Serried Statuary
Feeling that the rough terrain was too much for them, the group turned back to the road to see if the other way around the lake might be easier. As they approached the shore, Ke-Herram also began to be troubled by the voices, although he resisted them as Migar had. Voern meanwhile had caught sight of something on the surface of the lake that was just visible under some unhealthy looking brush. Further investigation revealed a raft tied to the shore by a short leather cord, which had two paddles and looked as if it could accommodate about six people. With some trepidation, and visions of tentacled monsters, the party embarked on the journey across the lake. Migar took the precaution to remove his chain shirt before sitting down.
Though they had expected some trouble, the slow trip across the lake was uneventful. After about a mile, they could make out an old building carved into the wall of rock that plunged into the lake on the western shore. As they approached, they could see that there was a fissure in the rock, which, at the level of the lake痴 surface, was wide enough to allow their raft to pass through. Edging their way through the crumbling stone at the entrance to the breach, the group looked around at the cave like interior. The walls had been crudely braced with wooden supports at all angles, but what drew their eyes was the staircase that rose out of the water before them, leading up to an arched opening in the stone some thirty feet above.
They reached the staircase and tried to keep the raft steady as they disembarked. Voern could not keep his footing on the algae covered stone and slipped, landing awkwardly on the sharp stone and slipping beneath the surface. Ke-Herram reached down to try and pull the loresong to safety, but only succeeded in overbalancing and plunging beneath the water himself. Both slipped and scrambled on the steps, looking for purchase while they held their breath, eventually staggering out and sitting, soaked, on a higher perch, to try and regain their wind.
When they had regained their composure, the group set off up the steps, with Ke-Herram and Migar in the lead. The archway led into a tall dark chamber, which was too high for the light of Migar痴 lantern to fully expose. Some damage had been done to the stonework, with a column in the south east corner, south of the doorway, having collapsed into rubble. The matching column remained in the north east extended upwards into the dark. Moving forward, their lamp light revealed a double curve of columns, the closest convex and the other concave relative to the group. Between these curves a path ran to open passages north and south. The western portion of the room contained a huge statue of a humanoid. Its outstretched arms held two globes of different sizes. Salesat opined that this might be a representation of the sun and the moon. Raising the lamp higher, they noticed that the statue did not have a head. They didn稚 see any evidence of damage to the figure, so they thought that perhaps it was designed that way.
Raising the lantern also revealed the sudden decent of a monstrous spider on a thick strand of webbing. It landed in front of the group, leaping to attack immediately. Ke-Herram was startled by its appearance and so was unable to react immediately, but Salesat stepped forward and swung at the creature with his scimitar, wounding it slightly. The spider then tried to bite the litorian, but its mandibles failed to penetrate his chain shirt. Migar痴 athame was next to be employed, but to no immediately useful effect. Voern stepped back and prepared to cast a spell, but Ke-Herram stepped in and crushed the beast痴 head with a heavy blow.
The others quickly cast around looking for other attackers, but none seemed evident. They also could not find any missing head for the statue. To the south of this room, the passage led to a rockfall that completely blocked further progress. The one to the north led to a junction at which they went right. A few yards further along, a room to the southeast seemed to have no inhabitants, but the walls were dotted with holes at floor level that the group thought looked ominous. Passing swiftly along, the party entered a rectangular corridor. In the northwest corner, they could see a passage off to the west. But they continued east, turning north along the eastern side and then back west. Here they saw another opening into the southern wall, leading to a central chamber. From the doorway they could see another statue, this one with a head. But this particular statue was hovering some two feet above its plinth. They entered the chamber to see what might be supporting the figure, but as soon as they crossed the threshold a powerful magnetic effect came in to force, accompanied by a loud humming noise. Salesat and Migar managed to maintain their footing as their chain shirts pulled them into the room. But neither those two, nor Voern, managed to hold on to their weapon, all three flying across the chamber to slam against the sides of the statue. Ke-Herram held on to his greatsword with difficulty and stepped back out into the passageway, where it seemed that the force of the pull was much lessened. Salesat, Voern and Migar followed suit, but Migar immediately divested himself of his chain shirt and headed straight back into the room to see if he could recover his athame.
Just as he ducked past the others into the room, they heard the sound of scampering coming from both east and west. Three dire rats assailed them from either side. Salesat only had his dagger to hand and so proved rather ineffectual against the rodents. Ke-Herram痴 sword eventually stuck effectively after a slow start. Voern tried mudballs and missile fire, opting for a minor summoning in the end. Migar meanwhile was fruitlessly pulling at his trapped weapon, which was stuck fast to the statue. Eventually the rodents were dispatched and Ke-Herram took some considerable time pulling blades off the statue and man-handling them out of the range of the magnetic effect. More than once a blade that he had freed flew back against the statue when he could not control it in his hands. But eventually they had all returned to the corridor with all of their equipment.
Next they investigated the passage off to the west, here they found themselves staring across a chamber at another statue, this one not hovering. Ke-Herram felt confident after the last foray and stepped into the chamber to no noticeable effect. When he reached the figure he touched one of the two arms, causing lightning to spark between them and arc to himself and Salesat. With this, they were healed of all their wounds, but they felt as if they had taken a pummelling. They could find nothing else of interest in this chamber, so they returned to the junction at which they had headed east and turned the opposite way. After some distance it turned to the south opening out into an east-west corridor that seemed to be the continuation of their initial path of entry. Going east to confirm this, they did indeed see the back of the headless statue in the chamber ahead of them, but before they reached it there was another path to the north that they had not taken. Ke-Herram led the way as this corridor went north and then turned to the east ending in a chamber. The giant strode in to examine it more closely and the floor collapsed around him, burying him in four feet of rubble in a pit that was ten feet below the floor level. The others hauled Ke-Herram out and they continued back to the main passage.
It looked as though a parallel passage ran west south of the one that they were navigating, as they caught glimpses of it through open archways. Both contained pedestals with nothing on them, with the ones in the southerly passage being taller than those in the northerly. They kept their attention to the north for the moment, mapping out three further northerly passages that each ended in a rockfall. The last of these permitted passage off to the west, which led to a junction marked by an alcove ahead of them with another statue. This one they ignored as it had fallen and shattered at some point in the past, and went north and west into a series of interconnected rooms where they were again assaulted by a spider, which they dispatched. Migar was keen to destroy the webbing that clung to the upper reaches of these chambers, but his efforts at making a fire arrow only caused him a minor mishap and did not have the desired effect. The last room on the western edge of this area also contained a statue against its southern wall. This one was made of iron and was more stylised than the previous ones, hinting at a humanoid form rather than being explicit. This statue Ke-Herram also touched, rousing the air in the chamber which began to roil around them disturbing the dust and cobwebs that lay about. Rather than see what might arrive due to this disturbance the party left and went south to the corridor. They found that they had reached its western edge and that they must either go south or back east to explore other areas.