Our heroes remain deep in the The Tomb of the Demi-Lich, ears plugged and quickly running out of ideas. In the face of more swirling magical mists the decision to retrace their steps in pursuit of a new path has been made. Retracing their steps carefully they make their way back down the corridor. All of a sudden Garrick begins waving his arms furiously to attract the attention of the others, he's noticed something with one of the walls. Eventually the rest of the party turn around and notice the Cleric flapping his arms as if trying to take flight, and walk over to him. Garrick then proceeds to engage them in an impromptu game of charades until they eventually realise that he has found yet another hidden door. Finn joins Garrick and inspects the wall carefully and notices the almost imperceptible outline of a doorway. His fingertips glide across the stonework until they feel the bump of a latch. With a small press there is the familiar sound of stone moving against stone and the door swings open to reveal another small 10ft by 10ft room. Needless to say the room's apparent lack of exits does little to dissuade our heroes from walking inside and inspecting the walls for hidden doorways. And, once again, a door is what they find. And, once again, a door is what Finn opens. Beyond the door is a wide corridor stretching out in front of them before turning off to the right.
Finn and Binky take the lead and slowly make their way down the long passage, Finn's eyes scan the flagstones ahead for any sign of possible traps, the rest of the party follow closely behind him. It is at this point that our heroes realise that they are no longer in need of their makeshift earplugs and the sound of their footsteps rings in their ears. Soon they reach the end of the passage, another solid wall stands defiantly in front of them with a short passage leading off to the left. Finn, shrugs, he's getting pretty used to secret doors by now. The Halfling studies the brickwork and locates a small keyhole, reaching into his pocket he retrieves his pouch of lockpicking tools and selects one which fits the hole perfectly. As he inserts the metal device into the keyhole he looks over his shoulder and gives the others a confident smirk. There is a loud snap and metal shards tumble to the floor, a look of shock appears on the Halfling's face. That's not supposed to happen, what's going on here? Peering closely at the lock, Finn realises that this is no ordinary mechanical lock, there is magic in play here. He calls Lucian over to see if there is anything the Wizard can do to get this door open.
"Stand aside shorty, let a professional handle this" says the Wizard as he pushes past, rolling up his sleeves. Lucian mutters a series of incantations, his hands drawing complex shapes in the air. There is a loud knock sound that echoes through the hallway. The party look around as the sound bounces from wall to ceiling. But nothing happens the door remains stubbornly closed. Finn smiles at the mage's failure and chuckles quietly to himself.
Sigrid walks down the short corridor off to the side and notices something about the wall at the end. "Finn. Come here, I think I have found another one". Finn joins her and indeed there does appear to be another door here, his fingers trace the slight gap between the brickwork. There doesn't appear to be any kind of lock so he gives the door a push, but it fails to open. He pushes harder but again it does not yield.
"Farraine, gives us a hand" says Finn.
"Need some proper muscle do you? Alright, out of the way you two, I'll show you how it's done". The fighter moves up to the door and gives it a mighty push, nothing. Farraine takes a few steps back and charges at the door. There is a thud of flesh on stone, dust falls from the ceiling and the fighter falls to the floor, the door remains defiantly closed. Sigrid takes a step forward.
"Oh come on old lady, if I couldn't get the damn thing to budge I don't think you'll be able to manage it" says Farraine, getting to his feet and nursing his bruised shoulder.
The druid grabs the small hidden handle and pulls, the door swings open effortlessly. The door opens to reveal the back of a rather large statue blocking most of the doorway, fortunately Finn's size allows him to squeeze past the blockage along with Binky. Beyond the statue they find themselves in a large ornately decorated room. In each of the corners stand large stone statues, a magical aura surrounds each of them. In the centre of the room is a large urn, behind which lies a stone sarcophagus and on either side of it sit 2 iron chests. As Finn gazes around the room the rest of the party remain trapped behind the stone statue. Finn walks over as Farraine tries to shove the statue out of the way, it doesn't budge.
"Finn see if there is anything on the statue that might trigger it to move out of the way" says Garrick who is now studying the back of the sculpture with a slightly disconcerting level of detail. Alas their investigations prove fruitless, it's just a really heavy piece of stone.
"Perhaps you could climb up and over it" suggests the Halfling.
Garrick nods and begins to climb up the stone body, with significant effort he is able to squeeze his body between the frame of the door and the statue and joins Finn on the other side. Sigrid is next over the obstacle, followed by Lucian.
"What about me?" asks Farraine, his bulk and armour make it impossible for him to follow the route of his companions.
"Perhaps we could..."
"Don't worry, I've got an idea" says the fighter as he retreats to the far wall of the passageway. "1....2....3!" He charges at full speed towards the back of the statue, when he is about 2 metres from the carving he leaps into the air, his legs extended, cutting through the air. They hit the back of the statue. The knees are the first to buckle and Farraine's backside hits his heals and he falls to the floor in a heap. A few motes of dust fall from the sculpture's head but it remains resolutely standing.
"Er, are you ok" says Sigrid "I was going to say, perhaps we could all help from this side and see if we can pull it out of the way"
They here a low groan from the other side. Finn reaches into his backpack and retrieves a length of rope. He ties it around the base of the statue and the four of them grab a hold of the other end and pull with all their might. At first it seems like the efforts are in vain but suddenly there is the sound of stone grinding against the polished tiles. The statue begins to move, ever so slightly at first but it isn't long before there is enough of a gap for Farraine to crawl through. The party walk around the room, it appears to be some kind of tomb. Finn walks over to the large oak doors at the rear and checks them for any potential traps whilst Lucian walks slowly over to the urn in the centre of the room. As the wizard gets closer to the object he notices that his magic is being suppressed, Sigrid joins him and tries a simple flame spell but it fizzles out into nothingness. Finn's investigations reveal no traps or locks so, with utmost caution he gives the door a push and it creaks open. As it opens the lid of the urn slides off and a large spectral creature emerges from within. Finn immediately rushes through the doorway, he's not having anything to do with whatever that thing is.
"What is your wish my masters?" speaks the creature, Finn hesitates in the hallway.
"And how many wishes do we get?" asks Sigrid.
"Wishes three and then I will be free" replies the creature.
Finn walks back over to the rest of the party who are now gathered in front of the spectral being. "So what's the plan? We could just wish for the end of the Cult of the Dragon and job done."
"These things are not usually so simple, such a wish may well end the Cult but another will likely rise in it's place and we will find ourselves back where we started perhaps even worse than before. We should be cautious." warns Garrick.
The party moves away from the creature and discuss their options, being extremely careful not to make any accidental wishes as they do so. After an uncomfortably long period of time, Sigrid exclaims that she has a plan. The Druid walks up to the creature.
"I wish to be 10 years younger"
"As you wish". Silence falls, everybody holds their breath in nervous anticipation. Slowly the deep wrinkles on the Druid's face begin to fade slightly, her grey hair regains some flecks of colour. It seems to have worked, she turns to face her fellow adventurers and sees, a slightly younger looking Lucian, a less grizzled Garrick and 2 prepubescent boys.
"What the fuck is this?!" yells Farraine in a rather high pitched voice as he struggles under the weight of his metal armour.
"You better fix this shit Sigrid and fix it quick, I am not going through puberty for a second time", complains Finn as he stands no more than knee high to the rest of them.
"I told you there is always a down side to these things, we must be more careful from now on" says Garrick although he fails to hide the slight smirk on his face as he regards the 2 boys stood before him. After some careful consideration, the Cleric steps forward and in a very carefully worded request, wishes for the effects of Sigrid's wish to be undone. Once again the party hold their breath as the magic takes effect, deep wrinkles appear once more on the face of the aged Druid. Farraine and Finn are adults once more although it seems they are yet to forgive Sigrid for her reckless and rather self serving wish. Now our party find themselves with a bit of a dilemma. They know that any wish they make is likely to have some kind of catch or unforeseen consequence and more importantly they only have 1 wish remaining.
They move away from the spectral creature and discuss their next steps carefully. It soon becomes apparent that the most practical choice for them is between wishing for the creature to return home or to simply not ask a third wish at all. Their discussions continue at length, Finn and Farraine, tired of the back and forth decide to leave it to the others to decide and begin to walk back to the doorway. Eventually Garrick takes charge and steps forward.
"I wish you were to immediately disappear from this place and then immediately after reappear in the plane of fire causing no other changes on this plane and no harm to come to our party as a result of this wish"
"Your wish is my command". There is an audible pop and the creature vanishes from sight. Garrick turns to face Sigrid and Lucian, everything seems to be normal, there are no obvious ill effects from this carefully phrased wish. Maybe he got it right, they can but hope. The three of them join Finn and Farraine in the doorway and walk down the stone steps beyond. Garrick notices another hidden door in one of the walls and beckons Finn to come and take a look. The Halfling Rogue wanders over and manages to locate the mechanism as he does so he hears movement on the other side.
"Guys, get ready" he says. Farraine draws his sword, Lucian, Garrick and Sigrid ready some spells as Finn cautiously pushes the door open. The stone door swings open to reveal a large room, an Obsidian throne dominates the space, and there, moving towards them is Talis. Before they can unleash their attacks Talis does something no one would have predicted, she casts aside her spear and holds up her hands in surrender.
No comments:
Post a Comment