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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 4159990" data-attributes="member: 9546">PRINCE OF DEMONSThe chamber from which Kargoth had emerged proved to be something of a mystery for the Legionnaires.  A massive stone dome hung forty feet overhead, and at its apex was a large opening that led into the dark interior of the temple’s central, golden spire.  Beneath the opening was inscribed a magical circle with a small cauldron at its center.  Tall, wooden pillars supported the chamber’s dome.  Set in between the pillars were wooden poles upon which had been mounted crude, wooden fetishes.“These are Maztican,” Octurus said, almost to himself as he walked among the pillars.  “Jaguar, turtle, rhino, tiger, t-rex…all are totems sacred to my people.  What does this mean?  Why would they be here?”“Perhaps they have something to do with this,” Mandi said as she bent to study the arcane circle.  “This is some sort of focus for the transmission of pure Chaos energy.  Unless I miss my guess, this is the site from which the Savage Tide will be unleashed.  We know that the first recorded evidence of a Savage Tide occurred in Thanaclan.  The presence of Maztican fetishes here cannot be coincidence.”“What are you implying?”  Octurus asked defensively.Before Mandi could answer, however, a set of doors on the far side of the chamber was suddenly thrown open, and a living embodiment of her implication floated into the room.  He was an emaciated ruin of a man, dressed in the ragged trappings of a Maztican shaman.  Both of his legs ended in stumps that bore the scars of crude stitching.  His teeth were little more than rotten stumps sharpened to cracked points, and he carried the odor of decay about him.  “Nulonga curses you!” the man screeched in his native tongue.  “You desecrate this holy place with your infidelity!  Nulonga is the Master’s true servant, and serves the Master well!  You will all be sacrificed to the Prince of Dem…!”His tirade was cut short as an emerald energy beam from Mandi’s staff reduced him to dust in a matter of seconds.“Well, that was entertaining,” she said.  “You were saying?”  She turned back to Octurus.  The demon hunter’s expression turned sullen and he turned away, muttering.Mandi knew from her observation of the temple’s external dimensions that more chambers had to lie further on, and since the master pearl was not to be found in the bot, then she surmised it must lie in some inner room.  The company pressed on, ignoring the door through which Nulonga had come in favor of an open passage on the opposite side of the room.  The tunnel beyond it was low and cramped, circular in cross-section, with floor, walls, and ceiling made of what looked unsettlingly like leather.  The surfaces bore hundreds of thousands of words written in Abyssal, carved into the leathery substance in a tangled mass of interwoven spirals.“Tower Cleaver not like small, smelly cave,” the minotaur grumbled.“Yes, well, you’re going in, no matter what you smell,” Mandi snapped.  “I’ve already tried to penetrate the stone walls, and it’s no use.  They are not affected by my magic.  We’ve no choice but to go forward, like rats in a maze.”Still muttering, Cleaver led the way, bending almost double to fit his bulk into the tunnel.  The others followed as the minotaur zigzagged through the multiple switchbacks of the odd hallway.  Suddenly, what seemed like a small tremor ran through the floor beneath the company, and all of them came to an abrupt halt.  “Did you feel that?”  Sepoto asked.“What’s that smell?”  Marius said in disgust.A second, stronger tremor rippled through the entire passage, and even stranger, the walls began to seep some sort of greenish-yellow fluid.  “Move!  Now!”  Mandi commanded, but before Cleaver could press forward, the entire hallway began to convulse and shudder, its surface transforming from dry leather to moist, ridged coils.  The walls began closing in, contracting and expanding rapidly, battering the Legionnaires from side to side, and wherever the pungent liquid touched their skin, it burned.  Mandi realized instantly what was happening and, calling upon her magic, once more transformed her body into that of a devilish pit fiend.  As her large form strained against the confines of the living tunnel, she dug her razor-like claws into the walls and began to tear.  Abruptly, the surface gave way violently, and she was pulled through the wall, vanishing from sight in seconds.  The wounds and damage she’d dealt rapidly sealed shut behind her.  Tower Cleaver didn’t need to be told twice.  Hefting his axe, he ripped a large rent down the wall next to him, and he too was ejected from the passage.  Octurus followed suit, and then Daelric called upon Shaundekal, and a column of fire roared down the tunnel, burning a hole in one side through which Sepoto escaped.  “Fire in the hole!”  Marius shouted from behind the priest, and he ducked instinctively as a second blast of flame filled the passage, melting away the wall’s surface and shunting him and the gnome outside.The Legionnaires found themselves standing in a large, bare room.  Rearing up before them was the largest, most monstrous looking purple-hued worm they’d ever seen.  Clearly enraged, it whipped its massive body from side to side, bringing down chunks of rock and masonry in a steady shower.  As it reared again, Tower Cleaver and Sepoto struck at it, but its dense hide seemed to deflect their blows.  The great worm snapped its head down towards Marius, still struggling to get to his feet.  The gnome was quickly lifted from the ground, trapped in the beast’s gaping maw.  He knew he was only moments away from being swallowed whole once more, and would have been had it not been for Octurus.  Quick as a snake, the Maztican demon hunter launched himself at the worm, his twin scimitars a dazzling blur.  He sank them both in between the worm’s chitonous plates and sliced, feeling flesh and tendon tear beneath his steel.  The worm went rigid, and flopped to the ground, convulsing helplessly.  In an instant, Mandi was upon it, sinking her black fangs into its primitive brain.  It thrashed once more, then was still.</blockquote>

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