A/N: And here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Dungeons and Dragons. I only own my original ideas.
Chapter 51: The Darkling Lanthorn
We arrived back at the main junction without trouble, and headed down the path to the east, soon reaching what looked like a funerary vault. More than a dozen sarcophagi in various styles and condition had been placed about the room. Some stood upright, while others lay flat on the cracked flagstone. The casket lids were all intact and closed, obscuring what, if anything, the contained. One, however, glowed with an eerie, pale green light, like foxfire in a dismal mire. Narcrath stepped closer to the glowing sarcophagus, and examined it carefully.
"Interesting," said Narcrath, "there's some sort of mixture of necromancy and transmutation magic on this sarcophagus. No idea what it does, though".
"Best we don't mess with it then," said Lydratir, "who knows what might happen".
We moved on, exiting the room to the north. The almost physical darkness that filled this place was getting stronger. We had to be nearing the source. We soon reach another room: shallow niches in the walls of this dark chamber held rotted picture frames, indicating this was once a gallery where art had been displayed. Thin, decorative columns divided the room in two, and the floor was covered by the dusty, decayed remains of a thick carpet that must have once had been quite magnificent. Out from the darkness stepped the figure of what might have once been a man, but now was a being of shadows wearing a wooden mask. At his sides, there were two large dogs, similarly twisted by the dark power emanating from this place.
"You," spoke the shadowy man, "You have come far enough. Surrender, and let the darkness take you, or you shall die".
"Never," I snarled back, "We will not give in to the likes of you!"
"Then you will fall, like so many have before!" said the shadowy man.
Lydratir moved up to attack one of the shadow hounds, and with two stabs of his rapier, he took it out. Krisyra summoned a flame to her hand, and launched it at the shadowy man, but he dodged the attack. I moved up to this shadowy man, and tore into him with my claws, damaging him badly. I could see there was nothing left of the man this like once was, only shadows. He attempted to stike me back, but his attack couldn't get past my scales. He went for another attack, and once again fail to damage me. the remaining shadow hound bounded forwards, and attempted to strike Krisyra, but its jaws found no purchase. Charles moved up to assist me, and with one might swing of his greatsword, took out the shadowy man. His form dissipated, and the mask fell to the floor. Only one foe remained in this area. Lydratir stepped over to the remaining shadow hound, and took it out with two deft strikes with his rapier.
The room fell silent, and we were left to explore. The chamber was mostly barren. Its only remaining point of interest was a stone post that rose 4 feet from the floor to end at a U-shaped bracket. A small, round protrusion extends from the east side of the post, giving it a lopsided appearance. Set in the western all was a massive stone door with dozens of small, iron plates riveted to its face.
"So, how do we open this?" asked Charles.
I thought about this setup for a moment, and then had an idea.
"That metal scroll we found earlier," I said, "I think it might fit on this bracket, and this part here, it might fit a torch".
Charles retrieved this scroll from his pack and placed it on the bracket. It was a perfect fit. He then lit a torch, and placed it in the attached sconce. The light shined through the holes on the scroll, illuminating fifteen of the panels on the door. Lydratir pushed the illuminated panels one by one, ready to dodge back if something went wrong. As he pushed the last one, the lock on the door ground open, and we were able to proceed, entering the final chamber of this place.
The high, vaulted ceiling of this chamber suggested it to be quite large, as did the rows of thick pillars that extended away from the entrance and into the stygian blackness beyond what we could see, even my own vision failing to pierce the darkness. From somewhere in the darkness came a hideous rustling sound, as if the fabric of reality was undulating in an unnatural rhythm. Not risking anything, Narcrath pulled out the wand we'd found earlier and used its power. A pulse of light as bright at the sun shot out, pushing back the darkness and revealing out target: sitting on a dais, was a lantern. It looked like black iron with panes of cut crystal. Within the lantern burned a black-blue flame. Wrapped around the lantern's handle was a tree root, likely from the corrupted tree outside.
"I think I get what's happened here," said Krisyra, "this artifact must have laid dormant here for centuries. When the tree's root touched it, this must have awoken its power".
Before anyone could reply, a shadowy figure poured out of the lantern. It took on a vaguely humanoid shape, the empty holes where its eyes should have been regarded us with malevolence.
The shadow elemental slid up to Narcrath, and struck him with its fists, wounding him badly. Narcrath inhaled sharply, and spat forth a stream of lightning. The elemental was caught fully by this, but the lightning didn't seem to affect the lantern. Krisyra moved over to help, Narcrath, pouring healing magic into him, before morphing into a large bear. I considered my options, and decided to attack the source of the problems in this area: the lantern. As my claws struck the lantern, the met more resistance than I expected, but still did damage. Lydratir came over to assist me in destroying the lantern, attacking it with his rapier. His strikes seemed to overcome this artifacts resistance, cracking the panes slightly. Charles joined Krisyra and Narcrath in dealing with the elemental, and even though it seemed to resist his strikes, he was wearing it down.
The elemental went after Narcrath again, but only hit once this time. Narcrath retaliated with a shocking grasp, damaging the elemental further. Krisyra-bear tore into the elemental with tooth and claw, leaving it in bad shape. I continued my assault against the lantern, cracking its crystalline plane more. Lydratir jabbed at the lantern again, and it looked like it was in bad shape. Charles brought his greatsword down on the elemental again, causing it to dissipate and hide itself within the lantern.
Narcrath fired off a chromatic orb as a sphere of thunder. The air around the lantern rippled for a moment, but nothing appeared. Krisyra-bear loped over, and joined the assault upon the lantern, biting and clawing, leaving the lantern barely holding itself together. With one swing of my tail, the lantern was destroyed. Suddenly the world seemed horribly unstable, and something seemed to be trying to pull us in. I dug my claws into the stone, and watched as my companions braced themselves. After a moment, the sensation passed, and the heavy feeling that had pervaded the room began to subside.
"What in the Nine Hells was that thing!?" I said.
"I… I think it may have been a conduit to the Shadowfell," said Narcrath, "if we hadn't managed to hold on, we could have been sucked into that realm. That said, its also good we destroyed it before the conduit could open too wide".
With the lantern gone, we could now explore the rest of this chamber. It seemed that the sorcerer who resided here long ago must have used this chamber as a vault. Against the back wall, there were five chests filled with coins, jewels, and other artifacts, some likely folding great historical value. With everything collected, we began making our way out of these ruins, and back to town.
A/N: And there we go! The source of the corruption within the forest has been dealt with, and a rift to the Shadowfell closed. Next time, our heroes arrive back in town to see what their actions have brought about.