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Sereck3Temple

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 6 months ago
 2 September 2008
 
 Bane Temple Trap - The Pool 
 
Sereck rolled his eyes at the spectacle around him. If there were less than three hundred people here, he would have been surprised. The requested priests had indeed arrived from Longmaple, but with them was an entourage that would have been excessive for a king. Tents were going up all around as a carnival like atmosphere infused the very air. Vendors were setting up selling drink and food, as were small tradesman offering services to repair weapons and tackle. Did none of these people realize the danger this place represented? What if the followers of Bane returned in force? It would be nigh impossible to protect this many people. And if they scattered through the woods instead of fighting as one, what chance would they have to survive?
 
Sereck shook his head at the scale of it all. This was just too big. And what is worse is that Sereck had seen Carl, one of the four main lords of Longmaple, here issuing orders himself. The other three were obviously here as well, and Sereck was doing his best to avoid all of them. With the lords were their private guards, meaning that back in Longmaple the entire town was being run by underlings while the best guards and defenders where here providing protection.
 
A large dragonborn warrior caught Serecks eye and waved. It was Bronack, one of the fighters he had met in the arena. Looking over at the group, he saw more that he recognized. Apparently, they thought this would be a good way to add to their reputation, being at the purging of the Bane temple. This small group actually gave Sereck a small amount of pleasure…maybe the Bannites would be the ones who needed protection. These men would not stop, they would not quit, and their only purpose would be to do more damage than the man next to them for bragging rights. Well, at least a good diversionary force was available, but would they follow orders if given?
 
Up on the hill with the temple opening, Kernosh was waving towards Sereck. Seeing Duncan, Orrin, and Cabal there, Sereck realized this was the moment everyone was here for: they were about to enter the temple.
 
Even before Sereck could get to the hill, someone found a stupid horn and began blowing it. People all stopped what they were doing and looked on as the group assembled on the hill. People suddenly started rushing, and Sereck had to quicken his pace to get to the top of the hill first. Already Orrin and Cabal were deep in conversation as he arrived.
 
“I don’t care what you saw that mage do, I’m telling you there are no traps on the lid. We can just open it and go in.”
“But what if they laid new traps? Check again to make certain.”
“Fine, but it’s a waste of time.”
 
Cabals new little platinum dragon familiar Scratch was circling Cabals head, drawing much excitement from the crowd that pointed at the unique creature before them. Sereck smilled to himself, as he watched the little fellow stop in front of any priest he saw and show off the small symbol of Bahamut that Sereck had given him. A platinum dragon with the symbol of Bahamut, it had just been the right thing to do.
 
Looking back at the trap searching party members, Sereck realized they would have to lift the heavy lid once completed. A grin crossed his face as he turned and caught the eye of the arena fighters and the dragonborn Bronack. Then, in front of everyone, he pointed at Bronack and then held up four fingers and waved for them to come forward.
 
They had no idea what he wanted, but the dragonborn turned to and pointed out three other large fighters and they pushed their way through the crowd towards Sereck. People turned to look and see who Sereck was calling forth, and then looked confused when it wasn’t one of the four lords that he had requested help from. Sereck didn’t know anything about town politics, but he had learned that the best way to deal with it was to stay as far away as possible.
 
The arena fighter stepped up and held out his arm in greeting, and Sereck shook his hand firmly.
“Sereck, you have need of our service?”
“Indeed I do. Once my friends have determined the opening is safe, it will require someone with a strong back to lift the lid. I could think of nobody I’d rather have standing here at my back once that is done than you and your friends.”
 
The warrior stood up straighter at this compliment, knowing that Sereck had no idea the implications of saying such a thing in this group would have.  Bronack had no intention of loosing this momentary increase in his status.
“Of course, we would be more than happy to help protect a fellow warrior of the arena.”
Bronack looked around at the crowd, yep, people were whispering, this little trip was well worth the effort.
 
“There, see, no traps. Can we get this thing started now?”
 
Duncan and Kernosh moved to start lifting the stone, when Sereck called out “wait, these men will lift it for us, so that we can be prepared to jump in.”
 
Duncan shrugged his shoulders and stood back. Kernosh looked at Sereck wondering why he would care.
The arena warriors stood up and easily lifted the heavy stone. For some bizarre reason, the moment they lifted it, a cheer went up through the crowd. Again, Sereck just shook his head, totally confused about what feat they had just accomplished.
 
The head priest of the neutral area was there, and he showed the fighters where to set the cover stone. They set it down and stood back up, to more applause as they turned to wave at the onlookers. They then took a small step back and stayed there at the front of the group. Sereck figured it was to watch his back, while Bronack knew it was to be at the center of the spectacle.
 
Suddenly it became very quiet, and Sereck could see people looking back at the opening. Turning, Sereck saw that Cabal was creating a large glowing ball of light in front of himself. Even in the mid-day sun, it shone brightly above the opening. He was taking his time, allowing it to fully form, and then slowly dropped the glowing ball into the hole. Everyone was quiet, watching this magic. Kernosh actually held his forehead and shook his head from side to side. I guess he wasn’t impressed with Cabal showing off. From the look of Orrin, he wasn’t either, as he suddenly vanished and then called out from inside the hill “it looks empty down here. But something odd is going on with Cabals light.”
 
That didn’t sound good, as the rest of the adventurers looked at each other. It was obvious the entire town was waiting for the five member adventuring party that is Thunder Strike to enter first, so Sereck and the others all jumped in.
 
Again, outside, Sereck could hear cheers from the gathered people, even as he saw the light Cabal had conjured blink off and then come back on. Never had Sereck seen one of the conjured lights do that before. And then he saw the statue of Bane. Sereck had been unable to destroy it last time he was here, but this time he made sure and brought some masons that could reduce the cursed thing to rubble. And that is when the lights flickered, and the evil statue was suddenly closer to the group.
Without thinking, all the warriors had their weapons out.
 
Another blink of the light, and it was closer yet. Sereck stepped back, to give himself room to fight. Duncan and Kernosh had also moved into fighting stances. The small dragon on Cabals shoulder was actually growling and blowing small puffs of smoke at the statue in defiance. Another blink of light, and the thing was gone from the room. Suddenly screams could be heard from above…it had gone outside! The opening behind Sereck, that had been showering the room with daylight, suddenly went black. Another blink of light, the statue was back at its original position.
 
And then a voice echoed in the room…
 
“Good, you are all back. This time, none of you shall leave without first experiencing the trials…..hahahahhaha.”
 
The ball of light went back to its normal state as the party looked around.
“Check that opening, see if we can get back out” said Kernosh. Orrin and Cabal started looking, and even made room for Duncan to look at it. When they came back, the news was not good.
“Thar be no opening in the roof atall. It be smooth rock as the rest of the ceiling. We not be going out that way.”
Cabal and Orrin nodded their agreement with Duncan’s assessment. Then Cabal looked at the group and said “Well, no place to go but back to the pool.”
He had hardly even finished saying that before he walked over and calmly opened the doors to the next hallway.
Sereck yells out to the mage to stop.
“Wait! What if they left traps for us.”
“They didn’t leave any at the entrance; I say there won’t be any. Bane wants us to go through here, see?”
And again, without even looking for any possible danger except the obvious one of the pool, Cabal just walked down the hallway.
 
The rest of the party was stunned at this brazen attitude for only a moment, before they all followed the obviously insane mage.
 
Cabal had already opened the alter room doors, even the secret storage doors on the side, and was putting coins on the alter when Sereck entered the room. All the treasure that had been in the room was gone, with nothing present on the alters but the coins Cabal was very slowly stacking there. This being the first time Sereck had come into the room, the feeling of evil was almost a solid stench, a heaviness that hung in the room. It was hard for the dragonborn to breath, and he could feel his heart racing in his chest.
Suddenly, Cabal walks past the alter and opens the other set of doors.
 
“It cost me 100 silver, not bad.”
And even as he was speaking, Cabal calmly walked into the room he and Orrin had said contained the pool of testing.
 
Sereck was at a total loss. Last time, Cabal had at least shown common sense and fled when he had heard the voice of Bane. This time, it was as if he was not going to leave without some sort of reward. Had he justified the danger for the possible reward of knowledge?
Sereck could only assume he had finally gone the way all mages seem to do, and become obsessed with knowledge. Maybe that was the reason for the platinum dragon, Bahamut was going to keep a closer eye on his poor obsessed friend.
 
Orrin walked up and started dropping silver onto the altar, and he too walked through following Cabal. Kernosh and Duncan moved forward, and Sereck motioned for them to wait. He had a bad feeling about this as he fished money out of his coin holder. After 100 silver, he didn’t feel like he could go forward. The other two watched, as Sereck pulled more money out, and then some more. After 250 silver, he was able to walk past the altar. Sereck sighed; at least it hadn’t been all he had owned.
 
Just as the others arrived into the room, Cabal calmly walked into the pool. His dragon familiar was above the pool flying around in circles as Cabal descended into it. There was nothing they could do as they watched him sink into the inky blackness. It looked like water, but didn’t act like it for some reason. The group moved forward and waited.
 
After about three minutes, Cabal came walking out the other side of the pool. The water that wasn’t water just parted to let him out, not sticking to him or dripping off. Cabals clothes looked completely dry as his familiar quickly dropped down to perch on his shoulder.
 
“It’s a test all right, but it wasn’t that hard. It offers to teach you new things, and I guess when you’ve learned what you want, you leave. When I realized it might go bad after learning a number of things, that there might be a hefty price to pay, I left.”
 
Everyone digested this information about the pool. Duncan moved to go in and this time Orrin put his hand up to stop him and walked in instead. His entry into the pool went about the same as Cabals, so the group just watched. At the three minute point, everyone was anxious for Orrin to come out. We looked around at each other, unsure of what to do. Sereck started to work on a spell to assist Orrin, but felt that any type of assistance would turn into danger instead of help, so he let the energy slip away.
 
Suddenly, Orrins head broke the surface. A loud intake of breath followed, and he sank back below. The anxiety in the room doubled. This was bad, and there was nothing anyone could do and it seemed as if Orrin was in trouble. Another minute past, and again Orrin’s head broke the surface. He looked pale, and strained. Sereck was unsure of what could be happening to him, as he sank below the water again. There were not even ripples in the water as he vanished below it's inky darkness.
 
Then Orrin came walking out of the pool on the other side. His entire body was shaking a little, and he swung his head back and forth, as if trying to clear it or shake something off.
 
“That was bad,” he began, “I learned a couple things, and then I tried to get out. I felt I just wasn’t intelligent enough, or the darn thing had too strong of a will to let me go. I kept learning things even as I was trying to leave, and I don’t know the point in that, to overload a person? But then one of the times I took some sort of damage, I feel a little weaker than before. It was just very hard to get out. I am concerned for you Sereck.”
 
Sereck understood. As with the payment at the altar, this was going to be very rough. He did know one thing; he was going to leave that evil pool as soon as he was able.
 
Sereck moved in front of the two warriors and proudly walked into the pool. Immediately, he could feel the evil wrap around his very being as the water swirled around his crystal armor. He was certain that there was dark laughter off in the distance, mocking him. The cold of the water physically pained his body, as a sickly voice called out to him.
 
“I have something to teach you….”
Sereck tried to leave the pool, and failed. Suddenly, within his mind, he had tapped into a deeper understanding of his dragonborn senses, he could suddenly see better in the darkness. Was this what he was being taught? It didn’t matter, he had to leave. Again he tried to get out of the pool.
 
“Trying to leave so soon…paladin? But I have something else to teach you…”
Fighting the urge to learn, Sereck knew he had already failed the second attempt.
But then, an idea filled his mind, as if when using his ‘lay of hands’ ability he could also heal himself.
Was this the teaching Cabal had mentioned? No, Sereck knew he had to leave as the cold bit deep into his flesh.
 
“I have more to teach you, dragonborn….”
Struggling against the pool, Sereck felt that he had again failed to depart, when understanding of his breath weapon filled his consciousness. He now knew he could avoid his friends when breathing lighting at the enemies. This was a great gift…but at what cost. He had to leave, and again he felt the pain from the water gnawing at his skin.
 
Sereck concentrated, pulling forth all his training as a paladin, his might as a dragonborn. He would not fail.
 
“But the next gift for you is something that you will need, if you ever hope to succeed against me that is…” said the voice. But Sereck would have none of it, he would ignore the bait, and suddenly he felt stale air hit his face as he took in a breath, he was out of the pool! Still, he almost fell over. The effort had been immense.
 
“I was worried you wouldn’t make it,” said Orrin.
“I had the same worries. I tried the moment I was under the water to leave, I don’t know if it was luck or the guidance of Bahamut that allowed me to leave. It was truly that close.”
Orrin nodded. Cabal looked at Sereck as if he was making a big deal out of nothing.
 
Sereck looked over at Duncan and Kernosh, and silently said a prayer to Bahamut that their tests would go smoother.
 

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