The Lost City – Part 3 (session 29)
”As sympathetic as I am to your plight, I’m afraid I cannot join you.” Milo said carefully, studying the other for his reaction. ”However, we will do all we can to aid you.”
Kanadius’ shoulders slumped in disappointment. ”How can you five help us?”
”That’s what we’d like to know. How can we help?” Mazi spoke.
”You can join our army and strengthen our defenses, I suppose.” Kanadius replied in an offhand manner.
”No, no,” Milo said quickly, ”What can we do besides shore up your defenses? That’s not really our forte.”
”You may help in our forays to the caves below. Many of the Brotherhood must be freed from the horrible grasp of Zenobea.”
”Ya mean yer bird friends, right? Do they get better?” Brigit asked.
”If the drugs are given a chance to wear off and they have time to come to their senses, yes.”
Milo was taken aback. Their mental state was a result of drugs, he thought, how interesting.
”If we find any of your brethren in our travels below, we will send them back up here. What can we do along a more proactive vein?” Milo thought over his question as well. He spoke before Kanadius had a chance to respond. ”What about an alliance with the Magi and the Maidens? Have you thought of that?”
”We have worked together in the past. We don’t always see eye to eye on certain matters.”
Milo nodded his head sagely. ”I understand. Can you work together long enough to overthrow Zargon though? We can go to the Magi and Maidens and propose an alliance.”
Kanadius mulled the proposition over for a moment. It was hard to read his emotions through the ornate mask he wore. At length, he spoke, ”If you can bring the others together and we can defeat both Zargon and Zenobea, your help would be very welcome indeed. We would not take a betrayal from the Maidens and Magi lightly though.”
”Betrayal? Why would they betray you?” Mazi asked.
”The Magi, they are strange people. They worship magic and dead gods. They are not like us. The Maidens however, at times they do not know their proper place.”
Milo hoped Brigit and Mazi didn’t take offense to the comment. ”Do all here feel this way?”
”I am one of the more – liberal – of my people.” Kanadius thought again before continuing. ”An alliance and an assault. It may just work. You must know that all of our efforts alone have been useless. Zenobea has strange powers. She can cloud your mind with a gaze; turn your mind against those you trust with a thought. Zargon is all but invincible. We would need the favor of the gods to harm him.”
Milo grinned as he replied, ”We’ll give it the old college try!”
”You speak very strangely, little man.”
”I get that a lot.”
”Do you have maps of the areas below?” Mazi asked.
”You can go through this door,” he pointed to the other door leading out of the room. He withdrew his hand suddenly. ”No, not that door. You would have to go around.”
”Why’s tha’?” Brigit asked.
”That is where our – valuables – are guarded.” Kanadius said with a weighted pause. ”You may go back through the tube room and down to the Magi and Maidens. The Magi are to the northwest and the Maidens to the East.”
”A map would be very useful.” Mazi prompted again.
”Your maiden friend has a strange fascination with maps,” Kanadius said to Milo, and then to Mazi, ”There is no map, all I can do is describe what you may face.”
”That will have to do then.” Mazi sighed.
”You must go with caution. There are traps along the way. That which should have died long ago still walks. This place was a tomb.”
”Undead? Milo here hates undead, really.” Mazi said with a stifled grin.
Milo shot her a quick look before Kanadius caught on to the humor. ”Go through the southwest door, your way should become clear.” He stood up from the table. ”I hope to see you again, bearing good news.” He clasped Milo’s arm in respect.
”As do we all.” Milo said as he returned his grip.
They followed Kanadius’ directions. The two birdmen seemed to be roosting back out in the hallway. Milo shook his head in wonder at the sight. He was curious about a drug that could elicit such an odd behavior. They soon found themselves back in the tube room. The beetles remained docile, their glowing carapaces shedding otherworldly light on the tubes and the walls.
The door Kanadius told them about led to a hallway. A few feet in Mazi halted the group. She stood up straight, cocked her head to the side, and stared at a point along the wall. She moved closer to the sandstone brick and gently traced her finger along an unknown path.
”There’s a door here.” she announced.
Milo shook his head in amazement. ”We’ve found more secret passages thanks to your sixth sense than my keen eye. I’m impressed Mazi.” The elf soaked up the compliment as Milo examined the hidden portal for traps.
The door shifted inward, made up of separate bricks that blended into the wall. A room full of crates and shelves laid waiting. They heard scraping noises as they entered. The small noises they made as they walked through the door seemed to elicit strange clicking sounds from the boxes. Suddenly four of the boxes burst open. Four strange looking beetles, all the size of Milo or larger, crawled through sizzling holes in the wooden boxes.
All five of them reacted quickly. Kella and Mazi stepped back and fired their weapons. Mazi’s bow drove an arrow deep into the carapace of a beetle scrabbling towards them from the back of the room. Kella’s sling stone sunk into the chitinous plate of another.
”Hahah!” Brigit loosed a short exclamation as she brought Trollgrater down into another. The beetle was split in two with one blow, showering the dwarf in green and gray remains.
Milo tumbled to aid Jeremiah as he fought the fourth and largest of the beetles. Brigit loosed another exclamation, this one of surprise. One of the beetles had reared up and spat a stream of acid directly at her. Her armor took the brunt of the stream and was still smoking from the potent spray. She raced towards the offending beetle as Milo and Jeremiah dodged streams aimed at them.
Jeremiah somehow found a vital organ in the alien anatomy of the bug. His sword stabbed it cleanly through. Brigit and Mazi finished off the other two without much effort.
Brigit groaned as she tried to wipe the acidic spittle from her now pitted full plate armor.
”One of these days we’ll get you a more durable set of metal, Brigit.” Milo said in sympathy.
”Aye, a fine dwarven-made suit O’ armor.” Brigit agreed as she mopped the rest off with a bolt of cloth she grabbed from a crate.
The crates and shelves housed general supplies. There were even edible rations in some of the boxes that the beetles hadn’t ruined with their dangerous drool. The group paused to restock their supplies before heading back out.
The original passage led to a ‘T’ intersection. One direction ran as far as the eye could see, the other however, ended in another statue. Milo’s heart raced for the second time in recognition. The statue was identical to the one on the peak of the pyramid. A halfling stood with serpents twined about his body, a fistful of coins in one hand and a wand in the other.
”Lookin’ good, li’l man.” Brigit laughed. ”Wonder what they made ya outta?” She approached the statue. ”Looks ta be solid bronze.” she said as she rapped the statue with a gauntleted knuckle. ”I bet we could melt this sucker down inta somethin’ more useful.”
”We are not melting any halfling statues here, Brigit!” Milo said with vehemence.
”Jus’ a suggestion.” Brigit shrugged.
Milo searched around the statue, hoping to find some hint to its purpose or whom it depicted. Instead he found that the wand seemed to be a lever. He could tell it twisted to the left and the right. As far as he could tell, the left would be more favorable than the right. Milo shrugged and trusted himself to his luck as he twisted the wand to the left.
A deep rumble issued from the wall to the left. Slowly, it drew back along tracks in the floor, revealing a passage as it moved. The wall came to a stop about sixty paces from the statue. A door was set on either side of the new hallway. Milo looked back at the others with raised eyebrows. He shrugged again, climbed down the statue, and cautiously advanced down the passage.
They chose the door to the right first. Milo slowly opened it. An altar in the shape of a five-pointed star dominated the room. Milo blinked at the sight of Usamigaras’ holy symbol. Thirteen people surrounded the altar, all dressed in rainbow-hued robes. They each wore a silver mask depicting the same child-like face from the statue. A central figure seemed to be leading the ceremony.
He stopped as the five entered the room. All thirteen of the masked faces turned to the intruders. The room filled with the sound of a collective gasp as they caught sight of Milo. Mazi sidestepped behind Milo and gently shoved him towards the masked worshippers.
The leader raised his hands to the heavens and spoke, ”Great Usamigaras has returned to us to aid us in our battle for freedom!”
Milo cleared his throat nervously, ”Um, actually, it’s Milo.”
