nowbound
nowbound
They returned to the corridor and checked the room they had passed by in their pursuit of the old man.
"Perhaps he was trying to distract us from looking in here." Trimus suggested while Jodotha was checking the door.
He was disappointed to find that the room contained nothing but old building materials; solidified sacks of plaster, worm eaten timber and rusted conglomerations of iron nails.
"It appears that we need to delve deeper if we are to find the Lifestone." Darkhawk led the others back along the corridor as Trimus gave directions from his sketch map.
The twenty or so stone steps led down into another lit corridor which turned sharply eastwards after twenty feet or so towards a crossroads. The north, east and west passages all
ended in doors, larger and better made than those seen on the level above. Jodotha moved to and checked each one in turn before returning to the others.
"The east and north doors are not trapped and I can hear nothing beyond them. The southern door is trapped however, magically trapped. There is warm air seeping from it
and I can hear a crackling sound which may be a large fire from behind the door. Sadly I can not disarm the trap safely."
"Perhaps I can." Offered Trimus stepping forward whereupon he cast a dispel magic spell upon the door. A brief flash of flame
and soul smelling smoke issued from the door suggesting that the door had been imbued with some sort of fire trap. Ako pushed the door open and
stepped into a large square chamber around the perimeter of which were a number of solid wooden benches. On the far side of the room was another door carved with
the semblance of a rearing dragon. Jodotha gingerly approached the door and listened for a few moments before checking it for traps. Once he had signalled the all clear Darkhawk opened it.
Beyond the door was a tunnel, roughly hewn from the rock of the mountainside.
"Later." Said Trimus and they closed the door once more barricading it with some of the benches.
Ako led the party south and opened the door from which welcome warmth was seeping. He stepped back and almost tripped over
Darkhawk at what he saw beyond. Standing in the centre of a circle carved into the stone floor of the room was a large, fiery lizard over a dozen feet in length.
Its massive body was covered in yellow and red metallic scales. Even from where they stood in the doorway the heat was intense.
"The beast appears to be trapped in what looks like a summoning circle." offered Trimus, "It cannot step over those magical glyphs."
He pointed at the symbols carved around the edge of the circle. "Oh magnificent beast, what can we do for you?" Trimus called from the doorway but got nothing but an angry hiss for his troubles.
Leaving the door open to spread some of the warmth of the lizard through the chambers on this level they tried the final door. To Ako's horror and Jodotha's shame the door handle shattered as the cleric gripped it releasing a large acidic cloud into the corridor. Ako and Cain took the brunt of the cloud's attack but none escaped without some form of injury. Trimus did what he could to ease the pain before they pressed on into the room.
It took a moment for everyone's eyes to adjust to the .lower light levels in the chamber which was large and seemingly
illuminated just by a glowing sphere atop a pedestal in the centre of the room. As Ako and Darkhawk, followed by the others into the room a sixth sense made Jodotha look around.
There in the corner of the room was a figure. As he gasped he noticed that there was a figure in each of the four corners, at first he thought they were statues until the one in the
south west corner with wide, staring eyes turned his gaze upon him. Jodotha winced as it felt as if his head was being squeeze in a press. The other three figures started to move as well.
The one in the south east who was wearing nothing but a loin cloth advanced towards them, the one in the north west bearing a sword stepped towards Darkhawk who raised his weapon to
defend himself. Trimus gaped in horror as the figure in the north east corner turned his sparkly blue eyes at the mage and cast a spell. A lightning bolt struck Darkhawk and ricocheted into
Trimus. Darkhawk's rucksack started to drip fluid as some of his potions were shattered by the blast. Jodotha dropped into a crouch and shot the figure in the north west corner. Ako moved
towards the loin cloth clad figure while Cain and Darkhawk engaged the one that wielded the sword. Trimus, flustered cast a spell of sleep upon the figure that had struck him with the lightning
bolt but to no effect.
Cain and Darkhawk struck their target who flailed around with his sword. Darkhawk ducked and the sword hit Cain instead.
The figure that had tried to cast a spell at Jodotha moved towards Ako as did the one in the south east corner. The spell casting figure cast another lightning bolt that struck
Trimus but the mage managed to deflect some of the damage. Ako screamed in pain as the creature in the south east corner suddenly extended its arms to an inhuman size and
wrapped them around the cleric's neck.
"It burns!" Ako shouted as the creature was excreting some form of acid from its skin.
Jodotha shot another lightning bolt at the one that was approaching from the south west. It struck home and the creature burst into a cloud of
multicoloured flame and smoke, much to the rogue's surprise.
"Try some of your own medicine," Trimus shouted casting a lightning bolt of his own at the one that had struck both Darkhawk and himself.
The bolt struck home but the creature just seemed to absorb the power of the blast. "Oh futtucks!" cursed Trimus loudly. "I should have expected that."
Ako was struggling to get the creature's acidic grip from off his neck when the monster's second arm wrapped itself around him. "Help me!" he cried his
voice muffled by the arms wrapped around his throat. Darkhawk killed the one that was attacking Cain and himself but then they both took a lightning bolt from the spell
caster with the blue sparkly eyes.
"I have to judge this just right," muttered Trimus as he cast a spell from his staff. Suddenly a storm of icy shards struck down the creature attacking Ako.
The mage had placed his ice storm so it just caught the acidic assailant not the cleric. The creature died in the same flamboyant way as the others did.
While the mage was concentrating on the spell Jodotha lifted the flap of Trimus' backpack and extracted a healing potion which he swiftly administered to the badly wounded Ako.
"Don't tell the mage!" he urged.
"Absorb this!" shouted Trimus as he cast a trio of magic missiles towards the spell caster. They struck home badly damaging him but he still had the strength to
launch another lightning bolt that struck Darkhawk on the hand. The fighter's ring of protection shattered into several places and he dropped his weapon with a cry of pain.
Jodotha picked up his crossbow and fired a bolt at the spell caster. It struck home and the figure died in the same way as the others.
All took a deep breath and looked around the room. Scorch marks from the lightning storm and a pool of melting ice had been added to the simple decorations since they had entered. Trimus did what he could to treat everyone's wounds. He looked a bit puzzled as to where his healing potion had gone but just shrugged the thought away. "Must be going a bit funny in the head." He mused as he bound Ako's wounds.
Trimus approached the pedestal upon which stood the glowing sphere. Trimus cast a spell of magical detection while Ako tried to detect evil.
Neither spells gave a positive result. Darkhawk tried to put the sphere in his bag of holding but it was stuck to the pedestal.
"Stop," Trimus called out, "That sphere is far too big, the one Grenden described is but half the size and anyway my spells have indicated that this one is not magical."
The mage touched it with his hand and the glow inside the sphere moved towards his hand, but nothing else happened.
Trimus held his wand of secret door detection in the air and uttered the command word. Instantly he smiled and walked over to the south wall and opened a hitherto hidden exit.
The small, warm room was lined with shelves and niches. Most of the shelves and spaces are empty, only a helm and two spheres similar to that described by Grenden sat on a shelf.
The helm didn't appear to be part of a suit of armour but that and the spheres glowed with a magical aura to Trimus' eyes as the magical detection spell was still in effect.
The mage started to reach towards the helm but decided that it would be better to determine what it was first.
"It would pay to learn some spells of identification before we proceed," Suggested Trimus. "We should rest for the rest of the day then see what tomorrow will bring. The others agreed, it was warmer here than above ground with the heat leaching from the summoning chamber.
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