Entry 90
Expedition ; El-Koth Ruined City and the Hive Pillar Part 5
If my associates at the academy where to claim this past foray into the depths was a disaster I would be hard pressed to disagree with them. I have in a single day lost my son, Fennox and my grandson, Menhtolo, an absolute disaster.
The mercenaries selected by Halvor proved surprisingly capable. I have instructed him to keep contact with them incase their talents are required in the future.
The disc previously acquired served a secondary function as a compass. It led our expedition several leagues through brackish water filled tunnels and caverns. The vermin encountered where easily dispatched by Halvor’s guards.
As expected and indicated by the map-relief on the Black Stone, we discovered a colossal cavern located several miles beneath the city of Toyalis. It was larger in dimension than I would ever have imagined a subterranean void possible to support.
What I witnessed within the cavern astounded and frightened me all at once. A city! I witnessed towers, minarets, temples and all other manner of structures possessing titanic dimensions and architecture incomprehensible to mortal imagination.
We discovered a lightless metropolis, age worn by countless millennia standing with integrity and strength defiant against time and the elements. Fantastical machinery and advance technical devices littered the grand avenue and adjoining streets. Strange angles and undulating curves adorned the buildings suggesting alien and inhuman construction. The level of sophistication and the technological achievements of this ancient race left even the most worldly and educated of our expedition speechless.
Thankfully, this great city was vacant. Nothing left of it's once great citizens. A dead empty place.
With little delay the compass guided us to our destination. A great tower of black metal positioned in the center of this alien city, standing as the center piece of this cavern like the central cog of a wagon wheel. The streets, canals and avenues radiated out from the tower with planned precision and deliberate design. I am grateful this race no longer claims dominion over Halzan. Under the rule of such a powerful species, humanity (mulan) would certainly find themselves enslaved and oppressed.
Preceding some problem solving I was able to utilize two ancient devices near the tower’s gate to gain entrance into the tower. Unfortunately the disc-compass was consumed in the process.
Once within the tower we encountered several traps of advanced design requiring logic and guile to disarm. Halvor’s warriors dispatched several guardian machines of exceedingly cruel lethality. It was at this event that I lost sight of my grandson. The probability of his survival is in doubt.
Finally we achieved the center of the tower and what at this time I am naming the “Hive Pillar”. Three of us, Fennox, Halvor and I approached the pillar. I observed the construction to be of black metal similar to the tower, possibly adamantine. I measured the dimensions to be roughly 100 meters in height with a 20 meters diameter. Each end of the pillar terminated in a cylindrical point. Glyphs and runes where observed running vertical along the pillar. Neither Halvor, Fennox nor myself where able to decipher the inscription. The pillar was suspended in midair as it was held in levitation over an open central pit. Electricity ran over the surface of the pillar. The electricity seems to either be a source of the pillar's fuel or a static byproduct of someone unknown function.
The pillar spoke to me. Not with auditory language but telepathy. It spoke with one voice, like a vibration of pictures and emotions within my mind. It beckoned me to join them, to touch the electrical surface of the stone. It promised immortality, ultimate knowledge, wisdom and memories of the collected hive mind of the “El-Koth”. It was immediately made known to me that the "Hive Pillar" serves as the collective race-memory repository of the El-Koth.
Despite the lure of such a grand promises my instincts warned against such a trap. I refused.
Unfortunately Fennox choose otherwise. He is now gone. His physical form consumed in an instant resulting in nothing more than black ash.
Preceding the disintegration of my son, in what could only be described as fatherly rage and desperation I released a ninth circle innovation spell upon the structure, despite my most lethal attack, the spell merely rebounded off the structure turning its fiery blast upon myself and Halvor. This was immediately followed by the tower itself rumbling into self destruction as if within a programmed defense.
We fled, our path blocked by the locked adamantine gate. Thus we were forced to locate an alternate route of escape. With the aid of Halvor’s quick thinking we escaped through a ventilation shaft in the tower taking flight as polymorphed avian fowls flying through volcanic lava tubes to the surface world above.
Additional Note: An “Emerald Vault” was discovered. Our collected efforts to gain entrance where unsuccessful. Future expedition is required to attain the treasure beyond.