* * *
Now that my companions and I have found a place of shelter,
there is enough time to reflect on our situation and how we came to be here.
As we raced away from the bone bridge, we were gratified to
hear the effects of Xoma’s summoning of magical darkness—the sound of some of
our pursuers hurtling down to the giant worms in the moat below. Rendar and I
half-carried, half-pushed Halbazar down the corridor towards the glowing door ahead, while Magnus and Doongul noted that the ghoul pack trailed us by a
scant 30 feet. The length of the corridor seemed to contract, then to expand,
as some magical force assaulted our senses like a sudden attack of vertigo,
causing Rendar and Cypher to lose their balance and crash to the floor. Perhaps
the druidic teachings of my master, Koruun, helped me, or perhaps my luck ran
true this time, but I was unfazed, and easily able to assist Rendar. Xoma did
the same for Cypher.
The door seemed to be made of brass or iron, not bronze as
it had appeared from a distance, and was covered with glowing, crystal panels.
Rendar and I quickly realized opening it would be best left to those with
knowledge of the mystic arts, and we moved back down the corridor to face our
pursuers as Cypher and Xoma moved up to the door. Although Halbazar offered us
no aid in our flight, at least now he was content to stand near the door
without hindering anyone. Perhaps his recent wounds made him docile. It both
saddens and angers me that this is the best we can hope from our comrade under
whatever malevolent influence now controls him.
Magnus and Rendar moved to hold the corridor against the
onslaught, while Doongul invoked the power of Onatar to repel one of the foul creatures, and I took a
position giving me a clear line of fire with my crossbow. We sought to focus
our attacks to bring the ghouls down one by one, and use their corpses as a
barrier against them, but they easily clambered over the fallen to close with
Magnus and Rendar. Magnus took a couple of wounds, but was unfazed by the
ghouls’ paralytic touch. We would manage to return at least five there number
to true death before the combat was over.
Cypher tried the Emperor’s Key to get the door open—to no
avail, perhaps because it didn’t appear to be the work of the Dhakaani hobgoblins. Next, Cypher drew on one of those skills of
his that are simply beyond my ken to analyze the door’s properties. He divined that it needed some form of arcane energy to open, though
he was not able to figure out the exact variety. This led to a flurry of
spellcasting as he and the drow did their best to unleash every type of magic they had at their disposal. Finally, Xoma resorted to the bottle
containing the vampiric cloud, and, with a laugh, opened it. The cloud drew
life energy from Cypher, bestowed it on Xoma, and incidentally provided the
necromantic energy the door needed to open.
Xoma took a look inside the chamber, reporting it contained
six sarcophagi, double doors opposite our entrance, and a strange figure in the
center. The figure appeared to be a
statue, wrapped in something that could not yet be discerned.
At this point, the rest of us spotted one of those nasty
blade-fingered creatures approaching and realized we’d best withdraw
immediately. I continued to fire bolts while retreating toward the newly opened
tomb. Cypher brought the lightning-bolt wand into play, incinerating one of the
ghouls, but exhausting the device’s charges once and for all. Eventually we all
made it into the tomb, with Magnus and Rendar the last to enter.
They attempted
to close the door, but met with resistance from the oncoming undead. I joined
them in the contest, and together we managed to slam it shut, severing some of
the bladed claws of our foe. Then the door that had been so solid during our
struggle, immediately disappeared, to be replaced by a new, darkened passageway
empty of foes.
Meanwhile, Cypher and Xoma had found that the double doors
were goblinoid work, and had a tomb seal on them, indicating that we had
somehow popped up inside the tomb in
question. Cypher again employed the
Emperor’s Key, and as the doors opened, he and Xoma spotted two hyena-headed
humanoids that we identified as gnolls forty feet down yet another corridor.
Before the gnolls could do aught but utter a few yips, the length of the
corridor opened up below their feet, dropping them onto spikes thirty feet below.
Cypher and Xoma heard barking noises and noted that the passage extended sixty feet, all of which was now completely open to the spikes below, before giving way into caverns from which more gnolls appeared and opened fire with bows. We quickly closed
the doors, and I happily retrieved a couple of gnoll arrows for my own use.
As we examined the tomb more closely, Doongul observed that
the stonework was crude, orcish work. The strange, central figure proved to be
the corpse of an orc wrapped in petrified vines. My training with the
Gatekeepers of the Eldeen led me to believe this orc had been punished for some
crime, and that the vines binding him had been directed by druidic magic. The
stone sarcophagi most likely contained guardians to watch over the orc’s
imprisonment. I advised the others that it would be best not to disturb
anything, but that we would not incur the guardian’s wrath by resting here.
We all agreed it was time for a rest, and with no threats
arising from the open passage thus far, this looked like the best spot we were
likely to find for some time.
As we settle in,
there is one stray detail that may be worthy of note. All of the ghouls we
fought from the cavern of the green worms were elves clad in rags that
indicated they originated from Valenar. I have no idea why Valenar elves would
mount an expedition to Paluur Draal, but the question may bear further
consideration.
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