The Ingaran Adventures
Episode 44
“Into the Temple of Ochremeshk”

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                  Lord Issic:  Half Human, Half Gold Dragon Warrior
                  Lady India: A gypsy Bard/Shadow Dancer
                  Lord Phaidon:  A Tamer of the Beasts
                  Cthaat: A young warrioress
                  Lord Alexander Maximus: The Gauntlet of Athena
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The Time: Autumn, Drauj 6, 6^th year, 8^th Age
The Place: Talishar – The main occupation of Talishar's residents is fishing.  There are a small handful of hunters as well, and a few farmers have cleared land to the south for small crops, although the forest is so thick and fertile, it is a constant struggle to fight off the encroaching woods that seek to reclaim the cleared spaces.
 

      Issic found Alexander at Talishar.  He landed, and the locals went scurrying for cover. Alexander sighed.  He shook Issic's hand. "I trust the encounter with the graven ones went well?" said Alexander.
      "That might depend on whom you ask. It went alright for me; I survived," commented Issic.
      "Did you find out anything useful about the murders?"
      "India and Phaidon found some good information on the temple. Then we found the temple and Phaidon opened the door."
      "Let us got a move on then. I want to free these people of whatever evil is plaguing them."
      "One thing you might want to know about the Graven encounter is that I have not seen Anathek nor Xorkilanthat since.  They were still in the walls when I left them and the old lady was a little angry."
      "Why was she angry?"
      "Something between her and Anathek. I think it was mostly over the possessions of the girl that we killed. She actually spat a curse at Anathek."
      "Do you think we should go back and look for them or go on to the temple, Issic? You were present so you know better then I if he deserved this behavior."
      "The question in my mind is whether we need them for the trip thru the temple or not.  We are going to need someone to do the sacrifice."
      "Well...I suppose we could wait for them. There is no telling what will be in this temple you speak of and we may need all the able-bodied people we can get."
      "Of course, Phaidon and India are waiting at the temple with an open door.  We should probably meet up with them first to make sure nothing nasty has come out of the door. Are you ready to go?"
      "Yes, we can leave word for them to follow us once they get here."  Alexander summoned the Reeve over, and spoke to him briefly.  He walked back to Issic, and the half-dragon picked up Alexander and flew him to the temple on the smooth mound in the middle of Lake Talishar.  Everyone was standing around an opening at the top of the larger mound.  Phaidon waved as Issic and Alexander approached.
      Phaidon smiled when they landed. "I opened it up for you," he said. "I would tell you how, but I do not think that would be wise."
      "Well, I guess we should get started."
      India said, "yes."
      Alexander looked down the hole. He saw a mosaic of chaotic red and black swirls covering a flat floor fifteen feet below the hatch.  A life sized statue of a man, jet black in flesh, with yellow, dagger shaped eyes, stood in the corner of the room below, his arms at his sides. His face was expressionless, the only feature on its mask-like face were its eyes. A small iron box lay at his feet. The north wall had a small font built into it, but the grinning demonskull within it seemed to fill the basin with a tiny trickle of blood, not water.
      Phaidon said, "The statue is wrapped in black leather."
      "Anyone have a rope?" asked Alexander.
      India shook her head. "Maybe if Issic jumped down, he could reach up and help us all down."
      "Sounds like a good idea."
      Issic said, "It might be better if I lowered you down while I hold on up here."
      Alexander said, "Very well, lower me down first."
      Issic dug his claws into the stone with one hand and grabbed hold of Alexander's hand with his other.  Issic lowered him down as far as he could reach.  Issic growled, "Phaidon you might want to have that bow ready for anything that might jump Alexander from the mist."
      Phaidon nocked an arrow.
      After Alexander dropped to the floor safely, India took Issic's hand and was lowered down.  Then Cthaat, then Phaidon.  Finally, Issic dropped down himself, his wings spread to slow the drop.
      The room displayed decorative scenes of torture, and was forty feet square in size, dominated by the leather wrapped statue. The plug at the top screwed itself back in, shutting the party in darkness.
      Issic said, "Make sure that we do not use that key more than once more in case we need to get out this way."
      Alexander opened the small box. It was an ornately carved onyx box showing demonic visages.  Inside were three dozen thin metal needles about six inches long.
      Alexander asked, "Phaidon, can you search the statue and the font?"
      "Aye."  He noticed, while he searched, that the biceps, chest, calves, and other muscled parts of the statue felt slightly soft, unlike the rest of the statue, which was hard.
      Phaidon said as much. "Most of the statue is hard, but the muscled parts are soft."
      "What parts are soft?"
      "The biceps, chest, calves, and other muscled parts."
      "How many parts of soft rather?"  Alexander noticed the wall art emphasized the torture of the muscles.
      "It does not seem to be trapped, but I am not exceptionally skilled in that area."
      India said, "Here is the information we have on the temple: 'The Temple itself stood like a massive demon. Vaguely in the shape of Ochremeshk the Defiler, the huge stone idol held its evil sword and raised its claw as if to reach down and swoop up sacrificial victims into its horrible twisted grin. Like anything else, you must go to the temple's heart to find the true source of its power. To get from head to heart, or at least on your way, make the demon smile and use the key to open the invisible lock. To reach the heart, you must partake of the three sacraments of Ochremeshk.  Such is distasteful to all good and noble, but one soul is a small price to pay. Blood flows through the temple, carrying both knowledge and life - for demonspawn and their hellish brethren. Chaos and evil for Ochremeshk are words that are also the key with three uses.'"
      Alexander listened, then took one of the pins and poked the statue with it, sticking it into one of the soft muscles.  Nothing seemed to happen, so he started placing pins in different muscles.  Once he had three pins in, the face suddenly contorted, producing a horrific grin of pleasure. A moment later the mouth opened; a dark red forked tongue produced a key.  Alexander took the key and said, "To get from head to heart, or at least on your way, make the demon smile and use the key to open the invisible lock."
      India asked, "Can anyone see invisible objects?"  No one could.
      Alexander Maximus went over to the font, filled a cup with blood from the font, and had everyone stand behind him while he threw the blood across the room to see if it landed on anything invisible.  They all saw a drop of blood float around the room, running down a spherical object.  Alexander walked over to the floating blood and held out the key.  The object floated around Alexander, avoiding the key.  Alexander touched the key to it, and heard a metallic clink, but then the ball shot toward the ceiling, out of reach.
      Alexander filled another cup of blood and used far hand to carry the cup over the invisible object, and dumped the blood on it to get a better idea of what they were dealing with.  They saw an actual key opening form.  The key hole rotated around the bloody sphere.
      Alexander asked, "Issic can you reach the key hole?" He held out the key for him.  Issic flew up and grabbed the bloody sphere and turned the lock.
      A ten foot wide hole appeared in the floor, and the sphere and key vanished. Alexander looked down the hole.
      The lower chamber's dark walls were covered in iron hooks, some of them bearing grisly stains and dried remnants of things better left unidentified. The floor's maze like pattern is gouged with deep lines that led to a six inch grate in the center. He could make out the outlines of two stone doors amid the hooks: one on the west wall and one on the east.  He figured he could probably climb down on the grisly chains and hooks.  He decided against it, though. "Lets use your rope, Phaidon."
      Phaidon handed Alexander fifty feet of silk rope. Alexander slid down it, trying to avoid the hooks while the others held the rope.  Once at the bottom, he pulled out his pilum and guarded the rope while the others slid down.  India, then Phaidon, then Cthaat, and Issic came down last.
      Alexander asked, "Can one of you listen at the doors and see if you hear anything?"  Phaidon heard nothing.  Alexander sought to open the doors, but could find no handle or knob.
      India whispered, "Remember, if we come across any innocent people, we are not going to kill them this time, okay?"
      Alexander said, "I would think there would not be anytime when we would kill an innocent person."
      "You would think that.  Anyway, there has to be something we are missing here."
      Alexander looked down the grate in the center of the room. "Maybe we should try and go down again."  He could not see where the grate led, though.  Just a dark tunnel that curved out of sight was beyond the grate.  He couldn't even find a hinge on the grate, nor would it budge from its place.
      Phaidon said, "Well, judging from the size of this statue, I would estimate we are around shoulder level.  If the heart is in a normal human location, it should not be much farther down and to the left."
      Alexander said, "But what about the three sacraments? We have to do them before we get to the heart."
      "Seems we need to get these doors open."
      "Lets search the walls for a trigger or something."  Phaidon and Alexander noticed that the pattern led not only to the drain on the floor, but to the doors as well. The search of the east wall revealed narrow peepholes.  Alexander peered into the peepholes, but could only discern darkness beyond them.

To be continued…

Chronology of the Write Ups | Finding the Temple | Current Adventures in Inzeladun