The Sceptre of Samnos

Vantarestin Part 5

     The next morning, they went back in to continue their exploration. At first they only came across more of the same, but around midday they came to a new area with wider corridors and better workmanship. Decorative carvings adorned the walls, the floors were tiled with slabs of polished rock, the doors were made from smooth varnished mahogany, and polished spheres of white marble hung from the arched ceiling, glowing with continual light spells and illuminating the corridors as brightly as day. This was the first part of the complex they'd come to that hadn't been in darkness and it cheered them considerably.

     Unfortunately, however, it also allowed moss and mold to grow, and damp patches on the walls and floor were covered by a soft carpet of green, providing homes and food for a wide variety of little creepy crawly creatures. Diana shuddered in revulsion as she saw hundreds of shiny blue beetles scurrying around her, and gave a little shriek as something with lots of legs dropped from the ceiling into her hair, making the others titter with laughter. She flicked the offending creature onto the floor, gave them all a dirty look, and continued on with great dignity and aplomb.

     This appeared to be the heart of Vantarestin, and they had great hopes of finding something very interesting indeed around here somewhere. The first rooms they came to were luxuriously decorated guest rooms, beautiful to look upon but totally devoid of recent occupation, so they passed them by. They also came across the private quarters of some of the officers of Zebulon's army. The doors were locked, but Matthew turned out to have some lock picking skills and had them open in a trice. They were sparsely decorated except for a few war trophies, paintings depicting battle scenes and a few beautifully polished and decorated weapons hanging on the walls. One room had a collection of stuffed monster heads mounted above a writing desk, another had a twenty foot long silver lance hanging from the ceiling and a polished suit of slennhide armour standing in the corner, while a third had a scale model of the surrounding countryside carved out of clay on a table in the middle of the room. They examined it for several minutes, trying to guess its purpose, since nothing on it had any tactical or military significance that they could see, and then they moved on.

     Further down the corridor they came to a beautifully decorated temple dedicated to Samnos, the God of the fight against evil. Diana was delighted to see that there were smaller alcoves dedicated to several other Gods along the walls, and she stopped before the altar of Caroli the Healer to pray and meditate for a few minutes. She then suggested that the others take the opportunity to thank the Goddess for all the times Her power had healed them, which they did. They all knew that they would probably need Her help again sooner or later, and wanted to keep in Her good graces.

     Diana then went to the altar of Tizar, Goddess of wisdom, where she prayed for the wisdom to know the right thing to do when the Lady's holy mission was finally revealed, which she was confident would be very soon now. Finally, before she left, she gave thanks to Samnos, the custodian of this particular temple, for allowing her to use it. Samnos would probably not have been too offended if she'd not done so, but where Gods were concerned, particularly war Gods, you couldn't be too careful.

     She felt uplifted by her visit to the temple, ready to face anything that Vantarestin had to offer. The others, however, weren't so sure. They were approaching the very heart of the wizard's stronghold, and were concerned that he might have left a few more traps here, to protect his private quarters and laboratories from the inquisitive attentions of the enlisted men. From what they had seen so far, it would be perfectly in character for him to suspect that spies and saboteurs had infiltrated his army and take precautions against them. Shaun warned them of this, and they resolved to be extra careful for as long as they were there.

     The next few rooms were the living quarters of the priest and his assistants, and were spartan and bare. Priests of Samnos shunned all luxuries and comforts, believing that they weakened the mind and body. Their creed was one of strength through adversity, deliberately living uncomfortably and poorly with the very minimum of material possessions, often nothing more than their weapons and the clothes they stood up in. This one had allowed himself a mattress, a few blankets to sleep in and a cushion to kneel on while praying, but nothing more. Most of his room was a practice floor for weapons training, and some of his weapons still decorated the walls. A broad sword of real steel which Shaun and Matthew could barely lift. A heavy wooden mace spiked with ironwood nails. A warhammer and twenty identical throwing knives. A few items of slennhide armour also hung here and there, but not many. Priests of Samnos used very little armour, usually just a vest of chain mail and a helm, believing that their faith was all the armour they needed, which it often was. Samnos took a very dim view of anyone killing His priests.