Keith Strohm - The Tomb of Horrors

Gerwyth’s throaty chuckle sliced through the silence onceagain. Though still pleasant to hear, Majandra found herself unaccountably irritated by the rangers seeming mirth. “What in all the Nine Hells do you findso funny?” she asked in a voice intended to sting.

The elf merely continued to chuckle, seemingly undisturbed by her discomfort. That thought caused her temper to flare even more, and she was about to send a blistering retort his way when Gerwyth held up his hands in entreaty. “Please, my Lady,” he said as formally as he could between thelaughter still present in his voice, “do not wound me further. I was merelythinking that if what Vaxor has said is true, then Acererak built this tomb hoping that foolhardy men and women would come to defile his resting place in search of hidden wealth. If this is a game, then we have played right into his hands.”

That thought sent the anger draining from her like water from a burst dam. With a sinking feeling, she realized that the ranger’s words weretrue. The tomb wasn’t simply a repository of ancient knowledge ready to belifted from its hoary grasp. She had been wrong to think so. Rather, the bard and her fellow companions were playing pieces in a vast game whose board had been built by a long-dead wizard. And they had already lost one of their own in pursuit of victory. She looked around at her companions and saw, by the haunted look in their eyes, the same thoughts flash into each of their minds.

Phathas cleared his throat. “There is wisdom in your words,Gerwyth,” the mage said softly, “however bitter the humor that lurks behindthem. Yet I believe that courage and cunning and, yes, a fair bit of luck, will see us through. If this is a game, we have been given a glimpse of the rules.”He pointed at the spidery runes inlaid on the mosaic. “So let us gatherourselves for the challenge and proceed. Perhaps we will find, at the end, that our strength and nobility of purpose will be the equal of Acererak’s fiendishtraps.”

It was a good speech, Majandra thought-inspiring,impassioned, and with just the right inflections and oratorical nuances. Quickly, the party reformed, and she heard Kaerion’s voice booming outinstructions.

“Landra, have your men break out the poles,” he said withthat familiar note of authority. “We will follow along the mosaic path, but wemust move carefully, lest we fall victim to more pits.”

In a few moments, the company began to follow the winding red path across the length of the chamber. Three times, the guards triggered pit traps with their ten-foot poles, each one opening up to a thirty-foot drop and ending in spiked doom. At last, they drew near the end of the passage. Looming straight before them, set into the smooth stone wall, Majandra could see the leering face of a devil. Whoever had sculpted such a disturbing portrait must have had personal experience with these foul creatures, for every detail of the creature’s face was rendered in horrifying complexity. Two great horns curledout from the top of the beast’s scaled forehead, and its gaping mouth wasopened, as if it were roaring its hellish curses upon the world. From this distance, Majandra could see that the sculpture took up almost an entire ten-foot section of wall, and the mouth itself opened to a diameter of almost three feet.

As the party approached the stone face, Majandra saw, somewhere off to her left, an archway covered entirely with a dense mist. In the dim light, the half-elf could see several shadowy forms weaving through the misty veil. She shivered as she drew closer to the bizarre sculpture and wondered if the others had noticed how cold it had become this close to the face. Several guards flanked Phathas, who had walked up in front of the gaping mouth. The mage drew forth a wand of bleached bone and passed it slowly before the face. The stone pulsed red in the wand’s wake.

Phathas nodded once. “There is magic here,” he said simply.

“Well,” Gerwyth said, motioning toward the face and the archwith graceful hands. “It appears we have a choice. The hole inside the mouthcould lead to another passageway inside the tomb, or we could walk through the mist and beyond that arch.”

Majandra pulled at her lower lip, watching as the guards conferred among themselves. Bredeth, she noted with interest, had moved closer to the archway and was staring intently at the stonework. “If you believe thewords of Acererak,” she said after a few moments, “we should probably take thearch.”

Kaerion threw her a questioning look, his brow knitted in obvious confusion, and the half-elf was reminded once again that not everyone had spent a lifetime perfecting the ability to memorize vast amounts of information.

“‘Go back to the tormentor or through the arch, and thesecond great hall you’ll discover,’” she quoted.

“As you said, Majandra, the question is whether or not we cantrust Acererak’s words,” Vaxor said from his place next to the old mage.“Perhaps the words laid out by the canny wizard are a trap, and we’ll followthem to our doom.”

“Then maybe we should divide into two groups, each coveringone of these passages,” said Bredeth, as he drew nearer to the swirling mistinside the archway. “That way we could cover more of the tomb within the sametime.”

There was a startled exclamation from the collected guards at this suggestion, and even Majandra found herself reacting instinctively to such a comment. Gerwyth, however, had moved quickly toward the young man, and the bard could see that he laid a companionable hand upon the noble’s shoulder.

“I have traveled many paths in my long life, friend Bredeth,”the ranger said firmly, “and the one thing that I have learned in that time, isthat when it comes to exploring underground, never, ever split the party. Down that way lies death and madness-or worse.”

Majandra watched in amazement as the noble, so quick to react to any hint of criticism, shrugged. “It was only a suggestion,” he said mildly.

In the end, it was Adrys who decided their course of action for them. While watching the exchange between Bredeth and the elf, Majandra saw the merchant’s son move swiftly toward one of the guards. Grabbing the long polefrom the woman’s grasp, he lifted it easily and thrust one end into the centerof the gaping devil mouth. He held it there for a few moments, before quickly withdrawing it.

A gasp of astonishment rippled through the company, for the section of the pole that had entered the black circular hole had simply disappeared. Moving to examine the pole herself, Majandra found that the break was completely clean. It was as if the missing section had never existed at all. Such was the twisted fate for anyone who had thought to explore the area beyond the hole. The bard breathed deeply, trying to control her rapidly beating heart in the face of the death they had so narrowly avoided. All of them. Had Adrys not used the pole to check the safety of the circular passage, they might all have been killed. Gone without a single trace. And Nyrond, the noble kingdom of her birth, might never be saved from the rot that was eating it from within.

She looked at the boy once again. Several of the guards were clapping him companionably on the shoulders, acknowledging the actions that had just saved their lives. Even Kaerion knelt before the lad and thanked him. Instead of showing the embarrassment that Majandra would expect from a boy his age, Adrys merely accepted the congratulations with a brief nod of his head and a wan smile. There was more to this merchant’s son than met the eye, shethought, and vowed to keep a closer eye on their newest member.

Decided clearly on their course of action, Majandra and her companions gathered before the mist-filled archway. Absently, she noted that both Gerwyth and Kaerion had their weapons drawn and had asked Landra to position guards at the party’s back. With everything that had happened to themsince they entered the tomb, the bard realized she had forgotten about the potential danger from any creatures that had made the lost corridors of stone their home during the many years since Acererak’s minions had constructed hisresting place. She was glad that her companions had the presence of mind to keep watch. Perhaps Phathas was right. Maybe their commitment and their strength would prevail over the ancient evil lurking within these halls.