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The shrine itself is a bit worn and beaten. It has been hit in over a millennia of disuse, although it still look better than would be expected. There is an octagon shaped pointed structure that can be made out, and its flat, with no levels above it.
Alzar knows he’ll be unable to scry down here in the Hollow World and doesn’t even try. Alzar moves to scout out the entrance for a bit. There is a doorway, but no door. After a few minutes of nothing coming out or any additional information, Alzar moves to the island, and he swaps a few items from OtherSpace. Knowing he has fewer ways to handle people en-masse he has a few items in his person, like wands and such ready. He has Azzil on his shoulder invisible, and smashes his Warp Marble at the opening to pull out Aleph, the bronze golem. He’ll lead with the golem down here, since Aleph is eminently disposable.
Inside the entrance are numerous bodies, all fresh, of humanoid creatures. There are almost 25 of them here, and one in front has a gold necklace and a blood-written message on the ground in an ancient tongue that reads, “Flee, All is Lost.”
Alzar can feel a necrotic presence in the room. All of the bodies are undead, and Alzar’s Necrology skill tells him they are ghouls, although a bit altered. Alzar reaches out to control them like normal, but it doesn’t work. 6 shut down like they are puppets and their cords have been severed and 17 ghouls rise to attack him!
Alzar pulls back behind the Golem, who is body blocking the doorway. A bronze golem like Aleph requires a +2 magical item or magical spells to hit it. And normal undead like ghouls would not be able to touch it. But these are chaos infused ghouls, and they have been magicked by the Shrine a bit. And they are fully able to damage his Golem. It’s still hard, it has a huge AC, but two scratches claw it for 7 damage. They take damage from the fiery metallic liquid inside that causes it to run.
Aleph Golem - 90/97
Alzar does have a spell that should clean these out quite nicely, but it’s a high level, and it could be required later on. Most of his mass damage is necromantic in nature, like Skulltrap, and these Chaos Ghouls are immune to that damage. Spells like Death Spell, Wail of the Banshee or Merald’s Murderous Cloud are going to be totally ineffective here. He grabs the Wand of Fire from his bandolier and fires a small Fireball in the room for 5d6 damage. He’s already seen that they still take fire and heat damage, so that’s the best bet. He’ll save his more powerful magic spells for later. His golem is immune to heat damage, and he ticks off 3 charges from the wand.
4000 XP
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