A/N: And here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Dungeons and Dragons. I only own my original ideas.
Chapter 50: Exploring the Tunnels
We continued into the depths of the ruins beneath the Tumbles. The next corridor led us to what mush have once been an alchemy lab. Broken glassware was strewn about this small chamber and covered by a thick blanket of dust. The floor was stained by the spills of a hundred strange compounds and reagents. The air seemed to roil and swirl, casting a rainbow of dull hues as if soap bubbles were caught in a draft. The cloud moved towards us, and it dawned this some sort of malicious miasma.
Krisyra quickly launched a flame at the miasma, burning some of it away. The miasma drifted over towards Narcrath, and he swiftly controlled his breathing to prevent himself form chocking on it. Narcrath moved out of the miasma, and fired off a shocking grasp into its mass, weakening it further. I moved over and slashed at it with my claws, and it seemed to be getting weak. Lydratir stepped up and stabbed into the miasma with his rapier. The gaseous creature dissipated, leaving the chamber clear.
Narcrath found a few intact potion vials, and took them for study. We continued down the main hall, and came to another strange chamber. A large spherical vessel resembling an amphora occupied this room. The 10-foot diameter container had a large hole in its side, allowing a faint glimpse of its empty interior. The flagstone floor was stained by some ancient spillage and was covered by dust. The remains of a corroded iron ladder lay beside the grand vessel.
"What is this thing?" I said quietly.
"I think it's some sort of sensory deprivation chamber," said Narcrath, "I've heard such things are used to meditate and focus the mind".
Three shadowy creatures fluttered out of the tank, held aloft by bat-like wings, their actually form hard to make out. One of the shadow creatures flew up to Lydratir, biting at him and whipping him with a tentacle. Krisyra summoned a flame, and lauched it at one of the shadow creatures, burning it. Lysratir drew his rapier, and attacked the shodow creature near him, severely wounding it. I approached the shadow creature which had yet to be engaged, and tore into it with my claws. My second swipe struck something critical, taking the creature down. The shadow creature which Krisyra had burned flew over towards Narcrath. He deftly dodged its bite and first tentacle, but the second tentacle caught him. Narcrath countered with a shocking grasp, leaving the shadow creature in bad shape. Charels moved to assist Narcrath, and took out the shadow creature near him with one mighty swing. He then moved over, and finished off the one near Lydraitir as well.
With the room clear, we had two possible paths: the eastern and southern exits. We decided to head south first. The short hallway brought us to a T-intersection. We went west first. A massive table fashioned from a single stone slab occupied much of this room's floor space. Scraps of punky, dry-rotted wood and rusty nails indicated tables or other furnishings once lined the western wall, but they had long succumbed to age. A large stone box, its exterior inscribed with strange sigils, rested atop the slab table.
"What do you make of this?" I asked my companions.
Narcrath stepped up to the box, and carefully traced the sigils, before nodding.
"This writing appears to be in Primordial," said Narcrath, "In particular, it pertains to the Plane of Elemental Earth. No idea how to open it, though".
I nudged the box. Noting it must weigh at least a few hundred pounds.
"I probably could carry it," I said, "but I'm not sure I want to be burdened by this in case we run into more trouble".
"We best leave it here then," said Narcrath, "it's not like someone's going to run off with this thing. If nothing else we can come back for it on the way out if we really want to".
We left the room, and entered to room at the other end of the hall. A jagged hole tore the stone floor of this chamber in two. Collapsed ceiling stones were piled in a tumbled fashion, forming a crude bridge across the gap. Mounds of dark forest earth had partially buried the chamber, having poured into the room through the holes in the roof. Debris and broken furnishings were dimly visible on the far side of the room, as is a closed door.
"I don't trust the stability of that slab," I said, "I'll ferry you across".
"Good idea," said Charles, "no telling how deep that pit is".
Several short trips later, all of my companions were safely across… just in time of a quartet of shadows to slither out of the darkness. One of the shadows moved to strike me, but missed. Narcrath weaved the arcane energies of a chromatic orb, which then split it two to strike both the shadow near me as well as another. Both of these shadows fell. Krisyra launched a flame at one of the shadows, wounding it. This same shadow moved to attack Krisyra, but missed. I went after the shadow that wasn't currently engaged, and with two swipes of my claws left it in bad shape. Lysratir took aim with his bow, and fired upon the shadow near Krisyra, taking it out. He then took aim at the shadow near me, finishing it off as well.
With the area clear, we searched the room, and Lydratir found something of interest. A wand carved from bone, and wrapped in the hide of some sort of reptile. He handed it to Narcrath, who looked it over.
"I believe the glyphs on this pertain to summoning of light," said Narcrath, "what with the shadow creatures we've been battling, this might come in handy".
He placed it among his other tools, and we entered the next room. Collapsed shelves and crumbling chests slouched in this small room, covered in seeming eons of dust and smelling of great age and mildew. A faint, old stink of rotting flesh was barely discernible amongst the other pungent, subterranean smells.
Looking over the objects in this room, they appeared to be ancient maps and charts. Krisyra attempted to pick one up, but is swiftly crumbled to dust. We also discovered the smell of decaying flesh was from some of these maps, and nothing else. The only thing intact in this chamber was a bone scroll case. Inside, there was a thin sheet of metal rolled like a scroll and bearing numerous seemingly randomly spread rectangular holes. It looked like it might be important, so we decided to take it with us. With this wing of these tunnels explored we started back towards the main junction to seek out what other secret this place held.
A/N: And there we go! Next time, our heroes continue to delve deeper in search of the these shadow creatures. See you then!