Chapter 6 : An explosive return

#### Reinstatement

They appear to be a large necklace and a small scepter, wrapped in a richly decorated cloth. What would we do without our invaluable scout companion... As soon as the regalia pop from their hiding place, the Former High Priest snatches them up and raises them into the air with a shout of glee. Without sparing us a second glance, it moves towards the exit of the room. Suddenly the sounds from the lower courtyard roll over us. A quick glance out of the window show Yang Ti in combat in small patches. It seemed they were fighting each other. A closer look revealed that house HssTafi were fighting members of house H ́Sossoth. House H ́Sossoth must have attacked the temple to take control form the supporters of the ancient ones. This was the start of the civil war our snake Priest was talking about earlier. Suddenly a shout from the door caught out attention. The newly reinstated High Priest gave us a curt sign to follow him as he dived through the door. Without knowing what will happen next, we follow. As we bound out of the room, the High Priest is waiting at the top of the stairs. Telling us to stay close, he moves down, and into the courtyard waving the small scepter at anyone coming close, shouting in Yang Ti, as much as one can shout in those hisses. All that see the scepter stop fighting and recoiled, some looking troubled.

The High Priest heads purposefully to the center of the courtyard, seeking high ground to display the regalia to all. Slowly the fighting stopped, until all are staring at the new High Priest in silence, listening to his insistent hissing. Slowly the former inhabitants of the temple lower their weapons, and give themselves up to the members of house H’Sossoth. After control is regained by house H’Sossoth, the High Priest gathers all priest of the complex around him for negotiations or something. We are kindly but instantly asked to wait in one of the large rooms in the complex. Negotiations clearly are tense, as all around us, Yang Ti are rushing to and from the complex, to tell the news and forge new bonds among the houses. This lasted several long hours, extending deep into the night, but finally the newly appointed High Priest comes to us to thank us for helping him prevent a civil war among the Yang Ti. He assures us that now was the time to rest, and after that the time to train and grow stronger. After that, he would help us with our goals...

#### Audience with the High Priest

The next days we spend deliberating over which course to set next. It seems obvious we should follow the tracks of the Ancient One, at least at first. But would that mean confronting and defeating him? Where had the old High Priest gone? It was he who summoned and, apparently, controlled that Black Dragon. Facing the three of them together doesn’t appeal to us as the most efficient way to obtain that Flute. We interrupted our musings for the promised visit to the High Priest. He promised us as much help as much he could manage, so per- haps now was the time to find out exactly how far that would go.

We had little problem entering the Temple Grounds when Druw simply announced himself and stated we had an appointment with the High Priest. Promptly, we were escorted through the courtyard and into the Temple. The signs of the recent battle were still everywhere, although clearly a lot of cleaning and even some repairs had already been done. The High Priest welcomed us almost as old friends, and he was clearly still grateful for us freeing him from his imprisonment by the HssTafi. It was a bit disappointing to learn that he actually could tell us only a bit more about the Ancient One, the Flute and the Dragon. Anyway, it was good to have all our findings and constructions from rumours confirmed by a reliable source. It seemed there were still several Ancient Ones alive (we had always assumed there was only one remaining). But it had indeed been the HssTafi High Priest who, from some adventures in his childhood, had forged a special bond with the Dragon. His whereabouts were completely unknown. Also unfortunate was that he was actually the only one who had ever accompanied the Ancient Ones to the place where they lived. As we had already guessed, this was on (or in) the Volcano, which by now with the a large eruption being eminent, must be getting very uncomfortable. After having supplied us with good luck, some potions, more good luck and wishes, and finally some more potions, he called someone to show us the door leading to the place where the Ancient Ones live. He only knew the door, beyond that it was unknown territory and we would be completely on our own – what else is new...

#### Out of the Frying Pan...

As it turned out, we had already been past that door – past but not through. At the time we decided it looked much too foreboding and we had decided to leave it for the time being. It was a sturdy, ironbound door and it was very frustrating to see how much time we needed to get through it. First of all, after careful examination of the door, Terrak came to the conclusion that there was a Magic Trap on it. He offered to disable it, but it was decided that the prudent course was to let Juneeka Dispel the Magic. Unfortunately, that failed, leaving a hazardous and painstaking job to Terrak. As it turned out, from Drew’s Detect Magic, there actually were two Traps on the door, and it was indeed very fortunate that Terrak managed to safely disable both of them without him suffering any mishap – nor the rest of the party for that matter even though they had retreated to a safe place at a distance around the corner.

The next step, opening the locked door, seemed trivial by comparison but even though Terrak knew that his attempt had been as good as any could have managed, it refused to unlock. That left us the only remaining option of battering it down. That ungrateful task fell to Rufus and Hendel. After a few timid attempts, they seemed to get the hang of it. The door crashed down and Rufus nearly tumbled into the room. Or, rather, it turned out the be a corridor and before he was completely aware of his new surroundings, he saw two gleaming eyes at the far end. Promptly, they rushed towards him and a black-clad, armoured figure appeared, all too ready to attack Rufus, and wielding greatsword that flamed up when he swung it. There was very little room for even Rufus to maneuver here, and for a moment it seemed he would need to do all the work by him- self. Luckily, Terrak managed to squeeze himself through and position himself behind the black guard, and Hendel stepped in and managed to swing an occasional blow around the corner of the doorway. Meanwhile, Juneeka and Drew had their hands free for some Magical assistance. The thing – for it worked very methodically and appeared unaffected by Terrak’s Sneak Attacks – was tough stuff and it took us some time to get rid of it.

Presently, we were done and could continue through the corridor. Just around the corner we found a Portal – clearly that was our only possible next step.

#### ...And Into the Fire

Slightly disoriented, we emerged in another corridor. The air was hot and stuffy, which even without the incessant rumbling coming from all directions was enough to tell us that we had, indeed, arrived at the Vulcano. A few turns took us to the first intersection. The door ahead led into a guardroom – which turned out empty. Rufus checked around the next corner, where he found an intersection. A quick glance around the corner, however, betrayed his presence to a lobster-like beast that immediately stepped up his pace and followed suit. Yelling ‘Incoming!’ he warned us, and we split up around the intersection at the guardroom door. Terrak climbed up the wall, so he could jump down and approach from behind, while Tinder stepped into the guardroom to cover the right flank of the beast (we had no idea yet what it actually was). Juneeka and Drew took the other flank from the corridor that had brought us here. Rufus would lure the beast to into the ambush.

Within seconds, Rufus came skidding around the corner, the lobster in hot pursuit. Juneeka did not hesitate a moment and let loose an infernal Flame Strike. Unfortunately, that stopped the beast in its track, just one step from where it should have been. All of us now waited for it to move on towards Rufus. Instead its singing, that had started when it came around the corner and saw Rufus standing, changed pitch and tone. It emitted a blast of astoundingly loud noise towards Rufus and to our dismay it knocked him out cold! Fortunately, the lobster-beast now stepped forward and turned to attack Hendel, giving the rest of us the opportunity to strike as well. Hendel got the first swing and hit even while the beast was trying to get at him with its many clawed legs, then Terrak jumped down, and struck him hard. While Terrak readied himself for the second thrust with his dagger, the beast’s legs trembled and it collapsed lifelessly onto the floor. Then, they noticed that meanwhile, a new section of wall had appeared between them and Juneeka and Druw in the side corridor. A quick glance told Hendel that the wall was at most a few inches thick, and even while Terrak was trying to find a hidden switch or sliding mechanism, Hendel simply struck a big section out of the wall. Drew and Juneeka, who were already on their way out of the corridor – presumably to go around over the mountain slope to the big cave-mouth that we had seen earlier – could come back and clamber trough the hole. Searching Ruffles, Juneeka’s Ferret companion who already had done some of the scoouting, meanwhile had been already to the end of the corridor to the left, confirming that it led to the big cave. The entrance was sealed by a big fence, and some minature-dragon like creatures were busy there. We went the other way, and took the first left at the intersection where Rufus had attracted the lobster-beast’s attention. The corridor came to a dead-end as the result of a recent cave-in after several tens of yards, so we turned to the double doors just before there.

We entered room that made a slight angle to the right about halfway its depth. To the left were another set of double doors, and some holes in floor and walls. At the far end were a finely laid dinner table for about twenty people, and some decorative wall carpet. While we were trying to decide what to do, suddenly the doors opened, and a curious beast entered. It had a tentacled head, a lobster-like body and, if I remember correctly, a fish-tail. We wasted no time, and spread out to take the most advantage of our numbers, but it also didn’t sit idle and attacked immediately. Pretty fast, we managed to score quite some hits, and Juneeka learnt the peril of the beast because she was Petrified by the touch of one of it’s tentacles. The beast also managed to deal a lot of damage to Hendel and Rufus. At the moment, however, that Terrak managed to hit it critically, and it was visibly weakened, we all heard in our heads its words ‘Until We Meet Again, You Puny Mortals’ – and it vanished without a trace.

With Juneeka petrified, and our Healing Potions running already low for recovering Hendel and Rufus, we sincerely felt the need to rest, but we’d need to scout out some of the surroundings first to establish a reasonably safe place. We went into the next room, and found something that Drew recognized as a focal point for teleportation. We messed it up a bit, just to be sure, and then clambered over the a pile of rubble, that had once been a wall, into the next room. While Rufus and Terrak were peeking into the next room, they already heard Druw coming up behind them, dragging the still Juneeka with him.

#### Found

The large room that we saw beyond another collapsed wall section, was quite a sight. At the far end shimmered a portal at the top of a low dais, and complicated sets of dials were set to the left and right of it. The rest of the room was full of stacks of bags, boxes, barrels, and what-nots. It had all appearance of somebody (or more) preparing to leave shortly. After Rufus Detected quite a lot of Magic in that room, we simply could not resist the temptation of sneaking in to see what we could get. With Hendel at the lookout, Rufus and Terrak went into the room to collect the most promising items. We started at the far end, near the portal, picking up all the items that Rufus could identify as Magic, as well as several boxes and chests that were portable enough – which means, could fit in Terrak’s bag or could be carried in one hand. From there, we worked our way back to the room where the rest were waiting, and we saw that meanwhile also Drew had joined us – he had opened one chest and was staring at an unbelievable amount of scroll-cases(1). As Terrak and Rufus went picked up the items from the next – and last – pile, suddenly the door opened. The Ancient One (or one of them?) came in, followed by a Golem. With a short command, he ordered the thing to stand at the doors and hold them closed with its hands. For a moment, I thought the Ancient One might want to have us to himself – for sport. But instead, it ignored us completely, and strode on to the dais. There it made several adjustments to the dials at either side of the portal and at the same time we heard a dramatic increase in the rumbling and thundering that had been already audible, and also the floor started shaking slightly.

Before we realized exactly what was going on, he stepped through the portal. At a loss for what to do, we argued over whether to follow him, but at that moment, we noticed the doors to the room, that the Golem was still holding shut, were starting to glow. That could only mean one thing. Quickly we gathered the rest of the useful items – thanks to Drew’s bag of holding we could even take the chest of Scrolls and another Chest filled with Potions. When we approached the Portal, we noticed it was inscribed all around with Symbols, and so were the dials at either side of it. We studied it as long as possible, while Red-Glowing Lava was already pouring into the room and the doors and the Golem had melted away. But in the end we could make no sense of them, neither in the mundane sense that Terrak was acquainted with from numerous intricate mechanisms, or from the many often-used ciphers, nor from the various forms of Magical writings that Drew, Juneeka and, apparently, also Rufus knew. So, there seemed nothing else to do, except take a hot Lava-dive, than to step through the Portal and hope for the best.

1. almost doing full rights to his name: "drewling".