Monday, January 28, 2013

#21 - Tunnel and Tomb

Here the narrative is picked up by the shifter Cyzicus of the Eldeen, a Loreguard ranger.


* * *



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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