The Forgotten City IX
General Summary
Before opening the next door, Theo suggests that it would be best to close the door behind. He consults with Riven about spiking the door shut, but sees the wisdom in leaving a potential egress should the need arise for a tactical retreat. Kegho inserts the robust jade key into the door and the smooth door becomes covered with the pale blue glow of text and images etched in Ar: a Wazir surrounded by female Rusati and other humans or humanoid figures. The door bears a title that Alex sounds out as Paru-Hat-Pa and suggests it could means something like "House of Contemplation" to which Kegho snorts "Ha! Go to yurt, com-ta-plate what you do!" Alex pats him on the hip and says "I agree, sounds like a Rusati prison" Theo, returning from the door suggests instead it is a place of meditation, peace, learning or rest. At which point the door slides open and a rough hewn hallway with a muddy floor and a pear-shaped lump near the doorway. "Is worse than cah-tum-plate yurt!" Kegho groused sullenly. Riven gazes down the hallway lit dimly with Alex's dusky red lantern light and sees prints both human and smaller, and evidence of someone or something being dragged. Alex pokes at the lump and it feels soft, but so is the mud below it and it begins to sink. He uses his staff sling to pick it up and hand it to Kegho who finds it to be a mouldering pouch with a crystal key flecked with red. Riven is delighted by the intricate sparkle of the crystal key and Teleptyon notes that it is not something someone would want to lose. He guesses it was carried by whatever was being dragged. Kegho slips it into his cleanest pouch and Alex creeps forward down the hallway moving as quietly as one might with two barbarians behind him.
At the end of the hall was a crossroad with a similarly worked hallway continuing to the north and a natural chamber wending to the left and right. In an alcove at the end of the passage to the right is a statue of a cat-headed humanoid in a position of seated repose. Alex waves to Theo and Teleptyon to get a load of the statue. Theo notes it is likely one of the many animal-headed gods of the Metdjen belief system passed down from the Rusati to the peoples of the Khemian lands. Alex reads a cartouche Buh-Rhist-Tet and makes a note to ask the next Khemian he meets if that means anything to them. Kegho and Asbjørn move toward the passage that continued into the darkness to guard it. While standing there they felt a breeze of surprisingly fresh air. Asbjørn stilled what was left of his mind and could smell the gentle rot of vegetation and a hint of coal fire smoke. Alex and Riven moved into the hallway that very obviously contained a secret passage, but after checking Riven was certain there was no passages hidden in the stonework. Alex was becoming increasingly frazzled by the architecture of the ancient Rusati.
Alex and Riven creep in front of the barbarians and travel down the hallway, following the path Asbjørn had pointed to. As they travel down the hall it become rougher stonework and a muddier floor. Eventually the passageway opens into a cavern open to the sky above but for the interwoven vines covering the top, the room is filled with crude weapons and pieces of weapons, and a crude smithy consisting of a bellows, anvil and slack tub, but also a floor carved with a cartouche reading Re-Khepri-Khamat-Neb "Sun Creation Three Lord...maybe?" Alex muses as he waved La Compagnia into the very quiet room. To their surprise a Keb with a bald head and full, dark beard and an Alvus of willowy tall stature and swarthy complection sit, drugged, at a table with some of the tools of smitthing arrayed in front of them. Theo quickly notices that the two were fettered to the table and his hackles are raised by the enslavement. Kegho notices too and recruits Asbjørn to help them loose the bonds of the two prisoners.
Alex shushes them as he scales the vines to see if they are near a passable way into the valley or not, but as he breaches the vining canopy, a face full of dagger-like teeth greets him. Both are taken aback and Alex is fairly sure the creature is related to the Wem of Aerisca somehow. Alex grabs the creature as it reaches for a dagger and kicks off from the wall, hoping to twist the creature under him to break his fall. He is only partially successful and they land together on the floor, Alex on his back and the creature on his head. His neck twisted to an unnatural angle and his eyes lifeless.
"Once more into the breach!" Alex wheezed as he got his wind back, but it was too late, the little creatures were descending into the shaft, led by a cobra-headed man hissing orders to them.
Riven sees one climbing down the vines towards Teleptyon and shoots it through the eyes, felling it, but not before it hucked a wooden spear at the mage, wounding him. Kegho also shoots one descending toward the mage and greivously wounds it. Theo swings his mace at one but it is small and fleet and ducks what would hav ebeen a devastating blow to its skull. One misses an attack on Riven, and one sinks a dagger into Asbjørn's mighty thew. Another stabs at Teleptyon wounding him further. Tele looses bolts of searing Ar at the two closest beasts concussing them badly. One attacks Theo who effortlessly bats away its thrusts with his shield. Asbjørn swings his sword at the two nearest creatures but they duck and dodge. Alex, standing again after his fall from a great height looses a sling bullet at the closest creature. Riven misses with her bow. Kegho begins taking shots at the serpent man, but he seems unphased by the arrow sticking out of his chest. Teleptyon sends a choice bolt of the Ar at the snake man and one of the creatures, bruising the first and obliterating the latter. One attacks Asbjørn but he had grown canny to their means of attack and stepped out of the way. The Cobra-headed man hissed at them as his minions were one-by one laid low.
