Here's the update from yesterday, postponed due to the board crash:
* * * * *
Chapter 609
The name of the world was Agamatheo, which in a now-dead language meant, “Orb of Beauty.”
If anyone alive had still spoken that tongue, they would have thought the name ironic, or at the very least tragically inappropriate. The world Agamatheo was mostly ocean, with only a few rocky spires where the tips of great mountain chains jutted out from the vast expanses of blue. Under those waves lay the ruins of civilizations, places where quiet and somber humanoids had lived out their lives in the way of most sentient races across the multiverse. That was before the waters had risen, as the world’s rising temperatures had melted the great sheets of ice that had perched atop the small continents that existed at its poles. The people of Agamatheo, while they lived upon the land, had been creatures of the sea, building their towns and cities upon the border of land and water, enjoying the many and diverse fruits of the great ocean of their world.
Now, nothing was left of that race, and little survived within the planet’s waters. The few things that remained were twisted and warped monstrosities, foul creatures that remained in the lowest depths, living in a state of constant and voracious hunger, with only each other to prey upon.
Great slicks traveled across the world upon the ocean currents, and where they went a great stench accompanied them, and nothing lived. Some of them burned as they moved, filling the sky with great plumes of black smoke. Violent storms covered the sky, blasting what few land masses remained, and churning the ocean into an angry froth as they crossed back and forth across this ruin of a world.
The largest of the remaining bits of dry land was a vast black spire that rose up out of the waves on the world’s southern hemisphere. It had no name; back in the old days of Agamatheo it had been a sacred place to the world’s inhabitants, but that reputation had fled when its current inhabitant had arrived here. The mountain was cold, barren rock, and nothing clung to it save for toxic black sludge and acrid crusts of minerals that burned bare skin. The highest point atop the mountain was a jagged spike that rose a thousand feet above the waves, overlooking a jutting bluff a mere few hundred feet high, perhaps a thousand yards square. Upon that rare bit of flat terrain stood a fortress of black rock.
The place was well-suited to the surroundings of Agamatheo, with stark, angular walls surrounding a trio of thick towers that formed a tight cluster within. The only openings were narrow slits in the walls and high upon the towers, all of which were sealed with heavy iron shutters, and a dark passage at ground level that was deeply recessed into the base of the wall, a dark mouth that seemed to radiate malevolence. No lights shone from the shuttered windows, no guards patrolled the walls or crenelated tops of the towers. The place seemed deserted, a lonely and eternal witness to the death of an entire world.
The empty solitude of the place was shattered as a portal opened in the air a few inches above the rough wind-swept surface of the bluff. Eight individuals stepped through the gate, which closed behind them.
“Dana?” Lok asked.
“He’s here, or he was when I opened the gate,” the priestess replied.
“He’s here,” Benzan said, almost in a whisper.
“Want me to go inside and take a quick look?” Mole asked.
“The entire fortress is warded against magical transportation,” Dana said. “Or I would have taken us directly to him myself.”
“If he knows we’re here, he may have already fled,” Dannel said.
They looked to Cal, who was already casting. The gnome had brought with him a short staff, perhaps four feet in length, which he placed before him on the rough black stone. The staff, which appeared to be crafted of a pale, gnarled wood, stood perfectly balanced as he withdrew his hands and wove them in a complex gesture before him.
The spell took almost a full minute. Finally, the gnome clapped his hands together, and sagged backward, almost falling before Lok gently caught him. “Are you all right?” the genasi asked.
“Sorry. I guess I’m still not used to these epic spells.” The wind gusted, and toppled the staff; as it fell it dissolved into a fine ash that formed a plume across the bluff, and then was gone.
“Will it hold him?” Arun asked.
“I don’t know. I think I got the entire perimeter. You were right about the wards, Dana; they are infused into the very fibre of this place.”
“It won’t help him,” the priestess said, leading them toward the dark opening that gaped before them.
Mole sidestepped to avoid a small puddle of black goop. “Ugh, this place stinks,” she said.
“Agamatheo was once a place of beauty and peace,” Dana said, her voice taking on a distant tone. “Another world destroyed by Graz’zt, just to satisfy the evil lusts of his corrupt ego.”
“It is in the nature of fiends,” Beorna said. “They destroy all that they touch.”
“It’s worse than Karoth,” Dannel said. “I thought that I would never see a sight more depressing than those corrupted trees, but this place, somehow… it’s more sad.”
“I miss Umbar, he’d have something pithy about ‘duty’ to say right about now,” Mole commented, as they drew near the entry. Dana slowed, letting the others fall in close behind her.
“Cauldron needs him more than we do,” Arun said. The paladin looked troubled.
During their absence upon Occipitus, the troubled city had befallen new woes that threatened the success of its rebuilding, and it needed strong leadership more than ever. None of those present questioned Arun’s commitment, or Beorna’s, to their quest. If anything, Arun had become all but obsessed with tracking down and destroying Graz’zt. But as the chase had continued across the planes, with the fallen prince leading them from one bolt-hole to the other, it had become obvious that Arun’s focus was masking a deeper weariness, or even a blossoming despair. After Graz’zt had escaped them in the sinister forest of Karoth, Arun had insisted that Umbar remain behind, to help those who were working to rebuild Cauldron. Beorna shared his concern as well; not only had the humanoid incursions from the Alamirs intensified, but there were reports that another access point to the Underdark had been opened near the city.
Umbar had not accepted the order gracefully, but ultimately a command from a Chosen had to be obeyed. As for Beorna… well, Mole’s comment that the argument between her and Arun could have been heard in Almraiven was not that far off.
“Well, let’s get this over with,” Dana said, starting toward the entry.
“Wait,” Benzan said. The companions froze, weapons and spells held in readiness.
“What?” Mole asked, after a long pause.
But then they heard it, a faint creaking that sounded deep within the bowels of the fortress. Fully alert, they waited for a long minute, but the noise faded and nothing emerged from within to menace them.
“All right, let’s go,” Arun said.
The dark tunnel was oppressive, the air thick with a musty dampness that clung to the bare stone walls. Fully thirty feet inside they encountered a set of huge doors of black metal, which stood slightly open. They creaked loudly as Lok pushed them wider, enough for them to pass into the space beyond.
“Not very good security,” Beorna said. “You are sure he’s here?”
“He had the power to block the spell, before, but I don’t know of anything that can send a false positive for a discern location,” Dana said.
“Again, he might have left when we arrived, leaving a trap for us,” Dannel said.
“If it’s a trap, we’ll find out soon enough,” Arun said, pushing past Lok into the chamber beyond the doors.
The room was roughly circular, with a very low ceiling around the edges that rose to a buttressed dome in the center maybe twenty feet above. Dark shafts penetrated the ceiling around the perimeter, from which a constant drip of moisture sounded. The floor was uneven, with dips and ridges forming a minature landscape that was slick with frequent puddles. The construction was all of huge stone blocks, slammed together with rough edges that the builders hadn’t bothered to trim. The only exit, other than the potential of the narrow shafts, was a recessed doorway opposite the entry. An iron portcullis had apparently once blocked that route, but now only rusted remnants of broken metal lay smashed on the floor.
“Creepy,” Mole said, summing up the feelings of the companions quite effectively.
The situation got a whole lot creepier a moment later, when a scraping sound drew their attention to the dark doorway.
“Something’s coming,” Arun said.
“Y’think?” Mole said, before she shimmered and vanished. Benzan, too, disappeared, as he cloaked himself in greater invisibility.
Communicating only with a few subtle gestures, the warriors spread out facing the doorway, while the spellcasters remained back in the cover of the entry. They had layered multiple wards upon the group prior to coming through Dana’s gate, but in anticipation of combat they quickly summoned a few more short-term magics, including a haste spell from Cal.
Dannel infused one of his arrows with a light spell and fired it into the shadowed archway.
The arrow embedded itself into the stone a short distance beyond the arch, its radiance revealing a broad staircase that descended as far as they could see. As the darkness receeded, it revealed the source of the noise they had detected.
It was a creature, formed roughly like a great cat, albeit one that stood six feet tall at the shoulder. Its body was covered with silvery-gray scales reminiscent of dragonhide, covering massive muscles that rippled under its hide as it moved. Its face was an expression of ferocity, dominated by huge jaws that trailed gobs of saliva that sizzled when they hit the damp floor. It moved with a sinuous grace, and by the way its claws clattered loudly on the floor with each step it took, it had to be incredibly heavy.
Revealed by the light, it appeared unconcerned as it slowly treaded forward toward them. Its stare was nothing short of malevolent, and it impossible to mistake the creature’s intent.
“Only one… we’ll take its charge, and strike from the flanks,” Arun said, lifting his hammer. The other warriors nodded.
“No… wait!” Dana cried, but before any of them could react, and creature opened its jaws wide, and unleashed an incredible roar.
The blast of sound reverberated out of the tunnel and resounded with incredible potency throughout the chamber. The very stones of the fortress shook, and each of the companions was staggered, stunned by the intensity of the sound.
None of them could react as the creature leapt forward. It seized Arun in its jaws, lifting the paladin from his feet as it jerked him to the left and right, its teeth crushing deeper into the metal plates covering his torso. Then it snapped its body suddenly around, releasing the dwarf and sending him flying across the room. Arun crashed into the wall with a loud crash of metal on stone, and then slumped to the ground, dazed.
The monstrous beast had already turned upon its next foe. Lok tried to bring up his shield to deflect it, but the creature merely brushed the feeble defense aside with a claw. It bore the genasi down, digging its claws into his shoulders, its weight driving the points through his armor. Lok could do nothing as the creature drew back, but only long enough to seize the genasi’s left leg in a solid bite. It snapped its head up and down, slamming the warrior into the ground once, twice, three times, before hurling him aside much as it had done Arun, launching him to the opposite side of the room to land in a heap.
Having taken down two of the group’s most powerful warriors in a matter of seconds, the creature fixed its attention on where Dannel, Dana, and Cal stood bewildered in the entryway, just inside the metal doors.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
