#16 - The Wight Laboratory

After passing through a secret door in the wall—and provoking no more of the foul amorphous humanoids—the PCs descended a stairwell to another bronze door. The Emperor's Key once again opened it with a spoken command—this time by Doongul—and they came to another line of magic symbols carved into the floor. Study of the runes yielded little, but did suggest they were glyphs of warding. Meant to keep something out, or in. They had no trouble passing the runes themselves.

Beyond lay a dusty laboratory, clearly once used by the dar (goblinkind) and therefore these inner chambers were still somehow part of the city of Paluur Draal. It was a room of detritus, rot, shelves, beakers, crumbling scrolls and arcane books. And bodies. Several long dead bodies of human explorers or prospectors. In the center of the chamber, facing those who entered, was another slab of black, polished, mirror-like obsidian. This one was tall, floor to ceiling, and was built into a central column. Halbazar found himself staring into it—but disturbed by it, stepped back out of the room again.

Magnus and Doongul discovered the room's first hazard: hobgoblin skulls resting in alcoves which spewed foul poison when passing in front of them. Despite being sprayed by the deathly mist, Doongul toughed it out, only briefly weakened. Most of these skulls were simply smashed with hammer and morningstar.

Meanwhile, Rendar was the first to discover the first real problem. Halbazar's reflection in the dark mirror appeared to act quite differently than Halbazar himself. The image came forward, looking alarmed, and appeared to bang upon the surface of the obsidian—soundlessly. As if he were trapped in there. Meanwhile, Halbazar in body came forward, behind Rendar, and literally stabbed the half-orc in the back. No longer in possession of his own mind, Halbazar went mad. Rendar was bleeding from the nasty wound, but he turned and wrestled with the human, trying to subdue him!

But by this time the laboratory's chief had occupant appeared, standing on the stairway at the far end of the room.

A wight. Tall, long-nailed, sharp-toothed, ragged, bearded, once-human, in the torn cloak of his former life. Quite undead. He looked upon Cyzicus, and said, "Are you from the Eldeen?" When the shifter answered to the affirmative, the wight ordered "others" to attack, sparing only the shifter—at which point the corpses of the explorers, little more than husks and nails, rose to their feet and attacked.

With some painful hits and the draining touch of the wight himself—who leapt upon the very very walls and to maneuver around them—the creature and his corpse minions finally fell. As his own undead life was expiring, the wight clutched Cyzicus and told him to search beneath the stones, indicating a corner of the room.

Halbazar was eventually subdued and manacled by Rendar, with help. Though calmer now, he was still not himself. And his own silent image in the dark mirror remained despondent. During the fight, it was revealed that Halbazar was no longer able to cross the line of runes that warded the laboratory from the way the PCs had come.

As the party rested, Cyzicus discovered the loose flagstone in the corner of the room, where a folded-up, blood-stained letter had been written. The shifter read it first to himself, seeming deep in thought. His quest of finding a missing member of his order—a ranger named Wolaf—had come to an end.