Slowly, so incrementally that they had had walked for almost another hundred feet before they noticed, the rough cave floor and walls gave way to ancient hewn stone and solidly placed blocks. After the initial shock had worn off, close examination of the walls began to reveal carvings. First it was just seemingly random chisel marks, but those soon gave way to runes, words, and sentences. Most of the runes were as indecipherable as those on the plinth from earlier; though Cairis was able to pick out a few here and there that bore enough similarity to hazard a guess at their meaning. The one bright spot was that neither Cairis, Alise, nor Tala's devices could detect any hints of magic in the Orrian writings. That however, changed when they found the second plinth.
Nearly a copy of the first they had encountered, only the slightly marred shape of the stone itself betrayed that it had not moved into their path again. This time the stone was propped up against the wall instead of on the floor, and the group was careful not to disturb it. One turn of a tunnel later, two more rested in a heap; and a few paces more revealed a pile of at least six. The inscribed runes on all the stones were the same, and a sense of dread continued to build within the group. Even Tala--notoriously imperturbable by possible danger--had become silent and chose her steps more carefully, minimizing the sound of her passing. It was perhaps a few minutes of slow progress later that Tor reached down and gripped Cairis by the shoulder. Leaning down until his lips practically touched the human's ear, he whispered, voice tense. "Listen, the tapping!"
For a moment he heard nothing save Tala's clinking armor and his own muffled footfalls, but his straining ears were rewarded with a single tap that had come from somewhere ahead of them. Tor meaningfully tapped his foot on the ground, where occasional etched runes could still be seen, and Cairis made the connection. Whatever had chiselled out these runes was somewhere ahead of them, and it was still working.
Cairis swept a hand towards Tala and Alise, palm held up in a halting gesture. A silent burst of magic sprung into existence perhaps six feet ahead of the leading pair, a sudden image of Cairis with hand held out, that vanished almost as soon as it was birthed. Alise jumped a bit, but managed to hold back her voice. Tala responded by stopping as though her feet had become attached to the stone. A shield appeared on her arm from somewhere, and she crouched behind its cover. She glanced back towards the the two men and saw them both tapping their ears. A moment later, several taps echoed down through the stone hall. Tala relaxed from her guard slightly, but kept her shield raised.
She gestured forward, but didn't need to bother warning the others to be careful. Alise had doused her illuminating flame, and the swarm of dust and pebbles that swirled around her hands told him that the elementalist was already preparing to bring earth crashing down ahead of them to seal their retreat if needed. Tor nodded at him with a wary expression when Cairis glanced back. They might not know each other well, but they had both been on enough of Tala's adventures to know that they wouldn't have a prayer of getting out of here without each other's help.
The tunnel slowly began to curve down and to the left, the first time it had changed from straight lines since the transition from cave to worked stone. The tapping grew steadily louder as they walked down. One, two hundred steps along the curved hall, light suddenly shone from ahead. Not the brilliance of daylight, or the flickering orange of fire, this was a sickly green luminescence that throbbed from somewhere out of sight. The light pulsed brighter every few moments, then slowly dimmed again before the pulse came and refreshed it. Again and again, the light flared and faded, almost like a heartbeat Cairis thought. The light grew easier to see as they moved, but it did not seem to grow any brighter, instead it felt heavy, as though it were a different color of darkness, rather than its opposite. Then in the space of a moment, the tunnel opened into a great chamber. The space was not huge--perhaps a hundred feet around and half that height--but after the close tunnel it felt much larger. It took a moment before the adventurers realized that stacked everywhere within the room were stone plinths. Many were unmarked, blank slabs of freshly cut stone, but there were plenty that radiated magic and malice. Near the center of the chamber a man sat cross legged next to a piece of stone, chisel in hand. Painstakingly placing the metal spike, he brought the mallet in his other hand down hard. It took Cairis only one glance to realize that the figure was no longer a man. Gaping holes hung open in his flesh, and the clothing he wore could barely be considered cloth anymore. A quiet and immediately stifled gasp suddenly came from Alise. Cairis followed her gaze just in time to see what he had taken for a shadow begin to move. The pulsing green luminescence ceased its rhythm as the spectre turned towards the group. The undead spirit's face was a ghastly mockery of humanity, which was now filled with an expression of equal parts cruelty and amusement. The voice that emerged from its ethereal mouth sent shivers straight to his bones. "You will serve Zhaitan soon foolish mortals... Kill!"
"Run!" Tala shrieked, as risen suddenly began to pour into the chamber from unseen doors. Her three companions needed no further urging.
No comments:
Post a Comment