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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 395037" data-attributes="member: 1674">A new hope- part 5 of 5Getting to the pyramid was a time consuming process, since some parts of the ruined city were impassable, forcing them to backtrack half of the time. Since they also had to avoid the patrols which were by now swarming the city, it was already afternoon when they finally reached the Orcish monument.In front of it, there was a large plaza that was mostly free of rubble. Even though it had been untouched for centuries, there were still scorchmarks on the marble floor and the surrounding structures. Apparently, a gigantic bonfire had burnt here long ago.The pyramid itself was a hundred yards high, and the side the heroes were facing was slightly longer than the other three sides. In the middle, there were stairs leading up and on top of it, there was a platform with a small but massive building made of black rock.Donanngar pointed to the stairs:” Do you see the furrows to the left and right of the stairs? I don’t know how I know this, but the Orcs who lived here eons ago used to round up their captives on a special day on which they celebrated Chardun. Then, they would behead them on that platform up there, and the blood would flow down the furrows. They considered it bad luck when they hadn’t had enough captured soldiers for the blood to reach the square, and if necessary, they would fight each other until they had the minimum number of warriors to sacrifice.”.The adventurers looked at the Orc who had told them his people’s lore with a neutral voice, as if he was talking about some harmless harvesting ritual. In the time they had spent together, they had completely forgotten that Donnangar did indeed come from a culture far more violent and harsh than any of theirs.Climbing the city in daylight would have made them visible from afar, and so the friends decided to wait once again until the sun would set. They searched the ruins around the grand plaza for a suitable hideaway for the horserat and the dire wolf and once they found one, Donnangar and Ben explained to the animals that they would have to wait there.At last, night came and they walked up the stairs with bent down backs, making themselves as small as they could. The small temple on the platform was basically four upright slabs of rock with another one square on top and there was a rather small entranceway into the lightless structure.The temple itself was nothing more than one big room. If there had ever been anything in there, it had been long gone, and the room was empty except for one small lizard which wiggled it’s way out of the room as the adventurers entered it.“This can’t be it”, Donnangar said,”there must be a way into the pyramid.”.Trepat nodded:” Yes, let’s look around, then!”The elf and the orc started examining the floor and the walls while the others had to wait. They didn’t dare to light up a torch or a lantern, fearing that any light streaming out of the entrance could attract the attention of their undead pursuers. So, the two who were able to see in the dark carefull searched the structure inch for inch, and after a while, in which the humans and the halfling looked out of the entrance, where they saw occasional spots of lights giving away patrols in the debris below, Trepat found something.“There are two parts of the wall at opposite sides of the room that seem to have been added into the rock. They look slightly different than the rest.”, he said and after a short pause, he asked Donnangar:”Please, press there, while I will press here”.Trepat and Donnangar pressed, and in the middle of the room, a slab of rock moved into the floor and gave way to a rectangular shaft that lead down into the darkness. There were iron rungs set into the stone, and Jan climbed them down. The shaft was about twenty feet deep and under it was a ten foot high room.Jan, who had hooked his lantern to his belt, climbed down until he was hanging on the lowest rung and then dropped the remaining two feet. Now he was in a room about the size of the temple above him, but obviously, this one had never been looted, since there were beautiful multicolored tapestries on the wall and the floor and the ceiling was covered with more colorful paintings.In front of him, he saw the skeleton of an orc sitting on a small throne. The skeleton was wrapped in a purple robe that was embroidered with golden arcane and orcish runes. After the days in which they had dodged undead, and Jan used his supernatural sense of evil to determine whether the one in front of him was another one, but there was no aura enshrouding the skeleton- apparently this one was truly dead.He told his friends that everything was clear, and after they had all climbed down, they discovered a lever with which they could close the secret door on top of them again. Now that they were all in the chamber, they had a chance to look at the tapestries and pictures. All of them showed orcs fighting battles or building the city. On some of them, there was a picture of Khadum, but there was only one thing all of the pictures had in common: On each of them, there was the image of a beautiful Orc-woman with white swanwings. She was clad in a shining plate mail and was wielding an orcish double axe.Her picture was so striking, that even Trepat found her to be beautiful- and beauty was something he never expected to find in the face of an orc. He turned to Donnangar:” Do you know who that angel is?”Donnangar shook his head:” No. But, she sure is incredibly beautiful.” “And what do you want to do with the skeleton’s robe? I just checked and it is magical.”.“I don’t know. Let us decide on our way back out, shall we?”, and with that he turned to the only doorway that opened to a corridor that lead down and deeper into the pyramid.The corridor was a gallery that was twenty feet high. On both walls, there were successive pictures of what seemed to be the history of Hor’ Kung. First there were orcs fighting wars. Then, the angel appeared and seemed to help them fighting their wars and constructing their city. The further the heroes walked along the gallery, the more progress the orcs were making with their city. The wallpictures were showing battle scenes half of the time, but occasionaly, there were peaceful activities depicted as well.After a few dozen yards, the gallery, which had lead down paralell to the stairs outside for thirty yards turned around and lead down into the center of the pyramid. Again, there were pictures, until finally, right before the corridor ended in front of a huge bronze door, the pictures changes.On the last pictures, there were human soldiers who were dressed and equipped like the undead ones the heroes had encountered themselves. This time, the angel wasn’t there and the pictures showed the Orcs loosing the battle.The last two pictures showed the city in ruins. There was a single orc in a robe like the one the skeleton was wearing in the entrance chamber who was using all kinds of arcane magic to kill hundreds of soldiers. And finally, there was a picture of the plains in front of the city. Dead hands were clawing their way out of the ground while undead were pulling themselves out of their graves. The sky on that picture was dark, except for the starsign of Chardun’s sceptre, which was bathing the dreadful scene below in an unholy light.The bronze doors weren’t locked and in spite of their weight and age, they swung open with the slightest resistance. The final chamber was again as big as the upper one and the temple and the only things in there were marble shelves with packages on them and an eight foot tall marble statue of the angel they had seen on the pictures before.Ben went to the packages, which seemed to be untouched by the passing of years, and immediately, he recognized the herb inside as the cure for the Orc plague. His druidic knowledge told him that a few leaves in a big kettle would suffice in healing an entire Orcish tribe.Meanwhile, Donanngar meekly walked up to the statue. His head was bowed and he stretched his open hands out with the palms showing up. Then, all of a sudden, the statue moved it’s head. It’s already benign face was now full of love and compassion and the room filled with a warm and pleasant light while there was a barely audible angelic choir singing somewhere.There was a short flash of light, and a full bag appeared in Donnangar’s arms and next to each of the heroes. The statue, however, had reversed to her original lifeless form and the light and the faint music were gone again..Ben looked into his bag, and again his ability to discern the qualities of all plants, whether they are known to man or not, helped him. The bag was filled with seeds, and Ben grabbed a fistful of it:” This is wheat, but a form of wheat I had never heard of. It is so tough, it should be able to thrive and grow even in the plains of Lede.“Donanngar, you told us that you think that there should be a better life for your people. I believe that this better life is in these bags here!”.</blockquote>

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