#lightning monster

Justin held his staff aloft, raising the lantern that Zeppy had affixed to the end. The warm glow only lit a small circle around the party as they followed the tunnel deeper into the mountain. Precious stones glimmered all around, set in intricate geometric mosaics along the walls and ceiling. Perhaps in brighter light, they would have been beautiful, but with only the oil lantern shining on them, every gleam brought to mind hidden predators in the dark.

"A bit strange to see one of these crystals without a bustling temple around it," he murmured.

"The last Spark'lings died out centuries ago," Ailura replied, wrinkling her nose, "and good riddance. They were terrifying even when they weren't trying to kill me." With a shudder, she added, "Any creature that can carry on a conversation while it rips its own arm off and puts another one in its place ... and then thinks better of it and sticks the first arm on its back ..."

Thunder rumbled somewhere outside the mountain. A few of the cut stones rattled in their sockets on the wall. Ailura flinched.

"As I said, the Spark'lings are dead." She sounded like she was reassuring herself. "And no one else wants to live on this storm-blasted rock. You saw how often lightning strikes this mountain, even with grounding rods on every prominence."

"Stranger still, come to think on it. With all the aether roiling outside, how'd this Temple come to be a null zone?" From the moment they'd entered the tunnel, Justin and Ailura had been unable to use magic. Try as he might, even his strongest efforts couldn't maintain so much as a magic candle -- he could feel the very walls of the Temple drink up his mana the moment he tried to exert it. No wonder Ailura was in such foul spirits; she must be feeling utterly helpless.

"You know what else is weird?" Beni tapped one of the crystals in the mosaic pattern and watched it rattle for a few seconds. "The Spark'lings were some kind of crystal beings, right? Bodies made out of that thaumalite stone. So why decorate this place with all these crystal mosaics? You'd think that would be like a king decorating a whole palace with bones and organs."

"Perhaps it's a different sort of crystal? Maybe they wouldn't find that as disturbing ..." Tyrus tapped at another stone, and it rattled softly. "... never mind, this is thaumalite after all."

"... and thaumalite absorbs magical energies ..." Justin gulped softly as he stepped out into the shadows beyond the end of the tunnel. Hundreds upon thousands of crystal facets twinkled from every cave wall in the surrounding gloom. "... which means this whole place is lined with mana-draining corpses ..."

"MY CHILDREN ..." What spoke then was less a voice and more an echo of the entire mountain, as though every lightning bolt in the storms above had struck it at once and the thunder itself was roaring in agony. Justin and the others held their breath as the mosaics began to rattle, softly at first, but then louder and louder until the stones ripped themselves free from their sockets.

"Hit the dirt!" Zeppy's voice broke the spell enough for everyone to throw themselves to the ground as the crystals flew overhead. The stream of tiny gems ripped a massive stone axe from one wall, stone pipes from another. They formed a maelstrom above the Archstone and coalesced into a massive eagle, with the axe growing out of one wing and bombard rockets loaded in the other. It perched atop the Archstone and shrieked a threat.