Dwarven Vault 7

Karthos quivers by Malachite's side. The paladin has just sheathed him for making suggestive comments to Tao, and is reluctant to draw him again. "What is it?" he asks tiredly.

"There are undead nearby!"

Malachite spins around, taking in the racks of swords, the pale-faced Glibstone, the Defenders clustered around Velendo, the sleeping forms of Agar and Priggle. "Where?" Then he sees something shimmer up on the left-hand balcony. The faint form of a dwarf slowly appears, so gradually that Malachite has to blink twice before the shape swims into focus. The ghost is transparent, skinny compared to most of Moradin's folk, but weighed down with innumerable locks and chains.

Malachite steps forward, his intelligent sword Karthos held outwards in front of him. "Declare yourself and your intentions!" He glances down at his sword, which is twisting oddly in his hand.

"You!" exclaims Karthos, speaking to the ghost. There is clear recognition – and hatred – in its metallic voice.

The dwarf stops advancing, goggles down at them for a few seconds, and leans forward against the edge of a railing to bury its ghostly head into both ghostly hands.

"By Moradin's nipple. You! I thought I was over and done with you ages ago." His voice is weary and gruff as it looks up. "What, is this some kind of cruel joke? My existence isn't miserable enough, you're sticking me in here with that?" Pale eyes survey the Defenders. "Not punishment enough, I suppose. Just what I needed."

Malachite glances down at his sword. "You know this spirit?"

The sword sounds bitter. "Oh, I know him. But I don't trust him. I used to adventure with him. Sir Malachite, you have before you Olum Shiverstone, despicable coward and betrayer of Sir Aleax, my former wielder."

Nolin looks up from the small, pink finger buds of Velendo's regenerating hand. "What? You mean from their trip down here before, when they tried to destroy the ghouls the first time?"

"Coward?" The ghost draws itself to its full height, which isn't especially impressive, and scowls at the sword. Locks and chains swing heavily across its broad body. "Coward? You pathetic, sanctimonious clump of iron! In life you browbeat me for months, and when I'm finally convinced that I'm free of you forever, here you are to lie and insult me again. I did what I was hired to do. Just because I wasn't stupid enough to get caught in a cave-in, that doesn't make me a betrayer!"

Karthos' voice is bitter, dismissive. "You could have rescued them. You rescued me."

The ghost glares. "I could reach you. It was a little harder to reach under a couple of hundred tons of fallen rock. You were quiet at the time. It was a nice change."

Nolin looks excited. "It was you who placed the sword on the angelic pegasus, to be carried out of the caverns back into the world?" Olum looks confused.

"Err. Pegasus? I strapped it to a pack mule."

Malachite and Mara look at each other, each remembering the holy teachings that this statement contradicts. "A... pack mule?"

Nolin cocks an eyebrow. "But you did send it out of the underdark for others of Aeos' faith to find, right?"

Olum shakes his head, face downcast. "Sort of. Damn thing ran before I could get more loot strapped on it. Mules always hate me." He sighs. "It was a white pack mule. That help? Maybe it got robbed by someone on a pegasus before it made the surface." The ghost tries to manage a half-hearted smile, but doesn't especially manage it. "I was hired as guide and scout. That's all. Not that this damn toothpick," he indicates Karthos, "has ever called me anything but liar or thief."

Velendo looks up from where he is nursing his new hand. "But you knew Saint Aleax, and Saint Morak of Calphas?" Velendo's voice is hopeful, tinged with awe and wonder. "What was he like?" In response, the ghost tries to suppress a chortle of laughter.

"Saint Aleax? Saint Morak? Oh, that's good! If they were saints, then I'm a delicate little fairy princess." Velendo frowns as Olum continues. "Yeah, I knew Morak. Greedy bastard. Used to dice with me for treasure. Charged for healing, every once in a while. He was a nice enough guy, though. Unlike Aleax. That guy was a conceited prick."

Tao nods. "Yes, we've met him." Mara shushes her with a disapproving gesture.

"Met him? How? He's dead." Olum looks panicky for a minute. "Don't tell me he's a ghost, too!"

"No. But it's a long story."

"Thank Moradin."

Velendo stares at the ghost. "...greedy?"

Malachite flexes his gloved hands. "Give me one reason why you shouldn't be destroyed like the abomination you have become."

"A little hostile, paladin? Oh, I've met your type before. All righteous and disapproving. If I hadn't seen your surprise, I wouldn't have put it past you to bring that damn sword here, for no other reason other than to make my existence more miserable than it's already become. Careful; you become what you're called, you know." He laughs hollowly.

Mara whispers from behind Malachite. "He isn't evil."

Malachite twists his head. "What?" Mara repeats her comment.

"He isn't evil – or if he is, he isn't detecting as such."

Nolin gazes up at the ghost with curiosity. "How'd you get here, anyways? You trapped?" Olum's face slumps from anger into dejected frustration.

"Hmmph. Killed by one of these damn traps while trying to rob this place. I had made it away from our little ghoul debacle safe and sound, the only person in our group to survive, and I even made a little treasure off of it. It took weeks to pick my way through tunnels back into the upper depths. On the way out I stopped here in Mrid, and thought I'd avail myself of some of their riches." Olum waves his hands about in frustration, barely getting them to shoulder height before the weight of the spectral chains drag them back downwards. "I survived months in the company of paladins, and pretty much had nothing to show for it but a poor self-image and enough nightmares to last me for decades. Was it so wrong? So I break in here, make one stupid mistake, and the next thing I know King Horox has my blasted soul bound to this vault as a stinkin' guardian. Oh, very funny, yes, I understand irony, thank you so much Your Majesty." Annoyance radiates off of the ghost like light shining from a lantern. "So here I am, chained and dutiful, and here I'll stay until someone wants to take me out of here with them."

Splinder gazes up at the figure as he leans on his axe. "Voluntarily? Or do you try to possess people?"

The ghost snorts. "Do you see me trying to possess anyone? No, voluntarily. They have to let me in. Oh, I'm 'working off my debt', I suppose. Every year one of these links of chain disappears. One a year." He sighs and gestures towards Malachite. "It's going to be a while. Just tell me I'm not gonna be stuck here listening to torch-boy prattle on the whole time."

"Worm!" exclaims Karthos. "You have no right..."

"Oh, sure," interrupts Olum, "but you like listening to yourself. Always have. That's one of the things I've never liked about you." He crosses his transparent arms with difficulty. "That, and hitting on our elven wizard. Pathetic."

Malachite wheels and looks at the other heroes. "I see no reason we should tolerate this," he states flatly.

"Well, you break in here and insult me - "

"You've been doing nothing other than uttering heresies and accusing -"

"Enough, Malachite. Both of you. Please." Velendo looks at Nolin, and Nolin gazes up at the dwarf.

"Olum, you know those tunnels? You remember how to get to the ghoulish lands?"

The ghostly dwarf harrumphs noisily. "Of course I do. But I'm never going back there. I've had enough of those damn things for a lifetime and an afterlife, thanks. No." Nolin and Velendo exchange a meaningful glance. "Why are you people here, anyways?"

Tao speaks up. "You didn't finish the job last time, and the ghouls have come to us. They've destroyed Mrid. They're headed for the surface, and we're trying to stop them."

Olum looks confused. "Destroyed Mrid? You're kidding, right?"

"Oh, no," says Galthia. "We're not kidding at all." Olum looks horrified.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter," sighs Velendo, flexing his brand new fingers. "We're just gathering weapons and passing on through the vault. What's behind this one?"

Olum tugs on his transparent beard, still trying to understand what he was told. "Eh? Never been on from here. Two rooms, I think. Say, all the dwarves, dead? And after all that, we failed before?" Mara shakes her head. "Most of them. None left in the city. And apparently yes."

Olum frowns. "I thought... It's up to me whether or not you proceed. I'm supposed to bar entrance to those that the King would want stopped. And I could, you know." He smiles coldly. Suddenly, the clatter and clang of weapons fills the large room as every single magical weapon flies from its rack. Most of the glowing weapons clang into one another and somehow adhere, and within seconds three huge golems loom above the heroes – one made from magical swords, one from magical spears and polearms, and one from magical hammers and maces.

Someone gulps. The dwarven troops raise their weapons. And, just as quickly as they formed, the golems dissolve and scatter their weapons across the stone floor.

"But I'm not going to. You're here to help dwarves, huh? I won't stop you from that." He shoots a resentful glance towards Malachite and Karthos. "No matter what some people may think of me."

Glibstone speaks up in a fragile voice, not even bothering to tell a joke. "I have found the correct portal and unlocked it. If we're ready."

"Hang on." Tao considers the miracle of the atonement spell and approaches the ghost, sympathy on her face. "I might be able to help, you know, if you're truly sorry about what you did."

"Sorry?" Olum considers. "Well, to be honest, I'm sorry I got caught. But I'd probably do it again. This place is too big a temptation for a master craftsman." He shoots a final bitter glance over towards Malachite and Karthos. "And I have nothing else to feel guilty about."

Tao shrugs. "Okay. You're the one who's bound."

Olum glowers at her. "What, you want me to lie to you? I'm not gonna do that."

"Let's go." Nolin glances back at Olum. "We'll be back through here."

The dwarf sighs heavily, chains dragging him downwards. "Uh huh. I'll be here."