Ingaran Adventures 62: The evil door

The Ingaran Adventures
Episode 62
“The evil door.”

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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
                                    Lord Alexander Maximus: The Gauntlet of Athena

                                    Cthaat Angartha: The first Blood Owl
                                    Zografos, Lord Domnhall: A yuan-ti slayer of mind flayers
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The gray vapor reached out quickly seemingly attempting to grasp the heroes by any exposed appendage. The weapon hand of every person in the room went instinctively to their respective weapons. Evil faces of hatred and malice formed within the gray, murky fog. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the wall of fog dissipated. Alexander prayed a silent “thank you” to Athena and hoped that nothing unforeseen had been unleashed by the opening of the hidden and secret doorway.

Alexander had had enough of Dr. Dalby’s secret closets, "Prepare yourselves for the delve, we leave within the hour."

Phaidon turned around and realized India was gone. He followed her scent and tracks to a corner of another room where her trail ended. He surmised that she had shadow jumped somewhere. He silently cursed Zografos for changing in front of her.

Cthaat said, "Why not just go now?"

"Because we must prepare our minds before we face this evil. Would you go into battle with a blunt sword?"

Zografos shrugged and entered the conversation, "I don't know, but if you wish some refreshment until then just ask any of the ladies in the dining room."

Phaidon walked back into the dining hall and interrupted, "India is gone. I think she shadow jumped somewhere. I want to go find her."

Cthaat continued, "Yes. We call those maces."

Zografos smiled, "I like her."

Alexander summoned his powers and spoke to India telepathically, "Are you ok?"

India replied mentally to Alexander, "Not yet. As soon as I can find Zografos alone and kill the werebeast, I will be fine."

"Zografos is here now. I understand if various transformations offend you as they do me. However, for what ever reason Athena feels that he has a part to play in this battle."

"Aye, to give me experience battling werebeasts."

Zografos said, "If you will excuse me, I need to leave some instructions with my servants. I shall meet you back in the dining room in an hour." Zografos left the room.

Phaidon noticed Alexander concentrating and the tell tale signs of psionic activity and paused, figuring he was communicating with India.

"And it is no more your duty to slay every were-creature we meet then it is mine to slay every creature that has been touched by fiends. Gather yourself and return within the hour or we leave without you."

"As you wish." India materialized out of the shadows in front of Phaidon.

Phaidon smiled, "There you are."

"Here I am."

Phaidon could readily tell that India was upset.

Alexander continued mentally with India, "I am sorry for being short with you but the oncoming battle is bigger then any of our individual desires. Athena needs you to be here."

India nodded in understanding at Alexander.

Phaidon leaned over and whispered in India's ear, "Do you want to go somewhere alone and talk?"

She whispered back, "Only if you are going to promise to kill him and this den of snakes."

"Zografos?"

"Aye."

Phaidon paused for a moment, "That can be arranged. Why do you wish him dead? I thought he was a friend?"

"He's a monster."

Phaidon understood what India was getting at and asked his panthers, "Is Zografos a were-creature? Does he smell different than us?"

The panthers were confused by his smells. They reported a reptilian scent.

Phaidon whispered to India again, "A monster he may be, but I fear he is not the monster you suspect. He is not a were-creature. I believe he does that with powerful magics. Most likely those furs he wears. He does have a strong reptilian scent about him."

India did not reply and Phaidon did not push the issue. He would have to get Zografos alone and speak with him soon.

Alexander Maximus, the Gauntlet of Athena traversed about the house and began ushering everyone into the dining hall for the hour before departure was nearly at an end.

Zografos strode into the dining hall where everyone else was waiting.

Alexander spoke to the assembled group, "Remember everyone, once we get under the city red eyes will led us to the heart of the dead god. Zografos, I trust you know a safe way to get to the catacombs?"

"There are several ways. Probably the easiest way would be the tunnels we used to sneak into the Palace."

"Then by all means lead the way for Athena's glory and the safety of Alisander."

Zografos led them out to the culvert that provided access to the tunnels.

Zografos commented, "You know, we could spend days just looking for the correct tunnel to follow."

Issic responded to Zografos, "I thought you knew the way?"

"I know the ways into the tunnels. I don't know the exact tunnel we are looking for."

As they traversed the myriad of twisting and turning tunnels, Alexander scanned all that he purveyed with true seeing.

As they descended into the depths, down a dank stairwell that was overfull of damp stone and dark wood and weighty carvings, dim under the heaviness of the night air, they found that it was an act of moral strength to lift their feet and set them down on the next step, and they felt a deep unwillingness to touch the walls and their horrible carvings. Everyone got the vivid feeling that the tunnels were somehow waiting for them, evil but patient. Once they had reached the bottom step, and saw the glowing red eye set into the wall, shivers rippled through their muscles and the tunnels seemed to come around them in a rush. They were enshadowed, and the sound of their feet and armor was an outrage in the utter silence, as though it had been a very long time since feet stamped across those black halls. They came to a horribly decorated door, with a massive, iron knocker that seemed to radiate an evil, cold aura. The door was carved with designs of decay and dead things.

Alexander examined the red eye set into the wall, wondering if it was a symbol of Olanigan. However, it looked darker and more sinister, as though it was the red heart of a black shadow that peered out, seeking secrets and horrible deeds done under the cover of the blackest of nights.

Phaidon broke the horrible, painful silence, "Do we knock?"

Alexander did not respond to Phaidon, "Zografos, could you check the knocker and the door for traps"

Alexander searched the recesses of his mind trying to recall the symbol of the red eye. Finally he remembered seeing it in an ancient tome when he was but a child growing up in Ingara. It was a symbol of Tenebrion, yet it was a more sinister and vile version.

Phaidon responded to Cthaat, "I doubt anyone does, Cthaat. However, no matter how horrible the way may be, we need to save the priests of Athena."

Zografos began examining the menacing door. He noticed a trap, "I found something." Zografos also noticed that as his shadow passed over the door in the flickering torchlight that the door was covered with runes written in shadow speak.

Alexander spoke to Cthaat, "Cthaat, know that you are the chosen of Athena. As long as you KNOW this you are protected by a high power then any beast that lays in wait for us."

Cthaat nods and says, "Thank you Alexander. I still don't like it here, though I am not afraid."

Cthaat said, "I don't like it here."

"We go many places we do not like in the service of Athena but, we go, always knowing that she is watching over us."

"The Glyph suggests followers of Tenebrion, would you agree Zografos?"

Zografos nodded and read aloud what the door said, "No living organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even buildings are said by some to dream. These dark halls, not sane, stood by themselves for eighty years before we sealed it and may stand for eighty more. Let silence lie steadily against the wood and stone of these passages, and let whatever walks here walk alone."

Three rats skittered along the walls behind them as Issic gave Cthaat a wink.

Zografos tried to determine who sealed the catacombs and why. He could not tell in the writing, but knew that it was surely written by the priests of Tenebrion in their language. He examined their surroundings, noticing much dust and cobwebs and determining that no one had set foot near this door for centuries.

Phaidon was trying to decipher the writing on the door. Ever cautious, he looked around as he spoke, "It seems to indicate that we must travel alone, or single file at least."

Issic responded, "That is not it at all. It is saying that what is sealed down here should be left alone and not bothered."

The sense of antiquity pervaded everything. They knew, without any doubt, that this place was vile. It was diseased and it wanted them to get away from there at once.

Alexander once again broke the horrid silence, "We walk together with Athena in all places. We walk by her light even in this place of Shadow. We walk into this place of Tenebrion and bring the light of Athena and her brother Apollo so that Tenebrion will have shadow in this place and we will be protected." With that, he cast a spell of light on the Dark Athena. The Dark Athena light up the area and the shadows danced, flying together into their own patterns, fitting themselves into their own construction of lines and angles.

Zografos studied the trap more thoroughly. The trap looked alive, although his eyes could not isolate the unhappy coincidence of line and place that suggested evil and vitality in the face of the door and its trap. He felt like he could easily violate the trap in the frightening door. The door seemed awake, watching with a maniac glee, arrogant and hating, never off guard. Zografos checked to see if the door was completely sealed and whether or not there were any gaps around the edges. The door was quite sealed, a door without any kindness, never meant to ever be opened, not a fit place for people to stand before or to try to enter.

"So do you want me to undo the trap or do you want to look for another red eye tunnel?" Zografos hands turned nervously cold, and his stomach turned as he considered violating that hateful door, a sick object that mocked them all. Each of them got the feeling that there will be no escape for at least one of them – that such would be the price of passage into that terrible place.

Phaidon whimsied out loud, "If I did not know better, I would think that door is alive and could speak foul blasphemies to us at any moment."

Zografos mockingly asked the door in shadow speak, "Talk to him door. Show him you are alive."

Issic growled and said, "If it is alive then we should kill it"

Alexander looked around the door with his eye path. Doing so turned the hall and door into a place of even deeper despair, more frightening than even before, a hall and a door that would not give concessions to humanity. He knew that nightmares were waiting, shadowed, beyond that foul door, a breath of mindless fear that lurks to suck the life out of trespassers.

Alexander doubted their current path. He cast a spell and communed with the gods, "Should we look for another way in?"

Lightning cracked somewhere far overhead, and the echoing thunder seemed to form the word, "no" in a deep, sonorous voice that reverberated down into the earth and into the core of each of them, and Alexander knew he had heard the voice of Zeus. Alexander remarked, even though everyone already knew, "This is the only way in."

Phaidon said, "Then, let us proceed."

Alexander proclaimed, "DOOR, BE YOU ALIVE, SPEAK TO US THE GODS DEMAND IT!"

In silence the door spoke, a terrible silence that depressed and surrounded them all, as though they were but small creatures swallowed whole by a monster that felt their tiny little movements, their little wiggles to escape its clutches.

Alexander wearied of this; his fellow priests were in danger, "Zografos, check the writing again make sure it is the same. If it is then open the door."

"Whisper to it," Phaidon spoke, sure that the horrible door was alive and mocking them.

"This is madness," whispers India, obviously terrified.

Alexander whispered to the door, "Door be you alive?"

Phaidon explained, "'Twas just a stray thought. I was thinking back on what the words said."

Everyone got the tantalizing feeling that it was, but that it played at being dead. They got the distinct feeling it was waiting for them all to die horrible ways so that it would be left alone again.

Zografos commented, "If it is alive and will not talk then have Issic run it through. It will either die, be busted open, or talk."

Cthaat said, "You might want to disable the trap," says Cthaat.

Alexander said, "Open the door Zografos, the gods wish it to be done." He cast a spell to guide Zografos in his attempt.

Zografos went ahead and disarmed the trap, taking his time in doing so.

With a loud groan, the trap was violated by Zografos’ thrusting fingers and tools, and though the ancient trap groans like a monster as it settled back and disengaged, they still do not feel safe.

"The trap is undone."

Phaidon was quite unnerved and spoke without thinking, "Well, I suppose we should knock now. Do we use the knocker or let Issic knock on it?"

Sarcastically, Issic responded, "That would be good. Let's knock and let everything on the other side know we are coming. Why knock? Just open it."

Alexander said, "I suggest Issic should open the door."

Phaidon smiled at Issic, "It matters not. They will fall beneath our might."

Issic strode forward and opened the ghastly door. The door screamed in the silence, and grates opened, scraping along the stone floor, cutting into it with its iron bindings. Its long disused hinges wail in protest, insisting on laziness but forced into activity. They realized in that instant that those halls had an insistent hospitality – the door disliked letting its guests get away.

"Let us proceed," said Phaidon.

Alexander held up the Dark Athena so that its light could remind them all that they were not alone and he entered into the hallway past the door. The others followed though the mouth of that horrible door.

As they looked down the hall, they saw that it was an unbelievably faulty design that left it chillingly wrong in all its dimensions, so that the walls seemed always in one direction a fraction longer than the eye could endure and in another direction a fraction less than the barest possible tolerable length... Hope evaporated there, leaving only the faintest hint of its existence, like an almost inaudible echo of sobbing far away... The hallway was terribly cold, terribly, terribly, terribly cold. And they heard a noise down the hall, far down at the end, where the shadows lay hiding from the light, and terribly cold...

Issic gives a low growl feeling his draconic side coming to the surface more. Zografos stood behind Issic, "Well, go on. The sooner we get to where we are going the sooner we can get back."

Cold chills went up and down their backs, not pleasant chills, but cold chills that started in their stomachs and went in waves around and up and down again like something alive....

Like something alive...

Yes, like something alive - and they knew something was down there, waiting.

The noise again.

Bang.

A hollow noise.

Bang.

It sounded as if something was hitting the walls with an iron kettle, or an iron bar, or an iron glove.

Bang.

Issic strode forward, sword drawn. Phaidon nocked an arrow and followed the mighty half-dragon.

The noise pounded regularly for a minute, and then suddenly more softly...

Bang...

Bang....

Bang...

Then again in a quick flurry...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Distantly they heard the voices of people calling from somewhere in the distance, and then a final CRASH!

Silence there and nothing more.

Phaidon was still following Issic down the hall. He motioned to the others, "Come."

As they walked, Alexander asked India, "India how about a song for the glory of the Ingaran gods?"

India gulped and started to sing, but the silence swallowed it and the song rang hollow and uninspiring.

The door SLAMMED shut behind them! The crash was loud; it was deafening; it struck shut with a ring that they felt certain would kill them.

The echoes died away.

Silence.

India crumpled to the cold, cold, terribly cold floor, shivering with fright.

Silence.

Phaidon rushed to India's side.

Death. Death lurked there and they knew it.

India crushed Phaidon to her and whispered, "I want out."

"No more," she begged.

Silence thereafter.

Phaidon whispered back, "It is alright. No harm will come to you while I am here." He held her tight.

Alexander walked over and used a spell to calm India. She calmed and stood, slowly. She put a cold hand on Alexander's arm and whispered a silent "Thank you."

Silence and shadows.

Even the trio of rats was quiet.

Suddenly there came a tapping, a gentle rapping, a ghost of a sound that they were scarce sure if they heard it or if their fancy created it from the depths of the unendurable silence. Shadows seemed to leap along the walls, seeking to escape the invading light cast by the Dark Athena.

Alexander spoke, "Let us continue!" Yet the silence is again unbroken save by Alexander's exclamation, a ripple in the stillness that gave token to the life that still pervaded their hearts and souls.

Phaidon held out his right hand to hold India's left as they walk along, his bow in his left hand. She took his hand, and she was cold, terribly cold, and Phaidon, felt as though he was holding hands with a corpse, a cold, clammy corpse cast up from the grave, unwanted even by the underworld. Phaidon worried yet continued on in silence.

The group continued on until they came to a T, a fearsome break in the steady hallway, and a demon stood there dreaming horrible dreams never dreamt before, a cold statue of a dreaming demon whose eyes seemed bleak and melancholy in their dire evil.

Zografos wondered aloud if anyone could determine where the sound originated. They could not determine where the sound had come from. They heard it start again, as though it had been listening, waiting to hear their voices and what they said, to identify them, to know how well prepared they were against it, waiting to hear if they were afraid.

Bang.

The hammering came from the left, and a glowing eye hovered in that hallway, gleaming with all the seeming of demon that is dreaming, a coherent eye that laughed with cold mockery of warmth and life.

Bang.

The sickening, degrading cold came in waves from whatever was beyond the reach of the light.

Bang.

Alexander moved forward, pilum drawn, towards the eye.

Again there was silence, as though the hallways listened with attention to their actions, understanding, cynically agreeing, content to wait. A thin little giggle came, in a breath of air through the hall, a little mad rising laugh, the smallest whisper of a laugh, and they each heard it all up and down their backs, a little gloating laugh moving past them around the hallway and then, mercifully, it was over.

Silence.

Intense, sickening cold.

The sound of scratching.

Silence, then.

They came upon the eye, a hovering stone that glowed dimly red in the darkness around it. They continued on past the eye and down the hallway until they came to another door. Zografos inspected the door. It smelled rotten and moldy, the smell of rotting corpses left too long in a damp basement. It was a huge door, rambling and sagging, giving it a sinister look. The paint had been weathered away and it had a slumped, hunched look. They had a strong urge to turn around and try desperately to escape. The door stared at them with idiot indifference.

Phaidon was sick of the attempts to frighten them with doorways, "Bah. All of the doors in the place are the same. See if it is trapped and then open it."

Zografos checked the door and then opened it. As it opened slowly, it crumbled into nothingness.

Alexander nodded approvingly at Phaidon.

They could not even tell the color of the chamber they saw before them, or its style, or its size, except that it was enormous and dark, looking down over them. The chamber was also overfull of dark wood and weighty carvings of obscene things that shouldn't exist. A staircase lay back from the farther end. On either side of the room were great double doors, carved with dark things that made their flesh crawl. All of the doors were closed. They had the strange perception that the builders had tried to give the place style, but eventually gave up the attempt once they realized what these barrows would ultimately be – a tomb for a dead god that should never be unleashed. They got quick impression that the builders finished the chamber with a kind of indecent haste, eager to finish their work without embellishment and get out of there, following the simplest possible patterns for the rooms and halls.

As Zografos checked the staircase that went down into even deeper recesses of darkness, Phaidon checked over the doors to the other rooms. He had picked up a little bit of knowledge about traps. He couldn’t disarm them, but he could locate many of them. Alexander looked around with true seeing but could see nothing different.

Phaidon announced, "The doors are untrapped."

Zografos responded, "Well, open them up and look to see what is behind them then."

"Very well," Phaidon opened the door on the right.

Inside was a well appointed bedroom and Phaidon entered and looked around searching for anything of interest.

Alexander followed Phaidon into the room, "Everyone search the room. Cthaat and Issic watch the door and make sure we aren't ambushed."

There were blue curtains over bricked up windows, and a blue figured rug on the floor, and a blue spread on the bed and a blue quilt at the foot. The walls, dark woodwork to shoulder height, with blue-figured paper above, with a design of tiny blue flowers, wreathed and gathered and delicate, and it all smelled of dampness and mildew and rot.

"Nothing here. Let us check the other room," Phaidon walked across the room and opened the left door.

Alexander checked under the bed, and under the coverings and pillows. He found the skull of a rat under the bed.

As Phaidon entered the opposite room, it was very similar to the other, yet decorated with all green.

Phaidon found a book in one of the drawers in the green room. He took the book to Alexander.

Alexander examined the tome immediately noticing it was magical in nature. It was a thick, heavy book titled, "Shadows over the Gods: Death of the Undying."

Zografos also looked at the book, "I like the title."

Shadows leaped around the room, seeming to dance of their own accord as Alexander moved around with the Dark Athena - one seemed to fly down the stairs as others hung about shifting uncomfortably and menacingly.

Phaidon noticed the lone shadow that seemed to slip down the stairs of its own accord, "What was that?"

Alexander replied, "I am not sure."

Phaidon walked back to the green room to continue his search, "Probably a spy no doubt." He found a secret panel in the drawer where he had found the book.

Phaidon found yet another paid of books. One was titled "Feats of Strength: Legends of the Death Wielders of the Blood-Strewn Battlefields of Indor." The other book was titled, "Couthen: a Crimson History of Death among the Undead"

Phaidon handed the books to Alexander, "These books sure have fascinating titles."

"Yes, they do."

Zografos asked curiously, "What is the shadow book about, Alexander?"

Alexander summoned the power of Athena and detected the books for the taint of evil. The books and the place were awash with evil. The rats in the room radiated intense evil.

"I am not sure. It is magical and I do not wish to open it until I have checked a couple of things."

Alexander checked the rats for the activity of Psionics, but found nothing. However, all of the books radiated intense magic.

Phaidon spoke, "Let us take them with us. They sound like good reading. We can add them to the library at Talishar."

"I think the books may be trapped and they do not look to be of importance now. I suggest we check the other rooms."

"Let us proceed down the stairs, then," said Phaidon as he moved towards the staircase.