nowbound

Part Six - The Cult Of Immortality - A Rock And A Hard Place

Day dawned, clear, bright and bitterly cold. Shivering in their cloaks they returned to where Ako had seen the door. Jodotha had hammered a few of his iron spikes into the ice where Ako had seen the door, still hidden behind a thick layer of ice.
"Well at least the work will keep us warm." Muttered Trimus, for once regretting his ring of protection from fire did not protect him from cold instead.
Using daggers, hammers and spikes the companions were soon steaming from the exertion of clearing enough of the ice to reach the doors. After an hour or so Jodotha was at last able to examine the giant sized door.
"I hope it opens inwards." Jodotha commented as he surveyed the carved stone of the door. "Otherwise we have a lot more ice to clear. This door is at least ten, maybe fifteen feet tall and about the same width going by the design I can make out. It looks like the bottom part of a face."
The rogue took off his gloves and blew on his still fingers to warm them. He spent a few moments checking the door before pulling a thin bladed dagger from his belt. Slipping it into the narrow crack between the two doors he fumbled for a moment or two before shaking his head and stepping back.
"It isn't trapped, and it isn't locked. However, there is a heavy wooden bar across the inside and I cannot get enough leverage with it to tip it out of it's sockets." Darkhawk tried his sword but the blade was too thick to pass between the doors.
"Bring a light up close." Demanded Trimus putting a ring upon his finger, "Let the cat see the rabbit." After fastidiously brushing the snow away from the front of the door, he knelt peering though the crack. Concentrating he willed the bar to rise and with a quiet grating sound it did. Using his ring of telekinesis the mage lowered the bar quietly to the floor and stood up, tutting at the damp stains on his knees.

Ako pushed the door open and they large stone slabs slowly, stiffly swung open, chunks and shards of ice falling from the doorway as they did so. A thin sheet of ice extended some way into the wide entrance hall that stretched into the darkness beyond. At the edge of sight a steep flight of stairs could be seen rising into the shadows. A simple stone door is set into the east wall of the corridor.
"Take a look at this." Ako pointed at the main doors through which they had just entered. They were both carved with half a face, human in appearance but some five feet tall. On the left-hand door the face was of a young man, the right was aged and lined. "I don't recognise it as a symbol of any Immortal that I know of. How about you Trimus?"
Trimus shook his head. "Whatever, we should shut them and try to keep out some of that wind." He hugged his chest and shivered.
Darkhawk closed the heavy doors and replaced the bar. Meanwhile Jodotha investigated the simple door. He listened and checked the door for traps but heard nothing and found no indication that the door was trapped. As Trimus and the others approached, light gems glowing brightly, the stairs were more clearly illuminated, at the top they could glimpse two hunched, winged statues atop stumpy pillars. Jodotha grimaced and opened the door.

A heavy, musty odour almost made Trimus sneeze as they entered what appears to be a cloakroom. On the far wall an assortment of fur cloaks and capes hung from hooks while an array of fur lined boots stood below. Trimus, feeling the cold, tried one of the capes on but found it stiff with age and heavy.
"That's strange." Mused Ako. "They are human sized, I would have thought they would be for giants."
"Perhaps they are for the giant's servants." Suggested Cain.
Trimus hung the cloak back up. "It may keep me warm but I would struggle to keep up wearing that." He pulled wand from his belt and uttered a command. "Reveal!"
Shaking his head he put the wand back in his belt and followed the others back into the corridor.

Jodotha pointed out the statues at the top of the stairs. "Gargoyles." He whispered drawing his blade.
As they stepped on the first tread of the stair the gargoyles wings' unfolded and they leapt upon the companions.
"Back or be destroyed!" barked Trimus in the grating tongue of the gargoyles stepping back as he did so.
Jodotha swung his blade and felt it bite deeply into the stone, Darkhawk finishing it off with a blow from his blade. Trimus cast a trio of magic missiles that tore large chunks from the other gargoyle while the others converged upon it. Again Jodotha struck well, slicing a wing from the creature. Ako's mace shattered what remained of it just as Cain aimed a powerful haymaker of punch at the collapsing creature. The mystic's fist struck Jodotha on the jaw and the rogue saw stars for a moment. Cain apologised as the others chuckled while searching the remains of the stone guardians for anything of value.
"Nothing." Complained Darkhawk rising to his feet. "You fit to carry on Jodotha?"
The rogue nodded and joined the others climbing the flight of stairs to the higher level of the entrance hall.

At the top of the stairs the passage opened up into a large octagonal room with a vaulted ceiling. Stone doors, plain and simple were set into the west, east and north walls. At its centre stood a waist high circular stone basin on a simple plinth. Three halfling-sized boulders lay on the floor but it did not appear that they had fallen from the ceiling. Trimus took a few cautious steps towards the basin and drew out his wand of magic detection and uttered a command.
"The basin isn't magical." He said turning back to the others.
"But those boulders are!" shouted Jodotha loosing a crossbow bolt at the nearest boulder that had oozed its way towards Trimus.
Ako flung a throwing hammer at the same creature which they could see now had a slimy coating to it and a faint acidic tang filled the air as they moved. Darkhawk tried his gnomish crossbow but sent the bolts went well wide in his haste. Cain dodged past the boulders and stood by the northern door. Ako and Darkhawk attacked a boulder their weapons damaging the creature. Jodotha moved to join them.
"Take care!" shouted Trimus. "They are grey ooze or something similar don't let them touch you."
The warning came too late and Jodotha was struck by a growth that sprung out from the boulder. He screamed loudly as the secretions burnt his skin but he kept fighting. Trimus launched more magic missiles at the ooze attacking Ako sending chunks flying into the air. A mighty blow from Ako's mace destroyed the one attacking Jodotha before he and Darkhawk finished off the other two oozes. Jodotha sank to his knees and whimpered in pain, his arms a raw red mess from the attack of the ooze.
"Let me take a look." Ako winced as he saw the burns and cast a healing spell. "Not perfect but you will survive."
"There's nothing in the basin." Announced Darkhawk, "Just a little ice, and a couple of rusty buckets."

Cain opened the north door and got a muttered curse from Jodotha who was trimming the frayed ends of his shirt.
"Wait next time Cain. I'm not dead yet."
He went to the east door and listened at it before checking for traps. Finding nothing he stepped back allowing Ako to open it revealing a long corridor with a pair of doors half way along, one in the north and one in the south wall.

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