by Max Anthony
“Keep going!” shouted Viddo from ten yards away.
“I have no intention of stopping,” puffed Rasmus.
Ahead of him, Viddo reached the altar and ducked behind it. Rasmus didn’t slow and sped past. A sudden realisation struck him. Firstly, the thief had vanished, secondly, the exit from this room was ten high and ten wide – more than adequately sized to permit the egress and ingress of an undead monstrosity.
Hoping that the thief had a plan and equally hoping that the exit corridor wouldn’t lead him into the waiting arms of more undead, Rasmus pounded along this new passageway. He hadn’t got very far when his ears told him that the sounds of pursuit had lessened. He looked back and saw that the giant was standing in a spot just near to the altar, thrashing away at something on its back. Rasmus saw the glint of metal in hand as an arm rose and fell, again and again. Then, Viddo leaped away from the giant’s back and landed lightly on the floor. The undead creature wobbled and stumbled, with the grin still on its ravaged face. Without further ado, it fell neatly back into the altar whence it had first appeared.
Viddo strolled towards his friend, his daggers no longer on show. “That was a tough bastard and no mistake. It took nine backstabs and your acid ball thingy to knock it down. I think the most backstabs anything else took was eight.”
Rasmus knew that any good thief could unerringly locate the weak spots of their opponents, and though Viddo’s daggers were only quite short, each backstab would do a far greater amount of damage than one might expect. Nine backstabs and an acid cloud spell was a lot of damage for one creature to soak up.
“Big undead are always a pain in the arse,” said the wizard. “You can throw spell after spell at them and they just blunder on through it all.”
“You know what that one was, don’t you?” asked Viddo, supplying the answer before Rasmus could respond. “It was an abomination. I’ve no idea where they come from, but your normal pleb-level cleric can’t just call one up. It needs something properly evil to get an abomination up and running.”
“Like a lich.”
“Yeah, like one of them,” said Viddo. “I think I know where we might be now.”
“I would be curious to learn,” admitted Rasmus.
“I think we’ve found the lost temple city of Gungok the Ghastly.”
If Viddo had expected a gasp of shock or a look of wonderment at this announcement, he was disappointed. The wizard stared back at him blankly.
“Gungok the Ghastly?” he asked.
“One of the very first gods. There’s no written records of any of this stuff because it’s so old. It’s just one of those old legends that refuses to die out. Gungok the Ghastly had a huge underground temple built in his honour by his worshippers and then they all died somehow.”
“That’s not much to go on,” said Rasmus glumly. “I’d hoped you’d have some interesting back story at least.”
“It is said that his high priest was a man of great power and that he fell into corruption,” confided Viddo. “And you know what happens when priests fall into corruption.”
“They start raising abominations and keep them hidden inside their altars?”
“Perhaps nothing so specific as that,” said Viddo. “But they can certainly raise the dead, and we’ve seen nothing apart from the undead in here and in that city above.”
“So maybe those people in that dead city that we first found came looking for this long-forgotten god. Only they didn’t find him.”
“No, it looks like they found his high priest though,” said Viddo with confidence, to disguise the fact that he was just making an educated guess.
“That place above was so old. Which makes this place much older still,” said Rasmus. He felt a slight shiver run through him as he contemplated the ages.
“Think we can take down a lich?” asked Viddo. “And more importantly, do we want to risk it?”
“This is our one chance to kill an ancient evil!” exclaimed Rasmus.
“You’ve never been interested in killing ancient evils before,” said the thief in mild surprise.
“A lich’s head would be nice for my trophy cabinet,” came the reply. “And ancient evils will have had a long time to gather ancient treasures unto themselves.”
“I see,” said Viddo, quickly realising what his friend was angling for. “How many spells have you got left and how many of them are the real deal lich-killing type?” he asked.
“I left the university with one hundred and sixty-two spells memorised. I’ve had to use quite a number of them over the last few months and many of the remaining ones are fairly useless at killing things, but I have almost one hundred spells available to me. Less the six that you had me waste earlier today,” he finished, unwilling to let Viddo forget the lesson of his practical joke.
“Why don’t you bring your spell book along with you?” Viddo asked, knowing that once Rasmus had cast a particular spell he had to re-memorise it from his book.
“Because my spell book is two feet square and almost as thick. Would you wish to lug such an item around with you?”
“Don’t you have a few disposable spell scrolls tucked in your robes somewhere?”
“I do indeed carry with me a few emergency scrolls in case I run out of memorised fireballs, but of course those scrolls were left with my travelling pack, which as you know, we had to abandon on the basis that we ran away from a squad of soldiers who were seeking the return of a hat you stole.”
Viddo ignored the obvious attempt to bait him. “It sounds like we’re adequately equipped to deal with what lies ahead. But we had best get a move on, since we have to destroy any ancient evils we encounter, make good our escape and then reach the city of Gargus twenty miles away, all before we die of thirst or hunger.”
“Let us go through yonder passage then, my thiefly friend, and tarry no longer.”
Eight
The wide passageway took them another three hundred yards through the rock. There was no veneer of marble here, just the same greyness that they had become familiar with. They were able to see their destination long before they got there, which was another large temple-style room like the one they’d just left. This second room was perpendicular to the first and noticeably smaller and noticeably less grand. There were glowing light balls, but fewer carved pillars and the marble veneer didn’t extend everywhere as it had in the previous room. They were relieved to see that there was no altar in here, but there were exits aplenty, leading to the left, the right and two ahead.
“I wonder if this was the original temple,” said Rasmus. “And then they decided to make something bigger and better.”
“Could be,” said Viddo. “I’ve seen similar in cities on the surface. There’ll be one small, old temple, and right next to it an even larger temple. I seem to recall that Frool has three such temples, side-by-side. They look like a big set of steps as if they lead to the heavens, though I doubt that was the intention.”
The pair walked in silence through this new room. There were carvings on the pillars once more, though Viddo did not read anything of particular interest. He thought that the writings were older, which supported the wizard’s idea that this temple room had preceded the first.
“Do you reckon this high priest would have had a room near to the temple?” asked Rasmus. “If I had the choice, I’d always want to live somewhere close to where I worked.”
“Let’s have a look down some of these corridors and see,” said Viddo.
The corridor to the left stretched away, with two or three branches visible in the gloomy distance. They didn’t venture that way, putting this route to one side for the moment in case something more interesting presented itself. One of the straight ahead exits was narrower than the others – definitely intended for two people abreast, rather than several. It was unlit, so Rasmus summoned his light again. This corridor led onwards for a few paces before it turned sharply left. There was something about it that spoke of secrets, as if it led to places t
hat the people who lived here had not been permitted to go.
“Those other passages look like the main ways in and out,” said Viddo, dropping his voice to a whisper once more. “Probably meant for many people.”
“And this one looks like it was meant for only a few people,” said Rasmus. “A few important people.”
“Wealthy people,” concluded Viddo, already lifting his foot in order to start his journey along here. Something made him stop, with his foot mid-lift. He held up a hand for Rasmus to halt.
“Look!” said the thief, pointing at a thin, almost invisible wire, taut across the entrance to the corridor at ankle height. “Someone could trip over that!”
On the rare occasions that Rasmus had partnered with other, lesser, thieves, they might have seen this trap and, having identified it, they’d all simply step over it and be on their way. Not so with Viddo. It was a matter of pride that he also disarm any trap that he discovered, since he gained enjoyment from getting one over on the trap makers. Therefore, Rasmus stood by patiently as Viddo dropped to all fours and studied the trip wire from a distance of approximately two centimetres.
“It goes into these two holes in the walls,” he said, stating the obvious, “and then it runs up here and along here, until it reaches a point just behind these two walls along here,” he continued, voicing conclusions that Rasmus had no idea how he reached.
Viddo made an exaggerated step over the trip wire and went over to the parts of the wall he’d indicated. “There’re panels here on either side that are made to open on hinges. Only we don’t want them to open.”
The thief reached into a hidden pocket and unrolled a small leather pack, which contained the tools of his trade. Rasmus saw him remove several triangular pieces of metal and a tiny hammer. With the speed of a man knowledgeable in hinges, Viddo hammered the pieces of metal into the tiny gaps that described the outline of the hidden doors. Rasmus would have expected the action to be accompanied by a noise, but it appeared that the hammer’s head was clothed in a layer of sound-deadening material.
“There!” said Viddo. “All done.”
He made another exaggerated step back over the trip wire and then began his familiar impression where he pretended to be an innocent gentleman about his business. He whistled tunelessly as he blundered purposefully into the trip wire, which stretched out of position, but did not snap. There was a faint rumbling, heard through the walls, but nothing untoward happened. Content with his work, Viddo stooped over with a tiny cutting tool and snipped through the wire with a tiny click. He conscientiously swept the trailing ends of the wire to one side, as if to prevent them fouling anyone’s foot in the future. The pair left the second temple room and entered this smaller corridor.
“What would have happened if we’d triggered that trap?” asked Rasmus out of curiosity.
“There was something hiding behind each of those panels,” said Viddo. “I don’t know what exactly, but we can be reasonably certain that they were undead and likely somewhat more powerful than a skeleton. There’d be no point in going to all the trouble of making a sophisticated trap of weights and counterweights, only to hide a couple of bumbling skeletons in there.”
What Viddo said made perfect sense to Rasmus, so he nodded in agreement, though didn’t venture any further questions in case it made him look ignorant on the subject of traps which of course, he was.
Their pace was now much-reduced, owing to the fact that Viddo had to carefully study the walls as they progressed. There were no light balls here, but Rasmus’ spell provided more than enough illumination for them to see by. There were also no further traps in the vicinity of the first, though Viddo wasn’t so easily fooled that he allowed his guard to drop. After they’d made the first left-hand turn after the trip wire, they found a long corridor ahead of them, with doorways to either side. Through the first set of doorways there were empty rooms, ten feet square and seven high.
“Offices?” guessed Viddo.
“With desks made of wood, long since rotted away.”
Three other pairs of doorways led to similarly empty rooms, though the rooms themselves become progressively larger, as if the officials who had resided in them were more important and therefore qualified for a bigger room.
At the end of the corridor was one final doorway and this raised some excitement amongst the adventurers. The light spell illuminated the interior and they could see the largest office of all behind it. This office was furnished with a variety of standard items – a desk, chairs, a bookshelf of books and most importantly of all, there was a wooden chest bound with iron in one corner.
“Look! A chest!” said Viddo.
“Look! Books!” said Rasmus.
Viddo’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How come there’s wooden stuff in there that hasn’t decayed?” he asked. He inspected the doorway in minute detail, looking for any sign of traps. There were none.
“Is it clear?” asked Rasmus.
“I can’t see any traps,” said Viddo. “Let’s go inside, but carefully.”
Viddo was best-placed to handle the unexpected, so he took the first step across the threshold. Or at least, he tried to – an invisible barrier blocked his path. He kicked at the barrier a couple of times, but it didn’t budge and made no sound as his foot connected with it.
“An eternal force field!” said Rasmus, knowing instantly what it was.
“Can you get rid of it?” asked Viddo.
“Of course, I can!” said the wizard. These things dispel quite easily if you know how. Viddo watched as Rasmus made a couple of quick gestures.
“That should do it,” said Rasmus.
Viddo tried to enter the room again, once more finding himself blocked by the barrier. “It’s still here,” he said.
“Bugger it,” said Rasmus. “That means whoever cast it was an exceptionally skilled practitioner of the arts,” he said. “Usually it’s quite easy to dispose of weaker magics, but the stronger the caster of the original spell, the harder it is to remove it.”
“What do we do, then?” asked the thief.
“I’ll give it another try.” The wizard repeated his earlier gestures. “I hope it’s worked this time. I don’t want to use up all of my dispels if I can avoid it. They’re cracking fun for pissing off other wizards, particularly if you can dispel their magic without them knowing you’ve done it.” Rasmus chortled at some unspoken past memory which evidently involved mischief.
There was no need for concern, and Viddo found that he could enter the room without molestation from an invisible barrier cast millennia ago. The first thing he noticed was a peculiar smell, which quickly became stronger and stronger. He had no idea what the smell was and the only way he could describe it was age.
“Urgh, I don’t like that smell,” said Rasmus, joining him in the room.
“Look at all those books,” said Viddo, his eyes drawn to a peculiar undulation on the bookshelf.
The stared and as they did so, the tomes seemed to melt before their eyes. Rasmus hurried over, heedless of any traps and picked up one of the thickest books. It crumbled into his hands, turning firstly into pieces, which in turn disintegrated until they were nothing more than a dust, which became ever finer. This dust blew into the air of the room, and coated the wizard’s robes in a fine layer of white.
“The force shield must have preserved them against the years,” said Rasmus miserably. “And now that we’ve come wandering in here, the years are catching up with them.”
“It’s happening to the desk as well,” said Viddo. “And the chairs.”
They watched as the wood became riddled with tiny holes. These holes grew and grew and the same dust dispersed into the air. There were several quiet clinking noises, which seemed incongruous to what was happening. After a few fascinating minutes, the table and chairs were no more, though the source of the clinking noises was now clear.
“Gold!” said Viddo. “The owner of this desk must have left a few coins in one of the
drawers and they fell onto the floor when the desk turned to dust.”
Rasmus was closest and swept them up – there were nine gold coins in total, thick and heavy.
“Not bad ones either,” said Rasmus, cheering up a little after seeing the loss of the books. “A few dozen more like that and we’ll have had a profitable trip.”
“We’re not done yet,” said Viddo. “There’s still that chest to search through.” He rubbed his hands together at the possibilities.
Rasmus looked at the chest, which sat innocently in its corner. It was made of a very dark wood - so dark that the black iron bands were almost invisible against it. The chest was a good three feet long, and over a foot high. If it were filled with anything valuable, they might become very wealthy indeed.
Something chimed in Rasmus’ head. “How come everything else has fallen to pieces, but the chest hasn’t?” he asked.
Viddo paused in his approach and looked at it doubtfully. “I’ve not seen that sort of wood before. Maybe it’s immune to aging. Chests tend to be made out of higher quality materials than your average chair or table.”
“What about the paint on the metal bands?” asked Rasmus. “I’ve seen paint that crumbles and flakes off in less than three years. Even the good stuff doesn’t last.”
“Hmmm,” said Viddo, uncertain about what to do.
Rasmus beckoned him from the room and the two of them exited. With the wizard in the lead for once, Viddo traipsed behind, not quite knowing what was going on. When they got as far as the first pair of doorways they’d passed when they entered this corridor, Rasmus pushed Viddo into one of the rooms and followed him. Then, as Viddo watched, the wizard leaned out of the doorway, so that his head and arm were in the corridor. Viddo heard some mumblings and two seconds later, the sounds of a mighty explosion. Rasmus ducked back inside, just as a cloud of smoke and dust billowed and rattled past. The wizard hadn’t been quite fast enough and his face was covered in black soot, which he wiped away with his sleeve.
