Whew, another long update. Enjoy!
Chapter 20
As the days grew closer to returning to the ruins, Terenon became more withdrawn. He tried to think of what the next move would be and what spells were needed to confront the Firebringer himself. The time spent with Serrila was the saving grace to his work. She gave him sanctuary that he found hard to leave. He cared for her, but the relationship distracted him from other important musings. He did his best to balance his feelings.
Finally, after about a week, the time came to meet back up with the others. As he descended the stairs into the inn’s common room, he caught the eye of Rumar, who was sitting at a nearby table. The paladin had been the recommon room since before dawn, carefully checking each strap and plate of his armor. Only once each section met his careful scrutiny did he switch to running a rag over its surface, buffing it all to a healthy shine. He gave a near inaudible grunt as Terenon entered and a slight dip of his shaved head but remained focused on his task.
Terenon sat across from Rumar and settled into an uncomfortable silence. The mage knew that the paladin did not approve of his relationship with Serrila, but thus far neither had them had really come out into the open about it. Terenon decided that now was definitely not the time to do so, and thus the silence persisted until the other four adventurers joined them at the table. Once everybody had settled in, the group began to discuss what to do next.
"I believe we should confront the beholder now,” said Terenon. “He has promised us a reward for removing the Acolytes, and I believe he will reward us. Interrogating the beholder would be preferable. However I don't want to tip our hand about our knowledge of the dragon. We must come up with a plan of action. I believe we can defeat him should it come to a fight, but the information he may have is more important. Suggestions?"
“We might just try and ask the beholder what it knows about the situation,” said Jelani. “It might be quite cooperative given that if we leave it alone, it’s going to be one of the most powerful beings in the area. Of course the dragon’s plans will change that, so it has some incentive to work with us. There are spells that should let me tell if it’s lying to us or not, and if all else fails we can just speak to it’s corpse. Before we do anything, though, might we find out if this creature’s missing central eye gives it some sort of advantage? Also it would be nice to know if it is indeed in collusion with the dragon.”
Terenon mulled over Jelani’s words. “Yes, the central eye had given me pause as well. I do know that others of its kind have a beam that emanates from the central eye. The beam disrupts the weave; essentially it is a cone of anti-magic. What if this beholder sees anti-magic as a disadvantage? I say we trap it with what it fears worst. Erect an anti-magic shell around it and intimidate the truth from it. This type of plan would require the spell be ready. Unless someone has it available, perhaps the first order of business today should be the Hydra. I scryed on the beholder earlier, and it seems content with reading its tomes. I don't believe he will be going anywhere soon."
“Perhaps we should go after the dragon first,” said Rhys. “If we were hired by the dragon to weaken the Acolytes, then we've been too successful and represent a possible thorn in its plans. The dragon wouldn't expect us to come after it and we're at our strongest now. We eliminate the dragon and deal with the others later.”
Jelani sighed. “If, if, if, if, if” he snorted. “And if birds were bears they couldn’t fly. You people are like a dog with a bone. What part of, ‘The beholder may or may not be working for the dragon’ is so hard for you people to grasp? If you can’t count the number of times you’ve been wrong about something on one hand, you can’t afford to just assume things.”
“Why don't we just kill them all?" asked Grundar, smirking. “I think for now we should just get rid of the hydra and find the staff of the ar-magus. I think we shouldn't get rid of the Firebringer yet, however. Since we have the ritual of unbinding, and if we get the staff, we are in fact capable of unleashing the Firebringer as well. We can persuade Philosten if we have to. Then we just need a chaotic aligned spellcaster. I would prefer not to do that, since we're bound by our oaths to slay the slaad lord, but we have him as a possible weapon if we desperately need it. We should keep our options open.”
"If you decide to unleash the Firebringer as some sort of 'weapon' against your other foes," Rumar said quietly, pulling a strap on his armor tight as he readjusted it to his body, "you had better be planning on killing me first. I will not stand by and allow an evil of that caliber let loose, regardless of what that requires on my part."
“I don’t want to release him,” Grundar added quickly, “I’m just laying out all the options here. Between a slaad lord and a dragon, I’d much rather fight the frog.”
"Rationalize it how you will. I will not risk accidentally unleashing an evil upon the cosmos simply because you are frightened or because you underestimate how powerful this slaad lord truly is." Though Rumar scarcely appeared to be paying attention to Grundar as he said this, the feeling in his words was obvious.
Jelani glanced at Rumar. “We may have to actually release the Firebringer anyway in order to destroy it, and risk is a part of every action. Tell me Rumar, what is it in your past that makes you presume the absolute worst of everyone?”
"Why?" Rumar said, turning towards Jelani, true anger flashing on his face. "I believe his exact words were that he'd prefer not to do it, but that the Firebringer could be potentially used as a weapon. A weapon!" the paladin continued, slamming another piece of armor on. "He would honestly have us wait until later to do our duty so that we have the option of unleashing a Slaad Lord. A Slaad Lord who would be capable of wreaking destruction on a scale we can scarcely comprehend! And all because Grundar is afraid to face the dragon! I have nothing against releasing this 'Firebringer' with plans to immediately slay him - if that is the best way to handle it. But I will not allow him freed because Grundar sees some sort of tactical advantage in directing him against someone else!"
"Let us remained focused on what our true tasks are, and not get bogged down in petty arguments,” said Terenon, trying to defuse the situation. “We just should be aware of the dragon and his plans. I doubt he knows that we know of him, otherwise the payment would not have been made. We are to think that we fulfilled our contract and nothing is out of the ordinary. I hate to admit it, but I have to agree with Rumar. We have sworn an oath to take care that the Firebringer will not leave its prison alive. I will not deviate from that goal. Let us concentrate on the Hydra today, and worry about the rest later."
“Fine,” said Grundar, letting the argument drop. “Let’s get going then.”
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With a flash of light, the party appeared at the very bottom of the Well of Stars. Motes of light drifted lazily about the ceiling, and two sets of bronze doors led west and east out of the chamber. Grundar checked the western doors for traps before pulling them open. The pale green stone floor of the room beyond was decorated with a dark metal inlay. The design consisted of a circle intersected by smaller half-circles. In the north wall was a blank archway of stone inscribed with strange-looking runes. The entire room was finished in the same pale emerald stone as the floor, mottled with pink and white in spots.
Terenon cautiously stepped into the room and examined the diagrams. “Cold iron inlays…wards against chaos… This must have been the chamber where the calling and binding of the Firebringer took place. That blank archway just leads to a wall of stone. Perhaps it was used in part of a ritual?”
Grundar moved over to the archway and retrieved a small magnifying lens from his pack. He tapped it in a certain way and it began glowing faintly. He moved it over the wall to make sure nothing was hidden behind it. Satisfied, he turned to the others and shrugged. “Nothing here. Let’s try the other doors.”
The eastern doors were hot to the touch, but again Grundar found no traps on them. A blast of scalding wind and heat greeted the elf as he opened the door, but Jelani had warded the entire group against fire, and it felt like little more than a light summer breeze on his skin. Beyond the double bronze doors laid an immense natural cavern filled with bubbling lava and illuminated by its angry red glare. The air in here was as hot as a blazing forge, and the sizzling and bubbling of lava was noisy enough to make speech difficult.
Islands of solid, flat-topped stone rose from the bubbling lava here and there, forming a difficult path to the north and another to the south. In the southern portion of the room, the stepping-stones curved out of sight, but in the northern section, they led to a ledge and a broken door. In front of the door laid a hulking, red-scaled monstrosity with nine serpentine heads. Its necks writhed and coiled, and its mouths hissed in constant agitation. Nine sets of eyes glared at the adventurers as they entered with undisguised malice.
Wasting no time, Jelani sent a large ball of sonic energy hurtling toward the hydra. It struck the creature dead-on, and its nine heads howled in pain and rage.
Beating his feathery wings and stirring up the hot air around him, Rumar took flight and began flapping over to the beast. The damage done to its body starting to heal before his eyes, the hydra heaved its massive bulk off the ground and dove into the lava. It swam through the river toward Rumar, then it sent a jet of flame from each of its mouths toward the paladin. Fortunately for him, the energy protection prevented him from getting hurt.
Grundar drew his longbow and sent three arrows sailing toward the beast. The first one sunk into its massive body, though it didn't even seem to faze it. The successive arrows splashed harmlessly into the lava around it.
Thinking along the same lines as Jelani, Terenon sent another ball of sonic energy at the creature, though as it was partially submerged in the lava, the thing was able to dodge out of the way and take less damage. Allanon followed up that attack with a blast of chain lightning that struck the hydra despite its cover, causing the smell of charred flesh and the thing's screams of pain to fill the chamber.
An idea slowly formed in Terenon’s mind. “Everybody hold your actions,” he said. “I’ll take care of this.” The mage began floating through the air toward the nine-headed beast. Meanwhile, the creature swam closer to the aasimar and lashed out with nine sets of snapping jaws. Rumar did a valiant job of parrying the dangerous teeth away with sword and shield, but one head managed to land a solid blow on the paladin. He felt a virulent poison coursing through his veins after the bite, but he was able to resist its effects.
Eager to prove himself, Rhys sent two sling bullets sailing at the monstrosity. The first beamed the creature right between one set of eyes, and that head thrashed about in pain as a large welt appeared on it. The second bullet splashed harmlessly in the lava.
Determined to put an even quicker end to this battle, Terenon flew a few feet towards the beast before unleashing a new spell he had recently learned, a spell that allowed him to sequence several spells together and cast them all at once. A dozen rays of pure sonic energy sailed toward the hydra and, while the first missed the beast, the remaining eleven slammed into its heads and body, battering the creature with destructive concussive force. Blood exploded from nearly a dozen wounds as the creature's heads convulsed in agony, and the lights in its eyes went out as the necks collapsed. The nine heads struck the lava, sending chunks of it into the air, and after a few seconds, the entire hydra sunk beneath the surface.
Allanon stared in open-mouthed disbelief as the hydra was torn apart. “You’ve got to teach me how to do that!” he cried.
Grundar smiled and looked around the corner. “Way to go! Can somebody check around the southern bend?” Rumar signaled that he would oblige and flew off to investigate.
Terenon started to reply when a slight movement near the ceiling caught his eye. Before the fight, he had cast a spell that would reveal invisible creatures and see through magical disguises, and so he saw what the others couldn’t. A figure in a tight black body suit floated near the rocky stalactites, slowly making its way hand-over-hand toward the group. The creature was vaguely humanoid, but its head was a terror to behold. It resembled a mauve octopus, with four long tentacles and white pupil-less eyes. A mind flayer.
Realizing that he had spotted, the illithid suddenly seemed to meld into the shadows and disappeared from sight. Terenon frowned as he considered this, but then things began to fall into place. An illithid dressed like an adventurer with the ability to meld into shadows. He had to be…
“Yarrick,” the mage called out in a singsong voice. “Yarrick Zan. Come out, come out, wherever you are.” He smiled knowingly and looked around. “Yes, we know who you are. Your employers are dead, and you have lost the element of surprise and anonymity. Show yourself so we can talk. We have no quarrel with you, unless you make one."
A few moments of tense silence passed, then suddenly the others could see a black-clad man drop from the ceiling to land in a graceful crouch on one of the stone islands close to them. He appeared as a nondescript half-elf, but Terenon and Jelani (who also had cast the same spell) could see through the disguise. Zan regarded them coolly, but his lips (tentacles) twitched in agitation.
"Adventurers," he began. " It may sound cliché, but if I wanted to kill you, you all would be dead by now. My only concern is to retrieve the scepter of the ar-magus for my employer."
Jelani shrugged. “There’s no reason that can’t work out. We don’t really want the scepter, but we can’t let it go anywhere until we’ve dealt with the creature that it releases. If you don’t mind waiting a bit, there should be no problem.”
"You would part with it so easily,” said Zan, “but the difficult part will be retrieving it. If you believe you can take on the slaad lord and live, then by all means, you're welcome to try. But I cannot rely on you alone. While you distract the slaad, I will sneak by and take the scepter. Then you will not hear from me again."
"If the Firebringer is even twice as hard as the hydra Terenon just sunk, we'd hardly break a sweat,” said Grundar cockily. “Now, what would your employer need with the scepter of the ar-magus anyway? Are you saying that the scepter is being held by the Firebringer?"
Zan nodded. “It currently rests atop the Firebringer's hoard. The Acolytes discovered it in the crypt long ago and gave it to the slaad lord to keep it safe until the ritual could be performed. The scepter is a powerful magical item in its own right, and it is essential to perform the rite of unbinding. Suffice it to say that my employer lacks confidence in your ability to defeat the slaad lord and has entrusted me to retrieve the scepter so that, even were you to fail, the Firebringer could not be released."
"So the Firebringer lies past that door?" Grundar pointed with the end of his bow.
“Yes, that is the broken seal that leads to Bazim-Gorag’s hedged gaol,” Zan said irritably. “I pray that Cyric watches over you this day if you truly plan on fighting him.”
Terenon listened to the mind flayer spout his intentions. He could barely believe the honesty. "You have been straight forward with us, so I will be the same with you. You may join us in the battle, but will not steal away with the scepter until the slaad is destroyed. I promise safe passage with it, but only if you join in the battle. Are these terms acceptable?"
"I am not suicidal. I will not join in a hopeless battle. If you wish, I will wait until after the battle is over before I take the scepter, so that if you do survive, you can verify that I take nothing else. But you will have to defeat the slaad lord on your own."
Terenon nodded. "Whether we succeed or fail, you will wait until after the battle. If we succeed, taking the scepter will be no risk to you. If we succeed, we will allow you to take the scepter and do with it what you wish. The only payment we request is the name of your employer. Are these terms acceptable?”
“Very well. I will await the outcome of the battle at the base of the Well of Stars.” Zan bowed slightly, then nimbly leaped across the islands in the lava river to the bronze doors.
“We should probably rest before we fight the Firebringer,” said Terenon. “Let’s take a look around his prison first.”
Terenon, Grundar, Allanon, Jelani, and Rhys stepped through the broken seal. Around the corner, Rumar examined a set of false doors, forgotten by the others…
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Apparently, a massive stone door once stood at the north end of the lava cavern, blocking a passage of worked stone. But judging from the huge chunks of rune-scribed rubble that littered the floor, someone must have destroyed it long ago.
The passageway beyond the door was made of dressed stone covered in plaster, which was painted with scenes of fire and destruction, including erupting volcanoes and burning cities. One particularly awful set of frescoes depicted an unusual form of human sacrifice, in which the victim was chained inside a stone mold, which was then filled with molten lava.
The passage ended in a strange, 10-foot tall arch of red stones, each scribed with runes in geometric shapes. Beyond the archway laid a magnificent hall, with walls made of rough red granite and floors finished in polished red marble veined with gold. Four gleaming pillars of the same red marble supported a vaulted ceiling 40 feet high.
In the center of the room, a square pool of lava seethed sluggishly, illuminating the room with red light. A heap of blackened bones and slag-fouled chains laid near the pool of lava. At the end of the room, opposite the archway, stood a smooth black mirror worked in the shape of another doorway.
The black mirror at the far end of the room suddenly seemed to ripple strangely, and a tall human stepped through. He carried a glaive wreathed in black flame, and his hair was a brilliant shock of red and orange. His skin was a dark, ruddy shade of bronze, and his red eyes almost seemed to glow. "We've been waiting for you," he said in a voice that changed pitch in mid-sentence. "We have watched your progress. Consent to assist us in escaping from the bonds of ancient treachery, and we will reward you richly indeed."
There could be no doubt. This was the Firebringer.
The others standing at the ready, Terenon gave a slight bow to the strange-looking human. "Bazim-Gorag. You have been observing us from your prison. For how long I wonder?” Terenon backed away from the Firebringer unconsciously. "If you have watched us, then you know we cannot consent to release you. It is not an option."
Bazim-Gorag smiled toothily. "We know where your moral outlook lies," he said, "but you have been working under false assumptions. You have not heard our side of the story. We were unjustly imprisoned here by the ancient wizards of Selskar because they refused to live up to the bargain they'd made with us. We did out part, slaughtering the trolls and orcs of Harska Thaug's army. But were the Selskaryn grateful for what we did? No! They would not meet the agreed upon price and locked me in this forsaken prisoner for centuries. Releasing us would only be righting an ancient wrong."
Terenon’s disapproving look soon changed to one of curiosity. "It's true that the Selskaryn were an evil people, and I have no doubt that they would have done such a thing. Tell me this. What price was too high for the Selskaryn to pay that they would go to such lengths to keep you bound here?”
"The price was simple enough. A permanent gate to the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo was to be opened within the Selskar Vale. From there, we slaadi could establish a significant horde on this world from which we could spread chaos across the Realms. Apparently, our goals did not 'mesh' well with those of the Ar-Magus Ilviroon, and he confined us here." Basim-Gorag's expression turned sad. "That was a long time ago, and now all we desire is our freedom from this cursed gaol. Surely this is not too much to ask?"
Terenon mulled over what the slaad had said. It would seem that imprisonment had tempered its taste for vengeance, if it could be believed. The very nature of slaadi made them unreliable. What he said might have been true at the moment, but in five minutes it might change. Bonding such a beast to its word would be difficult.
"So, if I understand you correctly, you only want to return home to Limbo. I am not unsympathetic to your request, but what guarantee do we have that you will fulfill your promise? My word is my bond. I have already given it. I vowed that you would not leave this prison alive. We must have some assurances. If your body was brought back to Limbo dead, could it be resurrected? It would allow me to keep my vow and you would be free of your prison and able to reign in Limbo."
"You will get no assurance of our veracity," Bazim-Gorag growled. "Living or dead, we cannot leave this prison until the rite of unbinding is performed. We have heard tales of powerful outsiders returning from death, but it is extremely difficult and highly unlikely that we would return. At any rate, we will not stand idly by and allow you to kill us. Since you have 'vowed' to not let us leave here alive, we cannot take any chances. Once you all have been reduced to ash, it will only be a matter of time before we can attract a new brood of Acolytes. It is time for you to burn."
With that, the Firebringer surrounded himself in a fiery aura and raises his glaive into a battle stance.
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Humming quietly to himself, Rumar flew about the fake door, trying to figure out it's purpose. "Maybe if I pull on this?" he muttered, feeling about with groping hands. "No? Hmmmm...well...there must be some reason it's here..."
