A/N: Hey everybody Welcome back! I hope you enjoy the story this week.
Review response (To Guest): While I appreciate your offer, I don't believe I am the correct author for that particular challenge. The main reason why is that I have never watched Sailor Moon, and as such wouldn't know enough about it to write a crossover story involving it. Thank you once again for suggesting the challenge to me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dungeons and Dragons. I only own my original ideas.
Chapter 14: The Southern Wing
We headed south, passing once more through the ruined tower and arriving in front of the dragon carved door. Charles placed the key in the lock, and the door unsealed. As it did, a puff of dust and the scent of stale air told me this place had been sealed for ages. We entered the next chamber, decorated with crystalline orbs in alcoves the north and south, all but one of which seemed to be inactive. I watched as Narcrath approached the only active orb, and suddenly the chamber with filled with music. Something about the tune seemed to tug at my mind, trying to make me flee this chamber. I also saw the others reacting to this, with Lydratir and Charles starting to move back the way we'd just come.
"The orb, destroy it!" I shouted.
Narcarth swiftly brought his staff down upon the orb. It struck and cracked the orb, but the music only got louder. I growled as this music grew to near deafening levels, and stepped up, bringing my claws down upon the orb. The orb shattered, and the music went silent. After a short detour to make sure all of us were no longer under any sort of mystical compulsion, we continued on our way. We next entered a short hallway, and almost as soon as we did, Lydratir stopped the rest of the group.
"Look, the floor's different in this area," said Lydratir, "looks like a pressure plate".
He quickly dug through his pack, pulling out an iron spike which he hammered into place to block the pressure plate from motion.
We continued along and next came to another dust chamber, this one with a large marble statue of a dragon coiled at the north end. As we approached, a voice emitted from the statue, and it almost looked like the statue's mouth was moving.
"We come at night without being fetched," said the statue, "we disappear by day without being stolen. What are we?"
I thought for a moment, and then realized.
"Stars," I said.
In response, a grinding of stone sounded from my left, and I saw a hidden door swinging open. We stepped through, and arrived in a chamber lined with statues of what appeared to be elves in plate armor. At the far end of the room, we could see a green light emitting from an archway, illuminating the open pit between us and the exit. I watched as my companions searched the room, but my eyes kept being drawn to the light. It was only when Narcrath came over to me that I noticed they'd uncovered a secret chamber along the south wall.
"What up big guy?" said Narcrath, "you looked a million miles away for moment there?"
"I… don't know something about this place feels odd to me," I said, "like I was drawn here for some purpose".
"Huh, who knows, maybe we'll find your answer up ahead?" said Narcrath, "we found a small chamber over there. You might have some trouble fitting inside".
"What's in it?" I asked.
"Not much really," said Narcrath, "There's an inscription speaking of a 'dragonpriest' who was entombed in this place alive for some sort of transgression of delving into forbidden magic. There also appears to be a small tunnel which will bypass the pit blocking access to the next chamber".
"Well, it might be best if you head through the passage with the others. I should be able to at very least jump over the pit and meet up with you".
"Alright, but be careful," said Narcrath, "if there's charm on this place that's effecting you, it's best we finish our business here before anything bad happens".
I watched him off, and stepped over to the edge of the pit. While the bottom was lined with spikes, it seemed simple enough. I took a step back, and deftly jumped the gap… much to the surprise of the creature waiting on the far side. As I looked at the strange, rather small creature, I recognized it from one of the books in Quoros' library: it was a Quasit, one of the most minor of demons. I knew such a creature did not belong on this plane, and it would be best to defeat it, sending it back to the Abyss. After staring at me in mute horror for a moment, the Quasit shrank down into a miniscule centipede and attempted to scurry away. However, I was already on top of it, and brought a foot down upon the transformed demon. With a slight crunch and a puff of sulfurous smoke, the Quasit was banished from the material plane. Shortly thereafter, a grinding of stone indicated my companions rejoining me.
We turned our attention to the main item of interest in the room: a large sarcophagus covered in images of dragons and locked shut with several heavily rusted iron clasps.
"So, what do you say? Should we open it?" asked Charles.
"This place was highly protected," said Narcrath, "this must be the burial place of the priest. I'd bet he's been entombed with something of great value".
"Well then, let's get it open," said Charles.
With a bit of effort, he managed to force the clasps open, and then pushed off the lip some help from me. Inside of the sarcophagus was not a human, elf, or any other humanoid you'd expect to be entombed with such honors: it was a troll! I remembered Narcrath had mentioned earlier: that the priest had delved into forbidden magic. This appeared to be the result. The priest-turned-troll sprang up from its tomb, and we had no choice but to fight.
The troll immediately took a swing at me, but missed by a wide margin. It ended up stumbling forwards and running into a wall. Narcrath pulled a small diamond from his pack, and fired out an orb of fire at the troll, but it missed. I stepped around the sarcophagus, sticking against the wall so my allies could have a clear path to our foe. I tore into the troll with my claws, but the wounds already seemed to be closing. Lydratir whipped out his bow and quickly fired, but the arrow snapped in half as it struck the wall. I saw Krisyra summoning a familiar flame to her hand, and launch it at the troll striking true. The fire seemed to have a more lasting effect on the troll, as this wound stuck.
The troll, angered by this swung at me again, raking me with its claws and causing me to take a step back. I saw Narcrath summon another Chromatic Orb, and this one struck true, the fire severely damaging the troll, but it still wasn't done. I struck back at my attacker, tearing into the troll with a fierce bite… and gagging at the taste afterwards. I saw Lydratir step up, and run the troll through with his shortsword, causing it to fall. I watched as Krisyra stepped up, and blasted the downed troll with another jet of fire.
"It's the only way to be sure this thing's not getting back up," said Krisyra.
We checked through the sarcophagus, finding a ornate dagger, a few pieces of silver jewelry, a decently sized pile of coins, and four scroll cases.
It seemed this was the limit of this section of the citadel, so we started making our way back to the Kobolds' den, ready to delve deeper and cut off the problem of the Gulthias Tree at its root.
A/N: And there we go! Next time: Our heroes continue their journey towards the heart of the Sunless Citadel. See you then!