We walked out the door beyond the chessboard, and found ourselves on Durlag's Basement level 4, in a short corridor.
And what do you know, just in front of us was a spirit in the form of Durlag Trollkiller himself.
It spoke thus, "You have come quite far… not many live to speak… less live to leave… you are far from done… I hold surprises yet… seek direction in this place… when you understand the path… when you understand the course… you will be able to go on… you must be worthy to face what comes… there is evil here not built within… you must expel the new invaders…"
Well, this time it really does speak slowly liek all the previous actual spirits we came across.
And yet...
"Who are you? Are you Durlag himself?" Jaheira asked.
"Am I... Durlag? You have cause to wonder... you have seen traps and illusions and phantoms... but the spirit of Durlag has long since passed... to whatever fate the dark veil holds... this place... this place is his fear... his anger... his torment. You wish to conquer this place? You will have to understand what created it... remember well what you have already seen... or leave now and live life long and natural... three paths lead away... all must be taken..."
The party conffered in that little corridor.
"Not much to go on, other than we will have to understand what created it, and three paths lead away... all must be taken...," I summarised. "It would seem we could leave choose to leave at this point. There is a stairs just behind us."
"We just got here. 'Tis would be cowardly to leave without first gauging the challenge ahead!" Branwen declared.
In spite of her issue with us delaying the main quest, it sure looked like Branwen didn't like leaving a challenge unfinished.
As far as we could tell, there were actually three ways to go from the starting corridor on level 4 where we met Durlag's ghost. One led down south through a door, one led west beyond a secret door that led to caverns glowing sickly green, one led northwards.
"Are these the three ways the ghost was talking about?" Imoen asked.
Neera looked to me, but I shook my head.
It wasn't, but it may as well be since each path lead to each thing we needed to sovle. So I didn't really need to comment.
---
We headed northwest first and found the ghost of Islanne in a weapon room.
The spirit of Islanne spoke thus, "You have come far and seen much… but not all would stay… leaving is what I offer… irritate the spirit no more… leave this place and the madness it keep… the world above is yours… the depths belong to the dead that will not let go…"
This was how we could be teleported right outside.
"Thank you, kind spirit, but we will stay," Branwen immediately answered on behalf of the party.
The rest of us gave Branwen an amused look, but didn't argue.
The spirit sighed. "The light calls… you do not go… you are as stubborn as my Durlag… I will send when you wish… would that I could sent the weight from his shoulders thus…"
---
In a room to the north, I scouted out a room with two helmed horrors in it. Branwen looted this room of its valuables easily enough while under the cover of Sanctuary, though she did get hit with a lightning bolt she was still immune to the damage from our earlier buffs.
Loot: War Hammer +1, Arrows +2 (x20), Bolts of Biting (x8), Bullets +2 (x10), Darts +1 (x14), Potion of Healing (x3), Oil of Speed, 43gp
And a Bone Wardstone.
"Wonder what this is for. There have been so many thus far," Imoen wondered aloud.
This was our first wardstone this level, though.
---
South from Islanne, there was a room with a runic surface across the floor.
"Obviously it is dangerous to walk across that," Jaheira said. "Don't need to be a thief to know that much."
"Can you disable it, Imoen?" Neera asked.
Imoen examined the runic array for awhile, then shook her head. "I know it's dangerous, but I can't see a way to disable it from here."
So we looked around for one.
Walking past the room with the runic array to the next corridor, we found a machine with an inscription above a small slot, reading "Insert bone wardstone here in order to disable rune traps"
How convenient.
We inserted the bone wardstone, and felt the machine power down.
Use of such complicated-looking machines feels somewhat out of place in this setting. Too modern. What's the term, anachronistic? Eh, whatever.
The runic array depowered, we walked right past it and found three tombs, two of which had chests.
"If these are tombs of Durlag's family members like Kiel above, there should be something really nice here."
No kidding. These trapped chests had the following loot:
Sling +3, Mace +2,
Large Shield +2, Leather Armor +3,
5748gp, gems.
Branwen was ending up slinging the most, so she got the Sling +3. If we had Yeslick instead of her, the Sling+3 would have gone to me instead. Khalid got the Large Shield+2.
"There's some sort of magic signature on the third tomb without a chest," Neera noted. "I'd say teleportation magic."
"Let's give it a try," I told them.
We were indeed teleported away, this time to a circular room with a compass symbol on the floor. Stone golems with their feet rooted to the floor we on the north west, north east, south west and south east.
"What did Durlag's ghost say again?" I mused while pointing at the compass symbol on the ground. "Seek direction in this place, when you understand the path, when you understand the course, you will be able to go on. Three paths lead away, all must be taken."
"Looks like we are on the right track then," Jaheira said. "Not sure what understanding the path and course means though."
"Dunno about that bit," Imoen said, "But I bet there are three of these rooms, and we gotta hit 'em all."
Deduction was much easier when I was pointing out which clues were relevant, of course. The trouble I have to go through in order to point the party towards the right answers without revealing what I know was pretty ridiculous by now.
Neera was quietly observing everyone try to figure things out after I point out clues. She's smart enough to see what I was doing, seeing as how she already knew I knew the answers. It's nice to have at least SOMEONE notice when I'm being clever, heh.
What the party couldn't figure out was probably that we needed to pay attention to all the backstory and lore of the place to answer quizzes later on. The stone golem on the north east will give a riddle to leave the room, but we should listen to the other golems first for more lore.
The stone golem to the north west which looked like a misshaped creature said, "We were the fear made flessssh. We came to the home that Durrlag built, and we hid in the people that he forrrmed. With tentacles to guide, we poisssoned the clan, and the nightmaresss of Durrrlag came true. Our mastersss said they could tassste his rage even in the air, but alwaysss there was the fear behind. We were the fear made flesssh, but it was already here."
These should be the invaders, and it even spoke like a doppelganger. But were they really? Who were these masters they spoke of?
A stone golem to the south west in the form of a dwarf said, "We followed Durlag. We were his people, his family. Durlag Trollkieer, son of Bolhur Thunderaxe the clanless, formed this place with the spoils of a lifetime of adventure. It was majestic in those times, and we took what we needed from the fortune around us. We grew strong and proud, and Durlag felt he finally had a home."
This represented the dwarves who followed Durlag into his new home, clearly.
The stone golem, a human form, to the south east said, "We entrenched this place against all that would come. We built retribution in the trip wires and vengeance in the fireballs. We worked the hatred into every nook and cranny, just as he wished, but our actions was guided from elsewhere. The foundation was the fear that it could happen again, and this was to be prevented at all costs. This was the mortar that held him together. We entrenched this place against all that would come. Friend and foe alike."
This was the voice of the artisans who came later at Durlag's behest to turn his home into a trapped dungeon after his family was killed, I suppose.
The last stone golem in the north west looked like Durlag himself. "My father roamed as I, and saw much of the world in his time. Well-respected he was, but he had no home. At his end, he died in some far away land, with no dwarven kin by his side. I would not allow such to happen to me. I would not follow his steps that far. I would not be Durlag the clanless. This was my fear. Trace the path of this fear, and show me what you have learned."
"It's testing our knowledge on Durlag's personal history! Good grief!" Neera exclaimed in a whisper to the rest of us, away from the statue.
"So we need to listen to all the other statues, collate what we find out, then use that to answer this golem's question," Jaheira concluded to us, again away from the golem.
The last golem did allow us to come back with an answer later, and the previous golems were willing to repeat their statements.
In the end, after listening to the golems repeatedly, we settled on, "It began with you and your need for a home. It grew with your clan, as you feared losing them. It manifested in the invaders that came, but you feared their coming already. It became your home, where it keeps you safe."
The golem nodded. "You know a little more of me. You may yet live."
We were then teleported back to the central corridor we had come from.
That's one out of three compass rooms. Two more to go.