"Unlock... Open"
Thalin, Milo, Dariel and Isplit all sat hunched in silence as the
aqualish made its steady course across the bed of the lake. The four travellers could do nothing but stare at the shadowy bulk of Klauth sitting in the shallows, his tail slowly swaying from side to side.
A moment of chaos ensued as Klauth dipped his head into the lake to drink. Dariel screamed and began to fly in the enclosed space as the remaining occupants whirled into a frenzy of trying to press themselves as far away from the steaming snout of the dragon as possible. Klauth only watched the
aqualish trundle past slowly, before rearing his head back out to resume his talk with Torious.
The rails took a sharp turn and descended into a shadowed rift. The
aqualish flickered on a pair of dull beams that illuminated a great set of stone double doors. They opened slowly, letting a rush of water past the approaching
aqualish. The submersible slowed and then shuddered to a halt in the centre of the airlock. An immense metal door dominated the opposite wall. Behind the submersible, the stone doors closed and the water began to drain away.
The
aqualish doors hissed open. Thalin stepped out and slowly worked away a painful cramp in his leg as the cold water sluiced about his boots. Milo patted the contraption on the side, thanking it for safe passage. As he did, his fingers ran into a carved stone handprint just below the cockpit latch.
- - - - - - - - - -
Torious pushed open the second door and exited the moss-floored airlock. As he stepped into the space, an inconsistent chime rang through the room repeatedly from an unknown source. Torious stood for a moment, then unslung
Justicar. Pressing his fingers up against the invisible barrier, the familiar dwarven voice called out, but this time with different words.
“Drained. Locked. Arrived.”
Torious answered immediately, “Unlock… Open.”
The door immediately separated at head height and its two halves disappeared smoothly, one into the floor, the other into the ceiling. Torious eased his grip on his sword as Thalin, Milo and their familiars, all unhurt, stood in surprise on the other side.
The three adventurers quickly interrogated Torious on what was said by the dragon but the aasimar revealed only that Zalaznir was killed and he was freed. As they all settled and discussed the dragon, Torious became alert to a distant and faint pouring noise of water. Methodically searching this out, the aasimar calculated that there must be water ducts running in the walls of the mines.
As his companions swapped stories, Milo crept back over to the
aqualish, which he looked over. With a grunt of exertion, Milo tried to push the contraption from the tracks so he could ride it through the mines, but to no avail. Looking around in desperation, he saw a small shelf on the wall, which strangely had no watermarks on the inside. Investigating further, the halfling saw a heavy brown glove neatly stored in the space.
Reaching through without even a thought of wardings or glyphs, the halfling snatched the glove and ran back to the
aqualish, hoping his thinking on this was right.
Thalin looked up abruptly as a heavy slosh of water rumbled in the ducts then a muffled thunder from the sword spider room echoed through the corridors. The mage looked at Torious, but the Aasimar just shrugged as he laced his ragged chainmail together.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lyle jarred his head up as a dull rumbling echoed from the large chamber. After a minute it stopped and all was silent again. Pressing his head against the door, Lyle held his breath to hear any further sound. But there was nothing.
Lyle stood up, cradling his weeping stump. He fished deep into the leather pouch, removing a handful of black onyx gems. With a stern look, and a plan forming in his mind, Lyle readjusted his goggles and headed towards a vacant wall in the corner of the room.
The ghosts that had congregated in the corner of the room stopped clawing at the stonewall and watched the man in black as he strode over. Sneering at the ghosts, he flexed his grip on his sword. Then stepping back once, Lyle drove his shortsword into the loose mortar of the wall, and began to hack towards the hidden burial room of the dwarven miners.
- - - - - - - - - -
A plan was formed to re-enter the sword spider room. Torious crouched forward and listened at the thick wood door. Hearing nothing he shrugged and motioned to Milo who stood confused for a moment (he was absorbed with stuffing the brown glove into his bag). Remembering his part in this plan, he skipped back into the chamber behind them and scooped his hand into the cold water of the trough. Emerging back into the corridor, Milo held a wobbling fish in each hand. Grinning with enthusiasm, he nodded for Torious to open the door.