Chapter 3 Part I

In Which the Party Learns That Sometimes it is Best to Withdraw

In spite of the plague doctor’s best efforts, while he managed to stave off the barbarian’s coughing, there was something about the big man’s countenance that remained changed, almost as though he were less... magnetic.

Once Frelik was sufficiently recovered, the little group moved on to the next door.  It pushed open easily, revealing an empty room full of nothing but decimated furnishings and huge gashes marring the walls, carvings and floor.  Magpie’s hand glowed briefly as he waved it around the room and shook his head, saying, “There is nothing of value in here.  Let’s move on.”

Returning down the hallway, they paused at the impregnable door they’d bypassed earlier, debating whether or not to open it, and how to go about that...  Once again they came to the conclusion that opening that door would waste too much precious time when there were still other, potentially easier pickings to be had.  Yuri rolled his eyes and followed the party as they pressed on, wondering why they’d even bothered to stop at all.

With only one other option, they followed the remaining side corridor.  The first thing they noticed was that the walls of the hallway were not whole.  In one corner, the wall was breached; shovels and picks lying discarded in the rubble where it looked like the wall had been caved in from the outside.  Beyond the hole was a long tunnel which extended as far as the group could see and beyond.  They chose to explore that avenue after they finished with what lay within the walls of the worked stone corridor first.

They soon encountered a junction with a staircase which took them down a level to a landing where they found another short tunnel off to their left, ending in a pair of closed doors.  Ever unable to resist the temptation of a closed door, Magpie and the woman move down to listen at the doors before deeming it safe and hauling them open.

The doors opened into an enormous, cavernous chamber whose domed ceiling soared high above with no visible sign of support.  A ramp descended from the doors to land below a bridge which arched over their heads perpendicular to the doors they’d entered.  Yuri noted with some interest that the bridge ended on both sides in a pair of huge bronze doors.   In the centre of the room, at the bottom of a chasm which dropped another ten feet into the earth, the floor was decorated with an old version of Pharasma’s spiral pattern.  Multiple staircases led down into the chasm.  Around the room at even intervals stood eight enormous statues, easily eight to ten feet tall, seven of them were constructed of white stone and the eighth of black.

Each figure depicted a different man or woman holding a distinct weapon.  The black figure however, differed from this pattern.  This statue depicted a tall woman with three distinct faces: one smiling kindly and holding a baby, one looking more stern and wielding an hourglass and the third utterly crazed, hands empty with thornless roses climbing her arms.  Davros smiled as his gaze alighted on this statue, “Ah, hello Pharasma.”

Magpie and Valeria each approached one of the white stone statues, hands extended in mirror images of each other.  As they touched their respective statues there was a sharp crackling sound and two stereo shrieks as the two of them were rudely electrocuted.  Yuri chuckled.  Perhaps they should have looked before touching.

Much to everyone’s surprise, as the statues lit with sparks, the flickering light revealed doors hidden securely behind each of the statues.  Frelik, ever the curious one, carefully inspected the door behind one of the statues before pushing it gingerly open.  He and Valeria pushed into the narrow tunnel, plunging the main chamber into darkness.  With a beak snap and a sigh Magpie muttered something arcane sounding, light sprang back to life in the room.

Yuri peered down the hallway after the barbarian and the woman just in time to catch a glimpse of a burial room with one body standing upright before darkness fell in the little room, only two glowing blue eyes piercing it.  An armoured skeletal figure lowered its ranseur – which perfectly matched the one the statue in front of the door was holding – and Valeria growled, lifting the hand holding the torch up to her ear and accidentally setting her hair to smoldering as she fired off a single shot.

Other than a mild crunch of bone the creature didn’t seem to notice either the bullet or the barbarian’s clumsy swing, which clattered off its armour.  In a foolhardy move, Davros withdrew his vial of holy water and flung it at the creature.  He missed, hitting the wall next to it, but the water that did splash onto its bones hissed as it burned.

“Hey!  Don’t do that!” the creature whined, dropping its ranseur to the ground in disgust and swinging its bony claws at Frelik, “I am Aerdicon!  Bow to my wrath!”

Akura leaned around the other side of the opening, “You guys need any help?  Wait... Did that thing just talk?!?!”

Yuri rolled his eyes and smacked the monk upside the head.  He was not being terribly helpful.

Magpie sighed heavily and moved away to investigate the other statues as he muttered something about idiots shooting first instead of talking.

Another shot rang out from the tunnel and the barbarian swore heartily, “That nearly hit me!”

Valeria simply laughed, “Take it out on the creature, not me.”

After an ineffectual swing with his scimitar, which connected but didn’t do nearly as much damage as he’d hoped, Frelik dodged the retaliatory blow, ducking backwards down the hall.

Akura, finally deciding to be useful for a change, cried out, “No guts, no glory!” and tore down the tunnel, planting his foot square in the centre of the creature’s breastplate, making a reverberating gong sound as the creature snagged him with a claw, drawing four shallow, bloody gashes.

“Hey guys!”  Magpie squawked from his position two statues over, “I think these white statues are supposed to represent the seven Runelords of old Thassilon!  Way to pick the room of Wrath, guys.”

Realizing they were fighting a losing battle, the folks in the tunnel withdrew one by one, leaving the monk alone in the dark.  As he bolted out of the tunnel he shot an angry look at the rest of the group, “Thanks for leaving me in the dark, guys.”

Valeria laughed again as they waited, watching the door to see if the creature followed them. 

The creature’s voice drifted out of the tunnel, “And woe be on you if you disturb the crypt of wrath again... know that it is guarded!” with that dire warning, the door slammed itself shut with a hollow, ominous bang.

After much arguing and many sharp remarks from one to another the group agreed not to open any of the other runelord doors, however the lure of Pharasma’s own door is too great for Davros and Valeria to resist.  As the others backed off, doubt plain on their faces, the half-orc and the woman carefully examined the door before pushing it open.  The crypt beyond was filled mostly by dust and a few remnants of bone, when nothing seemed to be moving they ventured carefully inside.