That wasn’t part of the plan! So much for approaching the tower by stealth; we rushed forward across the open ground, surprise be damned. As we reached approximately half way, suddenly John erupted from the solid ground and threw himself to one side, shouting:
“The Tower isn’t there!”
He was immediately followed by a creature flying through the wall of the tower. It looked like a dwarf, but with its flesh somehow partly made out of ice; I couldn’t really see because I was too far away but even from this distance, I could see that it had huge, white, eyes.
The warriors almost reached the tower when Victor stopped and poked his falchion into the ground before him; it sank into the surface with no impediment. That was very odd; I looked at that tower and the ground surrounding it very carefully but I couldn’t spot anything amiss or magical; yet plainly, there must have been something as Victor’s falchion was sinking into the ground as if it was water and John has just fallen in. The others were also looking at the whole thing very carefully but no one said anything.
More of these creatures were bursting through the tower; there were four in total now. A couple of them looked like humans while the other was a dwarf. As with the first of these beings, they all flew, had the same huge white eyes that looked as if they were made of ice and they pointed their hands at John; as they did so, rays of cold blue energy erupted from them; the rogue dodged frantically and managed to avoid a couple but the other two hit and poor John collapsed, bursting into flames. As soon as that happened, one of them swooped down and rolled the body over; it disappeared through the ground again.
It was most frustrating; we couldn’t get at them as there was obviously some sort of magic covering a pit in front of us and we had no more spells that allowed us to fly. Victor was the warrior in front and although he couldn’t reach them, they deemed him the greatest threat so all four began to concentrate their blue rays on him. The warrior was sufficiently resilient that he stood the pounding for a little time and even more unusually, he managed to dodge several of these rays far more nimbly that I had ever seen him move before, but it was obvious that he would not be able to do so for much longer. Thankfully, Felix stepped forward and cast a spell on him which protected the warrior from the cold; Longhelim had also received it.
Drudge was already loosing his arrows at these new creatures, hitting them with his usual efficiency. They were trying to stop him somehow but he made sure to stay well away from them; those rays must have had only had a short range, as they didn’t fire them at him. Even Longhelim sheathed his sword and drew his bow, joining in the missile fire. Victor couldn’t as he had a complicated gauntlet which took a certain amount of time to dismantle and also to don; I remembered that it was quite a palaver to do so each morning.
While all this was happening, I incanted a few spells of force missiles at these creatures but then I began to cast a cantrip which would tell me a little more about this tower and the ground around it. It was certainly very magical! And there was a lot of illusion magic there. I probed a little further but there was almost nothing more to tell although with my newly acquired knowledge, I looked again: this time I was positive that the tower was not there! It was an incredibly complicated and powerful illusion. Whoever, had done it must have been a master magician; I really hoped that he was not going to be our opponent here because if he was then……shall we say that a diplomatic solution would have been our only hope.
As I was surmising this, Drudge’s arrows had been wreaking further havoc amongst the flying guardians; between them, he and Longhelim had managed to fell three of them with the last one shooting final ray towards Longhelim and then disappearing into the tower.
As soon as he had gone, we took a rope and, with Victor holding it, Drudge swung himself down over the pit. Then we heard a shout:
“Tie some more rope onto this one; I can see John but I can’t reach the bottom!”
We duly did so and a little time later, John came scrambling up the rope, through the floor and he was then followed by Drudge.
The rogue shuddered: “That was close! Far closer than I want to experience again!”
Drudge added: “You’re telling me! I found you at the bottom of that pit, your head inches away from a really nasty spike; and one of those nasty little things managed to smack me before I shot him!”
Longhelim said: “First things first: some of us are hurt. Drudge, John, can you provide some more healing potions please? At the same time, can you can tell just what is down there?”
As they two of them took out their magical sacks and began distributing potions to those in need, John continued:
“This illusion hides a chasm; at the bottom is a nasty set of spikes as well as that nasty group of….whatever they were. They were really strange; they looked as if their muscles and tendons had been made of ice and fused into flesh; almost as if they had been made that way only not……”
Suddenly, it clicked: “I knew they looked familiar; they looked like those fishmen we met beneath Seaquen; those that had been created by that science; biomancy…..I think? It was called something like that; anyway, they were brewed or grown in those huge vats we found. Except that in this case, instead of melding fish and men, someone put together ice and living creatures,” I said.
“Now you mention it, yes they did look similar to them. I hadn’t thought about it but you’re absolutely right,” said John slowly.
“Oh good,” said Drudge, as he was picking up arrows from the ground, “that must mean that there is some sort of mad magician running around, growing flying snowmen. Do you think he grew two headed giants with wings as well?“
Now that he mentioned them, I thought it was very likely: “Yes, although it looked as they went wrong somewhere because they couldn’t fly, despite the fact that they had wings.”
“Well, this is all very useful, but what else is down there?” continued Longhelim.
John took up where he left off: “There’s a façade on one of the walls; lots of figures doing heroic things with winds and cold and stuff; no idea who any of them are but they are bound to be gods and goddesses and spirits and elementals and other things; they always are on those things; oh, and there’s a door!”
Longhelim stopped and Drudge looked up from hunting for arrows: “A door, you say? Now we’re talking! At least we know where to go next!”
Felix nodded but then said:
“I am fairly exhausted after all of this; just getting past the guards was very hard work and I have barely any spells left.”
John agreed: “I am still feeling the effects if my recent falls as well. I think we need to rest and recover somewhere.”
Longhelim looked around at the nearby forest.
“Well, if you have any ideas as to where, then I’m all ears.”
John looked at the tower: “Well, I was thinking down the pit…..”
I thought about it; that wasn’t such a crazy idea as it sounded. The pit was covered by an incredibly powerful and elaborate illusion so it was unlikely that anyone would see us if we climbed down there. Even if they did, they were very likely to fall onto those spikes which had almost done for John. Finally there had also been some very powerful guards. The only risk, so far as I could discern, was if something came out of the door that was below.
Longhelim was stroking his chin: “I don’t like it but it seems the best option. There are just too many things lurking in those trees for us to risk staying up here.”
So, we consumed several more potions of healing and then, using ropes, we climbed down the pit.
I looked around me curiously; as John had described, one of the walls was a façade, with a collection of figures; probably mythical heros and heroines performing mighty deeds and dying at the end; there were also deities performing miracles with winds and storms; there were also spirits and elementals, all to do with air. No doubting the affiliation of the builder of this structure.
As described, there was also a door within this façade, leading into some sort of underground location.
We all looked around very carefully at the carving and were able to ascertain only one concrete fact. The door was magical and the type of enchantment prevalent on it was evocation; or the spells that go bang. John even used his wand to determine if there was a secret passageway instead of the door but the results were negative.
We exhausted all of our detection magic; the result was that it was almost certain that the door was trapped. Once we had ascertained this, we decided to rest.
We settled down to sleep and fortunately, nothing happened during the night. The next morning, I felt very invigorated, as if something had happened overnight and I found myself finishing certain new spells that I had been working on intermittently on our journey to the Monastery of the Two Winds. The time had come to test them so I memorized the formulae and hoped that they would work. Everyone else seemed to be quietly optimistic as well.
I cast several spells on myself and then cast other protective spells on Victor; most of these were against cold energy; it seemed appropriate here. I also cast my spell which allowed Drudge to shoot his arrows particularly accurately. Felix, Longhelim and John also cast various protective spells on themselves and other members of the group. The only strange thing that happened was when Drudge attempted to cast a spell on himself, suddenly his face twisted and he emitted an involuntary gasp.
“Damn! I just lost my spell. As I was finishing the casting, something twisted and I felt a sting; then I lost the spell.”
I frowned. “That’s odd. Can you take me just how you cast the spell? Maybe I can find out just what happened.”
He did so. It was quite a simple spell that would just boost his movement a little; it wasn’t one I could cast myself but the theory was similar. To me, it looked as if he had followed all the criteria for the spell. I cast my mind back to what had happened to Drudge yesterday and then I hesitantly said:
“Well, it may sound odd but the only thing that I can think of which only affected you yesterday was that you were the only person physically struck by those creatures which came flying out of the pit. Maybe, must maybe their strikes carry some sort of curse.”
Drudge grunted: “Great! Well, if that’s true then at least they didn’t hit any of the dedicated spell casters; I wouldn’t care to speculate what we would have done if Felix had been struck by one of them. Well, nothing to be done about it now; come on, let’s go.”
So, we lined up and then we looked at the door. I had foreseen this difficulty and memorized a spell which opened locked doors. I cast it and the door opened a crack; unfortunately, that set off the trap!
A crackle of electricity fizzled through the air and struck me; thankfully, we had all been prepared for something to happen and I managed to just about dodge the worst of it but it still hurt. What I hadn’t been prepared for were the many branches of the lightning bolt which struck everyone else. They had also been prepared and managed to dodge the most harmful part of the lightning but there was enough smell of burnt flesh and hair suddenly filling the cave that I was certain that everyone had been hit by those bolts.
As we all looked at each other, the door seemed to beckon mockingly.
I was healed a little thank the Gods and then John went forward, carefully, looking for any more nasty surprises. Finding nothing, he waved us forward and, having opened the door slightly, we looked inside curiously.
The first area was best described as an entrance hall, but with a difference; within it was a variety of tables lining the walls. These tables had a collection of beakers containing liquids of various colours sitting on top of candles or some sort of small torches, held by contraptions which allowed them to be boiled; all of them were bubbling away but there was no one around. Really, who left unattended liquids burning? However, it did give us a clue that there must be someone around this place. In short, it was an alchemist’s laboratory of some sort.
We entered carefully inside, John again a little ahead searching for anything untoward and what we saw next took our breath away:
Beyond the entrance hall or laboratory were three enormous chambers of a magnitude that was almost impossible to imagine under this mountain. These chambers were slightly below our level, with several sets of stairs leading down to them. In fact, I couldn’t even tell how large they were because they stretched into the darkness beyond my dwarven sight. My attention was immediately caught by the rows and rows of glass containers dotting the chamber in front of us; they were each large enough to house one humanoid about our size and they were full of a now familiar green liquid.
“What in all hells is going on here?” whispered John.
I whispered back: “These tanks looked just like the ones we saw in the lair of those madmen below Seaquen; you remember? Lee Sidoneth and his cronies? Look at those tanks and the creatures inside. Someone is growing an army, with….what was it called? Oh yes, biomancy.”
He looked forward again, this time with more understanding at what he was looking at.
Carefully, we moved forward again; this……laboratory could not be left unattended; I meant, the sheer financial investment that must have gone into building this…….it was unbelievable; even if the owner was a master magician, he still had to get the glass and all the other material up here.
More details were becoming apparent as we moved as well as an inkling as to what was in the other chambers. As mentioned previously, the chamber ahead contained row upon row of tanks which contained the green liquid as well as creatures which could vaguely be discerned inside. There were also fleshy tubes leading from each tank up into the shadows above us. The chamber to our left contained more rows of tanks except that these were larger; they had the same green liquid and fleshy tubes running upwards. The last room, to our right, had one huge tank; an enormous pool of this stuff; again, the containers in these side chambers had tubes running to the ceiling.
Finally, on the opposite wall in front of us, was another pair of double doors; no doubt, trapped again.
Horrified, John whispered again: “What was grown in there?” As he indicating the large pool.
I whispered back: “I think we may just have found the source of our green dragon; do you remember the way it shot those spikes from its tail into Drudge? I have never read or heard of any dragon being able to do that.”
Glancing upwards, I saw that not only were there a myriad of tubes running from each tank, there was also a network of walkways along the upper part of these chambers, obviously for ease of access to the tanks and a network of chains and pulleys which allowed easy movement of these tanks as well as the creatures I suppose. It was an incredibly sophisticated system; it was also taking this biomancy nonsense to an extreme on top of a mountain in the back end of nowhere in Ostalin; as I mentioned previously, it must have cost an absolute fortune.
This left me more confused than ever.
I wasn’t the only one. Everyone else was looking at this whole set up with a mixture of awe and confusion.
Ever practical, Victor’s confusion was different, as he whispered:
“Where is everyone? This type of organization doesn’t run itself; there should be guards and supervisors. There should be people looking after the tanks and the denizens inside; there should be people making more of that green goo.”
I agreed with him but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t see anyone else. I saw others looking as well but no one said anything.
We stared at this extraordinary arrangement a little longer and then we cautiously moved down the stairs into the chamber ahead of us; not knowing what else to do, we just moved straight ahead in a single line, through the rows of tanks. Looking inside, there were definitely shapes there but we still couldn’t make out just what they were. Thankfully, there was no reaction to our proximity from them.
John was moving just ahead, looking for traps, Victor close behind him, followed by Longhelim, Felix myself and finally Drudge; then, as we were approximately half way into the chamber, we suddenly met our first being in this complex.
I saw John and Victor stop abruptly and then a form appeared, literally appeared, next to them. It was a large thing; it had the head of bull and the torso of a man; in other words, it was a minotaur. However, below the waist, it seemed to have wisps of vapour and smoke; no legs; despite this apparent handicap, it didn’t seem to have any trouble moving. He had a huge hammer and as he flew, he swung it wildly in a circle, smashing several vats as well as Victor and John; out the vats came creatures with which we were already familiar; they were the same as the ones we had met beneath the tunnels in Seaquen; humanoid but with atrophied limbs that looked almost like fins, a row of spines along the centre of the back and large, bulbous eyes; a horrible, unnatural human and fish hybrid.
The minotaur, hybrid thing roared at us, defiant and whirled its hammer again…….
“The Tower isn’t there!”
He was immediately followed by a creature flying through the wall of the tower. It looked like a dwarf, but with its flesh somehow partly made out of ice; I couldn’t really see because I was too far away but even from this distance, I could see that it had huge, white, eyes.
The warriors almost reached the tower when Victor stopped and poked his falchion into the ground before him; it sank into the surface with no impediment. That was very odd; I looked at that tower and the ground surrounding it very carefully but I couldn’t spot anything amiss or magical; yet plainly, there must have been something as Victor’s falchion was sinking into the ground as if it was water and John has just fallen in. The others were also looking at the whole thing very carefully but no one said anything.
More of these creatures were bursting through the tower; there were four in total now. A couple of them looked like humans while the other was a dwarf. As with the first of these beings, they all flew, had the same huge white eyes that looked as if they were made of ice and they pointed their hands at John; as they did so, rays of cold blue energy erupted from them; the rogue dodged frantically and managed to avoid a couple but the other two hit and poor John collapsed, bursting into flames. As soon as that happened, one of them swooped down and rolled the body over; it disappeared through the ground again.
It was most frustrating; we couldn’t get at them as there was obviously some sort of magic covering a pit in front of us and we had no more spells that allowed us to fly. Victor was the warrior in front and although he couldn’t reach them, they deemed him the greatest threat so all four began to concentrate their blue rays on him. The warrior was sufficiently resilient that he stood the pounding for a little time and even more unusually, he managed to dodge several of these rays far more nimbly that I had ever seen him move before, but it was obvious that he would not be able to do so for much longer. Thankfully, Felix stepped forward and cast a spell on him which protected the warrior from the cold; Longhelim had also received it.
Drudge was already loosing his arrows at these new creatures, hitting them with his usual efficiency. They were trying to stop him somehow but he made sure to stay well away from them; those rays must have had only had a short range, as they didn’t fire them at him. Even Longhelim sheathed his sword and drew his bow, joining in the missile fire. Victor couldn’t as he had a complicated gauntlet which took a certain amount of time to dismantle and also to don; I remembered that it was quite a palaver to do so each morning.
While all this was happening, I incanted a few spells of force missiles at these creatures but then I began to cast a cantrip which would tell me a little more about this tower and the ground around it. It was certainly very magical! And there was a lot of illusion magic there. I probed a little further but there was almost nothing more to tell although with my newly acquired knowledge, I looked again: this time I was positive that the tower was not there! It was an incredibly complicated and powerful illusion. Whoever, had done it must have been a master magician; I really hoped that he was not going to be our opponent here because if he was then……shall we say that a diplomatic solution would have been our only hope.
As I was surmising this, Drudge’s arrows had been wreaking further havoc amongst the flying guardians; between them, he and Longhelim had managed to fell three of them with the last one shooting final ray towards Longhelim and then disappearing into the tower.
As soon as he had gone, we took a rope and, with Victor holding it, Drudge swung himself down over the pit. Then we heard a shout:
“Tie some more rope onto this one; I can see John but I can’t reach the bottom!”
We duly did so and a little time later, John came scrambling up the rope, through the floor and he was then followed by Drudge.
The rogue shuddered: “That was close! Far closer than I want to experience again!”
Drudge added: “You’re telling me! I found you at the bottom of that pit, your head inches away from a really nasty spike; and one of those nasty little things managed to smack me before I shot him!”
Longhelim said: “First things first: some of us are hurt. Drudge, John, can you provide some more healing potions please? At the same time, can you can tell just what is down there?”
As they two of them took out their magical sacks and began distributing potions to those in need, John continued:
“This illusion hides a chasm; at the bottom is a nasty set of spikes as well as that nasty group of….whatever they were. They were really strange; they looked as if their muscles and tendons had been made of ice and fused into flesh; almost as if they had been made that way only not……”
Suddenly, it clicked: “I knew they looked familiar; they looked like those fishmen we met beneath Seaquen; those that had been created by that science; biomancy…..I think? It was called something like that; anyway, they were brewed or grown in those huge vats we found. Except that in this case, instead of melding fish and men, someone put together ice and living creatures,” I said.
“Now you mention it, yes they did look similar to them. I hadn’t thought about it but you’re absolutely right,” said John slowly.
“Oh good,” said Drudge, as he was picking up arrows from the ground, “that must mean that there is some sort of mad magician running around, growing flying snowmen. Do you think he grew two headed giants with wings as well?“
Now that he mentioned them, I thought it was very likely: “Yes, although it looked as they went wrong somewhere because they couldn’t fly, despite the fact that they had wings.”
“Well, this is all very useful, but what else is down there?” continued Longhelim.
John took up where he left off: “There’s a façade on one of the walls; lots of figures doing heroic things with winds and cold and stuff; no idea who any of them are but they are bound to be gods and goddesses and spirits and elementals and other things; they always are on those things; oh, and there’s a door!”
Longhelim stopped and Drudge looked up from hunting for arrows: “A door, you say? Now we’re talking! At least we know where to go next!”
Felix nodded but then said:
“I am fairly exhausted after all of this; just getting past the guards was very hard work and I have barely any spells left.”
John agreed: “I am still feeling the effects if my recent falls as well. I think we need to rest and recover somewhere.”
Longhelim looked around at the nearby forest.
“Well, if you have any ideas as to where, then I’m all ears.”
John looked at the tower: “Well, I was thinking down the pit…..”
I thought about it; that wasn’t such a crazy idea as it sounded. The pit was covered by an incredibly powerful and elaborate illusion so it was unlikely that anyone would see us if we climbed down there. Even if they did, they were very likely to fall onto those spikes which had almost done for John. Finally there had also been some very powerful guards. The only risk, so far as I could discern, was if something came out of the door that was below.
Longhelim was stroking his chin: “I don’t like it but it seems the best option. There are just too many things lurking in those trees for us to risk staying up here.”
So, we consumed several more potions of healing and then, using ropes, we climbed down the pit.
I looked around me curiously; as John had described, one of the walls was a façade, with a collection of figures; probably mythical heros and heroines performing mighty deeds and dying at the end; there were also deities performing miracles with winds and storms; there were also spirits and elementals, all to do with air. No doubting the affiliation of the builder of this structure.
As described, there was also a door within this façade, leading into some sort of underground location.
We all looked around very carefully at the carving and were able to ascertain only one concrete fact. The door was magical and the type of enchantment prevalent on it was evocation; or the spells that go bang. John even used his wand to determine if there was a secret passageway instead of the door but the results were negative.
We exhausted all of our detection magic; the result was that it was almost certain that the door was trapped. Once we had ascertained this, we decided to rest.
We settled down to sleep and fortunately, nothing happened during the night. The next morning, I felt very invigorated, as if something had happened overnight and I found myself finishing certain new spells that I had been working on intermittently on our journey to the Monastery of the Two Winds. The time had come to test them so I memorized the formulae and hoped that they would work. Everyone else seemed to be quietly optimistic as well.
I cast several spells on myself and then cast other protective spells on Victor; most of these were against cold energy; it seemed appropriate here. I also cast my spell which allowed Drudge to shoot his arrows particularly accurately. Felix, Longhelim and John also cast various protective spells on themselves and other members of the group. The only strange thing that happened was when Drudge attempted to cast a spell on himself, suddenly his face twisted and he emitted an involuntary gasp.
“Damn! I just lost my spell. As I was finishing the casting, something twisted and I felt a sting; then I lost the spell.”
I frowned. “That’s odd. Can you take me just how you cast the spell? Maybe I can find out just what happened.”
He did so. It was quite a simple spell that would just boost his movement a little; it wasn’t one I could cast myself but the theory was similar. To me, it looked as if he had followed all the criteria for the spell. I cast my mind back to what had happened to Drudge yesterday and then I hesitantly said:
“Well, it may sound odd but the only thing that I can think of which only affected you yesterday was that you were the only person physically struck by those creatures which came flying out of the pit. Maybe, must maybe their strikes carry some sort of curse.”
Drudge grunted: “Great! Well, if that’s true then at least they didn’t hit any of the dedicated spell casters; I wouldn’t care to speculate what we would have done if Felix had been struck by one of them. Well, nothing to be done about it now; come on, let’s go.”
So, we lined up and then we looked at the door. I had foreseen this difficulty and memorized a spell which opened locked doors. I cast it and the door opened a crack; unfortunately, that set off the trap!
A crackle of electricity fizzled through the air and struck me; thankfully, we had all been prepared for something to happen and I managed to just about dodge the worst of it but it still hurt. What I hadn’t been prepared for were the many branches of the lightning bolt which struck everyone else. They had also been prepared and managed to dodge the most harmful part of the lightning but there was enough smell of burnt flesh and hair suddenly filling the cave that I was certain that everyone had been hit by those bolts.
As we all looked at each other, the door seemed to beckon mockingly.
I was healed a little thank the Gods and then John went forward, carefully, looking for any more nasty surprises. Finding nothing, he waved us forward and, having opened the door slightly, we looked inside curiously.
The first area was best described as an entrance hall, but with a difference; within it was a variety of tables lining the walls. These tables had a collection of beakers containing liquids of various colours sitting on top of candles or some sort of small torches, held by contraptions which allowed them to be boiled; all of them were bubbling away but there was no one around. Really, who left unattended liquids burning? However, it did give us a clue that there must be someone around this place. In short, it was an alchemist’s laboratory of some sort.
We entered carefully inside, John again a little ahead searching for anything untoward and what we saw next took our breath away:
Beyond the entrance hall or laboratory were three enormous chambers of a magnitude that was almost impossible to imagine under this mountain. These chambers were slightly below our level, with several sets of stairs leading down to them. In fact, I couldn’t even tell how large they were because they stretched into the darkness beyond my dwarven sight. My attention was immediately caught by the rows and rows of glass containers dotting the chamber in front of us; they were each large enough to house one humanoid about our size and they were full of a now familiar green liquid.
“What in all hells is going on here?” whispered John.
I whispered back: “These tanks looked just like the ones we saw in the lair of those madmen below Seaquen; you remember? Lee Sidoneth and his cronies? Look at those tanks and the creatures inside. Someone is growing an army, with….what was it called? Oh yes, biomancy.”
He looked forward again, this time with more understanding at what he was looking at.
Carefully, we moved forward again; this……laboratory could not be left unattended; I meant, the sheer financial investment that must have gone into building this…….it was unbelievable; even if the owner was a master magician, he still had to get the glass and all the other material up here.
More details were becoming apparent as we moved as well as an inkling as to what was in the other chambers. As mentioned previously, the chamber ahead contained row upon row of tanks which contained the green liquid as well as creatures which could vaguely be discerned inside. There were also fleshy tubes leading from each tank up into the shadows above us. The chamber to our left contained more rows of tanks except that these were larger; they had the same green liquid and fleshy tubes running upwards. The last room, to our right, had one huge tank; an enormous pool of this stuff; again, the containers in these side chambers had tubes running to the ceiling.
Finally, on the opposite wall in front of us, was another pair of double doors; no doubt, trapped again.
Horrified, John whispered again: “What was grown in there?” As he indicating the large pool.
I whispered back: “I think we may just have found the source of our green dragon; do you remember the way it shot those spikes from its tail into Drudge? I have never read or heard of any dragon being able to do that.”
Glancing upwards, I saw that not only were there a myriad of tubes running from each tank, there was also a network of walkways along the upper part of these chambers, obviously for ease of access to the tanks and a network of chains and pulleys which allowed easy movement of these tanks as well as the creatures I suppose. It was an incredibly sophisticated system; it was also taking this biomancy nonsense to an extreme on top of a mountain in the back end of nowhere in Ostalin; as I mentioned previously, it must have cost an absolute fortune.
This left me more confused than ever.
I wasn’t the only one. Everyone else was looking at this whole set up with a mixture of awe and confusion.
Ever practical, Victor’s confusion was different, as he whispered:
“Where is everyone? This type of organization doesn’t run itself; there should be guards and supervisors. There should be people looking after the tanks and the denizens inside; there should be people making more of that green goo.”
I agreed with him but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t see anyone else. I saw others looking as well but no one said anything.
We stared at this extraordinary arrangement a little longer and then we cautiously moved down the stairs into the chamber ahead of us; not knowing what else to do, we just moved straight ahead in a single line, through the rows of tanks. Looking inside, there were definitely shapes there but we still couldn’t make out just what they were. Thankfully, there was no reaction to our proximity from them.
John was moving just ahead, looking for traps, Victor close behind him, followed by Longhelim, Felix myself and finally Drudge; then, as we were approximately half way into the chamber, we suddenly met our first being in this complex.
I saw John and Victor stop abruptly and then a form appeared, literally appeared, next to them. It was a large thing; it had the head of bull and the torso of a man; in other words, it was a minotaur. However, below the waist, it seemed to have wisps of vapour and smoke; no legs; despite this apparent handicap, it didn’t seem to have any trouble moving. He had a huge hammer and as he flew, he swung it wildly in a circle, smashing several vats as well as Victor and John; out the vats came creatures with which we were already familiar; they were the same as the ones we had met beneath the tunnels in Seaquen; humanoid but with atrophied limbs that looked almost like fins, a row of spines along the centre of the back and large, bulbous eyes; a horrible, unnatural human and fish hybrid.
The minotaur, hybrid thing roared at us, defiant and whirled its hammer again…….