Daring Do and the Cask of Undeath

by PaddedCell

Chapter Ten: Morlyir Bae, Guardian of the Key

"Oh, Celestia.." The Captain uttered, retching as the group reached the end of a dim corridor which opened out into the collosal central chamber. The room was massive, with engraved walls that stretched up into a dark recess above. Pillars lay around the room in different states of disrepair; some holding up stone balconies and floors, others collapsed and smashed to pieces across the floor. Having said that, the floor was now submerged in at least a metre of foul, murky, unclean water which held the sole occupant of the room. Sitting upon a raised, beautifully-carven stone dais and surrounded by sentinel-like statues, was Morlyir Bae itself. It was possibly the foulest sight ever to be witnessed by Desert Dust; It lay, a sagging mass of thick, cold pale flesh which seemed to have once been some creature alike to an octopus or squid. Grey veins coursed across the blubbery, pulsating surface like age-worn cobwebs. Decomposed tentacles branched off in every direction, wrapping around pillars, splayed out lazily across floors, slithering around the forgotten corridors of Tali like blind serpents. All across the creature, rusted metal rings and collars were closed tightly around key joints, and it was chained up - presumably to prevent escape - to some kind of support fitted into the ceiling high above. Staring out from age-wizened sockets, half-blind eyes rolled disconcertingly in their sockets, trying in vain to see again. Dust noted the odd, unnatural night-blue haze which glowed from the eyeballs as they roved.

"Well.. Any ideas of where to go from here, people?" Roughneck asked, looking around. Dust answered, eyes still locked in horror on the thing sitting before them.

"All accounts speak of Morlyir Bae as a guardian, or gatekeeper of some kind. I assume that it must be the one guarding the key to the Cask." Daring nodded silently, eyes darting this way and that in an attempt to find the key, wherever it might be.

"Anyone else thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Cistern piped up, sitting on a crumbled section of pillar beside a tentacle. The others turned in curiosity. "Take a look." She pointed a hoof down at the foul thing sitting before them. Or rather, she was pointing at the raised dais it sat upon.

"You mean.." The Captain uttered, the soloution clicking uncomfortably into place.

"So the key is under this thing?!" Roughneck yelped, clearly disconcerted by the idea. "How in Celestia's name are we gonna get under that huge stinkin'-"

"We're going to lift it off." Dust concluded, confidently pointing upward. Looking hard enough, some kind of ancient equipment not unlike a crane was fitted into the ceiling, connected to the chains which kept the monstrosity leashed. "Unless anyone has any better ideas." After a good few minutes' looking around the place in small teams, with most of the work owing to the changelings and Roughneck, those being winged, the controls to the crane were found in an antechamber to the side of Morlyir Bae's chamber. But with a yank of a rotting wooden lever from Roughneck, the entire plan was undermined.

There was a creaking and grinding from somewhere in the ceiling as huge stone gears began to turn - but this turning motion had been designed only to be effective if the structure was in good shape. Instead, the turning of the gears managed to dislodge fallen pieces of the ruin which had been smashed away along with tonnes of stone particles and dust. Ultimately, the gears became jammed as all the debris from the levels above rushed down through the now-clear aperture in the ruin's upper level, and the pressure immediately hit critical levels. There was a rending crumble, and cracks began to arc across the ceiling as the crane continued to weakly attempt to lift Morlyir Bae from its millenia-long seating. The beast howled and gave out guttural bellows which burbled with stale water as the chains began to hoist it unsteadily skyward. Fortunately, the decomposition of organs and fleshy tissue had rendered Morlyir Bae tonnes lighter than it had been during natural life, and so the crane had less weight to lift. But no sooner had the monster been lifted off of its seat and was hanging limply in the air like a disgusting, fleshy puppet, then the crane fell apart above it. Huge stone gears and rotten wooden crossbars fell away, collapsing on top of the creature as it screeched in agony and shock and rage. All at once, the tentacles writhed around wildly, chunks of rotten skin smacking into the pillars and walls of the room, smashing huge dents into anything and everything in a violent rage. Diving forward, Dust pushed Cistern out of the way as a huge rock dropped from the ceiling, narrowly missing her. Instead, the hunk of stone smacked into Dust's side, and she collapsed sideways only to crumple into a heap on the floor. The world all around went hazy, and she became aware of a vague sound of gunfire as she blacked out for a moment.

Dragged back to consciousness, she opened her eyes to see her mother leaning over her, pulling her to safety behind a fallen pillar.

"M.. Mother? What ha-" Daring cut her off.

"Hush now.. Wait here, sweetheart." She darted off, re-joining the battle against the creature. Gunshots rang out across the stone chamber, and huge decomposed tentacles whipped around viciously. Fortunately the monster’s blindness had prevented it from being able to combat the intruders by sight. But despite some patches of sense-deadened skin, Morlyir Bae could still feel around for these inconvenient visitors. There was an insectoid screech as one of the changeling troopers was wrapped up in a slimy tentacle which squeezed it in a death-grip. The poor ashen-black form was swung around like a ragdoll, squealing in terror and agony as the tentacle slammed it into the walls and finally squeezed the very life from it. There was a sickening cracking and crunching, the spraying of some dark fluid and then the limp, broken body was tossed into the foul water below. Dust managed to clamber to her feet, and observed the action for a moment while formulating a plan. Roughneck flew about the cavernous room, ducking and weaving to avoid the flailing tentacles. Morlyir Bae let out a guttural, wailing screech as one of its limbs smashed into a pillar, exploding it into millions of stone pieces. The tentacle was torn in two, the blubbery flesh smacking wetly across the room. The creature roared, the sound reverberating about the chamber as Dust sped off, disappearing into the dark corridors beyond.

Daring soon called out to her, worried for her daughter's safety.

"Dust! Dust, where are y-" The adventurer was cut off by the sound of a dull cracking and smashing. Dust had returned, and brought with her a soloution. The sturdy form of the small submarine smashed through a wall to the side of the chamber, drifting to a stop in the murky water right to the side of Morlyir Bae. Dust had piloted the small sub through a set of half-submerged side-tunnels from the chamber in which they had originally left it, moving around and eventually reaching a room adjacent to this one. From there, she had rammed into this chamber and brought with her not only more water, but the firepower of the submarine. Before Morlyir Bae had time to react, Dust slammed a hoof down on the controls, launching a torpedo directly into the heart of the writhing, rotten monster. It screamed as it flailed around helplessly, chunks of clammy flesh blown all over the room along with shattered pieces of carven statue and pillar. It took three further torpedoes to stop the undead thing moving, and even then, a few tentacles forebodingly twitched. Hopping out of the sub, Dust grinned sheepishly as her mother looked on with more pride than she had ever shown her daughter. “That’s my girl.” She uttered. Dust beamed.

As soon as the group had recovered, and essential supplies had been scavenged from the fallen changelings, they proceeded over to the great dais upon which Morlyir Bae had so recently sat. Thick with mucus, flesh and other foul substances, it was not enjoyable to uncover the dais’ secret. But soon, a happy accident by Fuse led to the discovery of some kind of mechanical handle affixed to a section of the stone disc. Pulling this handle out of its place and pushing the mechanism around in a rotary motion turned the huge circular seal like a corkscrew, until with a final thud, the supporting mechanisms below slid the dais out of sight to reveal the chamber below. It was tiny compared to the one above; a small circular room, which was accessible via circular stone steps leading down into the centre like an arena. And in the middle, the group found what they had been searching for, the Key to the Underworld. It was a dagger; an athame forged from some odd metal that seemed to glow with a grim marine hue, and was cold to the touch at any given time. But picking up the weapon in her hoof and examining the inscriptions along the curved blade (which gave references to the location of the Underworld), Dust knew that this was the Key.

Comments

[FluttaShift]

nice chapter. action and pacing were great. liked it. cant wait till the next update. good work.