Vanishing lake of Elm

The vanishing lake of Elm is a pool in the forest near the village of Elm, in the campaign Zincirsiz ("Unchained"). It lies about an hour's walk, at a child's pace, along the trail of a missing girl, inside a dense ring of trees, and is some twenty-five metres across. No stream could be seen feeding it.¹

A lake unlike others

Max found no animal tracks anywhere around it. Olaf said that at such water he would expect tracks, or at least dead birds if it were poisoned, and that the tight ring of trees was strange as well. Bold, flying over it, could see nothing living in it, though that proved nothing. An insect that Max dropped in did not burn or vanish, but simply could not swim and drowned. A stone lit by Jonathan River and lowered on a rope showed water clear beyond nature, with earth and rock at the bottom instead of water plants; no body was seen in the part searched, though not the whole lake was searched.²³⁴

Jonathan's magic showed a strong power of transmutation over the whole surroundings, not the water alone. On closer study it proved to be a complex spell or ritual that had changed the shape, the natural cover and the time of the place; its name, age and maker could not be learned. Time is held to be slippery and unstable, a power that wizards, scholars, devils and angels have tried to use with little success and often at a terrible price; it is harder to control than arcane magic and leaves lasting consequences.⁵⁶⁷⁸

Vanishing at dawn

The companions drew back from the enchanted ground to wait for morning. Jonathan and Max stayed awake, and as the sun rose they saw the lake vanish all at once; Olaf and Tim, woken, saw only the empty hollow. Jonathan wondered whether it formed each night and vanished each morning, and Max whether it was a gate through which the girl had been taken; a book on the laws of portals showed that this was possible, but not the only answer. Only the faintest remains of the night's strong magic were left, and on the old lake bed Max found the bones of a girl, very old and brittle.^9101112

The pull of the water

When the day seemed to begin again, the lake was there once more. Spying on it from afar by magic as the girl walked towards it, Jonathan saw odd waves on so small a pool and a wind around it that did not blow where he stood, and both grew stronger as she came near. As she reached the water an unseen force pulled her in, until Max, Jonathan and Olaf dragged her free; then the force let go, and the wind and waves soon calmed. Nothing visible rose from the water, and who or what worked the pull was not seen.^13141516

Beneath the lake

Bold dived first and came to no harm from magic, glimpsing faint movement in the depths; through him Jonathan learned that the water itself held no enchantment. Max and Olaf went down able to breathe under water, with Jonathan's spectral book giving light. Through the book's senses Jonathan made out veins of water running in from the surrounding hills, and in the deep centre a sight at odds with nature, which proved to be a bending of light rather than a true glow.¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹

There Olaf and Max found and cleared an opening wide enough for two side by side, covered by moss and stones bound together. It led deeper and then into level underwater channels, where the swimmers felt the pressure and grew tired; their joined rope, tied to a tree and a rock on the shore and lengthened with rope from Zarama, ran short. The first air pocket was dark under a rocky roof and had no floor to stand on. Deeper among the moss Max found an adult's bone, too damaged to tell whether man or woman, which crumbled in his hand. Some twenty metres further on, in a second pocket, they climbed onto dry land and left a lit stone as a marker for the way back.^2021222324

Beyond, the passage became too smooth and round to be a natural cave, then plainly worked stone, with drier, fresher air. Olaf judged that they were heading towards the hills. The way led on to the Hall of the five doors.²⁵²⁶²⁷

Spoiler: The way backRevealSpoils: Zincirsiz #26 · Say what you have read

The companions later followed an old waterway and truly came out into the lake again, swimming slowly and with difficulty. The ordinary ropes they had left behind had weakened and their fibres come apart, though how long that had taken could not be told. No one was on the shore, and the name Elm with a T beneath it was carved on a tree. Tim told them afterwards that three months had passed.²⁸²⁹³⁰