I followed Aurora from the workshop and found Geo in the common area, still contemplating the Slinky. “Geo, buddy, get some sleep.”
“I have slept while still watching this device.”
“Oookay…”
“I must know how it works.”
“I’ll write up the math behind it for you later if you’ll just go to bed.”
“Understood.” He didn’t seem to be moving. Well, I tried.
I had more dreams about my previous life. What was going on was unclear, but it was another dream about combat. I was standing with that same wizard among an army that was facing off against another large army. I want to say that someone near me yelled something about “Driving back the Saxons”, but things were far too chaotic to really understand.
That seemed important, though. In the back of my mind, I knew that fighting against the Saxons meant something – alluded to something I had read before, but I couldn’t quite recall. And Kira wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information as to why.
<Oh, stop whining. You found out later that day.>
<Yeah, and it was a hell of a way to find out.>
I woke up to the sound of illness. Aurora wasn’t feeling well. Very loudly. “What’s wrong?” I asked, standing in the doorway to the restroom.
“I got up and stepped outside to get some exercise, but there was a smell outside and it made me sick.”
“I’ll look into it.” I stepped outside and was greeted by the delectable smells of cooking meat. Oh, I see.
I headed down to the kitchen to find Lenntu making some bacon, pork chops and eggs. “Want some?” he asked.
“No thanks,” I replied. “Where’s the servant who runs the kitchen?”
“He kept yelling at me about my cooking, so I sent him away.”
“I see. I’ll go find him, I need him to make something for me.”
“Before you go, I have two questions, if you have a moment.”
“Shoot.”
“After the dragon fight, I have come to the conclusion that we need more ranged weaponry. Will you make a weapon for me, preferably something I can use both at close and medium range? And make it big, so I can hit things with it?”
I remembered his dismay the previous day at seeing the original Lenn naked. “Big, huh? Compensating for something?” Look, I tried to stop myself from saying it. But I’m a bad, bad man.
“Yes, our lack of ranged weapons.” If he had caught my joke, he wasn’t showing any sign of it.
“Fair enough. I can do that, but probably not until we rest for the night. Second question?”
“Do you know when it was I learned to cook? I don’t remember learning it.”
I shrugged. “I had assumed it was something you picked up before the accident. Guess not.” After that, I left and ran down the spectral Gordon Ramsay and gave him my order before heading back up to our room.
Aurora was lying on the floor with a wet washcloth on her face, looking miserable. “So what was it?”
“Just meat,” I said. “Your stomach must not have been used to the food you had last night. I’m having something brought up that should settle your stomach.” It was a lie, but it was a small one. She would have to get used to being away from meat for a couple months, or whatever the first trimester was for her biology.
“Good, I’m starving.” She gave me a pained look. “I don’t think this magic ring is working anymore.”
“I’ll take a look later,” I promised.
A short while later, spectral Gordon brought up a plate covered by a cloche. He opened it to reveal an assortment of foods and a small glass of ginger ale. At my insistence, Aurora started by sipping the ginger ale and eating the lemon sorbet, then followed it up with the carrot, spinach, kale and walnut salad. After that was a couple pieces of whole grain toast.
My mother had eaten similar breakfasts when pregnant with my youngest sister, Maggie. I don’t know why they had worked for her, but they had. I knew that meat, especially the smell of it, would trigger a reaction, so it had to be avoided for now. I made a mental note to stock up on safer foods next time we were in town. But I could also conjure up another temporary magic mansion every day to get her what she needed. It was a very powerful spell and took some effort, but she was worth it.
Breakfast done, we met with everyone and returned back to the outside world. I collapsed the mansion behind us and we began activating the entrance to the Runeforge. After turning all seven keys, a portal appeared in the center of the frozen cathedral.
Inside the portal, we found ourselves in a short hallway. Once the last of us had entered, the portal closed behind us, leaving a dead end where it had stood. So we followed the hallway out to a central chamber.
There were seven other hallways leading out of the chamber. At its center was a circular pool filled with a bubbly, prismatic liquid. I had read about it. This was the Runeforge, a powerful tool for crafting wondrous works, both magical and non-magical. I would have loved to have weeks just to study it, but we didn’t have that kind of time. Still, as I stared into the water, I couldn’t help myself. I reached out and touched it.
That was probably a mistake.
My mind was filled with swirling visions of events that had been, events that were happening at that very moment, and events that might happen in the future. I grasped and tried to hold on to the visions, but I could only retain two sets.
The first was a series of visions of knights and other soldiers dressed all in black, from full plate to light chain with a black cloak. But instead of filling me with dread, each and every one filled me with hope and pride. Kira seemed amused by it, but wouldn’t elaborate.
The second set of visions was of events that had happened very recently, perhaps only a few days prior, when the earthquakes had flared up in Varisia. Or perhaps a bit further back, a little before we had come to Sandpoint for the first time. But certainly no less recent. It was likely within the bounds of those two points.
It started when the Runeforge itself “rebooted”, for lack of a better term. The denizens of the Runeforge had stirred from their daily doldrums and returned to a flurry of activity. I suspected that the event had happened when Karzoug had begun awakening.
It was the lords of Envy that had moved first. They attempted to seize the Runeforge and wall away the other halls from accessing it. The others had reacted poorly, and the lords of Envy were no more, destroyed by a very temporary coalition of the others.
When I returned from the vision, I shared this with the others and we made a decision. If the halls of Envy were empty, we’d go there first. Hopefully we could find something useful there to help us against the lords of the other halls.
Lenn walked into the hallway first. Immediately, his face perked up, like he’d just gotten an endorphin hit or his favorite song had just come on the radio. “I like this place!” he roared.
Most of us had an opposite reaction. I can’t speak for the others, but the whole place felt a little wrong, like I was out of my element. Paulie didn’t seem to be having any reaction at all. I began having suspicions, but would need more data to confirm.
We hadn’t stepped in more than a few feet when a giant, floating, illusory mouth appeared. “STOP! These are the Abjurant Halls of Eager Striving! Know that your powers will be crushed and you shall die! You are not worthy!” Yeah, like we hadn’t heard that before.
We ignored the mouth and continued on, finding a chamber that was empty aside from what I thought looked like a Rod of Cancellation – an extremely dangerous tool capable of completely eradicating the magic in a single item – embedded in the floor. What was more, it appeared to be broken. Sparks were jumping here and there throughout the room. I held everyone back and we observed for a few moments.
As I suspected, the broken rod unleashed a disjunctive pulse. Had any of us been in there, it is quite possible all that magic gear I had created could have been destroyed. That offended me on a deep level. “One moment,” I told the others. “I’ll be right back.” Honestly, we could have waited for the next pulse and rushed through the room safely. But something about the whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way. No. We were dealing with this now.
I entered the Runeforge chamber and reached into my bag, withdrawing a small, lead lined case. From within that, I retrieved a lump of noqual, a transparent green metal known for its anti-magic properties. The Runeforge was meant for crafting. Let’s see what it could do.
I shoved the lump of noqual into the prismatic waters, but this time fought the visions. I focused my will upon the water through my touch and began to feel the noqual soften, as though I had heated it in a proper forge. Using my bare hands, I spun and shaped the metal into a long test tube-esque shape, a fair bit larger than the exposed rod. Then, once more focusing my will, I commanded the metal to harden.
Once I had retrieved my work from the water, the effort of suppressing the visions came back to hit me pretty hard. Waves of nausea washed over me. Aurora caught me before I could fall to my knees. “You okay?” she asked, worry creasing her brow.
“I’m fine,” I said. She continued frowning at me. “Don’t make that face, you’ll get wrinkles.” I laughed and she laughed with me.
Returning to the rest of the group, I pulled Geo aside. “Do you have any strong glue?” He nodded. “Good. I need you to take off whatever magic items you can safely remove, then carefully put this over that rod and glue the top to the floor.”
“I can do that. You take a break. You don’t look so well.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Geo waited for the next pulse, then moved in, quickly and deliberately, but also quite carefully. In a matter of moments, it was done and I felt a lot better.
Truth was, the use of noqual was probably unnecessary. Glass would likely have done the job of blocking the pulse’s line of effect. But this stuff was as hard as steel and, as mentioned before, had anti-magic properties. It would easily contain the bursts.
We continued down the far hall and came to a room with a pool. Inside the pool was a mercury-like metal. I studied it for a bit. It was impressive stuff. I was reasonably certain I could use it in fashioning magic items like I did with magicite. I remembered seeing a reference to this in one of the books from the library, but I couldn’t quite recall the name.
I didn’t have to. Paulie did it for me. “Ethillion!” he breathed. Yeah, that was it. It was capable of leeching the magic from enchanted items for use in crafting other items. All in all, it was nowhere near as efficient as magicite, but you didn’t have to be exceptional and amazing to make the stuff. You just needed to know how, which in and of itself was a lost art.
“I’d like a vial of that to study,” Geo said.
“Agreed,” I replied. “Whatever’s left after that goes in a big bottle for crafting?” The others agreed, even if they were uncertain what it was.
We came to a room filled with a foul, probably poisonous gas. Obviously, I was completely fine, up until the fire nation – err, I mean, mustard jelly – attacked. It had become fiendish, likely absorbing dark magics on its way into this room, likely via a crack in the wall.
It came for me first. Aurora intercepted it, which might have been a mistake. It suddenly pulsed black and began striking her with fiendish energy. Every time she and Lenn slashed, the damn thing split. Which was perfectly fine by me.
I pulled a grenade from my belt pouch. “Fire in the hole!” I shouted, lobbing it into the room. Lenn and Aurora withdrew quickly. All eight oozes turned to paste in the blast.
Grenades are just so much more effective in tight quarters with multiple targets. 😀
Once the ooze was gone, the cloud cleared up quickly. So we searched the room. Geo found a hidden panel, behind which were several major healing potions. Aurora ended up needing to drink all of them. So net profit for that room: Negative one grenade.
The path into the rest of the ‘Abjurant Halls of Eager Striving’ was blocked by a collapsed ceiling, so we returned to the Runeforge Chamber. “Where next?” Aurora asked.
“Greed?” Lenntu suggested.
“That makes sense,” I said with a nod. “That is our primary enemy here. Might as well start by learning their secrets.”
Lenn was once more the first one in the hallway. “Don’t like it here!” he said. Great, he’d be in a foul mood. The others similarly seemed disconcerted, though Paulie once more seemed unaffected. I, on the other hand, found the place truly oppressive. I absolutely did not want to be there. If it hadn’t been for all the practice not panicking I’d had recently, I probably would have started hyperventilating.
Aurora put her hand on my shoulder. I nodded that I’d be okay. But the sooner we got this done with, the better. I did what I could to try to ignore that sense of dread.
Down the hall, we found a massive steel door studded with jewels. It was so obviously a trap that I didn’t even need my magic sight to call that out. Geo agreed, pointing out a secret door just a bit down the hallway.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I pulled out a wand from my pack, using it to conjure a semi-corporeal servant. “Go poke the big metal door,” I commanded. The servant did as I said and was immediately crushed as the wall shot out and slammed against the opposing wall. Moments later, gears grinded as the whole thing reset itself.
Obviously, this was a trap intended for someone who had never played a video game.
The hidden door opened into a further hallway filled with a sickly violet fog. “Give me a moment,” I told the others. With my magic necklace, the fog couldn’t harm me, so I walked right through it, looking for some kind of deactivation mechanism. “Nothing. Let me study its properties.” I scanned it with my magic sight. “Ouch. This stuff is brutal. We definitely want to overcome the barrier rather than try to push through it.” I didn’t tell them that this stuff would forcibly transform them into some kind of animal if they succumbed to it. They didn’t need to know how bad it would be.
“Any suggestions?” Geo asked.
“I can disperse it or temporarily dispel its magic. You’ll only have a few seconds, at best as many as twenty, to get through. It’s a fairly short run and then open air.”
“Let’s go with dispersing it,” Aurora said. “So we can better see where we’re running.”
“Got it,” I said. I took up a spot between them and the fog. “As soon as I cast, run through.”
I cast the spell and a gust of wind blasted away the fog. The others ran through. I waited where I was in case I needed to cast my prepared dispel to suppress any reforming fog. Thankfully it was unneeded. I strolled through and caught up with the others.
Lenn, bored, had already pushed ahead. We moved to catch up with him, and found him conversing with a group of water mephits – non-evil imp-like creatures associated with certain elements – who were swimming around in a pool. They were negotiating something when I arrived.
“Four sausages for information about bad wizards here,” Lenn said, finalizing their agreement. He doled out the snacks. “Now talk!” The mephits told us to be careful of the bad man made of silver who came and cast hurtful spells at them every few days. They also told us that they hadn’t seen anyone else around the place in days.
We continued on. The mephits seemed to want to be left alone and they weren’t really a threat to us, so we pressed forward down one of the hallways into a room with another fountain. Fountains and pools seem to be a bit of a thing in the Runeforge, I was beginning to notice.
At the center of the fountain was a statue of a wizard. I didn’t recognize him, nor did I have much time to contemplate him, because that’s when the statue came to life. Because of course it was secretly a stone golem. Why wouldn’t it be?
The first golem went down in a few seconds. I say first because others stormed in from other rooms. One had apparently stomped through the mephits’ pool, because they were clinging to and attacking it. It was pretty comical, I must admit.
During the destruction of the last one, I noticed a pulse of magic when it died that looked similar to the aura of magic from the fog. Perhaps they were somehow tied to it? And there was something more. In the fountain was a number of goldfish. When the last golem died, a few of them transformed into people!
Apparently they had been a group of adventurers who had stumbled into the Runeforge several centuries before and had been transformed by the fog. They had been trapped as goldfish for that entire time. We asked if they wanted to join us, but they declined. They wouldn’t be able to leave the place, because their cleric had died, so we agreed to teleport them out when we were done, and directed them to the Halls of Envy or whatever the Thassilonians had called them. I gave them strict instructions not to mess with the noqual jar.
As we continued along, we found a bunch of chambers laced with fabrication magic. Anyone inside who could focus the magic could easily transform any set of materials into any object they knew how to make, but as soon as you left the room, it would break down into components again. It was the crafter’s version of masturbation: fun, I guess, but ultimately less than satisfying.
We continued on into a library. Immediately upon entering, we were struck by a field of reversed gravity and fell to the ceiling. While all the furniture was anchored, several books, not on shelves, fell to the ceiling with us. “MONSTER!” I shouted reflexively. No one messes with books and lives, yo.
A disintegration beam hit Paulie, hurting him a lot. The caster was invisible, but I could see all of his magic auras. And I had a plan. “Prepare to fall,” I warned Aurora in English. She unsheathed her wings. The second the flying enemy got close enough, I unleashed a very powerful counter I had prepared against the enemy wizards I figured would be encountered within the Runeforge. With Paulie hurt, I figured this was the best time to do it.
A field of antimagic erupted around me, nullifying all spells in a ten foot radius, though not touching things like Aurora’s wings. We fell, and so did our enemy, who was now visible. Aurora carefully glided down and Juiz activated my jump jets to stabilize my fall. Our foe, on the other hand, didn’t fall nearly as well. He slammed into the corner of the table and fell prone.
We finally got a good look at him. His skin was made of mithral. Not that it did him any good. We surrounded his prone form and tore into him in a flurry of bullets and blades while Paulie stepped away from us to heal up. I almost felt sorry for the bastard, but then the artificial gravity wore off and the books on the ceiling fell down. So I shot him twice in the head at point blank range.
I looked around the library. That could take hours, even for me. But I didn’t have to do it. “Juiz, disengage the armor and remain here. Scan and record all books and prepare a report on any solutions the Lords of Greed found regarding the fall of Thassilon.”
“Understood. Noblesse oblige.” I held out my arms to the side and my power armor removed itself from me. Juiz began getting to work on her task and I cast a spell to protect me without the power armor.
On the dead wizard’s body was his spellbook. I only comment on it because it was a mess. It was like the man kept forgetting where he was as he was writing down the spells. I was having doubts about his capabilities. I could only hope it was his predecessor who wrote the books on their previous efforts.
Beyond the library was a room filled with what appeared to be golden statues. But as we got closer to one of them, it became apparent that these had originally been people. Men and women who had been alive when someone had coated them in molten gold.
Ancient Thassilon deserved to die. Of that, I was certain.
From the shadows of the ceiling descended a corpulent nalfeshnee, a demon of greed. “Stay your blades,” he asked, hands outstretched. “I would bargain with you.”
I sighed. “You have one minute to speak.”
“I have been bound here by Ordikon, whom you have slain. By the terms of the magical contract, I am now stuck here for eternity, with no way to escape. Release me from my binding, and I promise to leave this place without offering you any resistance. In addition, I will grant you a great treasure.”
I exchanged glances with the others. With just a look, we made a decision. Aurora and Lenn’s halos began showing. “Sorry,” Bat Paulie said. “We don’t free demons.” The look on the nalfeshnee’s face was priceless. Kira sang “Ave Maria” as we brutally and efficiently murdered the fiend. No one was even seriously injured.
The demon defeated, we pressed on to the wing’s final room. Within, we found another pool – it REALLY seemed to be a pattern in this place – filled with blue water that danced with gouts of flame and flashes of lightning. As we neared the pool, waves of disorientation washed over the others. I just felt pain. Talking with everyone later, we all felt like the pool was trying to steal our souls. In fact, we later learned from the small library here that it was doing so in order to use the souls of people not driven by greed to fuel magic item creation.
The Lords of Greed called it “The Pool of Elemental Arcana”, because I guess “Soul Sucking Pool of Magic Forging” was taken already. Probably by some guy in Wisconsin living in his parents’ basement.
“Get away!” I told the others. Lenn, Geo, Lenntu and Aurora moved back to the doorway. Aurora tried to pull me out, but stumbled and had to be dragged away by Lenn. Paulie just got that weird look he gets when changing personalities.
Sure enough, moments later, he was standing over me. “Want me to pull you out of here? Act now and I’ll happily throw in a jar of Soul Balm, for those times your soul just isn’t feeling its shiniest!”
I couldn’t think straight, it hurt so much. Even with Paulie’s help, I was certain I was going to die. Then the strangest thing happened. “We can’t have you dying on us now, can we dahling?” I knew that voice. But that was impossible. And then she began to sing.
“If some are grouchy, pay no mind
Surprise instead with something kind
Lo and behold, you may just find
A smile is what you bring.”
The pain began to subside and a warmth filled me. “That’s it, dahling. You can do it.” I began to push to my feet. I couldn’t see her, but I had a sense that if Kira’s mouth were open any further, her jaw would be on the floor. I started singing as I stood. And Rarity sang with me.
“Stitch by stitch, pulling myself together.
Greed’s power looms, though Generosity is my might.
Even in the hall of evil’s power
My strength is at its height.
Hey Karzoug, you’re ostentatious,
Wait until we drag you in the light.
We’re coming for you together.”
The look on the faces of my friends said it all. They could see the spectral pony standing before me too. Huh. And that’s when Paulie tried to sell the horse a hay substitute.
She rolled her eyes and disappeared. The back of my left hand began to glow. I pulled off my glove and got a good look. It was now marked with three blue diamonds. Heh. I had a cutie mark.
“Um. But. Who? What. How?” Kira asked eloquently.
I winked. “Friendship really is magic, apparently.” I turned to Paulie. “Let’s get some samples for study, then let’s blow up this stupid pool.”
It wasn’t that easy. When I tried to scoop up some of the water in a vial, it actually retreated from my touch. “I’ve got this,” Paulie said. “Using my new triple chambered flask. Keeps your hot liquids hot and your cold liquids cold!” This place was really bringing that side of him out. He then threw one of his wands – the major healing one that was almost empty, if I recalled correctly – into the pool. It suddenly began glowing brighter than a torch. I studied it for a moment and realized that not only was it fully charged, but it would likely keep recharging on its own something like my batteries.
He threw another one in and it exploded. Guess it was a gamble.
I tried to throw a grenade into the water, but it the explosion didn’t do anything. I was afraid to use anything bigger for fear of damaging the whole complex. But then I had an idea. It was a terrible idea. But it felt like it might work.
I stood at the edge of the pool and drew my knife. Then, thinking about the last time I gave all those toys to the orphans and wrapping myself in the warm feeling it gave me, I cut my left palm, literally giving my own life blood to protect others who might wander in here. Several drops of blood fell from my outstretched hand.
The pool roiled and churned for several moments, then the waters suddenly froze solid. I wasn’t sure if that was a permanent solution, but it would protect anyone who came by before we had time to do something more permanent. The magic aura was definitely no longer projecting throughout the room. I was thinking we’d do a ‘Cask of Amontillado’ reenactment here later. At least the vials seemed mostly inert and safe.
We returned to Juiz, who had readied her report. “The Lords of Greed built a Runewell larger than any previously attempted. It was going to be used to put Karzoug into stasis in a realm between Golarion and the demiplane known as Leng.”
“LENG?” both Kira and Paulie hissed simultaneously. The latter was no longer doing a Billy Mays impression.
“I’m going back to the Dreamlands to talk to Samantha about this,” Kira said. “Wake me if you need me.”
Unable to hear Kira, Aurora asked Paulie, “What is Leng?”
“It’s a bad place, child,” he said. He didn’t sound like any of his weird personalities. “Shrouded in rumors and myths. If he is there, we can’t go after him. The spiders will devour our very souls.”
“We’ve been to bad places before,” Lenntu said.
“Not like this. Do not go to Leng, or it will be your doom!” He fugued again.
“Paulie?” I asked.
“Yeah, brah?”
“Nevermind.”
“So where do we go next?” Geo asked.
“The Righteous Galleries of Honest Pride,” I said.
“Why there?” Aurora asked. I just held up my hand, revealing the fading cutie mark. She didn’t have to ask further. She knew the truth now. A little pony had told me, though she didn’t know what exactly I’d been told.
Rainbow Dash is in trouble
You need to get there by her side
You can try to do what you can now
When you find her in the Halls of Pride
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