Travelling under the influence of strange magical potions was strikingly beautiful for the first hour or so, after which it mostly became painful, everything far too bright and vivid, like having a hangover without any of the preceding entertainment. Even what should be dull stones gleamed with an inner light, making her wince at the perpetual shining brightness. While it was convenient for avoiding the magical wards (or whatever they were, Janaxia still sufficiently envenomed so as to be incapable of communication) a lesser version would have been appreciated, or at least something so that she wasn’t wishing for a Darkness spell.

She reached out, yanking Semari back by the scruff of the neck, just as she was about to stray over one of the warding lines. After her fight with the wildlife, she was exaggeratedly cautious, just in case any random bush turned out to be hiding a savage goat, ready to butt her off a precipice again. Having a tracker again was a definite boon, as Parth led them around marshy patches and some creepy looking plants, moss-covered bones surrounding gently twitching branches, probably some kind of horrible plant monster waiting to murder anyone that got too close.

Despite their initial delays, they managed to make good time, heading towards the mountains. No ominous smoke rose from the peaks, nor did any of the shapes appear to be ancient temples to fell deities, although they could just have eroded over the ages. With Janaxia still in a daze, and Parth back to her usual non-talkative self, there wasn’t a lot of interest, save stopping Semari from being whisked away by the warding spells. The words the spirit had said lingered in her mind – luckily, Parth didn’t seem to have picked up on, or didn’t care about, how the spirit had referred to her, but the ‘sky-flame’ didn’t sound particularly friendly, and they didn’t have much capacity to fight anything flying – Semari would be useless, Janaxia’s spells were all short-ranged, and her own options were inconvenient and somewhat impractical.

She tried talking to Parth, but didn’t even get a word as a response, just a vague grunt. Was there a spell for ‘speak to Elves’? Most of them never shut up, it just seemed to be Parth that was barely capable of conversation. At least with people – strange plant-spirit things fuelled by blood sacrifice, she was fine with. Although at least she was good at tracking, leading them through the wilderness towards their destination, some ancient roadway guiding them, vague gleams of magic keeping the stone from being totally overgrown.

Eventually they came to the mountains, the path leading to a grand archway cut into the rock, one of the doors blasted open, long enough for the jagged edges to have worn smooth. Whatever patterns had been cut into the rock were now barely visible, now just vague swirls and loops, barest glimmer of silver in some of the deepest cracks. Stathis tried to dig it out with a nail, getting nothing more than the barest gleaming of metal, not worth the effort.

‘Before we go on, Parth, is this “sky-flame” thing something to be worried about? Your friend seemed to think it was a big thing.’

Parth shrugged. ‘Unsure.’

Not helpful. ‘If you think of anything, could you let me know? Might help us avoid getting horribly set on fire by something in the sky, which sounds like something I’d rather avoid.’

‘Yes.’

It seemed unlikely she’d get any other information from her. ‘Janaxia, you done being a puddle? There’s probably going to be something horrible and murderous inside, and it might be less easy to entice than that medusa.’

‘I am fully rested.’ The stiff way she dismounted showed that wasn’t entirely true, but at least she was conscious, and the bite-marks had mostly faded. ‘We should be near now, should we not? And then we can be done with this thing. Although if we were to travel back that way, I’m sure we will receive a friendly reception.’

‘I doubt the Serpent Queen gets many willing sacrifices, so that seems likely. Just maybe in private next time? And maybe more quietly?’

Janaxia grinned in reminiscence. ‘It was pleasurable. Although the blindfold did make things a touch awkward, but…’

Stathis raised her voice, desperate to avoid any other details. ‘OK. Semari, you’re in first. Try not to die, at least without telling us what killed you.’

Semari slipped through the gap. After a pause, during which explosive death failed to materialise and no thunderous doom announced itself, Stathis followed inside.

If the place had once been magically lit, such enchantments had long ago faded. Stathis struck a torch, the fire doing little to fight back the darkness, the chamber extending far further than the tiny circle of light illuminated. Semari must have raced ahead, another circle of light several hundred paces ahead and higher up, chamber tall enough for Semari to climb upwards. The darkness was stifling, pressing down on them, the unknown size of the chamber and whatever might be hiding in it making her feel defensive.

Parth nocked and released an arrow, shooting it off into the darkness. The answering clatter as it collided with something solid gave a rough sense of scale - massive, far too large to search with only what they had. A shame, as there might be some valuables scattered around, even if the door had already been opened by other raiders.

Semari’s light vanished ahead of them as she moved behind something. Well, there hadn’t been a scream, so she was probably alright. Still, they moved faster, even if the place seemed untrapped and bereft of anything trying to murder them, for once.

Occult power briefly flared as Janaxia incanted, the sense of evil intensifying, before magical energy wrapped itself around her body in a protective shield. ‘Something approaches! Be ready!’

A soft purple glow shone, distance impossible to judge, but it seemed to be moving strangely, casting odd shadows as it moved behind things blocking the light, shadows stretching and warping as it moved. As it moved closer, it accelerated, or at least moved in a straighter line, a yell echoing around the cavernous chamber. Stathis propped her torch against a pillar and readied herself for combat, Parth and Janaxia taking up positions behind her.

The thing shot over their heads, a purple blur, an arrow and an arcane blast both missing it, Stathis catching a glimpse of Semari on it’s back, yelling and whooping as it spun and twisted, trying to throw her off. It banked in a tight spiral before suddenly flipping over, managing to dislodge its passenger. Semari landed with her usual grace, before the thing slowed down and hovered nearby, although staying away from Semari.

It was a large stone tablet, the height of a person, inscribed with slowly moving glyphs, glowing with a soft purple light. As Semari darted forward, it shot back upwards into the air, probably not wanting to be ridden again, keeping slightly out of reach.

‘That was great! Well, until it threw me off. I’m gonna get some ropes and ride it. I’ve always wanted to fly!’

‘Please don’t use the possible flying death curse as a toy! Let’s read it first, just in case. Janaxia, what's it say?’

Semari pouted, but at least didn’t try and mount the thing, even as it floated in front of them (still keeping a distance from Semari), shedding its unnatural light. The language wasn’t anything Stathis could read, or even recognise, but the shapes were clear and well cut, although did slowly shift and drift around, characters changing. As the tablet slowly floated up and down in front of them, Janaxia shifting to keep focused on the text, she sighed, then clicked her fingers and gave it a swift flick, as though tapping the nose of a poorly behaved dog. ‘Stay!’ Surprisingly, it obeyed, staying hovering at a constant level.

‘It is the usual warnings one expects, doom upon those who approach, curses and so forth.’

‘What language is it?’

‘How should I know? Maybe Dwarven, it’s quite blunt and to the point?’

Stathis opened her mouth to ask how Janaxia could read something without knowing what it was, but that was a whole discussion she didn’t want to have, so instead she shifted the conversation to try and extract specifics. ‘Anything actually specific? Is the curse going to kill us, or is it just empty words?’

‘This is simply a warning, meant to deter, with no power of itself. There is an eldritch guardian, which sounds rather pedestrian. It seems to have already cannibalised much of the magic of this place – the tablet hides from it.’

Semari interrupted. ‘Can we keep it? Please? We can use it like a flying carpet!’ She leapt up, trying to land on top of it, but it was too fast, twirling and hiding behind Janaxia, like a skittish dog.

‘I don’t want to agree with Semari, but that’s a good idea. Can we ride it?’ The language on the tablet shifted to something far simpler.

‘It is not a pet! It won’t be simply commanded by someone without eldritch magic. It is also bound to this place, and unable to leave.’

‘OK, so what about this guardian, where’s that?’

She tensed, waiting for an answering howl from somewhere out of sight, but nothing came.

‘It is, apparently, “the doom of man, the horror that creeps through shadows, a curse of whispers, placed here to ward against evil again befalling the mortal realm”. As I said, likely a rather tiresome guardian monster of some kind, I’m sure. Nothing that cannot be handled.’

‘That sounds a little more potent than some random tomb guardian, but let’s hope you’re right. Anything about how to get through? These things normally have reminders in case the actual guards were dippy bastards that forgot how to get through their own traps. Anything useful like that?’

Janaxia ran her fingers along the text, flicking the tablet as it started to drift away. ‘Oh yes, there’s a sealed gateway later on. I believe I should be able to open it though.’

‘You sound very certain. Something magical?’

‘Along those lines, yes. I’m certain I’ll be able to get through.’

Janaxia was clearly not going to give any specifics. Well, if she wanted to keep her creepy magic to herself, that suited Stathis. That just left the problem of the guardian monster, somewhere in the darkness.

They moved out, Janaxia sitting atop the tablet and flying it, ignoring Semari’s pouting and complaints. At least Janaxia was scouting, rather than using it simply to be lazy. As they travelled onwards, she flew into the darkness, a pale glow shimmering as she explored. The place seemed to fill the entirety of the mountain from how long they’d been walking for, or there was some weird magic in place, stretching space in strange ways. Either way, they encountered no resistance, nor any form of life, just moving endlessly in a tiny patch of light.

Then, from somewhere nearby, came a soft, squishy, sucking, slithering sound. Something gleamed in the nearby darkness, revealing itself to be a translucent blob, refracting the light as it squelched towards them, moving with slow, grotesque speed. They upped their pace, the slime flopping about as it tried to keep pace, slowly retreating back into the darkness.

‘Do we want to deal with that? I kinda feel sorry for it almost. And if we have to come back this way, it might be better to kill it now.’

A sticky tendril shot out, splashing harmlessly against her armour, apparently not even acidic. She experimentally poked it with her sword, before swinging with more vigour, severing the tendril from the main body, not that it seemed to care. Then a bolt from Janaxia struck it, and its body changed colour, suddenly healing the damage, the outer skin hardening. Another bolt struck it and it started to move faster.

‘Stop using magic!’ Too late, as a third bolt struck it, and it charged, barrelling past Stathis, tendrils lashing upwards towards Janaxia, too slow to dodge as several tendrils latched on and the thing began feeding, siphoning the magic from the tablet, before it crashed to the ground, squashing part of the body beneath it.

Stathis charged in, hacking away at the blob, the things body fragmenting under the attack. At least this one wasn’t sticky or acidic, although the smell was vile as more parts of its body were severed from the core. Then Semari charged, striking the thing with a fist. It froze for a moment, body shaking and wobbling as waves of force ricocheted around inside it, then exploded, showering them with goop. For once, even Janaxia didn’t escape, being so close to the combat that she ended up showered in sticky dead slime. It made Stathis thankful for her armour, as both Semari and Janaxia tried to shake the worst of it off.

The rest of the walk was wet and unpleasant, as Semari and Janaxia both squelched along. Stathis managed to supress the slight sting of pleasure at seeing Janaxia less than immaculate. If she was going to insist on adventuring in fancy clothes, then it was really her own fault, even leather armour would help, and probably be less horrendous to clean.

As the stinking mass of the goop-monster was left behind them, the vast cavern narrowed down into a single hallway, albeit one down which 20 soldiers could march abreast. Their path was blocked by another stone gate, this one bearing the marks of past assault, but still intact. Soot and dust marked where it had been attacked previously, strong magics bought to bear, but without effect. A soft, silver glow shone out from the door, intensifying as they approached. In the clear light, it was obvious how drenched Semari and Janaxia had gotten – as the gunge dried, Janaxia’s hair was now stiff and spiky, formed into decidedly unlovely random shapes. She sneezed, sending drying crust off her clothing, as Semari stripped off her clothing, managing to find spare clothing in her pack, even if not armour.

Apparently too proud to change in public, Janaxia instead approached the door, speaking her cracked and eldritch non-language, words blanking from thought as soon as they were heard. Stathis left her to it, instead trying to clean her own armour off, making sure the joints all moved properly.