- Pronouns
- He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
It is the 13th of Mistset, in the year 2259. Altera lies under the reign of Queen Leminth of Arduin and by her grace have I been appointed Librarian of the Royal Library and in her service I am scribe, discovering the secrets of our world.
As librarian I look into donated books and categorize them after reading. A while ago, we received a book called ‘The Maze of Archaz’. This book was left on one of the tables and not put into the donation chest. I found it while closing up for the night.
Browsing through the pages quickly, I recognize this book is of interest. In cryptic language, it refers to a place. Within two days I unravel the mystery of where this place might be. “A secret to all above, a secret to those in the hot desert under the burning sun and a secret to those in the cold desert under the icy moon.” I find the best place to look first is the Sorrows. If it would lay in the Northern Kingdom, it would have been found by now. But the sorrows, that is the place too dangerous to explore for no reason, unless you have a clue. And I have a clue…
Reading on, I find a clue on what this place really is. “He designed a tower for us to craft. A tower without a door, for only the holy from the stars may open the gates and descend to the chamber. This tower is the first blockade for anyone who dear enter the one’s tomb.” A tomb, and with a tomb of ancient times, come the treasure deep at the graves, buried with the man for who this tomb has been created.
I have found enough reason to find this cryptic place. I send out one of my finest pupil scribes. His name is Damon and he is to find this ruin and report back to me at once. I will not risk his life any further. Requesting him to go to the Sorrows is dangerous enough by itself. The next clue about this so called maze, I find at the sixth page of the document. A clue for what may be found down in this ancient tomb. “Archaz took his books of knowledge with him. Down, deep down in the darkest place of this world. He took the books to remember how to build his wicked contraptions. His skill and traps are beyond anyone’s.” Knowledge from one of Altera’s best tinkers. Knowledge at last…
Days go by and not a single sign of my scribe do I receive. Weeks pass and soon a new moon will light our Alteran skies. The hour grows late on the 27th of Mistset, 2259, and I travel to Port Silver, to find aid. The 30th I arrive and there I find people willing to aid me. The first man to help me is Captain Lemarc, whose ship got lost during my last big recording, the Voyage to Galo Gultch. “Fear not, my old scribe. I will help you find your pupil or whatever reason it is that he has not come back yet.” With this charismatic man stepping up to help me, others follow. Before the night is over, Lemarc has set up a desk for people to sign up for this quest to find my missing scribe. At midnight we have an army of people. Races from all over Altera, tradesmen, warriors, assassins, healers, other scribes… I count the names till 38. A number of attendants I did not expect, yet I know not who will show up the next morn. Lemarc nods to me in a satisfied way and hits me on my shoulder encouragingly. “We will find Damon, don’t you worry”.
The 30st we meet in the Sunk’n Norwegian. Of the 38 that signed up, at least 30 has come and I even see faces I haven’t seen signing up for this. It seems the word has spread during the night. With me and Lemarc, we must surely count as 40 people. With such an army of men and women, The Sorrows pose us no threat. We take the first boat to the Town of Sorrow, a deserted place where tradesmen has set up their tradingpost. From here, we move by horse towards a small outpost in the desert. We continue our route to the Desert Sanctuary. A green place near the brackish water. Here a friend of mine has set up a contraption which builds small one person boats. We take the boats and hit the sand at the other side, the tower blocks the light from the full moon. “So I was right, this is where I have send my scribe and this is where the tower of which the book spoke is as well…”
We walk up to the tower, not knowing what awaits us. At the main entrance in front of the tower, we find a couple of signs. The first says: “Danger for all thee mortals, for this is Archaz’s Maze!” The second: “Thee who dare go beyond this entrance may face death.” The entrance to the maze is locked, so we have to find a way to open it. The tower is the only thing standing around, we figure it has to be in there that we might find access to this gate. A part of our party stays behind to tell us whether the gate has opened or not. The book mentioned it has no door so we climb up a sandy slope that has been blown against the tower and find a breach within the wall. We go in and find our way once again blocked. Yet, there is another way down some old rotten ladder. A part of our already separated party goes down and find a big room with a crazy contraption…
The contraption is made from four buttons and redstone leading from all corners of the room to the center, going up in a spiral way out of the room we now stand in. Before we do anything, the tinkers of our company take a look at the contraption and conclude we have to push all four buttons at the same time. They count down and hit the buttons. Indeed, when not hit at the same time nothing happens, but when they hit it together, we hear something switch and someone shouts from above. We move back up the ladder, putting our feet closest to the vertical sticks, in order not to break the old wood. The path that was blocked earlier is open and Lemarc and I move in. There we find one of the Earthspawn of the company has already walked in and he now switches the lever, looking at us with a scared face. We hear cheers from outside and the Earthspawn does something with his face that looks like a smile. “I didz it!” We laugh of joy to have solved the first puzzle Archaz threw at us and we move back to the entrance.
The host of men and women stand outside while Lemarc goes in. He shouts back. “It is a labyrinth I believe. We must find our way to whatever it leads to, be wary of traps!” Everyone rushes in, full of excitement, but when they face the labyrinth, they suddenly slow down. In the dark we stand. 40 of us, silent. Not a sound is made. We feel uncomfortable… Lemarc goes first and slips into one of the tiny hallways. Another goes another way and soon we are spread through-out this Labyrinth. Many path did I take before I finally found the center and there stairs went down in a spiral way. The last few are broken and it looks like it has happened recently. I fear the worst for my scribe. He might have fallen down. I run towards the end of a hallway and there some of our company stand around him. I find him… Dead, holding a book. With water in my eyes I take the book from him and open it at the last page…
“As I walk through the gate, it closes behind me. I try to squeeze through the hole that is left behind me, but it’s too tight. I’ve come here to find the ruin, but I was tempted by Archaz and went in… I curse myself and try to find a way out in the dim light. I walk down and see I’ve landed in some kind of Labyrinth. I walk the paths, but many times I have to return. Finally I find it, the center of the Labyrinth: a spiral staircase downwards.
The stone stairs were old and some broke from underneath my feet. I fell down and I believe my legs are broken, they hurt like Nether. It’s a horrible feeling. I pull myself to the end of the hall. There is a button above me, but I dare not touch it. I am stuck, it feels cold. The pain increases and I have only little water and food…
I’m starving, it’s a madness. I dare not push the button, because I know I will end up even worse. I can’t move anymore, I am… deceived. “
I close the book with closed eyes. Deceived by Archaz… Lured into his foul building, for a scribe always seeks knowledge, even when he is warned to stay out. The rest have found their way through the maze and I look at the button. In grief for my scribe, I cannot reason well and in my grief I foolishly press the button. After I pressed it, I feel scared. “Fool!” Lemarc shouts. “You have doomed us all!” But nothing happens. I grin in relief. Suddenly the floor beneath our feet opens and every one of us falls down. We lay on top of each other and the floor, which is now our ceiling, closes above us. Darkness…
Men groaning, a woman screams after the body of Damon fell on her. Hurt legs, hurt arms, but everyone lives. “Our way back is shut. We have no choice now but to face the darkness of the Maze of Archaz. The darkness that he shrouds his contraptions in. Be aware! There are fouler things than the mere undead that dwell in the deep dark places of the Sorrows…” We walk in, some have to hold on to each other in order not to put too much pressure on their painful legs. This room is filled with skulls and within this room dwell four giants. They all look up to us as we walk down the stairs into this room. We arrive at the bottom of the stairs and now these giants look down on us. They are twice the size of a big Earthspawn warrior, yet they do not attack us. Neutrally they now start moving and we hear radars and ticking noises. Robotic men build by Archaz to protect the one buried within this tomb from people with bad intentions. They do not attack us, for we have no intention at all but to find a way back to the surface.
Two iron doors on each side of the room, behind it a trap and a lever. The tinkers act fast, but solve the puzzle slowly. The sign above each lever says “Sometimes, one might only get one chance.” The first tinker switches the lever once, not twice. Yet the other tinker is curious and switches it twice, making lava flow from underneath the sign and burning the man alive. The lever is switched one more time and in the center of the room a hole opens and two pillars shoot up through the ground. They again carry signs. The first sign says “All is well, until you wind up where the monsters dwell.” The other says. “As you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss stares back at you.” These signs are obviously made to scare off anyone who thinks of stealing the treasures within this tomb. Suddenly, the robotic golems look at us. All of them at the same time. I fear some of our company changed their minds and are now thinking to find the treasure and take it back. If this is so, we will soon be attacked by these machines. One of us stands to close to the hole, the old bricks shove in and the man trips down and tumbles into darkness…
He shouts up, he is safe. Within a blink of an eye, one of the golems runs towards one of our man and throws him in the air. Crushing him into the ceiling so hard that half of him is stuck to it and the other half falls down blooded. In fear we all jump down the hole which is too close for the golems to pass through. We hear them scream as we tumble down the shaft…
Wet and cold. That is the first impression of this room. The Maze is relentless. I swim back up to the surface and climb onto the side. “We are doomed!” They scream in the darkness. Slowly our eyes adjust to the dark and we see four tunnels and all walls covered in slime, moss and vines. Lemarc shakes his head with a disgusted look. “Rahm. I believe some of our men has changed their goal now they know the scribe is dead and that there is no return.” “Why not take the treasure after all we have been through!” “Yes! Some of us died already!” A quarrel is about to form. “MEN!” Lemarc shouts charismatically. All are silent. “There is no time to quarrel of treasure or fame. We have no water and food supplies for a long debate and we have no way out as of yet. There are four tunnels ahead of us and nobody knows where they lead and what dwells within!” He sighs. “It might sound foolish, but for now I suggest we split up. Take a tunnel each and come back when you find something.” He walks back towards me and gestures that I come with him. The company is less restless again…
We face an even bigger darkness in the tunnels. Only now and then does the floor light up as we step on redstone ore. “This Archaz, he was mad with redstone, eh?” Someone asks me. I cannot answer for I am too focused on our way ahead. I heard something move and suddenly it happens. We hear screams from another tunnel behind us. Then also from another side. An arrow shoots into the vines in front of me and dangles in front of my face, caught by the vines. “Archers! Take cover!” The redstone ore beneath the feet of our enemy lights his features. A skeleton wielding a bow heads our way, cautiously. A group of zombies behind him, in golden armor. “They even recruited the damned.” Kharn Sicarus whispers in my ear. He sneaks passed the skeleton and zombies and slits their throats one by one. He punches the skull off the skeleton’s body. “Let’s move!” He shouts. Full of courage by this heroic act we press on…
The other parties are already awaiting in front of a locked wooden door. As we step up, an earthspawn tries to break through it. “Solidified. Wooden material mixt with lava components…” A craftsman says. The Earthspawn gets help by the Earthspawn in our company and they break through. We move the vines out of sight and suddenly I stand before it. The Library of Archaz. I grin. “Ladies and Gentlemen, The maze of Archaz! Take whatever knowledge you can carry!” The scribes and I sift through the pages of the book, quickly taking the most important ones. There is a lot about redstone contraption, some history of the people who made this tomb and some cryptic books. Suddenly I face a bookcase filled with books, yet the books do not come out. They are stuck… I stand in front of it surprised and call the help of the nearest person, who happens to be a tinker. “What do you think this is supposed to mean?” We study the bookcase carefully. “Rahm… You better see this. This sign says: Isn’t it odd, the feeling that the walls are closing in.” I look up and that moment the tinker notes something. One of the books of the bookcase is loose. He pulls it…
I look back at the tinker at the sound of ten or twenty pistons being activated. He looks at me in despair. A wall of gravel falls down and heat blows into the room. An entrance is opened when the gravel fell down. Slowly Audric Elumeril walks up to the entrance while the noise of the mechanics still clouds the air. Almost too hard to see, the walls shoved half a meter within a second closer to each other. “THE WALLS! They are closing! RUN!” We run and the whole army tries to push through the same small hole at the same time. The walls now close in faster and luckily I manage to get through, yet, others were less lucky. At least five of us are left behind, their screams echo through the hot air that spills out of the entrance we just go through. “Smoke! He’s left behind!” Someone bangs on the closed entrance behind us. She cries. Our morale wanes... So does our courage...
Within this hot chamber we stand. Nether. So it is true. The end of the book mentioned it and I read out loud for all to hear. “I tell you now: to ever venture within the tomb of our One is to venture through Nether. After Archaz turned foul and evil, after he knew he had to die there, he met with Queen Grief. The trickster offered him ‘a favor’. The wicked Queen offered him to live forever.” I close the book and See everyone staring at me with pale faces. We are not there yet, we have to march through Nether and hopefully back, in order to reach our most beloved surface of Altera. Down broken Netherstairs we jump. Some not making the jump and falling into fire. Death surrounds us once again, yet some manage to get passed death again. We go through another gate with only 30 of us left…
“She offered him to live forever…” I repeat in thought as we move through a small tunnel. I open the book again and read. “In exchange, she wanted nothing more than… His sanity. His wit and Tinker-logic. The superior mind of an amazing tinker. Archaz, now mad with despair of being left to rot, took the deal. It wasn’t long before he began to notice the small changes in his mind and so also in his body, for both are strongly connected. She corrupted Archaz… Left him to remain a demon in her Nether-spawn. She locked the once so wise man. She locked him and behind impenetrable bars the man who turned mad now awaits.” I close the book when orange light and superior heat push against my face. There behind the iron bars, he stands. A skeleton, no more, yet alive. He speaks an unknown language with foul intonation. We stand around the bars, looking at him in wonder. A young man looks at me. “He.. He is real?” He looks back at Archaz. Archaz stands still for a moment, then screams and moans, he groans. He bends over and suddenly bursts out in flames, changing form into… A blaze! He shoots fire at us, setting some of our men ablaze. A hooded figure, part of our company that I did not see signing up for this trip, blocks the bolt of fire that heads towards me. The figure then softly whispers something. Nobody heard it but me, for she stood close to me. Archaz the blaze stops and sits back in his cage…
This room got three levers to the left. The tinkers take a look at it and can’t figure out what they will do. “Then just try it, there is no way out anyway.” An elf says bitterly. The tinkers look at Lemarc and he allows them. The first lever drops a wall of gravel, spilling out an army of zombies, skeletons and spiders which lunge at our men. The warriors, from Elf to Earthspawn fight side by side to repel this evil. During the fight, the gravel on the ground falls down too, taking Arthorius Arcturus III with it. The monsters are held off, but Arthorius is at the bottom of the pit. He is alive and he says he is not hurt. The mysterious hooded figure jumps down the hole with him and they converse. We cannot hear but suddenly the hooded figure lifts Arthorius up and throws him to the edge of the pit. He grabs grabs the edge and pulls himself up. We are relieved not to see any more of our company end up dead or locked in this damned place. Yet, when we look down, there is no sign of the hooded figure…
The tinkers try another lever which opens a huge gate. We use this opened passage and leave the last lever untouched. Who knows what evil it would have brought upon us. As we walk out, Archaz shouts at us in his foul language. He is wild with rage that we have passed all his traps so far. In front of us is a tunnel that goes down. Made of wicked Soulsand and filled with fire. We have to proceed carefully, for fire shoots up from the floor at every step we take. A woman is set ablaze and runs down the tunnel on fire, triggering flames to shoot up even more. With sunken hearts we proceed, cautiously, carefully, staying away from fire. The heat, so deep down in the earth, is unbearable. Sweat drips from my cheeks to my beard. It is hard to focus in this warmth. We reach the end of the tunnel and find we have to cross a path, laid within a lava pool. Enormous heat rises up from this pool, making us staggering backwards. It is our only way, so we run over the path as fast as we can, in order to be safe at the other side before pants and trousers are set on fire. The hairs around my hoofs are burned off, it smells and it hurts. We reach the other side…
There we are again in the dark. It is cooler here, yet it feels damp and the air is pressuring. A huge gap is in front of us. Another tunnel, but this one is made from sandstone, just like the tower. We move on and there we face the final challenge Archaz throws at us. “Let’s get it over with.” The bitter elf says. He runs ahead of us and we see him being shot by five arrows from one of Archaz’s awful contraptions. “HALT!” Lemarc shouts. “Watch your feet, this place is filled with pressure plates.” We walk in a long line, making sure we step on the same safe path as the one in front of us. The tunnel gets smaller and smaller, until we have to squeeze through the small crevice that is now the remainder of the tunnel. Before we are out, only a few are hit by an arrow and not life-threatening. One is hit in the leg and two in their arms. The healers tend the wounded and we slowly proceed through this new hall. This hall is bright with light and more decorated. It seems like no traps are here, but we do not risk it. We move in a long line until we find a pressure plate. A tinker throws a stone on it and a gate opens in front of us. Lemarc moves in, ever so wary, and tells us what he sees. “It seems safe, come in!”
We move in and find the sandstone room has a perfectly hemispherical domed ceiling. At the center of the room is a small, raised pedestal, holding a red earthenware urn, blazoned with small gold filigree. At the foot of the pedestal there rests one suit of a badly aged and worn armor that appears to be made of red chitinous plates, several cuneiform tablets with completely unknown script, and a small golden scimitar, moderately curved, etched with a flame motif, bearing a similar cuneiform engraving, and a hilt made of the same red chitin material and set with a ruby. The floor of the crypt is strewn with many damaged, cut, and otherwise fairly tarnished pieces of a black chitinous armor. Various well-faded reliefs on the walls depict a red-armored figure wielding a sword made of flame in battle with various black-armored figures…
This is a treasure of history. A treasure too valuable to just randomly divide over this group. We are left with 28 people… I give the blade to a friend of who I know he collects and studies artifacts. The armor I give to Howard, a scribe and librarian just like me. I keep the tablets with the same pictures as the reliefs on the walls. To satisfy the crowd, I let them have the tarnished pieces of black armor that are scattered on the ground…
We move into another room and find 13 urns there, divided in the wall. I remember something from the book and phrase it to our company. “The tomb of the one is built by thirteen of the one’s most loyal men. What he did further in the deep with this thirteen men is unknown, for nobody could see. Deep down he went, deeper than anyone could hear or follow…” These are the urns of the thirteen builders. In the middle stands a chest and in it I find an abundance of golden ingots, iron ingots, diamonds, books and other valuables. I divide these equally over the company and I take nothing myself. I have no need for such, my fascination lies not in riches, but in knowledge. We move back to the sandstone room and through another gate.
The gate opens and heat blows into our faces once again. We feel desperate, when does this end? Relentless the lava in this room heats our feet as we run over the path, similar to the one earlier. We reach the other side and stand on the bare stone. It’s a dead end. We came this far to find a dead end… There is no other way to go and I see our morale sink. People sit down on the stone and sigh. We sweat without moving in this hot cave with lava surrounding us. For hours we sit and nobody talks, knowing we will all die here. Suddenly I notice something. “The hooded figure… It is not with us anymore. Did someone see her leaving us?” Nobody answers, they just shake their heads. I stand up in surprise. Lemarc does so too. Then he leans against a wall, disappointed. For this finding will not bring us anywhere. Suddenly he disappears. A scream of excitement races through our company. A halfling walks up to where Lemarc stood. He sniffs the air and touches the wall. He shrugs and then he too disappears. People start grinning and now a woman touches the wall as well. The same happens. We move through one by one and I leave as last. Finally, the journey is over. I move through and end up in some cave behind the lower district of Port Silver. There our company cheers and shouts, holding Lemarc on their shoulders. I stand smiling at them, stinking of sweat, fear and burnt hairs. “Time for a drink!” Lemarc shouts and the crowd carries him to the Sunk’n Norwegian, where our journey began, to feast upon our safe return.
Rahm Kennys. Caparii Scribe, Scholar and Librarian.
(This book is also available in game in the Royal Library. Known as Lost Scribe I, II, III, IV, V and VI. in the category: Recorded Events.)
As librarian I look into donated books and categorize them after reading. A while ago, we received a book called ‘The Maze of Archaz’. This book was left on one of the tables and not put into the donation chest. I found it while closing up for the night.
Browsing through the pages quickly, I recognize this book is of interest. In cryptic language, it refers to a place. Within two days I unravel the mystery of where this place might be. “A secret to all above, a secret to those in the hot desert under the burning sun and a secret to those in the cold desert under the icy moon.” I find the best place to look first is the Sorrows. If it would lay in the Northern Kingdom, it would have been found by now. But the sorrows, that is the place too dangerous to explore for no reason, unless you have a clue. And I have a clue…
Reading on, I find a clue on what this place really is. “He designed a tower for us to craft. A tower without a door, for only the holy from the stars may open the gates and descend to the chamber. This tower is the first blockade for anyone who dear enter the one’s tomb.” A tomb, and with a tomb of ancient times, come the treasure deep at the graves, buried with the man for who this tomb has been created.
I have found enough reason to find this cryptic place. I send out one of my finest pupil scribes. His name is Damon and he is to find this ruin and report back to me at once. I will not risk his life any further. Requesting him to go to the Sorrows is dangerous enough by itself. The next clue about this so called maze, I find at the sixth page of the document. A clue for what may be found down in this ancient tomb. “Archaz took his books of knowledge with him. Down, deep down in the darkest place of this world. He took the books to remember how to build his wicked contraptions. His skill and traps are beyond anyone’s.” Knowledge from one of Altera’s best tinkers. Knowledge at last…
Days go by and not a single sign of my scribe do I receive. Weeks pass and soon a new moon will light our Alteran skies. The hour grows late on the 27th of Mistset, 2259, and I travel to Port Silver, to find aid. The 30th I arrive and there I find people willing to aid me. The first man to help me is Captain Lemarc, whose ship got lost during my last big recording, the Voyage to Galo Gultch. “Fear not, my old scribe. I will help you find your pupil or whatever reason it is that he has not come back yet.” With this charismatic man stepping up to help me, others follow. Before the night is over, Lemarc has set up a desk for people to sign up for this quest to find my missing scribe. At midnight we have an army of people. Races from all over Altera, tradesmen, warriors, assassins, healers, other scribes… I count the names till 38. A number of attendants I did not expect, yet I know not who will show up the next morn. Lemarc nods to me in a satisfied way and hits me on my shoulder encouragingly. “We will find Damon, don’t you worry”.
The 30st we meet in the Sunk’n Norwegian. Of the 38 that signed up, at least 30 has come and I even see faces I haven’t seen signing up for this. It seems the word has spread during the night. With me and Lemarc, we must surely count as 40 people. With such an army of men and women, The Sorrows pose us no threat. We take the first boat to the Town of Sorrow, a deserted place where tradesmen has set up their tradingpost. From here, we move by horse towards a small outpost in the desert. We continue our route to the Desert Sanctuary. A green place near the brackish water. Here a friend of mine has set up a contraption which builds small one person boats. We take the boats and hit the sand at the other side, the tower blocks the light from the full moon. “So I was right, this is where I have send my scribe and this is where the tower of which the book spoke is as well…”
We walk up to the tower, not knowing what awaits us. At the main entrance in front of the tower, we find a couple of signs. The first says: “Danger for all thee mortals, for this is Archaz’s Maze!” The second: “Thee who dare go beyond this entrance may face death.” The entrance to the maze is locked, so we have to find a way to open it. The tower is the only thing standing around, we figure it has to be in there that we might find access to this gate. A part of our party stays behind to tell us whether the gate has opened or not. The book mentioned it has no door so we climb up a sandy slope that has been blown against the tower and find a breach within the wall. We go in and find our way once again blocked. Yet, there is another way down some old rotten ladder. A part of our already separated party goes down and find a big room with a crazy contraption…
The contraption is made from four buttons and redstone leading from all corners of the room to the center, going up in a spiral way out of the room we now stand in. Before we do anything, the tinkers of our company take a look at the contraption and conclude we have to push all four buttons at the same time. They count down and hit the buttons. Indeed, when not hit at the same time nothing happens, but when they hit it together, we hear something switch and someone shouts from above. We move back up the ladder, putting our feet closest to the vertical sticks, in order not to break the old wood. The path that was blocked earlier is open and Lemarc and I move in. There we find one of the Earthspawn of the company has already walked in and he now switches the lever, looking at us with a scared face. We hear cheers from outside and the Earthspawn does something with his face that looks like a smile. “I didz it!” We laugh of joy to have solved the first puzzle Archaz threw at us and we move back to the entrance.
The host of men and women stand outside while Lemarc goes in. He shouts back. “It is a labyrinth I believe. We must find our way to whatever it leads to, be wary of traps!” Everyone rushes in, full of excitement, but when they face the labyrinth, they suddenly slow down. In the dark we stand. 40 of us, silent. Not a sound is made. We feel uncomfortable… Lemarc goes first and slips into one of the tiny hallways. Another goes another way and soon we are spread through-out this Labyrinth. Many path did I take before I finally found the center and there stairs went down in a spiral way. The last few are broken and it looks like it has happened recently. I fear the worst for my scribe. He might have fallen down. I run towards the end of a hallway and there some of our company stand around him. I find him… Dead, holding a book. With water in my eyes I take the book from him and open it at the last page…
“As I walk through the gate, it closes behind me. I try to squeeze through the hole that is left behind me, but it’s too tight. I’ve come here to find the ruin, but I was tempted by Archaz and went in… I curse myself and try to find a way out in the dim light. I walk down and see I’ve landed in some kind of Labyrinth. I walk the paths, but many times I have to return. Finally I find it, the center of the Labyrinth: a spiral staircase downwards.
The stone stairs were old and some broke from underneath my feet. I fell down and I believe my legs are broken, they hurt like Nether. It’s a horrible feeling. I pull myself to the end of the hall. There is a button above me, but I dare not touch it. I am stuck, it feels cold. The pain increases and I have only little water and food…
I’m starving, it’s a madness. I dare not push the button, because I know I will end up even worse. I can’t move anymore, I am… deceived. “
I close the book with closed eyes. Deceived by Archaz… Lured into his foul building, for a scribe always seeks knowledge, even when he is warned to stay out. The rest have found their way through the maze and I look at the button. In grief for my scribe, I cannot reason well and in my grief I foolishly press the button. After I pressed it, I feel scared. “Fool!” Lemarc shouts. “You have doomed us all!” But nothing happens. I grin in relief. Suddenly the floor beneath our feet opens and every one of us falls down. We lay on top of each other and the floor, which is now our ceiling, closes above us. Darkness…
Men groaning, a woman screams after the body of Damon fell on her. Hurt legs, hurt arms, but everyone lives. “Our way back is shut. We have no choice now but to face the darkness of the Maze of Archaz. The darkness that he shrouds his contraptions in. Be aware! There are fouler things than the mere undead that dwell in the deep dark places of the Sorrows…” We walk in, some have to hold on to each other in order not to put too much pressure on their painful legs. This room is filled with skulls and within this room dwell four giants. They all look up to us as we walk down the stairs into this room. We arrive at the bottom of the stairs and now these giants look down on us. They are twice the size of a big Earthspawn warrior, yet they do not attack us. Neutrally they now start moving and we hear radars and ticking noises. Robotic men build by Archaz to protect the one buried within this tomb from people with bad intentions. They do not attack us, for we have no intention at all but to find a way back to the surface.
Two iron doors on each side of the room, behind it a trap and a lever. The tinkers act fast, but solve the puzzle slowly. The sign above each lever says “Sometimes, one might only get one chance.” The first tinker switches the lever once, not twice. Yet the other tinker is curious and switches it twice, making lava flow from underneath the sign and burning the man alive. The lever is switched one more time and in the center of the room a hole opens and two pillars shoot up through the ground. They again carry signs. The first sign says “All is well, until you wind up where the monsters dwell.” The other says. “As you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss stares back at you.” These signs are obviously made to scare off anyone who thinks of stealing the treasures within this tomb. Suddenly, the robotic golems look at us. All of them at the same time. I fear some of our company changed their minds and are now thinking to find the treasure and take it back. If this is so, we will soon be attacked by these machines. One of us stands to close to the hole, the old bricks shove in and the man trips down and tumbles into darkness…
He shouts up, he is safe. Within a blink of an eye, one of the golems runs towards one of our man and throws him in the air. Crushing him into the ceiling so hard that half of him is stuck to it and the other half falls down blooded. In fear we all jump down the hole which is too close for the golems to pass through. We hear them scream as we tumble down the shaft…
Wet and cold. That is the first impression of this room. The Maze is relentless. I swim back up to the surface and climb onto the side. “We are doomed!” They scream in the darkness. Slowly our eyes adjust to the dark and we see four tunnels and all walls covered in slime, moss and vines. Lemarc shakes his head with a disgusted look. “Rahm. I believe some of our men has changed their goal now they know the scribe is dead and that there is no return.” “Why not take the treasure after all we have been through!” “Yes! Some of us died already!” A quarrel is about to form. “MEN!” Lemarc shouts charismatically. All are silent. “There is no time to quarrel of treasure or fame. We have no water and food supplies for a long debate and we have no way out as of yet. There are four tunnels ahead of us and nobody knows where they lead and what dwells within!” He sighs. “It might sound foolish, but for now I suggest we split up. Take a tunnel each and come back when you find something.” He walks back towards me and gestures that I come with him. The company is less restless again…
We face an even bigger darkness in the tunnels. Only now and then does the floor light up as we step on redstone ore. “This Archaz, he was mad with redstone, eh?” Someone asks me. I cannot answer for I am too focused on our way ahead. I heard something move and suddenly it happens. We hear screams from another tunnel behind us. Then also from another side. An arrow shoots into the vines in front of me and dangles in front of my face, caught by the vines. “Archers! Take cover!” The redstone ore beneath the feet of our enemy lights his features. A skeleton wielding a bow heads our way, cautiously. A group of zombies behind him, in golden armor. “They even recruited the damned.” Kharn Sicarus whispers in my ear. He sneaks passed the skeleton and zombies and slits their throats one by one. He punches the skull off the skeleton’s body. “Let’s move!” He shouts. Full of courage by this heroic act we press on…
The other parties are already awaiting in front of a locked wooden door. As we step up, an earthspawn tries to break through it. “Solidified. Wooden material mixt with lava components…” A craftsman says. The Earthspawn gets help by the Earthspawn in our company and they break through. We move the vines out of sight and suddenly I stand before it. The Library of Archaz. I grin. “Ladies and Gentlemen, The maze of Archaz! Take whatever knowledge you can carry!” The scribes and I sift through the pages of the book, quickly taking the most important ones. There is a lot about redstone contraption, some history of the people who made this tomb and some cryptic books. Suddenly I face a bookcase filled with books, yet the books do not come out. They are stuck… I stand in front of it surprised and call the help of the nearest person, who happens to be a tinker. “What do you think this is supposed to mean?” We study the bookcase carefully. “Rahm… You better see this. This sign says: Isn’t it odd, the feeling that the walls are closing in.” I look up and that moment the tinker notes something. One of the books of the bookcase is loose. He pulls it…
I look back at the tinker at the sound of ten or twenty pistons being activated. He looks at me in despair. A wall of gravel falls down and heat blows into the room. An entrance is opened when the gravel fell down. Slowly Audric Elumeril walks up to the entrance while the noise of the mechanics still clouds the air. Almost too hard to see, the walls shoved half a meter within a second closer to each other. “THE WALLS! They are closing! RUN!” We run and the whole army tries to push through the same small hole at the same time. The walls now close in faster and luckily I manage to get through, yet, others were less lucky. At least five of us are left behind, their screams echo through the hot air that spills out of the entrance we just go through. “Smoke! He’s left behind!” Someone bangs on the closed entrance behind us. She cries. Our morale wanes... So does our courage...
Within this hot chamber we stand. Nether. So it is true. The end of the book mentioned it and I read out loud for all to hear. “I tell you now: to ever venture within the tomb of our One is to venture through Nether. After Archaz turned foul and evil, after he knew he had to die there, he met with Queen Grief. The trickster offered him ‘a favor’. The wicked Queen offered him to live forever.” I close the book and See everyone staring at me with pale faces. We are not there yet, we have to march through Nether and hopefully back, in order to reach our most beloved surface of Altera. Down broken Netherstairs we jump. Some not making the jump and falling into fire. Death surrounds us once again, yet some manage to get passed death again. We go through another gate with only 30 of us left…
“She offered him to live forever…” I repeat in thought as we move through a small tunnel. I open the book again and read. “In exchange, she wanted nothing more than… His sanity. His wit and Tinker-logic. The superior mind of an amazing tinker. Archaz, now mad with despair of being left to rot, took the deal. It wasn’t long before he began to notice the small changes in his mind and so also in his body, for both are strongly connected. She corrupted Archaz… Left him to remain a demon in her Nether-spawn. She locked the once so wise man. She locked him and behind impenetrable bars the man who turned mad now awaits.” I close the book when orange light and superior heat push against my face. There behind the iron bars, he stands. A skeleton, no more, yet alive. He speaks an unknown language with foul intonation. We stand around the bars, looking at him in wonder. A young man looks at me. “He.. He is real?” He looks back at Archaz. Archaz stands still for a moment, then screams and moans, he groans. He bends over and suddenly bursts out in flames, changing form into… A blaze! He shoots fire at us, setting some of our men ablaze. A hooded figure, part of our company that I did not see signing up for this trip, blocks the bolt of fire that heads towards me. The figure then softly whispers something. Nobody heard it but me, for she stood close to me. Archaz the blaze stops and sits back in his cage…
This room got three levers to the left. The tinkers take a look at it and can’t figure out what they will do. “Then just try it, there is no way out anyway.” An elf says bitterly. The tinkers look at Lemarc and he allows them. The first lever drops a wall of gravel, spilling out an army of zombies, skeletons and spiders which lunge at our men. The warriors, from Elf to Earthspawn fight side by side to repel this evil. During the fight, the gravel on the ground falls down too, taking Arthorius Arcturus III with it. The monsters are held off, but Arthorius is at the bottom of the pit. He is alive and he says he is not hurt. The mysterious hooded figure jumps down the hole with him and they converse. We cannot hear but suddenly the hooded figure lifts Arthorius up and throws him to the edge of the pit. He grabs grabs the edge and pulls himself up. We are relieved not to see any more of our company end up dead or locked in this damned place. Yet, when we look down, there is no sign of the hooded figure…
The tinkers try another lever which opens a huge gate. We use this opened passage and leave the last lever untouched. Who knows what evil it would have brought upon us. As we walk out, Archaz shouts at us in his foul language. He is wild with rage that we have passed all his traps so far. In front of us is a tunnel that goes down. Made of wicked Soulsand and filled with fire. We have to proceed carefully, for fire shoots up from the floor at every step we take. A woman is set ablaze and runs down the tunnel on fire, triggering flames to shoot up even more. With sunken hearts we proceed, cautiously, carefully, staying away from fire. The heat, so deep down in the earth, is unbearable. Sweat drips from my cheeks to my beard. It is hard to focus in this warmth. We reach the end of the tunnel and find we have to cross a path, laid within a lava pool. Enormous heat rises up from this pool, making us staggering backwards. It is our only way, so we run over the path as fast as we can, in order to be safe at the other side before pants and trousers are set on fire. The hairs around my hoofs are burned off, it smells and it hurts. We reach the other side…
There we are again in the dark. It is cooler here, yet it feels damp and the air is pressuring. A huge gap is in front of us. Another tunnel, but this one is made from sandstone, just like the tower. We move on and there we face the final challenge Archaz throws at us. “Let’s get it over with.” The bitter elf says. He runs ahead of us and we see him being shot by five arrows from one of Archaz’s awful contraptions. “HALT!” Lemarc shouts. “Watch your feet, this place is filled with pressure plates.” We walk in a long line, making sure we step on the same safe path as the one in front of us. The tunnel gets smaller and smaller, until we have to squeeze through the small crevice that is now the remainder of the tunnel. Before we are out, only a few are hit by an arrow and not life-threatening. One is hit in the leg and two in their arms. The healers tend the wounded and we slowly proceed through this new hall. This hall is bright with light and more decorated. It seems like no traps are here, but we do not risk it. We move in a long line until we find a pressure plate. A tinker throws a stone on it and a gate opens in front of us. Lemarc moves in, ever so wary, and tells us what he sees. “It seems safe, come in!”
We move in and find the sandstone room has a perfectly hemispherical domed ceiling. At the center of the room is a small, raised pedestal, holding a red earthenware urn, blazoned with small gold filigree. At the foot of the pedestal there rests one suit of a badly aged and worn armor that appears to be made of red chitinous plates, several cuneiform tablets with completely unknown script, and a small golden scimitar, moderately curved, etched with a flame motif, bearing a similar cuneiform engraving, and a hilt made of the same red chitin material and set with a ruby. The floor of the crypt is strewn with many damaged, cut, and otherwise fairly tarnished pieces of a black chitinous armor. Various well-faded reliefs on the walls depict a red-armored figure wielding a sword made of flame in battle with various black-armored figures…
This is a treasure of history. A treasure too valuable to just randomly divide over this group. We are left with 28 people… I give the blade to a friend of who I know he collects and studies artifacts. The armor I give to Howard, a scribe and librarian just like me. I keep the tablets with the same pictures as the reliefs on the walls. To satisfy the crowd, I let them have the tarnished pieces of black armor that are scattered on the ground…
We move into another room and find 13 urns there, divided in the wall. I remember something from the book and phrase it to our company. “The tomb of the one is built by thirteen of the one’s most loyal men. What he did further in the deep with this thirteen men is unknown, for nobody could see. Deep down he went, deeper than anyone could hear or follow…” These are the urns of the thirteen builders. In the middle stands a chest and in it I find an abundance of golden ingots, iron ingots, diamonds, books and other valuables. I divide these equally over the company and I take nothing myself. I have no need for such, my fascination lies not in riches, but in knowledge. We move back to the sandstone room and through another gate.
The gate opens and heat blows into our faces once again. We feel desperate, when does this end? Relentless the lava in this room heats our feet as we run over the path, similar to the one earlier. We reach the other side and stand on the bare stone. It’s a dead end. We came this far to find a dead end… There is no other way to go and I see our morale sink. People sit down on the stone and sigh. We sweat without moving in this hot cave with lava surrounding us. For hours we sit and nobody talks, knowing we will all die here. Suddenly I notice something. “The hooded figure… It is not with us anymore. Did someone see her leaving us?” Nobody answers, they just shake their heads. I stand up in surprise. Lemarc does so too. Then he leans against a wall, disappointed. For this finding will not bring us anywhere. Suddenly he disappears. A scream of excitement races through our company. A halfling walks up to where Lemarc stood. He sniffs the air and touches the wall. He shrugs and then he too disappears. People start grinning and now a woman touches the wall as well. The same happens. We move through one by one and I leave as last. Finally, the journey is over. I move through and end up in some cave behind the lower district of Port Silver. There our company cheers and shouts, holding Lemarc on their shoulders. I stand smiling at them, stinking of sweat, fear and burnt hairs. “Time for a drink!” Lemarc shouts and the crowd carries him to the Sunk’n Norwegian, where our journey began, to feast upon our safe return.
Rahm Kennys. Caparii Scribe, Scholar and Librarian.
(This book is also available in game in the Royal Library. Known as Lost Scribe I, II, III, IV, V and VI. in the category: Recorded Events.)
