Cythera Chronicles: The Book Of Tavara: Part 11: Kompera (story finale)

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After the cloud of dust vanished, the men approached the stairway. "This must be it... right down here!" said Talos, "Tavara's hidden quarters!" nothing but pitch darkness could be seen ahead, but the men were absolutely positive; the book was so close they could smell the age-old papyrus.

"Who goes first?" Jack asked, looking at the others. When no one answered, he sighed and walked the first few steps down into the darkness. Suddenly, he gasped.

"What?" asked Rogan, "what's wrong?"

Jack turned around to face his fellow adventurers and responded: "I tried to cast an embrightment spell... I failed!" Jack tried again and again, but with no other result than a feeling of fatigue due to the mana drain. "That's odd... must be some kind of magic force-field protecting the journal from magic users," said Talos. "Anyone got a torch then?" asked Jack. Rogan fetched a torch from his sack and threw it to Jack. He lit it, and continued downstairs. The stone floor instantly came to an end at the end of the staircase, and the floor was once again covered with mud. A tunnel extended into the depths of the cavern, this one about two times larger than the previous ones. Jack continued inwards, frequently looking over his shoulder to make sure everyone followed him.

About three minutes later, the tunnel shrank. "Like we've never seen this before," muttered Rogan. Continuing was not a problem though, and they went deeper and deeper in until suddenly, everything blacked out.

Nothing could be seen. A dull "thud" was heard, followed by swearing. Jack had beat his head on a large stalactite. "What the devil happened?" yelled Ferazel. The echo was resounding. "The torch went out I think," Jack responded. "I'll get another one for you," said Rogan, and started to go through his sack. In the process, he dropped one of his healing potions. The bottle landed on the floor and cracked. Rogan muttered something under his breath, and finally he found another torch. He ignited the torch. Suddenly, Rogan screamed the largest, most frightened scream of his lifetime.

"What?! What is it?" yelled Talos. The group calmed down again as they realised Rogan had only seen an old human skull fastened to the wall. Since it was the first thing he saw the instant the light came "back on," the shock was that big. "Sheesh, Rogan, you're about to give me a heart-attack!" said Ferazel and rolled his eyes. Rogan put his hand to his chest to find out if his heart was still beating. It was beating, even faster than before.

"Yeah, well, pass me the torch so we can go on then," said Jack impatiently. Rogan handed Jack the torch, and they continued.

After several minutes of walking, the second torch burned out. Seconds later, a large "bang" was heard. Jack had banged into a door of some kind. He gave it a kick and, to Jack's surprise, the door opened. Jack was too slow to move his foot and thus fell trough the doorway and landed on the other side. When the door opened, light streamed into the tunnel.

Jack got up and brushed the dirt off his clothes. The rest of the party went into the room as well. The room was well lit, to everyone's great surprise. No torches or other sources of light were visible. The floor was once again covered with stone tiles. In the middle of the room was a sort of table with a chest placed on top of it. The wall on the far side of the room was composed of stone, strange runes decorated the wall. The other walls were made from earth. Scattered around the room was age-old human skulls, bearing mute witness to the horrors that once took place in the very room the four adventurers were standing in. A cold breeze went through the room, seemingly from nowhere, just like the inexplicable light.

The men approached the table in the middle of the room. The chest was surrounded by a red glowing halo, stinging their eyes as they looked at it. Talos reached for the chest. Everyone held their breath as Talos' hands touched the chest. "Careful, it might be booby-trapped," said Rogan and walked a few steps back as Talos lifted the chest from the table. Nothing happened. Rogan approached Talos again as he tried to open the chest. Talos could confirm that the lid was stuck. The chest was locked. "Damn," he said, "we have to find a key or break it up. It's locked".

Suddenly, the wind became stronger, forcing Talos to drop the chest to the ground. The ground began to tremble again, and the men fought to stand up. Rocks and mud fell from the ceiling and the ground just trembled more and more violently. Suddenly, the earthen wall to the right exploded, sending stones, mud and skulls against the four men. They covered their faces and heads as well as they were able to. When the trembling finally ended, they opened their eyes and stared at the cavity where the wall was only seconds before. An extremely large creature was standing there. A demon, three-horned and with fearsome red-glowing eyes stared at them, breathing heavily. Every one of the creature's tremendous muscles were flexed, ready for battle.

"You may have gotten past my brother, but he is but a children compared to me: Kompera!" the creature yelled. He laughed a resounding, dark laugh and jumped from the cavity and down on the floor with a large "thud" the ground shook, a few stones dropped from the ceiling.

The demon raised his hand and brought it down. A cold wind blew against the adventurers, tempting them to fall. They all knew that falling now would mean certain death to them all, so they fought against the cold elemental magic. "The magic shield must be down! Give him all you got!" yelled Rogan and powered up a fireball. Ferazel flung a powerful lightning to counter-attack, and Jack threw a glacial spike at the demon. When Rogan unleashed the fireball, Kompera stormed towards the men, knocking Ferazel and Talos down. Jack and Rogan managed to get away by leaping out of the enraged beast's path. Rogan threw another fireball, Jack threw a set of knives which hit Kompera in the forehead. He screamed and flung a poisonous cloud towards Jack, which he barely managed to avoid. Ferazel got up from the floor and unleashed a lightning bolt. Rogan used a frost nova on Kompera, freezing him for a few seconds. Being drained of mana, Rogan drew his sword. Red flames licked its blade. However, his stand against the colossal demon seemed futile.

The three men split up, attacking from several angles. Talos was lying on the floor, lifeless. Kompera looked around, and decided to go for Jack. He raised his hand and punched Jack across the room to a painful, back-breaking meeting with the wall.

Rogan used the sword to fend off Kompera and his ice daggers to attack from distance. He his the demon several times in the head with the freezing daggers, but they didn't seem to do any damage. Ferazel continued to run around, avoiding the powerful blows from the demon's huge fists, casting otherwise devastating spells at him. Kompera muttered something and, suddenly, the ground under Rogan's feet burst up in flames. Rogan yelled and managed to get out of the inferno before he was incinerated.

Suddenly, Talos regained consciousness. Realising the danger he and his friends were in, he got up again and delivered a painful blow in form of a lightning spike spell to Kompera's back. Rogan leapt forwards, hacking wildly at the beast, Ferazel used his lightning bolts until he was completely drained of his spiritual powers.
Talos, full of anger and wrath towards the demon, unleashed his magical powers in form of a devastating mass-destruction spell at Kompera. The colossal beast fell to its knees, the attacks had been successful. Rogan continued to hack until Kompera fell down with a bang which shook the entire cave and knocked Rogan backwards.

Wounded and fatigued, the adventurers could barely cheer as the demon vanished into thin air with a gruesome roar. A small golden key and a scroll was all that was left. Rogan got up from the floor, Ferazel tossed a "clear mind" potion to Talos.
"We did it! We actually did it!" said Talos after drinking the potion. "We killed Kompera!"

Rogan took the key and the scroll, let his eyes examine them for a while before he took the chest and tried the key in the hole. As he turned the key, a small 'click' was heard, and the chest was open. Everyone gathered around as Rogan opened the chest.

The lid went off and exposed a shining object; A jewel of some sort. "It's unlike any gem I've ever seen," said Ferazel, "look, there's a gold chain attached... maybe one of us should try it on?" Instantly, Rogan picked up the green amulet and put it around his neck. "Well, it's pretty, but I can't say I'm feeling any different... chain's a little cold though, but what is there to expect after X number of years in this dungeon?" said Rogan.

"Well, where is the damn book then?" Jack said, impatiently. He was very anxious to see daylight again. "Try the scroll," Ferazel suggested, "maybe we'll find a clue there".

Jack looked at the scroll, and could instantly confirm that this was not ancient Cytheran, like the previous messages. "This is just gibberish!" he yelled. "Settle down, tell us what it says," said Rogan.

"Well, here's what I can make out of it:" said Jack. He paused a bit to read through the scroll and continued: "Rel Dom Corp daemon in Zehn Kompera wall rune ort Lihl hell Tavara Vas jux Kal mani nah Rel. It's not ancient Cytheran, it's like it was coded or someth..."
A rumble interrupted Jack. Once again, the ground trembled and the group could easily notice that this was caused by the large stone wall sliding aside, revealing another room. "Okay, that's it. If this is not the final room, count me out of this quest," said Jack with a hostile voice. Talos ran up to the entrance and looked around. "Everyone come see!" he yelled with an eager voice, "it's more than we could imagine!"

Rogan, Ferazel and Jack quickly ran up to Talos and looked inside the room. It was a medium-sized room with stone walls. Four large chests was placed inside. In the middle was a pedestal with a book on top. Jack picked up the book, removed the significantly thick layer of dust from it, looked at a few pages and said: "This is it! Tavara's book!" The others quickly gathered around as Jack leafed through the book. The pages were covered with ancient scribblings, spells, formulae and a lot of interesting journal entries. "Oh, sweet God of the scylla!" said Talos, "we found it!" As Jack reached the final page, a note fell out of the book and to the floor. Jack picked it up. "Hmm..." he said after a while, "this is even more interesting!"

"What?" asked Rogan, "what does the note say?"

Jack took a deep breath and started to read:
"On the first dawn, a group of three shall gather to roam the land. On the second dawn, the three shall meet their friend in the hide of a foe. On the third dawn, the three shall win trust and popularity and join up with a new and valuable companion, but also have their original source lost forever. On the fourth dawn, the four shall journey to something they alone can not comprehend. On the fifth dawn, the four shall banish the fiercest of hell spawns. On the sixth dawn, the four shall battle one of Evil's overseers and emerge victorious. On the seventh dawn, the four shall meet with a difficult challenge, requiring more mind then brute strength. On the eight, and final,
dawn, the four shall overcome the challenges, banish one of the greater evils ever to roam the fields, and so shall they be rewarded, with more than they could ever imagine, split equally on each of their brave souls."

A key was lying on top of each of the four chests in the room. When Talos examined the chests closer, he noticed that there was a plaque on each chest. Each plaque was engraved. "Rogan" "Ferazel" "Jack" "Talos".

"Now this is very creepy!" Ferazel shivered, "like this was destined to happen!"

The four didn't hesitate to open their chests. The lids went off quickly, and the glow from the items and gold inside nearly blinded the men. They went through the chests, and they all found about 5000 oboloi each, a lot of nice gems and items crafted to their needs.

Rogan found an emerald green ring, obviously made to match the amulet, a golden sheath for his sword, a pair of strong boots and a magically enchanted belt.

Ferazel found a set of hand knives designed specially for close combat if the enemy should come too close, a diamond ring, a strange amulet with magical enchantments and a nice, good leather cloak.

Talos found a black sheath for his scimitar, a pair of gloves that sent lightning through any enemy he struck, a small magically enchanted spiked shield and a coat of indestructible ring mail armor.

Jack found a glowing sapphire ring, a strange staff with a red glowing orb on top, a set of fire enchanted daggers and a strange cloak that seemed to render him immune to poisonoys attacks.

Jack used his Nexus spell to transport the party and their cargo to the cave entrance, where Mutaro and Keno were waiting. "Finally daylight!" Jack shouted and looked up at the sky. Mutaro and Keno received some quest info (also known as "bragging") from Rogan. "Where is Korax?" asked Rogan. "He's at the tavern... he got tired waiting," replied Keno.

"And there is exactly where we're going too, after we get these things to Katherine's magic shop in Cademia. She can identify them for us." Jack opened a portal to Cademia. It was time to celebrate!

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

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