Orb Bitch Be Trippin'

After leaving the rat room, we continued down the hallway. Avoiding the stairway that went down, we went to the next door, or doors, at the end of the hall.

Varis put his pointy ear to the metal but heard nothing inside. Without hesitation, he opened the doors to reveal a library with towering shelves filled with books. Books!  

Throwing caution to the wind, I ran to a bookcase and scaled the rolling ladder to browse the titles. Unlike the last library we were in, this one wasn’t wet, mildewed, and partially scorched. My haste would prove the start of a horrible encounter. No sooner had my foot reached the second rung of the ladder, did I feel a slice through my calf.

Whispering voices filled my head, making it hard to concentrate. I turned to find a strange creature with no mouth and an almost ant-like shell in place of skin at the bottom of my ladder. It held a curved blade in hand, already dripping with my blood. I panicked, not knowing whether to continue up the ladder or try to run back down.

I managed to get past the creature, but not too far. The voices in my head were making me confused.

Varis was in the room now, followed by Gar and Praxis. Arrows came whizzing by. Two more of those creatures were posted on the tops of the bookcases, aiming for us.

More of the mouthless creatures stalked out from behind the bookcases at the center of the room. Speaking of the center of the room, I just now noticed a two-story tall statue of a beautiful Eladrin woman. We’d have to ask the orb about … Wait, what?

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. Right, two more bad guys with swords and try to stay away from the puppies … I mean arrows.

The voices stopped, and we were all crowded shoulder to shoulder. Gar, Praxis, Varis and I and two strange creatures. Gar pulled the other one with the sword and … pancakes.

Bacon, that’s weird.

I’m stuck. Can’t move. Varis dying. Bad. This is bad.

Save Varis. Kill two creatures.

Thank Payme, I can think again! And I think I want to leave! Yes. I’m totally leaving. Thankfully, Gar and Varis seem to have the same idea. We ran to the hallway and … where was Praxis? Moments later, he made it through. We shut the doors behind us and retreated back to the pit room.

We were mentally and physically drained from the fight in the library. Varis was determined to come back once we were rested up, but I hoped we would be able to talk him out of that idea.

We battened down for the night in the alcove with the dripping heads. Even after throwing said heads into the pit, I still couldn’t get the visual image of them out of my head. Maybe that’s why I had trouble sleeping. It was probably on account of the gory surroundings.

I dreamt of a Harn—a tall figure with red skin and long, curling horns. It’s like he had his own creepy up lighting that cast dark shadows elongating his face. He had a menacing glare and a way with words. That was to say, he was a big meany! I asked the boys how they slept, and their dream sounded a lot better than mine. I had to admit that is was really weird that they all had the same dream; a dream about a beautiful seductress, beckoning them to her against their will. We tried to shake off the strange nocturnal apparitions and move on. This room still gave me the creeps.

After a little time convincing Varis that we would come back to the library later—much later—we headed out in a different direction. This place seemed a maze of corridors and staircases, so I jotted down a quick map marking where we had been.

The next room was a strange one. When you entered the room, you stepped onto a platform. A rope bridge extended over dark water to join another small platform. And two smaller rope bridges led to … well I couldn’t quite see yet.

Varis was the first on the rope bridge, testing if the wooden slats could hold his weight. When he got to the middle of the bridge, Gar stepped out too. That’s when the first of two harpies descended on the boys, shrieking and flapping their taloned wings. I was glad I had hung back on the relatively safe platform. I just pulled out my bow and started plucking away at them.

Thankfully, after resting, the boys were recharged and kicking butt. After allowing ourselves to get closed in at the library by our foes, we were determined not to make the same mistake twice.

I hung in the back, slowly crossing the bridge in order to lend a helping hand with my healing aura. After one harpy fell, three lizard-like creatures emerged from the water on the smaller platform. They all ganged up on me! Thankfully, I had learned a few tricks for what to do when people got too up-close and personal. I burned them and pushed one away. The one lizard dove back into the dark water, leaving the rest of his comrades to die.

Still feeling quite fresh and not really understanding the purpose of the room, we continued down another rope bridge to the right, up a small stairway, and through a door.

Beyond the door, a room opened up. It was completely empty. Strange.

The disembodied voice of Vyrellis rang out. “I know this place. There’s powerful magic items in the room to the right.”

That was all the information Varis needed. He ran headlong for the door, cranked it open, and rushed into the frigid room. Strong gusts of snow came out the door as if Varis had unleashed a snow storm inside. Ice crystals formed on the stone floor, making it slippery.

I didn’t trust this Vyrellis. What was her motive? She hadn’t warned us about the nasty creatures in the library, so why should we trust her word about this place?

Peering into the icy room, I saw four icy pillars with figures frozen inside. Gar and Praxis shivered in the open doorway. They must not have been used to the cold.

Stubbornly, I waited several feet away from the doorway. I could still see inside, but I wasn’t about to get involved in the trouble that was likely to happen.

Sure enough, the ice broke and four lumbering zombies stumbled and slid across the slippery floor toward Varis and his brains—meathead.

Vyrellis had directed him to another door in the icy room. He had opened that, too, to see a larger icy pillar, with a more gruesome creature contained within. Luckily, the zombies weren’t too difficult to deal with … unless they crowded around you, sucking the warmth right from you with their aura of cold. Oh, and the fact that when they died, they blew up. Finally, something familiar in this place. Exploding. Freaking. Zombies. Great.

Before the last zombie fell … err, exploded, the large lone pillar in the room melted, and a dark-skinned, four-armed pincher demon emerged focusing all his rage solely on Varis.

Soon, the poor sap was unconscious. I inched closer into the room and healed him, but soon the fight was over.

The treasure Vyrellis spoke of … well it clearly wasn’t here. Her excuse, “Well, it was here.”

Likely story, blondie. Likely story.

~Zaly

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