3-3: The Inner Sanctum

The party proceeds into the dark corridor. During the course of the last eight hours, the various torches that the robbers had lit have all guttered and burned out, leaving the whole Abbey in darkness. As everyone has darkvision in their current forms, you proceed without additional light, viewing the corridor beyond the collapsed and disintegrated wall in shades of grey. Each of you can clearly see that the corridor extends for several yards straight ahead and then stops. As you set foot in the corridor, you have a number of additional impressions almost instantaneously:

The first impression is of vast, almost oppressive age.

The second impression is that the corridor is completely square, ten feet on a side, exactly as wide as it is tall, with precise, sharp corners that appear to be exactly 90 degrees. The stone has not been marked by any tool, nor is it composed of carved sections or bricks: it is all one piece, a grey, featureless stone that resists even Morik's evaluation.

The third impression is that there is nothing living here: there is no dust of any kind, no cobwebs, no droppings, no detritus of anything. The floor, walls, and ceiling are spotless, and each of you is conscious of how you are obviously the first living things to enter this space in ages.

The fourth impression is moments later, when the party reaches the end of the corridor: shallow steps spiral down into a shaft descending below this level. How far does it go? The only way to know is to proceed.

The staircase is round (exactly round, as far as Morik and Adran can tell), and takes up nearly the whole width of the corridor. Each step is a yard and a half wide, but very shallow, so each step down is just a few inches. As soon as the first PC steps on the first stair, a silvery glow, as faint as the light of the first stars at twilight, shines from somewhere below.

Proceeding down the stairs, all is silent and still. The wall, on the party's right as they descend, is perfectly vertical, the stairs perpendicular to it. There is no join or seam, nor any signs that this stone was carved. A full rotation of the staircase consists of 40 steps and descends 10 feet, and with each rotation, the faint light from below gets slightly brighter.

The party proceeds downward through ten full rotations of the stairs.

The bottom stair exits into a simple stone chamber carved from black basalt, polished to a gleaming shine, which can be seen in the light cast by a small sphere sitting atop an elegant stone pedestal at the far end of the room, shining as bright as the full moon. It feels profoundly like you are the first people to have ever entered this space, even though that makes little sense.

The room is small: 15 feet wide by 35 feet deep, with a low ceiling barely more than 6 feet tall. The opening of the stairway is in the middle of one wall, the pedestal with glowing orb facing it at the opposite end.

Ten feet from where you enter, two broad humanoid statues holding stone halberds stand facing each other. Three more pairs of statues stand beyond those. Each statue is 5 feet away from its closest neighbors, so there is room only for one person to walk between them at a time.



What do each of you do?

Faith, Eozindra, and Morik don their robes, which magically adjust themselves to fit each character. Ishi and Elysia watch them anxiously, wondering if there will be any unexpected ill effects.

The three of them do not seem any worse for wear, however. Eozindra considers the room, assessing it with her sense of aesthetics and magic. The room is simple, featureless, and yet it is nearly throbbing with magic.

Faith smooths her white robes, adjusts the swords at her hips, feels a sense of peace, then of disquiet, then composes herself once more...and strides forward.

The first two statues smoothly animate, turning to face her and crossing their halberds to block her path.

In unison but with slightly different pitches that harmonize, the two statues speak, addressing Faith:

"WE SWORE OUR LIVES TO KEEPING THE ORB FROM EVIL HANDS.

WHAT OATH DO YOU SWEAR THAT MAKES YOU WORTHY?"

Faith swears a mighty oath. "I swear to protect the Orb. I shall be its guardian, its shield against the encroaching darkness.
I embrace the light, its warmth guiding my righteous path. I shall wield its power to smite evil and defend the innocent.
Yet, I acknowledge the darkness within me, a touch that grants me insight into the enemy’s schemes. I shall use this knowledge to outmaneuver the forces of darkness and protect the Orb.
I shall walk the path of the Twilight Sentinel, a balance of light and shadow. I shall be the last line of defense against the encroaching night, forever vigilant, forever resolute.
I swear this oath upon the Orb and I shall uphold it until my dying breath."

The light of the orb flares as magic reaches out and enfolds Faith, acknowledging her sworn oath. Then, as the first two statues swivel and resume their original positions, the light dims and recedes, leaving them and the party in a sort of twilight. You can see that the orb is still shining very brightly, but somehow that radiance is not fully reaching you, as if a dark screen had fallen between you and the orb.

What do you all do next?

Faith steps forward, but finds that she cannot enter the light. An invisible barrier prevents her progress. Morik steps forward behind her, and finds that he has no such obstruction. But as he advances into the light, the second set of two statues animates, rotating to face him and crossing their halberds to block his path.

In unison and harmony, the two statues speak in thunderous voices that shake you to your bones, addressing Morik despite his statement:

"WE SWORE OUR LIVES TO ENDING THE DRAGON WAR.

WHAT OATH DO YOU SWEAR THAT MAKES YOU WORTHY?"

Following a preamble building up to it, Morik too swears a mighty oath. "I swear that I would help maintain the balance of nature and seek its restoration should it fall, so that all may find harmony, and love, and a happy hearth."

The orb flares and Morik is filled with the sense of expectant Nature: the world around him looking to him as its champion.
Then, as the two statues withdraw and settle back into their original positions, the light of the orb recedes once more.

Elysia nudges Eozindra, pulling her aside to whisper. "What do you think happens if we try to get past without swearing an oath? I might be able to get in and grab that thing before the statues finish moving..."

Ishi shuffles uncomfortably and asks Adran: "You think we ALL need to swear an oath?"

Eozindra nods, takes a deep steadying breath, then steps forward; Elysia clutches at her hand for a moment, but the bard extricates herself with a reassuring smile. Then she steps past Ishi, Faith, and Morik, approaching the third pair of statues. The light of the orb suddenly shines brilliantly in her face again, and the third set of two statues animates, moving fluidly to face her and cross halberds in her path.

In unison, the two statues sing out in achingly beautiful harmony, serenading Eozindra and bringing moisture to everyone's eyes.

"WE SWORE OUR LIVES TO MAINTAINING PEACE IN ALL THE GREENWOLD.

WHAT OATH DO YOU SWEAR THAT MAKES YOU WORTHY?"

Confronted by the prospect of maintaining peace, Eozindra experiences a radicalizing epiphany, then swears a mighty oath: "I swear to speak for those who cannot otherwise be heard. I will do my utmost to spread truth, educating those who are not destined to receive such knowledge so as to enrich their minds and nourish their spirits. As I am able, I shall fight to bring true balance to Greenwold’s inhabitants so that every man, woman, and child may find true inner peace regardless of station."

The orb flares with light, and part of that light settles into Eozindra as a warm burning feeling of righteous conviction. Then the light fades and recedes once more, returning the bard to the dimness with the others. Mollified, the third pair of statues uncross their weapons, swivel back to their original positions, and cease moving.

What do you do next?

Sensing its creator's disquiet, Mara shifts uneasily, its metal claws clacking noisily on the smooth stone. Adran touches Elowin's reliquary for strength. He sighs, and steps forward past Faith, past Morik, and past Eozindra, to enter the light of the shining orb. Predictably, the final pair of massive statues smoothly turn to block his path.

When they speak to address Adran, it is in a harmony of minor chords, and everyone in the Inner Sanctum is filled with a powerful sense of sorrow and regret.

"WE SWORE OUR LIVES TO DESTROYING IN PEACE THAT WHICH WE HAD CREATED IN WAR.

WHAT OATH DO YOU SWEAR THAT MAKES YOU WORTHY?"

"Then I swear that I will kill those who have killed innocents for this stupid orb." As Adran swears this oath, the orb flares again.

But this time the orb flares with a dire red light. This light does not feel warm or righteous; it feels wrathful and violent. The light swirls into visible bands that coil onto Adran and then sink into him: a sacred promise of vengeance and murder. Adran's hackles rise and a snarl escapes his lips, but then the oathlight comes to a rest deep within him and he feels at peace: more peaceful than he has felt since before Elowin's death. He knows that the oath burns within him. There will be blood.

With the disappearance of the light, the room is in complete darkness for a moment. With their darkvision, everyone can see that the statues move silently to either side and resume their original positions.

Then the stillness is broken by a peal as of a giant bell tolling; the sound resonates with the stone of the sanctum itself, the entire structure rumbling and quaking.

Then, as the echoes of the ringing of the bell fade, the darkness recedes slightly as a warm yellow glow appears deep in the heart of the orb, as of a single candle.

Unimpeded by the statues or any invisible barriers, the party advances on the artifact. Adran picks up the orb and the others gather around to examine and touch it. The orb weighs five pounds: a perfect sphere that measures 5" in diameter composed of some hard, pearlescent material with a slightly silver sheen.

Without words, the orb nevertheless communicates to each of you that it is the Orb of Dragon Souls.

Eozindra's eyes widen, and everyone exchanges glances in the faint yellow light.
There are countless legends of the Orb of Dragon Souls.
Each of the PCs have heard some of these stories, and Eozindra has told some herself.
The legends all involve fantastical magical abilities that the Orb possessed, and they all say that the Orb has been lost since the War of the Dragons.

There is one other thing all the legends and stories agree on:
the Orb of Dragon Souls has the power to utterly dominate dragons to the will of its wielder.

If the location of such a legendary artifact were to become widely known, its bearers would surely become the target of all who crave power, and all who seek to maintain their own.

As the characters weigh the heavy orb in their hands, and weigh the consequences of their actions and the ramifications of this development, they each ascend to level four.