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http://imythess.com/single/?p=8009049&t=5113436

Marissa ran harder than ever only to come across the base of a tower almost as massive as the cavern. It gleamed even with so little light, like a great onyx statuette. It vaguely resembled a dagger with no edges, smooth and round and wrapped by an equally black snake of some kind. At least, it appeared to be a snake. A carving to the right of the door confirmed it: a tall, smooth, round tower with a snake wrapped around it, the snake's head staring hungrily at the top. The top of the tower in the carving was the same as that of a chess piece - a rook, specifically. Marissa tripped as she rushed through the open doorway only to trip over something. She was on her feet quickly, but it seemed that she had tripped over a coil of the demon. It was surrounding her, stretching its body around her like the snake that wrapped itself around the tower!

It was luck that saved her. As the demon's swiftly coiling body began to close in, a wrought-iron gate collapsed from somewhere above - impaling and trapping the demon. It screamed in rage as Marissa leapt over its writhing coils, whirling about to get a good look at it. It was spewing black blood everywhere, the only thing saving Marissa from getting drenched being the distance she now was from the thing. She spat upon it, knowing full well that it would be dead and trapped for some time.

Turning to explore, Marissa made her swift way up the broad, winding stairs. The ascent seemed to last even longer than the trip across the bridge. Through similar gates strewn along her path to the right, Marissa saw glimpses of libraries and studies and strange-looking rooms filled with glass bottles and vials and all manner of frightening-looking curios: shrunken heads and spiders dancing even as they rested, impaled, upon cruel-looking staves and spears; paintings of corpse piles and individuals, nude and twisted horribly, their faces in agony; and snakes...lots and lots of snakes. More than once, Marissa sped up to avoid being chased by the things. She preferred furry critters to reptiles, thank you very much.

Her ascent finally took her into a large chamber lined with black candles. The candles were lit with small blue flames, hundreds of them dancing in a wind Marissa could not feel. Before her was some kind of cone-like wall stretching out like a tunnel, but too wide to be a true cone and without any apparent doorway. As she neared it, however, it opened wide onto a rooftop identical to the one in the carving at the base of the tower. Stepping out, she heard the cries of battle in the distance. She looked back and saw that the exit of the tower was indeed the head of a giant black snake. She shuddered and walked carefully to the edge. In the distance, the minotaur was hurling his ax; he aided another before retrieving it.

Marissa was dozens of feet above and several hundred feet away from the battle. That suited her just fine, but she would rather have been out of this fell tower as quickly as possible Yet she saw no way out except the way she had come, which was now swiftly closing, its black reptilian maw leaving her no exit - except down.

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http://imythess.com/single/?p=8009263&t=5113436

Marissa had searched every part of the giant black serpent's mouth, but had found no method by which to open it. She had even tried prying it open, but it was as well-sealed as the onyx from which the snake and tower were crafted was solid. There was no way to get back down through there. The scales of a snake were not upon this smooth body except in etched pattern, and that etching was not deep enough even for the hands and feet of a hobbit; neither would it hold the points of a small grappling hook. She could attempt to slide down the thing, but it was impossible to see exactly where she'd need to drop from here and likely too far a drop not to be lethal anyway; besides that, the snakes head was almost impossible to climb up.

Then there was the wall. Like the rest of the tower, it was completely smooth. What had at first appeared to be a dagger-like tip was actually an optical illusion set up to deter people from think that there were tower-top defenses. None stood here, but it was a perfect place from which to strike out with magic or bow or crossbow should the need arise. Only from above would it be clear that the tower was opened like the turret of a castle.

Despite its size, the rope firmly tied to the grappling hook was actually quite long. But even wrapping it around the wall and climbing down had proved fruitless, for the archer's window was still too far below her for the halfling to safely leap and she would have been leaving her grappling hook behind if she had foolishly leapt.

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http://imythess.com/single/?p=8013804&t=5113436

The light from her hand shone blue upon the ancient black stone, which seemed smooth only upon initial inspection. This tower had suffered much damage over the years, all of it repaired by hand; she could see the pits and cracks in the stone that had been repaired over the years - perhaps over the decades or centuries - but she saw nothing that would help her get out of the situation she was in. No symbols were carved into the stone here, no levers or wheels or anything else of that sort made themselves known to the halfling. Oddly, her feet kicked up no dust as she shuffled about, yet this tower had clearly not seen regular use for a very long time. Perhaps the same magic that had kept it standing all this time had also kept it dust-free, and perhaps it was magic that had repaired it?

one of the pieces of stone that ringed the top of the tower was moving. It was shedding pieces of rubble only to stretch large wings, wings on which it seemed to hover as though it were merely testing their strength. Then it noticed her. She’d heard about gargoyles, but she’d never actually met one before - and now, she realized, several other gargoyles were starting to wake up.