Home > Campaigns > Book 4, Chapter 6 - Undead Hospitality
Undead Hospitality
The double doors at the bottom of the stairs opened into a huge octagonal room. Ten basalt pillars supported the ceiling, and an altar of the same material stood at the east end. It was very clean, and we all felt uneasy. Grooves were cut into the altar's surface, leading to a gold bowl. An odd triangular knife with a mithril blade hung from the other end of the altar. Mical knocked over the bowl, then decided to keep it when he noticed the strange symbols carved into it.
He then poured a vial of holy water on the altar. The air went deathly still as the rock steamed. The altar cracked with a mighty crash as the whole room shuddered. We all felt less uneasy then; we felt the glee that young children do when they play with fire without their parents' knowledge.
We returned to the 'squashing' room, and still couldn't figure it out. Lagasse tossed silver pieces at the statue, and I even shot it, but nothing happened. We couldn't figure out if maybe the statue 'saw' intruders, and came to life, or if there was a trap in the center of the room that triggered the ceiling to fall. Finally, we came up with a plan.
Lyra stone-shaped the door so it couldn't lock. I ran quickly and silently along the edge of the room to the statue and searched it. The sword and shield looked like some black stone, and the rest was dark granite. I couldn't move the sword or the arms, so I tried the shield. It flipped up, and the whole alcove the statue was in pivoted halfway into the wall. I could tell I was looking into a tomb. It was dark and smelly.
The others came one at a time to the statue, all being careful to avoid the center of the room. In the tomb, the names of both elves and humans lined the walls, one name per stone slab. One was broken, so we slowly advanced toward it. The name on the slab was Yaldros, and it appeared as if it had been broken into. Bones were scattered about, but nothing moved.
The next one over had the seal broken, and the stone was obviously cracked. The name on that one was Mattsher. We began to smell a very bad scent. It smelled like ghasts. Mical tapped on the rock and it fell in. A ghast, wearing a red silk coat, jumped out at him. I stayed out of the way, and Lyra prayed for the group. The prayer must have worked, because Lagasse killed it with one blow. Inside that tomb was a gold cup and a few small gems.
Mical discovered a secret door at the end of the hall. The hall behind it led to what looked like the back end of another secret door. The room past it smelled of chemicals, mostly preservatives. A magic circle was chalked out in one corner, and a large tub encrusted with a crystalline substance sat nearby. The table near the door had only cloth scraps and rusty surgical tools, all dust covered. Low stairs led to a curtain, and there were two peepholes in the wall across from that.
Mical checked a peephole, and a white glistening arm reached through and tried to grab him. He tried to chop it off, but missed and backed away. We heard moaning behind the wall. Lyra went to the other hole, and another arm came out. Mical went back and hit one of them. Clear liquid flew from the wound and smoked when it hit the floor. His skin got burnt where a drop touched him, and his axe also smoked.
I looked at the spell circle, but couldn't learn anything from it. We then drew back the curtain, groaning when we saw a sarcophagus was behind it. Each of us got out holy water and stood ready. The lid was secured with wires and globs of melted lead. They made me go back and stand in the circle with my bow ready and a magic arrow nocked.
Mical peeled off the four lead seals, then with Lagasse's help, opened the lid. Inside was a wooden coffin that began to crumble as soon as the air hit it. The others backed up, but nothing happened. Inside were old bones, some scraps of cloth like those on the table, and some gold pieces. While I collected some bone dust and a few of the crystals from the tub, Lyra found another secret door.
Beyond it was a natural cave filled with stalactites and stalagmites. A river ran through it. Down the river, we could see two red pinpoints of light. We squeezed through near the cave walls as silently as possible, but saw the red lights bob, and a deep voice called out, "Hello?"
In a squeaky voice, Mical replied, "Just passing through!"
"What are you doing here?"
"Just exploring, don't mind us!" If we hadn't been so nervous, we would have laughed at his voice.
Surprisingly, the voice then said, "Okay."
We finally got to the eyes. A skeletal figure in flowing robes sat on a stone throne. The crypt thing casually waved its arm as it remarked, "Long time since anyone has been down here. How are you?"
We were all pretty shocked by the warm reception, but Mical recovered first. "We're doing fine. Spooky place you got here. Doesn't it get boring?"
"You don't know the half of it. I can't leave."
Mical looked concerned then asked, "Why?"
"I can't let anyone pass me. I must stay here, that is my job. No one is allowed back there." It vaguely motioned behind its throne.
Mical tried to convince it to let us guard while it explores, or for it to let us past while we looked around and came back to tell him about it. It just kept saying it had to stay where it was, and couldn't let anyone past.
Mical then asked where the river goes.
"I don't know. I threw two bodies in there a long time ago, and they just went away. Oh, my name is Wambli, by the way."
"What were you before you had to guard here?" Mical asked.
"I don't remember," sighed Wambli. "I can't do much here, so I have a rock collection. I have 6,027 of them right now. In fact, I have all of their locations memorized. Hey, be careful now, you just moved number 204."
We tested him on his knowledge of the locations of his rocks, then tried again to weasel our way past him. Nothing could convince him. Finally, Mical tried to turn him. Wambli raised his arms, sighed, and Mical disappeared. Lagasse charged at it. The two of them fought for a few minutes, then Lagasse killed Wambli. We felt bad for having to kill the crypt thing, but felt we had no choice.
We ran all through those caves searching for Mical. He was nowhere to be found. We hoped that he was on the surface and not in solid rock. We grimly decided to continue our search for the cube without him.
