|
Looking around them, the adventurers became aware of sounds of furtive
movement from the room through the arch at their right. A hasty barricade
of boxes and tables had been thrown up and someone was clearly hiding
behind it.
Surya approached the door, then dodged sideways as his ears picked up
the creak of a bow being bent. A fusillade of arrows whipped out
through the portal, and then he was through, sword drawn, and among them.
Taken unprepared, the four human archers he discovered had not changed
bows for swords, and were cut down in four strokes before they could grasp
their blunder. Standing two paces behind them was a fifth, carrying a
sword, clearly a leader of some sort, and he swung a greatsword into position
with obvious trepidation. Surya disarmed him, and the man surrendered.
Dragging him out into the main hallway, Surya interrogated
him. The man - Heldin - told them he'd been recruited in Narthal,
probably by the same recruiters the companions had wiped out, and that
he and his men served as guards for the outer temple area. One of the
empty mausolea outside had been set up as accommodation for the guards
when off duty. No, they didn't go much further into the complex. He'd
never noticed any "energy field" around the runestones at the
door, and looked at Surya as if he were rather strange when asked about
one. There were fifty or so Winterwights in the Necropolis as far as he
knew.
The big doors to the north led into what he referred to as "the
Temple", wherein he and all the other humans were gathered about
once a month and lectured by what sounded like another vampire. Heldin
was not accustomed to pay much attention and couldn't really say what
most of it was about, although talk of conquest and riches for loyal followers
was common enough.
He'd seen two unusual visitors come and go; a tall, very thin man (maybe
an elf of some sort) with a pale face and rich, dark red hair (possibly
Cullinan), and what he described as "an armoured skeleton".
He and all his men were strongly warned to stay out of certain areas (he
sketched a map) and to carry a certain token at all times - a small black
lozenge of a rock no-one - not even the dwarf - had ever seen before.
Sack searched the slain guards and produced one of these for each of
the group, then tested his by walking boldly out through the door and
past the runestones. Nothing happened. He took a leak in the pool outside
- watching with interest the distress of the trapped spirits swirling
within - and sauntered back in.
Heldin then called out to his fellow-sergeant, Bargas, waiting
in the chamber on the other side, and recommended he come out, as the
intruders were beyond anything he or his "lads" could cope with.
Bargas and his men emerged, to be bound and stunned by their captors.
Sack picked one of Bargas' guards up, stripped his lozenge off, and carried
him outside, meaning to experiment with the pool. However, as he walked
between the runestones, the man awoke and began screaming. Purple energy
crackled across his body, eating into his flesh which began to wither
and shrink. By the time he reached the pool's edge, the half-orc was carrying
just a shrivelled husk, and as he looked uneasily at it, it crumbled to
dust and blew away.
Returning, he picked up another hapless guard, reattached his lozenge,
and repeated the test. This time the man survived, so Sack stripped his
armour off and chucked him in the pool.
Again, the luckless victim screamed and thrashed, this time sinking and
beginning to drown. As he twisted, his skin darkened, then started to
change composition, becoming ridged and tarry, almost like that of an
incinerated corpse. As this change passed his head, he stopped convulsing
and drowning, and moved to the side of the pool and began to climb out.
Sack swallowed, but remained optimistic. It was undead - he could feel
that, because of who he was. He'd created this. Could he control it? He
pointed imperiously out into the necropolis - and the thing lunged at
him.
"In Kord's name - begone!" came a cry from behind him, in Hildraft's
voice, and Sack glimpsed him holding up his prayer-axe. Unable to withstand
the holy power of the Hand of Kord, the creature disintegrated and was
gone.
Back inside, Surya had gone straight to the room marked "forbidden"
on Heldin's map. Opening the door, he found a storeroom, filled with the
stoneworking tools and supplies required to keep a dressed-stone complex
like this well-maintained. Standing motionless in a corner were two eight-foot
forms, skeletal, humanoid, but apparently made of cold black iron.
He stepped into the room - and instantly, the two iron skeletons stepped
towards him, lifting hand-and-a-half swords from the shelves as they did
so. Backing up, he drew them out into Heldin's guard room and then cut
them down. He had little difficulty, but was aware that the average footsoldier
would be hard pressed to fight them.
As he turned away, something caught his eye. Glinting amidst the scattered
bits of the destroyed monsters were two small shiny objects. He picked
them up and found them to be small jade crystals; not particularly valuable,
but clearly enchanted. Considering this, he pondered its' significance,
as these had been true undead and not constructs, and undead didn't need
powering with crystals. Then he paused; how had he known that?
It was clearly necromantic lore; but he wasn't a necromancer. His hand
touched the hilt of the Sword of the Dead Legions nervously for a moment.
 Moving
on, the group discovered a room with murals painted on the walls. These
depicted humanoid creatures, and were accompanied by the same writings
that Hildraft had found on the mausolea outside. Looking at the faces
illustrated, each of them felt a vague sense of familiarity stir. Thinking
of Heldin's account jogged the memory: Cullinan.
Cullinan had been, before he was a vampire, the same sort of creature
as Cain - an ancient ancestor of the modern-day elf. These creatures illustrated
were not the same, but there was .... something .... that was reminiscent.
Continuing down one of the side corridors
(rather than enter the Temple which no-one fancied) they entered another
room, found it full of iron skeletons, and despatched those. Sack avoided
this combat, going across the ceiling to wait for them at the other side.
Beyond, they found a corridor lined with what
looked like torture chambers. Tables with manacles, some still holding
bodies or parts of bodies; grisly instruments; blood caked on the floors.
It looked like the sort of place where undead were made, but something
didn't ring true; it looked too like the average person's idea
of the sort of place where undead were made. The blood was dry. The undead
they'd met looked nothing like the sort of thing you could make here.
Suspicion began to blossom. Was this really the Dark Temple at
the heart of the Army of the Dead?
At the far end was a door, and from beyond it came footsteps, slow, heavy
and dragging. They approached, paused, and began to recede. The party
charged through and discovered a Winterwight waiting for them.
This proved more serious opposition. Sack once more retreated to the
ceiling, perhaps planning something that didn't come off; Hildraft's Turn
and Surya's Dominate both failed; and a slash wound to Hildraft's leg
drained his vitality to a frightening level. Finally, however, it was
brought down.
|
.
