AnAdventurousIntroductionToLeilm part 21

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We are standing around in front of some large copper doors with moons and tigers on them. This is underground in the Isle of the Dead. Behind us is a bridge with four tiger statues.

Sjer attempts connects with Volorn for the purposes of healing. He manages to heal Afalar and Zali'haro a bit and then falls into an exhausted sleep. Volorn falls asleep too.

Zali and Afalar continue to search the door and surrounding area and find some more clues.

Below the bridge Zali'haro finds a section on one of the pillars that is outlined by cracks. Afalar manages to pull out the section and inside is a box. Inside the box is a bowl that fits on the tongue of the large tiger. Once they have all four bowls out and have inspected them they go off looking for the body of Alazar which had been left floating in the underwater tunnel.

At the entrance to the water they suprise a crocodile feeding on the body of Alazar. Afalar flashes the light at the croc which recoiles and moves toward the water. Afalar yells and rushes the crocodile giving it a mighty thwack. The crododile hisses and thwacks back sending Afalar flying into the wall and undoing all healing that had been done so far. Afalar and Zali'haro scurry back through the hole and the sounds of a lantern being smashed to bits accompanies the sudden extinguishing of all light.

Armed with a candle and Zali'haro, Afalar went back to have a look at the landing. The body of Alazar was mostly torn to bits and the crocodile was still there. They then came back in and we all slept for a full day. The next day we decide that we should fill the bowls on these statues with part water and part blood. After a mini adventure with the croc we get water and attempt to open the doors by filling the bowls. There is something happening in the door, but it is obvious that it takes full strength blood as the water just seems to run out of the channels and dribble onto the floor. After opening a few veins and filling the bowls with full strength blood. The blood drains from the mouths of each of the tigers and appears in the door. The blood slowly fills all the channels until the blood from each side meets in the middle and moves up to the top of the door. At that point the doors give a shudder and move apart revealing a large chamber behind. We move in to investigate.

There are large pillars running the length of the hall in rows, but the pillars do not reach the entire distance up to the ceiling. On top of each pillar is a set of bones, a shield, and a sword. At the base of each pillar is a couple of squares of flooring with a chain embedded into the floor. Around the room in the walls and also along the floor are large sarcophagi, which we assume to hold the bodies of the champions and heroes of the Empire of the Tiger. Sjer determines that there is some magical energy connecting all of the piles of bones to all of the chains and that each pile of bones also connects to one sarcophagi. Probably if one is disturbed, some spell is cast on all of them.

We decide it would be good to see what is on the other side of the room, but that it would be difficult to traverse it without disturbing some spell or another. Zali and Sjer urge Afalar to climb across the ceiling and ascertain what is on the other side. Armed with Spider Climb, a lantern, and a crossbow, Afalar leaves his boots on the ground inside the room anc climbs up the wall and across. Sjer and Zali'haro watch his progress as the light moves across the ceiling. They see it move down a pillar as Afalar climbs down about halfway across the room to a raised dias that has four pedestals, each with a book on it, facing in the four different directions. They can't quite see what Afalar does, but all of a sudden there is an audible click. And skeletons carrying shields and weapons begin appearing in the torchlight of Sjer and Zali's vision. The battle soon gets hot and vicious as more and more skeletons appear out of the gloom. We see Afalar's lantern rise once more to the ceiling and begin it's journey across toward us. We are forced out of the room by the skeletons, but we realize that we must make a stand at the door or else they will surround us. Zali'haro starts cutting down two at a time, but there always seem enough to surround him again. Sjer casts Spider Climb on himself and Volorn and Zali. Sjer and Volorn take to the safety of the ceiling at which point Zali becomes surrounded by five of the skeletons. He keeps cutting through them, but it seems hopeless. "Why won't you climb, Zali!" shouts Sjer.

Over the smash of swords on shield and the snap of bones breaking Sjer hears the grunts and muffled curses of Zali'haro as he rythmically scythed through the harvest of bones. An arrow suddenly appears in the ribs of one of the enemy. Sjer looks over to see that Afalar had joined them above the battle raging below. Afalar was upside down on the ceiling with a lantern hooked in one elbow attempting to reload his crossbow under very adverse conditions. Below Zali'haro was beginning to show signs of exhaustion and looking on the verge of falling from many wounds. Then Sjer saw the opportunity to give aid as a bolt from above splintered one skeleton from the cranium down and Zali turned and dropped the two skeletons behind him leaving a space. Sjer and Volorn scurry down to try to heal Zali of his wounds. Unfortunately the powers are still too new and it take a few tries before Zali feels renewed strength pour into him.

Meanwhile Afalar has moved through the doorway out into the hall drawing some skeletons past the doorway. As Sjer turns to climb back to safety a cold chill runs the entire length of his spine starting somewhere at the base of his neck and running all the way down to where his courage used to lie. Out of the gloom from the center of the chamber two ghostly figures dressed in full plate armour slowly move towards us. Sjer's panic level hits an all-time high and he goes up the wall to the ceiling and out the door over the struggling figures below with Volorn at his side.

Below Zali has managed to kill some 15 or more skeletons leaving only 3 facing him. Afalar has set his lantern down back by the bridge and is moving towards the battle with his crossbow cocked and aimed through the door at the advancing ghostly figures.

Spitting saliva and dribbling fear, Sjer drops down and throws his weight against the huge door on the right of Zali'haro. Fear is a powerful motivator and despite the size of the door, Sjer gets it moving and slams it closed beside the one remaining skeleton and in the face of the two glowing figures. Volorn takes a bite at the last remaining skeleton, but dry bones are not to his taste. Sjer sees a bolt go flying through the door heading for one of the armoured figures. "Nooooooo, the other door, close it before they get to us!", Sjer shrieks shrilly. Zali'haro drops the last skeleton and moves back a step to prepare for the new foes; eying up their armour and weapons, he sets his mouth in a determined line muttering, "Croc bait."

Sjer, driven now to heroic measures dives between Zali and the certain death he feels is staring at him, grabs the other door and with two feet on the wall, two hands on the door, and his back to Zali, strains with all his might. As the extra flesh normally couched within the frame of Sjer obeyed the laws of gravity giving him an odd misshapen look, and the muscles normally used to move nothing heavier than a rogue vine or the supper wine, strained against the inertia of the remaining door, Volorn pushed his way into the crack between the door and the wall giving enough help to allow Sjer to close the copper door before the glowing fiends could sink their unholy fingers into his frail flesh. Sjer immediately collapsed to the ground to the sounds of metal parts moving and clunking within the door itself signaling that the fight was over. The door relocked itself. Sounds continued to echo from behind the door as if a great work was under way and suddenly the armour and bones of the fallen skeletons remaining in the hallway lifted up and flew towards the door clacking and sticking there as though a force from within was pulling at them. The room was resetting itself to deal with the next intruders.

The three adventurers of the House Sru'haro regarded the closed door. Afalar stood contemplating the closed copper doors. Inside that room were the spoils of a kingdom, obviously magical weapons and armour, stone books of unknown value, and his boots. He glanced at his bare feet and back again at the door.

Zali'haro looked mostly recovered from the violence of the battle. His breathing was once again regular. His reflexive motion to wipe the blood from his blade before sheathing it was stayed when his eyes once more returned to his fleshless foes, stuck to the copper doors, hiding the images of the tigers and the winds embossed on the copper.

Sjer, eyes still whiter than normal, was looking back down the hallway regarding the other two options for getting out of here: the crocodile, or the sealed off stairs.

The following day, with hunger becoming a steady companion, the three companions decided to try the stairs. The steps began at the same level as the bridge, but ended abruptly against a stone slab which felt extraordinarily heavy and showed no signs of moving through the efforts of muscle alone.

Afalar began to study the problem and saw four stones with four holes each in them that felt like a combination lock of sorts. Perhaps with a long pick from his kit, a little patience and some room to work he could find the right combination to move this heavy stone. Patience, he had plenty of, and his toolkit provided a nicely shaped instrument that fit the length of the holes and even afforded the purchase to rotate the mechanism once fully inserted. This provided a way of keeping the pins depressed or allowing them to come back to the starting position. 'Now we're getting somewhere,' he thought. If only his companions would give him the room he needed to work. Sjer in particular had an annoying habit of calling out "helpfully" to try something he had either already tried or thought of trying. 'Still, the boy can't be blamed,' he thought. 'After all, the vineyards are no place to learn patience and ingenuity. Wish he would keep the chatter down, I can't hear a damn thing with all the "Try the left one first, now how about the right one", bloody hell. Finally after exhausting all of the possibilities he asked Sjer to study the copper doors again 'just in case we missed something'. In the ensuing silence he was rewarded with the faintest of clicks as he began retrying the combinations of pin pushes. Ten more minutes worth of work and the stone began to rumble and slide. Sjer appeared once more at the bottom of the stairs looking quite excited. "Wow," he said. "You did it!"

The three climbed the stairs into a small chamber which housed the large stone. In it were a couple of platforms and another set of doors. It was Zali this time who figured out the puzzle. The doors had images of warriors on them and there were small depression for finger tips along the sword and shields of the images. Another set of stairs greeted us as we moved through. At the top of these was a bricked up irregular wall. We broke our way through into a dark dank cellar of sorts. Up through a trap door into another cellar, this one in use as a cold room for food which we helped ourselves to. Unfortunately we made a bit of noise as Sjer and Afalar began puking as a result of the rat bites we had suffered. It was obviously past time to get to a doctor. We ended up breaking out of a private home on the Isle of the Dead and making a run for it. The doctor was glad to see us, NOT. However, he did what he does best and after a week in his care we were all as good as new. We weren't a whole lot richer than before, but we definitely knew more about the enemies we had recently made.

Now, time to study those documents.