“Like most Axial Cities, Arendur was a hub, a nexus of the multiverse with doors to literally every place.
Arendur was an amazing city where the greatest thinkers and creators of this age gathered.
The patron of this city was Aoskar, a deity of knowledge, opportunity and gateways.
Under his watchful eye, mortals could seemingly achieve anything.“
from the Ring Prophecy
Third Market Day of Decadre, 126 HR
After they had all climbed inside the crab once more, they refilled their air tanks and then waited a while longer to make sure that no air was escaping. The gauge reading was positive: Kiyoshi had done a good job and welded the tank properly. Then they left the cave, this time more slowly and calmly, and thus with fewer jolts than when they had climbed in.
As the apparatus stood in the black sand in front of the rock face, Naghûl turned to Morânia. “So, where to now, navigator?”
Morânia unfolded the map of Divicarus Laeryn once more. “We’re apparently right in front of a large rock formation marked here as the Pinnacles. Diagonally to our left is the Great Talanga Fan, but according to the compass, that leads away from the Spire. So more to the right, towards the ruins we saw earlier.”
Her husband nodded, and so he, Lereia, Sgillin and Kiyoshi steered the crab in the direction Morânia had indicated. Soon, the remains of the ruins they had spotted before the armored fish’s attack came back into view. Collapsed walls and rows of partly broken columns rose amidst dense forests of sea lilies and coral. The outlines of streets were still visible in places beneath a thin layer of sediment, disappearing between crumbling archways. Schools of small fish glided silently through empty window openings, while coral and glass-like sponges had taken root on the walls. It seemed as though the sea had slowly and patiently made the city a part of its own, preserving it like a precious treasure over the course of millennia.
“There’s something eerie about underwater ruins,” Lereia remarked quietly.
“That's true,” Morânia said. “So much decay …”
“Ruins are always a little eerie,” Jana said as she peered out the side window. “Even the Shattered Temple is eerie, to be honest.”
Morânia looked at her in surprise but nodded. “Well, I wholeheartedly agree.”
“Terrance showed me some pictures before we left,” the sorceress revealed. “They’re carved into the walls of the factol’s quarters and are apparently very old. They depict Arendur, and also how the city fell.”
“In the Shattered Temple? Really?” Astonished, Morânia raised her eyebrows. “On the other hand … the Prophecy does say that Aoskar was Arendur’s patron. And at the meeting in the Great Foundry, we learned that there’s an inscription in the Temple that fits this theme.”
Jana nodded. “Whoever controls the Four, controls fate,” she recited solemnly. “Do you know what I’ve asked myself many times since I saw Arendur fall?” She paused briefly, meaningfully. “Whether it was the Lady who destroyed the city - so that She could build Sigil afterwards.”
“That thought had never occurred to me,” Morânia admitted. “It’s an interesting question. And one I probably wouldn’t ask out loud in Sigil.”
They could now vaguely make out that the ruins they had traversed so far formed only the outermost edge of a much larger area. As far as the pale light reached underwater, the shadowy outlines of other structures rose from the seabed: collapsed domes, endless rows of columns and massive facades whose former splendor was still unmistakable even beneath the silt, algae and coral.
Lereia leaned forward slightly and peered through the front window to look at the ruins. “It’s unbelievable that an entire city fell from the Spire and has lain underwater here for eons.”
“Just think of all those poor souls,” Jana murmured.
Morânia nodded solemnly. “It must have been a nightmare. And it makes me think … what if Sigil were to fall one day …” She felt a shudder running through her.
But she pushed the grim thoughts aside and peered out the window instead. As incomprehensible as was the event that had led to the accumulation of these ruins, they were nonetheless not without a certain fascination and otherworldly beauty. With every step the crab took, more of Arendur’s sunken splendor was revealed. Grand structures lined ancient streets, their pavement still shimmering beneath a thin layer of sediment. Slender rows of columns rose amidst colorful coral gardens, stone shrines still stood at former crossroads and entire buildings now towered from the seabed, their windows and archways entwined with seaweed and surrounded by schools of iridescent fish. The underwater flora and fauna here differed from that of the Devonian Gardens; it was smaller and less primeval, but all the more colorful and teeming with life.
Then Naghûl pointed excitedly ahead. “Look, that big building over there!”
“Where?” Lereia peered in the direction he indicated. “Oh … there. Is that a temple?”
It was a massive structure, its dome rising majestically from the underwater landscape, still almost completely intact. Its massive steps disappeared beneath a carpet of sand, shells and sea lilies, while corals clung to its walls like intricate decorations.
“Should we get a little closer?” Naghûl asked hopefully.
Morânia glanced at the map and the spire compass. “Yes, it seems, we need to go in this direction.”
“Very good!” her husband replied enthusiastically.
They steered the crab closer to the large structure which might indeed have once been a temple. Morânia kept an eye out to see if she could draw any conclusions about the deity once worshiped here based on symbols or the remains of statues. But apart from a still very well-preserved hydra statue near the steps, she discovered nothing. It was carved from a greenish, shimmering stone and raised its nine long necks menacingly, each one with its jaws wide open and covered in artfully carved scales that were still astonishingly well-defined even after countless centuries. Corals had wrapped themselves around its massive legs, and seaweed floated between its necks like a languid mane, yet the statue still appeared magnificent and awe-inspiring, as if the ancient monster might come to life at any moment.
“Jana, can you make a sketch of this?” Naghûl suggested excitedly.
“Of the hydra? ” the sorceress asked.
“Of simply everything down here,” the Sensate replied with growing enthusiasm. “We have to capture this so we can show it when we return!”
“You’re right.” Jana nodded, took some sheets of paper and a charcoal pencil out of her bag and began sketching the ruins and the underwater landscape outside.
“Unbelievable,” Morânia remarked in amazement. “At moments like this, I understand the Guvners’ thirst for discovery all too well.”
Sgillin, Kiyoshi, Lereia and Naghûl steered the crab even closer to the ancient temple, as the compass was pointing directly in that direction. They had to dodge a large jellyfish and then carefully climbed the stairs, which were partly covered in sand and partly overgrown with aquatic plants. The large entrance gate was wide enough for the crab to pass through, but it was blocked by a two-winged door. It appeared to be made of the same bluish metal as the chest in which they had found the glowing vial. Above it was a round symbol, this time larger and clearly visible from inside the cabin. It bore the mark with the stylized volcano inside, which they all had already on their forearms. They held their breath as they maneuvered the crab as close to the gate as possible. And sure enough, as if in response to a secret signal, the two wings swung open. In the doorway, however, there was once again a barrier of solid water preventing the ocean from inundating the temple. Carefully, they steered the apparatus through the door and into the interior of the large building.
“Looks good,” said Sgillin. “I’ll open the hatch and take a look outside.” When no one objected, the half-elf carefully opened the hatch in the crab’s shell and sniffed a few times. “Hmm, it smells stale, but it's breathable.”
Jana rubbed her left forearm, where the seventh symbol had appeared. “So, do you see anything?”
Sgillin now stuck his head all the way out of the hatch. “Yeah. Water and blue walls and … by all the gods!”
Naghûl immediately pressed his face against the window and stared out, while Kiyoshi gripped the hilt of Hope more tightly. “What?” he asked tensely.
“Oh ...” Sgillin grinned. “No, nothing really.”
Jana gave the half-elf standing behind her a slight nudge. “That’s not funny, Sgillin!”
Lereia shook her head as well, and Naghûl exhaled in relief. “Berk,” he said to his friend, but Morânia noticed that he was smiling a little.
They now climbed out one after another, but for the moment they all remained seated on the crab’s shell, looking around. Now that they had a better view, it became clear just how remarkably well this place had withstood the millennia. Although coral and fine limescale deposits covered some of the walls, the reliefs and mosaics were still astonishingly intact. Between the columns stood statues depicting humanoids as well as other creatures, some intact, others headless or broken into several pieces. All over the walls were depictions of open gates and figures from a wide variety of races passing through them.
The symbolism immediately reminded Morânia of something. “Look at all these gates here. Could this once have been a temple of Aoskar?”
Naghûl nodded slowly, this time less enthusiastically and with a hint of unease. “Indeed, that’s possible. I must admit, I feel anything but comfortable about it.”
“Yes,” Sgillin agreed. “Considering what happened to his last temple …”
For a while they studied the reliefs in silence, then Lereia suddenly sat up straight. “I think I just heard something. A splashing sound, coming from over there.” She pointed to the row of columns across from them. The statue of a creature in a long robe and with a lizard’s head stood there.
“Yes, I hear it too,” Sgillin confirmed. “Should I go check it out?”
“But not alone,” replied Morânia, reaching for her sword Heaven’s Fire. “I’m coming with you.”
“And so am I,” Kiyoshi declared calmly.
They climbed down from the crab’s back, while Naghûl, Lereia and Jana stayed up top for the time being. The water was a bit deeper than they had expected and came up to their chests. Carefully, they put one foot in front of the other and made their way between overturned benches and the pedestals of ancient statues. The water was murky with algae from having stood in the temple hall for so long, and with every step they stirred up mud and fine sand that clouded their vision. Then Morânia, too, heard the splashing. It was coming from behind the statue with the lizard’s head. She raised her shield a little higher and exchanged a brief glance with Kiyoshi. The young soldier nodded almost imperceptibly and placed his hand on the hilt of his katana. Then something dark shot through the water, straight towards them.
“There!” Sgillin shouted, drawing his bow.
The two sharks weren’t very large, barely longer than one pace and a half, but that was precisely why they were able to live here in the relatively shallow water. And apparently, they had declared the temple their territory. The first shark glided straight towards Morânia. She raised her shield in front of her, and with a dull thud, the creature slammed into it. The water turned dark from the churned-up mud. At that very moment, the second shark shot past a half-collapsed column. Sgillin barely had time to raise his bow before the creature bit into his left leg with razor-sharp teeth.
“Ah! Damn it!” The half-elf lost his balance and fell backwards into the water.
The shark tugged at his lower leg before Sgillin instinctively struck it hard across the jaws with his bow.
The creature let go, and blood mingled with the murky water. Then Kiyoshi was there. With a precise strike, Hope sliced through the water’s surface and slashed the shark.
Morânia seized the moment. “Sgillin! Get behind me!” She stepped forward and placed her shield between the injured ranger and the second predator, which had been lured by the blood.
The shark retreated a few paces and slowly circled the three of them, its dorsal fin protruding from the water. For a heartbeat, everything was silent.
“Come back!” Lereia then shouted from behind. “Get on the crab!”
Morânia looked over her shoulder at Sgillin. “Can you walk?”
The half-elf clutched his bleeding leg. “I’m not sure … damn beasts.”
“I will help you,” Kiyoshi offered. He draped one of Sgillin’s arms over his shoulder and pulled him through the water towards the crab.
“Thanks!” The half-elf gritted his teeth in pain as the salt water stung his wounds and held on tight to the young soldier.
Morânia covered their retreat by carefully backing out towards the crab, holding her shield between herself and the remaining shark. “I hate fighting in the water,” she muttered.
Now that the other shark was floating lifelessly beneath the surface, however, the second one kept its distance, allowing Kiyoshi to reach the crab with Sgillin without further incident. Naghûl, Lereia and Jana quickly pulled the half-elf up by his arms. Only once he was safe did Kiyoshi and Morânia climb back onto the crab’s shell.
“Damn it!” Sgillin cursed, looking at his injured leg.
Fortunately, the thick leather of his boot had blocked some of the shark’s teeth, but just below the back of his knee was a deep and certainly painful bite wound. Morânia cut open his pants above the boot to expose the injury, cleaned the wound and stitched up the deeper bite marks. Naghûl and Lereia assisted her, while Kiyoshi and Jana kept an eye on the water. Finally, Morânia handed the half-elf a healing potion, which he uncorked and downed in one gulp.
“I don’t think there are any more sharks around here,” Kiyoshi said. “The blood in the water would have lured them here.”
“Yeah, probably.” Jana sat on the crab with her legs tucked up and peered warily at the still circling shark fin. “But maybe we shouldn’t go back into the water anyway. Who knows what else might be lurking around here.”
“I completely agree,” said Naghûl. “It’s very spacious in here. We could explore the temple from inside the crab first.”
Sgillin nodded. “I’m not saying no to that. Maybe Jana can take over steering the hind legs for me. Then I’d rather stay up here a little longer with my injured leg until the healing potion takes full effect.”
“Sure, I think I can do that,” replied the sorceress, climbing back inside the crab.
Lereia, Naghûl and Kiyoshi followed her to take over the other control levers. Morânia remained seated on top of the back shell together with Sgillin so she could fend off possible attackers, and the half-elf would be able to shoot at any potential enemies from there early on. So they steered the crab deeper into the temple, past shattered statues and the fragments of toppled columns. Then they noticed that what they had taken to be the back wall apparently only divided the great hall, for there was another passageway there, equally wide enough for the crab. This archway, too, was blocked by a water barrier, and carved into it was the symbol with the smaller circle and the two curved lines, the same one they had gotten when leaving the cave in the Pinnacles.
“The sensors are indicating something here,” Lereia reported from inside the crab. “The water in the basin is significantly warmer than the rest of the surroundings.”
Sgillin nodded in understanding. “That explains the steam rising here.”
Morânia carefully climbed down, using one of the front legs, and stood on the wide edge of the pool. Now that she had a better look at the shallow water, she thought she could make out some kind of locking mechanism in the center of the circle.
She pointed it out to Sgillin. “Look, could that be some kind of mechanism? And if so, could you open it?”
“Let’s see.” Sgillin rubbed a cloth with leather grease and wrapped it around his leg to protect the wound from the salt water. Then he climbed down from the crab, stepped carefully into the basin and examined the mechanism.
“Do we even want to open this hatch?” Jana asked skeptically from inside the cabin. “Who knows what will come out of there?”
“The Great Known,” Morânia heard her husband reply teasingly. “And then it will eat up the Great Unknown.”
She couldn’t help but grin, but through the side window she saw Jana darting an angry glance at Naghûl. “Or just a whole lot of hot water that will drown us.”
“That would be something one could consider known,” Kiyoshi remarked seriously.
Morânia laughed. “Kiyoshi, you’re starting to get really funny.”
“That must be due to the rapture of the deep, venerable Lady Morânia-sama,” the young soldier replied with undiminished seriousness.
Meanwhile, Sgillin had crouched down next to the floor hatch, examined the locking mechanism in the shallow water and tried to open the lock - but without success. “Hmm, complicated,” he muttered. “But I’m not giving up that easily. I’ve almost got it.” He pulled another set of lock picks from his belt pouch and tried again.
Now Kiyoshi poked his head out of the crab’s hatch. “In case it helps: there is a chisel and a heavy hammer here in the cabin.”
“A hammer, tsk …” The half-elf shook his head with a grin. “Harmonium methods …”
“The Revolutionary League prefers to use explosives for that,” Naghûl called out from inside the crab.
Sgillin just waved it off, tried again and then smiled. “There we go! Open!”
“Very good!” Morânia now also climbed carefully into the basin and signaled to Kiyoshi to leave the crab.
One by one, Kiyoshi, Jana, Lereia and Naghûl climbed back out until they were all standing inside the pool around the floor hatch.
“So, shall we open this thing, then?” Naghûl eyed the round metal lid with undisguised curiosity.
Morânia, Sgillin and Lereia nodded in agreement, Kiyoshi remained silent and Jana pointedly took a few steps back to the edge of the basin. Then the half-elf turned the small wheel that opened the hatch, and it became clear that it wasn’t made of a single piece, but of many individual segments arranged in a spiral. They retracted one after another, causing the hatch to open like a fan. Immediately, the water in the basin drained downward, just like in a bathtub from which the plug had been pulled. But since the basin was only about six paces in diameter and filled only to knee height, it wasn’t a particularly large amount of water that was now flowing downward. After the splashing had died down, they waited a while longer, but everything remained quiet.
“Well then,” Naghûl said eagerly. “Let’s go down!”
Jana eyed the opening suspiciously. “What, go in there?”
“Sure,” Sgillin agreed. “Otherwise, all that effort would have been for nothing. Should I lower myself down on a rope and carefully check what’s down there?”
Morânia nodded. “Maybe that’s a good idea. It doesn’t seem to go down too deep.”
“I will hold the rope,” Kiyoshi said. He untied a rope from his backpack and handed one end to Sgillin, while holding the other end firmly in both hands.
The half-elf climbed down, a little slower than usual because of his injured leg, but otherwise safely and skillfully. He kept himself hidden in the shadows so that any potential enemies wouldn’t be able to see him. It apparently didn’t take long for him to reach the bottom.
“Nothing special to be seen,” he then reported in a subdued voice, so quietly that the others could barely understand him. “There used to be a spiral staircase here, but it’s collapsed. Behind it is a passageway full of coral, as if everything here had been underwater for quite a while. Oh, and I got another symbol. Apparently not by the hatch, though, but by the archway where the staircase used to end. I’ll sneak up to the next bend.”
“Be careful,” whispered Naghûl.
“Caution is practically my middle name,” the half-elf replied.
Then it remained quiet down below for a while, and Morânia and the others waited in silence and tension, constantly listening for suspicious or unusual sounds coming from the tunnel.
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played August 11, 2013
Thanks to a 20 on a drawing roll, Jana created breathtaking images of the underwater ruins.
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