As you proceed further into the great, palatial hall, you note that the checkerboard pattern ends at the verge of the line of 4 pillars ahead of you. The pavement thereafter is a sickly gray color, shot through with splashes of maroon and veins of jaundiced yellow, as if made of old and dirty ice, filled with disgusting offal.
The florring forms an inverted T; beyond it, to either side, the checkerboard resumes, but in colors of red and black. The stem of the T stretches before you into the darkness, and the arms reach to the walls to either side. Another of the thick pillars, six feet in diameter, stands along the left and right edge of each arm of the T. Between these are three lesser pillars, each 3 feet in diameter, with the middle one being nearly in the center of your path. All of these pillars are of serpentine.
Where the arms of the gray stone T reach the walls, there are semicircular alcoves, these being hewn out of the rock that forms the natural walls of this cavernous place. Within each
alcove stands a pale gray statue of about twice man-size.
To the left, you see a 12-f00t tall male figure, fashioned of leprous gray marble. The body is deformed but muscular. The clawed hands and feet are of animal nature, despite the fingers and toes. The skull is human... almost. It is elongated, with hyena-like jaws, and the bestial eyes and ears bespeak some nightmare-blend of man and animal. Ahi can easily identify this creature as Gholl, the father of all the gholles.
To the right stands a 12-foot tall statue of some female thing. It is a misshapen creature, hewn from soft-looking, dirty-gray stone. Its bestial face combines the worst features of a hound, baboon, and woman into a leering, fanged visage of demonic appearance. The long arms, corded with muscle, terminate in clawed hands; the feet are similarly ugly and clawed. The hollow, empty eye sockets stare balefully outwards, and the overall impression bodes of horror most malevolent. This being can be identified by Ahi as Ghul, the mother of all the ghulaz.
Mortuary Palace.JPG [ 464.13 KiB | Viewed 2934 times ]
