and if so, how were the flowers still alive. As they examined the room, Clootie discreetly mentioned to Ryoko that she was feeling strangely on edge.
Aetilius and Ramas made their way into the room on the right. The door to this this room was carved with Dwarven runes, which Aetilius read as Kildrak. The desk in this room was strewn with clutter; piles of tools, lengths of wire and tiny brass or bronze mechanisms. Sitting in the middle of a small clearing among the debris, Aetilius spotted two objects: a small brass and wood puzzle box, carved with similar symbols to the brass key fragments; and a small circular bronze device, about three inches across.
Suddenly the silence was split by a low register rattling groan. The sound built in pitch and intensity as tendrils of smoky blackness began to swirl around the room, reaching a fevered pitch as the darkness coalesced into the tenebrous figure of a dwarf. His head swivelled to fix Aetilius with two glaring baleful red eyes, and his jaw lolled open revealing a mouth full of needle sharp curved canines, "Who dares trespass?" he says, his voice a deep wheezy rattle, "Do you know what your presence has wrought?"
"What do you mean?" Aetilius responded,
"Living creatures should not be here. Your presence has awakened something which should have remained asleep. Why are you here?"
"We were sent here to cleanse the evil from the mine" Aetilius responded, cautiously,
"Ha! You? No offense tielfing, but you haven't a hope against the power inside this place."
"We might surprise you. And either way, we don't have much choice"
The wraith listened for a moment to the pounding of the goblins on the door, "I suppose that might be true" he admitted,
"What can you tell us about the evil in the mine"
"My name is, was, Kildrak Toledun. I was a member of the Magi here. I specialized in mechanical devices and arcane mechanisms. For a time, things were good. We lived here, studying the capabilities of the Forge. Until the Verani sent a force of orcs to lay siege to the mine. The Magi and the dwarves all agreed that the Forge could not be allowed to fall into their hands. If the Verani were to gain control of that power, Lathandar help us all.
Arun had developed a powerful ward. He was preparing the ritual which would seal the mine entrance until reinforcements from Rakheen could arrive. I was tinkering with my latest creation, a Lens of True Sight. I accidentally caught a glimpse of Arun's ritual circle through the lens. It stripped away Arun's glamour and I could see the dark magic below. Before I could warn the rest of the Magi, I was grabbed from behind and my throat was slit.
From what I can tell, Arun's ritual created a powerful binding magic; a side effect being that my soul was unable to move on. I've been trapped here ever since. I watched him murder my friends and bind their souls into those foul orbs. Arun himself volunteered to take the place they had planned for me in the ritual. It didn't kill him, but it did something else with his soul.
After the deed was done, Arun's lackeys took the three orbs and fled with them. When they collapsed the mine entrance behind them, I though that was it over. But after a while I noticed a darkness spreading from the ritual site. That was when I first manifested. I managed to lock the door to the Forge. The wards on the door seem to have kept the worst of it at bay. To be safe, I disassembled the key and scattered the pieces around the mine.
But now you're here. You, and your friends out there. Arun's shade is stirring behind the door, and I fear that the wards will not hold forever. If you truly want to cleanse the mine, I'd advise looking through Arun's belongings. The ritual he created was a complex one, there must be notes or details of it somewhere. It might give some clue how to undo the binding."
Aetilius thanked the dwarven wraith, and the party started to ransack Arun's room looking for clues. Aetilius started to leaf idly through the books on Arun's desk. As he skimmed through 'Fabre's Book of Insects', he noticed that the last page had been scrawled over with arcane script and symbols. The detail of the script was beyond Aetilius's understanding, but he did note some diagrams, showing lines extending from five points and meeting at a central point, before splitting outwards into the three other points. Aetilius was just about to take the book to Kildrak to seek his assistance when Clootie let out a sharp scream, clutching her head and falling to the floor. Her body began to stiffen and her limbs spasmed uncontrollably. The rest of the party clustered around her. Her eyes snapped open and stared blankly up at the ceiling. Ryoko noticed that her irises had turned completely black, and black tendrils had begun to spread out across the whites of her eyes. With a rush of air, Kildrak appeared behind them, looking down at the gnome,
"I have seen this before. She is affected by the same darkness which has warped those goblins. It is part of Arun's influence. She doesn't have long, if the progress of the infection isn't stopped in the next thirty minutes, she will be lost to the darkness forever. She needs sunlight, that should be enough to burn out the darkness"
"We'll never get her out of the mines in time" Ryoko pointed out
"There might be another option," Kildrak mused, "The last artifact we created in the Forge was a mace for the Champions, named Lightbringer. Among other things, it can be made to burn with some small reflection of the sun. It might be enough."
He sighs and looks hopeless, "But to find that, you'd need to get into the Forge. You would need the fragments of the key. I hid some of them out in the mine tunnels, you'd never find them in time"
"Do you mean these?" Aetilius showed him the brass fragments they had collected,
"Yes! Where did you find those?"
"We found some in the mine tunnels, and some in the smelter" Ryoko responded
"That means the last pieces are in the Wave Echo Cave, in the rock pool" the wraith sounded excited
"How do we get there?" Aetilius asked, seriously
"There's a passage in Arun's room. Come, I'll show you"
The wraith led Aetilius, Ryoko and Miaug into Arun's room, while Ramas waited with Clootie. The wraith muttered an incantation and a section of wall seemed to warp briefly, like a ripple across a pond, before disappearing to reveal a small tunnel carved into the wall,
"This way. Follow the tunnel into Wave Echo Cave. I hid the final fragments in the bottom of the pool. You must be swift"
The party agreed to send Aetilius and Ryoko, Miaug and Ramas would keep an eye on Clootie and continue searching the mages quarters for any information which might aid them against Arun. Aetilius and Ryoko both crouched down and began to crawl into the tunnel. It was a tight fit. Aetilius's armour scraped against the wall whenever the tunnel tightened, and he fought back the mounting claustrophobia. Ryoko's broad shoulders almost filled the opening, and she had to keep her back arched to prevent it catching on the tunnel ceiling. Both adventurers focused on the task at hand and their dying friend, and continued to crawl forward.
Miaug and Ramas each took turns examining the other rooms. The next rooms down the corridor belonged to Eleanor and Macer. Eleanor's room was dominated by an elaborate alchemical setup running across the desk, surrounded by various ingredients and reagents, notes and alchemical textbooks. As Miaug opened the door to Macer's room, she were struck by the overwhelming smell of rancid fish, so strong as to be almost tangible. Miaug didn't understand how the smell had lingered for all these centuries, but the mystery did little to distract her from her own retching. Clustered in the corner of the desk she saw a number of small jars each containing different hideous fishlike creatures immersed in viscous liquid: eels, jagged mawed angler fish and bulbous, sightless creatures. In the centre of the desk sat two massive serrated lobster-like claws, and on the other side of desk sat two books, underneath a lump of solid amber. Miaug picked up the amber and peered inside curiously. She could just make out a bulbous grey organ inside the resin.
Eventually, after what felt like an eternity in the claustrophobic darkness, Aetilius and Ryoko emerged from the tunnel onto a small ledge high in the wall of a vast cavern. On the opposite side of the cave, the floor rose sharply to form a large pool, above which water poured in through a crack in the ceiling, crashing into the pool below with a thunderous roar. A faint eerie blue glow emanated from the pool, bathing the cave in an unearthly light which did little to relieve the deep shadows. Summoning all his strength, Aetilius grabbed Ryoko under the arms and flew across to the pool with her, straining to keep the hold of the dragonborn and keep them both in the air. Once they were above the water, Ryoko saw the source of the glow. Hundreds of tiny blue glowing specks floated in the water, sparkling like stars in the night sky. As Aetilius's strength began to run out, Ryoko twisted out of his hands, shifting to her Dragon Eel form as she fell and slipping into the water like a javelin, barely creating a ripple on the surface. Desperately she cast about the bottom of the pool, using her enhanced sonar senses to identify anything small, solid and out of place. Within moments she spotted something! Three small metallic objects nestled against the side of the pool. She immediately swam down, scooping all three segments into her mouth. The, with a powerful thrust of her fins she shot upward. She broke the surface like a dolphin, and as she caught sight of the tunnel entrance she focused her energies through the Blink Totem she wore around her neck. The Dragon Eel disappeared, water suddenly rushing in to fill the void created a sound like a crashing wave. Ryoko reappeared on the ledge, her eel form almost slipping off before Aetilius swooped in and grabbed her. She dropped the brass fragments from her mouth, and then shifted back into her Iskathi form with a grin.
Miaug and Ramas started to explore the next two rooms in the quarters: Evendur and Bogdan. On Evendur's desk they noticed two massive leather bound tomes: 'Elven Anatomy' and 'The Malediction Codex'. Leafing through, both appeared to be medical textbooks of some form. In the middle of the desk rested a rust covered serrated blade. Ramas went to pick it up, but the blade snapped off as he touched the handle. Finally something in this place seemed to be affected by the passage of time. Behind the blade, at the back of desk, rested a gleaming white human skull. Etched into the cranium were a number of crisscrossed marks. Beside the skull sat three sealed jars, of differing heights, each filled with a dark green liquid. The smallest jar contained what looked to be a brain. The mid-sized jar contained what Miaug believed to be a two-headed cow fetus. The largest jar contained a severed hand, the long delicate fingers appeared female and most likely elven. The other room, belonging to Bogdan, was unusually empty. One a single book rested on the desk: 'Goodnight Sweet Prince: A Book of Bedtime Tales'. On the bed sat three moldering stuffed unicorns: one pink, one green and one blue. Miaug couldn't resist, and picked up the blue one. The ancient fabric began to come apart in her hand. Desiccated stuffing fell out onto the floor, along with something small and shiny, which let out a bring ringing sound as it hit the stone floor. Miaug knelt down and retrieved the fallen object, a small silver ring engraved with the now familiar trangular symbol of the Nethonris.
Ryoko and Aetilius emerged from the tunnel, grimy, sweating but triumphant. They showed the segments to Kildrak, who grinned at them. The dwarven wraith then began to instruct them how to reassemble the key.
As Ramas checked on Clootie, who lay in front of the shimmering door, groaning and sweating; Miaug took a last look in the final two rooms. The left hand room belonged to Milos. Taking pride of place on the desk sat a polished glass plate, on top of white sat a bright red heart. As she looked at it, she noticed the heart was still beating. To the side of the plate lay two curved black horns. They appeared demonic, but when she picked them up to examine them, she noticed the black paint flaking off the ridges. She guessed they were just painted goat horns. At the edge of the desk was a small stack of books, relating to demonology and the Nine Hells. On top of the stack was a shallow stone bowl filled with a dusty grey powder. On a hunch, Miaug ran her hand around the underside of the desk. To her surprise, she found a tiny recessed button. When she pressed it, a small compartment on the side of the desk fell open. Inside she found a black smoky gem, another silver Nethonris ring, and a tightly rolled map. She examined the map, which illustrated the Shattered Isles and the Golden Coast, and was marked with a circuitous route to Southmarch. The final room, Amara's, lay on the right of the corridor. Laying across the desk was a partially dismantled bronze telescope and a series of books on astronomy and constellations.
Meanwhile, Ryoko was desperately trying to follow Kildrak's instructions and reassemble the key, but the intricate task was complicated by her long talons. She had the outer surface of the key assembled, and was about to slip in the final segment, when her knuckle caught the side and knocked the key out of her grasp. It hit the floor, falling to pieces. Frustrated, Aetilius gathered up the segments and began to reassemble them. The sound of Clootie's moaning grew louder, beginning to sound more like snarling; reminding them both of the imminent danger. With a firm click the final piece slipped home, and a brief silvery light rippled over the surface of the key. Aetilius threw it to Ryoko as the pair raced down the corridor to Clootie, whistling to Miaug. Aetilius knelt down and picked up the shaking little gnome, as Ryoko raced over to the door. She placed the orb in the centre of the depression, and a pulse of silver light raced across the surface of the door. With a quiet whirring sound, the brass mechanism on either side began to whirl, and the doors swung smoothly inwards.
The portal opened into a small antechamber, where a huge stone archway led off to the right. Miaug and Ryoko formed up on either side of Aetilius. Ramas darted across the chamber to the far side of the arch, peering around the corner and waving the rest of party in. Through the archway the room opened out into a massive hall, at least two storeys high. Ornate stone columns supported a vast vaulted ceiling. Dominating the far wall stood the Forge of Spells, an immense construction of bronze and crystal. At the base lay a huge bronze pool, twin staircases spiraled up from the side of the pool to a platform running across the top of the forge. Behind the platform sat a beautifully carved bronze arch, set into the structure; in the centre of which stood a hemispherical bronze plate supporting a huge crystal sphere.
The party split up, searching the room for Lightbringer. Ramas raced towards the forge. As he drew closer, in the darkness in front of the forge he could make out five burned corpses. Their skin was blackened and crusted; with scorched tufts of hair clinging to their charred scalps. Miaug moved around the room to the left, peering along the wall and behind the pillars. Ryoko moved right. The Iskathi struggled to see in the darkness as well as her allies, and she let out a sharp curse as she stubbed her toe against something solid and metallic. Reaching down she felt for the object. It was around four feet long, covered rust. It tapered from a narrow cylindrical haft up to a large spiked head. A mace! This must be it. Ryoko grasped the mace by the handle and lifted it into the air. As she lifted it above her head, the mace began to vibrate in her grip. Flakes of rust began to fall from the surface like snow, and bright light seeped through cracks in the corrosion. The mace pulsed with energy, and a brilliant flash of blinding light filled the room. As the light faded, Ryoko noticed that the rust had completely disappeared from the surface of the weapon. In Aetilius's arms, Clootie groaned and opened her eyes.
The group immediately clustered around the gnome. Aetilius gently set her down, and after a few shaky seconds she stood up confidently, reassuring her friends that she was OK. With a collective sigh of relief, the party relaxed. Aetilius suggested that they check back through the Mages quarters for clues, he still hadn't spoken to Kildrak about the diagrams he'd found in Arun's room. As he started back towards the door, the group heard a faint whistling sound, like wind through a crack. The sound rapidly built in intensity, and the party could feel the hairs on their arms standing on end. With a thunderous sound the door to the chamber slammed shut just as the sound reached a fever pitch, howling like a storm around the party.
Then nothing. A dry, raspy chuckle cuts through the silence. The five charred corpses lifted off the ground with jerky, unnatural movements, like marionettes pulled by invisible strings. As the corpses came to a stop, hovering about a foot above the ground, the closest one fixed malicious green eyes on Ryoko and uttered a single word, which seemed to hang heavy in the bloated air,
"Finally..."
Report Date
18 Jan 2020
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