Chapter 5 - Journey to the light
Knowing that they must find this 'palm' the serpent lady spoke of, the trio continue to search through the temple quietly, scouting each turn and room they come across, Una uses her magic detection to guide their way and senses any magical items in the temple hoping to come across 'the palm'. The group come to a long hallway with a door at the far end and Una begins to sense a strong arcane power from that direction, as they move along the corridor Victor pauses and looks around cautiously "its too quite! , that creature said this treasure would be guarded and yet nothing" "that's true but we dont know for sure that this is what we seek but it does seem too easy" says Una "no, im sure this is what we seek, we must continue" says Victor, Krum and Una nods and they continue to walk down the corridor and up towards a large sturdy wooden door.
This door was different to any other they had seen in this place so far, it was solid and well crafted with iron bars fitted into the wood re-enforcing it. Victor steps closer and inspects the door he takes his time to look round every inch in detail then turns back to the others "this is strange, the door is extremely well crafted and fit even you Krum with all your strength would struggle to break through if it was locked and yet is seems to have no lock or catch at all, I fact I would say anyone could just walk through". "I agree" says Una I too am not sensing any magic from the door either only that of the item behind it, so I dont believe it is trapped either" they all draw weapons and cautiously step through the door.
Inside the is slightly larger room than they have seen before with only a redwood pillar in the centre the rest of the room has a mosaic style pictures across the walls in many vibrant colours. Victor begins to look round the walls at images of all sorts of yuan ti creatures stepping to the pillar and placing there hand on it, then it shows there hand glowing and the creatures stepping into a beam of light, "that's it we need to touch the pillar to gain access to a beam of light and that must take us to the Queen" he says. All three step towards the pillar and look at it, it is solid wood with detailed snake carvings in all over it, together they all raise there hand to touch it, when Una begins to feel week at the knees, she wobbles and falls back to the floor unconscious, Victor and Krum look at her then notice a strange shadowed figure at the door.
Looking closer they see a tribal marked human form but with snake head arms and hands, "what did you do to her?" Victor shouts angrily as he charges towards the dark form, as he steps closer just he begins to become unbalanced dropping his weapon and falling to his knees looking with blurred vision at the figure in front of him, he then falls flat to the floor. Seeing this Krum once again becomes enraged and flairs up charging blindly towards the creature getting closer to it, It seems shocked that Krum is able to get close to it but manages to dodge Krum's attack jumping into the room and using one of the snake head arms manages to bite Krum's wrist then swiftly back away across the room, Krum roars out in further rage but this time as he charges his vision begins to blur and his strength is drained from his body, he eventually falls down unconscious like the others his last sight being the tribal marked snake armed monster standing over and looking down him.
The three Adventurers wake up hours later in a dirty and dark prison cell, dried blood and refuse smeared across the floor with straw thrown over it in a pathetic attempt to cover it, there is a single torch on the wall at the back of the room giving off a small flickering light. Each of them can see that there weapons and equipment have been taken from them and are now in a cell opposite them out of reach, a single guard almost identical to the one they slayed before stands by the entrance to the cell room. Una whispers to Krum "i will draw him near, once he is close enough can you finish him?" Krum looks at Una and does a subtle nod, Una then stands and steps up to the bars of their cell her eyes begin to glow with magic once again the guard looks over and holds his spear tip towards the cell, as she stares at the guard she whispers "charm" in an elven dialect, the guard becomes entranced in her gaze as his eyes begin to glow a similar colour to hers and he slowly begins to walk towards the cell in a trance, just as it gets close, Krum's large clawed hand and arm stretches through the bars gripping its throat, he digs his powerful claws into the scaly neck ripping out the guards throat reducing the burley guard to a limp bloody pile on the floor, Victor looks at Krum and says "couldn't you have just snapped its neck?" Krum looks back shaking the blood from his hand and shrugs.
Una in the meantime takes the keys off the dead guard and opens their cell, they then go to reclaim there items and weapons, once prepared Victor peers out the door of the room and can see the long corridor they passed down and the same sturdy door they where ambushed in straight ahead. "well we the good news is that we are close to the pillar, the bad news is that thing, whatever it was may be waiting for us inside that room" says Victor, Una looks concerned but then has a thought then begins to rummage through one of her pouches and takes out three small patches of fur she palms them all and says aloud "enhance ability, bears endurance", the fur lets of a momentary glow then fade back to normal "here wear this on you it will strengthen your will and power, i think with this we may be able resist that creature overwhelming presence". she hands them the fur and each of them attach it to there armour or clothing, "we fight?" askes Krum holding his battle axe" for once he is right, lets storm the room and kill the creature if it is there!" Victor says, the others nod and smug smile appears on Krum's face.
They begin to swiftly move down the corridor and burst into the room, there in the centre of the room just in front of the pillar is the tribal marked creature, the three boldly charge towards it, the creature takes a stamp like step towards them this time sending out a slightly visible wave of energy, it hits all three but seems to disperse, the enchanted fur glows and protects them from any effect the wave had, the creature is set back seeing this and as all three warriors go to strike him, he manages to dodge out the way just getting a small cut by on the arm from the strike made by Victor.
"Una step back and help with range" Victor shouts, Una immediately jumps back and draws her short bow, "Krum you and me we need to stay close and keep it of guard" Victor continues, Krum smiles and nods and continues with the charge with Victor, as he lifts his axe to make a powerful swing but the creature quickly ducks out the way but isn't quick enough to dodge out the way of Victor accompanying strike. Victor goes low and with a swing and brings his sword up slicing the creatures chest and shoulder, the creature shrieks in pain then spins and jumps away from them but is swiftly hit in the chest with and arrow from Una. Krum uses the creatures confusion and pain to grab the monster by the throat lifting and pinning him to the nearest wall, the monster begins kicking his feet and panicking uses the snake arms to repeatedly bite Krum's arms until Victor thrusts his sword through the monsters chest and Una shoots an arrow directly into its skull pinning it to the wall, Krum lets go and the creature snaps the arrow as it falls dead to the floor with the blood smearing down the wall.
"Krum are you ok?" askes Una in concern Krum smiles back at her and nods slowly, he then falls backward to the floor "he must be poisoned can you help him" Victor says turning to Una "yes i have just the spell" she says touching her hands over the puncture wounds on Krum's arms "restoration" she says again in an elven language instantly healing the wounds "this will also cure any poison in him but it may take a few minutes for him to come around he took a lot of bites".
Within a short time Krum awakens and is back to his feet stretches and flexes, he thanks Una and picks up his axe again, "right lets touch this pillar and go and find this light "says Victor, with that they all step up to the pillar and place a hand on it, their hands become shrouded in a warm red glow that stays on the hand, a few seconds after they let go the glow begins to shrink into their palms until it has faded from sight, each of them still feeling the warmth inside there hands, "I think that's it" Una says "lets go!". The trio step back into the corridor and continue to roam the temple in search mysterious beam of light searching the next level of the temple, eventually they come across a large fancy hall full of glass cabinets hold mysterious artefacts and treasures and ornate weapons, the wall have banners with all different symbols on them and every few paces there are statues of other Yuan ti type creatures in various poses, the floors are also different and have a regal red rug creating a path through the room.
Across the hall leads to a smaller room and they all spot a large beam of light hitting from floor to ceiling and letting off a feint white glow, "that's it" Victor says "stay together and be ready for anything", together they move quietly towards the room through the room of treasures. Krum behind the other two looks around the room, when his eye is caught by a very ornate and decorated knife on display in one of the glass cabinets he begins to wander towards it, as he gets close to it a smile comes over his face and his eyes widen, he begins to reach towards the cabinet when Una looks back to Krum and shouts out "no Krum!" but too late. Krum gets shocked by a invisible barrier surrounding the case, he looks at Una knowing he has made a mistake "sorry, Krum's bad" Una and Victor begin to look in all directions in concern and within seconds many guards begin to run towards the room from where the corridor behind them shouting at them and drawing their weapons, the three and the charging guards also feel a large rumble come from all around them momentarily stopping the guards, "what was that?" Askes Victor I dont know" says Una "but I get a sense something big is coming, most likely for us! We need to move now!". With that they all run towards the beam of light pausing for a brief second to look at each other as they step into it, as soon as they do so there hands begin glow with the same radiance as when they touched the pillar, the light beings to glow brighter then flashes bright before they all disappear