Demon's Winter: Part 4 - SSI/US Gold

.....The graveyard was full of mist and our footsteps were 
strangely dulled as we slowly traced a path between the stones. 
The stones got closer together and gradually we found our path 
being blocked by them. But at one point, Izzy stepped forward 
and the tombstones shifted in front of us. We found several 
other places in the maze that did the same thing and by 
manoeuvering carefully, we found we could clear a path through
the whitened blocks.

On the other side were more stones, though dotted sparsely about
on the damp earth. Ahead of us, way to the north, Lone pointed
out a large mound so we headed that way. But soon, a river
crossed our path and we were forced to travel along the bank,
hoping for a place to cross. Instead, we were startled when a
shadowy figure appeared out of the mist - a ferryman. He said
nothing, just held out a skeletal hand and waited silently but
expectantly. Izzy hissed at Clarence, "pay him", and the cleric
cautiously held out the black coins. The bony fingers closed
over the coins and the deal was made; we had our transportation
over the river, though it wasn't what we had expected.

"Not more graves" muttered Fidget as we disembarked from the
ferry and we saw yet more gravestones stretching into the far
distance. There was a passage between some stones to the far west
temptingly labelled "exit" and the dwarf would have taken it if
we'd let him but Lone led us through the stones to the mound we
had noticed from the other side of the river.

The path we took led to an entrance, but it was guarded .... by 
the Gravekeeper and his entourage; an evil spirit, a ghoul, a 
skeleton mage, a ghost, a zombie and a skeleton. The Gravekeeper
advanced towards us through the fire and mist, his skeletal form
striking terror into all our hearts, but I knew we were equal to
the challenge.

Lone, Fidget and I laid about us with our weapons while Izzy
blasted away with spells gleaned from his knowledge of fire runes
and Clarence tried turning the undead creatures. The fight was
hard but we succeeded in destroying our enemies. The Gravekeeper,
the last to be overcome, dissolved into grey ooze which turned
into smoke and floated away with the mist. Before us, a dark,
ominous tunnel lead into the mound and we knew an important 
confrontation awaited us down in those sulphurous depths.

The lowest level was strange in shape, a central maze of tunnels
and my heart started to race as we went to enter it. A stone
archway framed the entrance and a huge fire blazed in front of
us. A ruby eyed snake - a salamander - barred the way. As it
died, a voice rang out, echoing round the whole area. It was
Xeres! "Woe the mortal who stands in my way" he cried "for Death
shall follow swift my hand." But there was no choice, we could
only go forward.

So, we walked deeper into the tunnel, Fidget checking for traps
but finding none. The path wove round and round with several dead
ends but finally, we came to the centre of the maze and Xeres
himself stood before us. He looked down at us and said "so you
have found me. Killing me will not end the destruction." His eyes
passed over all of us in turn and he continued "There is
something bigger here than your mortal minds can understand. If
you kill me, all of Ymros will go down with me."

Xeres was flanked by two salamanders, a gargoyle and a slaver.
Izzy discharged the biggest column-of-fire spell I had ever seen
him use straight at Xeres (like the rest of us, I think he
panicked a bit) but it did the trick and the demon was
obliterated. His minions fell swiftly though not without cost to
ourselves. With them all dead, we looked through the archway
ahead of us and saw the town of Idlewood, looking far more
peaceful now, but as we passed through the arch, we all felt we
had missed something.

Izzy slapped his hand to his brow in exasperation. "The Amber
Vault, remember? We heard about it in Idlewood but I didn't see
it. Come on, we have to go back and find it. It must hold some
useful information for us." A quick trip back through the dungeon
and we were back at the lowest level. To the south of the area,
the normal fabric of the dungeon was replaced by a length of
brickwork. This difference gave us hope that we had found the
location of the Vault and we walked along the wall till we found
a secret passage.

Inside was the Vault. Flaming runes covered the floor and
skeletons of demons hung on the walls. The heat almost drove us
back but Clarence examined the runes closely. "I can translate
some of it" he said "using the runes we found earlier that said
'Ymros is mine'." He frowned. "That gives 'se-re- en-r-n-e ...'."
Izzy interrupted him "that's got to be 'secret entrance' surely?"
"You're right" said Clarence, "and that gives us a few more
letters and means it's easy to translate the rest of the message.
'Secret entrance to Ice Cathedral leads to Demon Crystal'." Lone
grinned and reminded us of the message we had got earlier (it
seemed a lifetime ago) when Clarence had burnt the red dust in
the censer. At least now we had a new location to aim for - if
only we could find it.......

@~To be continued in the next issue of SynTax