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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 116312" data-attributes="member: 143">Broccli_Head: I think Benzan knew that he could have levitated out of reach of the chief during his battle, but it would have left Delem completely vulnerable.  Thus he stuck it out.  Delem's not a spellfire wielder, but he does like burning hands and Aganazzar's scorcher...  He is tracking toward a prestige class, and should take it around 11th level.   * * * * * Book III, Part 27They didn’t rest long.  The room where they’d confronted the tribesmen quickly filled with a stench of death, and in the hot, stale air it would not be long until the bodies started to rot.  Now that the tribesmen were broken they could have returned to Mantru to rest and recover, but all of them felt the same restlessness, the same desire to be done with this place and return to their homeland.  If the Well of Worlds was to be found here, they wanted to find it now.  They conducted a quick search of the area used as a lair by the tribesmen.  Cal’s cantrip of magic-detection revealed that the bronze spear and sword that the native leaders had used both radiated magical auras, and the group claimed them, with Elly taking the spear and Lok the sword.  Otherwise they found only crude personal items fashioned from bone, wood, and leather, and some foodstuffs that seemed, given what they knew about the culinary habits of the tribesmen, decidedly unappetizing.  The chambers that opened off the balconies were likewise decorated only with similar trash, although in the room formerly occupied by the chief and his sons they found an entire wall given over to crude wooden shelves that held rank after rank of polished human skulls.  Shuddering at the grim display, the companions left that chamber behind and continued on their search.  They finally ended up at the only other exit from the central chamber, a passage located directly across from the entrance that led yet deeper into the island.  Cal lit a sunrod to illuminate their way, and thus equipped they started down the corridor, with Benzan again in the lead.    The corridor continued on for a short distance before turning sharply to the right, heading southward.  They followed the passage in that direction, until Cal’s light indicated a steep staircase that descended for about thirty feet before ending in a stone wall that blocked the passage.  They quickly descended the stairs toward the obstacle, and saw that the wall was of more recent construction in comparison to the ancient stone blocks of the corridor, apparently fashioned of loose rubble piled together almost haphazardly.  “Crude construction,” Lok said, examining the wall.  “We can break through fairly easily, if we want to.”“No doubt the tribesmen built it,” Cal observed.“Maybe they wanted to keep out something that lives beyond,” Delem suggested.“Well, only one way to find out,” Cal said, and he nodded to Lok.  The genasi put aside his axe and went to work on the wall, his thick fingers finding gaps in the piled stone and tugging free large slabs with brute strength.  With Benzan and Delem helping clear the debris, they’d made a hole large enough to squeeze through in a short while, and soon they were in the area beyond the wall, where the corridor continued deeper into the island.  The air was stale but breathable, and the dust on the floor here was undisturbed, indicating that they were the first to come this way in quite some time.  A few dozen paces after passing the wall the corridor turned again to the right, now bearing to the west.    “It feels like we’re intruding here,” Elly said.  “Like robbers breaking into a tomb.”“We’re not robbers,” Benzan said.  “Well, maybe if we find something valuable…  But our main focus is just to find this Well, and make our way back home.”“I know what you mean, though, Elly,” Dana said.  “I can feel it too… there’s something here…”She was interrupted by a sudden noisy creaking that filled the corridor around them.  Without warning the floor underneath the lead members of their group began to crumble and give way, the heavy stone blocks falling into an open space below.  Benzan’s nimble reflexes allowed him to leap ahead even as the floor under him collapsed, barely outracing the continuing collapse and ending up a goodly distance ahead where the floor of the corridor held.  Lok, Cal, and Delem were less lucky, as all three fell into the dark opening revealed by the collapse.  Elly and Dana barely managed to retreat back from the crumbling edge, joining Ruath and Varrus back in the length of corridor they’d just traversed.  The three companions did not fall far, landing in a chamber below them with a loud splash.  The room, which was significantly larger than the space taken up by the corridor above, was apparently flooded with water.  That was all they could tell at the moment, for the fall had snuffed out Cal’s sunrod, leaving them in pure darkness.  “Is everyone all right?  Lok, Cal?” Dana’s voice came from the dark, her words nearly drowned out by the sounds of splashing that continued from below.  “Don’t move, you’re right by the edge,” Benzan cautioned, warning the others away from the weakened edge of the passage.  A opening fully thirty feet across now separated them, the width of the flooded chamber below. “Benzan!  Can you see them?” Dana cried.Delem’s voice drifted up from below.  “The water’s only about five feet deep—I’ve got Cal.”“What about Lok?”Ruath completed a minor spell, and a pale glow sprung up around her fingers, illuminating the area around them enough for them to see.  They looked down into the space below—the level of the water below was only about eight feet below the corridor above—and saw Delem, only his head showing above the water, holding onto Cal.  Of Lok, there was no sign for an anxious moment.  “There!” Dana cried, pointing to where the top of a helmet just broached the water a short distance away from Delem and Cal.“With his armor and weapons, he’s too heavy to swim!” Ruath shouted.  “Delem, can you get to him?”The sorcerer nodded and started pushing through the water, but before he could reach the submersed genasi Lok’s helmet shot up a foot out of the water, lifting the genasi high enough so that he could take a breath.  “Lok!  Are you all right?” Delem asked.  “I’m okay,” he replied.  “I’m balancing on my axe and shield, however, so I’d appreciate it if we could quickly get out of here.”Relieved that his companions seemed all right, Benzan could chuckle a little at their predicament.  “How’s the water, guys?” he called down to them. “Cold!” Cal yelled, moderating his tone when his words echoed in the confined space.  “Don’t just stand there, get us out of here!”“Lok’s the one with the rope,” Benzan said, but then, to the surprise of the others, he lowered himself cautiously over the still-uncertain edge the opening, and dropped down to the water below!  “What are you doi—” Cal began, but he stopped when instead of splashing into the water beside them, Benzan landed softly on the water, standing on the surface as if it were a solid floor beneath his feet. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you,” Cal said.  “Horath’s ring!” Delem said.  “You took the captain’s ring!”“Well, he didn’t need it anymore,” Benzan said with an unapologetic shrug.  “Here, let me help you,” he said, reaching down and taking hold of Cal’s sodden form, lifting the gnome up until he could reach the edge of the opening and pull himself back up to the level of the passageway above.  “Hmm… I think maybe you might be a little too heavy, Lok,” Benzan said.  “Delem, reach down and grab the bag of holding,” the genasi said, unable to let go of his weapon and shield lest he tumble back under the water.  Once Delem had recovered the bag, Lok said, “There’s rope, pitons, and a small hammer inside.  If Cal can secure a line above, Delem and I can pull our way out.”After handing the bag to Benzan, Delem summoned a few dancing flames around him, illuminating the water-filled chamber.  The room was approximately thirty feet square, with a half-open stone door in the middle of the north wall that revealed a flooded corridor beyond.  With the light he could now see that the entire ceiling was discolored, and most of the support struts had crumbled away, which explained the collapse of the corridor.  Hopefully, it didn’t mean that the entire complex was unstable.  Benzan leapt back up to the edge of the corridor and pulled himself up beside Cal, and the two of them quickly secured the rope to a piton driven into a gap between the stone blocks that made up the wall of the corridor.  Lok pulled himself up first, and then Delem tossed up the genasi’s shield and axe before following. “What about us?” Dana asked from across the gap.  “We’ll tie the end of the rope around the bag, and toss it to you,” Benzan suggested.  “Then you can drive in a piton on your end, and use the rope to cross.”It wasn’t an elegant operation, but after a short while they had rejoined their company on the far side of the gap.  The three of them who had fallen into the flooded room dried out their gear as best they could, although their clothes were still sodden and dripping as they started down the corridor again.  Benzan again took the lead as they continued their exploration, with another sunrod lighting the way.  “It’s my last one, so we’d better try to avoid another dousing,” the gnome said.  “I’ll try to keep an eye out for signs of another weakened floor,” Benzan promised.  The corridor made a series of quick turns to the left, until they were heading back to the east.  After the final turn, though, the passageway quickly culminated in a door fashioned from a single heavy slab of stone.  “Hold on,” Benzan said, pausing to examine the door closely.  “I don’t see anything that looks like a trap,” he reported.  “Looks like a raw strength deal—Lok?”The genasi handed his shield and axe to Delem, and confronted the door.  He pressed his powerful hands against the portal, his muscles straining as he pushed against the stone.  Finally, the door protesting against centuries of disuse, the heavy slab turned on its pivot, ultimately freezing again after a two-foot gap had been opened into the area beyond.  After pausing to rearm, Lok led the way through the door.  The others followed him into a square room, also about thirty feet square, with another similar door in the opposite wall.  The room was virtually empty, save for an unadorned altar-table of heavy stone slabs that stood near the center of the north wall.  Placed atop the table was a small stone box, about the size of a man’s head.  “Well, what have we here,” Benzan said, crossing toward the altar and the box.  “Careful,” Cal cautioned.  “Always,” Benzan said, but his attention was already fixed on the box.  While the others gathered around—careful to keep their distance, lest the box be a trap—the tiefling gave the exterior of the box a thorough once-over.  The box was hinged in the rear, so that its two halves would swing apart when pulled open.  Benzan managed that without difficulty, but as he opened the box he sucked in a breath of surprise.  The bright light of Cal’s sunrod glimmered on the contents of the box, a small statue apparently fashioned largely from coral set with precious stones and pieces of crafted silver.  The statue was of a strange, unfamiliar creature.  Its upper torso was man-shaped, although its hands were webbed and its face unlike anything any of them had ever seen.  Its eyes were wide and bulbous, and its mouth round and puckered, surrounded by a ring of tiny tentacles.  Its lower body was divided into three long tentacles, each of which was topped by a sharply hooked claw, like a curved dagger.  “Amazing,” Benzan said, as he reached for the obviously quite valuable item.  Suddenly, however, he flinched, his face twisting in an expression that was half confusion, half pain.  You are a child of the Blood, a voice came in his mind, smooth and sensual as it played against his perceptions.  You bear a blade forged by the Elders, and stride the world without full awareness of your birthright.  Do not be ashamed of what you are, Mighty One!  You are better than those around you… those weak ones, those who hated you in their jealousy and fear…Do not be afraid of your destiny…  It is given unto you to walk the roads of kings, and to be the bane of nations…What?  Benzan shook his head at the last words, a phrase that seemed somehow familiar.  The strange voice faded, its final words indistinct, sounding somewhat… angry?  He looked around, confused, and saw his companions, their gazes all fixed on the statue, their expressions ranging from dazed looks to almost… dreamy?  He shook his head again, feeling as though a fog were lingering in his thoughts, as he tried in vain to remember the things he’d just heard, promises…He didn’t see Lok come up directly behind him, his axe coming up, ready to strike…</blockquote>

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