The Dangers of Archaeology [Quest]

[Xemnas (I)]

The archaeologists were quite happy that they had found someone stupid enough to go done into the tomb they had uncovered. If the idiot knew that people were dying and disappearing and still was willing to go down there and discover what was wrong, they weren't about to stop him.

The tomb they were excavating was deep in the crack in the Crystal Fissure. They had a pulley that lead down to the site from the top, but no one had used it in some time. The site had been shut down for over a week when they had found someone to go down there. And now, they just hoped the munny they promised would be enough.

And now, they were sending him down there. The whole dig team was standing there to send him off, and the lead archaeologist was standing at their head. "Good luck down there, and be sure to bring back anything crucial you find." Just what was crucial would have to be determined by Iatros.

[Note: You have room in your pack/bag/whatever carrying device you use to carry with you 3 items that are found in this tomb. Now, there will be more than 3 items you find, but you must determine importance and you will be rewarded by your choices.]

[Magius]

Iatros stood on the edge of the crack looking down into with a determined but cautious look on his face. He turned to the lead archeologist as he addressed him and then turned back to look into the chasm one more time He sighed and thought to himself 'If I didn't need the munny I wouldn't even be doing this.' he started toward the pulley system, muttering a half-hearts "thanks" to the archeologist before getting on. He activated the pulleys, which lowered him down into the crack where the tomb was located.

"This should be fun." he muttered sarcastically to himself halfway down into the crack. When he reached the bottom he got of the pulley system and looked around. “Why the heck would anyone wanna' come to a place like this he asked none in particular.

[Xemnas (I)]

The area around him was blue stone. There was pickaxes and shovels among other excavating equipment. They had been there only for a few days when the thing, or things, struck. There was bits of cloth lying around, mostly from where clothing had torn on the rocks, and from wear and tear, but some was from the mummies they had excavated. This was the tomb of a King from centuries long before, and one who had been known for his reign of terror, and that was why they had been so happy to clear out immediately.

It was also why they thought the man who was heading down into the place that was little more than a cave in the wall of the fissure. The area was dark, but they had given him a torch and had told him there was a series of torches in the areas they had explored. Of course, in the area that WASN'T explored, there was no torches. Or so they assumed, because they hadn't explored the area...

The antechamber was massive, and dark. The area felt cold, colder than it should, and the room itself was huge. There was a feeling of emptiness in the air. It was as if all of the light had been sucked out of the room, and the darkness held heavily upon the torchbearer. The room was also prone to echo, producing a ghastly sound upon each footstep.

[Magius]

Iatros looked around the antechamber taking in what he could. He then looked at the torch with a critical eye. 'This place will be easy to get ambushed in the dark. I'm gonna need to shed some light.' Iatros then mumbled a small incantation lighting the torches in the antechamber. Which another incantation, he dropped the hand that held the torch, which was now out, and started to explore the chamber itself, looking for levers or secret passage ways the one would imagine finding in an ancient tomb.

[Xemnas (I)]

The area inside the antechamber was empty. The excavation team had already been in there. The room appeared to be moaning, but that was merely a trick of the wind. The room started to heat up slightly as all of the torches fires' heated the air around Iatros. There was only one way out of there, besides the way he had come. It was a dark hallway, partially lit by the torches that had flared to life. It led forward a ways before vanishing into nothingness.

[Magius]

Iatros stood at the entrance to the hallway and sighed. He brought up his torch and relit it with magic. He started his was down the hallway His eyes shifting around to look for anything strange or out of the ordinary, our at least out of the ordinary in this already out of the ordinary place. A she went deeper into the hallway the light that came from the antechamber diminished and the light from his torch became the only source of light.

[Xemnas (I)]

The hallway extended out for a long time, small rocks slipping Iatros up as he walked through it. In the next room, there was a sudden skittering as something moved to get away from the torch, and the skittering led to another hallway where it trailed off. It seemed to have sounded like a rat, but...

The room was smaller than the antechamber, but still as cold, and there seemed to be a breeze coming from somewhere. It stirred fabric that was on the walls, great tapestries of past victories, where the tyrant had conquered his enemies. They depicted black demons appearing from dark holes and attacking his enemies, causing them to withdraw in terror. There was arrow slits in one wall, showing that this truly wasn't originally a tomb. First, it was a castle, more like a small keep, that the king had used for showing off his trophies. Now, it was only useful to show off his dead corpse.

[Magius]

Iatros paused the second he heard the scurrying, wait for something to attack. When nothing did walk up to the entrance of the next hallway and paused. He knew that whatever had made that scurrying noise went down this corridor, but he decided to ignore it for now. Instead he went on to explore the room, looking at the tapestries, and looking to see where the wind had come from.

[Xemnas (I)]

There was no definite area that the wind appeared to come from. It blew in from all directions, first one, then, as he inspected it, another. The tapestries appeared to be worth something, but nothing was for certain. At the hallway there was hinges where there appeared to have once been a door, but it had been ripped off of its hinges by a powerful force.

In the hallway, there was places for torchholds, but no torches in them. There was, however, torches lying in wait in the next room. The skittering was no more, and, if he searched, Iatros would find a small hole in the bottom of a wall, which revealed the presence of vermin. The next room had a heavy feel about, more cloying than the other two. The air felt hot, as if all of the torches were already lit. But they weren't, as it was just as dark as the others.

There was a shield hanging on the wall, crossed with two swords. It held a crest on it at one point, but it was blackened as if in a funeral pyre. The room held little else but dust. There was a door leading to the next room, hanging ajar, and the room was dimly lit. Someone had left a torch burning which had not yet gone out, though it was close to doing so. Next to the torch, which was lying on the ground, was a dark figure, dimly lit. It was unmoving, and roughly in the shape of a human. There appeared to be a stairwell nearby, but it was also lit dimly. It could easily have been a door.

[Magius]

Iatros stood in front of one of the tapestries, the one that showed the king summoning the black creatures that he figured were heartless, debating on weather this would be considered a treasure or not.

In the end he decided to take it. If anything, he could always leave it behind if he found something of more value. With a snap of his fingers the tapestry was gone is a flash of blue light. He had transported the tapestry to his personal hammer-space, a small pocket dimension where he kept most of his things. Judging by the feel of it, he didn't have much room left in the pocket-dimension, having only enough room for two things.

He continued down the new hallway where the scurrying sound had come from before, and found it lead to a rather warm room. After exploring the new room a bit he found a side room with torches. Muttering an incantation the torched flew out of the room and into the torch holders along the wall. Once they were all settled in they erupted into flame giving the room light. He was pleasantly surprised to find a shield with two swords crossed behind it on the wall, figuring someone had to think of that as treasure of some kind. With another snap of his fingers it was gone into his hammer-space.

When he found a doorway that was slightly ajar with light coming from it, he froze and held his breath for a second, fearing that there was someone in there and that they heard him moving around or the snap of his fingers. After a few moments, he was sure no one, or nothing, was coming out from the door. He cautiously moved toward the door, nudging it open a bit more as to see inside better. When the door hinges creaked, he immediately went stock still and muttered something under his breath. He continued to look inside the room though. All he saw was a single torch lit and a human figure on the ground.

Now that caught his interest. He slowly opened the door and made his way over to the figure. He stood over it for a second or two before summoning his sword to his hand he then started to poke the human like figure the blade, much like a kid would poke a dead thing with a stick.

[Xemnas (I)]

The figure remained stationary. From close up, it was revealed that it was a statue made of clay, one of a man who had his eyes closed in rest eternal. The look on his face was obviously sculpted by an expert artist, and the lack of cracks on the figure was surprising. The hands also appeared as if they were originally holding something, and one looked like it was holding a pen or brush of sorts...

There was indeed a stairwell, and the room appeared empty aside from it. Of course, that was not including the clay figure and the torch. The room was the smallest yet, and seemed to invoke claustrophobia. The stairwell led down into darkness. It seemed to go down about a story, though it might have broken stairs...

The area below felt...wrong. There was no other was to describe it. It was seemingly darker than normal, and the darkness clung to the skin in odd ways. There was a note beside the stairwell, a post with ink splatters on it, that said this:

Things below. People missing. Evil lies in wait. Don't go unless you want slow and painful death. They come for me, I know it. Watch and see, they come for me watch and see, they come for me watch... After that it repeated itself until it drew off where there was a great dash across the post and a line of ink over to the figure. A paintbrush lay beside the figure, ink slowly dripping.

[Magius]

After Iatros had realized there was nothing in the small room but the staircase, he decided to see were the staircase led. At the bottom of the stare case It got unnaturally dark even with his torch. When he saw the note on the wall, he ripped it off and held it to his face. He let out a "hmmmm" of contemplation as he finished the letter and tossed it away. He mutter more magical word, causing the flame of his torch to turn blue and, the light from it to become brighter, cutting through even this unnatural darkness.

[Xemnas (I)]

The room suddenly flared into light as several shadow creatures crawled forward. There were three of them, rushing in at him from three different directions. They popped out of their shadow form and leapt forward, attacking with their claws. The claws swiped at him from almost all angles, leaving only one way to go, and Iatros would have to move quickly to dodge roll to the side.

Now was the time for action.

[Magius]

Thinking quickly, Iatros quickly dodge rolled forward and out of the swarm of claws. He quickly spun around, summoning Mage's Edge to his hand. He ran toward the one farthest to the right and swung at it with his sword at a horazontle angle. While doing this he fired a magic missile at another that was further away, hoping to catch it of guard.

[Xemnas (I)]

The Neoshadow that was slashed drew back, pulling itself into the floor. It hadn't appeared to have taken that much damage. The one hit by the magick missile didn't appear to be in serious pain, but it halted its attack and looked at Iatros as if in respect. There was only a glimmer for a moment, if it was ever there at all, before the creature went back to its assault, charging at him with a reckless abandon.

The other Neoshadow turned to face Iatros and charged as well. There seemed to be an opportunity for him to spin slash the two, but there seemed to also be an opportunity for him to jump slash at the same time. He would have to make his decision carefully, weighing his choice in the small time he had left.


Health of Foes
Neoshadow

Neoshadow

Neoshadow