Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 7347404" data-attributes="member: 9546">12 Sarenith, 4718 - 21 Sarenith, 4718 - The Tomb of the Iron Medusa“How long has this been troubling you, sister,” Dakota asked.She and Tardaesha sat on the roof of their temporary abode under a full moon and a sky filled with stars.“Ever since I met the little wretch,” Tardaesha scowled. “He’s never been one of us. Not really. The only reason I’ve abided him this long was out of loyalty to Roger. He’s no true Asmodean. He’s only in this for his own greed.”Dakota shrugged.“We all have our reasons,” she said. “What makes his so distasteful?” “I don’t trust him!” Tardaesha snapped. “Everything is changing now. Thorn is hunting us. We don’t know who really has our best interests in mind. We are in uncharted territory with no one to depend on but ourselves. I have all faith in my family, and at least Roger has sworn an oath to Asmodeus. Lemmy is the exception. His time with us is finished!”Dakota looked at her sister for several long moments.“You know I would never deny you anything, dear heart,” she said softly. “What do you propose? Tell me and I shall make it happen. You must think, however, on what the others will say.”“By the time they find out,” Tardaesha smiled, “it will be too late. Better to ask forgiveness than permission.”______________________________________________________________“Take it,” Tardaesha commanded.Lemmy’s eyes clouded momentarily, and his brow furrowed as he struggled to resist the compulsion. Tardaesha concentrated and sharpened her focus, boring her own will deeper into the dwarf’s stubborn mind.“It’s very valuable,” she soothed. “It will bring you wealth beyond your wildest dreams. All you have to do is...take it!”Slowly, hesitantly, Lemmy reached for the phylactery. His body went rigid as his fingers closed around it.“Now then,” Tardaesha cooed. “Now all we have to do is wait.”No one noticed Lemmy’s absence for the next several days, as the dwarf was prone to restlessness and would often wander off for some time when there was nothing pressing. Thus, he remained in Tardaesha’s quarters, his mind and his will slowly succumbing to the parasitic soul that had invaded his body through the failed phylactery. Finally, after almost a week, Lemmy died. But he didn’t stay that way for long. The following night, as Tardaesha watched in fascination, his physical form began to change. Dark power enveloped it in a cocoon of blackness, and when it broke apart a short time later, something else had taken its place.“At last,” came a raspy hiss from a voice that had not been heard in centuries. “I am free!”“Only so long as you honor the terms of our agreement,” Tardaesha corrected. The woman who turned her baleful eyes upon the vampiress was a hag in every sense of the word, but she wore a palpable aura of power and evil. “I will abide by my word,” she said. “I care not to whom I swear fealty, as long as I am able to feast on mortal souls and suck the very life marrow from this world once more!”“That can be arranged,” Tardaesha smiled. “Now, what shall I call you?”__________________________________________________________________“Hillary,” Kelvin quirked an eyebrow. “That’s quite a...benign...moniker for such an august personage as you’ve described.”“Don’t let it fool you,” Tardaesha shrugged. “She has quite the killer instinct. More importantly, she’s loyal.”“And how do you know that?” Kat snapped. “Lemmy was loyal.”“Not where it counts,” Tardaesha said. “He didn’t sign a contract. Hillary has. A binding one. I had Dessiter draw it up. It’s air-tight.”“And what did you promise in exchange for this loyalty?” Kat asked.“Nothing the rest of us don’t already enjoy,” Tardaesha replied. “She gets an equals share of our profits, and an equal voice in our councils. Oh, and she gets to keep Lemmy’s dragon orb.”Kat threw up her hands in exasperation. “I believe what Kat is trying to express,” Kelvin said, “is that you should have consulted us before acting unilaterally.”“I am the High Priestess of Asmodeus in this realm,” Tardaesha said coldly. “I decide what’s best in matters of faith. Lemmy had none. He was a weak link. One that I have removed and replaced with one forged in hellfire.”“Roger,” Kat whirled towards the brooding half-orc, “Lemmy was your friend. Don’t you have anything to say about this?”Roger’s red eyes met Kat’s without blinking. “It is the will of Asmodeus,” he said flatly.“The matter is settled then,” Tardaesha rose from her chair. “Now, I believe we have a tomb to rob.”____________________________________________________________________The information that had been given to them directed the companions of the Ninth Knot back to Farholde. They set up camp in the ruins of the baron’s estate that had been destroyed by the silver dragon, Bellinda’s half-brother. While the sun still shone, the vampires slumbered in the cellar. Katarina, Grumblejack and Roger kept watch, while the witch Hillary brooded and kept to herself in a far corner of the courtyard. With no warning whatsoever, three figures appeared in the center of the yard. One of them stood over ten-feet in height and was vaguely humanoid in shape, with the face of a hideous fish and a body of lanky limbs and writhing tendrils. On either side of it crouched horrid three-legged multi-eyed beasts with deadly and vicious bouquets of insectile claws sprouting from them. “I am Hazra-Thura Even-The-Stars-Shall-Suffer,” the fish-faced creature said in a vaguely female voice, “and Vetra-Kali sends his regards.”The astradaemon gripped a staff in one hand that was topped with a glowing green gem that resembled an eye. There was no mistaking one of the eyes of Vetra Kali. Jeratheon, who’d been slumbering in the sun, raised his head, but then a sonorous buzzing sound began emanating from the crustacean-like derghodaemons, and it filled his head until his thoughts became muddled and confused. He couldn’t remember where he was, or who he was. He knew that some of the creatures gathered round were...friends? But for the life of him he could not remember why. Still, he also knew that some of the creatures were enemies. With a roar, he launched himself at one of the derghodaemons and quickly ripped it to shreds. Roger also succumbed to the mentally enfeebling aura of the derghodaemons, and as he stood dazed and befuddled, one ofthe daemons leaped upon him, rending and tearing at him with its claws and pincers. Across the courtyard, Hillary watched events unfold and silently questioned the wisdom of the alliance she’d made. Still, she had signed a very binding contract. She forked her fingers at the daemon savaging Roger, and the creature abruptly slumped over, deeply asleep and snoring. Roger looked down at the fiend, and then by pure instinct, drove Helbrand through its heart. A moment later, Roger screamed and grabbed his chest as Hazra sent a beam of black fire at him. She chuckled deep in her chest when the big half-orc sank to his knees, but then suddenly her eyelids grew heavy, and she toppled over, also asleep. “She’s all yours,” Hillary mock bowed to Katarina.Kat nodded and quietly slit the astradaemon’s throat. _______________________________________________________________The information that the demi-lich provided was legitimate. The companions rented a specific room in the Lion Sleeps Inn in Farholde, and there, right where the undead mage had said it would be, they discovered a hidden panel in the wall behind the bed. Behind the panel was a small alcove that contained only a single item...a white marble funerary baton. Kat examined the item closely and found that the top of it could twist. When she did so, the tip of the baton popped open, revealing a hollow space inside which contained a small, rolled up parchment. She unfurled it and read aloud.“Set thee off from Slumbering Cat Seeking where the Dead are at. Journey north and east apace To find Medusa's iron embrace. Follow now the Spider Star Behind the Wall that hides its Face To our Sad, Abandoned Place. If visit ye the Long Deceased Find the Will to Feed the Beast. Then Begin where all Men End Light go out and Breath Suspend. Egress through the Stony Door After turning Face to Floor. Each Adellan Branch has Room In its Silent, Musty Tomb For at least one Careless Soul. Wouldst thou fill that Empty Hole?”The parchment was obviously some sort of cryptic clue, but the first part seemed clear enough. It was directions from the “slumbering cat,” or the Lion Sleeps Inn, to where the Tomb of the Iron Medusa was said to lie. With the aid of a few divination spells, the companions did not find it difficult to locate the tomb deep within the mountains several leagues to the northeast of Farholde. The necropolis sat in a hidden dale in the foothills, surrounded by a 15-foot-high wall made of tightly fitted gray stone blocks. Wider sections resembling castle watchtowers were spaced along the wall. Spaced equally around the wall between those towers were 10-foot-diameter iron discs decorated with a leering medusa face. Sturdy vines made for easy climbing, but the interior appeared to be in ruins. The Nessian Knot had no reason to resort to such mundane methods, and easily flew over the wall to land in the vast open space amidst the crumbling tombs beyond. Dakota spent some time going from structure to structure and using her magical reconnaissance gloves to peer beyond their walls. They were all empty, and none of them bore a door nor any other obvious means of entrance. The entire necropolis was empty and abandoned. Katarina had a thought. “Roger, Hillary, come with me,” she said as she quickly scaled one of the walls and dropped to the ground on the outside. Her companions followed, more out of curiosity than obedience. Kat stood before one of the medusa carvings, peering at it intently. After several moments, she retrieved the funerary baton from her pack and placed the head of it into a circular hole inside the medusa’s mouth. It fit perfectly with a metallic ‘click.’ The metal covering the medusa's eyes slid back, exposing eyes made of polished white marble, with painted black pupils that glared menacingly. Kat found that by rotating the baton, she could also make the eyes rotate. When the eyes were crossed, the medusa's jaws abruptly gaped open and a cold blue light shone forth. Kat, Roger and Hillary were suddenly lifted off their feet and sucked into the yawning mouth, shrinking and spiraling down to nothingness as the iron face seemed to swallow them whole.__________________________________________________________________Kat was in a coffin. She had turned down the invitation from her siblings to become a vampire for multiple reasons, but high among them was her aversion to closed in spaces. Yet she found herself inside a coffin. A stone one. And she couldn’t lift the lid. She was just about to have a total melt down and start screaming when the lid shifted aside. Roger was staring down at her. Hillary stood smiling grimly behind him. Kat took Roger’s offered hand and clambered out of the sarcophagus. The octagonal chamber in which they found themselves was made of fine, polished white marble. The domed ceiling peaked twenty-five feet overhead, decorated with frescoes of people in billowing robes, hands joined, looking down with pity on those below. Braziers along the base of the dome filled with flickering flames faintly illuminated the chamber. Twelve carved stone sarcophagi lay beneath the dome, surrounding a large carving on the floor of a leering medusa's face. At the foot of each sarcophagus lay a funerary baton, similar to the one they’d found in Farholde, but made of brown stone. Kat began prowling about the room, examining every detail. A short hallway led from it, but ended in a stone wall. She noted that, inscribed upon the lids of the sarcophagi in which she, Hillary and Roger had been trapped, were their names, birth dates and the current date.“Clever,” she grumbled. When she examined the carved medusa face she found four holes in each of the cardinal compass points. Each looked like it would accommodate something the size of one of the batons.“Grab me four of those,” she instructed Roger, gesturing to batons.He complied and she fit one into each of the holes. Nothing happened. She paced around the carving several times and then snapped her fingers.“It rotates,” she said. Roger just stared at her.“The batons,” she sighed. “They’re hand holds. Each of you grab one, and when I say, push.”The half-orc and undead witch managed an unrehearsed, simultaneous eye roll, but then bent to the task. When Kat grabbed her own baton and gave the word, they pushed. Sure enough, the carving rotated forty-five degrees, and then a loud bang came from the hallway. Kat rushed back to it and saw that the wall at the far end had sunken into the floor. Daylight shone beyond.They exited the mausoleum, for that was what it was, and found themselves back in the necropolis, but it was wholly changed. Every building was intact, and the grounds were neatly kept. Furthermore, each of the buildings clearly had a door. High above, they could see Tardaesha circling on Jeratheon, but when Kat lifted her hand in greeting, her sister didn’t acknowledge her. The three of them made their way back to the wall and scaled it. They could see their companions still standing where they’d left them on the other side. When Kat dropped down from the wall, Dakota and the others drew back with a start.“Where did you come from?” Dak snapped. “Have you been hiding this whole time?”When Roger and Hillary abruptly appeared next to Kat, Kat shook her head.“Even if I where, do you think these two could have done the same? Stealth is not our big friend’s forte.”Once Tardaesha and Jeratheon landed, Kat explained what had happened to them.“It’s out of phase,” Kelvin nodded. “A way of hiding the true necropolis. Ingenious.”They all gathered around the medusa face where Kat had originally placed the baton, and when she rotated it again, they all vanished.____________________________________________________________Once all of the companions had emerged from the mausoleum, they set about exploring the grounds of the necropolis. They had no idea what exactly they were looking for. They just hoped for some clue as to the location of the chalice. Several tombstones on the western side of the main path had been crushed and shattered in a wide swath. The back of an ancient carriage was visible through the overgrown weeds and shrubs at the far end of the array of destruction. A cursory examination of wreckage made it obvious that the open carriage hearse was once a very fine conveyance. However, time and the elements had taken their toll, and the once-rich wood was soft with decay. A crumbling coffin lay in the bed of the carriage, with the rotted leather straps that once held it fast lying beside it. The driver's bench had two arrows embedded in its seatback. As the companions approached, each of them in turn felt suddenly overwhelmed by head-spinning vertigo as realistic images filled their brains.The carriage hearse barreled along a hard dirt road, drawn by four frothing, maddened horses driven forward by their frantic whipping. A quick glance over their shoulder told them that their mounted pursuers were gaining ground in the hazy moonlight. “Aroden save us!” shouted a beardless old man sitting beside them as he desperately clung to the wooden seat. “We no longer serve fools, Parsimus,” they growled with irritation. “Best get that through your thick skull.” They glanced behind again, this time to the bed of the hearse, where the fine silver coffin lurched dangerously, despite the five straps of stout leather securing it in place. “Forgive me, sister,” they thought. “It was I who was the true fool.” They heard a dull thud as an arrow struck the seatback. Another arrow sank into Parsimus's shoulder, knocking him from his seat to the hard ground below with a cry of pain. As a third projectile thudded into the carriage, they cried out to the starlit sky. “Asmodeus! Have you abandoned me?” With the cry still in their throat, a strange shimmer surrounded the hearse and the scene about them flickered and faded. The dirt road was suddenly replaced by a paved walkway, and the surrounding woodland by a graveyard. Startled by the sudden change, the horses shrieked and careened to the left. As the carriage left the road, the shimmering bubble of energy that encompassed it crushed the tombstones in its path. Suddenly, the horses seemed to smash into an invisible wall, and their cries of terror abruptly ceased. They were propelled from their seat and hurtled through the air as they and the carriage crashed to the ground. They felt bones break, and as their neck snapped with a nauseating crunch, they heard a sinister voice behind their ear, whispering with an intimacy that terrifies. “No, my puppet. I never forget a bargain.”The vision faded as abruptly as it had appeared. “Not a true believer, obviously,” Tardaesha said as she looked down at the remains of the carriage. Roger ventured closer and bent down to examine the debris. Opening the coffin revealed an empty, richly pillowed interior that smelled vaguely of roses and decay; the cushions bore the impression of a slight, frail body. Lying face down on the hillside nearby was a strangely mummified body dressed in a carriage driver's livery. His right index finger bore a gold ring etched with the cross-eyed medusa emblem. Clutched in the corpse's left hand was a horsewhip. Roger pulled the ring from the corpse’s finger. No sooner had he done so than a ghostly figure rose from the remains on the ground, looking very much like the corpse.“What is your business here?” the spirit rasped. “Why do you disturb what is not yours to disturb?”“Who are you?” Roger asked. “How did you come to this place?”“I was Cadimus Adella,” the ghost hissed, “and I was betrayed by the Master of Lies!”It was at that moment that the ghost caught sight of the holy symbols around the necks of Tardaesha and Roger. “Bah!” Cadimus spat. “You serve Him! Have you come for me at last?? You will not have me, nor her!”He reached out one clawed hand towards Hillary, and the lich witch felt a powerful compulsion seize her mind. The ghost was trying to control her. With every bit of willpower she could muster, she forced him back out. Cadimus snarled in rage, then his eyes went wide in shock as Dakota fired an arrow into his back. Two more passed harmlessly through him, but it was obvious that pain was not something he’d experienced in a long time. His eyes began to glow like hot coals, and he threw his hands wide out beside him, unleashing a burst of hellish flames that engulfed the companions, burning them down to their souls. Tardaesha fought through the fire, and swung her sword through the ghost’s incorporeal flesh, the magic of the blade allowing it to bite nonetheless. Roger dove for Cadimus’s earthly remains, but the ghost flogged the half-orc with his whip as he passed. Roger reached the corpse and quickly thrust the ring back on its bony finger. “Leave this place, defilers!” Cadimus raged. “Not until we have what we came for,” Dakota said as she loosed another volley of arrows. The ghost pulled a pouch of dust from his pocket and flung it into the air. As it covered him, he vanished, but a moment later, Hugo Drax filled the area with glittering motes of light. Cadimus reappeared, covering his eyes. “I’m blind!” he cried. “Then you won’t see this coming,” Tardaesha snarled as she drove her sword through his body multiple times. With a final scream of defiance, Cadimus slowly faded away. ______________________________________________________________A dull gray granite building loomed in the center of the necropolis. Its entrance had a domed ceiling that rose to a height of twenty feet, and was decorated with intricate geometric designs. In the center of the chamber's floor, a carved medusa crest stared endlessly upward. To the north, a pair of stained-glass windows depicting a handsome man and a beautiful woman looked on. A motto engraved around the circumference of the medusa carving on the floor read, “A Blade Answers Even the Most Vexing Question.” “Unless I miss my guess,” Kelvin said, looking at the stained glass, “which I rarely do, those are depictions of Aroden and Arazni before they ascended to god-hood. Interesting.”Beyond the entry chamber, the walls of a large domed and oval-shaped formal chamber were covered in complex geometric patterns of green and gold. It appeared to be used for funerary rites, with marble tables to the north and south and two elaborate wheeled wooden biers at the center. To the east, the wall was made up of a huge iron oven with a closed door three feet square and two feet off the floor, with a shelf sticking out beneath it like the tongue of a huge, taunting beast. No sooner had the companions set foot in the room than the door of the oven burst asunder, spewing flame across the chamber. The fires quickly coalesced into three enormous humanoid shapes, and behind them another figure emerged from the oven. The muscular giant had crimson skin, smoldering eyes, and small black horns. Smoke rose in curls from its flesh.Before the companions could react, the efreeti hurled rays of scorching fire among them, setting Tardaesha, Dakota and Roger ablaze. The elementals rushed forward. Tardaesha, still smoldering, swung her sword wildly about, slashing into the nearest creature. Dakota tried to raise her bow, but the efreeti swatted it from her hands and sent it skittering across the room. Drax was torn between defending his mistress and retreating to a better vantage point. When discretion won out, however, and he tried to flee, two of the elementals battered him savagely. Roger managed to extinguish himself and rushed to Drax’s aid. He battered at one of the elementals with Helbrand until it melted into a pile of slag. Tardaesha continued her assault on another of the elementals until it too vanished. Meanwhile, Kat managed to sneak around behind the efreeti and stab her dagger into its flank. It roared as it turned and swatted her dagger from her hand. A bowstring snapped as Dakota pulled out second bow, but the efreeti slapped the arrow effortlessly aside. It then fired more scorching rays at Roger, Hillary and Kat. Dak launched another pair of arrows, and those struck true. The efreeti snapped the arrows off with a sneer, then turned to face Roger, who’d come charging in. The big half-orc chopped Helbrand down one of the elemental lord’s thighs. The effeeti’s leg buckled and he sank to one knee, but he still managed to punch Roger squarely in the chest with one massive fist, so hard it dented his breastplate. Across the chamber, Tardaesha finished off the last of the elementals, then sprinted to Roger’s aid. As the efreeti struggled back to his feet, Tardaesha slashed him across the belly. He doubled over, the air whooshing out of him, and that was when Dakota fired three more arrows into his back. He sank forward with a groan and drew one last shuddering breath. As the efreeti died, his body rotted away with shocking speed, leaving behind a ghostly duplicate. His face took on an almost regretful appearance.“Thank you,” he sighed. “I am Bebulec, and you have released me not only from the prison of iron that held my body, but from the prison of madness that held my mind. There is a hidden panel there. Take what is behind it as a token of my gratitude. He gestured towards the north wall.“Even greater treasures than those await you elsewhere in the Tomb of the Iron Medusa,” he continued. “While I have never seen these vaults, I learned much listening to the long-gone caretakers of the crematorium. The inmost vault, the crypt of Bartolomae Adella, the last head of the Daellum branch, can be reached by a teleporter, which requires four objects to unlock. One key is behind the hidden panel. I only know vague descriptions of the other three objects—a dagger befouled, Thrasillus's voice, and a sister's keepsake, but not where they may be found, although all three are somewhere in the necropolis or the tombs below.”Bebulec's spirit sighed in relief, then faded away, finally at peace.Behind the panel the efreeti had indicated, the companions found a small chest. It contained several items of value and magic, but it was the key that most drew their attention. It was engraved with the cross-eyed medusa visage, and it radiated palpable enchantment.</blockquote>

Verification