Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hunter" data-source="post: 1194464" data-attributes="member: 14845">…….Meanwhile, back at the Temple…Crashing floors and roaring flames finally stop above the laboratory of the almost doomed wizard. With a wet cloth about his face lying upon the chamber floor he looks out of his lab through the swirling smoke down the naturally shaped tunnel leading out of his area to the stairways and entrances to the surface. Nothing. Finally the flames begin to die down from above and the smoke begins to filter out (due to excellent engineering on the part of ventilator shafts created for his laboratory) and yet still nothing from above. The fire creature does not descend within the depths below it seems…Perhaps its limited time upon this plane is over muses the wizard. What then of the caster and the interlopers attempting subterfuge to gain false admittance into the Temple then? Hm? Where can they be?- he thinks. After awhile and still nothing.The wizard contemplates. He needs more information. More intelligence to the current situation. Otherwise how can he make a decision?  Time for a few risks he muses. At a mental command something large and furry crawls out from beneath his robes. Eight ruby red eyes look up to him from a large mass of blue grey hair covered legs. Eight glorious legs! One can almost imagine the endearing affection coming from those eight glass-like eyes. If one knew the relationship of the wizard and his familiar.  A wolf spider of no small size. This one is exceptionally large, easily the size of a water skin. Commanding him gently the wizard gestures and the spider runs up his walking staff to meet his gaze. Face to face. Eyes to Eyes.  Its good to have friends… Only in this life or death situation would he even dare to risk his friend. The wizard however was never a hero or heroic. He would never consider to walk out into this particular unknown by himself. So his good friend and familiar will have to do the job. The wizard sighs, but not without some defenses he thinks. Pulling a large scroll from out of a crevice in the wall the wizard begins to chant some protective spells for his friend. Soon, shield, invisibility and protection from normal missiles are all cast upon the wolf spider. As the wizard touches the spider and as it slowly vanishes from the point on which he touched it the wizard sighs. One can never be too careful with one’s familiar…Feral lights from burned out ceilings lie strewn about within the tunnels beneath the Temple. Portions of smoldering timber that had fallen through stairway and entrance ways cast ghoulish glows here and there. Smoke softly billowing and settling covers the floor and seeps through walls.Burned bodies some fused into the walls  some fused together themselves scatter sporadically all over the desolation. Some areas are still too hot to investigate. Shadowy shapes of undead guard zombies that the High Priest used as special soldiers wander, some on fire. All in all quite a mess. With eyes closed (now looking through eight magnificent eyes) the wizard views all this and grimaces. To completely abandon his lab now would ruin years of hard work and research. He casually caresses the long metallic cylinder that dominates a large area of his lab. He feels the cool metal against his fingers. Damn to lose it all now!-he mutters-‘Years wasted!’Looking about his lab for a moment before restoring contact with his familiar, the wizard gazes upon books and beakers and chemicals that all in all have cost over hundreds of thousands of gold pieces. All funded from tithes of the Temple as well as a mysterious Lord who insisted on secrecy.At the time what did he care as long as he could fund his research?  His discovery! Sure most of it was gleaned from a long lost scroll of dwarven origin. Dwarves who forged first. But it took his genius to resurrect it in this time and bring it back to the present, so to speak. He would not leave this willingly. Yet without the guards and soldiers of the Keep what or who then would keep back the invaders who attacked? Or of possible wandering creatures that might find roasted humans quite an appetizer? Just thinking of the possible things that could come snuffling in make the mage shudder in despair.Looking back into his familiars eyes just in time to see a zombie soldier smolder into ruin…. they’ll stink up the dungeon even more now.Wait! That’s it! The zombie guards! Why didn’t he think of it before?! The wizards eyes brighten with glee. Almost reflecting in the eight eyes of his familiar (if you could see him, right now he’s invisible). When the High Priest ruled the Temple he used those guards for special duty. Very special guard duty… The wizard begins licking his lips. There was always one chamber that lead to a tunnel that was off limits to all…All save the High Priest and his zombie guards. The wizard greedily thinks of the all the possibilities then sends his spider accomplice into the forbidden chamber and the  large tunnel beyond…A very large tunnel beyond. Down the wolf spider skitters amidst trailing wisps of vapor and  tails of smoke until it reaches a huge natural cavern….There nestled in a jagged like nest of stalagmites and debris lies one of the largest serpents the wizard has ever laid eyes on…Fear and bewilderment creep over the mage as he views the great leviathan through smoke and vapor from the smoldering fire.He thinks-The High Priest was known as the master of beasts! The Tamer of beasts!Going for a closer look the spider edges nearer. Suddenly a serpentine eye opens…Back, back! The wizard orders. Maybe chance or something in the air registered in the leviathans mind but suddenly slightly stirred, the long neck rises into the air and the triangular head covered in dark green and yellow metallic scales looks about. Then to the wizard’s further shock another long neck and serpentine head rises above its girth! Two heads?! No wait! Three!  And  five more still sleeping!  A Hydra! Fearful the wizard begins to order his familiar to return, thinking that the creature can somehow detect invisible creatures possibly through smell. When something comes wandering into the chamber from the dungeon. A smoking zombie, limping aimlessly walks right up to the serpent. With a flick of it’s neck it suddenly whisks the zombie into its mouth. Lightning like speed the wizard thinks. The other two heads fight for a morsel of zombie as the first attempts to devour it. A Hydra! Here below the Temple all this time! The wizard can’t believe it! He never knew. For what purpose did this serpent serve the High Priest?  A possible mount? The Priest loved to ride creatures. The wizard remembers him riding a giant bat at certain times to strike fear during raids. What else though? Protection? No good against a fire elemental obviously. Still curious the wizard sends his spider closer for another look…There just beyond the Hydra is the answer to the wizard’s questions. Within a natural alcove the wizard spies what can only be two to three very large chests nestled  deep inside…Some very large chests…The wizard can pretty much guess what’s inside them…This changes things completely as far as staying or leaving. He must find a way to get to those treasure chests! He must stay also to complete his experiments. If possible, if not the treasure and flight! Better to flee and work again. Time is crucial at the moment for the wizard. How much time before say the priest returns or the wilderness creeps into the ruined Temple.After much brooding, partly through the eyes of the spider as it watches the great sleeping behemoth from a distance, partly through his own as he sits within his laboratory. The wizard makes a decision. A complete and thorough search of the surviving passages of the Temple is in order to find out what stayed and what left . A somewhat dangerous task as the High Priest was populating the lower levels with creatures he charmed/captured to use in further exploits and raids. Being preoccupied with his research and experiments the wizard did not pay too much attention to the comings and goings of the High Priest and his followers.Reluctantly he orders his spider familiar back through the tunnels to search further. By passing rooms and chambers close to the surface entrances, cluttered with debris and smoldering ruin it takes the passages not often walked by the human inhabitants of the Temple. Scuttling along the ceiling the spider eyes small shadowy humandoid shapes stealthily making their way through smoke and ruin. The wizard watches with much interest as they move through the tunnels in an orderly fashion. Two ahead, quietly as possible equipped with bow or sling, pausing at intersections before waving to the rest and then moving on. Small though they may be quite smart and efficient the wizard muses, ordering his familiar closer for a better look. Standing about 3 and 1/2 feet tall with dog like snouts and tiny curved horns upon their brow. Timid yet fiendish, with small reptilian rusty brown colored scales covering their body and clad in blood red skirts and tunics with tails protruding underneath. All with the symbol of the Horned God: a skull with horns in black. Why, of course, the wizard muses, the High Priest’s humanoid slavers, The kobolds of the Black Fang tribe! He had forgotten about them. Located deep within the far recesses of the Temple. Laired there to do to the bidding of the High Priest and help in his creature capture/hunts. Rarely coming to the surface and only leaving through another entrance safely hidden far deep within the bowels of the Temple dungeon. They must have come up for a look at the conflagration-the wizard thinks. Looking about as they enter a large ruined  chamber the kobolds sniff the air and crouch over the burned bodies of the guards and cultists. Pulling out small knives they each pick a corpse and begin to cut…Small husks of flesh they hew  from the buttocks, thighs and torsos of the burned victims. Quietly and orderly placing them into small satchels around their shoulders for future meals. All the while looking about and smelling the air for possible danger…Now there are some efficient servants-muses the wizard-but how to subjugate them to my rule at the least possible risk?Gazing further the wizard notices one of the kobolds becoming alarmed. Creating a low gutteral groaking sound to alert the others they all turn in battle like stances at an entranceway leading out of the chamber.Suddenly and quite slowly two rigid zombies stride into the room. Arms out stretched, sensing the life force in the small retched creatures. They move toward the kobold search party. With a scream and a hiss the kobolds launch missiles at the zombies. Sling bolts and spears miss or thump almost harmlessly into the putrid flesh of these rotting corpses. Closer they come until the kobolds must face them hand to hand. Drawing short swords and spears the kobolds launch themselves at their undead foes. Congealed puss and rotten flesh flies off the undead as they clumsily grab for their small and elusive foes. Eventually one kobold is caught about the neck. Its life force is slowly squeezed out of it’s body. The zombie’s vice like grip closes. It squeals in terror. Just then bolts of solid force fly through the air and strike the undead unerringly through head and torso.  Old flesh and brain spatter across the choking kobold as the force bolts explode upon impact. Within a few seconds both zombies are destroyed and unanimated.Looking around in surprise and fear the kobolds see their benefactor. The mage stands at quite some distance just outside the chamber, his appearance quite altered. He has now grown quite tall and imperious. So tall as he enters the room he appears to stretch his body larger and taller becoming dark and fearsome to behold!The wizard-In the common tongue-‘Your former master is gone and destroyed! Serve me and live! Resist me and die!’As he speaks a ball of blue fire erupts in his hand waiting to be discharged.(Melf’s Minute Meteors) At that spectacle the kobolds unanimously yield and kneel before there new master. All is going according to the Invoker’s plan, soon he thinks –‘I will have that treasure and then be able to finish my experiment!!’After much deliberation with the Shaman Witch and Kobold Chief the wizard agrees to 1/10 of all loot or booty found by the humanoids to be given over to the Kobold Chief: Umblach. The rest, of course, goes to the wizard.The wizard then orders the kobolds to set up perimeter search patrols all around the tunnels leading to his laboratory. He also commands them to clean up the dead and burned bodies of the soldiers and cultists. However he only wishes them moved from the immediate vicinity of the lab and then placed elsewhere in the dungeon but made to look as if they died there from the inferno. Naturally if you will. The wizard doesn’t want the place to look inhabitated in case of intruders or explorers coming from the outside. There are still those first invaders (still at large) to think about. So far they have yet to make an appearance, which is curious.It is not long before the wizard starts to get back to his work in the lab that a search patrol comes to notify him of something. Umblach says that his captain has found humans locked behind dungeon doors in individual cells in one part of the dungeon. ‘Ah yes’ ‘The High Priest kept  miscellaneous prisoners from various raids.’- the wizard thinks. ‘Hmmm perhaps I shall take a personal look at these dregs and see what advantage I can make of them.’The wizard along with the kobold chief and his bodyguards make their way down a natural curving passage until they reach an open chamber. There a large oaken table and benchs dominates one side of the room. With a barrel of putrid smelling water and another filled with moldy green grain (The wizard sniffs it and makes a face-yuk!) and along one wall a collection of keys. Leaving this chamber is a hallway and as the wizard and co. move further into the chamber, those beyond notice their approach and begin moaning. ‘Food, food we beg you please feed us!!’. The wizard takes his torch and walks up to the first dungeon cell door. ‘Eh Food you say?’ ‘What’s all this about food then? Hm?’ ‘What makes you think your worthy of being fed? Hm? Hah!Voice from cell-‘Please if your to kill me, let me die fighting! A bit of food to garner my strength send me to fight something anything, let me die with sword in hand please I beg thee!’.The wizard-With a gleam in his eye, enjoying himself-‘ Oh well then we can get you food for we have plenty of food! Haha!’The wizard commands the kobolds to check the other cells for survivors. Having to look through barred cell windows that are too high for them the kobolds stand on each others’ shoulders to look in.Reporting back the kobolds tell the wizard that there are three more humans one empty cell and one giant bird.The wizard-‘One giant bird? What? Are you speaking common correctly, scaled one?’ “Let me see!’Moving up to the cell door, sure enough right before the wizard’s eyes is one of the largest owls he has ever seen. With mottled black and brown and white feathers over its wings and chest it almost seems as if the owl wears a king’s furred cloak.So regal it looks. With giant amber glazed eyes staring back at the wizard. Almost piercing the wizard with its stare. One could almost imagine that it could speak, the stare bears so much like intelligence.The wizard-‘ Well now, he went mad, that’s it, our Beast Priest was mad as an Emperor. Has to be!’.In the empty cell the wizard finds only large rats scurring about.The other three humans are in the same state of starvation as the first. All begging for food.The wizard-‘ Well then, let’s get to feeding our guests, for we want them nice and fat! Heehee!’Soon a slaughter room is created in an empty chamber not far from the prison. Taking some dead bodies and hanging them up like so much charnel in a butcher’s shop, the kobolds slice and dice and make meat stew for the prisoners (and themselves). Not telling them that its human meat the prisoners engorge themselves. Astounded at the change in the treatment. Thanking their gods to bless their new benefactor….they feast.</blockquote>

Verification