Chapter 7: Krackalackin

"From the deep heart of the sea... the shadows lengthen and the waters rise to devour what light remains." — Unknown

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Forty-five minutes of silence. Fifteen minutes of slaughter.

Deep beneath the Crown of the Mountain, the dead keep their appointed hours. The horn sounds, the killing stops, and the ancient chambers wait to turn once more.

But we are still trapped.

Somewhere within the crumbling stone lies the means of escape. The passage remains closed, the mechanism remains hidden, and the next wave of undead draws ever closer.

Yet beyond the turning walls, something far worse awaits.

Something ancient.

Something hungry.

Cold, black water did not merely rise; it devoured.

Within the suffocating confines of the submerging amphitheater, we clung to the slick, crumbling masonry as it forced its way through the shattered foundation. What we had mistook for the stone pillars of the ancient chamber surged with a horrific, form, slicked in luminescent slime and appendages thick as the trunks of ancient Oaks.

Then, from the center of the dark pool, the water churned into a frothing, violent vortex. A monstrous, beak-like maw broke the surface with a sickening, wet rasp, flanked by vast, ringed tendrils that slammed into the stone with the force of siege engines, shattering the gallery around into falling shrapnel.

In that single, agonizing breath, our desperate attempt at high ground crumbled into chaos.

The flailing tentacles swept the ledges clean, thrashing through the foam and dragging whole sections of the ancient masonry into the gaping maw below. As though answering a silent summons from the depths, the stone grates groaned under immense pressure, snapping violently to unleash a churning, wall-like torrent of water that sealed us inside the flooded tomb.

We had not cornered the beast in its lair; we had merely stepped into its feeding bowl.

Beyond the churning foam, two vast, pale, intelligent eyes surfaced, glowing with a cruel, ancient malice that locked onto our battered party.

For in these drowned ruins, hope is swallowed by the tide, there is no footing in the churning dark, and the deep holds no mercy for those who dare intrude upon it. Hint for the Zombie chamber: Travertine just mite be the answer. Also, know one said you always start with 45 minutes of peace in every chamber. Bonus: If you read this by no later than the 14th, gain 20 HP