Chapter 15: Abbey Island Part 3

Written by Skarth Diem to Dronaet Klingstone

Feeling refreshed after spending the night sleeping on the ship we returned to the temple in the morning. It was a relatively pleasant morning, with birds wheeling in the sky and a scattering of the islandís population of rabbits out grazing in the undergrowth. The rabbits took off as our path took us near them and they thumped away and then were quickly lost from sight.

As we approached the ruins, a sense of dread developed but the ruins appeared unchanged from when we had left the previous afternoon.

We made our way down into the small room with curtained walls where we had discovered the hidden passageway that was the beginnings of what they called ìThe Winding Way.î

The passageway was well made ñ carved into the rock and finished with a high standard of stonework, but there was no adornment of any kind. We knew there were traps so we moved slowly, with Riellian out the front searching carefully for any signs of hidden mechanisms. Wrack carried the amulet hooked to his belt because we had been assured that the amulet was needed for safe passage.

We came to a room with two enormous guardians standing like statues. In addition, there were three corpse-like figures wearing gruesome masks that guarded the exit from the room. They stood motionless. As Wrack entered the room, the creatures and the guardians all turned their heads and stared at him with still, expressionless faces. Wrack moved towards the exit and in a strong clear voice, he commanded them to stand aside. The creatures immediately shuffled out of the way and then stood still. Their movement revealed a stout wooden door. It opened easily and revealed a short corridor with two exits on each side. On the first turn to the right, Riellian spotted a tripwire that was connected to a large stone block overhead.

Rather than going that way, we turned left. Around a sharp bend, our way was stopped by a closed door. Riellian quickly discovered that the handle of this door was connected to a mechanism that connected a large stone block that was suspended over our heads. Riellian has been practising and improving her skills at disarming such traps but she was not entirely confident that she could safely disarm this one. We returned to the main part of the cellar and dismantled some of the shelving to construct a brace that would hold up the stone block in case she tripped the mechanism. In addition, Jenny used her power to put water into the joins holding the block up and then froze it. We hoped that between our bracing and Jennyís ice, the fall of the block would be delayed for long enough for Riellian to safely get out from underneath it.

Despite her best efforts, Riellian tripped the mechanism and the block started to fall. Riellian tried to scramble back but she slipped and fell directly under the block. Fortunately, Jennyís ice and the wooden braces managed to slow the fall of the block for long enough that Riellian was able to roll clear before the large stone block came crashing to the ground.

The fallen block completely filled the corridor in front of the door to about knee height. We then noticed that in falling, the block had damaged part of the door. Peering through the damage, we were able to observe that the door opened onto solid stone. The door was fake. It appeared that this branch and door existed purely to be a distraction and a trap for the unwary.

We returned to the initial short corridor with the four exits and tried the next hallway on the left. Riellian was able to spot a tripwire at the end of it. Jenny summoned a sharp gust of wind that triggered the tripwire and brought a stone block crashing down out of the roof. We were then able to scramble over the fallen block and out into the T-junction.

At this point, Kelshann was able to spot a disturbance in the dust that suggested people had been through this passage in the past. They appeared to have gone to the right. Jenny took her lantern and walked back to the left, looking for any signs of tripwires in that direction. Suddenly she fell into a hidden pit and disappeared. A second later, she yelled out ìacid.î We grabbed ropes and moved forward but still could not see the pit where she had fallen. Then Wrack, holding the medallion, said that he could see a blurring which must be where an illusion spell was hiding the pit Jenny had fallen into. We lowered our ropes through the illusion and hauled Jenny out of the pit to see her legs looking reddened and with small blisters appearing. Jenny used her power to move the liquid away from her legs, leaving them dry but sore.

Returning to the T-intersection, we tried going right and quickly encountered another tripwire. On the other side of the tripwire, Wrack could see the faint shimmering of another concealed pit. We all moved back and one at a time, we jumped over the tripwire and over the gap. Riellian and Kelshann were able to do this successfully. But when Jenny tried, her foot caught the wire and brought the block in the ceiling crashing down. Jenny was able to use her power to save herself from falling and floated the rest of the way over the gap. Wrack and I then scrambled across the fallen block and found that it was quite easy to jump over the hidden pit, now that we werenít trying to avoid the tripwire.

Around the corner we encountered another room, this time containing an ogre, two ghasts, and the crystal statue of a minotaur. Again, the inhabitants of the room all turned their heads and gazed at us as we entered the room. Having learned the last time that he could do this, Wrack spoke in a commanding tone and told them to stand aside. The statue of the minotaur came to life and it and the ogre moved out of our way to reveal an open passageway. The minotaur immediately settled and became a statue once more.

The passageway twisted and turned and Riellian continued looking for traps but our way was clear. As we moved out of the chamber, we heard a great deal of noise behind us as the guardians resumed their post before the passageway. Then they became still and silence descended on us once more.

We came across more side passageways, but the disturbance in the dust indicated that the previous users of this passage had turned to the left so we followed that path. We came across another solid wooden door that included a trap mechanism in the handle. Once more Riellian worked on disarming the mechanism. She eventually stood up and said, ìI think Iíve done it.î We all held our breath as the door was opened and then we relaxed when nothing fell.

The room we found ourselves in had a large stone carved statue of an elf in the centre. Wrack speculated that he thought it might be a statue of the Ugothea, representing when she was in her mortal form ñ before she became the first undead creature. Wrack told us that the statue was a dark magic construct, but there was no other magic in the room.

Around the room were a number of alcoves, each containing open chests and storage jars. The chests and jars appeared to contain gems and coins that in some cases had spilled out to form piles on the surrounding floor. The only thing that was closed was a large strongbox that stood against one wall.

Kelshann noticed that some of the jewels and coins appeared fake. She picked up one of the coins that turned out to be made of wood and painted. As soon as Kelshann picked up the coin, the statue activated, revealing a fearsomely hideous mask-like face. It immediately moved to Kelshann and bit her. There was some fast and furious combat where all of us tried valiantly to fend off the construct and destroy it. At one point, we appeared to be succeeding but then it seemed to suck energy from Kelshann using the bite mark it had given her. Eventually, it was Riellian who was able to step up and use her scimitars to strike the final blow and the construct shattered.

I moved over to Kelshann and healed her. As I was doing so, I could see that the spell the creature had put into her bite mark had faded when the creature was destroyed.

It was Kelshann who then pointed out that there was a hidden door behind the big strongbox. Wrack was able to discern the box was both locked and trapped and that the trap was deadly. Rather than trying to open it, we simply shoved the box to one side so we could get at the secret door.

The secret door was not locked or trapped. It was a simple matter to push it open and step through. Behind that door, we located another short corridor with two doors at the other end.

We opened the door to the left and discovered a room that appeared to be entirely coated with an iron surface. There were two iron statues in the room. They were hard to see because they were made of the same material as the walls. There were also several chests and urns lying around on the floor.

The iron constructs attacked us as soon as one of us stepped into the room and there was another short but violent combat that left several of us severely injured. At one point Wrack used his lightning javelin, and it had absolutely no effect with the lightning sparking around the surface of the creature and then running down and into the floor. At another point, I tried to sing the song of lightning but the song went wrong and the lightning exploded in my face, sending me staggering backwards.