Thread: Blackthorne
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Join Date: Jan 2003
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02-07-03

A doorway at the rear of the ball room, hidden by a great banner hanging from the ceiling, provides access to a large chamber empty except for a large mirror in the centre of the chamber, and a doorway in the wall beyond. The mirror is strange, for it reflects a scene of a great dungeon as if from a balcony. A square multi-levelled facility continuing down several floors, with balconies at each floor overlooking a central area, the dungeon much larger than the chamber in which the mirror stands. Dozens of long chains hang from the ceiling, with large hooks at the end, the hooks suspending a gigantic man, the hooks pierce his flesh at every major joint. The man's flesh is grey and rotting, slashed all over it is peeled back and hangs limply from his body as flies and maggots pervade every open wound. Slowly eye lids peel back and yellowed eyes glance around as maggots spill from under the lids. the chains rattle as the figure trembles as it is racked by a coughing fit, a spray of green mist pouring from the creature's mouth with each cough. Far below upon the floor of the facility the same robed beings as those in the cathedral collect a foul fluid that drips from thing's fingers and toes.

The door at the rear of the mirror room opens into a large circular chamber with a glowing ring in the centre of the floor, and a staircase that winds up the inside of the wall, one of the many spires that make up the castle, one located on the fourth and highest plateau. The size of the room is disquieting, as it is much larger than the needle-like outward appearance of the towers would suggest possible. The winding stair opens onto a landing with a second glowing ring directly above the one on the level below, and a doorway back into the main keep. The stairs continue upward for hundreds of feet, the towers growing thinner on the outside, though still the same size inside. The landings are spread at varying distances apart, each possessing a glowing ring. Small arched windows provide view of the outside world, a vista that spreads for miles.

The second floor doorway opens onto the rooftop of the mirror dungeon, an open area with a spindle of masonry rising high into the heavens in its centre, a rooftop garden of cherry blossoms with a central path way lined by bamboo trees leading to a japanese style pagoda. The pagoda is furnished with simple mats upon the floor, sliding partitions, low tables with cushions, book shelves, paintings and statues of various creatures. Censers burn acrid smelling substances, a thin smoke fills the levels. Stairways lead up through ten floors to the top floor and a single partitioned room, the exposed rafters trimmed in gold and precious metals. Upon the partition a shadow moves, a humanoid shape. Behind the partition a robed figure sits upon a large cushion before a low table, reading scrolls and tomes. Nimble skeletal fingers flip through the pages of vellum as pin points of red light in the shroud of the robes hood flick back and forth, its head dipping a little as if fatigued. A low mew comes from a small basket near a window catching its attention, waving its hand the creature magically lifts a kitten out of the basket, the kitten mewing as it floats to the outstretched hand. The mewing turns to hisses and screeches as a thin smoke pours from where the skeletal hand makes contact with the animal. The kitten convulses, withers, and eventually turns to dust, its life force stolen by the skeletal hands caustic touch, a lich - a wizard that refused to yield to death's embrace, it's will animating it's skeleton, but broken to the will of the castle's master, it's life stealing touch claiming sustenance from the kitten.

Behind the pagoda is the central keep, a bridge from the pagoda's second floor leading into the building. Richly adorned hallways lined with doorways lead to nondescript rooms and towers that rise at the corners of the keep giving access to the higher floors, and an open balcony where a thin stairway layed with thick red carpet leads into the heavens above and a chamber supported by an impossibly thin spindle of stone. The floating keep, lit by lanterns burning with the igneous fatuous, casting flickering shadows. A richly furnished antechamber leads into a throne room where a stone work throne sits upon a dais with large banners hanging upon the wall behind. The throne is carved with demonic skulls, a small crystal ball floats over the left arm rest, and a staff stands on end beside the right. A slight breeze flutters the tabards revealing passages behind them. Through the left passage is bed chamber, a four posted bed standing against the far wall. The right passge leads to a large ornately carved marble archway opening onto a circular platform, one which overlooks an impossible scene, the star filled void of endless space, the platform seeming to hang suspended upon nothing. Turning around, the archway is not connected to any walls, the void continuing in every direction. A single large mirror stands opposite the archway, though the image is wrong, only a star filled sky is reflected, there is no archway. The floor is a plane of invisble force, and below it is an intricate model, an enormous and detailed map of the world of Elrond.



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Last edited by Shenron : 02-07-03 at 13:20.
  
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