9 September 2008
Bane Temple - Exiting the Temple
Sereck breathed deeply, the damp smell of mold and moisture permeating the underground temple of Bane. Although the floor looked clean for some reason, the many long years hidden under this hill had taken their toll on the structure, slowly wearing it down. The Bannites that had been occupying the area had started painting and repairing the structure, but the smell seemed to be unaffected by the new attention. The ball of light conjured by Cabal didn't help the appearance of the area, no matter how pure it glowed.
“Bah, I’ll go into the pool next! Don’ be in such a hurry ye scaly lizard, let me show ya how a dwarf faces danger,’ proclaimed Duncan to Kernosh, as he pushed in front of the dragonborn and walked towards the dark pool that Sereck had just exited. The situation suddenly pushed to the forefront of Sereck’s mind as he realized he had survived Bane’s pool of testing but there were still two members of the party that had yet to go through.
Without any hesitation, Duncan walked down into the dark pool of liquid. It surrounded his body like water, but Sereck knew from experience it was anything but. Not a single ripple flowed across the pool to the symbol covered edges that contained the obsidian brew. And as Duncan’s head fully submerged, the surface took on mirror sheen, as if nobody were contained beneath.
And then the waiting began as the entire party observed the dwarf’s progress. Would his strength of will be enough to allow him easy escape from the pools trials? Minutes went by without incident, when suddenly Duncan’s head broke the surface. His eyes looked around for the briefest of seconds before he again sank below the surface. Sereck looked over at Orrin, who had shared a similar fate in the pool, and could see him staring intently.
Kernosh moved as if he were going to pull Duncan out, and then stood back when the understanding that any outside assistance would prove more detrimental than helpful. Even as he stood back, Duncan’s head again broke the surface. Sereck almost cheered his escape when he again sank down and out of sight. This was not good, thought Sereck, as the pool again took on an unmoving appearance. The dwarf’s total time was quickly approaching the eight minute mark, no other, not even Orrin, had been down so long. Sereck wondered what kind of shape the dwarf would be in once he made it out. Would he still be the powerful fighting machine he had always been, or would this experience crush his spirit?
Even as Sereck was cursing Bane’s name, Duncan made a third and final exit to the surface as he continued to walk out this time, escaping the trial in the pool. He was breathing hard and slightly bent over once he stopped on the other side. As Sereck moved to him to see if he was in need of help, the dwarf stood up straight and laughed, “Twer nothin’ to it, but I not be want’n to do that again.”
“Are you all right?” Kernosh asks of the dwarf.
“Been better…” and chuckles quietly under his beard.
The party laughed with him nervously, knowing it had been anything but easy. And thus Kernosh was the last to walk through.
As he moved towards the pool he addressed the party from the other side. “I won’t be wasting any time in there; I’m leaving as soon as possible.”
Without slowing down, Kernosh walked into the depths of the pool. Again the inky blackness enveloped the newest intruder to its domain. But no sooner had Kernosh’s head sunk beneath the surface, than he came walking right up out of the other side! Sereck had to look back twice to see if what he had seen had happened. Had Kernosh actually managed to walk right through the test, or had he somehow managed to avoid the test all together?
Kernosh himself looked confused as he moved out of the pool and stood next to us.
“That’s odd. I don’t know if I should be happy that I was able to easily exit, or upset that I didn’t learn anything while in the pool like everyone else.”
Sereck had to agree with his statement.
“Yes, that was very odd. But I am glad you made it out.”
Cabal, maybe being impatient or maybe not wanting Kernosh to be the center of attention, suddenly addressed the party about moving on.
“Well, there’s no reason to stand here. We might as well move forward. And I don’t think we need to waste time on trap searching. They wouldn’t want to kill their initiates after the pool would they?”
And after making his argument for not checking for traps, the mage opened the next door and promptly took off down the hallway.
“Fool,” quietly called Kernosh, as the party followed behind the mage.
The hallway twisted back and then back again to come into a small room. In the room was a statue of Bane. And as Cabal walked past it, it’s head turned to focus on him. Seeing this, Cabal turned and faced the statue and yelled at it.
At that moment, the magical ball of light Cabal was using for illumination flickered out. Without hesitation, Cabal quickly summoned another ball of magical light, this time right on the statues head. The statue turned to face forward again and didn’t move.
“yeah, that’s what I thought,” said Cabal and he continued around the small room to exit out the other side.
Sereck, next in line somehow, watched the statue stare at him as he went through the small room, but continued out the other doorway when it did nothing, just as it had for Cabal. It was the moment his back was turned that Sereck felt the error of this attitude. The statue, waiting for when Sereck was both closest and had his back turned, suddenly pulled out its sword and slashed down viciously onto Serecks Back.
“Argh! You foul thing!” yelled Sereck, as he turned to face the statue. But, as with Cabal, it had turned to face forward and become an unmoving piece of rock again. Sereck waited at the ready as the party moved through the room. But the statue allowed both Orrin and Duncan to pass without incident. Then, as Kernosh entered the room, it animated again. Sereck was ready with his axe, to block the next swing and take the construct down. But it did not attack Kernosh. Instead, it knelt down in front of him paying homage! What was going on here? The look on Kernosh’s face indicated he was as surprised as Sereck.
At that moment, Sereck remembered it had been Kernosh that had tried to get back into the temple on their first visit, and it had taken the entire party to hold him down and eventually knocking him unconscious to get him away from it. Then the incident at the pool occurred where Kernosh was treated as if he hadn’t needed testing at all. Add to that the response from the statue kneeling before Kernosh. Sereck could only see two possibilities: Bane was trying to drive a wedge between the party and its leader, or Bane had plans for Kernosh that Kernosh was not aware of.
The statue stood back up and turned again into stone. Kernosh shrugged and he and Sereck followed the rest of the party out of the room and into the next hallway. Or at least were going to try, when a call came from Cabal who was still inexplicably in the lead.
“I guess we can’t go any further, some sort of force or pressure is blocking me.”
As he turns to face the group he catches Kernosh’s eye.
“Or, maybe what we need is golden boy there to walk through first?”
The jibe was harsh given their location and circumstances, but Sereck felt a sudden feeling of dread that Kernosh could indeed walk past the invisible barrier.
Kernosh looks at the statue and asks “Can you help?”
When the statue fails to move or respond, he walks up through the tight hallway and next to Cabal. He lifts his hand as if feeling for the invisible barrier, and then proceeds to walk towards the room at the end. Cabal momentarily shook his head, unable to think of a snappy comeback as he too is able to proceed forward. The entire party follows, and Sereck adds this to the list of building evidence that someone is manipulating the area around Kernosh.
The room at the end of the hallway, in Serecks mind, just had to be the main temple to Bane in this complex. It had all the usual items one would expect. Two braziers illuminating the room with purple flame flanked the entry door. Further in the room were four large statues of warriors in various poses of battle. A large leather bound book sat atop a lectern at the end of the room. And the obligatory statue of Bane completed the room’s decor. There were a few tapestries hung on the walls depicting all manner of illicit acts being perpetrated on the innocent just for some flavor, as if the rest of the room did not already reek of evil. Sereck did not want to know what walking into the room would feel like, so he hung back allowing his fellow members to enter first.
Just as Cabal was about to enter the room, the magical light that he had been using acts as if it has a mind of it’s own and takes off back through the passageways and vanishes. The hallway is left in darkness, with only the purple light from the room ahead illuminating anything.
As Kernosh enters the room, one of the purple flames moves off of it’s brazier and floats over by Kernosh. He stops and looks at the light, and for some reason tries to move it. It complies, floating this way and that as Kernosh wills it. For a moment, he realizes this is how Cabal must feel when he performs magic.
From the doorway comes a question from Cabal, “Are you moving that?”
Again Kernosh merely shrugs in reply, as if what he is doing is something he does all the time, and commands the purple light to move into the center of the room.
Then, he turns to Cabal and says “this does unnerve me a bit…” but continues to control the light.
Suddenly at the opposite end of the room, a being is illuminated by the light. He is large and floating above the air. To Sereck it looks like some astral being, like a dark angel of power, not a demon as he was expecting.
The angel turns it’s attention towards Kernosh and smiles.
“Chosen of Bane…do you bring the sacrifices…” came a calm and questioning voice.
Kernosh is struck silent at this, with no quick answer what to say. He does recover though, “What? No! I’m no follower of Bane. And these are not sacrifices here. I don’t know what you are talking about!”
The angel seemed unaffected by this outburst and just continued in the same calm voice.
“Oh, so then, you are going to fight your conversion then?
Quicker to respond, with anger in his voice, Kernosh answers the question with some sarcasm.
“Oh well, let me think about that…um...YES! I will not now nor ever follow Bane!”
Again the angel does not change it’s tone, but continues pleasantly talking to Kernosh.
“Maybe not this time, but I know the future and where you’re true allegiances are. You will someday become a wonderful tyrant of Longmaple, ruling in the name of Bane of course.
“What? Longmaple? I don’t like to be in charge of this group, I would never want to be in charge of a town. You are just rambling nonsense now.”
“But you know that I am not. I have the ability to know temporal things, and I have seen the future. You will have others that do the mundane business of actually being in charge of townsfolk. But you, you will have the hand of power over those people, and it will be a grand rule where all who oppose you will do so in fear of retribution.”
Kernosh was floundering. The angel kept throwing accusations at him that he did not want to accept. Sereck wondered if this were Kernosh’s true path, or again if it was some grand manipulation. He had taken control of the magical light easily enough, but this, this was too much. Apparently Kernosh had the same though.
“Ok, forget it. I will hear no more of it. How do we get out of here and we will leave.”
The angel actually smiled, although the smile was anything but merry. “Why, step into the pentagram and you shall be free. Unless you want them to cleanse this place,” as she pointed to the party behind Kernosh,” in which case you only need to have that one step into the pentagram in your stead.”
Kernosh did not have to even turn to know he was pointing at Sereck, who else would this emissary of evil want dead but the paladin. But he recognized the flaw in the angels logic immediately and questioned him about it.
“From whose point of view would I be free, your point of view or ours?”
The angel tosses back his head and releases a hearty laugh, “The choice, as always, is yours. Welcome to the choices of power. And don’t confuse magical and arcane power with temporal power.” Again the angel laughs at some unspoken joke, “Do not hurt yourself future Bannite by trying to use your power!”
Kernosh’s frustration at the situation was almost blinding. But then his eyes focused on the pentagram the angel had spoken about. Sereck looked closer at it as best he could from his angel at the back. It did not look painted or engraved on the floor; instead it seemed to be made up of some red powder placed in a pattern of a pentagram.
This must be what Kernosh saw as well, for he pulled a single arrow out of his quiver, and holding it by the point, made his way to the pentagram. The angel was acting nonchalant in his manner, but his focus was squarely on Kernosh with visible intent.
Kernosh leaned over the pentagram, and with a quick swishing movement, whipped away a small section of powder.
Suddenly, all four statues in the room animated and began to move towards the party. To add to the danger, a second angel quietly appears and moves forward. The party was already prepared for an attack, but the speed of the statues caught the party off guard as the first on moved past Kernosh and lifted his long sword. Energy crackled at its end releasing a shower of lighting down on top of Cabal and Duncan. Both are dazed at the energy released around them.
Kernosh moves up to the statue but is unable to effect is stony hide. He then leans back and releases the electrical energy of his breath weapon on the statues. Two are struck but shake off the electrical effects. This does earn him their attention though, as they both return the favor with an attack of their stone fists.
From the back of the party, a spinning dagger flies across the room and sticks into the Angel that has moved forward towards the group, indicating that Orrin has entered the battle.
Cabal, still dazed after the starting attack, uses his familiar for attacking. Scratch flies to the center of the room, deftly avoiding the stony grasps that reach for him, as a color spray attack from Cabal strikes out from his familiar Scratch. Two unsuspecting statues shatter as the colors dance over their bodies and drop them into piles of rubble.
Even as he was casting, Cabal was too close to the Angel, who turns to attack the mage. Duncan, still dazed, makes an effort to block the attack but cannot get there in time as Cabal is hit just after his spell completes.
Sereck divine challenges the angels with a threat of radiant damage if it doesn’t fight with him, and swings at it. But the angel’s defenses are too strong and his axe bounces harmlessly off its hide. Sereck decides to try his lightning breath weapon as Kernosh did, but the effects are the same as nothing seems effected. Sereck can only assume they are immune to lighting.
Kernosh screams out in pain as a dagger is thrust into his side. Duncan can suddenly tell that a creature has marked him, but uses a new ability and walks past all the attackers, deftly avoiding all their swings at him, and tries to flank the angel but cannot get past its defenses.
The angel seems unaffected by Sereck divine challenge and turns to attack Kernosh. Kernosh takes the hit and attacks one of the statues. Using his bastion of defense and hitting, he is able to infuse the party with additional energy for battle. He activates his fire energy of his weapon, and the angel easily brushes it aside. Fire, Radiant, and lightning resistant, to Sereck these creatures are appearing much more dangerous than they at first looked.
Cabal uses his familiar again to conjure fourth a giant six foot fist of ice. The cold reaches forth and grabs the back angel that had appeared. The icy grasp squeezes tight and cracking and squealing sounds can be heard as the angel is crushed in the hands grip.
Kernosh ducks as one of the last statues takes a useless swing in his direction. The angel focused on Kernosh doesn’t see Duncan move in, and his double attack cuts deeply into the astral being, bloodying him for all to see. Sereck finally manages to do a little damage against the angel, more because it was turning to confront Duncan than his attack. Sereck and Orrin both attempt to strike the angel and miss against its formidable armor. Kernosh again hits and heals the party, as Cabal’s icy hand crushes the angel it has in its grip. The crunching sound suddenly stops, and the hand releases the dead creature unto the floor. But the frozen hand is not done, as it moves over and manages to grasp the second angel. It screams in anger at the affront, but cannot escape its grip as part of the angels magical defenses collapse under the strain.
Kernosh and Duncan both manage to shove steel into the exposed parts of the angel, as the fist contracts with another loud popping sound, and the angel stops moving forever.
The angels and statues vanquished, Sereck can still sense the evil of Bane. He see the statue and has an idea.
“Cabal, think your icy hand there could collapse that statue of Bane?”
“I don’t see why not. I’d like to keep it around a while either way.”
So saying, he wills the hand to grasp the statue and crush it. The fist engulfs the large idle and squeezes. The sound of ice slipping on ice fills the room as the magical hand explodes in a shower of cold water and ice droplets.
Kernosh realizes he can’t heal him, as if the evil of the room is keeping the party in a combat stance.
“I think that pentagram must be keeping us from resting.” Kernosh picks his dropped arrow up off the floor and brushes away more of the pentagram, but to no effect. The others start to examine the room. Cabal and Kernosh both examine the book on the lectern, as Kernosh starts turning pages with the arrow carefully at first as Cabal yet again becomes impatient.
“It’s just a book,” says Cabal.
“Yes, but a book of evil. See here, the symbol of Bane on the cover?”
“So what, I have a book like that in my bag, remember? It’s just a book with no magical aura or anything. But it might have useful information. Just let me have it.”
Kernosh shrugs and lets him have the book, as Cabal smiles and puts it in his library collection.
When no exits or hidden area’s are found, the party decides to assist Cabal with the purification ritual. This was supposed to have been done by over a dozen priests, but sealed in the temple creates it’s own solution. The ritual progresses easily enough, and then suddenly it finished with a flurry of hand movements by Cabal.
“Is it over?” asks Duncan. Before anyone can answer, a deep rumbling sound can be heard. The entire room starts to shake, and bits of rock and dirt start to fall from the ceiling. Before anyone has the presence of mind to yell run, the two purple light braziers flicker out of existence, leaving only the ball of light next to Kernosh to illuminate the room. All eyes turn to him in time to see the ball of light fly across the few feet separating it from Kernosh and engulf his body, eventually disappearing as if it went into him. Total blackness engulfs the party for the heartbeat it takes for Cabal to summon his light. Sereck barely has time to registe the light as it is already at the door and moving down the hallway following it’s master. Sereck and the others keep pace with the quick footed mage through the temple corridors.
Passing through the hallway, the statue that attacked Sereck is momentarily illuminated. A single pile of rubble the only marker of where it once stood. Farther through, the inky pool is completely gone, the idol in the room collapsed as well. Further along, the offering alters are also missing in the first testing room as the party runs through the last hallway and finally arrives at the last room.
Large chunks of rock and earth continue to fall farther down the corridor, as the final hallway collapses behind the party. The ground is still shaking as Kernosh moves to where the opening in the final room should be.
“I can see an outline! I just need to push it open.” Struggling against the heavy rock door, Kernosh does not see Orrin suddenly vanish. Sereck can only guess he shifted outside to pull on the rock.
“Bah! Dragonborn, we’ll be buried alive if ye take much longer. Move aside!” as Duncan squeezes up and easily pushes the stone away causing Kernosh’s eyes to grow large. Looking through the opening, Sereck could see the gladiators lifting the stone as Orrin behind them was looking on through the opening.
The party climbs out of the opening, rocks could still be heard falling inside the cavern, while total silence was their welcome to the outside. All the people stood staring at the five adventurers, and suddenly a huge cheer went up through the crowd! Clapping and yelling of congratulations filled the air at the return of the missing party members.
“Well done, all of you! Is there even going to be a need for cleansing?”
“It was collapsing behind us, there should be no need.” Says Kernosh.
“Well it would appear that once again thunder-strike is successful….thanks to our leadership!” says Carl.
Everyone moves over and congratulates the party trying to touch the new heroes of the day. Sereck noticed all four of the nobles move in, assumedly to be at the center of attention. Within seconds, each noble had latched onto a single party member and was trying to quietly guide them away.
Apparently, Kernosh figured out what was going on sooner than Sereck did, as he called out to the team.
“Thunder strike, rally over here!” Another cheer went through the crowd at the call from the groups leader.
As the party members fought through the pulling crowd and finally managed to group up, Kernosh looked at the throng of people and said “I suggest we leave. Tonight. Now.”
Sereck looked at the people gathered around them and realized that would never work.
“But, they are not leaving until the next day; we might as well leave with the townsfolk to help protect them on the way back. Besides, truth be told, I’m exhausted.”
The others nodded their agreement to this.
“Fine, we will stay the night. But nobody leaves this area. We will set up camp over there in that open spot, and we stay there. If you want visitors, they come to us. No leaving," as Kernosh looked squarly at all of us. Then is focus lands on a certain mage, "and that means no secret visits to Ann either Mr. Cabal.”
“What? Great, then I’m getting drunk right here.”
“That’s fine, just don’t leave.”
"As long as they bring the drink over here, I have no complaint’s with that!” replied Duncan. And hearing his exclamation, a group of dwarves all cheered and held up mugs of Ale in Duncan’s direction. He yelled back and was suddenly holding a mug in each hand and trying to drink them both at the same time.
Sereck thought this was going to be a loud area with drunken dwarves and Cabal, and tried to nonchalantly leave with some gladiators.
“Hey! Where do you think your going?” yelled Kernosh to the Paladin.
Sereck sighed; he must be exhausted if he actually thought he could sneak?
“Nowhere, just clearing an area for my bag for rest,” he answered in a beaten down voice.
Kernosh smiled at winning a battle without trying. ‘Maybe this leadership isn’t that hard’ he thought to himself. Then he realized that not one but two of the nobles were standing there waiting excitedly to talk with him.
‘Forget it, leadership sucks.” He again mumbled to himself, as he smiled and waved at the two nobles to come over and talk with him.
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