Rolemaster 

Juzlin stands behind a bloody altar twenty feet away in the far north-east corner, her face is wreathed in shadow.  She looks grim.

“Finally” she says and flicks her wrist at them.  Asheren and Ferox feel their power draining away.  As she casts again, this time at the whole party, Ferox and Ulrich are wrapped in glowing chains from head to toe.  The chains do not touch them but as they try to move, the feeling of tightening extends over their entire bodies.  Biryn steps forward - sword drawn and Juzlin extends her arm, palm facing and wrests the sword from Biryn's grip.  It flies toward the altar and lands with a clang just in front of it. 

With a grinding noise two enormous statues detach themselves from both walls and lurch toward them, gaining fluidity and speed as they close in.  Their blank faces betray nothing but their fists speak volumes.   Biryn, Berrak and Ash charge between the two approaching golems, dashing across the floor towards Juzlin.  Lysar and Sira quickly grab each end of a coil of rope and Sira springs forwards trying to entangle the left golem in the rope.  Although they are successful they do not cause much more than minor irritation to it.  The golem on the right focuses in on Ash as he attempts to pass it, he is  almost decapitated by the huge swinging fists.  Ferox and Ulrich can only watch, helpless and it is they that notice the lid of the altar begin to rise.  Ulrich screams a warning.  There are two hands poking from either side, which would make creature both enormous and very strong.  Sira abandons his attempt to trip the golem and launches himself through the air, landing square on the altar in front of Juzlin.  In one fluid motion he drops to one knee and delivers a stunningly powerful punch straight to Juzlin's face.

The illusion vanishes.

Biryn turns from the scene at the altar in time to engage one of the golems lumbering towards him.  Ferox and Ulrich find the chains mysteriously weakened and easily shake them off.  Berrak meanwhile has got himself into trouble.  While trying to break the spell circle he threw one of the unholy icons at it.  Ricocheting dangerously, it narrowly misses his head and as he dives clear he rolls straight into a golem's path.  He crab-walks backward and the golem attempts to maneuver him against a wall.  Lysar nocks an arrow to her bow and fires, hitting the golem in the arm.  The distraction is enough for Berrak to tumble out of range.  Ferox pulls out the wand he found in Juzlin's chambers.  He aims, shouts "Xyazss" and a pulse of black light streaks from it's tip, hitting the golem square in the chest and knocking it to the ground.  

"Interesting." mutters Ferox.

Sira meanwhile notices that the rope is now fully tangled around the golem.  He can see the grappling hook scraping along the stone flags.  He has an idea.

Biryn ducks another fist and sways aside as a kick comes his way.  He steps inside the golem's guard and delivers a strike to it's arm, the blade screeches in protest but bites.  Biryn reverses the motion and delivers a cracking blow with the hilt straight to it's face.  Off balance, the golem staggers back.

Sira launches himself from the altar, landing smoothly a few feet from the other golem.  He grabs the rope, ties a knot and pulls his water flask from his belt.  He wets the rope and tips the rest over the recumbent golem, which is trying to rise but only tightens the bonds.  Sira then sprints away and in a flash of intuition throws the hook at the pentagram.  The first throw falls short and the second bounces from some kind of shield.  Finally a throw snags onto the copper circle which surrounds the pentagram.  The hook crackles and a burning smell fills the room.  A coruscating pulse of light covers the entire golem and it shudders again and collapses, before it struggles to rise again.

"Shaal!  Will nothing kill these things?" thinks Sira.

Ulrich is tired of inaction and he draws his dagger and kynac and rains down blows on the the prone form.

Biryn also launches a furious attack, driving the golem to it's knees.  Asheren moulds the spell in his mind, braces himself and shouts aloud as the bolt crackles along his forearm, screams across the intervening space and slams into the golem.  There is a millionth of a second pause as the golem internalises the electricity.  

BOOM!

The golem explodes, blasting shards of rock at the nearby Biryn and Asheren.  They fling their arms over their faces and are knocked to the ground.

Ulrich's brain barely registers the explosion as his sword continues it's perfect downward track and slices the golem's head from it's shoulders. 

The blade chinks from the stone flag.

The characters breathe.

Berrak quickly checks the chests for traps and Ferox and Asheren examine their contents.  The first contains two small leather bags containing gold and silver dust atop vestments scribed with unholy and unknown runes and sigils.  Now this looked interesting thought Ferox, as he looked at the second box, he vaguely remembered something about these.  Lying in the chest was a helm made of a black metal, a small bell and some scrolls.

He shivered as he felt something close by, over his shoulder, a presence.  He whirled around but there was nothing, only the others working on the lid of the altar and trying to find a way out.  Ferox's interest was piqued.  This place looked like a summoning chamber, but this area with the runes on the wall was for practicing arts even more dark than Demonology.  Necromancy.

Asheren looked at the third box.  The holes poked in the lid seemed to be purely decorative.  He opened the box and as he watched, the ingredients in the tiny, open boxes crumbled to dust. 

"Ah." says Ash, "Exposure to air."

Ulrich, doing most of the lifting, balances the lid's edge, with only a tiny gap into the altar itself.  He catches the sound of scuttling coming from within.  It is brief but distinctive.  He shoves the lid one more time.

"Get back!"

He takes a flask of oil, stuffs some cloth into it and lights the homemade bomb from a nearby brazier.  Dropping it into the hole he steps back and draws his sword.  The flask smashes and a with a whoosh flames leap from inside.

Hundreds of spiders emerge, some on fire.  They are the size of a fist.  The humans all back off, some grabbing torches from the walls as the spiders scuttle across the floor towards them.  Asheren remembers Sira's earlier trick.

"Everyone, grab your flasks and tip them onto the floor!"

He again moulds his spell, this time keeping it tight and focused.  The others do as he asks, but as Ulrich reaches for his, five or six spiders launch themselves at him.  A few get through his armour and he can feel their fangs puncturing his skin.  He brushes them away and empties the flask.

Berrak, confident of his stamina begins stepping on them.  Asheren meanwhile, unleashes the spell at the spiders.  Within an instant, most of the spiders are dead and Ulrich and Berrak stamp on the rest.

They examine the inside of the altar, Berrak finds a small catch and the scorched wooden floor swings upwards revealing a set of stone stairs leading down.

They climb down into the altar and find themselves a partially lit corridor which opens out into a large circular room.

Lysar and Berrak with their enhanced vision can see two doorways leading left and right while up ahead, the way is blocked by a landslide!  As they move towards it Ferox speaks. 

"I forgot something." and he ducks back up the stairs. 

This gets Ash's attention and he follows him.  When he arrives at the top of the stairs, Ferox is picking up some of the spilled ingredients placing them into one of the pouches.

Asheren relaxes, this place is getting me on edge.  It feels like there is someone watching over my shoulder.  Ash turns and heads toward the stairs.  "Coming, Ferox?"

When he turns, he finds Ferox crouching on the floor and staring strangely at him.

"Ferox?  What's going on?"  Ash asks, concerned.  Ferox behaved pretty strangely at the best of times, but this was freaking him out. 

Ferox stood up, scooping some of the sodden herbs onto the ground.  "Nothing, mage.  Let us return downstairs.  I need to look at the helm and the chime."  

Ferox strode past him toward the open altar.  Asheren had little choice but to follow.  There was something about those two items that whispered at his senses.  Something he remembered perhaps?

As they clambered down the stairs into the dim and smoky crypt, Sira, Berrak and Lysar could be heard discussing the cave-in.

"That bitch Juzlin must have fled."  Lysar said, adding a choice curse.

Sira looked deep in thought.  "No.  We will meet her again, I am sure.  For now though - the problem.  This is the only exit.  Can we clear it?  I think not."  he looked around at Berrak and Lysar. "We three could do it I think, but the others?" he shrugged.  

The three of them fell into discussion about how to clear the slight gap in the upper-left corner without bringing the whole roof down on their heads. 

Biryn was about to interject when Ferox pushed past him and beat him to it.  "Berrak?  May I examine the chime again?"

The whole room went quiet.  A brief breath of air blew one of the torches out.  

Ferox's face was implacable.  

Berrak handed the chime over.  The hairs on the back of his arm rose as he dropped it in Ferox's black-gloved hands.

Ash again felt the presence - upstairs this time.  He unclipped the helm from his belt and held it out as Ferox turned towards him.  Perhaps Ferox was trying to lure this being out?

Biryn stepped into Ferox's path.  "Now wait a minute.  There's something going on here.  I want to know what it is."

Ferox held his hand up.  Biryn readied himself.  Ulrich's sword slid slightly in it's sheath.  He had been examining the two crypts when things Ferox had strode past, but even he sensed something other-worldly hovering at the edge of his mind.  That the Paladin had picked it up had surprised him normally Biryn the Wonderful was so preoccupied with do-gooding that he failed to notice shades of grey.  A good man to have in a battle sure - he was pretty handy with that pig-sticker of his - so long as the enemy was evil he would go medieval on their ass.  Literally.

"Paladin."  said Ferox and tapped his forehead.  "You are a good man, but you should leave the thinking to others.  Find a way through that rockfall, I have something that might help us."  With that he took the helm from Ash and climbed the stairs.

By now they all had a bad feeling.  Sira and Lysar agreed with Ferox though - they did need to find a way through the rockfall.  They bent their backs to it and began the careful clearing.

Asheren by now could feel panic starting to rise.  Biryn, Ulrich and Berrak climbed up after Ferox.  Asheren did not want to follow, but he felt as if a geas was on him and he climbed the stairs as well.

Ferox strode over to the pentagram.  He kicked away the grappling hook on the floor.  Placing the helm on his head, he removed the chime and tapped it lightly with a fingernail.  

Asheren had never prayed to the gods before.  He knew they were there, but they had never bothered him and he returned the favour.  Now he offered up a quick prayer to Jaysek.

The brass ring around the pentagram began to glow as if heated.  A opaque hemisphere of crackling electricity formed inside the pentagram.

The chime still rang in their ears.  A gentle breeze tugged at the hem of Ash's cloak.  "Oh dear,"  Asheren loathed demonology - an unclean field - but that was what was forming inside the pentagram.  Asheren lost it completely and, as the wind whipped his cloak around him, he ran for the stairs.

The room seemed to shrink around Biryn and he felt dizzy.  A sharp pain in his insides forced him to the ground.  Ulrich was not much better and he felt the room spin, the symbols on the wall streaking across his vision.

Two of the metal symbols  were blown from the corners of the altar and landed with a clang.  Berrak got a very bad feeling and started to follow Asheren downstairs.  The wind suddenly gusted, blowing him sideways.  He ducked a flying shelf and dived towards the altar.

The room was suddenly a howling maelstrom, Ulrich was blown from his feet and now the room really was spinning as he whirled around the pentagram.

Sira and Lysar heard the commotion upstairs and saw the colour of Asheren's face as he descended.  They heard Berrak's grunt of effort and saw his fingers grab the altars inside edge.  As Sira reached the top he could see the whirlwind.  He caught a glimpse of Ulrich's centrifugal motion and saw the outline of a being in the pentagram.

"Sira!  Grab my hand."  Berrak was perpendicular to the edge of the altar, his legs trailing in empty space.  

Sira pulled him inside the relative shelter of the altar.    

Ferox stood completely unaffected and watched the pentagram intently.  A slight curve at the corner of his mouth betrayed his approval.

Biryn leaned into the gale and moved closer to Ferox, intending on wresting the helm from his head.  He had seen the being forming within the circle of evil and knew that what was taking place was evil incarnate.  This was what he had trained for.  Visions of holding the Family Day wrestling crown high above his head filled his head as he reached for the lightweight mage. 

Ulrich saw only a purchase.  Something to arrest the spinning.  He grabbed Biryn's shoulders, throwing the Paladin off balance.

He did not even see the bookshelf that cannoned into his head.

Ulrich had grabbed at it as he passed the low desk.  Stabbing it with his dirk had been the mistake as it shook loose from it's rusted mountings.

Caught unawares the bookshelf rattled his teeth and staggered him, but his proximity to Ferox was now paying off.

"See what I have brought you, Biryn."

The dome peeled open.  Kneeling inside was a tall elf.  His skin was entirely black but his hair was shock-white.  Entirely naked, steam still rose from his skin.

Biryn's vision clouded over and he charged through the pentagram, sword swinging.  The wild strike cut deep into the creatures leg.   Silently it opened it's mouth and silently roared at the Paladin.  But Biryn had little time - he ripped the blade free and swung in an arc at the creatures head.  In a blur it brought an arm up to meet his swordblade.  As the arm moved it changed shape, becoming a long, wicked scimitar.  It met Biryn's blade with a soft thud, stopping the blade dead.

Biryn had totally committed himself on that swing and could only watch as it's other hand came up and punched him in the chest, crushing his breastplate against his ribs.  It launched him from the pentagram and back about ten feet.  There he joined Ulrich spinning around the pentagram.

Ferox took out the spherical rock from the box.  Damn, I could never get these things open, he thought.  Fetch Berrak, servant.

The demon strode out of the pentagram, smoothly avoiding Ulrich and Biryn still spinning in the air.

Downstairs, Asheren had totally lost it, he charged down the corridor and up the rock face.  At random he scrabbled rocks aside, not even noticing the sagging ceiling above him.  With a crack that turned Lysar and Sira's heads, a slab from above dropped onto him, pinning him to the rock.  

Eventually Lysar and Sira freed him, only to hear the determined steps coming down the corridor.

Lysar turned first and gasped.  A huge, naked, black-skinned elf with black, empty eyes was bearing down on them.

He lunged for Berrak before anyone could react and strode back down the corridor.

Berrak was carried, helpless, up the stairs and deposited in front of Ferox.  Again, they only just missed the two fighters spinning in the tornado.  The wind died down around them and Ferox handed him the stone.

"Open this.  Quickly."

Berrak examined the stone and noticed a tiny network of cracks running along it.  If he could just...

The sphere split down the middle and turned in his hands. 

"Ah." said Ferox.  "Excellent, Berrak."

Ulrich and Biryn dropped from their orbits as the air suddenly stopped moving.  They lay there stunned.

Suddenly a spiderweb of cracks began to spread out from Berrak across the floor and ceiling.

"Oh shit." said Berrak.

Meanwhile Sira was crawling through the gap in the rock face, pushing his pack ahead of him.  He could see Lysar on the other side but as he pushed off with his feet, the rocks above him shifted and his foot was suddenly trapped.  Keeping calm he pushed his pack out the other side and tried to free himself.  Lysar grabbed hold of Sira and tried to pull him through.

Ferox seemed to have lost interest in him, thought Berrak and the demon seems mainly interested in watching the Paladin die from internal haemorrhaging.  Ulrich had already limped downstairs and now was his chance.   He bolted for the stairs, expecting something to slam into his back at any moment.  Nothing did and he vaulted into the altar and rushed down the stairs.  Seeing Sira' s feet poking from the hole, he ran up and quickly freed his foot.  Lysar yanked him out and Berrak squirmed into the gap.  He also found himself stuck and although Lysar and Sira nearly pulled his legs off they did get him through.

Asheren looked at the rock face and knew that he couldn't do what the others had just done.  He focused his mind Berrak's face on the other side and simply 'willed' himself there.

Berrak and Lysar cried out in shock as Asheren materialised next to them.  Sira was all out of shock for today.  Now Ulrich limped down the corridor.  Asheren willed him through as well.   Ulrich lay on the floor of the cavern and regained his breath.

"Think.. Biryn's dead... Seal off the tunnel." he panted.

Suddenly they could see Ferox and the demon striding along the corridor.

"Servant.  Clear the way."  He stopped for a moment and, remembering something he turned and ducked into one of the crypts.  Removing a jar from under the bottom crypt, he turned to find Biryn sliding down the stairs leading a trail of blood behind him.

"Still trying to escape, Biryn?  I told you I had something for us.  He'll make short work of that rockfall and then we can go back to city.  I have some unfinished business with the people of Norek."

The demon was now clearing rocks away at a furious pace.  Both it and Ferox seemed oblivious to the thousands of cracks in the hewn granite around them.

Biryn however was not.  Calling on Lord Vult for strength he climbed to his feet and staggered down the corridor towards the demon.  Eissa did not like needless death, but since he was about to be sealed in this thing with Ferox and the demon he may as well go out with a sword in his hand.

Suddenly Biryn came into Asheren's view.  His control over magic was lethally low.  He simply could not summon the will to bring Biryn through.  He placed a hand on Lysar and Sira's shoulders.

"Trust me." he said and squeezed.  Drawing their power from them, was easy, too easy. That is the difference between those who dabble and those who devote their lives to magic, thought Ash. 

Again he concentrated and suddenly Biryn was standing amongst them.

Ferox began to bang at the walls of his mind-cage.  He could still see and hear what was going on outside, but had no control.  If only he could get Meethe to grab the helmet and tear it off.

Suddenly Ferox worked it out.  Don't push - pull.

He directed all his power internally, and suddenly the hands were reaching for the helm.  Now they removed it.  Ferox felt someone join him in the cage, but at that moment he was propelled back into his old body.

With a mighty crack, the ceiling collapsed, closing the gap and all chances of escape.  The cracks had reached the crypt area now and the sound of stone grinding on stone came from all over

 The demon stopped in mid-dig.  It's head swung on massive shoulders to look at him.

"Sssservant." it hissed.

Chapter 11