"Magelights, cleverly hidden," Vess said, kneeling to inspect one herself. "I do not see the inscriptions."
"It's inside," Harn said as he stood, shaking water from his hands. "Seen these before, in some ruins Mags and Cal and I raided. Even broke open one of them stars. You could see the little sigils and everthin'."
"You...broke them?" Atar asked, his outrage almost overcoming the panic attack he'd been having. "Why would you do such a thing?"
Harn shrugged. "See how they worked. Sometimes things gotta break before you can fix em, ya know?"
The lights revealed the disrepair of the room, cracked pillars and splintering walls, as well as more and more of those hanging fronds. They were black with green edges, as was the thick moss that dominated the less drenched portions of the chamber. Where the light had travelled however, the plants were burned away, leaving an acrid stink in the air that wrinkled Felix's nose. Between that, the mold, and the musty water he almost wished his Perception wasn't so strong.
However, the light also illuminated the water between them and the warded door. They could see fish swimming about in there, silver things about a foot long. The light was agitating them like nobody's business, likely rousing them from their darkened fish homes. In those depths, Felix could see broken statuary and more of the stone lattice, chunked and eroded by long Ages. The pool was deep, the chamber clearly broken at the bottom where swirling mud and darkness once again claimed the waters. It was likely that, were they to swim down they could find a way out and up to the surface of whatever lake they were in...
Yeah, fuck that, Felix said with a shiver. Dark waters and tight spaces? He'd rather fight the Maw again.
"How're we gonna get across?" Darius asked, only to be met with the crackling snap of ice manifesting. A wide bridge of smoking ice crawled across the waters, sinking pillars into the muck as it expanded, and stopping only when it abutted the warded door. Three Frost Giants stood from the water's edge, all of them trading nods with the large Adept. Darius made a noise in his throat, something between surprise and appreciation. "Huh. Good initiative."
"We are more than axes in battle," Battelord Ari grated. He looked pleased. "Water such as this holds no domain over the Risi."
"Good, because there is a lot of it," Zara said, moving to the bridge.
Felix followed, the ice creaking beneath his massive weight, his eyes lingering over the ice's construction. He felt Rime Shaping within him tingle in sympathy with the display, almost calling out to him to use it and try something new and interesting. It wasn't the Skill, not really, but his own eagerness to play with the power at his disposal. Felix had spent the last month or so doing relatively little fighting, serving instead as a Mana battery for his arrays and building up his Stronghold. He was excited to get out of the Foglands and see something new.
The warded door was thick and stout despite its deceptively fragile appearance. A forest of trees and rolling hills covered its face, a preview of what was to come if Ghreldan was like what Zara said; curiously the moss didn't touch the door at all. It didn't even come within a foot of the lintel, and the edges of it were blackened. In his Manasight the door was simple stone, glowing with earth and hints of metal Mana, but unremarkable for all of that. He put his hand on it, feeling a thrum through his Affinity for all that his fingertips detected only solid stone. Definitely warded.
He stepped back. "What do we do? I'm sure we could break it open, but I'd rather not."
Zara sniffed again. "You can try, but from what I'm seeing these wards would even hold you at bay."
Felix shrugged. "Fine. Then we disarm them. How?"
"With some finesse," Atar said. He stepped forward and adjusted the collar on his black and crimson robes. "Step aside, let the Glyphmaster through."
"I regret everything," Felix murmured, drawing a grin from Alister. Atar pretended he didn't hear him.
While the Inscriptionists and Zara were focused on the door, Felix decided he'd try his hand at reinforcing the bridge. He knew from past experience that he couldn't Stone Shape the stone of a Nymean Temple, but he had other tools to hand now.
Rime Shaping!
Mana surged from his channels and out of the bottom of his feet, hitting and spreading across the already formed bridge before snaking down into the water itself. Pillars of ice formed, thick as Ari's torso, and plunged into the sediment far below. As each one formed Felix expanded the bridge until it would certainly hold everyone's weight without question. It was for him and Pit as much as everyone else, though the giants weren't exactly lightweights. By the end of it, the water level below them had dropped substantially, and more then a few silver fish flopped on outcroppings and statuary as the murky water sank. Pit cooed in delight and with the help of the Dawnguard was able to capture a good amount of them; they'd make for a good meal later on.
Or now, he thought as Pit ate almost half of them.
"Ooh, well that's interestin'," Evie commented. Felix followed her gaze, to where something yellow-white poked up from the repurposed water. "Skeletons. A lot of em."
Dozens of bones littered the slimed statuary, some fish, some definitely not. A few were even quite large, as if a beast the size of a giant had been devoured. Felix could even see jagged scrape-marks on the massive ribs and vertebrae. The water was so low that it only covered a tiny portion of the bottom of the chasm, and there it was dark as night and thick with mud. Whatever had made its home there was clearly not present any longer.
"I do not think I want to meet whatever did that," Vess said. She looked to the Hand once before stiffening her spine. "But we should prepare ourselves. If something that big was in here, there is no telling what the rest of this Temple will hold."
The company checked their weapons and armor, ensuring they were ready for battle, and Darius nodded at his ward. Felix almost rolled his eyes. Vess knows how to lead, man.
"Aha!" Atar cried out at the same time a flare of blue-white energy zipped along the large door. "We did it!"
A deluge of water sprayed through the crevices of the door, and quickly became a startling flood as they shuddered open.
Ages-old hinges protested against the liquid weight, and everyone scrambled backward. The mages shouted in alarm and the bridge quaked from the impact of the flood, but Zara threw her hand up and into the out-pour. Blue-green light flared, and the water split around them, arcing neatly past the edges of the ice bridge and directly into the now-empty chasm below.
"T-thanks," Atar said.
"My pleasure, Atar," Zara said before rubbing the palm of her hand as if it ached. The water had finally leveled out with their own chamber as the chasm below filled up over the level of the ice bridge. She lifted her sandaled feet, immune to the chill of the water but not the rotting stink of it. "This is not freshwater."
"Great," Atar muttered. Alister helped him to his feet, but his black robes were waterlogged. They draped from his spindly form, sloshing with every movement. "Gonna have to waste Mana to dry this out."
"I wouldn't bother," Evie said, slipping to the front and peering into the darkness beyond the heavy doors. "I got a feeling we're all gonna get soaked before this is over."
Felix peered into the gloom, attempting to ignore the fetid fumes of mold and rotting...things. The room was big enough to make the Shadowgate chamber feel like a coat closet, with huge vaulted ceilings and massive statuary of robed figures within alcoves big enough to park a Manaship inside. More statues lifted from the water, which had gone still after it had leveled off, and Felix could even make out the green line along the walls where the water once rested.
"This seems...pleasant," Vess offered.
Felix grinned at her. "Better than a Domain full of Primordial-Spawn, at least?"
"Most things are," she replied dryly. Vess hefted her spear. "Who shall be vanguard?"
Before Felix could answer, a voice slipped across the still watersa harsh sibilant echo.
"Who daresss to walk in my demesne? What mortal filth tries their hand at the secretsssss of the godssss?"
The dark waters bulged and roiled, splitting for a wedge-shaped head the size of a minivan. Rivers cascaded down a face, pebbled with scales, its flesh was pale as snow and its eyes burned a vicious, brilliant red.
Name: Jadorak, the Horror of Haestus
Type: Nagafolk
Level: 241
HP: 10495/10495
SP: 14223/15843
MP: 3984/3984
Lore: Nagafolk are extremely agile swimmers and have the Endurance of a creature an entire Tier above them, no matter their level. Aggressive, territorial, and cruel, these monstrosities kill by crushing their foes or by injecting them with a deadly venom. Albino Nagafolk are rare and all the more deadly for it.
Strength: More Data Required
Weakness: More Data Required
"Who are you, to challenge me in my place of worssship?"
Fuck.