Dean cast a spell on his staff that lit the room in which everyone now stood. Alawan lay on the floor unconscious, having tripped and hit his head on an altar that stood at the end of the rectangular room that everyone had stepped. The group created a litter on which to carry Alawan out of the room, when Dean discovered writing on the walls. The writing was an even older form of an ancient form of writing in Selador, which Dean had learned while in Lloleyn. The dialect was so strange that Dean could only make out a couple of words. Dean then cast a spell that allowed him to see magic and the walls them selves radiated magic. The party was insisting on leaving, and Dean could see no reason to stay. They had to find out if they had really made it to Atma. There was only one door out and so it was opened. Danyelle spotted some tracks on the ground outside off the door in the dusty hall. It looked as if no one had been in this hall for millennia or more, except for whoever had made those tracks. The party followed the tracks through twisting and turning hallways. Sometimes the tracks veered in a seemingly perfect hall, so the party veered with the tracks. Then they came to a place where a cave-in had happened and the party was forced to crawl through a hole that had been dug in the sand and rock. Part of the way through Dean felt some of the sand give way and start to slide, He stopped and so did the sand. When the party emerged from the other side they resumed their tracking of the mysterious person, which led them down more twisting halls and passages. All of the sudden two figures loomed out of the darkness, in the passage ahead. It turned out to be two statues of warriors long forgotten, beyond them was an arch with a double set of doors. Danyelle checked the doors and said there were no traps on it and then opened them. The team stepped into a cavernous room in which the walls could not be seen. When they did finally find the walls one of them had collapsed and formed a long slope. Dean and Danyelle stayed at the bottom with Alawan’s litter and Jerick and Blake went up the slope to try to find a way out that way. Dean and Danyelle walked slowly along the bottom of the slope. All of the sudden Jerick came sliding down the slope saying there was a huge bug up at the top of the slope. Then Blake came tumbling down shouting about the same thing. The party readied themselves for a fight, waiting for the giant bug to come to them. They waited but the bug never came. So the group continued on their journey. The group then came to a door. Danyelle checked the door again and claimed it clean, and it was opened. When the first person stepped into the room four globes of light flared to life. That person then stepped out and the globes extinguished themselves. The group went into the room and the globes ignited again. In the light of the globes Dean was able to see in the middle of the room nine statues on stone bases. In the middle of the circle of statues there was a thickly dusted image of the sky put in some sort of black, polished marble, with diamonds set in it in the positions of the stars. Dean examined the statues and found that each one contained a plaque beneath it, but the names were scratched or worn away, all but one. Mallant the Shaper. Also, there were four doors that led out of the circular room. In front of each door were constellations set in diamonds. The group went to the door with the bear in front of it. From the door there was a small hall that ended in a flight of stairs. The stairs led up to a room that contained some bunks and a window. From the window Dean was able to see the night sky, but it was only midmorning when they had stepped into the portal. Also the constellations were not right it was as if they had been transported to the other side of the planet. After contemplating this for a minute Dean realized they had been transported to the other side of the planet. From the room they had entered from the stair well there was another door leading to another stairway. As the group got to the top they found another door, which was opened, leading out into the night. They all stood atop a hill that over looked a great ruined city. They had made it to Atma. Upon viewing this Dean got out his quill and a piece of parchment and began to draw a map of where they had been and all he could see from the top of this hill. Dean was interrupted though as the group gathered their thoughts and began to move down the hill towards a light in the distance. Danyelle scouted ahead and came back with a report that there was a large encampment of goblins ahead. Blake came up with a plan to buy information from the goblins and Dean acted as an interpreter. The goblins said that they would help if the party were to slay a great monster that was terrorizing their little city. The group agreed, and Alawan was awake and able to accompany them to battle this monster, though Dean stayed with the goblins and was able to finish his map of the city with information gained from the goblin chief and what he knew of the city. When the rest of the group returned they came with a fantastic tale of the monster that the goblins spoke of, it was a black dragon, and they had succeeded in slaying it.
|
