Unwelcome Guests
The craggy cavern walls seemed to be covered in a slimy residue. It was as if the earth itself was fuming with bubbling mucus, rabidly gurgling frothy venom. All around, the soft bluish light of the enchanted bone finger showed the slick, glistening goo. If this were not the Shadowrealm, one would think it an altogether unwholesome and unnatural sight. There was the stink of rotten eggs. There was the howl of a baleful wind, far off and removed, in some other corridor, but nonetheless unnerving through its ominous presence. The party cautiously stepped on, maneuvering around stalagmites and rocky walls, whose surfaces bore a strikingly frightening similarity to moaning faces and skeletal remains.
“Nick,” Lady Balthes asked, “Where the hells are we?”
“Underground, in the lower chambers of Tremali.”
“Why do the walls look like screaming faces?”
“It’s the Shadowrealm. If we were actually in the Prime Material Plane, it would probably look more like a typical cave. Unfortunately, we’re here, so we have to see the more…” he trailed off while intensely observing a bulging granite carving of two naked women biting into each others’ throats.
Tessijah offered, “We see the spiritual echoes here; the incidents that took place over the centuries have molded the landscape with waves of pain and anguish, the cries of despair. Here, in the Shadowrealm, those things become as real as wind, water, and thunder, shaping the stones around us.”
The party rounded a bend, only to find stalagmites and stalactites forming a cell-like boundary to the chamber beyond. Columns.
Nicodemus turned to the nin’ki, “Could he shadowstep to the other side and get a look?” Tessijah just glowered at him, and Nicodemus remembered the dangers of piercing the realm while shadowside. “Nevermind. Don’t ask him that.” Instead, they each took to pounding on the stone until it gave way. It took well over an hour, and exhausted everyone, but it worked. When rock was rubble, they labouredly stepped over.
Beyond was a large expanse of cave. On the far side an iron door was set into the raw rocky walls. Around them, nestled within clusters of stalagmites, were chests and coffins. Coins and gems and jewelry littered the floor.
Nicodemus began to laugh a sinister, nasty laugh. The rest of the party just stared at him.
“That’s odd,” he said, regaining some composure, “I honestly didn’t think there’d be anything down here worth taking.”
Lady Balthes strode up to him, defiant despite her stature. She threw her cloak back and her fists down. “You didn’t think anything was down here?” She chirped, furious. “You called us all to get you into this wretched tomb and you didn’t think anything was even here worth taking?” She spat. “For pity’s sake!”
Nicodemus chuckled to himself, then said while pointing, “Well, have at you. There’s your treasure.” He strolled to the side and went back to pondering the way to go forward.
The party moved their gaze from the necromancer, and looked dubiously at the goods. Then, one by one, they slowly approached the chests. All, that is, but the nin’ki, who spent his time gathering up the wealth littered about the floor and stashing it within his pack.
Sarah opened her chest, to find a brilliant golden shield. On it was gilded the form of two lovers, a dagger in one’s chest and blood issuing out from the mouth of other.
Tessijah opened her chest, to find an amulet resting on moldy velvet. Engrained on its surface was a mathematical equation in ancient runes.
Lady Balthes opened her chest, to find a small silver ring, with a tiny pair of cubic amethyst, carved like dice reading boxcars.
The nin’ki scooped up the last of his coinage and found amidst the piles a potion, with a symbol engraved upon its glass neck, the sign of infinity.
Nicodemus showed no interest in the treasure whatsoever. Instead, he paced around the room brooding. “This is not how it was supposed to be.”
The shaman Tessijah spoke up, while placing the amulet around her neck, “This is all spirit stuff; the remnants of memories. Maybe the original treasure was stolen long ago by grave robbers, leaving only these phantom versions, and that is why no accounts realize it is still here in the Shadowrealm.”
“No,” Nicodemus countered. “If that be the case, if the Prime substance was moved, then these things would have vanished. The only explanation is that these things remain undisturbed, albeit pulverized by time, in the Prime world. That means no one has ever come this far since it was placed here. No one has been where we are now.”
“Maybe,” Tessijah offered after a sigh. “But then that would mean everyone who has come before us has perished.”
Nicodemus looked at her with hollow, glassy eyes. “That,” he said after a silence, blinking, “is far more likely.”
The ground began to shake beneath them, and dust cascaded down from the walls and ceiling. Cracks opened up in the floor.