NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4223541" data-attributes="member: 143">Both of you are right in that the DBs are going to have a tough time of it, catching up. We'll get back to their side of the story tomorrow. * * * * * Chapter 41MEETING AMURRUThe chamber with the giant statue was as it had been before—or at least, nearly so, for their eyes were drawn to the niches in the walls where the stone guards had once stood in relief.  More than one of them glanced up to the massive angel, with its spread wings and huge sword lifted higher above them than the spire of a castle tower.  But the stone guardian, if in fact that was what it was, did not stir for them.  Perhaps Ghazaran had been right, and it had been set here not to watch for them, but for the thing that lay deeper within this complex, the thing they had come here to free. They made their way across the huge cavern in silence, even their footfalls muted on the odd stone of the floor.  There was only one break in the quiet, as Jasek drew their attention to one of the alcoves, where they could all see a pair of stone feet.  Once again, Ghazaran had been right; the warders were reforming. They pressed on, and while the decorative carvings continued around the entire expanse of the chamber, they encountered no more empty—or mostly empty—alcoves.  What they did find, in a deeply recessed nook on the far wall of the cavern, was another of the mithral vault doors.  By now their procedure was familiar, and after both Jasek and the Seer had scanned the portal for mundane and magical hazards, Falah applied himself to the heavy wheel.  The faint grinding noise that penetrated through the mithral put them all on edge, and each of them stood ready for anything with spell or weapon.  But this door opened without incident, revealing another corridor beyond.  There was a dim but flickering glow of natural light that reached them from down its length, where it appeared that the corridor opened onto another chamber a good fifty feet or so ahead. With a brief look back, Jasek started ahead.  He saw little in the way of reassurance in the faces of his companions; more and more, it was as if Ghazaran and Ozmad were seeing beyond what was here, their attention focused on something beyond his perception.  Compared to them, the face of the Seer, his eyes betraying a mix of avarice, hatred, and mistrust, was almost reassuring.  Those feelings, at least, he could understand.  Falah and Parzad were not worth mentioning, as they were mere appendages of the cleric; and as for Navev... The thief suppressed a shudder, and led them forward. The chamber at the end of the corridor was lit by flames that burned in stone pots carved into the walls around the perimeter.  They had to be magical, as Jasek smelled no smoke in the air, and the place was filled with an almost preternatural chill that pressed through his clothes and skin and made itself felt in his bones.  Opposite them several curving steps led onto a dais, where another dark passage was visible, flanked by a pair of rune-carved stone pillars. They were not the only inhabitants of the chamber. The guardians made no motion as they entered, but almost by reflex Jasek stepped aside, into the shadows under one of the stone fire-bowls.  Ozmad did not hesitate, stepping boldly forward, Ghazaran and his followers almost at his heels.  They examined the figures standing in niches along the walls to either side as intently as the thief had.There were ten, five to either side, forming an honor guard of two rows that faced out into the chamber, at them.  One glance was enough to show that they were dead, desiccated figures wrapped in strips of ancient linen, bulging here or there where a bone protruded from ancient flesh.  Jasek did not need to look back to know that they were echoes of the shambling figure that was just now appearing at the mouth of the passage behind them.  The mummies wore breastplates of hammered bronze in a style that the thief suspected had not been seen in a thousand years, and each carried a huge sword, held in both fists before them, the blades forming long curves that almost touched the walls behind them at their ends. Ghazaran muttered something that Jasek couldn’t quite hear.  Ozmad looked down at the cleric, and there seemed to be something communicated between them, a signal that Jasek couldn’t quite read.  The thief saw that the cleric had taken out the bundle of leather scrollcases that he’d stolen from the sun priests in Camar; according to what Ghazaran had said, there was powerful magic inscribed upon those old parchments.  Falah and Parzad both tensed, expecting trouble.  The ogre stepped forward, and spread his arms wide.  “Show yourself, caretaker!” the ogre shouted, his deep voice echoing through the chamber.      It happened so quickly that Jasek blinked and he—it—was just there, standing atop the dais between the pillars.  If the mummies radiated a sense of great age, this thing was seeped in it.  It bore no wrappings, so they could see how its dried flesh clung to its bones like an almost sheer cloth.  It looked so frail that they could not see how it could stand, let alone move about under its own power, but it was clad in heavy armor, a suit of archaic half-plate fashioned from scaled dragonhide rather than metal, the whole covered in a robe that was little more than strips of cloth.  It bore a shaft of flanged bronze as a weapon, a light mace that it carried like a scepter.  When it spoke, Jasek started in surprise; the thing’s jaw barely moved, but he could hear its voice as though it was standing right in front of him. “You seek to unleash destruction upon the world,” it said.  “That cannot be permitted.”Ozmad opened his mouth to speak, but before the ogre could respond to the creature’s challenge, a wracking pain erupted through Jasek’s body.  He fell back against the support of the wall as invisible daggers stabbed deep into him, with no way to evade or dodge the attack.  He saw that he was not the only one; the others were clearly suffering the same assault.  All save one; Navev just stood there, half-obscured in the darkness of the corridor. Trying to fight through the pain, Jasek looked up in time to see the mummy guardians flourish their great blades and rush forward to attack.</blockquote>

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