Gamers Eight – Act IV – Chapter 4

It took them three days to find the entrance, it was in a small grotto, the entrance was not readily visible, due to the water cascading next to it, there were some also black bushes with long sharp thorns that hid the entrance even more. After hacking down the thorn bushes they were able to check inside.

“Took us almost two months to find this, we missed it the first time we were here.” Brigette said as they cleared the bushes.

“What can we expect once we get inside,” Nerris asked.

“Most of the path was just caverns, took us a while to map them out.” Brigette said as she removed a thick parchment from her bag of holding. She then unfolded the parchment showing the map they had made. “Keep in mind this is decades old, so things could have changed.”

The adventurers crowed around the map and began talking about the battle that they knew was coming. The began to plan and setup camp. Even with the blighted plants in the small grotto, the place was breathtaking as the sun set.

The two adventuring teams as well as Bloodstone and his wives and children along with the scouts and the others who were with them began to discuss the battle they knew would be taking place the next day.

They had setup the main camp inside the first large cavern, it seemed that some other creatures knew about the place as there were dried peat bricks stacked in one corner, as well as wood.  It didn’t appear that anything had been there in a season or two.  The cavern was two hundred feet from the entrance, and much wider than the narrow passage. It was decided that the scouts and those not accustomed to combat would stay at the camp. That left the silver and gold teams along with Bloodstones group.

That Evening the camp was busy with preparations, both magical and weapon related. Food was eaten, no one commented on the lack of flavor. There was a nervousness, a heightened sense of anticipation, and an undercurrent of fear. They had heard how Brigette’s team had died. They knew the plan, and they were ready.

There was then talk about the mirror and the room, that Bloodstone had shown them. The adventurers wanted to know where it came from.

“I really don’t think that it is important.” Bloodstone said.

“You haven’t really explained how it works, or if you will let us use it.” Nerris

“I will not, give you full details of it abilities, as for allowing you to use it, If any of you fall I will endeavor to make sure you are revived, for the duration of this trip. Now keep in mind there are a few issues you need to know about with the mirror. The creator wanted to make sure it couldn’t be abused so it was glued into the space. Its glued in such a way that the mirror if someone attempts to move it, the mirror will shatter.”

“Why would someone do that?” Kenton asked.

“Consider I know all the secrets of that mirror. I know how it works, when it works, and why it works. There are some other caveats to the mirrors use, I will detail the relevant ones now. First, anyone may be resurrected, if they died, from wounds, or some other ailment. Old age well your out of luck, since it can’t revive you if you died from old age.”

“No, I mean why would someone want to destroy that mirror?” Kenton clarified.

Bloodstone stared at him, “In some instance where someone thought they could get ahold of the key or mirror by force I can destroy it.”

Kenton stared at him.

Nerris asked, “Lord Bloodstone, would you share your classes. We would like some idea of your abilities. I will start I am a [Mage] with thirty-nine levels, I have spells in the third tier that I have modified.  I am also the leader of the Red Blight. I will let the rest of my team introduce themselves” She nodded to Haran.

“Well since we are doing the introductions, I am Haran Zentis, a [Swordsman] of the thirty-seventh level.”  Haran said a little louder than necessary.

The human in chainmail, with the gray ash bow sat next to Haran, he sighed and said, “Evening, I am Solomon Fuentes, a [Ranger] of the thirty third level.”

The other woman wearing normal clothes, cleared her throat,”I am Amanda Radcliff a mage of Wistram” She paused for a moment, “I would like to know if you would teach me some spells, or allow us to copy some of them”

“Seriously Amanda,” The woman in black leather asked. She had dark hair tied back in a short pony tail, “I am the backup rouge Summer Romero, I find traps, pick locks and occasionally pick a pocket or three.” She dropped two dice on the table, they were bone dice, and landed with only one pip up on each die. 

The taller man in dark leather, glared at Summer, “what have I told you about going through my things.” He picked up the two dice and put them in pouch. He ran his hand through his short brown hair. “ Not good with these social things, I am Euan Barker a [Rouge].”

Narris looked at him, “Wow, thats more than you normally say.”

“He’s a Lord, I’m not stupid Nerris” Euan said shrugging.

“What about your team?” Narris asked, Gyrmoth.

The dwarf stood up straightened his beard, “Gyrmoth Redbeard, leader of the Blight Wolves, I am an [Axeman] twenty-fifth level.” He nodded to the female dwarf

She remained seated, “Gwillunlu I am a [Rouge] of the 23rd level, I have been with the Blight wolves for a few months”

The two half elves waited till she finished, “I am Zail Morningflight, I am a ranger of the 24th level.” The female half elf said, “I am Nyteria Morningflight, my specialty is magic and I am a twenty eighth level [mage] My brother and I came to Rhir to do some good in the world. Lord Bloodstone, your kindness to my brother and me has not gone unnoticed; we will not let you down.”

The female warrior of the Blight wolves nodded, “My sword is your’s Lord Bloodstone, I am a twenty ninth level [Swordswoman] The blade you gave me is something I will cherish” she said touching the hilt as her side.

Kenton Thorp, who was leaning against the wall, “I am a [Thief], you know who we are, what about those with you?”

Marcus nodded, “I am Marcus, I do not have a family name, since I grew up in the collusium. I am a [Swordsman] of the thirty second level.”

Eve who had been sitting next to Marcus looked around, “Oh I guess its my turn, Call me Eve, I am” she had to think about it for a moment. “ I have a single [hero] level, two [thief] levels three [mage] levels one

[elementalist]

level and seventeen [pirate] levels.  I haven’t asked Bloodstone to sort out the classes I have, since where I come from we don’t have them like that.”

Xyrdiane smiled when it was her turn, “I am Xyre, or Xyrdiane, my main class is a [Mage] with twenty -seven levels, Bloodstone gave me fourty-four [Geomancer] levels, I have some other non-combat classes they are not important.”

Rana had been watching the exchanges and smiled, “I am Ranathil, most people call me Rana. I have a class of [Arcane Blade Dancer] with Forty-Eight levels.”

There were several gasps from the gold and silver team members.

Hijala who had been standing behind Bloodstone and Lady Amethyst said, “I am Hijala Greenscale, I owe my life to the Lord and Lady, I owe my class as well to Lord Bloodstone. I am an Assassin, and Dragonsoldier.” She said with her wings unfurling.

Dalila who had been listening intently said, “Well I have all kinds of classes, [Mage],[Geneticist],[Druid ] and [Fashion Designer] Not that I am going with you all, ill stay here and examine the grass and other things I have found.”

Xach looked at the rest gathered around, “I just have [Mage] fifteen levels ,[pyromancer] eleven levels [cryomancer] fifteen levels ,

[hero]

two levels, and [weapon master] ten levels” He said shrugging.

Summer whistled, “Wow melee and magic.”

Kuya crossed her arms, “I only have two classes, [Hero] and [The Sister]”

There were looks of confusion, Brigette asked, “I never heard of that class, what does it allow you to do?”

“All kinds of things,” Kuya said uncommittedly.

The other drake that was with them said from the side, “I heard about Lord Bloodstone, I am Elmok Felltail. I have skill with Blade and Claw. The Class I claim is [Skirmisher] of twenty-two levels.”

All eyes turned to Lady Amethyst, “I am a [Raid Enchanter] of eight levels and a [Raid Illusionist] of six levels, I also have three [Hero] levels.”

“Never heard of a [Raid Enchanter] before,” Nerris said looking at the others. They all agreed they had not heard of the class either.

Everyone look at Bloodstone, Brigette asked, “So what are your classes?”

“I have [Hero] with five levels. [Lord] with Six, [Swordsman] with five ,[Visionary] with Eight, [Monster] level of one, a class called [EMPTY] with fifteen, [Artificer] with thirty and two other classes [Dragonsoldier] and [] with one.

“What was that last class?” Brigette asked.

“You mean []” Bloodstone asked.

“I don’t know what your saying, it sounds like noise to me. What about the rest of you?”

The rest of them nodded.

“Huh, so if I write it down what class do you see?” he said scratching symbols into the dirt.

“Looks like random markings to me.” Xrydiane said, “what about you Rana?”

“It doesn’t look like letters”, Rana said squinting at the lines.

“I guess the class conceals itself as well,” He said rubbing the stubble on his chin.

“What about those other classes? Like the [Visonary] class and you have an [empty] class? You have some strange classes.”Gyrmoth said.

“What is an [artificer]?” Summer asked before anyone else could say anything.

“It allows me to make magic items and cast spells in a different manner than mages or wizards.” Bloodstone said.

“Its actually an Acronym and sounds like [empty] its really Energy, Matter , Psionics, Time, and Yantra. It combines thought forms to be able to manipulate them in real time, the skills I have are a bit weird in that class.” He said shrugging, “Combined with the

[visionary]

and [Artificer] Class, I can do a lot with magic.”

When they trekked through the rest of underground caverns, there was no sound as they walked.

They began leaving magic light orbs behind. They were small glass beads that had been enchanted with magical light. They would last for a very long time, before having to be recharged.  Bloodstone had given each of them a pouch full. The pouches they were made of soft leather. The light orbs were round enough to be considered marbles. They illuminated the cavern they were going through and looking closer with the bright light they could see the cavern had been widened in places, as if by tools.

They finally arrived at the sealed doorway. The heavy stone seal had fallen closing off the area. It took four of the stronger adventurers to move the stone enough to get a metal bar underneath.  Using two bars as levers they lifted the block a half inch, and then put a small metal wedge underneath. Working together it took them several hours to lift it far enough to lock it back in place above the small passage way beyond.

The original door plug was still where Brigettes team had originally left it. A single tap from one of the pick axes and it shrank down small enough to pick up. It was set off to one side with the pick axe, just in case they needed to seal it back up.

With the passage open they started walking down the slopped passage single file.  Bloodstone took the lead; the reasoning is that if he was grabbed first he could take all the creatures’ class levels assuming it must have some. Marcus followed behind Brigette as her guard,

Weapons were drawn as they descended, and Violet had two full teams of people that were to protect her since she was going to protect their emotions.

The group of them arrived at the bottom of the slope. Bloodstone threw out two bags of the marbles onto the floor, some rolled others landed in the soft sand. The area around them was illuminated.

Brigette was the first to speak, “Our footprints are still here. Where are the bodies?”

 As the rest of the party members came through the passage Violet, said, “It’s here!”

The teams all looked up and saw the creature, just as Brigette had described it. It was hit with spells, arrows and throw blades the instant it was recognized as a threat.

Spells impacted or landed, arrows stuck in and the thrown blades bit into the beast. The black energy that hit Brigette, Bloodstone and Marcus shattered as the defensive runes protecting them were destroyed. The creature attacked Bloodstone, with a thick purple and black tentacle.

The moment it came in contact Bloodstone used his ability and pulled all the levels from the creature.

[Sentient Construct acquired 83]

A second wave of spells, from Kuya and Xach, landed. There was a loud clap of thunder as lighting arced from Xach’s spear leaving a burning hole through a tentacle. A silver mist washed over it melting pieces of the monster, dripping off in grey slimy drops. The creature screamed, glaring at the attackers with its one red eye. It was at that moment that Zail fired a silver tipped arrow at the creature. His aim was true, and the bow was made for killing, as it passed through the eye leaving causing a large detonation as it exited the back side of the beast. There was a metallic clang and the beast dropped off to one side, thrashing. Shafts of light, fire, lighting, and cold hit the beast while it moved.

The melee fighter rushed in hacking, slashing, and stabbing at the Beast, leaving a black gore.

Brigette stared at the dead creature, “Thank you!” There were tears in her eyes, the beast was dead. It had a strange metallic shell with what looked like a broken chain of the same material.

“As discussed, anything on the beast or anything salvageable from the beast is Brigette’s and her team.”

They had fanned out into the large area. Off to one side they found the bodies. Hundreds of bodies, many of them were not human. There were antinium bodies stacked in one section near where they came in . They found another small entrance that had been carved through the side of the large room. Searching through the desiccated remains, they found some remains of Brigettes team. Shen, Hrak, Yvette, and Em they found near the top of the pile of corpse, stripped of gear. Brigette found the location Balis had died, and there was off-color sand, that pointed to the other side of the large room.  They collected some of the sand.

“What do you think is making that smell”, Kenton Thorp asked.

“Something else here?” Gyrmoth said hefting his axe.

“Take is slow,” Nerris said as the four rouges and thieves looked for traps.

They were leaving single marbles, once an area had been cleared. The room itself was massive.

Bloodstone conferred with the others, “We can try and get one of the Golden swords back up, without their gear, and we can gear them up, and get them situated, three days to bring them all back if we have all the remains. What worries me is the antinium, there as thousands of bodies in that pile. If they couldn’t break what was here, we need to be very very careful.“

“We got what we came for”, Gyrmoth said, “We shouldn’t linger, leave this for other gold teams.”

“We are a gold team, this is what we came to find, what do you think might be here?” She asked Brigette and Bloodstone.

“Ask him he has a complete book, its how we found out about this place.” Brigette replied.

“Kuya, you finish translating that book?” He asked Kuya who was staring off into the darkness. “Kuya!”

“Huh, what?” she said looking back over at her father.

“You finish translating that book?” He asked.

“Um, no, it’s really boring. Though there was one note about there being something bad buried here.” She said shrugging.

“Great, what were you looking at?” He asked.

“Oh the undead dragon over there, oh yeah, there is an undead dragon over there didn’t I mention it?”

“No, no you didn’t.” Bloodstone said looking where she had been looking.

“Undead dragon?” Brigette said.

“Um hum, maybe I can go make friends with it.” Kuya said as she started walking in that direction.

“Wait. Kuya, hold on” Bloodstone said looking into the darkness.

“It’s just an undead dragon maybe its lonely or bored.” Kuya said stopping to talk.

“We need that translation first, and everyone else let’s get back to the way we came in.” He said gesturing.

“We can take a dragon”, Haran said.

Bloodstone looked at him, “Is that bravado, or ignorance?”

“Are you saying this party can’t take a dragon.” He asked.

“It’s not a question of taking the dragon it’s more of do we need to?” Bloodstone replied keeping an eye on Kuya

Kuya had pause while her father watched, “What, I just want to go talk to it see if it’s intelligent, what if I took Rana and Xyre?”

Rana looked pale,”um no. I can tell her no right, sorry Kuya you are scaring me”

“Phhhhffff, buncha pansies. Afraid of a little undead dragon” she took two steps towards the dark area, and her staff began to glow in a soft blue silver light.

“Kuya, it’s not them being afraid it is me being cautious. Something about the antinum being here is not reassuring.”

“What about you Xyrediane?” Kuya asked.

“What about me? I don’t want to have to fight an undead dragon” Xyre said, glancing between Kuya and Rana.

“I just want you to be a witness” Kuya said rolling her eyes.

“Kuya, stop fooling around, you don’t need to go antagonize that undead dragon!” Bloodstone said.

“But I just wana..” She started to say

“No,  you just wana go cause trouble.”

“What’s going on?” Xach asked.

“Your sister wants to go talk to an undead dragon, not sure what for.”  He said looking at Kuya

“Wait I want that dragon, to play with myself.” Xach said.

“I just want its core,” Kuya said to her brother.

“I want the bones, I don’t really care about the core” Xach replied.

“You don’t even have necromancer levels yet”, Kuya said teasing him.

“Well it’s a good place to start.” Xach said walking over to her.

“I really just want the dragon’s core” Kuya said.

Rana and Xyre moved closer to Bloodstone, “What are they arguing about” Rana asked.

“Who gets what part of the undead dragon, it seems. I really don’t have the heart to tell them that their mother is already taking the decision away from them.” He nodded at Lady Amethyst who was walking in the direction of the dragon. Marcus and Kijala were just behind her. Behind them the gold team was advancing, and the rouges and thieves were checking for traps.

Kuya looked over and said, “Oh hell no!”  she locked arms with her brother and they both vanished.

“The rest of you with me, we will be the B team.” He said loudly.

“Your kids are nuts.” Xyrediane said.

“Yeah, I feel bad for the dragon.” He said as they walked to where the others were going.

“Feel bad for the dragon?” Rana said.

“Yeah that rift was my son showing off, imagine if they got pissed off.”

“Oh! It looks like your wife is arguing with them and the dragon.” Rana said.

As they approached the argument was going between Xack and Kuya who was going to get the dragon.

“Excuse me, but I have the Dragon charmed,” Lady Amethyt said.

The Undead dragons eyes flickered from one speaker to the next, and as they approached bloodstone pointed to one side. The dragon moved its head in that direction not moving but listening to the conversation.

 “Sorry about that, I gather your aware of the situation”, Bloodstone said to the Dragon.

“I am in thrall to that woman, and she has told me to behave myself. I don’t believe this charm will hold me for very long. I would have to take it out on those who are here once it breaks.” The dragons said its voice rumbling.

“Long enough dragon, and I would suggest you don’t attack anyone here, it’s only a friendly suggestion” Lady Amethyst said walking over still listening to the siblings argue.

“I so want to rend you apart woman, your charm however it is strong enough to make me obey at least for the moment. I do not sense any divine power from any of  you  and that being said I have no apprehension that you can truly do me harm.”

“You have a name, I presume something you would go by?” Bloodstone asked speaking for the first time.

 “None of you will live to share it with anyone, once the guardian awakens.” The dragon said smugly.

“Oh you mean the purple-black squid construct, yeah we tore that apart about ten minutes ago. My daughter wanted to come over and get you but her brother wanted a piece to.” Bloodstone said looking over the dragon.

It was an undead Dragon, the smell obviously was from its decomposing corpse, as its body was in a state of decomposition.

“You seem to have some problem, curse?” Bloodstone asked the dragon.

“It is my punishment; I am to be in perpetual agony and in a state of life and death”  The dragon moved his head over to the two siblings, and said loudly to Kuya, “I do not have a core!” and, ”You may not have my bones either.” He said to Xach.

The two of them looked at the dragon and both casted a spell in unison, “You shut up and wait your turn” Kuya said as her brother replied, “I wasn’t asking you” The two spells hit the dragon in the face, burning off the decaying flesh and exposing the bone underneath. The dragon reeled back obviously in agony from the attack.

Lady Amethyst cast a spell as well and the dragon froze in place. “You two stop messing with the sick dragon and behave” she said admonishing them.

They all watched in fascination as the flesh began to form back over the damaged area it however was still decaying. “I get it, are you one of the reasons for the blight?” Bloodstone asked.

The dragon’s eyes slowly turned towards him, and then its head moved closer, “Human I was there when the Blight curse was cast, I was one of the lucky ones who did not die from the blight. I became this, unable to fly unable to feel the kiss of the sun, a curse so foul I had no way to remove it, there have been no clerics in millennia, I am not the cause of the blight.” The dragons rage simmered, “How can you still be standing before me unaffected by my majesty and terror?”

“I brought a special class, for the guardian”, she’s shielding our emotions.

“What are you?” The dragon said focusing its gaze on Bloodstone.

“I am the only one here who isn’t after your soul, your bones or your treasure. If you really want to fight I think we can accommodate you however I think that you will be on the losing side.”

The Dragons gaze shifted to the rest of the party who had arrived, and then back to Bloodstone. “I am still trying to determine if you’re a threat or all bluster. It seems that you have me at a disadvantage at least for the moment. Why have you come here to disturb me and my stewardship of the dead?”

“We actually only came to kill the guardian and recover her friends,” Bloodstone gestured to Brigette, “You being here is unexpected, my kids decided that they wanted pieces of you. I however have more esoteric interests. The biggest question is why are the antinum attacking here?”

“I presume you are aware of whom you are addressing.” The dragon said moving closer to Bloodstone.

“I do not believe anyone here knows who you are. Would you care to enlighten us?” Bloodstone asked.

The dragon rose his head and fanned out its decaying and hole ridden wings, “I am Amronas, the Eternal Fire, Defender of the Elven forest.” The dragon stared down at Bloodstone.

“I take it you lost?” Bloodstone asked, and the dragon folded its wings sending a foul stench over the group.

“We lost,” The dragon admitted softly.

“Lost to the gods or someone else?”

“We won, and lost, are you here to torment me, or to rob the graves of the fallen? I may be injured; I can still fight the likes of you.”

“No Amaronas, I am not here to fight, only recover the dead, and to heal the wounds of the past. I think there is a greater calling here. I believe, no I know, I can set you free.” Bloodstone fished out the small silver symbol, of two dragons intertwined.

“I do not know that symbol.” The dragon said focusing on the polished silver.

“None on this world would. You need healing and I know only one being who could do that without bias and with love of dragons.” Bloodstone took a deep breath, and yelled, his voice took on a tone of power, that echoed off the walls, “I summon…”

“You have no power to heal me human! Nor can you contain me. I will rend apart you, and your compatriots. I do not know how you are able to stand before me without fear.”

“I really only just want to help you.” Bloodstone said holding the symbol so the Dragon could see it.

“I don’t need or want your help human, just DIE!” the dragon roared sending gouts of flame across the group gathered. The flames, dissipated just short of the adventurers.

“You need a breath mint, or something, all though I am not sure how to get a breath mint that big.” Bloodstone said in a mocking tone.

The dragon slashed at him knocking him twenty feet backwards into the sandy floor.  “I will not be mocked by you human!”

The dragon’s tail lashed out and several barbs flew as it raked across Xack and Marcus, the two of them were bowled over from the attack.

“My Lord!” Brigette called from the back.

“Im fine, “ Bloodstone said getting back up,  he looked behind at Brigette and saw her kneeling next to Violet. As he looked closer he could see one of the spikes had impaled Violet through the chest.

Brigette stared at the spike, and called louder “Bloodstone!”

“Keep this overgrown rotting lizard busy,” Bloodstone said to Kuya and Lady Amethyst as he ran over to where Violet was laying.

Violet looked up at him, as he knelt, “I’m sorry,” she gasped softly, obviously in a lot of pain. Brigette had a healing potion ready.

“That won’t work Brigette, look at the wound.” Bloodstone said softly. They both look at the wound were her skin came in contact were black lines. “She’s been infected by the same curse or disease that dragon has and seeing that she’s infected tells me its magical in nature and most likely not a disease.” He leaned closer to Violet, “You have nothing to be sorry for, I am going to put you to sleep and you will be better when I wake you up.”

“Don’t use the mirror my lord, I don’t want to be what I was before.” She gasped out, a trickle of blood running from the corner of her mouth.

“I know, we discussed it before.” He said taking her hand in his.

There was a loud explosion and a wave of heat washed over them. “Brigette,” Bloodstone said staring at Violet. 

“My Lord?” She said looking back at him.

“I can’t save her, there is not enough time, what would you do?” He said looking up at Brigette.

Brigette stared at him then looked back at the fierce fight that was going on between the dragon and his wife and kids.

“The wasps you made venom to turn someone to stone, perhaps that, could buy you some time?” She suggested.

“Brilliant!,” he said, and then began looking through his bag of holding for something.

Violet gasped, “Its bad isn’t it.”

“Not it’s just a flesh wound, I have a solution for that.” Bloodstone said as he found the bright yellow potion vial he was looking for.  

Violet started coughing, ”You don’t have to lie to me, I can feel the burning from the wound. Take my classes before I go.”

“You are going to be fine, Isn’t she Brigette.” Bloodstone said half-heartedly. Brigette, didn’t say anything.

“Drink this, you only need a couple of drops.” He said taking the cork out of the top and holding the vial to her lips.

The liquid touched her and where it touched it turned to stone, and in moments she was a solid stone statue.  He slowly corked the bottle and stood up.

“Dead Gods!” Brigette said, as he stood up, and took two steps away from him.

He turned to where the battle was raging and screamed, “Amronas!” The sound from his yell brought the combat to a pause. Kuya stood in front of Lady Amethyst , her staff in front of her, the feather wings had dropped down and looked very sharp. Xach stood next to her, a spear in his left hand and a bastard sword in his right.  Lady Amethyst was still casting, as the dragon turned to Bloodstone its eyes narrowed. “Your little slave can’t block the fear now.” The dragon taunted.

Bloodstone didn’t answer but drew two longswords, the blade in his left hand gave off a deep purple sheen, it was an ordinary looking sword, no ornamentation, or jewels. The second blade, he drew was jet black, except the edges of the blade itself. The blade itself crackled with a green energy and flashed across the blackness of the blade. The black blade was adorned with green and red stones, that glowed with an inner fire. The hilt and pommel of the sword were adorned in the same green-red gemstones.

“What happened to make him that angry”, Kuya said, seeing him draw the two blades.

Xach smiled, and said to the dragon, “You are so screwed now, you pissed off my dad! I am going to get your bones”

The Dragon opened it mouth to use its fiery breath again. The moment his mouth opened, a jagged piece of ice shot into the soft parts at the back of his mouth. There was a retching and gagging sound from the dragon.

“Ooops,” Xach taunted, “Biting off more than you can chew.”

A ball of white light streaked from the dragons [Light lance] and dissipated inches from Xach. “That all you got dragon” Kuya said looking around. Brigette was looking at the statue, Kuya frowned, turned to the dragon, “Unforgivable! she let go of her staff and it floated next to her taking one hand over the other  across her chest and made a slow rending motion with her hands in front of her and said a single word “Azafaln” The dragon screamed as his wings were torn off, and a tearing sound could be heard. She grabbed the staff and in shrunk down and she put it around her neck as a necklace. “Esprite take the spells out” She turned and started walking towards Brigette and the statue.

Bloodstone began walking across the sandy floor, towards the dragon. He passed by Kuya and nodded. Elmok walked beside him, With a sword in one claw. “It is an honor to fight alongside you my Lord.”

Marcus and Haran followed him slightly behind. “Do you have a plan,” Marcus asked.

“Cut it apart till it stops moving.” Bloodstone said swinging the purple blade.

The dragon charged at, Kuya. The dragon stopped just short of Kuya and turned to see what had caused it to register the intense pain it felt in its right claw. As it had bounded past Bloodstone, it had left its left claw sitting in the sand. The shock and fear began to creep into the dragon.

Lord Bloodstone stood in a guarded position making a small profile, as he faced off with the dragon. Marcus, Haran and Elmok stood behind him.

Kuya knelt next to the statue and began speaking to Esprite in another language. (pixen) ”U alaba nal uf al Maqyk”

The small glowing ball of fluff replied with a sharp “Pi”

“Bal bule tuu Vayolet” she said to Esprite.

There was a glow as the spike floated up and began to dissolve in mid-air.

The dragon’s claw was regenerating slowly. It turned to stare at Bloodstone and cast [Mass slay living] at the four of them. The black wave rolled over Bloodstone and just dissipated.  The dragon cast a second spell [Frozen Solid] the four blue orbs flew and again stopped just short, dissipating in a shower of blue and white light.

“C’mon Dragon! That all you got?” Marcus taunted.

The dragon snarled, and cast a [Death lance] at Macus, the energy hit Marcus and he reeled back, as if injured. Then went back into his guard stance, “Weak, there are Mages of the Theocracy that have more magic than you do, pathetic.”

The dragon roared at Marcus. Two of the mages at that moment cast lighting at the dragon, it deflected off the scales and went into the ceiling, causing a rain of stone and debris. The dragons tail whipped around as he turned towards the Mages, intent on impaling Bloodstone on one of the spikes on the tail. Bloodstone blocked the tail with the black blade and slid back two feet. Bloodstone slashed at the tail, but the dragon moved it away before the edge of the blade could connect.

Kuya who’s back was to the dragon was kneeling over the statue of Violet chanting and holding her palms facing down. A glowing blue spark circled around her head. Brigette stepped close to the dragon putting Kuya behind her.  She began casting [Energy Protection].

There was a small “Pi” from the spark and it shot out towards the dragon and then just as quickly reappeared around her head.

Rana watched from a distance, the dragon was getting frustrated as each spell it cast at the main group was just gone. The small glowing spark that was with Kuya seemed to get brighter each time a spell was blocked. Rana smiled as she watched and then moved in, she danced over to Xyre and spoke softly to her. “Kuya’s pet is eating the dragon’s spells. Bloodstone is doing some damage to the dragon but not enough to matter much. I am going to see if I can help.”

Xyre wiped some sweat off her brow, “Just be careful.”

Lady Amethyst was with Xach on the other side of the dragon, distracting him, and slowing him down.  Each time it went to attack her, Xach would stab or slash it, and it would get hit with magic from Lady Amethyst. Rana danced over to Lady Amethyst, spinning and twirling the blade she had flashed when the dragons tail came close to Lady Amethyst.

The dragon began to slowly back up, it could see that there were no openings that he could exploit. His spells were being countered or dissipated by that strange spark that the human girl had hovering around her. Even spells aimed at it specifically had no effect, and the magic was just gone.

Dragons usually have little to fear, from humans, elves, dwarves, gazers or many of the other creatures that crawled on the world. Only fools or Heroes would ever think of attacking a dragon. The dragon tried its breath weapon again, to little effect.

Amronas had existed in the underground cavern for centuries, hiding from the sun, and only venturing out once every few centuries during the darkest nights to see what had changed, it had been millennia since he had fought seriously, anyone of consequence. Amronas knew fear, it was a tool he employed with great effect against lesser mortals. These new adversaries were on a whole new level, akin to the heroes of old. It both filled him with joy, and trepidation. The one they called Bloodstone, would in time wear away his defenses, and possibly slay him.

The dragon turned suddenly and bound into the darkness farther into the cavern. For such a large creature he was silent, as he retreated.

“HOLD!” Bloodstone said as the silver and gold teams sensing the change in combat, began to give chase.  His voice has a sobering effect on the group, the slowed and stopped.

The dragons voice boomed out of the darkness, “Only fools attack a dragon in its lair.”

“We need to regroup” Brigette said.

Euan the rouge who had been hanging back shouted, “The floor is one big web of traps, they all just went active, no one move!”

Summer, froze and looked at her feet, her [sense trap] showed the floor as a web of tiles, and all of them were registering as a trap.

Gwillunlu who was standing next to Gyrmoth, looked up. She to saw a web of traps, “Above as well”

“What kind of traps?” Vala asked.

Kenton slowly knelt and looked at the floor, “Magical, pressure trap. I can’t disarm it.”

“It’s not registering as magical.” Nerris said looking around.

Kuya was still chanting over the statue of Violet, and red sparks began to form on her fingertips and fall touching Violet. Each spark shattered into smaller pieces and danced across the stone. Bloodstone walked over to where she was chanting and stopped as he got close. The blue spark streaked from her head and stopped about six feet from him and hovered in the air. 

“How are you not setting off the traps?” Brigette asked

“I’m draining the magic in a radius, pulling it into the sword. Esprite is doing the same thing; he just has much finer control.”

The small spark went “Pi” and zipped like a blue streak back to Kuya.

“Amronas! I give you a choice, the last one you will get. Surrender or Die.”

There was a deep laugh from the darkness, “You puny human, what can you do to me? Your magic is weak, your weapons are weak, and those with you are even weaker. Know you are in my lair and no one has ever left alive.”

“I’ll show you, Dragon, what I am truly capable of. Marcus, Elmok, Kenton I need the three of you to get the others to the entrance, Marcus take my Shadow blade.” He held the black blade so that Marcus could take the blade from him.

 “My lord please allow me to stay” Elmok said looking into the darkness.

“Elmok, you can do better behind me that next to me. It not that I don’t appreciate the initiative, I just don’t want you to get hurt when I take out a mouthy dragon. “ Bloodstone reached into a small green pouch and dropped three oddly shaped dice to the floor.  “Dragon! You have one last chance to surrender, “ He said glancing down at the three dice. He knelt and scooped them up and put them back into his pouch.

There was just laugher from the darkness.

Marcus, Kenton and Elmok moved to stand next to Kuya and the statue of Violet. Kuya continued to chant, beads of sweat forming on her face.  Everyone else began to move to the ramp entrance.

Bloodstone sheathed the purple blade and held his hands above his head palms facing each other about a foot apart.

It was quiet for a moment then a snap of electricity arced between his hands. It was for a single second and there were no other sounds, and it was as if someone turned on a torrent of electricity, the bolts began as blue energy, and began to arc as white towards the center.  At first there was just one bolt jumping back and forth, then two, and it began to pulse faster and faster.  A cacophony of sound from between his hands the light began to grow brighter and brighter. The underground structure began to become illuminated, as the light grew brighter. It rose up five feet then ten and hung in the air.

There was a burst of bright white light, it illuminated the entirety of the underground, illuminated the dragon who howled as the light toughed it.

“I will kill you human!” The dragon said getting closer, trying to avoid the glare of the light.  

“Darkness to light dragon, you told me you fear the sun. Behold A miniature sun for you!” At his words the light flared again and stayed. The light was bright, bright as a mid-summer’s day, and just as warm.

The dragon screamed, as its body began to smoke and melt. Trickles of black slime began to drip from the dragon’s body.  It tried to move but was unable to as the pain it was experiencing made movement impossible.

Flames dripped from the dragon’s mouth as it tried to breath a flame. Bloodstone walked over to the dragon as it had fallen to the floor. The ball of energy still hung where it had been left, giving off a bright yellow glow.

The dragon’s eyes flickered between him and the ball hanging in the sky.

“I did warn you Amronas, you have no one to blame but yourself.  I tried to be reasonable, tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, even tried to negotiate. You mistook passivity for weakness.” Bloodstone drew the blade shimmering with a purple light.

The dragon gurgled, until Bloodstones shadow covered a small portion of its head. “How, how are you able to be this powerful?” the dragon rasped.

“I am a [],” Bloodstone said.

The dragon rasped, “I do not know what you are, you have bested me.” The dragons body continued to smolder and ooze, the stench was becoming stronger. Bloodstone backed away letting the light cover the dragon.

Kuya stopped chanting and the red sparks slowed and stopped. She turned and walked over to stand next to her father, “I still want that dragons’ core” She said.

“Your brother gets the bones, I want its mind, everything else is going to have to be destroyed.” He said looking at the dragon.

“Ok.”

Bloodstone looked over at the dragon, “I will try and make this as painless as possible.” The dragon gurgled, and attempted to reply.He looked over at Kuya, “Use his heart, we can purify it for a vessel to hold his soul”

“Mkay,” She said looking at the dragon, she made a grasping motion and the dragon screamed as it heart was ripped from its body. It was still beating and connected. There was a brilliant flash of light, that washed over everyone in the room.

Bloodstone made a gesture as if tearing the dragon apart, and a pile of bones appeared on one side and a floating gray brain with the eyes still attached was floating on the other side.  A lattice of energy began to form around the heart and brain, white geometric patterns that formed and began to become more and more intricate.

“I think that’s right,” Kuya said

There was a loud snap as two very large multi-faceted gemstones were created, one pulsed with a deep red and black light, the other was gray black and appeared to have shadows moving within it.

Kuya stood over them and the red sparks began to fall again from her hands, each time a spark touched one of the gemstones, it flashed. A black liquid began to drip from the two gems. It was viscous and after the first two drops bloodstone began to collect the drops in two vials. The vials filled to about halfway and then stopped. He then put them away carefully with the stoppers.

Kuya sighed and the sparks stopped, the two gemstones looked very pure, one looked like a deep ruby that pulsed a heathy red, the other was a clear white. Bloodstone took the white one and Kuya pocketed the red one.  There was still a pile of bones, and a putrid pile of dragon remains. Kuya took off the small pendant and her staff was again in her hands. She then tapped her staff with its large silver feathers on the ground, made a wave with the staff and the remains and the smell just vanished.

“Pi?” The small ball of light said as it floated were the remains were.

“No Espirit, that’s gross” Bloodstone said.

The two of them turned and walked over to the statue of Violet. Bloodstone knelt and drew out a small clear vial. He administered three drops to the statue’s lips, and where the drops touched became flesh again. The transformation was slow, it took more than a minute for the effect to spread over Violets whole body, she was unconscious from the transformation. Bloodstone gently picked her up from the floor and carried her back towards the entrance, where Marcus stood with the black sword.

“Marcus take the rogues and mages and see if you can find the switch that turned on the traps and turn it off. You may need the sword to create a dead area.” In a louder voice speaking to the others,” I am going back to camp, bring the bodies of Brigette’s team, and see if you can find that dragons’ treasure, its got to be around here somewhere, it wasn’t inside him…” He turned to Kuya, “It wasn’t inside him was it?”

“Er, no. I just got rid of the nasty flesh.” Kuya said collapsing her staff and putting it back around her neck.

Without saying anymore, he headed up the incline to the caverns. Kuya said to Xack, “Daddy put the bones over there,” she said gesturing behind her.

“Meh,” Xach said

“Well if you don’t want them, I am sure they would sell well, to someone. I think Briggets team has a necromancer that we can resurrect that might want them”

“I want them.” Xach said walking in the direction she mentioned.

“Uh the traps”, Kuya asked him”

“Meh” he said making frost appear over everything in his path.

“Did he just take out a dragon?”, Nerris asked.

“Not really, we just broke it apart.” Kuya said.

“Broke it apart? I’m not sure if I should be relieved or terrified. We have work to do here, let’s get to work” Nerris said looking at the teams.

The group of them began searching the area, as the rogues and thieved disarmed the traps. It took  a while, and while they worked, the bodies of the slain adventures were carried in cloth bags one by one to the ramp entrance.

Nerris and Gyrmoth were discussing the treasure they had found. Brigette was carrying a bag. They both were looking for Bloodstone, who had not returned.

“This look wider here?” Gyrmoth said looking at the smooth walls.

“Yeah now that you mention it, it does seem wider. Nerris asked.

“That’s going to be a lot to haul. I have never have seen so much gold and magic items, I think that might be enough to make us everyone gold rank and get named?” Brigette said walking with them.

Eve was talking with the scouts William and Stephanie as well as the woman they had found Dalila. Dalilah was talking emphatically, about the vial she had in her hand. “It work, and now it’s all green”

“Could you not wave that around?” Eve asked.

“Oh, yeah of course, sorry.” Dalilah said putting the glass stopper vial away.

“Has anyone seen Lord Bloodstone?” Brigette asked.

“He’s outside,” Eve said gesturing to the entrance of the cavern.

Brigette walked outside and saw him sitting on the edge of the pool. The plants outside were all a bright green. She looked out into the blight and noticed there was a patch of green , extending out from the pool. She saw that Lord Bloodstone held a large diamond that glowed softly in one hand “Am I disturbing you?”

He looked up, “No, just thinking is all, they were too loud inside. How did it go?”

“We found the treasure and your wife, let me use the mirror. I revived Shen, he’s resting in the dragons lair, I wanted to thank you.”

Bloodstone waved it off, “There is no need, I just was doing what was right.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Brigette said sitting down next to him.

He her in the eyes, there was a haunted look in his. “I know what happened.” He said as he placed the large diamond in a bag of holding at his waist.

“What do you mean?”

“What happened, to the dragon and Rhir. I know now what everyone has forgotten, and to be honest, I am still processing the implications. What it all means.”

“Would you care to share?” she said enthusiastically.

“No, not now, I need to process it, I need to get a handle on my own feelings about what I know, it could change the world, or change nothing.” Still staring at her, “I will have to keep this to myself, at least until I am able to come to terms with the implications. I have a feeling there are some who know this truth. I need to get back to work.” He said standing up and offering his arm to help her up as well.

She stood and accepted his arm, “What about Violet, I saw she was still sleeping.”

He nodded, “I really should get back to work.” He said pulling a pickaxe from the stone wall.

“What are you working on, I didn’t notice that there.”

“There are some ores that I want to collect off that way,” he said gesturing at the far wall.

“With just that pickaxe? I don’t see how that will help.”

He flashed a snide grin, “Yeah, its enchanted.” A slight breeze blew, with it the scent of grass.

It was then she noticed that the greenery seemed to shimmer a little. He glanced over at the greenery, “No my doing that’s Dalilah’s handywork, now that she has a sample of the blight to work with.” He turned and went back into the cavern. Brigette followed and saw that he had widened the passage towards the back of the cavern and strode down the widened corridor.

Glowing lights were set at intervals with a slight slope down. Brigette followed him silently, marveling at the smoothness of the stone. “You did all this with that small pick axe?”

The tunnel went down a almost a thousand feet, before stopping at a blank wall.

“Almost to the material I want to collect.” He said as he swung the pick axe at the wall, four small cubes of stone dropped to the ground and he took a step forward and swung again.

“Is this something you found?” She asked.

“You mean the pickaxe? No, it’s something I made, um you wouldn’t have any context. However, it’s based on something me and my kids played at home.”

“You dug into the earth where you came from?” She asked.

“Uhh, no we played a game, I had a server we played on together, never mind not important, it’s the idea of being able to dig into the earth looking for ore or in my case a type of stone.” He swung again and again leaving small cubes on the ground as he progressed forward and down.

“How do you know where to go?” She asked.

“Oh, I have [geomancer] skills from before I gave the levels to Xyre, so I can look for specific stone”

Abruptly the stone changed from gray stone to a black marble. He struck the pickaxe at the stone only a single cube of black stone dropped to the ground. “Perfect!” With a will he began to carve out more and more small black cubes.

“What are you doing?” Brigette asked.

“Collecting marble blocks, can you gather them into here” He said offering her a leather satchel.

Brigette took the it and swept them into the satchel, “What are you going to use them for?”

“It’s a surprise, and I think it’s appropriate.” He said swinging the pickaxe.

“I wanted to talk to you about the dragon’s treasure. I talked with the others and we want to be fair. There is way too much for all of us, and you are the one who took care of the dragon.”

“What is there to talk about, I get a share as does everyone else, it’s what we agreed on, if you insist, make sure we give the king a cut of the items, and gold. I think it would be appropriate if the teams gave it to him.” He said not looking back but cleaning up the marble.

“Even with that we, they you should take more, than one share.”

“What’s the real reason?” He said as the last marble blocks hit the smooth floor.

“We can’t carry it all, not even a tenth the rest we would have to leave behind, we have no way to transport that much treasure? We also feel that you financed us equipped us and we want to pay you back. We also don’t want to leave anything behind.”

“I see, I think we can move some of it into the room, and with the bags of holding we have in the chest, that should be enough space to move it all.”

“It’s not, you need to see for yourself.”

The black marble cubes were stored in the satchel and he hooked the pickaxe to a clip on his belt. “I suppose, let’s go look. What did my wife say?”

“Xyrediane, and Rana, they didn’t say much, Lady Amethyst is looking over the items, herself identifying things.” She said following him back up the slight incline. The stone in the passage was a dull mottled gray with some inclusions of white and blue stone. “I want to apologize, about my behavior at the fortress.”

“Its water under the bridge, as long as you don’t do it again, I won’t have a problem. I understand you wanted to keep people safe.”

“Why did you light that by the way, no one else will ever go down there?”

Bloodstone stopped, “Its not about who will go there. I needed the light to see.”

“You are leaving them there; though why not collect the small light beads?” She asked.

Brigette followed him through the room near the entrance, and into the long passage, occasionally he would stop and use the pick axe, and clear an obstruction of stone making the passageway uniform

“Why are you clearing the walls here?” She asked.

He shrugged, “I just want it to look better”

“Look better?” She said taken aback, “Why should you care?”

“I have a philosophy leave things better than you found them. I know it may not make sense to you. It’s something I do. I revere life, it all its forms, for me to take that from monsters and such, I do not do it out of malice or anger. I understand that in the heat of battle my emotions can overrule my sense, sometime is just needs to happen. I can be a monster if I need to be.”

Brigette grabbed him by the arm, and turned him slightly “So what is the problem?”

“What do you mean?”

“You left and have been screwing around. I thought you would want to see the treasure?” She said accusingly.

“Not really, I don’t like my friends and people I care about being hurt, they take priority.”

“Snap out of it we need you, there so much treasure, it’s overwhelming, it more treasure than I have ever even heard of.”

He sighed and followed her, through the caverns and down the ramp. There were still beads on the floor, and the small sun blazed in the cavern. He followed her across the path that that had been clearly marked. It led to the very back of the cavern, there was passageway that went both left and right, and then came back.to another large cavern. The went in about sixty feet on each side and then joined back up leading to a large cavern. It was not very illuminate, there were beads strategically placed, and yet it did not give a sense of the size of the are they were in. “You want me to get the light?” Bloodstone asked.

The others in the area who were setting down the beads, stopped and waited.

Bloodstone left and retuned with the small brilliant ball of light. he set it glowing. Near the entryways. The levers that controlled the traps and presumably other defenses were clearly illuminated.

There was a collective gasp as the size of the room was revealed. Gold, and gems glittered from everywhere. There were tapestries on the walls, and statutes of various people in poses.

“It’s a tomb”  Kenton said the farthest into the room.

Everyone looked at Kenton. He was standing next to a statue that was in a large alcove, the statue was of an elf with a sword raised high and his other hand spread as if casting a spell. There were amulets thrown over the sword and hung along the statues arm as if someone had been throwing them for sport. Three of them hung from lengths of gold chain.

“Why do you think it’s a tomb,” Gyrmoth asked.

“Look there is a statue in front of every alcove, and in each alcove is a sarcophagus. They are all sealed. If this was the dragons treasure room, he was guarding it. Ill prove it help me open this.” Kenton said.

“Don’t.” Bloodstone said

“Don’t what?” Gyrmoth asked.
“Open the Sarcophagi, it would be very bad. They sealed this place so that it would never cause trouble, they didn’t realize that it was already loose. These heroes fell first, when the blight started. The dragon helped put them here. It cost him.”

“How do you know that?” Nerris asked.

“I, have the dragons memories, the treasure here is ok to take, the sarcophagi, should never be opened. Clear a space here.” He gestures to the center of the room.

“What inside?” Lady amethyst asked.

“Nothing we should want to see, they have no treasure in them, just sealed Heroes. Heroes, who died defending this world.” Bloodstone, waited while they cleared an area and he then began placing small stone blocks in the area. Using the pick-axe they grew to a meter square and fused to each other. After a base had been constructed three blocks wide and ten blocks long he began using the black marble and built a slab of black marble ten blocks high.

“My, that is impressive” Gyrmoth said, “I have never seen stonework like that, your pickaxe would be worth a king’s ransom in a dwarven kingdom.”

“Every time I think I have seen the last thing you will do that will impress me, you do something else.” Brigette said looking at the smooth marble slab.

“I’m not done yet. My handwriting is atrocious, Kuya can you write into the stone this.” He said handing her a sheet of parchment.

“What do you want it written in?”

“Gold.”

Kuya tooke her staff and it shrunk down, and she began writing onto the slap of marble from a distance as if it was a sheet of parchment.

 Everyone stood back and looked at the stone when she finished.

It read:

The Dragon Amronas, the Eternal Fire, Defender of the Elven forest, fell here, defending the tomb. Those who slew him did so without malice or desire for his treasure. He was a dragon who needed to be saved, from the terrible curse that had been inflicted upon him. He now rests.

Let it be known the sarcophagi here should never be opened, a recording from the dragon is in the gemstone below.

Let is also be known the names of those who brought him to his rest be named here for all time.

The Red Blight      Blight Wolves                      Golden Swords                    

Amanda Radcliff  Gwillunlu Shortward            Brigette                                 Lord Bloodstone

Euan Barker           Gyrmoth Redbeard                                                             Lady Amethyst

Haran Zentis          Kenton Thorp                                                                      Xach

Nerris Perryworth  Vala Webb                                                                          Kuya

Solomon Fuentes   Nyteria  Morningflight                                                       Xyrdiane Sylthana

Summer Romero    Zail Morningflight                                                              Ranathil

                                                                                                                          Violet

                                                                                                                          Elmok Felltail

                                                                                                                          Hijala Greenscale

                                                                                                                          Marcus

                                                                                                                          Eve

                                                                                                                          William

                                                                                                                          Stephanie

With that he affixed a diamond to the bottom of the marble slab. He looked over at Kuya, “this place needs better protection, any thoughts?”

“Mmm, sure I can make some shadow constructs.” She replied

Every mage looked at her.

“How do you make a shadow construct?” Nerris asked before anyone else could get the question out.

Kuya smiled, “Its easy, like this.” Taking her staff, the winged feathers rose up and began to glow.

She spoke a single word “Reverr” and a shadow shifted from her feet, it was if someone was standing next to her casting a shadow.

“That’s it?” Bloodstone asked.

“Yeah, what did you expect?” she asked.

“Um something showier maybe, not that.”

“You do any better?”

He nodded, “Yeah I can.”  He closed his eyes and held his hands out, the shadow of the monument shifted, and moved as if alive, a piece of it detached from the stone a shadow was on the floor with no discernable means for it to be cast.

“How is that any different?” Nerris asked

“It just how its created, they are both very different.” Xach said.

“Uh huh, do any of you understand what we just saw?” Nerris asked

“No, I don’t” Amanda said staring at the shadow.

“Husband, will you explain what just happened?” Xyrediane asked.

“Now that is just terrifying are either of you mages?” Nyteria asked.

“No” Bloodstone and Kuya said in unison.

“What are you to use them for?” Nerris asked.

Bloodstone gestured, and the shadow vanished, “Well let’s be honest I don’t think we really need to claim all this treasure.”

“We agreed that we can’t carry it all out of here, and with you doing this” Nerris she said pointing to the stone monument. “It would be insulting to take more than a fair share of the treasure. That dragon would have killed us all had you and your wife not been here.”

There were murmurs of agreement, from the two teams and the others gathered. A large furred shape stepped close to the group, “I also agree, having recalled the time of my death and seeing Brigette having aged, and you coming here to restore the golden swords.” Shen said softly. “I have no words to truly express my gratitude.”

“You would be Shen?” Bloodstone asked.

“At your service it is nice to actually meet the man behind the name.” Shen bowed deeply.

“You’re the first gnoll I have met, were you able to recover your gear?”

“I was, and I understand that per your agreement with Brigette the golden swords get first pick of the treasure here?”

“I don’t see that as a problem, we will be here for a couple of days, and we can catalog and inventory what is here.” He looked over everyone, “I know there are some items that you all have your eye on, so here is what I propose, each team will get to select some items they want, the Golden Swords, will be first, then the Red Blight, then the Blight wolves, Marcus, will represent those of you who are my retainers, and if you have anything you want speak with him.  As for myself and my immediate family, Rana will represent us.

“Wait what?” Rana said.

“So that things are fair, Rana is included as immediate family, as are Lady Amethyst,  Kuya, Xach, Violet, Xyrediane.”

“Everyone else, your representative is Marcus, as he is under retainer. Also, the money here will be divided equally between everyone on the expedition. Before anyone objects and starts throwing out reasons why someone shouldn’t be included, take a good look around.”

“Why are you making me your representative?” Rana asked.

Bloodstone laughed, “Because, I don’t have any preference to what is here, and I have other things that need to be taken care of, I’m delegating.” Then is a louder voice and speaking to everyone. “This place is a mess, we have containers and things we can use to get it sorted, I suggest you all take a break, figure out a shift and then get sorting. There are some heavy leather gloves for handling magic items we packed, if you are not sure, let me or Kuya know and we will move it for you. Brigette is in charge of cataloging everything here, no matter who takes it. Oh and three items will need to be added to the lists, they are The mind of the Dragon Amronas, the Core of the Dragon Amronas and the bones of the Dragon Amronas. I am keeping the mind, Kuya is keeping the core and my son is keeping the bones.”

“How are we going to move all of this?” Nerris asked

“What do you mean?”

“I did some calculations and even with the bags of holding you have, and everyone’s here, I don’t think there is enough room.” Nerris said.

Bloodstone looked around, “I am not sure what you are getting at?”

“Well how many bags of holding do you have?”

Bloodstone did a quick mental calculation, “I believe, there were thirty in the chest, I have two, wife has one, Kuya and Xach each have one, Xyre, and Rana each have two. Violet has two, both filled with potions, and medical supplies.” He looked over at Marcus, “Each of the retainers, were given one, I’m guessing maybe fifty bags of holding.”

Nerris nodded, “That’s a few more than I thought, we have a couple its still not enough to carry all the gold here. Add in the magic items, and the miscellaneous non-magic items, like that armoire filled with rich cloths, jewelry. There no way something like that would fit in a bag. Personally, I would pack the gold in the bags, even then there is a limit”

“Oh yeah I asked Coreen about the bags, she told me they are graded based on how much weight they can carry, I think she said a really good bag can carry about a hundred stone weight, I never asked how much a stone is here. Doing the math that gives roughly five thousand stone weight. How many coins is a stone weight?”

“Um, it varies. Why?” Nerris asked.

“Rough guess, how much gold is here.?” He asked.

There was some discussion, and Rana asked, “You mean all the gold or just coins?”

“Coins Rana.”

“Told you,” Kuya said. 

“Just guessing, its somewhere around five or six million gold.” Brigette said.

“I know we don’t have enough for even half that, maybe a third if all we take is the gold.”Nerris said.

“What about that room, how much could we put in there?” Kenton asked.

Nerris looked over at Lady Amethyst, “how much room is in there?”

Lady Amethyst used the key and opened the door.  “I think It would all fit in here, however it would cover the desk and possibly the mirror.”

“It’s a twenty by twenty, by ten-foot area” Bloodstone said glancing at the door. “There are crates of food and water in there, as well as the empty crates you might be able to make use of.”

“Daddy why are you making them all freak out?” Kuya asked.

“I like my secrets,” he said and she gave him a look.  “Fine!” He turned walked through the door and to the desk and pulled open one of the drawers. He pulled out a heavy leather-bound book. It was stained a deep brown and looked like it had been used.

“Is that a spell book?” Nyderia asked.

“Uh no, here take a look.” He handed it over to Nyderia.

She opened the books and flipped it open to the first page. The page was blank, and she flipped through the book, and stopped when she got to a full color drawing of what looked like fresh produce and casks.

“I don’t get it, who drew this.” She asked as several others started looking over her shoulder.

“Its not a drawing.” He replied, “keep going,”

The found another drawing on a page, of a ballista and two racks of ballista bolts. A little further she found a large chest.  Another page had a small rowboat with four oars. Two pages after that was a large anchor. And the next two pages were rope and then chain. Nyderia closed the book and looked at Bloodstone. “I don’t see how this will help”

“Perhaps a practical demonstration.” He said taking the book back and flipping it to a blank page. “The first thing is that any magical objects can’t be put into the book, they are incompatible with the magic of the book, in theory you could design magic items to go into the book, but that’s not what were are talking about. Non-magical objects, like the armoire, if there is anything magical about it, I will not work.” He touched the open page to the armoire, and there was a loud snap as it and the contents vanished. On the page of the book was the armoire in full color. “Now getting it back out requires, knowing some of the commands, I could also have transferred it to the page from a distance, of about ten feet with the proper commands.”

“That’s amazing, what are the commands” Nerris asked.

Bloodstone ignored the question. “There are pages that can be used, and I can store anything non-magical like all the coins here. They can be shoveled into the book, the thing is the book itself is mine, so if you want something stored I can let you have the bags, and anything extra non-magical can be stored in the room or in my book.”

“I think that settles, the issue.” Gyrmoth said.

“Actually, it makes it easier and more difficult, you only have two days left to get everything here sorted.” Bloodstone said to the group.

“Two days?” Brigette asked.

“Yes then we need to find the spire and then investigate after that we are going to have to return back to the fortress. I do have extra supplies in the book, for a month that however is the emergency supplies. Shen do you know the white tower we are going to?”

Shen nodded, “It was not long ago that we did find the tower you mention, there are golems mithril golems, with mithril weapons. Even our team could not take one never mind the nine that were there. There was no way we could deal with that many golems.”

“You might be right, we will have to see when we get there, in the meantime, I suggest you figure out your groups and start sorting. I am going to take care of the hole the antinum came from, just in case.” He said that and walked out of the room.

It took them four days to sort everything, at least to the point of documenting the contents of the room, and the number of magic artifacts was just insane. There was also the fact that those who had been involved in the fight gained at least five levels in their class, each of them gained a dragon skill, most of them admitted they had gained a skill but not what it was.

As they left Kenton had turned on all the magical traps, and they had taken the shell of the guardian, as Shen had informed them that it was mithril.

The entrance had been resealed, and the mages had cast several spells so that it would not be opened.

Excerpt from the personal diary of Shen of the Golden Swords.

I will tell you that I knew we were in trouble when a third of our team was down on the initial encounter. I sacrificed myself to give the rest a chance to get away, an honorable death, one that even if I couldn’t survive I know my comrades would.

When I woke up standing in a strange room at first, I thought that this was what happens when you die.  Brigette stood nearby. Perhaps she had come here before me. That was not the case she smelled the same and yet different. A woman I did not recognize stood with her.

“Am I dead?” I asked them.

“Not anymore, old friend.” Brigette responded.

I did not understand at that time what had happened, my comrade explained to me what had happened and who the woman was. I was stunned, so much so that I said nothing.

It was a bit later that I met the Lord Bloodstone that Brigette had mentioned, he seemed unremarkable to me, no aura or power seemed to emanate off him. Even his scent was normal.

I got to see them bring the others of my team back. I will not disclose the details here as it would be a breach of trust. Suffice to say, anyone who had such an artifact would be very dangerous.  I have since discussed our situation with the others and we have decided that we want to put some distance between us and Lord Bloodstone. We owe him, and yet he does not hold it over us, and when we explained that we wanted to return to civilization, he nodded and told us to be safe.

A remarkable man, in that he could have held our debt to him over us, instead he wished us luck and to be safe. His wife Lady Amethyst also sent us off heading back with spells and buffs as she called them. To be more precise, the gold teams ours and Nerriss’ team decided that we wanted to return. The strange woman Delilah also wished to return to civilization. Lord Bloodstone sent us back with the two scouts, and half of the provisions, we had plenty to make it back to the wall. I think it was the biggest mistake we made.

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