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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 216022" data-attributes="member: 143">Book IV, Part 33Within a hundred paces the narrow, twisting path had descended so fully into shadow that those with darkvision had to physically guide the others.  Unwilling to risk a light, they huddled closely together and continued down the steep slope.  As they made their way deeper into the gorge a thick, cloying mist rose up from below to meet them, and they could hear the sound of falling water from somewhere below. “I’m surprised that everything isn’t frozen over,” Cal commented softly as they continued their descent.“There is heat trapped in the ground, here, beneath the rocks,” Lok explained.  “It’s one of the main reasons that the dwarves located their town here, back in the days of Delzoun.”“It’s an impressive land,” Benzan said.  “Too bad we’ve been doing nothing but fight since we’ve gotten here.”“The North is a place of stark, pristine beauty,” Jerral said, her tone slightly wistful.  “It can also be harsh, though,” she added in an undertone.  Benzan glanced over at her, able to clearly read the sadness in her expression even in the darkness, but he did not press her.  Their guide paused at a broad landing where the trail turned back in upon itself and then sank further down into the gorge.  Instead of heading for that route, however, the dwarf crept silently to the back of the ledge, where a thick stone overhang sheltered a shallow alcove in the cliff face.  The dwarf slipped into the alcove, which to all appearances looked like a dead end.  Gornik slipped along the blank rock face at the rear of the alcove, pressing his fingers briefly at several locations into tiny crevices in the stone.  As he finished, those with darkvision could see a thin crack appear in the stone, a crack that widened until a narrow doorway stood gaping into pure blackness ahead of them.  Gornik peered into the darkness, then turned and gestured for the others to follow.  Benzan and Lok helped the others, and soon the entire company had disappeared into the darkness beyond the portal.  They could hear the sound of the secret door grating shut behind them, and then they were enveloped in silent darkness. “We’re going to need some light,” Cal said.  He drew his shortsword, its pale light casting a blue glow on the faces of his companions.  That illumination wasn’t enough for the humans to see by, however, so he cast a quick cantrip that conjured a magical source of light.  He put the light onto a coin and handed it to Dana, and thus equipped they moved into the dwarven town of Caer Dulthain.The area immediately beyond the secret door was a guardpost, with narrow horizontal slits in the walls to either side to allow defenders in the spaces beyond to target intruders that forced their way through the portal.  A corridor ran deeper into the mountain, its walls smoothed by the expert hands of dwarven tunnelers.  Everything around them was quiet, the silence an almost tangible feeling in the air around them.  Even the sounds of their footfalls on the stone seemed preternaturally loud as they started down the corridor, Gornik warily leading them at the very edge of their light.  The corridor slanted slighty downward but provided no difficulties for them after the arduous climbs along the mountains trails earlier.  They passed by several side chambers that had the look of storerooms, most of which were now empty save for some old, rotted barrels and some careless litter.   After traveling perhaps a hundred paces down the straight length of the corridor, Cal’s light indicated an intersection ahead of them.  The passage split, one fork leading to their left and the other to their right.  Gornik crept up and looked down both passages, then turned to face them.  “Left leads up to the main cavern, where the dwelling places of the town are located,” the dwarf said, his voice deliberately low so that they had to strain to hear him.  “The right fork leads down to the deep halls, not much down there save some old mines and natural caverns.”“Well, which way should we check first?” Jerral asked.“Maybe I can help,” Dana said.  She stepped forward until she was standing at the intersection of the two corridors, then closed her eyes.  She spoke the words of a spell, calling upon the power of Selûne.  Then she turned, slowly, until she was facing toward the right passage. “That way,” she said, pointing down the darkened length of the corridor.   “Did you sense Delem?” Cal asked, as Gornik led them down the right passage.  “The spell can’t find people, but I fixed it on his ring,” she said.  “How far does it work?” Cal asked.“Roughly six hundred feet.”“We’re close, then,” Benzan said, checking his weapons.  The corridor continued for a short distance before it turned slightly to the right, the slope in the floor deepening as the passage became a long, curving ramp.  Following the contour of the passage, they traveled in a full circle down the length of the slope, until the ramp gave way once again to a more or less level passage that ran straight on ahead.  Dana had moved forward, her steps growingly slightly faster with each minute until she was nearly walking on Gornik’s heels.“Careful, Dana,” Cal cautioned.  “The spell only lasts a few minutes,” she explained.  “If we delay, we won’t be able to find him again.”“If we rush into a trap, we won’t be of any good to him either,” Cal insisted.  Dana’s look showed her frustration, but she allowed Gornik to take the lead again, the veteran tunneler checking the walls, ceiling, and floor of the passage with each step he took.  A minute later they came to another intersection, this one presenting them with three choices.  Each appeared identical, although as they stood there the faintest hint of an odor, a dank, musty smell, could be detected from the passage to their right.  “Which way, Dana?” Cal asked.  The mystic wanderer screwed her face up in a moment of intense concentration, but the look of disappointment that followed betrayed the outcome of her search.  “I’ve lost it,” Dana replied, “but before it faded, the spell was pointing generally in that direction.”  She indicated the right-most passage.“The old cistern,” Gornik said.  “Hardly used ever since they ran a main up to the town proper.”They started down that passage.  “This is too easy,” Jerral said.  “I don’t like it—why haven’t there been any guards?”“Maybe the demon doesn’t know about the secret exit,” Benzan said.  “Maybe they’re up in the town above, or guarding the main entrance.  Maybe the demon’s waiting to spring them on us all at once.  Maybe we’ve killed them all.  Whatever, it doesn’t matter, we’re committed.”“I wasn’t disputing that,” Jerral said testily, her tension bringing an edge to her tone. “Quiet, all,” Cal said softly, defusing the growing tension with the calm quiet of his voice.  “There’s a room up ahead.”The light soon illuminated what Cal’s sharp eyes had discerned, a small square room with a domed ceiling.  The floor, set with cracked stone tiles, was clearly old, and a pair of long stone tables against the wall to their left were dusty and cluttered with broken wooden pails and layered cobwebs.  Another passage continued in the center of the opposite wall.  “Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here recently,” Jerral said, examining the tables.  “Remember, the demon can teleport itself,” Cal reminded her.As there was nothing of interest apparent here, they crossed to the far passage and continued on.  The passage rapidly gave way to a broad stone staircase that descended steeply yet further into the earth.  The companions started down, and as they progressed they could hear their footfalls echo slightly from ahead, as though the sounds of their movements was filling a larger space up ahead.  Each of them tried to be quiet, with varying degrees of success, but it was as if the entire world around them was silent and empty, with themselves the only living things to shatter the quietude.   They emerged at the end of the stairs in a circular room, roughly ten paces across.  The floors and the lower half of the walls were tiled with the same crumbling stone they’d seen above, and the ceiling was again a vaulted dome reinforced by a ring of thick buttresses.  To their left an old, rusty apparatus jutted from the wall, apparently a pump of some sort.  A great stone basin stood beneath it, its interior filled with cobwebs.  The center of the room contained a narrow shaft in the floor, perhaps three feet across, with an old bucket still attached to a length of frayed rope beside it.  An open doorway in the far wall revealed another staircase that descended sharply to the left. The musty smell was stronger here, and as they entered the room they could smell another odor wafting up from the shaft, an unpleasant air of decay that twisted their nostrils and caused their stomachs to roil in protest.  The place was quiet, though, and after a brief search they crossed to the stairs and started down yet again.  “I wonder how far underground we are,” Benzan whispered.  “Far,” Lok said, his armor making a slight clanking sound with every step the genasi took.  The stair wound down in another tight spiral, and after several twists they could see another opening ahead, a wide stone arch.  As they neared the landing at the bottom of the stairs, they could see watermarks on the stone walls, discolorations that indicated that this entire area had once been submerged.  Beyond the arch the opened a large empty space, a chamber that seemed filled with darkness.  The sounds they made echoed back to them from deep within the place, indicating that its size extended well beyond the limits of their light sources.  The place had once been, as Gornik had indicated, a huge cistern, the main water storage for Caer Dulthain.  The smell was stronger now, an almost overpowering odor of corruption that hung in the air like a taint.  And as their light pushed back the shadows at the edges of the chamber, they could see that the stone floor was littered with a jumbled collection of muck, foul waste, and broken white objects that each of them soon realized were shattered bones.  The bones of dozens, if not hundreds, of creatures.  “I really don’t like this…” Jerral whispered, as they slowly edged into the room.  “Delem!” Dana hissed, the others turning toward her in surprise as even that sound loudly echoed through the large space.  Behind them, Gornik hung back near the entrance, unwilling to enter this place that was so obviously tainted with an evil presence.  The companions barely heeded him, so intent they were upon the malevolent darkness.  “I don’t see anything,” Benzan began…Then a massive CLUMPH sounded behind them, accompanied by an impact so heavy that the floor of the cistern shook with its force.  The companions spun as one, and their faces took on a uniform stare of fear and horror as they regarded their foe.The demon stood there, its power and presence amplified here in its chosen sanctuary.  It still bore the marks of their earlier encounter, although its wounds had closed to form ugly scars in its thick hide.  They could now see the ledge above the arch where it had hid, waiting for them, and they could just make out the smashed lump under one of its cloven hooves that had up until a moment ago been their guide, Gornik.  A terrible sound filled their minds, the voice of pure evil.Welcome, it said.</blockquote>

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