Orbius trumps Cyndea back to Var, leaving her in a guest room in Malford’s castle. While there, he leaves instructions that she is to be treated well and gently. Then he makes contact with Lester via trump and returns to the chilly towers of Moil.
“Well, what now?” asks Thrush. The group is gathered around Lerxst.
“Nothing I’ve done has been able to help, but I can try some more stuff tomorrow,” Horbin offers.
“Maybe the so-called ‘Doctor’ had something that could help,” Angel suggests, but she shrugs, clearly not too concerned.
“Good idea,” Orbius nods, and casts his mobile scry. The sensor explores the tower fairly thoroughly, and the Eye tells the others that he’s found... something.
Soon they’re in the room with the ‘something,’ and it’s a fairly impressive something indeed. A heavy iron cylinder supported by a broad stone base squats in a large chamber. The cylinder is about 30’ long, with a 10’ diameter. A small hatch hangs open, revealing a small table within. Fragments of metal litter the floor beneath the hatch. Directly above the opening is a square of crystal, dark with a single jagged crack visible in its face.
After a little investigation, the party discerns that little table within is on rollers; it looks just the right size for a person to fit on. Horbin, using his helm of subtitles, reads the name of the device from above the cracked crystal: “It’s called the deepviewer.”
“It must be for diagnosis,” muses Patyn.
“Couldn’t really hurt, could it?” Thrush gestures at Lerxst’s drooling form.
Orbius casts speak with anything and asks the device. “Put the patient on the table. The patient will be retracted to the viewing chamber.”
They maneuver the poor Moilian onto the table and it rolls deeper within the device. The hatch grinds kind of half-closed. On the crystal display, a silhouette of a body lights up, mostly in green, with some other purplish bruise-like color around it. Then, suddenly, there’s a loud sound like metal squealing, and the silhouette visibly convulses; suddenly the green is entirely crimson.
“The patient has been severely crushed and is in need of immediate emergency procedures,” comes a flat voice from the device. The hatch bangs open and the table extrudes.
Poor Lerxst, clearly dead, has indeed been severely crushed. Her body is nearly pulverized.
”Aw, crap,” moans Horbin.
“Well, you can always raise her tomorrow,” points out Lester.
Horbin gives the L a look. “I think everyone’s treating dying a little casually these days,” he says sharply.
***
The group rests in Var. Horbin moves Cyndea to his halls of healing (under construction) and, while she’s there, she gets a chance to start using her fairly good healing skills and powers for the people of Var. This makes her very happy indeed.
He also resurrects Lerxst. When life jerks back into her, she screams long and loud.
“Hey, relax, you’re okay now,” Horbin smiles at her, speaking via tongues. She turns horrified eyes on him.
Clearly, her afterlife is not a good one.
She too stays in Var; Horbin tells her to try to learn the language. It’s probably the best piece of advice she could get at this point, and clearly Var is better than staying in Moil. As she keeps pointing out to herself, what choice does she have? Learning the language it is, then.
Angelfire casts an augury and walks away from it even more determined to rid them of the Mask of the Devourer. Grimly, she starts making plans. The irony hits her full in the face when she feels a twinge of pain in her hands, left over from the Deleter.
Patyn. She has to approach Patyn.
Orbius, meanwhile, casts a contact other plane and learns the following:
What would the be the best version of protection from energy to prepare against the darkweaver? Cold.
What’s its biggest weakness? Sunlight.
Is the darkweaver undead? No.
How can we lure it into a place that’s advantageous for us? Extremely unlikely.
Will I hurt the wand in that tower if I move it from its pedestal? No.
Must we do something to activate the powers of the wand? Yes.
Does the answer lie within the tower the wand is in? Yes.
What must we do to activate the wand? Touch a panel.
What does the symbol on the panel I must touch look like? Sunrise.
Will touching any of the other panels harm the wand or anyone who touches the wand? No.
“Well,” Angelfire says, after Orbius relates his information, “why don’t we go after the wand first?”
“No way!” exclaims Lester. “We have to get the darkweaver first. Remember, it’s rule number one in the adventurers’ handbook- kill the bad guys before you take their stuff.”
“That’s a good policy,” Thrush affirms.
Our heroes set out to carry it out.
The party heads to the next tower. It is without window or feature save the entrance- unlike the other towers our heroes have so far explored, this one has a door. Carved in bas-relief on the face of the door is the head of a horned ram.
“Orcus,” breathes Horbin.
Scratched below the stone head, unreadable until the party wipes off some of the ice riming it, is a message. It looks like someone carved it there with a dagger, scratching persistently at the stone until it gouged out his message.
WARE THE WEAVER IN HER LAIR- D
“Who’s D?” wonders Angel.
“Whoever they were,” says Orbius slowly, “they wrote that in Forinthian.”
Next Time: The darkweaver! Featuring the first teleport mishap we’ve had in quite a while!!
