The Tomb of Mother Dusk

The Tomb of Mother Dusk

Nomli almost backed over his own feet as he headed back to the ship.  His head was shaking. He was just saying over and over in a mumble to himself, “it.. it is us… um.  It is me.” Without saying anything else he headed down into the lower deck. His head shaking the entire time.  It was as if he wanted to pretend it could not be true. 

Oni and the others gathered around the bodies. Each person seemed to focus on their own doppelganger. Oni knelt near himself. He checked the for the slightest sign of life. His hand followed its way down to find parts of his body stuck in the glass.  Oni’s dead double looked like he crashed into the glass from a great height. Oni knew Mar’iya’s story and thought about the Thriking. Did some version of them run into him and loose. They looked almost stripped. Oni pulled one of dolls out. He looked at it in his hand. It was one of the best he had made. Without a word he placed it in his doubles hand. It seemed to grip it as Oni stood. He started to search the area and glass for gear and clues. 

David spring up from his double, “He has the gem.” Everyone moved over to David. Oni started to feel that chill up his spine that came before danger. He started to pace around the bodies. He searched. He saw the bodies were mostly empty, but he searched them, then the glass beneath them. David reached down to touch the gem, shifting a cloth in between them just before grabbing it. Oni caught a glimpse of something. The sand moved and shifted in colors of purple beneath the glass. He looked over to Arnia and Mar’iya and knew what it was. He yelled, “worms… purple worms.  RUN!” 

David grabbed the gem and ran. Oni took one last, too long look at his double. Mar’iya grew wings and took flight. Arnia and Ixen ran to the ship. Oni was the last aboard saying some small prayer before jumping aboard the rising boat. David lifted and turned the ship, just as a giant purple worm broke through the glass, sending shards in all directions. Nomli was still in shock below deck. Once in flight, the worms lost interest. 

The conversation changed to the gems. Arnia wanted to destroy them. Oni went below deck looking for Nomli. He wanted to bring his version of hope to the dwarf. Mar’iya, David, and Arnia worked on a plan for destroying them. Mar’iya would open a gate. He and Arnia would move to the other side of the gate. He would step through, and she would destroy it with her sword, Dawnbringer. David would keep the ship moving towards the island. The plan worked. The destruction caused so much harm as it exploded glass shards for miles. Arnia jumped through the gate just as Mar’iya collapsed it behind her. Oni and Nomli felt the ship turn as David was going to try and surf a glass shock wave. 

The wave hit. Nomli and Oni were thrown to the other side of the underdeck. A huge hole ripped open. Oni used his magics to hold bits of the ship together as it slowly broke apart around them. He managed to hold it together enough so the ship could take the brunt of the impact on the island itself. They all pulled themselves out of the wreckage. The ship was wrapped around a big tree on just the greened land Oni had ever seen. Oni yelled, “What the fuck was that?” He looked off into the distance where he saw a giant blue dragon. He pieced it all together as David yelled back that Arnia had destroyed the blue gem. Oni looked inland and he yelled again, “we need to find a place to hide.”  

David started running into the woods, “I see something”. They ran, dodging between the gaps making sure that the blue beast of Tiamat never saw them. He dove into a hole. Everyone else followed him in. Oni molded the earth to make the space a little bigger and more comfortable. Mar’iya sat by himself as far from Oni as possible. David and Arnia sat in another corner. Herman was still in the Nexus. Oni hoped he was having a good time with Jinx. He thought about their last conversation. He needed to make sure he listened to Herman more. What did he say about Mar’iay?

David and Arnia were speaking in small secrets. David in a ushed yell, “you are crazy. If he is cursed than I am cursed. Check me, and when it fails, you can drop it forever.” Oni went to sit next to Nomli, “How are you doing my friend.” Nomli twitched to look at Oni, and snorted, “Friend, when did that happen.” Oni spread his palms a little as he spread out his smile, “let’s be friends. I want to be friends.” David through the little statue to the ground in disgust he looked at Arnia, “you must be right.” 

Nomli looked at Oni, “did you hear that?” Oni just shot up. Arnia charged across to Mar’iya and started to yell at him, “give me the dagger. It is cursed and you are cursed.” Oni ran for the entrance, “we are under attack.”  Mar’iya, “wrong you impotent little dawn worshiper.” He blinked out and became invisible. Oni sensed something bad, “Mar’iya we are under attack, get your head in the game.” David stepped out to see two big floating undead eyes. Arnia instinctively moved dodging an attack from Mar’iya that she never even saw. 

Mar’iya attacked Arnia. No one saw it, but he attacked her. He heard Oni’s words about the undead in the deepest recesses on his mind. He struggled to understand the fight he should have. He came out to join the attack against the beholding undead. Oni, David, and Arnia surrounded the first creature. It went down fairly quickly but its undead friend started to through deadly magics at the group. David stepped into the path of a purple beam, turning him to dust on the spot. They all circled this last creature and killed it. 

Oni ran over to the dust. He still had one of the disks of power. He pulled it out of his bag and placed it on the ground. He took up a handful of the dust, sprinkling it over the disk, “Great Dawn Father, please give this man more life, to charge into your dawns early light.” A small spark of orange gathered around the dust, reforming it into David’s form. Like lightning hitting his body life poured back into it. 

Gently guiding David back into the cave, they rested. Arnia and Mar’iya kept distance between them. They were now against each other. Oni would need to pick one of them for his support. Arnia wanted the dagger. Herman’s voice could be heard in his head again. Oni like Arnia knew it was the dagger that was causing the issues with Mar’iya. He would need to find a way for them to talk in the dawn’s new day. It would need to wait. 

They gathered up their gear and headed to the obelisks. David was like a new man.  They approached slowly but with the confidence of several of these horrid tombs. They looked over them and tried many different ways to activate them. David did his normal object investigation but could not find the entrance to Mother Dusk’s tomb. Finally in frustration Arnia hits one with her sword. It changed. A person took each obelisk and smashed it with all their person might. A large disk appeared beneath them, and they started to go down into the ground. This was just the type of overt magical entrance they expected. Oni’s ears popped as they descended into the depth below. 

They left the disk and headed even deeper down some stairs. They ended in a portcullis that was open. The group moved into the room. Oni stood at the entrance. He pulled one of the bulette plates out. He moved it around to lean it against the wall to jam the gate if it closed. The group moved into a room. They all moved to different spots. They all had learned from past tragic experience that grouping up was dangerous. There was a raised crypt like object in the center of the room with a metal plate on top and a door on the far side. 

Oni moved about the room searching the walls for signs of trouble and secrets. On the edges of his sight and over senses, he could tell his group was trying to open the metal door on the south end of the room. A spark of warmth came over him, like the dawn coming over the horizon. He turned. Mar’iya was pulling his famed cursed dagger. Arnia had her hand on his shoulder, her eyes were closed, and she was whispering to herself. Oni was about to charge over to her side. He felt off knowing he was going to her side and not his great friend Mar’iya’s. It hurt him. Mar’iya grip on the dagger loosened and the dagger fell to the ground. He smiled for the first time in weeks. He looked at her, “I see now that I was cursed. That dagger is a power we should not lose. Thank you.” The distance between them closed both physically and spiritually.

In Oni’s distraction David opened the door. It started to slide up into the ceiling. The portcullis on the other side started to slide shut. It caught for a minute on the bulette plate. The plate broke but forced a small gap at the bottom of the gate. The group moved into the next room. It was likely not big enough to escape. 

This room had a true crypt. Oni moved in and started to search the walls again. He looked over to Mar’iya often. Mar’iya shock slightly. He kept one eye on the last room. It was like he was coming down from some drug. The curse had been removed but he still longed for the power. Power can be the greatest drug of all. No wonder monsters like the Thriking continue to become more monstrous over time. David opened the crypt to reveal another set of stairs moving down. On the lid was written a poem or message. 

“My Monument to Phoenix

Good friend and true

Stands watch over the way

To the gate of my tomb

Walk that path straight and narrow

Do not waiver or falter

And your change will be given

To come to my altar”

The stairs led down into a chamber with a large door on one end. It was clearly locked with a grand lock. Mar’iya in his renewed normal grace slowly walked up to the door. He had been holding this metal key since the day of two dawns. He had tried it in almost every lock he ran into. He pulled it out and slid it into the lock. With the slightest twist it opened. The door almost slid open on its own. Heat poured out. The large room inside was filled with fire and giant fire bird. Oni looked at it and said in a voice just over the noise of the fire, “a phoenix.” 

They all walked straight into the room. The fire bird did not move. Oni spoke a little louder, “that poem gave us this information.” He stepped out in front and started to walk carefully, “I think we need to not waiver.” Oni led them out into the center of the room. The entire group followed him to the center of the room. Another disk of stone started to descend. They all rode it down even deeper into the tomb. It came to rest in a large six sided room. 

In the center of the room there was a raised area with a model of the room and surrounding area. The model had a small gem embedded in three of the sections. They were a white, black, and blue. In both the model and the room were six hallways off this room. Three were lit and three were dark. In chambers down these halls were portals of the different colors. In the dark halls a white, black, and blue portal. In the lit ones a green, red and some combination color. Oni saw this as the same puzzle as the sphynx gave them so long ago. He looked over the others, “I cannot suggest why I think this, maybe divine help, but we should go through the green portal.”

No one had a better plan and the group stepped through the green portal.

Into the cold past

Once on the other side of the portal pressure nearly forced Oni to the ground. The cold around him hit him like a hammer. Memories started to flood into his mind. The memories of another creature rushed to his mind. He was now part Oni, and part Rach. He looked done to see his now scaled hands. He swooshed a tail. This large extra appendage made him feel good even in the freezing of the cold. 

He, now Rach looked around to his companions. He should not know them, but he did. He was now surrounded by Haruch, Miri, Bhaldog, and Toobee. Somehow this seemed wrong too, as these companions were not all here. Rach thought in his lizard brain that he should not have been here. All of his companions were looking at themselves in the same way he had. They were having the same dual persons as he did. Toobee had the largest, strangest smile, as he said to himself, “I am right.” Rach knew that he must be as crazy as David. 

Standing near them was the angel that had tricked Dragon’s Bane thousands of years ago. Those memories were all part of this transformation. The true dragon nature of this creature was built into these constructs. It smiled with it amazingly charming self, “You guys’ rest, and I will watch over you.” The original group so long ago had been beaten up at this point, but these versions were fresh. They had all taken a long rest and were ready for action. 

An owl flew by Rach. He looked up and it was the same owl that showed up in Raam. He now knew it was the same owl here and now. Somehow Weasleton had been there, was in Raam, and was here now. Rach’s barbaric mind could not process that. He pulled the giant two handed sword off his back and charged, “Kill the dragon.” No one argued and moved to attack positions. It transformed into a giant white dragon. This group had all the memories of fighting dragons, and without words spread out to minimize the breath weapon. Some wisdom of his inner Oni came out of his mouth, “you fool, Tiamat will destroy you even if you win.” 

It would be great to say that they killed this dragon without issue. That is just not true. The battle went both directions, leaning towards the companions and then towards the dragon. Finally, the last blow hit the dragon and it went down. The dead creature spun into a gem as it fell to the ground. Toobee picked it up and the group was sent back to the other side of the portal. 

They all ran back to the model. David was now holding the small green gem. He placed it in the model and the hallway became dark. The entire group looked down the hall with the red gate. They all knew that they needed to head into the red portal next. David felt vindicated. In his mind dramatic music played and the entire group jumped into a power pose.