Chapter XXIII

When they finally descended to the third level and dealt with what they had met on the stairs. Talina scanned the area with inner sight, when she opened her eyes she didn't look happy.

"Over there," she said, pointing in one direction. "That's where the living are amongst the undead, they are guarding…something. What is it we are looking for again?"

"The shaft and headpiece of a Horadric Staff," Geldar told her. "And a Horadric to unite them."

"It must be over there then," Norleche reasoned. "But they're not the only vermin down here."

"Tell me something I don't know," Talina said cuttingly as she strode off with Geldar and Norleche in tow.

"Wait one moment," Norleche said, he stopped and muttered an incantation then spat on the ground. From the space he spat on a human figure appeared, made entirely from mud and clay. It looked at Norleche in gratitude.

"Is that a golem?" Geldar asked, Norleche nodded. "My brother and I summoned one once, a mistake and we were punished severely for it. Yet it didn't look like that."

"Yours was probably grey and collapsed like a stone statue when it was destroyed," Norleche said cuttingly. "Anyone can learn that from a book if you have the patience and conviction, but only a true Priest of Rathma can animate a clay golem." He looked at them in surprise. "Weren't we just leaving?"

In the centre of four lit pillars was a small chest, Geldar was convinced that it contained their prize. Unfortunately that wasn't the only thing there. Surrounding it were about seven huntresses as well as a bevy of undead and a tomb guardian.

"Take out the tomb guardian," Norleche said to his skeleton mages and the golem. "I'll be there to add to your blows. Talina, you keep the cats busy and Geldar keep everything else off her."

"Nice strategy," Talina said. "Are we ready?"

"Readier than ever," Geldar replied, and on Talina's signal they moved out.

As always, Norleche accompanied his skeleton's cold attacks with his own blunt blows, hoping to bring the tomb guardian down. But Geldar's task was no easier, fending off skeletons and undead from Talina's back while she focused her attack on the cats. And whenever there was a hole in Norleche's attack, the tomb guardian used it to resurrect his fallen minions.

Finally the large mummy breathed his last and Norleche was able to help Geldar with the remaining undead. Quickly they cut a hole in their offensive, right through to where Talina was fighting the cats.

"What took you so long?" Talina asked breathlessly.

"No time for talk," Geldar said, quickly slashing the limbs of a huntress and cutting her throat.

"You got that right," Talina countered as she fended off several cats that were surrounding her.

Norleche ignored them as he worked side-by-side with his golem on the leader, and when the golem crumbled to dust, Norleche pressed his attack. Slashing the cat's neck with a poisonous dagger and she collapsed to the floor, howling and spluttering as she died.

"That went well," Norleche said lightly when he noticed that they were the only ones left standing.

"Let's see what we have," Geldar said, smashing the lock of the chest and opening it. He took out a small box made of cold with inscriptions all over it. "It looks like the Horadric Cube," he said, showing it to them and he pressed a button. The cube unfolded to a huge size, one of them could easily have fit inside the unfolded form.

"There's a lot of magic in this," Talina said as Geldar handed her the cube, she handed it on to Norleche.

"It's very old," he observed, trying to make out the writing. "I can't read it, but there's nothing of Evil within this."

"You can put something inside it," Talina observed, taking a dagger and putting inside the unfolded form. She pressed the other button. "It's not doing anything," she said.

"Cain will tell us more about this," Geldar said as he held it in his hands.

"You have quite a treasure there in that Horadric Cube," Cain said after he examined it. "It requires simple experimentation, but you should be able to find some formulae, he paused for a few minutes then pointed out one of the buttons. "This is the transmute button, and this other button opens and closes it. You still have to find the shaft and headpiece."

"Where would we find something like that?" Geldar asked. "The cube we found in a tomb, but there aren't that many out there beyond where we were."

"Could anyone else have realised the power behind the shaft?" Norleche asked. "They might have taken it, and hidden it."

"Perhaps," Cain said thoughtfully. "Who can truly know the means Evil will take towards destruction? I'd advise you took keep looking, if you find any leads seek them out until they are useless."

"So," Talina said as they were walking away. "We're just back to square one."

"No we're not," Geldar pointed out. "We have the cube."

"But I thought the cube would lead us to the shaft and the shaft to the headpiece," Talina protested.

"I don't think the Horadrim were that fond of scavenger hunts, Talina," Norleche said dryly. "Besides," he added. "Cain said that they would reveal themselves as we need them. We need to be patient."

Talina frowned and didn't say anything else as they headed back towards the waypoint.

They were resting by a well in the midafternoon when suddenly all the creatures around them became restless, running for the shelter of the oases or nearby caves. Norleche immediately observed this activity and quickly asked Geldar to produce his map.

"This is where we are, The Far Oasis," Geldar said, holding the map carefully as the wind started to pick up. "This could get dangerous!" He said, looking around warily.

"There's nowhere near that's big enough for all of us," Norleche concluded mournfully.

"Hey," Talina ran up to them from some distance away. "I've found…something that we can wait out the storm in."

The sands were beginning to form clouds as the followed Talina.

"Though I'm not sure about it," she said as they ran. "It looks like where one of those sand grubs would live."

Talina stopped at a hole in the sand, it was just big enough for them to slide through one at a time.

"Well don't just stand there," Norleche said, giving him a push towards it. "Get down there!"

"But it's all slimy and ahhhh!" Geldar's words dissolved into a scream as his slid down into blackness.

"Come on," Norleche said to Talina, giving her a nudge. "You're next."

Talina didn't protest as she slid down the hole, she merely winced as the full power of the smell erupted. Norleche followed her a few seconds later.

"What an incredible smell you've discovered!" Geldar said as Talina slid into view.

She grimaced as she stepped in a pile of goo, and then decided not to hit Geldar. She just ignored him as she scraped the muck off her greaves. Soon after, Norleche followed her.

"I don't like this," Talina said, looking around at the slimy cavern they were in. "Perhaps it was a mistake coming down here."

"It is a place to whether the sandstorm," Norleche pointed out calmly. "But I think our coming here was not entirely by coincidence."

"So you think either the Horadric shaft or headpiece could be down here?" Geldar asked.

"Precisely," Norleche answered. "We need to make thorough search of these tunnels. Legend has it in these parts that each sand maggot is merely spawn from a single great source."

"Such as the mother of all sand maggots?" Talina asked sceptically.

"Something of the like," Norleche replied.

"It's just a story," Talina dismissed as they walked towards a goo-covered doorway.

"Yes," Norleche agreed. "And so is the Tale of the Three, just a story."

The corridors were narrow and twisting, the sand maggots seemed to lurk in corners and hide their eggs there, spitting poison from this position. After numerous attacks involving running into each other and dangerous encountered with each other weapons, Geldar called to a halt in a side chamber.

"This is clearly not going to work," Geldar said. "All of us fighting at once, we need to work out a system based on our attack strategies." He nodded to Talina. "Where you really shine is the ranged attacks, perhaps its best if you stay to the back."

"I don't mind," Talina said somewhat reluctantly. "While we are in tunnels that is, it's just you blocking the doorways."

"I can't help it if I have to hack through three enemies to get through," Geldar retorted, then he turned to Norleche. "No offence meant, but your skeletons and golem are only getting in the way, what are your other offensive measures that you can use?"

"I can stand back and curse them," Norleche replied. "That will help you on the melee attacks."

"It'll certainly be a lot better than fighting for fighting space with a skeleton," Geldar said. "And what's that curse you do with the flames above their heads?"

"Amplify Damage," Norleche said. "I also have Confuse which can lead them to killing each other and Iron Maiden, which works somewhat like your Thorns Aura."

"I hope we're not in her much longer," Talina said as they were leaving the room. "But who knows how deep these caverns go?"