Captain Anorak's Guide to Gaming
The Tower of the Obsidian Prince
by Lot Smordyce
Part 6
The four adventurers moved on through the tower, searching each room in turn. In some they found creatures which attacked them, in some they found traps, and then finally on the second floor (which was the higest surviving floor) they found what looked like the Obsidian Prince's personal chamber. The collapsed remains of a bed stood in the centre of this large room. To one side was a bronze chest. With a certain amount of brute force they managed to get it open. Inside were hundreds of Gold Pieces, a few assorted gemstones and amulets, and a book wrapped in a piece of leather.

Finandriol was spoilt for choice, hesitating with breathless awe between the book and the amulets. Finally he took the book and laid it gently on the floor. They all gathered round. Ellion pulled out a piece of parchment with a mystic symbol drawn on it, and handed it to Finandriol. The same symbol was on the cover of the book.

'This is it,' sighed Finandriol in anticipation. With exquisite care he opened the frail old leaves of the book. 'Give me some elbow room,' he muttered petulantly. The others backed off to a respectful distance. Finandriol's lips moved silently as his eyes studied the first pages of complex symbols. Tholdak got bored and went back to the chest, pulling out the amulets one by one to look at them.

'Can you read it?' Skarn finally broke the silence.

'A little, a little,' muttered Finandriol. 'These glyphs are similar to the Driktesh ideograms, which I briefly studied at the College. I can read some of them... This says... something, something, I, priest... some name-sign I don't know, something, something, blah, blah... what's this... concerning... tum-te-tum... return, something, decide, question, end. Ah. Yes. Look, this is obviously the introduction which explains the purpose of the book. This symbol here is concerning or about - that's always used in these prefaces. I think it says, I, then a personal name, the priest of the god, then the name of the god, I write this book about the return of the one who will decide the question of the end. Or at the end. Or resolve the final conflict, or decide the final outcome, it's hard to say. There are many possible translations. But you get the idea.'

Tholdak interrupted at this point by dangling an ornate silver medallion in front of Finandriol's eyes. Finandriol glanced at it. 'Talisman of protection from undead. Worth three or four hundred.' Tholdak went away again.

'What's it all about, then?' asked Skarn. 'The final battle and the end of days?'

'Possibly, possibly... I wouldn't want to commit myself,' said Finandriol cautiously. 'The end doesn't necessarily mean the end of the world. Let me have a look at what comes next...' He lowered his face to the page once more, then looked up at what Tholdak held in front of him, a bronze broach like a stylized lion. 'Amulet of fearlessness. Hundred and fifty. Lot of them on the market these days.' Tholdak returned to the treasure-chest once more.

Sweat beaded Finandriol's forehead as he concentrated. 'Armies... battles... the heavens... blade seven?... no, the sword of the seven, whatever that means... aha, that must be the sickle. The constellation of the sickle, it's made up of seven stars. Yes, this here, it says the heavens, sword, seven, which is the sky of the sword of the seven. Or the sky at or around. I think this refers to the region of the sky where the constellation of the sickle is. Ah yes, this is the omen they must look for, here, this word is omen or portent, and this is upward... no sorry, above... above-portent, that means an astrological conjunction of some kind...'

Tholdak held a gold ring in front of his face. A green gem glittered upon it, held in its setting by tiny golden dragons. 'Don't put that on!' yelled Finandriol in alarm. 'It's a ring of enslavement. Give it to your girlfriend, she'll obey you without question for ever.' He got up from the book and took the ring carefully between his fingers, examining it in the lamplight. 'These things really sell, they're such useful little toys. We could probably make upward of two grand from this alone, if we look around for the right buyer. Beautiful workmanship too. Dwarven, it looks like... a really fine example. From the setting I'd say it's from the royal workshops of Dum-Kezil. Probably the Kharadin dynasty. The dragon motifs... very typical of that period. At least fourteen centuries old. A real colector's item.' He took out a piece of cloth from his pack and carefully wrapped the ring up, then handed it to Ellion. 'Dangerous, though. Best keep it out of harm's way.' Ellion put it in his pack.

'So what do we make of the book?' asked Ellion.

'Well...' Finandriol paused for thought. 'It's hard to make any confident claims at this early stage. From what little I could read, it seems to be saying that there'll be some kind of portent in the sky, something will appear or happen in the constellation of the sickle. Connected with that portent is the one who will return to settle the final question, or resolve the final conflict.

'But you have to understand, most of the passages I can only understand a few words. There are some bits I can understand most of, but even them... I can only give a tentative translation. The bulk of it eludes me entirely. I'd have to get to a decent library to really do a proper translation. And that might take me a year. And after my... disagreement with the College authorities, I can't go back there. We could spend a year just looking for a library where I could find what I needed to do the translation.'

'So what do we do?' asked Skarn.

Findandriol shrugged. 'Sell the book to the monks. Five grand for a week's work. Even if we spent two years translating the book and finding out what use it is, we might not get a better offer in the end. It just wouldn't make economic sense.'

'We'll sell it to the monks,' said Ellion firmly. 'That was the deal from the start.'

'Now that's settled,' said Skarn, 'can someone explain to me why the orcs didn't find this treasure chest and raid it themselves?'

The others ignored him. Findandriol turned to see what Tholdak was holding up. 'Pentacle of total resistance to magic,' he said. 'Nice. The name is a bit of an overstatement as it's not one hundred percent effective. Still useful though. Bring in twelve to fifteen hundred, I expect.'