A/N: And here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Dungeons and Dragons. I only own my original ideas
Chapter 54: Geyser Cavern
We made our way back to the junction in this tunnel, and continued north, entering another chamber. Before us stood five flesh golems agaist the north wall. Each had a number on its chest: 5, 7. 9, 11, 13. Suddenly, the golem labeled '5' spoke.
"One of us does not belong with the others," said the golem, "If you can pick it out, it will serve you and all the others will allow you passage. If you pick the wrong one, we will kill you. You have sixty seconds".
Narcrath realized it almost immediately.
"You, number 9," said Narcrath, "you do not belong".
The golems reacted to his words, moving to the sides to allow us to pass. Number 9, on the other hand approached us.
"What is your command?" asked the golem.
"Remain here for now, and insure we are not followed," said Narcrath.
We continued up a short flight of stairs, following the hallway as it curved around. At the end, Charles pushed open the door leading to the next chamber. It opened to a stone platform in a large natural cave. Opposite the entrance is the distance was another stone platform. Between them, there was a series of wooden disks suspended form the ceiling by thick steel chains. The floor of the cavern was covered in boiling sulfuric mud. Though the steam billowing through the cave, I estimated it was about 100 feet to the opposite ledge. As I watched, a geyser shot up from the mud below, sending the platforms swinging.
"I'd rather none of you risk your necks crossing those platforms," I said, "I'll ferry you across".
All in all it took only a couple of minutes to get all my allies across the cave. As I touched down of the far side the fourth time, we heard a rumbing as the second geyser located in this cavern erupted. On the far side, we continued down a straight corridor leading south, to a door riddled with small holes. Charles opened the door, revealing an area of utter blackness. Even my vison couldn't penetrate this gloom. Krisyra looked at this with a frown, before nodding.
"I thought this might come in handy," muttered Krisyra.
She raised her staff, and an orb of light shot out, illuminating the chamber brightly. Sitting calmly in a chair was a pale skinned dwarf, looking at us.
"So, you have come to this place," said the dwarf. Something about him seemed off.
"Who are you, what are you doing here?" asked Lydratir.
"You may call me Ctenmiir," he said, "I have been imprisoned in this place within a trance for many years. What is your purpose here?"
"We're tracking the trail of a cult calling itself the Shadow Triad," said Narcrath, "do you know anything about them?"
"That name is unfamiliar to me," said Ctenmiir, "it was the wizard who built this place who was my captor".
I still felt something was off about this dwarf. Clearly, the wizard in question must have been powerful to lay a curse trapping this dwarf here… but either it also halted his aging or… this dwarf's incisors seemed unually long.
"Very well," I said, "is there a way to break this curse upon you? I'm sertain you'd like to reside elsewhere, vampire".
The dwarf frowned, and sighed.
"Too bad you are so perceptive, wyrm," said Ctenmiir, "we were having such a pleasant chat too. Oh well, it's been such a long time since I've quenched my thirst".
Lydratir reacted the fastest, drawing his rapier and driving it into the vampire twice. I moved in and slashed at our foe with my claws, but he seemed to resist my attacks to an extent. Narcrath called upon his magic, firing an orb of lightning at Ctenmiir, striking him hard. Krisyra summoned up a flame, and lauched it at the vampire, weaking him further. Ctenmiir grabbed at Lydratir, but he evaded the grapple. Charles joined us in melee with the Vampire, hacking at him with his greatsword.
Lydratir jabbed at Ctenmiir with his rapier, only striking once this time. I continued to tear at the vampire with my claws, and I could see we were wearing him down. Narcrath pulled one of the stars from the collar of his robes, and lauched it at our foe. Seven comets of arcane energy struck the vampire. Krisyra lached another flame, but this one flared brighter and stuck with unexpected force. The vampire snarled and attempted to grapple Charles, but his fingers slid off Charles' armor. Charles struck back, leaving the vampire in a weakened state.
Lydratir struck at the vampire again, and it looked to be on its last legs. I brought my tail around, and bashed the vampire, leaving it to turn into mist and retreat into a nearby casket.
With our foe defeated, we searched the room. In a hidden compartment, we foundleather sacks containing a large amount of silver and gold, a potion bottle, several scrolls, and most interesting of all, a finely crafted warhammer, which appeared to be of dwarven make.
We discovered that this path was a dead end, and started making our way back. I ferried my companions across the geyser cavern again, and we made our way back down the corridors. When we arrived back at the golems, Narcrath issued it another order.
"Assure that no one else comes from the northern tunnel," said Narcrath.
We eventually arrived back at the main junction where the sphix still rested. I had to wonder…
"Have anyone else but us passed through here recently?" I asked.
"An interesting question," answered the sphinx, "others have come, answered my riddle. But few have returned. They explored each of the passages. You would be well served to be thorough, redscale".
"Well then, which way do you think?" I asked my companions.
"I say north, said Krisyra, "if we've going to be checking each of these tunnels, it will pay to be do so in some order".
My other companions agreed, and we started down our new course.
A/N: And there we go! Next time, our heroes explore up the middle tunnel. See you then!