Chapter 343 Lich Lair
Although on the surface, the occupying forces of the Zhentarim are more like the biggest threat to the Valley of Shadows, other than that, there are still many insidious things hidden in the darkness of the valley. enemy.
Under the Twisted Tower, the drow allied with the Zhentarim Conquerors are planning to wipe out all of Cormanthor's elven expeditionary force.
On the wild surface of Shadow Valley, for the glory of the Lost Lady, the ancient witch Arokar and the high priestess Elsweir are secretly weakening and destroying the Weave itself.
At this moment, with the Valley of Shadows being conquered, the Black Hope Legion led by Selul was jointly repelled by the Elven Expeditionary Force and the Valley Armed Forces. The Zhentarim forces here have basically been wiped out.
Those rats hiding in the darkness will soon be picked out by the Harper Alliance's scouts.
Brian knows that in this case, if he wants to bring permanent peace to Shadow Valley and repair the scars of the Demon Network, the only forces that need to be dealt with next are the drow and the Shar Church. .
Therefore, in order to stop the expansion of the magic network scars as soon as possible and prevent the possibility of the ghost princes coming back, they must divide their forces into two groups and completely eliminate the remaining forces as quickly as possible.
So, while Azara, Severil and others rushed to the Twisted Tower and went deep into the underground world to deal with the drow, Brian and the ghost prince Brenas were also heading towards the Lich. Depart from the lair.
Brian still knows a little bit about the information about the witch Arokar.
As a fish who survived the Netheril era, before the magic network collapsed, her daughters launched a coup and seized control of the floating city.
Arokar, who survived by chance, used dark rituals to preserve his existence and transform into a lich when the cold claws of death approached.
After gaining immortality, Arokar quickly lost her perception of time. Like many lichs, she became obsessed with collecting the knowledge and power of magic. In her opinion, this was for the sake of one day Restoration.
Who would have thought that before Arokar could find a chance for revenge, the Netheril Empire would just perish, and even the floating city he wanted to take back would crash.
In this way, she began to become indifferent to living creatures, longing for the unknown knowledge and chilling secrets lost in the long river of time.
Time passes and things change.
Ten years ago, followers of the Lost Lady sought out the lich and offered her knowledge of the Shadow Web, thus forming an alliance with her.
Priestess Esweir Graycastle even introduced her to Revalan Tanshur, the great prince of the City of Shade, and provided Arokar with the knowledge and secrets kept by the City of Shade.
In exchange, Arokar agreed to allow Elsweyr to build a temple to the Lost Lady in her ancient lair, and promised to help the Shar followers in their revenge against the magic goddess Mystra and her chosen people. , provide any assistance.
At the same time, Arokar has been a friend of the drow elf Marimoda family for many years. She also opened a long-sealed path to the depths of the underground for the followers of Shar. the way.
This allows Shar's followers to move freely in and out of the sight of the residents of Shadow Valley.
It was she who covered preparations for the attack on Elminster and provided magical support for the Shar priests' ritual to break the Weave, and thus Arokar's role in the Fall of Shadowdale , plays a very important role.
After the occupation began, Arokar continued to guard the Weaving Ceremony.
Liches are deeply fascinated by the wraiths and their magic, especially as they share the secrets of the Shadow Web and their shared reverence for the Lost Lady.
Although Arokar once spent a lot of time secretly communicating and sharing their books and knowledge with the Shadow Demon Network mentors in the City of Ghosts in private.
But from her personal standpoint, the ghost prince Revalan is eager to provide any possible assistance to Elsweir and Arokar to quickly complete the unweaving ceremony.
Arokar hopes to confirm whether such a ritual can be replicated in a wider area and wipe out the magic network in a larger area, so that the dominance of the ghosts on the earth can be established and Gain authority among Shar's followers.
It is also worth mentioning that as descendants of Netheril, the relationship between the ghost princes and Arokar is not as harmonious as imagined. They both look down on each other, and even think that the other is just Just a follower to achieve his own goal.
The witch Arokar's lair is located in a fissure with lush vegetation, roughly in the middle of Old Skull Mountain and the ruins of the Grim City.
The ridge is a short and long graystone hill that is very weathered. There are countless caves, cellars and deep ditches on it, the largest of which leads to Arokar's residence.
Brian and the Prince of Shadows followed the forest path and climbed a short distance through the dense vegetation on the hills. Finally, they discovered a deep path hidden by the messy bushes and damp soil. Ditch.
In the depths of the ditch, they saw a heavy double-sided stone door. There was a rusty iron door knocker on each door, and a huge rusty door lock hung on it.
Brian could see that although the huge door lock had been tortured by wind, frost and dew, it still had not lost its original magical effect.
On the door, you can also make out a special symbol under the cover of rust: three spiral lines are spinning and spreading out, and to their right, another one is filled with dirt and The caves in the rocks lead to the depths of the mountain.
"I have been here once, but for other reasons, I did not go too deep." The ghost prince Brenas looked at the rusty magic lock in the Lich's lair and said, "This is my only Know the entrance to the depths of the underground tomb.”
He thought for a moment, then reached out and pointed lightly at the lock.
A soft magical halo enveloped the door lock, and with a slight sound similar to the release of a buckle, the lock automatically fell off and slowly fell to the ground without making a sound.
Soon, the barrier covering the door disappeared, and through the gap in the door, the dark orange fire light dancing inside could be vaguely seen.
“Be careful.” Brenas reminded: “If my prediction is correct, the person guarding the door should be a demon ghost. Once discovered by it, it is likely to disturb the entire lair. "Alarm system."
Brian nodded slightly, locked the position inside the door, added advanced invisibility to himself, and then appeared inside the door through the teleportation spell.
He has broken into many lich dungeons and lairs. Just like the wizard towers of spellcasters, lich lairs are also full of dangers. When faced with the enemies they are about to encounter, the masters of the lairs usually deliberately put enemies into their lairs. , and then use the traps inside to hide in the dark to deal with them.
After seeing the Ghost Prince follow suit, Brian carefully looked at the surrounding environment.
As Brenas said, the Lich's lair is an underground tomb. Two dim torches weakly illuminate this large room. In the niches on the surrounding walls are some rough workmanship. Sarcophagus.
Two pillars support the 15-meter-high ceiling. On the south wall, a sarcophagus in a niche has been removed. A deep and dark passage, about half a person high, has been occupied by this horizontal The coming sarcophagus blocked the way.
On the east side of the room is a large stone door with two doors. In the northeast corner, there seems to be a shadow lurking next to the pillar.
"Arokar has always maintained a good guard at the front door of her lair, attracting various monsters through food and treasures to complete this work."
Brennas obviously also noticed the group. The lurking shadow used telepathy to say to Brian, "Obviously, she did not replace the new guard."
After saying that, he stretched out his hand, and the monster hiding in the shadow suddenly realized Dangerous, he was about to turn around and run away, but it was too late, as he was held in place by Brenas' monster immobilization technique.
Brian saw a monster that was similar to a ghoul, but stronger and shrewder than a ghoul, appearing motionless in his sight.
This is not a ghoul, but an advanced form of a ghoul: a demon.
The demon is more powerful and cruel than the ghoul. If the ghoul's IQ is still flawed, then its advanced form at least has the cunning of an adult human.
Highly intelligent demons sometimes devote themselves to evil gods, or follow the demon lord Orgas in order to gain the spellcasting abilities of priests.
The demon in front of me obviously believes in the lost lady Shar.
Brian wasted no time. During the short period of time Brenas had to immobilize the demon, he immediately took the opportunity to release the dissociation technique to make it disappear without a trace.
After getting rid of the ghost guards, the two passed through an arched passage about 50 meters long behind the stone door and came to a double-leaf door. On the walls on both sides of the passage are long oil paintings depicting creatures such as griffins and chimeras, but the murals look very old and have fallen off in many places.
Seeing Brianas on the side looking at these murals carefully, and occasionally using the divine magic of prophecy to make these ancient murals shine with a faint milky white aura, Brian did not rush, but patiently 's waiting.
As a dossier scholar, there is no spellcaster better than him at exploring ancient ruins or ancient tombs.
Because the knowledge mastered by dossier scholars allows them to easily understand its long past and the reasons for its formation based on the layout of the tomb and the traces left behind.
“This tomb once belonged to a valley lord.” After a moment, Brenas withdrew his gaze from the wall and said to Brian, “Maybe we can find this former lord and get it from him. Learn how to safely enter the depths of the tomb.”
"So, the owner of the tomb has been transformed into an undead creature." Brian did not ask how the other party knew this information, but asked another question.
"Yes." Brenas looked up at the ceiling and looked around thoughtfully, "I can feel the aura of the owner of the tomb, still active here."
"Then lead the way." Brian agreed with his suggestion.
Led by Brenas, they pushed open the double-leaf door, dodged two patrolling groups of ghouls, a group of wraiths, and a group of flaming skulls, and arrived without any danger. In a fairly spacious hall.
The walls of this hall are all covered with gray-white plaster. Over time, they have decayed into an almost black color.
The ceiling of the room was so high that all you could see were dark shadows.
In the invisible state, Brian was keenly aware that above his head, there were two gargoyles made of pure flesh and unknown stone sculptures, lurking in the winding space above. , monitoring the entire hall.
They are very well hidden in the dark. One of the gargoyles is holding a crossbow with a cold light, and the other gargoyle has energy of the fire element surging in its body. It should be holding something. Fire spell-like abilities.
The two ignored these gargoyles, but with the help of magic, they silently walked towards a dark corridor in the southeast of the hall.
After arriving at the destination, Brenas stood there and thought for a moment, then resolutely chose the second room on his left and pushed the door open.
When Brian saw this, he followed closely.
In the decaying room, all kinds of rusty ancient weapons are hung on the walls, displayed one by one. On both sides of the south and east doors, there are a complete set of human-shaped armors placed on each side. On wooden pedestal.
“This should be the trophies captured by the former Lord of the Valley.” Brenas expressed his guess, “I can feel that this is the place where the atmosphere of the Lord of the Valley is strongest, but why was he not found? Transformed into an undead creature. "
"It should be transformed into a terrifying armor." Brian saw the clues and locked his eyes on a set of armors that were full of human shapes.
Although this set of armor has lost its luster, it is still full of intimidation. It stands upright like a guard, holding the cold sword tightly in the armored gloves.
Brian's expression changed, and he waved his hand gently, casting the undead detection spell.
With a flash of magic light, a strange purple light emerged from the gaps in the armor.
Before the transformed undead creature could escape, it was frozen in place by the magical spell released by Brenas who reacted.
"Don't do it." Brenas stopped Brian's plan to kill it and said, "Let me try."
Brenas immediately took out one for himself. The prayer book that records divine spells, he quickly murmured obscure divine incantations, and pointed at the fear armor that was about to escape from the immobilization spell.
A radiance of divine magic flashed across the body of the fear armor.
Immediately afterwards, the undead creature immediately launched a fierce confrontation, and the purple light suddenly surged out of its body, constantly suppressing the milky white light spreading throughout its body.
Brian looked at the white light that was about to be suppressed and the struggling performance of Brenas beside him. He did not hesitate to use his psychic powers to suppress the power of the fear armor by shocking the soul. Resist.
This effect is obviously very good.
Gradually, with the suppression of the psychological shock, the weird purple light inside the terrifying armor was gradually replaced by a soft white light, until a translucent human soul slowly emerged from the gap in the armor. Collapsed in place.
The ancient armor was immediately scattered on the ground, making a faint clanging sound.
"I didn't expect his will to be so strong. Fortunately, your psychic power suppressed him, otherwise I really don't know how to end it." The Prince of Shadows secretly breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at Bu Ryan explained:
“This is a soul purification technique that can free those creatures that have been forcibly transformed into undead, and I can take this opportunity to ask them for some relevant information.”
After that, he told Brian the news about the tomb in detail.
The Lord of Shadow Valley who was transformed into terrifying armor, when he was still a mortal, he once had the potential to become the king of the valley.
In 1256 DR, he led his people against the other city-states of the valley.
While he was trying to plunder the vast wealth that might be hidden in the ruins of Myth Drannor, he came into conflict with a Benor Lich who lived in seclusion there.
The Lich used magic to turn him into a purple worm and imprisoned him deep underground to help him dig tunnels.
He was trapped there for so many years that his loyal subordinates mistakenly thought he was dead long ago and built this underground mausoleum for him in the Valley of Shadows.
In fact, the unlucky Lord of the Vale was discovered by a Nightshade hired by the Lost Lady, who took him to the Shadow Plane.
When the Lost Lady decided to start a plan against Shadow Valley, she not only liberated the Valley Lord from his previous unfortunate form, but also promoted him into a fear armor and sent him to Elsweyr to assist her in completing the task of tearing the magic web. Task.
Who would have thought that as the commander of the Lich Lair Patrol, Brian and the two of them would sneak into his room quietly and successfully purify it.
At the same time, Brenas, still in the memory of the Fear Armor, got the information they needed most at the moment, which was about the layout of the entire lair.
Arokar's lair is divided into three main parts.
The first part is the underground mausoleum, secret chambers connected by long passages, which extend from the large cracks covered by vegetation on the surface of Old Skull Mountain to the underground, leading to the large trench known as the Obscure Abyss.
This ditch is an obstacle that can make people want to retreat. Countless adventurers have even been frightened and decided to turn back the moment they saw it.
On the broken rocks at the bottom of the trench is the second part of the lair, which is the temple of the Lost Lady: the Temple of the Night Lady.
This is where the magic web unweaving ceremony is held.
The third part of the lair is the residence of the lich.
The traps, illusions and secret passages here interweave an intricate network of roads. Arokar lives in a secret room in the lair.
Brian and Brenas are currently in the underground mausoleum in the first part of the lair.
They must follow the trench and pass through the lich lair in the third part before they can reach the temple of the Lost Lady to destroy the unweaving ceremony of the magic web.
(End of this chapter)