The mine looked recently excavated, maybe no more than a year earlier. New timber supporting beams indicated that more than anything else. A well worn path ran through the middle of the passage, testament to the number of trips men had taken in and out of there.
For a hundred feet, the passage continued before Kevik’s light revealed where it ended. As Kevik’s light better illuminated the far end, they could see that the wall was no longer that of excavated earth. Instead, it was much more uniform and flat. In fact, it looked to be a wall constructed of stone bricks set one upon another.
A hole, large enough for two men to walk through side by side, gaped in the center. The light from Kevik’s staff passing through the hole revealed an empty space. As they moved closer, the light reached through to another wall running parallel to the first.
Bart was the first to the opening and stepped through. He glanced down to the right and left but couldn’t see anything in the darkness. “Kevik,” he said as he turned back to the magic user. “Need your light.”
Kevik came to the opening and moved the glowing tip of his staff through to the other side.
The light revealed a manmade passageway extending into darkness to their left and right. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all worked in stone. Bart motioned for the others to come through and join him. Across from the opening was a spent torch resting in a wall sconce. Bart inspected it and found it to still be warm.
“Which way?” Chad asked.
With Kevik’s light, they could tell that the passage extending to the right showed a much greater degree of disturbance than did the one to the left. Bart pointed toward the right. “This way,” he said as he began following the passage.
Naught but the sound of their feet moving along the ground disturbed the silence of the underground passage. Not far from where they had entered this passage, it turned at a forty five degree angle to the left. No sooner had Bart turned the corner than a most unpleasant odor of rot and decay hit him. Ahead, a light glowed in the distance.
“Oh man!” he said as he brought his sleeve up to his nose in an attempt to filter out the odor.
Behind him, Riyan asked in a voice muffled by cloth, “What is that?”
“I would guess a corpse,” replied Chyfe.
Walking beside him, Chad nodded in agreement. “So would I.”
Keeping their noses and mouths securely covered by one form of cloth or another, they continued on. It wasn’t long before they came to the source of the light, a torch set in a wall sconce two feet from where a pit loomed in the floor before them. Four wide planks extended over the pit to allow safe passage across. It was from the pit that the smell was originating.
“A trap do you think?” asked Riyan.
Bart glanced back at him and nodded. “Probably,” he replied. Turning back, he moved to the edge of the pit and looked down. Kevik came to stand beside him to provide light with which to see the bottom.
The pit was easily twenty feet deep, and from the shadows below, it looked as if the floor was covered in foot long wicked looking spikes. A dark form lay impaled on three of them.
“Why would they leave the body down there?” asked Kevik incredulously.
Bart shrugged. “Maybe as a lesson to the others to be more careful,” he guessed. Stepping onto the boards spanning the pit, he began making his way across. Behind him, the others followed, each in turn taking in the grisly sight at the bottom. Though they couldn’t make out any distinct details, they had no doubts as to what time must have done to it.
Once past the pit, they followed the passage until light again became noticeable before them. Yet another burning torch was set in a wall sconce at an intersection where a passage crossed theirs moving from the left to the right. Bart was quick to determine that the new passage to their left showed the most signs of traffic. Turning to the left, he entered the new passage. Wherever those who had been stripping this place of valuables had taken their loot from, it was probably near the hiding place of the last key segment. At least, that was Bart’s hope.
The new passage continued on for a short spell before opening up on a room that held four biers. Another torch burned in a sconce to light the way. Whatever grace and dignity the dead that had been interred here had known was gone. Stripped of their armor and other valuables, their bones had been haphazardly tossed to the floor. As they had found back in The Crypt near Quillim, there were chests sitting at the base of each bier. Those had been smashed open and their contents taken.
“This isn’t right,” Riyan said as they passed through the room. “The dead deserve more respect than this.” The others nodded silent agreement. Each was disturbed by the way the dead had been treated.
In the left wall near the far side of the room, was the mouth of another passage. Moving quickly, they left the scene of desecration behind them and entered it. There, they were again aghast as they saw sarcophagi that had once reverently lined the passage in wall biers, now sitting askew. Some were even upended along the sides of the passage. Corpses, treated with the same manner of disregard as those in the previous room, were lying stripped of all accouterments and dignity in and around the sarcophagi.
Riyan paused by one of the corpses that was lying half in and half out of a sarcophagi. He looked closer at it and figured it to be a man. Could he have been a great warrior in life? A wise man? Now nothing was left of his pride and glory. Testament to the disregard held by those who had stripped this place of all things sanctified.
They passed over a score of opened and broken sarcophagi before the passage ended at the shattered remains of a door. Naught was left but a broken remnant, still held to the wall by the top hinge. Where the rest of it had gone was anyone’s guess.
Beyond the door was another burning torch that revealed yet another room of desecrated dead. Once lying upon rows of biers, the naked dead now lay in disheveled piles upon the floor mixed in with the shattered remains of broken, empty chests.
A path had been cut through the corpses lying upon the floor. Following the path, they came to a series of downward leading steps situated in the middle of the room. As Kevik’s light illuminated the steps, they saw that the steps spiraled into the darkness below. Lying on the floor near the top step was another spent torch, still warm to the touch.
Bart stepped on the first step and then turned to the others. “Knowing they’ve been here first will make this a whole lot faster,” he commented.
Riyan nodded in agreement. “No fear of traps,” he said.
Turning his attention back to the steps, Bart resumed his descent of the steps. “That pit with the rotting corpse was one,” he continued. “I’m sure there will be more. As long as we stay on this well traveled path, we should have little to worry about.”
“Except running into others coming up from below,” stated Chyfe as he stepped on the top step and followed.
Continuing to follow the steps, Bart’s voice echoed back, “I wouldn’t worry too much about whoever we may run across down here. This isn’t where they would have guards. Rather out at the camp or on top of the hill.” Glancing back over his shoulder, he indicated for them to remain quiet so as not to alert anyone coming from below of their presence.
Following the steps down, they encountered another torch set in a wall sconce at every revolution. Kevik wondered if the light from his staff was really needed, but felt better having it aglow so kept it going.
The steps spiraled around for three revolutions before coming to an end at the beginning of another passage. When Bart saw the passage opening up, he came to a stop. “Wait here,” he told the others then moved forward to make sure it was clear.
Straining to hear the slightest sound from up ahead, he made his way to the bottom step. Moving silently, he came to the last step and looked through the opening only to find another long, empty passage extending directly away into darkness. A torch’s faint, flickering glow could be seen in the distance.
Bart turned his head back to the others and said, “Come on down. It’s clear.” He waited on the step until Kevik joined him. Then he asked the magic user, “Any word from Soth?”
“Not yet,” he replied.
“Then we have to assume things are going well up there,” Riyan said, joining the discussion.
Bart nodded. Once he made sure their group was still together, he set off down the passage toward the other burning brand. Doorways and other openings branched off to parts unknown as they progressed down the passage. As they came to each, they would peer through before moving on. All they found were more instances of destruction the grave robbers had caused. The dead stripped and lying on the stone floor, sarcophagi defaced, some destroyed completely.
As Riyan passed by one doorway, the light from Kevik’s staff reflected off of something within that caught his eye. Before he could clearly see what it was, Kevik had moved past, taking the light with him. “Wait a minute,” he said. Kevik and the others stopped and glanced back. Riyan motioned for him to return to the doorway. “I think I saw something.”
“What?” asked Bart, walking with Kevik back to where Riyan waited.
When Kevik returned and his light once again shone into the room, they saw what had caught his eye. A mural on the far wall that was remarkably similar to the mosaic they had found on the island by Catha.
The dragon wrapped tower, the lake, the hills, everything was the same. Only it wasn’t a mosaic. Rather, it had been painted on the wall. Parts of it were ruined by what looked to have been knives or other metal instruments having been scraped across its surface. Another sign of the destructive nature of the grave robbers.
“This cinches it!” Riyan exclaimed when he saw the mural. “The last part of the key must be here.” He made to enter the room but was stopped by Bart. “Better let me take the lead,” he said. “Not sure if they spent much time in here. There could still be a hidden trap they haven’t tripped yet.”
“Alright,” Riyan said as he stepped back to allow Bart to enter first. His eyes were fairly dancing with anticipation.
The room was small and there was no evidence it had ever been used to house the dead as had the previous rooms through which they passed. What purpose it once held remained a mystery. The only item of note was the mural.
“Could this be the way?” Kevik asked Riyan.
“I hope so,” Riyan replied. Keeping his eyes on Bart, he waited.
Bart stepped carefully into the room. The glow from Kevik’s staff illuminated the room fairly well. The floor was nondescript, simply plain stone. Other than the wall bearing the mural, there were no other markings of any kind. Moving cautiously, Bart would move one foot forward then pause once his weight was fully upon it. When he didn’t detect any movement beneath his foot such as a shifting plate or a miniscule drop one would feel when a trap was triggered, he would move his next foot forward and continue.
He made his way to the mural and began inspecting it. The detail with which it had been drawn was meticulous, down to the individual granules of sand at the water’s edge. First he ran the tips of his fingers across its surface to check for any irregularities. When that didn’t produce results, he began to gently press on various objects depicted in the mural.
“Why don’t we have Kevik cancel his light?” asked Chyfe. “Maybe the way will glow as it did back on the island?”
Bart glanced over his shoulder and nodded. “Can’t hurt to try,” he said. Then to Kevik he added, “Go ahead.”
A moment later they were in total darkness. No glow appeared. They stood silently in the dark as each strained to detect any glow coming from the mural or surrounding walls. Still, no glow.
“Alright Kevik,” Bart’s voice came from the darkness, “bring it back.” A second later, the light flared back anew.
Riyan glanced to Chyfe and shrugged. “It was a good idea anyway,” he said.
Chyfe nodded and turned his gaze back to Bart and the mural.
For ten minutes or more, Bart combed the surface of the mural for any sign of a hidden catch or release. When he finally came to the conclusion there weren’t any, he rejoined the others at the door.
“Doesn’t look like this is the way,” he told them.
“No,” agreed Riyan then he gestured to the mural with a nod of his head. “But with that here, I’m more optimistic about finding the key segment.”
“So am I,” Bart replied. “Perhaps we’ll have more luck deeper in.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Chad.
Bart grinned at his friend’s exuberance then moved to take the lead as they once again continued to follow the well trodden path of those who were stripping this place of any and all valuables. Judging by the looks of the items contained in the crates near the camp, they were taking everything but the dead whether it held value or not.
Once past the mural room, more doorways opened off of the passage. There were a couple side passages that joined with theirs, but the majority of doorways revealed rooms with corpses lying on the ground, their sarcophagi either destroyed or opened. Before the passage turned to the right, they came across a room free of corpses. There were markings on the floor indicating that some sizeable items had been removed. Based on the markings left behind by one item, its base had to have been close to six feet by four.
As they paused in the room to have a look around, Chad went over to where the large item once sat. “Wonder how they carried it up the cliff?” he asked.
Bart snickered. “Good question,” he replied. “I’d hate to have been one of the ones taking it up.”
Leaving the room, they moved on and came to where the passage turned to the right. Before they reached the corner, voices could be heard coming from further ahead. Bart immediately brought them to a stop. Turning to the others, he put a finger on his lips and indicated the area around the corner. Once he was sure the others were aware of what was ahead, he turned back to the corner. Stepping silently and cautiously, he crept forward.
The voices remained indistinct as he reached the corner. Ever so slowly, he peered around to the other side. Three men were standing near one of the burning torches which lit the passages. Each had a crate resting on the floor beside them. From the looks of it, they were taking a break from bringing the crates to the surface. When it didn’t look like they were going to resume making for the surface any time soon, Bart rejoined the others.
“Three of the porters,” he explained quietly. “They’re about fifty feet down.”
“Any way of taking them unawares?” asked Kevik. Bart shook his head.
“We could wait for them to come to us,” suggested Chyfe. “Better chance to surprise them.”
“No,” countered Bart. “We can’t afford to wait that long. There’s no telling how long Seth and Soth will have at the camp before someone comes down who will know they don’t belong there.”
Chyfe nodded. Taking hold of his sword, he said rather enthusiastically, “Let’s take them then.”
Bart grinned at Chyfe’s enthusiasm. Then pointing to Chyfe, he said, “You, me, and Riyan. Once we round the corner, we walk normally. May give us a chance to close the distance before they realize what’s going on.”
“Okay then,” Chyfe said with a grin. With a glance to Riyan, he said, “Let’s go.” Falling in behind Bart, Riyan and Chyfe followed him around the corner.
Standing as they were near the burning torch, the three men didn’t immediately realize others were approaching. Coming from out of the darkness, they weren’t noticed until they had crossed half the distance.
“I swear,” one of the men was saying. “These get heavier with every load.”
“It could be worse,” another man replied. “We could be the ones hauling them up the cliff.”
The third man chuckled and nodded. “Sheen took a swing at Pruss and now he has…” He came to a stop when he saw Bart, Chyfe, and Riyan appear out of the darkness. Turning his head toward them, he said, “About time we got a little help down here. You three take these to the surface. We’ll go back for more.”
Then the eyes of the second man widened when he realized the men coming toward them had pale skin. “Wait a second,” he stated. “Who are…?”
“Now!” hollered Bart as he drew his dagger and rushed forward. Behind him, the sound of two swords leaving their scabbards accompanied a war cry from Chyfe. At the sight of three armed men racing forward, the porters turned and fled.
Already moving fast, the three companions quickly closed the rest of the distance. Bart dove forward and hit the rear man square in the back. As the two of them tumbled to the ground, they knocked a second one off balance, causing him to stumble to the floor. Chyfe leaped over Bart and the two porters on his way to the third.
“Stop!” ordered Chyfe. When the man failed to heed the order, Chyfe threw his sword which hit the back of the man’s legs broadside. Stumbling from the blow, the man lost momentum and was quickly overtaken by Chyfe.
Reaching out, Chyfe grabbed the man’s tunic and threw him to the floor. Drawing his knife, Chyfe was on him in a flash with his knee in the man’s back. “Now, when I tell you to stop, you had better stop!” he yelled.
The man beneath him struggled to get away. Chyfe placed the edge of his knife against the man’s neck and said, “Give me trouble and I’ll slit your throat like a pig.” A second later, all fight left the man.
“Come on,” Chyfe said as he got off the man’s back. Taking hold of the back of his tunic, Chyfe brought him to his feet. Back down the passage, he saw that Bart and Riyan had taken the two men back to where the torch burned and had them sitting against the wall. Riyan stood before them with his sword out menacingly. Coming from the darkness beyond, Kevik and Chad appeared on their way to join them.
Chyfe brought his man forward and put him beside the others. “So,” he said, “what should we do with them?”
Bart looked down at the three men. “I suppose we could just kill them and be done with it,” he said. Fear of imminent death leaped into the men’s eyes.
“Don’t kill us!” one man wailed.
“Maybe we’ll let you live,” Riyan said. “If you’ll tell us what we want to know.”
“Yes,” the second man replied, hope dawning anew. “Just don’t hurt us.”
“Anything you wish,” the third added.
Riyan glanced to Bart who nodded. “Very well,” he said.
“How many more of you are down here?” Bart asked.
“Ten,” the first man replied.
“Where are they?” asked Chyfe.
The first man indicated the passage from which he and his two fellows had come. “Not too far is a stairway leading down to the lower level,” he explained. “They’re down there collecting the valuables and packing them into crates.”
“You make me sick,” exclaimed Riyan. “The dead deserve better than the way you’re treating them.”
The first man looked up at him. “They’re just corpses,” he argued. “Who cares about them?”
“Nothing good ever comes from treating the dead so,” admonished Kevik.
“Irregardless,” Bart said, forestalling the argument he felt was imminent, “we would like to know if there were any rooms down here bearing a certain symbol.” He then described the coat of arms, the one with the single diagonal stripe.
The three men glanced to one another for a moment while the companions waited. Then the first man turned his face toward Bart. “There are many,” he replied.
“Are there any that might stand out more than the others?” Riyan asked.
“No,” the first man replied. “Why?”
Riyan ignored the man’s question.
“There was that one area,” the second man said after a moment’s silence. When the first and third man turned toward him he continued. “Remember about a month ago? It was up here on this level.”
“Oh, right,” the first man nodded. Turning to Bart, he said, “Pruss told us to stay away. He didn’t say why.”
“I heard they had a crew up there with sledges and picks,” the third man stated.
“Pruss?” asked Chyfe.
The first man turned to him and explained, “He’s the one in charge down here.”
“Is he down with the others?” asked Riyan.
Shaking his head, the first man replied, “No. I think he’s out at the camp.”
Bart glanced to Riyan and could see that he was thinking the same thing. This could be where they needed to go. Turning back to their captives, he asked, “Can you take us to it?”
“We’ve never been there,” the first one stated.
“But I’m sure you have a pretty good idea where it lies,” Bart said.
The first man nodded. “A fair notion,” he said.
“Alright then, on your feet” Bart said as he indicated for the men to stand. Once they were on their feet, he said, “After you.”
The first man licked his lips and then turned to head down the passage from which Bart and the others had come. Around the corner he led them with Bart and Kevik following closely. The other two porters were behind them with Riyan, Chad, and Chyfe bringing up the rear.
They continued to follow the passage until they were within twenty feet of the room containing the mural. The first man stopped at one of the branching passages and turned to Bart. “It’s this way,” he said, indicating the new passage.
Bart nodded. “Alright, lead on,” he said.
“I…I’ve never been down there,” he said.
The second man piped up and added, “Pruss told us that any man found down here would be killed without question.”
“Well, we’ll make sure no one kills you,” Bart assured him. “Now,” he said and motioned for the man to precede him, “lead the way.”
He didn’t look very enthused about entering, but what choice had he? Moving forward, their captive entered the passage. Bart followed right behind with Kevik and his staff to provide light close to hand.
“I don’t know what you fellows hope to find down here,” the man leading them said. “They took everything.”
“That’s right,” agreed one of the two in the rear.
“Perhaps,” replied Bart.
The passage showed signs of people having passed this way at some point in the recent past. Dust along the floor was disturbed, as well as spider webs hanging in disarray.
Several side passages and rooms abutted the one they were traveling along. Some showed further evidence of grave robbing with corpses again lying in undignified heaps. Chests had been smashed open and a few held shelves now barren, whatever had been kept upon them gone.
“Are you sure you’re going the right way?” Bart asked the man leading them.
“Not entirely, no,” he replied. “Like I said, I’ve never been down here. I did however hear one of the sledgers they brought down here comment that he and the others had worked for a day to get by an extremely sturdy iron gate. He claimed that the blows from their sledgehammers barely dented the metal.”
Bart glanced to Kevik who explained, “The metal could have been magically enhanced to withstand blows.”
The man in the lead glanced back to Kevik and said, “That’s what he thought too.”
“Interesting,” was the only response Bart gave. In his mind however, wheels were turning. A magically enforced gate? That could only mean one thing. The final segment of the key had to lie somewhere on the other side! He glanced back to Riyan and could see by the crooked smile and the glint in his eye that he was thinking along those same lines.
No torches lit the way down this passage. Without Kevik’s light, they would be in complete darkness. Fortunately, the glow from the tip of his staff provided ample illumination.
Continuing to follow the passage, they soon came to where the doors and branching passageways ended, and still the passageway continued on. Not far after the last doorway, they came to where a massive gate had once barred the way.
“I can see why this would have taken some time to get past,” Bart observed when the light from Kevik’s staff revealed it.
It actually wasn’t so much a gate as a series of eight evenly spaced, six inch thick bars that ran from the ceiling to the floor. A hole large enough to allow a man to pass had been battered into the obstruction on the left side. Only the two bars on the far right showed no sign of damage, the others were bent all out of alignment.
“They must have worked at this for a long time,” observed Chyfe.
As Riyan was nodding agreement, Kevik uttered magical words. A second later, all eight of the bars glowed blue.
“As we thought,” Kevik said to the others. “Magic.”
“Right,” said Bart. Turning to their captives, he asked, “What else did you hear about this area?”
“Nothing,” the man leading them replied.
“We swear,” another asserted. “We’ve told you all we know.”
Bart gauged the truthfulness of what they were saying. Finally deciding they would have no reason to lie, he said to Chyfe and Chad, “Tie them up.”
“But,” the man who led them here began to wail, “you can’t leave us here!”
“Don’t worry,” Bart assured him and the other two. “We’ll pick you up on our way back and make sure we leave you where others are sure to find you.”
Chad and Chyfe tore lengths of cloth from the clothes of their captives and proceeded to secure their arms and legs.
“What if you don’t return?” another of the men asked, barely containing the fear of being left to die.
Bart turned to the man and said, “You better hope we do.” Then to Chad and Chyfe he added, “Gag them too. Can’t have them calling for help while we’re gone.”
“But…” one of the captives began to say before a wad of cloth was stuffed into his mouth and tied off with another strip of cloth.
Once the three men were secured and not likely to get free, Bart said, “Alright, let’s see what lies beyond here.” Ignoring the muffled cries of the men begging them not to be left behind, he went to the bars and slipped through to the other side. With the others right behind, he began moving further down the passage. The cries of the bound men gradually diminished behind them.
The passage continued as it had before the bars, with no doorways or branching passages. For a hundred feet they walked in silence before arriving at a set of steps leading down. Bart paused prior to stepping upon the first step and turned back to the others. “From the looks of it, there hasn’t been as much traffic through here as in the other passage we were in earlier,” he stated.
“Do you think there might be traps?” asked Riyan.
Bart nodded. “Possible, though unlikely. Step where I step and keep at least a step between you, just in case.” With that, he turned back and began making his way slowly down the steps.
Seventeen steps descended into darkness before ending at the beginning of another passage. This one was narrower by half than the one at the top of the steps. It was barely wide enough for two men to walk side by side. Plain though the walls were, they seemed to be constructed of a darker material than those on the level above.
Coming to stand upon the last step, Bart hesitated a moment before continuing on. Running his hand over the darker material, he noticed that it felt smoother than it should.
“This place has a feel to it,” Kevik said from over his shoulder.
Removing his hand from the wall, Bart glanced back over his shoulder to the magic user. “What kind?” he asked.
Kevik shook his head. “Not sure,” he replied. “It doesn’t feel bad though.” He stepped on the bottom step next to Bart then spoke a series of magical words as he cast a spell. When nothing happened, he cast another which failed to produce any effect.
Glancing to Bart he said, “There’s no magic here.”
“That’s good to hear,” he replied.
The floor of the passage moving away from the steps showed signs of others passing this way. Despite that evidence, Bart took it slow and easy as he left the bottom step. Moving along, he kept his senses alert for any shift in the floor or anything else that might foreshadow danger. Behind him, the others moved along in silence. It was almost as if none dared to disturb the darkness.
Not far from the steps, they came to an obstruction in the passage. Two thick timbers stood on end and were wedged in between the floor and ceiling.
“What do we have here?” Bart mumbled to himself. Turning to the others, he said, “Stay back a moment.” Then returning his gaze to the timbers, he moved closer.
The ends of the timbers showed evidence of having been wedged into place by the use of hammers. Bart touched one of the timbers gingerly, then applied more pressure to see if it would move. It was wedged tightly in place. He then knelt down and examined the floor more closely. There was a faint red hue to the surface of the floor around the base of the timbers, kind of the color of dried blood.
Using his fingers, he examined the floor more closely. When he discovered an area two foot by one that was slightly lower than the rest of the floor, he nodded to himself. “It was a trap,” he said as he came to his feet. Glancing back to the others, he pointed to the reddish area at the base of the timbers, “I’m not completely sure, but I think that when someone steps here, the ceiling smashes down onto them.”
“Brutal,” Chyfe observed.
Bart nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed. “Should be safe now that they have it braced. But just to be on the safe side, try not to step in the reddish area.” Turning back to the timbers bracing the ceiling, he made his way carefully between them.
One by one the others followed without mishap. As they began moving away, Chad commented to Riyan, “How do you suppose they put it back in the ceiling?”
Shrugging, Riyan replied, “I don’t know. Maybe it resets by itself.”
Chad nodded then cast one last glance back at the timbers before Kevik’s light moved on and they disappeared back into the darkness.
A minute later Bart announced, “There’s another one.” And sure enough, another pair of timbers was braced against the ceiling. At their base, the floor was also stained a reddish hue, testament to the lethality of the trap.
“Deadly sort of place,” quipped Chyfe.
“You could say that,” Bart replied. Then just as before, they slipped through the two timbers and proceeded on.
The timbers had barely faded back into the darkness behind them when they noticed the floor beginning to slant downward at a gentle angle. Not far after that they came to another open pit in the floor. Planks were placed across to allow movement from one side to the other. As they crossed over, Kevik’s light illuminated iron spikes dotting the bottom. Unlike the pit trap they had found previously, there was no rotting corpse.
“Nice of them to trip all the traps for us,” Riyan said.
“Sure is a lot easier than what we went through in Algoth,” Bart said. Then he glanced back at Riyan and grinned. “But not as much fun.”
“Fun he calls it,” argued Kevik as he rolled his eyes. “We almost died time and again.”
“Almost, Kevik,” replied Bart. “That’s what made it a great adventure.”
Kevik just shook his head. Putting one’s life in jeopardy wasn’t what he would call a ‘great adventure’.
Ten feet past the pit, they came to an area with irregular charcoal outlines drawn on the floor. Bart had them pause a couple feet before reaching them. It looked like someone had drawn odd shaped ovals along the floor. “Kevik,” he said to the magic user, “hold out your light as close to those as you can.”
Kevik nodded then stretched his arm out. They could see at least ten of the oval shaped markings spaced along the passage ahead. Half of the last one disappeared where the illumination of Kevik’s light ended.
“Pressure plates,” Bart said. “Has to be.”
“What do they do?” Kevik asked.
“Let’s find out,” Bart said. Then he motioned for the others to step back a ways. Removing a length of rope from his pack, Bart secured it to the shoulder straps of his pack. Once it was on tight, he took the rope in hand and began swinging the pack back and forth above the floor. When he had sufficient momentum built up, he let it go. Sailing across the floor, the pack landed dead center on the first of the charcoal outlines.
Ping!
Something shot from the right and struck the stone wall on the left, three feet from the floor before falling to the ground. Bart moved forward and found it to be a two inch dart with a jagged, glistening point.
He avoided any contact with the glistening substance as he picked it up. Holding it for the others to see he said, “Poisoned dart. Stepping on any of the pressure plates would have a similar affect I’m sure.” Tossing the dart to the ground, he added, “Make sure to avoid the charcoal outlines and we should be fine.” When he stepped back from where he had retrieved the dart, he pulled in the rope.
Untying his pack, he slung it again over his back and began making his way through the field of pressure plates. “Kevik,” he said. “Cast a light spell every few feet until we get through. That should give everyone sufficient light to make their way.”
“You got it,” replied Kevik. A moment later, a bobbing sphere appeared and began moving about. He heard Bart sigh when he saw it. He knew how much they annoyed him. “Just like Algoth,” he said with a grin. “Part of the ‘fun’ we had.”
Bart glanced back at him and grinned, then laughed. “Come on,” he said. Riyan and Chad chuckled too. They then began carefully wending their way between the deadly pressure plates outlined on the floor.
The pressure plates extended for a good thirty feet before they ended. After that, the passage returned to a more level state as it continued on.
“How far does this go?” asked Chyfe. “Doesn’t it seem a bit excessive?”
“It does seem that way,” agreed Chad. “But who knows what purpose this place originally had?”
“True,” Chyfe agreed.
The passage continued for another forty feet before opening up onto a room. Murals adorned two of the four walls. One depicted a scene of warriors fighting demons, the same demons that had been portrayed in a similar mural in The Crypt, and as demonic statues beneath the Ruins of Algoth. The third wall, the one directly opposite where they stood, bore a large rendition of the coat of arms bearing the stripe. Beneath the coat of arms were four separate, indented spaces. Each of the indented spaces was curved and sank three inches into the wall with a two inch space separating each from its neighbors. Looking at the spaces as a whole, they appeared to form a broken circle.
“Yes!” Riyan exclaimed. It was just like what Bart and Kevik had found deep beneath the Ruins of Algoth. Back then, Bart had placed one of the key segments within one of the indented spaces which had caused a secret door to open revealing the hiding place of another key segment.
“Take it easy,” cautioned Bart. He could tell his friend was barely able to restrain the urge to rush forward. “Let me have a look around, first.”
Aside from the murals and coat of arms adorning the walls, the floor was littered with the shattered remains of over a score of chests. Whatever treasures they once contained were long gone.
“Kevik, cast your detect magic spell if you would,” Bart said before entering the room. Behind him he heard Kevik mutter the magical words, then the wall bearing the coat of arms began to glow blue, indicating that there was magic present.
“Thanks,” Bart said as he moved into the room and slowly crossed over to the glowing wall. When he drew closer, he discovered indications that someone had tried breaking through the wall bearing the coat of arms. Hundreds of nicks scored the wall in the area of the four indented spaces, but none had caused much damage.
Raising his voice so it would carry to where the others still stood in the passage, he said, “Looks like they tried to break their way through here and failed.”
“So it should still be there?” asked an excited Riyan.
Bart glanced back to him and nodded. Then he waved for the others to join him. “I think it’s safe,” he told them.
Riyan was the first out of the passage and practically ran across the room. Before he was halfway there, he had his pack off and was digging through it for one of the three segments wrapped in cloth at the bottom. As he reached Bart’s side, he pulled forth one of the segments and dropped his pack to the floor. With hands almost shaking from excitement, he removed the cloth covering it.
“Which one should I put it in?” he asked.
Bart shrugged. “Pick one,” he replied. “If nothing happens, try another.”
“Alright,” said Riyan. Then kneeling down before the indented spaces comprising the broken circle, he chose the bottom one. As he brought it forward, his hands were shaking so badly he couldn’t get the segment lined up with the indented space. It was only through a sheer force of will did he quiet his trembling hands and insert the segment within the indented space. No sooner had he inserted it in as far as it would go than a rumbling sound was heard coming from the other side of the wall. A half second later, a section of the floor to his right began dropping out of sight. When the rumbling finally came to a stop, where the floor had dropped, were now steps leading down.
“Just like on the island,” breathed Chyfe.
Riyan nodded and came to his feet. Moving quickly, he was the first to the top of the steps. The steps descended toward, and then passed beneath, the wall bearing the coat of arms. Turning to Bart, he said, “This is it!”
Coming to stand beside him, Bart clapped him on the back. “Let’s go get it,” he said. Then he stepped onto the top step and together, they began making their way down. Kevik came next with staff aglow. Chyfe and Chad brought up the rear.
Twelve steps in all, they came to an end at a small room. In the center of the room was a four foot high marble pedestal. But when Kevik’s light came and filled the room revealing all, the excitement that had filled Riyan since first seeing the mural upstairs, died. For dirt and broken pieces of stone filled the left side of the room. A hole gaped in the ceiling. Someone had beaten them to it. The segment was gone!