Editing Antiva - Bringer of Life (section)

==Mulluth and Madness==

The room was medium-sized and rectangular, with an exit on the right and a door in the opposite corner on the left. The wall to our right, around the passageway, was lined with tables and benches. Pots of paint, brushes, rags, and basically lots of art supplies were arrayed across them. To our left were more tables, this time with mundane supplies of food, packs, rope, torches, some crossbows and bolts; basically everything you might need to go on a journey without knowing what obstacles you might face.

There were three dua'revs cowering against the far wall, crouched down and looking terrified. They wore no armour, but did have a hand axe and dagger at their belts. They were all splattered with paint, so it was likely that they were the artists that had been using the supplies in the room. Pi told them that they should put their weapons down and stay where they were, and if they did no harm would come to them. They hurriedly complied, seemingly no threat to us, and Pi said that they had done well and were safe.

The response was that noone was safe here! They said that "he" had gone mad and was killing everyone. I asked who had gone mad, and if they had the stone with them. As I suspected, "Gallack" (the name they gave) had been driven mad by the stone. He was their leader, apparently, and indicated the door in the corner when Pi asked where he had gone. Pi also confirmed that the compass indicated we should head through that door. We noticed that the door had been sealed with spikes driven into the gaps around it from this side to keep it closed.

I was curious, though, about what they had been painting - there was no mural or design in this room that I could see. I asked, and they pointed at the passage leading out of the room, saying that they had been painting murals as Gallack had directed them before he had gone mad, but now he cared for nothing. I cautioned that we should wait until we were all ready before trying to venture further, and Xlotol went down the passage to see what they had been working on.

This is a summary of the, masterfully painted, murals found in the second room. The directions show the order, but may not align with actual compass points. "South" was on the left as we entered. South: depicted a number of short, stout humanoids that were similar to the dua'rev but with more colour to their skin. They had the posture of a people defeated, and all bore injuries and damage to their armour. They huddled together, and some were stepping through a wall of earth near a six-pointed golden star formed by two overlapping triangles. There were burning braziers on the point nearest the earth wall and the point farthest away, but we couldn't see any symbology at the points. Those farthest from the earth were the most hunched over, and those nearest had expressions of rapt wonder and seemed healthier. In the background, beyond all of the short figures, was a doorway with humans in banded armour, perhaps those that had defeated the others? West: the same short, stout creatures were depicted, but paler in skin tone (not as pale as the dua'rev we had encountered, though). They seemed happy and healthy, and all were exploring deep mines and great caves dripping with precious metals and gems. North: a massive underground city, home to tens of thousands, remarkably engineered and glowing with lights was depicted, constructed around an open, central cavern with a huge stocky humanoid being made of pure clear diamond, the light glinting off it. All the smaller beings shown were facing it with rapt wonder, and all had pale skin like the dua'rev. This was Mulluth, Lord of Earth, we learned from the artists. East: Mulluth was on the left, directly the Dua'rev towards the passage entrance. Above the entrance was a large cylinder of pure black stone with lines of energy depicted flowing down to and around the entrance. To the right of the entrance, the Dua'rev were stepping out of the opening and walking towards the south wall. Were they returning to where they had come from? "Dua'rev" meant "Lost Ones" in the high tongue of the Gods, but who had they been lost by?

When I returned to the other room, Pi was lubing the spikes around the door with oil, using a quill to apply it, hoping to make them easier to remove. I crossed over to the tables near the door, and so I was able to respond when Antinniera asked whether we had any tools to remove the spikes with - yes, there were plenty here! Pi took one hammer, and Antinniera another, and they started to remove the spikes one-by-one.

As they worked, Xlotl and I mused about what we had seen. Why had Mulluth sent his followers here, to travel back to where they had come from? Was this a way to reach the source of all, and if so, did Mulluth seek to exploit it? The Dua-rev spoke of a "pit of death" that lay behind the door - it made sense that there was a gate to another Realm, but why death?

The tall pale-skinned ones had reacted badly to chaos and life (the stone Xlotl carried), but seemed ok with law and death. Life and death were the same, but orientated differently in the star, so it made sense that when split the stone of life became half life and half death, perhaps providing balance in the absence of the original stone of death. Perhaps the pale-skins sought control (law), but chaos rejected them.

Refresh some supplies... Antinniera seemed to load up with all sorts. Refresh my fire stick. Last spike falls and Pi eases door open. Well-lit corridor beyond with a side branch to left and an opening on right just before stairs leading down. A stench of death, and an all-pervading sense of death that chills us, sending shiver through body. Pi started retching, sending me shuffling backwards. I instinctively blow air back, taking some of the stench away, but the sense of life-sucking deathly chill remained. After he finishes retching, Pi tied underpants around his mouth before moving forward!

I follow, waving Calm to try and move the air. Corridor to left ends in dead end but something carved there. Pi and Antinniera had run forwards - compass almost pulling towards stairs. I urged caution, and moved slightly down the dead end to see what was there. Take a lantern and see an 8-pointed star inlaid on stone, dominating the wall, but only two symbols portrayed - Earth at bottom and Life next to it clockwise. Shout at others but no response - think it might be a mechanism for a gate. Looks old but not worn.

Walk around the corner, talking about what I'd found only to see Antinniera curled up on the floor sobbing. Xlotl chanted a prayer to Lord Aergarnion, asking that he make "our daughter" feel safe within his wings. She felt a warm, enveloping breeze and a soft feathery blanket over her, although it wasn't enough for her to move. She started talking, though, saying that we were all going to die, we couldn't go down there, we must find another way, this wasn't going to work. Great for morale. Pi went white as a sheet, looking rigid, saying that there was no way in Admir's realm he could go down those stairs, it's over!

I send an image of what I had found, and what I thought about it, to Xlotl as I moved up to the others. Stop short as I suddenly sense Xlotl moving in front of me, but then hear his prayer to Aergarnion, which was a real blessing. Sense the air change as well, and Pi was suddenly invigorated, apologised for having a moment, and then jogged down the stairs. Antinniera moved back, babbling about how it was too dangerous and we were going to die. I say how it must be the stone, which has taken on an aspect of death, but we must face it if we must have the stone. Xlotl moved to her side and again called on the blessings of Aerganion, this time seeming to help her shake of the feeling of dread.

Pi had reached a turn to the right just after the stairs, and just around the corner it opened into a room with a circular opening in the floor about twelve feet across. Suspended within this was a ten-foot diameter wooden platform, and leant against the far wall was a ten-foot diameter circle of stone with an eight pointed star embossed onto it. This had symbols on every point, including two that we hadn't seen before: a black circle, and a black circle with rays coming off it (like a stylised sun), set in opposition to each other. He heard voices coming from within the pit, possibly raised in argument or agitation.

I complimented Xlotl in his connection with Aergarnion, but he reminded me that the power he usually felt was not the same, and it did not seem to come straight from Lord Aergarnion as it would normally, even though he was still able to use the power. Antinniera had charged off to join Pi now that the dread no longer had hold of her, so I followed on more carefully with Xlotl close by.

Once we were all in the new room, we took a moment to reflect on the different symbology, although nobody could say what it meant. The symbols were also in a different order to the six-pointed star we had seen before, although the opposites all matched as before. We were determined to continue, despite the sense of impending doom that seemed to permeate the place. Pi peered down the pit, seeing a drop of about fifteen feet, narrowing slightly as it went down. Lower than that, although it wasn't clear how far from this angle, was a black floor of some kind. About ten feet below our level there was water tumbling from an underground stream within an opening in the side of the shaft, and it looked like there was a dry opening on the opposite side. There were definitely voices from below, although he couldn't see anyone from where he was looking. I noted that the air felt wrong, like it wanted to escape from the pit but was unable to move.

Pi jumped onto the wooden platform, wanting to be let down at once, but Xlotl cautioned that not all the dua'rev might be mad so some of them might need our help. Antinniera jumped on next, and released the pulley lock! They both started to fall, but Pi managed to grab the loose rope and slow their descent, burning his hands slightly. They stopped about ten feet down, roughly in line with the water, although it still fell just below the platform. He looked up and shouted that we should follow - "jump on quick"!

I suggested that we might seek to understand as much as we could before leaping into danger, but then leapt down to join them on the platform in case I was accused of being against them. Xlotl called out that there was some dweomer about the stone in the room above, and that was enough for Pi to haul us back up to have a closer look. He did grumble as he did this, though, reminding us that the compass was telling us to go down the pit.

Xlotl, who had taken a closer look at the stone, suggested that it might have been a seal of some kind lower down the pit, which would have allowed it to fill with water from the stream. The residual dweomer might have been because the seal had been broken by the dua'rev when they opened the pit. Pi, seeing that there was nothing we could use to aid us, became impatient and started lowering the platform (more slowly this time), at which point Xlotl said "very well, children" and joined us. I sympathised; Pi and Antinniera seemed to have no discipline at all!

Pi lowered us back down to the level of water, and we could see that the stone looked like it had been shaped to create a wider opening. The opening on the other side was much rougher, perhaps new or created in a hurry. The water was flowing from the side we had entered the chamber above from, with the dry passage on the other side. It was certainly narrow enough here that the stone plug above would fit and allow the water to fill the pit, as Xlotl had deduced.

I stepped off the platform and into the dry passage, bending and crouching because it was only about five feet high. It was obvious from inside that the worked tunnel was very rough, and didn't extend that far, which wasn't like the dua'rev. The others raised the platform slightly so that I could peer down below it. The black floor was actually the top of a black column with an open chasm surrounding it. The water fell onto one side of this column and then cascaded back over the edge. There were two Dua'rev stood on the column, and they were looking up at the platform and saw my head. They shouted up that they wanted help, and were willing to pay for it. Their lord had gone mad, and they needed to escape.

The others were wary of a trap, but the two below seemed genuinely shocked that there were only three left alive (that we had found anyway) in the halls above. They wanted the platform lowering, but Xlotl wasn't willing to take the risk. Instead he passed a rope to me (which appeared in the air and snaked its way towards me as if it were alive... slightly disconcerting), which I then fed down to the dua'rev. I pointed out that it was unlikely I was going to be able to lift them, especially in my awkward position, so Pi took up the weight as one of them climbed on. Pi hauled him up, hand-over-hand, until I was able to grab his leather armour and arm to pull him into the passage with me.

As the rope was lowered again, I spoke the first fellow. He confirmed that "Gallack" (their lord) was driven mad by the stone, which he called "Morsantiva"... well, it was what the stone called itself apparently. He said that they needed to flee, and reiterated that they would pay for safe passage. I asked about the column, and he said that it was what they had hoped to bring their people through from Mulluth's realm to populate this place, but that now Gallack sought to open a path to a dark place instead.

The second of them was better armoured, and carried a large warhammer with what looked like dried blood on parts of it. As we helped them onto the wooden platform above, the second one crouched and spoke of Antiva - he feared that it would bring madness, and insisted that the stone must stay if they were to leave. He tried insisting that we all stay and that they would lower the platform back down after they had escaped, but we weren't so naive as to agree to that! We said that the stone would stay, but that at least one of us would go with them.

I backed up to make some space, and Xlotl started to move into the passage with us. As he squeezed past the dua'rev, though, one of them lunged with his warhammer, saying that Antiva was there! I didn't think he had connected, so I calmly said that if they would just let Antiva stay here then they could be gone and free of the madness. Pi was... less calm; he swept his warhammer down and took the legs from under the dua'rev with a crunch (that sounded painful), sending the one with a warhammer crashing to the floor with a loud thump. Xlotl spoke from nowhere, saying that he was an acolyte of Lord Aergarnion and that he had the stone under complete control and would let them live. This sent the other dua'rev scrabbling to get onto the platform, seemingly with a bit of a shove from behind. I helped the priest of Mulluth (or that's what I assumed he was) to his feet, whispering as I bent over him: "these people are crazy and dangerous - just get out of here"!

He was pulled up onto the platform, and Pi healed his wounds whilst "encouraging" him to leave as quickly as possible. The first dua'rev started pulling on the rope to lift them up as soon as they were both safe, taking Pi and Antinniera with them. When they reached the top, they hurried off, but not before offering payment. One thrust a satchel at Antinniera, saying "payment as promised", and the other offered his warhammer to Pi, saying that he needed it more than him! Pi was gracious enough to swap his warhammer so that he wasn't unarmed, and even offered some food so that they might have their strength. They did not refuse, but said: "go with the Gods, for you go to your death"!

Pi lowered the platform back down, allowing us to climb back on. I was glad to stretch properly again, even if the air wasn't quite right in the shaft. Pi continued to lower us, and our legs got a bit wet as the platform temporarily plugged the shaft. The water was really cold, and Xlotl noted that it was of the stone, but we passed through without any greater harm than cold legs. The water washed off as we went below the lip of the shaft, cascading below. As we neared the black surface, we could see that it was definitely glassy, not stone as we had first thought, and looked smoothly polished. Some rubble and dust had fallen onto the top, perhaps from the excavation above, and it was wider that the shaft above it. There was another wooden platform off to one side, presumably designed to lower people down beside the glassy column to whatever lay below.