Dwarven Vault 5

The group heals themselves while the now-whole Glibstone pays homage to his late Majesty King Horox, reciting the short version of Moradin's Prayer for the Warrior. When he is finished, he looks up sadly. "I can make a joke about any subject, but not about this. Not about the King." He rallies feebly, but his heart really isn't in it. "Of course, the King is not a subject."

Malachite looks surprised. "Hey, that was actually funny!" Glibstone tries to smile back, but doesn't especially succeed. Nolin slaps him sympathetically on the back, and the dwarf sighs heavily.

"You can gather some coins for yourselves," offers Glibstone. Everyone looks around nervously.

"Ermmm," says Velendo. "I think we'll pass."

Once everyone is ready and Glibstone has gathered what treasure he wishes to bring back to Mridsgate, the group gathers around the seven portals. "The Lore instructs that our next passage will not be simple," says Glibstone officiously. "The Path is for the weak, and it will make you whole. Do not dwell on it." Agar perks up.

"Hey, sounds like the positive material plane!" he says excitedly, as Proty wiggles in the air above his head. "It's a fascinating place. You heal there, you know, and if you ever finish healing fully you have an unfortunate tendency to... well, to explode. I understand it's really something to see." Everyone stares at him in confusion.

"So you're saying we have to be injured when we enter?" Tao looks doubtful. "You're sure of this?"

Agar nods happily in agreement and goes off on a tangent. "You bet. In fact, there's a fascinating type of bracer that you can buy in Sigil. It uses clockwork most fiendishly." He gestures. "You wind it up, see, and twin corkscrew blades bore holes into your arm that heal almost immediately in the positive material plane! It's used primarily by..."

Agar is rudely interrupted by Tao, who turns with a great big smile and abruptly punches Mara in the face. "Hey!" exclaims Mara, blood trickling from her nose. Tao just smiles at her. Mara suddenly understands, and gladly lashes out at the irreverent divine agent with her own fist. "Well, if it's for a good cause..."

The room devolves into chaos as everyone proceeds to beat the crap out of one another.

"Okay," pants Velendo as his old body aches in rebellion from the cuts and bruises, "enough. Enough! This is sick."

"But necessary!" pipes up Agar.

"Yeah, whatever. Be ready to hurt each other as we go through if we heal too quickly. And let's move fast." Nolin readies a dagger by his wrist, and Tao winces in pain as she pulls a sword from her belly. The group trails blood as they approach the shimmering black portal. Velendo and Glibstone solve a flowstone diagram of an engineering problem in order to unlock the door, and the portals all spring into life. "Let's go."

They step through the correct portal into pure light.

Even Mara and Malachite are temporarily blinded. The rainbow-like radiance is all-encompassing, warming and invigorating and healing. Spirits soar, blood pumps faster, skin tingles, and the essence of life itself permeates the heroes' flesh. It's like sex, or stepping into the sun.

Velendo enjoys the feeling for just a moment. "I can already feel myself healing. Let's go!"

Galthia nods. "Now we know why the King didn't make it any farther. No undead could survive this."

The small army parades blindly down a tunnel made of solid light, pausing only to hit one another with weapons. When the tunnel makes a bend straight up, the group realizes that gravity is subjective, and by changing their perception of where "down" is they fly upwards along the corridor at incredible speed. Hitting the end is painful, but the wounds quickly heal in the radiant aura of the plane. Finally, at the end of the long and twisting corridor is a portal. Everyone passes through it without hesitation.

Suddenly there is darkness, and everyone is floating.

The group seems to be floating in a portrait gallery shaped like a vertical cylinder, forty feet across and hundreds of feet up and down. "This is our burial hall," says Glibstone in an awed voice. "I've never been here before. All of our Kings and heroes and notable citizens are buried here. Behind every painting is a burial chamber."

"Wow!" says Nolin as he turns to study the nearest portraits. He's disconcerted to see that they are studying him back. In fact, every painting in sight is moving, the images craning to see who has entered the chamber.

"Umm... are we safe?" Glibstone shrugs.

"Positive energy seep-through!" exclaims Agar in fascination as he lights his pipe. "Amazing!"

Carefully, the group floats upwards past the portraits, Glibstone identifying each one as he passes it. They find that the upper third of the huge chamber has not yet been used. The group passes the current King's designated burial chamber, empty with a fine portrait in front of it. Then they float downwards. As they do so, the portraits slowly become more primitive, more stylized, in a clear change of artistic style. The carvings on the walls change, too. It's clear that the earliest portraits are well over a thousand years old, depicting warlike dwarven kings in archaic clothing who eye the group with suspicion as they float past.

At the bottom of the chamber is a large stone ziggurat carved into the floor. It looks ancient. Glibstone sounds terrified, his deep voice breaking. "It's alive, and talking to me in visions! It wants to know who we are, and why we're here!"

Malachite fixes the scared dwarf with a reassuring and spine-stiffening glare. "Well, then, answer it," he says in a controlled voice. The Loremaster floats lower and touches the stone step pyramid. A few minutes pass while the Defenders and the dwarven troops wait nervously. Finally, Glibstone lets out a deep breath, and the ziggurat sinks downwards to reveal a single glowing portal. "It's suspicious, but I think I convinced it. We can pass."

The Defenders all let out a sigh and begin to discuss strategy for whatever they meet on the far side. As they do so, Glibstone begins to fidget nervously, and after a few moments he finally interrupts. "Hrmmm. We should probably go now."

"In just a moment," answers Velendo, distracted. "We need to - "

Nolin interrupts as he realizes that as far as he can see, the portraits are all drawing painted weapons and strapping on archaic armor. "No, Velendo, I think we need to go NOW. Come on."

He leads them through the portal, and the world dissolves and reforms as normal gravity returns with a sickening lurch. They're all standing in the fifth vault room. The room is lit entirely by the flickering glow of hundreds of magical weapons, all stored in weapon racks around the familiar crescent-shaped room. It's an armory, and a mighty one.

Someone whistles. "Oh, my."

Appreciation of the huge number of magical weapons doesn't last long, though. As soon as they pass into the room, everyone who isn't dwarven notices one particular portal across the room. The portal is astonishingly inviting, like an old friend or a tavern hearth. Comforting. Friendly. Sympathetic. Most of the group shake off the compulsion, but not everyone. Without a second thought, Velendo Agar and Priggle head across the room towards the portal, wanting nothing more in the world than to step through it.

Velendo is halfway to the arched portal when the others realize that something might be wrong. "Velendo?" calls Tao worriedly. "Where are you going?" And with a horrified chill, the group realizes that the other six portals may have a familiar dark flicker, but the one that Velendo is just steps away from is black. Solid black. An unrelenting solid black that seems to swallow light itself.

"I'm just going to step through this portal," answers Velendo reasonably. "I'll be right back."