Chapter 46
Dolor steps into the dark, nondescript, underground passageway, discovering that it only goes for ten feet before turning to the left, westward. Peeking around the corner, he sees that the passage extends twenty feet and ends in a T, where they can go left or right, south or north. Reaching the intersection, the tiefling looks both ways to discover a closed door on either end.
The group decides to move northward, to the right, and after twenty feet the hallway ends at the closed door. Dolor and Grindlefoot have trouble pulling the door open, even with their combined strength it doesn’t budge. Gven eases her way past the others to face the door, gives it a quick lookover, and gently pushes it into the unknown space. Throwing a grin at her two compatriots, “I’ll go first, there might be more puzzles ahead.”
The room is fifty feet long and forty feet across to the side opposite the door they entered. A small stream passes through it, flowing gently eastward from the west wall to the corner of the north and east walls. The water is clear and they see several fish swimming with the current, mingling about and doing fish-type things. Oddly though, the stream doesn’t run through a channel in the room’s stone floor, rather it’s suspended two feet in the air, not touching the ground.
Momentarily ignoring the supernatural stream, the adventurers note that there are no other doors leading into or out of the room. On the eastern wall, six two-person kayaks hang on hooks, with paddles next to them.
“Well, if that ain’t sumthin! I wonder what’s in the room at the other end of the hall?” Bilwin returns to the hallway and hurriedly covers the distance to the other door, finding it unlocked.
The dwarf steps into a large room, perhaps 100 feet to the other side, towards the south, and 80 feet wide, east to west. There are four levels below the one he’s standing on, each stepped below the larger one above it, as though a pyramid were pushed into the ground upside down and left a depression in its shape.
“It’s a ziggurat! I’ve only ever heard of these, never seen one!” Turning to the others, now standing beside him, “look, there are some very large things down there, on each level.” Focusing his eyes in the dim light, “are those giant crayfish on the next level? I’ve never seen one of them, either, and now I’ve seen six. Odd, they’re in an aquarium, of sorts.”
From the top level, the party can see that the next level down has a glass wall running along its inner ledge, enclosing it and containing 10 feet of water, where the large crayfish swim around. The wall keeps the water from pouring into the next level down, which is dry and has six giant scorpions wandering around.
The next level down, third from the top level and just above the bottom, also has a glass wall encasing it on its inside ledge that holds ten feet of water. On that level, the group sees nine giant sea lions, cruising around the water nonchalantly. On the bottom floor of the ziggurat, they see three manticore roaming the open area.
Bilwin walks around the top level, trying to get a better view of the different levels. Squinting his eyes to see in the dim light, “On that wall in the bottom level, by the manticores, there’s a door and next to it, that’s a safe. Oh, I bet it has treasure! Why else would you put a safe in the wall?”
Dolor appears lost in thought for a moment, “I know what to do.” He gets close to the inner edge of the top level and casts Eldritch Blast at the glass wall of the next level down. The first blast doesn’t have any visible affect on the clear wall, and neither does the second, third, or fourth. On the fifth blast of energy, a tiny crack appears in the transparent wall. The tiefling hits it again and the crack extends a bit more, then again and again. The adventurers watch as the crack continues to extend, slowly picking up speed as Dolor hits it repeatedly.
They lose count of how many times Dolor hits the glass wall with eldritch blast, but the crack eventually takes on a life of its own. Within a ten-foot section, it runs in all directions, creating a spider web of weak points. The pressure from the contained water pushes the weakened section beyond its limit and it bursts open, the water rushing to the next level and carrying the crayfish with it. The giant scorpions are surprised by the flood of water, but soon realize that the crayfish are now within reach.
Dolor camly says, “now, watch.” Over the next thirty minutes, the crayfish and scorpions battle, each seeing the other as food. The fight ends with the last living crayfish killing the last scorpion with its pincers, only to succumb to the scorpion’s final sting.
The group of adventurers descend two levels, to where the remains of the scorpions and crayfish are strewn about.
Mond looks at Dolor, “my turn,” and casts Fire Bolt at the glass wall separating the sea lions from the manticore on the bottom level. A web of cracks spreads from the impact point of Mond’s spellcast bolt, but the wall holds.
“Nicely done, but I’ve got it from here.” A beam of crackling energy shoots from Dolor’s outstretched hand, smashing into the cracked area and shattering the glass enclosure. The water flows freely through the jagged opening, surprising the manticores and taking the sea lions with it. Another battle ensues, with the feline beasts attacking each other with their deathly sharp claws and savage bites. Any advantage the manticores might have had with their spiked tails aren’t enough to defend from the ferocity of the sea lions. A single sea lion survives the encounter and promptly begins to gorge on the remains of a small manticore.
Dolor and Mond recharge from their arcane efforts, while the group takes a short rest, allowing the water to slowly drain from the lowest level of the ziggurat.
Once the water level is passable for the party, less than a foot deep, Dolor cautiously makes his way to the safe, clearly visible on the opposite wall. The sea lion has finished its meal and seems content to watch the tiefling without interfering or attacking.
It takes little effort for the rogue to pick the locked safe and he opens it to discover a small treasure inside:
- An intricately designed necklace that has interlocking silver chains and gold bars with gems embedded in them, made to appear as though they’re floating. Upon closer inspection, he can tell that it was created a long time ago by expert tiefling hands and is worth 2,000 to 3,000 gold pieces.
- A bag of silver, which he lifts to feel the weight and estimates to be about 6,000 pieces.
While Dolor is busy with the safe, Bilwin feels badly for the remaining sea lion and befriends it, relying on his innate ability to interact with animals. It doesn’t particularly like the dwarf, but it also doesn’t eat him. “Gven, can you toss that meaty piece of manticore—right there, next to you—up a few levels and away from us?” Once the half-orc has thrown the meaty treat, Bilwin encourages the sea lion to go get it. The creature takes the suggestion, crosses the bottom level, and climbs to the next one to gnaw on the treat.
Without consulting the others, Mond casts Dissonant Whispers on the sea lion and it immediately begins to climb the remaining levels towards the open door at the top. “That takes care of that.”
“This isn’t like any temple I’ve been to,” Gven says to no one in particular.
Gustaf takes the bait. “We assumed this is a temple, and those flying creatures outside called it the Temple of Aish, but it’s not unheard of for trickster gods to introduce tests. Challenges of their subjects’ faith, really, more than tests.”
Moving to the closed door, next to the safe he just unlocked, Dolor asks, “Shall we?” Seeing the nods of approval from everyone, he pushes it open to reveal a fifty-foot long hallway that ends at another door.
Gustaf hurriedly updates the map in his leatherbound journal.
