3rd Book: the Book of the Mountain
Copyright© 2025 by Luvirini
Chapter 14: Downstairs
January 6
The group heads back to the resting place. Ra and Kieron try to rotate the wheel, but it rotates very sluggishly. After a moment’s examination, Jaysek notices that the zombies that have been killed on top have somewhat interfered with the wheel’s oils, so that’s why it rotates poorly. Jaysek cleans the wheel with Neeia’s ring, and after that, he oils the wheels. After this, Kieron and Ra rotate the wheel, and Neeia and Jaysek go forward. On the other side, Neeia begins covering eyes with ice. Jaysek goes to open the door and lets the others through. When lighting a candle, Jaysek notices that it burns poorly. When everyone is on the other side, they go down there and close the door. Jaysek and Kieron notice that the air and earth elements are not in balance here, and in addition, there is no longer such a much higher life force level as before.
The group enters the room, and Jaysek begins to examine the matter. He notes that apparently the explosion or door or something else has caused this imbalance between the earth and air elements. After thinking for a moment, Kieron feels weak, and Jaysek notes that it’s because there isn’t enough air here to breathe. Jaysek begins to cast a spell and magically creates more air in the area. Nine minutes later, he completes his spell. A little after this, there’s again a knock on the door. Neeia asks who’s there, and the answer comes that this is not a knock-knock joke. At this point, Neeia goes and opens the door. A large horde of zombies steps in through the door again.
Neeia keeps them outside and creates acid out there again. After that, the group hacks away zombies until no more come. Kieron feels unwell, and Jaysek notes that Kieron has some disease. Kieron and Jaysek are thus in quite poor condition and tired from the interrupted night, so they go to sleep.
The group tries to rest again, and fifteen minutes later, there’s another knock on the door. Neeia and Ra don’t wake the others but prepare, and Neeia tries to cast an acid cloud through the door, but it remains inside the room. Ra shouts in pain as an alarm, opens the door, and runs up the stairs. He reaches the zombie in front and strikes it to the ground, whereupon the zombie falls on top of him. Ra dodges the falling zombie and tries to run past the next zombie but doesn’t succeed. He falls backward onto the stairs.
Kieron and Jaysek wake up and wonder why there’s acid here. At the same time, Neeia removes the acid accumulated in the room and shoots it outward as a cone, which destroys the zombies outside. After this, the group considers what to do and decides to go close those doors from the rotating door. Jaysek casts a magical lock on the doors, and after that, the group goes to rest. They manage to rest for 40 minutes, and the clock is six in the morning.
After this, there’s again a knock on the door. The group begins to prepare for battle, and in the middle of this preparation, a spell is cast on them, which makes them tired. After that, they open the door and begin to fight. A little less than twenty seconds later, they manage to destroy the zombies.
After this, the group sets off. They go to examine the room where the explosion happened. In the room, there is an altar and behind it some statue. Next to these are shelves. On the shelves is one completely intact glass bottle and, in addition, many different piles of dust, etc. The group begins to examine the room. At this point, Jaysek notes that that pile of alchemy substances on the ground is quite explosive. The group moves out of the room, and at this point, Jaysek decides to remove the dust, so he lights it. After a big explosion, the group goes to look at the situation. The altar and statue are completely intact, though a bit blackened.
The group moves to that magic door, and Jaysek notes that it’s a perfect magic door, so removing it can be quite difficult. Ra tries to walk through the door, believing that if he closes his eyes and doesn’t see the door, then it doesn’t exist. He tries about ten times, banging his head against the door before giving up. The group moves to the last door. The door in question looks like a really sturdy and thick door with a very complex lock. The group examines the door but notes that the lock is way too difficult, especially since Jaysek’s good lock picks were destroyed in that sword explosion. The group notes that the door is clearly magical, except that Ra thinks there’s no magic in it.
The group heads to the last unexplored place, i.e., where stairs lead down. They come down, and there is a large smoking vessel. The group starts to circle the room, but some of the people begin to cough, and Kieron begins to feel so bad that she leaves the room. Jaysek and Neeia examine the vessel and then move to Kieron outside the room. Ra, who was sneaking ahead, also comes to the others.