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Awareness comes to you slowly, and with every second you grow increasingly aware of the pain you feel in your head.
"What happened Karstah?" you slur out.
"That's what I wanted to ask you, Master. You passed through the threshold, stood there for five minutes then you started bleeding from your nose and eyes before falling over like a drunk who's drunk twelve cups too many," your heir answers.
"I see," you groan out, waving away a few worried hands as you sit upright.
Taking a moment to let your thoughts settle, you look around to see the concerned faces of your party, and scoff to hide your embarrassment.
"Nothing to be concerned about," you repeat, patting your chestplate, "A bit of bleeding is nothing that
Barak Azamar can't fix."
"Master…" Karstah begins, looking at you with greater concern than before, "
Barak Azamar is already active."
You blink, then look down to see that you've somehow failed to notice the familiar teal glow of the Runes at work.
"So it is," you mutter, looking down in muted astonishment.
That's not good.
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"So you were subjected to visions each time you put down one of those figures?" Karstah asks, looking at the items in question apprehensively.
"Not visions no," you clarify, "I have a greater than sneaking suspicion that those images had a far more real past than a simple illusion Thungni conjured from thin air."
Your heir looks at you questioningly before the implication sets in and her look becomes pensive.
"You mean you were experiencing
actual memories?"
"Aye. Or at least they were illusions so real that I had to detangle my own past from whatever it is that got stuck into my head."
The two of you lapse into silence, both lost in the possibilities that such an idea presents.
It had always been something you only thought hypothetically possible when you were exploring the uses and implications of the structures behind the Rune of Brotherhood, but if Thungni had indeed let you see, nai
relive, the memories of others…
…Well it didn't take a particularly clever fellow to realize how much could be preserved if a Dawi's memories didn't necessarily have to die with them.
They could be held, perhaps indefinitely, until such a time that someone worthy be found. So many secrets, so much wisdom need not be lost forever anymore, but rather, for a comparatively short amount of time.
You'll casually sidestep the entire madhouse that is actually deciding if someone was worthy of knowledge when the holder of said knowledge was dead and leave it for another day.
Don't even know how to do it, so there's no point crossing that rickety bridge over a bed of spikes just yet.
Looking back, you really have to wonder if half of this entire experience's purpose was just for Thungni to prod or introduce the test-taker to some of his own breakthroughs without making it too easy. Breaking the Rule of Three, spatial manipulation, multiple Gronti being controlled by possibly a single Rune, and wielding enough power to either lock down or gutter out your armour's freakishly persistent supply of energy. The same equipment that has, without hyperbole, allowed you to not only survive against, but contend with the Greater Servants of the dark powers. Armour that, until now, you had not found anything that could overcome its abilities.
And here Thungni is, casually doing what those myriad foes could not and reminding you there is always more of the mountain to scale.
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It takes a bit of grumbling and glaring, but everyone eventually backs down after they see the steady drip of blood from your nose fade as
Barak Azamar finally heals the worst of the damage and soon after you're all on your way to the next chamber.
When you reach the next Trial you come to a chamber that is the complete opposite of what its name would imply.
The only illumination you saw was that of the Rune carved above the doorway, its light softly glowing against the ever-present gloom that seems to cling to everything inside. Standing where light and shadow meet are, as is the trend, three plinths with three artefacts on them.
There's a twist in your gut, a feeling telling you to try something.
Activating your Windsight eye showed a room that had been covered with the grey glow of
Ulgu as whatever Rune at play here went about its business. With your normal eye, you look at the other end of the room and note that there's a correlation between the amount of Ulgu you see and the darkness you're staring at.
Something in the back of your head tells you to look in a certain direction, and heeding it you move your gaze there and blink a few times at what you see.
As you keep staring you realize that there's an odd little disturbance in the
Ulgu; where the silver glow is displaced by seemingly empty space in a few places in the room. Notably, you spot it around one of the artefacts if you focus your eye on it, but if you keep focus on the room you realize that those little disturbances actually aren't random. Rather, they form something of a very faint trail that then comes together before heading deeper into the shadows towards
something you think is at the other end of the room.
Strange, you think.
"Hmph," you murmur, making up your mind even as Karstah and your Hearthguard stand around talking and thinking.
Without another word to the others or even a glance at what exactly was sitting on those plinths you begin walking into the darkness, following the odd emptiness while you keep your hands outward to grasp for any obstacles or walls that may be in your way. It takes perhaps two minutes of blindly scrambling in the dark following that trail, but true to your expectations your hand does end up pressing against a wall. You begin following the trail while keeping in contact with the wall, glancing between the trail and fruitlessly into the shadows to see, or more accurately
feel, if anything of note will pop up as you continue along.
You feel a change in the wall texture at a point where the emptiness in the Ulgu coalesces, but before you can try and figure out what's going on there's a sudden a flash of light and the immediate onset of vertigo and you feel yourself being physically
moved by some unseen force.
Fighting off the sense of disorientation that threatens to overtake you, you keep your hand on the wall and begin glancing around in the dark with your Windsight eye active to try and get your bearings. It takes a moment to find the trail, but based on its new position relative to you, you reckon that you're at a point somewhere to the right of where you were originally. Keeping your eye on the thread, you push forward and keep walking through the dark. Each time that you come across some split in the path simply following the nearby wall that will keep you closest to the trail as it ducks and weaves out of your line of sight. More than once forcing you to backtrack to some earlier point before reaching the right path.
You doubt Thungni intended for you to use the trail as your guide, or that he even knew of its existence either you suppose, but you'll take advantage of it all the same.
You're moved seven more times, following and watching the trail as it gathers more and more motes of emptiness together between each jump. The void in the
Ulgu has grown in size and coherency like streams coming together to form a river until it makes a Dwarf sized serpent that eventually leads to what can only be the final chamber of the Trial.
The small room you walk into lacks the same cloying darkness that's been your companion for the past half hour, and consequently reveals a button on a plinth for you to press. You look around the room and scratch your head in thought as you fail to spot where exactly the Deep Magic is being fed into, and you spend far more time than you're willing to admit futilely trying to find out before glumly pressing down on the stone plate.
The now familiar sense of movement grips you, and you find yourself back in the original Trial chamber, this time perfectly visible, with your heir and retainers looking at you in abject confusion.
You give them all a cursory glance, noting the confused glances and quick pat downs a few of your retainers are giving themselves. Karstah looking down at her hands in confusion as if she had lost something she was holding on to.
"Bah!" you grunt out, grabbing all of their attention, "What are you all waiting for? Time to keep moving!"
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"Are you sure you're alright Master?" Karstah insists, looking at you worriedly.
You sniff imperiously.
Honestly!
"Why wouldn't I be lass?" you reply casually, keeping your eyes on the tunnel.
"It isn't like you to just…walk off like that without explaining what you're doing, or in the way you did it either. Thoroughness is usually your hallmark," she explains tentatively.
You slow your pace just a smidge, considering her words and your actions in the chamber.
Your immediate response was to dismiss the concern outright, but you know Karstah wouldn't bring this up without good cause. So you hold your tongue and you attempt to have an honest recollection of your actions prior. And as you run the events over in your mind a frown slowly crawls its way onto your face.
How had you known to trust the trail, and how had you been so sure it would actually be the right answer? At least without the usual amount of thought behind it.
"I have no satisfactory way to explain my behaviour Karstah, and that in itself
is troubling I'll give you. I just felt sure, felt it right down to the roots of my beard even, to look to a certain spot, and lo and behold I found exactly what to look for." You explain, a smidge of frustration leaking out.
Karstah takes a while to reply, but when she does there's still a great deal of confusion laced in her voice.
"How exactly did you know it was
right though?" Karstah continues, asking the very question now plaguing your mind. "Could it be that your head wound was worse than we realized?"
"Doubtful," you answer, though admittedly you were only half convinced yourself.
"I suppose tha—is the temperature rising?" Karstah says suddenly, eyes narrowing as she stares ahead.
You blink and curiously touch your hand against the tunnel wall, noting how the stone is now rather warm to the touch, as if it had been baking in the sun for a while.
"Seems to be the case. Fire was next, wasn't it?" you murmur curiously.
Karstah nods.
A sigh leaves your lips.
"Let's find out then."
You don't say anything else, something in your gut telling you not to thumb your nose at fate by saying something foolish.
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The exterior of the Trial Chamber looks like an explosion has gone off inside it. Soot marks like grasping claws reaching out from the doorway like a star, the eggy smell of brimstone emanating from rolling clouds of fog billowing out from within, and a dull glow bathing everything in orange light.
All of you had begun exchanging grim looks when the heat had incrementally increased to a sweltering temperature more akin to a forge, and those glances had only grown grimmer when the first whiffs of coal and brimstone began hitting your collective nostrils.
Now here you stand at the precipice and your gut is roiling like you've eaten a bit of undercooked Troll; the feeling of danger has only grown the closer you've gotten to this place and it now reaches a terrible peak.
You offer Karstah a firm nod and press on, walking through the doorway to behold what awaits past the sulphurous fog.
It takes some effort not to curse your hubris when you break past the fog to behold what lay within.
A Dragon slumbers in front of you, It's great bulk large enough to obscure the rest of the room behind it.
Not a real, living breathing Wyrm thank the Ancestors, but a facsimile of one. And while its design was clearly meant to mimic the body of the Drakk, it is both small and purposefully artificial looking enough to tell apart from the real thing.
You snort at the thought.
As if the past few constructs you've faced before this point have been bog standard affairs. For all you know Thungni could have packed in the destructive power of an Elder Wyrm into that thing.
Even as you let these thoughts run through your mind, you notice the thing immediately reacting to your presence. Slovenly, as if waking from a long and restful nap, raising its head from the ground to regard you with its gimlet eyes. The act revealing the Master Rune carved proudly on its chest and bathing the room in its harsh glare. Behind you the footsteps of your retainers and heir can be heard, coming closer as they also brave the entrance to reach you.
You hear Karstah step up just beside you, and out of the corner of your eye see her tense as she also catches sight of Thungni's creation. Behind you the quiet utterance of curses from your retinue rings loudly in the absolute silence of this place, of this moment.
The Gronti-Duraz gets up on all fours, rising until the long swooping horns on its head just barely brush up against the ceiling. Its head swivels around, somehow managing to relay an air of imperious arrogance as it regards you all before it finally moves. Walking to the side, you are all hit by a terrifying wave of heat and orange light as the construct no longer obstructs the end of the Trial chamber from you, revealing an absolutely gargantuan forge on the other side. With an instinctive grace that belies its obviously fabricated appearance, it turns away from you and begins walking further into the chamber, but not before giving you a look that
strongly implies you follow.
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You all cautiously follow the golem as it continues to the other end of the chamber, feeling the heat grow to a level that you know any living being could not survive without some form of magical protection. By the time you actually reach the forge the air is just a hair's breadth shy of being unbreathable, everything you see has a hazy quality to it, and the dull orange glow is almost blinding. Your retainers have all had to stop several dozen meters behind you, the Runes protecting their armour no longer capable of letting them safely push forward beyond this point. Only you and your heir are able to stand before the forge, Barak Azamar and your cloak being built to let you survive far more terrible temperatures than this, and Karstah's own set of necklaces and charms keeping her safe through sheer weight of numbers if nothing else.
The Dragon, which at this point has been staring at the Forge from the moment it reached it, finally turns its head to look at you both as you approach.
With a great sweeping gesture of its wing, kicking up a wave of embers and superheated air, it all but demands you look into the forge proper. Despite your misgivings, the two of you move forward to see what exactly the Gronti is gesturing at. All the while the feeling of being watched only grows.
There, sitting in a bed of white hot coals is a bar of metal. The metal that is the same familiar
Silver from the other Trial, from the first time you
stumbled walked into the Dragon's Hoard over five centuries ago.
You release the breath you had no idea you were holding by that point.
The two of you look back at the Dragon, unsure of what the construct is demanding of you.
With a mechanical click its jaw swings open and the Gronti-Duraz
speaks to you both in a voice that is damningly familiar.
It is the voice of the Ancestor, of
Thungni Himself that leaves this thing's mouth.
"Feed the flame."
[ ] [
Fuel]
Write-in: 1 Word Limit. Pick something.
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There will be a three-hour long moratorium for discussion.
AN: Sorry for the delay! Was sick. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to C&C. :^)
