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TWL Chapter 72: Beyond the Wall - Gargoyles and Moreau's Legacy
🕑 Added 2024-01-17 23:33:18 +0000 UTCAfter that little encounter, everyone reassessed their status: some shields were damaged, some were still stunned from the fall, but otherwise they were fine.
Geralt scanned the room with his witcher senses. Since there is a magic mechanism, there must be something wrong with this room.
Suddenly, Geralt's gaze darted behind the statue, where a dim light rested on the wall.
He walked over, raised his hand and made a [Aard Sign]!
Then the whole wall collapsed, and there was indeed a cave behind it.
Everyone stepped forward to observe and saw another simple and simple passage behind the wall. It seemed that the style was completely different from the ancient elf-style buildings they had seen before.
Obviously, the builder of this passage built his own secret laboratory based on this ruins. The gold and silver on the outside were even placed deliberately to hide the real treasure inside.
Until now, they have truly seen the tip of the iceberg of Tomas Moreau's secret laboratory.
Following the tunnel, they quickly reached its end. In front of them, around a curve, was a huge stone sphere, with broken bones trapped between the ball and the wall.
"Someone couldn't evade the trap." Someone pointed out.
Obviously, the stone ball rolled over from the other side of the passage and just smashed the tomb robber against this wall.
Lann looked into the passage. There seemed to be a few broken bones and pieces of cloth in the darkness. This stone ball seemed to have achieved great results, crushing many people.
Geralt went forward to search the corpse and found a piece of parchment, which was surprisingly well preserved.
Lann took the parchment and began to read the content on it:
"...Since suspicious people started appearing outside my laboratory, I had to put additional security measures in place."
"Although I think they are just common criminals, who were looking for valuable things to steal, and had no interest in my investigation, but it is better to be cautious."
[The writing is illegible]
"...In addition, I have decided to follow the advice of a former engineering colleague and use simple mechanical devices to protect the laboratory."
"In one of the rooms in the hallway leading to the laboratory, I have installed a mechanism that can close and open the door, operated by pressing the four protruding stones on the wall."
"I can open the lock with simple magic, but ordinary thieves will face two challenges: first, they must notice the four stones and deduce the functions of the stones, and then they must try to press the stones..."
[The writing is illegible]
The parchment seems to be an experimental diary. Large sections of the writing on it have become blurred and unrecognizable due to time and improper preservation. However, the only remaining text on it is also very valuable to Lann and the others.
The name of the owner of this diary has already been revealed - Tomas Moreau!
The Druid sighed. "It's just a group of tomb robbers, and they really found Professor Moreau's magic laboratory. It's a pity that they got in but not out."
Lann said to Geralt: "Then it's easy now. Follow the places where these tomb robbers have walked, and you will definitely find the secret laboratory."
With Geralt’s witcher senses present, everyone followed the direction in which the tomb robber escaped and searched in the opposite direction, and soon arrived at the edge of a huge underground canyon.
Now there was no trace of the ruins of the Elven Palace, changing to a simpler architectural style associated with research mages.
The walls were rudimentarily carved with magic, and the path was so narrow that walking side by side was difficult, with the danger of falling into the gorge if carelessly.
There are some traces of construction on both sides of the canyon, and there are also the remains of a small bridge on both sides. It is obvious that the two sides could communicate with each other in the past.
Geralt pointed to a small section of rope tied to a pillar on the edge of the canyon and said: "These tomb robbers entered through a different entrance than us. They slid over from the other side along the rope and established a small stronghold here."
There are some traces of human life on the ground, including food remains that have almost merged with the dust, braziers and torches that cannot be lit, and temporary construction fortifications that are completely inconsistent with the surrounding architectural styles.
Geralt pointed in front of him: "And the purpose of building a temporary camp here is for this. This is a door."
Geralt pointed to the wall in front of him. There was a small recessed brick 'door' inside.
If it weren't for the prompts from the witcher's senses, no normal person would think it was a door.
The druid stepped forward to observe it seriously and commented: "It really is an architectural style from several hundred years ago, it should be the right place."
Swade asked: "Then how do we get in? How about stacking the remaining bombs together and blowing them up?"
The Sword Attendant's face shone with excitement. After the battle with the Drowners, he seemed to have a strong interest in the alchemy bomb. Although he said that this method was detrimental to the knight's code, in fact, he was looking for opportunities to use explosives whenever he could.
Lann slapped Swade on the head and scolded him angrily: "We are on the edge of an underground gorge, no one knows if a large-scale explosion will cause a landslide or another type of chain reaction. Don't do anything without my order!"
Then ignoring the attendant who rubbed his head and nodded in agreement, Lann took out Geralt's parchment and scanned the surrounding environment.
This is the scene he experienced in the game in his previous life. His memory may be hazy as to how many monsters he encountered and how much treasure he found.
After all, no matter how strong the monster is, as long as it has a health bar, it can always be cut off with one knife in the game; no matter how precious the treasure is, it can only be converted into coins and turned into a string of numbers in a backpack. These are simply not worth taking up Lann's precious memory.
What he really remembered clearly were the complicated puzzles of the mazes and the escape processes of the secret rooms. Like this one in front of him, which had left him stuck for over half an hour in the past while playing.
At one point, he even thought that he would have to cross the gorge to find the laboratory, instead of opening this damn door in front of him.
"Isn't this written in Professor Moreau's diary?" Lann unfolded the parchment so that everyone could see. "One of the rooms in the corridor of the laboratory has a mechanism that can lock and unlock the door, operated by pressing on four protruding stones high up on the wall.”
Lann looked around again, and everyone followed his gaze.
Geralt had never thought that the environment described in the diary was here. After he finally connected the contents of the diary with the surrounding environment and consciously looked for 'protruding stones', four places on the rock wall suddenly flashed with a long red light in his witcher senses.
"I found it!"
Everyone looked in the direction Geralt pointed and saw darkness in front of them. They don't have Geralt's night vision.
The Druid asked in distress: "Press the stones? That far and that high? Geralt, can you cast some Igni Signs in the direction you're pointing so I can try to control a vine to press the stones?"
Lann patted the Druid on the shoulder: "It's not necessary to complicate it so much."
He turned his attention to Geralt: "We just need a good enough crossbowman."
Geralt had already been observing the distance between the stones in the dark, mentally calculating the shooting angles.
After a sigh, the warlock took off the hand crossbow on his back, pulled the trigger, and a crossbow arrow went into the darkness with a 'whistle'.
With the sound of the arrow colliding with a hard object, followed by the sound of spring mechanisms activating, in addition to the sound of stones moving, clearly something was activated in the darkness.
"There are actually movable mechanism stones." Lann heard a soldier sigh in disbelief.
“He actually found the rocks protruding from the rock wall in such a dark place.”
"And also, it hit the target!"
The soldiers marveled at the witcher's amazing abilities, while Geralt reloaded his arrows expressionlessly.
After the last mechanism was activated, the door that looked like a brick wall in front of them began to vibrate slowly and then lifted with a dull 'rumbling' sound, revealing the passage behind it.
“Ha, it worked.” A soldier quietly gave Geralt a thumbs up.
The path ahead was full of irregularities, with scattered stones and fragments of sculptures everywhere, as if it had experienced a minor landslide. There were no steps, and many steep slopes required the combined efforts of several people to keep going.
After advancing a hundred meters or so, suddenly, the landscape opened up, revealing a large hall before them.
The druid looked around and nodded: "This place is interesting, it seems like the designer put a lot of effort into it, we should explore around here."
It was a room with a round arch vault, divided into two floors, with capacity for forty or fifty people at the same time. Saying it was a palace seemed too simple but describing it as a room also did not do justice to the decorations full of magic and art inside.
In the middle of the hall, there is a three-person-high statue with rounded lines, but its face cannot be seen clearly. The base under its feet was also full of potholes and stone fragments.
At the top of the base, there was a small palm-sized box. Opening it, she revealed a gold necklace. Next to him, a skeleton lay, with some Orens and Crowns scattered across its body.
There is also a small altar in front of the statue with a strange shape.
The ceiling above the statue was the highest point of the vault, with a simple etching of stripes from this point downwards. After reaching the ground, these carvings intersected, receded, and formed small compartments for placing statues.
And in each compartment, there was a big-bellied, evil-looking demonic statue.
The statues were about the size of a person, with horns on their heads, prominent fangs, and fierce faces. They only had small palm-sized wings on their backs, with swollen upper limbs and short lower limbs.
Looking at the two decorative wings, Swade commented: "They definitely can't fly."
The druid stepped forward to observe carefully, and his face gradually became uncomfortable: "These seem... to be gargoyles. A kind of monster created by a mage who injects magic power into stone statues."
Hearing that it was a monster, everyone became serious and looked around. There were ten stone statues in the room.
“Are they strong?”
Geralt is also familiar with this kind of monster, even better than the druid. He replied: "They are resistant to swords and blades. Gargoyles are mainly made of granite and marble, with amazing defense and incredible strength. Not even heavy armor can withstand a hit from them. They can also throw large stones to kill their enemies. Additionally, they can teleport over short distances, suddenly appearing behind or above their enemies, making it difficult to predict."
Every time Geralt said something, everyone's expressions became more solemn. Only Lann seemed to have expected it and was not so overwhelmed by the enemy.
“But they must have weaknesses, right?”
Geralt nodded: "They are stupid, and the Axii Sign is ineffective against them. Silver can damage them, and Dimeritium Bombs can also alter the functioning of the magic spell that gives them life."
