The group picked their way through the
dust-shrouded debris of the ziggurat’s great hall towards the double doors on
the south side.
Flanking the doors was a pair of tall
statues. They had been cast from some sort of metal that reflected both
torchlight and light spell, and stood
a good Halfling’s height above the head of the tallest party member.
As the adventurers approached, they could
see that the statues were not built to represent any humanoid creature they
were familiar with. The statues were at once crab-like and lizardlike, with
segmented legs balancing their fluted forms on the stone floor. Their snakelike
bodies reared up like hooded cobras, but the hoods were made of polished brass.
Four articulated limbs sprouted from their heavy carapaces. The lower set
terminated in delicate clockwork fingers with sharpened tips that glittered in
the dark. The upper set held weapons in each hand – a fierce battleaxe in the
right, and a strange object in the left hand that looked like a wizard’s rod
with a gem set in the end, but which the statue gripped in its hand like a
crossbow. Their faces were featureless save for a deep-set cycloptic eye. The
statue on the left was black with gold inlays, while the one on the right was
gold with black inlays. Though they had been standing there for centuries, they
looked like they had been freshly polished.
“They look like something a half-mad
yuan-ti would dream up after one ale too many,” Radegast muttered.
Even Varien had to appreciate the
workmanship. He reached out to touch the iron hide of the first statue. “I
wonder if they’re worth-”
There was a deep basso hum from the statue
as Varien laid a hand on it, soon joined by a similar subsonic humming from the
second statue. Each statue’s eye began to cast an amber glow, and there was a
ratcheting sound as the statues flexed their crab-like legs, adding a couple of
feet to their towering height as they straightened up and fixed their gaze upon
the adventurers.
“So, not statues, then.” Radegast said.
There was a painful buzzing sound from the
first statue that resolved itself into harsh speech in a language that could
only be Ancient Netherese.
“I’m sorry,” Radegast said to the statue in
Draconic, raising her hands as she backed away. “I don’t speak Netherese.” As
she disengaged she hissed at Varien. “Whatever powers you’re saving, don’t wait
for a lich to show up – use them now!”
There was a metallic roar from the second
statue and their amber eyes turned ruby-red.
Theryn brandished his bo staff and leapt
between the two statues, striking the gold one with a stunning strike and then
repeating the hit on the black one. Theryn’s blows rang like a gong on the
constructs’ heavy armor. Driving his staff into the ground, he balanced like a
pole vaulter and kicked both of the constructs.
Varien drew his sword and cast a vow of enmity on the black construct. He
slashed at it with his sword, sending sparks flying.
The gold construct balled its lower hands
into fists and punched Theryn with a clockwork bang, and then swung its battle
axe, slashing the monk with radiant energy that made the axe dance with light.
Flatfooted, Xylon racked his brain trying
to come up with a weakness. He cast chromatic
orb , but missed. The orb impacted on the wall behind the gold construct,
sending tongues of flame licking along the stones.
Bob figured that an automaton might be
vulnerable to lightning damage. He cast shocking
grasp . Bolts of electricity played
over the construct’s carapace, and the intensity of its eye blazed ever
brighter. Its limbs waved frantically as it screeched a burbling babble of
misplaced consonants.
Bob cast healing word on Theryn, who had taken a considerable set of lumps
from the construct.
Radegast cast dissonant whispers , but the psychic attack had no effect on the
automaton. “Looks like you’ve discovered its weakness, Bob!” she shouted
encouragement at the cleric. “Keep lighting him up!”
Theryn dusted himself off and put all his
strength into a strike with his quarterstaff, connecting with the gold
construct and rocking it back on its four legs. He left a considerable dent in
its thorax, and one of its four limbs hung uselessly, leaking a black fluid
from gaps in the plate armor.
Varien slashed at the black construct,
damaging it, and then healed Theryn further.
The black construct took a few heavy steps
back, and with its upper limb, aimed the long bejeweled rod at the combatants.
The gem glowed in an instant, and a barrage of radiant bolts spat out,
targeting Theryn, Radegast and Varien. Bob watched, amazed – the construct’s
weapon made his wand of magic missile look like a child’s sparkler.
“Lightning, eh?” Xylon rubbed his hands
together with dark glee. “Try this on for size!” He shot a chromatic orb at the
gold construct. The orb detonated with a thundercrack and a sizzle of lightning
bolts as it struck the construct square in the eye. The construct seized up and
began shaking, sending shards of armor plating and melting gold wire tumbling
every which way as it came apart in a flash of expended energy.
Bob cast witch bolt on the black construct but missed. He healed Theryn
again.
Theryn looked down at the holes in his
chest left by the construct’s energy weapon, and then sneered at the construct,
hurling himself at it. Two staff strikes and a kick sent the automaton slewing
sideways.
Varien stood next to Theryn and cast an eldritch blast , which shattered the
construct’s already dented armor. The automaton spilled gears from its guts and
toppled forwards as its internal gyroscope gave out.
The party stood before the two piles of
melted slag.
Radegast began to root through the wreckage
of the two constructs. There was a sizzle and she withdrew her hand, wringing
it painfully as she felt her burned fingertips. She pulled on the work gloves
she had lifted from the Forge of Spells and carefully dug through the
collection of spare parts.
“Some sort of arcane power source has
ruptured,” she murmured, watching how the constructs’ insides glowed. “I’ve
heard of gnome tinkers building clockwork constructs, but nothing like this.”
She pulled out the two ornate battleaxes
from the pile of junk. “These look halfway decent,” she said. “In fact, maybe
if we salvage some gold and copper wire from these things, plus a couple of the
gems and those inert rods, maybe we can give it over to the Harpers and the
Gauntlet for further study, and get them off our backs.”
“What do you mean?” Varien asked.
Radegast pointed at the doors. “We know
these things were guarding something important beyond those doors. We also know
there is great evil here. These things”-she indicated the constructs-“are useless
to us now. But if we give them to the Harpers and the Gauntlet, they can take
them away to be studied – I will recommend they cart them off to Silverymoon,
and then we can take the rest of whatever is in here.”
“Sounds good,” Bob said, moving to the doors.
Radegast strode over to the doors beyond
the ruined constructs. “Bob, I got this.” She said. She pushed against the
doors, which opened with a screech that reverberated through the empty grand
hall. She ducked inside, followed by the rest of the party without so much as a
moment’s hesitation.
Bob watched them file past. “Uh, guys?” he
said.
Radegast stood frozen, her hands clasped in
front of her.
“I’m home,” she whispered.
The long chamber was obviously a library or
hall of records of some kind. Dozens of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined the
walls and stood back-to-back amid the chamber. Here and there stood tall
reading desks. Several of them featured thick hardbound tomes, opened to random
pages.
“Everyone needs to be extremely careful
when handling these books,” Radegast said softly but firmly.
Theryn eyed the nearest book. The script
was again Draconic, but the letters did not form recognizable words. He
shrugged and began walking the perimeter of the library, looking for anything
out of place.
Radegast too looked about, not sure about
where to begin, and wary of falling down the first rabbit-hole presented to
her. The prospect of so much Netherese lore just sitting here waiting to be
translated and added to the Canon of Realmslore was making her giddy. She was
eager to start building a card catalogue right then and there, but she also
knew that she had to focus on the task at hand.
She and Xylon walked into the room’s
interior. In addition to the surprisingly well-preserved books, there was a large
table in the centre of the chamber, atop which sat a wooden stand filled with
at least a dozen clear jars, each filled with a thin grey liquid and containing
a single writhing worm.
“Oh look,” Bob said, casting a venomous
glare at Xylon. “More worms for you to play with.”
Xylon ignored him. He picked up a jar,
heedless of the noise of Bob sucking air through his teeth, and gazed at the
worm inside.
“These worms don’t look like the other
ones,” Xylon said. “They look…healthier somehow? Like their teeth aren’t as
ferocious, and their colouring is a little less gag-inducing.” He closed his
eyes and concentrated. “There’s an aura of transmutation magic coming off these
things.”
Radegast tore her eyes away from the
nearest book. “Hmm? So are these worms combined with some sort of power to
transmute things, or are these magical creatures with the ability to transmute
themselves into worms?”
“You think these are some sort of life
extension pods?” Xylon asked. Radegast shrugged.
“What I want to know is,” Theryn said,
stepping close but not too close to the shelf of jarred worms. “How are those
things still alive after all these years?”
“Magic,” said Xylon, Bob, and Radegast
simultaneously.
“Hey,” Bob said. “This room locks from the
inside.”
Radegast nodded. “We can probably hole up
here safely. Varien, please don’t start a fire in here.”
Varien looked up from where he’d heaped
some books together in a pyre-like pile. “But there’s so much kindling!”
Radegast’s glare could have petrified a
basilisk.
Xylon began preparing his comprehend languages ritual.
“Xylon, when you are ready, do you think
you could work up a sort of lexicon using the Draconic alphabet?” Radegast
asked, flipping through a Netherese tome. “If you can get me a translation of
the basic letters, I can start interpreting some of these books. Maybe learn
the language, in time.”
Xylon nodded. “Sure, but wouldn’t it be
easier to just learn the spell?”
“Well, until that happens it will give me
an edge on interpreting things so we can figure out what’s going on in here,”
Radegast said, snapping the book shut.
“Hey, be careful with the ancient
manuscripts!” Theryn and Bob chided.
Theryn looked around the library. Things
looked as though they had not been disturbed since the last librarian shut the
door on the way out, possibly thousands of years ago, but here and there were
signs that the exodus was a little hurried. In several places along the
bookshelves, a few volumes had been yanked out and dumped on the stone floor.
Theryn checked the empty shelves where the books had been located, and, sure
enough, discovered small hidden compartments, open and empty.
“Huh, they probably grabbed the really
important records from these slots before they abandoned the place to the
ages,” Theryn said to himself. “But why leave all these books behind too?”
He knelt down and picked up one of the
discarded tomes. As he did so, out of the corner of his eye he saw something
wedged beneath the bookcase. He reached underneath the shelf and tugged on it.
It was a small tube of hammered gold, containing a scroll.
“Aha,” Theryn said. “Even a hungry monkey
cannot pick all the bananas.”
Finding the scroll jogged Theryn’s memory,
and he realized he hadn’t looked at the tiny box he had recovered from the Red
Wizard. It opened up to reveal a small ring with a shield-shaped emblem over
the band. Theryn smiled hopefully. Could this be a ring of protection? He would
have to ask the wizard about it.
As Xylon deciphered the ancient texts,
Radegast took a break from reading the wizard’s hastily scrawled lexicon to
talk to Bob. “So, what’s the deal with you and dragons?” She asked the cleric.
Bob sighed. “For some time now I’ve been
plagued by strange dreams about dragons,” he said. “One time I had a sort of
seizure and when I came out of it I could speak Draconic when I couldn’t
before. And only Draconic! It was weird for a few hours, until I was able to
speak in my native tongue again.”
Radegast nodded.
“Other times I will dream that I’m flying,
and when I wake up, my back aches, as though I’ve been using wings that aren’t
there when I’m awake. Or that bones are trying to break through my skin. It’s
strange.”
Radegast nodded.
“And I’ve got these,” Bob rolled up his
sleeves to show Radegast the scale-like scarring on his forearms. “My skin’s
tougher than it should be, which isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world,
especially since I fell in with this crew.”
Radegast nodded.
“When I told my grandfather about these
visions, he started telling me about some family lore involving dragons – going
back generations now. Apparently this sort of thing runs in my family – once a
generation a son will be born who exhibits strange abilities. I’m trying to
figure out how it all started.”
Radegast nodded again. “Well, I have to
admit I slept through most of my Draconic Sorcery classes at college, but I
think there’s a book back in Silverymoon’s Halls of Lore – sort of a grand
library – called the Encyclopedia
Dragonica – that might have some information that will help you. When we
got to Silverymoon I will find that book for you.”
“Thanks,” Bob said.
Xylon sighed and slammed another book shut.
He’d been at this for a couple of hours with little to show for it. “As near as
I can tell these are records of water quality tests on the well here, going
back centuries. Codices outlining the measurements of bodily humours, PPM or
phlogiston parts per million, and miasmatic levels present in the well water.”
“Interesting,” Radegast said.
“Is it?” Xylon said. “There’s also some
historical information about the construction of Old Owl Well and the water
purification and pumping apparatus.”
“Ah, see, this we can use,” Radegast said.
She waved her hands at the records. “This is all beyond us, lads. But the information
about how this well, which pumps 20 gallons a day and has done so without fail
for millennia, well, this is the sort of information that the Order of the
Gauntlet and the Harpers would love to get their hands on. This could help
people all across Toril – the discovery of the Netherese methods for finding
drinking water! If we get the Harpers and Gauntlet down here to decipher this
knowledge, then we’re free and clear to go our own way.”
“This place has been ransacked of anything
of real value,” said Theryn, joining the party. “But whoever did the ransacking
is long since dead. I did find this though,” he said, handing the scroll tube
to Xylon. “You might get more use out of it than I will. But I’m keeping this
ring – looks like the Red Wizard made a couple of archaeological discoveries of
his own.”
“Captain Kraklos is going to want to look
at that,” Bob said.
“Screw the Order of the Gauntlet, and screw
the Harpers,” Theryn said. “If they want this ring they’ll have to take it off
me.”
“A scroll of ancient Netherese magic?”
Xylon said, his eyes widening. “This is getting interesting.”
The party rested and tended to their
injuries. By the time his comprehend
languages spell wore off, Xylon had gotten a start on a sort of
Netherse-to-Draconic lexicon, which Radegast immediately began to put to use,
though she would have to spend months in this library just to scratch the
surface of the knowledge contained therein.
Varien got up, stretched, and roused his
companions. “Let’s keep at it!” he said. He unlatched the library’s doors and
pulled them open.
He stepped out into the gloom of the
ziggurat’s great hall and stopped short. He could hear a noise, like an
agonized sighing, coming from the shadows near the open pit.
That was all the information Varien needed.
Before Bob could stop him, he had leaped ahead with his boots of striding and
springing and landed near the edge of the pit.
Sure enough, a worm-infested zombie was
skulking on the far side of the pit, turning its undead eye-sockets towards
Varien. The paladin let loose an eldritch blast that arced across the pit.
Then he felt a cold hand grasp his ankle.
Varien looked down and saw another skeletal creature reaching up from the edge
of the pit to pull itself over, or pull Varien down. Either way, the paladin
wasn’t interested in cooperating.
Bob rushed up and cast a twinned guiding bolt , aiming the first at the
worm zombie that was shambling around the edge of the pit, and the second at
the creature wriggling at Varien’s feet. The creatures were illuminated with
mystical light.
Varien swung his sword at the creature
beneath him with a thunderous smite, trying to dislodge it and send it tumbling
back into the green gloom of the pit. He slashed its arm and watched in horror
as a tangle of worms splayed out, digging into the side of the pit with their
mouths to keep the creature from pitching backwards.
Radegast darted in from the shadows,
stabbed the creature, and darted out into the shadows again.
Theryn stepped up next to Varien and
slammed his bo staff down twice in succession, smashing the creature’s upturned
face into a morass of skull fragments and worm ichor with a satisfying pair of
cracks, but his unarmed follow-up went wide and tapped Varien’s shoulder by
mistake.
“Whoops!” Theryn said.
“Occupational hazard,” Varien shrugged.
The worm zombie at their feet heaved itself
over the side of the pit, and the pair stepped back, momentarily distracted.
The second zombie had come around the long way and lunged at Theryn, vomiting a
string of worms at the monk. He tried to dodge but one of them stuck itself
into his chest and began gnawing its way in.
The other zombie began clawing at the
paladin.
Radegast spit some cutting words at the zombies. “Get back into the ground, worms!”
The two creatures didn’t seem fazed by her
insults.
She shook her head. “Not my best work, I’ll
admit.”
Varien grimaced as a burrowing worm found
purchase on his arm and chewed his flesh.
Bob cast a twinned scorching ray at the two creatures, hoping to neutralize them.
“Might be time for a fireball , Xylon!” he shouted to the wizard.
“But you always get upset when I cast fireball !” Xylon shouted.
“This time it’s for a good cause!” Radegast
shouted. “Get those worms off our friends!”
The wizard cast fireball , careful to create pockets of safety for his friends while
still incinerating the creatures surrounding them. As the magical fire
blossomed out, Varien and Theryn felt the white-hot tendrils scorch the worms
on their bodies into ash.
The flames turned one of the worm zombies
to a pillar of cinders, which fell apart where it stood.
Varien slashed violently at the now-burning
worm spawn in front of him. Theryn ducked back behind the paladin as the zombie
exploded in a torrent of writhing worms.
Varien turned to the monk. “Did you get any
on you?”
Theryn shook his head and pointed. “No, but
you did!”
A worm was wriggling on Varien’s scalp.
Radegast delicately pulled the worm off
Varien’s head and squished it in her hand.
“To the west!” Varien said.
The party moved to the unexplored western
entrance. Theryn hauled the heavy stone doors open.
Bob grabbed a chunk of broken pillar and
handed it to Varien, asking him to use it to make sure the door doesn’t shut
them in. Varien sighed.
The western room was an antechamber
identical to the eastern chamber, with carvings on the wall depicting victory
over the owlbears. Large blocks had been wedged into the space where the exit
might be, and a faint magical barrier enchanted them.
Bob turned to his companions. “Shall we go
down,” he said ominously, “into the pit?”
They returned to the edge of the pit and
investigated. Through the tendrils of green vapour they could mark the
entrances of what looked like caves on the eastern and western sides of the
sloping funnel.
“West is best,” Radegast said, tying off
her climbing rope to a nearby chunk of blasted pillar. She rappelled down with
more confidence than competence, and stood in the cave’s mouth. She could see a
tunnel descending for several feet before rounding off into the darkness.
Theryn used his slow fall ability to land
safely next to Radegast, followed by Bob, who abseiled admirably. Varien soon
joined them, and finally Xylon, who bumped himself on every outcropping on the
way down.
The tunnel walls were slick with either
condensation or a hidden water source, and the water trickled down to pool
along the southern edge of the tunnel, forming a shallow creek that was eroding
its way into the slippery rock floor. The tunnel was wide enough for the party
to walk single file, with Radegast leading the way. Varien kept to the rear,
hoping to cause trouble for any creature who tried to cut off their escape.
The tunnel widened into a roughly
oval-shaped chamber of scoured rock. The tunnel continued sloping downwards to
the northwest. There were boulders in the cave, and the water from the upper
tunnel filled part of the basin-like chamber with a shallow, scum-covered pool.
Radegast quickly noted that some of the
shadows in the darkness weren’t shadows at all, but tangles of worms. These
worms were different than the ones that infested the zombies in the upper
section of the ziggurat. They had a chitinous outer casing that flexed in
segments along their elongated bodies, and their heads, such as they were,
terminated in a sharp tusk-like protrusion.
“Zhen worms,” she hissed to her friends.
“They sense the tremors of their prey. I think I can mess with them.”
She stepped out into the middle of the
chamber, attracting the attention of four worms, which began slithering towards
her. Then she cast thunderwave .
The booming spell echoed through the
cavern, shaking the tunnel and sending Zhen worms flying. Pebbles and bits of
dirt fell from the ceiling into the rippling pool of water.
From somewhere deeper in the tunnel system,
the party could hear a demented hooting.
Bob rushed into the fray, casting a twinned
witch bolt , which linked himself and
two of the Zhen worms with crackling lightning. The worms writhed in silent
agony.
More worms slithered out from cracks in the
walls. Radegast cast thunderwave
again, rocking the cavern and knocking the worms away.
Theryn moved to block the northwestern
tunnel and struck two of the worms with his bo staff.
There was a slurping sound as two creeping
boils squelched into the chamber and shot reddish tendrils of goop at the monk.
Xylon cast acid splash at an approaching Zhen worm.
The nearest Zhen worm shot towards Bob,
wrapping itself around him and squeezing tight. The action disrupted the
cleric’s witch bolt spell.
Radegast slashed at the worm constricting
Bob, cutting it into pieces that fell away to the floor in a splash of gore.
Bob fired a ray of frost at a worm that was lurching towards Theryn, slowing
the creature down.
Varien saw the frostbitten worm and cast eldritch blast , killing the creature.
Theryn attacked the creeping boils with his
bo staff.
Xylon cast magic missile , sending arcane bolts to a number of different
targets. Two worms flopped dead.
Varien cut the head off the last Zhen worm.
Bob cast guidance on Theryn, then retreated.
The creeping boils shivered and exploded
under the force of the party’s attacks, splashing Theryn, Radegast and Theryn
with corrosive acid from the dying creatures.
“Gross,” Radegast said as the acid ate
holes in her clothes. “I’m going to need a new wardrobe when we get back to
civilization.”
“Quiet!” hissed Bob. “You hear that?”
From
the northwestern tunnel they could hear high-pitched screaming and the
shambling shudder of feet running towards them.