Kull's 15th Report - Part 1
Saltmarsh
Third Moon
To: Bishop-General Kartrak Visehart
Report from Kull Redfist
Sir,
With the mystery of the Beacon's magic circle still unresolved, I travelled in person to Torlynn, to ensure that Gnorric this time came as he had been instructed.
I need not have bothered: despite his many claims of arcane knowledge, the wizard could offer no more information about the meaning of the runes, or the purpose of the circle. With no more knowledge than before, I thus decided to activate the device.
Gnorric, despite his protestations, was made to join us on the dais, and I placed the key in the slot. Immediately, an arrow of light appeared, pointing to one of the runes on the outer edge of the circle. Seeing this, and reasoning that the runes might thus have some purpose other than as arcane sigils, I invoked Our Lord Hextor's aid, that he might show me their meaning.
At first, the words displayed seemed to be some kind of foreign tongue; but then I recognised that they were nothing more than childish anagrams, and swiftly deciphered them to read "Mountain", "Shrine", "Swamp", "Island" and "Dungeon".
Moving the arrow to point at "Mountain" seemed to have no effect, but when it was moved to "Shrine", there was a flare of light, and we were instantly transported to a small stone chamber, with a similar dais set into the floor.
Removing the key from thus new circle, I looked around the room, gesturing for the others to remain still. There were four doors leading from the room; each set into the middle of one wall. One door had a leering, demonic face upon it. Between the doors stood four stone statues, one in each corner.
The statues were of an efreet, a sahuagin, a raven and a xorn. This seemed too neatly a reflection of the four elements for it to be coincidence, but it gave no useful indication of the purpose of the room. With no better option than to select a door and go through it, I directed Dargrim to examine the one before us.
As soon as he stepped from the dais, however, each of the four statues unleashed a gout of water, which rapidly began to fill the room, and the demonic face in one door became animate, cackling that there was no escape, and we would soon all be drowned.
The architect of this 'trap' should have spent more time on strengthening the doors.
Moving past Dargrim, I struck the door three times with my flail, leaving it a pile of rubble at my feet. As soon as the door was broken, the flow of water ceased, and vents opened at the base of the statues to drain the fluid away.
Moving on, we came to an area of magical darkness, that resisted our attempts to dispel it. At last, Gnorric's presence was of use to us, as he sent his pet bat into the darkness to scout out the area. The wizard swears that he can communicate with the creature. According to him, it reported that there was a room there, with a deep shaft in the middle, and that the tunnel continued on the other side, where it was light once more. It noticed no other dangers in the area, so I led the way into the darkness, running one hand along the wall so that we would not stray too close to the shaft.
It proved that there was in fact another threat within the darkened room, for a creature of air coalesced around Ulfgar, and began to drag him toward the hole. Dargrim and I both stepped carefully away from the room, striking at the area of Ulfgar's voice and trusting that his armour would turn our blows more readily than the creature could endure them.
As we destroyed the elemental, I heard Gnorric recite the incantation for magic missile. Naturally, lacking a target, the spell failed. The wizard's foolishness is astonishing: what did he propose to do? Attack the darkness?
The tunnel beyond the room lead to nothing more than a dead end, so I began to lead the return to the first chamber. As we reached the dark room, however, it occurred to me that the elemental might have succeeded in dragging previous intruders into the shaft. At the bottom, therefore, there might be useful information or items for my quest.
I resolved, therefore, to go down into the shaft and learn what lay at the bottom.