Castle Death posted:

To your relief you discover that the door is unlocked and unguarded. Beyond it, a torchlit corridor descends through a series of deserted chambers, each one defaced by years of neglect and decay. Rotting curtains and mouldering furniture are all that remain of a sumptuous abode, a luxurious underground retreat for the Lord of Kazan-Oud.

You are about to enter another of these chambers when the sound of muttering stops you dead in your tracks. Three spindly-limbed creatures are seated at a table in the centre of the room. They chatter excitedly in a language that is alien to your ears and point with slim, green fingers at a parchment spread out before them. They wear long, hooded robes of purple silk and appear to be unarmed.

Healing: +1 EP (20/32).

Guy Fawkes posted:

Sneak past them .

Castle Death posted:

The chamber is well lit by a row of torches lining all four walls, and there is very little furniture to hide behind.

Healing: +1 EP (21/32).

Using every scrap of cover to hide your passing, you move through the chamber like a phantom. As soon as you set foot into the corridor beyond, you are confronted by an armoured guard. He screams a cry that is muffled by the visor of his black helmet and turns and runs towards a bell-rope that hangs from a hole in the ceiling.

Healing: +1 EP (22/32).

Castle Death posted:

To prevent the guard from reaching the bell-rope you are forced to fire without taking careful aim.

Healing: +1 EP (23/32).

Your shot is fast and deadly accurate: the Arrow pierces the warrior’s armoured back just above the waist, pitching him forward onto his face. He writhes for a brief moment on the rubbish-strewn floor before surrendering to death.

Swiftly you race along the corridor, leaving the dead guard and the chamber far behind. You pass through an archway that opens out to a landing at the top of a spiral staircase and you descend the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs a tunnel leads off to the west and the east.

Healing: +1 EP (24/32).

Jedit posted:

Go West, young man, and break bread in a new land.

Castle Death posted:

The tunnel winds its way deeper and deeper into the solid rock until it emerges at a chamber illuminated by a shaft of shimmering red light that pours down from a square hole in the ceiling. A pair of huge iron doors fills the opposite wall and appears to offer the only exit from the room. In order to reach the doors, you will have to pass through the eerie red light.

Healing: +1 EP (25/32).

Tiggum posted:

turn around and go the other way?

achtungnight posted:

Pass through the red light. I'm sure it's just flavor.

Jedit posted:

If it's red light, it's probably strawberry. Tiggum, cast my vote on the basis of whether or not you like strawberry.

Jackard posted:

Mikl posted:

Go towards the light!

Castle Death posted:

As the red light washes over you a tingling sensation passes through your body, leaving your muscles stiff and painful. Your limbs feel abnormally heavy, and soon you have great difficulty putting one foot in front of the other. Suddenly the ground shakes and a large slab of stone rises from the floor to seal off the exit. A loud hissing fills your ears.

A strangely bitter smell assails your nostrils. By the time you realize that the air is being flooded with a powerful sleep gas, pumped from vents hidden in the ceiling, you are already succumbing to its irresistible power.

Healing: +1 EP (26/32).

You awake to such an astounding sight that you feel sure you must be dreaming. Before you lies a titanic, circular hall of glittering marble, rising tier on tier like a gigantic amphitheatre. A vast pit fills the centre, from which arises a pinnacle of black iron, which is licked by sheets of flame that roar up from the depths below. Scores of seated creatures crowd the tiers, every one of them staring at you, their eyes like pinpoints of fire gleaming coldly from the shadows of their hooded robes. You hear the rustle of their mocking laughter, and your skin prickles with eerie premonition. A great gong booms in the distance, and a doleful chant arises from the crowded tiers. An urge to run from this evil place grips you like a fever, but your wrists are manacled securely to a bronze ring fixed to the wall above your head.



‘Let the trial commence!’ commands a mighty voice, filling the hall with clamouring echoes. As one, the robed spectators rise from their seats as a shaft of light pours down upon the pinnacle, illuminating the outline of a man, white-haired and gaunt, seated on a massive throne of solid, gleaming gold. Suspended in the air above his head are two crystals: one as clear as a polished diamond; the other as black as the grave. A crackling arc of energy travels between the two, and its flickering blue light sheds a ghostly shadow on the face of the seated lord.

‘Intruder,’ he says, his voice soft yet chilling, ‘you have come to Kazan-Oud with murder in your heart. Have not the cowards of Elzian promised to reward you for my destruction?’

A drone of dissent surges from the crowded tiers, drowning any answer that you offer in your defence. The lord rises slowly from the throne and turns to his baying minions, his hands outstretched as if to receive the adulation. As their ghastly drone grows louder, your eye is drawn to the clear crystal that hovers above the throne. A golden light now glows at its core. In a flash of understanding you recognize the object of your quest: here is the Lorestone of Herdos.

‘Your verdict, my children?’ cries the wild-eyed man, his voice now harsh and angry.

‘Guilty, Lord Zahda,’ the crowd howls in reply.

‘The sentence?’ retorts their master.

‘The maze!’ they scream. ‘The maze!’

Healing: +1 EP (27/32).

A rickety, hunchbacked creature, swathed in a hooded robe, approaches the platform on which you stand manacled to the wall. With an efficiency born of practice, quickly he strips you of all your weapons and hands them to an ugly-faced dwarf, hovering at his side. The dwarf looks at the Sommerswerd with an appraising eye, and then raises it above his head to show it to his master. Before he can speak, there is a sudden roar, as a bolt of golden energy engulfs the hilt. Screaming with pain, the dwarf drops the sword and cradles his smoking hand, his fingers now missing half their length. You are unable to hide your smile and are quickly punished for your insolence. The robed creature strikes you across the face, gashing your cheek with its rough, warty fist (lose 1 ENDURANCE point).

‘Take him to the maze,’ commands white-haired Lord Zahda, ‘and leave the sword for me.’

The Sommerswerd rises into the air and floats towards the golden throne on a cushion of blue mist. As you are dragged from the hall in chains, you are taunted by Zahda’s cruel laugh and the fear that your quest is now doomed to failure.

Endurance: 26/32.

An escort of armoured guards forces you along a steel passageway lined by a crowd of jeering minions. They punch and spit as you pass between them, and their foul curses ring in your ears. The guards halt before a huge door of iron and unlock the manacles that encase your bruised and bloodied wrists. The points of their spears never wander far from your throat, discouraging any attempt at escape. The door rumbles open, and a cheer goes up as you are pushed head-first into a foul-smelling pit.

‘Welcome to the maze,’ sneers the chilling voice of Lord Zahda from somewhere high above your head. You struggle to your feet and peer up at a ceiling of swirling mist. A faint glow is gradually taking shape, condensing and forming into the likeness of a human skull. Baleful green eyes stare down at you from bony sockets, and a powdered wig, like that of a high court judge, sits squarely upon its fleshless head.



‘You came here to kill but your plans have been foiled and now you must face the consequence,’ echoes a voice in the skull. ‘You have been sentenced to enter the Maze of Zahda. If you escape, your life may be spared; if you fail then you will surely die—a fitting end for one who came here in search of death.’

The skull retreats into the mist, and a deathly silence fills the pit. A semicircular shadow forms on the wall ahead; it grows larger and darker until it resembles the mouth of a cave or tunnel. Suddenly a gust of chill air whistles from out of this darkness, and you realize that you are staring at the entrance to the maze.

‘Enter!’ orders the voice. ‘Enter or die where you stand!’ It is no idle threat. A crossbow bolt slams into the sand barely inches from your feet, and the click of a steel drawstring warns that another could follow if you disobey the command. Reluctantly, you step forward and enter the Maze of Zahda.

Healing: +1 EP (27/32).

You are standing in a passage, the walls and floor of which are completely sheer and smooth. Overhead swirls a mist that gives off a dim, diffused light, just sufficient for you to be able to see your way ahead. Without your weapons you feel naked and vulnerable, but you take some comfort in the fact that you still have your Backpack, your Gold Crowns, and your Special Items.

Cautiously you walk along the passage, expecting the unexpected, until you arrive at a circular vault. There, upon a block of marble in the centre of the floor, lies a steel sword. As you step into the vault, slabs of stone sink into the floor to reveal two exits: one to your left, the other to your right.

Healing: +1 EP (28/32).

Castle Death posted:

As your hand closes around the hilt of the sword, somewhere in the mist above your head the voice of the skull speaks a chilling rhyme:

Hand to take;
Spell to break;
Stir a terror
In your wake.

Healing: +1 EP (29/32).

Mikl posted:

Sword's obviously a trap. Pick up the sword and then

achtungnight posted:

Bullshit maze, drat it. Forget Sword, Go Right. The maze may be counter-intuitive, you never know with Dever!