Saturday, 1 January 2022

3 Yarthmont - Rolling stones

 Broneslav weighed up his choices. Mentally flipping a coin, it came up ships and so he turned left. The corridor turned right after a short while, and then right again after about eighty feet. It continued for another eighty or ninety feet and ended in a door. Warily, he pushed the door open to reveal a sarcophagus in the centre of the room. Pillars surrounded it, arching inwards towards the centre to form a cover over the top of it. At each end of the sarcophagus, brass jars had been placed. Flames burned in them to light the room.

Broneslav searched the room and found a brass tube containing a parchment map. It appeared to be showing something, but he was not sure what. There was no key to tell what the X marked. However, it did show him the layout of this tier and he could make more informed choices about his direction. Obviously, heading towards the large, ominous X on the map would have to be his goal.

Broneslav headed over to the other door in the room and opened it. Thanks to the map, he knew there would be a corridor on the other side of it. Suddenly the ground began to shake. There was a rumbling noise and crunching of stone on stone. Broneslav looked desperately around, trying to work out what was going on. Suddenly he realised. The massive boulder rolling down the corridor at high speed was a significant clue. He dived back into the room just before the boulder rolled past.

With the help of the map, Broneslav knew that the door over the corridor opened into a room and that the corridor he was now standing near led back to the area he had previously explored. He opened the door to the room over the way and closed it again quickly without going in. The room was full of junk and stunk. There was a big pile of junk in one corner. Rustling and squeaking noises came from the pile. That sounded more like a chance to get hurt than a chance to get rich. He turned around and followed the track the boulder had taken.

This was a long corridor with just one corridor leading off it and its end was blocked by the boulder just past a door on Broneslav's left. He knew from his map that the corridor continued on to the right after the boulder but had no way past, so he decided to check what was behind the door.

Within lay an elaborately jewelled coffin. A worm-like creature nearly ten feet long with may legs and a mouth surrounded by tentacles was curled up around the coffin. It looked up as Broneslav entered. He leapt forward swinging his sword as he did so, and brought its edge down just behind the creature's head. With just one blow he had cleaved the monster in two. Yellowish ichor sprayed from the cut ends.

Pausing, he considered the jewelled coffin and decided to leave it alone. He was already carrying significant treasure and had no idea if the coffin's occupant might take exception to removing the jewels, which might well just be paste for all Broneslav knew. Time to head back to the junction and try a different route.

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