Chronicle - Sutur

Gateway from Malek

With the giants and wargs dealt with, we took a moment to look around the room we had entered. Nearest to where I now stood was a depiction of Artemis above the wall; to my right was Ares, to my left Zeus and behind me Cerberus. On the ceiling was a pegasus in flight. Beneath Zeus was shown a dwarf cutting through enemies to reach a dwarven female, with a mountainous scene in the background. The symbol of the female dwarf was partially obscured by chiselling. Under Artemis was a great battle being fought at a mountain and minas, with dwarves fighting the forces of evil. Orcus' wand was being torn from the top of the tower by Renash and Hasfast, who was wearing his 3-pointed crown. Another dwarf was with them, but we didn't recognise his symbol; they were all celebrating a great victory. Under Cerberus was Orcus with his wand being confronted by Renash, Brolgar, Hiramatsu and another samurai. Under Ares, Renash was holding up the ring of water whilst confronting a balrog, but was also missing a finger; the Balrog's whip of fire was stretched across the roof. This was certainly a 6th age room.

On the floor was another riddle to answer.

Four Brothers
The first runs and never wins.
The second eats and is never full.
The third drinks and is always thirsty.
The fourth sings a song and is never good.

We quickly realised that this related to the four elements, Water, Fire, Earth and Air in that order. It was also worth refreshing our memory that Zeus was similar in position to Odin, Artemis to Frey, Ares to Loki and Cerberus to Fenris when considering the alignment of the rooms. Whilst considering the meaning of the room, we realised that most of the room was 6th age and positive, but one wall referred to history and was negative (under Cerberus). We had to apply some positive energy to the wall, which meant steaming it.

Whilst that was happening, Lanzi tried an idea he had discussed with Melai, holding my collected chronicle pages up to the codicil; to my surprise, the pages locked into place by some dweomer, becoming the 7th age history in progress. Lanzi was the one to produce the steam, holding up something shiny whilst mouthing an incantation before breathing steam over the image of Orcus. A portal was revealed, with stairs beyond leading down and spiralling left. Melai warned that there was evil ahead, so we should be prepared for battle.

I called on Odin to protect us from evil and Lanzi created mirror images. We made our way down the stairs, pausing only to let Hintzu disable a deadfall trap that Melai discovered. We carried on for about half an hour, with Melai warning that the sense of evil was getting stronger all the time. The steps were very well hewn, and the air was now thick and warm. Finally we reached a short passage with a hovering ball of light in front of a stone door with a metal handle and beneath a vaulted ceiling. There were symbols that we could not read, so Melai used dweomer to comprehend languages.

We recognised the symbols of Zem to the left, Balem above and Hamar to the right, but we were still unable to decipher all of the runes. The only words that seemed to make sense were "death", "embalming" and "bringing back to life". Lanzi suspected an illusion, so asked us to back off whilst he tried to dispel magic.

Suddenly Melai ordered us to run, and the power of her crown amplified her command so that most of us were unable to resist! Fortunately, Lanzi was able to complete his dweomer and the spell removed whatever influence was exerted on Melai. She rescinded her command, and we returned safely to the base of the stairs.

Now the light had disappeared and the gibberish had been replaced with glowing runes. Unfortunately we still had no idea what they said! Hintzu, helpfully, confirmed that John could not read them either. I cast the runes to seek Odin's guidance, which took a few minutes. As I was doing so, Hintzu backed into the shadows, covering our rear. Unfortunately he was so well hidden that Morwath didn't see him and almost tripped down the stairs when he walked into him! Despite the comedy antics, the augury was clear; despite the risk there was only one way to our destination, through the portal ahead.

We discussed the risk of this unknown doorway. Melai suggested that Morwath was expendible, so he should go first, although I'm not sure he agreed! Morwath had been towards the rear with Hintzu, but he came forward now and then announced that he could read these strange runes! The language was an ancient one, apparently, but he read out the inscriptions one by one. To our left it stated "Seek thee not the path of death unless thou art ready." To the front it read "I want your soul, tell us how best to take it to our own." To the right it said "Weigh thy heart against that which Ma'at allows for your will to be forsaken."

Another important conversation had taken place at some point whilst here, which I record now despite not relating directly to the door. Both the sword and the gem had come from negative planes, but were positive artefacts, so it was no wonder that the Prime was filled with negative influence; worse, we had brought another such artefact, the hearth, to the Prime (and fortunately removed it again, but not to the Abyss where it belongs).

We finally approached the door itself, and Eudora made herself invisible in case of danger. Hintzu was hanging back from the group, expressing doubts that we should go through, and it was indeed Morwath that opened the door. Beyond was a medium-sized room with some strange symbology, which we determined to be 3rd Age.

Lastar's Retreat

To our left was the Sun god of the Egyptian mythology, Ra, beneath the god was a depiction of the base of Lastar's tower; an oriental man was studying books and showing something to a figure resembling Bavarik but much younger. Opposite was lion woman figure, clearly another god, beneath which was a ruin with a man in a grey cloak kneeling before Orcus, who was holding his wand; Orcus' left arm was touching his cloak. To our right was Ynyswydrin being killed by Orcus beneath an evil looking beast-headed man figure. Behind us was an Egyptian woman arching over (bridging) a smaller man beneath. Depicted under this was Orcus handing over a staff to Daudrag. On the roof was a lady within what looked like a spinning star.

There was a semi-clad female sitting in the centre of the room, surrounded by nasty looking jaguars and pillars around them with torches providing light. All of the room was brightly painted and there was lots of colour, gold and gems. The floor was polished marble, and the whole place reeked of opulence.

Melai reacted first, raising a wall of fire and stepping into the room. Morwath followed, but I was concerned with Hintzu's behaviour, so I went back for him and called on Odin to strengthen his courage. There was no reaction from the woman to our entry, and it seemed that the vivid colours that seemed so real might actually mask a statue beneath. Lanzi scanned the room, detecting a hidden door in each wall, and it was possible that with the door closed behind us that the whole room would appear to be sealed. Closer inspection revealed that the doors were visible from close up, but blended in cleverly with the background from a distance.

Melai decided to raise walls of force around the statues as a precaution as we investigated further. Judging from the arrangement of the room, the bridge woman was roughly aligned to Odin, the Sun god to Frey, the lion woman to Loki and the beast like creature to Fenris. From the carvings in the previous room it sounded as if the left path was towards a final battle, the right path just bad, so we elecetd to continue straight on.

We started moving around the sides of the room, but five mummies suddenly appeared around us! Fortunately I had my hand on Odin's holy symbol and quickly called on his power to banish them, destroying them instantly! My triumph was short lived as the statues in the centre of the room started to move and a sense of fear crept over us as the woman looked around. Fortunately it did not deter us. Some of the walls of force were taken down and an intense radience, god like radiance, shone from her and her beauty was stunning. We suspected that this was an avatar! The jaguars lept to attack first.

Hintzu grabbed me, stopping me from uttering a prayer; it seemed that the radiance had affected him more than the rest of us. Melai raised another wall of force before attacking with Agan, but actually destroyed the woman with the power of her mind before she even landed a blow! Morwath was mauled by the cats, and Lanzi came to his aid with a lightning bolt, killing one of his attackers, and then killed another with magic missiles. I call on Odin to bolster Hintzu's courage once more; it seemed to work as he immediately charged to attack, landing a heavy blow that caused it to yowl and back off. Melai approached from the other side and finished it off with a clean blow to the neck.

Hintzu moved up to a door, checking for traps. Melai reported that there was still an emanation of evil all around us; she placed her hand on the door and the frame began to glow before sliding open to reveal a passage. Torches sprang to life, revealing a thirty foot long corridor leading to a darkened room beyond.

There were four statues in the centre of the room, and we advanced to see more. The nearest was a man over ten foot tall, brown skinned and strong looking. He carried a pole arm of some kind and it was raised as if to strike the floor. To our left was the Sun God, Ra posed as if in combat, bird headed with a large, red stone set in a circlet on his head. The farthest was a lion-headed female whirling around with robes flowing and arms outstretched; the sense of movement was perhaps more than just a good sculpture as there seemed to be some actual movement around her. To the right was the beast-headed humanoid with an embalmed body stretched out at its feet. The beast had a cleaver-like weapon in its hand and was posed in the act of chopping at the body. There was a circle of runes in the centre of the statues, but the walls and ceiling were unmarked.

Lanzi scanned the statues with his gem of seeing and I handed my light gem to Hintzu to illuminate the room more brightly. There were what looked like clouds hanging around the female figure and they were revolving slowly whilst dripping water onto the floor. Winged creatures flitted through the air around the figure of Ra.

Melai stepped into the room, and almost immediately four mummies stepped straight out of the stone wall opposite us. A blade barrier flashed lethal metal across the corridor we stood in and flame struck down from above onto Melai and I. Whilst I was putting the flames out, Melai ran forward to engage the mummies. Hintzu initially tried loosing arrows, but they had no effect on the undead. Lanzi raised mirror images to protect himself, which was wise because I was unable to force them back by calling on Odin.

Next our movement was hampered by a wall of thorns, allowing one mummy to close with me; when it touched me I was drained of health and collapsed, passing out. Lanzi launched magic missles, hitting one of the things. Hintzu sent a sheet of flame from his mouth, burning a couple of the mummies, but also setting fire to the thorns! Melai cut one down and sliced at another, fighting hard to keep them back.

Hintzu, probably feeling guilty, dragged me out of the fire but not before my cloak had been destroyed and a ring was left behind, snagging on the thorns as he dragged me. Lanzi, sensibly, dispelled the magic in the area, clearing the thorns, fire and blades. More was to follow, though, as one of the mummies spewed a great cloud of insects that filled the entire area with biting creatures, and four skeletons joined the fray from nowhere. The skeletons hurled fire at Melai and attacked her. Morwath decided that a tactical retreat to escape the insects was the wisest course of action.

Melai was still fighting hard, killing another mummy and a skeleton. Lanzi, unable to use dweomer due to the insects, decided to join the fight; he grabbed a torch from the wall and ran forward, landing a perfect strike on a mummy's back with great form, but doing no damage as the thing was immune to the normal fire. Both were burnt in return fire, but Melai killed another two of the skeletons as Hintzu also joined the close melee, downing the last skeleton. The last mummy disappeared, although we were still wary of danger.

Melai healed herself as Hintzu rested, and then they started dousing the mummies in oil to burn their remains. Morwath returned with a bubble of protection around him that repelled the insects, being quickly joined by Eudora. Lanzi used his mind to kill an area of insects, then raised a wind wall in the short time he was able to chant. He spotted the last mummy, just as the wall behind him was turned to mud. Luckily he was unaffected by the deluge and Melai stepped up to kill it; it may have just come back to life!

Lanzi decided that the bodies needed burning, so summoned a huge fire elemental. Unfortunately he did not share his plan, and the elemental appeared right in front of Melai! Morwath, who still had some blades between him and us, took a potion and turned into a gaseous form, allowing him to pass safely but slowly.