Day 73
Morning. We awake feeling more refreshed after fleeing the tower the first time. The wounded Fel was healed up, and we had a warm nights rest in the stables – the walls, though thinning, provided adequate protection still against the weather.
Almost an entire season, I thought to myself as we ate our breakfast. I noted that Allasiel was restless, walking back and forth, pacing erratically. Suddenly she spoke up and said: “Finally I am free, free of all this” she said through a broad smile, gesturing to all of us.
Suddenly she gained a halo of sorts, a silver aura enveloped her and she said again:”For those of you who fear me, or look at me in awe, none of that matters anymore, none of this matters…” and then, she was gone and her psicrystal followed suit in perfect round motes of silver light.
They were gone.
I broke the uneasy silence, “Don, Don! Did you see that!”
Don said something about the Saint but I missed most of it, I just stared at the ground where just a moment ago, the child had been standing.
There were moments of discussion between us and the dwarves. Fel said something about leaving this place and that was obvious but I just shook my head, I had no idea.
“Well, let’s put this behind us, I always knew there was something about her – that she didn’t fit here. But let us move on. We have a tower to explore and I taste adventure!”
The dwarves Aenir and Kellor agreed and Don’Hallun also conferred that we should brave the tower again and head down this time, to explore the belly of the beast.
Entering the tower
Nothing had changed in the entrance hall, and everything was silent. I lit up my staff with my Lug spell, the tip of it flaring up in a gold-white light.
Aenir went ahead, looking at the floors and walls as we ventured down the carved stone stair well, knowing full well that the undead above could come down at any time. The undead. Two walking sarcophagi – with sabre like claws that stretched out fifteen or more feet to strike at us.
We breathed heavily and continued down, feeling the moisture increasing. Don said he could hear a sucking noise like water entering and leaving a cavern. We continued, Kellor mentioned we were heading deep – thirty, maybe forty feet below the ‘ground floor’.
Down in the cavern below we found some ruined storage items, food, repairs tools, and the like. We also found a hewn-stone quay, with old mooring ropes. Here there was a door, unlike the others this one was unscathed by rust, even this close to the water.
Cold Iron – one of the dwarves said. Forged at low temperatures, highly resistant to rust and the passage of time.
“That must be worth a lot!” Don said “Probably enough to feed Felk Bay for a few seasons.”
The dwarves agreed, lets try pry it off the hinges.
The boys started working at it, and I paged through my spell book, glancing over my newly acquired spells. Moldis Granitus Hmm. “Hey, I could perhaps, shift the very shape of the wall! I could move the stone away from the hinges – would make it easier to move?”
“Do it, Kellor” said, “here, here and here” he added, pointing to several key points.
I read out the spell slowly, and focussed my energies from deep within my soul and poured it into the spell moulding a small piece of clay with my other hand. The spell touched the door and suddenly I felt it pushing back – I pushed with all my might but it pushed back and it felt like I was truly struggling against the door itself.
I slumped backwards and cursed under my breath. “I can try again, one last time.”
My companions nodded and I looked at the spell again and poured more energy into the spell, feeling my shell stretch,like something inside wanted to be set free – I held on tight and this time the door was no match for me. The boys grabbed it and slid it across leaning it against the wall.
“We need a piton or something” Kellor yelled “Maybe in the storage area?”
I closed my book moving off sliding it into its satchel. I breathed as I found an iron spike rushing it back to them we we were able to smack it into the hard floor, using it as an anchor to prevent the 700 pound door from falling.
We all breathed again as we looked down the curved corridor, nine small recesses at the ankle height. Don went in and looked at one, some strange rune. Fel cast Detect Magic, said they were divination spells – sensory magic – and something else. Conjuration he added.
Don covered the nine holes with some of the decayed storage items – no more than sludge and as we got to the end of the passage, where it opened up in a small round room with another passage that was bathed in Amethyst Light.
I hushed them down, somethings coming and as we all turned to head back, Don rushing forward he was almost struck by an Iron hound – small like Funghal but a construct of some sort, perhaps the same one the bone things were guarding.
Battle was one and this thing resisted much of the damage, I called a wolf but had mis-predicted the movements and could not see the thing, ended up wasting the spell, throwing it backwards to guard the amethyst-passage.
The battled turned almost humerous, even though we were under threat, between Kellor and Don, they were able to push the hound backwards and over the edge into the water with a big sucking splash.
It didn’t waste time as it tried to climb the half worked quay wall. I called forth a large grey shark who tried again and again to bite through the iron shell, failing dismally while Kellor and the others tried to push it back down.
Fel shouted out “By the Saint…. “ and then he screamed as a thunderous lightning struck tore into him – he was still by the passage, most likely approached the enormous deep crystal we saw.
Aenir yelled for me to get his flask and I was able to pull it up into his hand. Don ran off and started coming back with an anvil as the hound shredded my shark as if it was made of paper.
I called forth a bear to help guard the edge, Aenir went to find Fel and yelled back his gone… dead….
It climbed up again, and the boys were able to push the anvil onto it, sending back into the water – it had managed to just escape from under the anvil. “I can weaken the wall I said and Kellor again proved his knowledge of engineering telling me where to aim for – I let out the spell with my last remaining energy, feeling it burn inside me as it welled up like a fountain into the spell.
The surface of the unworked part of wall started flaking off and falling into the water, further burying the hound in thick clay.
We breathed again and were able to retrieve Fels body – I tried to save him, repairing the bloodied burnt flesh. Finally Aenir threw a vial to me, and I managed to catch it, soaking the worst wounds in the oily substance – suddenly the phylactery glowed and then faded to grey before turning dust.
I sighed out as I heard air fill his lungs once more.
We all retired back to the stables to further recover and look after Fel who recovered slowly.
…