It was loud as a thunderclap but at the same time, no louder than a snapped branch in the near distance, and it resounded off the mountain. Like breaking wood, an egg, a gong, the sound had no apparent source and filled all the world, then died. No one had heard any sound like it before.
    "You never know, it could be good," Hasin remarked, recovering, shrugged at Ashram's look. "I'm an optimist."
    "Something has happened," Ashram intoned. Not that he had any better idea than the rest of them what it might portend.
    "You're no good with auguries, are you?" Hari asked the hermit. It might have been a warning.
    As a matter of fact Ashram did have that option, and asked the gods if the group should continue on to the abandoned city. The answer was an unambiguous Yes.
    The walls were broken down, the gate had collapsed, and they had to scramble over the tumbled stones. The building style was unfamiliar, and largely covered by vines. Bats, owls, and monkeys (which saluted Hari) appeared to be the only citizens now, but when the wind came from the east, they could hear voices. Normal-sounding voices. Following the sound, they found a dozen workmen renovating a house, watched by four soldiers.
    "You guys talk to them, I'm going to wander around the back," Hasin told the hermit.
    "You're going to wander around back and talk to the workmen, right?"
    "No, I'm going to go around back and see what they're not showing you."
    "Oh. All right."
    One the guards walked out to the remaining two and said, "Good day, sirs, may I ask why you are here?"
    Ashram greeted him. "Unusual place for a house."
    "Are you from the palace?"
    "In what sense?"
    "We are servants of Lord Maraham, we need to know on whose authority you come here. I am afraid sir that if you come from the rajah of Urim, that we cannot let you leave." The other guards were conferring, clearly uneasy about the new arrivals.
    "Oh. No." Ashram was a bit taken aback. "We are not from the rajah of Urim. We are guests of the rajah of Amirdata."
    "I see. Welcome."
    "Did you happen to hear a... crack earlier?"
    "We did, sir, do you know what it is?"
    "No. I was wondering how loud it sounded to you."
    "Very loud. At first we thought it was somewhere in the city. We don't go very far from where our construction site is here, but we did make a quick patrol; we didn't see anything."
    "The city is reputed to be unstable. Probably wise."
    "It's fairly safe," he was told. "We had to get rid of some bandits that were living here. But we haven't seen anything besides that."
    "Any unusual animals?"
    "No sir. Snakes, a lot of snakes."
    "That's not that unusual. Unless you are speaking of snakes three feet in diameter and twenty feet long."
    "No sir, those usually are in the deeper jungle."
    "And would therefore be unusual here."
    "Yes, but we haven't seen any."
    "Very well."
    "As long as you are in the city, be very careful where you go; there are many sinkholes. None of the other buildings are safe, we had to construct this one almost from the ground up."
    "How long have you been out here?"
    "About two weeks. Lord Maraham saw that things were coming to a head and decided to take initiative. The princess can be kept out here safely."
    As they walked, Ashram conferred with Hari to see if the place actually would be defensible in case of an attack.
    "It's not terrible," he shrugged. They were relying mainly on concealment, but the building was on a corner with good fields of fire.
    Ashram and Hari had both noticed the many inscriptions on the crumbled buildings; the letters were familiar but they spelled out gibberish except for one or two words. Perhaps it was Pali, a language used by the Buddhists who had once lived in the city.
    "Is there any evil here?" Ashram asked the Monkey Paladin, who frowned for a moment and shook his head. He looked inside the building, which had been made worthy of a princess and also somewhat more defensible. All looked as it should.
    Meanwhile Hasin crept around through an alley near the house and heard a slithering sound, as of a large snake; it seemed to come from a window nearby, but he wasn't certain which house. He climbed a wall and looked into the window; nothing there. Climbing the other wall, he slipped and fell, a blow to both pride and one knee, but at least one without witnesses. He sighed and continued on his way; his window-peering expedition had revealed a building in the center of town, topped by an onion-shaped dome with what appeared to be gold on it. Ashram wouldn't mind if he wandered off by himself for a little while... just to see if he could get a better look at it.
    The building had inscriptions over the door, and a large central area. He entered, checking his footing and the walls for any surprises the long-ago dwellers might have left. It was a large, circular chamber with alcoves scattered around it, and in the middle was a pit, with more inscriptions around its edge. Pits were generally trouble; he looked around. The place had already been quite thoroughly looted, but he climbed the dome—most of the gold long since stripped away, alas—and enjoyed the view for a while and savored a fantasy of having a kingdom of his own. From up there he could just make out the palace at Amirdata, and the smoke that rose from the cremation grounds.
    Hari had gone wandering a bit himself, looking for he knew not what, anything out of place. He walked down a street and caught a glimpse of evil out of the corner of his eye; he turned and it was gone. There was nothing to follow, even. He continued toward the center of town, saw the temple and Hasin on the dome. No evil there, just unrepentant greed, but that was all right.
    The afternoon was wearing on when the three reunited.
    "So, think that place was some kind of temple...?" Hasin wondered.
    "Seems likely. Where people apparently learned to become Buddhists in order to not do anything," Hari replied.
    "I would like to see this building," Ashram put in. They showed him the temple, and the pit; the bottom was invisible in the darkness. Something down there was magical, he noted. But Hari detected no evil. He dropped a rock into the darkness; it sounded as if it had struck bone.
    "I'll just unpack my rope, shall I?" Hasin sighed.
    Hari opted to drop a torch down before taking that step. The pit was about fifty feet deep, and indeed was carpeted in bones. About halfway down, the smooth wall was interrupted by an alcove.
    "Fortunately, I have fifty feet of rope."
    "How convenient," the hermit said. "Go look."
    "I knew you were going to say that..." He tied the rope onto a pillar that looked fairly solid, took a torch in one hand and his dagger in his teeth and began to climb down.
    He should have been more careful; just as he neared the alcove, a massive blade sprang out from the wall and sliced him almost in half. How clever. He noted something glowing in the alcove just before losing consciousness on the way down.
    Ashram reacted quickly, assuming the form of an owl and flying down to the thief's aid. Touching bones of course was a terrible caste violation (ed note: Dave interpreted this as "lose a level" for this game), but he didn't have any option but to do so and begin working a cure spell. Quite a few people had died in this place.
    "I'll remember not to disparage you again. Today," Hasin promised, coming to.
    "Have a berry," the hermit told him, feeding him one of the magical fruits. "You were incautious."
    "I can't argue with that," he admitted. He knew that he was never going to hear the end of this, but at least he was alive to never hear the end of it. "So, since we're down here, let's check out that alcove."
    "Could you haul us up, please?" Ashram called up.
    "We're going to have to figure out how to disable the damn trap, too."
    The magical thing, whatever it was, was still there. Hasin climbed up the rope—more cautiously now—and pushed off sharply from the pit wall to avoid the sudden lunge of the clay golem in the form of a Buddha lurking there. Behind it was a wand with a lotus flower at the end, sticking out of a block of wood. The alcove was only about three feet deep, just enough to conceal the golem until it came forward to attack. Hasin dropped back down the rope. The golem's reach was such that it could strike right across the narrow pit.
    "Hm. That's different," Hari remarked, looking down at them.
    "We have something of a problem," Ashram noted.
    The Monkey Paladin threw a rock at the golem; it did not react.
    "Could you turn into something else and fly up?"
    "I could, that won't help you. I'm responsible for you," the hermit asserted.
    "I don't think he meant in that way."
    Ashram ran through his list of available spells; they were all useless against golems. Hasin didn't have any ideas worth the name. Hari contemplated jumping down and decided that this would not be a wise course of action.
    "You guys aren't in any particular danger right now, are you?"
    "No. Far as we know at least." Hasin was not terribly optimistic on this point.
    "Hold on then. I'll be back in a moment or three." He left the temple and walked to the construction site. "Do you have any timber that I could have?" He described his needs.
    The man looked at him skeptically.
    "Come to think of it, I suppose we could just drop a tree or two and use those...."
    "We do not have trees, nor do we have a piece of wood fifty feet long."
    Meanwhile, "Lotus flower, you said?" Ashram asked.
    "Yes. Seems an odd thing to leave in an alcove, guarded by a golem."
    "If it is a magical relic of some sort, perhaps they were afraid that someone was going to... steal it."
    "They should have taken it with them."
    Above, Hari continued to ponder. "I have this problem with a really big cutting blade."
    "Yes? How can we help?"
    "That's what I'm trying to figure out." Eventually he ordered the construction men out into the forest to get a fairly heavy sapling.
    While they waited for Hari to think of something brilliant, Hasin climbed up again to test the golem's reflexes, waving his spear at it. It didn't react at all; apparently it only attacked people. After a couple of hours the paladin showed up with some workmen, a sapling, and some rope. They tied the tree and lowered it into the hole; the blade swept out and stuck, thunk.
    One problem solved, anyway, although there was not much room to get around it. It also blocked all the light from above.
    "Can you get out through that hole?" Ashram asked Hasin.
    "Yes. Even without ghee."
    "Without the golem pulping you."
    "That second part is the hard part."
    There was a lot of shouted conversation. Hari sent the men back to the construction site for a tarpaulin to try to curtain off the alcove, under the theory that the golem would only swing at something it could see.
    Ashram assumed the form of a monkey and climbed out very quickly; the golem ignored him. "I could slither down there as a snake if you get screwed up again."
    Hasin tied the rope around himself in a makeshift harness; if he reached the top in one piece, that would suffice... he hoped. He checked his tiger claws and began to climb. And slipped. The golem pounced, dealing a shattering blow. The men at the top hauled fiercely, and as soon as he reached the top both Ashram and Hari went to work on him. Fortunate thief to have such companions, and he was soon in, if not terribly good condition, at least such as to be able to walk back to town.
    "I'm suggesting perhaps we head back," Hari suggested. "Until we come up with some idea what to do about a Buddha. I don't know, ask a Buddhist."
    "You have an appointment," Hasin reminded Ashram.     

| Top |