It had been a few days since we found the dungeon and the guild has issued our team a special mission to scout and evaluate the dungeon for danger, and potential profit. Venos was less then happy about the development, but he also knows that the benefits for us and the guild far outweighed everything else. So here we where with protections against necrotic plagues and death mana which is likely to be filling the graveyard at this point. It is never clean with a graveyard dungeon, many end up killing to increase the size of their hordes, and basically become necromancers with a bigger mana budget. It would be good to know about that in advance so we can better contain any damage that might occur because of it.
“we are almost there, everything ready Ava?” Venos asked as we approached the gates to the graveyard and took a deep breath.
“Yeah, just thinking through everything again” I sigh slightly before gazing pass the gates of the graveyard. It seemed eerily quiet so things are par for this sort of dungeon from what I can tell.
“good, remember you two, the goal of this is to figure out as much about this dungeon as possible.” The lizard man seemed grim as he spoke, rolling his shoulders as he limbered himself up. “and remember, these kinds of dungeons are always going to play lethal so be extra on guard.”
Orkus and I move to begin following him as he began walking into the graveyard, and the energy shifted instantly. I could feel it in my bones as we entered into the dungeons being, though I could not feel its attention on us, so that was something to be happy about. We move slowly through the graveyard, the lack of anything attacking us right away made me a bit concerned but it wasn’t too odd. Then Orkus looked at me and tilted his head, and I knew what I needed to do. Reciting the words like I remembered, it wasn’t necessary but it helped in these tense situations, I focused on the flow of mana and blinked. The world always seems brighter when you look at the mana, but usually a graveyard is glum with death mana flowing throughout it.
This place though…..it was alight with chaotic rainbows of mana, it was beautiful in a way that graveyards rarely are. The shock kept me from doing my job for a longer time then I would like to admit but eventually I turn my attention to the flow of this mana. Watching it I could see that most of it flowed into and out of a small tomb, the core likely hid itself there thinking no one would willingly enter. With a slight nod to it my teammates and I begin moving towards it, weapons at the ready in case something decides to jump us.
As we moved though, nothing really showed up, it was odd and raised the tension, since not a soul or anything lacking one attacked us. Even so we just ended up in front of the tomb, Venos looking inside while Orkus and I kept looking about so nothing could sneak up on us. After a second or two the lizard man turned to us and tilted his head. “there seems to be a crypt attached to this one,” I shivered slightly at that knowing that meant there was going to be a lot of tunnel crawling involved from this moment forward. Orkus didn’t seem comfortable with that either but he just quietly pulled a knife from his belt and nodded. We all prepared ourselves mentally before moving into the tomb and then down the slightly dusty stairs into the crypts below.
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The stairs where fairly wide for a crypt, being able to fit two people comfortably abreast, and at the end of the stairs is a set of rotted out doors. Looking around I suddenly see the mana shift and try to press into the door, like a pair of hands preparing to mold some clay. Though nothing happens. There is a pause before again there is another press of the mana trying to do something, and again it is met with nothing. I look at the others as Orkus is lighting a torch, they both seemed to have noticed the shift in energy but more so are aware it’s likely just the dungeon taking notice. I quickly remove the mana vision I activated and began running through the spells best suited for undead. Earth and ice for skeletons, fire for anything with flesh, and any amount of magic if spirits are abound, though that seems unlikely at this dungeon’s age.
I nod to my companions and we begin to push into the area beyond the door, and what is beyond is not what I was expecting. Instead of dusty decrepit halls and tunnels that the surface and the whole nature of the dungeon suggested, it was a clean well kept hall of noble dead. It was such an odd experience, it just stunned us for a solid few seconds, though something that seemed to hold it back was the lack of light, the torch alone showed just how well kept the areas where that the light touched. We shook the shock off rather quickly as we reorganized ourselves into a small rank, Orkus in the back, Venos in the front, me in the middle. As we moved we heard the sounds of rattling bones further through the halls, as I quickly focused on the ice and earth magic coursing through me.
We stepped out from the halls into a small room, there where alcoves where bodies would be left, and a few skeletons resting in them, quietly we moved through the room and I noticed a small inscription near an alcove along the left wall near the door. I was going to ignore it but a second glance I realized it was written in a language I hadn’t ever seen before. It resembled common but it didn’t share much aside from similar looking letters, which could mean it was a variation or maybe even predates modern common. I began turning and opening my mouth to tell the others when suddenly a bony hand grabbed me by the collar of my rob, rattling slightly as the skeleton in the alcove awoke.
It tried to slash me with it’s bony claws but my instincts kicked in and I pushed away, barely able to avoid the racking finger bones by a hair before I could force my way out of its grip. The taring sound the cloth it had grabbed alerted the other two that something was happening just in time for three more skeletons to roll out of their alcoves and stand, preparing to rush them. The first skeleton was quick to chase me down as I backed away a bit, I had no time to recite the spells so I just cast them from instinct. A small shard of ice blasting from the palm of my hand and struck the shoulder bone of the skeleton. It stumbled slightly and the arm seemed to become slower, allowing me a moment to breath and think, looking to my companions it seemed Venos is doing well against his own skeleton but Orkus isn’t near as good with a knife as he is with a bow.
Quietly muttering under my breath energy began forming at the tips of my fingers, I could feel the earth mana saturating every stone surface in this room, to a frankly insane degree at that. With a quick order the mana responded and followed the twist of my hand, stabbing from above the skeleton downwards like a stalactite formed in seconds, breaking open the skeletons skull in an instant. Turning quickly to the sound of clacking bones I barely throw up a shield of raw mana as the claws racked into it. Speaking quickly I felt the energy force between my hands as a scatter of ice slammed into the ribs and neck of the skeleton. I could also hear another bony body hit the ground. I sighed slightly as a something seemed to fade from the bones into the floor.
I turn to the other two just in time to see a scowl from the lizard man and a thoughtful look on the ranger. I had a feeling Venos was going to have a long lecture ready for my by the end of this delve. I didn’t mind though as I returned to the words that hat caught my attention, and really looked at them. If they where a sort of proto-common then this dungeon could actually prove to be older then we thought. Whatever it is though I have a feeling it will be part of what the guild uses to build a case for retaining control of this dungeon.
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