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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 450384" data-attributes="member: 221">Chapter 18 – Dareen’s Tower    It was not yet noon when Jozz and Kall left Geanavue on a cart going south.  In the back of the cart was a large crate, carefully packed and tied down to prevent it from banging around.      Their father, who besides caring for other peoples horses, also did woodwork, had just finished a statue for a man who lived about twenty two miles away from the city.  A sudden demand by one of the nobles to break in a horse had meant however that he would not be able to deliver the statue himself.  His boys however, he had reasoned, were nearly men and they could make the trip and be back the next day.       “Mr Forgewright’s place is easy to find,” he had told them, “You pass the cemetery on the Zoan road and then take the first path to the right, towards the mountains.  Follow that path to the very end.  He lives in a tower in the middle of Deepen Wood at the very end of the path.  Do you got that?  What did I just say?”    They had both seen their father working on the statue.  They knew it was of a man, in full plate armor holding a greatsword point down into the ground.      “Stay out of trouble,” their father had warned them as they were pulling away from the house, “If you see giants, run.  Don’t try fighting them.”The twins passed the cemetery south of the city and coming to a path to the right, they took it.  The sun slowly moved through the sky as they bumped along in the cart, their horse patiently plodding along at a slow but reliable rate.  They passed farms and small communities until at last the houses grew further and further apart and the communities grew increasingly smaller.  And then they came to Deepen Woods.  It was an old woods, comprised of large, tall trees.  Little light escaped to the floor of the woods and there was an ominous feel to the air beneath the leaves.  Nevertheless, the two boys entered, their discussion turning to the subject of wolves.  The path through the woods was even less traveled than the rest of the path and the going was slower.  They saw no sign of life in the woods until they passed by a house on the right.  Even then however they could see no one inside the house.  There was no sign that anybody was home.  No light inside the building, nobody moving around outside the house.“Is this the place?” asked Kall.“Father said it was a tower,” said Jozz and they flicked the reins and continued on down the path.It was another mile till they reached their destination.  There standing alone atop a small rise was a wide, squat tower.  The grey stones were large and the windows plain and situated high above the ground.  There was a small stable to the right of the tower.  It was empty.  The boys pulled the wagon into the stable and loosed the horse and tethered him with a bag of oats to keep him company.  Then they opened the back of the cart and pulled off the crate.  It was heavy, but between the two of them they managed to get it off the wagon and carry it over to the steps leading up into the tower.  Jozz climbed the steps and knocked using the large brass door-knocker.  A solid boom echoed throughout the tower.  They waited.  No one answered the door.  Kall reached out to see if he could open it.  It was locked.“I can open it,” said Jozz and he pulled out his set of lock-picks.In less than a minute he had the door open and they looked in.  It was dark inside.“I’ll get a lantern,” said Jozz.“I’ll get my club,” said Kall.*********************************It was about an hour after noon when Tilliana left Geanavue heading south.  She was riding Prancer, but the war horse was not wearing its barding.  Tilliana was after information, not battle.  She had spent the last few days trying to track down anyone who might know more about the area in which her father had built his temple.  Almost by accident she had stumbled across the fact that there was another priest of Naemae living west of the city.  He was an old man who, she had been told, might have been a friend of her father’s.  His name was Dareen Forgewright and he lived in a secluded tower in the midst of remote woods.  “How do you get there?” Tilliana had immediately asked.“You get to Deepen woods by going south, past the cemetery, which you don’t want to stop at cause it’s haunted, and then you turn west and follow the path for about twenty miles, out past the farms until you get to dark woods.  His towers in the middle of the woods.”“The cemetery is haunted?  What can you tell me about that?”“The cemetery has always been haunted.  Spirits, ghost and the like that never hurt anybody.  Lately though some people say they have seen skeletons in black robes chasing people with scythes.”“Oh.”Her curiosity piqued by the existance of a Servant of the Swift Sword that had not been known to Deochoo and by the hint that he might have known her father, Tilliana set out from Geanavue with a mind full of possibilities.The ride was long and as she neared Deepen Woods the evening was already beginning to approach.  She entered the woods and slowly made her way down the dim path.  She felt slightly put off by the quietness of the trees.  She could hear no birds and she saw no small animals, such as she might have expected to see.  She began to pass a house on the right.  The house seemed strangely alone and quiet.  She saw no one around the house and there was no light in any of the windows.  There was an ax planted in a stump in front of the house and a lone wagon by the side of the house.  But there was no horse and nothing to suggest anybody was present.Tilliana rode up to the house and dismounted.  She left Prancer standing by the stump and walked to the front door.  She knocked.  There was no answer.  She peered in one of the windows and saw nothing.  It was too dark inside.Filled with curiousity, Tilliana went back to the door and tried it.  It swung easily open and she entered.*******************************Jozz held his lantern up high and led the way into the tower.  Kall followed right behind.  The front door led into a hallway.  There were three doors and Jozz opened the one on the right.  The room beyond was a sitting room of sorts.  The boys noticed that the decorative motif was the same throughout the room.  Statues, wall-hangings, tapestries, paintings and rug all bore the same two emblems.  A man in gold full plated armor holding a greatsword and a golden eye set on a background of blue and white diamonds.  “Let’s bring in the crate,” said Jozz.  Kall agreed.They carried the heavy wooden box up the stairs and placed it in the middle of the sitting room.  Then they decided to look around further.  They still heard no sound indicating anyone was home.  They went out of the room and entered into another hallway.  There were stairs going up to their left and in front of them was a door to the right of an open doorway. Light streamed out through the doorway and illuminated the whole hall.  The room beyond was a library of some sort.  Jozz opened the door and looked in by the light of his lantern.  It was a bathroom containing a toilet and a sink, each fed by pipes descending from the ceiling.  “Let’s check up stairs,” said Kall and he led Jozz up the stone steps to the second floor of the tower.  The stairs opened into a single straight hallway with two doors on either side.  Jozz moved to open the first door on the right.  There was a bedroom on the other side of the door.  A bad odor lingered in the room which was decorated with the same two emblems as the sitting room, the eye and the warrior.  There was a suit of full plate mail standing in one corner of the room, a greatsword in a scabbard leaning against the wall next to it.  There was also a dresser and a cedar chest in the room as well, of course, as a bed.  There was a man lying in the bed, bundled up in the blankets, his back to the boys.“Hello, who are you,” said Jozz to the man.There was no answer.  Cautiously they approached the bed.The man in the bed was dead.  Kall looked on horrified.  “Is he Mr. Forgewright?” asked Kall.“I don’t know,” said Jozz.The man had obviously been old.  His long silver white hair fell down limply around his wrinkled face upon which there was a serene look.  “What do we do now?” asked Kall.“Let’s check the rest of the upstairs,” anwered Jozz.There were two other bedrooms and a chapel.  The chapel contained a small altar placed before a golden statue of the man holding a greatsword.  The last lights of the setting sun streamed through a small stained glass window depicting the golden eye.  The boys decided to go back downstairs.********************************Tilliana looked into the small dark house and decided she needed a light.  She prayed and brought forth a small divine light from her holy symbol by which she could see.  The front room of the house was a mess.  There were obvious signs of violence everywhere.  Claw marks on the walls and dried blood on the floor told of a recent fight, onethat had occurred within the last day or two perhaps.  Tilliana stepped in to get a closer look.The door slammed shut behind her and she jumped.  She saw however that it was just a rock, tied to a string in such a way as to make sure the door closed properly.  There were no bodies in the front room.  An open doorway in the back of the room led into a small kitchen.  There was also a door on the east wall which she opened.  It led to a bedroom in which there were four beds.  Lying on the floor of the room in various positions were four bodies.  Tilliana moved to get a closer look.  The body closest to her was male.  He seemed to have died from severe claw marks of some sort.  She bent down to get a closer look.The eyes opened on the corpse and stared at her.  They were yellow and red.  The corpse reached out to grab at her but she jumped back, just out of the way.  Around the small room all four of the corpses were shambling to their feet.  Her heart pounding, Tilliana raised her holy symbol and prayed.  Light burst forth in an explosion of divine energy and the corpses screamed.  Their flesh melted and the fell back to the floor, writhing only for a moment and then were still.With determination Tilliana set out to search the rest of the house for any clues as to what had happened here.***********************************Jozz and Kall descended the stairs.  As they did so they started to hear a thumping sound.  Something was banging around on the first floor.  They went through the library and entered into a dining room.  The thumping was coming from a door on the other end of the room.  Jozz and Kall cautiously approached the door.  Jozz held his lantern so that he would be able to see properly and slowly opened the door.At first he saw nothing moving, and then a figure shuffled into view.  It was covered in bandages and an odor of spices lingered in the air around it.“A mummy!” said Kall.Jozz raised crossbow and fired at the creature.  The bolt stuck in it but seemed to do little.  Kall pushed past Jozz and ran at the mummy, slamming at it with his club.  He missed and the mummy turned as swatted at him, landing a solid blow on the boy.  Jozz, thinking a moment raised his lantern and foregoing the crossbow he ran at the creature, swinging the lantern as a weapon.  He struck and the lantern shattered and oil coated the mummy, bursting into fiery flame.  Kall, enraged at being struck, swung his club as hard as he could and landed a blow.  But it was clear that the fire was doing more to hurt the mummy than the huge club.  Jozz tried to stab at the creature with his dagger but the flames kept him back.  The mummy, screaming as it burned turned and struck Jozz, knocking him back a step.  Again Jozz tried to stab it but with no greater success.  Kall ducked a blow from the mummy and struck it once more with his club.  The mummy, the flames eating its life away screamed one last time and fell to the ground.  The boys quickly put out the small fires that had spread to other parts of the room.  There was a sarcophagus in the room, opened, just one of many bizarre relics that filled the room.********************************Tilliana found nothing in the house to indicate anything other than the fact that these were simple woodcutters who had been killed in their own house.  Frustrated she stepped back out the front door.She saw immediately that Prancer was frightened by something.  It did not take long to figure out what was scaring the young war horse.  White skeletal shapes were marching out of the woods towards the house.  Tilliana counted at least twenty of them.  Slowly but surely they were surrounding her.  She gripped her holy symbol and waited.  The rush came quickly.  The skeletons, pinpoints of fire in their eyes raised bony claws and moved to attack her.  Already prepared, Tilliana raised her silken holy symbol.  For the second time that evening, divine light poured forth from it.  A majority of the skeletons shreiked silently and crumbled into dust.  But not all of them.  Three remained and the surrounded the priestess, clawing at her.  Prancer snorted and moved as to attack, but it was unnecessary.  Tilliana once more called upon Naemae and the remaining three skeletons were smitten into dust.  The priestess, shaken, but not cowered mounted Prancer and headed once more up the trail, further into the dark woods.*********************************As they finished beating out the last of the fires, the two boys heard a scream from outside.  It was high-pitched and unnerving.  They rushed through the dining room to the front door and looked out just in time to see their horse bolting off through the trees.  Something had frightened it badly.There was a red glow, almost like a fire, coming from around the side of the tower.  Gripping their weapons they ventured out to see what was making it.  They saw first what appeared to be a crack in the ground from which red light streamed in a fiery glow.  Then they saw the man shambling towards them, arms outstretched.  He came from the direction of the crack and the red light outlined him.“Uhhhh,” he said and they saw that he seemed to already be dead.  “Uugghh,” came an eerie voice from behind them and they saw another of the walking corpses aproaching from the stable.   Jozz fired and missed and then the two corpses were almost on top of them.  They zombies moved slowly and both boys had enough time to ready themselves and attack.  Kall struck one of them.  The creatures head lolled sideways at a disturbing angle,but still the creature continued to try and press forward to attack Kall.  Jozz failed to strike his and for his effort he received a strong, solid slamming punch to his ribs.  Kall also was struck.  The zombies moved slow but they were strong.  Kall swung and missed and then another blow from one of the living dead struck down Jozz.“My brother!” screamed Kall, and focusing more on swinging as hard as he could, Kall swung around at the creature that had attacked Jozz.  He landed his blow and the zombie flew backwards and struck the wall of the tower.  It did not move again.  Kall redirected his energy at the remaining zombie and swung again missing.  He was focusing too much on the force of his swing and not on where he was swinging.  Moving nimble, he dodged the next strike and then swung his huge club around and smashed open the zombie which collapsed to the ground.  Kall bent down to see what he could do to aid Jozz who was unconscious.  He slapped jozz lightly on the face and made sure he was not bleeding anywhere.“Uuggghhh.”Another zombie was slowly crawling out of the crack in the ground.  Kall bent over and hefting his brother to his feet he half propelled and half carried him back to the tower and slammed the door shut behind.  They went back to the trophy room and the two looked out the window.  They could see the crack below them and as they watched they saw zombie after zombie crawling up out of the ground  and walking away into the dark woods.  Tilliana healed her minor wounds as she rode through the forest.  All was still silent.  She heard no owls nor crickets.  She heard nothing until she heard the hoofs.  As she stared ahead down the path she saw a skeletal rider on a skeletal steed approaching her.  The rider carried an ancient spear and when it was close enough, it raised its spear and charged her.  Tilliana again raised her holy symbol and the undead horrors crumbled to dust.She spurred Prancer forward, convinced somehow that something was dreadfully wrong somewhere in this forest.  She soon approached a tower from which dim light could be seen in the windows.  However it was the bright glow on the left side of the tower that most attracted her attention.  There was someone walking towards her from the direction of the glow.  As it drew nearer she saw it was a walking corpse.   Dismounting, Tiliana drew her sword and charged.  Her sword flashed once, cutting into dead flesh, and then as she dodged a blow it flashed through the air a second time and the zombie fell to the ground in two.  She stared out towards the crack and saw another zombie crawling slowly out.She was not sure what she should do with Prancer so she decided to leave him first in the stables before doing any more fighting.  She noticed there was a cart in the stable as well.  Having tethered Prancer she walked towards the glow.  The zombie she had seen crawling out of the crackhad made it out and was moving slowly towards her.  She waited till it drew closer and then charged.  Unfortunately her foot caught on something in the dark and she swung wild.  The zombie, grunting incomprehensibly swung at her and she ducked easily out of the way, seeking to regain her balance.  Then she swung again.  Her sword sank in, but she was too close and a molding fist caught her up alongside her helmet.  She swung again and then again and finally the zombie was dead.  Even as she stopped and caught her breath she saw another hand groping to reach up over the edge of the glowing crack and get out.  Determining that there must be a reason for a zombie spewing crack of doom she decided to look in the tower.The door was unlocked and she entered in, her holy symbol illuminating the way.  She walked through the front hall and into the dining room.  Light from the library spilled into the room and she looked around.  The door on the left side of the dining room opened slowly and an eyed peered out.  Then it swung more fully opened and Jozz stumbled out wincing.“Hi Tilliana,” he said stiffly and weakly, “I don’t suppose you could spare a heal?”“What are you doing here?”“We were delivering a statue and we were attacked by zombies.”“Who were you delivering it to?”“Mr. Forgewright.”“Come here,” said Tilliana.  She saw Kall looking out the doorway and motioned him over as well.  She reached out and touching their wounds she channeled the positive energies of her god into their bodies.  The bruises cleared and the boys felt whole again.  When they were healed she walked into the room they had been in and looked out the window as they had done.  Below she could see the glowing crack and the zombie that was slowly crawling out.“Is there anyone in the house?” she asked them.“Yes,” said Jozz, “He’s dead.”“Upstairs,” added Kall.“Show me,” said Tilliana and so the boys led her up the stairs to the bedroom containing the body of the old man.  Tilliana looked briefly at the body, the first she had seen that evening that was not still moving.  Then she tried to look in the chest.  It was locked.“Let me,” said Jozz and he had it open in a flash.Inside were blankets.  Packed atop the blankets were three bottles, each containing a golden liquid.  Jozz reached out and opening one he took a sip.  It was sweet and felt uplifting.“Potions of healing,” guessed Tilliana after hearing Jozz try to describe it.  She handed one to Kall and took the third for herself.  Then she turned her attention to the armor and the sword.  While she looked at the sword and Kall admired the armor, Jozz looked more closely at the body on the bed.  He saw there was a ring on the finger of the corpse.  Swiftly the boy pulled it off and placed it upon his own finger.Tilliana muttered a brief prayer and the sword started to glow.  She looked at it with a smile.  Then she noticed something else in the room glowing.  The ring on Jozz’s finger was glowing, as was the medallion upon her neck.  She had never bothered to check the amulet before to see if it was magical.  It obviously was.  Tilliana took the sword, strapping it on her back with her other sword.  Kall meanwhile finding the armor was not that bad a fit, started putting it on.  If he was going to fight more monsters, he preferred to do so with some protection.  It was heavy and he moved much slower in it, but he felt slightly more secure.  “What was the statue you brought,” asked Tilliana.“It was like that one,” said Kall, pointing to a corner of the bed where in place of a standard post, a statue of Naemae was carved.  All four corners of the bed bore the same figure.  Looking around the room, Tilliana realized with a start that the symbols of Naemae covered everything.  Indeed it had been the same way downstairs.  Not even the temple in Xaarum had that many holy icons crammed into every feature.“Let’s look in the basement,” said Tilliana, recalling that there had been stairs down leading out of the dining room.  She led the two boys back down to the first floor.  “Over there’s the restroom,” said Jozz helpfully when they reached the first floor.“Thank you,” said Tilliana."Just in case you need to go.""I'm fine at the moment, I assure you," said Tilliana amused.Jozz grabbed a candle from the dining room table and lighting it he led the way into the basement.  The basement appeared to be nothing more than a good sized storage room.  Odds and ends were stacked in various places.Tilliana thought a moment and then walked towards the part of the basement in which direction she guessed the crack to lie.“Look around,” she said, “there might be a secret door or something.”It was Kall who found it.  A pressed switch revealed a swinging panel of stone in the wall.  Tilliana moved to go through it.  Jozz and Kall also moved at the same time to go through it.“Only one can go in front,” said Tilliana patiently.“I think there should be a rule,” said Kall, “that whoever finds the secret passage gets to go through it first.”“Ok,” said Tilliana, “but just remember there’s no rule that says I have to heal you when you get killed.”Kall led the way through the secret panel and into a small hallway.  It went straight for about fifteen feet and then they emerged into a room, about thirty feet square.  On the far end of the room, in the right hand corner there was a crack in the ground.  Four squat, ugly creatures with white blubbery skin, red eyes, bristle like hair and needle filled mouths were working to lift a large stone out of the crack.  They looked at the three intruders and hissed.“What are you doing?” said Kall as he entered the room and saw them.“Go away!  Go Away!”  the voices rang in Kall’s head, not in his ears.“Telepathy,” said Tilliana.  The voices rang out in her head as well, as they did in Jozz’s.“What are you going to do?” asked Kall“Free the Master!  Free the Master!”“Are they bad?” asked Kall“They’re bad,” Tilliana drawing her newest sword.“How do you know they are bad?”“They just are!  Attack them!” said the priestess rushing forward.  She sliced into one and it flew across the room in pieces, almost exploding from the impact.  Jozz fired, but his shot was slightly off the mark.  Kall charged up alongside of Tilliana, but he found the tough hides of the monsters were thicker than they looked.  “Help me!  Help me!” screamed one of the monsters, its silent voice echoing in the heads of the heroes.  Whatever help the thing was seeking however failed to appear.The other two charged Tilliana and scratched and bit at her.  Tilliana swung and killed one of them.  Jozz moved up alonside her and attempted to stab the other one.“Darkness!” screamed the telepathic voice of the one that had called for help.  The whole room was plunged into utter blackness.“Daylight!” cried out Tilliana triumphantly, holding aloft her divine focus.  The room burst forth with the light of day and the two remaining creatures screamed in horror.  Tilliana managed to avoid being bit again, but Kall was not so lucky.  His club seemed to be unable to penetrate the leathery hide of the creature he was striking at.  Tilliana sliced open one more of the creatures when the last remaining thing screamed, “Flee!”  As the message bounced around in their skulls, both of the boys grew scared.  Their breath grew short and sweat broke out on their skin.Tilliana however was not affected and she planted her sword firmly in the creatures head.  As swiftly as it had come, the supernatural fear implanted in the boys vanished.  As they watched, the bodies dissolved into a greenish goo and then vanished.“Let’s take a look at that stone,” said Tilliana, “I want to see if we need to destroy it.”Neither boy was exactly thrilled at the idea but nevertheless Tilliana coaxed them into helping and soon they had it out.  It was shaped like a large wheel, or perhaps like a millstone.  On its upward side was written words in strange letters.“Celestial,” said Tilliana recognizing the writing.  Even as she spoke, from the side of the stone, melding out of it appeared a black claw.  It groped and soon the wrist and arm of the creature appeared.“It seems to be a spell,” said Tilliana, “A spell written in celestial script.”“Hurry,” said Jozz as the claw groped towards him.  There was a whole black arm now somehow stretching out of the stone, as if the stone were water or an illusion of some sort. Tilliana muttered a brief prayer and then reread the inscription.“It’s a spell that seems designed to trap demons,” said Tilliana.“Read it!” said Jozz, panic growing in his eyes as he sidestepped the groping claw.Tilliana read the spell.The claw was immediately sucked back into the stone.  There was a swirl of darkness in the air and a swooshing and sucking sound as if the three were in the middle of some sort of vortex of air.  They felt nothing but their eyes seemed to see a great darkness being drawn into the stone.  And then in an instant it was over.As Tilliana examined the stone the boys examined the rest of the room.  Jozz was convinced there was another secret passage in the room.  He soon discovered it and the boys dragged Tilliana away from the stone to examine the other room under the house.  It was smaller than the first secret room and contained only a chest and a bow.  Kall took the bow and looked it over while Jozz popped open the chest.  Inside the chest was a great deal of gold coin, as well as a ring and a dagger.Jozz smiled.</blockquote>

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