light f he heonix - Part 2

"Arrrah! Screemed Ako. "The snake's in the sack! The snake's in the sack!"
"Ako! Listen to me." said Trimus grabbing the panicking cleric by the shoulders. "The snake is an illusion. There is nothing in the sack. Do you hear me?"
"I can see it! I can see it!" shouted Ako.
"Think Ako, how can you see it. It is as dark as Thanatos' armpit in there!"
Ako put his hands up to his face and pressed the sack.
"You're right." He said calmer now. "There is no snake. Thank you Trimus"
"You were right about one thing." Said Cain who reached into the hole and pulled out two bags. The larger one contained several hundred silver coins. The smaller one two pearls, a gold necklace, a pin with a garnet stud, a silver chain and a bejewelled leaf shaped broach.

The next door opened into another bedroom, a little smaller than the first, this one appeared not to have been disturbed by the spiders. In the wardrobe were the remains of some fine clothes The heat and humidity had rotted and faded them but they still hung together due to the amount of gold and silver thread in the devices embroidered onto them.
"What are you doing Trimus?" Ako asked as the mage was pacing and counting the flagstones in the floor.
"I was wondering if this room had a loose slab like the last." Trimus replied. "Darkhawk, help me move the bed."
They dragged the bed aside and sure enough one of the flagstones beneath it was loose. Cain and Darkhawk prised it up and withdrew a pair of sacks. Each contained several hundred coins, one sack silver the other gold.

The northern corridor had a pair of doors on each side. Trying the southern most of the western doors first revealed a room much like the last. Again in the same position in the floor was a loose slab and hidden beneath it was a sack of coins, only about a hundred this time.
"Something tells me they left in a hurry." Commented Ako as he hoisted his heavy backpack onto his shoulders. "Otherwise they would have taken the treasure with them."
"Either that or they had to leave on some treasure behind because the pegasi couldn't carry the weight." Suggested Trimus.
They carried on talking as they entered the next room. Ako and Darkhawk, who were at the front, were hit by magic missiles fired off by a pair of aranea that scurried through the webs that clung to the ceiling. Recovering quickly and aided by Cain's agility they swiftly crushed the beasts taking care not to allow them to point their spinnerets at them. Trimus paced the room out and again found the loose floor slab. This time several hundred silver coins were contained in a moth eaten sack. The next door was locked and Ako had to smash it down with his mace, giving any aranea in the area plenty of warning of their approach. The door swung open into a larger room, again full of sticky webs. Crawling on hands and knees they explored every inch of the floor but found nothing, not even a loose slab. Cain tried the far wall beneath a window made opaque by dust and creepers and found a hinged panel. Borrowing a dagger from Trimus he prised it open but as he did so there was a quiet pop and thick green gas began to seep out and flood the room. The moved as fast as they could towards the door, but the webs made progress difficult. The gas, much heavier than air crept along the floor at their heels and soon Darkhawk was choking as it overtook him. They slammed the remains of the door shut and waited for Darkhawk to stop choking and the gas to disperse. When they looked in again, the gas had cleared so they returned to the panel to see what it had been guarding. Inside was a bottle of amber liquid which Ako determined to be a potion of healing. A pouch containing a piece of pink coral, polished and shaped into a fish, a agate disk on a green silk cord and a buttery yellow topaz. It was now they noticed, bound up in the webs was the remains of a woman still wearing fine clothes, her empty eye sockets looking down upon the companions as they searched the room. This gave Trimus a shock when he first saw the corpse but the shrivelled husk was no more than that, though Ako sprinkled holy water on her just to be certain.

The following room was much the same, full of webs and empty of any furniture. Again there was a hidden cache beneath the single window but this time Cain was prepared and he managed to open the panel without triggering the trap.
"Jodotha would be proud of you." commented Trimus looking at the contents of the cache.
"That I would!" said Jodotha, causing all to spin on their heels.
"How long have you been there?" asked Trimus.
"Oh, long enough Master D'Alberon." Chuckled Rintrah, "Have you found anything interesting?"
"Not really, just more of the aranea." The mage replied walking to the window and rubbing at it with a piece of sacking. "We are not far above the ground now, the trees are thick but I can see the ground."
"These coins are unusual" Said Jodotha turning a gold piece over in his delicate fingers. "Karnak IX, Adakkia 1512. Do those names mean anything to you Rintrah?" The mage shook his head. "The place Adakkia sounds familiar but I am not sure why. I will add it to the list of things I look out for in my travels. And talking of travelling, I must leave you again." And with that Rintrah disappeared.

The next room they searched, through a door on the north side of the eastern corridor, had been ransacked. Following Trimus' guidance Jodotha found a secret cache of coins, a potion bottle and a small pouch of gems. Jodotha returned to the corridor and listened at the last door. He stood up and whispered. Something moves, or rather scuttles within. It may be more of those spiders you mentioned. They opened the door and rushed in. Inside were two aranea apparently searching for something. One turned and fired a magic missile at Darkhawk. Ako and Darkhawk dispatched the spider like beast but the other spun a web that entwined Ako, Jodotha and Darkhawk in it's sticky threads. Cain dodged sideways and climbed the wall, almost spider like in his agility before breaking and climbing out a window. The remaining aranea scuttled towards Ako and Jodotha who could only look in horror as the creatures mandibles clacked a few inches from their faces. Trimus battered at the aranea with his staff to try and distract it but it became caught in the web. While he switched to his dagger the other window exploded and Cain leapt into the room onto the spider's back where he dispatched the beats with a few swift blows of his killing hands.
They searched the room but found nothing but a hidden cache containing a few hundred coins.
"I wonder what the aranea were looking for. I can't imagine they wanted coins." Said Jodotha as they returned to the corridor, the thief fastidiously picking lengths of web from his clothes.
"Some of the other caches did have magic potions and such like in them, perhaps that is what they were after." Suggested Trimus.

They descended the stairs to the next level. The windows at each end of the corridors showed little light. Wandering to the end of the east corridor and rubbing it clean revealed that they were at ground level and that night was falling.
"I think we should return to the Phoenix for the night. We should be secure there." Said Trimus. The others agreed and so they trudged up the flights of stairs, their packs weighing heavy upon their backs. To their horror when they opened the door to their hanger three of the pony sized spiders were crawling over the skyship which was also covered in their sticky webs. Two turned and launched magic missiles that struck Ako and Darkhawk. Trimus returned the gesture hitting the nearest creature with a trio of blasts. Jodotha moved to circle behind the spiders using the shadows of night to hide him but one of the aranea spotted him and cast a spell. To the thief's horror a length of rope hung that hung from his belt began to entwine itself around his legs and arms, binding him as strongly and securely as any spiders web. Cain had also been stuck securely to a wall by the sticky threads of silk. Trimus dodged across the room and started to help Jodotha to free himself while Darkhawk and Ako started to attack the aranea. The tough hide of the creatures and their long legs meant that Ako and Darkhawk found it difficult to get a telling strike in on their foes. In desperation Darkhawk transformed and blasted his assailant with his flame strike killing the beast. The other chittered loudly and made for the door. Trimus got there first however having freed Jodotha. The mage jammed his staff through the door rings delaying the aranea just long enough for Jodotha to spring onto its back and stab a long dagger into the bulging lump behind its eyes. The creature howled and bucked but the thief held on tight, twisting the blade deeper and deeper into the wound until it died.

Darkhawk, Cain and Jodotha kept watch that night, allowing the others to rest and regain spells. All was quiet within the tower, while outside creatures howled and screamed their presence to friend and foe alike as the moons rose in the sky.
As they left the hanger the next morning after a sparse breakfast, Trimus wizard locked the door. "Hopefully that will keep those spiders out of here, I don't want to try and fight them off again!" The young mage said after casting the spell. They walked quickly, but carefully, down the spiral stair to the ground floor of the tower and walked to the door at the end of the south corridor. The door was covered with much webbing but did appear to have been opened recently. Jodotha cut the webs with his sword and pushed the doors open. The jungle encroached almost to the door itself. Rich, verdant growth towered almost a third of the way up the side of the tower. Strange birds and creatures flew or jumped through the branches of the trees and things scuttled through the underbrush. The early morning sun struggled to shine through the thick canopy of plants and the air was heavy with the smell of decay and the scents of large blooms dangling from low hanging branches.
"My vote is for staying in the tower." Said Ako. "It would be all to easy to get lost out there, not to mention the wild beasts that could inhabit such a wilderness."
"I agree" said Trimus. The others nodded though Cain was a little reluctant, he appeared tantalised by the richness and variety of the wildlife beyond the tower, most of which he had never even dreamt existed.

They explored the large web filled chambers on the ground floor, Jodotha listening at each door before stepping aside and allowing Darkhawk to enter first. Most of the rooms were empty of anything of interest apart from large amounts of sticky grey web. In one however Trimus found a small dress pin with a chip of ruby for its tip. In another scattered over the floor were an assortment of bones. Mostly animal but some were human. Hanging from the ceiling were skeins of web like bunting on a feast day. Depending from these heavy threads were large cocoons of silk each about the size and colour of a small sheep.
"I say we burn them." Said Trimus poking a cocoon with his silver shod staff.
"Later, perhaps." Said Cain. "This place has so many webs that the whole tower could go up in flames and us with it!"
Trimus nodded and followed Jodotha and Darkhawk as they led the way down the spiral stair into the basement of the tower. The stair ended in a large round room with three pairs of large iron bound doors. Jodotha knelt at each but could hear nothing from beyond the doors. They tried the southern door first and found it locked. Jodotha got out a leather roll in which lay a selection of small tools each with a ivory handle. There were wire saws, picks with long slender points and a brass skeleton key along with a number of other items that Trimus didn't recognise. The thief knelt by the door and with the minimum of effort picked the lock allowing Darkhawk the dubious honour of entering the passage beyond first. The floor, walls and ceiling of the passage were covered by interlocking runes and sigils painted in a red dye. Jodotha peered at them for a few minutes but shook his head.
"This is more your territory, master D'Alberon." He said. "Those are magical runes." Trimus examined them but he too could make no sense of them. There were two doors set into each side of the corridor, very solid doors. Each door had a sliding hatch. Trimus walked to the first door on the western wall and slid the hatch aside. The room was dark, but Trimus could feel his skin prickle at the magic within. Shining a light through the hatch revealed that like the corridor this room's walls were covered with the same, strange mystic symbols. Apart from that the room was empty.
Jodotha listened at the next door but heard nothing. "I can't hear anything but the door is warm." He said pointing at the iron studs on the door. Trimus put his hand on one of the studs and raised his eyebrows, it was warm as if a great fire burned within the room. Cautiously Trimus slid the flap open. In side the chamber was a giant sized man, easily eight feet tall surrounded by flames. The flames were hot enough to make Trimus' eyes water but the man did not seem to be consumed by them.
"Please help me." pleaded the figure. "I have been trapped in here for years." Trimus indicated that Cain and Ako should take a look which they did. "I will give you gold and gems, whatever your heart desires." The figure continued in a pitiful voice. "Evil wizards summoned me here. Please let me go."
"This seems very strange." Said Darkhawk quietly. "Should we let him go?"
"I say yes." Said Jodotha. "He could make us rich, return us home, anything our heart's desire he said."
Trimus scowled. "Fools! Don't you recognise an efreeti when you see one!" The blank looks on everyone's faces indicated that they didn't know. "An elemental being from the Plane Of Fire." Continued Trimus, "They are not to be trusted." With that the mage stood and slid the hatch shut. From inside the room a high pitched keening sound showed that the efreeti knew that it would be released.

Jodotha slid the hatch open in the first door in the opposite wall. Inside, pacing around was a displacer beast, its long tentacles hanging limply by its side. Like the other rooms the walls were covered in the red sigils. The final room appeared to be empty, like the first, but Trimus was not tempted to enter and find out.
They returned to the main room and tried the door in the north-east quadrant of the wall. The door opened into a huge, tall, cold room, devoid of any features except for a fifty foot diameter chalk circle and a small alcove near the door. Trimus walked around the outside of the circle while Jodotha and Darkhawk checked the alcove. The circle was complete and perfect with no breaks or scuff marks. Trimus returned to the door just as Jodotha opened a small wooden box. Inside were half a dozen thick sticks of white chalk.

The north-west door was locked and Jodotha couldn't pick the locks despite trying all manner of tools and tactics. Ako drew his mace and hammered the lock until it gave way. The room beyond was as large as the summoning chamber they had just left and just as cool. Eight stone sarcophagi and two larger than human sized statues were spaced out around the room. While Ako and Darkhawk kept a wary eye on the statues Trimus and Jodotha examined the sarcophagi. Each had been carved in the likeness of a reclining human figure. Upon the chest of each of the figures was a plaque inscribed with a name and a date. Trimus read them out aloud as he walked around the room. "Irolder 927AC, Xaven 899AC, Juldern 923AC, Namulas 899AC, Temmadegon 879AC, Kohn 903AC, Dalon 940AC, Atrava 1050AC." "1050AC?" repeated Jodotha, "Are you sure?"
"Yes ." Stammered Trimus. "Atrava 1050AC. This is most strange!"

They were reluctant to disturb the sleep of these powerful wizards and so returned to the Phoenix. Trimus replaced the key in the control panel and waited. This time the ship did not move but a faint magical hum was heard. Trimus sat in the chair and placed his hands on the orbs at the end of the arms. Instantly he knew how to fly the ship the images and ideas flooding into his brain. He raised the ship off of the ground eased it backwards out of the hanger before turning it around and pointing it for home.

After four days they arrived back in the cavern beneath Lakeside House, hungry, tired but excited by the possibilities that the Phoenix offered them.

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