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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 764112" data-attributes="member: 1674">The tomb of Marilvaz the sage- part 2Once they had recovered from their embarassement, they searched the room and while Torn and Trepat openly admired the murals and statues, Niklas and Jan tried to avoid looking at anything they considered pornographic- given the nature of the room, an almost impossible task.All they found in the room, however, was another spell inscribed in the walls and a book about all forms of love. Since none of that seemed to help them on their mission, Torn put the book into his bag, and they went through the wooden door to the next room.The room behind the door was vaguely diamond-shaped and filled with riches. Expensive tapestries lined the walls, the floor was covered with expensive rugs, there were messy heaps of coins in each corner and in the center of the opposite wall stood a marble fountain.Amidst all that, ignoring the heroes, there was a ghostly figure, floating from one pile of coins to the next, gently moving his intangible fingers through them as if caressing the money. It was moaning softly, obviously gaining great pleasure from the coins which it could never spend, even though it’s face was too blurry to show any distinct features.Carefully avoiding the ghost, they walked to the fountain, and as they started examining it, the undead kept on ignoring them, seemingly entranced by his wealth and oblivious to anything else. The water contained many tiny sparkling jewels, and around the base of the fountain, there was yet another spell inscribed. Trepat checked it and saw that it instills greed in the heart against whom this spell was cast.„I can’t believe that there isn’t another exit in this room“, Niklas said, and they started searching the room for secred doors. As it turned out, they didn’t have to go far. „There is a trapdoor right beneath us“, Torn said pointing at the floor under him.Still they didn’t find a mechanism to open the door, and so Trepat, who was looking for a clue, reached into the water of the fountain and grabbed a couple of gems, intending to take a closer look at them.However, he didn’t have much time to analyze it, since at the very moment he pulled his fist full of gems out of the water, the behavior of the ghost changed. It screamed in a mixture of insanity and rage and rushed at the surprised elf.As the wraith touched him, he felt a deadly cold creeping towards his heart. Instinctively he jumped back just in time- weakened but alive. Immediately his friends started attacking him and he shot a magical missile at the ghost. But still, the ghost was there, reaching out for Trepat again. Trepat took a step backwards, but now he felt the rim of the fountain drilling into his back. There was no way for any further retreat, so he jumped to the side, and the wraith (for that’s what the undead creature was) missed him.Again, his friends attacked it with their magical weapons, hoping to draw it’s attention towards them, but it wasn’t defeated yet. Again, it reached out, and sending a silent prayer to Tanil, Trepat cast another magical missile at the ghost. The energy blast hit it right in the centre, and as it’s intangible hand was merely an inch from Trepat’s chest, it completely dissolved. Trepat had been saved in the proverbial last second.Now that the wraith was gone, they searched through the room. The piles of coins turned out to be mostly coppercoins which were covered with just a few gold and silver coins, and the „gems“ in the fountain were merely glass or too small to be of any worth.„Maybe the fountain is the key“, Jan said. „After all, it seems to be a wishing fountain. Hold on!“.He pulled out a gold coin, closed his eyes, wishing for the trapdoor to open, and dropped the coin in the fountain. The coin disappeared, but the door didn’t open.„Maybe it is the amount of money we have to throw in there. One gold piece may not suffice“, Trepat said.Niklas, who had been watching silently so far said:“ We could try the gold and silver coins we got from those piles. It would make sense, since I wouldn’t expect the sage to put any treasures into his tombs except for his books and spells. He probably has devised this thing as a means to make sure that the gold and silver will stay here.“.„Alright“, Torn said and poured the gold and silver coins into the fountain. Like the single coin before, all of them disappeared now and the trapdoor in the floor lifted and opened itself, giving way to a shaft that lead down into the darkness below.In a small niche in the shaft, there was yet another tome by Marilvaz, called „Ravages of Wealth“ and below, there was yet another dark corridor. It went around two bends only to suddely end in front of an area of magical darkness, which the lanterns and torches of the group couldn’t fight back and which was even impenetrable for Torn’s orcish eyes.They tied a rope around Niklas who volunteered to go ahead. Using his glaive as a pole to feel for walls and pits he went in, and right after entering, he noticed something strange- suddenly, he wasn’t in a corridor anymore and as he tentatively probed his surroundings with his glaive, he felt that there were no walls to his left or right anymore.He turned around, and after merely one step, he was abruptly back in the torchlit corridor.„There is something strange in the darkness“, he said and then, as he saw that his friends were pulling their weapons he turned around- but there was nothing behind him that could have promted that reaction.„What is wrong“, he asked.His brother surprised him, as he asked him:“Is it you, Niklas?“„Yes sure.“.„It is his voice“, Torn said, and nodding to Jan, he asked:“Is he evil?“.Jan shook his head and Niklas saw with relief how his friends resheated their weapons: „What is wrong with you?“„There seems to be some sort of illusion on you. You look like a ghoul, or some other undead creature. Hadn’t you spoken out and if the rope wouldn’t still be around your waist, I would have been fooled enough to attack you.“, Trepat said.„Ah. Alright then. There is another problem: In the darkness, there is a labyrinth without walls.“, Niklas said, and then he explained to them what he had experienced.Torn rolled up his eyes: „That „labyrinth without walls“ is called a hall. If you stick to one of the walls, you should be able to get around.“.Realizing his misperception, Niklas walked back in. This time however, he returned after having turned merely two corners, and Trepat figured that there may be some sort of displacement device at the walls which took it’s victims to the opposite wall and turned it around: This would explain how Niklas had returned even though he would have had to turn four corners, not two. Maybe Niklas would have more success if he walked straight forward, Trepat suggested, and again the monk walked in.Somewhere in the darkness, he stumbled over another tome which he picked up. Immediately, he could see a magical writing on the walls. Yet another spell, he thought, and now that he knew the size of the hall, he confidentely walked forward and suddenly he found himself in another forked corridor, the darkness behind him.As his friends caught up with him, guided by his rope, he saw what they had meant, since each of them looked like a terribly deformed Zombie. But at least they were together again, and as they walked left to a spiral staircase that lead up, the illusion already started to wear off. They resumed their marching order with Torn up front and walked up to what turned out to be the gambling room of the tomb.</blockquote>

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