Cairee watched Dounia work. Something had clicked for the thief - she understood the trick of the door and her hands moved across the pins quickly. The cleric tried to understand how the pins worked, but it remained a mystery. All the cleric could do was mutter her prayer to Saiph.
The noise from beyond the fog made her whole body tense. Dounia was working fast, but would it be fast enough?
You're absolutely right. I was going off memory, and clearly was using my stealth bonus instead of dd. Thanks for noticing!
Four pins fell into place with ease and Dounia's eyes locked onto the vault, her face stoney. But wait ... if those pins are working ... then this horizontal should be in the right place!
Tymythy winced at the sound that cut through the incessant droning – the sound of stone surrendering under pressure, the thing he had been waiting and dreading.
”That’s our sign there’s no turning back,” Tymythy grunted, then leaned as far to his left as he could while keeping his cloak in place to bite down on one beetle that was making its way along the inner side of the cloak. The taste as the carapace crushed between his teeth and a burst of sour juices filled his mouth made him couch and spit and retch. ”The ceiling is coming down. And when the first stones fall, they will bring their neighbors down. After such a long time, I doubt even the trap’s past makers can say just how far the destruction spreads.” And when that happened, the overpressure of air would be forcing the swarm right on top of them, cloak or no cloak. At that point, if the door still remained closed, they’d best be prepared to meet their ancestors.
Zahra flinched at the sound of a loud crack reverberating through the fog. Whatever had caused the sound seemed to have also startled the scarabs to the point where they were finally quiet, if only briefly. She breathed a short sigh of relief as her spirit didn't have to fight against that horrid sound.
She took one edge of the cloak from Tymythy to give his arms a bit of a rest and so that he didn't have to bite down on any more of the insects to chase them off. "If we can't go back the way we came, then we'll just have to move forward. Dounia's close to figuring out that door, I'm sure of it. If anyone can do it, it's her."
Zahra had taken the cloak just in time to watch a scarab bite its' way through the centre of it. Several of the scarabs poored through the hole after it. The creepy-crawlies were attacking the cloak now like they had figured it out and were angry at the ruse. Their droning rose again.
A series of those taught wire zings sounded from some far off place in this ancient vault.
Zahra's help gave Tymythy a well-needed opportunity to shift positions but also jostled the cloak, driving several of the creatures off it angrily.
Dounia tuned out the buzzing, and the cracking from the room behind them. It sounded like Tymythy was right, and the place was crumbling around them. At least we saved all the loot! she allowed herself that small satisfaction as she continued to work.
As the pins were dropping into place, Dounia had a sudden moment of clarity, and saw how a big swath of pins fit together. With calm excitement, she moved the pins into place.
The chatter of the swarm dulled and then roared back to life. Cairee felt the noise of it like a buzzing in her brain. She closed her eyes and muttered her prayer to Saiph, the desperation leaking into her voice.
The drone was getting to him, in ways he found hard to comprehend. Not at all like the heart-freezing sudden howls in the night after all. No, there was an almost hypnotic quality to the sound. It seemed to fill his mind, making the world fade away. Had Zahra not just taken hold of one side of the cloak he feared he might have forgot he was supposed to keep holding it up and might have just let go…
Zahra had thought she was being careful and thought she was helping but as the droning escalated in volume in response to her movements, she wasn't so sure.
Her concern over the look on Tymythy's face allowed her to momentarily tune out the scarabs' noise. It allowed her to concentrate just enough to make sure the cloak stayed in place while Dounia continued to work on the door.
Seeing the vigour with which the scarabs were now attacking Tymythy's cloak, Zahra wasn't sure how much longer it would last. "No pressure but Tymythy's cloak is soon in tatters and there won't be anything to hold back the bugs."
For a second, a moment only, Tymythy felt dazed and fell back. Panic gripped him as he let go of the cloak, but Zahra stepped in and caught up enough of the corners to keep the scarabs at bay. At bay, but only for another moment as she watched scarabs bite there way through in a score or more places. In a few heartbeats there would be no more cloak to hold.
Cairee watched but she couldn't keep up with Dounia's hands. The young desert thief seemed to be moving them on instinct alone as pins fell into place right and left. Cairee paused her supplication to Saiph only for a moment to shout out, "Look, that lower horizontal, it's already in place!"
Dounia retorted, "I see it", in Calm, focused agreement.
Zahra watched as the scarabs dissolved Tymythy's cloak.
Everyone had the gentle feeling of the ground swaying from side to side.
Dounia was aware of the buzzing getting louder, but she was fully committed to her work, and didn't let it distract her. Even Zahra's words only elicited a sing-songy, "Patience is a virtue!" from her.
This bit was trickier, and she had to slow down. There were six pins that all connected together, and she moved this one, then that one, then those two...they all seemed to slot together perfectly. And did that mean those other ones did too...?
Dounia was making fast work of the pins. But would it be fast enough? Cairee repeated her prayer to Saiph, which had turned into a desperate chant. help help help help.
She glanced over her shoulders to see how Tymythy and Zahra were making out. They were holding the tattered shreds of Tymythy's cloak. Without thinking Cairee undid the clasp of her own and threw it towards her friends. "Here, try this!" She turned her attention back to Dounia. The cleric's eyes couldn't keep up with the thief's hands, which flew across the puzzle. help help help help.
Zahra's heart began to beat faster as she watched Tymythy's cloak disintegrate before her eyes. She scanned the area looking for anything that could help, but the fog obscured most items in the room from her view.
Then she heard Cairee's shout behind her and she reached for her cloak. As the sorceress reached for the cloak, she spoke arcane words to cool down the cloak before holding it up in place where the previous barrier had been.
Tymythy blinked his eyes and bit his inner cheek in an effort to focus his mind past the hypnotic noise – now was not the time to waver! Not that they had much more time to buy, as the insects were starting to figure out something awry was going on here – too many had slipped past the obstacle, and somehow the rest of the little eating machines realized that. Tymythy didn’t know or care how they managed it, but it was clear his charade was at its end.
He was contemplating taking the tattered cloak and rushing into the heart of the swarm, hoping to win Dounia a few more seconds of peace before the sheer number of bites forced him to retreat or succumb to a death of a thousand bites when Zahra returned with a new cloak, this one shockingly cool to the touch. He exchanged glances with the mystic, uncertain if they could pull a switch and delaying the swarm even longer. But they didn’t have much in the way of choices, and those few Tymythy could see were all bad.
”On three,” he said, the counted down aloud, dropping his cloak and taking hold of one end of the new one Zahra was handing to him, taking a quick step back in an effort to set up a new barrier while the majority of the swarm was still clinging to the remains of the first one.
Dounia slowed down from her frantic placing and thoughtfully cleared six pins.
Zahra looked around for some kind of aid and found the hall this side of the fog empty. She could, however, see parts of the murals clearly for the first time.
To her right side the wall mural had a horde of demons and devils, orcs and goblins, and nocturnal men. They clambered over eachother to disappear into Cairee's fog. To her left side was an image of court life. There was an old man wearing a silver laurel standing before a throne. Behind the throne stood a grouping of stern advisors. At the foot of the throne knelt, pleading, the boy in the silver cloak. The old man had his back turned to the boy with his hand held out in firm denial.
Cairee prayed hard looking from the vault to Dounia to the disintegrating cloak to her own cloak clasp. All the time she called out to her heavenly matron.
Tymythy and Zahra raised the new cloak in a desperate attempt to keep the swarm off balance.
The swarm alighted on the walls and floors and ceiling and crawled past the cloak to launch themselves at Tymythy and Zahra. Cloak in hand, Tymythy bolted through the cloud of insects and back into the fog! The insects, who seemed trained on the feast that was making the largest spectacle, followed.
Help help help help help The sound of the swarm swelled. Cairee turned just in time to see Tymythy disappear into the fog, followed by thousands of hungry insects. Her knees buckled and she sank to the floor. She continued her chant, feeling her confidence failing. Help help help help help
There seem to be no more 'already clear' pins to find with perception/disable device.
Zahra was able to somewhat ignore the droning as Tymythy surprises her by bolting back into the fog in an attempt to draw them away. She is so stunned by the turn of events that she doesn't know what to do. She has no magic left that can help and things are getting dire. One thing she knows is that she can't let Tymythy fight these things alone.
She moves to follow Tymythy, hoping that maybe she'd be able to find something beyond the fog that could help fight these things.
Seeing their plan of keeping the swarm contained crumble the young hunter acted without thought. He picked up his own cloak and, the tattered strips of cloth trailing behind him almost like the feathered wings of his patron spirit, Tymythy charged into the swarm, arms flailing, twirling like he was dancing, doing his best to try and agitate the swarm into following him deeper into the mists.
He realized almost immediately that this was not going to work for long – for one, he really didn’t want to stray too far from the strange puzzle-door Dounia was trying to open, as he didn’t know how much time the rogue needed to finish her task, and the longer he stayed here, once that had happened, the greater the chance that the swarm might follow the ladies through the door. And for the other, he had no way of knowing how long it would take for the collapse in the treasure chamber beyond progressing to where he was – unless the destruction had been made to be contained. Whether that was the case and the trap was still working as its ages-old builders had imagined, he'd rather not find out.
Besides, with the conjured fog blocking his sight, he couldn’t very well know how well his desperate plan – second of the hour, no less! – was even working. True, there were plenty of insects crawling all over him and puzzling in the air around him, but for all he knew, these were merely the stragglers and the edge of the swarm.
But his options were limited. So he bit his mouth shut, tried his best to keep the biting creatures away from his eyes and ears and hoped. Hoped to soon hear a voice calling him back, to a door that might then be closed to leave this plague of insects behind.
Dounia's fingers were getting sore - the pins were stiff and hard to move around. One had a sharp edge that had cut into her palm, and blood was making her hand slippery. She heard Tymythy trying to lead the bugs away from her, and knew that her friends' lives literally depended on her doing this well, and quickly. But this next part was hard, and she had to slow down a bit, or risk losing some of the progress she'd made.
Zahra rushed to Aid Tymythy and plunged deep into the fog. She stopped when she found the young warrior but the crunching under her feet told her she was deep in the midst of the swarm. Scarabs ran up her legs biting her very muscle.
Tymythy was certain he was in the room at the end of the hallway.
Cairee prayed her frantic prayer but could see Dounia tiring!
Tymythy and Zahra could hardly see each other, but it wasn't the fog that was obfuscating their vision. Each had been covered in a carpet of scarabs, biting and gnawing their flesh. Visions of how Tymythy's cloak disappeared were fresh in their minds.
The two adventurers thrashed and stomped, avoiding the worst of the bites!
The door was more than half done, but it was getting harder. Dounia wiped sweat from her brow, and studied the pins - yes, these three, here, then there, then here! They slotted in satisfyingly, but it was too slow!
Surrounded by clouds of biting insects, his ears filled with their drone and his eyes blinded by Cairee’s mists, Tymythy found it hard to gauge the passage of time. He felt like minutes had passed since he and Zahra dove into the midst of the swarm, but surely that couldn’t be so. His mind was confused by him being unable to see or hear his surroundings, his sense of feeling constantly assaulted by dozens of tiny bites, insignificant taken separately but dangerous when piled one atop the other. He thought he sensed a change in the echoes of the swarm’s constant song… had they already rushed to the end of the hallway? If so, they better turn back – painful as the swarm was, they were able to withstand it for the time. But a half-ton of rock falling on them from the ceiling? Not so much.
Cairee continued her muttered prayer to Saiph. Tears filled her eyes, blurring the puzzle-door. She had nothing to offer Dounia. Instead she turned back to the dark hall, staring into the fog Tymythy and Zahra had disappeared into moments before. Whatever they were doing had given Dounia some reprieve from the threat. She just hoped that they remembered her words of warning, to never stop in the middle of the swarm, or risk being eaten alive. "Help help help help, please be okay, please be okay, please be okay, help help help help."
Zahra felt immediate regret as the scarabs began tearing at her muscle. She cried out before she could stop herself. She bit back another scream realizing that Tymythy wasn't making such a spectacle. However, as the insects continued to devour bits and pieces of her flesh Zahra couldn't help but whimper quietly to herself. The shock of pain seemed to amplify the droning in Zahra's head and all she desired was to crumple to the ground and weep. This was not what a merchant's daughter was taught to endure, especially a daughter who had been as sheltered as she had been.
"Maybe if we each hold a side of Cairee's cloak and run back and forth in front of the hallway entrance, we create enough wind to disorient the bugs, she suggested to Tymythy. "It may buy the others more time and if we keep moving, the bugs won't be able to bite us so bad.
Tymythy could see the edge of the fog but nothing of the room, though a strong smell of gypsum filled the area. Confident he had reached the far chamber, the young warrior started to head back. He could hear Zahra call out as he reached halfway back down the hall.
Zahra found herself alone in the fog and just inside the mouth of the room. She pulled out the cloak hoping Tymythy would take the other end but he was already rushing back towards Cairee and Dounia! Zahra tried to harry the insects as best she could alone.
The scarabs seemed undisturbed in their thick swarm but as Zzahra fanned she cleared a section of the fog.
Cairee was desperately holding on to hope as Dounia slowed to a few pins resolved!
Tymythy could hear the buzzing coming from the fog but the noise wasn't following! And there was another noise issuing from the north. Zahra cried out as the swarm bit and gnawed at her flesh and muscle. She stood in a ten foot sea of scarabs as they climbed up her robes and eating through her desert gear. It was as if she wore seventy-pound carapace armour. She thrashed as she tried to wave Cairee's cloak about.
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Things were falling back into place. Dounia's bloody and bruised fingers picked up speed. There were only 9 pins left to place. This one went here, then that one, now the bottom one... The fourth one was jammed, and she slammed her hand into it, trying to jam it into place. Dounia's fingernail caught on the pin above it, and peeled back with the force of her blow, but the pin moved into position.
Dounia heard Zahra cry out, and she winced. Focus! Cyra scolded in her head. Sweat ran down her temples, and she hoped she wouldn't have to take the time to wipe it out of her eyes. Her fingers were moving almost on their own; she was using touch as much as sight. This one...no, it was jammed by that one, so that one first, yes, there's its place....now that other one.
She felt another warm glow from Cairee, and knew that the preistess was praying to her goddess, the foreign Saiph, for her. Dounia was definitely going to have make a donation to Saiph when this was all over. A few times, that little warm glow had clarified a tricky pin for her. At least there's going to be lots of money in that chest! Enough for a donation, and lots left over! Her avarice spurred her onwards, and it all became clear, the final three pins. This one, nestled into the little slot over here, then that one, and finally....
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As the scarabs shredded Zahra's flesh and muscle she was certain that she was going to die. Her strength was fading and she was once again alone but what weighed most on her was the fact that she had failed. She had been given a simple task and she had failed. To be fair, she probably would have failed long ago if it hadn't been for the others. Hopefully her taking the brunt of the scarabs wrath would give the others the time they needed to get through the door.
Every fibre of her being wanted to run back to the others but she didn't want to bring the scarabs back with her. Between gasps of pain, she raised her voice and called out to the others through the fog, "Tell my Mama and Papa that I'm sorry I didn't do better and that I love them."
Tymythy stumbled his way back through the fog-filled hallway, both pleased and alarmed at the lack of insects harassing him. True, the relief was welcome, but if the little beasties were not after him, they had to be hunting someone else.
True enough, a few paces later he could see a mound of the beetles on the ground, covering something – someone! That had to be Zahra, as she had rushed into he mists with him, and he knew he had not passed her on his way back.
”Burning feathers!” he swore, immediately regretting opening his mouth as one stray insect tried to force its way past his teeth. He could see the form on the ground still moving – he hoped it wasn’t merely the swarming insects milling about. He thought he could hear Zahra’s voice, muffled under the layers upon layers of chittering insects. At a loss what to do but knowing he had to attempt something he reached down into the swarm with his bare hands, hoping to catch hold of Zahra’s clothes so he could attempt to pull her free.
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His questing fingers found something solid under the shifting mass and the hunter acted without further thought. ’Get a good grip… and pull!’ Doing his best to ignore the bites he was now getting, he strained his muscles, growling ineffectually at the insects that immediately started climbing all over him as well.
”Come on,” he grunted, not willing to open his mouth long enough to speak a full sentence. ”Up. On. Your. Feet!” Slowly, her hair dripping beetled like droplets of water after a bath, Zahra’s head emerged. ”Don’t. You. Go. Giving. Up. On. Me!”
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The chant slipped from her lips automatically, though Cairee felt no meaning in it. "helphelphelphelp" Her vision swam and she wiped her eyes, filled with a combination of tears and sweat. The others had been gone far too long, every second feeling like hours.
While Cairee slipped into despair, Dounia seemed bolstered, as if injected with fresh energy and focus. Is Dounia listening to my words? Are they helping? They were all Cairee had to offer, but maybe they were enough. Cairee cleared her throat, found her voice, and did the one thing she was excellent at. She PRAYED.
"Saiph, you have been shining your light on us and helping us, and we are so grateful. I am so grateful, that you brought me to these new friends. Dounia is so clever. Are you watching her as she solves this puzzle? Are you admiring how she's able to focus through all of this chaos, and do what needs to be done to save her friends? She is loyal and fierce and fearless. Thank you for bringing me into her life. Thank you for bringing all of us together. We were lost, we needed a family, and you provided. You gave us each other. Thank you. Thank you for Zahra. Thank you for Tymythy. Thank you for Dounia."
Something was wrong.
Dounia shifted all of the pins into place but something was just wrong.
She had beed trying so hard, was so focused. She had done some of her best work figuring out these pins. One moment of it all, she felt 'it'. She had been the smartest she'd ever been. Was moving three pins a heartbeat.
But something wasn't fitting!!!
The calming words came to her from behind. It echoed words in her head. Cyra inside. Cairee outside. They were talking at the same time but they were saying the same thing.
"Dounia, you can do this."
There it was. Four pins were suddenly blocked. They were blocked by the bottom horizontal. It just needed to be rotated! Dounia got on her knees, 'huh, to free the final pin she had to get on her knees?! Was that on purpose? Part of the design??'
She rotated the pin carefully and the four verticals literally 'fell' into place. All the pins were clear! She'd done it.
The insects crawled at incredible speed to cover both Tymythy and Zahra. They didn't care about her plea. They didn't care about his will to survive. They only cared about the flesh that hid beneath cloth. The muscle hidden beneath flesh.
Zahra felt someone pulling her forcefully to her feet. Tymythy's voice cut through the buzzing in her head demanding that she move. Zahra is both encouraged and dismayed by his presence. "I was trying to buy the rest of you some time! You were supposed to get safely through the door and not come back for me."
She wasn't about to let Tymythy be seriously hurt for coming back to help her. "I guess our only option now is to move forward and hope that Dounia and Cairee have gotten the door open."
Gripping Tymythy's hand so that they didn't lose each other in the fog or leave one another behind, Zahra began to run for the door.
"We are here for your sake, Zahra," Tymythy tried his best to say without swallowing a mouthful of insects. "It is honorable to be willing to give one's all for kin and companions. But were you to die now, our whole mission here would be without purpose. Besides, thanks to Dounia and Cairee, hope is something we still have." At least, he dearly wished it was so. For even of they got through the door and left the swarm behind, who knew what challenges yet remained between them and safety.
Dounia fell to her knees and rotated the last pin, then looked to Cairee, beaming. She'd done it! But there was no time to celebrate. "Quick, open the door and be ready to shut it as quick as you can once we're all through." She muttered her prayer of assistance, then turned back to the hallway.
Dounia is filled with joy as the final pin drops into place. She immediately opens the door and looks through, to make sure they're not going to be running into an even worse situation.
"Come on, come on, come on!" she yelled at the others, realizing for the first time that they were out of sight.
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The door moved with such complaints as metal could possibly make as Dounia opened it and took a cursory look. Her eyes went wide as she seemed to forget about the swarm and walk in. Cairee could see the bewilderment on her young companion's face but was too concerned about the others. The priestess held out her hand ready to pull Zahra or Tymythy through.
Zahra and Tymythy ran for the entryway and it opened as they bolted forth. Scarabs fell free from them like they were shedding dry skin in the breeze created by their running. Though it was all mixed with sweat, and blood.
Cairee cleared the way as her friends ran in and the three threw themselves at the back of the door sealing it shut. As they breathed heavily leaning against the ancient metal they could hear banging on the other end. It was as if people were throwing plum sized stones at the other side of the door. The sound wasn't stopping. Tymythy snapped to attention as he started pulling errant scarabs from Zahra's back and she responded by stomping at them as they fell. Both were horribly scabbed.
But they soon stopped as they could see Dounia standing near the edge of a wooden platform, which they all were standing upon now. Everyone paused as they took it all in.
_____
It felt like a tomb, a tomb and something else. Those who’ve seen one could place the other. It also felt like a museum. There was a word for this.
Vault.
The, once carefully placed, stone slabs walls were mostly out of place and allowed sand and earth to create mounds inside the solemn space. It must have once made an austere rectangular hall about forty feet wide by one hundred feet long. The ceiling was slightly peaked like a very low roof. Around the circumference of the room were wooden, now petrified, scaffold which raised at either end, north and south. The ends were connected to the long sides by short staircases.
Everything glistened with a hoarfrost which gave off the same pale blue light as every room, but the slick floor under your feet melted quickly and rivulets of thaw ran off every surface.
In the centre on the room was the strangest sight.
Floating on a bed of small blue quartz stone was an ancient long ship.
The wood was dark like wet teak and rich like cherry. Long boards bent to form planks of its’ long sides. The keel bent upward at stem and stern and formed large curled prows that looked like fiddleheads. Oars lay out, arrayed like they were about to be dipped into the sea of quartz, ready to be used. The single mast jutted from the centre of the deck and into the ceiling. A good eight feet of its’ upper most point hidden. The sail had long collapsed under its’ own weight.
Near the aft of the longboat was a simple hut with a golden thatched a-framed roof. A simple wooden door in the hut faced forward.
It lay there like a statue of a ship but the wear on it’s outer boards and the fossils of barnacles said that it was all too real.
Now that they had a moment of peace and had got rid of the last stragglers of insects that had burrowed under their clothes or into their hair, Tymythy could take stock of their wounds. As suspected, individually the bites were insignificant. But there sure were a lot of them – he had not bled from this many places since as a youth he had slipped and tumbled down a hill into buckthorn bushes. He had certainly pleased many a land spirit that day with his life offerings. But as to what manner of land god might claim this bounty of blood, he could only guess at. And hope it would find the gift pleasing.
There was also a real risk of infection – they’d need plenty of clean water to bathe their wounds to start with, and preferably sooner rather than later.
But then he realized what filled the large chamber and was mesmerized. A boat, buried in stone? Had the fierce clashes of the great primordial sea serpents caused the water levels to raise and fall, to leave an ancient harbor buried here? Or was this, perhaps, a vessel to ferry the soul of some great champion or chieftain to their afterlife? He was intrigued, but interest warred with caution – would disturbing the ship anger the spirit it had been made to carry?
But they still needed to find a way out – there was no telling if the ceiling here would follow as the thawing progressed, and even if this room had been made to last, they had to find another way out, and they couldn’t do that standing still here on the doorstep.