All hallways closed off, All leading only 1 way.
To big brass doors, covered with a picture of Esk in full array.
They were not locked, No, they were guarded.
Upon opening the doors, we were met with a bombardment.
Arrows flying from bows held by creatures long since dead,
And machinations marching towards us, readying themselves to shred.
Redemption readying her sword, Ricardo
—
Fuck! It! We are traveling down a lair of a power crazy wizard set on killing us all, I’ll compose a balled if we survive this.
The doors fell down, towards us. Quickly backing away we were ready as 1 one of the machines approached. Redemption and Ricardo were ready. Remption let loose some mighty divine power, while Ricardo went to town on it with his magical nunchucks. As soon as it was destroyed a wraith arose from the construct. Which I targeted with some well placed sounds to make it run away.
It’s friend approached, and also got quickly taken down. We had spend some energy on the creatures, but we still had plenty left. And after looking through the room to find some coin and a druidcraft scroll we went further.
we came at a T splitsing. After walking some time in the left direction we came on the sight of a giant forge. And when I say giant, I mean humoungous! A mile across, with big metal structures, streams of magma flowing through it, and everywhere there were small one eyed creatures, Likho’s. The look like goblins, but they should not be underestameted. They like to taunt their opponents, yelling insults, they are capable of some magic. And in this case there were hundreds.. engaging seemed like a bad idea.
Furthermore, that way there was also another group of machines and skeletons, we decidede to turn to the other side.
It let into a hallway, a hallway with 12 doors filled with nothing but machinery part, screws bolts, iron wire, you name it. The 13th door let to a hallway, with at the end of it a giant pillar, arising from the depts of this ziggurat, going up the hunder(s) of feet of this great central chamber. At it’s top it disappeared into the ceiling. As in, the ceiling seemed to be some kind of portal to another dimension where the pillar could go on, into infinity.
The rest of the room was filled with machinery, machinery that seemed to should be able to make the tower rotate. Why? No clue. The machinery however seemed to be in severe dissrepear. The gears falling apart on a touch, however, here and there a piece was replaced with something new. Esk was repearing the machine, meaning that whatever this was. It should probably be stopped.
We flew upwards to the ceiling and found a ledge to rest upon. Redemption took some time and moved next to the pillar and used the marvelous pigments that she had stowed away. A door into the pillar. Inside..
Infinete.. crystals into forever. A depth to it that seemed to suck, your being into it. It was with great effort that Redemption was pulled herself back, warning the rest of us to not go in there. She said that it most reminded her of the boxes the rest of the hammers speak of so often. It seemed some kind of trap for something. And if the boxes contained a soul that this thing.. well.. it was best to keep it closed.
The portal to the other dimension the pillar seemed to disappear into, was made by magical stones on the ceiling. It was inscribed with some strange language, the stones ancient, not the work of Esk for sure. Redemption pulled out a book and took some time to study, when she came back she said some words that shook me to me very core.
“It is written in the first language“
Indeed upon further inspection I could see, it was sort of like primordial. Only more. I took of phantapheus and took a closer look. The letter.. word? Was big, the size of me almost. It’s engraving, not only the shape of it, but the depth at which was ingrained into the stone had subtle changes over its range. It reminded me of how water can be fickle, how ti will wash away stone, the shape of the letter was wild though, as If reading Ignan.
The word drew me in, it was all of me, taking up my whole being. Almost out their own accord, my lips started moving, shaping to the words. Underneath me I felt Phantapheus move, through our link it yelped. “ouch!” “Astrid, stop this, it to powerful, DANGER!”. It was like a fly buzzing behind me, the words were so.. enticing. I started speaking the world, as soon as noise came from me, phantapheus started flying away. But I couldn’t go, this were the words of creation! This what I had be looking for for so long. I grabbed on to the letter, while phantapheus flew away, but at that moment I barely felt anything anymore, my mind was in the Word.
This single word took up everything, it was creation, magic, made incarnate. Just trying to hold this one word in my mind, made it almost explode. However the longer I concentrated the more sense it made, the more sense Everything made. Magic, was derivative of these words, knowing how this Word worked made my understanding of magic bloom. This word was the first sounds that was ever made, it defined sound, it was what made understanding each other possible, enabling connection on .. primordial level.
With every second that I was tantalized by this most ancient of things I felt part of me slipping away, I could not remember everything, and the Word. And the Word was everything, space had to be made..
At some point it became to much, nothingness consumed me while I dreamed. Dreamed on the Word.