[Realms #450] Waiting for the Dwarves
"Wha- ??" Morier stammered, the pain from his broken leg momentarily forgotten in the face of this new, alarming development. "What just happened?"
"I don't know," Shamalin answered her voice barely above a whisper, her eyes never leaving the seated mummy. Morier noticed her hand was clasped tightly around the silver holy symbol that the cleric wore.
"Everybody alright?" the mummy hissed, and even though its voice was a rasp now, it was still recognizable as Ahlear's. It surveyed the group with shriveled eyes that were sunken into the shadows cast by the somber wrappings that covered his features. "Were there further losses? Where is Huzair? And how much time has passed?"
No one answered him. The three companions stared at the mummy with similar expressions of shocked disbelief on their faces.
"Nibble?!?" the Ahlear mummy looked around, searching for what in life had been his animal companion. The dire rat had fled the scene when the negative energy had swelled within the chamber, and so was no where about.
"What the #@!$?" Huzair's voice echoed around as he dropped down from the wall of the stairwell and deactivated his Ring of Blinking. "What happened to Ahlear?" The mummy turned to watch him as he side-stepped over to Shamalin, Morier and Anania.
"Huzair..." Ahlear groaned. "I am glad that you weren't killed."
"What the #@!$ happened to Ahlear?" Huzair repeated, his voice growing more agitated. His hands hovered near his spell component pouch.
"He's a... a..." Shamalin tried to say, but seemed unable to comprehend what had happened though she had seen it with her own eyes.
"I know what I seem to have become, but,-" Ahlear was moving slowly, stiffly to its feet and Anania took a challenging step forward, bow taut and arrow aimed squarely at the mummy's head. The mummy raised a cautioning hand. "Elf, stay your bow. I am still myself in mind and motives."
Anania lowered her bow slightly, looking at Morier, who was in his turn looking at Shamalin, who was squeezing her holy symbol and staring wide-eyed at the monstrosity that seemed somehow to house Ahlear's soul.
"Morier, Shamalin... is this a trick of some foul cave-dwelling demon??" the scout asked circling slowly, keeping her bow pointed low but nonetheless in the direction of the mummy.
"I don't know," Morier admitted. "It sounds like Ahlear but-"
"I assure you it is no trick," the mummy hissed, rising to its feet. "I have enough knowledge about my state to know that this was orchestrated, by the same powers that gave me my tattoo. But my goddess intervened slightly to keep me as independent as possible, and I thank lady Akadi for this with all my heart, even a non-beating one."
Thankful? Shamalin thought. To be trapped in a lifeless husk of dead flesh? What must that be like? She stopped herself from thinking about it, feeling a scream building in her chest that she didn't think she'd be able to stop once it got started. She tasted blood, realizing dimly that she'd bit down on her own tongue in an effort to suppress the rising hysteria.
"The tattoo?" Morier growled, but he was indicating the one on his own collarbone, not Ahlear's. "What is it? And why is it on me?" The mummy sighed, the sound of a sarcophagus lid dragging shut.
"It is a physical representation of the link we share," the mummy told him. "We are bound together now, you and I." Morier screamed in response to that, and half lurched up from the floor, sword in his hand. But he hadn't the strength to rise, and a wave of cold blackness fell over him as he moved his leg.
He collapsed, panting in frustration and pain, forehead pressed against the cold floor.
"Now, I cannot change your antipathy to what I am, but I will stay loyal to you all and the cause we have," the mummy went on as it went about the business of gathering Ahlear's gear. "You might say, me being this way is actually because I am entwined in your cause and the gods don't want to lose the foothold they have it seems... neither mine nor the evil ones who made this happen. What say you we regroup, replenish and then go kill us some dwarves?" The mummy offered up a horrifying rictus that was probably intended to be a reassuring smile. There was, however, nothing reassuring about the mummy's desiccated features and a smile seemed wholly out of place there.
Anania completed her circuit of the mummy, returning to the group from the other side. "Ahlear, is that really you?" she asked, incredulous.
"It is really me," the mummy rasped without looking up. It was working at securing the rhino hide armor to its emaciated frame.
"Well that is the strangest thing... but I don't have time to dwell on that," Anania said, refocusing herself on the task at hand. "Huzair, we have to get up and out of this tunnel. Did you see any way to reactivate the stairs while you were up top?"
The wizard did not seem to have heard her. His eyes were locked on the mummy, his expression one of dawning dread. Anania reached out a hand and shook the mage until he turned to look at her.
"Did you see how the dwarves are controlling the stairs?" she asked and he blinked at her, like a man just waking up from a long, deep slumber. "While you were above, did you see-"
"There was a lever," Huzair said at last. "Set into the wall at the top of the stairs."
"Good," Anania nodded. "Can you go back up and pull that lever and keep it pulled?"
"I will do whatever," the wizard said, looking upwards at the dark shaft. "I guess."
"What do you propose?" Shamalin asked, her voice even, but throaty. Her face remained pinched and she still hadn't let go of her holy symbol.
"I think we should climb the stairs again... in force," the elf said, matter-of-factly. "Huzair can turn invisible and open the lever. Then I can climb rapidly to the top and we can attempt to hold the top of the stairs until the rest of you get there." Shamalin nodded as she considered the plan.
"I don't know," she said at last. "I mean, invisibility sounds great if we are certain that they won't be able to see right through it. It would only take one spellcaster-dwarf to detect magic and ruin our chances. What about retreating and drawing them out?"
Now it was Anania's turn to voice opposition.
"I don't think turning back is the best bet at this point," she said. "We have come this far, and if we can just get passed these stairs-"
"That's a big 'if'" Shamalin countered. "The stairs seem risky and have been nothing but trouble for us. Are we sure Huzair can force the lever to keep the stairs in place?"
"Do not worry about me," the wizard said, confidently. "I can take care of them and myself." Shamalin eyed him skeptically.
"You have to remember that they seem pretty spell-impervious, Huzair," she reminded him.
"I do not have my Ring of Invisibility and would have to use my last invisibility scroll if I wanted to go unseen," the mage admitted. "Maybe I would just do it without being invisible, and retreat as needed." He shrugged.
"I will do whatever your all want," Huzair said and Morier barked laughter from the ground.
"Not words you hear much from Huzair," the albino said through gritted teeth. Then he looked at Shamalin and added, "I know I ask for a lot of healing. But do you think you could look at my leg?" The cleric's eyes grew wide and color rose quickly to her cheeks as she went about the business of belatedly healing her friends.
While Shamalin ministered to Morier, Huzair took a step toward the Ahlear mummy who was still busy securing strewn gear.
"Can I have my invisibility ring back?" the wizard called from a discreet distance. "Please." The mummy looked up at the mage and nodded.
"Yes," it rasped. ""Here it is." He presented the ring with an outstretched arm. But as it took a step forward, Huzair took a quick step back, recoiling as if he'd been offered a live scorpion rather than a ring.
"Put it down, please, and then I will pick it up!" he said quickly. Under his breath he muttered, "Damn it! I wish I paid attention. I cannot remember if Garan-Zak told me that mummies had energy drain or not. Why do I not listen!" The mummy chuckled - a sound like someone shaking a handful of gravel - and took a step backward.
"I am not able to drain you," Ahlear growled, nodding once. "But fair enough. I cannot hope for impossible miracles in a few minutes." Then he stooped and rolled the ring across the floor toward the mage with a fluid motion that did not seem to fit with what Huzair thought he knew about mummies. He crouched down and scooped it up.
"Well, I was not implying you would do it on purpose," the wizard assured the mummy and slipped the ring back on his finger. "We had better stop the small talk and be ready. Man, won't those freaks be surprised?"
In the end, they decided to wait out their attackers rather than go with Anania's plan.
The living huddled close beneath the concealment of Huzair's Invisibility Sphere spell, weapons ready and attention focused on the shaft above. The undead lurked in the shadows and searched the walls for some sign of a secret door. There was no movement or sound from above and the stairs did not reset.
Eventually, the duration of Huzair's spell expired, returning them all to visibility.
There was still no sign of the dwarves or a secret door.
"Well that was a waste of a scroll," Huzair groused. "I should start charging you guys for-"
"Did you see that?" Anania hissed, interrupting the wizard. She was squinting upward. "I thought I saw a light for a moment."
"I don't see anything," Morier replied.
"It's gone now," the elf maid admitted. "It was very feint, but I'm sure I-"
"What the-!" Huzair exclaimed, jumping as something warm and wet splatted down on his bald head. He touched the spot and his hands came away slick with phlegm.
Somebody had spat on him from the top of the shaft.
Huzair's expression soured at once and he quickly stepped back from beneath the stairwell lest he be targeted again. He wiped his head and cast the spittle onto the floor, then rubbed his hand on his pants, fearful of poison.
"My flower, is this human spit or slobber from a creature?" he asked Anania. "Can you tell the difference, my love?" The elf looked at him and started to speak when a voice from above called out.
"Who be down there!?" the voice yelled in the common tongue, muted somewhat by distance. "Ya friend or foe?!!"