A/N: And here we are! The journey continues!
Disclaimer: I don't own Dungeons and Dragons. I only own my original ideas.
Chapter 35: Twisted Corridors
Once we'd finished resting, we continued our journey. We decided to check the north exit to the room. As we moved towards the door, Garurt stopped us.
"There's something there," said Garurt, "It smells of foreign magic".
Narcrath's eye glowed with magic for a moment before he nodded.
"He's right," said Narcrath, "looks like some sort of runic trap. We can probably set it off remotely with a simple spell".
"I'll do it," said Krisyra, who then cast a small flame towards the floor near the door.
As it impacted, the chamber suddenly resounded with a loud thunderclap. As the sound died down, we continued forwards. With a bit of force, the door opened, and we made our way into the adjoining corridor. From somewhere further down the corridor, I could hear something creaking, like metal on metal. We made our way into the first door on the right. The door led to a larger room occupied by nothing but dust. To continued our exploration by going through the other room on the west side of the room. This led us directly into another room. Once again, there were no threats of the room. On the east wall of the room, someone had begun to scrawl an image of a dragon, but never finished it. The ceiling was covered with scorch marks.
We made our way north through another corridor, and emerged into another room. This chamber appeared to have some sort of mosaic on the floor, but before we could examine it, a puddle of dark fluid on the ground coalesced together. It rose up, forming into the shape of a dragon. Based off its size, it looked like a wyrmling, but everything about this creature spoke of its wrongness. It was joined by a pair of grey oozes, and it smirked at us, its coloration shifting between black, green, and sickly yellow.
"We know what you have come for," spoke the Dracooze, its words roiling and bubbling out, "you will not stop the glorious transformation. It will spread, all will be consumed by the master's will. You will never find what you seek".
"We'll see about that," I said.
Krisyra understood what this was bound to come to, and launched a blast of fire at the dracooze. Its form sizzled as the fire struck but it just smirked. Narcrath fired off a Shatter spell, the waves of force rippling through our foes, with the dracooze taking the brunt of it. The dracooze slid forwards, at attempted to attack me, but I dodged easily. I inhaled deeply, and unleashed my fire, and all three of our foes took it fully. Lydratir stepped up to one of the grey oozes, and took it down with his rapier. Garurt copied Laydratir's action, taking down the other grey ooze. Charles stepped forwards and slashed into the dracooze with his greatsword. At first it looked like he'd taken it down, the dracooze splitting apart and falling to the ground. A moment later, the two pools reformed into dracoozes, each one half the size of the original. Krisyra stepped up to one of the dracoozes, and brought down her staff, taking it down for real this time. Narcarth attempted the strike the remaining dracooze down, but missed. The dracooze countered by biting it him, its acidic fangs piercing his hide. I brought my tail around, and struck the dracooze, leaving it to splatter against the wall. I could see there was nothing solid within its body, its shape was the only thing left of the dragon it once was.
With the area clear, we looked closer at the mosaic on the floor. On the wall there was some sort of writing, but it wasn't a language I was familiar with. We continued through the archway to the north, entering an empty room. We saw that there three other exits to this room, one to the west and two to the east. As I looked around the room, I had the sensation that there was something of interest to the northeast. I led the way, passing through another archway. Directly ahead, there was a toppled statue blocking the corridor, but there was another path to the north. This path led to a seemingly blank wall with a pull chain next to it. Charles pulled the handle, and the 'wall' slowly ground aside, revealing a new room, and several rather surprised Orcs.
"Intruders, get them! For Gruumsh!" shouted the orc's leader.
Narcrath reacted quickly, casting a Shatter spell into the room, but all the orcs shook off the effects. The orc leader retaliated by pulling out a javelin and throwing, hitting me with ease. Krisyra stepped into the room and blew across her empty palm, causing a cloud of multi-colored flames to flow out and wrap around all but one of the Orcs. Following this, Krisyra morphed into a bear. One of the orcs attempted to strike Krisyra-bear, but missed completely. I moved up to one of the orcs, swiping at it with my claws, but the orc dodged… right into the path of my tail, leaving it badly injured. Charles approached the orc leader, and stuck him with ease, finding a weakness in his foe's armor. He then let his momentum carry him around, striking the orc leader again. One of the orcs moved up to Charles, striking him with him great axe, but only just barely. Another orc moved up to Krisyra-bear, its axe hitting solidly. Lydratir raised his bow, planting an arrow right into the orc leader, taking it down. One of the orcs approached me, and took a swing with its axe missing completely. Garurt snarled in rage and charged into the fray, taking down one of the Orcs in a single swing. The momentum of the strike carried it right into another Orc, taking it down as well. The Orc I'd previously struck raised its axe, and it bit into my hide, but I was still standing. Narcrath moved up to the orc near Charles, and struck him with a Shocking Grasp, taking it out. Krisyra-bear moved up to the orcs near me, taking one down with a swipe of her claws, and the other with a fierce bite.
With the area clear we prepare to move on, and find our way even deeper into these halls.
A/N: And there we go! Our heroes have had their first encounter with a Dracooze, bur most likely not their last. What may await them deeper in the temple, only time will tell.