The Return of an Old Foe

Now that we were back down to one Carlagnios, we followed the damp passage to a circular stone chamber of tremendous size. There were eight alcoves, and the chamber looked like a mold for a giant gear. This was the heart of the Centenarch.

The floor was covered with writing. In the center of the room was a painted, magical swirl. There were symbols everywhere -- religious symbology, arcane symbology, old war numerals.

Kale examined the arcane writing on the walls, and Tiny examined the religious symbols. They concluded that these were part of the ritual that the 100 used to escape from this world. Some of the writing was the same as we found in the journal. Apparently, many of the notes in the journal was written as the authors attempted to determine how to get out of this world. (The authors were the mathematicians living under the north pole, where they had learned how to travel between dimensions.)

Then, we all heard the voice of The Keeper. "Finally! You made it. It feels like it has been weeks! Now go straight across the chamber. You'll find the passage to get you there."

As we started across, Carlagnios suddenly cried out, "The coin!" The coin in his hand began to shimmer and glow with an aura. Out of the coin rose Baird, the Lich who had been following us for weeks. He summoned a spider demon and ran across the chamber to one of the alcoves.

"He's chanting!" exclaimed Ryn. "He's unleashing more evil into the world!"

"No, wait," corrected Kale, "he's not casting a spell. He's speaking to someone -- or some thing."

Tiny quickly called upon the Gods to prevent the spider demon from making any violent attacks against us. But although it could not hurt us, it managed to put Firinne, Ryn, and Kale to sleep. Tiny also blinded the Lich, preventing him from seeing us.

Kale, Ryn, and Firinne managed to wake out of the magical sleep, and Kale summoned a cloud of stench to block the spider demon from our path.

Carlagnios managed to strike a critical blow to destroy the spider demon, and Firinne (with her blessed weapon and a majestic halo) delivered a fatal blow to stop the Lich.

As the Lich lay dying, he uttered his final words: "Do you think that the Seed of Contradiction is something that you stumble upon?" He paused. "A guest who comes too early is as troublesome as a guest who comes too late." He crumbled into dust and died.

The Keeper called us to the side of the chamber to a passageway. Tiny entered the passage and brought back a chest and a jar.

"Should I smash the jar," asked Tiny.

Kale inspected the jar. "This seems to be the focus of The Keeper's existence. It's like a magical battery."

"You are welcome to the contents of the chest," announced The Keeper. We looked inside and found a large amount of gold.

"Great!" exclaimed Carlagnios. "I can buy a Hippogriff now!"

The Keeper continue, "Will you pull the stopper from the jar if I tell you what you want to know?"

"Did the coin serve as the Phylactery of the Lich?" asked Kale. "Where is the coin?" he asked Carlagnios, but the coin had vanished and Carlagnios shrugged. "Hmm," muttered Kale, "that must have been it."

Kale turned back toward The Keeper. "How do you take away the immortality of the 100?"

"I saw them try to do this once," replied The Keeper. "They tried to take away the immortality of the 101, but they failed."

"Each of the 100 is kept alive by an aspect of Gamerat," he continued. "The aspect does not do so willingly. It is compelled to -- it is bound by a demon.

"The Blindness -- this demon -- struck a bargain with the 100. The 100 now have both the angelic and demonic aspects of Gamerat. The 100 tried to release The Blindness of the 101."

As The Keeper spoke, we saw flashes of the ritual in our minds. We saw them trying to dispel the demon. They pulled out ashes and smeared the ashes on the face of the 101.

"They need to use the ashes of Gezu, for it was Gezu who bound the demon.

"But even with the demon released, the aspect of Gamerat chose to keep the 101 alive -- perhaps as an ally.

"So... to kill the 100, you need the ashes of Gezu, and you need to cast the ritual to release the Blindness. You must do this individually for each of them.

"After Gezu and his followers were cremated, their ashes were buried in the crypt beneath you."

The Keeper paused. At last, we knew how to defeat the 100.

"Now," The Keeper said, "you must honor your part of the bargain and release my essence. End my existence."

For some reason, we all turned to Garg with expectant eyes. He shrugged, lifted up the jar, and pulled out the stopper. Magical energy began to leak out of the jar.

"Oh, and by the way," The Keeper mentioned, "I've been keeping the Centenarch together. The void will begin creeping in now that I am dying."

"Great," muttered Kale. "He could have told us before we pulled the stopper out."