Cythera Chronicles: The Book Of Tavara: Part 10: Hellstone

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After what seemed like an eternity of looking around for a key, or something that would fit in the hole in what used to be the altar containing the strange fluid, the men gave up. Ferazel and Talos sat down, Rogan approached the wrecked altar again. Jack followed him. "Hey Talos, get over here," he said and touched the keyhole with his finger. Jack quickly discovered that the keyhole could be pressed further down into the altar. "We have to find something that fits into that hole," said Rogan, "and press the whole thing down. Then maybe we can open another door or something."

They spent some more minutes examining the keyhole and reached the conclusion that they needed a special, perhaps unique, key with a special shape to put into the hole, and then press it down. Now the only problem was that they had no idea what this key was or where to find it. "Maybe the solution is in the book we found," Talos suggested and got the book from his sack. Once again, Jack read from the scroll:

"Kompera. The outer temple is falling. Aeacus is dead. Take your brothers to my tomb and guard the journal with your lives. The Inner Brotherhood must be preserved. I am about to undergo a change which I am most certain will change the tide of the war between the elements. When you are safe, open my journal on the fifth page and read the spell entitled 'Rel vas Xen in daemon Ex' and prepare to become a part of the eternity...your brothers, Kushluk and Conrack, shall read the spells already given to them. Yes, you will protect my journal and the secrets within the caverns, the Undine have agreed to help you and your brothers. Stop the intruders at all costs. I will miss you.
-Tavara"

"Well, Kushluk is dead and buried, once and forever, but we haven't seen anything of his two brothers," said Jack.
"And the fact that the letter is addressed to Kompera means that he's probably not too far away either," a frightened Ferazel responded.
Rogan took the book and looked at it for a while. "What's the end then? What happened to the brothers?" he asked and gave the book back to Jack. "It's unclear, but they definitely went through some major changes," Jack responded.
"Tavara changed into a lich, Kushluk into an Undine creature and the scroll tells Kompera to use a demon-shape shifter spell," said Talos, "what about Conrack?"
"I think I've found something of interest!" said Jack. He continued to read from the book:

"...the master mage gave the book to his beloved servants, and further handed a last message to the eldest, Kompera. Each brother followed instructions, and changed into occult guardians of the tomb. Tavara himself retreated to the Halls of the Inner Brotherhood where he swore to protect the Halls for all eternity, as a creature the human being would call a 'Lich.' Kushluk was the one chosen to protect the Sacred Halls of the Altar, and so he did. The Altar provides entry to the Great Hall and the location of the final book written by the Great Mage, the book in which he included his most powerful accomplishments, spells, and mysteries. After several attempts at thievery, Kushluk decided to take further actions in securing the Hall. He socketed the Altar of Warmth and traveled to the seventh layer of Hell. There, he used the Hell forge to make one of the most astonishing piece of magic ever: The Rixot Hellstone. This stone was to work as a key in the socketed Altar, and open the entrance to the Great Hall. Due to problems of unknown origin back in the World of the Living, known to the human being as Cythera, Kushluk had to leave Hell before he could bring his stone back to the Altar. When the stone was ready, the Devil gave the Rixot Hellstone to one of his minions with the orders to take it to Kushluk in the depths of the Sacred Halls. However, this minion, a demon of the Third rank, never made it to the Halls. His whereabouts are unknown and the stone has yet to be found. Back home, we believe that he demon took the stone and abandoned his master. The Last Book of Tavara is trapped in the Great Hall under the Altar of Warmth until the Rixot Hellstone can be found and the treacherous demon brought to justice by the Devil himself."

"This is the last page of the book," said Jack, "the Rixot Hellstone is the key to the altar. Without the stone, this thing won't budge." He kicked the altar. A dull "thud" was heard.

"Of course!" Rogan yelled and smiled the largest smile ever. His eyes gleamed with triumph.
"What?" asked Talos and gave Rogan an odd look.
"I know where the Rixot Hellstone is! It's in my pocket!" Rogan was now more eager than ever on this quest. "Remember back in the forest before we came to Odemia? The demon? The demon with the extremely peculiar behavior handed me a stone before he vanished and he said that he could help us locate the book, but he was only a weak demon! This has got to be the Rixot Hellstone, the key to the Altar of Warmth!"
Everyone got up and walked towards the altar. Rogan fetched the strange, red and blue stone from his pouch and looked at it. The previously normal looking stone was now glowing. Glowing with red and blue that hurt the mens' eyes when they looked straight at it.

Rogan carefully placed the stone in the altar keyhole. Everyone jumped as the keyhole seemed to grab hold of the stone and suck the stone into itself. The socket then pushed itself down and the light from the stone grew even stronger. The ground started to tremble, and a rumbling was heard. Stones fell from the ceiling as the floor on the north side of the altar fell down, revealing a stairway leading down into the darkness...

(To be continued)

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[This message has been edited by Slayer (edited 09-10-2001).]

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