4 Chapter 4 : Ambushed And Beaten

If I've learned anything in my time with the military it's that surprise and a good use of tactics will win every time. That's what I need right now. As I race through the empty streets of the necropolis. I hear yipping sounds from the two Gnolls following my trail. They sound angry, they must have found the body or they could be hungry. How am I supposed to know what goes through a monster's head?

I figure I can lay a trap or barricade the entrance if I can get inside the tower. While on my way towards the tower. I see more collapsed suits of armour and dead giant spider like things or what's left of the exoskeletons. I can tell the people who lived here had an intense battle with the large arachnids. There are signs of gashes in the armours, next to holes and burn marks on the carapace of the ghastly corpses. I don't see any conventional weaponry laying around the bodies. I mull over what they might have fought with.

The yipping laughter continues to close in, I'm within sprinting distance of the Tower's wall now. I don't see a door way facing me I'll have to circle around. The tower style is the old German half timbered architecture, you know the pretty buildings that are white with the wood cross beams exposed. It looks like a large mansion built onto a high twenty by twenty meters stone foundation. I move around to the left side of the tower, looking for the main way inside. Once I get within three meters of the wall I get an uneasy feeling while looking at the tower. It could be the stress, but it feels as if the tower doesn't want people to go near it.

I see the entrance leading into the tower. I brush aside my frivolous thoughts and approach the doorway. I place my back against the wall to the right of the entrance, knives at the ready, I peer around the corner. I see a well-crafted spartanly decorated foyer leading into the building. It's lit on the interior by fluorescent azure stones along the walls closer to the ceiling than the floor. I step inside and walk along the entryway looking at the strikingly clean area. It should be covered in dust but I don't see a speck of it. The uneasy feeling also went away once I stepped inside.

There is a spiralling stairway leading up to a different floor. I take my scarf and wipe more of my sweat on it. I wipe the scarf along the right wall leading to a small door. I listen to the door for any sounds for a couple of seconds. Hearing nothing I pull open the door only to see a closet of some sort, empty except for a few shelves and a straw broom. I remove my pack and set it inside the closet, tie my scarf around the broom and leave it little ways outside the door. I step into the closet and closed the door most of the way leaving enough room for me to see into the hallway.

I wait in absolute silence. Controlling my breathing, enduring a surge of the strange energy with every controlled breath. I can hear deep snarling growls coming from outside the entrance of the tower. Sounds like they don't want to enter inside. I guess it does have something to do with the tower. The Snarling has turned into a higher pitched yipping now. They've entered now and I have my first glimpse of the beasts. Dressed in similar leathers, my goodness is that a face? I manage to keep my lunch down, but for the love of Gygax, I'll kill these things if it's the last thing I do.

The Gnolls continue along the wall towards where I've left my smelly scarf. I can see one is carrying a crude handmade stone axe and the other a bone tipped spear. Focus, Breathe, I have the advantage and explosive violence of action. The larger axe-wielding gnoll steps ahead. Circling the broom and crouches over the scarf. The skinny spear user is still a couple of paces behind.

Time to go.

I kick the ground hard. Leaping on the back of the crouched beast, dragging a blade across the oesophagus and carotids. Thick arterial blood spurts out of its neck as I jam my other karambit fiercely into the base of the skull. Controlling the body, I remove my blades and Push it into the surprised gnolls spear, stopping its movement momentarily. But a moment is all I need. I drive my body forward blades stretched out in front of me. I carved out part of the right shoulder and plunged the remaining knife in its left eye socket all the way past the base of my thumb. I hear the horrible gurgling sounds of the first Gnoll breathing its last breaths. I know better than to get close to a dying animal.

I watch and wait for it to finally stop struggling before I gather my things and search the two bodies. I clean my scarf and my blades with a bit of water and dry the knives on the side of my pants. I resheath and pocket the scarf for the time being. I genuinely hate the smell of these things. I hope there is a large fire place or something to get rid of the bodies. I'll need to wash my gloves and this shirt at some point otherwise it's going to smell for a while.

I take the spear to use as a ranged weapon, as a bonus I can use it as a walking stick or use it to push things from a distance. I found nothing of note on the corpses. Though I did confirm that the leather the two are wearing is indeed made out of some human-like skin. I'm not sure if that's comforting or not. At least I know true humanoids exist or did.

I need to search this place for information. I can feel the adrenaline leaving me. I pile the bodies in a corner of the broom closet to get them out of the way. I head up the staircase. I see a landing with a wooden door while the stairway continues upwards. I decide to go level by level, to prevent any more unwanted surprises, I place my ear to the door. hearing nothing I open and step inside the room. It looks to be some kind of living quarters I see a bed, small stone bookshelf, a desk and a chair. The desk has a few writing instruments on top of it and some kind of carved Cuneiform circle in the centre. I head to the bookshelf and look at the books trying to see if I can understand the languages or the writing.

No luck. I check all the books on the small shelf, the writing looks like Cyrillic text and Cuneiform symbols. Safe to say I have no clue what it means. After placing the books back on the shelf, I head to the next door along the stairs. I once again place my ear to the door. Hearing nothing I enter. It's a long kitchen filled with cookery and a long stone table in the centre. It has a large fire pit with a roasting spit in one section of the room but looks unused. This is good news I'll be able to have a place to prep my own food and cook properly. Looking around I'm surprised by what looks almost like a modern sink. It has a faucet over a stone basin and a single lever for a tap handle. I reach over and try to turn it on. nothing happens at first, then it begins to sputter and make a small rattling noise. Finally, water comes pouring into the basin in a clear steady stream. This is a huge score, I'll definitely be able to use this place as a secure base while I check the rest of the city. I shut the water faucet off and head up the central spiralling staircase. Upon reaching the large set of doors, I listen to the door, hearing nothing once again. A large room greets me with a set of leather sofas facing each other with an ebony table between them.

A wide oaken desk with a dark leather chair is placed behind them further into the room with two small cream coloured wooden chairs in front of it. Along the stretch of the walls is floor to ceiling stone bookshelves filled with a myriad of books in various sizes, shapes, and colours ranging from the darkest inky void to the down-right luminescent.

However, the most striking thing is the carved relief situated in a central alcove in the semi-circular stairway on the far wall. The statue is of a beautiful bare-chested humanoid woman with the lower half of a lioness. The small alcove shimmers with a white light coming off of the alcove walls. The crystal structure is warping the light and glowing with all the colours of the rainbow. Her hands grasp a shining sword, the tip pointing towards the top of the alcove. The statue's light is self-contained, bouncing within the space of the alcove. It's beyond a doubt one of the most astonishingly beautiful things I've ever seen. It ranks right after the sight of the city I'm in. I leave the books alone this time and head towards the staircase that houses the alcove.

As I'm about to step on the stairs I see a shimmer in the air just above the first step. It looks almost like the heat mirages you see on the road during summer. I lean a little closer after focusing on the stair. I immediately feel a tug in the back of my eyes and a rush of the weird energy I've been feeling since I've first gotten here. I see a misty purple haze form on top of the stairway like a wall of fog.

I rub at my eyes trying to clear them. It doesn't go away.

My eyes have begun to feel like they are buzzing and vibrating in my skull. I close my eyes and start a breathing exercise, regaining control. I focus on the muscles around my eyes. The buzzing begins to fade only to be replaced by what feels like a huge jolt of static shock throughout my body. Ugh, that was intense. I can feel my whole body tingling and a spike in the energy inside of myself. Looking at the stairs again, the mist has disappeared. With a clear head, I focus on the spot by the steps again to try to replicate what just happened. After five minutes of staring and having the buzzing feeling come and go only to be followed by a jolt.

I touched the mist with the spear first. No reaction. psyching myself up, I touched the mist it with my hand, after a long tense couple of seconds nothing happened. I continue to step through feeling the stair on the other side. An eerie sensation passes over me once my head goes through the mist. It feels like the mist is probing me, ready to strike if it finds something. I'm sure whatever just happened could have been very dangerous. After clearing my throat and taking a nervous drink of water, I continue up the steps and onto the landing where a door is located. I press my ear against it listening once again. This time I hear a slight rattle and jangling noise. I feel a semblance to the energy from the purple mist coming from the other side. Whatever it is it doesn't feel hostile. 

I open the door to an ascending stairway. As I walk forward the presence begins to feel more visceral. I crest the top of the stairs and enter into a large living area. I see a few medium sized bookshelves next to a long worktable, a large bed in one corner. On the table, I see a few instruments and a small metal box with a latch covered in odd engravings sitting inside of a brass circle. The presence is coming from inside the box. Watching, waiting.

I don't know why but I can tell it wants me to pop the latch. I don't have a choice, I can feel a tug inside my mind, I have to help whatever is in there. I can only imagine how long it's been trapped there. I take out a bit of the moose jerky in case it's hungry.

I reach out for the box, fingers on the pin holding the latch in place.

"OK, here we go."