[WFRP] The Bloody Crown X

[LCP]

Astoria could make out nothing waiting for them in the shadows of the secret passage, but then, she could only see a few yards before the tunnel twisted around a bend.

From the passageway behind them, subtle sounds of movement were growing louder. It was difficult to tell from the noise what kind of creature was making it – it sounded like the slithering of a reptile, like the scuttling of an insect, like the slow scrape of a wounded man dragging himself along the ground. Most of all, it sounded like they should be somewhere else. Leading the way, Sieghard hurried into the tunnel; Astoria brought up the rear, closing the stone door behind her.

The tunnel was a tight squeeze, even for Ludo. It meandered back and forth, following only the whims of stone and water; at one point its ceiling dipped low enough that the tall folk had to crawl. Thankfully, it was not long – before they had gone too far, they came to another door, far less cunningly disguised. Its iron lock was rusted solid, but the crowbar made short work of breaking it open. With a squeal of long-unused hinges, it swung open.

Ludo had to take back his assessment of the second door’s disguise – on the other side, it was a bookcase, its shelves still stacked with a number of mouldering books. It opened onto a chamber about the size of his father’s study back in Sermena – like the passageway, clearly a part of the original caves, but unlike the passageway, extensively worked.

The left side of the cave had been levelled out into a smooth dais, complete with a short flight of steps. On it stood more shelves, a wardrobe, a lectern, even a desk with a fine high-backed chair. Whoever had so thoroughly destroyed the ruins above clearly hadn’t found this place – its books and furniture had not been disturbed. The damp had done its best in their stead, the close air filled with the musty smell of rotting wood and parchment.

Directly across from where they had entered stood a larger door, this one making no attempt to conceal itself. On the right-hand side of the room, where the floor was lower, there were far fewer furnishings. A couple of free-standing iron braziers, the ashes in them long cold and solidified, and a rusted torch sconce on the wall were all that Ludo could see.

Between them, a circle had been carved into the rough limestone of the cavern floor, as perfect as if it had been drawn with a compass. Around its edge, characters were chiselled into the rock, similar to the scratch-mark glyphs they had seen on the door. Nothing stood within it – only blank, uneven stone.

Elsa Only

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The scent of old magic was rich in the musty air of this chamber. Those runes of the floor were some kind of circle of protection, their strange lines still clinging to some dregs of power. It was odd though that the lectern stood outside the circle, facing it. As far as her studies at the Bright College had taught her, such circles were always supposed to be drawn around the caster.

There was something else, too, a faint pull on the Aethyr from among the clutter up on the dais. Before she could locate it, however, she was distracted by the way the shadows in the room seemed to flicker at the edges of the torchlight, circling fitfully around Adelbert. If she let her imagination roam, they almost looked like avian figures, crouching in the darkness.

You bring others, hissed a cracked voice that she knew only she could hear.
He will not understand, came the second voice, faint as the rustle of falling ash.
He will seek to take it from you, whispered the third.

Adelbert Only

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Something about this hidden room didn’t sit right with Adelbert. The cold metal of his owl talisman seemed to press against his breast, the sense of the profane he had felt by the water rising up stronger than before. Every way he looked, the same pattern seemed to repeat itself, whether in the spines of books, the texture of the rock, or the random fall of shadows. It was the twisting, fish-tailed symbol of Cacophrax’s god.