by Clark Bolton
“What about the ropes?” Castor pointed out.
The dwarves had it covered though as they let one drop and then doubled up the last one so that they could pull it down after them. When everyone was down they quickly stepped away from the wall at Murac’s urging.
The valley was green as it had its own small stream that the monks had diverted for irrigation and so it was filled with orchards and rows of crops. “Nice garden they have made. I hope they don’t mind us tramping through it.” Pemmesa commented as they headed down a path.
Turned out the path was a road of sorts that wound up the valley which at its widest point was more than a thousand paces. It took them less than an hour to reach the first shrine, which looked so far to be the only likely crypt.
“Not it I think.” Luzac said as he walked around it. The shrine was only about as tall as he was and maybe twice as wide and thick.
“Up there!” Murac announced from further up the small road.
The party came to look and so found a sheer cliff face lined with shrines of one kind or another. Some were hundreds of feet up the cliff and looked to be three or so paces wide and tall. Others looked the size of a window, and a few were massive. All were carved into the soft limestone of the cliff and few had much of a landing before them let alone a path to them.
Berdtom gazed at them for a while. “Many centuries I think, or more even to build all these. See there that one, the rain has practically washed it away over the years.”
“Let’s keep moving, looks to be a lot more!” Murac then proceeded further up the road which was now winding about through a sheer ravine.
Here and there they could see more shrines or crypts but not in the concentration there was further back. The dwarves guessed these they were seeing now were not as old as the previous ones.
“Wow!” Haspeth exclaimed as the party wound around a long term. They had reached another part of the ravine that was now packed with shrines.
Continuing on up the road they climbed now to a point where they could see the monastery off in the distance. They saw no signs that the monks had raised an alarm so they continued on up the face of the cliff until they reached the end of the road. Here the shrines came down to within a man’s height of the road and rose up row after row of them toward the sky.
“I’m thinking we start here!” Murac announced as he set his pack down. “O’t, can you give us a clue?”
Autbek set his pack down and then fished out his locator. He was prepared for this he hoped and had done all the testing of the device he could, including testing against Neustus’s ring and his. He could not remove the Ausic ring from his finger but he could place his finger carefully on the locator so as to pinpoint the direction of the nearest item made of the same mineral.
This was when the bells started ringing from the monastery. The sound was surprisingly loud even from this distance as it seemed to bounce its way up the canyon. The dwarves seemed the most concerned and so went to the edge of the cliff that dropped down to a portion of the road below them to better watch the monastery.
“What’s got them so worked up?” Haspeth asked Autbek as he helped ready the locator.
“Don’t know, hopefully nothing.”
Onaleen called to them as she walked to the dwarves. “O’t they want us to come see!”
All came to gaze down at the monastery but saw nothing more than distant bells ringing in one of the towers. “Nice bells!” Haspeth told the two dwarves.
Luzac scowled at him. “Not just bells boy, look again! They are directional; see how they point to the hills above us.”
“Yea, so?”
Autbek furrowed his brow and looked up to where the dwarf had pointed. “Are they bouncing the sound off the mountain so it will reach the village better?”
“No! They are signaling something up there!” Luzac replied loudly.
They all assessed again the surrounding peaks that made up the canyon but could find no clue as to who the monks might be signaling. “Could there be more monks up there, or guards maybe?” They asked.
“Not unless they have wings!” Luzac said with concern.
“How about one of those.” Castor asked as he pointed to an ornate carving on a large section of worked stone. “Looks like a lion with wings.”
“Whoa now, can’t be that … can it?” Haspeth said with some doubt as he went back to scanning the canyon.
“Why not, haven’t you noticed that thing carved on just about everything on the way up here?”
Murac walked up to the stone. “You sure? You’ve seen this a lot?” No one else seemed to recall it but Castor nodded his head firmly.
“Murac, what do we do if that shows up?” Autbek asked, thinking the creature would have trouble flying around in the canyon and so would make an easy target.
“Hmm, get your locator working. I’ll find us a position to defend if it comes to that.” Murac then climbed up to the first set of shrines to see if what looked like a cave really was. “Luzac, you and Negorch take a look in some of these! See if there is enough room in one of them.”
The dwarves climbed up with help from the others and were soon carefully climbing along thin ledges as they moved from shrine to shrine. Occasionally they would disappear for a minute or two then move on to the next.
Autbek placed his locator down on the ground and then touched his ring as lightly as he could to one end and watched the needle intently. It was difficult not to affect the device with his finger, but finally he got what he thought was a good reading.
“There!” He pointed. The direction looked to include a stack of shrines, each one a short distance above the other.
Murac came down to see. “Which one?”
“Don’t know, any of those in this line I think.” Autbek had to step back to the edge of the road to see the very top of the cliff face. “About a dozen of them I think.”
“Luzac, start with that one there!” Murac pointed to the lowest shrine which they had already passed over in their search for a cave.
The bells continued to echo throughout the canyon which was starting to irritate everyone as it rang as a constant reminder that they needed to hurry, or perhaps run for cover. Not knowing which to do resulted in a lot of cursing.
The dwarves searched the shrine carefully which took only a minute. “Nothing here, the shelf is cut in only a pace or two and there is naught but dust!”
Autbek nodded and then cast a levitate spell upon himself, and then grabbing the locator he floated up along the first shrine to the one directly above it. This one was not large, hardly the height of a man and about that wide. There were carved vines and many other carvings, largely worn away in the limestone and some looked to have once been painted.
“Nothing here! I’m going up.” He was sweating profusely now as he tried not to look down too much. From here the bells seemed even louder. As he searched the third one he thought to try the locator again. This time he was pretty sure the needle indicated a place higher than he was at.
Murac had Haspeth cast a levitate spell on him, and then grabbing his bow and arrows, and some ropes he had Haspeth lift him up to Autbek. “Watch yourself now, some of these may have traps to foil thieves!”
Autbek closed his eyes as he realized how vulnerable he was making himself. He had not looked carefully at all before sticking his hands into crevices, and indeed his face. “It’s not this one, I’m pretty sure!”
The two floated up to the next one, and this time Autbek let Murac handle most of the searching. With his bow Murac first poked around a bit into the main archway of the shrine which led to a chamber that was a tight fit for one person.
About this time Castor the lizard man showed up. With claws gripping the stone he and Lita were able to move more quickly than the other two. “Nothing here Castor, now watch for traps!”
“Got it.” Castor said as he climbed up to the next one.
When Autbek and Murac arrived they found the two illusionists
inside a slightly larger shrine, this one contained dusty remains and so looked much more promising. “We are a little bit off the direction now, and I still think it is up!”
Hearing this Castor scampered out and on up and over to the right slightly, the direction Autbek had pointed. “This is a real cave!”
Murac floated up slowly with his bow tapping along the face of the cliff. “Wait now! O’t, take a reading, let’s see if we really need to go in this one.”
Autbek climbed onto the narrow self and tried desperately to calm his nerves. With trembling hands he laid down the locator and placed his finger across it. “Maybe, I can’t be sure though.” He sounded out of breath he knew and he felt very dizzy.
“RRRRROOOAAAARRRR!” The sound was almost deafening, yet also seemed some distance away. It seemed to echo endlessly about the narrow canyon.
Autbek closed his eyes in terror for just a second and then snapped them open as he bumped the locator. Reaching quickly to grab it he almost caused it to tumble from the narrow ledge he was on. He could hear the party below shouting and screaming at each other. Looking down now he saw them moving up next to the cliff face and so now out of his sight.
Murac pulled on Autbek. “Quick up there with Castor, into the cave, there is no cover here!” He waited for the terrified Autbek to float up and then over a bit toward where Castor was waiting with clawed hand outstretched.
They did not worry about traps as they squeezed their way into the cave. It turned out to go back some distance and at some points it had burial shelves with remains in them. After about twenty paces Autbek stopped in the near darkness and turned back to see the others. Lita was next to him, and then Castor. Murac was still in the doorway, looking about into the Canyon above him.
“Murac, do you see anything?” He whispered harshly.
Murac put his finger to his lips and shook his head as he continued to watch. When the second roar shook the canyon the three of them in the cave cringed and fell back further into the cave. Not Murac though, he actually stuck his head out into the open to see if he could see the beast.
“Gods!” Autbek exclaimed as he hugged the shaking Lita. He just hoped he was not shaking as badly as she was. Looking about he wondered suddenly if it was they or the roar that caused the light cloud of dust now lingering in the cave.
“Murac, back up a bit! I can put an illusion of a wall in front of you!” Castor whispered as loud as he dared.
Murac turned to them. “Do it between you and me if you must! Now, can the rest of the party fit back there!”
“Yes! It goes back another ten paces at least!” Castor pulled enchanted chalk from his pocket and began to draw runes on the walls but decided against an illusion at the moment.
“Is there something to tie this rope to?” They all looked for something but could find no anchor point.
“No!”
“Hold it then, all of you!” With that Murac tossed one end to them then tossed the other out over the cliff to the party below. It was going to take a person many minutes to climb up he knew but there seemed no other option at this point. “Luzac!Send people up!”
“RRRRROOOAAAARRRR!” This one came with a shadow that streaked by on the canyon across from them. The result was genuine terror as the girls screamed along with others.
“Damn that thing’s fast!” Murac growled as he nocked an arrow. “O’t, get up here and enchant these!” He barked.
At first Autbek seemed not to hear his own name until Castor called it again. The kid looked white as a ghost and Lita was on the floor halfway under him, curled up like a ball. When he finally realized he should move and so came to his feet he found he had wet himself. “What?”
“The arrows boy!” Murac screamed at him. “Enchant them, do it now!”
Autbek nodded as he put his trembling hands on the walls to steady himself enough to slide past Castor. He then walked up near Murac and reached out as he cast the enchant blade spell they had so often used in the past. As the arcane energies flowed through him he actually began to feel better.
Murac grabbed him by the collar. “O’t! When that thing comes I want you to shoot it with a lightning bolt. Understand, now stay here!”
Autbek wilted at Murac’s stare and then nodding his head as he knelt behind the man and brought his lightning spell to mind in preparation. “I’ll do it, do you see it?”
They saw nothing but the rope slide a little until castor grabbed it with his claws. Thinking quickly and knowing that Castor could not hold the weight of some of the party members; Autbek cast a shape stone spell. He was then able to sink his hands into the very rock of the cave floor and then form it into a crude rounded post. “There, now wrap the rope around it!”
The first up the rope was Pemmesa, who with help from a levitate spell as well as fear, climbed quickly. She was followed by Onaleen, but as they helped her clamber into the cave the creature came again, and before any sign of Resbeka or the others.
“RRRRROOOAAAARRRR!” This one came just as its shadow settled on the cave mouth. The sheer blast of the roar knocked Autbek down, causing his vision to swirl. He could just see the beast now just beyond Murac’s silhouette and he could see that Murac had drawn and released an arrow at the creature, but he could not make out what the thing truly looked like.
Castor and the others had fled for the rear of the cave, leaving Autbek on his back stunned and useless while Murac fired arrow after arrow at the thing. Unable to hear Castor did the only thing he could think to do. Activating the runes he had already drawn he produced an illusion of a dire-wolf and sent it hurtling from the cave mouth at what he hoped was the creature.
Murac almost shot the wolf out of reflex but then turned back to shoot at what appeared to be a massive flying lion. “O’t!” He yelled above the ringing in his ears. The creature’s roar had nearly knocked him down as it had done to Autbek, but he was sure some of the arrows had met their mark.
The creature swerved in flight to avoid the wolf then turned to look down upon it as it sunk its claws into the stone of the nearest shrine, which was below Murac but far off to his left.
“RRRRROOOAAAARRRR!” This roar obliterated the illusionary wolf. Then the creature turned to the two figures halfway up the rope.
Resbeka screamed as the creature’s massive white-feathered wings buffeted her as it moved in for the kill. She would later write a poem about the dwarf that saved her life that day, for as the lion crawled toward her, with wings beating fiercely to hold it upon the cliff face, Luzac attacked it from below. He was just below Resbeka on the rope and so used it to repel horizontally to within reach of the lion’s flank.
“SNNNAAARLLL!” The creature screamed as the glowing axe that Haspeth had enchanted bit into it, and then it focused entirely upon the dwarf. A huge claw ripped into the dwarf and surely would have knocked him from the cliff face if he had not had the rope latched about his waist.
“PSSSST! PSSSST!” Arcane missiles shot up from below the beast striking its sides.
“CRAAAACKKK!” Autbek let loose a lightning bolt into it but to no effect. The electrical energies seemed to crackle about the beast and some seemed even to pass through it.
The lion ignored the spells to pounce upon Luzac and then it took him up in its massive jaws and glided to the road below, sliding the dwarf off the end of the rope as Luzac’s axe clattered off the cliff face.
Resbeka managed to climb without the rope since Haspeth had put a levitate spell upon her. Murac tossed her into the cave as she came into reach “O’t, try fire!”
“I can’t it would burn Luzac!”
“Then aim for its tail!”
Autbek ignored Murac and pulled a scroll from his tunic. As he cast he pointed down at the creature. The effect was immediate, for just as Negorch arrived to do battle with the beast over the body of his fallen friend a shimmering glow briefly engulfed the lion which backed up onto its haunches.
The spell was similar to the hold spell that Autbe
k had practiced on the guards back at the mage tower, but was much more powerful and intended for larger creatures. The lion seemed to move sluggishly now and its wings barely moved.
Negorch grabbed the limp Luzac by the arm and dragged him back, leaving a long bloody trail as the lion shook its head slowly in confusion.
“HUMAN!” The creature roared. But this roar had none of the terrifying effect of its others. “RELEASE ME!”
Chills ran through the party as they realized the thing was intelligent. Murac quickly slide down the rope that still remained anchored in the cave despite the lion having slid Luzac off the full length of it. He reached the road where Berdtom, Haspeth and Negorch were attending to Luzac.
Autbek yelled down at the beast, still high on the arcane power released by the scroll. “Leave now, we are not grave robbers! We take only what the family of the dead has sent us to reclaim!” He knew his statement was overly simplistic but did think it was mostly true.
It was both strange and frightening to hear the booming reply from the lion. “AHHH! I guard this sacred mountain; nothing shall be taken by the men of Astrum nor by their dwarven allies!”
They were all taken back by the knowledge of the lion. Berdtom then bravely spoke up. “You know much of us, though we don’t know how, but perhaps you can tell the truth of what we say!”
The lion turned to Berdtom and seemed to be considering its response. Then it did something totally unexpected. It lay down upon its belly and began to lick its wounds as it eyed the party. This caused confusion and uncertainty in just about everybody.
Looking to each other they whispered back and forth asking if it had given up or if they should run or what. Finally Murac approached it with an arrow nocked.
“If you think we are going to wait until that spell wears off you’d be wrong!”
“GRRRRR!” Was the response.
Ignoring the growl he yelled up at Autbek. “O’t! How long we have before it ends!”
He tried his best to recall what he knew about the spells length but only had a guess. “Few minutes at most, nothing more!”
